Have you ever looked at the Celebrity Playlists on iTunes? It shouldn't surprise anyone that I have. I suck up any kind of celebrity-related info, even though I detest the whole celebrity-worship culture and I can't stand shit like InStyle magazine where you're supposed to be all clamoring to know what moisturizer the mom on "7th Heaven" uses and other ridiculous things like that. For the same reason, you would think that I would avoid things like iTunes Celebrity Playlists, but instead I spent an hour one night looking at them, the same way I thumb through InStyle magazine at hair salons and my parents' house on occasion. Pretty much everything I saw got on my nerves, but I kept on with it.
I'm not going to complain about the fact that they even have iTunes Celebrity Playlists because I did have the option to not look at them. I was a little surprised that they had them available to purchase in their entireity, but not really. After all, the whole point of iTunes is to sell you music, and if people will buy a CD of songs just because the case says that Sheryl Crow likes them, why wouldn't people want to download a list of songs that was lovingly assembled by the likes of Howie Mandel, Nicole Kidman, Al Franken or RuPaul?
I guess you could say that I find the idea of these famous, busy people sitting down and trying to compile these lists far more interesting than anything actually on the lists. I have to wonder how many of the celebrities are actually putting these things together themselves. Celebrities are notorious for not doing much of anything for themselves, after all. Nicole Kidman says that she asked her pre-teenage daughter to help her, resulting in songs by Gwen Stefani, the Black-Eyed Peas and Outkast being included on her list. Beyonce and Mariah Carey put a lot of their own songs on their lists, which seemed kind of tacky to me.
One thing I'm sure about is that if I were a celebrity and I were asked to come up with a list of my favorite songs for iTunes, it would probably turn me into a nervous wreck. For one thing, the idea of making a list of songs and having them represent what I like on iTunes for all eternity would make me nuts. What I love and adore at this moment is not necessarily what I will love and adore a year, or even a month, from now. The iTunes people would probably get sick of me begging to be allowed to revise my list every few months and come to regret ever having asked me to submit a list for them in the first place.
Also, obviously they don't let you include any songs that they don't have available for sale on the site, which means no Beatles, which -- please. And further to that note -- in putting together a list of your favorite songs, there is always the question of representing your favorites. Besides the Beatles, there are also Billy Joel, Sarah McLachlan, Barry Manilow (I love Barry and I don't care who knows it!), Dixie Chicks and others to contend with. These are artists for whom I can come up with entire CDs of favorites -- how am I supposed narrow it down to one or even two of their songs? Not to mention categories like 80s (I can easily come up with a whole CD of favorite songs from each of the decades I've lived in -- so far I've made a series of 4 CDs of my favorite songs from the 80s) or disco or Motown. It's exhausting just thinking about trying to narrow all those things down to a couple of representative selections.
Nevertheless, I set those issues aside and did come up with a list of my favorite songs, my essential songs, that, at this moment in time, either have personal meaning for me or I just love to listen to. (Why did I do this? Who knows -- it's just the kind of thing I do.) I tried to narrow it down to what would fit on a CD ("1.2 hours" is the magic number when I'm making the CD using iTunes) but it was not to be. The list took on its own organic size. Here it is:
"Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest - Just one of those songs that makes me feel happy every time I hear it. I'm pretty sure it's about smoking pot, but I don't care.
"Sunrise (2003)" by Simply Red - My friend Becky told me to download this song a couple of years ago and I fell instantly in love. I've always found it ironic that a music group that made what I think is one of the all-time worst songs in history ("Holding Back the Years") would go on to make a song I loved so much. It's like they decided to apologize to me. My favorite line is "At this moment in time, love's indescribable..." Gives me goosebumps.
"Fire & Rain" by James Taylor - This is a song I remember occasionally hearing from my early childhood on. In 1989, it was used in the movie "Running On Empty," in which River Phoenix played a teenager who eventually has to cut ties with his parents, activists who have gone underground to escape prosecution for a bombing they participated in back in the 60s, so he can attend Julliard. The song is played, to poignant effect, as he stands by the side of the road and watches them drive away at the end of the movie. River Phoenix was one of my very favorite actors, and since he died in 1993, this song has always made me think of him.
"This Love" by Maroon 5 - Evidently this song was one of those way-overplayed songs that people really got sick of, but I don't listen to the radio that much anymore, and I just loved from the first time I heard it. I even bought the CD, and I almost never buy CDs since the whole music downloading revolution happened.
"Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" by George Harrison - This is a current favorite. George is my favorite Beatle and I'm just starting to get into his solo work. I just love the emotion in his voice and the way it builds. I remember hearing bits and pieces of this over the years but I didn't realize who sang it or ever listen to the whole thing till I downloaded it a few months ago.
"Overjoyed" by Stevie Wonder - This is another song I know I've heard over and over from the time I was a kid, and I'm embarrassed to admit what made me smack myself on the forehead and go "what a great song!" was when Nike used a bit of it in a commercial featuring Michael Jordan (double bleah!). But anyway, not only do I love the way it sounds, I also love the theme of the lyrics: you've never realized I love you (see also "Sunrise (2003)"). Songs about that always get me.
"I Know" by Dionne Farris - Just an awesome, catchy song. When the single was out and the video was in heavy rotation, Reasonable Man bought me the cassette to apologize for something he'd done that annoyed the crap out of me. I don't remember what he did to piss me off, but I'll always remember the sweet gesture he made to apologize for it. Flowers are great, but you can't go wrong with giving me the means to listen to a favorite song over and over again.
"Change the World" by Eric Clapton - This is another song that other people probably got sick of. I never will. "Tears in Heaven" never did for me what it did for the rest of the world, but this one does. There's just something really nice and heartfelt about it, wrapped up in a really good pop song...
"A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton - ... as is this one. I love the piano and her little girl voice. I can just listen to it over and over and never get tired of it. I also love her songs "Ordinary Day" and "White Houses" and I just generally think she's really cool.
"You Gotta Be" by Des'ree - I never develop a love for a song based on the message, but I liked the way this one sounded the first time I heard it, and the lyrics are about learning to believe in oneself but they're really well-done and not clunky and sentimental. It's hard to get that right. I also remember the video was nice, with the singer dressed in white against a black background, and black against a white background, and doing cool things with her hands.
"Crush" by Dave Matthews Band - I wasn't a Dave Matthews fan and this song played a lot on the radio the summer of 1999 before I one day had the sudden epiphany that it was absolutely awesome and I couldn't listen to it enough. It totally captures that feeling of being with someone you're totally into immediately following... well, you know. Very sensual and romantic.
"Heart & Soul" by T'Pau - This is an 80s song I only heard maybe a few times in the 80s. I don't remember it getting any airplay on the radio where I grew up, but I went to visit my cousin in the Central Valley during my senior year of high school, and she and her friends were way into it. I always remembered it from the night I went out cruising with them, and it was always a treat to hear it until I was able to download it a few years ago. It definitely ranks among my top several 80s songs now.
"Rock DJ" by Robbie Williams - This is a really fun song. Robbie Williams is nut -- he's never taken off in the U.S. but they love him in England, and I thinks he's great. This song just kind of perfectly captures his silly, outrageous persona and it's great to run to and I just find it irresistable overall.
"Wonder" by Natalie Merchant - 1997 was a hard year for me, as it was the year we realized that Mermaid had developmental problems, and I spent a lot of time not just trying to figure out what was going on with her but experiencing the frustrations associated with trying to figure out how to get her the help she needed. Mermaid always liked music and the two of us were home alone together with the radio on a lot. "Wonder" had been playing quite a lot for several months before I suddenly listened to the lyrics one day and realized the song was about an amazing girl with special abilities, and from that day on, in my mind this song was about Mermaid. I even printed out part of the lyrics and put them in her baby book. She likes to sing , and if she performed this song someday, I could die happy.
"Better Man" by Pearl Jam - I was never into grunge rock but I do kind of like Pearl Jam, and there's something about the simplicity of this song and its lyrics that I love. It tells a story you've heard a million times before but it's just done really really well and I love to listen to it.
"Alive & Kicking" by Simple Minds - Another 80s favorite. The lead singer's voice together with the gospel-choir-sounding background vocalists and the way it builds to the climax -- "don't say good-bye, don't say good-bye, in the final seconds, who's gonna save you?" -- I just love it. I think this is a much better song than their bigger hit, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from "The Breakfast Club."
"You Get What You Give" by New Radicals - I thought this was just a really great, rocking song from the first time I heard it. The silly lyrics about Hanson, Courtney Love, etc. near the end are fun too.
"Tunnel of Love" by Bruce Springsteen - I know the guy's an icon, but he doesn't really do anything for me, except for this song. I love the way all the different pieces of music fit together, and the idea of this couple riding this carnival ride works really well as a metaphor for the problems in their relationship.
"Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" by Sophie B. Hawkins - This song is a good example of
a whole being more than the sum of its parts. This woman is raspy and weak as a vocalist, and the lyrics range from silly ("Shucks! For me there is no other") to bizarre ("I sat on the mountainside with peace of mind, and I lay by the ocean making love to her with visions clear") to kind of overly suggestive ("I'll give you something sweet each time you come inside my jungle book"), and the arrangement doesn't seem like anything special, but put them all together and they amount to a song I find intoxicating. When I hear it, I always want to sing along and move to the music.
"Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve - It grabs you from the opening hook, which I had as the ring tone on my old cell phone. The song takes its time building, layer upon layer, until it gets going, but it makes the wait worthwhile. Not good for running to, but otherwise I love it. One time several years ago, both the kids were complaining, and whining became crying, and Reasonable Man started singing "'cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this li-ife..." and we both cracked up.
"Sowing the Seeds of Love" by Tears for Fears - In my mind this is kind of an 80s song and kind of not -- I remember the first time I heard it, close to the end of the summer between my first and second years of college. It was 1989 but I have a hard time classifying songs that came out when I was in college as true 80s songs. Anyway, the first time I heard it was when I saw the video, and right away I heard the Beatles kind of sound and just loved it. Tears for Fears is one of the few 80s groups that kept on making interesting music into the 90s. I bought the cassette this song came from, "Sowing the Seeds" and it was a really cool mix of pop and jazz. This is an excellent song even though some of the lyrics are kind of silly.
So there you go. I've now spent several hours on this post and now I'm wondering if any of the celebrities who have a playlist on iTunes ever put as much effort into their playlists that actually have a shot at being seen by more than the handful of people who actually read my blog. (Not that I don't love you guys! You know I do!) If you actually read everything I wrote, I thank you, and if not -- yeah, I don't blame you :-) But anyway, that's the list.
And I reserve the right to revise it whenever the mood strikes.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Thursday, September 01, 2005
No Time For Blogging
This is my second year of having both kids in school all day, so why am I so surprised to hardly have time to think now that the school year has begun? I already went through this last fall...
Yes, the kids are back in school, and that's great. Enthusio has two teachers who team-teach and about whom I have only heard great things. So far he's doing okay, although he did have a bit of a breakdown on the first day during lunch recess, when he evidently thought one of his best little friends from last year didn't like him anymore. She found him and straightened things out, happily. Mermaid has a teacher who has been great so far -- very responsive to my concerns about smoothing out the homework process, so I'm very pleased. Mermaid also has her same aide from last year. I was really pissed when I found out that our school was getting yet another new Full Inclusion Specialist this year -- we've had a new one each of the 5 years the school has been open now. The new one is very nice but I'm not getting attached! Anyway, I decided I'd rather have a new FIS and the same aide from last year than vice versa, for Mermaid's sake. She also started swim practice on Monday and seems to understand that's going to limit her time and she has to do homework when we ask her to. We are planning to get her a tutor to help homework time work better, and I'm meeting with her teacher and the FIS to talk about homework concerns next week.
She also has decided she wants to play saxophone in the the school band. I'm not sure how that's going to go, but I've always liked the idea of her playing an instrument in the school band. I warned her that she will have to practice! Anyway, that would mean each kid has one in-school activity and two after-school activities. Mermaid will play in the band (if that works out), plus swim and Girl Scouts, and Enthusio will have his Spanish class, plus he wants to do a musical at the art center and to try Tae Kwon Do. That all is more than enough to keep us very busy and I just wonder how families where kids have more activities than that can function!
As for me, I'm proud of myself for having gone to the gym 5 of the last 6 days, and riding my bike a lot. I'm riding back and forth to school with the kids in anticipation of them going by themselves, and today was actually the first day that I only went to accompany Enthusio and allowed Mermaid to ride home alone when she got out of school half an hour later. She's having trouble mastering the whole bike-lock end of things but as far as going back and forth, she's quite independent -- she even rode to the school and back to pick up a book she forgot yesterday afternoon. I'm quite proud of her, and happy we're all on bikes more and in the car less. I think by the time Enthusio's Spanish class starts in a couple of weeks, making it so they get out of school at the same time every day, they will be handling both directions together well enough for me to no longer be making two daily trips to school -- at least until it starts raining.
On a completely unrelated note, Reasonable Man and I went to the movies this weekend and saw "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." I thought it looked pretty stupid so it was a pleasant surprise when I got hooked within the first 30 seconds and laughed my way through the whole movie. It was full or profanity and crude sex talk, no question there, but I wasn't expecting it to all be kind of sweet. It would have been easy to make the main character into a pathetic, oblivious, desperate doofus, but instead, he had a certain amount of dignity and in some ways he was more of a grown-up than the guy friends who give him advice on how to get some throughout the movie. And I definitely didn't expect it to turn into a well-done romantic comedy involving a couple whose happiness together I actually cared about. It's not for everyone, but if you don't mind some raunchy, rude talk and you like to laugh, definitely check it out.
Remember my laptop that is already held together with velcro and duct tape? Well, last weekend I managed to vacuum up the power cord so that some of the plastic ripped off, exposing the wires inside. Yeah, brilliant, huh? This sent me to Fry's (a.k.a. the Hellmouth, as far as I'm concerned) for a replacement. The charming fellow (NOT) at the Parts desk took one look at it, said they didn't have it and I would have to order directly from the manufacturer, and then explained to me how it wasn't in stock because customers kept stealing the heads off the cords. HUH? I managed to refrain from telling him how ordering direct from the manufacturer was the only option less appealing to me than coming to Fry's, or congratulate him on managing to blame the customers for the fact that something wasn't in stock. Give me a break. Came home and looked up the part online -- I can get the off-brand version for $99. Yeah, I COULD do that -- but come on, you know me, you can probably figure out what I did. No? Two words: duct tape. Unless that sucker starts actually giving me problems, there will be no purchase of a $99 power cord.
In other minor disasters, I decided to color my own hair this week. My regular hairdresser is out of town, taking care of her sick mom, and having failed to make an appointment with any of her salon-mates to take care of the increasingly visible silver hairs in my part, I figured I could just as well buy something at Rite Aid and do it myself. I picked a color called "Natural Light Golden Brown." Close your eyes and picture that color in your head. Now imagine something about 3 shades darker than that. Yep, this week I'm a brunette. It also left purplish stains on my forehead and temples that wouldn't come off with baby wipes, astringent, rubbing alcohol, or nail polish remover. They'd faded away by this morning, but still. I think my hair will fade as well, but for the time being, I'm not so pleased with it.
I think that's about it...
Yes, the kids are back in school, and that's great. Enthusio has two teachers who team-teach and about whom I have only heard great things. So far he's doing okay, although he did have a bit of a breakdown on the first day during lunch recess, when he evidently thought one of his best little friends from last year didn't like him anymore. She found him and straightened things out, happily. Mermaid has a teacher who has been great so far -- very responsive to my concerns about smoothing out the homework process, so I'm very pleased. Mermaid also has her same aide from last year. I was really pissed when I found out that our school was getting yet another new Full Inclusion Specialist this year -- we've had a new one each of the 5 years the school has been open now. The new one is very nice but I'm not getting attached! Anyway, I decided I'd rather have a new FIS and the same aide from last year than vice versa, for Mermaid's sake. She also started swim practice on Monday and seems to understand that's going to limit her time and she has to do homework when we ask her to. We are planning to get her a tutor to help homework time work better, and I'm meeting with her teacher and the FIS to talk about homework concerns next week.
She also has decided she wants to play saxophone in the the school band. I'm not sure how that's going to go, but I've always liked the idea of her playing an instrument in the school band. I warned her that she will have to practice! Anyway, that would mean each kid has one in-school activity and two after-school activities. Mermaid will play in the band (if that works out), plus swim and Girl Scouts, and Enthusio will have his Spanish class, plus he wants to do a musical at the art center and to try Tae Kwon Do. That all is more than enough to keep us very busy and I just wonder how families where kids have more activities than that can function!
As for me, I'm proud of myself for having gone to the gym 5 of the last 6 days, and riding my bike a lot. I'm riding back and forth to school with the kids in anticipation of them going by themselves, and today was actually the first day that I only went to accompany Enthusio and allowed Mermaid to ride home alone when she got out of school half an hour later. She's having trouble mastering the whole bike-lock end of things but as far as going back and forth, she's quite independent -- she even rode to the school and back to pick up a book she forgot yesterday afternoon. I'm quite proud of her, and happy we're all on bikes more and in the car less. I think by the time Enthusio's Spanish class starts in a couple of weeks, making it so they get out of school at the same time every day, they will be handling both directions together well enough for me to no longer be making two daily trips to school -- at least until it starts raining.
