Snow Tubing on Easter... YAY MN!

Sunday was Easter, as everyone knows of course...

I went over to my aunt and uncle's place up in Champlin with my mom and grandpa (on my dad's side) to celebrate Easter. My Aunt Debbie and Uncle Brook have been the closest of any of my aunts/uncles in my family. They have three wonderful and spirited/motivated children, and it's their house that we mainly gather at for the holidays. We also met my Grandma and Grandpa on my mom's side up there as well, along with our family friend Carol, who is a wonderful chef.

My cousin Evan and I are 7 years apart, but he's my closest cousin, and we're great friends. He's a great kid, and a very good/well mannered young man with morals, and is always fun to hang out with - we usually will play video games in the basement, including Guitar Hero, Halo, or Call of Duty.

Dinner was great, and afterwards the cousins and I went to a hill nearby to go snow tubing. At first I wasn't very motivated to go, but once we got there it was filled with laughs and crashing our tubes into snowmen and going over jumps. Overall, it was a good Easter!

It Was Only A Dream...

This will be a fairly long post... with no pictures or videos. I had a dream last night that shook me so hard that when I woke up I got out of bed, wrapped a blanket around myself, and just had to walk around... It was very vivid, and I will try to explain it to my best abilities.

Alright, this was my dream...

In the beginning, I dreamt that I was just waking up for the day. I got out of my bed, walked out into the hallway upstairs, and before I knew it I had this very abrupt, very exciting idea: a new bedroom. I remembered, a false memory as is usual in a dream, that my parents had moved their bedroom from the south-east bedroom on the second level to the south-west bedroom a long while ago.

In reality the "south-east bedroom" is actually a regular sized bathroom, but as I walked into it in my dream it was a very large bedroom. It stretched out onto the roof of the living room downstairs, and had a sliding glass door that led out onto a balcony, through which the morning sun was shining. There were large windows facing south that looked out over the back yard.

Just so you understand why I would want to move into this bedroom, I have too much big furniture for the size of my room which inevitibly creates a rather cramped feeling. This room was much bigger than my current bedroom, and maybe I could even fit my sectional couch in it!

I hurriedly ran downstairs, desperate to find someone. Blurry transition to a golf course where I'm driving around the parking lot trying to find a space. Somehow I knew that my parents were at this golf course, and only my dad would be able to give the go ahead for me to move into the south-east bedroom.

It was very busy, and there wasn't a spot that I could find, but I did see my dad close by. I pulled up onto the grass next to him. It was very thick grass here, and appeared to have not been mowed in a short while. I noticed a man just a few feet in front of me getting ready to putt into the bottom of a circular podium next to my car.

"Am I on the course? I should find a different place to park."
"It's ok," said my dad. "I'll get an extra ball if you join the game."
"Where's mom?" I randomly asked.
"Oh, she went back home. She said that she had had a very weird encounter with some old guy and was pretty shaken."

Without really noticing, I was suddenly standing outside. My car was gone, but I didn't pay attention to it, just like I passed over my dad's last statement and moved on to the reason why I was there.

"Dad, I just had an idea when I woke up today. Now, you know how my room faces north-west and I don't get much sun shining in it, especially in the winter... and you know how it's fairly cramped because I have so much large furniture... well I thought that maybe I could move into your and mom's bedroom."

I had meant to say 'former bedroom', but somehow I missed the former. Just as I asked this, I remembered the reality of the south-east room, that it was in all actuality a bathroom, and then I realized what I had just asked my dad, which now seemed completely pathetic. I was embarassed like no other.

"That sounds like a great idea!" He said.
"What??"
"You can move into our bedroom, sure! Your mom and I will just move to The Bahamas!" He laughed aloud at his joke. My embarassment sunk even further. I love my dad but I'm not a big fan of his humor sometimes, especially when it's at my expense.

Completely overreacting I interrupted his chortling with a very stern "Fuck you!" and hurried away into the parking lot. As I was walking away, my mind registered that my car had disappeared. Had I moved it to an actual parking space? I couldn't remember. Crap! And, I had just stormed away from my dad in a protest... if I have to make a U-turn now and head back near him to get my car I will look like a complete dumbass, not to mention the strength behind my message to him will be lost while we both concentrate on my stupid choice of direction.

For those of you who don't know me too well - I over-analyze everything, maybe that's why my dreams are always so vivid - anyway!

After I walked a good 60 feet or so I turn around to look for my car. As I'm looking around I see a van facing me. It is completely dark inside except for a white hand, bright from the sun's rays, that's being held out over the dashboard, waving. I walk closer to the van, and I notice it's my mother. She has a petrified look on her face; her eyes are wide, and her lips are parted. I can see she's clenching her teeth. Some mumbled garble is emitted from her throat, as she tries to repeat her encounter with some creepy, old man.

