Tuesday, September 22, 2009

New Years Resolutions

Yeah, I know, it's September, not January, but I don't make New Years resolutions as the calendar year changes, I make 'resolutions' as my own years change. But I don't like to call them resolutions, I prefer to call them promises to myself. No one but me knows if I break the promise and for the most part, no one but me really cares, but I think it's important to set goals for yourself from time to time, and I think the anniversary of my birth is a good time of year to do it.

So, on August 29th, I had my 29th birthday and began my 30th year of life. In the past year, I have had some amazingly insane shit happen to me, shit that changed my life forever, that changed the way I look at life. And honestly, shit that brought me to a place where I really believed I had dug myself a hole I'd never get out of. But I was wrong. And in the past year, I have learned that nothing happens without a reason. Everything, every little event has a purpose, a meaning that may not be clear at the time, but that in time, becomes clear. I was not planning on having a good birthday. But it was great. Surrounded by people that I love, people that love me, was the very best possible outcome for my dreaded 29th birthday. And the next day, still with the big smile on my face from the night before, I made these promises to myself:

1.) I will let my heart make decisions, as long as my head gets a vote too. And vice versa. It's never a good thing to let one make a decision without the vote of the other.

2.) Read all the labels on my food. ALL the labels on ALL the food. Before I buy it.

3.) Watch less TV.

4.) Make sure to take a little time for myself every day. Even if it means locking myself in the bathroom for 10 minutes.

5.) Get back on the bike.

6.) Keep trying to learn guitar, no matter how frustrated I get.

7.) Try to spend more one-on-one time with each of the kids. They are developing such varied and interesting personalities and turning into such amazing people, I want to make sure they know that they always know they can talk to Mom.

8.) Remember the mistakes I have made. All of them. And be grateful for them, they helped bring me to where I am now.

9.) Take a minute or two each day to remember how lucky I am to have my awesome family and friends, and remind myself that not everyone is as lucky as I am.

10.) Take nothing for granted. All it takes is a minute to change a life forever, good or bad.

And that's it. I can say that while I had no idea I would be here at this time last year, I can't really regret any of it. I have learned a lot about myself in the past year, and I am very grateful for that. So as I begin my 30th year of life, I am not dismayed by my age, I am not afraid of the things I have not accomplished, I am, instead, happy, healthy, and probably most importantly, comfortable in my own skin.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

'Inglorious Basterds' was AWESOME!!!

Sunday, I was privileged enough to have the free time to have a date with Matt. We don't get too many of those opportunities, so we decided to go see the new Quentin Tarantino film 'Inglorious Basterds'. I'm going to do my best to not give away major plot points, so if I seem cryptic, go see this film. Actually, you should see it anyway.

The trailers have been pretty open about one of the bisecting plots: there's a unit of Jewish American soldiers out to have their revenge on the Nazis. They are called (shock of shocks) the Inglorious Basterds, and their leader is Lt. Aldo Raines (Brad Pitt). I want to say right here and now that I don't care much for Brad Pitt as an actor, but holy crap was he ever perfect for this movie. I can't think of anyone else capable of playing that part, aside from Bruce Willis about 15 to 20 years ago. Pitt puts on a thick southern accent and it plays wonderfully. And when you hear the Pitt character say in the trailer "each one of you men owes me 100 Nazi scalps", don't think he's kidding or that they won't show it being done at some point.

The other plot involved is that of a French woman whose entire family was executed while they were being hidden from the Nazis. Her name is Shoshanna, but we see her later in the film being called Emmanuelle because she has successfully evaded Nazi capture and is now running a movie theater under an assumed identity. A German soldier becomes smitten with her and persuades the propaganda minister to hold a film's premiere at her small theater instead of at a much larger venue.

At some point, it becomes obvious to the audience that these plots will intersect, but the people in the separate plots don't figure it out in a way that's ever acknowledged.

One of the really truly great things about this movie is that the French people actually speak FRENCH, the German people actually speak GERMAN, and the Brits and Americans all speak English, instead of everyone speaking English and pretending it's something else. Which means for American audiences, about half of it is subtitled.

Also, this being a Tarantino film, you expect a lot of vulgar language and a lot of blood (especially in a war movie), but this is almost suspiciously tame by his standards. Not that there isn't some swearing and not that there isn't some bloody action, but none of it really seems gratuitous like in some of his earlier films.

Sadly, anything else I say is going to give a lot of stuff away, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone that hasn't seen it yet, but I do want to say that the Pitt character speaking Italian is probably the funniest bit in the whole movie. I hope this gets some serious awards recognition because it deserves some.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Ah, the weekend...

What a weekend! For me the only real difference between the weekend and the rest of the week is that on the weekend, the bf is actually home and we usually do fun stuff, where on the week days, he's at work most of the day and I'm at home doing the cleaning/taking care of the kids/making sure dinner is ready when he gets home thing, and honestly, very little of that is any fun, but taking care of the kids is by far the most enjoyable thing and the thing that makes me craziest.
That being said, this weekend, the kids went to go visit some family friends and are away with them on vacation for the rest of the week, so Matt and I had the place to ourselves and the freedom to get all the little things taken care of that we can't do when the kids are home. Did we think, even for a minute, about doing any of that crap? Hell, no! we wanted to have fun! So, after we dropped the boys off, we went to go visit my parents for a little bit because they're cool and fun to hang around with, then picked up some of Matt's stuff from his brother's place. Then, we went to Trader Joes and bought yummy snacks, but only because the Game Crazy was across the street.
So stupid me ( I say 'stupid me' here because it's way too easy to spend a crap ton of cash in that place) went to Game Crazy with my boyfriend and waited patiently as he perused the collection of games they had available for our Wii. I was trying to find something to look at while waiting patiently at the counter because he had found the Guitar Hero game I wanted and I wanted to make sure he didn't feel rushed looking for a game that he wanted. After giving him my iPhone so he could look up details of a particular game, I discovered that 'Lego: Batman' was on sale for ten bucks. I felt as though fate had forced my hand and that I simply had to have it. Especially because I already had 'Lego: Indiana Jones' and 'Lego: Star Wars- The Complete Saga' and the boys and I had just discussed the need for the Batman game to complete our collection. So, we now own all of the 'Lego' games for Wii.

