Surrounded By My Boys . . .

. . . which is, of course, one of my favorite places to be.

Now that the Home is off the H1N1 restrictions, we can take the kids out again.
And Brandon has had cabin fever.
Big time.

We have already gone to the movies to see his beloved Miley Cyrus in her newest flick.
BS went along too.
It's better if I have someone else with me when I take Brandon out.
Just in case, you know.

It was the 2nd time seeing this movie for him.
He had already gone with his family to see it, and I was told they ALL cried.
But, since he wants to see it 53 times, we have a few more to go.
Doofus spent most of the movie looking over at us to see if we were crying yet.
Laughing at us.
NOT using his inside voice.
Making me "ssshhhhh" him a lot.
And yes, both BS & I got a little misty.
Good movie.


This afternoon, just to get him out again, the HandiRide bus dropped us off at my house
to veg out on the couch & watch more movies & eat junk,
or in Brandon's case, get little licks of junk.

I had to do a little preplanning to get him in the house.
Interesting procedure, getting him out of his chair & up the front steps.
We baby-stepped our way up & in the house & plopped him down
on the already-reclined-couch with no mishaps.
Didn't drop him on his head once.
Score!
The chair stayed outside, since we had no use for it in the house,
and I was sure no one would steal it.
It's a safe neighborhood, and besides,
if you don't know how to release the hidden brakes,
it ain't going nowhere.

Awww, makes a mother's (and an honorary aunt's) heart swell, don't it?


We had time for TWO movies.
And, even though we had the best of intentions to eat junk,
we ended up snacking on whole-wheat crackers, baby carrots & hummus.
Thrilling, huh?
Brandon tasted the hummus.
He was not impressed.
So he got a taste of his favorite barbeque sauce
and a sip of water to wash it all down.
What a good afternoon it was.
Hey BS - thank you for your help.

Movies, an Unexpected Saturday, and Pickin' a Fight with Rosie

Such a hodgepodge of topics today. Hmmm, where to start? Maybe in the order from the title of this post.

Movies
I come from a family that loves movies. I mean, we really love movies, so much that certain family members (myself included) quote movie lines to each other until the rest of the family wants to clock us upside the head and take away our Regal Crown Club Cards. Well, you know what? Wouldn't matter, 'cause BS just fixed us up gooood.

We signed up for Verizon FiOS a few months ago, and so far I am very pleased with the service. But having more channels wasn't enough for BS. Since he is responsible for that bill (as part of his rental agreement - no free ride for that boy), he did some checkin' and signed us up for 2 free months of all the movie channels too. ALL THE MOVIE CHANNELS! Do you have any idea what this means? I'm never leaving my couch again. After the 2 months are up, I suspect he will cancel, but until then, Oh. My. Gosh!

While I type this, I am enjoying one of my favorite movies in the whole world, "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming", which, seriously, is one of the best movies ever made. So I am happy. If you haven't seen it, your life is incomplete.

[giddy voice] I wonder what's on next? [/end giddy voice]


Unexpected Saturday
Yesterday, when I got to work, someone's teacher found me to tell me that someone was upset. Seems he wanted to go shopping to get his mom a present for Mother's Day, and he was worried that it wouldn't happen. See, he can't go without someone taking him, for obvious reasons. He can't go during the week because of scheduling issues, and Mother's Day is next weekend. So that left this weekend.

teacher: "Do you think there is any way you could take him?
me: "uhhhhhh...."
teacher: "I don't know who else to ask. I'm not on the list to take him out yet."
me: "uhhhhhh...."

Normally I don't sound that stupid, but I was thinking of all the things I had planned to do this weekend. But, hey, I am spineless, a complete pushover, wrapped around his little finger, putty in his hands, and he knows it. So I said I would take him on Saturday (today).

Here's what I was thinking - last time, we had such a good experience with Handi-Ride, that I figured we could leave at 1:30, do our shopping, and be back by 4. That would give me time to still do the yardwork I had planned.

Did any of that happen as I planned? NO!

First of all, I was hoping that there wouldn't be any. . . uh. . . issues of. . . uh. . . personal hygiene, on either of our parts (if you get my drift). I was flying solo on this one, and there ain't no way I can get him in & out of that wheelchair by myself. Thankfully, his bladder cooperated, as did the other end. Not to mention that if I had to go, I was screwed. Can't leave him in the hallway while I do my business, can't take him in there with me (he's 14, for goodness sake!). Thankfully, my bladder cooperated, as did the other end.

But, the bus was late. And not just a little late, almost an hour late! Although the driver did several mea culpas and was penitently apologetic, I watched the minutes click by, thinking that yard work today was going to be iffy. But we got to the mall, and he picked out some very nice things for his mom. He has excellent taste. All I did was show him stuff - he made the final decisions.

