On the road again...

It's my last full day of visiting my family. That's always hard. Mostly I don't miss people when they're gone, but when I'm with them I miss them like crazy.

All our plans fell through this week. I couldn't visit my friend in rehab because only family can visit. I'm practically family. We grew up together, but there's this little thing of not having the same relatives. I can write her though as long as I send the letters to her mum to delivery when she visits.

We couldn't go geocaching because Holly and Bethany have conflicting work schedules - but we did manage to go to the movies together. We're still hoping to get some stuff in though, Daniel and I have a soccer game to play, at which he is going to beat me brutally because I haven't played soccer in an eternity and even then I wasn't good at it. And we hope to have a bonfire tonight so Bethy can burn the manuscripts of all the most tragic books she's had to review.

Like the city in Alaska? No.

Ellen Page is adorable. Frequently an adorable star is my primary motivation for watching a movie. Some people just make you believe that anything they're in is worth watching.

I've also read good reviews. People talking about the deep part of Juno, some good message we're supposed to get. I don't think that deeply about movies most of the time and I didn't see it. I tried to find the reviews so I could show you all what it is I was supposed to see...but I couldn't find them.

It's an odd movie. I'd like to say it's true to life, but it isn't. It's not a fairy tale movie, it's more out of place than that.

I enjoyed it. It's funny, terribly awkward, and maybe a little painful - but not as painful as the movie producers meant it to be.

Last minute Christmas

As a general thing I'm a fan of stores being closed on Christmas Eve. It seems like if people knew they would be closed they would just plan ahead and get what they need before hand. And then all those poor little clerks and sales associates could be home with their families, basking in the warm glow of the television.

But they're open and, as it so happens, I was one of the many pressing hard against the 6 pm closing time.

Well, Bethy wanted to watch It's A Wonderful Life - it's not exactly a Christmas tradition in our house as Bethy and I are the only ones who really love the movie. Holly and Daniel outright hate it and my mother can't get through a viewing without commenting on the stupidity of "Every time a bell rings an angel gets it's wings".

Usually the Christmas classic comes on tv at some point during the season, but not this year, so we set off for Wal-Mart where a Christmas DVD display rack should have held the answer to our dilemma. Then we hit up Target. Then Blockbuster. Once burgeoning with holiday delight these stores now only held a picked over selection of such titles as Caillou's Holiday Movie or Deck The Halls . The only conclusion being that now every family in the tri-state area owns a copy of It's A Wonderful Life - well, all except one.

We were able to obtain a copy - it was the last one in Blockbuster. Collectors edition, two disk set. "The black & white and the color version," cooed the Blockbuster clerk, as if this made it better that I was paying $24.95 for something that I normally watch on tv. Well, it seemed silly not to buy it after we'd been to all those stores!

Oh, you thought one family didn't own a copy? Well, they don't. A customer came in a half hour later wanting the buy the film and tragically they were unable to purchase it...it's even more tragic because at the same time as their holiday spirit was being gently crushed...we realized that the reason It's A Wonderful Life hadn't come on tv yet...was because the networks also thought Christmas Eve was a great time to watch it.

So, the collectors edition, complete with commentary, original trailer, and a superfluous color copy (because who's going to watch It's A Wonderful Life in color?) will be wending it's way back to Blockbuster. Too late, of course, for the random Blockbust customer. Her Christmas was probably ruined.

On the first day of Christmas...

My sister's boyfriend is insane. She just showed us the multitude of presents he gave her for Christmas.

Every season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventure's of Superman, Nancy Drew: The Deadly Secret of Old World Park for Nintendo DS, a Nintendo Wii game, a bonsi tree, anti-virus software, a telescoping fishing pole, a GPS, a messenger bag decorated like a Nintendo controler, and inside the bag - a Gateway laptop.

Sitting in the midst of her bounty she said, "There's a lot here, maybe you should take some of it back." He told her no, because he wanted to buy her everything she wanted for Christmas.

It's not very considerate when you think about it - what are the rest of us supposed to buy her if he's buying her everything she wants?

Fortunately every gift he gives her is from Best Buy (he works there and gets a killer discount) so if we just avoid those things, we're doing alright. It also doesn't hurt though that we all get to have fun with the gifts too, we'll have a Lois & Clark marathon and we're so going geocaching this week. Even so...the word excessive comes to mind.

Festivus for the rest of us.

Happy Festivus everyone!

I'm basking in the joy of knowing that tommorow will not see me at work.

Socializing is awkward anywhere...even Facebook

Ok, so I finally got facebook - I strongly feel that I need to justify this in some way, but I've found facebook kind of useful. In a couple of days I was able to get in touch with people that I haven't had any contact with in ten years.

But it's kind of weird too. So you send a friend request and the other person recognizes your name and accepts the request. Well...so then one of you might send a note or it might just be another notch in your friends list, proving your value through the number of people who are willing to publicly admit that they know you.

And then you can, at a glance, find out things like that they're engaged or have joined a cult. You can also see what groups they've associated themselves with and which games they play, but that doesn't really make it any easier to know what to say to them.

Conversations that start out, "So, you're sacrificing cats in the dead of night now...how's that going for you?" probably aren't going anywhere fast.

Loose change, full child.

Don't ask me how I have time to read about these things. I'm not even slacking off at work. It's probably magic. But since I do have time to read (and write!) I thought I'd let you know about the charity of the day, Feed Just One.
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Feed just one was founded by 26 year old Dallas Harris, almost a year ago. I found out about it through Relevant magazine's website (yes, Relevant magazine is my only source of news).

For those of you who aren't going to click the link and read Seinna Morrow's article, I'll sum up (sort of).
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Dallas wanted to use his American wealth for good. Research brought him to Feed My Starving Children, an organization that donates nutritious meals of rice, soy, vitamins and dehydrated vegetables to other organizations in impoverished areas around the world. The meals are free, but the other organizations have to cover the shipping costs, which can reach $10,000 a shipment.
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So Dallas formed Feed Just One, building off a Mother Teresa quote: “If you can't feed a hundred people, feed just one.” The quote pretty much says it all. You can donate as much or as little as you want. Sending one meal costs 4 cents. You can feed one kid for a month off $1.20 and $15.35 will feed a child for a year.

And, because we all know that walking billboards are clever advertising, Dallas also sells t-shirts and (in theory) stickers and most of the money from these products goes to feeding kids too (a $15 shirt feeds a kid for three months).

The other day my sister and I were gracefully gliding across the ice and a nursing home commercial came on bragging luxerious extras, like three meals a day. We laughed and Holly promised to make sure my kids didn't put me in a cheap nursing home with only two meals a day.
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In many impoverished areas the lucky kids get 3 meals a week.
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You might remember the clever anti-smoking commercials that counted to eight and then informed us that every eight seconds big tobacco loses another customer because they die.
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Unfortunately the statistics for children starving to death only involves counting to five.
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I realize there are a lot of charities out there that you could be giving to. I just think this one's worth looking into. Both Feed Just One and Feed My Starving Children make sure that the majority of the money given to them goes to the people they're helping. Work is done through volunteers to keep costs down.
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Plus, remember how easy this is. $1.20 feeds one child for one month. Everyone has a an extra $1.20. They accept checks, money orders, and credit cards (through paypal).