space music.

I got a note from a friend last night who told me I needed to update.  I aim to please, so here goes:

Peeptastic.  I didn't send my Peeps picture because it was so blurry.  I'm glad I didn't.  Did you see the pics that won? Clearly, next year, I'll have to up my game.  I must aspire to new marshmallowy heights with my Peeps.  If you go by the National Geographic site to look at the winning pix (my favorite is the chess board!), I would also recommend the article: "Moche 'King of Bling' Uncovered in Peru".   :)

Stay gold, Pony.  I have come to the conclusion leprechauns own the downtown parking system.  It costs like $3 to park downtown.  Whenever I put my money into the machine, I always get two gold Sacajawea dollars as change.  I'm not a purist when it comes to how I want my dollar bills, but paying with gold coins inspires some weird looks.  When I try to buy coffee with my gold dollars, the baristas look at me like I'm not sane.  I feel like Captain Barbosa, tossing out cursed coins. Tonight after Sarah and I did our American Idol recap (this "sing for a second chance" shtick is pretty lame. I'm glad they can't save anybody else), I started talking about my gold dollar dilemma.  I said, "why do people act funny when I pay with those? They're legal tenders, right?"  And she said, "No, legal 'tenders' is like chicken.  They're legal tender."  Then she laughed at me, not with me. (I laughed at me too, it's all good).  The moral of my story is that the pot of gold is on Market Street, not at the end of the rainbow.  *cue Mitch and Mickey song*

Inspired.  Let's talk Susan Boyle.  Have you seen the You Tube video? Did it make you almost cry a little bit too?  I didn't actually shed tears ... but I came really close.   At first, I was just nervous. She seemed like a sweet woman and I was afraid they were going to make fun of her. And they all did in the beginning.  The audience was laughing.  The judges were making snarky comments.  Then the music started and Susan Boyle gave the look.  Do you know the look I'm talking about?  If you watch the video, it's the look she gives just before she starts singing.  In that split second, she looked confident, despite all the heckling.  She looked like she was in on a really great secret nobody else knew about yet. It was the gloriously defiant "watch me show you what I'm capable of" look.  When she gave the look, I cheered.  

I think there's some universal law about the amazingness of the moment before the big moment: that little nano-second before a kiss, or before you do something you know you were born to do, or before you step into the dream you've dreamed of your whole life.  That last slip of anticipation is almost better than the big moment.  Almost :)   After the look, she sang "I Dreamed a Dream" and brought the audience to their feet.  You can watch here if you haven't seen it yet.  

I like what Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly, says: 

"I'll get back to pondering how Vin Diesel's future might change with the success of Fast & Furious soon enough, but right now I'm pondering why the experience of watching and listening to Ms. Boyle makes so many viewers cry, me among them. And I think I've got a simple answer, at least for me: In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging -- the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts -- the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms. Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace. She pierced my defenses. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective from time to time."  (Full article here.)

Lately I've been pouring my heart into a dream that seems far-fetched to the point of redunkulous.  Just when I'm about to give up, I get a little dash of encouragement from somewhere.  My mom cut out a gorgeous quote and left it for me to find.  I got a sweet note about Paperdoll (a note which did elicit some tear spillage in Starbucks, but it's okay.  The management there already thinks I'm a nutter because I sometimes pay with gold coins).  I got a coupon for a free rental from Blockbuster.  Sarah called and reminded me it was free breakfast week at Chick-fil-a (!).  Hang in there dreamers. Some kinds of impossible are worth it.  

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto?  A few years ago Jimmy, maker of amazing films, purveyor of cool, kept bugging me about watching a movie called "The Iron Giant".  I looked up the movie on Amazon and noticed it was about a big robot.  Thus, I politely changed the subject whenever he talked about it.  I don't remember why I finally came around (most likely a threat.  My friends are not above threats), but I finally watched it and I was smitten.  I had to eat my words immediately because The Iron Giant, the very reason I thought the movie wouldn't interest me, completely won my heart.  He is one of the sweetest most wonderful characters ever.  Watch it, and I promise you'll fall in love with a big hunk of metal too :)  The movie isn't as much about a space robot as it is about learning to love and learning to let go.  I checked the book out from the library today.  I've never read it before, but it is quite lovely in a very sing-song sort of way. This is my favorite part: 

"And the space-bat-angel's singing had the most unexpected effect.  Suddenly the world became wonderfully peaceful.  The singing got inside everybody and made them as peaceful as starry space and blissfully above all their earlier little squabbles.  The strange, soft, eerie space music began to alter the people of the world.  They stopped making weapons.  The countries began to think how they could live pleasantly alongside each other rather than how to get rid of each other.  All they wanted to do was to have peace to enjoy this strange, wild, blissful music from the great singer in space."  (Ted Hughes, The Iron Giant)

How's your week going? :)