Auntie Day 2014

Since we just finished Auntie Day 2015, I figured that I should post about Auntie Day 2014.  Even though I only have pictures from my Mom's disposable camera*.

That year's theme was the hobbies of the kids.  We started with Adam, and he drummed for us.  He's so good!

Drew is really interested in sports, so we played a very short game of basketball for his hobby.  Us adults are getting old!  But we're still competitive and aggressive.

Kylie's hobby was photography, so there were a bunch of props out and we did a photoshoot!



















From the photoshoot, I kept the tiara when we went to dinner.  :)  We went to a German place that had a fancy cheesy fondue appetizer. I love to tell the waitstaff why we're celebrating!  This time, they thought that it was my birthday, but I let her know the real reason!

Another great Auntie Day!  I appreciate all that my sister does for me, and how wonderful my niece and nephews are!

Fifty Shades of Gray

Ugh.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I can't finish reading this.  It makes me too angry.

I get why it's so popular, though.  This is the first non-lesbian book that I've ever read in which the woman's sexual pleasure is described in the first-person.   For those who don't read fac-fic or women-centered erotica, this can really be an exciting experience.  Plus, Christian seems really good at pleasuring her.  I think all people want a partner who knows how to make them feel that way.

HOWEVER, I have friends in the BDSM community, and from my impression of what they do, their BDSM activities are mostly focused on sex, not their whole lives.  In fact, I think that people who have more power and responsibility in their public lives tend to like to be submissive, to just let go.  What this book describes is a Slave relationship.  That's very atypical for people in the BDSM community.


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Vincalis: The Agitator

Review from GoodReads:  Vincalis the Agitator by Holly Lisle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The book started with one-dimensional characters, with the women being one-dimensional AND stereotypical.  One woman's main motivation is love, and the other is portrayed as slutty (and punished for it later with severe domestic violence).  A sub-plot of sadistic pedophilia is totally not necessary.
Based on this, I probably won't read the series.  The story itself was mostly interesting, but it was hard to get through the stereotypes.


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Black Widow & Avengers: Age of Ultron

Ultron "spoiler":

I still can't get over that Black Widow's biggest emotional struggle is not being able to have children.  How stereotypic is that?!  I was happy as can be to have my uterus ripped out so that I never had to worry about the possibility again!  Her memories showed her shooting an unarmed man in the head.  How is that not worse than no birthing of your own?!  And what about all of that red in her ledger?

I also hate how Natasha basically threw herself at Bruce.  For frax sake, that is so not her style.  It's not Joss's style, either.  From my experience of his writing (which is somewhat extensive), he hints at least 3-5 "episodes" ahead about anything like that.  But I don't remember ANYTHING in Avenger's that would support her desiring Bruce.  And even if it was there, she wouldn't be so obvious and assertive about it.  Not that she's not assertive, but she's a spy, for goodness sakes, she would be much more subtle.

The handling of Black Widow's character was so bad in this movie that I won't own the movie.  I'd like a Captain America set, but it won't include this one.
Which isn't so bad, because Captain America's character didn't really do anything, either.  You can't see any change or growth from his dismantling of SHIELD and Hydra in his last movie.  He's just a stock character.

The whole movie was really a let-down.  Marvel had been doing such a great job of building the movies, the universe, and then this movie lost all of the characters and their arcs, and was just a mess to show them all together.

Addicted to TV

Tonight, I left work early because the schedule changed for Finals. The family that I stay with was watching TV when I got there. I got sucked into Pitch Perfect, until a commercial came on, thankfully, and I went to the gym. When I got back, the movie was just ending, so I watched the ending. Then Lip Sync Battle came on. I've heard of the show, but hadn't watched it. So I watched it. And another.
And ANOTHER. Until after 11pm.
I just can't stop watching. It's like I'm worried that I'll miss something, and it's only on right now, so I HAVE to watch it.
This is why having cable would be so dangerous for me. Sure, Netflix and Amazon Prime are addicting, for sure, but I don't have to worry about missing anything. The next episode will wait until I can watch it. It'll still be there hours, days, months, years from now. Just waiting for me. That's a lot less pressure than shows that are live, and I don't know when the episode will play again.
Anyway, this weekend I'll curse myself for wasting tonight on TV instead of grading. :/

Return of the Fibroids

Remember when my uterus was so tough and full of muscles that I had to have it ripped out? Turns out, even that was not enough. Some of the fibroids clung on, and have developed into a new muscle baby. This muscle baby seems to be holding on to an ovary, and sometimes makes the ovary do back flips. Let me tell you, that is painful!
The pain started a few months ago, but I thought that I had gas and was a wimp.
The next time it hurt, I went to urgent care. They said that I had a UTI, and gave me antibiotics. 

A few days later, I went to my beloved gyno, and she said that I had an infection from my surgery 9 months ago, and gave me different drugs. Her ultrasound saw something, though, so I got a CT scan. The CT scan also saw something. I had blood tests, and everything points to "probably not cancer."
This past week,  the pain got bad enough that I went to the emergency room.  They gave me drugs and sent me away, saying that a real doctor had to deal with my muscle baby.
Yesterday, I met with this real doctor, and he will take out the muscle baby on May 21st. Unless the pain gets bad enough and I have to go to the ER again. In that case, the ER will call the real doctor and he'll take it out.
I'm in minor pain now, and wondering how I can finish the semester either in pain or on vicoden. Neither options sound good, so hopefully the pain will decrease this week.  I had planned to go to a conference, so most of my classes were already covered; I can stay home and rest this week.

McFarland, U.S.A.

I just watched McFarland last night (trailer).  I left the theater feeling so proud of my students, the same kind of students whom Coach White helped.  It was a great movie to show how engagement with school activities or staff can turn a child's life around.

Then today, I realized that it was another White Savior movie.  :(  The white guy comes in, and changes the lives of all of those poor people of color. 
I also realized that the movie probably failed the Bechdel Test.  There were several women and girl characters, but they mostly were background for Coach White (his family or colleagues).  I guess this is not unexpected for a movie about a (men's) running team. 

Still, I really liked the movie.  I loved the representation of Hispanic culture.  Although the movie definitely exaggerated the friendliness and inclusiveness of small towns or Hispanic families, the "fish out of water" experience of the White family going to a small, Hispanic town in the central valley of California in 1987 was pretty funny. 

I look forward to hearing the responses of Hispanic people, especially migrant workers and their kids.  So much of the movie seems realistic to me, but that's no my background.  I've lived near migrant communities for much of my life, but "near" and "in" is a vast difference.