Wednesday, May 29, 2013

I Didn't Know I Was a Trekkie (sort of just a little bit)

Thoughts I’ve Been Thinking

1. Tom Petty was right.
About lots of stuff of course, but I am referencing in particular "Waiting is the hardest part."  Now that we have this beautiful brick house under contract, we have to wait.  Everything is going along of course--the loan process, and we have the inspection on Tuesday, but then...
MORE WAITING.
And it isn't as though we can get it ready to live in because the owners will live there until the end of June and we can't buy new furniture to go in it because we have nowhere to keep it.
So we have to wait wait wait wait and then the flood gates open--we get the house keys, we change the locks, we buy new furniture and move it in, Vicky arrives, we party, we go to Vegas...
July is going to be hella crazy.  And right now is sooo slow! So it is frustrating and I find myself humming that under my breath whenever I daydream about our house.
Also, a bunch of people we know/are related to have gotten houses that were unoccupied. So they got to move in a matter of days. Like "we got a place" and shazam 3 days later they reside in it.  JEALOUSY.
2. Meanness is exhausting and contagious.  I can always tell it is going to be a rough day at work if I open my inbox first thing and there is a grouchy, demanding email from a Loan Officer.
Soon enough, more of them flood in, all in the same vein.  They are so mean! And for no reason!
And they always compound into the same day.  And even if that day is slow and I don't have much work, I end up tired out from the meanness.  I think everyone should be friends with everyone.
3. I find the term “tender mercies” hysterical.  I was introduced to it the other evening by a friend, who’s mother says it all the time (while clutching her hand to her heart, based on his re-enactment). She thinks that anything nice (like your favorite meal being the special at a restaurant, or your fire alarm going off before you burn the house down) is a tender mercy and loves to proclaim it.
I have yet to witness someone seriously and endearingly exclaim “oh what a tender mercy!” and I cannot wait for the day.  For now, envisioning usages of that glorious term will suffice.
4. .  I found this old fashioned style telephone gadget while we were packing stuff up in our apartment.  It is a brass one, with the headset and mouthpiece, that sits in the palm of your hand.  I got it when I volunteered at the haunted local museum, and I’ve always had it sitting around decoratively, but it doesn’t DO anything and it is little so no guests are ever like “WOW! What an incredible 2 inch centerpiece you’ve got there” so I figured I would toss it.  And then I noticed that it has a pencil sharpener in the base. Holy crap, how did I not know this??! I don’t ever write with pencils, but I did notice that very morning
5. Why do they keep making all these Hollywood blockbusters set in/about space, after NASA was cancelled?  Obviously space is the tits and NASA rocks and should not have been cancelled.
I heard NASA has actually had a major role in these big space movies coming out, so it is like a giant advertisement/charity event for NASA going "doooon't shut us down, see how cool this stuff is?!"
I hope it works.  Or they're going to have Jack Kennedy's ghost on their hands.
6. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote an absolutely fabulous comparison piece on Obama and Nixon.
It is goooood.  Well researched and well written, and he references his family.
Read it here.
7.  I recently realized I am kind of a baby Trekkie. Which I didn't realize because I have always been a huge Star Wars fan.  I didn't even see the first Star Trek and then my family and I went to the second one and I was excited by how good it was, and going off on the reversal that they pulled in the end (with the radiation and Kirk and Spock) and everyone was staring at me, like "what the hell are you talking about?" and I explained it, and then I went off on the allegorical purpose of Star Trek and why Roddenberry created it for TV in the first place. My Dad said "I didn't even know you knew who Roddenberry was!!"  He thought the most I had been exposed to it was when we watched the Star Trek whales movie all the time when I was a kid, and then a few years ago we went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium where they filmed it, and we recognized it and had a good laugh.
Eli was also ignorant to my knowledge. We watched the first new Star Trek movie and I liked it too, but I explained the way they changed things and the history of the Vulcans and even surprised myself.  So who knew?? And how do I even know all this?
8.  I just realized there are some things that can make me instantly blissful, mostly because they take me back, as in back into my past, and things that brought me joy in my younger years.
These include driving with the windows down while listening to Death Cab For Cutie, reading Harry Potter, rummaging book sales, watching I Love Lucy, and thunderstorms.
9. The history of the United States--particularly our colonial founding.
This is so often stereotyped as being a worthy struggle of good Anglo Saxon people.  You see those children's book illustrations of pilgrims building the fence of a fort, or toiling in the earth harvesting crops, and then gathering their family 'round a giant roast bird to give thanks for America's bounty.
Which is dandy, but also cheapens what really happened.
Just think about showing up on a rugged, undeveloped coast, and trying to start a new life in a wild place among unknown natives (that your culture has taught you are savages).
It is pretty terrifying.  Not to mention the sicknesses and starvations...  Knowing the full history brings our colonial ancestors to life and makes you appreciate what they accomplished even more.
I've always been pretty cynical about this period in American history, but I've been reading more about it and watching the National Geographic special called "Nightmare in Jamestown" and it is staggering.
And illuminating.

And now, purely for your entertainment and mine, some funnies. With everyday parallels.
What Eli likes to do with our entire bed comforter to piss me off when I'm cold.
  


ME. When someone in our apartment lets their car alarm go off for more than 5 minutes.



Me trying to go up and down the stairs in my high high heels at work.




What I do when Eli tells me I can have "1 glass of wine."




What I want to tell a few of my guy friends after meeting their horrendous girlfriends.




Me on Saturday mornings.



Eli with a box of Cheese-Its.  It is a real addiction.




And now, some hilarious things having nothing to do with anything.



Happy Hump Day Ya'll !

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