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My Lunch with Neil Diamond

June 18, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

I would love to have lunch with Neil Diamond.  Don’t know where we would have lunch, perhaps a good New York deli.  Someone told me today that her cousin met Neil Diamond at a restaurant.  He was alone and he said the “it’s not glamorous” speech.  Her cousin gave Neil his telephone number.  But he went out on some errands and missed the phone call from Neil!  I would have gone home and taken a seat by my phone for at least a week!

To be continued tomorrow…

Because tomorrow my mom and I will see Neil again.  Thirty years ago we saw him together for the first time.  Ah, it’s a Beautiful Noise.

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My Lunch with Kenneth…yet another course

June 17, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

Well, I finally watched Thor.  Kenneth Branagh was a good choice for the director and is also not the right choice for future adventures of Thor.  Yes, I love my Kenneth and he was great for laying out the mythology behind this Norse god.  Now he has wisely stepped aside to let someone else handle the action franchise that I am sure will follow.  What a wonderful blend of the classical and modern language.  I particularly enjoyed “Is this your chamber?” or something like that.

The thing I loved best about this movie was the very obvious lesson of listening to your parents.  I didn’t even have to hit the boys over the head with a hammer to catch it.  I wonder if I get a hammer, one of the plastic Thor hammers, if the boys would actually listen to me.  I don’t know.  They are great boys.  They are really well behaved except for the parts we’ve messed up.  Hubby and I have spoiled them.  It’s been tricky lately to work on undoing this.  We’re having a yard sale next Saturday, per the boys’ request as they want to make some money.  But they don’t want to sell any of their toys.  We’ve been working on this for a couple of weeks and today there was a small breakthrough.   They started to realize that most of their toys were played with for a couple of weeks and then the novelty wore off.  I am hopeful that they will come around in the next few days and select some toys that might actually sell.

They each had to pick ten toys for the yard sale and put them on my bed yesterday.  Older son called out that he was done this chore.  I predicted he would have chosen a Nerf dart and counted that as a toy.  I was right.

They both really got into Thor.  We called out some other classic Kenneth lines as we watched it.  Their favorite worked into the film a couple of times- “The arthropods are back.”  Not sure why they love this line from Kenneth so much, but they do.  I am clearly somewhat obsessed with him since younger son asked if the movie was directed by Hamlet.

I think I’ll be picking up Thor’s hammer and see if it triggers a response.  No, I won’t use it on them (though they said I should get the one with the lightning bolts that shoot out).  I’ll use it for the symbolism.  They dig the Norse mythology.  I need to capitalize on these events when I can.  😉

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Simplicity leading to serenity

June 15, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

I’ve been lucky enough to hear a wonderful tale a couple of times in church about what peace is.  My apologies if I miss a few details…but this is what I took from it.  My pastor told the tale (you may have heard it before) of someone creating an image of a peaceful moment and a man trying to create a picture of a calm and serene place.  Yet the picture he created (maybe painted…can’t recall details) that showed peace was a storm.  The peaceful part was a bird just being a bird in the storm, calm and ready to go with the flow.  Here is a depiction of the image titled “Peace in the Midst of the Storm”  by Jack E. Dawson:

As I continue my journey with simplicity, I find new moments of serenity within my day.  I imagine these moments are similar to that bird sitting calmly in the storm.  As we love to say, these are some crazy days.  They really are no more crazy than what generations before me dealt with, perhaps just a different crazy.  We keep our own peace marching forward in our family, trying not to overwhelm ourselves.  It’s been a big time of transition, taking things off of our plates.  We’ve done an okay job of it, I think, yet we still have kept the things that matter to us the most.

My sons, with all the boyhood activities, bring me peace each day.  Today the moment of serenity came in the form of two very sincere hugs and some quiet moments of conversation when I got home from class.  We only had a few moments since it was a night class, but it didn’t matter.  The moments were full of grace, simplicity, serenity, love.  I’ve had a warm fuzzy feeling all evening basking in the afterglow of those hugs.

Yes, once they were tucked into bed at 10:00pm, I ran errands to a store, came home and exercised while somewhat de-wrinkling the new curtains (what, the curtains?), and then took care of some laundry.  But here I sit, freshly showered after getting stinky exercising, with warm hugs still wrapped around me.

