Before High School Musical 3 comes to the big screen on October 24, why not take a gander at the movie that inspired the whole thing. Grease began as an homage to the teenage greasers and bobby soxers of the 1950s. It started in 1971 at the Kingston Mines Theatre in Old Town Chicago and quickly found its way to the Great White Way. From there it made the transformation to the big-screen in 1978. Since then it has been revived in high schools, community theatres (yes, WCCT had its own interesting production). Broadway audiences have seen two revivals of which one is currently playing. Stars of television and movies have played the roles. Brooke Shields, Maureen McCormick (Marcia, Marcia, Marcia), and Rosie O’Donnell have all played Rizzo. ’80s teen idol Debbie (or is it Deborah) Gibson and Olivia Newton-John (of course) have all played Sandy. Richard Gere, Patrick Swayze, and John Travolta all slicked their hair back to play Danny.

Now… comes the latest group to step into the roles. This video may even make Zac Efron and the rest of the cast of High School Musical take a second look

https://members.shaw.ca/anabw/grease.htm

Give the Gift of Movies. Buy Now!

Driving to work this morning I saw a large number of flashing red lights in the distance. Due to the number I knew there was an bad accident somewhere along my drive to work. And unfortunately, I was correct. Over 6 emergency vehicles were converging on a spot about 1 1/2 miles from the State Route 34 / State Route 66 intersection. From the looks of a small compact car was hit by an large SUV. Nothing on the crash on any local news yet, so I have no idea if anyone was hurt. Just one more reminder of how many miles I drive in a week. I’ve seen more than a few accidents on the way to work, and with no small amount of luck can say I’ve never been in a serious accident myself. I hope to stay on that trend.

Even back when I was learning how to drive, I had a profound respect for the power of an automobile. I learned to drive on a fairly large car (’66 Impala) and for a time owned an early 70’s GM Station Wagon (I don’t recall if it was the Chevy or Buick model, but it could fit a full 4 x 8 sheet of plywood in the back when the rear seat was down.) I guess I knew what those hunks of metal could do if they hit something. The wagon’s ride was so smooth, and the engine so powerful, it would cruise along at 70 before you felt any speed from the thing (unless you hit a curve, the beast always wanted to go straight). I learned to be careful with my speed too. I didn’t like seeing those flashing red lights in my rear view mirror.

It was amazing today at the distance I could see the lights this morning. For those who don’t know, NW Ohio is flat, very flat. There was no fog this morning and I could see those flashing lights for miles down the road. This afternoon I guesstimated that I was around 4 to 5 miles away when I first saw them. I’ve driven in areas where you were lucky to see 2 miles of straight flat roadway. If I had come from the right direction, it could have been much farther. It is amazing how bright those red lights are in the dark.

Now just how did we decide that red lights should be the warning lights. The state of Ohio limits the use of the red lights to Fire and Police, The police may also use blue. I have yet to find any historical references to the use of these lights for emergency use. I will keep looking because my curiosity has been piqued.

The box of eight has been completed….

Ok… so this past week has not be fraught with hilarity… some fun, but a lot of downness (I KNOW a word that is not ), So, to cheer things up, I found a list of 24 quotable quotes from television… not from movies now. I’ll start off and let’s see how many we can come up with:

• “Space… the final frontier” (Surprise, surprise, eh?)
• “De plane boss… de plane” (Fantasy Island)
• “Faster than a speeding bullet… more powerful than a locomotive” etc (another shocker, yes)
• “NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!“
  
• “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia“

Ok… that’s five. come on all you shy people keep the ball rolling. Remember only television quotes for this one.  Sounds almost as fun as a rousing game of Shoes and Socks or “I’m Going on a Trip.”

During our community theater’s run of The Nerd, they designated one of the nights “80’s Night” since the play was set in 1985.  I enjoyed the opportunity to visit the local thrift stores with a mission – looking for components to complete my 80’s look.  2 thrift stores are within walking distance so I just packed up the little ones in the double stroller and off we went.  I found things with ease – a gaudy Mickey Mouse sweatshirt that I cut up to make it off-the-shoulder, a black lacy Madonna-like skirt, jelly shoes, hoop earrings, leggings, ankle socks…  I was ready to go!

