Bliss

And people really asked me if I was *sure* I wanted another one.

Monday's Movie Review: Repo! The Genetic Opera

I've been watching a little bit more obscure movies lately that I generally take interest in. My most recent find is a movie that I saw the preview for last year and only half-heartedly decided that it might be something I could be interested in. I am a little disappointed that I waited so long to check it out. I LOVED this movie.

...Perhaps that's not the most honest comment I've made recently. Let me clarify: While watching Repo! I found myself feeling a little odd. It made me feel kind of uncomfortable, as the entire movie is in song. (Perhaps that's why they call it an opera?) Don't get me wrong, I was entertained, but my thought while first watching it was more along the lines of, "This is just alright."

But after watching it I couldn't get the story out of my mind. Sometime over the next 50 years an epidemic of organ failures cripples the globe. A company called GeneCo emerges with a line of organs that can be transplanted on finance. But if you miss your payment, they will send the RepoMan to come and get their product back. The story follows Shilo (played by Alexa Vega), a 17 year-old girl who has a blood disease and is unable to venture in the outside world. She meet characters such as Graverobber (Terrance Zdunich), a man who is just what his name describes. There is a highly addictive painkiller called Zydrate that is given to help with surgery - and there is a street version of it that can be extracted from dead bodies. She also meets the family who owns GeneCo: the Largos. Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), the father and owner of the company has a connection to Shilo's family and an agenda of his own. Rotti has also got three kids: Luigi Largo (Bill Moseley), a murderer driven by anger; Pavi Largo (Nivek Ogre), a rapist who is obsessed with wearing womens' faces; and Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton), a woman who is addicted to surgery. Other characters involved are Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman), who is the voice of GeneCo; and of course the RepoMan (Anthony Head) who just so happens to be the single father of Shilo.

The more I thought about this movie the more it grew on me. I borrowed it from the friend who suggested I watch it and viewed it a few more times, liking it each more every time I watched it. I let my guard down and began enjoying the songs. I watched it a few more times, as I kept noticing new things each time.

Overall, I give this move 4 out of 5 stars, but not 5 only because of my own discomfort in the beginning. Definitely watch this movie, give it a day, then watch it again.

Phantoms

2:41 am...

I hear my 3 month old's steady breathing while she sleeps next to me...
I hear the hum of Jason's nightly load of laundry...
Gracie's door creaks open. "I have to go pee."

...And an ice cream truck, slowly making its way through the tangles of blocks in my neighborhood...

Fucking phantoms.

Dinner at Gramma's

About once a week we try to visit my Gramma for dinner. My Gramma is awesome and has done so much to help us. She is the most generous person I know.

Typically our visits consist of visiting for about 30-45 minutes while Gracie watches Spongebob (or whatever happens to be on Nickelodeon), then we eat. After dinner I try to help pick up the mess that has been made of the table and help with the dishes. Then, if it's nice out, we venture outside so Gracie and her cousins can play.





Last week I got to take advantage of the baby sling that I spent so much on before having Kairi. Don't get me wrong, I am happy I bought it and I have gotten quite a bit of use out of it... It just seems like now that it's summertime, the time I thought I'd be able to use it most, it's just to flippin hot.


Gramma gave Gracie a hat to wear. She was SO cute.



Hopefully we'll have at least a few more nice cool evenings to enjoy sitting on the porch while the kids play.

Insert Title at a Later Date: A Guide to Procrastination in Three Easy Steps

Procrastination:The art of putting off that which should be done today but can be done tomorrow. I would like to say that I am the type of person who completes a task the first chance I get after receiving it. Unfortunately, I am not. I like to think that I work best under pressure and I give myself that excuse to wait until the very last minute to get the job done. Not everyone is capable of pulling off starting and completing a project in one setting at the last minute, but when you are as highly trained in the art of procrastination as I am, it’s a much easier task than it seems. The following are my notes on the process.

Let’s begin at what I will call Day One. Day One is the date at which you receive a given assignment. I’ll use my most recent psychology project as an example. Two weeks ago, I received the assignment sheet for my psychology project, in which I was instructed
to identify a specific psychological disorder, define the disorder, describe symptoms, and explain a few different treatments for the disorder. There is quite a bit of research involved in this assignment. However, being a procrastinator, I followed the first general rule of
procrastination: I placed my assignment sheet in a notebook stating that I would work on it when I got home. When I got home, I left my backpack in my car and rather than attempting to work on the project, I decided to get online and check my email. The following school day, I
was reminded of the project when the assignment sheet fell out of my notebook at the beginning of class. Siting the fact that there is little that I could do with it at that exact point in time, I returned the sheet to its original position in my notebook, thus repeating the
beginning of the procrastination process.

