better call saul – Jen Wielgus Journalism

Enchantment

May 29, 2024March 17, 2025 jenwielgusjournalism

Views from the deck of the most perfect VRBO on the planet, located in Cedar Crest, NM, just off the Turquoise Trail, 20 minutes outside Albuquerque, with easy access to the Sandia Mountains and Cibola National Forest.

My husband tried to show me several different options for rental homes as he prepared to book our trip to New Mexico, but once I saw the log cabin with the mountain view and hot tub out back, I pushed the computer right back onto his lap. “That is my dream house!” I declared. “Why would we stay anywhere else? Hell, let’s move there! Can you ask if the owner wants to sell?”

When you know, you know, and if there’s one thing I’ve discovered about myself in the 22 years since I moved to Pennsylvania — I mean, other than the fact that I cannot f*ck with alcohol — and married a man from the Pocono region, it is that I am 100% a mountain girl. Mountains >> The Shore all day, every day. Give me crisp, dry air, tall trees, big rocks, wide open skies where you can see all the stars, and peace and quiet with as few people as possible….

And roosters crowing in the distance just before dawn. 🐓🌅 I’m adding that one after our recent visit to the “Land of Enchantment,” because the chorus of cock-a-doodle-doos that accompanied my morning coffee breaks and yoga sessions on the deck of the cabin made the whole “retreat from reality” experience all the more enchanting.

I caught a few of them in this audio clip:

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sober lifestyle

Addiction

August 9, 2022August 15, 2022 jenwielgusjournalism

You’re my brother, and I love you, but you’re like an alcoholic who refuses to admit he’s got a problem.
Chuck McGill, to Jimmy/Saul/Gene in “Better Call Saul”

My ears immediately perked when I heard those words, as they do at every mention of alcoholism in any form of entertainment. Michael McKean spoke the line midway through Season 2 of AMC’s glorious “Breaking Bad” spinoff, and from that point on, I couldn’t help but see my favorite TV series as a story of untreated addiction.

The Saul Goodman saga feels all the more meaningful to me, because Chuck’s comparison makes so much sense. Seeing the show’s protagonist, a complex antihero played by comic genius/action star/fellow Chicagoan Bob Odenkirk, as a man entrenched in addiction and unable to find his way into recovery, has helped me to understand, if not excuse, his behavior.

It’s easy to embrace Saul, ugly warts and all, as one of the most endearing crooks in the history of fiction. On a deeper level, and this is a credit to the show’s tremendous writing, I can see why he’s so reckless, why his “acting out” frequently goes over the top, and why he seems hell-bent on hurtling toward a tragic end.

That’s what addicts do; they chase their fix at any cost, rationalizing every insane/immoral decision as they slip farther and farther down the spiral toward a final “rock bottom” that they can’t — or won’t — see coming.

I mean, that’s pretty much what I did.

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sober lifestyle

Darkness

July 9, 2022July 13, 2022 jenwielgusjournalism

In between finishing “Ozark” on Netflix and waiting for the final block of “Better Call Saul” episodes to air on AMC (DVR is set for Monday night! Woo hoo!), my husband and I spent 4th of July weekend binging this relatively new “Yellowjackets” show that one of my friends recommended to me.

We had to subscribe to Showtime to watch it, but $12 a month seemed a small price to pay for entertainment we both actually agree on.

Hubby and I typically have similar viewing tastes, but his issue is my affinity for playing and re-playing my favorite series (“Sopranos,” “Breaking Bad,” “Game of Thrones,” “Fargo,” “The Wire,” “The Twilight Zone,” the list goes on…) over and over on an endless loop. And do not ask me why, because they’re awesome, but he does not care for “Dateline,” “Forensic Files,” “City Confidential,” and true crime investigative exposés of that ilk. 🤔

Meanwhile, I’m completely obsessed with all of the above. Whether it’s movies or TV shows or books or podcasts or even stuff I Google when I’m sitting around, I literally cannot get enough of…how would I even classify it? Crime dramas? Murder mysteries? Suspense stories? Profiles in psychopathology? “Tales From the Dark Side”?

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