THis weekend = awesomeness

Last night was Spencer's graduation party in Easthampton. Let me preface this by saying that you have not seen evil until you've seen Easthampton town on a Friday night in the summer. The Townies are out in droves, all bleach and scene and metro and money and attitude. I would rather talk to a crackwhore in downtown Riverhead than associate with these people.

The party itself was fantastic. SB's friends are the best group of teenagers / young adults I have ever met in my life. I have a fondness for teenagers (as well as for old people) in general; I like them ever so much more than young children because teenagers are at an interesting, challenging age where they have so much to say. Anyway, this is the nicest group of kids I have ever met, and they all adore Spencer, and rightly so. ("They think he's a righteous dude!")

SB's parents (my aunt and uncle) also hired a DJ, which is a guarantee for me to have a great time. Jo-chan has recently become obsessed with the song "Come on Eileen" which was my favorite song when it came out in, what, '83? Back then I even made up my own dance to it. It was so neat that Jo-chan had only just discovered it (through the game Silent Hill, no less!) Jo-chan wasn't sure about going out on the dance-floor, but I am like a dance-floor fool as some of you know. I requested "Come On Eileen" and when the DJ played it, Jo-chan and I were the first ones on the dance floor. We just started spazzing out and then I showed her my dance I had made up when I was like 10 or something. By the time we were doing that (and the pics of that are priceless!) a bunch of people decided to come and dance, too. I requested a bunch of songs through the night and we hardly left the dance floor. My aunt and her co-workers and friends were up there busting a move, too. At one point one of Spencer's young friends was dancing with me, too, but this kid was dancing with everyone: people's moms, Spencer, the music teacher... He was just having a blast.

Then their music teacher, the very cool Mr. Howe came over to talk to Jo-chan and I for a good half an hour. He's a supercool teacher and the three of us talked about the state of education and teenagers and school, fitting in, and alternately, choosing not to fit in, which is where Jo-chan is right now in her life. I have always respected her for that punk ethos that has always been so important to me, and Mr. Howe told her how brave she is for choosing to be herself even when it meant not fitting in. (By "punk" I don't mean like street-punk or even necessarily music choice, but just the punk ethos of "this is how I live my life and you don't have to like it.")

At one point Betsy got up and made a speech to Spencer which pretty much had everyone in tears. She told him that it was her honor to raise him, to never change, to never forget where home is. Towards the end of the night some guy in his 50s or so came up to me, grabbed my hand and said, "Don't ever stop dancing, kid." O_o By that time Spencer was hanging around with a group of his friends and his girlfriend and the DJ was playing his song, which, unbeknownst to most people, has always been his song. Or rather, a song that I've always associated with him. It's Billy Joel's "For The Longest Time." The reason I've always thought of SB for this song was that on his second birthday, Celie (our other cousin who used to live with my parents and me) and I had been singing it in the car on the way to their house. Once we got there, we started seranading SB with this song. SB used to hate it when people sang to him or at him, and Celie and I used to torment him by singing to him. (I know that sounds mean, but he was such a funny little boy and he never got really upset.) We sang it to him until he put his head under the cushions of the couch. Anyway, so then last year when SB was in his very small choral group at high school, (The Manly Men,) they did an a capella rendition of this song which pretty much made me want to cry. Last night they closed out the party with this song and it got me all emo again. I can't believe this boy is going away.

I forced him to introduce me to his adorable girlfriend, which he did reluctantly and with an embarrassed grin. But she's the cutest little thing.

Anyway, but most of the night was Jo-chan, Betsy and I dancing around to the side of a group of teenagers who were younger than most of the songs they played. I can happily say that I outlasted every single one of them with hours to spare. But I also stupidly twisted my ankle and today I'm really tight from all my superfly hip-hop moves. ;D I dance like a maniac when there's a DJ but it never occurs to me that it's going to hurt the next day. >_>

AND THEN! I came home to an email from Shane, the guy I have in mind for th lead in that movie. It's a very casual email sort of like, "Sure, sounds like loads of fun! But the blood is going to be expensive." To Shane, this is just another movie he's in on (because he's always doing stuff like this,) but to me, this just MADE MY NIGHT and I peed my pants in joy.