Skipping ahead to Day Ten, I have repeated my patented process of procrastination to the T up
until this point. A key factor to mention in this process is the slow build up of stress involved: as time moves closer to the due date, the stress built up is directly proportional to the amount of work done, or lack thereof rather. To put it mildly, at this point the heat is on –
but we’re not really cooking yet. This project isn’t actually due until Day Fifteen. Keeping in step with the unwritten Procrastinator’s Handbook, rather than starting the project I promise myself that I will begin the project the following day and keep myself up half the night worrying about it rather than actually beginning any form of actual work. This part of the process is thusly repeated for two to three days.

Upon the onset of Day Fourteen, my situation has come to a head. So far, my efforts of inducing the maximum amount of pressure have been successful. I am now in the best work state that I could possibly find: it is 11:30 pm the night before my project is due, my head is about to explode from the stress of waiting so long, and my family has picked this exact moment in time to pester me with anything and everything they can possibly imagine. This is where the magic happens. After screaming at my family for ten minutes to quiet down or leave, I sit at my computer with smoke billowing from my ears and nostrils. As quickly as I possibly can, I hurriedly piece together just above the minimum amount of information needed to complete my project.

In finally completing my task, more often than not I discover that the information wasn’t really all that hard to find, it wasn’t difficult in the slightest to write out a meaningful and comprehensive essay on said information, and although I am relieved to have it done I am also most of the time disappointed that I waited so long to do so. The frustration and stress from following this process of procrastination has likely taken years off of my life. But, I can always rationalize that the years taken will be the ones at the end – the hurried, frustrated, stress-filled times that will inevitably be so because of my overall procrastination in life.

Introductions...

I am so in love with my life right now. Things are just going wonderfully. I am happily married to the love of my life; we just celebrated 8 years together - I can't believe it! I have a beautiful, spunky 4 year old daughter named Gracie... This little girl changed my life in more ways than I think most kids can do for parents. But that's a truly long and difficult story to tell, which I may or may not go into later - but certainly not today.

I also have a sweet, laid back baby named Kairi (and for those of you who, like me, are from Oklahoma - the name "Kairi" is not pronounced similar to the name "Carrie" but more similar to the name "Kyrie" - It's Japanese, so look at it broken down like Kai-ri.... Sorry, I just already am having problems with people calling her Carrie when that clearly is not her name.) Kairi is probably the happiest baby I have ever seen. Gracie was pretty happy, and I thought the same thing about her, but Kairi rarely cries. It's just amazing to me.

We have two cats - Molly is my Siamese and is 6 years old. Kitty Cat is Gracie's cat (hence the name) and is about 2 years old.

We just moved into our dream (beginner) home a little over a year ago. This house belongs to my Aunt Kris, but used to belong to my Grandmother, and her mother before that. It's in a very family friendly area and is two blocks away from the school that Gracie will be attending this year.

Anyway, I'm sure I could have written most of this information in an "About Me" section of some sort so I could get right down to writing, but I think that this information is a little bit more important than a 500 character post could elaborate. And as I am not going to be posting any "real" bloggy-type posts today, I will leave you instead with another post - an essay I wrote a few months ago. Enjoy!

Who Am I?

So you want to know who I am, huh? Well, my name is Erin. I live in a small town in northern Oklahoma. As a kid, I hated it. HAAAATED it. Now, I couldn't think of a better place to live, and to raise a family.

Puttin a face to the name.

I married my wonderful husband on June 1, 2007. We had been together for 6 years to the day. He is my world, my rock, my everything. I am so in love.

He's camera shy. This pic is 2 years old and I only have one more of him since then.

Gracie is my oldest daughter. She is so freaking cool. She's my phoenix; she pretty much literally saved my life. I realized when I had her that my life had just been a series of moments building up to the event of her birth. I was never complete until she was born and I became a mother. She has taught me more about myself in the 4 years she's been alive than I learned in the 21 years I had prior to her.

My spunky, smart, amazing daughter.

Kairi is our newest edition. She's still pretty young and we're still learning new things about her personality everyday. She's a sweet and cuddly baby who loves to blow raspberries and giggle at the funny things her big sister does. Since having her, I have become more aware of a lot of the, I guess, mommy-politics: things like the boycott against Nestle and issues dealing with breastfeeding and natural parenting. I am becoming less tolerant of the intolerant and morally bankrupt.

My little Binxter Bear. What an angel! <3

I hope that my personality will convey itself in my writing, but if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment here or email me at babybeatnik@gmail.com .