Well, I saw the New Moon movie today. All I have to say about it is that I am still all about Jacob.
Of course, the fact that this not-so-little-anymore fellow is only seventeen years old makes the fact that me and numerous other women are totally crushing on him wrong in oh-so-many ways.
I called Sarge when I left the theatre this afternoon and told him I felt kind of dirty for thinking that this individual (who, honestly, is young enough for me to have actually birthed) was this good looking.
I think I may have even said something like ”Whoa, doggie!” to Sarge. This is just so corny and pathetic. Especially since I didn’t even get the whole pun until after I uttered it.
[If you don't get the pun, I apologize. You would have to have read the books and/or seen the movie to understand.]
But the real reason I’m all psyched about Taylor Lautner (a.k.a. Jacob Black) and his presence in the movie is that he provided, quite unknowingly, the perfect opening for a heart to heart talk with my boy tonight.
You see, my boy remembers this actor from one of his first roles ever. Sharkboy in “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl.”
Anyway, tonight as my boy and I are laying in his bed just snuggling away, I am catching up on his day and all the goings-on in his classroom. The conversation eventually moved to the topic of girls and crushes. This is usually something my boy detests talking about. Normally, he will refuse to speak if girls are introduced into general conversation. This refusal is then followed with an extremely pouty face, crossed arms, and, on rare occasions, an outburst of yelling.
But since it was just the two of us, he was a bit more open to the topic than normal.
It appears my boy has a crush on someone. But he wouldn’t tell me who it was.
So I confessed to my boy that I had a crush on Sharkboy. Once I let my cat out of the bag, he confessed to his own crush. Of course, a condition to him telling me the identity of his crush is that I am forbidden to ever speak of it again.
This means no extra info for you, dear readers.
And if you see my boy in the near future, you know nothing. Absolutely nothing!!!
Mr. Lautner, I owe you a great big thank you. On so many levels. One being my sheer enjoyment of the movie today.
The best though was you providing the perfect inducement to get my son to open up.
I lamented the other day with a fellow co-worker that we both really wished we could be as unaware of all the bad things in the world as other people seem to be. Our work lives have taken such a toll on us in the last few weeks. This group commiseration with several of my co-workers has been what has held me together to make it to the end of the week. And I got to tell you, it was a near thing, surviving this week.
But the one bonding experience I am most looking forward to is seeing New Moon tomorrow with the co-worker mentioned above. We both usually have Fridays off so this is how we are going to spend our morning. Watching a movie completely unrelated to real life and chock full of teen angst. It’s like devouring the most decadent chocolate without all of the calories.
I know I have mentioned my excitement about the movie before, along with my fascination about one of the stars of the movie. And lest you forget, I am also a big fan of the books.
I have come to realize I need to escape from the real world on a regular basis to keep from going insane.
And the best part of watching these movies is sharing the experience with other people.
For example, a few nights ago, my sister and her family held an impromptu movie night to view “Twilight.” And as I wanted to refresh my knowledge about the movie, I invited myself over.
I am so glad I did too. Watching this movie (which, in my humble opinion, took itself a little too seriously) with my two nieces was priceless and ever so enjoyable.
The comments from the sidelines made the movie for me.
For example, at a particularly intense moment when Edward and Bella are gazing with painful longing into each other’s eyes (one of oh so many times during the movie), I hear this niece say
“Awwwkwaaard . . .”
Also, as I am a little more partial to Jacob than Edward, the fact that the same niece kept jumping and uttering a high pitched little squeak every time Edward stared intently (and somewhat stalker-like) at Bella was also highly entertaining to me. My sister and her friend were also watching the movie. As they are big Edward fans, I am sure they did not appreciate the antics as much as I did.
But the best line of the night came from this niece.
In regards to Bella, the main character, our suffering heroine, she said,
“She’s a freak! She fell in love with a vampire!”
Nothing captures the raw, unedited, stark truth like the young.
Just what I needed–an attitude adjustment from a nine year old. The best kind there is.
We have a Wii console at my house. I bought it three years ago for Christmas for my family. This means I only have myself to blame.
You see, Sarge loves, loves, loves video games. Well, he’s not like totally obsessed with them like some people but he’s pretty hooked in, all things considered.
He also discovered the whole Lego series of Wii games. You know, Batman, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. And he can play these games over and over and over. Much to my chagrin.
But horror of horrors has happened.
