film irks

There are certain things that happen in films/shows that drive me bonkers.

1. Blanket tuck in.
Character A will walk in to see Character B asleep either on a couch, chair, or somewhere they don't normally sleep. Character A will then cover Character B with a blanket. Somehow this is always supposed to convey how much Character A cares about Character B. Often the characters will have been at odds or one might be questioning the other's love.

2. Bad-ass hospital patient.
The doctor tells his patient that she has internal bleeding, punctured lungs and a cracked spleen and will need lots of time lying in bed to heal. The patient then immediately tries to rip out her iv, get out of bed and go home to clean her kitchen.

3. Promise statements.
Adults, parents, detectives, doctors, people in uniform are most guilty of this. In the most critical moment they say "I promise" to..... bring them back, find the lost person, save their life through surgery. Usually they break their promise because it was outside of their power.

4. Love story misunderstandings.
Sam falls in love with Carol and their love story is unfolding and going so well. Then Sam buys Carol yellow roses because he loves her. Carol know that yellow roses mean friendship not love, so she cries a lot. Carol feels betrayed because she thought they were headed towards marriage. Sam can't figure out why Carol won't answer his calls. The next hour is spent watching their misunderstanding spiral out of control.

Take away lessons:

1. If you want someone to know you care about them, wait until they fall asleep with no covers on and then gently place a blanket over them. To show you really love them, tuck the blanket right up under their chin. If you prefer a more unique, less common way to show them, buy them a chocolate bar, give them a neck nuzzle or wash their car.

2. If a doctor tells you not to get out of bed and to focus on getting better, you have two choices. First you could pretend to be Wonder Woman, throw back your covers and go clean your house. Or secondly, you could just lie back and request the nurse to get you a cherry icey. It is good to remember that you are human and sometimes will feel weak.

3. It is good to know your limits before you make a promise. That way you avoid hurting others or placing unrealistic expectations on yourself.

4. When falling in love, expect misunderstandings. When you first notice one, stop, drop everything and fix that little misunderstanding before it spirals out of control huge and ruins things. Also a lot of people (girls) know the meanings behind certain flowers.

Lessons put into a slogan:

1. If you love them, tuck them in!
2. Be human!
3. Promise not to promise!
4. If at first she misunderstands, try try again!

Baffled.

Three things that baffled me as a child:

• that a man could marry a woman that was taller than him
• that banana was really spelled like that
• how coupons worked

At a wedding I went to, the man was a good 7 inches shorter than his wife and I was mesmerized by them. My real life and Barbie/Ken examples had only modeled the "guy taller than the woman" option.

I remember being exasperated about all the words I didn't know how to spell and I was begrudgingly filling out a crossword puzzle from Highlights, when the answer for 5 across was banana. My mom said to spell it out as best I could, so I was saying "B - a" and started to get frustrated and said  "n - a - n - a" knowing full well that no word had that many repetitive letters. My mom said I was right and it became my new favorite word.

When I was five I cut out pictures of a set of Christmas dishes from a Penny's catalog. I thought I could just take in my coupons to the store, show them the pictures and get the whole dish set for my Mom for Christmas.

Christmas Memory No. 1

We all have those memories that just stick.

Christmas season 1999. Downtown Grants Pass, Oregon.

My best friend and I convince our moms to take us to the pharmacy and antique store after school. Bing is singing and the greenery is draped over all the awnings of the buildings. At the pharmacy we sit at the wooden counter and order hot chocolate with vanilla cookies. We keep having to get refills of the hot chocolate because they serve it in these tiny brown diner mugs that hardly count. Refills are 25 cents. The vanilla cookies are those little wafers that come in pink, brown and white. The pharmacy only has white. We order these because we think the cast of White Christmas would eat these with their hot chocolate.

There are three antique shops near each other on 6th street and we slowly walk though each one. We all pick out what we would buy if we could. A blue and white set of china, white kid leather gloves, a beaded sweater with golden grape clusters that clink when you walk (we tried it), a plaid riding cape with big green buttons and a bakelite vanity set.

That memory brings such warmth when I think back on it. Is there anything better than antique stores at Christmas? It is like all of those Christmases past are right there contained in one store. You can picture the people who owned those items, wore that sweater and you can feel their anticipation and seasonal merriment. When you see all of the simple vintage ornaments and the silvery tinsel you can immediately picture a time of scaled back, down to earth celebrating. Trying on the white gloves you can picture sixty years ago, the two girls going downtown after school, to try them on.    

pacemakers in the elevator

My Grandpa is the pianist of a senior choir called the Pacemakers. They are the cutest bunch of senior citizens you will ever see. He and his choir came on tour to my town this last September. The group had plans to have lunch at the all you can eat Chinatown Buffet at noon, but they had to be loaded on the tour bus by 11:45 am. There was a big group of them waiting for the elevator on the second floor of their hotel. Most of them were 75+ and knew the stairs weren't a good option.

When the elevator ding-ed open at the second floor, three people walked on. They kept fitting more and more people on the elevator until there were 13 total and the door closed. The elevator got stuck in between floor 1 and floor 2 and the fire department had to be called to help extricate each of them. They all exited in good spirits and were laughing like it was the best part of their day. All of the grandmas's insisted on hugging the firemen several times. The bus only left 20 minutes later than scheduled.  

I hope I have this kind of sense of adventure when I'm older. It was so sweet how the whole group told this story to me with so much excitement. I love picturing how many times this story was told to grandchildren and spouses. Written out in scrawly penmanship to a friend in California. The emphasis always on how funny it was and how kind the the firemen were.

welcome to pound cake!

Welcome to this little space of mine. A place for words and poundcake!

Why poundcake you ask? Well, coming up with a clever, one of a kind blog name was keeping me from starting up a space. So finally, one morning as I ate my breakfast, I said,"enough already, just get on with it" and at that moment there was poundcake* on my plate.

Naturally some of you are thinking about Beyonce's song when you see this blog name. That is ok. It was actually a long time goal of mine...to be associated with Beyonce!

*I did not bake it. It was the Fred Meyer brand of poundcake that costs $3.49. I don't feel bad about not baking it.