Sometimes my family feels the need to try new restaurants. Most of the time, I do not look forward to these experiences, because contrary to popular belief, I am not a very adventurous person. So, I try to steer them in the right direction by recommending locally owned restaurants that basically offer kids menus for adults.

Tucker’s Onion Burgers at 15001 N May Ave. in Oklahoma City seemed like the perfect place.

I walked into Tucker’s and immediately knew we had collectively made the right choice. The smell of grease, hamburgers and fries made my mouth water while I looked over the relatively simple menu.

Winter weather can bring people together or bring out the scrooges of ice and snow. The recent shenanigans of Mother Nature have done the former for my family and me.

My brothers-in-law, with their wonderful better halves, came over to help my husband fix the rear axle he broke on my truck after using the roads as a slip and slide.

Now, while I am not happy with the reason for the gathering, one of the outcomes was greatly pleasing to me and, more specifically, my taste buds.

For years, friends and acquaintances have told me about meditating as a method of relieving stress and thinking clearly. I’ve been skeptical for years — that is, until recently.

During the fall 2014 semester, when my school workload was getting heavier and heavier, I decided to finally give it a try and see what it was all about, to help relieve my stress, and to help me fall asleep more easily.

I tried to accomplish this on my own, but I still could not quite get my head clear. I decided to search for a guide. This is when I fell upon Headspace.

The late-coming sequel to the original “Rock n’ Roll High School” is a vibrant, ’90s-era masterpiece of teenage angst.

I was only 10 when this movie came out and probably 12 when I began watching it over and over.

Everything about it spoke to my inborn distrust of authority. It was a film that resonated deep in the part of me that had long since suspected that everyone is a freak and that those who try to force conformity upon others tend to be the freakiest of all.

I knew little about music then but I already knew defiance well. “Rock n’ Roll High School Forever” only stirred my lust for more. What I knew, even before I’d fallen in love with G.G. Allin or Chuck Berry, was that rock and roll music would always be a devastatingly powerful and explosive device in any struggle against tyranny.