They have released a NEW Indiana Jones Lego Wii game. It occurred yesterday. I have my dear, sweet, darling sister to thank for this knowledge.
Which I inadvertently then passed this knowledge onto Sarge last night while I was talking on the phone to her as he happened to be in the room listening.
Guess what happened when I got home from work today?
Yep, Sarge had bought the afore mentioned game and immediately commenced playing it for the next two hours. We even delayed our dinner to allow him maximum play time.
So a great big thanks to my sis. And to all the makers of Wii games. And Nintendo.
Yeah, you all rock!
Not so much in my world but definitely in Sarge’s.
Maybe I will get my sweet revenge though.
They are supposed to be releasing a Harry Potter Lego Wii game sometime next year. Once this comes out, I shall take over the video game throne in my household and triumph!
Sarge and I are in fields that could be considered somewhat depressing. We don’t really see that much of the good in our world in our respective environments. This can make us either the “Fun suckers” at a party or, if you’re like Sarge and use your job to your advantage, you can become the “life of the party.”
Case in point, Friday night.
Allow me to set the stage first. Sarge and I had a neighborhood gathering Friday that we had been invited to. As we had already sent our R.S.V.P. and paid our fee for said party, we were committed to going. Let me make it known though that I was flat out exhausted and completely strung out from an absolutely horrendous day at work on Friday.
Sarge, on the other hand, was ready and raring to go as he had had the day off. In addition, we knew the chef who was catering the party and he makes fabulous food so Sarge couldn’t wait to dive into whatever he was concocting. So off we went to partake of the delicious food and bond with our neighbors.
A couple of hours into the party, I am sitting at a table with Sarge and a few other fellows/husbands. And we are in the throes of what could only be described as an inappropriate discussion. Sarge was educating the other men about going on the “down low.” As I consider myself a G-rated blog, I am not going to explain this phrase. You can get the general idea by going here. Sarge then goes on to expand the conversation by tapping into his professional knowledge about cross-dressing individuals and other lovely topics. All I can say is things went downhill from there. The viewpoint from one of the party-goers present at the warped conversation was that Sarge, and this is a direct quote, ” is soooooo cool.”
Me, I was just a bump on a log at the party.
Which made me come to a somewhat bleak realization. Some of our acquaintances are completely oblivious to this very different side of life. Sarge and I, we are not so lucky to be blissfully ignorant of the shadier areas in our world.
As Sarge says, “There’s the world you think you live in and then there’s the real world.” Personally, I want to come out of the shade into the light. I too want to be in la-la land some of the time. Maybe then I can be a little more animated at a party.
This whole thing reminds me of one of my favorite lyrics ever (from “Lola” by the Kinks).
Girls will be boys
and boys will be girls
it’s a mixed up
muddled up
shook up world
So apropos and so true yet so disturbing all at the same time.
Insomnia includes having trouble falling or staying asleep. It’s one of the most common medical complaints. With insomnia, you usually awaken feeling unrefreshed, which takes a toll on your ability to function during the day. Insomnia can sap not only your energy level and mood, but also your health, work performance and quality of life.
Well, that definition is just full of sunshine and flowers, isn’t it?
Alas, it is quite true and straight to the point.
I have been troubled with insomnia several times in my life. It usually strikes when I am experiencing some huge life transition though.
Like when I got married. After being married a month, it hit me like a ton of bricks. For about two or three weeks, I could not get to sleep for several hours. Or if I did go to sleep fairly easily, I would wake up around four or five in the morning and find myself completely unable to get back to sleep. My insomnia came back again and again (1) when we bought our house (2) after the birth of my girl and (3) after the birth of my son.
But lately, it hasn’t been too bothersome. Until last night.
And when this annoying thing rears its ugly head, it packs quite a punch. Last night, I tried and tried to go to sleep. I finally gave up around 12:30 a.m. and went to watch T.V. After subjecting myself to horrible late night television, I finally stopped my brain’s churning and went to sleep. Ironically though, less than 45 minutes after going to sleep, I was rudely awoken by an upset stomach. I then had to go back to sleep sitting straight up because laying down made me feel extremely nauseous.
The way I see it is that it was just not destined to be a good night for me.
To avoid another potential repeat tonight, I have busted my buns today cleaning like a madwoman. I am hoping that sheer physical exhaustion will overcome all.
You see, my work has been a wee bit stressful, I am feeling pulled in too many directions in my personal life and I am constantly losing my temper with my kids.
