It's celebration season here at the G & G household. Both the kids have August birthdays, as do I, and the in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary came and went yesterday. It's been a lot of sweets. We had ice cream cake a few nights ago, cheese cake last night, and we're getting something tomorrow, as well. Maybe cookies. My sister got a box of fancy cookies -- the big, soft, elaborately prepared kind -- while we were visiting a few weeks ago, and they were really good, so I thought maybe we would do that here. I think S knows a good place.
I might get a toothbrush for my birthday. I've been wanting an electric toothbrush for, like, 30 years, but never wanted to spend the money on it. Now, however, I can't seem to find a toothbrush that I really like for some reason, and I can't think of anything else I want, so why not get one? A toothbrush -- there's the difference between adult birthday gifts and kid birthday gifts. My boys are at the toy store right now, as I type this, picking out their gifts.
Well, some of their gifts. They got a bunch of stuff -- probably too much but whatever. The big item is that Lil' S1 got an iPhone. S's mom wanted to upgrade, so she gave him her old one. I'm cool with it. He already has an iPod that pretty much has all the "bad" functionality of an iPhone (e.g., access to the internet) without the "good" stuff. This way at least we will be able to keep tabs on him, and he can contact us if there's an emergency. He's probably going to be doing a lot more on his own this next school year, such as walking to and from school, so having a phone is not a bad thing.
Of course I never had one when I was a kid, but society was structured differently back then. There were these things called payphones all over the city, on which one could make a call if need be. But those devices pretty much no longer exist. In fact, it's quite remarkable how quickly they disappeared from the landscape. I can't think of anything else like that. Well, maybe Blockbuster video -- movie rental proprietors in general. Growing up, we had at least five storefronts dedicated to video rental in my relatively small city, and that's not counting the kiosks at every supermarket.
I kinda miss video stores, but not too much. I miss Netflix mail-in service more, to be honest. Streaming is cool and convenient and all that, but there's something satisfying about getting the discs in the mail and holding them in your hands. I used to "binge watch" series this way, and I liked having to strategize my watching/mailing schedule to minimize down time. I had a two-disc subscription, and I could usually do it so that the second disc would arrive with the next set of episodes, just as I was finishing the first one. On more than one occasion I walked around town to find a mailbox that hadn't picked up yet because I need to get a disc out that night. Sundays were always a curveball, and sometimes there would be a random disc in the middle of the series that was delayed, which was supremely annoying, but for the most part I had things humming like a well-oiled machine.
It could be that I'm reminiscing more about that time in my life than I am about Netflix mail-in service. I was working on my dissertation almost 24/7, and those moments in which I took a break to watch something were joyous reprieves. Also, I watched some great shows -- The Wire and Six Feet Under, in particular. Both were spectacular.
On a somewhat related note, I saw the movie Hustle somewhat recently, and I made an actor connection. As I've mentioned before on this blog, sometimes when I'm watching something, and I recognize somebody but don't remember from what, I will intentionally not look them up, so as not to deprive myself of that a-ha moment when it eventually comes to me. In the case of Hustle, I was trying to figure out what I know the jerk owner from, and it finally dawned on me: He's the psychotic brother from Hell or High Water. The actor's name is Ben Foster, so I looked at his Wikipedia page, and it turns out he was also the broody emo kid, the daughter's friend, from Six Feet Under, AND he played Eli, the mentally challenged kid, in Freaks & Geeks. Hey, how 'bout that? Those are two of my favorite series of all time, and I totally didn't recognize him from either of them. But, to be fair, he was playing children in both of those roles, and he's now a middle-age man. So, I won't be so hard on myself for lack of actor recognition.
Okay, that's just about all for today. I'm tired because I stayed up late watching the Mariners game on Apple TV. It was one of the free games for the week, and I so seldomly get to watch them (and they are pretty good this year!), so I watched the entire thing, even though it went into extra innings and didn't end until 1:30 am EDT. It was worth it though, as they won in walk-off fashion! They could have just as easily lost, and I'd be cursing myself for staying up late just to go to sleep disappointed. But that's the beauty of sports. There are real (pretend) stakes on the line!
Until next time...
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