I initiated a major clean up of the Living room and the craft room. I'm starting to seriously consider some new projects - even though they're intimidating. (A super amazing craft holder bag? A baby doll shirt?) At the moment I'm diligently working on cross stitch stuff. Hopefully, sometime in the next decade, I'll finish the one I'm working on and snap a photo for you. In the mean time, check these crafties out:
Sweet Pea Baby Booties
Rainbow Felt Framed Wall Art
Felt Cupcake in Silicone cup
And remember that jewelry I mentioned a while ago? The dollops of whipped cream, etc? I initiated that purchase on July 1st. Do you know what today is? Today is September 15th. It has officially been 2 and a half months. I still have no jewelry in my possession yet, I am, curiously, about $20 poorer. Frustrating.
Also - I am officially thinking about taking your advice. Dance Dance revolution seems to be something I could really get into. And as it stands, unless I want to figure out which store has a shipment of Wii Fits coming in and then stand in line for it at 5:00 a.m. in order to buy one - I'm not going to buy one any time soon. My question is - Should I Invest in Dance Dance Revolution now and significantly postpone OR forgo completely the Wii Fit. OR should I wait and try to get my grubby little paws on a Wii Fit? I'm at a loss. Has anyone tried the wii fit? I'm not sure how it would go if a video game called me fat. I might punch it in the face. Which, actually, could be bad news bears for my T.V. and then I wouldn't even have West Wing or Girls Next Door to comfort me.
ALSO today is Day One of the South Beach Diet Phase one. I had Egg "muffins" for breakfast with V8 and 2 pieces of Turkey Bacon. I had something like 10 cashews for a snack at around 10:30. Greg made soybean salad for lunch. I will have a cheese stick for a snack and we are having mushroom soup for dinner (the mushroom soup is also already made - he was a busy boy yesterday). Greg gets much credit for spurring this onward with his mad cooking skillz - although I think I will continue to tease him for buying items but not necessarily looking at quantities. There's a big difference between 12 oz. of soybeans and 1.5 pounds of soybeans. I'm just sayin'.
Now that we're all caught up, I can talk about what I really want to talk about. Saturday night we hung out with friends - we had dinner together and played a half-assed game of Cities and Knights. Then we all plotzed on the couch and flicked through their On Demand movies. I've never experienced "On Demand" before. It was nice I guess. There wasn't really anything I was dying to watch on it, and I had brought a movie I knew they'd enjoy, but everybody else seemed attached to the idea of watching something none of us had seen yet. They picked "In Bruge" starring Collin Farrel and the cast of the fourth Harry Potter movie. They picked it because everyone (but me) had been to Bruge and I guess that made them feel cool.
Suffice it to say, it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It was random and stupid and the humor was... not funny. The plot was uninspiring. The violence was gratuitous. The gore was probably where the budget went. So I spent a delightful saturday watching 4 murders and 2 suicides.
Let me make this clear. I enjoy violence in the movies sometimes. For example, I think Kill Bill was brilliant, as was its sequel. I like Silence of the Lambs and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer was incredible. There are tons of violent movies that I like. When I really think about it, it's not a fact I'm super proud of I guess, but it is a fact. Now allow me to repeat that "In Bruge" was awful.
Something that has significantly changed for me over the last couple of years is my tolerance for gun violence. I have next to no tolerance, these days. I cringe when they are used in TV or Movies. I can't even laugh at Stewie pistol whipping someone in Family Guy. I used to be able to. I don't know if I've "seen the light" or if I'm hypocritical. I feel hypocritical. I didn't used to think twice.
I’m really lucky. Out of all the terrible things that have happened in this world, very few have truly touched me - I should be thankful. I should be grateful that some of the hardest, most terrible things have been shouldered by others who are probably worlds stronger than I am.
For example, I can not comprehend losing a child. I’m not even a parent yet, and losing a son or daughter is… unthinkable. I've never lost a grand parent or a sibling or aunt or uncle or parent. I know I'm truly blessed.
I have, however, lost a friend. Obviously, he wasn’t just MY friend, and I wasn’t his closest friend either - I believe that particular distinction goes to two very cool, very pretty Amandas. It’s hard to think about it, the back of my throat closes up and still I’m grateful that my pain is less than that of so many other people, not the least of which includes his parents and sister.
I was at work when I first read about the Virginia Tech shootings - the death count kept getting higher as it was reported on msn and while it was surreal and upsetting, I felt safe. I wasn’t there, and I didn’t recall any friends who were. I talked to my brother through gmail chat. He was fine and complaining that Mom had called him and made him promise to hide under his bed if anything like that happened at his college. I called Greg while he was at work to let him know the goings on. We murmured cursory words of mourning for the senselessness of it.
