Dance Dance Revolution

Friday night our friends came over for the evening. We had homemade pizzas and bellini drinks in the Vita-Mix and played Dance Dance Revolution on the XBOX. Kids played and babies were discussed. Meredith's mother Brooksie arrived a couple of days earlier. She is here for the duration as we are now in official "Any Day Mode" on waiting for the baby.

Meredith is getting rather tired now and I think she's about had enough of her body rebelling against motion, activity and generally getting around. She has really started to get into the groove of keeping the house ready for the new baby. There are plenty of things that we've done already and plenty more to do.

We even are in agreement about the possibility of a name...which will most likely be withheld until the day of.

We're planning on having the baptism for the new baby at the Pentecost service rather than Easter service (both traditional days for the Episcopalian Church) mainly because we don't want to interrupt people's family Easter celebration for our baby's baptism.

The Oscars were this evening. I really didn't have a horse in the running so I didn't much care to watch. I mostly played video games this evening, then went and worked on my consulting job for a couple of hours. Meredith and I have watched Little Miss Sunshine which we enjoyed. But we haven't seen any of the others. The last movie I saw in the theater was King Kong in December 2005 and Meredith went with Alexander to watch a movie called Doogal...which she didn't like very much. Previous to that for her was Star Wars Revenge of the Sith - summer 2005. So its been a while.

Random thoughts for late in the evening. Too much root beer.

Umm...Was That A Snake?

At lunch today, Clayton and I took a detour and stopped by the local Staples office supply store. Clayton wanted to purchase a new Palm Pilot handheld. As we are waiting in line to checkout Clayton taps me on the shoulder and tells me that a young woman has just entered the store with a python wrapped around her shoulders.

I turn to find her. But she has walked down into the aisles. After only a short wait however, she reappears towards the front of the store. She's of average height and weight - slightly auburn hair in a more "Big Texas Hair" kind of way...and a 7' green spotted python wrapped twice around her shoulders. Walking in a "you can't ignore the big snake" kind of way around the store.

I told Clayton that nothing screams "Look at me!" than a 7' snake.

It just goes to the mind the previous mental conversations before leaving the house:

"Should I - or should I not - wear the snake?"

"Would it clash with what I'm wearing?"

"Can I look less like an exotic dancer/stripper/insert your fancy here while wearing the snake?"

"Do I know anyone willing to wrestle the thing if I inadvertently scare it and it decides to go for full strength stranglehold?"

The mind boggles.

Dreams

I've been having some strange dreams lately.

The first was one late last week. I was sent to work in an office towards the back of a building. Not my current building...just in the back. The overhead lights weren't working and there weren't any windows. The only light I had was from the computer monitor and small desk lamp. I couldn't work there very often because there was always someone on the computer trying to fix it.

So I would wander in the rest of the building. For some reason, the library was on the next floor at the top of an escalator. I went in and all of the books were law book bindings. After going to the library I was notified that I would have to move offices into a glass encased office just above the central atrium of the building. With absolute no privacy and everyone entering the building could see into the office.

All this happening while I was wearing a white t-shirt with a blue collar and blue cuffs on the sleeves and in red print on the front:

"UTOPIA"

Could someone explain to me what that means?

The second dream was a bit more jarring. I was visiting my parents who have seemed to have moved into a subdivision at the top of a fairly steep hill. As I was leaving their house in a car, there is a street going down the hill at a 40% grade then turns at an oblique angle. A large barricade was in place to deter any launching off of the road into the water off of a cliff.

Obviously in R.E.M. sleep where was my car going to go? Off the cliff and into shouting at the ceiling at 3:30 in the morning.

No wonder I'm nervous all of the time. I don't have nightmares. I have frustrating dreams.

Brave Combo Still Subversive

Brave Combo, The City of Denton's "House Band" played Tuesday night at the end of the 150th anniversary party hosted by the City of Denton. They debuted their new song about Denton and not even the Denton Record Chronicle picked up the slightly subversive tone to the song.

Here are the lyrics:

Troubled times don’t get us down in Denton town.
Troubled times don’t get us down in Denton town.…

Life is best in the home of happiness.
Peaceful rest in the home of happiness.…

When it’s dark, we’ll find a light.
We’re Dentonites!
Polka hard, with all your might, Dentonites!
Polka hard, with all your might, Dentonites!

Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, DANCE!
Troubled times don’t get us down in Denton town. …

Ya la la la la loo la la.

