The Big Day. Daniel had been dying for weeks to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. We went the weekend it opened, but early in the day so as not to bother any die hards, as Daniel has a tendency to get over-excited in movies and narrate the action (ex. "Look Mommy! Anakin Skywalker!!"). He was literally quaking with excitement the entire morning, and this picture was taken in line for the movie; he met this 7-year-old boy name Evan who was very nice, and Daniel was all pumped about the fact that they were wearing the same t-shirt. Daniel did very well in the movie; he sat on the edge of his seat from the second the 20th Century Fox logo appeared onscreen; shouted out, "Look Mommy, George Lucas!!" when the Lucasfilm logo appeared; and otherwise just loved the movie. He was angry when Anakin Skywalker turned to the Dark Side and yelled out, "But Anakin Skywalker HATES the Dark Side!!!!" Which was kind of cute, and seemed to amuse the majority of people seated near us...  

I love this picture. This is Daniel, my Dad, and Stacey running races in my parents' backyard last weekend. Daniel was so excited to race his Auntie Stacey; she even taught him the proper racing stance for the start of the race. Dad joined in after a few laps back and forth across the yard; for some reason that sent Daniel into hysterics and he had difficulties finishing. I guess he thinks his Poppa isn't supposed to race or something. As for the rest of us, we're just thankful that Daniel's Poppa CAN race.  

The newest polar bear cubs at the Denver Zoo. Oddly enough I've forgotten their names as well.  

This weekend Daniel chose to ride a zebra on the Conservation Carousel. He was torn between the zebra and the hyena. I think the zebra was a good choice. 

Baby hyena at the Denver Zoo. I forget this one's name, and can't find my ZooNews to locate it.  

What is the deal with....

Disney characters who go asking some supernatural creature for help, or put themselves voluntarily in the midst of danger, and then when the inevitable happens and the creature responds or the danger gets to crisis level, they always (and when I say always, I mean ALWAYS!!) get this look of utter surprise on their face, as if to say, "How did this happen??" Well, duh...

Toys R Us. What a frickin' scary place this is. Bad lighting; crap everywhere; the smell of cheap plastic permeating the air; something being pumped through the vents that permeates your veins and causes the oxygen in your blood to shrink so that you become tired, slow down, and lose all track of time. You buy things just so you can escape, not because you're in some lovely atmosphere that made you happy and calm and put you in a buying mood. No -- you go in for a birthday present for some kid, and just grab the first thing you can find, just so you can get the hell out. Nevermind that whatever it is costs 50 bucks and the kid is your kid's casual acquaintance. This place is like the 6th level of hell right here on Earth.

Spiders. My dad used to always say, "They're more afraid of you than you are of them." Somehow, this would have been more effective coming from man who didn't freeze up and call his wife into the room whenever a spider crossed his path. But whatever. They're so damn creepy-looking! If they didn't look the way they look, or have that creepy abililty to jump 6 feet, or to disappear seemingly into thin air only to reappear later, no one would fear them. But they do all those things and more, and they are creepy, and I hate them.

The Idiot Fangirl's Guide to Life

Some of you may have no inkling what I'm on about, and that's all right. This is just solely for the entertainment of me, Mel, and select others.

How to Be An Idiot Fangirl:

1). Ideal Age: 10-13. 14 is okay as long as you've just turned.
2). You must also be smart for your age.
3). Smart for your age, but too stupid to act smart.
4). Stalk boys on web forums. Best ages: 15-20.
5). Post threats on said forums about older girls who are friends with the boy you are stalking. Get all your idiot fangirl friends to post. Threaten to kill people. Act all psycho.
6). Get invited into chats with important members of forums.
7). Try to divert all attention away from older, smarter girls and onto you. Use any means necessary.
8). Start calling people bitches when they won't stop talking about geeks like Colin Firth and Martin Freeman. Who the hell are those dudes anyway??
9). Act all pissy when everyone ignores you in chat.
10). Storm out in a huff. Or as much of a huff as you can muster, being as how this IS the internet.
11). Pick fight with your biggest Idiot Fangirl competition.
12). Get her kicked off forums. Then pretend you were on her side all along by posting about how unfair it was that she got banned.
13). Go into serious discussion threads. Post something stupid. Only spell two words out of every 9 correctly.
14). Keep hammering away at your point, even though it is pointless. Get mad when older, smarter people tell you to stop. Keep bringing it up again.
15). Private Message boys all day. Check your controls every two minutes for a reply.
16). Send note to moderator when no replies. Something must be wrong with your controls; you must not be receiving messages.
17). Sneak around reading posts of older girls you hate.
18). Disuss ways to get even with them in chat with other idiot fangirls.
19). Get in fight with other fangirls in chat.
20). Post in threads where your fave boy posts his poetry. Assume you understand it. Tell him that no one "gets you" like he does.
21). Start over at step 1.