And of course, what 80’s look is complete without makeup and lots of it?  I read a hint on a website about dressing for 80’s parties – “In the 80’s, we didn’t accessorize – we “excessorized” and LOVED it!”  So I braided my wet hair in the morning, and by evening when I took out the braids, I acheived the “crimped” hair look I was going for.  I pulled out the electric blue nail polish (though I ended up regretting that later since I forgot to buy nail polish remover and I was stuck with electric blue nail polish for a few days until I had the time to get to Walmart – OOPS), and I piled on the purple and blue eye shadow.  It was lots of fun to get dressed up like a goofball – I may consider being an 80’s time machine traveler for Halloween.  But anyway, while I was getting ready for 80’s night, I had a flock of admirers.  My 3 little girls aren’t used to me putting on makeup, dressing up, painting my nails, or spending lots of time on my hair (note to self – next time I dress 80’s, I need some Aquanet!) – I’m just not the kind of gal who does – or has the time to do, for that matter – these things regularly.  It was like a whole new world for them, and they gawked in awe as they watched me get ready.  My oldest kept running up to her room to look for jewelry to use – everyone wanted to help, which was like a whole new world for me.

80’s night was a few weeks ago, and the girls are still asking to have their nails painted and for us to do each other’s makeup, much to my husband’s dismay.  He’s never liked makeup and says he wants our girls to be at least 18 before they can wear it.  I’ve tried explaining to him that there is something innate in little girls that make them like dressing up and putting makeup on – it’s just how little girls are made.  Being a male, he doesn’t get it of course, and so I imagine we’ll have many a debate in this house once the girls get to the teenage years and want to wear makeup regularly.  For now, I don’t have a problem using it as a “toy” once in a while, as long as it’s supervised and I can guide my girls to having the right opinions about makeup, especially when it comes to self-esteem issues – makeup does not make you prettier, you do not NEED makeup, it can be harmful to your face if you use it incorrectly, etc.  So until they become teenagers, this is a way we can have fun together, and I also view it as an important bonding experience.  One of the things I remember doing with my sister the most while we were growing up is her doing my hair and makeup, and I don’t remember ever fighting while we were doing that.  Anyone who knows my girls realizes how much we need an activity that Taylor and Sammie can do together without fighting!  So if you see me walking around with a hideous makeup job someday, just remember that my face was probably painted by an 8, 4, or 2 year old!

**YOU ASKED FOR IT!!!**

Well, the new pump is installed and cleanup continues.  We picked up some wet items from downstairs and put them outside to dry, afterwhich we’ll try washing them.  The second dehumidifier which I said doesn’t work actually seems to after all.  It just draws a lot of power.  I switched it to another outlet and it worked fine, didn’t trip the circuit breaker.  However, I used an extension cord with it, an office-style 3-prong job, and the connector area got pretty warm.  Now I know that the dehumidifier says not to use an extension cord, but the cord they provide is short, and with the basement outlets set high I have to have to have the dehumidifier practically against the wall in order to plug it in, but it seems that’s what I will have to do.

Anyway, on to the headline.  I was at a restaurant tonight and I overheard an encounter between two dads and their boys, both named Griffin.  I have encountered boys with this name, but not two at once.  It was a surprise to the dads too.  One is seven and the other nine, so they are still quite young which is my experience as I haven’t known any older boys or men with that name, though it’s possible some that I met are teens now.  According to Behind the Name, the name Griffin has ranked in the mid 200’s for the last decade, with its peak in 1998 at 215.  The year before, it was at 225 with the popularity going down drastically with the years going back.  Before the 80’s, it doesn’t rank at all.  I bring up 1997 specifically because a certain event happened that may have improved the popularity of the name somewhat.  That event being the release of the first book in a series of seven.  The book I speak of is of course Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone.  While not a main character’s name, or any character that I can recall for that matter, the name of his house was Griffyndor, and I believe they did encounter a griffin (the mythical beast, not someone with the name) in the first book, though it could have been one of the next few.  Is it a stretch to tie this book with the name?  Maybe.  I don’t know.  I think I’ve written enough on it though.