Calm in the storm.  Peace in the storm.  Simplicity and serenity swirling around my home.

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Club disease…tinnitus

June 11, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

My ear has been ringing all day and I didn’t even party like it’s 1999 at a club last night.  I do go to the Neil Diamond concert 

in a week or so, and may have ringing then.  But face it, Sweet Caroline is worth the ringing.  So why am I suffering from the annoying ringing and muted audio associated with tinnitus?  I have no bloody clue.

According to http://www.mayoclininc.com, while annoying, it is usually not something serious.  Tinnitus isn’t the actual problem, it’s the symptom.  Well now I have lines from two movies going through my head.  One is from 1975…”but not the symptoms!” and the other is from 1989…”Yeah, well that symptom is ______ing my wife!”  You figure it out (no googling, you should just know it) and you can post a comment to tell me what movies you think I’m talking about.

There’s a third movie I’m thinking about and this one actually refers to tinnitus as “club disease”-if you know this classic, post it in your comment as well.

So back to my tinnitus.  What is the underlying cause, I wonder?  I clean my ears regularly.  Not in an invasive way that may cause damage and I’m not a swimmer so it’s not swimmer’s ear (“I’m not a strong swimmer…”–huge bonus points if you can tell me where that quote comes from!).  According to our dear friends at Mayo, it could be age-related heating loss, ear injury, or something else, blah, blah, blah, bhr, bhr, bhr.  I’m thinking it’s an ear injury.  I have no knowledge of an injury to my ear, but younger son slept in our bed last night.  It seems pretty reasonable to think that he swung his arm over and nailed my ear with his Popeye arm.   Little dude has some well developed muscles.  I’m just really hopeful it goes away soon because I had to ask people to repeat themselves today, couldn’t hear half of my class tonight, and the ringing is driving me crazy, a short trip, some would say.

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Bucket Lists of Many Kinds

June 10, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

I was planning on auditioning for a show in the next week or two, but I am having serious second thoughts.  First, while it would be a fun show, it’s not one that was on my “list” of shows I’d like to do before I die.  I guess one could call it an actor’s bucket list.  I really enjoyed working with the group, so that’s not the issue.  I’ve been looking at the time I would need to spend on the role (presuming I were cast) and as I added it up, I began to think…hmmmm, do I want to do that?  Now?

I would actually have more conflicts than I had thought before thinking to myself that I could easily do a show.  I had remembered the conflict with a wedding I’ll be attending but hadn’t thought of eight or nine or ten other commitments that are not moveable.  That’s almost a dozen conflicts which is about a quarter to a third of the rehearsals.  (Don’t ask me to be more specific, I’m not a math person and I’m really not a fraction person, unless I’m baking and then fractions make sense.)  The other commitments are too important to try to shift or move, but I also do not like being the type who gets a part and then lists a slew of rehearsals I’ll miss.  It happens, I get it, but I don’t like to do it.

Would the person directing the show work around it?  Possibly, probably, maybe.  I don’t really know and that’s not what’s important.  I wouldn’t feel right.  Knowing I had intentionally double-booked myself and forced one or the other to work around my inability to be there would lessen my enjoyment of whichever one I did attend.

Putting all of that aside however, I realize that the main deterrent is the time I wouldn’t get to spend with my family.  Yes I like to indulge my interests and keep myself fresh and excited by doing things I like to do.  But this is the first summer in a decade when we’re not on too many boards (I’m only on one and it doesn’t meet during the summer).  The classes I’m teaching will be over by the end of June, right around the time the boys finish school.

I could feasibly take advantage of the summer hours at work and spend some lazy summer evenings with my family.  I could work on my yard. I could do scrapbooking or beading or sewing or reading or nothing.  Imagine working on my sons’ scrapbooks.  Imagine sitting and having deep conversations about the exoskeleton of cicada with my sons.  Imagine reading a book in one sitting.  Imagine not feeling the pressure of extra, self-inflicted deadlines.  This is the first summer when I don’t have any externally imposed deadlines on my plate.

