How I Aged Along with the Tudors



wikipedia image via Google

I don't usually watch shows "live."  Generally, I wait until the hype is gone and I watch them in their entirety--episode after episode, hacking away mercilessly at the seasons.  You see, when I find a show that I particularly love or am fascinated by I become a little addicted.  This summer it was Lost and The Tudors.  As I do when I read, I become one with some of the scenes or personally attached to a character or two or feel deeply for a character or situation--essentially, I get sucked in.  Even those characters you love to hate I found myself feeling sorry for or seeing their point of view in a different way.  Sucked in.  Of course there are those episodes that don't resonate or complete annoy, but those are forgotten when all is said and done. 

So, aside from the license with history and the lack of physical aging on the part of some of the characters (Henry Tudor, Charles Cavill--for most of the series)--I felt like I aged along with the rapid-fire display of history.  I aged with the Tudors.  At least I didn't lose my head, ha, ha (sorry, couldn't help myself).  The last 2 episodes really brought me down--not only did they bring me down, I felt old and undesirable afterwards.  I also felt hollow when the series was over.  Blech. 

I was so surprised I fell for it in the end--that I felt my mortality and the transitory nature of life so acutely.  It's not as if I'm immune to these feelings but such an opulent cinematic display inducing this?  Come on!  So, I wandered around in this state of tv-induced lameness for a few weeks and then I guess I snapped out of it.  Too abrupt?  That's kind of how the Tudors ended and I still managed to get sucked in! 

As a side note--I like to stand like King Henry when I "command" my household, ha, ha, ha!

Donkey Love

Photo of card purchased from Tokyo Milk website

I love donkeys and mules--they are so cute!  This one flies, which I love.  I took a pic of it and now it's my cell phone screen saver.  I have a shadow pic of my dog (another donkey-like creature) as my cell phone wall paper.  One night I carried on and on about donkeys so much so that chief downloaded me a ringtone of a donkey braying for me.  I get immense pleasure out of it.  It's now our ringtones for each other.  I joke that people at work are going to think he's the ass when they ask "What's that noise?"  and he says, "It's a donkey--my wife's calling."  The boys and I let the cell ring for as long as possible so we can hear the donkey when Chief calls, giggling all the while.  It totally puts a smile on my face.  I can be easily entertained.

My ringtones for chief have always put a smile on my face.  Some recents ones are "Back in Black" by AC/DC (the image, a stuffed duck that little man dressed up with winter gear--knitted hat and mittens) and Bethoveen's Fifth (the image is one of our dogs looking very pissy--that one gave me miles of enjoyment and chuckles because the image went so well with the serious and thunderous opening of that movement). 

Every day things should give you some sort of pleasure or satisfaction, even if you are not as easily entertained as me.  What gives you great pleasure?

Crankiness be Gone!

http://www.thegraphicsfairy.com/



For the past few weeks I've had this battle with my back.  Hence, the lack of posts because that's all I could think about and I didn't really want to write about it, too.  Everyone around me knows about it and is (rightfully so) probably tired of hearing about it.  I'm tired of it.  I irritated a disc and I've been gimping around, hatefully cranky.  I haven't been able to do much of anything--one would think I'd be happy to have an excuse to lie around and read or watch movies, but I'm not. 

However, yesterday I finally felt great and today I feel pretty good.  Such an improvement of the past few weeks!  My days have consisted of my back cursing me and me cursing my back--a lot of teenage-like "I hate you" going around.  It's been a circle jerk of anger and extreme dislike and I'm ready to be done with it.  While I'm not ready to go back to yoga and doing things the way I normally do them (per the doctor--I asked because I'm so ready to do something, anything!) I'm certainly on the mend.  I can't even believe I'm going to say this, but I'm actually ready to do housework!  I decided this morning that I'm tired of this story and the misery that goes along with it--I somehow managed to put myself into a better mood that's sustained itself for the day.  This good mood paved the way for the following post about one of my favorite animals, the donkey.   I laughed when I left the doctor's office because there was a loyal party-person dressed in a hot, furry donkey costume supporting a local democrat and Obama.  It's already 88 degrees out...you have to love loyal supporters and friends no matter what your beliefs!

