33 and a Third

What a month! There were times, this month, when the thought of all the things that were happening made me start to hyperventilate. We keep track of everything on our kitchen calendar. We barely had space to squeeze everything in — and we don’t even bother writing down the regularly scheduled things! I had to bring the calendar to school with me in order to arrange a parent-teacher interview with one of the teachers - I could no longer remember which days were free.

Reid, Michael and I went to see the noon showing of Lord of the Rings on December 19th. We took Michael out of school for the day. We lined up at 9:30 am with many of our friends. There’s nothing like a good line party! We had lots of fun chatting with other people we met in line and playing cards (hearts). My only complaint: we didn’t spend enough time in line! As for the movie itself, the casting was incredible, the visuals were amazing, but I was disappointed with the plot. I felt there wasn’t enough character development or background to hold the story together. I’m guessing that someone who hasn’t read the books would find too many plot holes or find parts of the movie confusing. As was the case with Reid, who had only read the first few chapters at that point. Enough about the movie: so very many people enjoyed it. It seems I’m in the minority!

A few weeks before Christmas, we visited my parents and then took them back to Toronto with us. They were leaving on their annual trip to Mexico before Christmas this year, so we had our family Christmas a few weeks early. We had a lovely Christmas dinner at my brother’s place and the kids opened their gifts. My niece and nephew are at that age where it’s easier to give them money or gift certificates. How time flies. I remember when it was so easy to pick out toys for my nephew and clothes for my niece. My niece is driving now. Yikes! She drove my brother, my father and I home from a store and it brought back a lot of memories for me. My brother and father taught me how to drive, too. Was I as unsure of things as she was? Did I ask all those questions, too? Was there a tiny nugget of terror deep inside my brother or father as I drove, too?

As for Christmas itself, it was fairly quiet. Reid’s mother came to stay with us. We had turkey and all its fixin’s on Christmas Eve, and a quiet Christmas day spent watching movies and playing cards. Opening gifts on Christmas morning always amazes me. All that time shopping, wrapping, etc… all over in a few minutes, with what seems like a flurry of wrapping paper drifting down from the ceiling. Most of the gifts for the kids centred on the GameCube they intended to buy. They got three games and a controller. They agreed to buy the GameCube themselves with the proceeds from the Playstation they sold, Christmas money they received and some of their savings. Reid got me a drill. I really wanted one. Honest I did. (Corded, lots of torque, reversible, variable speed. My old one did not have variable speed and it’s been slowly driving me crazy. And my cordless doesn’t have enough torque so it’s often useless.)

As I’m typing this, we’re in the midst of having a LAN party at our house. We cleaned up the basement, moved furniture around, ordered some 8 foot tables and can now accommodate up to 21 people and their computers split between the basement and the top floor of the house. I doubt we’ll have 21 computers here. I expect about 15. We’ve left the main floor alone, planning to use it for socializing. We’re such geeks. But hey, it’s fun. I don’t even play most of the games, but I really enjoy watching everyone.

TheOneRing.net put up a facility for people to organize themselves when seeing Lord of the Rings. You can set up a “Line Party”, centred at a theatre in your city. I noticed there was a Line Party set up for the Paramount in Toronto. This was where I planned to see it anyway, thinking that I would go with Jeff and Debbie (of course, Reid would be coming despite the fact that he hasn’t read Lord of the Rings, and Michael is coming too! Yes, I’m taking him out of school for it!!) So I signed up, hoping the administrator would set up events, or provide information.

After a while, and a change of administrators (which meant things actually started happening!) I offered to set up an event where people could meet and chat about the movie. (Most of you reading this know me well enough — I can’t resist setting up these things.) We also set up a forum where we could discuss events and the move, it’s available here.

Some of us met last Sunday at the Starbucks within Chapters, next to the Paramount. I was amazed at how quickly everyone became comfortable with each other. Everyone was a big Lord of the Rings fan, of course, and we just launched right into a conversation about the movie. Starbucks was kind enough to supply pitchers of water and a plate of yummy cookies. (augh! Which I couldn’t eat because of dietary restrictions. But they sure looked yummy!)

The only disappointment for me is that most everyone is going to see the movie at different times. I had to complain: Don’t people understand the concept of a LINE party? It means you LINE UP for the movie. Perhaps line ups don’t make sense any more because of advance ticket sales. But I’ve lined up for enough movies to know that if you’re a big fan, half the fun is found in the line itself with fellow fans. And there is NOTHING like seeing the first showing of a major movie with fellow fans. Everyone gets every little joke/nuance. The whole theatre laughs when you know, at some other showing, you’d only hear a titter from a couple of people who got the reference. Ah well, I’ll have to be content with the 10 to 12 people I’m going with as it is!! (I think we’ll be lining up at 8 or 9am for the noon showing. A far cry from the 6 hours before we’ve done!)

And now on to a completely different subject.

Didn’t know whether I should put up this ugly picture of me - but in the end I had to. You see — when I look at it, it’s completely me. Yup. And when I see it, I see “Perrella” in the sense that I’ve taken after my dad in many ways. Yup. I’m a slob. Just like him. (Well, maybe not that bad.) And my brother is, too. Sometimes, I’m a little proud of it. Okay, so most of you don’t see me at my slobby best, but really, I’m a slob. There’s a larger version of the above picture, along with all the others Reid took on eaves cleaning day, available here (just in case you want to see how really horrible it is!)

Why is it that NO OTHER WOMAN on my street can be found wearing icky clothes, on the roof, cleaning out the eaves? Why don’t I see other women traipsing about in their bright orange boots, dirty sweat pants and gross shirt, digging up plants, trimming hedges, and climbing the tree to attach a rope for the swinging chair? I guess I only see them in their nice clean clothes, tenderly putting in the occasional garden plants. Not me, I’m a slob. I know I shouldn’t care, but I do wonder if they ask themselves why Reid isn’t on the roof, or why he doesn’t climb the tree? (Because he’s 100 lbs heavier than me, and it’s bad for the shingles, or because if he uses the ladder to climb half way up the tree, I can’t hold the ladder up if it starts to teeter.)

Plus, I actually LIKE doing this stuff.