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It’s all been reruns since ancient Greek theater

May 18, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

 

I’ve had two discussions this week about plots, or more specifically remakes that use the same exact plot and why do we need them in the world?  It’s a fun topic and in the end, every show has been a rerun since the theater of the ancient Greeks.  The roots of every story, play, movie, or television show can be found in Greek theater.

But I still love a good debate so…

For me, plays are meant to be a unique event each time because they are performed live and each performance will have slight variations due to a different audience and another day of life experience for the actors adding new dimensions to the performance, subtle though they may be.  I look at film versions of plays in a similar manner.  Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet is unique from Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet and from Ethan Hawke’s Hamlet.  (I don’t even consider Mel Gibson’s in the conversation as I did not care for it at all).  Each is approached from the roots of theater yet captured on film.  Each film includes distinct performances by the actors and a distinct interpretation by the director, as well as very intentional scenic and musical choices.  I glean something different from each one.

I think that You’ve Got Mail is a unique film from The Shop Around the Corner, the film that inspired the adaptation.  It also acknowledges the original, gives a tip of the hat if you will, within the film.  The sign on the Fox Bookstore building says “just around the corner” and they make references to mail…letters.  If you know the film The Shop Around the Corner, you’ll pick up on these wink wink, nudge nudge references.  If you don’t, they don’t stick out as out of place.

I don’t understand the need for remakes (I don’t care what you call them) if they only are a remaking of an original film without bringing anything new to the table.  The shot by shot remake of Psycho…why did we need that?  Hitchcock’s is perfect, no need to redo it.  I remembered how perfect on Mother’s Day when Encore Suspense treated us to a 24 hour marathon of it.

Arthur, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, why do we need to remake them when the originals were fabulous?  Give me a new twist at least.  And changing the gender of a character doesn’t count…just changes pronouns.  Scream could have been just another slasher flick in the tradition of the classics that changed the genre in the late 70s and early 80s, but it did something new in acknowledging the pedigree that bore it.  That made it original.

Another recent revamp was made by two of my favorites, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.  But Willy Wonka will always be visualized in my mind as Gene Wilder in a fabulous purple velvet coat.  I have a brown velvet coat that I call my Willy Wonka coat.  🙂  I will watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and embrace it as an individual movie because of my love of Tim and Johnny, but Gene Wilder will always be  Willy Wonka.  Their latest, Dark Shadows, has yet to be seen, so I cannot comment yet.

Are these amazingly fine lines to be drawing in the sand?  Yep.  I wonder though as I reflect if I haven’t noticed a wee bit of a trend.  When a film is adapted from a book or play, I’m far more open to seeing a new version of it.  Perhaps because for me I always approach a film version of a book or play with some skepticism since I’ve already got my own version of it in my mind’s eye.  It don’t expect it to live up to my expectations and so I am sometimes pleasantly surprised.  A remake of a story that was originally intended for film I am less flexible about because if it was written for film, it was intended to be a finite and finished product.  A play is meant to be produced over and over just as a book can be read over and over.

Now some might ask me what I think about The Three Stooges movie.  I’m fine with it-I haven’t seen it yet but my hubby and sons did and they gave it their own Three Stooges approval.  First, it incorporated the concept of short films, another wink wink, nudge nudge example.  Second, even with the original Three Stooges, there were four different groupings of them (Moe and Larry with Curly, Shemp, Joe, or Curly Joe and the original trio was Larry, Moe and Shemp to begin with but without the name Three Stooges).  They were always the same characters but in different short films, a different situation.

In the end, we keep repeating and remaking these stories on stage or screen because we will never finish exploring the human condition and the human existence.  We are egotistical by nature.  We also are a social creature and we feel better after sitting in a dark room together with a bunch of strangers watching ourselves and examining how we handle this thing called life, reruns and all.

 

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Spirits

May 14, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

Spirits have come up a lot on conversation lately.  Perhaps it’s that time of year, as we gear up for Pentecost.  I apologize if I’m repeating myself as I may have written some of this before, but the memory doesn’t trap every detail like it used to.  My mother-in-law comes into the office quite regularly.  You can hear the front door open and yet no one is down there.  But the visits that make me pause the most are the ones she has with younger son.

