Ready-made niece

[finefoxyladies]

There are many benefits to ready-made nieces. The fact that, as a 3-year-old, RMN is not really required to behave herself in church--though Tony, a child who once slammed the kneeler down on Grandma Winnie's foot in Mass, in a clever bit of Mom's Revenge from Beyond, is now required to tell her to sit still at scheduled intervals--is a big one. So when you, say, get the giggles about some gentleman behind you saying "Thank you, choir" after they finish a--what, set?--you can blame it on the fact that RMN keeps removing the pencils from the holders and handing them to you.

RMN also, in recounting her new favorite movie The Land Before Time, is alternately in the throes of "Why? Why? Why?" stage (I try not to discourage that, since curiosity and verbal skills are good things. But dag.) and "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" stage: after being told that there are no longer dinosaurs--Why?--because they are extinct--Why?--RMN asked her mom if "we can go find the real dinosaurs, please?"

It was awesome.

Apparently, RMN is equally thrilled to have a ready-made aunt who she calls Aunt Jessie. Aunt Jessie, it must be reported, gets a strange sensation each time it happens, not unlike when Scrooge flings open the shutters to find a delightful lad in the street below who tells him, why, it's Christmas Day, sir!

The scene: I was invited to play in her room. We played party, where she decorated (by placing various play items around the room) and baked a cake and fed her baby and then woke up the baby and made the baby an orange cake by rolling her plastic rolling pin on top of a plastic orange. Before we got to do all those things, she kicked my brother, her future stepfather, out of her room.

Tony: You don't tell Daddy what to do. If you want me to leave, you have to ask nicely.
RMN: Please can you get out of here so I can play? Thank you.

This kid...she's the BEST.

Almost as entertaining as my dad, to be honest. Dad took me to the Burnett County Dairy Co-op. Some of my fondest daddy-daughter memories from my youth revolve around trips to Cady Cheese. The smell of fresh mild colby, for me, is the smell of nostalgia. So Dad and I road-tripped to Grantsburg and talked about this and that. Um, I may or may not have gotten the giggles for five minutes because before we left, I found an ad in the phone book for Porky's Pooper Pumper. We listened to Moose Country the entire trip. Our lunch consisted of a pound of cheese curds (not squeaky--Dad apologized) and buffalo-beef snack sticks.

To tie together the trip to church and Dad, I think my dad may have a crush on one of the choir members. He has mentioned two or three times how she has the most beautiful voice. When she came around for the God Says Meet 'n' Greet and shook his hand/hugged him, he blushed.

Yikes.

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I spent a couple nights with jesselope and ilovekatamari in between all the Wisconsining. I recommend that you get one or two friends that make you laugh so hard that you get a headache. Seriously. I got to meet Boston's soul-meltingly gorgeous new kitty and watch Bob Ross/listen to Bob Ross admit he has shell-shock AND she took me out for delicious crab cakes Benedict. Plus she burned me eleventy CDs including the very expensive, highly anticipated by me new David Ford album.

I always have the best time hanging out at J's pad, observing the dachshunds and watching media. We watched the RiffTrax of Top Gun, which was astonishing because of its hilarity and its pungent reminder that Top Gun was a very, very bad movie. Really. Textbook definition of bad movie. Bad screenwriting, awkward editing, terrible performances.

Um, and then we watched Luck of the Irish.

J and Boston are just the kind of friends who will watch a terrible Disney movie that's some kind of unholy afterschool special with "special" effects and laugh with you, mock, AND make a person feel like a jackass for foisting the movie upon them in the first place.

Good times.

Capped it all off with the one-two of 90210 eps Scotty Got a Gun and Emily Valentine Drugs Brandon.

1) I will admit: I used to crush a bit on David Silver. Please see my point about good friends who can make you feel like a jackass about stuff. Ugh, David Silver sucks rocks. And that's before he turns into one of the Cool Kids with a Music Career and, I Guess, a Drug Habit.
2) Dylan Walsh? Funniest character, hands down. And not just 'cause it's fun to make jokes about Luke Perry's character on Oz.
3) I think Andrea would have been a far more interesting character if Steve Sanders had banged her around season 2 or 3. Really.
4) Brenda...what more can you say, really?
5) J and I talked briefly about how we both thought, back in the day, that Emily Valentine was cool and pretty in a punk way. Ummmmmmmmmm, no.
6) Brandon Walsh was a weenie. Really. Like, David Silver levels. So just 'cause he hung out with poon-hound Sanders, that makes B cooler? Blah.

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Media stuff:
1) watched Gone Baby Gone. I'm so proud of Affleck, guys. Good on him. A restrained performance from Ed Harris, creative yet not overreaching direction, an actual not-phoned-in Morgan Freeman, and the inclusion of Wire and Deadwood regulars (Titus, call me!)...marvelous. I liked the book just a skitch better, but I suppose that's the way it goes.

2) anxietygrrl has been sharing some stuff with me. She thinks it's not making her sad, but it probably is. So I thought I'd show her a few select screencaps that made me pretty happy and smiley, in the hopes that sunshine on her shoulders, et cetera





This is Ray. He is puzzled. It would be tempting to say "most of the time," but really, he's a very emotionally intelligent young man...um, most of the time. He actually reminds me a lot of Bright Abbott, in that he's sort of directionless (okay, so he's Got His Music, but...yeah, directionless), but he's a good, solid person who cares and is actually a very competent doctor.

I like him and his spiky hair.



This is an ep where Not Girl Scouts show up to drill the ER on readiness. See Peri Gilpin Susan Lewis' face? That is my face every day. Susan understands.

(Please don't disclose that you now sort of know what Not-for-Profit is)



In the next ep, we see Neela, who has left the Desert of Directionlessness and entered the Oasis of Having Direction but Still Being Kind of Broke, writing a tuition check for her brother. Ray, ever nosy, has a convo with Neela. It's cute for no particular reason.



Well, okay. There's a reason.

Here's an artist's rendering of the scene where Ray is teaching the Shot Cop's Son about the workings of the heart, and Neela learns about the workings of pink, fluffy hearts.



(I can't draw bluebirds with PhotoShop)



Ray has A Gig and has to leave right at 7:00, even though he promised Shot Cop's Son he would stick around for the Painful Decision (as you can see, everything in Err-land is Very Capitalized).

Please note the shirt. Oh, it's okay to laugh. I know I did. I think everybody in ER-Land did.



Everyone except Neela, who gets stuck with Shot Cop's Son and his Painful Decision. SCS gets badgered into making The Safe Choice by his Very Bitchy Mom and The Partner Who Probably Winged SC With a Bullet. I got the feeling it wasn't the original suspect, ZIGGY FROM THE WIRE!, even though he was a criminal and was shot dead...and uh, doesn't have the best track record when it comes to murderin'.

Anyway, Neela is EXTREMELY UNIMPRESSED with Ray's behavior.

She reserves judgment on his pale, lanky arms, having not seen them.



Because Neela is awesome, she tracks Ray down and chews his ass.



But GOOD.

I love women who know how to put a guy in his place when it is required. She does not relent. She does not let him make excuses or cheap-shot her with references to her cameo at Not 7-11 selling hot dogs. She wants him to be all he can be and not use Music or Social Awkwardness and Competitiveness as a Get Out of Jail Free.



Like someone else I could mention.



Ray is defensive...



But ultimately, totally faced.

Okay, enough shenanigan and malarkey. I need to dl a certain episode of something. And then...do some...stuff.

I'm glad to be back to The Internet. It really is like Cinderella said: you don't know what you got 'til it's gone.