In Other News....

I went shopping in Target today, and was quite satisfied with my purchases. Oooh, and the purple quilted flats I bought at Payless for ten bucks. I'll have to pop those up on Hip in the Heights. 

I ran into a friend of mine that I haven't seen recently. 

She got married. 

I went to her house once, for dinner. It was nice. We hung out on the couch, oohing and aahing over shoes. Her husband played us salsa music so she could try to teach me to dance (it didn't really work. I need a lot more time to learn a dance than fifteen minutes.). 

But I haven't really seen her since. Oh, here and there, a lchaim, a phone call. But we haven't had time together, had  a really good chat. 

And this is a good friend. When something life altering happened to me, she was one of the first people to know. 

Another very close friend just got married, and another is engaged. 

I'm not there yet. Not yet ready for that. 

But almost. 

Soon. 

Sometimes, it kills me. The mystery of married life. I know so much about it, but there's only so much you can learn from observing, from listening, from reading. There are some things that only experience can prove. 

    

* * * * *

Last week was hard. I don't know why. Now I look back, and I see it was good. Feeling sad last week was the kick in the butt I needed to get myself moving again. To see that for the first time this year, I have structure, and it is so good. 

I'm not a naturally sad person. The opposite, in fact. I'm naturally happy, optimistic, a believer. I don't have to do much to be that way. G-d gifted me. 

So when I do feel sad, that sweeping undertow of sorrow, the waves of loss, (I hate when I get overly wrapped up in my metaphors) - when I feel sad like that, I need to take action. I can no longer let my life flow along, relying on my good nature to keep things pleasant. I need to act. To change. To do - to do all those positive things that bring good feeling and the joy of satisfaction with them. 

So I did. 

Thanks to the support and wise words of my friends and family, despite the fact that last week was one of the saddest of recent times, it was also one of the best. 

Disney Movies Are Strange.

Bs"d

I babysat tonight, as a favor for a friend. She had a wedding in New Jersey, I don't work in the afternoons, her sister is no longer available to babysit because she just got married... So, even though I'm no longer sixteen (despite looking like it) and I'm no longer in high school (despite acting like it (I had the best time acting like I was still in high school with my friend this past Friday night. We giggled, invented strange animals (the Shiraffe - available soon in toy stores near you, although probably not the ones on Kingston), and skipped - yes, skipped - down the street)), I babysat tonight. 

What that consisted of was watching a lot of Disney movies on Youtube. (Hey, I was tired! I had to babysit last night, too. But for work. My real job. Which is essentially playing house, in someone else's house. Doing someone else's dishes, sorting through someone else's receipts, bathing someone else's kid, ironing someone else's husband's pants.... It's actually kind of enjoyable. I just wish it were my own house... Infer from that what you will, folks). 

What all that Disney-movie-watching led to was this conclusion:

Disney movies are strange.

All the subliminal messages... all the psychedelic songs... all the anthropomorphism....

Strange. Neil Gaiman strange. Kids-are-going-to-grow-up-seriously-twisted-because-they -watched-this strange.  

Take Dumbo - the people who made Dumbo were on drugs. There is no denying it. There's this one scene where Dumbo gets drunk or something and has a "dream". A dream. Riiiight. Go find that clip and watch it and tell me those animators weren't high as kites!

And Bambi. Has anyone watched Bambi? The entire second half of the movie is just animals making out! My sister was uncomfortable letting my nephew watch Cars, because she thought there was too much of a sexual undercurrent.  Ha! Has she ever seen Bambi? I don't think so!

Of course, like all good, strange stuff, the old Disney movies were also beautiful. They were works of art. Paintings made alive. The closest I've seen in beauty is Wall-E. It shares in common with old Disney films two things: A lot more silence than we're used to in a kid's movie, and a lot more beauty. 

Beautiful and strange. 

Disney. 

Huh. 

G-d is Funny

Bsd

Anticipation sucks. You look forward to something, the highlight of your year, the moment you'll never forget - and then a day before, a week before, something happens, and you can't even appreciate it. 

I'm whining, I know, and I'm sure it's getting old for all the people who actually have to listen to it in real life. But I can't help it!

My lip hurts, my stomach hurts, my throat hurts.

Everything that could go wrong seemingly did. 

And all on the eve of one of my best friend's wedding!

I look and feel like I've been punched in the mouth. 

My brother says it's cool, now I have Jolie lips. I was satisfied with my own, you know? 

I'm all dolled up, blue dress and Uggs (it's a long, chilly walk from my apartment to Razag), and I've got the blue wig I didn't get to wear on Purim because I was stuck in bed. And I've got my cold medicine, the kind that makes you stop coughing. 

So hopefully this won't be too much of a disaster. 

(See, and that sucks too. Normally, I'd be so excited, but now all I want is to STOP COUGHING.)

Hey, He's My Brother!

Everyone, this is a PSA:

Check out the newest blog on the block - parshacomics.blogspot.com

Because we could all  use a little funny in our week....

Neil Gaiman is a Friggin' Genius

Bsd

Part One:

He is.  A big-nosed genius. A big-nosed, English-born, Jewish genius. 

Reading his books takes me back to the days when everything had possibility. My brother says he can no longer tell stories, because he has lost the innocent pleasure in just telling a story for its own sake. I have become obsessed with finding real stories to tell, stories that will mean something to my peers. Is there such a thing as a Jewish fairy-tale?

The man writes stories, poetry, books, comics, movies. I don't think there's a medium he doesn't write in. He's a Renaissance man, and he lives in Minnesota. 

The point of this is, Neil Gaiman is a genius. 

But why?

Part Two:

Why fantasy?

Because the good guys always win.

Why fantasy?

Because there is another world out there, one that we don't see. Not the one most authors imagine, but at least they're thinking about it. 

Why fantasy?

Because too many books written about the "real" world are written on the assumption that, as Victor put it so succinctly on the last episode of Dollhouse, "people are mostly crap". 

Why fantasy?

Because I like it, dammit.

And that's that.