The Average Blogger

Work and Play

More the former than the latter, I'm sorry to say. 

Last weekend I cleaned the house, cleared the yard, and then watched a "horror" movie with the Young Prince (his selection was the Disney quasi-classic Something Wicked This Way Comes. I was equally charmed, surprised, and disappointed he didn't pick something more sinister, like The Omen or Cujo, but I suppose he slept better for it.

On Sunday, we met up with a friend and saw My Fair Lady on the big screen. It was rather enjoyable; the first time I've seen it in a theater. And it was my first time seeing a movie I'm totally used to on a TV screen where I wasn't distracted by how terribly different the theater experience was. I was also quite happy to see that there were three little girls behind us singing merrily away with most of the lyrics.

(And yes, I know, if my Womyn Card hadn't been officially revoked ages ago, this would surely cast me out. Even the YP leaned over to me in the middle of "Why Can't A Woman" and hissed, "MOM! Why haven't feminists lost their stuff about this?" And I hissed back, "Oh, sweetie. They totally have.")   

Since then, it's been a series of school meetings for reviews of the kid's ADHD Allowances Plan, trying to keep up with work (where I'm trying to cram 40 hours of work into 24, and will doubtless be working even more than that 16-hour difference over the weekend) and looking ahead to December, when we might be dug out of work and will definitely be at the theater for the new Star Wars flick, having purchased our tickets Monday night along with the rest of the Western world. 

In the meantime, anyone got any good Halloween plans? 

Soaking It In

I've been lapping up a lot of pop culture this week. TV, music, theater, books. 

SiriusXM was doing a free preview through Presidents Day.  I am intrigued. I liked it a lot. I'm not sure I liked it $120-a-year-a-lot, but I'm definitely thinking about it.  The problem is I can see where I'd spend the entire rest of my life listening to the same music I listened to my senior year of high school, rather than actually broadening my horizons. On the other hand, I heard a lot of songs that I hadn't listened to SINCE high school, so that was kind of nice. 

Saturday was Valentine's Day.  Not Your Average Blogger got The Third Man and chocolate. The Young Prince got some Doctor Who toys and some jellybeans.  I got 4-for-1 movies with Heart and Souls, The Matchmaker, Kissing a Fool and Playing for Keeps, plus a box of M&Ms. Then we all three of us went to see Chicago at the National Theater. It was really good. This was the first time I've seen a performance where Roxie blew Velma out of the water—and it's odd, upon thinking about it, given that the whole play follows Roxie's story arc more so than Velma's.  Billy Flynn was played by John O'Hurley (Peterman from Seinfeld,) and he was great.  All in all it was a fantastic show, and except for the terrific snowstorm we walked around in getting to the theater, it was a great Valentine's Day.

Sunday night we watched the whole SNL special. The musical acts were awful.  The Californians was too long. There were a couple other lags.  But coordinating 40 years and that many people into 3 and a half hours was really impressive. I think maybe my favorite bit was the video commemorating the better instances where actors broke character, esp. the bunch in a row of Fallon and Sanz.  

Since Sunday was eaten up with the special, that meant Monday (Presidents Day, a holiday for NYAB and the YP, but not for me) was Downton/Dead/Saul fixes. 2 out of 3 weren't bad.  I spent more time making fun of Walking Dead than enjoying it. Maybe it'll pick up next week.

On the book front: I finished Karen Abbot, and enjoyed it immensely. I also did a little research for my own book and found a memoir by a guy who was in the same company as my murderer, and was happy to see it was on file in our library reference section. I went in Sunday and scanned the book; there were some good bits I can appropriate. 

Today was a snow day.  I had some banked hours, so I spent the day cleaning the house and then we took the snowblower out for its maiden voyage. MONEY WELL SPENT.  Omigod, we blew the whole driveway clean in 15 minutes and I didn't come in and drop dead at the end.  I don't know why we waited this long to get one, I really don't.  So that means two good things came out of this bathroom remodel.  Huzzah! 

The YP's school has already declared tomorrow a snow day as well, but I am pretty sure all our offices will be open. I'm not sure what the plan of attack is.  I know the kid has some writing to do, though. And some reading! 

What's the Use of Worrying...

