The 80's Rule!

I found this quiz a long time ago and scored very well I might add. Give it a try, but heed my warning that it is entirely pop culture and entertainment driven...

I am a true child of the 80's. I have always been a pop culture junkie and my recollections of that era are centered around, well, mostly pop culture. I can't tell you about Reagan's foreign policies and what the price of gas was then, but I can tell you what the first song played on MTV was, how to solve a Rubik's cube, and all the words to the theme song to the television show "One Day at a Time". You know, lots of very useful things like that. But I have a fondness for that era, when my primary mode of transportation was still a bike, when a trip to the movies was a good Saturday night, when rollerskating was innocent and fun. I was stylin' in my Dippity-Do hair gel; dayglo, fingerless gloves; and oversize shirt and stirrup pants. My life centered around my friend Dee, our love of MTV, the bands INXS, Duran Duran, and Wham, and writing really bad poetry about boys whose names we can hardly remember now. Of course, there was all the drama that goes with an adolescent to teen girl and a family life I often edit and re-edit in my head, but those memories, and the sensation of simple, schoolgirl joys, are like precious jems to me. It's just this great little place I go to in my head and often get lost in.

Maybe I am feeling this way or thinking about these things because its fall and school has just started and we just had that first cool day, the kind when the wind is just slightly more chilled and the air smells like crumbled up leaves, but I found myself revisiting some good memories from 8th grade. It must have been touched off by Clare investigating the jewelry box in the closet and opening a tiny drawer that houses my old Swatch Watch and an *original* black rubber bracelet--the only one I have left (most of the stack of them have been given to undeserving boyfriends over the years). I started to wonder what Clare's adolescent memories will consist of, what world events will have shaped her youth, which friends were the center of her world, what family events impacted her life forever, what singer or movie star she plastered her walls with, and most importantly, whether she remembers feeling loved and happy and cherished as she is now.

The Lord of the Rings Exhibit

I am beginning to panic. Jerry and I have not yet decided on a date to see this exhibit and they keep emphasizing tickets for it are timed, meaning we have to buy advanced tickets for a specific date and time. If the date you want is sold it, tough luck. Tickets are on sale now! It starts 10-6 and runs to 1-3-06. Surely we can come up with a day we can go and get a sitter lined up for then!?! No doubt the weekends will be crazy busy, so perhaps we can take an afternoon off during the weekday, which would also allow us to take advantage of daycare instead of trying to get a sitter. Yes, that sounds better.

We absolutely need to see this exhibit, because, yes, I am a geek and have dragged my husband into geekdom with me. Or maybe we entered geekdom together, I don't know. We recently watched the extended DVD of 'Return of the King', which we also own, as do we the extended special editions of the two other movies in the trilogy. One day I hope to sit and watch all the "extras". It's been a bit hard with The Peanut around. I also recently got over a prolonged obsession with Aragorn (although he is cute, Orlando Bloom didn't do much for me as one of the blond haired Elves), whose picture once graced my screen saver but has since been replaced with pictures of The Peanut. Anyway, if we get a date to go and actually get to go, I will surely post the highlights of the event here.

A Fall Poem

I like this, I just do...

The Fall
Russell Edson

There was a man who found two leaves and came
indoors holding them out saying to his parents
that he was a tree.

To which they said then go into the yard and do
not grow in the living room as your roots may
ruin the carpet.

He said I was fooling I am not a tree and he
dropped his leaves.

But his parents said look it is fall.

Independence

I awoke this morning to the sounds of bands in the distance outside my hotel room here in Costa Rica. We are amidst the independence celebrations here. Costa Rica and other Central American countries all gained their independence from Spain in September of 1821. This celebration is marked by a torch-run that goes the length of Central America, carried out largely by groups of high school students. We were fortunate to be among those who stopped at 6:00 last evening for the national anthem while in San Jose. While driving home we saw fireworks to commemorate independence, and the lantern, or "faroles," parades that are done by smaller children. Throughout the day, we saw many school children in long, traditional dresses special for the celebrations.

The news story from this morning:

The symbol of liberty gets an official blessing
By the A.M. Costa Rica staffThere will be parades and civic ceremonies all over the country today as the nation celebrates its 184th year of independence. Today, of course, is a national holiday.As a tribute to the Antorcha de Independencia, President Abel Pacheco declared it an official symbol of the nation. However, the 17,000-plus high school students who carried the torch from the Peñas Blancas border crossing all the way to Cartago already knew that.The torch reached Cartago about 8 p.m. Wednesday where Pacheco and some of his cabinet waited with the new decree.In San José, municipal and educational officials turned out to receive the torch and ignite a larger flame at Parque Central precisely at 6 p.m. Wednesday. After the torch arrived, the national anthem was sung and patriotic speeches were delivered. As the torch left, first for a short stop in Zapote, fireworks lighted the sky.School children will march today in nearly every community with a school. At 9:30 a.m. the ceremony at the Monumento Nacional will be the official national independence event.

One of the Few People I Have Always Hoped to Meet...