Sunday, we had planned to see 'Inglorious Basterds', obviously not a kid-friendly activity, and we did that (another post will be forthcoming on the movie) fairly early. Then we got some stuff of mine from my bro's place and then off to another very dangerous place: Fry's. Luckily, Matt found the game he wanted (No More Heroes) and we set off to grab a quick drive-thru dinner and headed home.
We finished eating and then had to start playing the games. I have to start by saying that I had never played No More Heroes before and, in fact had not really heard anything about it until Matt brought it to my attention. It's so awesome!!!! It's like the Bride's fight with The Crazy 88's the whole way through! Constant sprays of blood and gore through everything! And when the characters phone rings, you have to hold the Wii remote to your ear to hear it! Way too much fun!!!
Which brings us to Lego Batman. This game is ridiclously fun. Pure awesome. Of course, if you're a Batman geek (and I am) or a Lego geek (strike two) and you like silly fighting games where the enemies are reduced to a pile of rubble when eliminated (strike three) you are almost predestined to love these games. Reducing the Joker to rubble was just something I couldn't resist.

And to bring our weekend to a close, we decided to watch 'A Nightmare Before Christmas' because, surprisingly enough, Matt had never seen it. So we watched it and surprisingly stayed awake for the entire thing! :)

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Ah, the many joys of apartment living...

We just moved into a really great apartment in a quiet neighborhood in a Portland suburb. While I am generally pretty much opposed to living in 'the 'burbs' , I liked this community and it puts us within 2 miles of my boyfriend's job. Of course, it's been a while since I lived in an apartment, and there were a few things I had forgotten about.

1.) Maintenance happens. Including the groundskeeping service mowing the lawn at 8am. And the sprinklers going off at midnight. And waiting a week to have anything fixed.

2.) Other people have small children. And different parenting styles than you do. The best way to deal with this is to hold your tongue when you see or hear something you don't agree with, even if you literally need to bite your tongue to prevent yourself from saying something you may regret later.

3.) The pool isn't just for you and your family. The entire community is entitled to its use, even when that means the other children are doing things you didn't want your children to ever see outside of a TV show that runs a disclaimer like this: "These stunts are performed by professionals. Do not attempt at home."

4.) Not everyone has the same taste in music as you do. There may be times when the downstairs neighbor and the neighbor on the north side are playing two different kinds of music and you hate them both. This is probably also the right time to remember that not everyone wants to hear you practice your trumpet. At 6am.

5.) If you can hear your neighbors next door having sex, they can hear you too. It's a natural part of living in a place where bedrooms share walls. If you don't look at them funny, they won't look at you funny. (It's worth noting here that I have never heard our next door neighbors on either side do anything at all, much less that.)

6.) If you have a party, the least you can do is inform your neighbors. If you have nice neighbors (like I do) and everybody gets along okay, go ahead and invite them.


That all being said, I really love living here. And I'm getting used to it pretty well, I think. I'm thinking we might have to invite the neighbors over once we finally get some furniture and get everything all settled. It's nice living in a community where on our first day here, the downstairs neighbors invited us to play volleyball and bingo with them. They're such nice people, and they aren't the only ones around here that are. They liked my blue hair, and I have a feeling that once I get good enough to actually play my guitar around other people, they may not mind that. As long as I'm polite and don't practice too early in the morning or too late at night.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Aww...My first blog post! (and other stuff)

Wow, so this is my first post on this new blog. I'm used to the character limit on Twitter, so if these first posts are awkward, please forgive. I'm sure I'll get nice and cozy in no time.

I have no idea who will read this, but just in case any of you don't have kids and don't want to hear about the daily adventures of having kids, you should probably be reading another blog.

Continuing on that subject, I have a very frustrating issue about my kids' clothes, and I'm hoping any other parents reading this can offer advice or suggestions about this. My youngest son and my oldest son are both pretty skinny kids. The oldest is about the average height for his age, the youngest is a bit on the short side, but they have the same problem. I can't seem to find a pair of pants for either of them that fits both in the waist and the inseam. Shorts aren't a problem because I can get a 2T or 3T for the little guy and a 5 or 6 for the oldest and the waists fit fine, but in regular jeans and other pants, I have to get a 4T for the little guy and a 7 or 8 for the oldest. They're both healthy and very active, they're just thinner than the apparent standard for children their heights. Some companies are offering adjustable waists in jeans and other pants, but even those are sometimes too big. It's really irritating that there are more than enough allowances for larger children, which I have to admit I see far less frequently than smaller children, but the smaller children seem to have less available options for them. Grr...

Anyway, thanks for reading the ranting, I much appreciate it. Also, if you like what you're reading, feel free to send me a comment either here or on my Twitter page at http:www//twitter.com/vjs829

-Vic