I’m suffering from this new dilemma. It has to do with Facebook. (Doesn’t everything?)
This isn’t about how the Facebook newsfeed is now all shared articles, video ads, or people sharing photos attached to recipes. (Where are the pithy status updates of yore? I never thought I’d miss them, but I do.)
This is a relatively new dilemma. Here it is: I’ve started seeing photos where, even when I study each face, I have no idea who anyone in the photo is.
Sometimes, while scrolling, I’ll pass the header telling me “So and so is tagged in a photo.” Then I stare at the photo and try to figure out which one of these people is my friend. When I can’t figure it out, I scroll up, go, “Oh yeah, wow, she’s really changed since middle school” (or whatever), and then go on my way.
But it makes me wonder what is the point of being friends with people if:
a) I never talk to them;
b) they never talk to me;
c) I can’t recognize them in a picture; or
d) there are more than 2 degrees of separation between us.
Not to sound exclusive or anything, but if I’m going to waste time on Facebook, I’d prefer to waste it on people I actually know in real life and care about. (Along those lines, I guess I should also excise those people I’ve hidden and thus forgotten about.)
Oh Facebook…what will I worry superficially about when you’re no longer a thing?
Inspired by a conversation at work today, I thought I would tell you 3 stories of things lost and found.
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1. A Great Time at Great America
I was at Great America with some friends – I think this was in high school or maybe right afterwards. We were walking through the park when we saw a cell phone behind a chain link fence, under a roller coaster. We somehow fished it out, and I really wanted to be a hero, so I called “Mom” in the phone and explained the situation. The mom asked me to take the phone to the information booth at the front of the park, and she would call her son’s friend and tell him where to pick it up.
That wasn’t really enough to call myself a hero, so I didn’t take it to the info booth right away. And before we’d gotten around to it, the phone was ringing and I answered it. It was the kid calling from his friend’s phone, and he was happy that I’d found it, and we all agreed to meet up at the Drop Zone. We gave him the phone back and everyone was happy. What a great day! (In retrospect, yeah, the safe and appropriate thing to do would have been to take the phone to the information booth. But whatever, it all worked out.)
2. Milka: Does a Body Good
While in college at Davis, I was walking across campus when I spotted a wallet on the ground. It had very little info inside, but there was a student ID. When I got back to my room, I used the ID to look up the student’s Davis email address, and I sent her a message. She called me, very happy, and asked if I could possibly drop off her wallet the next day. It was a Friday, and I had no classes, but I said yes. Then she asked if I could drop it off before 10am, because she was leaving for a weekend in Tahoe with her friends. Ten sounded very early (I’m rolling my eyes at myself right now) but I said yes again, and she told me where her office was located.
She was a grad student in the German and Russian department, and I found her pretty easily. She was ecstatic, and offered me twenty bucks. I turned it down. Then she said, “Well, how about some chocolate? I bring this back from Germany, you can’t get it here,” and she gave me a Milka bar. It was plum and cinnamon, except it wasn’t even in English. It was delicious, and Drew and I have looked all over, and never found that flavor again. We still talk about “the best Milka bar.”
3. The Ungrateful Salad Eater
In New York, I worked as a cashier at a little lunch place that served primarily salads and sandwiches. One day, one of the guys who worked there found a purse that someone had left upstairs. I looked through the bag and found a paystub, and called the company and asked for the woman whose name was on it. When I told her that I had her purse, she responded very calmly. “Oh, okay.” Then I told her just to come pick it up whenever.
I noticed, when looking for her ID, that there were bunches of bills stuffed all over the place – it was super messy but there seemed to be a lot of money just haphazardly shoved in there. But I didn’t take any of it. Because morals. And then finally – FINALLY – this woman showed up, looking really bored, and just took the purse and kind of wandered away. No thank you. No gratitude. No relief. No offer of “reward.” And I sort of regretted not taking at least ten bucks for my trouble.
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So there you have it. Two stories have happy endings; the third is a lesson in doing the right thing even when no one cares what you do.
My reaction: We’re getting into this tradition of pointing out the familiar names in the credits (which, of course, play before the movie). It’s fun. It’s also fun that it’s been like 7 weeks and we’re still doing this. I don’t know if either of us thought it would last very long.
I actually really liked Make Mine Music, which I’ve never seen before, especially after the last two weeks. This is like Fantasia-light. Like a few little musical stories: “Peter and the Wolf,” “Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet,” “Casey at the Bat.” It was really fun, and not too long.
I liked that the music that wasn’t chosen wasn’t all classical. It was a good mix of musics and animations. I would watch it again.
My reaction: is best summed up by this side-by-side comparison:
Halfway through the movie:
Drew: Do you like this?
Me: It’s okay.
Drew: I like this.
Half an hour later, the movie is still going:
Drew: We can stop, if you want.
