Real Post on a Lovely Weekend....
And it was indeed a lovely, lovely weekend.
Warboy came up Friday night. He mentioned he'd never seen (or read) Narnia, so we remedied the seeing part, anyways. Right around the time the White Witch shows up & demands Endmund's blood, he says, "I haven't seen any increadibly obvious metaphors yet...." To which I said, "It's coming". And then it showed up & he said,"OK, there it is." He & Mom & I talked about it for a while afterwards. Mom make her usual comment about how Tolkein told Lewis he should maybe try to be a bit more subtle. And I made my usual comment of "All fantasy stories have a basis in mythology of some sort. Lord of the Rings borrows from both Norse & Welsh, Lewis borrowed from Christian. Still a good story." He seemed to like the flick & agreed that Pagans who were worried about it being too Christian or preachy were over-reacting. I didn't think to add that Christian groups who went expecting to see some big Christian evangelical thing were probably more than a little disappointed, considering the movie isn't as blatent as the book is.
We then got to discussing other fantasy series we'd like to see movies of. A really good version of the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, for instance. (I loved The Black Cauldron when I was a kid. I saw it in the theater. For years, Disney wouldn't admit it existed because it didn't do very well & it was their only animated film to get a PG rating as it's rather spooky. Then they finally released it on video & I said, "Hmmm... that seemed much better in my head...." It really doesn't do justice to the book at all, although I still like it. But it's what got all of us Smith kids to read the books & may have had something to do with my interest in Celtic Mythology, which started at a young age). Another would be Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time series. A third would be Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence, which may be the most underrated fantsy series ever. I really want to reread all of those again. It's funny reading them as an adult when I've read the actual myths these were inspired by. (It was also a bit surreal explaining to a good friend that The Black Cauldron was not a rip-off or Lord of the Rings.)
Know what else I'd like to see a really good movie (or mini-series) done of? The Tain. That would *rock*.
Anyways, back to my actual life....
Saturday, Warboy & I went to Erie's Pagan Pride Day gathering. He was worried there might be drama with some of my old grovemates but I wasn't too worried. In fact, I was a bit curious since I've been thinking I'd like to go back to attending Rites now that I'm done with school. As it happens, the one who'd insulted me at the last rite I attended made a point to appologize to me, which I very much appreciated. We had a good chat & hugged. :) I'm looking forward to Mabon. Amusingly, several folks looked at the quiet, smiling guy nest to me & said, "You must be Warboy!" Meanwhile, I'd bought a couple of bumper stickers, including one that said, "The reports of my demise have been greatly exagerated" that Warboy took to holding over my head every time someone said "Sharon! I haven't seen you in ages!!!" Which was about every ten minutes. :) The couple that asked me if Randy & I could marry them (& I had to explain that we'd just split) have now been married for two years! Damn time- it's moving faster when I'm not looking, I swear. Got to see the old troupe perform & found out when Vikki's teaching. As of Tuesday, I'll be back in dance class- YAY!!! I'm happy about that. Got to drum & dance around the fire. For the closing Rite, they decided to have all of us pick an Element "Tribe". I, of course, was fire. Warboy was water. I got to paint a bunch of people, including Raven & Carrion's daughter Morgan, who also was fire. I did a pheonix & a little fire on her nose. At some point there should be pictures up at the United Neopagan Council of Lake Erie website (so named because TJ was just dying to find a way to be The Man from UNCLE). Hopefully Mike will drop me a line when they're up (or even just a comment as he's one of those "anonymous" commenters here on my blog. We hung out & had a good time with everyone & then came home to join my Mom & her best friend G in watching Hitari!, already in progress. G let Warboy & I steal her Sam Adams (Cherry Wheat- yum!) & we had fun watching the movie, although his knee was decidedly unhappy with the world.
