Good Actors Does Not Always Equal Good Movie

Often I find that you can count on certain movies to be half decent simply because of the actors starring in them. Take Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, for example. I mean, how bad could a movie be with these two actors starring in it? The answer is BAD. Very, very bad.

On the weekend, I had the misfortune of losing two hours of my life to watching the movie '21 Grams', which I had heard was a good movie (not sure where I heard that). Maybe I never really did hear that, but assumed that since it was nominted for 2 Academy awards (and it had Sean Penn in it), that it must be a pretty good movie. I guess I should have paid attention to what categories it was nominated for - best actress and best supporting actor. NOT BEST MOVIE or anything even close to that.

The movie jumped around so much (about three different time periods, at least) that you could hardly follow what was going on. And that's just the start of all the bad things I can say about this movie. I have to admit, that the acting was good (hence the nominations), but the movie pretty much sucked. If you haven't seen it already, I wouldn't waste the time or money.

Who Knew???

Last night, before Brad's drum lesson, I had a few minutes alone in the house. Just for the hell of it, I sat down at the drum set and started messing around. I really had no idea what I was doing, but before you know it, I had a real little rythm going. It was actually kind of fun. And, strangely enough, I found that when I was was the one pounding away on the things, it didn't even seem that loud.

Who knew?

Our House Guests

Pictures of our little house guests. Millie is the black and white cat, and Mama is the orange, black and white cat.

They have been with us now for about 3 weeks and seem to be settling in much better and making themselves at home. We've already become quite attached to them. I think it will be very hard to say good-bye to them after they've been with us for 1 - 2 years.

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life - Red Auerbach

My ten-year-old son does not have a lot of extracurricular interests. We have tried him in a few different sports, which he has not had any interest in continuing. He takes swimming lessons because we insist, but that's about as far as it goes. For the most part, his time is spent on the computer or playing video games - far too much of his time.

Dave and I had often talked about what we could get Brad involved in to get him away from the electronics. Then one day, like a message delivered from above, a flyer landed on our doorstep. Drum lessons!. One free drum lesson when you pay for three. Drum lessons, hmm. Well, there was a thought (not my thought, mind you).

Dave took drum lessons for about 4 years (between the approximate ages of 10 - 14) and has often throughout our marriage mentioned that he'd like to get a set again. Of course, I was never a huge supporter of the idea. Now, here was our son showing some interest in trying out the drum lessons, and so naturally Dave was very supportive and enthusiastic about the idea.

And so the drum lessons began. It was actually quite painless initially. We purchased a practice pad for him to use, which makes virtually no noise, but is also not terribly exciting to play on. We did this for several weeks and could see that Brad's interest was waning . It was going to take something more than the practice pad to maintain his interest. But, I was not convinced enough of his commitment to consider buying a set of drums and figured that renting might be the way to go for a while.

About a week ago, I was discussing this with my friend Leanne, who informed me that she had a set of drums sitting in her basement that her daughter (who had since moved onto the guitar) was not using. I was welcome to borrow them and let Brad use them. Well, that was wonderful. Now we could have some drums for him to practice on and it wasn't even going to cost any money.

We picked up the drums on the weekend and set them up in the basement. All I can say is HOLY LOUD NOISE!!! Dave has been giving us demos of his drumming ability and Brad has been pounding away on them too. The noise fills the entire house. There is no escape (not so great for someone who is already extremely prone to headaches).

If it is true that music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life, then my dust is being blasted away.

Excited Terror

Excited terror is pretty much the best way to describe how I feel each morning as I go into work. OK, that might be exaggerating just a little bit, but it is a bit scary.

I am excited to be moving on with a new career. It's what I've been wanting for a long time. But, now that it is here, I can't help but wonder some mornings what I have gotten myself into. I have gone from a job (though not too exciting or fulfulling) I knew very well and was confident in doing, to a job where there is so much to learn that I question if I will ever really know it all. Logic, reason and experience all tell me that "YES" some day I will know this job just as well as my previous job and that I will look back and find it amusing how stupid I felt when I first started.

