Olympic Memory #1

Summer of 1984.  The Olympics were taking place in a far off exotic land called Los Angeles.  My parents claimed that was in America.  I was 4 1/2...who was I to question?  But the fact that something as great and grand as this could take place in the same country where I lived baffled my young mind.

It was a sunny day.  I was sitting on our awesome brown and blue floral print couch.  (That couch was sufficiently 70s and sufficiently itchy.  It always scratched my legs.)  Gymnastics were on.  I recall vividly watching Mary Lou Retton go round and round the gym.  She made my young mouth drop open.  I loved her leotard.  I loved her cute, short hair.  The twists and turns she did sent my imagination soaring.  Oh!  What it must be like to fly through the air and land with complete perfection.  I was hooked: with the Olympics and with her.  

The grandeur of the games was, and still is, something awesome and wonderful, and I still love watching them to this day.  Diving of all sorts, synchronized swimming, water polo, and swimming...oh, the amazing feats these athletes perform in the water.  Gymastics.  Awe inspiring and beautiful.  The shared respect between [most] athletes makes you wonder: Why can't we just all get along all the time, like we do when the rainbow rings are flying above our heads?

Hooray for the Olympics!  I'm gonna go watch some more.  Who knows?  Maybe wee girl will form her first Olympic memory this year. 

It Should be Like Christmas

My hubby left today for a week-long man trip across the country with a few of his mates.  They started at a depressing Cubs loss at Busch today, will be in an awesome water park outside of Kansas City tomorrow, then head to Colorado to see a Rapids game versus EPL team Swansea, and end up in Las Vegas for a few days.  Driving across the country (or half way across it in this case) has been something I've always dreamed of doing.  I've spent the better part of the last month being silently, ruefully jealous of the fact he gets to do this with his friends.  

Then, last week, I was trying to find the silver lining.  Well, I'll get to spend lots of time with the kids, which I love to do.  I'll get to watch WHATEVER I want when he's gone.  I'll get to watch that David Tennant straight to DVD movie I have stored on Netflix, plug in the VCR and go through my Barbra Streisand collection, and I'll get to watch all the Smallville I can handle!  Oh, and I have Superman, Superman II, and Superman Returns on Blu-Ray!  I can even have a Wes Anderson or John Hughes fest...or BOTH!  It's like Christmas!...Right?

Now I just miss him.  All of these movies I have been listing in my head to watch are just swimming around listlessly at the back of my mind, when all I can think about is how I wished I was cuddled on the couch with him, reading as he watches Breaking Bad (or WWE if it's Monday night).  I feel like a grade-A-rhymes-with-witch for being jealous and not hugging him more last week.  I'm also sad we all got the flu a few days ago and couldn't huggle, since we were taking turns in the bathroom.  (OH!  TMI!  SORRY!)

I just hope he gets home safely.  I'll try to watch a lil Hughes or Anderson in his absence, but maybe I miss him so much this time I won't even enjoy it...and THAT, my friends, would be a first.

Why I SUCK at Being a Mom

I love movies and TV.  So much.  Movies are a huge part of my life.  Some of my earliest memories are of my dad letting me skip my nap, and then getting to watch film classics with him, like the Blues Brothers.  And, he was never one for censorship: Bachelor Party, Porky's, and Poltergeist were all movies I viewed way before I should have.  One reason I love going on the elliptical is because I get to re-watch seasons of my favorite shows: Flight of the Conchords, Smallville, Gilmore Girls, Twin Peaks, and the list goes on and on to keep me fit. 

Because I love these visual medias so much, I really am beginning to suck at being a mom.  My son comes out of his room in the morning, and the first thing he does is to run for the kitchen to get some juice.  Oh, well, that's okay, you say...until he gets his juice and makes a bee-line for the DVD shelf, gesturing frantically at Despicable Me or any Toy Story.  I know I shouldn't let him do this first thing in the morning, but the utter and pure joy on his face when I tell him he can "push the button" is so so SO adorable that I can't say  no.  He then scuttles over to the couch (after opening the Blu-Ray, of course), pulls himself up, and makes some of the most amazingly awesome gurgles and spastically flays his arms in glee.  Oh, and then when that FBI warning pops up, he knows the show is really on!  It's about to go down, yo!  Gru and his minions or Buzz, Woody, & the Gang are about to light up his life.  