Today I had no job, but then one district had two days off due to flooding (the town is by a river) and another I am still waiting for my login info for, which the woman I talked to said would be a couple of weeks due to limited time processing new subs and taking it in order of hire.  I do have a full day tomorrow though so perhaps something to write about.  Until then.

While I’m on the subject of reading…  I came across a cool looking device on amazon.com the other day – the Kindle.  Have you heard of it?  I hadn’t, but it sounds pretty cool.  Basically you can upload books, magazines, and even blogs to this portable device so you can read them anywhere.  It appealed to me because I like to read in bed, and it seemed like a good way to get newspapers as well as stuff off the internet into a format that’s easy for me to lie down and read.  But the more I looked into it, the more I realized it’s not really for me.  The first clue was its $350 price tag.  No thanks.  Maybe for $50 or so, I’d be interested…  The other thing about the Kindle is the fact that you have to buy books to put on it.  I can’t tell you the last time I bought a full price book from a book store.  I get my books from my existing collection, friends, or most frequently, the library – all free sources.  I could not picture a scenario where I’d be buying a book, even if it was to be put on this device.  I guess the thing that appealed to me most about it was putting my town’s daily newspaper on it so I could read it in bed.  My paperboy delivers at 5pm – just in time for the chaos in the house to peak as kids are coming home and I’m starting dinner and all that stuff – so it’s tough for me to keep up with reading the daily paper.  But I’m sure the daily paper from my small town wouldn’t even be available on the Kindle anyway…

But I thought it was a cool invention and I could see there being a market for something like this for people who travel a lot and love to read.  I find it strange that I hadn’t heard about it sooner, but they really need to lower the price on it if they want it to catch on!

As a kid, I was a very avid reader – I would always read myself to sleep.  Somewhere in my 20’s though, I lost sight of my reading hobby; I guess that’s when I got too busy and too tired to lie in bed awake at night and read.  During my last pregnancy, however, I started reading before bed again, and it’s something that I really enjoy, even though I often get too tired to make it through more than a few pages per night.

When I recently began reading again, I started by reading mostly non-fiction; it was really fun for me to unwind at night and learn something at the same time.  I read a book about an Afghan girl who stepped on a land mine, lost her leg, and fled the Taliban by coming to America.  I read a book about a family that bicycled across the country – they had kids who were 13, 11, and 3 years old, and they made it from New Jersey to Colorado on their bikes.  There was also the book about the Burnham’s; they were husband and wife missionaries who were held hostage in the Philippines for almost a year.  The wife wrote a book about their daily struggles as hostages – it was fascinating.  Then I switched to a few fiction books by Christopher Pike, an author best known for his young adult horror novels.  I read those as a teen, so as an adult, I decided to try his novels for adults – one I really liked and one wasn’t so good – Falling and The Blind Mirror, respectively.  I then started a book about the plight of Terri Shiavo, a woman who collapsed in the early 90’s and suffered brain damage.  Her case was in the national spotlight because her husband insisted that she would have never wanted to live hooked up to machines while her parents disagreed.  The governor tried to help, and even the President of the United States tried to step in, but ultimately Terri’s right to live became just another case in the courts and her husband won.  Her feeding tube was removed and it took her almost 14 days to slowly starve and dehydrate to death.  The case fascinated me at the time, and I found this book about it written by Mark Fuhrman of the OJ Simpson murder trial fame.  Except that I’m having trouble reading the book since it’s about a rather dark and depressing subject, and that’s not really how I want to unwind before bed.  Though I did learn something interesting from Mark Fuhrman: according to him, a coroner is an elected official who doesn’t even necessarily have to have a medical degree.  Hmmm…