On a completely unrelated note, Reasonable Man and I went to the movies this weekend and saw "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." I thought it looked pretty stupid so it was a pleasant surprise when I got hooked within the first 30 seconds and laughed my way through the whole movie. It was full or profanity and crude sex talk, no question there, but I wasn't expecting it to all be kind of sweet. It would have been easy to make the main character into a pathetic, oblivious, desperate doofus, but instead, he had a certain amount of dignity and in some ways he was more of a grown-up than the guy friends who give him advice on how to get some throughout the movie. And I definitely didn't expect it to turn into a well-done romantic comedy involving a couple whose happiness together I actually cared about. It's not for everyone, but if you don't mind some raunchy, rude talk and you like to laugh, definitely check it out.
Remember my laptop that is already held together with velcro and duct tape? Well, last weekend I managed to vacuum up the power cord so that some of the plastic ripped off, exposing the wires inside. Yeah, brilliant, huh? This sent me to Fry's (a.k.a. the Hellmouth, as far as I'm concerned) for a replacement. The charming fellow (NOT) at the Parts desk took one look at it, said they didn't have it and I would have to order directly from the manufacturer, and then explained to me how it wasn't in stock because customers kept stealing the heads off the cords. HUH? I managed to refrain from telling him how ordering direct from the manufacturer was the only option less appealing to me than coming to Fry's, or congratulate him on managing to blame the customers for the fact that something wasn't in stock. Give me a break. Came home and looked up the part online -- I can get the off-brand version for $99. Yeah, I COULD do that -- but come on, you know me, you can probably figure out what I did. No? Two words: duct tape. Unless that sucker starts actually giving me problems, there will be no purchase of a $99 power cord.
In other minor disasters, I decided to color my own hair this week. My regular hairdresser is out of town, taking care of her sick mom, and having failed to make an appointment with any of her salon-mates to take care of the increasingly visible silver hairs in my part, I figured I could just as well buy something at Rite Aid and do it myself. I picked a color called "Natural Light Golden Brown." Close your eyes and picture that color in your head. Now imagine something about 3 shades darker than that. Yep, this week I'm a brunette. It also left purplish stains on my forehead and temples that wouldn't come off with baby wipes, astringent, rubbing alcohol, or nail polish remover. They'd faded away by this morning, but still. I think my hair will fade as well, but for the time being, I'm not so pleased with it.
I think that's about it...
Friday, August 26, 2005
This blog entry on Miscellaneous, Etc. cracked me up. Nasty public restrooms and bad punctuation are two of my biggest pet peeves, so I highly revere the blogger who can amuse me with both in a single post.
Interesting
I came across an article about best and worst commericials that came out recently. No big surprises there -- people really like those HP "frames" ads (I confess I didn't realize they were for HP until I read the article, but I knew what they were talking about as soon as I saw the word "frames) and everyone hates the ad where the girl plugs up a leak in a rowboat with a tampon from the entire box she just happened to have brought along on her date. What I found really interesting was the results of last year's competition, where the identity-theft ads for Citibank ("A leather bustier for twelve hundred dollars? I didn't care -- it lifts and separates!") came in first and the Starbucks "Eye of the Tiger" parody ("Glen! Glen, Glen, Glen!") came in second. Huh? I really enjoyed the Citibanks ads, but the Starbucks one was the funniest thing I've seen in a long while. Even if the argument was that the Citibanks commercials had several in a series, you could add the other Starbuck's commercial, where Stacy enjoys her bottled Frappucino while a doo-wop group follows her through the office, fighting off co-workers seeking to harsh her mellow to the Survivor one and they deliver even more of an ass-kicking to the Citibanks ads.
Or am I just such a child of the 80s that I have no perspective on this matter?
As far as worst commercials of the year are concerned, I don't remember what I was thinking a year ago, but for this past year, nothing is worse than the Pediasure commercial where the mom is pushing her bratty little daughter through the grocery store in a shopping cart, and to each item the mom mentions they are going to buy, the little Spawn of Satan answers "I don't think I LIKE such-and-such." Mom, of course, just smiles knowingly, as though this is cute. In my mind there are no worse commercials than the ones where kids behave in appalling ways and grown-ups act like it's cute. BLEAH!
Or am I just such a child of the 80s that I have no perspective on this matter?
As far as worst commercials of the year are concerned, I don't remember what I was thinking a year ago, but for this past year, nothing is worse than the Pediasure commercial where the mom is pushing her bratty little daughter through the grocery store in a shopping cart, and to each item the mom mentions they are going to buy, the little Spawn of Satan answers "I don't think I LIKE such-and-such." Mom, of course, just smiles knowingly, as though this is cute. In my mind there are no worse commercials than the ones where kids behave in appalling ways and grown-ups act like it's cute. BLEAH!
Thursday, August 25, 2005
50 Book Challenge: 32, People!
And it's only the end of August! You know, maybe I shouldn't be chortling about this, since I haven't actually done the math -- maybe I'm not actually ahead of where I'm supposed to be and I just feel like I've been reading a lot lately. Whatever.
It's always a sad thing when you notice a favorite author has started to fall off his or her game. Maeve Binchy has never been a "great" novelist but she's one whose books I always look forward to. Unfortunately, the last few haven't been so great -- in fact, I would even describe this one and the one before as not quite up to snuff. One thing that has stood out to me in both is that she insists on writing American characters (she's Irish) but doesn't have an ear for how Americans speak at all. That's fine except I know that her books sell well here, and it seems to me she would want to make sure she had that right. I know that if I was writing British or Irish characters, I would want someone British or Irish to read through my manuscript and help me get the voices of the characters just right. To not do so seems a bit sloppy to me, and I find it disappointing.
I've got so many books on my "to read" shelf right now, and each time I go there to pick one out, I have a hard time choosing because so many of them look good! My next selection is Bee Season, and I'm already engrossed.
It's always a sad thing when you notice a favorite author has started to fall off his or her game. Maeve Binchy has never been a "great" novelist but she's one whose books I always look forward to. Unfortunately, the last few haven't been so great -- in fact, I would even describe this one and the one before as not quite up to snuff. One thing that has stood out to me in both is that she insists on writing American characters (she's Irish) but doesn't have an ear for how Americans speak at all. That's fine except I know that her books sell well here, and it seems to me she would want to make sure she had that right. I know that if I was writing British or Irish characters, I would want someone British or Irish to read through my manuscript and help me get the voices of the characters just right. To not do so seems a bit sloppy to me, and I find it disappointing.
I've got so many books on my "to read" shelf right now, and each time I go there to pick one out, I have a hard time choosing because so many of them look good! My next selection is Bee Season, and I'm already engrossed.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Bizarre Marketing Ploy
Maybe I missed something, and this has been all over the airwaves and I just didn't notice. But just now I was being a good mom and defrosting my son's daily frozen corndog, and after I squirted some oh-so-wholesome Heinz Ketchup on his plate, I put the bottle down on the counter and some words on the label caught my eye. Those words were "Lindsay Lohan."
WTF?
I know she's kind of been everywhere this past year, but on a bottle of ketchup? That's just weird. Besides, I was kind of under the impression that she'd stopped eating solid food.
The back label explained a bit more: "(gold star)LIMITED EDITION(gold star) For a limited time, some of the your favorite stars are telling the world why they love the thick and rich taste of Heinz Ketchup. And Heinz is saying thank you by donating to the charities of their choice. (gold star)Collect All 4 Today(gold star)"
I examined the bottle futher. The band around the neck of the bottle said "Limited Celebrity Edition," "Heinz Celebrity Labels," and "Collect Today!" But if Lindsay's description of why she loves the thick and rich taste of Heinz Ketchup was on the bottle somewhere, I couldn't find it. OTOH, if that description had been there, I can't say the bottle would have increased in value for me. I don't really care why Lindsay Lohan or anyone else loves the thick and rich taste of Heinz Ketchup, and I can't imagine that even the most celebrity-obsessed teenybopper would.
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with Heinz donating to charity. The more big corporations like Heinz donate to charity, the better, as far as I'm concerned. But why exactly would they need to get celebrities involved? And what dumbass marketing executive decided that just spelling out the name of a celebrity on the front of a ketchup bottle was going to sell more ketchup? Who in the hell do they think is so pathetic that they would bother to collect all 4?
I checked the Heinz website and there's no mention of this particular promotion on it. I have no idea how old our bottle of ketchup is -- well, I mean, it's probably been purchased within the last 3 or 4 months, but I couldn't get more specific than that -- so maybe this promotion was a dud and they moved on from it quickly or something. But I have to say, I'm perplexed. If anyone has any insight into why this sort of thing would be expected to move bottles of ketchup, please let me know.
WTF?
I know she's kind of been everywhere this past year, but on a bottle of ketchup? That's just weird. Besides, I was kind of under the impression that she'd stopped eating solid food.
The back label explained a bit more: "(gold star)LIMITED EDITION(gold star) For a limited time, some of the your favorite stars are telling the world why they love the thick and rich taste of Heinz Ketchup. And Heinz is saying thank you by donating to the charities of their choice. (gold star)Collect All 4 Today(gold star)"
I examined the bottle futher. The band around the neck of the bottle said "Limited Celebrity Edition," "Heinz Celebrity Labels," and "Collect Today!" But if Lindsay's description of why she loves the thick and rich taste of Heinz Ketchup was on the bottle somewhere, I couldn't find it. OTOH, if that description had been there, I can't say the bottle would have increased in value for me. I don't really care why Lindsay Lohan or anyone else loves the thick and rich taste of Heinz Ketchup, and I can't imagine that even the most celebrity-obsessed teenybopper would.
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with Heinz donating to charity. The more big corporations like Heinz donate to charity, the better, as far as I'm concerned. But why exactly would they need to get celebrities involved? And what dumbass marketing executive decided that just spelling out the name of a celebrity on the front of a ketchup bottle was going to sell more ketchup? Who in the hell do they think is so pathetic that they would bother to collect all 4?
I checked the Heinz website and there's no mention of this particular promotion on it. I have no idea how old our bottle of ketchup is -- well, I mean, it's probably been purchased within the last 3 or 4 months, but I couldn't get more specific than that -- so maybe this promotion was a dud and they moved on from it quickly or something. But I have to say, I'm perplexed. If anyone has any insight into why this sort of thing would be expected to move bottles of ketchup, please let me know.
A few more wedding photos
Yeah, I should put these on the webpage, but that feels like way too much work right now, so I'm just going to put up a few of them here. Thank you to my mom for sending them to me!
One disappointment of the pictures on our camera was that we didn't get a single good shot of the Bride, so here's a shot of the happy couple together:
Are they cute or what?
We also didn't get any shots of any of the bridesmaids besides me, so this is a nice one of all of us with the Bride:
Finally, my favorite picture, of Chad dancing with his longtime friend, Toneka, and Angela's sister Lora. Toneka and Lora were roommates in grad school and that's how Chad and Angela met.
One disappointment of the pictures on our camera was that we didn't get a single good shot of the Bride, so here's a shot of the happy couple together:
Are they cute or what?
We also didn't get any shots of any of the bridesmaids besides me, so this is a nice one of all of us with the Bride:
Finally, my favorite picture, of Chad dancing with his longtime friend, Toneka, and Angela's sister Lora. Toneka and Lora were roommates in grad school and that's how Chad and Angela met.
Monday, August 22, 2005
"So-and-so and the Chocolate Factory" Movies: A Comparison
Last week, the kids and I hit the local multiplex for a matinee of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." They had already seen it with Reasonable Man, otherwise known as their father, the weekend I went on the Bachelorette Cruise, which annoyed me because I'd wanted to see it, and it annoyed me even more when I complained about this to Reasonable Man and he said "I didn't think you wanted to see it." WTF? I definitely never said that. I think this is maybe just a wee bit of a passive-aggressive thing he does when I go on trips, taking them to the good kids' movies, if this recent example and also the fact that he took them to see "The Incredibles" when I was gone last fall are any clue. But I digress.
I was kind of excited about seeing the new "Charlie" movie. I'm one of those people who really liked the original for what it was, but it didn't seem like sacrilege for them to remake it or anything -- I mean, the old one was so cheesy, and, special effects being what they are today, I thought it would be fun to see what they could do with it. Besides, I've liked pretty much every Tim Burton movie I've ever seen and when I heard he was doing it, it seemed like a good fit to me.
So how did I like it? Well, I enjoyed it a lot. And at the same time, I couldn't help comparing each part of it to the old movie that I've seen so many times. I really couldn't say at this point that I like either of them better than the other -- it's pretty much a draw. It feels weird to me to feel that way because I usually have a pretty strong opinion about these kinds of things. Anyhoo, I've got it in my head to do a point-by-point comparison here and so I'm gonna do it. I will be talking about the end of the movie(s) here so consider that a spoiler alert, although it's hard to imagine that anyone is going to be shocked to hear that there's a happy ending or anything like that.
Starting at the very beginning: the title. This round goes to the new film, because they went with the original title from Roald Dahl's book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." The 70s version was called "Willie Wonka and Chocolate Factory," and in my opinion, there was no good reason to change it.
Portrayal of Willie Wonka -- okay, this may be an unpopular one. I'm not a hater of Johnny Depp -- I enjoyed his work in "Edward Scissorhands" and "Pirates of the Carribean," and would classify myself as leaning in the direction of being a fan of his. That said -- I didn't like what he did in this movie. The way he delivered his lines just really got on my nerves, not really enough to seriously impair my ability to enjoy the movie, but enough to make me think "eh -- this is not working for me" a number of times. Gene Wilder, OTOH, with his fuzzy hair and his more subtle hostility toward the kids who are visiting his factory -- for me, he just hits all the right notes, and frankly it would have been hard for Depp's performance to top his in my mind, but seriously -- in my not-so-humble opinion, Depp doesn't even come close.
Portrayal of Charlie and the Bucket Family -- OMG, did the new movie kick the old movie's ass to the curb on this one or what? I'll admit it: I never liked the old Charlie much. I thought he was kind of a pansy. The old Grandpa Joe was annoying too. Personally I thought maybe when Charlie was deciding who to take to the factory with him, he could have at least thought about taking his mom, who spent all day stirring big vats of other people's laundry to support the four bedridden grandparents, one of whom apparently could get up and dance the whole damn time. Then again, old Mom sang that horrible "Cheer Up, Charlie" song that seemed to go on for an hour, so maybe I would have wanted to ditch her too. In any case, in the old movie, you just couldn't wait for all Charlie's family crap to be over with so we could get to the factory already. In the new movie, not so much. I loved the parents and the look of the house, and even the grandparents were kind of cute instead of just, like "ech, can you imagine having them just sitting there in the middle of your living room all day long?" You really did believe that they didn't mind being poor because they all had each other. Yeah, sap, I know, but the actors sold it. The child who played Charlie didn't blow me away or anything, but he was huge improvement over the icky blond kid in the old one.
The factory -- this one is a draw. The stuff in the new movie is awesome, of course, but you know what? I didn't think that the room that's made to look like it's outdoors but everything is made of candy, for instance, was a big improvement over the one in the old movie. I did like the shots of the outside of the factory in the new one, and Grandpa Joe's story about working there and how everyone was fired after secrets started leaking out. I also liked the glass elevator scene near the end too -- in the old movie, Willie Wonka talks about how the elevator can go in any direction, but in the new one you get to actually see it, and that's fun. But as far as the scenes that happened in both movies are concerned, nothing really really blew me out of the water.
The other kids -- well, Augustus Gloop isn't onscreen for very long in either movie, and I didn't notice his character being very different from one to the other. He's a fat German kid who eats too much, his mom thinks he's precious, he drinks from the chocolate river, falls in, and gets sucked into a pipe. So he's a tie, as is Mike TeeVee. I don't really understand why they made him be addicted to video games rather than TV in the new one -- I understand that video games are maybe a bit more timely but his last name is still TeeVee, and he still comes to the end of his tour of the chocolate factory being sent by television waves, so what's the point? Neither of the kids who played him stood out to me particularly.
Violet Beauregard -- now, I appreciated what they did with her in the new film. Substitute the used-car-salesman dad for a hyper-competitive mom, give her and the kid matching blonde bobs and track suits -- it was cute. I was liking them as well as I liked Violet and her dad in the old one right up until she blew up into a giant blueberry, and then, you know what? The CGI ruined it for me, because she didn't look real anymore. It was like in the first Harry Potter movie, where they're whipping around on broomsticks playing Quidditch really fast, and you get distracted by the fact that those aren't human faces you're seeing -- sure it was cool that Violet got so big, but when you saw that the face on her wasn't a real face -- that's where they lost me. As I kid, I found that scene, where all they did was paint the actress' face with blue make-up and fill up her costume with air, scary enough, and you could see her there the whole time, even when the Oompa Loompas turned her on her side and rolled her out of the room. The Violet in the new movie turned into a cartoon and that made it lose the creepiness for me. So the old film definitely wins the Violet competition.