My husband and I were playing host to two college friends who were in town for an engineering conference. They just needed to crash on our floor. When I got home from work, we watched the news, awe-struck as bloody kids our age were carried from the buildings. I asked the friends who were staying with us if they knew anyone at Virginia Tech and Ben gave me a strained, weird look. He then reminded me that Dan, after graduating from our Alma Mater, went on to Civil Engineering grad school at Virginia Tech. And the shootings occurred in the engineering building.
I’m not sure I’ll ever feel an adrenaline surge like that again, but it made me freeze, every muscle tense. I stared with renewed vigor at the TV, waiting for a hint about who was murdered and who was spared, tears streaming down my cheeks.
Later that night, lying in bed, Greg and I told each other that he had to be okay - I mean, what are the odds, seriously. He might not have had class that day! Or he might have skipped class to go on a Dunkin’ Donuts run or a bike ride… even though he wasn’t really the skipping class type… Or he might have been on a different floor… There were so many ways he could have been safe. Greg and I went to sleep reassuring each other that our friend was okay.
In the morning at around 8:30 a.m., we got a call from our friends who were in town at the conference. They had just heard that Dan was killed.
Dan had been my husband’s roommate for a year and a half. They were housemates when they went abroad to Belgium for 4 months. They travelled all over Europe together. Dan was Emcee-ing at the concert where Greg proposed to me. Dan came to our wedding.
Over the last few years, Greg has lost 3 friends his age. One to a motorcycle accident, one to a car accident, and now, one to a senseless act of violence. Dan had been in one of the smallest classrooms. His story isn’t talked about much because there were no survivors in that room so there are no heartwarming stories of heroism or escape.
Greg does not cry often. I knew Dan was gone because while Greg was on the phone - he started to weep. We both stayed home from work that day. Greg needed me badly, and I needed him, and for the first day or so we just sat and held each other.
Eventually, we were both filled with an intense desire to do SOMETHING, to do ANYTHING, even though there was nothing to do in addition to a fog of despairing lethargy penetrating our physical shells. We settled on a trip to a Big Home Improvement store to purchase a tree. We thought Dan would get a kick out of the funny little plums, so we picked a plum tree, took it home, named it Dan and planted it in our backyard. We found and bought a fraggle - one of Dan’s favorite shows - and packaged it up and sent it to Dan’s Family.
I tried going in to work, but when my boss started to talk to me about what happened I started to cry and I couldn’t stop. She sent me home.
Greg and I made plans to go to the wake and funeral. We drove 10+ hours to get there and I had one of the hardest experiences of my life and one of the best.
Walking into the high school gym where his wake was being held and having to walk past a coffin with pictures of Dan and his friends in high school and college in collages all around was tough. Walking up to his mom and dad was tortuous. I was trying so hard not to cry because geez - how selfish am I? My pain can’t be nearly as bad as theirs, and here are these broken parents standing next to their son’s coffin, hugging people as they walk past in a steady stream. I get there and I’m just short of bawling and Dan’s mom gave me the sweetest little hug, held on to me and told me it would be okay. SHE told ME it would be okay. She also thanked me for the Fraggle… told me it was sitting on her mantle and that it makes her smile every time she sees it.
I don’t have physical proof yet, but I think she’s some kind of wonder woman.
The rest of my night was, oddly, one of the best in my life. Dan had three sets of friends, you see. He had high school friends - a small group that he was extraordinarily close to; so close that they had matching t-shirts with nick names and a special hang out called "The Barn". He had college friends - a group of Theatre dorks, a cappella singers, art society groupies and engineers. And he had Virginia Tech grad school friends. We went out to a casual sort of dinner all together at a local chinese food restaurant with 30 people or more after the wake. And then we met up at "The Barn" which, unsurprisingly, was a barn-like structure behind someone’s house. We all went up to the second floor of the Barn in a big open space, sat down with guitars, played music, joked around, sang songs, and told stories. It was extraordinarily precious. The three separate groups of friends who had NOT met each other previously got along perfectly as though even without having this really cool guy in common, we could have all been the best of buddies.
Dan was a really good looking guy. He was smart, and witty, and he could be obsessively passionate and quirky about all sorts of things. He played the guitar very well, and he sang with a lot of heart — if not always in tune. He could be moody sometimes - Greg has more than one story about how down Dan could get on long Train rides across Europe or how negative his attitude could be when caught in a downpour. Greg laughs everytime he sees this one commercial -- where this guy is explaining that he doesn't have any cell phone service in Belgium so instead of joining his friends on a trip out to France he'll be staying at this hostel with ridiculous other people. Greg laughs because he says the actor, sitting on the bed, has the exact same scowl that Dan would get when he was in a bad mood. But he could also be as light as a feather and happy as a clam. He didn’t really drink alcohol although he developed an appreciation for Belgian beer after his trip.
