Bullet points for the brainless

• Maleficent was magnificent: I probably like the idea of the story better than the original Sleeping Beauty. Angelina Jolie's cheekbones are RIDICULOUS in that film. 
• I just want to nap. For like, ever, hours. I miss me a good nap, especially now. 
• Somehow days are super long and time is super short right now. I despise this phenomena. 
• I can't remember the last non-cancer related conversation I had with my sister-in-law, and that's making me physically ill, because it was probably our last actual conversation. (That doesn't involve me coaxing her into taking her meds or trying to swallow her food.)
• I'm ashamed to admit that I watch her breathe, but it's almost more painful to realize how many people I have had to do that for. 
• I didn't get to go home for a shower at all this week - things got hectic (but the slow, interminable kind of hectic that can only happen mid health-crises) and schedules didn't line up. But I'm getting one this week. Almost definitely. 

Now it's pill time again; I have to talk to the hospice nurse tomorrow about when it's better just to not try to wake her vs when I should be absolutely making her wake up to take things. (I feel like never, but I don't want her to wake up in pain because I let her sleep through a dose of her pain meds.) 

In a much needed attempt at not being plugged in,

I'm sending my brother and sister-in-law to bed early, and watching Maleficent with the kids. With my luck, the mother dies. (Let's talk about our Marvel-thon this summer and how all the Avengers are freaking orphans, whose mothers are, you know, dead. Better yet, let's not.) But we're going to attempt it anyways. Wish us luck.

We all agree the Oscars were horrible, right?

Glad we're on the same page with that.  Seth McFarlane was his usual misogynistic, racist, homophobic self (even toned down a bit), who should've just sung and danced his way through, because he was much better at that then telling 'jokes.'  Because said jokes were not funny.  At all.  Funniest joke he told: Trying to make Tommy Lee Jones laugh, which was in the first five minutes of the show, so... good job!  And everybody else was at least half a degree off as well: presenters who should've been amusing were not, people were awkward and uncomfortable the whole evening.  It was just baaaaaad.

Bright spots, however included:

 Jennifer Lawrence, who is amazing, and awesome and HUMAN.  Plus, her little spill gave us this GIF of Hugh Jackman & Bradley Cooper being gentleman and making me feel all swoony:

 

As well as this GIF of feeling totally overwhelmed by Jack Nicholson (which, who wouldn't be?) 

Then there's the totally adorable Quvenzhane Wallis chit chatting with Halle Berry (like you do) and telling reporters to call her by her real name, not "little Q" or "Annie" (Although: hooray for a new production of Annie, and girl can sing, so bonus points!):

And yes, The Onion is abhorrent, but we're not talking about that right now. 

Aside from the awesome ladies, and the kick-ass divas singing their butts off, the show was sad (and even the sad parts were poorly done - people were missing from the memorials? What's up with that?) Instead of going on a real rant though, I think  I'm just going back up to that first GIF and being swoony again and again.  :)

Getting Ready

for Lil Girl to come over for a sleepover.  Very excited: I have no doubt that she'll make it past her brother's midnight mark from last weekend's Fright Fest - we didn't even make it through one scary movie: the kid wanted to watch The Hunger Games, then he zonked out on me five minutes into The Woman in Black, which - just: no.  I was too sad to watch a movie where kids kept dying.  Lil Girl is another story: I told her we could stay up "all night long", so I'm anticipating a looong night.  It'll be a nice change to have company during the wee hours, though.  (Company and Disney movies... all I need now is to make some brownies.)

Wrote my three pages for today (am a little off target, but so please with what I've written that I don't care about the numbers yet: ask me again on the 28th), getting the blog posted, trying to go into the sleepover with (what I have that passes for) energy & enthusiasim.  I miss her so much, and I'm wicked excited... but I also know somewhere around 9 o'clock, she's going to be wearing on my nerves and we're both going to need a nap.  :)  That's the fun of six year olds: all the energy of a three-year-old, with none of the naps.

See you in the morning ~ hope your Saturday night is as exciting as mine.  (I'm going to think of a name to call you all, but I'm coming up blank:  'the five of you', how's that sound?)

It's time to light the lights...