Sunday was a day of work, ironically enough. Fortunatly, it started with a *really* good breakfast. Warboy has a way with eggs, even when he's forced to use cheap hamburgers in place of bacon. Warboy & I went up with Mom to see Sane Uncle's house that he & Aunt J are building. I wouldn't have dragged the poor boy up there but I still hadn't seen the place yet. It'll be pretty sweet when it's done. And of course I was envious of Sane Uncle's highly impressive power tool collection. How many people have a giant miter saw in their garage? It's a sweet machine. He had a really small circular saw, too- it was so cute! :) Fortunately, we were not roped into working there. But we did arrange to take my lovely bed over to bissonmomma as she's buying it from me. It was quite an event getting the thing into the minivan & I was once again mighty glad I'd changed my mind at the last minute & opted for the split box spring when I bought it. It never would have fit in Mom's van or up Jen's stairs otherwise. Got to see all her kids, too. It made me feel good when Bill's face just lit up when he saw Aunt Sharon. I didn't think he'd really remember me. He's so big! And Daphne's getting so grown-up, too. Wow. Kinda makes me feel a bit old.
After we got back home, I got Warboy to help me move around some stuff in my bedroom so I can make better use of the space, including moving the CD case that I can't move by myself. He's such a sweetie. We uncovered a couple of boxes whilst moving stuff around & I was rather surprised to learn that I had a bar in my room. A very, very old bar that I'm sure dates back to the days when Grandma & Pop-pop were still hosting parties down in the basement, which I don't think they did in my lifetime. I also discovered something they've been taunting me with since last summer-- Pop-pop's old drafting tools. It's a pretty sweet little set of compasses & arch dividers & ruling pens. Also a ton of templates for lettering lines & angles & such. The French Curve was not quite what I was expecting, although it did certainly have curves. Basically, it was a plastic version of those silouettes on trucker's mudflaps. I laughed.
After the moving of stuff, we took a little bit of a nap all curled up together, which may be my favorite part of the whole weekend. We went to dinner at Red Lobster, which I love. He wanted somewhere with no hamburgers, as we ate them several times Saturday & I suspect it's what he had for dinner on Friday. Then we wandered over to Borders, where I picked up a CSS book so I can learn how to do CSS (cascading style sheets) whilst I build my webpages. And I decided to pick up two other books- the first Artemis Fowl & the first His Dark Materials.
Which brings this entry back to where it began-- fantasy series. Hopefully, I like these as much as I like the others. We shall see.
Warboy came up Friday night. He mentioned he'd never seen (or read) Narnia, so we remedied the seeing part, anyways. Right around the time the White Witch shows up & demands Endmund's blood, he says, "I haven't seen any increadibly obvious metaphors yet...." To which I said, "It's coming". And then it showed up & he said,"OK, there it is." He & Mom & I talked about it for a while afterwards. Mom make her usual comment about how Tolkein told Lewis he should maybe try to be a bit more subtle. And I made my usual comment of "All fantasy stories have a basis in mythology of some sort. Lord of the Rings borrows from both Norse & Welsh, Lewis borrowed from Christian. Still a good story." He seemed to like the flick & agreed that Pagans who were worried about it being too Christian or preachy were over-reacting. I didn't think to add that Christian groups who went expecting to see some big Christian evangelical thing were probably more than a little disappointed, considering the movie isn't as blatent as the book is.
We then got to discussing other fantasy series we'd like to see movies of. A really good version of the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, for instance. (I loved The Black Cauldron when I was a kid. I saw it in the theater. For years, Disney wouldn't admit it existed because it didn't do very well & it was their only animated film to get a PG rating as it's rather spooky. Then they finally released it on video & I said, "Hmmm... that seemed much better in my head...." It really doesn't do justice to the book at all, although I still like it. But it's what got all of us Smith kids to read the books & may have had something to do with my interest in Celtic Mythology, which started at a young age). Another would be Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time series. A third would be Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence, which may be the most underrated fantsy series ever. I really want to reread all of those again. It's funny reading them as an adult when I've read the actual myths these were inspired by. (It was also a bit surreal explaining to a good friend that The Black Cauldron was not a rip-off or Lord of the Rings.)
Know what else I'd like to see a really good movie (or mini-series) done of? The Tain. That would *rock*.
Anyways, back to my actual life....
