Dream Fulfillment

I have a weird alarm clock at my cousin's house.

It is supposed to wake you up gently.

Half an hour before the alarm time, a light comes on, supposedly dimly, and gently becomes brighter, "like the sunrise!". grrrr.

15 min before the alarm time, noises start. You are supposed to be able to choose. I get bird screeches every morning no matter what I do.

Then, on the alarm time, it goes "BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

This morning, I managed to sleep through the "sunrise", and woke up a bit with the bird calls, but went back to sleep without hitting the snooze button.

Then I had a dream that my cousin was poking me with a curtain rod (white with little ball finial on the end) and telling me "see? isn't this much better than an alarm clock?"

=Knock= =Knock= =Knock=

"C, are you awake? We have to leave at 7 this morning, sorry, forgot to tell you!"

Yup, just like in the movies and really bad TV, I was awakened from my dream about my cousin waking me up by my cousin waking me up. Awesome.

Jumpy

The little monster has always been a bit jumpy, or "startles easily" as his mom says.

When he was about 5 months old he jumped every time I started laughing at a family dinner. Ok, so those who have heard my laugh know it is a bit, hmm, shall we say, loud? (I was once asked to come to the preview night of a new comedy play so that there would be someone audibly laughing their ass off in the audience for the critics) ok, so baby jumping when I laughed wasn't too unreasonable, but every time? you think he might have gotten used to it after awhile.

Now that he is older and I am around all the time, he laughs along with me whenever I laugh. no, now he jumps when he thinks no one was watching the stupid thing he was about to do, or is so focussed on it, he forgets I am there.

Yesterday he stared at a new crayon so hard as he contemplated it and brought it to his mouth, that when I said "No!", he jumped and almost shoved the crayon up his nose. Awesome.

Now one of his grandma's got him a Hallowe'en book. The book introduces all sorts of scary characters, with googly eyes that move! but the best is that last page. The little monster knows what happens once you turn the last page. He gets apprehensive as you flip closer to the back of the book, even though he has requested the book and wants to see it.

When you open the last page, this scary vampire laugh starts up and a bat in the corner has red LED eyes that flicker. So scary! and even though he knows it is about to happen, he jumps a mile in the air! I thought I was scaring him, but then I left him alone with book, and he flips directly to the back page all by himself and still jumps every time!

The kid is totally going to grow up to love roller coasters.

Resolved!

Well, the application system seems to have finally spit out all of my information, so all is well with the application. phew!

I am a little suspicious that there actually was a problem, but at least my desperate emails to my referees resulted in my delinquent reference to say "Oh, right, sorry, I will get right on that!" so now everything has been received by the University and hopefully the department can access the last reference today.

Geez, usually it is me who does things at the last minute, nice to finally have a situation where it wasn't my fault!

Gradumacated!

So, apparently, degrees were officially awarded on Wednesday, so, I am officially a Master of the Universe! ok, so just Master of Arts, but who cares about the rest of the universe right?

In other news, things are not going so well on the bid for further universe domination.

Applications that rely on computers suck!

The transcripts that I ordered and paid for as part of the online application haven't been sent yet, even though the order supposedly went through back in the middle of September.

I just found out today that the department I am applying to doesn't have the reference that my advisor completed back in September, a reference that turns up as completed on the thing I can check online. And the other reference which hasn't been completed yet might not have even been sent out yet because there has been some kind of computer glitch with the system.

Even though these problems are with their system, they will consider my application late if they don't get everything by the end of the month, which means I get put on the waiting list.

Bah!

That song

When we were kids (and onward really), whenever we "didn't wanna", my dad and my brother would start up a chorus of :

"I don't wanna go to work today! (Where there's a whip =fsht* wrist flick= there's a way)"

Every time the song came up, we pondered where it had come from. We knew it was from a cartoon movie that we saw as kids, something with slaves and whips (and there are a surprising number of those), we thought The Secret of NIMH but I saw it again, and it wasn't that.

Then, the other day while we were painting my brother's bathroom, the song came up again (gee, can you guess why?) and I got to thinking, I wish there was some way to find out where the song came from..... oh wait! Its called the internet.

Here is what I got

We saw the Lord of the Rings cartoon movie once, and we didn't even see it all the way through because there was something wrong with the tape. Weird what things stick in your head. (Also weird how the orcs are much more sentient beings in the cartoon version). I have no recollection of the movie except that the VCR ate the tape.

Kinda disappointing to finally know where it comes from. We sing it slightly differently, and of course, I like our version better.

* I couldn't make the =fsht= noise of a whip flick when I was younger, so I used to say "voochee!" which of course quickly morphed into "bluecheese!" because every good whip says "bluecheese!"

Angels of Painting

a mother and daughter

1 bathroom

9'x6'

10' high ceilings

nubbly textured wall and ceiling that all had to be primed and painted, and painted, and painted

8 hours of work

$650 worth of work for the price of a pizza and a parking ticket

1 lucky brother who's sister had a day off and was willing to help him out

2 women too tired to bother trying to get the paint off their hands before bed

Edit: While getting ready for bed I discovered that I not only have paint all over my hands, but have a large splotch near each elbow, where I must have leaned against the wall, paint on my feet and ankles, paint splotches on the front and back of my shirt, and the one on the front bled through to give me a splotch on my boob so i assume the ones on the back did the same thing. Of course, all the major splotches are primer paint, which requires paint thinner to get it off. yeah.

Thanksgiving Edition

We have a lot to be thankful for, but a very full and busy weekend that might not let us fully appreciate it all, so i'ma make a list.

1. Even though we are all growing up and our family is expanding, I still get to see most of my extended family at some point this week.

