I like The Beatles. They were an amazing band, and they made a lot of great music.
That said, they wrote and performed a song called, “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” I love this song. But more than their version, I love the version sung by Chris Colfer, of the cast of Glee. I’ve never actually seen a full episode of Glee, but this song somehow made its way on to my radar. The first time I heard it, and watched the accompanying clip of the show, I cried. It’s such a beautiful song and so well performed.
Here’s the video of the song. It doesn’t include the clip of the show, just the audio
I was thinking about it today, and was reminded of two summers ago. I had a boyfriend. Our relationship, despite the label, was 99% platonic. I think I kissed him only once or twice. Mostly, we held hands. We wandered around one of the departments of the public library just holding hands. And I don’t miss kissing him. I don’t even really miss hugging him. I sometimes miss the label of boyfriend associated with him. But what I miss the most is holding his hand.
So, the good news first. My sister gave birth to my nephew yesterday morning at 2:30 AM, 6 days before his due date. He is 7 lbs., 5 oz. and is 19 in. long. They didn’t quite make it to the hospital, so he was actually born in the car. After more than 24 hours, they decided on the name Colin Avery. Mom and baby are both doing well. Colin joins big brother Henry, b. Nov. 2008.
And now I must share with you the bad news. Last night, just before 10 PM, a friend of my family was abducted less than a mile from my house. His name is Robert Michael Brookens, but he always went by Mike. He is 17 years old with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. He wears glasses and stands about 6 feet tall. His car with his cell phone in it was discovered around 2 this morning in a local park.
Here and here are links to more information. I have never known a missing person before, and this is not a feeling I wanted ever to experience, nor would I wish this feeling on anyone else.
Mike used to mow our lawn. I have never known him to be unkind to anyone. I’ll continue to update here as I get more information. If you are reading this and share this information, I ask you please to commit to continue the updates until the story is complete, because far too often, people will spread the news that someone has gone missing, but will not update if the person has been found.
ETA: Mike has been found. They found him at a truck stop early this morning, and they said he was okay when they found him.
I don’t think I’ve ever posted twice in one day before, but there’s just so much left to say. I’ve been talking to my sister about what happened last night. I mentioned before that I don’t watch the news, so my factual information is limited to Hank Green’s wonderful video on the topic.
I’m feeling very philosophical today, most particularly about this topic.
Quote from the conversation with my sister:
“I wish we never had reason to celebrate someone’s death.”
I also spoke to the kids about it today because the topic came up right after we pulled down our street on the way home from school. Frick wondered aloud if the mother of the soldier who killed bin Laden would be proud of him. I thought about it for a few minutes before answering him.
I don’t want to type up the speech exactly as I said it, partly because it was less than eloquent, and partly because I don’t entirely remember. But the main point of it was that bin Laden was a human being. And he had a mother and a father and siblings and I am sure that they loved him, despite the many unfortunate choices he made with his life. And I told him that no matter what he did with his life, whatever poor decisions he makes, his mother will love him until the end of time. And she would be devastated if he died, even if his death meant preventing many others. And on the other side, soldiers come back from war with PTSD all the time because of what they have seen and what they have done. By most accounts, taking a life isn’t easy, even if it’s for the greater good. And now everyone is celebrating this event, and the SEAL who shot him gets left feeling however he does about it. Maybe he’s proud of what he has done. He has certainly done a service to his country. But maybe he’s a little broken up inside, and now he has everyone telling him that he’s a hero, and that what he did was amazing, and all he feels is sadness.
I don’t know. Like I told my sister, I don’t know how anyone else feels. I only know how I feel. And it’s not good.
So, I don’t really watch the news because I am severely depressed and I don’t really need anything additional in my life. However, it is very hard to miss what happened last night. Osama bin Laden is dead. The very first thing I heard this morning was “Osama bin Laden is dead.”
I got on my computer, and several of my facebook friends, as well as nearly everyone I follow on Twitter, had commented on his death. One thing that struck me as odd was that everyone was so happy about it.
I’m not saying that he wasn’t a bad guy. I was only 10 in 2001, but trust me, I remember. That day is why I don’t watch the news anymore. I remember seeing an online game called, “Yo Mama, Osama” wherein you shot off the limbs of bin Laden before shooting off his turban.
A human being died. And I know he wasn’t a good guy. I know that. I know that his death could prevent many more deaths. I know that he is responsible for the deaths of many good people. But he is a person. And he is dead. And he has parents. It’s unusual for me to be on this side.
So, I’ve been having a rough couple of days. I was at the library earlier this week, and a friend of mine suggested that my stomachaches (which I get nearly every day now) might be due to lactose intolerance. So, since then, I have eliminated lactose from my diet, so that I can see if the stomachaches go away.
It’s been three days, I think, and I’ve had stomachaches the last two days. And I’m hungry. I never really realized how great a percentage of my daily caloric intake came from lactose-based foods. I’ve had to get a bit creative about what I’ve been eating, but a plus is that I’m actually eating healthier foods, because I figure that while I’m at it, I might try to form some good habits. I have to continue this diet for 18 more days. So not my idea of a good time.
So, I warned that all I really wanted to do was gush about the musical episode of Grey’s Anatomy, right?
For the musical episodes, they did one of my favorite songs, “How to Save a Life.” I’m listening to the song right now even. I’m listening to it louder than anyone should listen to music, for fear of damaging their hearing. But I love music. And I find many songs most enjoyable when they are so loud I can’t hear anything else, even the thoughts inside my head. And I will probably lose most or all of my hearing due to this habit, but one of the things I’m working on is not beating myself up over every thing I do that isn’t good for me, because the stress of that is killing me faster than anything else could. I like to turn up a playlist of my favorite songs to top volume and put my earbuds in with noise-cancellers over them. That’s how I enjoy my life.