Thinking of the song "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag" always makes me want to watch All That Jazz.   I think I just got my weekend plans squared away.

It's been a week of mostly needless anxiety at ye olde Blogger homestead.  I'm still waiting for the phone to ring, and I'm afraid my impatience has crossed over to flat-out irritation.  Not Your Average Blogger is also waiting for the phone to ring, but he's not as far gone as I am. 

I started Weight Watchers.  My hope is to lose 40 lbs in six months.  We'll see what reality brings. I'm hoping the warmer weather will also be an incentive to get out and drag the dog up and down the road a bit more than we have since Christmas.

The Young Prince, on the other hand, got to ditch school early one day this week, for an exciting trip to the doctor where he was declared "pre-acid-reflux" and "allergy suffering" and ordered to start popping not one but two pills a day -- Zantac and Zyrtec.  The boy said that sounded like twins from some alien planet, and that was the last bit of revelry he had for a while becuase then the reality hit that he would have to take pills.

A few years back, I recounted the YP's trouble with pills. I am sorry to report that in this respect he has not grown up one whit.  It didn't help that the doctor somehow believed it was possible to buy liquid Zantac and got that into the boy's head. The pharmacist laughed at me and said if I wanted it in liquid, I'd have to get a prescription.  La la la.  I bought the pills and off we went.

This is how things started.  And this is how they ended.  There was screaming, and crying and several pills were sacrificed before the kid lost the battle.  I won the battle but lost my voice. This tells you how epic the struggle was.

The next night, neither of us really wanted a repeat. We tried peanut butter. The kid still resisted. I had no voice and no patience, but NYAB was home, so the kid more or less realized he was outnumbered and outgunned and choked them down with about half the agita of the night before.

Last night, I shoved half a container of applesauce in his mouth with the pill. He swallowed it without noticing. Then I shoved the other half of the container in with the second pill. Again, no problem.

It's the little things, ya know?

I'm not so foolish as to think we've found a solution, but I do hope it marks a turning point in his pill-taking psychosis. A little drama I can deal with, but I'd just as soon not revisit this sundering of body and soul that usually occurs. 

We have to do this for a month.  It'll be interesting to track his progress.

Here Goes Nothing...

So, I've been dabbling in writing, as most of you probably already know, since I do tend to go on about it.

Most important? Please go here and vote for my story to win. Not only will it make me happy and published, it will also give an infusion of books to the grade school in the weensy Illinois town my family hails from (whence my family hails? Sounds snobby.)

Second most important: I'm going on about writing even more, but I won't do it here as much.  If you want to see the writerly side of my sparkling and multi-faceted character, head on over.  I'm also back on Twitter.

But family news and whatnot will continue to show up here, however sporadically.

Thanksgiving was a lovely affair, with the delightful Porter/Graham-Silverman/Player to Be Named Later as our company. They make excellent desserts, y'all. I had pie for dinner last night, that's how good it was.

The rest of the weekend was gorgeous weather, yardwork, playing with the kid and the dog, and several visits from NeighborGirl, all of which we thoroughly enjoyed. Say what you will about leaf blowers and emissions -- one gallon of gas and about 8 hours accomplished what probably wouldn't have gotten done in 24 hours with two people raking and swearing and acquiring blisters upon blisters.

We also headed out to the theater and saw Hugo.  It was a nicely done movie; very pretty and artful and true what I read of the book. (The Young Prince read it on his own but showed me huge chunks and asked about a thousand questions.) The sad part of where I am in my life right now is that most of the time I was watching it, the refrain in the back of my head was, "Damn. Can you imagine hearing that Martin Freaking Scorsese wants to make the movie of your book? Sigh. Screw you, Brian Selznick, you amazingly talented and rightfully recognized bastard."

Now the family is into a headlong downhill slide toward Christmas. This weekend is a sing-along at Wolf Trap and baking like mad; next weekend is our cookie party, the weekend after that is another friend's party, and the weekend after that is the big day.  (Not to mention assorted school and extracurricular events for the YP.)

I keep saying it because I keep being surprised by it: I am far too busy for a person with no social life!

Feeding the Mind, Taxing the Body

A friend of mine on Facebook posted something the other day -- "If life gets you down, remember you're already a winner: You were the fastest sperm!"

