just be.

day 7: stuff that reminds me of a certain event

well. for music, this is easy. the song that mark and sharlotte so beautifully played for the processional at our wedding. 

 

i always think that "somewhere over the rainbow/wonderful world," which was our last-dance song, will be the one that gets me, but "simple gifts" came on my iphone the other day while i was driving (i had it playing through the stereo, not headphones while driving!), and i turned into a giant puddle of sentiment. srsly. it was like it happened yesterday--i could remember exactly how i felt waiting on the sidewalk with my father, greeting a few late guests and laughing at my father's attempts to keep me calm, trying to sneak a peek inside at andrew, listening and watching for the signal to start walking in. when i heard mark and sharlotte beginning to play, all the anticipation and emotion of the day welled up. i had to focus on not tripping while walking up the brick walk because, well, i'm me and i trip on nothing. but that music made me so happy! thanks, m+s :)

tv shows that remind me of certain events are tougher, of course. who's watching tv when something memorable happens? oh, that's right. i was watching "today" when the planes hit the world trade center towers. 

 

i tivoed the coverage all day. i saved that recording for years and watched it every now and then. i had some kind of even-though-i-wasn't-there ptsd from that (remember that i don't watch violent, sad, or suspenseful tv or movies because i get too emotionally involved? yeah, that). so i made myself delete it last year or the year before. my stomach doesn't get quite the pit of lead any more when i see a low-flying plane (or any plane) that it used to, though it does still kind of, if i'm honest.

and movies that remind me of certain events. "magnolia," "american beauty," and "a beautiful mind" all remind me of falling in love with andrew. "american beauty" i'd seen just before i met him and used that as the headline for the match.com ad that i had running when i found him.

 

still one of my favorite movies. ever. fantastic.

"magnolia" we saw on one of our early dates. the soundtrack is some of the rare music that we both love. aimee mann ftw.

 

and "a beautiful mind" we saw on another early date. i was sick and missed some key scenes because i kept leaving to go to the bathroom. but it reminded me of us because he's so ridiculously smart and i just love him.

 

and falling in love with andrew is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. marrying him is the best decision i ever made, but falling in love with him kind of just happened to me.

day 6: stuff that reminds me of somewhere

FIRST i need to say this: stacie "ruffles" larson is the most amazing research fiend i have ever met. and that's saying a lot; i work with a whole organization of researchers. but she managed to track down not one, not two, not even all three of the people i mentioned in my day 5 post, but a fourth i mentioned to her today!! incredible. i am so happy to have the chance to get back in touch with these people. only one appears to be on facebook, which means i have to be a Real Adult and phone or snail-mail the rest of them, but still. so happy!!

with that out of the way, let's move on to day 6: stuff that reminds me of places. well, i'm going to go a little off the path here and name a camp song. lots of camp songs remind me of that wonderful place i miss so much, but i'm going to go with "further along." i don't even know all the words, but i have hilarious memories of lisa trying desperately to get the rhythm, clapping, stomping, and words all to go together like they were supposed to. i think the reason i don't know the words is that we always broke down laughing hysterically before we got through more than a line or two.

tv shows don't usually remind me of places, but "late night with david letterman" totally reminds me of my old studio apartment in dc in the late 1980s. i'd never really watched him much before that, but that whole year, i watched faithfully every night. i used to joke that he was the only consistent man in my life. of course, now it's the late show, but still. letterman. 

movies don't usually remind me of places either, but i remember seeing lots of good movies that same year (1988–1989) with my friend greg falick (hey, stace, there's another one! and angie musolino. we were all in grad school at american together!) at the uptown theater on connecticut avenue in dc. my favorite, and still one of my favorite movies, was the adventures of baron munchausen.

 

day 5: stuff that reminds me of someone

one of the things i love about music is how it gives me a connection to people whom i've otherwise lost. facebook has been amazing for reconnecting me with people again, and i love that about it. but i have a few friends--i can think of three especially--who seem to have just disappeared. i can't find them anywhere. these are people who were dear friends, people i never thought i'd lose touch with.

marianne was my playmate when we were little girls, living just about a quarter-mile from one another growing up. but around the time we hit high school, she moved out to powhatan county; her father was running for some public office or other and needed to live there, as i recall, and they moved into the biggest mansion i'd ever seen. still the biggest house i've ever been in. tennis courts and a swimming pool. that kind of thing. it's funny, because she (and her family) was probably the most guileless, unassuming person i've ever met. as genuine and sweet as the day is long. i miss her so much. but no idea where she disappeared to. i've even tried tracking down her siblings or parents. nothing. we didn't really share a music interest, so this isn't a lead-in to the song that reminds me of someone. she's just the first person in the list of people i wish i could find again.