Daniel on the big plastic ox at the zoo. Is there a kid who grew up in Denver who never had their photo taken on this thing?? 

Daniel measures up. 

Me and Daniel at the zoo. This is a fake termite mound constructed out of...who knows what. Daniel likes to climb on it.  

Cute cute little baby... 

Daniel at the zoo.  

Sweet Melissa

Okay, at least ONE of my pals is groovy enough to return a questionnaire of her own to me. So this is from my friend Melissa, who is originally from Maryland but now resides outside Detroit in Ypsilanti. I met Melissa on the Harry Potter Forums. Some of you may remember my days of having a hundred pen pals in high school. Well now, I have similar friends who I've met online. Melissa is very, very cool, and we share many things in common, a love of geeks not the least of those.

1). What is your most marked characteristic? My generousity

2). What is the quality you most like in a man? Sense of humor,
intelligence, and boyish charm

3). What is the quality you most like in a woman? Friendship

4). What do you most value in your friends? Honesty, compatibility,
sense of humor, people who can laugh at themselves and have a good
time, general goofiness.

5). What is your principle defect? I'm too trusting and open

6). What is your favorite occupation? Writing while taking a nice, hot bath

7). What is your idea of perfect happiness? Helping people and
beautiful, sunny days

8 ). What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Being numb to everything

9). Where would you like to live? Aside from back in DC? London. :)

10). Who are your favorite writers? F.Scott Fitzgerald, JK Rowling,
Nick Hornby, Zora Neale Hurston, William Shakespeare.

12). Who is your favorite hero or heroine of fiction? Ron Weasley. Or
Janie (I think was her name) from "Their Eyes Were Watching God".

13). Who are your heroes in real life? Martin Luther King, Jr, Robert
F. Kennedy, Jr., and my grandma.

14). What are your favorite names? Josh---don't know why, but I've
always liked it. I know there are others that make me laugh, but I'm
drawing a blank. Chloe for a girl, I suppose.

15). What is your greatest fear? Not accomplishing anything or living
my life in limbo, as I have been for several years now. :(

16). Which historical figure do you most identify with? Don't know.
Probably some kind of feminist.

17). If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do
you think it would be? Something cool, like maybe an amazonian frog of
some kind.

18). If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be? A
panda bear. They're badass.

19). When and where were you happiest? I can't really think of a
single time in my life...

20). Which words or phrases do you most overuse? like, totally,
whatever, awesome (i'm...a valley girl...just discovered that...)

21). On what occasion do you lie? When the truth would really hurt
someone's feelings and it's not an important enough matter to tell the
truth.

22). What do you consider the most overrated virtue? being ladylike

23). What or who is the greatest love of your life? my iPod :p

24). What is your favorite journey? Going home :)

25). Which talent would you most like to have? Being able to fly. Or invisible.

26). What is your greatest extravagance? Multimedia/Electronics,
without question. I'm a techie geek.

27). What is your most treasured possession? My memories and my iPod

28). What is it that you most dislike? Rudeness

29). If you could change one thing about your family, what would it
be? My sister---I'd make her NOT be a republican; my dad---his temper
(which, thankfully has mellowed); my mom---I'd make her care about
being educated.

30). How would you like to die? In my sleep

31). What is your present state of mind? Relaxed, for the most part

32). Which living person do you most admire? Bono. The fact that he's
rich beyond his wildest dreams and still makes such an effort to help
people who are starving is just beyond words to me. It's that kind of
attitude that helps restore my faith in humanity.

33). What is the trait you most deplore in others? Selfishness---I
think you know why.