After Greg proposed to me, Dan’s first words on the mic were "So… uh… how ’bout that?"
At College, he used to walk into my house unannounced, sit on my floor and play my guitar until I was forced to pay attention to him - at which point he'd beg to go get some Dunkin' Donuts coffee, even at midnight or later. He had a funny giggle. He could put away a pound of pasta or more in one sitting. His favorite fraggle was Wembley. He auditioned for the A cappella groups on campus almost every year, but he never got in.
He was a talented engineer, he did extremely well in his classes and he wanted to build bridges for a living.
And I miss him.
I haven't restrung my guitar since he did it for me in college and one of the strings is broken now. I can't watch someone getting shot on T.V. without wondering how long Dan was conscious after being shot. I don't think it's funny anymore. I don't think it's entertaining.
That night before his funeral where all three groups of his friends sat in one room and sang together to the tune of 3 or 4 guitars, loads of sadness, and a great deal of appreciation for the respect and support we were receiving from each other - we ALL smiled at the vision of Dan in the back our minds and how he would have acted had he also been physically present. He would have been bouncing off the WALLS, dude. He would have been skipping from person to person. He would have been playing the guitar and singing at the top of his lungs. He would have been laughing till he cried tears of joy and hilarity. He would have been ecstatic to have all of his friends together in one place. It would have been perfect. As it is, it was the closest to perfect we could get.
5 comments:
He will certainly be well remembered by you.
I'm experimenting. You and a friend inspired me to set up a new blog. Let me know what you think.
www.thefunhousemirror.blogspot.com
I think you can link from my profile????
Sorry to hear about your friend, and your delayed package too. I'm experiencing a delayed package as well right now and it's driving me up the wall!
Regarding DDR vs Wii Fit: I'm a huge gamer, and I was really interested in Wii Fit. I even had one reserved for me at the game store. But when the reviews came in, I was really discouraged and not impressed, so I ended up getting my reservation deposit back without purchasing the game.
Keep in mind, weight loss really boils down to burning more energy than you consume, and maintaining enough of an energy deficit so as to have your body use fuel it has stored (fat). Now there's a lot of other variables in the equation, such as your metabolism rate and your body structure as well as genetics, but for the most part it's what I describe above. For a more detailed explanation I highly recommend reading the Hacker's Diet website, especially the section entitled The Rubber Bag.
I chose not to buy Wii Fit for a few reasons. First off, it doesn't really provide me with anything new. Many of the exercises are yoga or simple exercises (pushups and jumping jacks), all of which I know how to do on my own. As well, I don't care at all about my BMI, and neither should anyone really - while it can be a useful measurement, it is too basic to have much value as it doesn't consider bone density/muscle mass/body shape. Lastly, I simply don't find the idea of doing low intense workouts appealing, and that's all Wii Fit seems to be.
I find DDR to be much better of a workout game. I prefer high intensity workouts, and DDR sure does provide this. The game has different difficulty levels, so it will continue to challenge you years after you start playing. Plus, there are many versions available now that the series has been in stores for almost a decade, its on almost every console, and you'll be able to find used or new copies of the game online easily, retail stores might be a bit harder to find used games due to the high demand. There's always plenty of new sets at my game store - you can buy the game and one mat in a discount package, so that'll save you a few bucks. And the music is really fun and cool, whenever I work out using DDR I never really FEEL like I'm working out, I feel like I'm having fun!
So it really boils down to what type of an exercise person you are. As I mentioned above, weight loss boils down to "eat less, burn more", so as long as you're burning via any method, you'll see results. I have no doubt that people are seeing results after using Wii Fit or DDR. What I will say, is that I have never regretted my purchase decision. DDR is one of the best purchases I've ever made in terms of value per dollar. I highly recommend it.
I lost a co-worker/intern of 3 years on that tragic day. His name was Matt & he was in grad school. He tutored a bunch of his peers there. A few had requested help in this one particular engineering class. A class that Matt was NOT required to take, but he took it anyway. He was in that class when he lost his life. My work has planted a beatiful tree in his name with a plaque underneath. We also had some of those rubber type "live strong" bracelets made bearing his name. What a horrible event. I don't understand how some people can act in such violent ways.
I lost a co-worker/intern of 3 years on that tragic day. His name was Matt & he was in grad school. He tutored a bunch of his peers there. A few had requested help in this one particular engineering class. A class that Matt was NOT required to take, but he took it anyway. He was in that class when he lost his life. My work has planted a beatiful tree in his name with a plaque underneath. We also had some of those rubber type "live strong" bracelets made bearing his name. What a horrible event. I don't understand how some people can act in such violent ways.
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