sujata (suzy/suji)  is the second. we were closer than sisters in college. she was completely different from anyone i'd ever known and introduced me to so many things--ideas, music, styles--that i'd never encountered before. one of those was suzanne vega, and though i've kept up my fandom of suzanne through many albums since suzy first played her for me, hearing some of the songs off that first album still takes me back to popping the cassette in my tape deck in our dorm room, or listening to it in my walkman as i danced across campus. (really. i did that. i'd dance and sing along with my walkman. and always barefoot. always. except in the snow. i carried little shoes in my backpack in case i needed to go into a restaurant or other place that required shoes, but i was barefoot on those brick walks all over williamsburg. now i'm homesick. thanks.)

anyway, so early suzanne vega reminds me of suzy.

 

suzy lived in warrenton last time we caught up, and she looked just the same. that alluring, scratchy voice that bore the brunt of all her laughing. i loved that girl. but i've lost touch with her again. i think she and her husband and their kids are all still in warrenton and she works in d.c., but i don't know for sure. she's there in my head, though.

the third person on the list is deborah. we were great pals when i was in grad school the first time, in d.c. she was kooky and beautiful and funny, and she called me milt because she'd seen me sign "mitch" on something and couldn't read it. try as i might, i haven't been able to track her down. i thought of her every time i drove through our old stomping grounds, which was pretty often until recently--my brother lived right there until last year. anyway, she used to speed us around dc and maryland in her vw rabbit, blasting sting.

 

tv shows that remind me of other people are tough. the only people i've ever really watched tv with other than andrew are my ex-husband and my dad. football with my dad. and "northern exposure" with my ex. i love that show. it does sometimes remind me of him, but really it's just because it's such an awesome show that i feel the need to share some of it here with you. because it's my blog and it should be full of things i love.

 

i still want to go live in cicely.

and movies that remind me of people. well, "the princess bride" always reminds me of jen because we went to see it together. and were completely smitten with cary elwes. but i already mentioned that movie this week. so. "the gods must be crazy" makes me think of my dad because he thought it was hilarious and introduced it to me.

 

and to keep everything even (god knows how important that is), here's one that always reminds me of my mother. she loves it.

 

day 4: stuff that makes me sad.

i avoid feeling sad if i can. so i had a hard time thinking of these. 

the things that make me saddest are war, divorce (specifically, divorces in which the parents think that their kids can't detect the negativity they feel toward one another because they are sure they disguise it so well--trust me. it isn't working), and rape. so.

a song that makes me sad is one that makes me think about my grade-school friend macphail. he didn't die the way that vincent did, but i discovered the song not long after mac died, and so it was kind of my healing song.

 

when joe got sick, a different song helped me through and also makes me sad, in a different way. eddie from ohio is pretty diligent about removing videos online of their songs, so i give you the band's lyric and song page for this one.

a tv-show that episode that makes me sad is easier to come by. series finales often do me in. 

 

 

and of course when major characters die.

 

movies that make me sad are hardest for me to find, because i avoid sad movies so strenuously. "terms of endearment," duh.

 

but "kramer versus kramer," too.

 

but i think the one that has affected me most in, say, *this* century is the soloist. i didn't stop crying for days. mainly this was because it was shortly after someone i love like i love my own organs had spent his first days homeless, and the movie depicts homeless folks with what i can only imagine is fair reality. bawling.

day 3: stuff that makes me happy

I forgot to write this post downstairs on the real computer. this is why I can't have nice things. I am neglectful.

so a song that makes me happy. so many! let's go with "start the commotion" by the wiseguys. fun and it reminds me of silly lyrics we put to it on the way to maryland a couple of years ago.

 

a tv episode that makes me happy. gotta be "what's opera, doc?" I'll try to remember to find video for these things tomorrow. things that make me happy should be all over this blog. found video:

 

but i realized this morning that a different cartoon makes me even happier than this one.

 

that one makes me happier than most things on the planet, frankly.

and a movie that makes me happy: I'm going with "the princess bride."

 

I can quote it for days. on fact, the ability to make and get references to this movie is probably an unconscious litmus test I have for making new friends. that and the song by Michigan j. frog. (so, bonus video.)

 

30-day x challenge

so, i'm on facebook. and some of my friends have been doing the 30-day music challenge. it's been fun to see some of the stuff they post, and finally the bug bit me today. so i posted the day 1 challenge, my favorite song. this isn't easy--i have favorites (as i suspect most people do) for lots of different reasons and moods. but i chose this.