34). What do you dislike most about your own appearance? I could stand
to lose about 20 lbs.

35). What is your greatest regret? Not spending enough time with my
grandma before she died.

36). What do you consider your greatest achievement? Being on my own
since age 19. Almost everything I have I earned myself and that's a
damn good feeling. :)

37). What is your motto? "Everything happens for a reason."

Rock on, Melissa!! I love ya!!!

The Proust Questionnaire

So, at the end of Vanity Fair magazine every month, they have a thing called the Proust Questionnaire, where a person of some import (a celebrity or a writer or whatever) will answer 20 questions based upon a longer series of questions Marcel Proust used to periodically ask of himself, in order to "check in," so to speak. The idea is to get a sense of yourself; to answer thoughtfully and honestly. Apparently this is floating around the internet right now and the versions I've seen don't really seem all that true to what I think Proust (and even Vanity Fair) was attempting to accomplish, e.g. a little bit of self-discovery. The intent isn't a flip, smart ass answer, nor is it ten paragraphs on each question. It's a few words in response to each. So, here's the plan: I'm going to answer, and I want the rest of you to do the same, but first copy it into an email and then send it to me along with your responses. I want to post them here one by one. Most of you are seriously lacking in the "Let's comment on Shannon's blog" gene, so just do this one thing for me. For fun. To humor me. Seriously.

Without further ado... (also I just noticed these are misnumbered, but I am too tired to correct them now, so please just live with it)...

1). What is your most marked characteristic? My sense of humor.
2). What is the quality you most like in a man? A sense of humor and handiness with tools.
3). What is the quality you most like in a woman? Friendship.
4). What do you most value in your friends? Loyalty; honesty; good grammar; the ability to laugh uproariously at the simplest of things. A healthy appreciation for Harry Potter and similar political viewpoint to my own doesn't hurt.
5). What is your principle defect? My impatience with those who are not as well-educated as me. My tendency to curse at others on the road.
6). What is your favorite occupation? Sitting alone on a Saturday afternoon reading a brand new book (preferably of the Harry Potter variety), sipping one diet Pepsi after another.
7). What is your idea of perfect happiness? Time spent with my son.
8 ). What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Never having loved anyone or anything.
9). Where would you like to live? Venice, Italy.
10). Who are your favorite writers? Douglas Coupland; Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni; JK Rowling; Tim Sandlin; Nick Hornby; Alexander McCall Smith.
12). Who is your favorite hero or heroine of fiction? It's a toss up between Harry Potter and Obi Wan Kenobi.
13). Who are your heroes in real life? Oprah Winfrey; Bono; Nelson Mandela; my parents.
14). What are your favorite names? Daniel; Mace Windu.
15). What is your greatest fear? Dying before my son is grown, or somehow not being able to take care of him myself.
16). Which historical figure do you most identify with? Erm... I'm not sure there really is one I actually identify with, per se.
17). If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be? Someone's mother.
18). If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be? An iPod.
19). When and where were you happiest? The day my son was born.
20). Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Like; whatever; "I'm all/she's all.."; "Daniel, I said NO!"
21). On what occasion do you lie? When customers want to speak to my boss but he's not taking calls.
22). What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Christianity.
23). What or who is the greatest love of your life? Daniel. U2 runs a close second.
24). What is your favorite journey? To the Denver Zoo with Daniel.
25). Which talent would you most like to have? The ability to channel ambition into action.
26). What is your greatest extravagance? Cut and color by Ric.
27). What is your most treasured possession? My iPod; my photo albums.
28). What is it that you most dislike? Bad, scary drivers.
29). If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be? I plead the Fifth.
30). How would you like to die? I don't think I should like it very much at all.
31). What is your present state of mind? Content. Looking forward to summer.
32). Which living person do you most admire? Oprah Winfrey, at the risk of sounding redundant. I realize that she feels she has better ways to connect with people, but I really wish she'd run for President.
33). What is the trait you most deplore in others? Selfishness; narcissism.
34). What do you dislike most about your own appearance? My clothes.
35). What is your greatest regret? That I never learned how to play the guitar.
36). What do you consider your greatest achievement? Just the fact that I've made it this far.
37). What is your motto? "Everything will be all right."