Every day, I learn a little bit more and feel a little more confident in my ability to do the job. And as things come up that I have already done (and I know what to do this time), I feel all that much more certain that I will learn all the other things I need to know too. I still have the added burden of having to do much of my old job while I am trying to learn the new one and feel like I have not been able to really focus on learning what I need to learn. I'm sure once they have hired a replacement for me and I can really go at the new job, things will go a lot better.

I have almost completed my second week now, and am finding that some of the things that seemed overwhelming last week, seem less so this week. I am really looking forward to all there is to learn in this new job and being able to REALLY concentrate entirely on it. For the first time in a long time I feel excited and positive about my future (as far as career/job goes).

Survived My First Week

Well, I survived my first week of the new job. Between trying to learn the new job and trying to keep on top of the Admin duties that I am still responsible for until a replacement is hired, it's been quite crazy. And, if I haven't been busy enough, it just seemed that all kinds of things that normally wouldn't come up were coming up this week also (such as people needing business cards, people wanting Daytimer orders, a huge flood of release notes package requests when there hasn't been any in months, a missing file needed to burn GoldCare Release Notes CDs...). I think it will pretty much be like this until they get someone hired. (Interviews are taking place next week).

I feel like I am being pulled in a lot of directions right now, and can't really focus on the new job the way I'd like to. But, at least I can't say that I am bored or that I have nothing to do. In fact, I have a funny feeling that I may never again know the feeling of being caught up on my work. It will be quite a change going from a job where I quite often had completed all I needed to do and almost always left work with my work finished to a job where (I expect) there will always be some project or other that is in progress or incomplete. It will require an adjustment in the way I think and how I do things, but I'm up to the challenge. I am just really looking forward to the day when I can put my Admin life behind me.

First Day on the New Job - Sort Of

So, today was my first day at my new job. I wasn't sure what to expect first thing, since it hadn't really been discussed much beforehand and there is no replacement for my old job yet. I was happy to find that when I got to work this morning, they were already in the process of moving my phone and computer to my new desk.

I spent the first hour of my day cleaning out some old stuff from my work area and getting files organized. Then I sorted through all the resumes coming in for the Admin position and pretty much carried on doing odd jobs from my old position for the majority of the day. It was kind of like doing my old job, BUT at a different desk. I expected that this was somewhat how things would be for a while. Until they get a new person hired, I think I'll be splitting my time between the two positions. Kind of sucks, but that's life. At least we're moving in the right direction. Eventually, I will be able to put that job behind me and focus entirely on my new position (looking forward to that).

In the meantime, at least I don't have to answer the phones anymore, AND PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANTLY, I can actually leave my work area (and even go to the bathroom) without having to tell anybody and making sure that someone is available to answer the phone if it rings while I am away.

Well, That's One Way to Get Out of Church

This weekend, we were at Dave's parent's cottage with his parents and Dave's brother, wife and son, Andrew. This morning we all decided to go to the local church for mass. About 20 minutes into the mass, I heard a fairly loud thud next to me. Of course, with Andrew and Brad sitting next to one another, my first thought was that they were horsing around. When I turned to look, I was surprised to find Brad laying on the floor, but again figured he'd tripped or something.

It didn't take long to realize something was wrong. He was laying flat out on the ground underneath the seat and wasn't making an attempt to get back up. When I got down to check on him, his eyes were closed and he was still not moving. The kid was out cold. Now my logic told me that he had passed out and that it was not a huge concern, but the concerned mother in me started imagining all the horrors that this could mean. Had he hit his head on the way down? How hard might he have hit it? Was he hurt? What had caused him to pass out in the first place?

It took a few seconds of me trying to lift him up and talking to him before he finally came around. He was really out of it and not responding to me. When I finally asked him if he could talk, he responded with a 'yes' followed by 'Am I dreaming? Is this a dream?' Of course I was relieved that he was talking to me but was still pretty shook up by the whole thing. He was very hot and sweating with sweat-soaked hair. After removing his sweater and getting him some juice, he seemed somewhat better. He wasn't so hot anymore , but he was still quite upset and feeling a bit sick to the stomach. We decided it would be best for the three of us to cut out of church early and take Brad back to the cottage to rest. After having a bit to eat and resting for a while, he felt much better, and I am happy to say was fine.

Well, that's one way to get out of church.