Category Archives: family

A Happy Saturday & A Lazy Evening

Song Lyric of the Day:

I can hear your thoughts / I can see your dreams / I don’t know how you do what you do

Lonestar
/ “Amazed

11:03PM.
Today was a long day, but it was a happy one. Rich, my family, and I attended Kirk and Lindsey’s wedding this afternoon. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was fun, and I took a memory card’s worth of photos and video. I’ll post a detailed recap tomorro
w (and hopefully a couple of pics) since I’m still recovering from it. As you know, both the bride and groom lost their fathers in 2007, Lindsey in January and Kirk just days before Christmas, so emotions were running high today. Which is why I’ll write more about it tomorrow.

***

Rich and I spent a low-key evening together. We came home from the wedding, changed into workout clothes, and hit Snap Fitness for a workout. We ate dinner at home after, then Rich went up to the loft to paint. I hit the couch since I’m pooped and wasted an hour and 40 minutes of my life watching Black Christmas on TMC. I say wasted because this movie, a remake of the far superior original (rent that one instead, kiddies!) stinks beyond belief, a fact I remember from the first time I saw it, when it came out last year. So why’d I watch it again? Because (1) it’s a horror movie (albeit a terrible one) and (2) did I mention I was tired? A tired Pattie is an unmotivated, lazy Pattie. So watching a movie which has characters I identify as Girl With Bangs, Girl From Buffy, Girl From Party of Five, Girl Without Bangs, Woman From the Original, et al, seemed like the way to go.

Really, though, any horror movie which features a murderous father-daughter duo in which the father is so yellow from jaundice he looks like Toad’s (from the X-Men) bastard son and his daughter is played by a man in drag(!) who looks far older than Daddy Dearest is worth at least one extra viewing in my book.

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Victor Kinamon

Friday night, Rich, my family, and I attended the receiving of friends and funeral service for Mr. Kinamon. As I wrote the other day, our almost brother-in-law’s father passed away, sooner than we’d anticipated. We knew he was fighting the good fight, and we’d been looking forward to meeting him at his son, Kirk’s, wedding next month, but, sadly, that was not to be. Instead, we offered the little comfort we could in the way of emotional support when Kirk and his family needed it most. To that end, I also went to the interment service yesterday. An Air Force veteran, Mr. Kinamon received full military honors befitting his 13 years of service. I took my camera along, and asked if the family wanted me to take any photos. They said that they did, so I did my best to stay as inconspicuous as possible, capturing the most emotional moments, including when Kirk, in his full uniform (he’s an Army National Guard member) presented the folded flag to his mother. That almost ripped my heart out, but I managed to take a few photos through my tears. And, like everyone else at the service said, I was proud of how Kirk handled himself. More importantly, I know his father would be proud, too.

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Another Loss

Christmas Song Lyric of the Day:

Let loving hearts enthrone Him / Raise, raise the song on high

Sarah McLachlan / “What Child Is This? (Greensleeves)

10:05PM.
The year that won’t end keeps on going. Our almost brother-in-law (the wedding is early January) lost his father last night. That’s all I have the energy to say at this point. Please pray for our family. Thanks.

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Today, I Am a Palindrome

Song Lyric of the Day:

See the hands of my offspring making windmills / (Egad, a base tone denotes a bad age)

They Might Be Giants / “I Palindrome I

10:44PM.
Well, today is the big day. I’m now 33. And the crowd goes wild. I enjoyed a great birthday celebration last night with my nearest and dearest. We had dinner at Altruda’s, my restaurant of choice (I’ve been craving Italian lately like you wouldn’t believe). I got gift cards to Kohl’s, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Target, and Best Buy, as well as Supernatural season two on DVD (Vanessa and Ken rock) and Grey’s Anatomy season three on DVD (Mom rocks, too). So many, many thanks to my mom and dad, Momma Carol and Papa Doug, B, Tamara, Vanessa, Ken, Samantha, and, of course, Rich, for coming. I’d like to make a special mention that Mom and Dad not only showed, but managed to enjoy themselves, despite their poor kitty, Winnie, having passed away unexpectedly in the wee hours yesterday morning.

