So it is truly official, I am 100% addicted to Doctor Who. If I'm not at work I am watching episodes. I've had to start restricting my viewing because otherwise I would probably give up sleep. Sometimes while at work I find myself thinking "Gee, I really wish I was home watching Doctor Who right now" ... this week work really sucked so that might have been equal parts obsession and just plain old wishing I could escape in my very own TARDIS.
Last weekend, at this time, I was at the end of Season 2 and I was crying my eyes out. Right now I'm at Episode 3 of Season 4. If I start reading fan fiction I know I'm in need of intervention therapy .... OK, OK if I read ANYMORE fan fiction I will need intervention therapy. I dabbled in some Tenth Doctor and Rose stories to get through the feelings of sorrow last Sunday.
I stand by my love of Christopher Eccleston's 9th Doctor, but bloody hell people were right about David Tennant truly becoming the Doctor. He is fan@#%@tastic!!!!!!!
I'm a cynical and practical romantic, and I'm about to over analyze a fairy tale.
This past week I have been turning Walt Disney's Cinderella on to fall asleep to, and it seems that my pre REM subconscious has a questions for Prince Charming. The prince claims he will only marry the girl he danced with, but why doesn't he himself go out and look for her? If he is so in love shouldn't he feel driven to search her out?
Sure some blame could fall on Major Domo's shoulders. He's the one that found the glass slipper that belongs to the girl that the prince danced with, but it seems he never told the prince about it. Instead he goes to the king, who sends Major Domo out to find any old girl whose foot will fit in the glass slipper. The King is so desperate for grandkids he's willing to manipulate his son's words in order to get him hitched. But seriously, the Prince isn't blind ... he would be able to recognize the girl he danced with! He should have eliminated the middle man and gone out and searched himself!
Around the age of seven I developed insomnia. This insomnia became especially unbearable on Christmas Eve. Since my parents already saw 5:30 am as a Christmas morning wake up time as pushing it (there is video proof of us waking up at 1:30 am in 1983), I needed to find things to do to keep myself occupied. Luckily I learned to read very early on and come 1988 or 1989 I had access to the Disney Channel.
Some of you may remember a time when The Disney Channel actually used to show a balanced mix of TV programming. In the morning there was kid shows like Dumbo's Circus and Mouse Factory, then in the afternoon there was Kid's Incorporated and The Mickey Mouse Club. In the early evening there was family programming like Avonlea and various Disney Channel movies. After that there was Disney Night Time (and later on Vault Disney, but that's another entry entirely). Disney Night Time was chock full of concerts, Conversations with Carol Burnett and Conversations with Bob Hope, and old movies. On Christmas Eve they would play Christmas programming all night long. I remember year after year being wide away and watching
It's a Wonderful Life
The Bishop's Wife
The Judy Garland Christmas Show
and
Best of Bing Crosby Family Christmas Specials
Now thanks to YouTube and my DVD collection I can see these videos again!
Nowadays I spend part of Christmas Eve day watching
Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas
Jim Henson's Christmas Toy
Muppet Family Christmas
and
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
It's funny how when I was little I would watch the adult programming and now as an adult I spend Christmas Eve watching the kid's programming!
Yesterday, in the interest of killing time, I asked my students what they had asked Santa for. Their lists brought back fond childhood memories since most of the toys of my childhood have been recycled and re purposed. Later on I got to thinking about the Christmas toys I had loved and that I dreamed of getting.
My brother and I were lucky to have been very, very spoiled from the ages of birth to eleven (me)/ten (my Bro). Because we were very fortunate I only remember two toys that I desperately wanted but did not get. They are the toys that got away.
Toy That Got #1: Strawberry Shortcake Berry Happy Home
Unlike Toy That Got Away #2, I would still love to own this toy. In 1984 this was all I wanted for Christmas.... I strategized and figured I would ask for Rainbow Brite for my February birthday. I was coming of the high of the previous Christmas when my Grandmother got me a Cabbage Patch Kid (her name is Gloria Diane and she currently lives on my couch), and I figured that between Santa, my parents, or my grandparents someone would get me this house! Instead I got Rainbow Brite. She and I had good years together, but inside I always held a little piece of my heart for the Berry Happy Home.
Five years ago, while on a nostalgia kick I discovered wishbookweb.com. While perusing their scans of the 1984 Montgomery Ward catalog I found out why I didn't receive the Berry Happy Home.
Can you see the price quoted in the ad? They wanted $150.00 bucks for the Berry Happy Home .... in 1984!!!!!!!!! We were upper middle class, not millionaires! I have to confess that I occasionally search Ebay in the hopes of finding a fully furnished Berry Happy Home that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. So far it hasn't happened.
Fun Side note: See the Fisher Price dollhouse on the first page? I got that dollhouse from Santa in 1983. I loved that dollhouse ... until the day my brother colored all over it in what he still claims to this day, was retaliation for my coloring on something of his. I don't think I ever did, but he sticks to this story. We talked about it two weeks ago in the same conversation where I had his wife ask him if he was going to let his soon to be born baby girl play with his Legos, or was he going to get her her own.
He is still undetermined about whether or not he is willing to share his Lego collection with his offspring.... but I digress.
Toy That Got Away #2: Baby Alive
Oh, how I wanted Baby Alive. She drank, she ate, she went potty! Baby Alive was the number 1 thing on my Christmas list in 1985, but Christmas morning came and she was nowhere to be found. I wish I could tell you what I got instead, but I don't remember. I do remember the confusion and sadness I felt at the fact that Santa had done me wrong. I remember watching my best friend play with her Baby Alive and simmering. Years later, after financial tides had turned, when we were discussing past Christmases I finally asked my mother why I didn't get Baby Alive. She told me that she was all set to buy her for me when she found out that the powdered food rotted in Baby Alive's stomach. As an adult I can see that that is indeed a valid reason for not purchasing a toy, no matter how desperately she was wanted. By that point I had also been babysitting for two years and had changed my fair share of diapers. Changing diapers sucks. Why in God's name did I ever want a toy that pooped?
I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday and that Santa brings you everything you asked for!
I see that according to my calendar you are happening tomorrow. I don't think this could be true though. Aren't you supposed to be at least another whole week away? If you were still a week away I could feel comfortable about how little "Christmas" I have accomplished. As is stands I am going to have to wake up early to wrap presents, for I don't think my family will appreciate naked and unfestooned gifts. I hate wrapping presents! I've given up hope of getting any cookies baked. This is actually OK because I don't need to eat them, but Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas without cookies. So what do you say December 24th? Can you hold off for a little bit longer?
Went to Dentist.
Dentist drilled large hole in tooth and did things to nerves.
Dentist told me to come back again in order to finish off root canal & rebuild my tooth.
Paid Desk Woman $175.00.
Desk Woman then told me this all of the rest is going to cost $3,000.00.
I am royally, royally fucked.
Welcome to Wandering & Wondering. I'm a newly 30 year old female who is a little lost and still trying to find my way in the world. Come read my ramblings about my passions: books, music, movies, TV, theatre, pop culture, travel, knitting, and recognizing life's absurdities.
