09 January 2010
We took down our Christmas tree today. It’s funny how the tree begins to lose it’s appeal once the new year commences. Last year we took the tree down right after the new year (on the 2nd or 3rd, I think), but this year, I purposely wanted to keep it up through last weekend, as my sister and her husband were coming over for one last holiday get-together. So, this time, the tree lasted until January 9th. Also unlike last year, we sawed all the branches off and dropped them off at the compost heap all in one day. Last year, I simply carried the tree down to the garage, where it sat until, like May. Then I cut off the branches and put them in bags, which sat in the garage until August, I think.
You might wonder: why not just dispose of the whole tree. Good question. The answer is this: we use the trunk of the tree to make other things. Aren’t we green?
10 January 2010
Today we went to Jennifer’s parent’s house. Jennifer’s brother and sister were there, too, along with their families. This is great, because it gives Owen a chance to play with both of his cousins, but it also can be a bit overstimulating for him. In the three hours I was there, I saw Owen get worse – he seems unable to communicate effectively and he gets cranky and whiny. The TV was on in the background, too, and I’m not sure why people like to have that white noise cluttering up the conversation; it just makes things more noisy a chaotic.
Anyway, I hope Owen’s having a better time now. He stayed their to spend the night, and I’m sure things quieted down after most of the people left.
Jennifer and I, meanwhile, drove to the theater and viewed the film Precious. In it, a distractingly obese teenage girl tries to better her life while being pushed down by her mother and being pregnant (for the second time) by her father. It was a decent film, nothing special. I’m not sure when this shift in style took place, but at some point in the last three years, film-makers became enamored with showing really gross stuff. I mean, I expect this sort of thing in horror films, but not in more mainstream films. In particular: vomiting. It used to be, if a character in a movie was supposed to vomit, you’d see them run off into a bathroom stall, or you’d just see them raising their head from the toilet bowl. Now, it seems, the director forgot to yell “cut”. I’m not sure what it adds to a film to see a character’s vomit. It certainly doesn’t add to the story, since I already know they are about to vomit. It certainly doesn’t make for a beautiful scene, such as, say, fawning over some lush landscapes (which is equally unnecessary, but at least pretty). The main character, named “Precious”, realizes she sick to her stomach, jumps up, heads over to a garbage can, and we are privileged to about 20 seconds of retching stomach contents emitting from her mouth into the garbage can. Mercifully, I can’t recall exactly which other movies have featured this lovely new cliche’ recently, but rest assured there have been some. And I must say: that’s enough.