Younger son shared with us that he visits with Grandmom in the kitchen.  She asks how school is going and he tells her.  Then she leaves.  I think she just likes catching up with him since he was only 2 and a half years old when she died.

I love watching movies or reading books about spirits and ghosts.  Hamlet’s father, Simba’s father, The Others, lots of great movies that explore the spirits in the world.  Lots of plays explore this idea, and have since the first plays.  I was speaking with someone this evening and we talked about the fact that every play, film, television show has been a re-run since the original Greek plays.  So if you think about it-there is story after story about ghosts.  It is clearly a shared experience of humans over time.  Has everyone experienced it?  Nope.  But this is something that crosses over cultures and genders and ages.

I like the idea of being able to check in on loved ones every now and then.  I was as the farm recently and felt my mother-in-law there.  It was a very strong presence.  At one point, I walked upstairs and felt her, smelled her.  It was for a brief period of time, moments really, and then she moved on to some other spot.  But I felt her spirit.  I could smell her.  So I went into her closet to see if it stilled smelled like her and it doesn’t.  It just smells stale.  So the smell didn’t come from there.  The only thing that makes sense in explaining it is it was her spirit.

Could it be our own need to feel and believe our loved ones are in a better place with no pain, wants, or needs?  I suppose, but just because it’s not there and just because you can’t touch it or see it doesn’t mean it isn’t real.  We carry a piece of them in our hearts and perhaps it calls to their spirits so when we need a boost, they come and visit.

A few spirits floating around just adds a little flair and excitement.

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Christians, same-sex marriage, and the younger generation

May 10, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

I love my church. We focus on how we can help and also remember to examine our own lives before judging anyone else-for anything.  I agree completely that Christians who try to live their lives in a manner similarly to myself have to stand up, voice our thoughts, and be heard.  I know some feel like they won’t be heard or that they may have to deal with being judged. But for myself, Jesus stood up and was judged.  If He could do it, I better at least try.  I’ve gotten burned in the past in voicing an opinion contrary to that of the conversation.  I like when the opposing opinion or one of a different faith, political party, etc. can engage in an actual dialogue.  When one is cut off for having a different perspective, it moves us nowhere fast. At the moment, the issue in question and the hot debate is same-sex marriage.  I am a supporter of it.  I don’t think it should matter who one falls in love with as long as each is committed to the other.  I know same-sex couples are wonderful parents.  My prayer is that it stops being a political maneuver and just becomes reality.  But…I don’t think that will end the debate.  Abortion (which I don’t agree with except in cases of rape or incest-where the woman didn’t have a choice in the situation) is legal and yet that debate hasn’t ended.

And as in the abortion debate, religion often comes up in the discussion.  It comes up with same-sex marriage.  I have read many people saying that if your church doesn’t agree with same-sex marriage to leave your church.  First, I do have freedom of religion and Christianity is a religion so I can still stay with a church.  Second, to people of a younger generation, don’t leave your church.  Stay and help to open their eyes.  I think a big factor in the views on Christian churches “as a whole” is that there are fewer and fewer young people staying in a church. Leaving a church is an option but how much stronger if one were to stay and work within their church to help make changes.

My church is conservative if one were to look at it from the outside and not come in and meet the family. It’s a small country church. But if one were to stay, they would probably be surprised. We collectively work to live as Jesus lived-and while it’s still the country church it started as over 150 years ago, we move with the times, baby.  I can’t say that every member at my church supports same-sex marriage, but I can say that no one at my church would stand in the way of someone who does.  There are so many things we can learn from each other if we listen to the other perspective.  We all need to strive to remember that while we may not persuade the other’s opinion, we would have a deeper understanding of the issue as a whole.

I’ve read some articles today stating, as I wrote above, to leave your church.  That’s asking someone to make a political statement through one’s religion and many of those same people are saying church needs to remember it’s separated from the state.  So again I say, don’t ask someone to abandon one’s faith to make a political statement-encourage someone to help open eyes.  The other reason why that suggestion of leaving one’s church bothers me so much is that Christianity is not a solitary religion.  Yes, my faith is personal.  My worship is with my church family.  My power to help others is multiplied when my church family works together toward a goal.  Jesus did not worship alone.  There were 12 dudes who did the work with Him and supported Him.  There were followers all over the place during His ministry.  Jesus didn’t turn away anyone and that infuriated the politicians and rulers.  My spiritual journey and development is my own and my responsibility, and I work at it to feel more at peace with my Savior, myself, and my family.  In this way, I can help contribute to my family, church, community, and world.

