Survival

Each year the kids' school encourages families to participate in the National Turn Off the TV week. We generally don't have the TV on Monday through Thursday. At first we did this because it just made things easier for us. We set the plan with August and when he'd come up to one of us asking to watch Arthur or Lazy Town we'd look at him and ask what day it was. He quickly caught on and learned that he shouldn't even ask. The plan worked so well that we just continued it. At this point I'm not sure we'd even have time for the kids to watch TV during the week. What with School of Rock and the school play, then add the hour and a half (if we're lucky) of homework on top of that and we're rushing for dinner to be done before 8pm so that Hazel can get her reading in before lights out. So, when the note came home that this year's event would be starting January 8 and continue through the 15th we just assumed we'd all do it. Hazel was excited to sign the contract while August conveniently kept forgetting his. When you have a mom who works in your school it's really hard to get away with anything...so I just grabbed a new contract and had him reluctantly sign the form.
Friday night has typically been our movie night but last Friday we changed it up and played Pictureka together. Man, Hazel is good at this game. She can find the needed item so quickly it's shocking. It was already a late night and we could only fit 2 rounds in before bed...but we survived the first night!
Saturday we made waffles together and spent most of the day out of the house, ending with pizza at the Nyssen's. We had to inform them that we weren't watching TV/playing video games because the boys are now programed to go right to the game system when they see each other. The kids spent their time going through all of Francis' new toys while the parents had great conversations over the kitchen table.
Sunday was another busy day with little time spent sitting...and then, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...we made it!
On the 15th the school welcomed all the families who participated to come back at 6:00 to play board games and use the gym for a few hours. I had some running around to do between play rehearsal which ended at 5:30 and the family event so the kids went over to our back yard neighbor's house to eat a quick dinner and hit the school.
Once we finally made it home a strange thing happened. It got very quiet in my house. August slipped into his room and Hazel disappeared to her room. I was rather tired from subbing and then going right to rehearsals so I just sat on the couch for a minute before I walked around my silent house wondering what my children were doing.
August was found on his bed with his DSi and earbuds...Hazel? You guessed it...same thing. They stayed this way for at least 1/2 hour before I encouraged them both to hit the sack.

I don't feel badly about them retreating to their personal game systems. I think they already have limited screen time as it is but I'm thinking that we might want to change our policy up just a bit. Two Friday nights in a row spent playing board games...it was a good thing. Friday night might be the only night that we don't feel that rush to get things done. No one needs to get up early the next day so bedtime can be flexible. Homework can wait until sometime Sunday meaning that we can have dinner together without rushing...which just might leave us some time to sit around the coffee table with a game or two...wanna come over?

Birth Control

I'm sitting here watching Jon and Kate Plus Eight and I just realized that every commercial break consists of anti-aging creams and birth control pills!

TV

You know that scene in My So Called Life? The one where Angela finally gets over Jordan and she’s dancing in her room while listening to The Violent Fems, she’s wearing shorts and a big old shirt and some flannel and her hair is all wild…I love that scene. I remember watching that scene. I remember watching it as a college student remembering what that feeling was like when I was in high school.
I’m watching the series via netflix. The first five DVD’s have driven me to tears with every episode. As I started the first show a huge smile crept across my face. The memories of watching Angela grow into herself and of me seeing myself in her flooded my mind. The first time I saw the series I was 4 years out of high school living in Ypsilanti. I hadn’t spoken to my school friends for years. This was a choice on my part. I wanted to get out of that time in my life so badly.
In high school I lived next door to my best friend. But at one point she got a boyfriend and things pretty much fell apart. That is one of MANY similarities I had with Angela. There was even a boy who I was friends with who I liked when he didn’t like me and didn’t like when he liked me. I know what you’re thinking; you’re thinking that we all had these circumstances in our lives. And you know what? That’s the beauty of this show! It’s like, relatable.

Why He Strikes.

check out my brother's myspace page...he just posted a pretty revealing video about the strike:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=7388701

Vomit Shot

We drove through LA traffic together, brother and sister, not knowing what we'd actually see. Following driving directions don't come naturally for us but we ended up finding the parking lot we were to wait in while a van weaved it's way to us- The Writer and his sister. A few extras arrived and we all made small talk about the weather and the traffic and call times until the air conditioned van finally arrived.

The set was in someones home. an earlier scene took place inside the home while the scene we were to see would happen in the garage. there was a constant flurry of people talking on headsets, walking to and from black tents and smiling. i noticed that everyone really did seem to be enjoying what they were doing. after a few minutes of chit chat and poking around The Writer knew which scene they were starting and looked into my eyes with a warning, "This is a killing scene- you ready?" The show is Dexter- I would be let down if I came to see a touching family moment, I came to see some BLOOD.
We walked around the house to the garage noticing people exiting with looks of disgust on their faces saying things like, "You sure you wanna bring her in?", "Oh man- it looks too real", "You ready?"
We turned the corner and saw what a fan of the show would expect- a room completely covered in plastic. One light hanging from the ceiling with a table in the middle of the room. Standing next to the table was Dexter and on the table- well, on the table was a body and blood. Lots of blood. I have a picture of the body but it's NSFW...or for most people, but if you really want to see it send me a comment and I'll shoot it your way.
The guy who made the body was carefully examining each section making sure there was enough blood and insides hanging out. Each piece- the foot, the calf, the thigh, the mid-section, the chest, parts of the arms, the head were expertly positioned to look as though they were mangled during a sawing from the rest of the body.
People milled around looking at it from this angle and that. "Well, we have Scott to thank for this scene!" Scott beamed and pulled me towards the monitors so we'd be out of the way during filming. The body looked cool in person but on camera it was eerily real, almost as if the eyes would open at any minute.
Later on we were driven to another location where they filmed a scene in an alley. The area was full of extras trying to stay busy while they waited to be pushed or pulled into the right position.
It was during this scene that the actors called Scott- The Writer- my brother over for a consult. They encircled him and asked him and asked him questions, needing clarification for the scene. It was a great moment.

We left the filming while it was still in full swing. We even found our way back to the parking lot and to a delicious In and Out for a late night dinner. Nothing like a good burger after blood and guts!