Well, surprises always come at me when my mind is not running at 100%.
After getting only 4 or 5 hours of sleep, for instance – like when you’ve stayed up too late with your wife, watching Sex and the City.
About that later … maybe.
Anyway, so I get up, I’ve got time to kill, a little bit, so I actually eat some breakfast. Mmmmm, breakfast. It’s a bowl of whatever Malt-O-Meal passes for Apple Jacks – it’s almost the same, except perhaps more chewy and with a bad aftertaste. I still kinda had a bad headache from the night before, and was going to eat and then dose it away with some Tylenol. So I’m sitting in the kitchen, the rest of the house is dark, and in comes Lucas.
Man, it kind shocked me for a second. He just strolls in and sits down and talks for a few minutes, then asks if I am going to work. I say, yeah, I’m not really used to people being up when I go. He asks for some cereal and milk so I hook him up and we’re just eating breakfast. I gave him maybe too much, but he ate it all anyway. Anyway, he’s always asking me about when he was a baby and stuff I did when I was his age. It was only 19 years ago, so I guess I remember pretty well.
I told him about how I’d wake up really early so I could play on the Nintendo (especially if we’d rented a game), or watch cartoons. That got me thinking about stuff. I’m always telling Amy that my best memories growing up were spending time with my brothers, playing video games, or when they’d teach me to play them. They were probably just as proud as I get when Lucas grasps a concept, especially a video game, and just runs with it. Last week at my parents he was begging for us to let him try to play Karaoke Revolution, but he’d tried just the week before and couldn’t really do it that well, so it took a while for us to cave in to his wants.
When he actually tried to sing a line or two, we were all kind of shocked. I think he’s picking up the idea of learning songs, too, because he’s been listening more intently to lyrics and singing them. Case in point: Amy’s new Garden State soundtrack CD – he likes this song ‘Waiting Line’, and he’s been singing a few lines from it every now and then – and he’s only heard it maybe a few times!
So anyway, we had a few minutes and I had everything ready to go to work, so I asked him if he wanted me to get his ATV game going on the PS2. He said he was bored with it. We bought him a new Nick Jr ‘zine last night at the B-Buster, and he’s been pouring over it since, so I offered him to read it instead, and he jumped at the chance.
That got me thinking – if you give a kid cool reading materials and cool video games – sometimes he picks the reading materials … take THAT, anti-Video-Game activists … and a special STFU goes out to Joseph Lieberman, oppressor of the free-thinking peoples.
Back to Garden State – Sukie wanted to see it based on a recommendation by Bert Ferkner of The Journeyman Project. It has Zach Braff (of Scrubs fame) and Natalie Portman (of … Natalie Portman fame) … oh, and Ian Holm (BILBO!)
Goddamn that was a good flic. It made me feel good, but didn’t feel like a feel good flick. There’s stuff in there that other feel good flicks would have tried to resolve, but it doesn’t. In a lot of ways, there are just genius touches that lend a realistic and beleivable hand to the movie – subtle things that you wouldn’t normally get in a movie – real things. It’s hard to describe, the most noticeable time is when they’re in a darkish bar and they get hit with a ton of light, at once, and they don’t flinch or wig out because that’s what happens in a bar/pool hall – somebody opens the door and a lot of light comes in and it’s too damn bright.
Anyway, the movie is just kick-ass. I think it’s gone now, so you might have to see it later.
Oh, and on to business. I think we’re BBQing tomorrow. That, and there was talk of climbing something. I’m down, I’d like to see my buff legs get put to work (lately I pondered the question, why are my legs so damn buff – we’ll have to see if climbing is what I can do – though I’m sure I’ll need upper body strength. 🙂 )
Anyway, yeah, I want to cook up some good Dogs and Burgers and serve ’em up. I’d also like to cook MarshMallows afterwards, if it’s not too presumptuous. Maybe tonight I can move around some furniture in my living room.