My prayer is for the younger generation to return to their churches and work within to help make positive changes that will benefit our society.

Open our eyes, Lord
We want to see Jesus
To reach out and touch Him
And say that we love Him
Open our ears, Lord
And help us to listen
Open our eyes, Lord
We want to see Jesus

1 John 4:20 But if a man will say, “I love God”, and he hates his brother, he is lying; for he who does not love his brother who is visible, how is it possible for him to love God who is invisible?

1 John 2:9 Whoever says, therefore, that he is in the light and hates his brother, is in darkness still.

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A breath of fresh simplicity

May 9, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

The schedule will become even tighter than usual over the next couple of weeks and will stay that way for about six weeks.  I’ll be working my regular job during the day and then teaching at night four nights a week.  With this upcoming restriction to my time with my family, the time with them this week has been all the sweeter.  It has forced simplicity to the foreground.  The five minutes alone with each son after work matters.  The ten minutes with my husband is sweet.  The quiet time once the boys are asleep is valuable.  I am multi-tasking quite wisely.  I’m not trying to over multi-task, but throwing in a load of laundry before dinner and then after dinner throwing it into the dryer.  I can fold it tomorrow.

Dinner was not rushed and the conversation with the family was fun and free-flowing.  The boys took their showers with minimal resistance because of the promise of Lego building once they were all squeaky clean.  They got to hear two pages of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (only two pages because they had to brush their teeth).  More pages tomorrow.

I watched Murder by Death this evening but also wrote three case studies for one of my classes.  I cleaned up the dining room table.

The odd thing is that even though the schedule is getting tighter, I’ve been accomplishing a lot in little bits and pieces.  Some folks say they work better under pressure.  I don’t always, but right now I am and that’s a lovely surprise.

And each day I’ve spent some time with God.  Praying about the boys and their days at school.  Praying for patience at work in each task I need to complete so I accomplish it as well as I can.  Praying for grace and patience with my sons before work in the brief time we share each morning.  And again at night in the hours we spend together before bedtime.  I want to let them stay up late each night but that’s not fair for them.  They truly need their rest since they are growing boys!  I need quiet time at night to take care of house work and my own thoughts.  I need to go to sleep by a reasonable hour as well.

Little changes in schedule and habits can release such energy.  I feel like I am accomplishing more in each day.  It’s powered by time with God and my family.  Try a little change in the schedule.  See what you can do when you shake things up a bit and add a dash of simplicity and grace.

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Simplicity, why do you run from me?

May 6, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

I am speaking of a very specific type of simplicity today.  Decluttering.  Why can I never finish this process?  I dread to think that I am simply that lazy.  I feel like every weekend I work on clearing a pile here or there or everywhere, but the next weekend, there always seemed to be a new pile in it’s place.

The piles create themselves as each day there are things I plan to sort through-they seem so important-so I set them in a pile.  By the time I actually get to it, they have become obsolete.  I am working on making it a habit to simply deal with whatever it is the first time it enters the house.  I am working on making it a habit to purge a pile a day until they are gone.

I look back over the week and I wonder why the piles are still here.  Part of it is laziness.  It seems overwhelming to try to add in decluttering at the end of the day.

But most days there just isn’t time for it at all.  One thing I made progress with is not berating myself over the clutter when I balance the existence of the clutter with what I did that day.  Today was a fun day.  I went solo to church and had a really fun, connection-filled Sunday school class.  (At least it seemed like the children made connections!)  Stopped by Dunkin’ Donuts on the way home to surprise the boys.  Mowed the lawn and then headed to swimming.  The boys had their last swim lesson and older son is swimming.  At yesterday’s penultimate lesson, the kickboard floated away from him and he swam over to get it.  I explained to him that if he can swim to get the kickboard, he doesn’t need the kickboard.  He made the connection.  🙂  Younger son can swim when he isn’t goofing off.  Once I pointed out to him that there were only a few minutes left, he focused and had a great lap.