Same goes for Veruca Salt. They were smart and didn't mess with Veruca too much in the new one -- she's still a demanding, bratty little British girl, with a dad who doesn't seem to get the fact that giving her everything she wants has made her into a monster. I believe they changed the geese that lay the golden eggs in the old movie to squirrels who crack and inspect nuts because they were squirrels in the book, and that's fine. But I still don't think you can beat the old Veruca's performance when Willie Wonka won't sell her father one of the golden geese, where she sings the song -- more like a musical tantrum, really -- about how she wants everything now. (One of the things she demands in the song is a "bean feast" -- anyone know what that's about? Maybe I misheard her?) And then she falls down the bad egg chute as she sings the last line. I'm pretty sure that's my favorite scene in the whole movie. In the new movie, the squirrel thing just didn't work for me. For one thing, Veruca's pronunciation of the word "squirrel" is totally annoying. Then, when the squirrels attack her, you pretty much think they're going to start biting chunks out of her, and that's pretty brutal. And then, it takes them forever to throw her down the bad nut hole, and it's hard to believe that they could keep her pinned down that way or that her dad couldn't get down there to get to help her in all that time. I just found it annoying frankly. So the old film definitely wins in the Veruca department too.
Next, the Oompa Loompas -- this one I had to break into parts. I loved the old Oompa Loompas, but come on -- they looked terrible. It was like whoever designed their costumes and make-up didn't even try: "Yeah, let's get some little people, paint their faces orange, slap some ugly green wigs and weird white overalls on them and call it a day. Next!" The Oompa Loompas in the new film are all portrayed by a single actor, a guy named Deep Roy digitally reproduced thousands of times, and I thought he looked great in all of his different costumes and incarnations. So I liked the new Oompa Loompas a lot better, at least until they broke into song. What fan of the 70s movie doesn't love it when the Oompa Loompas sing their song: "Oompa, Loompa, doompity doo, I've got another puzzle for you..." Each time, it's the same song, with different lyrics to spell out the lesson to be taken from the latest child's mishap -- by the end of the movie, you're singing along. They do a little dancing and there's some psychedelic-looking animation, but it's all kept pretty simple. Not so with the new Oompa Loompas -- each time a kid disappears or gets messed up in the new movie, techno music begins to play and it's a full, Vegas-style production number. There's even a synchronized swimming sequence, and I have to admit that was clever, but still -- sometimes less is more. So I give it to the new Oompa Loompas for their look, and the old ones for their musical performances.
Finally -- the ending. I have to say, it never sat right with me the way Gene Wilder's Willie Wonka turned all nice at the end of the first movie, even giving Charlie a big hug in the glass elevator. Obviously, a kid's book is going to have a happy ending; Charlie is the hero and it's fitting for him to "win" the factory because he's a good kid with his heart in the right place, but it's still a dark story about a guy who makes candy and doesn't really like kids at all, so the happy ending is a hard thing to reconcile -- too much sweetness isn't going to work. I felt the new film did a bit better with it by drawing it out and Willie and Charlie having conflict about how it was going to happen -- I also appreciated that there was no particular moment when Willie suddenly learned that family is a wonderful thing, and that he just sort of seemed to quietly become a part of Charlie's family. It was still a bit awkwardly done, but definitely an improvement.
So anyway, there you have it -- my long-winded compare-and-contrast of 1971's "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and 2005's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Who knows, maybe some day when the latter is out on DVD, I'll rent them both and watch them back to back. Maybe I'll change my mind on some things.
I was kind of excited about seeing the new "Charlie" movie. I'm one of those people who really liked the original for what it was, but it didn't seem like sacrilege for them to remake it or anything -- I mean, the old one was so cheesy, and, special effects being what they are today, I thought it would be fun to see what they could do with it. Besides, I've liked pretty much every Tim Burton movie I've ever seen and when I heard he was doing it, it seemed like a good fit to me.
So how did I like it? Well, I enjoyed it a lot. And at the same time, I couldn't help comparing each part of it to the old movie that I've seen so many times. I really couldn't say at this point that I like either of them better than the other -- it's pretty much a draw. It feels weird to me to feel that way because I usually have a pretty strong opinion about these kinds of things. Anyhoo, I've got it in my head to do a point-by-point comparison here and so I'm gonna do it. I will be talking about the end of the movie(s) here so consider that a spoiler alert, although it's hard to imagine that anyone is going to be shocked to hear that there's a happy ending or anything like that.
Starting at the very beginning: the title. This round goes to the new film, because they went with the original title from Roald Dahl's book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." The 70s version was called "Willie Wonka and Chocolate Factory," and in my opinion, there was no good reason to change it.
Portrayal of Willie Wonka -- okay, this may be an unpopular one. I'm not a hater of Johnny Depp -- I enjoyed his work in "Edward Scissorhands" and "Pirates of the Carribean," and would classify myself as leaning in the direction of being a fan of his. That said -- I didn't like what he did in this movie. The way he delivered his lines just really got on my nerves, not really enough to seriously impair my ability to enjoy the movie, but enough to make me think "eh -- this is not working for me" a number of times. Gene Wilder, OTOH, with his fuzzy hair and his more subtle hostility toward the kids who are visiting his factory -- for me, he just hits all the right notes, and frankly it would have been hard for Depp's performance to top his in my mind, but seriously -- in my not-so-humble opinion, Depp doesn't even come close.
Portrayal of Charlie and the Bucket Family -- OMG, did the new movie kick the old movie's ass to the curb on this one or what? I'll admit it: I never liked the old Charlie much. I thought he was kind of a pansy. The old Grandpa Joe was annoying too. Personally I thought maybe when Charlie was deciding who to take to the factory with him, he could have at least thought about taking his mom, who spent all day stirring big vats of other people's laundry to support the four bedridden grandparents, one of whom apparently could get up and dance the whole damn time. Then again, old Mom sang that horrible "Cheer Up, Charlie" song that seemed to go on for an hour, so maybe I would have wanted to ditch her too. In any case, in the old movie, you just couldn't wait for all Charlie's family crap to be over with so we could get to the factory already. In the new movie, not so much. I loved the parents and the look of the house, and even the grandparents were kind of cute instead of just, like "ech, can you imagine having them just sitting there in the middle of your living room all day long?" You really did believe that they didn't mind being poor because they all had each other. Yeah, sap, I know, but the actors sold it. The child who played Charlie didn't blow me away or anything, but he was huge improvement over the icky blond kid in the old one.
The factory -- this one is a draw. The stuff in the new movie is awesome, of course, but you know what? I didn't think that the room that's made to look like it's outdoors but everything is made of candy, for instance, was a big improvement over the one in the old movie. I did like the shots of the outside of the factory in the new one, and Grandpa Joe's story about working there and how everyone was fired after secrets started leaking out. I also liked the glass elevator scene near the end too -- in the old movie, Willie Wonka talks about how the elevator can go in any direction, but in the new one you get to actually see it, and that's fun. But as far as the scenes that happened in both movies are concerned, nothing really really blew me out of the water.
The other kids -- well, Augustus Gloop isn't onscreen for very long in either movie, and I didn't notice his character being very different from one to the other. He's a fat German kid who eats too much, his mom thinks he's precious, he drinks from the chocolate river, falls in, and gets sucked into a pipe. So he's a tie, as is Mike TeeVee. I don't really understand why they made him be addicted to video games rather than TV in the new one -- I understand that video games are maybe a bit more timely but his last name is still TeeVee, and he still comes to the end of his tour of the chocolate factory being sent by television waves, so what's the point? Neither of the kids who played him stood out to me particularly.
Violet Beauregard -- now, I appreciated what they did with her in the new film. Substitute the used-car-salesman dad for a hyper-competitive mom, give her and the kid matching blonde bobs and track suits -- it was cute. I was liking them as well as I liked Violet and her dad in the old one right up until she blew up into a giant blueberry, and then, you know what? The CGI ruined it for me, because she didn't look real anymore. It was like in the first Harry Potter movie, where they're whipping around on broomsticks playing Quidditch really fast, and you get distracted by the fact that those aren't human faces you're seeing -- sure it was cool that Violet got so big, but when you saw that the face on her wasn't a real face -- that's where they lost me. As I kid, I found that scene, where all they did was paint the actress' face with blue make-up and fill up her costume with air, scary enough, and you could see her there the whole time, even when the Oompa Loompas turned her on her side and rolled her out of the room. The Violet in the new movie turned into a cartoon and that made it lose the creepiness for me. So the old film definitely wins the Violet competition.
Same goes for Veruca Salt. They were smart and didn't mess with Veruca too much in the new one -- she's still a demanding, bratty little British girl, with a dad who doesn't seem to get the fact that giving her everything she wants has made her into a monster. I believe they changed the geese that lay the golden eggs in the old movie to squirrels who crack and inspect nuts because they were squirrels in the book, and that's fine. But I still don't think you can beat the old Veruca's performance when Willie Wonka won't sell her father one of the golden geese, where she sings the song -- more like a musical tantrum, really -- about how she wants everything now. (One of the things she demands in the song is a "bean feast" -- anyone know what that's about? Maybe I misheard her?) And then she falls down the bad egg chute as she sings the last line. I'm pretty sure that's my favorite scene in the whole movie. In the new movie, the squirrel thing just didn't work for me. For one thing, Veruca's pronunciation of the word "squirrel" is totally annoying. Then, when the squirrels attack her, you pretty much think they're going to start biting chunks out of her, and that's pretty brutal. And then, it takes them forever to throw her down the bad nut hole, and it's hard to believe that they could keep her pinned down that way or that her dad couldn't get down there to get to help her in all that time. I just found it annoying frankly. So the old film definitely wins in the Veruca department too.
Next, the Oompa Loompas -- this one I had to break into parts. I loved the old Oompa Loompas, but come on -- they looked terrible. It was like whoever designed their costumes and make-up didn't even try: "Yeah, let's get some little people, paint their faces orange, slap some ugly green wigs and weird white overalls on them and call it a day. Next!" The Oompa Loompas in the new film are all portrayed by a single actor, a guy named Deep Roy digitally reproduced thousands of times, and I thought he looked great in all of his different costumes and incarnations. So I liked the new Oompa Loompas a lot better, at least until they broke into song. What fan of the 70s movie doesn't love it when the Oompa Loompas sing their song: "Oompa, Loompa, doompity doo, I've got another puzzle for you..." Each time, it's the same song, with different lyrics to spell out the lesson to be taken from the latest child's mishap -- by the end of the movie, you're singing along. They do a little dancing and there's some psychedelic-looking animation, but it's all kept pretty simple. Not so with the new Oompa Loompas -- each time a kid disappears or gets messed up in the new movie, techno music begins to play and it's a full, Vegas-style production number. There's even a synchronized swimming sequence, and I have to admit that was clever, but still -- sometimes less is more. So I give it to the new Oompa Loompas for their look, and the old ones for their musical performances.
Finally -- the ending. I have to say, it never sat right with me the way Gene Wilder's Willie Wonka turned all nice at the end of the first movie, even giving Charlie a big hug in the glass elevator. Obviously, a kid's book is going to have a happy ending; Charlie is the hero and it's fitting for him to "win" the factory because he's a good kid with his heart in the right place, but it's still a dark story about a guy who makes candy and doesn't really like kids at all, so the happy ending is a hard thing to reconcile -- too much sweetness isn't going to work. I felt the new film did a bit better with it by drawing it out and Willie and Charlie having conflict about how it was going to happen -- I also appreciated that there was no particular moment when Willie suddenly learned that family is a wonderful thing, and that he just sort of seemed to quietly become a part of Charlie's family. It was still a bit awkwardly done, but definitely an improvement.
So anyway, there you have it -- my long-winded compare-and-contrast of 1971's "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and 2005's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Who knows, maybe some day when the latter is out on DVD, I'll rent them both and watch them back to back. Maybe I'll change my mind on some things.
Mini Post-Wedding Post
I woke up yesterday, the morning after the big wedding, with a nasty cold, which doesn't really surprise me considering how well I've been handling stress in the last week or so. On the plus side, everything went well and I did manage to relax and enjoy most of it. I am very happy that BLB and the Bride are now lawfully wed, and I'm very glad that all their planning resulted in a lovely day for everyone. Congratulations to both of you, guys, and thanks so much for letting us be a big part of your special day :-)
That said -- since I'm home on the couch feeling like crap today anyway, I'm going to put together a simple page with the small number of good and okay pictures we got with our camera and link to it instead of posting them here or linking to them individually. I'm going to do my best to keep it really, really simple and not spend the better part of the next few days on it as I have in the past. Wish me luck and I hope to have a link for you soon!
That said -- since I'm home on the couch feeling like crap today anyway, I'm going to put together a simple page with the small number of good and okay pictures we got with our camera and link to it instead of posting them here or linking to them individually. I'm going to do my best to keep it really, really simple and not spend the better part of the next few days on it as I have in the past. Wish me luck and I hope to have a link for you soon!
Sunday, August 21, 2005
We are all home in one piece, the wedding was great, and I will write about it when I have a bit more energy. For now -- well, I haven't brought up celebrity happenings in a while. There just hasn't been a lot going on since Tom and Katie's World "We're in love, why don't you believe us?" Tour of Crazy came to an end. Lately all we've really had to pick over Jude Law's tearful apology to his blandly blonde actress fiancee after she found out he messed with his kids' nanny a while back. Then, while she tries to figure out if she should take the bastard back, occasionally being photographed looking "brave" and "fabulous", Jude goes to France to visit his parents and someone takes a picture of him changing clothes -- in other words, butt-naked -- the same week his bare-butt scene in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was voted best by British movie-goers. What a life, huh? I have just a couple of comments:
1) A really good-looking, well-known actor, messing around on his fiancee? Shocking!
2) I find it kind of amusing that anyone would make a big deal out of naked pictures of Jude Law, since I'm 99.9% sure that, in that very scene in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" that the Brits were drooling over, he showed not just his ass but also anything else that might have been showing in pictures of him changing out of his bathing suit. Sure, it's an invasion of privacy and I can understand why he'd been annoyed by it, but what I can't figure out is why anyone would bother. I guess recent events have made him a hot property in the tabloid world, but seriously -- Jude's manly parts have been available for viewing since "The Talented Mr. Ripley" came out 6 years ago. The nudity is totally gratuitous -- people have been shown getting out of bathtubs onscreen plenty of times in the past without full-frontal nudity being necessary. I remember finding it very puzzling at the time. I mean, that was a pretty high-brow movie, nothing like the only other example I can think of right now, Kevin Bacon getting out of the shower near the end of "Wild Things," which was obviously meant to be trash and therefore pointless nudity seems par for the course.
Another thing about the bare-butt honorees that cracked me up was the inclusion of Ewan McGregor in "Velvet Goldmine." This is another case of "um... you only noticed his butt?" Because the main thing I remember from that movie was that not only did he appear completely nude in it, but that in one scene, he was on-stage nude and he turned around and bent over. I honesty don't seek out these salacious things in the movies -- I really don't -- but that's the sort of thing you don't forget. I happen to love Ewan McGregor, and I'm of the opinion that with the right, he is even more attractive than Jude Law, but I don't need to see that much of anyone, know what I mean? So hearing that people remembered his tush in particular after that kind of display seems odd to me.
Then again, I'm not British, so maybe they see these things differently.
1) A really good-looking, well-known actor, messing around on his fiancee? Shocking!
2) I find it kind of amusing that anyone would make a big deal out of naked pictures of Jude Law, since I'm 99.9% sure that, in that very scene in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" that the Brits were drooling over, he showed not just his ass but also anything else that might have been showing in pictures of him changing out of his bathing suit. Sure, it's an invasion of privacy and I can understand why he'd been annoyed by it, but what I can't figure out is why anyone would bother. I guess recent events have made him a hot property in the tabloid world, but seriously -- Jude's manly parts have been available for viewing since "The Talented Mr. Ripley" came out 6 years ago. The nudity is totally gratuitous -- people have been shown getting out of bathtubs onscreen plenty of times in the past without full-frontal nudity being necessary. I remember finding it very puzzling at the time. I mean, that was a pretty high-brow movie, nothing like the only other example I can think of right now, Kevin Bacon getting out of the shower near the end of "Wild Things," which was obviously meant to be trash and therefore pointless nudity seems par for the course.
Another thing about the bare-butt honorees that cracked me up was the inclusion of Ewan McGregor in "Velvet Goldmine." This is another case of "um... you only noticed his butt?" Because the main thing I remember from that movie was that not only did he appear completely nude in it, but that in one scene, he was on-stage nude and he turned around and bent over. I honesty don't seek out these salacious things in the movies -- I really don't -- but that's the sort of thing you don't forget. I happen to love Ewan McGregor, and I'm of the opinion that with the right, he is even more attractive than Jude Law, but I don't need to see that much of anyone, know what I mean? So hearing that people remembered his tush in particular after that kind of display seems odd to me.
Then again, I'm not British, so maybe they see these things differently.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Wrapping Things Up
This week, I am not:
1. sleeping much
2. managing my stress very well
3. tolerating caffeine well, and the one Tylenol P.M. I took on Tuesday night made me feel like a mess all day Wednesday.
Today I need to pack up the kids and the stuff we need so we can head down to Pleasant Hill/Walnut Creek/Concord for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner for the wedding of BLB and the Bride (Reasonable Man will be driving down seperately a bit later -- he has some briefs he's trying to get out today). Tomorrow is a day to get primped at the day spa and help the Bride take care of any little tasks that might spring up, and Saturday is the Big Day. I've looked forward to it for months and it's all going to be a lot of fun, so why I am I feeling so anxious and overwhelmed? There honestly isn't a tremendous amount I need to do here -- Buster needs to go to the kennel and we need to drop off some movies we rented at the video store, I need to finish the load of laundry I'm doing, fold it, pack a suitcase for myself and one for Enthusio, and then there are the usual pre-trip things like taking out the trash, making sure the cat has enough food and water to make it till we get home Sunday morning, and printing out computer directions to all the places we will be driving to in the next few days. That's not really a whole lot but I'm still making myself a little crazy trying to get started on it and I'm not sure why.