As it is, my birthday got off to a sad start this morning when I took Mom to bury Winnie at the local pet cemetery. (I’d already scheduled my day off from work today, having declared my birthday as Pattie Day.) She felt awful that I was the one to take her, but I quickly pointed out that I’ve had far worse birthdays. At least I got to say hi to my beloved, still-missed dog, Spot, while we were there.

Tonight, Caren came over, with Willow in tow (much to Snoops and Caleb’s delight), to bring me my present: a gift card to Pottery Barn. She’s now earned enough points to have secured a spot on my shortlist of People I Would Donate a Kidney To. The gift card is particularly meaningful since she knows how much I’ve been lusting after the small black Bedford desk. I decided to focus on getting this particular desk since (1) my new desk will still reside in the same slanted wall/fixed ladder corner of the office, with its limited space; (2) I’ve been trying to find the perfect desk forever; and (3) you’d be surprised how hard it is to find a black desk with drawers. Turns out it’s like the holy grail of home office furniture. Rich has promised to pay the remainder of the desk’s cost if I write a couple of good chapters for my book. Emphasis on “good.” He’s a crafty con man, that one.

So now I’m another year older. I don’t feel any different, probably because I can still check the same age-range box on forms. I’ll start feeling different (in an old way) when I graduate to the next box. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the next couple of years until I do.

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A Weekend Full of Family, Friends, & Gerard Butler

Song Lyric of the Day:

I’ve been watching your world from afar / I’ve been trying to be where you are / And I’ve been secretly falling apart, unseen / To me, you’re strange and you’re beautiful / You’d be so perfect with me but you just can’t see / You turn every head but you don’t see me

Aqualung / “Strange & Beautiful (I’ll Put a Spell on You)

9:13PM.
As I mentioned the other day, I’ve got family and friends close by to keep me company while Rich is away, and they did not disappoint this weekend.

Yesterday, I saw my parents, my sister, Tamara, Elizabeth, Brent, and Benjamin when we all got together for lunch. Our lunch ended up being comped because the restaurant was short a cook and our waitress felt bad enough about our long wait for our food (although we never complained) that she talked to the manager about taking care of our meal. I came home long enough to feed and walk the dogs before heading out for dinner with Mark and Susan at Bonefish Grill (the Bang Bang Shrimp is to die for), a meal which they ended up graciously treating me to. Then the three of us met my sister (the one who couldn’t make lunch) at the movie theater to see The Simpsons Movie (and, yes, it lived up to my 18-years-in-gestation-expectations). Since I covered her ticket, my sister treated me to popcorn and a soda. Two meals and movie concessions, and I got lucky in that I didn’t have to spend any money for any of it. In short, a near-perfect day.

Today Nan and Tamara came over for our Gerry-atric Film Festival. We started by watching some of Gerard Butler‘s TiVoed appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. We then watched Dracula 2000, because as Tamara pointed out, he “looks really hot in it”; we followed that up with 300. I’m glad we at least got two whole movies in, since we didn’t get a start until late afternoon. Nan left a few DVDs for me to watch this week, including The Phantom of the Opera, Attila, and Reign of Fire. I’ll be caught up on Gerard’s oeuvre in no time flat.Now I’m just relaxing with the kitties, trying to decide how to spend the rest of my evening. (The dogs are both passed out nearby; Caleb in particular turned on the charm for his Auntie Nan and Auntie Tamara today, so he’s exhausted. Showing off takes a lot out of him.) No surprise, I’m leaning toward watching another movie, although I might go with a chick flick; I watched 13 Going on 30 last night before going to sleep, and am in a sappy, romantic, flight of fancy mood. It’s a pretty good mood to be in.

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