I know I've told you that I am wicked excited about the Muppet Movie coming out this week.  I am a huge Muppet fan - from Sesame Street through Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and every Muppet movie or show I could get my hands on (I liked Muppets Tonight, people!)  Miss Piggy, although suffering from a more than a bit of Smurfette Principle, was the first character doll I ever had: dressed in a purple gown, with gloves and, oddly, a turban - I wanted to be her, purple sparkly turban and all.  So, I'm psyched about the Muppet movie, and am going to get someone to take me (which actually might turn out to be pretty easy, because one of my sisters has a crush on Jason Segal).   How about you - You interested?


In the meantime, head on over to Tor, for their awesome Muppet Week reads.  If you're in the mood for a little early Christmas viewing (which I am not: come Friday, it's fair game, but today I'm still in Turkey Mode), I can heartily recommend Muppet's Christmas Carol (which one of my other sisters will roll her eyes at the fact that I watch it every Christmas season).  Oh, and here's a picture of my Miss Piggy Doll, although you can't see her turban (with ear holes) all that well:

Today, I'm heading to the movies to see HP 7 ; I am quite excited. Through a jumble of circumstances, this year it's going to be Big/Only Brother, Youngest Sister, NoLongerYoungest Nephew and me. Which is an odd group, regardless, mostly because B/O Brother isn't all that big on outings, and Youngest Sister has too busy a non-family social life to wind up spending too much time with me, but it's also kind of neat. Because B/O Brother and I took SisterK to the very first Harry Potter movie back when it first came out (9 years ago!) for her 13th Birthday.

Sister K was, as the target audience for Harry Potter, the first person (not in my Children's Literature class) that I was able to share the HP books with: She'd received the first book as a gift from a teacher when it came out in the US, but she was just finishing it up about the same time I was assigned to read it for class the following fall, and she told me how much she liked it.

Best Friend/College Roommate and I bought one copy and shared it between us, just like we did for any classes we were both taking (which, since we had the same Ed major, was a lot) but I have to say that the closest we came to arguing was over that one copy of The Sorcerer's Stone: She started it first, since she was a slower reader than I was, and - as she did with other books we shared (a lot, as we shared a lot of classes) - she would leave try to leave it in the room so that I could pick it up if I got around to it. But she liked it so much that she started carrying it with her, in the hopes of sneaking in some reading time between classes or whenever. I was displeased, because I wanted to get my hands on it: by now, reports were coming back from all over campus - and across the country - about the boy with the lightening bolt scar, and how great his story was.

Eventually, she finished and then I finished, and then I talked to Sister K about it for-ev-er. We dissected it, and re-read it and ran out to the get the sequels as they each made their appearance. When the last book came out, Sister K laid at one end of my bed and read Book 7 while I laid at the other, finishing my re-read of Book 6 and reading Book 7 (I didn't want to be too far ahead, and spoil the whole thing for her). We both cried - some of us more than others (but that was just because she was reading too slow to be where I was!) - and munched on salty foods, and I may have had to close the book at one point and wait for her to get closer to where I was so I could talk to somebody about what happened (!) But it will be, forever, one of my favorite days: just the two of us, lost in the English countryside and castles with Harry, Hermoine and Ron. (Even though she didn't finish till Monday, which made me want to tear my hair out because I didn't have anybody to squee or cry with, and yes, I realize I am too old for squeeing: shut up.)

It was a few years after the first book came out that I managed to convince O/B Brother that he - Star Wars fanatic that he is - would enjoy them too. And by then, the first movie was coming out, and I talked him into taking us for Sister K's birthday. And we had a ball, and planned to make it a yearly event. I haven't seen any of the others in the theater, unfortunately, because the sicker I got the harder it got to make it to a movie theater. Between the uncomfortable chairs, the overwhelming loudness, the insistence of movie people to include zooming scenes galore (compounded with gigantic screens), not to mention the years I couldn't be around other people's germs at all, and the years when I didn't have the energy to roll over in bed, let alone add an outing to a non-required place, I think I didn't go to the movies for at least three years. But then some things got better, and other things didn't but I learned how to adjust (earplugs! skip quidditch scenes all together!) and then I found out about this place around here with actual COMFY chairs to sit in (and they sell real food, but whatever: COMFY CHAIRS, people!), and I've been able to make it to about one movie a year ever since. (Last year, in case you care, it was Where the Wild Things Are, the year before that Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull, and this year, it's Harry Potter 7 Pt1 .)