"He had is windows up, they were tinted."

"Oh mom! It's ok!" I rush over to the passenger's side door. All of a sudden I have a bag with me, and I toss it through the open window and onto the seat.

"The side door." She says as she motions behind her.

My mom suffered from a syndrome called 'guillain barre' or 'French Polio' in lamens terms which deals with the nervous system and results in severe paralysis and sometimes death if not treated. One can make a full recovery, if treated correctly. She got it when I was little, about seven, and there were many hard times that we all had to face as she recovered. It's an entirely different story for another time, but to sum it up, the doctor my mom had orginally been seeing for recovery was performing malpractice on the case for a lengthy time. Because of it my mom now has permanent nerve damage in her legs and hands. My mom and I are extremely close, and I can only say that while guillain barre weakened her physical structure it only strengthened our bond. I love her with all my heart, along with my sister and dad, and they are honestly my best friends as an added bonus to being my family.

So, as you might suspect, I hated seeing my mother in such a panicked state. I walked around the car to the sliding side door of the van. My mother had crawled into the back seat and I was looking forward to giving her a big hug and raising her spirits. As I got to the door though and my mom was completing her trip, I noticed an arm coming up from behind the back seat. My mom was blocking most of my view of the man as he crawled over the seat.

"MOM! It's him!" I yelled as I grabbed onto my mom's arm. He grabbed my mom's waist and started pulling her out of the van's sliding door on the opposite side. I took my hand and tried scratching at his face. He had orange age-spots all over his forehead. Somehow he was very strong, and if we were arm wrestling I would be at the part where I'm fighting for my life just inches above the surface. I looked around for my dad. I saw a lot of peolpe walking on the edge of the parking lot. There were a lot of white polos, but no Dad.

I went to yell, but there was no sound.

I woke up, it was about 7:20 am. I immediately grabbed my blanket and went into my parent's south-west bedroom, next to the south-east bathroom, to see if I could catch my mom before she had gone to work - my dad was there, but my mom had already left.

I laid back down in my bed. I had this strange remorse for waking up and leaving my mom in the dream. I still feel like a part of her is being abducted by this strange man in some dream reality somewhere and I left when I woke up. I've been having a very strange, slow-moving morning since... the dream was just so realistic and painful.

It's my break now. I'm going to call my mom. I miss her.

A Beautiful Set of Hypno-Disk Eyes

I came home from work yesterday to find a present that had been delivered to me earlier in the day by UPS. It was from Barnes & Noble, and it confused me greatly. I didn't remember ordering a book from online, and I would definitely hope to remember something like that especially since I almost never order anything online anyways.

With a little difficulty I tore open the cardboard wrapping paper and found, to my delight, a book of poetry titled "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories" To those who know my artistic style, you'll know that I love tastefully dark, mysterious, and twisted stories - very similar to the style of Tim Burton - which this book just happens to have been written by.

Unlike some of his movies in the past, this book was nowhere near disappointing, but was instead very delightful to read and a welcome addition to my ever-growing book collection. It has many different small poems and a couple of longer ones, some of them have reoccurring characters or themes, and they all have cute little illustrations very reminiscent of the styling of Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. It even has stories of Mummy boy and Stick boy who are close to the mummy and Jack respectively in Nightmare.

Here's an excerpt from the book - illustration above:

VOODOO GIRL

"Her skin is white cloth,
And she's all sewn apart
And she has many colored pins
Sticking out of her heart.

She has a beautiful set
Of hypno-disk eyes,
The ones that she uses
To hypnotize guys.

She has many different zombies
Who are deeply in her trance.
She even has a zombie
Who was originally from France.

But she knows she has a curse on her
A curse she cannot win.
For if someone gets
Too close to her,

The pins stick farther in"

My sister was the one who gave me this gift :) She was in her warm state of Florida when she saw this book and thought of me. She just HAD to get it for her little brother! I love it when little surprises are tailored to my personality, just like this one. It means more than some standard card or flower - which I always kill off anyway. On a short tangent, I have decided when I get flowers I will kill them on purpose by drying them out. I have a bouquet of dried red roses, which I love so much, resting on top of my bookshelf. That deep red color is my favorite.

Speaking of my sister Rosie - she recently moved to Florida with her boyfriend Dan, but she is home for the weekend! I haven't seen her in at least a month, which is a big thing for us as our whole lives before this we lived very close; even in the same apartment building once (with our own apartments). She was on the second floor and I was on the third. I won't go into how she tricked me and stole away my childhood bedroom, but it's all in the past anyway as when she moved to Florida I stole it back.

