Sucky Reality TV

I will start by admitting I do not watch very much television. I am not trying to sound like an elitist asshole and that TV is beneath me.I work, go to school and have two kids...but when flipping the channels and watching pieces of some of the programming, I do wonder who the hell likes this stuff.

OK, so I watched part of Rock Of Love, a reality show where "ladies" try to impress and ensnare Brett Michael of the eighties glam rock band Poison. Maybe two of all the girls were funny and fun, most of them were clueless and sad in spandex and way too much makeup. The scariest moments were when cameras would show these girls lying in bed drunk with their makeup all smeared. Faded youth plus a woman who's trying grimly to look 18 is a train wreck. I am no prude and if you want to show what god gave you you have my blessing (not that you should give a shit) however I wonder why these girls do not understand that we are not laughing with them.

There is one reality show that I watch with my husband one in a while and that is The biggest loser. Other than forcing the contestants to weigh in wearing sports bras..which must be horrifying for them, they show is careful to be a positive program. The teams are forced to compete with each other in physical activities and never forces them to eat bugs or blatantly exploits them. You root for them to succeed.

The celeb reality shows have a different vibe to them. Celebrities seem to have a lot more awareness of how they are being portrayed and have ability to manipulate the cameras to get attention. The B- Celeb laden Surreal Life was a lot of posturing and fake drama. I watched a few episodes and got bored fast. When watching these shows I think of the fable of Narcissus, so enamored of his own reflection.

Dude looks like a lady.

My friend and I were talking the other day about how some people show both their feminine and their masculine sides. I don't really mean like Ryan Seacrest or manscaping...not cosmetic type stuff. I mean when you see a beautiful girl who walks stridently without any feminine swishes or flourishes.

I used to be vaguely embarrassed about my masculine side but now I really see it as an important part of me.

Camile Paglia is always looking at the notion of femininity and masculinity. From her book Sexual Personae

"the inner dynamic of all artistic creation is a psychic union between masculine and feminine powers." She described her method as interdisciplinary, as it combined "literary criticism, art history, and psychology in what I believe is a new synthesis."

The Boy can throw a party

One of the common traits in Autism is a very scripted, repetitive style of playing. My son used to simply recreate scenes from movies with the corresponding toys. He would only make the toys speak the words from the movies.

He also will set up his toys on the floor exactly as the appear on the back of the toy package that shows all the figures in the set.

Recently he has been getting more creative, he told me that he is celebrating Lightning McQueen's 9th birthday (not in the movie) and he lines all of his toys up in a procession....it takes him hours as he slowly leads the toy parade out of his room and to the living room. He supplies the party with play food and baby bottles as snacks and even festoons decorations out of bits of plastic. He has been repeating this same exact party every day but the party is all his imagination and a wonderful new skill.

Autism Speaks, World Series Trophy

A perfect Day...if you are not a Mom you may be bored reading this.

Yesterday my kids were gone for the day and I had the day off from work. I daydreamed endlessly about what I would do with myself for 7 hours with no cares in the world.

I went for the first time to the Framingham State Campus and got my parking sticker and wandered around. To me this is a big campus, back when I was in college my graduating class was only 54 people! The kids walking around were all very young looking but I will be taking my classes at night so I imagine their will be some people my age.

Then I had a mani and pedi while drinking an iced coffee....wonderfully relaxing and now pretty pink toes and fingers.

Went to the mall and drank a hot beverage while I browsed and people watched. Still annoyingly difficult to find petite pants that do not have to be hemmed...oh well not going to let that bother me on my perfect day.

Came home put on sweats and had a glass of Chardonnay (to counteract the coffee overload) and watched some more iron chef.

I was refreshed and happy to see my smiling children when they shouted MOM with glee as they came home. Being a Mom rocks when you are well rested and indulgent once in a while. It reminds me of a quote by Machiavelli "Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better."

Iron Chef America- bringing it back

I was catching up on my tivo'd Iron Chef episodes last night and I started to think about why I love the show so much. I love to cook and to eat, no surprise there, but there is a lot more to it than that.

This is extreme cooking and is really beautiful to watch. The precision, speed and confidence needed to create the dishes really puts these chefs in a league all their own. Plus it is a total turn on watching men cook with such passion. Not to leave out the one female Iron Chef Cat Cora, she is gorgeous, confident and totally fearless. I love it when she does a shot of Ouzo after the battle is over. These guys are rock stars to me.

I am not particularly athletic, but I can cook and watching this show inspires me to be creative and take pride in this skill. In the eighties what with working Moms and frozen dinners, cooking well was was virtually ignored.

I think Martha Stewart was the catalyst that helped "bring it back" by showing people that cooking food properly with quality ingredients can be a true pleasure.

Questions with no answers

Lately my son has been bombarding me with strange questions that have no real answers. I feel like I am back in High School miserably failing my math class while everyone else seems to know the answers.

Mom, who is the good guy, the moon or the sun? Is the ice a good guy or a bad guy? Mom does the snow get mad at the sun? Does the snow hate the rain? My son is preoccupied with two things...good guys vs bad guys and anything weather related. I am torn between nudging him toward reality and fostering his imagination.

When he is scolding me now he calls me a snowball or a hotdog. Unfortunately for my husband when he is mad at his Dad he calls him a peckerhead. (Yes I am laughing right now).

The other thing he is doing which is adorable is giving endearing names to objects. It is cute when my five year old son says about my broken printer "Mom is printy feeling sick?"...however it is annoying when Rachel Ray gives endearing nicknames to her food evoo and sammies anyone? It always makes me wonder if she gives her private parts little nicknames too. Maybe it is just me....

Things that make me happy

Pappelbon's splitter

hazelnut coffee from Dunkin Donuts

Casillero Del Diablo

seeing people singing in their car

Iron Chef America

paid vacation days

Quite Literally

My son takes what you say or do very literally. I know this but sometimes if I am tired or preoccupied I forget.

He had to have blood drawn the other day and when the nurse pulled the needle out afterwards he said in a shocked voice"You put a hole in me." The nurse apologized a few times but my son was still annoyed.

Cute little expressions like sweating my ass off have him looking at my backside in puzzlement. "Yes honey I know, Mom still has a big ass, it is just an expression."

Afraid of Clowns

Had to take the two kids to children's hospital yesterday. There were two clowns in the developmental medicine department "entertaining" the children. My kids were horrified. They wanted nothing to do with them. They kept turning away from them and eventually my toddler ran and hid behind me. My 5 year old son just ignored them completely.

My kids are very into slapstick and have a great sense of humor...but apparently like their Mom, clowns kind of weird them out.