What's really funny about the lyrics is the reference to Denton being the "Home of Happiness" which is a direct reference to the movie: Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which at the very beginning of the movie, the lead characters, Brad and Janet sing a love song Dammit Janet in the churchyard with a huge billboard in the background stating -

Denton - The Home of Happiness




I just think that's funny.

Memory

I miss my fantasy life. Not the one of teenage variety (that one wasn't that much anyway). No, I miss watching Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica as a 8 year old and feeling the way the show's soundtrack moved me to want to fly in the stars. Sometimes, listening to the music in my car, or with Alexander I get those flashes of how it felt to dream like that. Its difficult to hold onto it for very long. Immediacy and responsibility tie you to the ground as if you were formed with it millions of years ago.

I truly believe that I've been cursed with good long-term memory. Sure it helps out in Trivial Pursuit games, but with technicolor and THX surround-sound recall of past events intimidates and frustrates me more often than not. Coupled with the sense of ultimate responsibility for when things go wrong...I get to enjoy that sense of "what could I have done to forgo this feeling of failure" on a continual daily basis.

Even at night my subconscious loves dredging up times in which I said the wrong thing, did the wrong action, killed the wrong butterfly that spurred the wrong hurricane across the world. There can be a case stated (not a very good one I might add) for taking drugs to just shut the whole thing down for a time. A brief respite from reliving life. Thank God I'm not this poor woman: Link.

But I can't do that. And the staff report has to be done. The house needs to be cleaned. The responsibilities have to be accomplished. In this strip center, highway sign existence we've doomed ourselves to inhabit.

And I'll get to remember it all. Forever.

The Downward Spiral

Anybody who knows me knows that I have a hard time seeing the successes in life. Holistic viewpoints rarely do. Entropy and disorder are my bane. No matter how well you stack them end to end, the books are going to slide on the shelf.

Yesterday was my shelf sliding day. Beginning at 5 am with Meredith and Alexander and I all waking up at the same time and in good moods (we had all gone to sleep early) I made strawberry and banana smoothies and left for the day.

7:57 am - email from the city manager - the council has questions about tonight's agenda.

10:00 am - meeting with the city manager - provide a new analysis and presentation by this afternoon.

Skipping lunch and foregoing other responsibilities we complete the task.

6:00 pm - I watch my boss get yelled at for the actions of developers. Ultimately it's the developer's decision to design his own site and put it forward to the council.

We've been told not to express our opinions. We've been told not to make recommendations. Its the Council's decision to approve or deny. We're only presenting the facts of the development.

Now we're told they want a full analysis of all development coming into the city.

I can provide reams - and tell them exactly what is going wrong.

Kudos, Teeth and Ice

Sorry about the gap in time from my last post. Lots of life has been occurring since last I wrote.

I've finally completed the majority of work I've been contracted out for my consulting gig, while receiving praise from my boss. That really made me feel terrific. Also on the same day the City Manager for my full-time employment told my director that I performed well in a meeting earlier in the week and that he was impressed by my handling of the meeting and concluded that I was a "good hire." So work things are going well.

We had another bout with the ice on the roadways last week. Which didn't do well for my tension. The snow day on Wednesday closed the City, but I still worked 8 hours that day on my consulting gig trying to get it completed. Sun on Sunday was greatly appreciated.

We had Alexander's teeth done on Friday the 12th. We arrived at 6:30am at the hospital for him to be put in general anesthesia to fill 5 teeth and cap (baby root canal) three others. Meredith did a terrific job at getting all of the pre-op appointments, payment, and scheduling all done without me having to do any of it. I could take the day off and support Alex. He was a real trooper. Still groggy from the early wake-up morning, they gave him a mild sedative to calm him down. It was humorous watching a stoned three-year old. He was giggling quietly to himself. Bobbing his head and swaying to and fro. Finally he closed his eyes and put his finger to his nose and told Meredith:

"Mommy, I can't see my finger."

It was nice to have a light moment before the parental stress. Everything was completed within two hours. Meredith and Alex napped the rest of the afternoon. He now wants to show people his "Superman Gold Teeth" although his caps are stainless steel. Soft teeth due to antibiotics and irregular brushing led us to this point. You better believe we're very strict on the brushing morning and night with a good fluoride toothpaste.

We're having to say goodbye to Meredith and Alex's friends Gina and Pat and their son Drew. Drew has been Alexander's friend for almost two years now. They're moving to Ithica, NY in a couple of weeks. We went to they're going away party last night.

Whatever you do, don't see the movie "Click" with Adam Sandler. Weird movie that starts off as a comedy and then progresses into self-reflection in the vein of "Its a Wonderful Life" but much more depressing. I was in tears at the end of it and didn't like it at all.