We made the trek to Centralia (excuse me, Grand Mound) this weekend to brave the Great Wolf Lodge. We met friends who had been before. It gave us some courage that if they could do it then we could get through too. The day started with heavy bickering and some yelling and screaming from the 7 year old who is officially too old for that.
But we persevered, packed up the car, the bickering subsided and we headed north. We hit a Burger King north of Vancouver for lunch. There was a brief fight over who could eat more chicken tenders. I had a whopper jr. with cheese. I figure the joy of being in a bathing suit in the middle of winter would only be enhanced by a whopper jr. with cheese.
Sadly my daughter can't find her DS (have you seen it? Pink? White game case?). So my son had to share with her. That lead directly to a new "violation" system. Poor kids - nothing like two lawyer parents to come up with complicated and taxing rules. Violations would be given for hitting, yelling (which includes screaming - yes, that was a question posed), or talking negatively about your sibling. Violations would carry a 10 minute water park penalty where the violator has to sit on a chair and watch as all the other children frolic in the park. Two violations were given. Then a pardon system was created. The pardons were earned. However, there were double-damages possible if violations were re-given after the pardon (you catch my drift, right?). The highlight of the violation game was when Henry hit Sophie and then said in the saddest voice you can imagine, "Violation. I just got a violation" before either of us had even noticed anything happened (he was given a reduction in the penalty due to self-reporting).
We arrive, check-in, get our suits on (seriously, am I really THAT pale?) and hit the water park. GWL can be summed up in a single phrase: Vegas for Kids. That's all it is. And like Vegas, a short stay is best. But all of that said, we had a blast. The water rides are really something and the kids had so much fun. We avoided a lot of the Vegas vibe by skipping the arcade and gaming areas. Why go there anyhow when you've got a wolf cave in your room?
Emily, you guys should give it a try. But I will warn you that there were a lot of people. But with a lot of people come the joys of watching them. And their tattoos and their european speedos and their loose tops as they come shooting out of the water tube....
Monday, November 30, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Sweet Valley High
I loved Sweet Valley High. It was the ultimate escapist fantasy. Blonde? Size six? Blue eyes? A twin! What could have been better? It doesn't surprise me that you have an old flame who once wrote for the SVH series... because you know the most random people. It's one of my favorite things about you!
There is no shame in having read all the Twilight books (the Kindle? maybe that's another story...). I just finished the new Julia Glass book (I See You Everywhere). It was very good - although Three Junes remains my favorite. I bawled through the last quarter of the book. I'm not always up for a book that makes me seriously cry, but sometimes it's a nice release. And truth be told, I am a crier by nature. This point is well illustrated by the fact that I cried watching Criminal Minds this morning (there's a marathon on A&E today, BTW). I kept thinking to myself, "really, you're crying? This is Criminal Minds." Mostly Criminal Minds terrifies me, which is it's own kind of escapism. But watching the saved episode from Wedneday on my DVR this morning I realized how sucked into the characters I am now. It'd be really hard to maintain a healthy personal life while chasing serial killers. I worry for them. And then I have to remind myself that they're just made up characters. This happened to me when I read Twilight too. I would find myself driving around and wondering, "How would this work for Edward?" Of course, Vampires and Edward aren't actually real, so the question of how something from my real life would play out for Edward isn't really relevant. Maybe that's the mark of a successful escape though? It's certainly a little more interesting than the age old question of what's for dinner. Tonight I can answer pretty quickly that it'll probably be pizza. However, the question of what happens to poor Hodge after this week's episode of Criminal Minds? Well, that'll take me a little more time to ponder.
