Friday Five: Comfort Media Edition

KathrynNJZ @ RevGalBlogPals says:

I don't get to watch that much tv anymore, but I actually wrote today's Oprah show down on my calendar. Why? Because she is hosting a Sound of Music cast reunion!!! Those of you who know me may be surprised that I would care so much about such a stereotypically girly flick, but I love it (although admittedly fast forward through the Reverend Mother's rendition of Climb Every Mountain). I can watch this movie over and over and over again.

It seems no matter how many new movies, tv shows or books come down the pike I still have my ol' stand by favorites that I can watch/read over and over and when I do they actually bring me comfort - like an old sweatshirt or a favorite food.

Today's Friday Five is an opportunity for you to list five of your favorite 'go-to' movies/tv shows/books. You can use images, links, explanations or netflix.

I'm having trouble making this just five things, so I'm lumping into categories: Books, Movies, TV. I'll save music for another time.

1. Books: I'm a romance book junkie. I'll just admit it and be done. I tend to read a lot of books and donate them to the library but Susan Elisabeth Phillips books I collect. Also LaVryle Spencer, though she isn't writing anymore...which is why I linked to the wikipedia page for her. I can pick any of these books up and read them over and over and over again.

2. Movies: My go to/comfort/watch them over and over and over again favorites:

28 Days (the NOT scary one)

Home for the Holidays
Gone in 60 Seconds
Speed.

There are too many Disney movies to mention. BUT if I'm in the need for a really, really good cry Steel Magnolias and Life as a House will get the tears flowing every time!

3. TV: These days there isn't much that I watch on TV. I do a lot of channel surfing. Guaranteed, though, if one of these shows is one, I will stop and watch it.
NCIS
Gilmore Girls
Everybody Loves Raymond
The Cosby Show
Friends
The West Wing
Doesn't matter how many times I've seen the episodes, I still watch them over and over again. Oh, and McLeod's Daughters. It's an Australian Show that I saw twice and was hooked. Thank God for Netflix and instant watch!

Hmmm...rain is threatening, it's my day off...comfort media, here I come!

Being transparent

There was a blogger that I used to read all the time who had label for posts titled "crap I'm tired of". She disappeared awhile back after the church she worked for did her WAY wrong. Blog taken down and everything. I recently found her again. I'm a little stalkerish like that. I don't think I ever commented on her blog, but I loved the words she said, the way she said things and that label "crap I'm tired of".

It's hard not being anonymous on this blog. It's hard because there are things that I want to say, things that I need to say but this isn't a safe place to say them...too many eyes see this page and it gets unsafe sometimes. Which is okay. I set it up that way, partly to edit what I say, to put some limits on how much is shared in this space. It's a filter that helps me say what I really mean, knowing that an unknown audience is out there reading my words.

Today a part of me wants to unburden myself, let everything just spill out but the saner part of me will borrow a label from a blogger I appreciated and admired just say that there's a lot of "crap I'm tired of" on my plate. If that gets me in trouble, so be it.

Things making me happy edition

In no particular order some things making me happy at the moment:

• The sound of rain hitting the deck outside my window.
• NCIS re-runs.
• Pumpkin Patches, Hay Bale Maze and youth who don't whine too much because of said rain.
• Dark Chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and I don't like dark chocolate that much!
• The joyous expressions on the faces of the SF Giants players as they finally ended the torture that was the playoffs...though that means there's World Series torture to come. I don't really even like baseball, but I know that winning can be easier!
  
• Library books.
• Laughing with new friends.
• Older friends who get it and aren't afraid to prod me gently.
  
• Pictures of Little Miss P on my wall, computer and phone...though they make me a little teary.
• Emi-pie calling me "Auntie Bertney".
  
• Train Guy's smile as three fabulous church folk greet him at the school bus with song.
• Family dinner with G.G. and Kappy.
• A place to call home.
  

Running through my head

There's a news story that just posted on our local newspaper website. Seems there was a road rage incident that wound up with one guy hacking at another guy with a machete. The machete guy was tazed by the CHP officers that just happened to be in the parking lot that the incident ended in. My mind is having a hard time wrapping itself around that.

