Years and Years Season One (spoilers!!!!!!)

Argh, there be spoilers ahead, matey!

Yesterday was a lazy afternoon at my house. In the morning I did my workout then cleaned out closets in preparation for the upcoming school year. Then we played outdoors for awhile, running through the sprinkler and jumping in the sandbox, then back to the sprinkler at Mom's insistence. The day started off nice but then became cloudy and humid, so we retreated indoors and lazed around. I haven’t binge watched anything for a long time; I’ve been spending most of my hours lately engaging with kids, in this Marie Kondo process throughout my house (at my own speed, hence the reason it’s still ongoing) and focusing on some personal goals, so the TV has been off.  Feeling slovenly, I decided I’d allow myself this afternoon everyone was feeling pretty chill to relax some myself.  I saw a pop up ad for Year and Years and it looked somewhat entertaining so I thought I’d give it a go. Fast forward to 1:00 am as I’ve finished the last episode, mouth gaping, wondering at the future of our world.

It starts out in the premise with one day that brings everyone together, then impacts in future years. I wasn’t immediately clear that first day... how the birth of Lincoln pulled them together, but the nuclear bomb later in the episode seemed to have more fallout ramifications that tied the family together. When the sirens started going off, I felt my heart racing as if it was in real time, the panic they felt I was feeling, and then related to the return to life as we know it, as it seems more and more there is some terrible disaster in the news that gives us all pause before our feeds are full once again with political debating, racy memes and puppy dog videos.  Speaking of, the puppy dog digital face implants of five or so years from now seem so nuts, but I’m sure 5-7 years ago we didn’t expect our Facebook feeds to be filled with grown woman filtered over with rolled out tongues and floppy ears so.....

The refuge piece of the show was an eye opener, as we see this playing out in real day news now, but to pair the critical scene where disaster strikes with the character who is NOT trying to escape anything, but to free a loved one was something I didn’t see coming and made me pause. And then I felt guilt at that pause, because was I feeling worse that it was a upper middle class man that had no reason to be there other than love rather than someone who truly was escaping torture or trying to find a better life for their child that drowned? Still mulling that one over, and making me see things a little differently.

There’s transgenders and transhumans, there’s affairs and deaths and a judgy grandma, there’s love and hope in the face of corrupt politics.

In the end, Grandma tells her remaining grandchildren who are now shackled in prisons of gated, governed neighborhoods and jobs that require to sacrifice integrity and loss of personal identity as the government now owns part of one of them, the man that lost a million pounds ... there’s so much going on and Grandma says you did this. All of you are to blame. When you’d rather self-checkout than meet the cashier in the eye because her station is below you, you did this. Every choice you made led to this point, when we take the easier, more convenient route or the one that requires less human interaction, here we are, prisoners in our own homes as anyone with 2 extra bedrooms is required to let others left homeless stay with them. You did this.

And in the next scenes, her remaining grandchildren rise. Each one plays their own part in unchaining themselves and overturning the corrupt government, doing Gran proud.

The last scene is bizarre and I’m still not sure what to take of it, so I’ll leave that one to you. It started to have a 6 feet under vibe mixed with... maybe Black Mirror? I’m not sure. It’s been compared to Black Mirror in a lot of what I’ve read, but the extra episodes devoted to one family over decades gives it much more, the saga of a family through loss and gain, love and hate and betrayal and the ability, through it all, to stick together as a family. I recommend this hidden gem if you haven’t seen it, and welcome any additional thoughts, especially on that last episode.

Sneak Peek at Iku Turso

Just something I'm working on....