I do know one thing and that is, in this state, I need to really watch it with any alcohol consumption. I was planning to do so anyway, in light of events on the Bachelorette Cruise, but my experiences this week lead me to believe that I'm extra sensitive to any kinds of chemicals right now, so yeah -- one drink at the dinner tonight and one at the wedding on Saturday. I want to feel well and enjoy these things.
I found a brilliant and cheap solution to my computer hinge issue -- it works so well and was so easy that I don't know why I didn't think of it before. One word: Velcro. I bought a package of strips of it with adhesive on the back, and put a strip of the less abrasive side along the bottom lefthand side and along the lefthand side of the lid. Then I cut a strip of the other stuff that would reach between those two strips when the screen was up and attached it, and voila! Strong, simple, easily adjustable, and cheap to replace, although I don't see that being an issue for a long, long time. Right now the strip that spans between the bottom and the lid still has the paper on it that you pull off to expose the adhesive, and I need to find attractive to stick on it and round the corners so they so poke me, but otherwise, it's great, having spent $6.99 just, I am feeling pleased at having saved myself $893.01. So there.
Well, I guess it's time to get a move on here. I'm feeling a little calmer and there's stuff to do. BLB and the Bride -- I'll see you in 6 1/2 hours. Everyone else -- take care, and I'll be back on Sunday.
1. sleeping much
2. managing my stress very well
3. tolerating caffeine well, and the one Tylenol P.M. I took on Tuesday night made me feel like a mess all day Wednesday.
Today I need to pack up the kids and the stuff we need so we can head down to Pleasant Hill/Walnut Creek/Concord for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner for the wedding of BLB and the Bride (Reasonable Man will be driving down seperately a bit later -- he has some briefs he's trying to get out today). Tomorrow is a day to get primped at the day spa and help the Bride take care of any little tasks that might spring up, and Saturday is the Big Day. I've looked forward to it for months and it's all going to be a lot of fun, so why I am I feeling so anxious and overwhelmed? There honestly isn't a tremendous amount I need to do here -- Buster needs to go to the kennel and we need to drop off some movies we rented at the video store, I need to finish the load of laundry I'm doing, fold it, pack a suitcase for myself and one for Enthusio, and then there are the usual pre-trip things like taking out the trash, making sure the cat has enough food and water to make it till we get home Sunday morning, and printing out computer directions to all the places we will be driving to in the next few days. That's not really a whole lot but I'm still making myself a little crazy trying to get started on it and I'm not sure why.
I do know one thing and that is, in this state, I need to really watch it with any alcohol consumption. I was planning to do so anyway, in light of events on the Bachelorette Cruise, but my experiences this week lead me to believe that I'm extra sensitive to any kinds of chemicals right now, so yeah -- one drink at the dinner tonight and one at the wedding on Saturday. I want to feel well and enjoy these things.
I found a brilliant and cheap solution to my computer hinge issue -- it works so well and was so easy that I don't know why I didn't think of it before. One word: Velcro. I bought a package of strips of it with adhesive on the back, and put a strip of the less abrasive side along the bottom lefthand side and along the lefthand side of the lid. Then I cut a strip of the other stuff that would reach between those two strips when the screen was up and attached it, and voila! Strong, simple, easily adjustable, and cheap to replace, although I don't see that being an issue for a long, long time. Right now the strip that spans between the bottom and the lid still has the paper on it that you pull off to expose the adhesive, and I need to find attractive to stick on it and round the corners so they so poke me, but otherwise, it's great, having spent $6.99 just, I am feeling pleased at having saved myself $893.01. So there.
Well, I guess it's time to get a move on here. I'm feeling a little calmer and there's stuff to do. BLB and the Bride -- I'll see you in 6 1/2 hours. Everyone else -- take care, and I'll be back on Sunday.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Unhinged
It will become apparent, as you read this, that the title of this post is a terrible pun. I'm not even going to apologize because this situation is so stupid that it deserves a terrible pun.
Yesterday marked the 10th of the 7-10 business days that the computer place downtown was holding my laptop hostage before they looked at it, so I called them to see what was what. They had indeed looked at it, and they put the guy who worked on it on the phone to talk to me. Remember how I was afraid they were going to tell me that parts weren't available to fix the broken hinge? Well, that didn't happen. The part I need is available, and I can have it fixed if I want. That's the good news.
The part is a whole new LCD screen. And it costs $900. Plus $27 for shipping.
Can you believe that shit?
We bought this laptop just over two years ago, in July 2003. I have used it a lot, that is true -- it has been my primary computer and I'm on the computer almost constantly. I have not, however, even toted it around all that much. 99 out of every 100 hours I've used it have been right here, sitting on my family room couch. I don't let my kids use it unless it's absolutely necessary -- the wear and tear isn't worth it. I've tried to take care of it, I really have.
I know I've said this before, but it works perfectly. It's speedy, even with all my stuff loaded on to it. It's never crashed. I can't remember ever having had any kind of technical, computer-type problem with it at all. But the hinge is completely fucked, and the little speaker thingy that holds it down on one side is detached. The computer is totally useable, except you have to hold it at a certain angle to be able to see the screen properly. And that's damn inconvenient.
We paid $1800 for this thing just 2 years ago, and now the physical structure of it is so broken down that it would cost half that again to fix it properly. That makes no sense, since I could probably replace it for very close to the total of parts and labor.
I'm sure I sound hopelessly naive about all of this. I don't mean to. I do understand how the computer industry works. I know that whatever computer you buy is going to be obsolete practically as soon as you get it out of the box. I know that, regardless of how much you spend on a new computer, the company that made it is out to make more money from you. When I went in to pick up my laptop from the repair place yesterday, the guy who'd worked on it sympathized with me. He said, "I don't know why they make it so you can't just replace the hinge." I said it was obviously so it would make more sense to just buy a whole new computer. He agreed -- and then mentioned that they had several new laptops there in the shop that someone could show me if I was interested. Building something to last -- why would they want to do that?
I understand all that. But just because we all know that that's the way it works doesn't mean it isn't utterly ridiculous, and insulting to those of us who drop our hard-earned dollars on their products.
When I brought my laptop home last night, I told Reasonable Man that I wanted a new one -- an Apple this time, because I've heard good things about they way they're built. But you know what? I'm not replacing it. I'm not going to respond to this situation in exactly the way I'm expected to -- by going out and buying a new laptop computer -- when this one works perfectly well and we spent almost two grand on it only two years ago. That would be a ridiculous response to an asinine situation.
No, I'm going to use duct tape and whatever else I need to to rig something up so that I can use this one comfortably for another few years. I'm going down to the hardware store today to see what they've got. And when I get it fixed up -- guess what? It's going to look really stupid. I know that. Just like the driver of the junker you see cruising down the street, primered and Bondo-ed to all hell, I'm going to use a computer that looks like shit, and I'm going to do it with pride. And I'm going to feel better about it than I would if I bought a whole new freaking computer.
And you know what else? I'm even springing for a whole new role of silver duct tape today, because that'll match my computer a lot better than the red kind I already have.
And I'm also never again buying a Toshiba anything, EVER, as long as I live.
Yesterday marked the 10th of the 7-10 business days that the computer place downtown was holding my laptop hostage before they looked at it, so I called them to see what was what. They had indeed looked at it, and they put the guy who worked on it on the phone to talk to me. Remember how I was afraid they were going to tell me that parts weren't available to fix the broken hinge? Well, that didn't happen. The part I need is available, and I can have it fixed if I want. That's the good news.
The part is a whole new LCD screen. And it costs $900. Plus $27 for shipping.
Can you believe that shit?
We bought this laptop just over two years ago, in July 2003. I have used it a lot, that is true -- it has been my primary computer and I'm on the computer almost constantly. I have not, however, even toted it around all that much. 99 out of every 100 hours I've used it have been right here, sitting on my family room couch. I don't let my kids use it unless it's absolutely necessary -- the wear and tear isn't worth it. I've tried to take care of it, I really have.
I know I've said this before, but it works perfectly. It's speedy, even with all my stuff loaded on to it. It's never crashed. I can't remember ever having had any kind of technical, computer-type problem with it at all. But the hinge is completely fucked, and the little speaker thingy that holds it down on one side is detached. The computer is totally useable, except you have to hold it at a certain angle to be able to see the screen properly. And that's damn inconvenient.
We paid $1800 for this thing just 2 years ago, and now the physical structure of it is so broken down that it would cost half that again to fix it properly. That makes no sense, since I could probably replace it for very close to the total of parts and labor.
I'm sure I sound hopelessly naive about all of this. I don't mean to. I do understand how the computer industry works. I know that whatever computer you buy is going to be obsolete practically as soon as you get it out of the box. I know that, regardless of how much you spend on a new computer, the company that made it is out to make more money from you. When I went in to pick up my laptop from the repair place yesterday, the guy who'd worked on it sympathized with me. He said, "I don't know why they make it so you can't just replace the hinge." I said it was obviously so it would make more sense to just buy a whole new computer. He agreed -- and then mentioned that they had several new laptops there in the shop that someone could show me if I was interested. Building something to last -- why would they want to do that?
I understand all that. But just because we all know that that's the way it works doesn't mean it isn't utterly ridiculous, and insulting to those of us who drop our hard-earned dollars on their products.
When I brought my laptop home last night, I told Reasonable Man that I wanted a new one -- an Apple this time, because I've heard good things about they way they're built. But you know what? I'm not replacing it. I'm not going to respond to this situation in exactly the way I'm expected to -- by going out and buying a new laptop computer -- when this one works perfectly well and we spent almost two grand on it only two years ago. That would be a ridiculous response to an asinine situation.
No, I'm going to use duct tape and whatever else I need to to rig something up so that I can use this one comfortably for another few years. I'm going down to the hardware store today to see what they've got. And when I get it fixed up -- guess what? It's going to look really stupid. I know that. Just like the driver of the junker you see cruising down the street, primered and Bondo-ed to all hell, I'm going to use a computer that looks like shit, and I'm going to do it with pride. And I'm going to feel better about it than I would if I bought a whole new freaking computer.
And you know what else? I'm even springing for a whole new role of silver duct tape today, because that'll match my computer a lot better than the red kind I already have.
And I'm also never again buying a Toshiba anything, EVER, as long as I live.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Neglecting My Blog
Yeah, I know I haven't posted in a few days. It's kind of hard right now with my laptop being in the shop. I don't really like posting on the desktop (yeah, I know, poor me) and I do use Ryan's laptop sometimes but I've found it's a pain to check email on the SBC website which is down a lot for some reason, so I haven't been using it much. It's actually good overall because I'm on the computer less. As for my laptop being gone, I'm feeling much better about not having it here than I thought I would. The only issue that's come up is that I'm reading a book about Beatles music right now and they talk about lots of songs I'm unfamiliar with, so I'm be downloading some of them if I had my computer. Other than that, the 7-10 days it's supposed to take them to get a look at it are flying by and I think I might not actually blow a gasket if they tell me they can't fix it. I will be upset but not about the time they've had it. Anyway, I will cross that bridge if I come to it.
Not having my computer is also delaying my being able to write a post I want to write about Celebrity Playlists on iTunes. I want to have my own collection of music in front of me when I write it.
Some of the hens are together at B's this weekend and I wish I was there with them. I hope they are having an awesome time and that they all enjoyed partying with cute hockey boys on Friday night. I would have been there in my slutty top if there was any possible way.
It's less than a week till the big day for BLB and his Bride. I talked to her on the phone the other night and she sounds pretty cool about everything, so that's good. We will be heading down to the Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill/Concord area on Thursday afternoon to attend the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and will just stay down there till the morning after the festivities. I have surprisingly little to get taken care of before we leave: I need to make a reservation at the doggie hotel for the beastie and then deliver him there Thursday morning; hit one of the two places the happy couple is registered to get them a little something; and get some undergarments (or "magic underwear") to wear under my bridesmaid dress so I don't look like a tub in it. I have failed to lose ten lbs prior to the wedding and, you know, oh well. I have been working out a lot and I feel like I'm in better shape than I was three months ago, so that's something. The dress fits so that's that.
The kids are done with activities for the summer, other than a cooking class I forgot to take Enthusio to last week (there are still two sessions for him to go to). Mermaid was signed up to swim at the City Championships meet this past Thursday and Friday evenings -- she went Thursday but Friday she developed a migraine and couldn't go, so that kind of sucked. Enthusio had his last day of day camp on Friday and has now changed his tune and said he didn't like it and doesn't want to go next summer. I already told him that he will have a choice: day camp or SummerDarts, and he's not happy about it, but we can revisit that next spring. I really think he'll like SummerDarts if he gives it a chance and that it's really a self-confidence issue for him. In the meantime, he wants to play soccer in the spring and he wants to do some other kind sport this fall, so we'll work on that.
We have two weeks before school starts, and I for one am looking forward to relaxing, sleeping in, spending some time with Enthusio because it feels like I've hardly seen him all summer, reading some more, enjoying the wedding festivities, and did I mention relaxing? In case I haven't already mentioned it: Busiest. Summer. Ever. The relative calm of fall will be welcome!
Not having my computer is also delaying my being able to write a post I want to write about Celebrity Playlists on iTunes. I want to have my own collection of music in front of me when I write it.
Some of the hens are together at B's this weekend and I wish I was there with them. I hope they are having an awesome time and that they all enjoyed partying with cute hockey boys on Friday night. I would have been there in my slutty top if there was any possible way.
It's less than a week till the big day for BLB and his Bride. I talked to her on the phone the other night and she sounds pretty cool about everything, so that's good. We will be heading down to the Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill/Concord area on Thursday afternoon to attend the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and will just stay down there till the morning after the festivities. I have surprisingly little to get taken care of before we leave: I need to make a reservation at the doggie hotel for the beastie and then deliver him there Thursday morning; hit one of the two places the happy couple is registered to get them a little something; and get some undergarments (or "magic underwear") to wear under my bridesmaid dress so I don't look like a tub in it. I have failed to lose ten lbs prior to the wedding and, you know, oh well. I have been working out a lot and I feel like I'm in better shape than I was three months ago, so that's something. The dress fits so that's that.
The kids are done with activities for the summer, other than a cooking class I forgot to take Enthusio to last week (there are still two sessions for him to go to). Mermaid was signed up to swim at the City Championships meet this past Thursday and Friday evenings -- she went Thursday but Friday she developed a migraine and couldn't go, so that kind of sucked. Enthusio had his last day of day camp on Friday and has now changed his tune and said he didn't like it and doesn't want to go next summer. I already told him that he will have a choice: day camp or SummerDarts, and he's not happy about it, but we can revisit that next spring. I really think he'll like SummerDarts if he gives it a chance and that it's really a self-confidence issue for him. In the meantime, he wants to play soccer in the spring and he wants to do some other kind sport this fall, so we'll work on that.
We have two weeks before school starts, and I for one am looking forward to relaxing, sleeping in, spending some time with Enthusio because it feels like I've hardly seen him all summer, reading some more, enjoying the wedding festivities, and did I mention relaxing? In case I haven't already mentioned it: Busiest. Summer. Ever. The relative calm of fall will be welcome!
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Books, Music
Yeah, remember how I said I was going to read some YA fiction because they went fast and I'd wanted to anyway? So now I'm up to 30!
The Perks of Being A Wallflower is for one of my book clubs and I gave it a * because, even though there were a lot of things about it that just didn't work for me at all, I reacted to it so strongly and there was so much about it that was well done that I just can't not recommend it to others, if only because people should form their own opinions of it, you know? The Gossip Girl book -- well, those are a guilty pleasure of mine, and instead of forking over nine bucks for this one like I've done with the last five, I will admit that I just read a copy of it sitting in the Borders' children's section over the course of a few different afternoons. Borders gets an awful lot of my money as is it so I don't feel too guilty.
Speaking of Borders, I had a really depressing experience there last week. I had coupon for 25% off any CD or DVD and so I thought it would be fun to just go in there and pick up a CD. I rarely do that since the whole music downloading revolution took off a few years ago -- in fact, you can count the number of CDs I've bought since then on the fingers of one hand -- I just prefer downloading individual songs and arranging them on CDs myself. But last week I was just tired of all the CDs in my car. Anyway, I spent about 40 minutes browsing in the Borders CD section and almost ended up walking out empty-handed. I just didn't even know how to look for what I wanted. I ended up buying a newer collection of Tori Amos songs that has some that I'm familiar with and others that I'm not, which seemed like a good idea since my two Tori CDs mysteriously disappeared a few years ago. That kind of sounds like I'm being sarcastic but I don't mean it that way -- it really is mysterious to me because I have no idea where the hell they went. I can't imagine who was here who would steal at all and steal Tori Amos in particular. Whatever.
Anyway, I've listened to it a bunch of times and I don't really like it. Oh well.
Naturally today I'm looking on Amazon.com and I've found 3 different CDs I want: "The Best of George Harrison," the "March of the Penguins" original score, and "I Am Sam - Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture," which is all covers of Beatles songs. Sarah McLachlan singing "Black Bird?" OMG, I could wet my pants!