Turns out that I didn't need the workout of some yardwork after all. His chair weighs 357, 498 pounds, and pushing it through a carpeted mall wore. me. out.

Didn't get back to the Home until 5:00, and I had a couple stops to make on the way back to my home. The grass & weeds & limbs & edging & weed whacking will have to wait. But that's okay. It was worth it. He loves his mom, and wanted her to feel special.


Pickin' a Fight With Rosie
My good friend Rosie Hawthorne of "Kitchens Are Monkey Business" fame, came up here yesterday with her niece for a stroll around the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, a lovely place to pass an afternoon, especially at the height of azalea season. They had a grand ol' time, and took lots of pictures (which are up on her blog). I couldn't go with them because of this pesky little thing called a JOB! Darn.

Here's my beef, and I am shamelessly lifting this quote directly from her post:

"We decided not to stop and eat anywhere up in Virginia,
since we couldn't decide where and figured anywhere
would be a mediocre, disappointing, waste-of-money meal...."

Helllll-O! Them's fightin' words. We have a plethora of fine eating establishments here, a veritable cornucopia of good eats. She could have had her choice of any number of styles of excellent cuisine without setting nary a big toe inside a big chain restaurant.

I had to answer that smackdown and defend the honor of our local chefs in my comment (on her page):

"I must take exception to the blatant disregard for all of the fine eating establishments we have here. Had I but known you were jonesin' for some good chow, I could have steered you to the local business that prepares the finest crabcakes you will ever put in your mouth. FINEST. Jumbo lump crabmeat and practically nothing else. But noooooooo, you have to go and belittle our vittles here. Humph."

Okay, Rosie, put yer dukes up, the challenge is on.......

Movie Moments

My family loves movies. I mean, we LOVE movies. When we get together, it is one of the family activities we often do. A few of us, mostly me, BS, sister, nephew & niece, make a game of quoting movie lines to each other. BS even subscribed to Netflix, and man-o-man, it is the greatest thing! And FAST. We mailed the last batch back on Wednesday and got the next ones on our list in the mail on Friday. They have a huge selection, and a lot that you can even watch on your computer for those who just can't wait a whole 2 days. Like me, sometimes. Theater movies, TV movies, TV series, documentaries, HBO & Showtime series. You name it, they probably have it. Wow, we are in movie watchin' heaven.

Because of this movie-lovin', there have been cinematic moments that have had a huge impact on me, moments that stay with me, moments that haunt me, moments I can't forget, for whatever reason. My memory of them may not be completely accurate, especially if it has been a long time since I saw them, but this is how I remember them. Here are some in no order whatsoever:

http://www.balloonmaniacs.com/images/clapboardheliumballoon.jpg


Dirty Harry

http://www.filmposters.it/imgposter/grandi/dirty-harry.jpg

The scene: the bad guy has hijacked a school bus full of children. One shot shows the kids in the back of the bus and the camera focuses on one boy, the ever-present fat kid, sitting quietly in his seat, crying. Tears are rolling down his face. That broke my heart when I saw it ,and I still want to hug that chubby boy.


Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/blogs/fillips/images/Guess%20whos%20coming%20to%20dinner.bmp

The scene: The young, engaged, interracial couple comes home to break the news to their parents, who have gathered at the house of Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy. At one point, after hearing both sets of parents express politely worded . . . ahem . . . 'concern', Sidney Poitier's character takes his father into a separate room and proceeds to chew him out. The camera focuses on the father, and tears are rolling down his face. This is the scene:

http://www.movieactors.com/freezeframes510/guess19.jpeg

What might be interesting to do is figure out why these two scenes of lone people crying affected me so much. Probably my innermost fear of loneliness & abandonment, right? Yeah yeah, that's it.


Little Big Man

http://journeyhomeburke.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/little-big-man.jpg

The scene: pretty much the whole movie, so I have to pick one thing . . . . . hmmmm . . . . . okay, it is not a scene, but some music. The theme music that is played by the fife & drums as the soldier regiment slaughters the village of Indians, and the theme is repeated a few times throughout the movie, always during some carnage. The music is "Garry Owen" or "Garryowen", and here is an excerpt about it from Wiki:

It later became the marching tune for the US 7th Cavalry Regiment during the late 1800s. The tune was a favorite of General George Armstrong Custer and became the official air of the Regiment in 1867. According to legend it was the last tune played before the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

You can listen to it here.