Sigsbee Deep, Gulf of Mexico

The water around the beast was black as pitch. Sunlight could not reach these depths in this arcane part of the ocean, the molecules scattering the light and leaving in its place only the dark. To the human eye it would have been totally disorienting, and considering the creatures that called it home, completely terrifying. Long-toothed sharks with three eyes,crabs the size of a car and eels with razor sharp skin skidded away from the Leviathan creature. They could sense the evil that had lie dormant for all these hundreds of years was waking up.  It was a hulking form, even in this vast space.  It’s chest looked like the barnacled underside of an old sea vessel.  Massive grayish green scales covered its torso and face.  Where a nose should have been the monster had twelve tentacles that were each the size of a grown man’s leg.  In contrast to the rest of it’s coloring, these were a sickly bruised purple shade, mottled with puffs blues and reds, like it’s creator hadn’t quite blended all the colors and the result was a painful, mangled mess of limbs. They dwarfed in comparison to the rest of it. There were four more tentacles on the left and four on the right, stretching out like arms but the were size of tree trunks.  It had no legs, but a massive mound of gray flesh it had once used to slither and swim through the ocean’s depth. On occasion, in the days of old, it had ventured closer to land, creeping in the water, blending in with the waves, watching the smug faces of the humans as they exploited his home, with their naive notion they were the master race. Alas, those were the old days.  Since one of those fateful visits, the beast had been here. Remaining motionless all of these years, frozen under the ocean, forgotten by man and sea life alike. Now something had happened above sea level, something the creature had been waiting a long, long time for.  As the last school of fish scurried away, one black beady eye popped open, and the water around him glowed an eerie red.  He concentrated, closing his one eye, focusing on his task. A few seconds later red ink shot out of his siphons, spreading through the water like blood. He waited a moment to see if it worked, if after all this time it still had the desired effect.  He watched as the reef around him, now illuminated and glowing red, blackened as his ink washed over it and dissolved away before him.  He slashed his tentacles wildly in success, and the last school of fish were obliterated from existence. A select few were impaled on the claws at the end of his feelers and became part of him, enhancing his sinister appearance.  Feeling victorious, the beast’s gigantic mouth opened revealing hundreds of sharp green teeth.  Bubbles boiled at its lips as it released an agonizing cackle.  

Iku Turso was awake.

21 Day Fix and My 100 Healthy School Lunch Challenge

For more on the 100 Healthy Lunch Challenge, see 100 Days 100 Healthy Lunches

Today I got my portion control containers in the mail to start 21 Day Fix. I’m in the middle (scratch that, first 2 weeks of) Morning Meltdown 100, and I really don’t want to wait until it’s over to start all things 21 Day Fix, so I think I’m going to start Sunday, August 11, so it coincides with my son’s first week of school, as we begin his 100 day healthy lunch challenge. He won’t be using portion control containers, of course, and neither will my 2 year old daughter, who stays at home 3 days a week with Dad, but I am going to try to create meals similar enough to each other I’m not making 3 separate lunches. 

I have a plan to grill some chicken for dinner Tuesday, and use the leftovers for salad. My son likes salad as long as 1.) there’s chicken in it and 2.) it has ranch. Ranch isn’t on my menu, but I’ll include in his and my daughter’s lunches, just a little less than they’d probably like. Sometimes it turns into ranch with salad. We’re a work in progress here. 

I’ve also got broccoli and cauliflower chopped up to go for all three of us, some carrots and hummus. This will be day one lunch. For Thursday and Friday, I plan on using the rest of the chicken for quesadillas the kids Thursday and mixed in with a corn salad Friday, and more for my greens salad, because I can eat the same lunch three days in a row. I’ve got some hummus to throw into their lunch to dip veggies, and some grapes and berries.  I send my son with a huge water bottle they are allowed in class, but suspect he will also order milk with his lunch.  

This is my plan, and Tuesday I’ve got another small grocery pickup for some essentials and anything I need to add or adjust for. I will be posting pictures daily of the finished products, but wanted to get a plan laid out prior to, as the first week always brings enough craziness of it’s own!

Now & Then ...Now

Now & Then

90s kids rejoice, Now & Then is now on Netflix! Of course, I had to give it a rewatch. It was my birthday, and I’d had a full day with family and activities and my 2 year old was asleep, my 7 year old still wired. Typically he falls asleep right after her, but he wanted to watch a movie, and in the waning days of summer vacation I decided to let him stay up a bit later, even though I fully expected him to fall asleep before Devon Sawa kisses Christina Ricci. 

I haven’t seen this movie in many many many years, but I remembered the iconic scene where they stole the boys clothes while they were skinny dipping and Chrissy wolfing down a Twinkie while her friends painted the garage, along with the general coming of aging premise of the movie. I had completely forgot about Crazy Pete or the mystery behind Dear Johnny, two things my son latched onto as he watched it like a mystery movie.  

I probably watched this movie a million times in 1995-1996 timeframe. I had completely forgotten the mystery central to the movie because at the time, I guess there was another piece I latched onto. My mother passed away that same year the movie was released, and last night as I watched Christina Ricci destroy Cloris Leachman’s mirror, and make copies of the news article with her mother’s death in it, eyes brimming with angry tears, I realized this was the piece of the movie that drew me in.

I was a tomboy, playing basketball every day of the summer between bike rides with my two best girlfriends that lived down the street, traipsing all over town long before cell phones were a thing, dropping by home to “check in” every so often, crushing on boys and spending lazy afternoons in the swimming pool between it all.  Christina Ricci was me-although I never had to worry about taping my boobs down (24 years later and that’s still not a problem). The free spirited girl with a bubbling well of anger and sadness mixed with pre-pubescent curiosity-wasn’t it all of us, really?