Basically, YES, SHANE ACCEPTED THE ROLE and THE MOVIE IS DEFINITELY GOING ON! I emailed him today giving him the starting date but told him that I would work around his schedule. I only met the dude once but I have the feeling he's going to be awesome. You know what? This finished product is going to be beautiful. I just know it absolutely. I'm so psyched it's all I can think of sometimes.

And today: Cleaning the house and massively cleaning the birdcages again for tomorrow's party. Then, setting down to read HP7. Okay, one quick, non-spoilery note on this series, and I'm sorry if it's less than positive: I love JK Rowling, you all know that. I admire her and respect her, I think she's a terrific woman and I adore her stories. The one complaint I have about her storytelling though, is that she uses all of these extraneous characters when she's already got hundreds at her disposal. I think she could just as easily recycle characters from the other books, characters that have been pointless of have fallen by the wayside, instead of introducing a thousand new ones for each story. In one instance, one character is completely pointless. Why not use an established one? This way when something intense happens involving that character, there is an actual emotional reaction? Instead I sat there and went, "Oh. Well, okay then." Too many useless characters. That's my complaint.

And tomorrow: Going to pick up Jo-chan, stopping for ice cream and last minute shopping, then waiting on folks to show up for our annual office summer party. Evening: me crashing and not wanting to clean up. Monday: Taking the birds to Laura, maybe even more last minute shopping, and then evening: ice cream and movies at my parents' house with Jo-chan. I'm thinking Blazing Saddles unless she's already seen it.

And Tuesday: Dropping the dogs off for boarding and seeing my folks and Gran off to Florida.

And Wednesday: Jo-chan and I getting to MacArthur and getting on a plane to FL.

Holy crap, full week coming up!

Then Disneyworld and the huge Hula show (that I am attending and not performing) and seeing all of my Hula brothers and sisters and meeting new Kumu Hulas perhaps. Then coming home to work and possibly Wong tournament and then starting to film THIS MOVIE THAT IS HAPPENING!

THis weekend = awesomeness

Last night was Spencer's graduation party in Easthampton. Let me preface this by saying that you have not seen evil until you've seen Easthampton town on a Friday night in the summer. The Townies are out in droves, all bleach and scene and metro and money and attitude. I would rather talk to a crackwhore in downtown Riverhead than associate with these people.

The party itself was fantastic. SB's friends are the best group of teenagers / young adults I have ever met in my life. I have a fondness for teenagers (as well as for old people) in general; I like them ever so much more than young children because teenagers are at an interesting, challenging age where they have so much to say. Anyway, this is the nicest group of kids I have ever met, and they all adore Spencer, and rightly so. ("They think he's a righteous dude!")

SB's parents (my aunt and uncle) also hired a DJ, which is a guarantee for me to have a great time. Jo-chan has recently become obsessed with the song "Come on Eileen" which was my favorite song when it came out in, what, '83? Back then I even made up my own dance to it. It was so neat that Jo-chan had only just discovered it (through the game Silent Hill, no less!) Jo-chan wasn't sure about going out on the dance-floor, but I am like a dance-floor fool as some of you know. I requested "Come On Eileen" and when the DJ played it, Jo-chan and I were the first ones on the dance floor. We just started spazzing out and then I showed her my dance I had made up when I was like 10 or something. By the time we were doing that (and the pics of that are priceless!) a bunch of people decided to come and dance, too. I requested a bunch of songs through the night and we hardly left the dance floor. My aunt and her co-workers and friends were up there busting a move, too. At one point one of Spencer's young friends was dancing with me, too, but this kid was dancing with everyone: people's moms, Spencer, the music teacher... He was just having a blast.

Then their music teacher, the very cool Mr. Howe came over to talk to Jo-chan and I for a good half an hour. He's a supercool teacher and the three of us talked about the state of education and teenagers and school, fitting in, and alternately, choosing not to fit in, which is where Jo-chan is right now in her life. I have always respected her for that punk ethos that has always been so important to me, and Mr. Howe told her how brave she is for choosing to be herself even when it meant not fitting in. (By "punk" I don't mean like street-punk or even necessarily music choice, but just the punk ethos of "this is how I live my life and you don't have to like it.")