Do I want to put one on my plate?  Or would that be like putting a big helping of beets on the plate?  I would imagine it could begin to leave a bitter taste in my mouth and I don’t want to do that.  I also feel like hubby should do the next show.  He probably won’t do a show because he always comes up with a reason not to do a show.  But I don’t think I want to do a show.  I think I want to not do stuff that doesn’t have a direct positive impact on my whole family and not just me.  This summer I think I want to be selfish and spend all my spare time with my family.

The boys and I started making the presents for their teachers tonight.  We came up with the idea of giving their teachers a small, hand-painted wooden box personalized with either an initial or a picture of something each teacher likes.  We had a blast working on the boxes tonight.  I want more of that.  I looked at my sons this evening, painting and smiling, and they looked so much older than I expected them to look.  Oldest son doesn’t like me to hug or kiss him in front of people.  Youngest son can’t be too far behind.  At this moment, they still like spending time with me and I’m still relatively cool.  That won’t last and I know it.  It’ll come back another day, but it’s going to change soon and last for quite some time.  While I pray daily for the blessing of a long life, spending time with my sons is always on my bucket list.  Spending time with hubby is always on my bucket list.  I don’t want to take that for granted.  Ever.

At the beginning of this post I had not yet decided the fate of the audition nor did I think I would figure it out today or tomorrow.  And yet I’ve clearly made my decision.  I didn’t go through my normal long and drawn-out process.  Well, there’s one to take off the bucket list.

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Moments into memories

June 8, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

Each day offers moments that will become memories.  Some days are more loaded than others.  Today is one of those days.  Last night I raced from class to see the last half of older son’s last ball game of the regular season.  This morning I saw my dad at his induction into the Olde Guard at his alma mater (also my alma mater).  I’m off to “Spring into Poetry” for younger son.  Tonight hubby and I are going to a dinner dance for the theater company with which I played “Vera” in Mame.  But the neatest moment today is that ten years ago my hubby became my hubby.  Ten years filled with laughter, love, tears, loss, happiness, craziness, Addams Family-ness, and the two greatest sons any two parents could ever hope to have.  Happy anniversary to the world’s greatest hubby!

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Game of Thrones

June 1, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

Okay, I have never watched the show.  Yet it is part of the reason I have not blogged as much lately.  I’ve been indulging in another hobby I love.  My dear friend, Stephanie, is going to Comic Con tomorrow and wanted to go as the character Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones.  We searched online for photographs of the costume she liked and then went to the fabric store.  I sat down and sketched out a pattern and set about to sew.

This is the costume she wanted to wear:

        

 

This is the costume she will wear tomorrow:

                                      

 

I think it came out pretty good.

I had so much fun making the costume.  I love to make my sons’ Halloween costumes, and this was like that.  It is something to do out of pure joy.  Stephanie seemed pleased with it.  Here are some other photos.

                                                       

Yep, she even has an accessory.  She can also summon the cats.

I enjoy sewing.  It’s neat to know that the piece starts as cut fabric, thread, and trim.  Then some hours later (a few hours here and there over the past few weeks) something exists that didn’t exist before.  I hope she has an awesome time tomorrow.

I had an awesome time today.  Field Day finally happened after two rainy days washed it off the schedule.  Sadly, older son has been sick with a fever and had to miss the festivities.  Younger son however was ready to go.

                       

He had a fun time but was a bit sad because I couldn’t stay the whole time.  I could have on Wednesday, even though they had pushed back the start time.  But on Friday work closes early and I had to tutor at 11:00.  He was very sad, cried a bit.  It was a very new experience-I couldn’t stay the whole time and his brother wasn’t there to cheer him on while he raced.  Hubby was able to run over for a bit in between patients.  I told Hubby that while younger son would seem fine when he got there, remember that in his sweet heart, he would be thrilled that Daddy had come for a bit.  Hubby went back after he was done with next patient, but by then it was over.

I went to work, tutored, went to get the milk, and then home to check on older son.  After picking up younger son from school, we got Slurpees and nachos.

This was a good day.

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I’ve been saving time in a bottle

May 29, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

A picture is worth a thousand words…me and younger son at the zoo for his field trip.