I rather hope that was not my last significant achievement. There are days, however ... 

So, in the past week I have:

-- Written 32 pages of my novel.
-- Edited another chunk of my dad's magnum opus.
-- Read several pages of an extant, published novel without passing out in exhaustion three sentences in at every attempt.
-- Filled out a mulch path that will allow me to get the riding mower from the back yard to the way-back yard. 
-- Lost my son to a bevy of high school girls.

My book is going apace, though I find myself more than occasionally disheartened in the process. I think I'm almost ready to cobble together an outline and send it to someone. (Define ambition: a four-book arc. That's a big outline.) The bigger question is if anyone wants to read it. We read a piece of it to the kid last night and the content may be too old for him. This makes me a little sad and leads me to wonder if I'm doing it wrong, since he's reading at a pretty advanced level. (Of course, it is also possible I picked a bad time and he just really, really wanted to get back to his computer games.) I've loaned it out to NeighborGirl and I'm waiting to hear back on her assessment. Sigh. 

I'm reading my dad's book. The content is interesting, the rewriting is kind of satisfying, and I think he'll find a publisher for it. But (she said, in her best Eeyore voice,) in a way that will be even more demoralizing because I have to believe that there's a bigger market for mutant teenagers with extreme daddy issues than there is for a fairly dry and factual biography of a corrupt robber baron dead and gone lo these many years.

At NeighborGirl's suggestion, I'm also reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's slow going, and again, if a "thriller" leaning this heavily on Swedish financial history can be a megamovie, why am I so certain my stuff won't win the lottery? 

As a means of purging my angst, I spent a lot of the weekend hacking up tree branches and creating new paths around the property. The tally at this point is as follows:
Top flowerbeds: Gone, with weed killer sprayed in the rocks that are supposedly serving as a way to maintain functionality of the drain under the driveway.
Front flowerbed: Probably 3/4 done. Many rock-lined mulch paths to cut down on weeding; a few more plants need to be stuffed in holes, and I want a patio. I do not want to dig a 4-inch-deep and 12-foot-wide hole to make a patio. I want to pay someone to make my patio. I get tired thinking about the patio.
Side yards: In excellent shape, due in large part to me putting my boot on the kid's neck and making him pull weeds.
Back yard: Path from bridge to steps has had rocks added to it that look quite nice. Path from deck through springtime swampy area to driveway has been widened and edged with tree limbs to replace the rocks I repurposed for the flower bed. It all actually looks sort of planned and classy, not all white-trash junk-yard castoffs and 'well, I had some crap lying around and threw it over here instead of over there.'
Way-back yard: Still just a yard, still needs some help around the fences.

Unfortunately, there are also several dead trees and one extremely large brush pile to be addressed. I do not want to address these either. (See: patio dilemma.)

But, to end on an up note, last week did have a bit of success to it. Those of you who follow this blog with any sort of regularity know that Harry Potter has been a bit of a thing in our house for the past year or so.  The Young Prince was hot to see the movies. I insisted he had to read the books. I kept waiting for him to hit a point where he had no idea what was going on, he couldn't interpret what he was reading, he had no concept of the deeper issues. I think, in all honestly, he did fall short on that last bit, but he followed the plot OK and didn't get alarmed or unduly upset by any of the larger plot points all the way through the end of the seventh book.  So as a reward,  I agreed to allow him to attend the midnight showing of the last movie.

He was fired up to go in costume. Well, thought I, that should be easy. Surely the big chain stores will be all over that idea and have all the old Harry Potter junk out for sale again.

Hahahaha. Riiight. Maybe two days after the midnight premiere. I tried Walmart. I tried Target. I stuck my nose against the (still too early in the morning to be open) window of Spencer's. Zip. Nada.

I went to Party City, and saw an entire wall of Harry Potter tags. With no merchandise. I asked the guy when the merchandise would be out. His oh-so-helpful answer was, "Later." Hmf.  I found another Party City person and asked her if she had graduation gowns or anything of the kind, and when I explained why, she shot a very nasty look in the direction of Later Dude and said, "We've got tons of stuff in the back. Stand right here and I will bring you a costume. For age 8, you said?" God bless Party City Girl. Throw in a pair of John Lennon glasses that I spent 40 minutes working over to pop out the blue lenses, and I was in business.