A friend recommended the author John Grisham, and the other day I ran into the library, trying to be very quick since the family was waiting in the car.  His books looked so large and lengthy and intimidating, so I grabbed the smallest one I saw called Skipping Christmas.  I began to read it, and it’s about a family called the Krank’s who decide to skip Christmas one year.  That sounds familiar, I thought, and after a quick trip to imdb.com, I discovered that the awfully panned movie of 2004 called Christmas With The Krank’s is indeed the movie based upon John Grisham’s book, Skipping Christmas.  So far the book is ok, but nothing that keeps me looking forward to reading it or anything.  I have Grisham’s only work of non-fiction on hold at the library, maybe I’ll get up there today to get it because maybe I’m sick of fiction and it’s time to go back to non-fiction…  I hate to admit it, but I really like to read true-crime books before bed, mostly about murder.  True, murder is a dark and depressing subject, but not in the same way as the story of Terri Shiavo; it’s hard to explain.  And it sounds kind of strange, but true-crime books are the ones I seem to be drawn to and I can’t watch true-crime on tv in bed anymore – too many nightmares for my husband and I.  One of the best true-crime books that I ever read was The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule.  If you don’t know, Ann Rule is a famous true-crime writer, and this book was extra-fascinating because it chronicles her relationship with the famous psychopathic serial killer, Ted Bundy.  Ann Rule was actually friends with Ted Bundy – they met working at a suicide hotline together.  The book chronicles their friendship while working at the hotline, while the murders were taking place, and after Ted was caught – very interesting read, and crazy that one of the most famous crime writers had a friendship (unrelated to her ever writing a book about him) with one of the most prolific serial killers of all time.

I’ve been pondering the past few months on the choice I made a couple of years ago on my alarm clock. The numbers are BIG!!! For my aging eyes that is a good thing. There is a problem, the clock is very bright. Most nights, I really don’t notice it, but when I am having trouble sleeping (tonight!!), the clock just seems to light up the room. While it isn’t quite bright enough to read by, I don’t have to turn on a light to make my way around anything I may find on the floor (dog?). I’ve been wondering if I shouldn’t have looked for a different alarm clock. Tonight those BIG GREEN numbers are just passing by keeping me awake.

Really, I’m a bit of an insomniac anyway, so on some nights it doesn’t take much to keep my eyes open. I also have other complaints about the clock, but it does wake me up on most mornings, so it isn’t all bad. Even after staying awake half the night, the alarm/radio is loud enough to wake me.

But I did get my green in didn’t I…. One more color to go.

Now on to other “Green” things. The $$Cost$$ of gasoline this last weekend skyrocketed on limited supplies. I’ve heard of places where they have run out of gas, or even gas going for over $5.00 per gallon. This is when Oil prices dropped to below $100 per barrel. Now I realize the recent Gulf Coast Hurricanes disrupted the supply lines, but you would think after all these years of Hurricanes people would think to move as much gas as possible before the storms hit. Maybe not, but I think I would have done that. Shutting everything down is all well and good, especially since it does keep people safe, but some forethought is also needed. Just trying to save some of my green.

The green leaves are starting their fall change already too. Some of the early turners in this area are the Ash, Hickories and Walnuts. Driving through the country side you can see the few yellow/brown leaves in the small wood lots. Don’t blink though, these trees lose their leaves quickly. I remember going to college and the campus had mostly tall Hickories around the buildings. By Mid to late September all the leaves were gone from the trees. Made fall come very quickly. And if I remember correctly, they got their leaves later in the spring than other trees too. Long winters in NW Ohio….

One more color on my small list of eight crayon colors… And then maybe something else.. I never know where my thoughts will lead…

It’s that time of year again – back to school already!  For the most part, this means good news for me as it clears out half of the foot traffic around here during the day.  And since my oldest 2 are school-age and also the ones who are constantly misbehaving lately – Whoo Hoo for back to school time!