Someone I know posted something on Facebook today that had me wanting to hide their status updates (ok, honestly, this person has posted insensitive stuff before and I'm almost at my wits end). It was about someone they didn't even know, just a news item they happened to see but took the time to post on Facebook how dumb the other person was. That's helpful.

Another friend has been asked recently by people why she isn't "over it" yet. By "over it" they mean why is she still grieving the loss of her husband. Hmmm...yeah.

Within hours of the Chilean miners being rescued there were people commenting left and right about the faults of one or more of the miners. I also saw a news article about how much those sunglasses cost that the miners wore as they came back to sunlight after 69 days in a cave. Don't celebrate the good in humanity too long! Make sure the bad is pointed out right away!

I get that life is hard and that we are all dealing with our own stuff but what happened to compassion for other people? What happened to thinking about how other people are feeling and recognizing that we all are fallible people?

Just what's running through my head today.

It's a boy!

Cousin V had a big weekend. Meet Talan. 8lbs 5oz born on Saturday morning. G.G. reports he's got a full head of dark brown hair. He's a keeper!

Congrats Cousin V and Josh! And Thanks Cousin D for the pics! :)

Belated Birthday post

I started three posts this week and deleted them all. Kind of feeling a little *bleh*. I've talked a lot and listened a lot this week and now I'm worn out.

But I realized that I didn't share pictures from my road trip in September. Yo Momma asked what I wanted for my birthday and I said "I want to go to Disneyland." And so we did. Can I just say, Disneyland is probably the best place to be on your birthday. You can get a button like this that they personalize for you and all day long people will stop to wish you Happy Birthday. It's very lovely...even at 36. :)
Yo Momma was a good sport. She rode California Screamin' (we were too cheap to buy the picture so we took a picture of the picture), went to the top of the Fun Wheel with me (in the non-rocking cars, thankyouverymuch) and was a great D-land partner. She didn't know I was taking this picture our first time through Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but I had all kinds of fun! The Jonas Brothers were there shooting a commercial on my birthday. It may or may not be them standing on the stage in front of the castle...not that you can really see that in this picture.I didn't know who it was when I took the pic...still don't really care, to be honest. All I know is they were in the way of my getting a picture in front of the castle on my birthday...so we took one the next day. :) It was a great birthday. Thanks Yo Momma!

Cake and deer

Adventure Boy turned 4 this week. He requested a blue angel cake. No, not a blue angel food cake. A blue angel PLANE cake. It was easier than I anticipated. Not 100% satisfied with it but I did love the recipe I found for yellow cake. It was yummy!

BTW, in case you are wondering, Rice Krispy Treats that you buy in the store don't get stale. I tried to make them stale...it didn't work.

In other news, there are some new residents at our house. Two of them are a little camera shy, but Buck was fine posing for the picture. He just wasn't gonna get up.I've told them that they are welcome to stay as long as they don't eat the roses, lemon leaves or dahlias. We'll see if they comply.

Dream Job

The Friday Five over at RevGals had a bonus question today. It was "What would be your Dream ministry job include".

I got stuck on that question and haven't been able to really think about the others. My dream job is multifaceted. Ever since I first led a Snow Trip with youth, I've thought about buying property in Tahoe and building a retreat house. Not a retreat center with a bunch of cabins, but a multi-level house that 20-30 youth and their leaders could rent for the weekend for a reasonable cost. (Okay, there would be one cabin, away from the main house all for me...I need my sleep.) It always bugs me when I try to find places to rent, then need to rent vehicles and all that and the trips wind up costing over $200 for the weekend and that doesn't include snowboarding or skiing! Being the host at a retreat house would be part one.

At the same time I would like to be that person who helps teams of young people, help others in disaster response situations. Organizing and planning trips, finding the best deal, helping a group connect with serving others, all of it excites and motivates me. Watching young people make the connection between service and faith is powerful. I'm already doing that part of the job.

Part three would be a lot of what I'm doing already, helping young people make connections with faith in God. I could do without the pressure of the church setting, where it's more about conformity to a set of ideals that may or may not represent what is biblical. I'm not sure what the ideal setting would be, I just know that it's not exactly the one in which I currently work.

The fourth part would be time to write, dedicated time to write. I have so much whirling in my brain, books, articles, columns that would love to be written just not the time or energy to do so.

So there it is, my dream job in four parts. Host, organizer, connector and writer. Maybe one day...