Conversation between me and DJ last night…
DJ: So what do you have planned this weekend?
Me: Nothing.
Him: Nothing?
Me: Yeah, isn’t it great [after nine months of dance class every Saturday]?
Him: NO! How can you have NOTHING planned?!?!?!
Me: You’re *so* my child.
Who doesn’t love a weeknight date with an 8-year-old? Monday night, I took DJ to see The Avengers and, rather than do a typical movie review, I thought I’d just blurt out the answers to the questions that were on my mind before I went to see it.
Q: I heard on NPR that they opened Avengers overseas first so they could recoup the investment in the movie before it opened in the U.S. (An indication U.S. sales may slip.) Did it really suck that bad?
A: Uh…NO…absolutely not. When I heard that, I was expecting to be “meh” about the whole thing, quite honestly. I took advantage of the free tickets because I knew DJ would be excited to see a movie before it came out. But I was genuinely, thoroughly entertained. So much so that DJ and I immediately came home and told Scoot that we should go see it again as a family.
Q: Will the dirty looks I get for taking my elementary school aged kid to see this be justified or no?
A: No. DJ is 8. I was nervous about taking him to a PG-13 movie that I hadn’t prescreened. He’s seen other PG-13 movies (e.g., Transformers) but we usually get the chance to see them first to make sure the violence isn’t too extreme or too real and the sexual innuendo isn’t too over the top. He. LOVED. It. There was only one scene with “real” blood…most of the rest of the “violence” was either fist fighting-style or big explosions that weren’t particularly graphic. The sexual references were subtle enough that they went well over his head. And DJ laughed and laughed and laughed at the jokes. There was a tiny kid (maybe 3 or 4?) in the audience and he did just fine. Though he’s not a huge fan of 3D, I think Bop (age 5) would even enjoy it. (He loves him some super heroes.)
Q: I’m more of DC Comics/Batman freak fan. Will I like a Marvel movie?
A: Do you like action? Characters with great chemistry? Funny jokes? Awesome fight scenes? Big explosions? Samuel L. Jackson? Baseball and apple pie? If so, you’ll enjoy it even without Bruce Wayne. (Sorry, Bruce, you know I still love you.)
Q: Does this movie stay true to the comic books?
A: I have no idea. I don’t do comic books. But I do know that there were CLEARLY some comic book fans in the full theater… (many looked just.like.this.)…
…and they CLEARLY enjoyed the movie. They were hootin’ and hollerin’ throughout the whole thing and when a new character was introduced (one they obviously recognized), they cheered with excitement. I’d say that the comic book geek endorsement level was quite high.
Q: Do you need to have seen Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, or The Incredible Hulk to “get” this movie?
A: No. I’d seen Captain American and Iron Man 1 and 2. DJ had only seen Iron Man, I believe. We both really enjoyed the characters, their roles in the film and their development throughout the film. Though some of them disappear for a bit, they all get reasonably equal billing…no small feat for this kind of ensemble cast.
Q: I don’t really like Scarlett Johansson. Is she going to ruin this movie for me?
A: She won me over in her first scene.
I mean, the chair part? Awesome. And she held onto me throughout the rest of the film.
Q: Do I really need to see it in 3D?
A: I only saw it in 3D so I have nothing to compare it to. But I thought they handled the 3D well. Gone are the days when you need to be hit over the head time and again with cutesy 3D tricks. With the novelty of 3D long worn off, I prefer my 3D effects to be seamlessly integrated into the movie so that it enhances the story without calling attention to itself. This movie succeeded at that. So I’d say, go see it in 3D and take advantage of the craftsmanship.
Q: Do I need to walk, run or run away from this one?
A: Run. See it when the theaters are packed with comic book buffs. It’s like having a bottle of wine with a wine connoisseur or going to an art museum with an artist. I sincerely felt like I enjoyed it more being around others who were so clearly enjoying it.
**Disclosure: I received two free passes to this screening from Disney. I was not asked to write about it nor was I compensated for this post. The opinions expressed here are my own. And DJ’s. Heh.**
Ever since he was en utero, DJ has loved to dance. After seven years of saying we should enroll him in a dance class, we finally put him in hip hop and breakdancing last fall. As I saw him on stage at his recital in December, cheesin’ and basking in the spotlight as he popped, locked, glided and B-boy’d across the stage, I was struck hard – deep in my chest – with a feeling I’ve never felt before; one that’s hard to explain. I became acutely aware of and physically plugged into just how happy he was.