Then we surprised my mom at work to wish her an early happy mother’s day.  It was Kite Day at her workplace but we got there after the bulk of the festivities were done so it wasn’t too crowded.  She was happy to see her grandsons and her daughter.  We met the two lab puppies and one really looked like Brigs when he was a pup.  And I didn’t even cry.  I actually smiled.  That’s a good thing.

When we got home, the boys tried out the kites their Nana gave them as I made crescent roll pizza  and mozzarella sticks.  We then settled in to watch a movie.  By the time they were in bed, snug as bugs in rugs, it was 10:00.

And the piles sit, staring at me.  Welp, they can watch me sleep.

As I reflect on the childhood we have been building for our sons, I smile.  I cry.  I laugh.  I pray each day that when they are all grown up, they look back and think of their childhoods with a big smile on their faces.  I hope they notice we tried to surround it with simplicity so they could nurture their imaginations.  Right now they just think we’re mean for not giving them a game system and unlimited time with the television.  They don’t think we’re mean when we tell them to read or play with their Legos or trains or dinosaurs, so I know it’s working on some levels.

Simplicity can be a clutter filled house.  The piles of boxes are not actually boxes.  Two of them are a music studio, some of them are part of an IFO (Identified Flying Object to the boys, a UFO to everybody else since they don’t know what it is).  Stacks of books sit in front of the book shelves because we have too many books.  Okay, I don’t think we have too many, but anyone who ever helped us move will say otherwise.  We just need more shelves.  There are booby traps on the bedroom closet doors and science experiments in the bathroom.  Baskets are filled with school work that is still too precious (according to me) or too important (according to the boys) to recycle.

Examining a quest with a different perspective can bring peace to it.  My quest for simplicity has been there all along.  Just because my simplicity is different doesn’t mean it isn’t simplicity.  As I have been coming to realize this glaringly obvious truth, I have found more time to work on the piles.  While those piles used to always get replaced with a new one, that’s not always happening now.

Simplicity has been running from me, alluding me for some time.  Either it’s getting tired and slowing down or I’m catching up to it.

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MomGyver

May 4, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

This evening younger son came out of the bedroom after being tucked in as he usually has over the past few weeks.  Lucky for him I didn’t accuse him of crying wolf and send him straight back to the bedroom since tonight there was an actual problem.

Older son has been recording his music on a very old cassette player/recorder (think Walkman) that Hubby has had since before he knew me.  The thing is old.  Younger son said it was making noises.  I told him to tell his brother to turn it off.  Older son shouts out that it is off.  I ask him to bring it to me.  As he is walking down the hall with it he comments that it’s really hot.

The batteries were arcing.  They had already melted the battery compartment door.  Using a pot holder, I tried to open the door to get the batteries out.  I quickly realized how stupid of an idea this was since I didn’t know what the batteries would do when the door opened.  Visions of battery acid burning me and my sons flew out of the over-fed horror section of my imagination and I instead threw the tape recorder on the deck.

A couple of google searches later, I had discovered I had been on the right track, but needed protective gear.

I have none.

I called hubby to ask what his thoughts were.  He suggested putting it on the sidewalk and using a hammer to crack it open and then dislodging the batteries.  Off I went to get the hammer.

Thought to myself, I’ll wear my plastic rain coat and that will protect me.  Couldn’t find it.  I’ll stand as far away as I can or simply try throwing it on the sidewalk to crack it open.

That would be fun to do with the thunder and lightning in the background.  Maybe it will start to pour right as I get the batteries out.

Headed back to the deck to grab the tape recorder when the phone rang.  Hubby asked if I had done it yet and I said I was about to smash it.  He said don’t.  Obviously he had given it more thought.  He told me to take one of the two metal boxes in front of the house, remove the styrofoam, and simply put the tape recorder in there.  Then I’d place it as far away from the house but still on the concrete driveway as I could.

I headed downstairs and out the front door.  I picked what I thought was the more durable of the two boxes and set to removing the styrofoam.  Not a hard task.  The only real danger I faced was not realizing in the dark that there were still bits of kitty litter in there from the time a bag had split open four or five years ago.  As I turned the box right-side up from shaking out loose foam, litter flew out and a small bit landed in my right eye.  Yes, it got around my glasses and everything. The only protective gear I had by default were my glasses and they didn’t offer any protection.