More Shadow People

Right after I wrote about this pair of shadow people who kept cropping up (my mom even asked about them, for Pete's Sake!), I ran into a few more.  One is kind of an odd and I'm surprised I was able to even match her face to her story...

The boys and I were in Target Friday and this mother and her 2 children walked past us.  I briefly made eye contact with the mom and felt like we recognized each other but I wasn't immediately sure why.  We both kept up our brisk pace, flying past each other.  It didn't take long, however, to realize I had met her at a birthday party a few years back.  It was a hot and sweaty August evening and the hostess thought we should meet each other because we both taught English. 

This woman had finished her doctorate at Cambridge and taught in England for a while before deciding that she needed to return to America.  As she told me her story she kept putting down the American university system (she's an American) and had to keep reminding me that Cambridge was in England, you know.  This is how she did it, I'm sure, thinking that she wasn't being so obvious!  She would reference Cambridge--take a dramatic pause--, England.  She also had to tell me (a fellow academic) that Cambridge had its own press--Really? I had no idea!  [cover mouth with hand, staring wide-eyed]  You see, I just studied in America--the standards are so low here and I have had such an impoverished education.  Slouchy posture; Cue violins.  She also had to tell me that at Cambridge...in England, PhDs had to publish not like in America where you do just a dissertation.  I can count the ways in which she could've handled this conversation so much better while still allowing herself to brag.   

At first, I was really surprised she was so condescending, considering she allegedly chose to leave a position in England to come back here.  Then I kind of thought she was funny because she went on and on in a kind of Monty Python sort of way (although she was totally serious).  Then I felt I had won the consolation prize because I felt really trapped by her chatter--it was a hot and over-crowded outdoor party.  Even the woman sitting next to me was beginning to become a little frantic--we were all eating dinner and there really wasn't a way to escape.  I had just met the woman next to me as well, but I couldn't look at her for fear of bursting into laughter.  Especially after the 5th or 6th time Ms. Cambridge secretively said, "Cambridge...England." 

I know the hostess meant well because she knew I was considering a return to teaching now that my children are in school full-time.  She honestly thought this woman would have some insights on the market as well as teaching online.  Sadly, this woman was very negative about everything except when the conversation managed to return to jolly, old Cambridge...England.  That is until one of her children needed her and she dramatically indicated to the 2 of us that she needed to be excused.  I think she expected some big send-away because she made a dramatic hand gesture and made sure that we both verbally acknowledged her departure.

Fly--be free!

Ghosts of People Past--Shadow People

http://www.thegraphicsfairy.com/

Our personal histories are created through our many stories and connections.  To understand something of ourselves we have to recall some of these back stories to make sense of our present state.  Sometimes we need these back stories to illuminate our friends' situations to us.  Often, this is for the better and we become more compassionate because of these back stories.  We see old situations and behaviours with fresh eyes and more clarity. 

To tell these back stories, we all talk about our friends to our friends--maybe you've even met some of your friends' friends once or twice, but you just can't quite picture them in your mind or there's some missing piece of the puzzle, so the stories you hear don't make total sense yet you know these people.  These "friends" are shadow people--people you are somehow familiar with, recognizing their names and certain facts or qualitites about them but that's it.  Maybe these shadow people are friends from your past who are so faded that your memory fails you when you try to recall them.  They linger in your mind as you try to piece together the bits you do know.  I can think of a couple of people, one I used know pretty well and one I've only met a couple of times a long time ago, who are true shadows in my mind.  I can't clearly picture them and yet their presence nags at me.  My mind chews on what little I know about them while simultaneously operating in that post-dream state where it remembers some of the details and other very important bits are painfully absent.  The irony is that these two keep cropping up in my daily life one way or another and I have yet to see them.  It's strange how synchronicity works like that.  Like the gang in Scooby Doo, I love a good mystery and love even more to solve a mystery, however, this is one that I'd prefer go silently back into the night like dreams which border on nightmare.