The Perks of Being A Wallflower is for one of my book clubs and I gave it a * because, even though there were a lot of things about it that just didn't work for me at all, I reacted to it so strongly and there was so much about it that was well done that I just can't not recommend it to others, if only because people should form their own opinions of it, you know? The Gossip Girl book -- well, those are a guilty pleasure of mine, and instead of forking over nine bucks for this one like I've done with the last five, I will admit that I just read a copy of it sitting in the Borders' children's section over the course of a few different afternoons. Borders gets an awful lot of my money as is it so I don't feel too guilty.
Speaking of Borders, I had a really depressing experience there last week. I had coupon for 25% off any CD or DVD and so I thought it would be fun to just go in there and pick up a CD. I rarely do that since the whole music downloading revolution took off a few years ago -- in fact, you can count the number of CDs I've bought since then on the fingers of one hand -- I just prefer downloading individual songs and arranging them on CDs myself. But last week I was just tired of all the CDs in my car. Anyway, I spent about 40 minutes browsing in the Borders CD section and almost ended up walking out empty-handed. I just didn't even know how to look for what I wanted. I ended up buying a newer collection of Tori Amos songs that has some that I'm familiar with and others that I'm not, which seemed like a good idea since my two Tori CDs mysteriously disappeared a few years ago. That kind of sounds like I'm being sarcastic but I don't mean it that way -- it really is mysterious to me because I have no idea where the hell they went. I can't imagine who was here who would steal at all and steal Tori Amos in particular. Whatever.
Anyway, I've listened to it a bunch of times and I don't really like it. Oh well.
Naturally today I'm looking on Amazon.com and I've found 3 different CDs I want: "The Best of George Harrison," the "March of the Penguins" original score, and "I Am Sam - Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture," which is all covers of Beatles songs. Sarah McLachlan singing "Black Bird?" OMG, I could wet my pants!
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
So Much For All My Worrying
After I picked up Enthusio from day camp today, he asked if he could go again next summer. I said he could if he wanted to, and he started talking about all the field trips and how he would be be in bunk three next years with all his friends and how he wanted to go ALL summer. So I guess all my fussing and fretting about his fragile emotional state was a wee bit of an overreaction.
50 Book Challenge Round-Up
I may do this yet. Have gained some momentum over these past few weeks and I'm looking at my current total -- 28 books in 7 months -- and thinking that's close to being on pace. I've been wanting to read some more young adult novels anyway, and those go fast so that will help and I won't feel bad about using them to pad my total since I can chalk it up to research for my own writing career.
I looked over my list this morning and did a quick tally of genres just because it feels like I've read about a zillion true crime books this year. It's actually 6, which is a pretty large percentage of 28 but not as bad as what I thought. Here's the list:
True Crime: 6
Other Non-Fiction: 4
Literary Fiction: 10
Science Fiction: 4
Mystery: 2
Young Adult Fiction: 2
Humor: 2
I could have arranged this differently. Some books are hard to classify. I could have made the Sci-Fi category "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" and put the new Harry Potter book in there instead of in the Young Adult Section, and I could have also divided up the literary fiction category into several categories like "Historical Fiction," "Chick Lit," etc. Both books in the humor category could have gone in the non-fiction category. I just went with my first instinct on most of them.
In any case, I think the total I'm most proud of is the sci-fi category. Even though they were all for book clubs and one of them could have been put in the literary fiction category if I'd wanted to put it there, I'm pretty sure I've never read 4 sci-fi books in one year before, and the two Mary Doria Russell ones were kind of difficult to get through. If I were in this just for the numbers, I might consider awarding myself credit for 2 books a piece for each of them...
I looked over my list this morning and did a quick tally of genres just because it feels like I've read about a zillion true crime books this year. It's actually 6, which is a pretty large percentage of 28 but not as bad as what I thought. Here's the list:
True Crime: 6
Other Non-Fiction: 4
Literary Fiction: 10
Science Fiction: 4
Mystery: 2
Young Adult Fiction: 2
Humor: 2
I could have arranged this differently. Some books are hard to classify. I could have made the Sci-Fi category "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" and put the new Harry Potter book in there instead of in the Young Adult Section, and I could have also divided up the literary fiction category into several categories like "Historical Fiction," "Chick Lit," etc. Both books in the humor category could have gone in the non-fiction category. I just went with my first instinct on most of them.
In any case, I think the total I'm most proud of is the sci-fi category. Even though they were all for book clubs and one of them could have been put in the literary fiction category if I'd wanted to put it there, I'm pretty sure I've never read 4 sci-fi books in one year before, and the two Mary Doria Russell ones were kind of difficult to get through. If I were in this just for the numbers, I might consider awarding myself credit for 2 books a piece for each of them...
Thursday, August 04, 2005
A Special Place In Hell
Several years ago, Reasonable Man and I came up with the idea that some people are going to a special place in hell for their especially egregious karmic crimes in this earthly realm. We were inspired to embrace this theory when we heard that Dorothy Hamill, she of the famous short haircut and 1976 Olympic gold medal in ladies' figure skating, was divorcing her second husband because he had cheated on her. Multiple times.
"Oh, man, cheating on Dorothy Hamill," Reasonable Man commented. "That guy is going to his own special place in hell." And so the concept was born.
Over the years, we haven't been moved to nominate cell-mates for Dorothy Hamill's cheating ex-husband very often. A few years ago, somebody, or several somebodies, broke into the kindergarten classrooms at our neighborhood elementary school and absconded with a couple of laptop computers and a few other items. The fact that they'd chosen the kindergartens -- not the office, or the science lab, or the library -- the kindergartens, for God's sake -- that caused us to surmise that those individuals would be sharing living quarters with Dorothy's ex in that special place in hell. But this guy takes the cake. Can you freaking imagine? A tee ball coach pays one of his players to hit the autistic kid in the head so he can't play the rest of the game and they can win? Holy shit -- I'm speechless.
Now, in light of this particular story, I really can only give a Special Place in Hell honorable mention to whoever the asshole out there is who stole the Austism Awareness ribbon magnet-thingy off the back of my minivan. I'm really puzzling over this. Who the hell would do that? Seriously -- does it make sense that the person who sees it and thinks "oh, autism awareness! Yeah, that rocks! I need one of those!" then decides there's nothing wrong with ripping it off my car and slapping it on his or her own? I guess it's possible that it just fell off, but -- it was a magnet. Unless there was some brief suspension of the laws of physics that I failed to notice, I don't really see how that would happen. I'm thinking human hands had to be involved. And that being the case -- who? If anyone has any theories on this, I'd really like to hear them.
"Oh, man, cheating on Dorothy Hamill," Reasonable Man commented. "That guy is going to his own special place in hell." And so the concept was born.
Over the years, we haven't been moved to nominate cell-mates for Dorothy Hamill's cheating ex-husband very often. A few years ago, somebody, or several somebodies, broke into the kindergarten classrooms at our neighborhood elementary school and absconded with a couple of laptop computers and a few other items. The fact that they'd chosen the kindergartens -- not the office, or the science lab, or the library -- the kindergartens, for God's sake -- that caused us to surmise that those individuals would be sharing living quarters with Dorothy's ex in that special place in hell. But this guy takes the cake. Can you freaking imagine? A tee ball coach pays one of his players to hit the autistic kid in the head so he can't play the rest of the game and they can win? Holy shit -- I'm speechless.
Now, in light of this particular story, I really can only give a Special Place in Hell honorable mention to whoever the asshole out there is who stole the Austism Awareness ribbon magnet-thingy off the back of my minivan. I'm really puzzling over this. Who the hell would do that? Seriously -- does it make sense that the person who sees it and thinks "oh, autism awareness! Yeah, that rocks! I need one of those!" then decides there's nothing wrong with ripping it off my car and slapping it on his or her own? I guess it's possible that it just fell off, but -- it was a magnet. Unless there was some brief suspension of the laws of physics that I failed to notice, I don't really see how that would happen. I'm thinking human hands had to be involved. And that being the case -- who? If anyone has any theories on this, I'd really like to hear them.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Broken Laptop Hinge Drama Update
I gave up on stupid computer guy downtown who won't return my phone calls, called Fry's and sat there while the phone to the service department rang 20 times without anyone answering it, and then took my laptop to some other folks downtown and handed it over. It will be 7-10 business days before they can even look at it and check with Toshiba to see if they can even get the parts to fix it. If I'd wanted to make an appointment so I didn't have to leave it with them for so long, it would have been $70 an hour instead of $60. They are estimating that it will be at least 2-3 hours of labor and the replacement parts will be in the $100 range, if they can get them at all, which they couldn't guarantee, in which case I am SOL and have a perfectly functional laptop with a completely fucked up hinge. Needless to say, I am not happy. I can certainly live without my computer for a few weeks -- I spend too much time on it anyway and there are two others in the house so obviously I can make do, but what a pain in the ass. I can't tell you how pissed I'm going to be if they don't have parts available to fix the hinge on my barely-two-year-old laptop. I'm getting a little nauseated just thinking about the gasket I'm going to blow if that happens.
Yesterday's Reason That I'm A Complete Idiot
We all know I did yard work yesterday, because I've mentioned it about 5 times. Okay, so I'm out there on my hands and knees in the front yard, digging weeds out of the lawn. It's summer, over 90 degrees, and I'm wearing a tank top. Here is my internal dialogue:
I should put on sunscreen, because I'm going to burn. Well, I'm in and out of the shade here. I won't be exposed to the sun that long. It's my shoulders, they're nice and tan, so they'll probably just get tanner. It'll be fine. I don't need sunscreen. It'll be fine.
Needless to say, I got a sunburn.
It wasn't, however, just my shoulders. What I failed to realize when I was out there was that the tank top I was wearing was riding up, exposing a little strip of skin approximately two inches wide on my lower back. You know, where I'd have a tattoo if I was about 10 years younger? I first noticed it when I got out of the shower yesterday. My first thought was, oh crap, I'm stupid. Then, a few minutes later, I went running back over to the mirror to check the location of the burn again, and was relieved to find it several inches north of the crack area. Not only would I not like to think that I was out there in the front yard showing off butt cleavage for most of the day yesterday, but this sunburn is already stupid enough without it involving my buttcrack, don't you think? I mean, you would think I would have noticed if my pants had been riding that low -- but you would have thought I would have noticed that my top was riding up and exposing that little strip of skin too, and I didn't, did?
Now, the tank top I was wearing is what they call a racer-back, which means it leaves pretty much your whole shoulder blade area exposed to the elements. This is fine, as my shoulders and accompanying blades are old hands at weathering sunburn. I'd say they get a good one at least once a year, despite my best efforts. Not so for the strip of skin on my lower back. When I showed it to Reasonable Man yesterday, he exclaimed in shock.
"What, is it purple?" I asked?
"No, but it's pretty red," he said, because he's nice that way. A lot of people would probably have been more like, "Purple? Try magenta!" Or something like that. They might have used the word "crispy," which would have been fitting. We are talking about skin that hasn't been exposed to sun since sometime back in the 70s when my mom used to buy me those little girl bikinis. This skin doesn't have the year-to-year seasoning that my shoulder blades have. In other words, finding a comfortable sleeping position last night was kind of a job.
Thanks for those high-thread-count, silky, satiny sheets you gave us for Christmas this past year, Mom and Dad. I promise to wear my sunscreen from now on.
I should put on sunscreen, because I'm going to burn. Well, I'm in and out of the shade here. I won't be exposed to the sun that long. It's my shoulders, they're nice and tan, so they'll probably just get tanner. It'll be fine. I don't need sunscreen. It'll be fine.
Needless to say, I got a sunburn.
It wasn't, however, just my shoulders. What I failed to realize when I was out there was that the tank top I was wearing was riding up, exposing a little strip of skin approximately two inches wide on my lower back. You know, where I'd have a tattoo if I was about 10 years younger? I first noticed it when I got out of the shower yesterday. My first thought was, oh crap, I'm stupid. Then, a few minutes later, I went running back over to the mirror to check the location of the burn again, and was relieved to find it several inches north of the crack area. Not only would I not like to think that I was out there in the front yard showing off butt cleavage for most of the day yesterday, but this sunburn is already stupid enough without it involving my buttcrack, don't you think? I mean, you would think I would have noticed if my pants had been riding that low -- but you would have thought I would have noticed that my top was riding up and exposing that little strip of skin too, and I didn't, did?
Now, the tank top I was wearing is what they call a racer-back, which means it leaves pretty much your whole shoulder blade area exposed to the elements. This is fine, as my shoulders and accompanying blades are old hands at weathering sunburn. I'd say they get a good one at least once a year, despite my best efforts. Not so for the strip of skin on my lower back. When I showed it to Reasonable Man yesterday, he exclaimed in shock.
"What, is it purple?" I asked?
"No, but it's pretty red," he said, because he's nice that way. A lot of people would probably have been more like, "Purple? Try magenta!" Or something like that. They might have used the word "crispy," which would have been fitting. We are talking about skin that hasn't been exposed to sun since sometime back in the 70s when my mom used to buy me those little girl bikinis. This skin doesn't have the year-to-year seasoning that my shoulder blades have. In other words, finding a comfortable sleeping position last night was kind of a job.
Thanks for those high-thread-count, silky, satiny sheets you gave us for Christmas this past year, Mom and Dad. I promise to wear my sunscreen from now on.
Monday, August 01, 2005
This Is Not Sexy, People
Is it just me, or is this HIDEOUS?:
This is a photo from an ad that assaulted me when I was minding my own business and looking at my Yahoo mail account yesterday. I know I've mentioned it before, and I don't mean to keep harping on it, but... damn! It's not just ugly -- it looks infected! Or maybe like an allergic reaction to eating shellfish or something. Seriously -- the whole gender issue aside, if someone with a mouth that looked like this wanted to kiss me, I'd be thinking about what course of antibiotics I needed to start on afterward. Yecch.
This is a photo from an ad that assaulted me when I was minding my own business and looking at my Yahoo mail account yesterday. I know I've mentioned it before, and I don't mean to keep harping on it, but... damn! It's not just ugly -- it looks infected! Or maybe like an allergic reaction to eating shellfish or something. Seriously -- the whole gender issue aside, if someone with a mouth that looked like this wanted to kiss me, I'd be thinking about what course of antibiotics I needed to start on afterward. Yecch.
Yard Work
Right after I wrote I was blowing off the gym to lie on the couch and read a book, I went outside and worked in the front yard for two hours. I found it strangely gratifying dig up these viney weeds in the front lawn. Reasonable Man is probably not going to be thrilled about the holes I left, but I think it was important to dig these suckers up down to their roots. Our front lawn is 10 years old, and it seems to be at a turning point -- we can either let it turn into one of those gnarly green patches that is really more weeds than grass like you see a lot in older neighborhoods, or we can fight for it and keep it a lawn. I don't get motivated to do this kind of crap very often, but I feel like I'm doing good work today. If only my damn iPod ear buds would stop slipping out of my ears...
It's 10:30 and I'm sitting here in my gym clothes. I don't think I'm going and I don't care who knows it.
I worked out 5 times last week and that was a good thing. I'm not going to make it 5 times this week and oh well. I think I had too much caffeine or something because my tummy feels all squirrelly and I'm anxious. I think what I need is to take off my shoes and lie on the couch reading a book for a while. Maybe I'll go pull some weed in the front yard...
I worked out 5 times last week and that was a good thing. I'm not going to make it 5 times this week and oh well. I think I had too much caffeine or something because my tummy feels all squirrelly and I'm anxious. I think what I need is to take off my shoes and lie on the couch reading a book for a while. Maybe I'll go pull some weed in the front yard...
50 Book Challenge: "Homework" Books and Lighter Fare
Part of the reason I'm not going to make my 50-book total by the end of the year is that for some reason I'm reading a lot of heavy books this year. Sci-fi takes me a while. Sometimes I pick up a mistake of a true crime book and I end up trudging through it instead of gobbling it up the way I do with the really good ones. Another thing that will probably slow me down is worrying about Enthusio and wanting to do some research on dealing with his issues.
I was really disappointed in The Highly Sensitive Child. I probably shouldn't have had such high expectations. I read the author's earlier book, The Hightly Sensitive Person, several years ago, and it was kind of a life-changing experience, in that it explained what had been "wrong" with me my whole life. I had always felt like things were so much harder for me to deal with than for anyone else. I knew that saying I was "shy" or "introverted" wasn't really the issue. I knew it wasn't just emotional sensitivity because it seemed physical too -- not being able to deal with extremes of temperature for any length of time, or uncomfortable clothing, or having volume too loud for TV or movies or music, or more than a little caffeine -- it all seemed to point at having a stupidly delicate nature. Turns out this is a trait I share with 20% of the population, more than the number with whom I share the trait of left-handedness. It was a huge relief to read this book that seemed to explain who I was, but at the same time, I knew that I hadn't ever fit the profile of the typical Highly Sensitive Child, who seems timid and hesitant -- by all reports, I was always a cheerful, open, friendly kid, from the time I was a baby. Enthusio has always been the same -- "shy" is about the last word I would use to describe him. I do feel very strongly that the Highly Sensitive label fits us both, between the strong emotional reactions to so many things and the many sensory issues that both of us seem to suffer from. But it does make sense that the book would naturally be more geared toward dealing with the issues of the typical HSC, so I guess I shouldn't have expected it to answer all my questions.