But back to school season also means it’s time for school fundraisers, and my oldest daughter brought one home on the second day of school!  They really couldn’t wait until the second week of school at least?  Because of how busy we’ve been around here between the new baby, my husband being in a play and his health scare, I set the fundraiser order form aside until the night before it was due when I reluctantly sent out an email seeking fundraiser participants.  We actually did pretty well; better than I thought, actually, so I have to thank those of you who ordered stuff.  But I have to come clean and say I did not order anything from my own daughter’s school fundraiser.  I just could not find anything I needed or even wanted for quadruple what it should cost.

My nephew sent me an email about a week later seeking participants for his first school fundraiser, so for him I was a little more motivated to order something.  Since the kids get credit for the number of items they get people to order versus how much is spent, I started looking for something inexpensive I could order.  I began by trying to think of any gifts we might need for people sometime soon.  No luck – we have a basement full of stuff my husband got from overstocked wholesalers that is just waiting to be gifted away.  Next I tried looking for a small kitchen gadget I could use, even if it was only once in a blue moon.  I found a can strainer – a plastic disk with holes in it you put over cans to drain the water out.  It was $5 – outrageously expensive, of course, but I could justify it for my nephew’s first attempts at fundraising for his school.  This wasn’t so hard, I thought as I clicked on the shopping cart to check out.  Except that all of a sudden, I was spending $11 instead of $5.  And there was a text box on the webpage that told me that $2.20 of my order goes directly to his school.  They were trying to make it sound like a good thing, but $2.20 out of $11?  And I’m spending $11 on a 4 inch piece of plastic with holes in it?  It really is easy enough to just use the can lid to strain whatever is in the can – and now I couldn’t even justify buying an over-priced item “for a good cause” since the school was only getting $2 of my money!  Ugh, back to shopping on the fundraiser’s site…

Have you ever had to shop for something you didn’t want?  It’s actually quite difficult.  We had a similair experience after our new baby was born.  Someone got him some clothes that were the wrong size, so we ended up with a bunch of Kohl’s store credit.  My husband and I spent almost 2 hours in the Kohl’s trying to figure out what we wanted; it was really difficult for us.  Kohl’s is not our type of store – we love bargain shopping, and even though it was “free” store credit we were spending, it was hard to justify their expensive prices on things we barely needed.  We ended up with 2 candle warmers and an electric razor for my husband.  He can grow a beard in a matter of days, and this razor cut his shaving time drastically.  The candle warmers are pretty cool too – you put candles on them and still get the scent, but without the ‘something’s burning’ smell or the danger of the open flame – a must-have if you like candles and have 4 little kids running around.  So anyway, where was I before the Kohl’s tangent?

Oh, yes, trying to shop for things you don’t need…  Like I said, I could justify the $5 for the can strainer, but when it climbed to $11 (especially because only $2 went to my nephew’s school), I had to explore other options.  I considered a ‘dip kit’ for $6, figuring I could use it at one of the many game nights we host – then it would double as a conversation piece as well – but shipping on every item was $6.  Since the dip instructions read, ‘just add mayonnaise and sour cream’, I couldn’t justify $12 on a packet of powder, again with the school only getting a measly $2.  So anyway, over an hour later, I finally found a good solution – a magazine subscription.  Sure, I was now spending $15 instead of $12, but there were no shipping fees which meant the school got $8 of my money.  With 4 kids I barely ever have enough time to read the daily newspaper, so I don’t really know what I’m going to do with all the US News and World Report magazines that will soon be piling up around here.  But hey, my kids already have a subscription to Highlights and my husband’s not really into magazines, so what else was I supposed to do?  The subscription to Parents magazine was actually cheaper, but as I’ve said many times before to people who try to borrow me books about parenting – at the end of a long day full of changing diapers, cleaning spills, refereeing fights, and serving meals for people to reject, the last thing I want to do to unwind is read about kids!  So I figured I could maybe save time – instead of surfing the ‘net at night reading news stories, I could bring my US News and World Report up to bed and start my reading time a little earlier so I don’t stay up too late.