After his recital, I ran into his hip hop teacher backstage and, choking back tears, thanked her for helping him find that happiness. I’m certain she thinks I’m crazy, but it’s really hard to describe that feeling of seeing your child personify passion in such a way for the first time.
Fast-forward a few weeks. We had been toying with the idea of redoing DJ’s bedroom for some time. It was themed after his favorite movie as a toddler, Cars. Four years, one sequel and leap into the “tween” phase later, it seemed that we were nearing the time when we should stop talking and start acting.
A few quick Google searches later and I realized I could buy him a small dance floor that he could practice on, maybe a mirror to watch his technique and, perhaps, some cool art for the walls. Then Scoot remembered a show he’d seen at a local art school where an interior designer had a hip hop-style room on display. He went to the school and inquired about the designer who has since graduated. Less than a day later, I was on the phone with Dee asking if she had any interest in designing a bedroom for an eight-year-old aspiring B-boy. She leapt at the chance.
I thought hiring an interior designer was something only rich people could do, but I quickly figured out that A.) It wasn’t nearly as expensive as I expected it to be; B.) She had a lot of creative ideas for materials and execution that saved us money; and C.) The results would end up being so much better than anything we could have come up with on our own.
We went away for spring break and came back to this (sorry, I had to pixelate some of the pictures to blur their names so you can’t really see the full effect of the graffiti):
I think he likes it…
*** If anyone in the Sacramento region needs an interior designer, I HIGHLY recommend Dee. She’s creative, professional, courteous and flexible. Her portfolio includes all sorts of styles, room types, sizes, etc. If you give her a call, tell her Emmie sent you. I didn’t get anything for saying this…it’s just a heart-felt endorsement of her work from a very satisfied client. ***
When I realized I’d be home before the boys tonight, I asked DJ what he’d like for Valentine’s Day dinner. He said, “I don’t know. Something heart-shaped.”
And this? Is why so many people have fallen in love with Pinterest. One search for “heart-shaped” yielded me three easy courses for our special Valentine’s Day breakfast-for-dinner.
(Red-and-white heart-shaped pancakes, heart-shaped bacon, heart-shaped watermelon.)
When I got the text from my BFF Megan challenging me to take part in Operation Eleanor, it took me all of 2.2 seconds to send a simple reply: It’s on.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been thinking about what scares me, what fears I’m ready to overcome. The more I’ve thought about it, and worried about whether I’d be able to accopmlish what feels like 30 daunting tasks, the more I’m reminded of one of my favorite sayings:
No excuses. I’m just going to do it. I will overcome my fears – some big, some small. But I will show myself that I can. I won’t blog about all of them (for instance, I can’t write about today’s as it’s work-related) but I expect to check in and let you know how it’s going. Ready? Set. Let’s go!
I can’t stand fickle sports fans. Ironically, I frequently have one in DJ. He doesn’t mean to be one, he just doesn’t know any better. He feels emotionally drawn to many geographies so I was super proud of his response when, on the way to the Sacramento Mountain Lions v. Virginia Destroyers game yesterday, I asked him who he’d root for. “Virginia,” he said. “Why, because daddy played with their quarterback and was coached by their coaches when he was in college?” I asked. “No,” he replied, “because that’s where I’m from.”
This conversation about which ‘hood he claims goes back a few weeks when he inquisitively asked which rappers were from Virginia as he failed to connect with 2Pac and Dr. Dre’s “California Love” the way his parents do. He moved from the Commonwealth to California when he was just three and, while he’s as much of a Cali boy and the next kid in my mind, he feels drawn to the place he was born.
It’s a feeling I understand well as I moved away from the state of my birth as a toddler and then, again, moved in the middle of elementary school to California. In the years since I’ve tried to figure out what I consider to be my “hometown.” (Imagine the angst when Facebook asked me to make such a public declaration.)