It did point me in another direction -- emotional intelligence. I've read that EQ is supposed to be a more accurate indicator of how well a person will do in life than IQ. A couple of years ago, I took an online EQ quiz and scored incredibly low, which I thought was kind of funny, since the last time I checked, I wasn't a total loser and had in fact managed to do reasonably well in life. But I would definitely like to read up on the subject, especially with regard to raising a child to have high EQ, because I think that could really help Enthusio. So this morning I ordered a used copy of Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child by John Gottman on Amazon.
Along those same lines, I was really proud of Entusio this morning. I took him to day camp, and they are going on a field trip to a miniature golf/arcade type place today. This situation seemed fraught with opportunities for Enthusio to get upset, so I checked with the lady at the front desk to get a sense of what the fee I'd already paid was going to include and what he might need to spend his own money on, and I talked to him about how to handle some different situations that might come up, like not doing well at the mini-golfing since he's never done it before and that sort of thing. He seemed very prepared for it. I am starting to think he has actually grown up a lot this summer and that day camp has been good for him.
Anyhow, now I get to choose something else to read, and, as though I didn't already have about 100 books sitting on the shelf waiting to be read, last night I picked up 3 more (Borders had a buy 2, get the 3rd free deal): We Thought You Would Be Prettier by Laurie Notaro, a short, funny memoir-type thing; Bee Season by Myla Goldberg, about a girl placed in a class for slow learners who unexpectedly find success in a spelling bee, and Atonement by Ian McEwan. The book I recently read for one of my book clubs, The Reading Group, was not my favorite, but I was intrigued by some of the books the women in the book met to discuss, and Atonement was one of them. It looks kind of heavy, but the story sounds really good. I think I'm going to start with We Thought You Would Be Prettier -- it looks like one that will be easy to gobble down -- before I get to my other August book club selection, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a young adult book that I think will also be a quick one.
Maybe August will be my month for catching up on my total, although I am determined to deliberately choose quick books for that purpose. That feels like cheating.
I was really disappointed in The Highly Sensitive Child. I probably shouldn't have had such high expectations. I read the author's earlier book, The Hightly Sensitive Person, several years ago, and it was kind of a life-changing experience, in that it explained what had been "wrong" with me my whole life. I had always felt like things were so much harder for me to deal with than for anyone else. I knew that saying I was "shy" or "introverted" wasn't really the issue. I knew it wasn't just emotional sensitivity because it seemed physical too -- not being able to deal with extremes of temperature for any length of time, or uncomfortable clothing, or having volume too loud for TV or movies or music, or more than a little caffeine -- it all seemed to point at having a stupidly delicate nature. Turns out this is a trait I share with 20% of the population, more than the number with whom I share the trait of left-handedness. It was a huge relief to read this book that seemed to explain who I was, but at the same time, I knew that I hadn't ever fit the profile of the typical Highly Sensitive Child, who seems timid and hesitant -- by all reports, I was always a cheerful, open, friendly kid, from the time I was a baby. Enthusio has always been the same -- "shy" is about the last word I would use to describe him. I do feel very strongly that the Highly Sensitive label fits us both, between the strong emotional reactions to so many things and the many sensory issues that both of us seem to suffer from. But it does make sense that the book would naturally be more geared toward dealing with the issues of the typical HSC, so I guess I shouldn't have expected it to answer all my questions.
It did point me in another direction -- emotional intelligence. I've read that EQ is supposed to be a more accurate indicator of how well a person will do in life than IQ. A couple of years ago, I took an online EQ quiz and scored incredibly low, which I thought was kind of funny, since the last time I checked, I wasn't a total loser and had in fact managed to do reasonably well in life. But I would definitely like to read up on the subject, especially with regard to raising a child to have high EQ, because I think that could really help Enthusio. So this morning I ordered a used copy of Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child by John Gottman on Amazon.
Along those same lines, I was really proud of Entusio this morning. I took him to day camp, and they are going on a field trip to a miniature golf/arcade type place today. This situation seemed fraught with opportunities for Enthusio to get upset, so I checked with the lady at the front desk to get a sense of what the fee I'd already paid was going to include and what he might need to spend his own money on, and I talked to him about how to handle some different situations that might come up, like not doing well at the mini-golfing since he's never done it before and that sort of thing. He seemed very prepared for it. I am starting to think he has actually grown up a lot this summer and that day camp has been good for him.
Anyhow, now I get to choose something else to read, and, as though I didn't already have about 100 books sitting on the shelf waiting to be read, last night I picked up 3 more (Borders had a buy 2, get the 3rd free deal): We Thought You Would Be Prettier by Laurie Notaro, a short, funny memoir-type thing; Bee Season by Myla Goldberg, about a girl placed in a class for slow learners who unexpectedly find success in a spelling bee, and Atonement by Ian McEwan. The book I recently read for one of my book clubs, The Reading Group, was not my favorite, but I was intrigued by some of the books the women in the book met to discuss, and Atonement was one of them. It looks kind of heavy, but the story sounds really good. I think I'm going to start with We Thought You Would Be Prettier -- it looks like one that will be easy to gobble down -- before I get to my other August book club selection, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a young adult book that I think will also be a quick one.
Maybe August will be my month for catching up on my total, although I am determined to deliberately choose quick books for that purpose. That feels like cheating.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Back before Mermaid was born, I used to think I would have normal kids. Girls -- I thought I would have two girls, with stick straight hair like I had as a kid, that they would wear in little short bobs, like I had. I didn't really think about who they would be, just that they would be, you know, normal.
When Mermaid was preschool age, I got myself pretty convinced that I, personally, was not capable of producing a "normal" child. I loved Mermaid, of course I did, but she wasn't "normal" -- she had an as-of-then-not-identified disability. She might be "normal someday, she might not. We didn't know. It might be a genetic thing, it might not. We didn't know that either. I didn't let myself think about it very much and convinced Reasonable Man that if we were going to have another baby, we needed to do it soon. When I was pregnant with Enthusio, we found out that what made Mermaid not "normal" had a name: autism. I still didn't let myself worry about Enthusio until other babies his same age that I knew of were starting to use some signs or words. Then I was in a quiet panic for nearly two years, waiting for him to start really talking. He did -- but not before I'd had his speech evaluated and begun the process of getting speech services for him started. The following year was one long, figurative sigh of relief. He was "normal."
Nowadays, I don't necessarily believe there is any such thing as a normal kid. From the time Enthusio was a baby, I've tried to keep my emotional reliance on him being my "normal" kid in check. That's not fair to him. He's a child too -- he has as much right to bad days and all of that as Mermaid does -- as any kid does. Still, there was no way for me to foresee the way things have developed over time. Mermaid is lacking in social skills as a result of her disability, and sometimes her inability to empathize with other people scares me a little. She still has bad days -- terrible ones, in fact, where she'll argue that the sky isn't blue just to keep arguing. She also has the emotional skin of a rhinocerous. If she tries something new and she doesn't like it -- fine, she stops doing it and she lets it go. If someone isn't nice to her, whatever -- she avoids that person in the future. She is confident and independent and she knows what she wants. She knows exactly who she is and is happy with that person -- and she doesn't care what anyone else thinks.
These are wonderful qualities to observe in my child, especially after how much I worried about her when she was younger. Seeing the self-possessed individual she's developed into has helped me relax about her quite a bit, even though I know we still have a tough slog ahead in the teen years.
At the same time, over the past few years I've started worrying about Enthusio a lot more. He's a great kid -- sweet, loving, smart, open, enthusiastic, the proverbial light of my life. He is also almost completely unable to deal with frustration. He falls apart and cries when he's feeling hurt, angry, or wronged in any way, however slight. He gets picked on at school or whenever he's in groups of kids his own age, and he seems to have problems making friends with other boys.
This is hard for me for a couple of different reasons. One is that the ways I'm discovering he isn't "normal" are the same ways that I wasn't "normal" when I was a growing up. Hearing about what he is experiencing is a lot like reliving the worst parts of my own childhood. The other is that, after absorbing the blow of Mermaids disability and weathering all the difficulties of her early years, I think I had myself convinced, not that Enthusio would never have any problems, but that any problems he might have would be a piece of cake. And instead, the things coming up for him are not only exceptionally painful for me personally, but I find myself facing them without the help of a team of specialists I had to help me with Mermaid.
I seem to get myself good and worked up about this for a day or two every few months. This past Friday was one such day. This summer, as you know, Enthusio has been going to day camp. I hadn't really gotten the impression he was liking it all that much. When I go find him on the playground at the end of the day, he's usually by himself, or just on the edge of a group of boys who don't quite seem to be including him, and when I ask him if he's making friends, he doesn't really answer. We've heard about a boy named David who's been mean to him. He just seems somber and not himself when he gets home. Still, when I asked him if he wanted to continue for an extra two weeks, he said yes. So after puzzling over this for a few days, I started stressing and got out my copy of the The Highly Sensitive Child.
A few days perspective are telling me that I'm probably overreacting a bit. Enthusio is not a lost cause, and if I keep talking to him, reading, and going with my gut, who is better qualified than I am to help him grow up happy and healthy? I just need to remember that this parenting thing is going to keep throwing me curve balls, no matter what. Surely I've never been stupid enough to think I had it all figured out?
When Mermaid was preschool age, I got myself pretty convinced that I, personally, was not capable of producing a "normal" child. I loved Mermaid, of course I did, but she wasn't "normal" -- she had an as-of-then-not-identified disability. She might be "normal someday, she might not. We didn't know. It might be a genetic thing, it might not. We didn't know that either. I didn't let myself think about it very much and convinced Reasonable Man that if we were going to have another baby, we needed to do it soon. When I was pregnant with Enthusio, we found out that what made Mermaid not "normal" had a name: autism. I still didn't let myself worry about Enthusio until other babies his same age that I knew of were starting to use some signs or words. Then I was in a quiet panic for nearly two years, waiting for him to start really talking. He did -- but not before I'd had his speech evaluated and begun the process of getting speech services for him started. The following year was one long, figurative sigh of relief. He was "normal."
Nowadays, I don't necessarily believe there is any such thing as a normal kid. From the time Enthusio was a baby, I've tried to keep my emotional reliance on him being my "normal" kid in check. That's not fair to him. He's a child too -- he has as much right to bad days and all of that as Mermaid does -- as any kid does. Still, there was no way for me to foresee the way things have developed over time. Mermaid is lacking in social skills as a result of her disability, and sometimes her inability to empathize with other people scares me a little. She still has bad days -- terrible ones, in fact, where she'll argue that the sky isn't blue just to keep arguing. She also has the emotional skin of a rhinocerous. If she tries something new and she doesn't like it -- fine, she stops doing it and she lets it go. If someone isn't nice to her, whatever -- she avoids that person in the future. She is confident and independent and she knows what she wants. She knows exactly who she is and is happy with that person -- and she doesn't care what anyone else thinks.
These are wonderful qualities to observe in my child, especially after how much I worried about her when she was younger. Seeing the self-possessed individual she's developed into has helped me relax about her quite a bit, even though I know we still have a tough slog ahead in the teen years.
At the same time, over the past few years I've started worrying about Enthusio a lot more. He's a great kid -- sweet, loving, smart, open, enthusiastic, the proverbial light of my life. He is also almost completely unable to deal with frustration. He falls apart and cries when he's feeling hurt, angry, or wronged in any way, however slight. He gets picked on at school or whenever he's in groups of kids his own age, and he seems to have problems making friends with other boys.
This is hard for me for a couple of different reasons. One is that the ways I'm discovering he isn't "normal" are the same ways that I wasn't "normal" when I was a growing up. Hearing about what he is experiencing is a lot like reliving the worst parts of my own childhood. The other is that, after absorbing the blow of Mermaids disability and weathering all the difficulties of her early years, I think I had myself convinced, not that Enthusio would never have any problems, but that any problems he might have would be a piece of cake. And instead, the things coming up for him are not only exceptionally painful for me personally, but I find myself facing them without the help of a team of specialists I had to help me with Mermaid.
I seem to get myself good and worked up about this for a day or two every few months. This past Friday was one such day. This summer, as you know, Enthusio has been going to day camp. I hadn't really gotten the impression he was liking it all that much. When I go find him on the playground at the end of the day, he's usually by himself, or just on the edge of a group of boys who don't quite seem to be including him, and when I ask him if he's making friends, he doesn't really answer. We've heard about a boy named David who's been mean to him. He just seems somber and not himself when he gets home. Still, when I asked him if he wanted to continue for an extra two weeks, he said yes. So after puzzling over this for a few days, I started stressing and got out my copy of the The Highly Sensitive Child.
A few days perspective are telling me that I'm probably overreacting a bit. Enthusio is not a lost cause, and if I keep talking to him, reading, and going with my gut, who is better qualified than I am to help him grow up happy and healthy? I just need to remember that this parenting thing is going to keep throwing me curve balls, no matter what. Surely I've never been stupid enough to think I had it all figured out?
I've had some comments about not updating the old blog for a while. Here are my excuses:
1) I've been letting myself fall into that pattern of dreaming up long elaborate posts that I start and then don't finish. I know this is an issue for me and I try not to do it. So by the end of the day I resolve to finish both of the posts I've had sitting in the draft folder for the last few days.
2)I actually spent about 40 minutes finishing one of these posts this morning and then Blogger crapped out on me and lost what I'd written. Hmph.
I'm working on it...
1) I've been letting myself fall into that pattern of dreaming up long elaborate posts that I start and then don't finish. I know this is an issue for me and I try not to do it. So by the end of the day I resolve to finish both of the posts I've had sitting in the draft folder for the last few days.
2)I actually spent about 40 minutes finishing one of these posts this morning and then Blogger crapped out on me and lost what I'd written. Hmph.
I'm working on it...
Monday, July 25, 2005
50 Book Challenge: Harry Potter & Other Stuff
Okay, there's just no way I'm going to hit 50 books by the end of the year. Silly me, I thought I'd catch up during the summer. Turns out, this is the busiest summer of my life! Not only are there the many pre-wedding festivities of BLB and the Bride to enjoy, but I don't know what I was thinking, signing the kids up for so many activities. Day camp for Enthusio is great except for the fact that last night I realized I'd barely seen him in the last few weeks :-( Having him there is convenient but has hardly cut down on my driving -- between Mermaid's participation in swim team (daily practice plus bi-weekly swim-meets) and the DAC production of "The Wizard of Oz" (rehearsal twice a week has understandably increased to much more than that as the performances -- tonight and tomorrow night -- have approached), putting me in the car almost constantly. Pre-wedding festivities (last weekend, as you know, was the bachelorette cruise; this past weekend was the bridal shower, and a fine time it was!) are plentiful, and Saturday was a swim-meet in the morning, for which my parents came up, and then we went to lunch with them and to the pool.
So reading time has been limited, and I started out my summer with two long and somewhat difficult books: Children of God and Under the Banner of Heaven. Both very good, but not what you'd call light summer reading. Thus, instead of speeding through some frothy literary fun and adding to my list as I'd hoped, I've barely added a book title every couple of weeks.
My schedule did not prevent me, I am happy to say, from devouring the latest adventures of Harry Potter in two days. My assessment, unfortunately, is not good. In short, I thought the book was a major bummer. I'm not going to give away any crucial information at this point (unless my opinion is a spoiler for anyone, in which case, my apologies :-/), but I'll say this -- I can understand why things are set up the way they are to go into the final chapter of the series, but I still think it sucks. Also, I was disappointed in the way Harry's character was written. After the brilliantly-rendered sulkiness of a 15-year-old boy in book 5, I feel the author took a real step backward. In book 6, Harry is once again wide-eyed and bewildered -- there is little of the anger that we saw in book 5 and in my opinion, it should have, if anything, increased after the death of his guardian, Sirius Black, at the end of that chapter. In any case -- I am looking forward to an amazing 7th and final book, hopefully with a satisfying answer to any question you could possibly think to ask about the universe J.K. Rowling has created. I am still in awe of her talent, despite my feelings about book 6 and my very strong opinion that she could use some more forceful editing ("Too many adverbs!" she cried vehemently.)
Not everyone will share my opinion, of course, and if you want to read a detailed argument of why book 6 had to turn out the way it did, check out The Webbed Toe Yes, my husband, Reasonable Man, has joined the world of blog-writing. He twisted his ankle badly in a softball game this past week, which was his week off, and I knew he was bored, but I didn't know how bored until he told me he'd started a blog. He probably won't update it very often, if I know him, but his first real entry (after a brief introductory one) is pretty good. Don't read it if you don't want to know what happens in the new Harry Potter book though.
As for me -- I haven't decided what my next reading selection will be, but I'm thinking about the piece of chick-lit fluff currently sitting on my shelf...
So reading time has been limited, and I started out my summer with two long and somewhat difficult books: Children of God and Under the Banner of Heaven. Both very good, but not what you'd call light summer reading. Thus, instead of speeding through some frothy literary fun and adding to my list as I'd hoped, I've barely added a book title every couple of weeks.