The YP was appropriately grateful and excited, (though a bit peeved at my assertion that I was dressed up, I was attending as a Muggle,) and we left the house early to get dinner. The crowd we were with included the YP, myself, NeighborGirl, NeighborGirl's roommate from college, and NeighborGirl's friend from grade school, who was decked out in a schoolgirl uniform with a red/gold tie. We arrived at the theater around 8:50. There were already at least 40 people in line. And the YP got a standing ovation when he walked in. He then immediately plopped himself down with the group in front of us in line and proceeded to build himself a whole coterie. I think he would have worked his way up to the dead front of the line if I'd let him. I mean, he had three hours to do it. There was a lot of wand talk involved, and some admiration of Time Turners and Death Eater arm drawings and I don't know what all.

At some later point, he came back to where we were camped out and informed us that You Know Who was in the theater. He seemed to feel a need to do something about this. I asked if he wanted me to take him downstairs and he insisted that no, Gryffindor (NeighborGirl's childhood friend,) needed to go with him.  Fortunately, Gryffindor (whose real name is Meagan -- I think? Megan?) was completely on board with this and off they went. I have no idea what transpired, except that when they came back I was told that there are now probably several photos of my kid floating around out there that I will never see. Heh. 

After 2.75 hours of this, the theater folks opened the doors to the auditorium. We swarmed in, NeighborGirl chose the seats, and we parked ourselves. I was getting the YP settled and debating with him whether he would sit between me and a stranger or between me and NeighborGirl's roommate, when a chorus went up from behind us: "Young Prince!! You have to sit with us!!"  I turned around, and fully six high school girls were looking at him and waving him up to their row. He looked at me. I suppose it is a bad sign that I conceded defeat so easily, but I waved him off.  And off he went, with a "Be right there, Bellatrix!"  to one of the more outlandishly costumed.  I will say that either I got lucky or high school girls have gotten smarter, because he somehow wound up in the seat directly behind mine, as well as in the back row, which meant that I was fully within bounds to stand up and loom over him in the event discipline needed to be enforced without particularly bothering anyone else.  (As it turned out, this was largely unnecessary. There was one incident where he dropped his wand and the light-up end blinded someone, but that was an accident.)

I'm pleased to report that aside from all the Event-ness aspect, I did fully enjoy the movie as well, and it was entirely worth the money, lost sleep and crankiness that overtook me the next day. The boy, of course, wisely slept it off and was back on track for morning hours when drama camp resumed the following Monday.

I do hope the boy enjoyed and remembers it. I think he will. I hope he sees it as a stellar event. I rather saw it as the end of the beginning. Or the beginning of the end. I'm still deciding.

This week is a performance of a different sort. The first of his four drama camps wraps up, and he has two bit roles in their production of the Arabian Nights.  I look forward to seeing it, and I look forward to seeing him read the book; we picked it up from the library Saturday.

Annd, I've come full circle to wondering who will ever read mine. Lalalala.  Off to my own personal salt mine!

 

All of Life's Riddles

Before I start, Not Your Average Blogger's travel photos are up over at Flickr.  Go take a look.

The YP has shown a couple of particular talents from an early age.  He is a total media junkie, and he has a fantastic ear for music. Since he was 2, I think he's been able to hear a song once and then sing it on key with all the correct lyrics for hours.  He sings TV theme songs. We can't walk through Borders these days without him singing the theme from Mad Men. He has a great memory for dialog and will quote movies and commercial slogans ad nauseam.

I think I've written in the past about how these proclivities color his paradigm. The toys he loves best are action figures from movies. All his Halloween costumes since he's been able to pick them out have been movie or cartoon characters. (This year? He's a Ghostbuster. I think he has determined he is Bill Murray and NYAB will be Harold Ramis. Possibly something to do with the glasses.) 

One of the tasks his first-grade teacher assigns each day is for the kids to "draw and write about something that really happened to you."  When we saw his booklet, I cracked up, because the entries were basically, "This is me watching Star Wars." "This is me watching Back to the Future." "This is me at the theater watching Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3-D."  "This is me playing with my Dark Knight toys."  "This is me playing Indiana Jones on my DS."  Occasionally interspersed are things like him playing golf with his dad or going to a concert, but the entries are at least 3-1 in favor of video.