 

it's a song that makes me happy (like, chest swelling, tears welling, gotta sing along loudly) every time i hear it. it was the song i chose to mark the end of our wedding ceremony (5.5 years ago!). as in, the first song i wanted to hear at the end of this wonderful, emotional hour in my life. it was a great day indeed.

anyway, now i'm watching some "looney tunes," and i thought, "i could easily do a 30-day challenge of cartoons. or tv shows generally. or movies." so i thought i'd try it, right here in front of god and everybody. maybe you'll play along.

so day 1, my favorite tv show--*episode.* if i just go with tv show generally, lots of my 30 days would have the same answer. so my favorite tv-show episode ever is probably this.

 

 

it's a tough call, because i love pretty much every line of every episode of this show. but there is a lot of goodness in this episode.

and day 1 my favorite *movie* is easily it's a wonderful life.

i am easily entertained.

i offer this as a preface, as i am about to review a movie for you, and i want you to have some context. before i met smartboy, i dated a guy who told me that i had an easy laugh. he meant this as a compliment. and more than one person has echoed the remark, so i figure it's probably true. i've also been told that i'm easily entertained or amused, most recently yesterday by anna. it could mean that i'm simple, or it could mean that my movie reviews aren't really that useful because any old movie would make me happy. i do love me a movie.

but i promise that i am not being simple when i say that "up" went from never seen to in my top five favorite movies of all time when i saw it yesterday. not immediately—immediately, i knew i liked it, as i love all things pixar. just minutes into it, i knew that i loved it more than most pixar movies, which is to say more than most movies; i was crying and laughing and so in love with the main characters that i was already sad that the movie would end—in two hours. and the longer i watched, the more i loved it. by two-thirds of the way through, i knew it was stuck. stuck in the list of top fives forever. my number 1 favorite movie cannot be budged ("it's a wonderful life"), probably never will be. but "up" has displaced "monsters, inc." in spot 2 and joins it and "the princess bride" in the list that i think will persist for a long time. spot 5 isn't fixed, but top 4 doesn't sound as important. ironically.

so i'm saying: get thee to see "up," preferably in the theater. and if you need a buddy to see it with you, consider yourself buddied. and see whether you can pick yourself out among the characters.

woof,

dug.

what?

you have got to be f-ing kidding me.

check this out.

alllll the futuristic progress. the gleaming towers. the sleek clothing. the sleek hair. the *flying cars.* but what do i see 00:41 in? **an underwire bra.** WITH SEAMS. so you're telling me that we can get vehicles flying through an apocalyptic universe, shining glass towers in the desert, but we are still going to be wearing *those*? wtf.

ack! i forgot!

i cannot believe that i forgot two of my all-time favorite movies that are also christmas movies: elf and scrooged! i love these so much that smartboy had a t-shirt made for me that says "smiling is my favorite" :)

tempting 2.2

so, if i knit one round in 10 minutes (which feels agonizingly slow, but i timed a row knitted while watching guiding light--not particularly fast, but not particularly slow, either), and i have nine inches left to knit, and i'm knitting six rows per inch, that's 540 minutes, or nine hours, of knitting left, correct? well, more than that--that's nine hours left of body before i make the sleeves, join them to the body, finish the yoke, and make the neck band, which is another few hours. so call it 12 hours of work left. holy crap i'm not going to finish this in two weeks--there's no way i'll have that many knitting hours free between now and time to ship this to its intended. that really sucks.

i did get a little knitting done while waiting for cars to start and watching previews. a few animation previews--the most thrilling for ratatouille, in which the lead voice appears to have been my college classmate, patton oswalt!! i am so happy for him. i have followed his career since, well, as long as i can remember; he was on the newspaper staff, so i knew him through my best friend, who also worked for the paper. we see him whenever and wherever we can, though he now boycotts pennsylvania, making it a lot harder to see him (usually this means doing it in dc). his standup is absolutely fricking hilarious--like, go to the bathroom before the show, because otherwise, you'll pee yourself. and always take tissues, because you will laugh until you can't breathe, let alone cry. i cannot wait until this movie comes out.

the other joy of the afternoon: the sign declaring that this fall will bring a costco to the waterfront. no more schlepping to the opposite end of town to get the huge quantities smartboy so loves to buy.

on the down side, we continue to bicker about whether to move or stay and about where we would move if we did move, and it continues to be hot and cramped and, well, smelly (thank you, old crappy carpeting we can't replace until we level the floors, which we won't do until we make a decision) in our current quarters. unfortunately, this is pretty much standard life lately. i hate that. especially given what's going on with karen and joe these days. speaking of karen and joe, i'm looking into a bone marrow donation registry drive. stay tuned.

oh--i almost forgot: i created a picasa album of house pictures. nothing of the top two floors yet, but it's a start.