My schedule did not prevent me, I am happy to say, from devouring the latest adventures of Harry Potter in two days. My assessment, unfortunately, is not good. In short, I thought the book was a major bummer. I'm not going to give away any crucial information at this point (unless my opinion is a spoiler for anyone, in which case, my apologies :-/), but I'll say this -- I can understand why things are set up the way they are to go into the final chapter of the series, but I still think it sucks. Also, I was disappointed in the way Harry's character was written. After the brilliantly-rendered sulkiness of a 15-year-old boy in book 5, I feel the author took a real step backward. In book 6, Harry is once again wide-eyed and bewildered -- there is little of the anger that we saw in book 5 and in my opinion, it should have, if anything, increased after the death of his guardian, Sirius Black, at the end of that chapter. In any case -- I am looking forward to an amazing 7th and final book, hopefully with a satisfying answer to any question you could possibly think to ask about the universe J.K. Rowling has created. I am still in awe of her talent, despite my feelings about book 6 and my very strong opinion that she could use some more forceful editing ("Too many adverbs!" she cried vehemently.)
Not everyone will share my opinion, of course, and if you want to read a detailed argument of why book 6 had to turn out the way it did, check out The Webbed Toe Yes, my husband, Reasonable Man, has joined the world of blog-writing. He twisted his ankle badly in a softball game this past week, which was his week off, and I knew he was bored, but I didn't know how bored until he told me he'd started a blog. He probably won't update it very often, if I know him, but his first real entry (after a brief introductory one) is pretty good. Don't read it if you don't want to know what happens in the new Harry Potter book though.
As for me -- I haven't decided what my next reading selection will be, but I'm thinking about the piece of chick-lit fluff currently sitting on my shelf...
Friday, July 22, 2005
Reasons I Haven't Been Online Much the Last Few Days:
1. I'm having the busiest summer of my life
2. Bridal shower on Sunday. The game I'm in charge of is AWESOME. (One of the other bridesmaids would rip me a new one if she knew I had revealed so much as the fact that there will be games at this shower in a place where the Bride would read it, but to her I say PHTHPBTTT!!!!)
3. Um, hello? Ever heard of this whole Harry Potter deal? You think I have time to post in my blog when there's 652 new pages of Harry to be read AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE?
2. Bridal shower on Sunday. The game I'm in charge of is AWESOME. (One of the other bridesmaids would rip me a new one if she knew I had revealed so much as the fact that there will be games at this shower in a place where the Bride would read it, but to her I say PHTHPBTTT!!!!)
3. Um, hello? Ever heard of this whole Harry Potter deal? You think I have time to post in my blog when there's 652 new pages of Harry to be read AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE?
Random thoughts about the bachelorette cruise before I forget them
1. Things I found out about Big Little Brother's fiancee, the Bride:
- she is a wild woman and does not shy away from attention
- she could probably out-cuss a sailor
- she is even more awesome than I thought she was before!
2. Some of the Bride's friends told me I reminded them of BLB. I took that as a major compliment.
3. I get no pleasure out of being completely blitzed, and I don't think I ever have. For one thing, whether I realize it at the time or not, I have never gotten absolutely, out-of-my-mind blotto without barfing. For another, as soon as I realize how drunk I am, the voice of reason is right there going "Stop drinking immediately. Get yourself some water. Sit down. Make sure someone knows where you are, etc." The only thing I want in that situation is to sober up immediately. And the next morning I remember it all in excruciating detail. Just once in my life, I'd really like to be that chick standing on a table, waving my bra around over my head screaming "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" and then wake up in the morning not remembering any of it. Is that so much to ask?
4. I missed Topless Titanic. Total bummer.
5. At the flea market near La Bufadora outside Ensenada, I laughed as I pointed out a tee shirt to the Bride. Emblazoned across the front of it: "Fuck You, You Fucking Fuck." A few minutes later, one of our cabin-mates, an excellent chick from Sacramento, came up to us, waving a tee shirt and going "look what I bought!" She said she probably wouldn't wear it out in public though.
6. The only people I've ever noticed wearing nautical/sailor-type clothes on a cruise were the people working the infirmary. Funny -- I never noticed the doctor on "The Love Boat" dressing like that.
7. At the Papas and Beers bar in Ensenada, I was hit on more aggressively than I have been in years by an extremely creepy Mexican man. To clarify -- he was not creepy because he was Mexican -- he was a creepy many who happened to be Mexican. Anyway, he came up to me, whispered "why are you so pretty?" and gave me some gum. WTF? A little while later, while scouting out a more comfortable spot for our group out on the deck, I inadvertently walked right up to him and subjected myself to his attentions again. Yeccchhh.
8. On the other cruises I've taken, I was always intrigued by the idea of having my hair braided in a cornrows-and-beads fashion like a lot of girls who have it done in Mexico, so this time I decided to go for it. I'd always suspected I was little old to be able to pull it off, and I was right -- I paid a couple of women $10 to do it in Ensenada, and it looked like ass. But since we had a bit of a hairdryer situation back on the ship (11 women and only one of us brought one), I decided to keep the braids that evening for formal night, as it made my hair pretty low-maintenance. In light of how ill I was for much of the rest of the cruise, this turned out to be a wise move.
9. Speaking of 11 women -- I've never travelled in a large group of women before, and it was fun if fraught with politics. Fortunately none of them really involved me, and while I caught wind of tension here and there, none of it really bothered me. Consdering the wide range of ages and personalities amongst the 11 of us, I think on the whole it went rather well. And most importantly, the Bride seemed to have a kick-ass time :-)
I guess that's it for now....
- she is a wild woman and does not shy away from attention
- she could probably out-cuss a sailor
- she is even more awesome than I thought she was before!
2. Some of the Bride's friends told me I reminded them of BLB. I took that as a major compliment.
3. I get no pleasure out of being completely blitzed, and I don't think I ever have. For one thing, whether I realize it at the time or not, I have never gotten absolutely, out-of-my-mind blotto without barfing. For another, as soon as I realize how drunk I am, the voice of reason is right there going "Stop drinking immediately. Get yourself some water. Sit down. Make sure someone knows where you are, etc." The only thing I want in that situation is to sober up immediately. And the next morning I remember it all in excruciating detail. Just once in my life, I'd really like to be that chick standing on a table, waving my bra around over my head screaming "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" and then wake up in the morning not remembering any of it. Is that so much to ask?
4. I missed Topless Titanic. Total bummer.
5. At the flea market near La Bufadora outside Ensenada, I laughed as I pointed out a tee shirt to the Bride. Emblazoned across the front of it: "Fuck You, You Fucking Fuck." A few minutes later, one of our cabin-mates, an excellent chick from Sacramento, came up to us, waving a tee shirt and going "look what I bought!" She said she probably wouldn't wear it out in public though.
6. The only people I've ever noticed wearing nautical/sailor-type clothes on a cruise were the people working the infirmary. Funny -- I never noticed the doctor on "The Love Boat" dressing like that.
7. At the Papas and Beers bar in Ensenada, I was hit on more aggressively than I have been in years by an extremely creepy Mexican man. To clarify -- he was not creepy because he was Mexican -- he was a creepy many who happened to be Mexican. Anyway, he came up to me, whispered "why are you so pretty?" and gave me some gum. WTF? A little while later, while scouting out a more comfortable spot for our group out on the deck, I inadvertently walked right up to him and subjected myself to his attentions again. Yeccchhh.
8. On the other cruises I've taken, I was always intrigued by the idea of having my hair braided in a cornrows-and-beads fashion like a lot of girls who have it done in Mexico, so this time I decided to go for it. I'd always suspected I was little old to be able to pull it off, and I was right -- I paid a couple of women $10 to do it in Ensenada, and it looked like ass. But since we had a bit of a hairdryer situation back on the ship (11 women and only one of us brought one), I decided to keep the braids that evening for formal night, as it made my hair pretty low-maintenance. In light of how ill I was for much of the rest of the cruise, this turned out to be a wise move.
9. Speaking of 11 women -- I've never travelled in a large group of women before, and it was fun if fraught with politics. Fortunately none of them really involved me, and while I caught wind of tension here and there, none of it really bothered me. Consdering the wide range of ages and personalities amongst the 11 of us, I think on the whole it went rather well. And most importantly, the Bride seemed to have a kick-ass time :-)
I guess that's it for now....
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Last night, after I'd unpacked and told Reasonable Man about my weekend of wild, drunken fun/misery, he laughed and said "you have this wild streak in you, but it only comes out when I'm not around to see it!" And he's kind of right. I have been living a delayed adolescence in the past few years (when I'm not carpooling, helping with homework, and fixing PB&J, that is), but I think part of that has to do with all the awesome chicks I've become friends with in that time, and all the fun times I've had with them. There is something about being out in a group of girls that kind of unleashes the wild streak in me, I guess.
Official Cruise Degenerate!
On the first day of the Bachelorette Cruise, I was so tired from having gotten up at 4 am to go to the airport that I found myself a lounge chair and a patch of shade on the pool deck, sucked down the last of my fruity frou-frou cruise drink, curled up on my side, and fell into a deep sleep. Sometime later, cruise employees became concerned about me and some of the girls in my party group had to let them know that I was just tired, not passed out from too much drinking.
On the second day of the Bachelorette Cruise, I actually did have far too much to drink, staggered around for a while, tried to fall asleep in a window seat outside the club where my party group was dancing, yakked all over the floor, and had to be taken back to my cabin in a wheel chair.
On the third day of the Bachelorette Cruise, I was so violently ill from the activities of the previous evening that I had to be wheeled down to the infirmary to get an injection to make me stop tossing my cookies. Though the doctor I saw agreed with my hypothesis that my condition was due to the debauchery of the night before, I was informed that on the off chance I had something contagious, I needed to stay in my cabin for the remainder of the cruise. Several hours later, feeling better and emboldened by my newly rediscovered ability to digest food, I busted out of my quarentine room and went to see the midnight comedy show with my party group.
I don't think I need anymore qualifications to declare myself the official Bachelorette Cruise Degenerate. Thank you, thank you -- it's great to be a winner.
On the second day of the Bachelorette Cruise, I actually did have far too much to drink, staggered around for a while, tried to fall asleep in a window seat outside the club where my party group was dancing, yakked all over the floor, and had to be taken back to my cabin in a wheel chair.
On the third day of the Bachelorette Cruise, I was so violently ill from the activities of the previous evening that I had to be wheeled down to the infirmary to get an injection to make me stop tossing my cookies. Though the doctor I saw agreed with my hypothesis that my condition was due to the debauchery of the night before, I was informed that on the off chance I had something contagious, I needed to stay in my cabin for the remainder of the cruise. Several hours later, feeling better and emboldened by my newly rediscovered ability to digest food, I busted out of my quarentine room and went to see the midnight comedy show with my party group.
I don't think I need anymore qualifications to declare myself the official Bachelorette Cruise Degenerate. Thank you, thank you -- it's great to be a winner.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
50 Book Challenge: Trudging Along
I posted recently that if I read 4 more books in the space of about a week, I'd be on pace to finish reading my 50 books by the end of the year. I then took another couple of weeks to finish the book I was currently reading, Children of God, Mary Doria Russell's sequel to her well-regarded sci-fi novel The Sparrow, which I read around the beginning of the year. It took me a while to get through The Sparrow as well, so it didn't surprise me that its sequel was a long haul. I'm not really a big sci-fi reader, especially if there's a lot of sci mixed in with the fi.
Generally, I enjoyed Children of God, and I would recommend it to anyone who has read The Sparrow and wants to know what happened to the surviving characters. But I am struggling with the question of whether maybe, just maybe, Russell overplayed her hand. Her first novel takes place over the course of approximately 6 years in the life of the main characters (more time passes due to the fact that the main character spends time travelling at light speed) who travel to a distant planet to make contact with a civilization that was detected there, ending with shocking revelations about how the mission went terribly wrong. The sequel takes place over the next 40 or 50 years and answers pretty much every question about every character. It was an interesting, well-written read, and at the same time, I have to wonder if it was necessary. Interesting question.
Now I'm back to my regular stomping grounds of true crime -- I'm a third of the way through Under the Banner of Heaven, the story of murder in a family of Mormon Fundamentalists by Jon Krakauer. So far, good stuff!
Generally, I enjoyed Children of God, and I would recommend it to anyone who has read The Sparrow and wants to know what happened to the surviving characters. But I am struggling with the question of whether maybe, just maybe, Russell overplayed her hand. Her first novel takes place over the course of approximately 6 years in the life of the main characters (more time passes due to the fact that the main character spends time travelling at light speed) who travel to a distant planet to make contact with a civilization that was detected there, ending with shocking revelations about how the mission went terribly wrong. The sequel takes place over the next 40 or 50 years and answers pretty much every question about every character. It was an interesting, well-written read, and at the same time, I have to wonder if it was necessary. Interesting question.
Now I'm back to my regular stomping grounds of true crime -- I'm a third of the way through Under the Banner of Heaven, the story of murder in a family of Mormon Fundamentalists by Jon Krakauer. So far, good stuff!
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
0 for 2
Yesterday I had the unsettling experience of arriving to pick up each of my children at their respective activities and discovering that each of them were distraught and sobbing. This is not a situation any parent enjoys encountering once on any given day, but twice was really too much.
I went to pick up Enthusio at day camp after dropping Mermaid off at play practice and running some errands. The core program at day camp ends at 4 pm, but you can pick them up any time up till 6:30, since it also functions as daycare. Mermaid's play practice starts at 4 pm, and over the past week, Enthusio has demonstrated that he is happy to hang out and play for a while after 4 pm snack time. Also, he's tired when I pick him up, and yesterday was particularly hot, so I assumed he'd prefer to go right home when I picked him up rather than have to go to the store with me. So I went to Rite Aid and Safeway and had a coffee before I got him. Thus, it was close to 5 by the time I went to pick him up.
I went out to the playground where the kids usually are when I pick him up, only to discover no one was out there. That was fine -- it was HOT and I didn't blame the kids for not wanting to be out there. I'd noticed some kids playing in a classroom as I'd passed through the school, so I assumed they were all doing inside activities. I stuck my head into a few different classrooms and he wasn't in any of them, so I headed for Enthusio's "Bunk". I could see as I was going down the hall that the light wasn't one in his classroom, but I figured I could at least go in there and grab his stuff so we wouldn't have to go back there once I found him. I opened the door to the dark classroom -- and found my son, running around and crying. His face had that really dirty, swollen look he gets when he's been crying a long time, and he ran over to me and hugged me. As we gathered up his things, he told me he didn't know where his group had gone or where he was supposed to be, and he'd been by himself crying in that classroom a long time.
Now, on the one hand -- the front desk and the camp office were right down the hall and all he'd have had to do was go out there and ask whomever was there to help him figure out where he was supposed to be. So we went down to the desk and I explained what had happened and in a very non-blaming kind of way explained to Enthusio in the girl at the front desk's presence that the adults at day camp are there to help him and he needs to ask for help if he's lost and no one wants him to sit in a classroom by himself crying if he doesn't know where to go. The girl at the desk agreed with me and told him it made her sad to know he'd been so upset. So now he knows what do to in that situation, and he calmed right down and was fine by the time we got in the car to go home.
On the other hand, it does bother me that no one noticed he was missing for however long (half an hour?). They make a big deal of the fact that you can't just drop off your kid or pick them up out front -- you have to walk them in and sign them in, then come in and sign them out at the end of the day. But when I go to pick him up, I just go out to the playground and get him, we get his things from his classrooms, and I sign him out -- usually without anyone taking any particular notice. I'm not worried about some stranger coming in and trying to take him, but it does strike me that the kids in the program are not especially well-accounted for after program hours, and that doesn't thrill me. I'm going back and forth about whether I want to talk to someone there about what happened yesterday or just keep reiterating to Enthusio that if he's ever unsure about where he's supposed to be or who is in charge at any given time, he needs to speak up and ask.
After Reasonable Man got home, I left Enthusio with him and went over to the Davis Art Center to pick up Mermaid. There was a short parents' meeting scheduled for after practice so I was planning to stay for that. When I arrived, the cast was working in a classroom with the door closed, but after I sat down to wait, the director emerged with Mermaid behind her, in tears. I immediately assumed it had to do with the time -- she gets pretty worked up when she doesn't get out of class right at the appointed time and that sort of thing -- but then she said she had a headache. Her director seemed very concerned, which was comforting after the whole day camp thing, and I gave Mermaid a Tylenol since she said her stomach wasn't bothering her yet (she threw up as soon as we got home). So that pretty much sucked. Mermaid often gets headaches when it's really hot, and I don't know if she had enough fluids during the day yesterday, so I'm really encouraging her to drink a lot today.
Both kids are fine today. Mermaid is still excited about doing her play and Enthusio was happy to go to day camp. But it made me feel bad. As I've mentioned before, I don't feel much in the way of guilt about putting my kids in the care of others. I know it's good for them to get out and be involved in activities with other kids. But this summer seems different, I guess because I've got them both so busy. I've never wanted to turn into one of those parents who over-schedules their kids in a zillion different things, and I've been careful to take each of their personalities into account when we picked their activities. An hour of swim practice a day, or that plus play practice a couple times a week, is plenty of activity for Mermaid -- she needs lots of down-time -- while Enthusio needs to keep busier or he gets bored and rambunctious. Nevertheless, I do feel the guilt really kicking in when I start to feel like they are unhappy or overwhelmed in their activities, much more so than I ever get when they are home -- which is pretty ironic when you think about it.
I went to pick up Enthusio at day camp after dropping Mermaid off at play practice and running some errands. The core program at day camp ends at 4 pm, but you can pick them up any time up till 6:30, since it also functions as daycare. Mermaid's play practice starts at 4 pm, and over the past week, Enthusio has demonstrated that he is happy to hang out and play for a while after 4 pm snack time. Also, he's tired when I pick him up, and yesterday was particularly hot, so I assumed he'd prefer to go right home when I picked him up rather than have to go to the store with me. So I went to Rite Aid and Safeway and had a coffee before I got him. Thus, it was close to 5 by the time I went to pick him up.