2. My brother is coming home, even though he will have to wear a pestilence mask cause he be sicky.

3. My cousin and his son in Tennesee are recovering from their bout of H1N1 and double pneumonia.

4. My Pa has his job back, at least for a few months, and is super stoked about going to work every day.

5. My mom is settling in to her new house and making it her own. most of the boxes are unpacked.

6. I have a job that lets me cuddle one of my favorite little people every day, and a plan for the future that involves more school and infinite possibilities. And a week off next week!

7. This Thanksgiving will be even more special because the little person will be baptised tomorrow morning .

I'll end with my father's grace:

Lord, bless this food from your bounty,
Help us to be always mindful of the needs of others,
And look after those who cannot be with us tonight,
Amen.

Wedding on High

The M&M wedding was wonderful. A beautiful September day. A few trees had started to turn already, making an awesome patchwork vista from the top of the ski hill, where the ceremony took place. Plus, it was so much fun to take the chair lift up the mountain in all our wedding finery and then back down again.

The best part was how happy my friend M was. Mom and I brought the bridal party lunch earlier in the day, and M's mom was stressed but still happy, but M was floating on a euphoric cloud. She hadn't been stressed at all about the planning of the wedding, and she was over the moon on her wedding day. I think one of her favorite parts of getting ready for the wedding were the pretty underwear that said "Bride" that her older sister had given her, which she had to show me while i was unpacking lunch.

It was really nice to see how much M&M love each other, and that they are honestly nice and laid back people. I mean, I knew my friend was, so it is nice to know that she found such a perfect match in a husband. They had time for everyone, and really tried to speak with every guest at some point during the afternoon and evening, so nice when everyone had traveled a long way to get to the wedding. I think it was the only wedding I have been to where everyone had to travel at least 2 hours in order to get there. The guests were almost half and half Canadian and American, fitting, since the couple are one of each. Funnily enough, we traveled less distance from Canada, than most of the Americans did! The only Canadian/American issue we ran into was that they don't sign the register during American weddings, so when the bride and groom started walking back down the aisle without signing, all of the Canadians started whispering "They didn't sign the register! Are they really married?" Guess what the number one question they had to answer in the receiving line was?

It was a great wedding, and I know they are going to have a wonderful future together.

Dream Sequence

(For those who haven't met me, if you are reading this, I have very strange dreams on a frequent basis, and I generally tell everyone about them, because i am that type of a person. Plus, it makes long car trips and walks to school much more interesting, these are actual dreams i had last night, no exaggerations. If anything they are more wild and crazy in reality than in the re-telling)

Dream 1: Set in a subterranean subway station type place, but with a black roiling canal instead of the train lines. There is a thunder storm with heavy winds (yes, inside). A millitary General, in typical movie general form, is yelling at everyone on the platform. They have captured a man and are threatening to throw him into the canal. There are obviously evil black things living in the canal, and judging by all the roiling, they are upset and active. Every once in awhile a tentacle, or other limb burst through the surface of the water, only to be electrocuted by a current the millitary have run through the surface of the water to keep things contained. In mid-General-yell, a giant spider-like thing breaks through the water and wraps inself around the General to drag him back in. The electric current zaps the creature as they hit the water again, and it lets go of the General, leaving him to skitter across the charged surface of the water to the beach at the end of the platform. The captive and I see this as an opportunity and jump into the canal and skitter across the surface of the water, through electric shocks. We almost make it to the beach, when they turn off the electrical current, and we plunge into the infested waters and have to swim for our lives. End of Dream 1

Dream 2: On the set of a historical vampire movie, a dark, misty, moon-lit night. A vampire on horse-back carries his willing female victim in victorian underwear towards the New England ghost-town that is the home of all the vampires. The horse walks on a raised brick pathway through the woods that has developped a rivulet of water running down the middle. By the time the path meets with another, the paths are covered an inch deep in running water. When they reach the road, it has turned into a fast moving river. I think this is kind of weird and realize that the sets had been built weeks ago, and that the day of the shoot there had been torrential rains, but the weather had cleared off to provide the ideal conditions, so the director had decided to go ahead with the shoot anyway, and ascribe some sybolism to the flood as an after-thought. End of Dream 2

Dream 3: I am the only human in a room full of friendly (so far) sleeping vampires. We are in an old storefront full of flea market furniture. There are eight female vampires in one bed, five or six males in the next, and a dozen children in another bed at the foot of the other two. The sun is coming up and there are no curtains except some ripped roller blinds in the front of the shop. I run around trying to hang up old blankets to cover the windows, but there are too many windows and not enough blankets, and the room is full of mirrors that are reflecting the sunlight around the room. Some of the vampires sleepily wake up, look at the sun coming up, and roll over to go back to sleep, as if to say "meh". End of Dream 3.

Secret Weapon

I have a secret weapon in my fight against the little monster.

I sing, and he stops being fractious and sits and listens. most of the time.

When we are out for a walk he gets tired of being in the stroller for too long, so I start singing anything that pops into my head, mostly English and French Canadian folksongs. There aren't many people out walking at 1pm, and I can see them coming a mile away, so I can sing to my heart's content (yes, i realize it is mostly for me, but I get on a roll).

So I was singing "Song for the Mira" at full voice, when a man suddenly appeared right in front of me. Oh my god! Did he hear me? Quick, say something to the baby so he knows I wasn't singing to myself! Where did he come from? Was I in tune? Why is he turning around? I want to pretend this didn't happen! Oh god, he smiled at me! He so totally heard me! Argh!

I kept on walking past where the man had appeared, and realized that he was installing a pool in someone's backyard, and they were using the trail that runs behind the houses to move in some equipment.

=le sigh=

If only my super powers extended to an invisibility cloak, or at least a sound bubble.

PS I totally started singing again a block later. I mean geez, I had to finish the song!