There is no shame in having read all the Twilight books (the Kindle? maybe that's another story...). I just finished the new Julia Glass book (I See You Everywhere). It was very good - although Three Junes remains my favorite. I bawled through the last quarter of the book. I'm not always up for a book that makes me seriously cry, but sometimes it's a nice release. And truth be told, I am a crier by nature. This point is well illustrated by the fact that I cried watching Criminal Minds this morning (there's a marathon on A&E today, BTW). I kept thinking to myself, "really, you're crying? This is Criminal Minds." Mostly Criminal Minds terrifies me, which is it's own kind of escapism. But watching the saved episode from Wedneday on my DVR this morning I realized how sucked into the characters I am now. It'd be really hard to maintain a healthy personal life while chasing serial killers. I worry for them. And then I have to remind myself that they're just made up characters. This happened to me when I read Twilight too. I would find myself driving around and wondering, "How would this work for Edward?" Of course, Vampires and Edward aren't actually real, so the question of how something from my real life would play out for Edward isn't really relevant. Maybe that's the mark of a successful escape though? It's certainly a little more interesting than the age old question of what's for dinner. Tonight I can answer pretty quickly that it'll probably be pizza. However, the question of what happens to poor Hodge after this week's episode of Criminal Minds? Well, that'll take me a little more time to ponder.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Why, yes, I HAVE read all the Twilight books
And I hate myself for it. I did like New Moon, but by the 4th one (Reneesme?) i was so bitter and angry but I could not stop myself from finishing it. I wanted to curse Bella, Edward, and StephEnie Meyer but I bought them all on my Kindle and read them all in quick succession. I'm not the only one, either.
I don't get vampires. My reading tastes run more towards cheesy romances, mysteries, and an occasional book that requires brainpower. My current career choice is somewhat inspired by the series from the 1950's that began with the seminal work, "Cherry Ames: Student Nurse." Cherry is a plucky nurse who manages to basically work in every single clinical setting (Cherry Ames: Army Nurse; Cherry Ames: Summer Camp Nurse blah blah blah) in about a 2 year span. I was also a big fan of Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew. And let's not forget Sweet Valley High, although my enthusiasm is somewhat dampened by the fact that an old flame actually wrote for the Sweet Valley High series for a while after college, Francine Pascal being long gone with her gazillions of dollars. Apparently now he is a producer of Rock of Love and Megan Wants a Millionaire, but he honed his skills with Elizabeth and Jessica.
I don't get vampires. My reading tastes run more towards cheesy romances, mysteries, and an occasional book that requires brainpower. My current career choice is somewhat inspired by the series from the 1950's that began with the seminal work, "Cherry Ames: Student Nurse." Cherry is a plucky nurse who manages to basically work in every single clinical setting (Cherry Ames: Army Nurse; Cherry Ames: Summer Camp Nurse blah blah blah) in about a 2 year span. I was also a big fan of Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew. And let's not forget Sweet Valley High, although my enthusiasm is somewhat dampened by the fact that an old flame actually wrote for the Sweet Valley High series for a while after college, Francine Pascal being long gone with her gazillions of dollars. Apparently now he is a producer of Rock of Love and Megan Wants a Millionaire, but he honed his skills with Elizabeth and Jessica.
Does Emily Really Hate Twilight?
Emily, you really HATE Twilight? I mean, yes, it should have been us. We could have written that. And if we had we could be doing the talk show circuit, meeting Robert Pattison (is that his name?) and drowning in money! But, instead we’re here. Well, I’m here. At “work”. And you’re there. At home? In the car? At school? (where are you right now???). All that aside, I can’t hate Twilight. At the end of the day I appreciate most guilty pleasures: The Biggest Loser, Jennifer Weiner books, Steak Umms… yes, I like them all. Please reconsider your Twilight position. Have you read them all?