We talked on the phone yesterday when I called to say thanks for the book. She told me that after experiencing a Florida winter that she doesn't know if she'll ever be able to move back to Minnesota due to it's chilly weather. I don't blame her, but at the same time it's sad. My sister and I are very close, and thanks to her gift, I will have Oyster Boy and his freak friends to keep her near when she's enjoying the sunny south in all it's glory.

To think this movie is turning 15 years old. What the hell?


movies only appear on the blog site

I'll Make You Some Sandwiches

As I mentioned in my intro blog - I moved back in with my parents recently to save up some money, so I can eventually put a nice down payment on a house. I want to start investing in something, and now that I have a good full-time job, it's possible to plan for it!

One of the interesting things in our household right now is the fact that my grandpa moved in after my grandma passed away a couple of years ago. My parents redid our basement, putting in new carpeting, new light fixtures, and giving it a new coat of paint. He's got anything and everything he would need down there, except for a kitchen. Grandpa said he would pretty much stay down there - we would hardly notice him - but that ended up not being the case.

He's always in the living room on the main level, sitting in his big red chair that my parents got only a few years ago (but is already worn down like a 50 year old), and he's usually watching tv. Bowling from the 30s, M*A*S*H, and the first of the "talking pictures" are his programs of choice - not that they're bad, he just doesn't watch ANYTHING else. If he's not watching tv (which is usually only while my mom's soap is taping), he'll sit quietly and watch the birds outside.

The very first time I encountered him asleep on his chair I thought he had died. It's very reminiscent of the scene from Bad Santa where Billy Bob Thornton and Lauren Graham walk in on Grandma sleeping. They think she's dead, but get startled when she bolts awake and offers to make them sandwiches. My grandpa didn't bolt awake though, nor offer to make me sandwiches (probably for the best though as it would probably have peas in it - he puts peas in EVERYTHING!). Anyway, he'll simply wake up, realize he's sleeping, and start whistling as if he'd been awake all the time. You can always tell when my grandpa is feeling awkward - he'll whistle... and it's always sparatic notes that don't make a whole lot of sense when strewn together.

He's got a lot of health issues too. One of the most exciting of which is his inability to swallow some foods. It's like a guessing game. Will he be able to get down dinner today? Will it be the steak or the potato? He's vomited a couple times at the table before. Talk about losing your appetite. He'll make gagging noises, put his hand over his mouth - sometimes liquid will squirt out from between his fingers - and he'll dash away from the table as fast as his bad knees will let him. My dad will make conversation - which he never does (he's usually commenting on how my mom and I talk too much at dinner) - and my mom will look worried. My grandpa will go down into his basement and he won't come back for the rest of the night until it's time to take his Metamucil.

I usually don't eat for the rest of the night, unless my appetite comes back. If it does, I usually just make myself a sandwich.

Someday I'll tell you about grandpa's recovery from his knee surgery... super fun! For now I'll leave you with this clip - Man I love this movie.

Video clips only show up on the blog site.

Robbie McNamee

This is Robbie's 103rd blog. He has recently made posts on his myspace and facebook accounts, but felt the need to start something with a little more umph to it. You may remember him from his other previous (and no longer active) blogs, which include Big Red Hot (blogspot), The Bohemia (blogspot), PoivrePauvre (xanga AND livejournal), UnfortunatePepper (xanga), among many others. He has decided to try to settle down with one blog, to remain active for many a month. Robbie loves blogging about the funny things in life, and occasionally to vent, but usually the funny things.

Robbie is an actor in the twin cities having performed with such theatres as Bloomington Civic Theatre, Minneapolis Musical Theatre, U of M Xperimental Theatre, Swing Low Theatre Co, among others. He mainly specializes in dazzling the stage as a part of the chorus, or making people laugh as a comedically villianous supporting-lead. He is willing to stretch his abilities by hopefully someday playing a sad mid-wife going through the hardships of prison after having just been framed for murder. That would be challenging.

Currently, Robbie works in the call center for a flexible spending department of an insurance company where his motto is "Use it, or lose it, baby!" He has been employed with the company since 12/4/06, and is still amazed he made it past the 3-6 month mark without getting bored and leaving. To this day Robbie still hopes to get a full time acting gig that might take him away from the corporate world. Until then, he will continue to embrace IRS guidelines and healthy callers.

Robbie moved home late 07 to live with his parents again. His goal is to endure his sometimes overly-loving mother, his constantly-working father, and his grandfather who eerily looks dead while sleeping, until he has saved up enough money to put a down payment on a house. He is not without goals.

Robbie promises this will be the only post where he talks about himself in the third person, and he thanks you for supporting his endeavors in the world of blogging.