And even better, is that I've been introducing NLYNephew to all things Harry Potter over the course of the past year or so, so he's excited to come with us too! He hasn't made it as far as the last book yet, but he's caught up on the movies, and is a slow reader, so he's extremely curious to find out what happens. I have a feeling that, since it's only Part 1, he might not be too satisfied by the end of the movie, but I think it's still going to be awesome.

Which means I should go get dressed now or something, before I convince myself that it's ok to go out in public in my pajamas. (again). :)

Hope your weekend is bringing you something equally exciting to you!

Points of order

Point the First - This weekend is a Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family. I am 31 years old, and I have already seen all of the Harry Potter movies, multiple times. I own them, and could watch them without commercials, whenever I so chose.... I will still have channel 26 on in the background for the next three days, and may or may not be reciting lines as I go from one room to the other. (Am. Can't help it: "Even in the wizarding world hearing voices isn't a good sign".) My sister, the one who reads my blog (at least I think she still does: it isn't as if I've been writing all that much lately), said the other day that she thought maybe she was "over" the Harry Potter movies, or something similar to that. I, on the other hand, am trying to convince one of my sisters - any sister, really - that we have to go to the midnight show of the next movie (and maybe the last one too). I've also watched the trailer for The Deathly Hallows Pt1 approximately 14 times. I am pretty sure I will be heartbroken when all the movies are finally out and there are no more new ones to wait for: I was with the books. ("The Boy Who Lived, Come To Die.")

Point the Second - Since this is the Summer Of No Whining, I am only going to briefly mention that it is quite hot in the northeast at this present time. That's all - it is quite hot, no additional comment necessary.

Point the Third - Tomorrow I am going to try scrapbooking, for the first time in many, many (too many) months. I am quite far behind, and know I will spend a great deal of the day reorganizing my equipment and stock and stuff, before I will get to any actual creating. That is my least favorite part, because every time I think I have it all sorted out, I buy something else that there is no spot for, and then I have to start all over again. (And other times, I am too exhausted to do this organizing, so I fall further and further behind.) But I do have about 10-15 ideas on my scrap list, so if I get to the point where I can start, I have some good beginnings to work from.

Point the Fourth - I have no point the fourth besides: Have a great weekend, everybody.

Oh - and Point the Fifth: Congratulations to Ms. Janice on her brand new job! We knew you would find something, and that you'll be awesome at it! Best of Luck, chica!

Wisdom from those who came before you...

Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell

"Has anybody seen my tambourine?"

Tim Curry is Halloween.

A lot of people have Halloween traditions that revolve around The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but I don't think I've ever even seen the whole thing. For me, Tim Curry has some films in his reperitoire that are quite a bit scarier:

Between It, which basically ruined my sister's childhood & ability to go to birthday parties without melting down (and which, sorry SisterJ, they are remaking :yay!) and my favorite nonsensical Halloween 80's throwback treat, The Worst Witch, there is plenty of proof that Tim Curry is an excellent actor, appropriately cheesy, and just a creepy, creepy guy.

Evidence: He hates orphans; he wanted the rainforest destroyed; he ruined the word "poppet" for me; he plotted to kill a king; and he did it all with a smarmy, oil-slick sneer. He can be funny, could be charming - No: he is charming - but at the same time, you can't kind of tell he wants to rip you to pieces as soon as you aren't paying enough attention.
This is a guy who just can't help it: He's creepy in two Christmas movies... and a Muppet movie, for goodness sake. So here's a little Tim Curry to get you in the Halloween Spirit:

"New Classics"

Best TV shows of the past 25 years (1983-2008): I watched 83 out of 100, and have heard of all 100. I never watched The X-Files or Star Trek TNG, but I sometimes meant to.

As for movies , I've seen 54 out of 100 : a few of my biggest misses are The Matrix, South Park, and The Blair Witch Project, all products of 1990's trends that I totally skipped out on (shaky cameras are not good for vertigo sufferers, FYI); and there were a couple of 'in my Netflix/when I get around to it' contenders, including Glory, Broadcast News, and The Piano.

