I have reached the point in Church party preparations where nearly everything is done. What remains is food prep, and due to the perishable nature of food, most of that has to be done tomorrow. In the absence of things to prepare, my brain has resorted to exploring possible ways that things could go wrong. This means it is time for distraction. So here are some non-party (or at least only tangentially party-related) things for the last couple of days.
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At bedtime Patch likes to spend some time talking. First I listen to him tell about his day, then he will ask about mine. Yesterday my brain was so full of planning that I couldn’t even begin to form a coherent story about my day.
“I’m sorry kiddo. My head is too full of things and I need to not lose them.”
Patch nodded in complete understanding and lay with me in contented silence. He knows exactly what it is like to have a head full of important thoughts.
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On Wednesday night I was triple booked with a junior high band concert, directing the young women’s group in decoration construction, and a writer’s group hosted at our house. I finished up the other things and finally was able to collapse in a chair for writer’s group. Then it was my turn to critique and I amused everyone greatly by having extremely fractured thoughts. The thoughts were good ones, once I could gather them together. But if anyone spoke while I was gathering my thoughts it was like a rock landing in the middle of a puddle. The thoughts fractured and scattered and I had to begin the process of collecting them anew. With much laughter I eventually was able to communicate.
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Yesterday morning I realized that once I manage to drag the kids out of bed, they get themselves ready for school on schedule. This represents a huge improvement over the many years when I had to constantly nag at each step of the process. I’m not sure why that is working this year when it never did before, but I am grateful.
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Link has been playing roller coaster tycoon. (or maybe Sim Coaster) His money making strategy is to lure lots of visitors into his park. Then he blocks the park exit with construction and removes all the bathrooms. When the park visitors are beginning to be a little frantic, he’ll construct a single bathroom. The visitors have to pay to use this bathroom. Also they can only get to it by first riding a very expensive roller coaster.
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My dreams have been full of party preparations, which makes sense since my days have been as well. I had one dream which hit upon every possible failure point for the event. When I woke up, I used the dream as a tool for re-checking my preparations. 28 hours from now I will know what worked and what didn’t.
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I’ve been watching Babylon 5 as a distraction. I haven’t seen it before. It definitely suffers from age a little, particularly in the first season. Everyone tells me that the first season is awful, but that it has useful information. I beg to differ. Any necessary information contained in the first season will be recapped later, save the pain and start at the beginning of season two. In season two I actually started caring about the characters and being interested in the story that the series is building. It definitely does some things which are not often done in an ongoing television series.
Two annoyances:
1. back story is handled badly, usually by having a character sit down and tell it to another character “I have a back story, let me tell you it.” This is getting better, hopefully I’ll stop rolling my eyes on this by Season three.
2. Anger is an over used emotion. No matter what happens, someone gets angry and shouts about it. I much prefer a more nuanced emotional landscape, particularly from people who are supposed to be diplomats.
We’ll see what the second half of season two and onward provide.
It’s been a while, but I definitely agree with how you’re seeing babylon 5 in the early seasons, especially with the overly shouty or two dimensional characterizations.
I did feel, though, that towards the end of the second season the actors settled into their roles and found their voices, and the writing allowed them to change as the story progressed. Early on I liked Garibaldi the most, along with Delenn as those were two of the most accomplished actors for me to appreciate, and I didn’t care for the cardboard depictions of G’kar and Londo Mollari. But honestly, deeper into the season I found myself truly loving the atory and acting revolving around G’kar and londo the best, with Marcus (I think introduced in season 3) and the growing role of Zack Allen being fun as well.
I guess my rambling is just along the lines of saying… the acting AND the character depth does grow over the course of the show. A lot.
I hope that as the Christmas season builds, you manage to continue finding time for some Babylon 5 and let us know your thoughts. You’ve got a marvelous way of sharing your insights, and I’d love to hear more of your impressions on the show!
I can see that the acting is much more nuanced than it was at first. The pacing for the show is typical of the 90’s and much more slow than shows which are airing now. I really like shows that move fast and expect me to keep up.