Harvey's been privately razzing me about my recent lapse in posting so I thought I better get over here and say something so as not to incur his public wrath as I suspect it bears a suspicious resemblance to mockery. hehe...
So what the heck has kept me from posting, you ask? Life. Just life. Been living it and enjoying it. The kids are out of school--except Natie who was cordially invited to spend his summer vacation with the public school system as they enjoy his company sooo very much. Unfortunately, he's not feeling the love. It sure does bite when the consequences your parents warned you about actually become a reality. hahaha...sucks to be him! :-P
We started a new project. Sadly, but not all that surprisingly, our "Let's paint the house!" took a nasty turn and became "Lets put new windows, new siding, new rain gutters, a new front door, garage door, sliding door AND THEN we'll paint the house!" Oddy, I'm going to have some very SERIOUS white-trash pictures of my house in the very near future, my dear! ;-)
Songstress--that sweetie--tagged me last week for a literary meme which I really do plan on responding to since I have had a love affair with books since I was a young girl. Haven't been ignoring you Sissy, I just suck is all. :-P
Ok...I'm off to go kayaking! Back soon. ish. hehe...
....State Farm is theeeeeeeere. Remember that jingle? Well it's true! I've had to make 2 claims in 2 days! On Friday, Spencer came home from his last day of school with the deer in the headlight eyes. Seems he and a few friends were messing around and Spencer got on top of his buddy's car. Yeah...put his elbow through the windshield AND a huge dent in the side panel. Lovely. Hey Spence....can you say "summer job"?
Then Sunday, after we got home from Home Depot, we noticed that my brand new-to-me car had been keyed. Badly. The agent said the damage was so bad that the hood, front bumper and right side panel may have to be replaced. Ugh. Seriously....the only thing that went through my mind was "Why? Why would somebody be so mean?" Ya know...it's true: Mean people DO suck.
A big thanks to Jim from SnoozeButtonDreams for importing all my posts from my previous blog home. You da best, Jim!
...have you ever done something so stupid you didn't want to tell anybody? Hehe... well last night, I was watching with utter dismay the jury discuss the reason for their "not guilty" verdicts in the Michael Jackson case. I was so engrossed in their story that I completely missed the chair I was attempting to sit in. I fell right onto the ground, hitting my head on the bookcase behind me and biffing my arm on the chairs arm. For a half a second I wondered if I was going to pass out from the pain, but again...I was so absorbed in the story, I just rubbed my head without ever taking my eyes off the TV. I remember saying "damn" about 3 times but I never flinched. My head is VERY tender where I hit it and I have a massive bruise on my arm. I told Rocket Man that I hit my head but it wasn't until I saw the bruise on my arm that I finally realized I was gonna have to tell him how I hurt my head. He was very gracious and only chuckled a little when I told him how I did it. I wonder though, was it my imagination or did he really say "Good-bye Grace" when I hung up the phone today! Hmmmmm....that brat. :-P
Yep, it's graduation season, and with it comes the urgent need to cram a few last minute life-lessons into our kids before we toss 'em out of the nest and see if they can fly or not. I have 2 nephews who graduated from high school last week. One will definitely fly, the other may become a yellow spot on the windshield of life. hehe...
This excerpt has been attributed to Bill Gates, who, I'm sure, wishes he had said it, but in fact, is the property of one Charles Sykes, author of "Dumbing Down our Kids". And as wise as his words are, I can't help but feel Charles left a few things unsaid. Allow me to say them for him (in italics):
RULE 1
Life is not fair - get used to it. And while you’re getting
used to that, you might wanna get used to Top Ramen
for the next 4 to 6 years.
RULE 2
The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world
will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel
good about yourself. Idiot.
RULE 3
You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out
of high school. You won't be a vice president with
car phone, until you earn both. And trust me when I tell you
40k ain’t much so don’t dismiss Rule 5 too quickly.
RULE 4
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a
boss. He doesn't have tenure. Or Arnold Schwarzenegger
breathing down his neck.
RULE 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your
grandparents had a different word for burger flipping
they called it Opportunity. Today we call it “downsizing”.
RULE 6
If you mess up, it’s not your parents' fault, so don't
whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Even better,
write a book telling how horrible your parents were, they’ll sue
you and be set for retirement 5 years early!
RULE 7
Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as
they are now. They got that way from paying your bills,
cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about
how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest
from the parasites of your parent's generation, try
delousing the closet in your own room. AND GET A JOB, YA
MONEY-SUCKING OXYGEN THEIF!
RULE 8
Your school may have done away with winners and losers,
but life has not. In some schools they have abolished
failing grades and they'll give you as many times as
you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the
slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. But don't tell the
democratic party this, they still believe in Santa, too.
RULE 9
Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get
summers off and very few employers are interested in
helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
WHAT THE...!?! YOU SUCK, CHUCK!!!
My friend Casey has been anxiously awaiting some good news and he finally got it! He's just been hired as the San Diego Chargers Managing Editor of Website and Publications.