Saturday, Warboy & I went to Erie's Pagan Pride Day gathering. He was worried there might be drama with some of my old grovemates but I wasn't too worried. In fact, I was a bit curious since I've been thinking I'd like to go back to attending Rites now that I'm done with school. As it happens, the one who'd insulted me at the last rite I attended made a point to appologize to me, which I very much appreciated. We had a good chat & hugged. :) I'm looking forward to Mabon. Amusingly, several folks looked at the quiet, smiling guy nest to me & said, "You must be Warboy!" Meanwhile, I'd bought a couple of bumper stickers, including one that said, "The reports of my demise have been greatly exagerated" that Warboy took to holding over my head every time someone said "Sharon! I haven't seen you in ages!!!" Which was about every ten minutes. :) The couple that asked me if Randy & I could marry them (& I had to explain that we'd just split) have now been married for two years! Damn time- it's moving faster when I'm not looking, I swear. Got to see the old troupe perform & found out when Vikki's teaching. As of Tuesday, I'll be back in dance class- YAY!!! I'm happy about that. Got to drum & dance around the fire. For the closing Rite, they decided to have all of us pick an Element "Tribe". I, of course, was fire. Warboy was water. I got to paint a bunch of people, including Raven & Carrion's daughter Morgan, who also was fire. I did a pheonix & a little fire on her nose. At some point there should be pictures up at the United Neopagan Council of Lake Erie website (so named because TJ was just dying to find a way to be The Man from UNCLE). Hopefully Mike will drop me a line when they're up (or even just a comment as he's one of those "anonymous" commenters here on my blog. We hung out & had a good time with everyone & then came home to join my Mom & her best friend G in watching Hitari!, already in progress. G let Warboy & I steal her Sam Adams (Cherry Wheat- yum!) & we had fun watching the movie, although his knee was decidedly unhappy with the world.
Sunday was a day of work, ironically enough. Fortunatly, it started with a *really* good breakfast. Warboy has a way with eggs, even when he's forced to use cheap hamburgers in place of bacon. Warboy & I went up with Mom to see Sane Uncle's house that he & Aunt J are building. I wouldn't have dragged the poor boy up there but I still hadn't seen the place yet. It'll be pretty sweet when it's done. And of course I was envious of Sane Uncle's highly impressive power tool collection. How many people have a giant miter saw in their garage? It's a sweet machine. He had a really small circular saw, too- it was so cute! :) Fortunately, we were not roped into working there. But we did arrange to take my lovely bed over to bissonmomma as she's buying it from me. It was quite an event getting the thing into the minivan & I was once again mighty glad I'd changed my mind at the last minute & opted for the split box spring when I bought it. It never would have fit in Mom's van or up Jen's stairs otherwise. Got to see all her kids, too. It made me feel good when Bill's face just lit up when he saw Aunt Sharon. I didn't think he'd really remember me. He's so big! And Daphne's getting so grown-up, too. Wow. Kinda makes me feel a bit old.
After we got back home, I got Warboy to help me move around some stuff in my bedroom so I can make better use of the space, including moving the CD case that I can't move by myself. He's such a sweetie. We uncovered a couple of boxes whilst moving stuff around & I was rather surprised to learn that I had a bar in my room. A very, very old bar that I'm sure dates back to the days when Grandma & Pop-pop were still hosting parties down in the basement, which I don't think they did in my lifetime. I also discovered something they've been taunting me with since last summer-- Pop-pop's old drafting tools. It's a pretty sweet little set of compasses & arch dividers & ruling pens. Also a ton of templates for lettering lines & angles & such. The French Curve was not quite what I was expecting, although it did certainly have curves. Basically, it was a plastic version of those silouettes on trucker's mudflaps. I laughed.
After the moving of stuff, we took a little bit of a nap all curled up together, which may be my favorite part of the whole weekend. We went to dinner at Red Lobster, which I love. He wanted somewhere with no hamburgers, as we ate them several times Saturday & I suspect it's what he had for dinner on Friday. Then we wandered over to Borders, where I picked up a CSS book so I can learn how to do CSS (cascading style sheets) whilst I build my webpages. And I decided to pick up two other books- the first Artemis Fowl & the first His Dark Materials.
Which brings this entry back to where it began-- fantasy series. Hopefully, I like these as much as I like the others. We shall see.