                    

 

 

 

 

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Carpe diem, House

May 21, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

Again a show that I love has left the airways.  Again I was very happy with the final episode.  I must say I loved that House worked in a reference to Dead Poet’s Society…hee hee hee.  And I know it doesn’t happen often anymore, but I’m glad they left it open. Technically they could do a reunion show, albeit without Wilson, but…

Little bit Thelma and Louise at the end, not that I think they are going to drive off a cliff, but just taking off is freeing.  I was speaking with a coworker about it earlier today and we wondered if House and Wilson would rent a convertible, drive off,  and pick up Brad Pitt, which I think Brad would have done it.  So carpe diem to us all.

I didn’t get to watch the behind the scenes special before the final episode…work.  But I am sure I will watch it over the weekend.  Currently, Kenneth Branagh is playing in the background in Love’s Labour’s Lost.  (Geeky trivia question for you-what does Kenneth Branagh have in common with both Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard?)  Papers must be graded, tests must be scored, laundry must be folded, and trash must be put to the curb.

But it will be done with a satisfied brain, pleased with the end of House.

Oldest son claims he can no longer sleep with his brother in the same bed.  They’ve shared a double-size bed for six years and now he’s decided he can’t share a bed.  At the moment, there really is no other option for him, so his solution is to sleep on the chaise in the living room.  Yeah, sleep.  Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Youngest son was devastated by this event.  He was crying as he tried to go to sleep and fessed up to the fact that he is scared of the dark.  I didn’t tell oldest son this information as I didn’t want him to feel even more power and control over his baby brother.  I checked on youngest son several times as he was falling asleep.  He is sleeping soundly in the bed, cuddling Blue Bear and his Elmo’s blanket.  Oldest son is tossing and turning as he pretends to sleep on the chaise.

Oldest son did not like when I ignored his questions during House.  He kept asking why I was crying and I wouldn’t answer. Then he would ask why I was laughing and I wouldn’t answer.  He kept pretending I was waking him up with my reactions to the episode.  He’s really got to work on his delivery.  It’s too over the top and obvious.  I was trying to make a point however that he was well beyond his 8:30 bedtime.  In theory, they should have been asleep before the episode even started and then it wouldn’t have mattered.  But he likes to be a ham.

I like that the series gave us little pictures, snapshots, of where the other characters went after House’s grand exit.  Fans deserve that type of ending.  Monk did the same.  Left everybody basically doing the same-old-same-old just without our voyeuristic eyes peering into their lives.

But the best lives to peer into are our own.  I know why my sons were still up-they were waiting to see me, or to get a few more minutes playing a video game.  They do like to grab a few minutes with me when I get home and, with my current late night schedule, I don’t mind if they are up for a wee bit when I get home.  I miss the little buggers.

Well, remember the lessons we’ve learned from House.  There are books on the philosophy of House, but I sum it up like this.  Mystery is a good thing, friends do matter, and everybody lies.  Of course, the most important lesson:

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Charlotte’s Web

May 18, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

I’ve begun a work cycle that involves working 9am-9pm four days a week so I haven’t spent a ton of time with my sons this week.  It only lasts for five weeks and it happens maybe once a year so you do what you have to do.  They are with Daddy or someone who adores them so I don’t feel badly about that, but today was the first half-day Friday of the season and I wanted some cuddle time.  I reminded the boys that I don’t like being away from them and that I miss them.  I told them I do give them a kiss once I get home.  Older son started crying and I asked what was wrong.  He said it wasn’t because of me working (nice blow to the mommy ego…) but because he watched Charlotte’s Web today at school.

He was proud of himself because he kept it in at school.  He said he didn’t want to be embarrassed so he had held it in till he got home and just needed to let it out now.  I told him I was proud of him for two reasons.  First, he analyzed the situation, determined what outcome he wanted to achieve, and applied the behavior he needed to in order to achieve it.  Second, I was proud of him that he cried about Charlotte’s Web. 

I hope my sons never lose the ability to express and show their emotions, whether it be over a movie, song, book, or life event.  It’s not healthy to not cry when you feel the need to do it,  Some days I intentionally watch a cry-fest movie so I can have a good cry.  You know all the classics that work.  Toy Story 3 is the most recent addition for an immediate cry.  Actually, any Pixar movie gets me to cry. 

Here’s to crying over Charlotte’s Web.

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