Congratulations, Casey, and WELCOME TO CAL-EE-FOR-NEE-YA!
Went out with some friends this weekend and saw Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe. I knew I wanted to see this movie the first time I saw the trailer. Ron Howard is a great storyteller and Russell Crowe is a great actor, even if he does have some "anger management" issues.
This movie lived up to my expectations in every way. By the time it was over, we all felt worn out! It was hard not to get emotionally, and for some of us, physically involved in the story (Yes, I'm the person sitting behind you clapping and cheering and punching the air like an idiot...) :-P
His opponent Max Baer was portrayed as a truly horrible man but in this morning's paper, I read a different tale according to local historian Bill Pettite and Baer's son Max Baer Jr. aka Jethro Bodine:
"They say the film makes Max out to be a thug who relished his role in the ring deaths of two of his opponents.
'That movie has smeared Max Baer," Bill said. "He was an easygoing kind of guy, not a killer.'
'That's a lie,' Max Jr. says in the tabloid. 'My father cried about what happened to (boxing victim) Frankie Campbell. He had nightmares. He helped put Frankie's children through college.' "
I'm glad he wasn't the beast I saw in the movie 'cause I reeeeally didn't like him!
Have you ever experienced something so breathtakingly beautiful that words failed you? I’ve been trying to find the words to tell you about this past weekend and try as I might, I find myself unable to adequately tell the story in a way that does it justice. In spite of my inadequacies, this story deserves to be told and so I will do my best to tell it.
Last Saturday, I was in a wedding. As all weddings should be, it was perfect in every possible way. Held at the bride’s parents home under a grove of trees with the late afternoon sun whispering through the fluttering leaves, this loveliest of brides married the man who captured her heart as friends and family gathered around on picnic blankets.
It’s not uncommon to see tears at a wedding, but the tears at this wedding carried a certain tenderness and poignancy as friends and family recalled the story behind the story.
As all love stories go, theirs began with “boy meets girl” but it would be a grave injustice to believe that this story began with this boy and this girl. The real story began 23 years ago when a young 17 year old girl met a guy on a trip to Los Angeles. 2 months later, she found out she was pregnant. He sent her money to have an abortion and hoped in doing so he would be rid of them both. As this frightened girl lay on the abortion table, prepared to do what fear said was her only option, she tried to stifle the questions her heart was asking. Moments before the procedure was to take place, the abortionist informed her that she was too far along into the pregnancy to end it. She would have to tell her mother. A month later, laying on yet another table, this dr. informed her that she was not as far along as the abortionist had said—he would have been able to perform the abortion had he not miscalculated. Even at that moment, it was apparent that a story was beginning to unfold.
The girl knew she had to make changes. She was about to become a mother and it was time to get her life in order. She endured the humiliation of being the topic of conversation at her high school, the sorrow of leaving her friends and careless life and went to live in a home for unwed mothers.
The guy made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with her or the baby and so she prepared to raise her child alone. She gave birth to a daughter and named her Robin. It wasn’t long before the father made a surprise visit. Soon he began making regular trips to see his daughter. After several months, he asked the girl to marry him and let him help raise their daughter. She refused him. He was an alcoholic who showed no signs of changing. She would rather raise her daughter alone than with the uncertainty he represented. But he was not to be dissuaded. He, too, began making changes. And so…with much trepidation and not a whole lot of love, she agreed to marry him.
I wish I could say that this is where the story gets good, but the truth is, this is where the story gets very, very bad. It would be so nice if life would applaud our effort to do the right thing by smoothing out the bumps along the way but that is rarely the case. Life would make no exceptions for this young couple. Their road would be long and arduous. They would struggle against their own demons and the ones they created together. For the next ten years, he would battle alcoholism and she would battle him. But through all their struggles, there remained one constant: their mutual desire to become more than they were. They continued to fight, but something had changed. The things that once divided them they were now united in purpose to overcome. They began to work together to battle their demons. Slowly, painfully, this young couple became a formidable team. As their family grew to include 2 more children, their bond grew stronger. Everything they did, they did as a team. Everywhere they went, they went as a team. They were united in purpose, united in vision, united in desire to become something more than what they started out as. They lived their lives honestly and transparently before one another. They didn’t pretend to be something they weren’t. They were demanding of their children, relentlessly imparting values and discipline, but always loving, always nurturing, always tender.