I’ve thought doing BEDA, and if you look back into the archives, when I started this blog, it was a daily blog. The only problem I have with saying I’m going to BEDA is that the commitment will cause me undue amounts of stress. To remedy this, I’m going to admit that it is very unlikely that I will remember or have the will to blog every day. But I can blog today. And today, I choose to blog about the amazing television show that I love that had a musical episode last night. For those of you who don’t already know where I’m going with this, it was Grey’s Anatomy. This post will contain major spoilers, so proceed with caution.
So, the episode starts where the previous left off, with Callie and Arizona getting hit by a truck. Arizona has a few scrapes and bruises, but mainly, it was Callie who was the victim in this accident. Throughout the episode, she is struggling to survive, and they are struggling to save her. Anyway, mainly, I just want to gush about the parts I really liked. First of all, the music selection was excellent. It was so awesome, I got on iTunes and bought the album about 10 minutes after I finished watching the episode. And I’ve been listening to it most of today. I was wonderfully surprised at many of the singing voices.
Throughout the song “Breathe (2 AM)”, I couldn’t help but remember what happened on the show in the last episode to feature that song. If you don’t remember, allow me to remind you:
Oddly, that episode was the last time I anticipated an episode so much that wasn’t a premiere or finale.
I loved the role reversal Arizona and Mark experienced where Arizona worries about the baby, because she knows that Callie won’t want to be alive if she wakes up and her baby is dead and Mark is just worried about Callie surviving.
When they are taking Callie into the elevator and the doors close, and Arizona tears up a little and says, “I asked her to marry me and a truck came out of no where.” I teared up a little.
Derek noticing that Arizona is watching from the gallery, but Mark is nowhere to be seen and so he sends Lexie to find him.
Alex comforting Arizona in the gallery. It’s been a while since they’ve had a good scene together.
I had completely forgotten that Addison and Callie were close friends when Addison worked at Seattle Grace.
Meredith resigning that Cristina can be Callie’s daughter’s godmother.
Alex calling the hospital Seattle Grace Mercy Death.
Runnin’ on Sunshine and the conversation in the car in the sky preceding. I love how Callie tells her they’re going to hit a truck and Arizona tells her to put on her seat belt and then proceeds to tell her to put it on 5 or 6 more times.
The duet between Arizona and Callie.
“How to Save a Life” was all amazing, but particularly Mark and Arizona watching from the gallery with Apparition!Callie between them, and Arizona putting her hand on the glass and Apparition!Callie puts her hand on top of Arizona’s. And then the glance and dash between Mark and Arizona as they rush down to the ER for the birth of their daughter. 1lb., 1 oz of strong with beautiful black hair.
The nod between Mark and Arizona and Arizona stepping in to care for her daughter. And then her voice breaking when she says, “I have a heartbeat!”
Mark admitting to Arizona that she’s not nothing, that they are co-parents.
The scene in the elevator between Meredith and Derek was beautiful. The elevator symbolism continues on.
Callie opening her eyes and saying “Yes. Yes, I will marry you.”
Yeah, it took me about 4 hours and 6 tries to finish this blog post. And this is why I don’t blog more often. I’m too distractible. I should go get my laundry out of the dryer. But I should post this first.
I’m turning 20 on Monday. I’m planning this party picnic at a local park for myself. I made a list of all the things that need to be purchased for it, and I planned a location and figured out who I wanted to invite, and actually allowed myself to get a little excited about it. But, as with everything else happy in my life, something screwed it up.
I have tiny chicken disease right now, and being sick always makes everything that happens much, much worse. I was sick one year on Thanksgiving, and I had a full-on meltdown when I saw a dog get hit by a car.
Anyway, a week or so ago, I was telling my best friend about my birthday, and how I was going to have the celebration probably the day before. And he replied that he was probably going out of town for a college thing. Fine. Still pressed on. Planned a bit more, told a few more people. Then today I was talking to my roommate about what a good time on Sunday would be to start the event. And she brought up that the kids are supposed to go with their dad on Sunday. And since he can sometimes take an hour after they call to come and get them, she will have to wait here until he comes. So, that’s 4. I also talked to my brother. He doesn’t want to come because it’s going to be in an outdoor park, and the high is only 51° that day.
And I just checked the forecast. It says rain. Awesome. Whatever.
You may have heard about the recent cluster of suicides among young, gay males. They were bullied and hated so much that they decided to end it all forever.
From the time kids are elementary school aged, a lot of the things that they see every day teach them that things about them that deviate from the norm make them less lovable.
Suicide is what happens when kids learn to hate themselves.
Two kids, 14 and 15, killed themselves in my home state this week. One of them was attending the high school from which I graduated, and one was a member of the publicized cluster mentioned above.
Every time I hear about someone who has taken his or her own life, I wonder who was teaching that kid that one thing, or even several, uncontrollable things, was enough to make him or her unlovable.
Dan Savage, of Savage Love, an advice column, started a project with his husband called the It Gets Better project, designed to help anyone who is dealing with bullies, saying that the bullies can’t hurt you when they aren’t around anymore, and they aren’t worth your time, or your feelings, and especially aren’t worth your life.
Here is the video that Dan made with his husband, Terry:
So, I’m not sure if I’ve ever talked before about Nerdfighteria, and what all of that is about. But Nerdfighteria is…just magical sometimes. It’s the reason why I was out of town last weekend. I went to California, to go to a conference for Youtube video-makers. It was great fun, and the concerts were amazing, but the part of the conference that most stuck with me was this video:
I keep watching it, and it just astounds me every time what we did.
And this video was just cool.
So, yeah. That’s kind of what I do. And I’m damn proud that I do.