But there was no time to deal with that.  I had batteries that could explode on my deck.  I went upstairs with the now-cleaned out metal box, grabbed my pot holder, and opened the sliding glass door.  Carefully picked up the tape recorder and then carelessly dropped it right into the box.  Closed the lid and headed back through the house, down the stairs, and out the front door.  Set the box in the far corner of the driveway.  As I walked away, the box exploded and I was hit with tiny pieces of metal…no, not really, but that is a more dramatic ending.

I walked away, went back in the house, and closed & locked the door.  Felt a wee bit like MacGyver in solving this problem with only a medical collection box and a pot holder.

I washed my hands  and rinsed my eye with the eye rinsing stuff (I don’t care how tightly you put that bloody cup to your eye, it leaks out of the side every damn time).  Then discovered, with some bit of shock, that MacGyver is spelled the way it’s spelled.  I always thought it was MacGuyver.  Who knew?

Then I watched some videos of AA batteries arcing and exploding.  Yeah, didn’t need to worry all that much other than not letting it leak onto my skin.  Still, I feel better.  That plastic had already melted…could it have caught on fire?  Possibly.  I didn’t want it to happen in here.

Funny thing is that when I realized what the batteries were doing, I kept telling my sons they were narcing.  Yeah, they were reporting illegal drug use.  I’m so bloody tired I couldn’t even get the right word out.  I just kept seeing John Travolta in Blow Out when the batteries from the wire arc and they are taped to the one cop’s skin.  Nasty.  Burned a hole right in his skin.  And that is why I had to be MomGyver.

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Salieri, if only you had known

May 3, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

What a difference a day makes.  Also walking away from the problem offers such wonderful perspective.  That and a few friends commenting on fb that they know exactly how I feel.  And chocolate.  I can’t forget the chocolate.

But you know what the best thing I reflected on today was?  I ate supper with my family yet again this week.  We’ve been rocking the dinner time lately.  Doesn’t matter what the dinner is, it’s the time together.  My sons have finally gotten the swing of sharing something fun about their days.  And I’m going to admit it…write on virtual paper…we use the convenience stuff to make dinner.  Yes, there are fresh veggies (asparagus at the moment since it’s in season-though I don’t eat it).  But the main entrée was one of those skillet dinners.  If I didn’t have to work, I’d be cooking home-made stuff.  Ah, well…do the best you can with what you have where you are.  Teddy Roosevelt, not me.  I wish I could write something as pithy as that.

Perspective comes in many ways.  You just have to be open to it coming in and opening your eyes.  Be open to the other side of things and examining the issue with other eyes.  Turn it over and over.  Challenge it, question it.  Pray on it.  Focus on simplicity and grace to rise above the feeling of mediocrity.

So what am I going to be when I grow up?  I have no idea and realized today that part of the reason I feel like I’m floating and looking for my thing is that I refuse to grow up.  I still love learning and have a thirst for new experiences.  If a particular experience, idea, or goal doesn’t materialize, no biggie.  There will be another.

And until another shows itself, I have buckled down and examined what is on my plate and what I can do with it.  How I can do each project.  Why I am doing each project.  I asked myself if I still feel each one is fun.  Theater had become not fun, but when I gave it a whirl this past fall, it was a blast.  Why?  Because I was just an actor.  So I now know I’ll never be on a theater board again.  Takes the fun right out of it.

A very fun project coming up in the summer are the dino digs we’ll be going on for fossil hunting.  I think I may be more excited than the boys.  Older son still wants to find more substantial fossils than what we should find on these digs, but we’ve been talking about the fact that you need to start where you’re at and grow from each experience.  We talked about how he needs to learn how to dig and these three trips will help him do that.

I’m sewing again.  Other than Halloween costumes, I haven’t done that for a while.  It’s a costume for a friend who is going to a film-fan convention.  So far it seems to be going well.  I enjoyed making the patterns and they are working nicely.  We’re having a fitting this Saturday.

Of course, I’m in VBS prep mode.  We’re going to Babylon this year.  Oh yes, there will be a hanging garden.  I’ve been working on that for the past month.

Prayer, meditation, studying my Shakespeare and Grimm, reading some Uncle Stevie, it’s all good.  Just need to get off my arse and work out the issues in my legs.  This week’s been a less than stellar week, but it is still so much better than it had been for the past few years.