When Robin left for college, they mourned her absence. When she met Mark, they struggled to let her go. But as her father walked her down the grassy aisle, knowing his daughter had saved her heart, her body, her life for this one man, the tears that streamed down his face made it apparent that he regretted not one minute of the time he had shared with her. As he gave his daughter away, he told how he had given her a promise ring when she was 12 and at that time, asked if she would give him her heart until the day that her husband would claim it. He stood before his beautiful daughter and with tears streaming down his face, he asked for the ring back. She placed it in his hand, and with a kiss, he whispered, “You’re free, my beautiful Robin…fly and take your heart to its new home.” But before she could do so…she asked for one last dance. And as her father held her in his arms, she looked him in the eyes and with a smile on her face, she sang these words:
For all those times you stood by me
For all the truth that you made me see
For all the joy you brought to my life
For all the wrong that you made right
For every dream you made come true
For all the love I found in you
I’ll be forever thankful daddy
You’re the one who held me up
Never let me fall
You’re the one who saw me through it all
You were my strength when I was weak
You were my voice when I couldn’t speak
You were my eyes when I couldn’t see
You saw the best there was in me
Lifted me up when I couldn’t reach
You gave me faith ’cuz you believed
I’m everything I am
Because you loved me
You gave me wings and made me fly
You touched my hand I could touch the sky
I lost my faith, you gave it back to me
You said no star was out of reach
You stood by me and I stood tall
I had your love I had it all
I’m grateful for each day you gave me
Maybe I don’t know that much
But I know this much is true
I was blessed because I was loved by you
As you can imagine, there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as we shared in this most precious and sacred moment, for while this was a love story between a boy and a girl, it was also a love story between a father and a daughter, a husband and a wife, but most of all, it is a love story between a faithful God and His children whom He lovingly redeemed.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” –Jeremiah 29:11
Nathaniel has been getting in trouble for talking out of turn in class ALL year long but sometimes, you just can't fault a boy for trying to set the record straight. In class, a girl was sharing with her classmates about the American Idol finale and how Bo got to sing with "Linkin' Stinkin' ". God bless my son....out came this loud and gutteral "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!! It's NOT Linkin' Stinkin'! It's LYNARD SKYNARD!!!"
Far be it from this parent to chastise him for that. ;-)
Jackson, that is. This man has ruined me for life! You see, it is my not so humble or even professional or for that matter, even solicited opinion that the LOTR movies are the finest movies ever made. In every way imaginable. Don't even try to argue with me on this point because I can't be swayed. From the screenplay to the actors, to the CG, to the sets...these movies are proof that geniuses still walk the earth and occasionally, if we are lucky, they sprinkle their little genius dust on us mere mortals and remind us of their existence.
The problem is that the bar has been set so high by Mr. Jackson that everything pales in comparison. Movies I would have once considered good or even excellent are now blasé at best, and more often than not, I struggle to see past the many flaws that seem so glaringly apparent. Perfection sure can be a two-edged sword sometimes.
So what prompted all that? Well...I saw Star Wars III last week. Since it premiered, I've been very careful not to allow myself to become biased in any way by reading critiques or reviews. Had I not exercised such restraint, I think this movie would have been painful to the point that I would have been forced to openly mock it whilst it played before my very eyes, not to mention the eyes of about 150 eager viewers. As it is, I found my own issues right from the start and didnt need anybody else to help me find them.
First, the dialogue was so fricking cheesey it was all I could do to keep from banging my head into the seat in front of me. When the first Star Wars was made, I was 13 years old and related quite well to the interplay between characters. Well, I'm not 13 anymore but the dialogue felt suspiciously like an After-School Special directed by Miss Kiki's 7th grade drama class. Ugh. How do grown adults write this stuff and make millions off it? (And how can I be one of them!! haha....j/k!)
I think what bothered me the most was that the characters lost some of their strength. Padmé went from being this powerful world leader, respected for her sound mind and strong spirit to this weak, helpless chick who got knocked up by a bad-boy. Way to set women back lightyears, Padmé!
Yoda was probably the worst though. Remember the way he had that slow cadance to his speech and the way he always cloaked his words in mysterious phrases? Yeah? Well...get over it cause he don't do dat no mo'. Yoda seemed very human-like to me and I can't decide if they just decided to speed the story up or portray him as younger by making him talk like a southern-california beach bum. All I know is Yoda lost some of his magic and it makes me sad.
Even Obi-Wan seemed different in a pre-menstrual sort of way. I wanted to see the stoicly controlled Jedi we've all come to know and love. It seems Anakin aka Darth Whiner had a negative affect way before anybody realized it. As for Anakin...I won't even bother to comment because he started bugging me in the last movie and it was just more of the same.
In spite of my criticism, this movie does have many redeeming qualities. The plot line was consistant and well thought-out and the CG was everything you've come to expect from George Lucas and we've come to expect a lot! But I think the best quality of this movie, as in all the SW movies, is that evil was portrayed as truly evil and good was portrayed as truly good. There were no grey-shades blurring the lines between the two and THAT is what makes these movies the phenomenal success they are. The seduction of Anakin Skywalker was chilling and heartbreaking but it was very intriguing to watch the dance between him and Palpatine. Truly the best part of the movie.
So did I like it? Yeah...I liked it because I thought it filled in the holes that needed filling in. Was it a great movie? Only because the circle was completed and of course, for the special-effects. And I suppose the fact that Jar-jar Binx had nothing more than a cameo proves Lucas got a few things right.