The Final Episode of MASH: Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen

http://cdn.overstock.com/images/products/P11025256.jpg

The scene: Hawkeye is talking to Sidney the shrink and recalling an episode on a bus when they had to pull over to the side of the road in the bushes to hide from the North Korean Army. It is full of frightened people, and a chicken in the back won't stop squawking (some of you remember where this is going). He yells at the woman holding the chicken to keep it quiet. A minute later, the noise stops, and when he looks back, she has wrung the chicken's neck (and she is crying - not again, sheesh!). The only problem is, this is not how it really played out. The chicken was really a baby, and the mother smothered it to save everyone on the bus.

I know why this affected me so much. When it aired, BS was only a few months old, and the thought of having to do that to my child sent me over the edge. I started wailing and couldn't stop.

**Now, you are going to hear me say a nice thing about BS's dad. Mark this moment. It may not come again.**

At the time, he was in the seminary, studying to be an Episcopal priest, and when he heard me caterwauling downstairs, he was able to come down & comfort me by saying something along the lines of:

"Do you have any doubt that Jesus is going to be right there waiting for that baby to take him in his arms?"

Or something like that. It was the most perfect thing he could have said.


Gandhi

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/Gandhimovie.jpg

The scene: there is violent fighting between Muslims and Hindus and they are killing each other right & left. Gandhi goes on a hunger strike until the fighting stops, and a distraught and angry Hindu man bursts into his room. His family has been killed by Muslims. In retaliation, he found a Muslim boy (spreads his hands apart to indicate a small child) and "smashed his head against the wall". He has brought Gandhi food to try and make him eat because he does not want Gandhi's death on his conscience as well. He wants to know how, after all this, can he still get into heaven. Gandhi tells him to find a young boy, about this big (spreads his hands apart to indicate a small child), whose parents have been killed in the violence, and raise him as his own. Only make sure that the child is a Muslim, and that he raise it as one. In that way, he will find his way to heaven.

(Note, as I am typing this, while watching the scene from the movie, my blog got a hit from Calcutta. Spooky)


The Incredible Shrinking Man

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/Incredible-shrinking-man.jpg

The scene: after sailing through some sort of cosmic nasty cloud while out on his boat, this man starts shrinking. He has become very small and has ended up in the basement of his house when he encounters a common house spider which is, compared to him, HUGE. And hairy. With fangs. (s~h~u~d~d~e~r - this scene is the source of my lifelong fear of spiders) He must fight it off with whatever he can find, which is a sewing pin, and manages to stab it and run away.

http://images.chron.com/blogs/blog9/shrinking.jpg

As a result, for much of my life, in that state between awake and sleep, I would 'dream' of spiders hanging down from the ceiling, getting ready to drop onto my face. I wave my arms wildly to brush them away. I haven't had a spider dream in a long time, but it wasn't a dream. I was really awake. I saw them. Really. I have posted about this before, so you might have heard it already. Tough.


I know there have been these moments for you as well. Leave a comment & tell us about yours. Please? I KNOW my relatives have some (nudge,nudge, wink, wink, hint, hint).

A day with my boys

When you work at a place like St. Mary's (Google alert Sonja), you get real attached to those kids, and I am no exception. There are some that I would take home with me in a heartbeat. Well, that is, providing I had nursing care, and household help, and a large handicapped van, and I could retire a wealthy person.

Oh okay then, that isn't going to happen, but I love them to pieces anyway. The trouble is, they just won't cooperate by staying small. They grow bigger every year, and that presents a problem.

It has been a big concern at the Home that the kids are getting too big to ride safely & comfortably in a private car as they require an adapted car seat. Brandon has a car seat, and it just does fit in my back seat. Of course, in order for him to sit in it, I would have to cut a hole in the roof. I love the kid, but not that much. And he is but one of many big kids. So essentially, it is becoming almost impossible for individual staff members to get them out of the Home for some fun after work hours.

One day, I saw a big handicapped van that our public transit system uses, and I thought AHA! We called them, blah blah blah, and Brandon was our 2nd test case on Sunday afternoon. For only $3, he and a caregiver can get picked up at our front door and taken anywhere within a mile of a regular bus stop. Then they will pick us up and take us back for another $3.



That's a bargain any way you look at it, and I am happy to report that it all went off without a hitch. The drivers were on time, friendly, and very helpful. BS met us at the movie theater for the show, and a good time was had by all. Or at least this picture (taken in the theater) leads me to believe that at least one of us had a good time. What do you think?



At the end of the movie, during the closing credits, they were playing "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, so BS & I sang along at the top of our lungs (most everyone had left). Brandon, God love 'im, wasn't embarrassed at all. He thought we were quite entertaining. He obviously has very low standards.

Next outing......hmmmmmmm......something educational maybe? Squeeze some learnin' into the boy.