Rather than calling my son by his name, my Dad always referred to or addressed him as, “Handsome” for Sean‘s entire life while my Dad was alive. In fact, he called all of his grandsons, “Handsome.” I remember my brother, Jimmy, continuing to call all of them, “Handsome” while they were young.
Yesterday, my Mom told me a story of her younger days just as she started dating my Dad and I’m STILL trying to wrap my head around it! I really appreciate that she begins to tell storied of her and my Dad‘s beginning years of their relationship!
Yesterday, she started telling me about being at my Dad’s house (really my grandparents’ house) and he and, “The kids” (my aunts and uncles) were going to wash my grandpa’s car. She started the story by telling me that my aunt Lis was hanging on the fence. She added that my aunt Lis ALWAYS hung on the fence. She told me that there were tons of kids around my Dad which makes sense because he is the second oldest of 10.
Then, she got this far away look in her eyes and had the look of a lovestruck teenager when she told me that, “[My Dad] was SO HANDSOME!” WHAT?! My Dad is my Dad! He’s NOT handsome!
Now that I am an adult and am able to witness my Mom recounting her younger years of dating and marriage first hand, I am seeing my parents’ relationship in a whole new light! That’s who they were! Love struck teenagers! To me, that’s crazy because they are just my parents. I recently head someone remind me that they DID have five kids! Which is true.
Since I saw that look in my Mom’s eyes yesterday, I recognize the depth of their relationship but I am still trying to wrap my head around it! To me, that’s crazy! They are just my parents! But now, I see them as so much more!
Even though it is difficult for me to wrap my head around, part of me really appreciates that my Mom (AND my Dad) was just that, a lovestruck teenager and even though it’s hard for me to fathom, I appreciate being able to see them in a different light, I only wish my Dad was here to corroborate her story! Not that I doubt her at all but it would be nice to hear what he has to say about it from his perspective.
I didn’t start binge watching Game of Thrones until May 2017. I started because I was confined to a medical chair that I slept in for probably a month after knee surgery. I wasn’t weight-bearing for that month and the only time I got up was when someone would carry me to the restroom. It didn’t take very long for me to get COMPLETELY hooked! I binged the first seven seasons in 10 days.
I have told Sean to watch it but I told him I wouldn’t watch it with him for the first two seasons. Now that I am into the eighth season, I’m not sure I want to watch it with him the first couple episodes. His friend was over the other day and I told him that as a mother, I was not able to recommend it but it’s really GREAT! I told him I would not recommend it to him because of all the nudity but if I were talking to someone else, I would COMPLETELY recommend it! He got the gist of that.
Last Sunday, I started watching it as my Mom left and began crying during the opening scenes! She started to laugh as she walked out of the house. My Mom is NOT a Game of Thrones watcher! In fact, I think the MOST awkward thing in the world has been that all three times that my Mom has seen me watching this show, an explicit scene was on! Because she has seen that, EVERY time she vows she will not watch it!
I tell her all of the time that it is so good but she won’t give it the time of day! This morning, I started talking about Sunday’s episode and with her limited knowledge of all eight seasons, everything made sense to me but I don’t think so much for her. She never lets me forget that she doesn’t like the scenes she has seen! Sean has not started watching it yet but I know that I won’t watch it with him because that would be awkward! Kind of how awkward it has been for my Mom to see me watching the MOST explicit scenes!
My Mom did, however, tell me that she likes the opening theme music though;
I read this article while laying in bed this morning waiting for my Mom to get to my house and I have been thinking about it all day long. I sat in my kitchen and told my Mom about it when she got here as I sipped my Kiefer.
Photographer helps Selma Blair get coffee
By: Derrick Bryson Taylor
Who says the paparazzi are only bad?
On Thursday, Selma Blair, who is battling multiple sclerosis, was out and about in Los Angeles when she was helped by a photographer-turned-good-samaritan.
According to Backgrid, the “Cruel Intentions” alumna, 46, was having a day of beauty at Bungalow Salon when she wanted a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, she was not able to find parking close enough to her preferred spot, Alfred Coffee.
A kind photographer, who she is reportedly on good terms with, came to her rescue and retrieved her coffee.
Blair was said to be happy and feeling “normal” as she went about her day.
She was also stopped by a stranger, who also went to University Michigan. The pair sang their school fight song before parting ways.
In recent weeks, Blair has been leaning on the support of family and friends including Michael J. Fox. She has not only opened the doors of her home for an intimate interview, she recently did a candid makeup tutorial for people with MS.
The biggest thing that stuck out to me was the last line, …”she recently did a candid make up tutorial for people with MS.“
I actually have never thought about how sad this is.. Sean had to be in second grade the first time I went to work without wearing make up. We were still living in our second apartment and I was still driving. I used to drive to my Mom’s house to drop Sean off so she could take him to school heading west and I would head east from her house to go to my school to teach.
On the drive to her house, I couldn’t understand why I was smelling my face cream so strongly. It was the moisturizer I put on right after I washed my face. It wasn’t until I made the turn onto, “Break-Neck Mountain” (Long story as to how that intersection got it’s name) that I realized I was NOT wearing make up. I dropped Sean off and proceeded on my way to work.
I was still teaching English back then and I stopped off into the teacher’s lounge and my good friend and colleague, Lauren, was there. I had been wearing dark, oversized sunglasses for a long time because of my Optic Neuritis and my sensitivity to the sunlight. I waited until the door to the teacher’s lounge was closed and I looked at her and told her that I forgot to put my makeup on this morning and then proceeded to raise my sunglasses and ask her if I looked okay.