Of course, he gets egged on by his daddy.  Last night I came home from helping clean up the grade-school's bingo party, and the lads were sacked out on the couches watching Star Trek.  I walk in and NYAB is not only reciting the lines along with the show, he also treats me to a tutorial on the old vs. new phasers (fazers? You'll have to ask him,) and tricorders and blah de fricking blah and I just sat and pointed and laughed and marveled he'd ever made it out of his parents' basement.  He pointed out they didn't have a basement and threw a pillow at me.  The Young Gene Roddenberry shushed us both. 

While this occasionally depresses me insomuch as his creativity seems pathetically stunted and most of his play has to do with being Batman's sidekick rather than slaying dragons, for the most part I'm OK with it. He does still play, he is still reasonably competitive and now that he's in school and he still reads books, though he's not as keen on it as I might like. 

What's interesting now, though, is how he is synthesizing all this exposure and knowledge.  He's keen on making sequels to movies he likes. He makes up stories that are in keeping with his favorite characters. He has gotten to the point where he recognizes movie references out of context and in other movies.

But the kicker came the other day when we were in the car. He was uncharacteristically quiet and I asked what he was thinking about. He pops out with, "Well, I was just thinking that if I ever work on a Who Framed Roger Rabbit movie, mine should really include the Pixar guys."

Oy.  I live with a pint-sized Dawson Leery, y'all. Except mine has a better forehead.

Chortle

By special request -- last night's one-night-only performance.  You can hear at the beginning that the little sister of one of the YP's friends was very excited to see the YP. Hee.  You'll also note that at 2:07, he is he ONLY one who remembers the words, and that at the end, he is the only one who bows.

There was another song, but I think 3 minutes of this is probably already too much.

So .. yeah. Fenway may be out, but Broadway might still beckon? 

All of Life's Riddles Are Not Answered in the Soundtrack*

I've been trying for days to figure out a way to flesh out this blog entry I want to do about music in movies, but I'm failing. Maybe y'all can help out.

Basically, I was thinking about how certain scenes in certain movies will take an unsuspecting innocent song and completely and utterly turn it on its head for the viewer forever.

For example, Singin' in the Rain.  Happy, cheery, dude-in-love song, yeah? Yeah, until you see A Clockwork Orange.

Or the latter-day cousin to that, Reservoir Dogs' treatment of Stuck in the Middle With You.

Or David Lynch using In Dreams in Blue Velvet.
Well, pretty much any song in Blue Velvet.
OK, pretty much any song in a David Lynch movie.

Conversely on Orbison, the saccharine in the hooker movie with Julia Roberts sorta tanked Pretty Woman for me.

Hm. Why is it that 75 percent of the examples in my head are hideously violent?

I guess you could say that Lloyd Dobler hijacking In Your Eyes in Say Anything is part of this list, except I think I was the only person on earth who liked that song before the movie came out ... and it didn't really change how I think of the song in my head, since the emotion on film was meant to reflect the emotion of the song. But hey, I know a fair number of people who have come to view that scene as not romantic and brave but actually a little obsessive and creepy.

Anyway, I can't really pull this around to having a point. What have you guys got for me?

*Extra points to anyone who knows the quote I'm quasi-referencing in the title. Except you, NYAB.

Do You Believe in Ghosts?

The Young Prince has been on a Ghostbusters kick recently -- don't ask me why. Maybe it's a backlash to all the Christmas fervor and he's retaliating with his own favorite holiday.

If this is so, I can't wait til we wind up watching Jamie Lee Curtis' friends get sliced up while we're waiting for Santa. But in the meantime ...

Last week he asked me to draw the ghost logo from Ghostbusters I and II.  I complied and he seemed happy with the incredibly amateurish result.  Then he came back and said, "OK, now draw one for Ghostbusters III." 

"There is no Ghostbusters III."
"Yes there is. I'm going to do it."
"Oh. All right then."

I thought nothing of it and figured he had another grand plot involving his brain, our video camera and some cardboard boxes.

Then over the weekend we were in the car and he mentioned it again.