Is Bill, or rather, former president William Jefferson Clinton. And I will get as close as I ever will to meeting him when he comes to Butler University. In conjunction with Butlers 150th Anniversary, they have brought both Bill Clinton and former president George H.W. Bush for separate speaking engagements (http://www.butler.edu/150/).

Jerry was told that he and his colleagues are guarateed two tickets to each event. Bill will be here on November 6, and George will be here March 2, 2006. Jerry said he still would like to see George just for the "event" of it and I agree. Plus, I have a new found respect for George; he has done some good things together with Bill. There are also other speakers scheduled who Jerry said he wants to see, most of them from the political realm and not as interesting to me as they would be to him. I just want to finally see Bill! But despite this feat for me, Jerry will still have one up on me since he got to shake Bill's hand once at one of his early election rally stops in Michigan.

There are only a few other living persons I really want to see in person/meet and those include Oprah, Sen. Hillary Clinton, and british historian/writer Alison Weir, whose every book I have read. Being a pop culture junkie, there are others I would love to see or meet including lots of musicians, actors, and entertainers. Meeting Johnny Depp, for example, would make my year (I am such a girl). Unfortunately, I have not had many good "star sightings". Jerry teases me because I am always looking for famous people at the airport. But hey, just two months ago, I saw Subway spokesperson, Jared Fogel, there and he promptly swerved to avoid me when I chirped loudly, "It's Jared from Subway!". Can't blame him really.

Let's see, my close encounters with famous people: When I worked at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel: Gerald Ford (passing through), Andrew Dice Clay (in the restaurant and a total jackass by the way), the Black Crowes (passing through), all 4 Baldwin Brothers (staying there for a wedding; I actually got coffee for all of them, what a day that was).

Um...in Ireland, Jerry and I saw bald, ex-MTV VJ and alternative music guru Matt Pinfield in a Dublin record store buying up cd's. We were too chicken to go up and talk to him, although we wish we had.

While working at Schulers Books in Grand Rapids, MI, I saw Red Hot Chili Pepper's singer, Anthony Keidis, wandering around in the music section. I huddled around with my other co-workers, watching him and whispering and giggling from a nearby office. What makes us act that way?

While working at Border's Books in Charlotte, NC, I saw the guy who played tortured soul "Richard" on the TV show "Caroline in the City". He was much shorter in real life.

Jerry and I also had a strange but true encounter with Death Row Record Prez and eternal parolee "Suge" Knight, but that's too weird to go into and we aren't even sure we believe it ourselves. Otherwise, I can't remember any other good sightings; I am sure Jerry will chime in with any I have forgotten. Anyone have any good famous people encounters?

Another One for My Missal

I don't know if ironic is the best word choice, but I am going to say that I find it ironic that I recently wrote about 9-11 and hoping no world event would ever be so horrific as that day and then Hurricane Katrina happended. Though clearly different in that Katrina was not a man-made tradgedy as was 9-11, it appears to be as horrific as 9-11 in its scope of damage and expected total loss of life. I find myself compelled to watch the on-going coverage and feel extreme sadness and anger for those suffering there. Mostly, I can't help but wonder about the political, economical, geographical, societal/racial impacts of all of this.

I find that as this tragic event has unfolded, people have varying attitudes on what has taken place there and what to do about it. At the 4-day training I recently attended, many law enforecment types were there. The Indy PD guys were anxious to head out on a media-announced, planned Task Force mission there this Monday. It was evident they were hoping to help in any way they could. Others, mostly I noted from more rural Indiana area police departments, expressed disdain for those stuck in the area, saying things like (and this is true) "it's their fault they chose to live there; break the levees and let the whole place flood out. It would take care of all the drug users that place (New Orleans) is loaded with".

Jerry told me about his reaching out to a displaced Louisianan college student who is now going to attend Butler Univ. and is currently residing in our town. He and I agreed we would help her out with transportation or meals or whatever she may need, if she calls on us. I would like to do more, especially if in some way I can help the babies in need. I have things I can donate and can buy additonal supplies to donate and am trying to figure out how best to do that.

I have a "Sunday Missal" given to me by my maternal grandmother, Victoria Hensley, when I was 16 years old. She "stocked" it for me with funeral cards from extended family members who passed away long before I was born. Over the years. I have added letters my grandmother wrote before she died, tokens from my life events, such as the ticket to my college graduation commencement, and added other funeral cards. Years ago, I also began adding newspaper clippings of notable historical events and tradgedies. With Hurrican Katrina, I now have another to add to the long-folded pages of newsprint that include the stories of: Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the LA riots of 1992, JFK Jr's death, the start of the Iraq war, Clinton's election in 1992, (my political preferences are beginning to show) Princess Diana's death, Dale Earnhardt's death, the Columbia tradegy, the London bombings, the first day of 2000 (No Y2K problems, hurray!), and other things that maybe don't deserve a place in a Missal, but are significant to me in some way.This includes my Graceland Tour ticket stub and a ticket stub to John Lennon's biographical movie "Imagine". Go figure. And if you are wondering, all my 9-11 newpaper articles are saved in a box. I saved too much to put in my tiny Missal.