THUMBSUCKIN'

I don't know why it's such a bitch to wake up in the morning. I'm beginning to think that my sleep is not restful enough. Maybe I need a new mattress or a new pillow or something. Or maybe I'm just too lazy to get up and get the day started. Whatever the case may be, it was a bitch getting up this morning.

Of course, the kids plotted to do something they thought was funny to get me up. And of course, I didn't find it funny and yelled at them. By the time I got up, Jared was kind enough to let me wake up slowly. It was 10:30am.

There was nothing to do so I got on the girls' case about their audition this evening. They're trying out for some kind of play for a local church. They both decided to sing "Hopelessly Devoted To You" from the Grease soundtrack. I berated them for choosing the same song because I felt that they are different and should have different songs.

Nevertheless, I tried getting them used to taking criticism. They can both sing okay and probably need voice lessons, but at this stage, I don't know if it's a good idea. They may just get sick of this whole sing and dance idea so why spend all that money on lessons?

As they practiced, I played Lord of the Rings with Jared and finally passed a frustrating stage. It reminded me of playing Atari 2600 at his age and staying up until 3am in the morning trying to get the high score on Space Invaders.

Then we decided to finally try making Turkish Delight. The girls love the Narnia movie so much that they are obsessed with everything in it. In one scene, Edmund asks for Turkish Delight. I gotta say, when he eats it, it looks really delicious. It looks sticky and gelatinous in the movie. So we got the recipe and purchased the necessary items at Stater Brothers.

Before going home, we decided to stop by Juice It Up to buy some smoothies. We all bought one except for Karina who seems to be fine tuning her cheapness that is most likely genetic. She loves to save her money but has no problem when someone else is buying. This trait concerns me because I fear she may turn out to be too much like me.

Anyway, Jared and I decided to try the wheatgrass shot. We were scared and sure enough, our hesitation was justified. Try taking a whiff of this stuff and you'll know what I'm talking about. Jared jumped right into it and tried to take a sip, but he ended up spitting it all out. Since I knew how to take shots, I drank it down like a champ. However, I'll probably never do a shot like that again because it made me feel funky afterwards and gave me some horrendous burp smells.

Maybe it was working out, or maybe it was lack of sleep, but I think it was the wheatgrass that made me super sleepy after preparing the Turkish Delight. So I crashed and before I knew it, my brother was home and it was time to go watch the girls audition. He stayed home with Jared and I got to the church perfectly on time to watch the girls audition. I could tell they were nervous, but they did well relative to some of the other girls I saw audition.

I got back and started a fire outside in the outdoor fireplace I bought for Noel & Kimi for Christmas. It worked pretty good and Jared and I ended up eating a grip of roasted marshmallows. The girls got home late and the fire was out by the time they got back. I was a little disappointed that the girls didn't like the Turkish Delight. I can't say I liked it either, but it was kind of a pain in the ass to make it and they sure didn't show me enough appreciation for making it, especially when they're spitting out your hard work in the trash.

I called Brenda on the way home because she's pretty much the only person I can call late at night. I wish there were others, but there really isn't. How sad.

When I got home, I watched Thumbsucker. I love watching movies that I have never heard about. It's an "indie" in the sense that the stars in the movie didn't make much money. That's pretty much the only definition these days for "indies." Anyway, it made me realize that I have to pay more attention to the Independent Spirit Awards because a lot of the movies I've seen that were nominated from it have been quite good.

The one thought I had from the movie that made me wonder about real life was whether my brother Noel is having issues with Kimi because of what my dad may have told him before he passed away. Noel seemed to have the closest relationship with my father and he must have had very interesting conversations with him about my mother. I should ask him about that someday.