"YP, I already told you. There is no Ghostbusters III."
"Yes, there is."
"No, there isn't. You said you were going to make it, and you haven't."
"I didn't say I was going to make it. I said I was going to watch it."
"How can you watch what doesn't exist?"
"IT DOES EXIST!"
"NO, IT DOESN'T!"
"YES IT DOES I SAW IT ON YOUTUBE AND THE GHOST HELD UP THREE FINGERS AND I DID SO SEE IT!"

Oh. YouTube.

"Honey, you can't believe everything you see on YouTube is the real thing. It's probably some kid a bit older than you who just made his own video, like you did with your Star Wars guys."

Long, exasperated sigh from the back seat.  "OK. Fine."

We get home and three hours later I am summoned to the computer.

Well, I'll be dipped. It doesn't exist yet, but it certainly seems like it will at some point.

And thus, my pedestal of Smarter Than You begins to crumble.

Comings and Goings

I've been busy, though I'm not sure how interesting any of the events therein would be to anyone who isn't me... I guess you can read and appraise for yourselves.

Tuesday I took a friend and our two 5-year-olds on a tour of the Capitol. It was interesting, because it reminded me that I really only ever go two or three places in that building, and if I deviate in the slightest from any path, I get completely lost. They were good sports about it, though -- and the nice thing is, even if you do get lost, you almost always stumble over something interesting to look at.

Thursday I re-established ties with a long-dormant friend from my past -- which, I'm pleased to say, seems to have gone very well on both sides. I can be guilty of letting things slide to the point of inexcusability, so it is always a happy day for me when I discover I have another person in my life who is on the same wavelength of "Yes, we can completely ignore each other for three years and not have a word of contact, but then when we finally do get in touch, we pick up right where we left off and in three hours are back up to speed, and even if we don't see each other for three more years, it's all good."  I also gave another tour of the Capitol, and didn't get quite as turned around this time, though there were still a few blunders.

This has led me to an interesting little research project, in that I wonder just how many people have died in the Capitol. There appears to be no real record of this -- the Senate historians keep track of senators, the House historians for representatives. This omits security guards, staffers, tourists, janitors ... I assume the Capitol Police have some kind of record, but I haven't been able to tease that one out yet.  Right now the longest list I have pegs it at about 20.  This strikes me as low.

Thursday night, the neighbor girl and I had decided to see the midnight showing of Dark Knight.  We got to the theater at 10:30 or so.  Midnight show? Sold Out.  But! A 1 a.m. show had been scheduled to accommodate overflow.

Me: Ugh. Really? Are we going to do this?
Neighbor girl: Of Course We Are!!!

La.  So we sat for two and a half hours and watched the world go by. The demographics were interesting -- a lot of high school kids, a lot of date-ish couples, and an alarming number of rather fat men my age who were there solo.

Juxtapose this with the crowd I fell in with when NYAB dragged -- yes, dragged, I went with my complaints clearly heard -- me to see Mamma Mia the next night.  A lot of mothers and daughters, a lot of pear-shaped and graying bespectacled women in their 40s.  I'm pleased to report that the only person i heard singing was NYAB, and that only because he was so close to me.

(For the record: Batman's voice bugged the hell out of me; I kept wanting to offer him a lozenge. I enjoyed Heath Ledger as the Joker immensely. Meryl Streep's drag-queen get-ups resembled the Joker in a few scenes. I did not enjoy that quite as much. And Pierce Brosnan can't sing very well. Overall, DK was good on the big screen.  MM was good in a big sound system. Moving on.) 

I'm less pleased to report that the YP has picked up on these earworms and Will. Not. Stop. Singing.  Though he does mix up his repertoire a bit -- now expanded to include ABBA, A Chorus Line and Cabaret.  I swear to god, I'm already bracing for when that kid pitches a battle royale to show up for his first day of kindergarten in fishnets and tap shoes. And there will be no one to blame but his dad. Though I guess I am guilty by reason of association.  Sigh.

As far as I know, there is nothing nearly that exciting going on this week, til NYAB's sis and her son show up for a visit next weekend. Good news for me; less to fret about. Bad news for you; when I'm not focused on Must-Do activities, things are more likely to trip my trigger and set off blogrants. 

Have a good week, all!