Lil Girl is the same way with anything Disney: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, or Doc McStuffins.  Her face BEAMS when she is given the chance to pick which to view. 

I know.  I know.  I'm a teacher.  I LOVE to read.  I love reading them books.  They do like books too--one of Alba's favorite games is playing Library in her room, when we read lots of books before bedtime--but there is something just so magical about a wonderful movie.  They both have discovered the joy of movies and TV...maybe a little too early...maybe I should've derailed this love...but I just couldn't, and there's no going back now.  Hey, Rory Gilmore ended up okay after being raised on cult classics and made-for-TV movies.  I mean she DID get into Yale, so I'm sure mine will be alright, too...right???

Top 5ive at Fifty

It will be debated*.  It will be criticized.  These are mine.  (And, sorry we don't have a Top 10, but with naptime drawing to a close, I don't have time to go double five!)

5.  A Few Good Men--Holding his own against Jack Nicholson.  The final scene is CRYSTAL clear goodness.  

4.  Rain Man--Holding his own WITH Dustin Hoffman.  I love this film so much that I'm watching it right now.  It's hard to imagine he crapped out Cocktail (c'mon, it's NOT great) and then got the shine out for an Academy Award nominated performance all in the same year.  (Bonus points if you know without looking on IMDB.)

3.  Top Gun--Quintessential Tom Cruise viewing.  Absolutely.  It was probably inappropriate that I watched this at eight, but who cares.  I was a mature gal, and I fell in love with this wee Syracuse native.

2.  Mission Impossible IV: Ghost Protocol--The newest Mission is the best in my opinion.  Pure rip roarin', action fueled fun.  The whole series is one of my favorite franchises of recent years.  (Much better than the Twilight franchise, y'all.)

1.  Jerry Maguire--I have to.  I know it's super duper sappy at the end, but his performance is top notch, A-1, superb.  Crowe-bar's script is immensely satisfying, and just recently have I rediscovered the greatness that garnered Mr. Cruise his 1996 Best Actor nod.  Too bad he won to some Aussie flash-in-the-pan, Geoffrey Rush.  Whatever.  The question of the day is, though, WHY DO I NOT OWN THIS ON DVD???  

*Mostly because Top Gun isn't #1.  This is MY list, so let me have it at #3.

Nifty Fifty (AKA, Why Men Suck)

Oh, I'm just kidding!  Men don't suck!  It's just incredibly unfair how they get gooder and gooder looking, while us women, well...we don't. 

Case in point: THE BIRTHDAY BOY!  Tom Cruise is no stranger to the pages of BBB!, so we have to send up his 50th birthday with a bang.  I don't mean to bring him into my ever present discussion of how men age gracefully, but while looking through some Google images, this unfair rite of passage was brought to the forefront of my mind once again.

Here's Thomas Cruise Mapother IV's senior high picture:

And, here he is NOW:

Sure, he was a cute lookin' senior kid.  But, REALLY?  REALLY.  Now he's distinguished, with laugh lines that are considered handsome instead of heinous, and well...he just looks a lot better than that little boy did in 1980.  I don't believe in bringing my sex down, so instead of posting a current photo of Kelly McGillis, Mr. Cruise's Top Gun co-star, I'll just give you this link to click on.  Let's just say life isn't always fair for the fairer sex.

Anyway...back to the subject at hand.  Tom Cruise is FIFTY!  Happy birthday, old chum.  Come over for dinner sometime.  We'll chat, talk about whatnot, and you'll have no judgment in our house, so it'll be a relaxed, fun evening.  We might even break out some 80s Scene It.  Now, THAT sounds like a great way to spend 50.