And it’s almost summer.  Now I do not do the beach thing.  There is sand at a beach and I don’t do sand.  We will go to the lake, and yes, there is sand there, but it’s not overly crowded.  There are pools we’ll go to and the boys will do a lot of swimming.  Maybe they’ll teach their mom.

I do attempt the garden thing, but have been horrible with it the past few years.  However, sons and I have already weeded and cleaned out two of them and are working on a third.  But I really need to trim the bloody holly trees.  They are a mess again.

What most of these have in common are my family.  Which reminded me that I’m not doing that bad if we’re doing all these somethings and even some days of nothings together.

Salieri, if only you had known to step away.  To reflect and take inventory.  To count your blessings.  And to not take it all so seriously.

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Salieri, I Hear Ya’

May 1, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

Recall if you will the scene in Amadeus when Salieri asks God why he gave him them ability to appreciate and identify beautiful music, musical genius, but only the ability to compose mediocre songs and operas.  He wonders why he is trapped between the two and not able to move to the next level.  He wonders then what is his calling.  What purpose he serves.  Once again I feel Salieri’s struggle.  I feel that trapped sensation.  And it’s nothing like the sensation of eating a York Peppermint Patty, I can tell you.

Still, there is progress.  I know I won’t become obsessed with killing Mozart…he’s already dead.  I am able to reflect on the situation and look for alternatives to finding fulfillment.  And it’s odd to me because I feel such fulfillment in being a mother.  It’s my favorite thing to be, and my sons always make me proud and offer me new and exciting challenges.

But…there’s always a but…I like to keep and maintain my own individuality and personal pursuits.  I just can’t remember what it was I’m supposed to be pursuing or can’t figure out what it is I’m meant to do now.

I’m not talking about a job, per se.  I’m talking about that thing you do because you love it (which I realize can be a job, but that’s not what I’m talking about tonight).  I’ve had several things over my lifetime.  I know I’ll find another.  But it’s been strange because what I keep zeroing in on doesn’t seem to work out.  So I will keep looking.  I’m sure I’ll stumble upon it at some point.

I return to my theatrical roots as I keep going through this process.  I have “Corner of the Sky” from Pippin going through my head almost every day.  Ah, the theme song for performers, artists, and those looking for their thing.  Did you ever see the episode of Little Bill when he’s trying to discover his thing?  His dad loves jazz, his mom was reading, I think, anyway, everyone in his family has their thing and Little Bill tries them all on for size.  But as we know, you can’t make something your thing, you have to let it evolve.

Ah, Salieri.  If only you had found your thing.

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My Lunch with House and Wilson

April 30, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

Lunch would take place in a Jersey diner.  Where else could it, considering the circumstances.  Or maybe PJ’s pancake house in Princeton.  I guess it would depend on the time of day.  (There could one day be an entire post on the season 7 photos, including the blending of House and Pennywise.)

I love the show House, M.D. (we’ll use the full title at least once).  I enjoy procedurals and this one offered a nice little twist that I found irresistible.  The main character is an ass.  I actually sometimes wish doctors were more like House-cut to the chase and remind me that you are the one with the advanced degree while I am the biased patient who clicked too many links on google.  Tonight’s episode returned to truisms from the first season-everybody lies and the relationship (bromance) between House and Wilson is the key to the success of this show.

The past couple of seasons became too focused on the people and less on the interaction of these people within the work environment, which is why I liked the show in the first place.  I got tired of the House and Cuddy storyline.  Still don’t know exactly what happened between Chase and Cameron, and more to the point, I don’t care what happened to Chase and Cameron.  I think the show should end this year (as sad as I will be, just like I was when Monk went off the air), but they had done it all.  Plus, what I had hoped would happen with the end in sight did happen.  They got their mojo back.  House is back to being an ass and Wilson somehow sticks by him, though they have allowed Wilson to show the strain it’s been on him.

Tonight Wilson said some harsh truths.  House took it, handled it in his own way, true to form.  The pictures on Wilson’s computer at the end actually caused me to laugh out loud, dare I type it…LOL.  It was one of the better episodes I’ve seen in a long time because I cared about the characters, including the medical mystery of the week, and they made me feel something.  I do feel that may have also been partly due to Hugh Laurie directing it.  You cannot discount the care and affection the director has for the characters improving the heart and soul of an episode.