Mix this all together and viola!
No rest for the weary.
We’ll just have to see how house cleaning will merit as a treatment option for insomnia.
Now that I am in anticipatory mood for the Thanksgiving holiday, I have a confession to make. I’m also getting ready for the other big holiday coming up. And I have officially started on my annual Christmas craft.
And you won’t believe what I am starting with. . . a box.
Ahh . . . but looks can be deceiving. This is actually a set of nesting boxes.
These will become the core of my newest project.
I used some ribbon purchased at one of my favorite stores, Target. Yes, I was suckered in by the huge Christmas display already out. And shocker of shockers, they were even playing Christmas carols when I got there which only added to my shopping frenzy.
On yet another recent shopping foray, I picked up these mini-ornaments from Ikea. Another one of my favorite stores.
The final ingredient in this Christmas recipe are buttons. Lots and lots of buttons. I just happened to have these in my scrapbooking supplies.
For your first step, you are going to attach your buttons to the tops of the nesting boxes. I used mini Glue Dots that you can get at any craft store.
Pardon the black polish. I am trying to get my girl to stop biting her nails and she requested I paint her nails black. So in a show of solidarity, I painted my nails as well.
Now, some people might prefer to plan out how the buttons are to be attached to the lids. I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants person when it comes to things like this so I just slap them up there with no plan whatsoever.
Then while adhering the many, many buttons, accept help from your six year old child in applying the adhesive.
Once you have the buttons all stuck on the boxes, you only have one last thing to assemble before finishing it all up.
String all those tiny little ornaments on a small ribbon and tie off into a semblance of a ball-like shape. Now you are ready to finish things up.
Basically, you will stack up the three boxes on top of each other then wrap them in the ribbon of choice. Just like you would wrap the ribbon around a gift-wrapped present.
Then you top off your ribbon and bow with your cluster of ornaments and viola!
You have a very cute decorative addition to your holiday.
The best part of this holiday craft assembly was the serenade my boy gave me while I was working. He was singing some funky version of “Deck the Halls” mashed up with the Batman Smells version of “Jingle Bells.” Maybe not the most conventional rendition but definitely the most creative.
And I have no idea what that string is doing on his head.
Now if only I could get the rest of my holiday mess taken care of and all wrapped up in a pretty little bow.
This picture is a classic.
And it was not taken by me.
It was taken by one of my much, much younger cousins. It was from our last Thanksgiving trip to the beach almost two years ago. This was also the first fish my boy ever caught. He was pleased as punch.
And the reason why I am dredging up the past is that we are returning to the beach for Thanksgiving this year and I cannot wait. Literally, two weeks from today, at exactly this time (around 9 p.m.), it is my hope that we will be pulling into the driveway of the beach house.
I am completely and utterly in need of such a vacation. Things have just not been going my way. In addition to the catapult debacle, my kids have chosen this week to completely ignore most everything I say. This has unfortunately resulted in me doing a lot of yelling. Even more that my sweet little nieces accuse me of usually.
Then, it appears Brando, that deceptively sweet little demon that we rescued, has become possessed. In just the last two days alone, he has mangled the antennae on our ancient cordless phone. Which I suppose I should look at positively as Sarge may just allow the purchase of a new phone now. In addition to the phone, Brando has officially chewed through my vacuum cleaner’s power cord. The miraculous Dyson I bought to handle the lice outbreak we suffered from awhile ago. This means no vacuuming until it’s fixed. Now, this should be something I could also put another positive spin on but with a dog in the house, one just does not want to delay the vacuuming too much.
All these things combined with the copious amount of rain we have received today as part of the aftereffects of Hurricane Ida just show how absolutely desperate I am for a little getaway.
Alas, I have to wait two weeks.
It’s going to be tough.
Maybe even tougher than childbirth.
This is actually a photo of my sister but the camera and the action that goes with a camera help provide a perfect introduction to my story for the night.
Our dinner conversation topics have been extremely varied and quite interesting now that Sarge is home with us in the evening.
A perfect example–tonight.
As we’re eating, we’re also discussing war. My girl asks what it is and her genius brother answers with the following statement “Well, it’s when people keep shooting at each other until there is only one person left. And that’s the winner.”
That could be one way of looking at it.
It then segues into a discussion about previous wars, like the Civil War. My girl apparently has studied this war at sometime in her educational past. So I mentioned the Mason-Dixon line as a geographical dividing line during that war.
