So what does the Wally household do for fun on the weekend? We usually hang out at home of Friday nights. The highlight for the adults is watching the latest episode of Joan of Arcadia. It's sort of a weird show to air on that night with its aura of constant tragedy, but the wife and I dig it. I just wonder why the set is always so dimly lit. It does give the show a distinct look. Afterwards I either watch cartoons with the girls or play games with them until their bedtime. Then I just continue to unwind from the work week usually catching VH1's Best Week Ever.
Saturday's are a free for all. We went to Murfreesboro this weekend and saw The Incredibles which was incredible. The action was fun, the storyline was excellent in its irony laden way, and I liked the subtle commentary about mediocrity and achievement. "If everybody's special, it really means that nobody is." I've read several reviews of the film that all mention the similarities between The Incredible's costumer, Edna Mode or "E", to the "M" character from James Bond, but for a little while I was beginning to think I was the only one to see that she's a tribute to the great Hollywood costumer, Edith Head. Here's an excellent take on the movie from the Armed Prophet 2004 blog: http://armedprophet.blogspot.com/2004/11/conservatives-if-you-havent-seen.html. It expounds more on the message of the film and has a picture of Edith Head besides Edna Mode, but Edith's not wearing her usual eyeglasses that are a match for Edna's.
Later, we visited a long time friend and his wife to see their new baby girl, Molly Elizabeth. Then it was on to the hell on Earth of Wal*Mart for groceries. I hate shopping there, but sometimes it just has to be done. Smithville gives us the choice of Food Lion - their meat is terrible, Save-A-Lot - lots of junk and the shopping experience is worse than Wal*Mart, and a local grocery that has changed hands so much in four years I forget its name - always had lousy meat and moldy cheese. So we take the nearest decent grocery and that's Wal*Mart. Plus I had a twenty dollar gift card from my employer since my birthday is this month. I bought The Features - Exhibit A album and a Dean Martin compilation with it. Then it was back to the hills of Smithville.
The wife and girls watched Teen Titans and Justice League with me and then it was time for them to hit the hay. Normally I'm not left up alone after 8 PM, but the wife is nearing the 6 month of her pregnancy so she's resting a lot these days. I stayed up long enough to watch the Venture Brothers on Cartoon Network. That show is the bomb. I've heard it described as Johnny Quest on LSD.
Sunday was a bummer of a day. The back story: I play Spades most days at lunch. On Thursday of last week one of the players gets a call about a local resident killing themselves. After another call that verified it I learned it was one of my daughter Emmy's t-ball coaches from this past year. Lots of rumors were flying about why it happened, but I really don't need to know the story. All I know is that somebody we loved was dead. He had been absolutely wonderful with Emmy. T-ball is taken very seriously in this town since baseball and softball are two of the few sports that the high school is competitive in, so many of the t-ball coaches treated the 4 and 5 year old players like dirt. Many of the teams' coaches spent whole games screaming and berating the children as if they were adults. Emmy was lucky to get on a team that didn't take that approach. They wanted to win, and they did win finishing second for the season, but the children having fun and learning was more important. I'll remember Emmy's coach climbing into the McDonalds fun land with the kids, bringing every kid and coach water pistols so we could have a water pistol fight after the championship game, and always remembering to give Emmy's 3 year old sister a treat too. After hearing the news the one thought running through my mind was why and I understand that the rumors are out there trying to answer that and no malice is intended, but I'm trying to avoid them. I can't imagine ever being so depressed or desperate that I would take such action, so even if all of the whys were answered it wouldn't satisfy me. My wife and I visited the funeral home yesterday and it was a traumatic scene. The guest register had been signed by probably more than a hundred people and I was struck by how sad it was that he didn't reach out to any of those hundred people before making the dreadful decision to end his life. I played organized sports for only two years back during the 70's in the Jimmy Carter Softball League and I still remember my first coach. Emmy will always remember too. I'll try to make sure she remembers the fun and not the final chapter.
Sunday night, we watched The Simpsons. I felt tricked since I was under the impression it was going to be a Bart episode instead of a Marge one. Then I watched the great Dr. J in The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.
That was the weekend. It was a mixture of movie going, dead legged shopping, television watching, and out right tragedy.
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