The House and Cuddy storyline simply made me feel annoyed.  The show had gotten bogged down with junk and messes to be cleaned up.  Tonight there were plenty of messes, but of the medical kind.  I can’t understand why shows feel the need to change things up when it works they way it was originally conceived.  This year House seems to have returned to its roots.  This is good and has even caused me to care that there are only THREE EPISODES LEFT.

Is it cliche that Wilson has cancer?  Yep.  But the way he and House are dealing with it is not cliche.  It’s reckless and stupid, just like them.  The emotional sap in me loved finding out that all of the knick-knacks in Wilson’s office were from patients.  It offered a nice snapshot of the emotional depth and connections living within Wilson.

There was some kind of contest to send in a picture that you felt demonstrated the key to House (or something like that) and the winner’s picture would be incorporated into the finale.  I did not submit an entry, mostly because I don’t know how to photoshop a single thing.  But I do know what I would have done.  Take a picture of House.  On his shoulders are Chase, the classic little red devil with horns and a pitchfork, and Foreman on the other as the classic angel, halo and all.  Cameron would be where we place the soul (in our attempts to understand this amazing concept) sort of near the heart.  Cuddy would be over his heart.  And Wilson, in full Jiminy Cricket wardrobe, would simply be standing next to him.  Offering advice, but much like Pinocchio, that advice is too often ignored and House looks like a jackass.

Truly part of me wonders if in the last 15 minutes of the last episode if House will simply wake up from a really fun night of partying with too much vicodin and too many drinks.  He’ll get up and go to work for the first real time in the series.  The whole eight years having been a hallucination, pulling a new variation on Dallas.  Or perhaps House and Wilson will pull a Thelma and Louise.  Don’t know…but I hope it’s good.  I hope it’s very House.  But I hope it isn’t lame.

Yeah, you’ll smile when you catch that one.

Posted in My lunch with... | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

Little League Merrily Swims Along

April 28, 2012 by pinkpigrulz

We started our day at 7:30 getting ready for picture day for Little League.  So much for youngest son’s new-found independence.  We were supposed to arrive at 8:15 but we got there around 8:35 because someone wasn’t sure he wanted to go.  He made it just in time for the team photo, but he was, I am sad to say, the player who wouldn’t take off his coat for the team photo.  Somehow the photographers got him to take it off for his individual picture.  More power to them.

Then home for a half an hour and then back to the fields for a 10 o’ clock game for youngest son.  He had some great hits and plays (in the pitcher’s position).

                                                               

Them I walked oldest son over for his pictures at 11:15 (while younger son was playing his game).  Game ended, stood in line at the snack stand and got lunch, then off to the other fields for oldest son’s game at 1 o’ clock.  Oldest son got to bat first and got a hit on the second or third pitch.  He then got out at second.  He also got to play catcher.  This was interesting since he has never played that position before nor had any coaching on it.

                                                                                

He did great!  There was only one little problem.  He thought the catcher was also the umpire.  I explained to him the difference and during the next inning, he was catcher again.  It’s a good position for him.  And he’s not bad at it.

Then the game ended at 2:45 and we headed off to Wawa for a wee snack to nibble on the way to swim lessons.

They both changed in the locker room quickly, came out to the pool, and got right in to the water.  The teacher is wonderful with them.  And I am VERY PROUD to write that oldest son can swim!  He got it today, it all clicked for him.  Now it’s not the most graceful swimming, but that will come in time.  Youngest son is so close I can taste it like he could taste the chlorine.  They have two more lessons and I’m sure it will happen for youngest son too.  Their teacher was impressed with how well they did today since they had gone two weeks without a lesson.  Next weekend they will have a lesson on Saturday and Sunday.  We’re hopeful with the lessons being back-to-back it will all come together for youngest son.  Oldest son can go to camp this summer with no worries about the swim test!  I may try going to the pool on my lunch break a few times to see if I can apply the same tips and finally learn to swim too!

     Look at oldest son on the right swimming on his own!    

We then drove home and are now enjoying a Jim Carrey double-feature.  We watched Mr. Popper’s Penguins and are now watching The Mask.  Then bedtime and let me tell you, I can’t wait.  I’m exhausted.

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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