I didn’t remember the movie being set in 1970, though I’m sure I realized it then.  Watching now, in 2019, aside from the clothes (Nancy Sinatra look-alikes)and the soundtrack (knock three times... that scene! Oh how I loved that scene!) this movie could have been us, in 1995 cruising the streets of our neighborhood, being chased or chasing down the neighbor boys all the while figuring out our own “stuff.”

The end of the movie, Demi Moore talks about how the treehouse was to bring them more independence but how it actually made them more independent from each other. This part holds true, especially because, unlike the foursome in the movie, my “gang” grew apart after that summer, and are distances away from each other now, with Facebook Happy Birthday messages and “likes” on our kids pictures our current contact. 

Now, the world has changed and I don’t know this movie would have the same real-life connection with today’s girls, who are always connected but it’s a lot more virtual, FaceTime replacing a bike ride over to a friend’s house and treehouses a thing of the past. Then again, maybe it will, as girls will always be curious about boys, families will always have turmoil, and friends when you were 12 will never be like any other.

Ramble's Ramblings on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

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Argh, matey, there be spoilers dead ahead. Read at yarrrr own risk.........

I went to the movies for the first time in a LONG TIME this past weekend. I mean like the Avengers, the first one, long time (Kids. All I can say, kids.) My son's birthday coincided with the release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Jurassic World is what started the dinosaur obsession that lasted years. Years and years and years. While we've since moved on to Pokemon, we still spend a lot of time playing about dinosaurs and talking about them, while just not quite as much as Charmander and gang.

I was afraid he wouldn't enjoy the movie since he's not as into it as he was.  This was also his first movie in the theater.  We got there at the time the movie started, as I didn't want to have to wait too long through previews and him get impatient. 30 minutes later........ 30 MINUTES? when did previews start lasting 30 minutes??? He's looking at me, "Mom, is the movie ever going to start?" I keep reassuring him it will be around minute 21 I start looking around, pinching myself, wondering if I'm dreaming What if THIS is the new movie coming out, we are people trapped in an infinite movie preview loop, forced to figure our own way out? Not fair! We didn't even stop for popcorn!

Finally the movie gets going and YAY he's happy. The first few scenes we got some decent dinosaur action. Not necessarily by prior movies in the Jurassic series, but I figured they really had to build the story up since we're what, five movies into this franchise? Shortly after the few action scenes on the island, we started a lot of conversation.  There were scenes back at the Lockwood compound with the fossils and displays and those types of versions of dinosaurs that we, outside of the movieverse, are familiar with.  Not much excitement right?

I felt like the whole movie was like those inanimate fossils. There were a few scenes with the dinosaurs out and running and running and running from volcano, from the bounty hunter guys trying to chase them down for their Dark Noah's Ark thing they had going, and then the dinosaurs were pretty much locked up - the entire movie.  So... YEAH.  We saw this in 3D, and I had pumped my son up that this was going to make it even cooler. I thought for sure we'd see Blue jumping out from somewhere, or the TRex's tail would come lashing at the audience or...SOMETHING.

There was a nice long action sequence with the Blue and the new and improved creation of Dr. Wu. The IndoRaptor was cool. I really liked this dinosaur.  The way that Dr. Wu explained him, I was like this guy, this guy is going to do some damage.  With Indominus Rex in Jurassic World, we saw some buildup, we became somewhat acquainted with the dinosaur, how he operated, his cold blooded killing of other dinosaurs, etc. IndoRaptor held high hopes, but alas, we were EXPLAINED what he could be and tossed a couple bones what he could do.  Granted, he was just a prototype, they weren't done yet.  But that fight scene fell flat for me. The plot line with the granddaughter did, too. We are introduced, over and over to her. There's buildup to the picture of her mother. We get to it, we get to the admission, and then it's over. She releases the other dinosaurs to save them "Because they're like me", but... WHAT? Like I felt like this was kind of a big deal to skim over. Or will this be explored in future movies?

I felt like this was a filler episode-we are gearing up for another movie, setting the stage for the next great one, and this was just a layover movie.  The important part? My kid loved it, regardless. Cos there were dinosaurs. For me, that's all that matters, so when it comes out on Blu-Ray and he wants to get it, I'll inevitably watch it so many times I'll have every word memorized (My personal favorite-Don't...Move...A Muscle!") and that will be ok.



Besides, look at this lil guy, isn't he cute?








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