Monday, July 5, 2010

Entertaining

So yesterday I pretty much fell apart. I started the day with a migraine that kept us from our last Sunday at our church here in Dallas, then by the afternoon I was shivering with chills even though I was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie and our thermostat was set to 80 degrees. If you have spent much time with me, you know this is REALLY weird because I am very hot-natured and am almost never cold. My head was spinning and I felt nauseous and I couldn't hold Violet without falling dizzily and oh my gosh, I thought I was going CRAZY. I really thought that it was all psychological and I was just crumbling under the stress of Abbey dying and moving and all that. I finally took my temperature in the evening and found I was running a significant fever, which I've got to say came as something of a relief. It is much more bruising to my sense of self to think that I am incapable of coping with the stress of life than to think that I have a virus. I am doing better today, although trying to do our packing and getting ready for the movers tomorrow is pushing the limits of what I can handle today. I am taking a lot of breaks to lay on the bed.

Anyway, the various circumstances of life have conspired lately to put me in great need of some escapist entertainment. I also have felt like I could really go for a) eating an entire container of ice cream or b) getting roaringly drunk, but both of those are not very healthy coping mechanisms for stress and sadness, now are they? Watching more TV and movies than usual seems like a better option. And of course, I've been working on getting my sewing stuff packed up so I haven't been doing my normal amount of stress-relieving sewing. So there you go-- yay for TV and movies and other various forms of entertainment!

I was almost an entire season behind on LOST, but I recently caught up and then finally watched the series finale. I know I am MONTHS late to this party but I enjoyed it so much. I really like how they ended the series, and I think that is up there for one of my very favorite TV shows ever, with The X-Files and Gilmore Girls and Battlestar Galactica. Have you seen this explanation of the plot? I find that pretty satisfying, although I will admit that there are some plot issues and confusion that make it not as perfect a show as it might have been. I think it really succeeded when it comes to character and tone and telling a story, though, so I am a pretty happy fan. What a unique, creative show; they are in obvious need of an eyepatch. (The eyepatch is around 7:20 of that video, but gosh, the whole Tyra Banks interview is HILARIOUS.)

We recently watched Whip It, which conspired to make me miss Austin a lot and also for Rob and I to talk again about how much I dislike sports but how much I enjoy sports movies, especially if they are about some slightly offbeat, not-quite-mainstream sport. We have had this conversation before, and it is a corollary to our conversation about why watching sports doesn't seem very entertaining to me. There is no plot! You don't know that it is going to end the way it is "supposed" to! We most often have this conversation during college football season when it seems to me that Rob uses his precious leisure time to watch games that make him more unhappy than he was before he turned on the TV. (Thanks a lot for that, Texas Aggies.) In contrast, sports movies DO have plot and end EXACTLY how they are supposed to. Examples that I have enjoyed to various degrees include Strictly Ballroom (I looooooooove it), The Cutting Edge (a girlhood classic), Blue Crush (OK, not an actual good movie), Bring It On (guilty pleasure), Wimbledon (what is with all the Kirsten Dunst?), Bend It Like Beckham (so good, and about an actual normal sport to boot), and Drumline (perhaps the most quintessential sports movie on this list, and also awesome).

Speaking of Drumline, we watched that sort of recently and also within the space of a few months The Wood (very enjoyable) and I'm Through With White Girls (FABULOUS) and now, judging by the suggested movies, I'm pretty sure Netflix thinks we're black.

And now for your entertainment, here are a couple more shots of my adorable children from that photo shoot we had back in May.




4 comments:

amydove said...

My mom has had Whip It on the coffee table the whole time I have been visiting, trying to find time to make me watch it. Generally her movie choices are suspect, so I'm glad to hear it will be good!

Also, I am in Bring It On! Well, sort of. They used the Virginia Pep Band's fight song for the high school fight song and I was in the recording. We all went to see it together and ran into the UVa cheerleading squad who also went to see it together... in their matching warm up outfits.

Eva said...

Well, I wouldn't blame your body for reacting to the huge amount of pressure you are now under, it only makes sense. Of course, the timing is bad, but I'm sure you'll manage in the end and hopefully you'll feel better by the time you hit the road. Good luck and feel better soon!

Carlie said...

Crud, girl! May it end soon! I hope that moving is less stressful on the other end....dare we hope? And thanks for the long list of great movie recs which I may soon be utilizing as WE move instead of downing an entire carton of ice cream.

angie.a said...

Oh poo, you removed the last post before I got to read it dang you! :P I hope you arrived in SLC safe and not toooo tired, and you'll post some pics soon!! I'm also really sorry about the decision to let Abbey go. :( I know that must have been a tough decision. I love my puppies (and my fat kitties) and I selfishly want them to be with me forever!

The pictures of the girls are WONDERFUL. That tuutuu one is just too cute. Wouldn't that be an awesomely fun job?? Photographing cute kiddos?? You should do that in all that "free time" you have (haha). You take marvelous pictures! You could come with some astrophysicist-appropriate photography business name, HA!