As far as this blog goes – reader, it’s your lucky day! Here we are – two sassy ladies ready to rock your world with our inventive prose. Or at least our attempts at inventive prose. You know a little about Emily (speaking of – pay per view boxing? That is SWEET). Now a little about me. I graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in political science and LSAT scores just good enough for me to say, “I’m going to law school after this.” I had a receptionist / secretary / gopher job for two years after college while I got married to my first husband (yes, I have a second husband now) and applied to law school. Looking back that job rocked. I wore shorts to work and read books all day. I headed off to law school at Lewis & Clark two years later. One thing I’ve learned since then is that when they loan you money for graduate school they expect you to pay it back. That is a tough lesson. If I could do anything (well, at least one thing) over I would have gone to UofO for law school. But, lessons learned. I’ve been practicing law for about ten years. I’m at a “big” local firm. I do real estate work. Mostly making the world safer for big box retailers (aka – God’s work). As you may know, the real estate market is in a “down cycle” currently so the hectic stressful pace of practicing law and raising children has ebbed a bit. I spend the majority of my days splitting my time equally between Facebook, internet shopping and the Google. I told Emily I thought I could probably fit in a little daily blogging with that…
As far as this blog goes – reader, it’s your lucky day! Here we are – two sassy ladies ready to rock your world with our inventive prose. Or at least our attempts at inventive prose. You know a little about Emily (speaking of – pay per view boxing? That is SWEET). Now a little about me. I graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in political science and LSAT scores just good enough for me to say, “I’m going to law school after this.” I had a receptionist / secretary / gopher job for two years after college while I got married to my first husband (yes, I have a second husband now) and applied to law school. Looking back that job rocked. I wore shorts to work and read books all day. I headed off to law school at Lewis & Clark two years later. One thing I’ve learned since then is that when they loan you money for graduate school they expect you to pay it back. That is a tough lesson. If I could do anything (well, at least one thing) over I would have gone to UofO for law school. But, lessons learned. I’ve been practicing law for about ten years. I’m at a “big” local firm. I do real estate work. Mostly making the world safer for big box retailers (aka – God’s work). As you may know, the real estate market is in a “down cycle” currently so the hectic stressful pace of practicing law and raising children has ebbed a bit. I spend the majority of my days splitting my time equally between Facebook, internet shopping and the Google. I told Emily I thought I could probably fit in a little daily blogging with that…
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Welcome to Our Lives!
Jill and I would like to take this opportunity to stress to you how strongly we feel that we should have written a hot teen series like Twilight or Harry Potter. We totally could have, except we haven't. Why? We have families, jobs (Jill), school (me) and quite frankly, making canned Hormel Chili over Trader Joe's brown rice for dinner just about sends me over the edge, so a hot teen series is completely out of the question. I can barely write a grocery list; and if I do, I forget to actually take it into the grocery store...therefore I am always missing some essential ingredient (lately, sour cream) just when I need it the most. But I digress. The purpose of this blog is to get Jill and I to write. Daily. For the next 365 days, we need to write. About nothing, about something, about my fervent hatred of all things Twilight. Jill likes Twilight, so she'll have to find something else to hate. Which I'm sure won't be a problem.
I graduated from Arizona in 1993 with a creative writing major. Essentially this major allowed me to drink heavily 6 nights out of the week and then sit in front of a computer for 15 hours straight and crank out a story. Did I ever think of writing for a living? No. I took the first job I was offered (Pay Per View Manager, Tucson CableVision) and spent the next year pretending I cared about pay-per-view boxing. I moved on to recruiting, equity trading (all the more ironic since I didn't learn to add and subtract fractions until my first day on the job), and a big corporate financial services firm. Now I'm taking math and science at PCC in order to become a nurse. I really enjoy the classes, but I'd also like to get over my aversion to write something other than Facebook status updates.
I graduated from Arizona in 1993 with a creative writing major. Essentially this major allowed me to drink heavily 6 nights out of the week and then sit in front of a computer for 15 hours straight and crank out a story. Did I ever think of writing for a living? No. I took the first job I was offered (Pay Per View Manager, Tucson CableVision) and spent the next year pretending I cared about pay-per-view boxing. I moved on to recruiting, equity trading (all the more ironic since I didn't learn to add and subtract fractions until my first day on the job), and a big corporate financial services firm. Now I'm taking math and science at PCC in order to become a nurse. I really enjoy the classes, but I'd also like to get over my aversion to write something other than Facebook status updates.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)