I knew going into it, I should've just skipped over the Music list, but I'm a glutton for punishment. My musical taste, while eclectic, is not exactly in fashion: I don't like most rap, I know all the words to a lot of showtunes and stage musicals, and my Real Player includes genres such as a capella, cover songs, 1920s, and power ballads. I surprised myself by knowing (and/or owning pieces from) 5 of the top 10, but when it came down to it, really only knew 26 out of the top 100.

What about books, you might ask. I read a lot. You all know this. Once, a local librarian saw me coming and said to her co-worker "I'm going on lunch before this one comes in with her neverending stack." Since I have discovered PaperbackSwap, I've logged less library time (but more post office time), and saved over $2000 that I would've spent if I'd been buying books at a store. Still, though, usually what people call "Classics" and what I consider "Must Reads" are very different. So how did I make out on the book list? My lowest ratio yet: just 14 out of the 100. BUT a lot of these books are already in my TBR list, and a few of them I started to read and just couldn't make it through (I'm looking at you A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Ha!)

Next time, I'm going to make somebody

skip out on work and take me to the midnight showing. But not this year -



which does not mean I am not uber excited Re: the new Harry Potter movie. (Wanna make something of it?)

Image via momentarily

"That's the way to catch a beau..."

That's from More New Math. Let me just add that NTE's Insomnia = The Pull-out Couch of Death (TM) + YouTube Videos of Haley Mills Movies = Having "PollyaANNNAAAA" or the totally anti feminist lyrics from Femininity "You must walk feminine, talk feminine, smile and beguile feminine ... Hide the real you" in your head all freaking day long.


Just in case you were wondering what "every girl should know"



You're welcome. (bangs head against desk) Go play Jeopardy, boost your IQ.

Did you ever see that movie...?

In other news, Yes, I am still at Grandmother's. No, I do not want to talk about it right now. Except to say - Did you ever see The Money Pit? It was always one of my Dad's favorite movies, and anything that made my dad laugh hard enough to cry was in frequent viewing rotation in our house.

It's about a couple who buy their "dream house" and how the house then crumbles around down around them, making the couple crazy bit by plastered bit. It's a hilarious movie, if only because Tom Hanks does that little barking laugh thing that he does, and I find that pretty dang funny. Here's the laugh:




Anyways, during the movie, there's a running gag: each of the workmen (contractors, plumbers, electricians) who come to work on the house all promise that their work will be completed in "two weeks". Months pass, work continues, and yet, always the reply is "two weeks." The "two weeks" quote became one of our family sayings, whatever we'd all say when somebody asks us how long what we're doing is going to take and we really have no frickin idea. It's really come around to bite me on the ass though, this time. Because I've been hearing "this weekend" for the past 2 months. So "this weekend" is really just code for "two weeks". It's not as funny when it's true.

But the scene where Walter (Tom Hanks' character) is stuck in the rug? Always funny. Always. (Sorry, the only clip I could find was of very poor quality.)

More pictures of me in one post

than you've seen in the 4 years of this blog put together.

Today is my 30th birthday, and I'm having a pretty good day. I'm ignoring my pain as much as possible, heading to the hotel to take a hot shower, and sitting on the front porch with my grandmother, feeling the cool breeze and listening to the life stories of people I wish I'd known (or known better). As a rule, I don't particularly like pictures of me, and I've been stingy when it comes to posting them here, I know. But I'm in the mood to look back and to look forward, and I thought this would be a nice way to do that.

You don't have to watch the 3 minutes or so of pictures from my life: I'll give you the Cliff Notes version if you'd like. For all my challenges and issues, through all the disappointments and losses, I've still been one lucky lady. I have a lot of people in my life who love me, who I'm lucky enough to love, and who've made my life a real experience. It's never been easy (see: name of blog). It probably never will be. But, for today, all I can be is grateful. (It's too bad only one person in any of these pictures will read this, but I'll try to tell the rest of them in person, if I can.)

Have a great weekend, everybody: I'm going to try for a computer free weekend myself, but we'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow.