She told me that I looked fine, that I didn’t look any different and that was the last day I wore make up to school. For me, I never wore a lot of make up but because I am in adult woman and was a professional, I needed to look the part. When Lauren told me that I didn’t look any different without makeup, that was license for me to NOT do my make up and sleep an extra 15 minutes in the morning!
As years went by, Sean and I were living in our house at the time and he was probably in sixth grade when I told him, “That I technically am too old to NOT wear make up, but …” It was just too difficult for me even to try! I used to wear dark brown liquid eyeliner and I noticed that in my freshman year of college, before my diagnosis, my eyeliner would end up getting thicker and thicker because my hand was so unsteady. I didn’t understand that I was losing control of my hands.
I stopped wearing eyeliner after my diagnosis and I think it made me a little bit sad. In fact, I take that back, I would wear liquid eyeliner once a year for Sean and my Christmas card picture. My Mom would apply it for me.
My Mom always told me that highly educated women didn’t wear make up for the most part and I agreed with that because as a 2 degreed woman, I didn’t wear make up.
Today, as I read that a, “make up tutorial for people with MS“ was needed; it kind of startled me. I pretty much have known all along that putting make up on after my diagnosis got increasingly harder. When Lauren told me that I didn’t look any different without the little bit of make up I used to wear, I was okay with that. Now, I couldn’t put make up on if I tried! I don’t think I’ll be trying anytime soon!
When I did the photo shoot for the magazine, Momentum for the MS society, they brought in a hair and make up woman especially for the shoot. I remember when Dan saw me, he smiled at me and told me that I looked pretty. I liked hearing bad! I remember it felt so foreign on my skin to me, like I was wearing a mask that I just wanted to takeoff!
I guess today, after reading that article, I am a little bit sad. I’ve known for a long time that I cannot wear make up because I do not have the hand-eye coordination to put it on but thinking about the fact that there are special considerations that would need to be taken in order to put make up on because I have MS just makes me sad.
*Wait, I just saw a portion of that tutorial and it made me laugh. She gets it too!
This book showed up as a suggestion while buying something from Amazon so I ordered it. I would recommend this to everyone!!! I’ve taken so many things from it and yes, I have since started a gratitude journal even though it’s NOT New Year’s.
In the beginning of the movie, High Fidelity, John Cusack ends up breaking up with his longtime girlfriend, Laura, and then her dad dies. Because I’ve been missing my Dad so much, I can’t stop thinking about this part of the movie! I almost passed out three separate times and my Dad’s funeral mass and in the cemetery because I cried so much. Back when I saw this movie, some 15 years ago, my Dad was still alive and I was about 22 and an undergrad.
(EXPLICIT MOVIE CLIP)
Because it is close to Easter, I’ve been seeing this Reese’s commercial for the peanut butter chocolate eggs all the time now! Every single time I see, or rather hear, this commercial I think of that movie I saw close to 15 years ago.
When I see that Reese’s commercial, I think of Jack Black singing Marvin Gaye. This part of the movie made me laugh really hard!
When I tried to find a movie clip of jack black singing, I came across this video first. I think I will have to see High Fidelity again but when I watched this movie clip, I realized how explicit it is so, just a warning anyone who watches the following video clip…
Yesterday, I showed the One turtle helping in the overturned turtle get turned, right side up again to my Mom. As she watched the video, it automatically changed to a different video and I heard this song:
I looked it up and this song was released in March 2004. Back then, I was an undergrad, walking on coaches, easily driving, and mother of a three-year-old. DEFINITELY seems like a lifetime ago!
When she was done watching the turtle video, I watched the following video just to hear that song! I could hear it playing in my car as I drove home from school. I haven’t heard that song in so long!
I have sent Sean to a Catholic school since first grade. It pretty much has been him and ne for his whole life. We did live with my parents for a few years in the beginning but I never thought or was I prepared for the possibility of hearing him blaspheme!
It hurts my heart to report this but today, I heard just that! He told me that the movie, The Neverending Story, was a, “Disappointment!” I told him too, “Shut yo’ nouf!” As I continued to scream, he continued to tear the movie apart! He said that Gamorgue was, “Mediocre at best!”
This was probably the scariest part of the movie for me growing up! I could NOT believe that he was saying all of these things! I told him that I was going to write about this awful, blasphemous display so I am calling on aunt Shannon, uncle Dave, and uncle Jimmy to set him straight!
A few days ago, my Mom told me about an article she had seen where it had pictures of the cast of Top Gun then and now. She said that the picture made her sad because many of them looked so much older. She told me that Tom Cruise still looked very much the same and I told her about how I heard that he sleeps on his back with pillows all around him so as not to sleep on his stomach and wrinkle his face.
She didn’t believe me; so she looked it up. She found this article:
The article cited 14 strange sleeping habits famous people have. She came across Stephen King’s sleeping habits and read it to me. He says that the opening of his pillow cases need to face the apposite side of the bed. He didn’t give a reason why and my Mom stopped reading and looked at me. She told me that I do that exact thing! I sleep on the right side of the bed on my left side so my face is on the edge of the pillow so it is necessary that my pillow case opening faces the other side of the bed.
I told her that he is an author and he’s crazy. He writes crazy stuff! She looked at me and said, “You’re crazy too!” My response was to laugh a loud belly laugh! I never claimed that I was NOT crazy anyway!