I went out to the playground where the kids usually are when I pick him up, only to discover no one was out there. That was fine -- it was HOT and I didn't blame the kids for not wanting to be out there. I'd noticed some kids playing in a classroom as I'd passed through the school, so I assumed they were all doing inside activities. I stuck my head into a few different classrooms and he wasn't in any of them, so I headed for Enthusio's "Bunk". I could see as I was going down the hall that the light wasn't one in his classroom, but I figured I could at least go in there and grab his stuff so we wouldn't have to go back there once I found him. I opened the door to the dark classroom -- and found my son, running around and crying. His face had that really dirty, swollen look he gets when he's been crying a long time, and he ran over to me and hugged me. As we gathered up his things, he told me he didn't know where his group had gone or where he was supposed to be, and he'd been by himself crying in that classroom a long time.
Now, on the one hand -- the front desk and the camp office were right down the hall and all he'd have had to do was go out there and ask whomever was there to help him figure out where he was supposed to be. So we went down to the desk and I explained what had happened and in a very non-blaming kind of way explained to Enthusio in the girl at the front desk's presence that the adults at day camp are there to help him and he needs to ask for help if he's lost and no one wants him to sit in a classroom by himself crying if he doesn't know where to go. The girl at the desk agreed with me and told him it made her sad to know he'd been so upset. So now he knows what do to in that situation, and he calmed right down and was fine by the time we got in the car to go home.
On the other hand, it does bother me that no one noticed he was missing for however long (half an hour?). They make a big deal of the fact that you can't just drop off your kid or pick them up out front -- you have to walk them in and sign them in, then come in and sign them out at the end of the day. But when I go to pick him up, I just go out to the playground and get him, we get his things from his classrooms, and I sign him out -- usually without anyone taking any particular notice. I'm not worried about some stranger coming in and trying to take him, but it does strike me that the kids in the program are not especially well-accounted for after program hours, and that doesn't thrill me. I'm going back and forth about whether I want to talk to someone there about what happened yesterday or just keep reiterating to Enthusio that if he's ever unsure about where he's supposed to be or who is in charge at any given time, he needs to speak up and ask.
After Reasonable Man got home, I left Enthusio with him and went over to the Davis Art Center to pick up Mermaid. There was a short parents' meeting scheduled for after practice so I was planning to stay for that. When I arrived, the cast was working in a classroom with the door closed, but after I sat down to wait, the director emerged with Mermaid behind her, in tears. I immediately assumed it had to do with the time -- she gets pretty worked up when she doesn't get out of class right at the appointed time and that sort of thing -- but then she said she had a headache. Her director seemed very concerned, which was comforting after the whole day camp thing, and I gave Mermaid a Tylenol since she said her stomach wasn't bothering her yet (she threw up as soon as we got home). So that pretty much sucked. Mermaid often gets headaches when it's really hot, and I don't know if she had enough fluids during the day yesterday, so I'm really encouraging her to drink a lot today.
Both kids are fine today. Mermaid is still excited about doing her play and Enthusio was happy to go to day camp. But it made me feel bad. As I've mentioned before, I don't feel much in the way of guilt about putting my kids in the care of others. I know it's good for them to get out and be involved in activities with other kids. But this summer seems different, I guess because I've got them both so busy. I've never wanted to turn into one of those parents who over-schedules their kids in a zillion different things, and I've been careful to take each of their personalities into account when we picked their activities. An hour of swim practice a day, or that plus play practice a couple times a week, is plenty of activity for Mermaid -- she needs lots of down-time -- while Enthusio needs to keep busier or he gets bored and rambunctious. Nevertheless, I do feel the guilt really kicking in when I start to feel like they are unhappy or overwhelmed in their activities, much more so than I ever get when they are home -- which is pretty ironic when you think about it.
I Made It...
... to my exercise class. Now it's five minutes before 10 a.m. and Yahoo Weather says the current temperature is 77 degrees outside, but that's bullshit. We are going to COOK here in Davis today. But that's okay because other than dropping Mermaid off at swim practice and then picking her up an hour later, I don't have much reason to leave the confines of my air-conditioned house.
I Had a Plan
I had a plan, this morning, to get up at a reasonable hour (7:15), get on my workout clothes, fix breakfast for the kids and me, make Enthusio's lunch for day camp, drop him off, and take Mermaid with me to the gym so I could take the stability ball class at 8:30. This seemed like an even better idea than before when my clock radio turned on for the second time (I hit the snooze) and the guy on the radio announced that it was already 75 degrees out and it was going to be a hot one. Even more reason to get my workout done early. I arose, dressed, put in my contacts, and came downstairs, where I fixed myself some breakfast and drank a diet soda.
Thirty minutes later, I'm down here and ready to go. The children, however, are still upstairs sleeping.
If you have kids, you know that sleeping in is not a taste that, once acquired, you want to discourage in them. Weekends and vacations become a lot more pleasant once your children stop wanting to arise at the buttcrack of dawn, no? So, even though it's only one morning, I am loathe to go up there and mess with them. KWIM?
Nevertheless, I'm proud of myself for getting up when I said I would.
Hark! I hear a stirring from above...
Thirty minutes later, I'm down here and ready to go. The children, however, are still upstairs sleeping.
If you have kids, you know that sleeping in is not a taste that, once acquired, you want to discourage in them. Weekends and vacations become a lot more pleasant once your children stop wanting to arise at the buttcrack of dawn, no? So, even though it's only one morning, I am loathe to go up there and mess with them. KWIM?
Nevertheless, I'm proud of myself for getting up when I said I would.
Hark! I hear a stirring from above...
Monday, July 11, 2005
Busy weekend
This past Thursday was the 60th birthday of my dad. And his twin brother, my uncle Clark. Here they are at my wedding 13 years ago -- aren't they cute?
My dad is on the right. He's wearing a tuxedo and my uncle Clark was wearing a funky outfit with one of his cool vests and they swapped accessories. See? How cute is that?
(BTW, don't ask me who that asshole posing in the lower right hand corner of the picture is. I have no idea and I don't know who invited him either.)
Anyway, we headed down to my parents' house on Friday night to celebrate the big event, and a good time was had by all. My dad followed his usual celebratory path of drinking several glasses of wine, telling me he loved me about 18 times, telling me how much he's looking forward to going camping with the kids and me next week about 25 times, offering to draw up plans for construction project we're planning to create a breezeway between our house and our garage, which he claimed will be "sexy," and spilling red wine on the white carpet, which has been a specialty of his for years. None of which I'm complaining about, because my dad totally rules. Rock on, Dad! My uncle Clark doesn't like to be fussed over but he seemed to have a good time too. It was a fun evening, capped by watching the jazz dance from Will's Winnie-the-Pooh play and both kids' performances from the talent show on video -- and then we headed home. We were all in bed by 11:30 that night.
Unfortunately, we had to be up early the next morning, as Rachel had a swim meet at 8 a.m. I think it was because they concentrating on the butterfly stroke last week at her practices, but the races she chose were the 25 fly, the 25 breast, and the 50 fly. The 50 fly! Man, the one was tough. So few kids wanted to swim it that they only had one heat. Rachel enjoyed this meet as much as she had the first, despite finishing last in each of her events again. I'm trying hard to stay low-key about the whole thing, but I have to say, it would be nice to see her finish ahead of at least one kid in one race before the end of the summer. At least she doesn't care -- it would bum me out a lot if it bothered her. I can live with it bothering me a bit :-/
When we got home, Ryan was getting ready to go to the office. Actually, he sitting there working on the computer, just as he had been when I got up in the morning, and when when we got home, he worked some more and then had a quick lunch and then headed to the office. Didn't come home till about 9:30 that night :-/ He is remaining cheerful about how much he's had to work lately, mostly I think because the end is in sight. The brief he's been killing himself to get done gets shipped out Wednesday, and then he'll take Thursday to get his desk or order, so to speak, and then starting Friday, he's off for a little over a week. So that's good.
I spent the rest of Saturday doing laundry, balancing the checking account, shopping online, and enjoying the commercial-free rebroadcast of Live 8 on MTV. Actually, upon realizing they were going to show a number of acts I didn't care about sitting through, I watched the second half of "Moulin Rouge," which I'd started the day before (that movie rocks if you have seen it) and then went back and scanned through what I'd DVRed of Live 8. Highlights for me: well, obviously all the Beatles songs sung by Paul McCartney and others (George Michael coming out to join him on "Drive My Car" seemed like an odd choice, but I like George Michael so whatever); when the guy who I guess was the lead singer of The Verve came out during Coldplay's set and they did a long, very cool version of "Bittersweet Symphony"; and seeing Robbie Williams whip up the crowd in London. I love Robbie Williams, and I know he doesn't have a huge following here, but seriously -- that British crowd was loving them some Robbie Williams. Anyway, that was really cool! I'd barely taken notice of Live 8 leading up to it, but after hearing about it last week, I was sorry I'd missed it, and evidently MTV had taken a drubbing for cramming so many commercials into the live broadcast, so it ended up working out well for me at least that they rebroadcast it on a day when I didn't have a whole lot going on.
Shopping I did: I found shower curtains for our master bathroom, and I got Mermaid a new bathing suit and a swim robe (monogrammed with her name) from Land's End. The shower curtain is significant because our master bathroom is the very last room in the house that has been left unpainted, and I'm anxious to get it done and I'd picked a general color scheme but I wanted something a little more concrete than "these three colors" as a jumping-off point. The shower curtain I picked is fabric, and I was about to order it from one place where they were ~ $50 a piece (and I need two because our tub is extra long), which was hard to swallow for a shower curtain -- but then I looked around and found them for less than half that on another site! So yay, Bullock's Framing & Decorating! Anyway, once I get the shower curtains, I can use them to pick paint colors and maybe think about some accessories...
Yesterday, we took the kids out to breakfast (Ryan was feeling bad about having not seen them all day Saturday) and then a sitter came over, and we took off for San Francisco to see "Les Miserables" at 2 pm. That was pretty cool! I love seeing plays, and I especially love musicals, and this one was pretty amazing. I thought I only knew one song from it -- "On My Own," which Michelle Kwan skated to several years ago -- but I recognized a couple of others too. "On My Own" was still my favorite song, though, sung by what turned out to be my favorite character, Eponine, the doomed daughter of the sleazy innkeeper and his wife, in love with Marius, who loves Cosette. I thought Eponine was much cooler than Cosette, but she was kind of too cool for Marius too, and she was doomed and all, so I guess that was part of why I liked her.
Ryan and I were starving once the play was done around 5, so we walked around a bit and ended up at Morton's Steakhouse, a very upscale restaurant. They had this "verbal menu presentation," which means they bring out this cart with raw steaks, raw vegetables, and a live lobster with its claws taped up so it can't attack you, so they can show exactly what you can order. I could have done without that! The poor lobster tried crawl off the plate while he was sitting next to me, and I couldn't blame him, I have to say. Also, I was pretty relieved when the waiter handed us printed menus when he was done, because there was no way I was going to be able to remember everything he'd told us. I had filet mignon, and Ryan had some cut I can't remember, cooked cajun style, plus we shared an order of mashed potatoes, and then we shared a really amazing chocolate cake with Godiva chocolate sauce inside. Mmm! Very nice. We discussed the play and the characters and all through dinner and enjoyed ourselves. Had a nice nice drive home in the red machine, spent some time with the kids before we put them to bed, and then caught a new episode of "Six Feet Under."
All in all, a very nice weekend :-)
My dad is on the right. He's wearing a tuxedo and my uncle Clark was wearing a funky outfit with one of his cool vests and they swapped accessories. See? How cute is that?
(BTW, don't ask me who that asshole posing in the lower right hand corner of the picture is. I have no idea and I don't know who invited him either.)
Anyway, we headed down to my parents' house on Friday night to celebrate the big event, and a good time was had by all. My dad followed his usual celebratory path of drinking several glasses of wine, telling me he loved me about 18 times, telling me how much he's looking forward to going camping with the kids and me next week about 25 times, offering to draw up plans for construction project we're planning to create a breezeway between our house and our garage, which he claimed will be "sexy," and spilling red wine on the white carpet, which has been a specialty of his for years. None of which I'm complaining about, because my dad totally rules. Rock on, Dad! My uncle Clark doesn't like to be fussed over but he seemed to have a good time too. It was a fun evening, capped by watching the jazz dance from Will's Winnie-the-Pooh play and both kids' performances from the talent show on video -- and then we headed home. We were all in bed by 11:30 that night.
Unfortunately, we had to be up early the next morning, as Rachel had a swim meet at 8 a.m. I think it was because they concentrating on the butterfly stroke last week at her practices, but the races she chose were the 25 fly, the 25 breast, and the 50 fly. The 50 fly! Man, the one was tough. So few kids wanted to swim it that they only had one heat. Rachel enjoyed this meet as much as she had the first, despite finishing last in each of her events again. I'm trying hard to stay low-key about the whole thing, but I have to say, it would be nice to see her finish ahead of at least one kid in one race before the end of the summer. At least she doesn't care -- it would bum me out a lot if it bothered her. I can live with it bothering me a bit :-/
When we got home, Ryan was getting ready to go to the office. Actually, he sitting there working on the computer, just as he had been when I got up in the morning, and when when we got home, he worked some more and then had a quick lunch and then headed to the office. Didn't come home till about 9:30 that night :-/ He is remaining cheerful about how much he's had to work lately, mostly I think because the end is in sight. The brief he's been killing himself to get done gets shipped out Wednesday, and then he'll take Thursday to get his desk or order, so to speak, and then starting Friday, he's off for a little over a week. So that's good.
I spent the rest of Saturday doing laundry, balancing the checking account, shopping online, and enjoying the commercial-free rebroadcast of Live 8 on MTV. Actually, upon realizing they were going to show a number of acts I didn't care about sitting through, I watched the second half of "Moulin Rouge," which I'd started the day before (that movie rocks if you have seen it) and then went back and scanned through what I'd DVRed of Live 8. Highlights for me: well, obviously all the Beatles songs sung by Paul McCartney and others (George Michael coming out to join him on "Drive My Car" seemed like an odd choice, but I like George Michael so whatever); when the guy who I guess was the lead singer of The Verve came out during Coldplay's set and they did a long, very cool version of "Bittersweet Symphony"; and seeing Robbie Williams whip up the crowd in London. I love Robbie Williams, and I know he doesn't have a huge following here, but seriously -- that British crowd was loving them some Robbie Williams. Anyway, that was really cool! I'd barely taken notice of Live 8 leading up to it, but after hearing about it last week, I was sorry I'd missed it, and evidently MTV had taken a drubbing for cramming so many commercials into the live broadcast, so it ended up working out well for me at least that they rebroadcast it on a day when I didn't have a whole lot going on.
Shopping I did: I found shower curtains for our master bathroom, and I got Mermaid a new bathing suit and a swim robe (monogrammed with her name) from Land's End. The shower curtain is significant because our master bathroom is the very last room in the house that has been left unpainted, and I'm anxious to get it done and I'd picked a general color scheme but I wanted something a little more concrete than "these three colors" as a jumping-off point. The shower curtain I picked is fabric, and I was about to order it from one place where they were ~ $50 a piece (and I need two because our tub is extra long), which was hard to swallow for a shower curtain -- but then I looked around and found them for less than half that on another site! So yay, Bullock's Framing & Decorating! Anyway, once I get the shower curtains, I can use them to pick paint colors and maybe think about some accessories...
Yesterday, we took the kids out to breakfast (Ryan was feeling bad about having not seen them all day Saturday) and then a sitter came over, and we took off for San Francisco to see "Les Miserables" at 2 pm. That was pretty cool! I love seeing plays, and I especially love musicals, and this one was pretty amazing. I thought I only knew one song from it -- "On My Own," which Michelle Kwan skated to several years ago -- but I recognized a couple of others too. "On My Own" was still my favorite song, though, sung by what turned out to be my favorite character, Eponine, the doomed daughter of the sleazy innkeeper and his wife, in love with Marius, who loves Cosette. I thought Eponine was much cooler than Cosette, but she was kind of too cool for Marius too, and she was doomed and all, so I guess that was part of why I liked her.
Ryan and I were starving once the play was done around 5, so we walked around a bit and ended up at Morton's Steakhouse, a very upscale restaurant. They had this "verbal menu presentation," which means they bring out this cart with raw steaks, raw vegetables, and a live lobster with its claws taped up so it can't attack you, so they can show exactly what you can order. I could have done without that! The poor lobster tried crawl off the plate while he was sitting next to me, and I couldn't blame him, I have to say. Also, I was pretty relieved when the waiter handed us printed menus when he was done, because there was no way I was going to be able to remember everything he'd told us. I had filet mignon, and Ryan had some cut I can't remember, cooked cajun style, plus we shared an order of mashed potatoes, and then we shared a really amazing chocolate cake with Godiva chocolate sauce inside. Mmm! Very nice. We discussed the play and the characters and all through dinner and enjoyed ourselves. Had a nice nice drive home in the red machine, spent some time with the kids before we put them to bed, and then caught a new episode of "Six Feet Under."
All in all, a very nice weekend :-)
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