According to Netflix

... because I am interested in Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer I might also be interested in Being Ron Jeremy.

... because I like musicals, I would probably love High School Musical 3.

... because I enjoyed Schoolhouse Rock I would also enjoy SNL: The Best of Gilda Radnor.




Netflix: You do not know me nearly as well as you think you do.

FAIL.

Looking for the next imaginary place

as we start the last final few weeks here.

We're amping up the packing, finding all sorts of memories hidden unexpectedly in corners, in trash bags shoved in the back-beyond of closets, in endless foot high stacks of papers. Every breeze that blows in the window carries a reminder of some long ago day when we chased each other around the tiny tree or sat on the back porch listening to the rain. Every curve in the wall is a place long forgotten - the third step down that was our favorite place for telling secrets (apparently, acoustics was not our best subject at age 8), the hole in the floor between the parlor and sun parlor that we used to think hid a secret room. Random sounds combine into the first songs she taught me to play on the piano, the dripping of the pipes overhead as I played with my dollhouse in our dank dark cellar, the off tempo clock that only half ticked as I spent another lazy afternoon visiting the Green Gables. Even ordinary smells seem to hold extraordinary pockets of memories these days - the brand new tube of Crest toothpaste in the bathroom reveals the Easter eve night we had a sleepover upstairs, and in that moment, I could almost still swear that I'd truly seen the Easter Bunny that night.

Everywhere I look there's another story I'm afraid I'll forget again, another little piece of who we were, here. Then. I tenderly pick up each one, put it in my pocket, my dented and patched up boxes, my recycled Rubbermaid containers, and I wrap them in bubble wrap, cushion them in cotton, do anything I can to make sure that they'll survive the trip.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andrew Largeman: You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone.

Sam: I still feel at home in my house.

Andrew Largeman: You'll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day ...one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for you, kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place.
From the movie Garden State

Blasts from the past

more win Etch A Sketch Animator - Got one for my 11th Birthday, promptly realized I am not a talented animator. This did not mean I was willing to share with my sisters, however.

Let the wild rumpus start!

We may be overdoing it a bit...

Since I've been lucky enough to be an Auntie, as far back as Oldest Nephew (who just turned 12!), one of my favorite things to do with our kiddos has been introducing them to things I love. Getting to expose them to the joys of reading or poetry; to watch their faces when a science experiment goes off without a hitch; to let them use the expensive stickers and see the pride they have in what they've created - it's just one of the best things in my life.

When it comes to TV & movies, I've been lucky enough to hook Youngest Nephew on Indiana Jones & the Dinosaurs TV show, to scare Oldest Nephew with a great white shark, and to re experience the joys (and cringe at some of the realities, but that's another post) of the Disney universe through the eyes of all three of them.

Lil Girl is only here 2 days a week right now, but she's been slowly shortening the amount of time she'll nap, little by little every other week or so, leaving us with a nice chunk of morning time to do something restful and quiet like watching a movie. The rule is one movie, or one hour of TV, total for the day, which Lil Girl doesn't like at all, as the TV is constantly on at her house, but I can't use it as background noise like they do, because background noise makes me want to claw my ears off.

During the past few weeks, we've been slowly working our way through our Disney catalogue, starting with Ariel because she's got an old Ariel figurine that used to be SisterCh's. We went from Ariel to Cinderella, bounced over to Peter Pan & Aladdin, did a little Monster's Inc. (I forgot how cute Boo is!) & Toy Story; sat through the beginning of 101 Dalmatians 3 times, and, most recently, dug out Beauty and the Beast from its hiding place. We also have a ton of Disney books, so she's read a lot of the stories, even if she hasn't seen them on screen yet.



But, while playing with some more of those old action figures this week, I got a little hint that we may be bombarding her with a few too many story lines.


She had her Aladdin figure in one hand and I asked her what happened if I rubbed on his magic lamp.

Apparently, when you rub Aladdin's lamp, a "Crocodile comes out and eats off your hand, like Captain Hook."

Not exactly the Genie I was hoping for, but thanks for the fair warning, kiddo.

This is My Best Shot Monday post, head on over to Mother May I for a bunch more.