But the point of this long rambling blog is this:  I hate school fundraisers.  I hate asking people to spend their hard-earned money on them, I hate ordering from them, and I hate the way they’re set up.  Don’t get me wrong – I was more than happy to order from my nephew, especially because it’s his first one; I find that kind of cute.  Nevermind that little voice in my head that says, “but he’s only in Kindergarten and they’re already making him sell things!”  But lucky for me, my sister only has 2 kids.  Can’t say the same for us -our family’s fundraiser victims will get hit up a whopping 4 times a year!  Not only that, but when the kids are in different clubs and activities, those are also prime targets for fundraising opportunities.  My daughter brought home a newsletter just today that said her Girl Scouts fundraiser will be starting in a few weeks…  ugh, here we go again.  So even if we don’t have any more kids and say each of our kids is in only 1 club or activity that does a fundraiser (girl scouts does 2 if you include selling cookies) – that’s now a minimum of 8 times per year I have to hit up my family and friends.  And that 8 times a year will probably all be overlapping in the autumn months!  It is my hope to someday be able to put aside enough time to attend the PTO meetings and urge the implementation of a new fundraising system – one where not so much money is wasted on the company that is hired to actually do the fundraiser.  Until then, maybe I will just buy stock in one of these fundraising companies that are preying on our children’s schools…  in a struggling economy, something tells me that is one type of business that isn’t hurting!

For anyone who knew Emily Curtis well has at times encountered her fierce, stubborn determination get get things done HER WAY!!! Every band show, choir song, organ piece, musical scene everything down to the minutest detail had to meet with her demands.  She was the teacher that you either loved or hated but always respected.  Her devotion to family, country, students, everyone she touched was stronger than most; very few could match her will and strength.  This profound quality  showed in true fashion in the  memorial service that she orchestrated herself.

The prelude music was traditional Ma.  From the religious to the patriotic to musical theatre to CHRISTMAS? was all there.  You heard correctly… Christmas.  The woman had Christmas trees in every room of her house every year… yes, even the bathroom.  “Silent Night” closed every holiday concert she ever directed.  The choir (be it high school, junior high, or elementary) stood in the darkened  auditorium  with lighted candles and sang  all three verses  alternating from English  lyrics to the traditional German.  I also heard “O, Holy Night.”

The Broadway pieces also were typical.  “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel would fit most funerals and is a regular piece in many church hymnals.  I also heard “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music which was the last lyric that Oscar Hammerstein II wrote. I was half expecting to hear the guitar opening the overture of Jesus Christ Superstar, but must have come in late.

On to the service itself.  I’m sure that Emily chose each reading herself.  However, the point that drove the whole thing home was Amanda’s “Time of Remembrance.”  Her mother asked her to deliver it.. they did everything together.  At the end of her delivery, Amanda took out a micro-cassette player and pushed “Play.”  then, Emily’s voice filled the  church  as she  told of her love of family,  country, and large support group.  She ever joked about her need to have the final word.  She never gave up her battle with leukemia.  The doctors and nurses at the James Center on the OSU campus were all amazed at her fortitude.  They dubbed her either “princess” or “general.”  They knew her well, too.  Unfortunately, the disease finally defeated her.

The music played during the service was also quite unusual for most… but not for Ma’s.  A violinist played “Carmen Ohio” (the Ohio State alma mater).  Although she was a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, Emily was a traditional Buckeye… she bled Scarlet and Grey.

Following the internment service, a large number of people returned to the church to celebrate and remember  Emily.  Teachers… remarkably who found subs for the day (probably 15 total), family, friends shared some personal memories.  My mother told me that we had until 1.45 because she had to get back to drive the school bus.  I can honestly say that I am a stronger person because my life has been touched by Emily and her typical lunch of fat-free pringles or honey mustard pretzels and her can of Diet Coke (I would not want to be around her if she did not have her can of Diet Coke).  So many great, profound, life-affirming memories that will last forever.  THANK YOU MA, I LOVE YOU…SON2.