For me, my “hometown” claim as a sports fan was complicated by the fact that, just two months after I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, the SF Giants met the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series. I was raised on Cardinals baseball (and football, by the way…why they’re in Phoenix and the L.A. Rams are in my town still baffles me). My earliest baseball memory was being allowed, at a month shy of four years old, to stay up to watch the Cardinals win the 1982 World Series at our townhouse in the St. Louis suburbs. (It’s also the first time I remember my mom being mad at my dad. Heh.)
In the years between then and our move west, my dad took me to Busch Stadium to see the likes of Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee while teaching me how to score a baseball game and heckle an opponent. My pet mouse was named Whitey Herzog.
When the Cards played the Giants, I wasn’t sure just who to root for as the new kid trying to fit in with a school full of Giants fans. Luckily I had little to do with the fate of either team. Yet somehow, I gave myself the leeway to root for the triumphant Cards as they faced the Twins in that World Series, the Oakland A’s as they faced the Dodgers the following year, and then the Giants as they met the A’s in ’89 in the Bay Bridge Series (a series memorable not only for baseball but the earthquake that literally rocked the local fans to our core).
And so, as it has been since, I rooted for the Giants as they made their way to the World Series last year. Now that they’ve imploded, however, I will admit that I “liked” the breaking news from CNN on my FB News Feed that the Cards, my first baseball love, had made it to the World Series (a “like” I gave despite not being able to name a single player from their team.) How’s that for fickle?
But it’s hard out there for a kid…a kid who, for a third of a century, has felt disconnected from all geographic ties of her own. And it is with that experience that I try to cut my own child, a kid who likes the SF 49ers and the Miami Heat, the Sacramento Kings and the Stanford Cardinal, the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers and…the Virginia Destroyers, a bit of a break as he tries to figure out his own definition of “hometown” and which hometown team belongs to him.
Oh, hi! Remember me? Me either. Sorry I’ve been AWOL. I have some explanations about my absence. Or not. I’m not quite sure yet. I’m still figuring things out. I’ve been in a weird place that requires me to pay attention to myself and the people who are closest to me, both friends and family.
But something compelled me to post. See, a couple of my friends have been writing their “30 Days of Truth,” but for some reason I’ve most closely followed Adam’s. He’s not actually posting over 30 days but rather is using the prompts when he needs them. (I’ll note that I’m pretty sure Adam hates lurkers and yet I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve commented on his posts. Sorry, dude.)
Today Adam posted about “Something I Hope to Do,” and that – combined with my drive to and from the Bay Area this weekend – just made me feel compelled to put this down on paper (or, the internet) so that I never forget it.
I hope to travel around the country with my family in an RV.
I know, it’s random. There are a million reasons for why I want to do this. The idea actually started when Scoot and I spent the days it took to move our family across the country fantasizing about quitting life as we knew it and taking up driving trucks. But that idea seemed a little impractical.
Our move across the country coincided with the release of Disney-Pixar’s Cars and, in the DVD special feature section, the director John Lassiter talks about the trip he took with his family in an RV. That seemed a little more realistic.
I have no idea if I could ever convince Scoot to do it. I know absolutely nothing about RVs (as a kid, my family camped the “real way” – in a tent) but it’s something I hope to do someday and so I’m using this post to make sure I don’t forget it.
Thanks for humoring me. I miss you more. I promise.
The. End. (for now)
Seeing as I was raised in one of a number of cities that claim some ownership of Earth Day, I feel as though I’m compelled to write a post commemorating it.
So here are five things my family any lazy family can do to go green.
1. Decrease use of toxic home cleaning products by only cleaning the house twice a year. (Except the guest bathroom, of course. That should be spit shined twice a month.)
2. Reduce water usage by letting laundry pile up as long as possible and then pack the washing machine to capacity.
3. Reduce paper tissue waste by letting the kids walk around with runny noses and wrapping paper waste by not giving gifts.
4. Minimize greenhouse gas emissions and use of fossil fuels by playing hookie from work and school and just lying around the house all day.
5. Reduce the need for fertilizer by allowing dog poop to sit in yard until it dissolves.
Who said it ain’t easy being green? Oh right, a frog. What does he know?
Happy Earth Day!