And my boy asks “Who is Mason Dixon?” My girl replies (with a tone of Duh, don’t you know anything?) “He was a man.”
His response to this was “Oh, yeah, the one going for world domination.”
Apparently, we have let him watch the Discovery Channel just a wee bit too much. Or is it the History Channel? Whichever one does all those conspiracy shows on the Free Masons which invariably includes one of the many conspiracy theories out there that states they will eventually take over the world.
Isn’t it just absolutely amazing what one can learn from television?
After laughing quite a bit at this little gem, we continue on with our crazy conversation. But I have forgotten the best moment of the night.
Sarge, while trying to educate our young’uns on war, totaly blows me away by quoting Sun Tzu. Apparently, he supposedly authored The Art of War. Who knew I married such a widely read man? Anyway, he paraphrases the quote below to our children.
For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. ~Sun Tzu
To which my son replies “Yes, and always carry stinky socks.”
I have found my new mantra, my new philosophy when dealing with adversity.
I couldn’t be more proud. As Sarge said, we have a warrior poet on our hands.
Autumn is my favorite season of the year. I love the vibrant colors, the visible signs signaling the change of the seasons, the crispness to the air as the overbearing humidity vacates for a few months, and the clothes. O, how I love the clothes, the sweaters. the fleece, and all things snuggly.
But today was . . . well, I’m not so sure.
It should have been a landmark day. First there was the absolute gorgeousness of the weather along with the fact that this divine gift of a sunny day fell on a Sunday, a non-working day. Add in that we only had one commitment provided an excellent set-up. Sarge was gone to a pro-football game all day but that should not have put a damper on the good times the kids and I could have in each other’s company.
It seemed though that our stars were not aligned today. My kids could not get along for the life of me. Then, they could not agree on what they wanted to do. My girl wanted to be out and about and my boy wanted to take the homebody route. This general disagreement culminated in what could have been a disastrous event. Brought about, quite ironically, by the two of them actually working together.
Late in the day, my boy and I went to pick up my girl at her girl scout meeting. One of the activities for the meeting was an obstacle course. One of the obstacles was similar to a mini-seesaw. It was more like a very long two by four resting on a rock that made the piece of wood tip back and forth. Anway, these two brilliant brainchildren of mine had the stellar idea of having my boy stand on one end while my girl jumped on the other. Resulting in him catapulting to goodness knows where.
I happened to walk outside right at the critical moment of the jump. While simultaneously screaming “NO!” I immediately began running up the hill to where they were. As I watched my boy go flying into the air a good three feet higher than he was tall, I just about lost it. Then, he smacked the board on his back and I just had horrible visions of the many ways in which he could now be hurt. Luckily, he immediately got up, he was crying but moving none the less.
That’s when I started screaming. And my girl screamed back “Well, he asked me too.” Which kept me going as nothing fuels a motherly tirade like being (a) talked back to and (b) seeing your child take absolutely no responsibility for her actions. So I immediately dragged my kids out of the meeting and once we dropped off the extra child I had to return home, I gave my kids the full blast of my temper.
I tried to explain why I was so angry and to let them know it was mostly out of fear of my boy being seriously hurt that made me so upset. While the whole debacle was unfolding, I had had the feeling that this could have been a re-run of the sledding incident.
The truly odd (but weirdly funny) thing about it all was that neither of my kids could tell their father, without copious crying and sobbing, what had happened.
Such is the life of the mother.
I’ve had my laptop computer for two years and a month. We previously had one of those dinosaur-like computers with the tower and the ginormous monitor. When it died, we went quite awhile without anything. Then, I finally made my wish of getting a Mac come true.
Anyway, my kids have been enamored of my computer ever since then. So has Sarge, much to my chagrin.
Tonight while I was cleaning things up and transferring my thousands of photos to my hard drive, I found the following gems.
This is not the first time this has happened.
There’s even a picture with me in the background and I can honestly say I have no recollection of this.
I seriously have to doubt all of my family’s sanity when I encounter these things.
The even scarier better thing is that this excellent portrait is from our summer beach trip in July. That was over three months ago. And I’m just finding it now. Truly, I think things might be hopeless here.
Because when you discover a self portrait of your son pretending to be some odd facsimile of a Jedi Knight, or worse, Darth Vader, it’s over, people.
Plain, flat out over.