At one point Betsy got up and made a speech to Spencer which pretty much had everyone in tears. She told him that it was her honor to raise him, to never change, to never forget where home is. Towards the end of the night some guy in his 50s or so came up to me, grabbed my hand and said, "Don't ever stop dancing, kid." O_o By that time Spencer was hanging around with a group of his friends and his girlfriend and the DJ was playing his song, which, unbeknownst to most people, has always been his song. Or rather, a song that I've always associated with him. It's Billy Joel's "For The Longest Time." The reason I've always thought of SB for this song was that on his second birthday, Celie (our other cousin who used to live with my parents and me) and I had been singing it in the car on the way to their house. Once we got there, we started seranading SB with this song. SB used to hate it when people sang to him or at him, and Celie and I used to torment him by singing to him. (I know that sounds mean, but he was such a funny little boy and he never got really upset.) We sang it to him until he put his head under the cushions of the couch. Anyway, so then last year when SB was in his very small choral group at high school, (The Manly Men,) they did an a capella rendition of this song which pretty much made me want to cry. Last night they closed out the party with this song and it got me all emo again. I can't believe this boy is going away.

I forced him to introduce me to his adorable girlfriend, which he did reluctantly and with an embarrassed grin. But she's the cutest little thing.

Anyway, but most of the night was Jo-chan, Betsy and I dancing around to the side of a group of teenagers who were younger than most of the songs they played. I can happily say that I outlasted every single one of them with hours to spare. But I also stupidly twisted my ankle and today I'm really tight from all my superfly hip-hop moves. ;D I dance like a maniac when there's a DJ but it never occurs to me that it's going to hurt the next day. >_>

AND THEN! I came home to an email from Shane, the guy I have in mind for th lead in that movie. It's a very casual email sort of like, "Sure, sounds like loads of fun! But the blood is going to be expensive." To Shane, this is just another movie he's in on (because he's always doing stuff like this,) but to me, this just MADE MY NIGHT and I peed my pants in joy.

Basically, YES, SHANE ACCEPTED THE ROLE and THE MOVIE IS DEFINITELY GOING ON! I emailed him today giving him the starting date but told him that I would work around his schedule. I only met the dude once but I have the feeling he's going to be awesome. You know what? This finished product is going to be beautiful. I just know it absolutely. I'm so psyched it's all I can think of sometimes.

And today: Cleaning the house and massively cleaning the birdcages again for tomorrow's party. Then, setting down to read HP7. Okay, one quick, non-spoilery note on this series, and I'm sorry if it's less than positive: I love JK Rowling, you all know that. I admire her and respect her, I think she's a terrific woman and I adore her stories. The one complaint I have about her storytelling though, is that she uses all of these extraneous characters when she's already got hundreds at her disposal. I think she could just as easily recycle characters from the other books, characters that have been pointless of have fallen by the wayside, instead of introducing a thousand new ones for each story. In one instance, one character is completely pointless. Why not use an established one? This way when something intense happens involving that character, there is an actual emotional reaction? Instead I sat there and went, "Oh. Well, okay then." Too many useless characters. That's my complaint.

And tomorrow: Going to pick up Jo-chan, stopping for ice cream and last minute shopping, then waiting on folks to show up for our annual office summer party. Evening: me crashing and not wanting to clean up. Monday: Taking the birds to Laura, maybe even more last minute shopping, and then evening: ice cream and movies at my parents' house with Jo-chan. I'm thinking Blazing Saddles unless she's already seen it.

And Tuesday: Dropping the dogs off for boarding and seeing my folks and Gran off to Florida.

And Wednesday: Jo-chan and I getting to MacArthur and getting on a plane to FL.

Holy crap, full week coming up!

Then Disneyworld and the huge Hula show (that I am attending and not performing) and seeing all of my Hula brothers and sisters and meeting new Kumu Hulas perhaps. Then coming home to work and possibly Wong tournament and then starting to film THIS MOVIE THAT IS HAPPENING!