Me: I’m kind of over it.
Drew: We don’t need over an hour of this.
Sorry, Three Caballeros. There are, as Drew put it, bound to be “some lame weeks” during this project.
B’s reaction: He was having An Evening. So he spent a lot of time walking around crying, or throwing himself on the floor. Alternating between that, and cracking up at some of our antics.
Next weekend, we should go back to watching these in the mornings.
I wrote this in May of 2003 for a friend who worked in a mall, and used to complain about it occasionally. (It was an Abercrombie, I think.) (The poem is written in blank verse.)
To Work In A Mall
How tepid a life, to work in a mall
To see the same overfed, overbred
crowd, lurching around vendors & candy
machines. To stand in a doorway & spout
the same rubbish— “Hey, how ya doin’? If
I can help you with anything, just let
me know. Stenciled Ts and flip-flops half off.”
How worthless to fold that same pair of shorts
eighteen times in one day (& you know they
are the same pair because of the crease in
the waistband) because people try them on,
Take them off, drop them on the thin carpet
for posterity—or you—to pick up.
How tiring to be manhandled and
questioned for eight hours a day about
the same things—FAQs—when all you want
is to go down the way to the Starbucks,
& ask them for the strongest drink they have.
My reaction: The longest Disney movie (Fantasia) is followed by the shortest Disney movie. Dumbo weighs in at 64 minutes. Love it. I haven’t seen this movie in ages, but Drew and I both remember it like it was yesterday. I love the beginning, where the baby animals are all being “delivered.” (Ha! see what I did there?) Dumbo is from early enough in the Disney years that there’s still un-PC stuff (like the faceless roustabouts putting up the big top; or the crows, led by Jim Crow). “Baby Mine” is still a tear-jerker, although honestly at that point in the movie my baby mine was freaking out about something so I missed most of the song.
B’s reaction: Eventually I’m sure I’ll have some comment besides “He didn’t really watch this one.” But for now…he still didn’t really watch this one.
My reaction: So much nudity. A drunk donkey. So many things that wouldn’t be in a movie made today. It’s really a bummer that the need to be politically correct has made it impossible that Disney would ever make another movie like this. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.
I remember seeing this in the theatre – according to the internet it must have been the rerelease in 1990. That is a long movie for a 6-year-old (and her 4-year-old brother) to sit through. I remember the live-action parts being really long…but actually they aren’t.
There are a lot of segments in Fantasia. I’m not crazy about the abstract stuff at the beginning. But other than that, I like pretty much everything. I would say, the Nutcracker Suite stuff is near the top. So is Night on Bald Mountain. And Beethoven’s Pastoral.
Although, rewatching Fantasia with fresh eyes made me realize that it was significant inspiration for what I used to draw when I was a kid. The abstract stuff in particular. But also ponies and fish.
B’s reaction: Dang, this is a long one. Did you know Fantasia is 2-plus hours? And there’s a lot of downtime with the live-action segments.
As per usual, B didn’t watch much of it. But we’ve gotten smart enough to watch them on weekend mornings, rather than trying to do it at night, so at least he’s happy while he’s running around not watching the movies.
Covering up the Fantasia 2000 half of the DVD cover
I wouldn’t say I’m a neat freak. But I do like things to be organized. And complete.
That said, B has a variety of toys. Many of these toys come in sets. Like a set of 8 stacking cups, or 12 books…or 75 plastic food items. (I saw that at Target for $10 and had to get it for him.)
Sometimes we do a quick clean-up at night, and just kind of collect everything in his toy drawer unit. But sometimes I have to sit down and put things back into their actual sets (and sometime their actual boxes) and see if all the pieces are, in fact, there.
I do this with varying success.
1. From the top…the 75-piece food set. Once we got it open, we realized how much, shall we say, brand influence there was on this set. There’s some Hamburger Helper and a Betty Crocker cake mix and some Progresso soup. I still really like this set though, although the last couple days when B has pulled this out and looked at me hopefully, I’ve surveyed the soup of other small toy pieces on the living room floor…and redirected his attention.
2. Wooden alphabet blocks. I love them so much. Although do NOT step on one, it is SO painful. I’m not even sure how many there are in the set, but I counted 40 back in the bag, which sounds right.
3. Noah’s Ark set. This isn’t even fair because they don’t all fit into the ark. So it’s tricky.
4. Disney baby animal books. As soon as B sees any of them in the box they come in, he has to dump them out. But he loves these books. I don’t know when was the last time I saw all 12 books together.
5. While I was assessing the various sets of toys, I spotted these blocks and went to see if all 13 were actually accounted for. Which was a mistake, because then B was like OH YEAH I LOVE THOSE BLOCKS WHY ARE THEY CONSOLIDATED IN THAT CARRYING COMPARTMENT.
6. I love this train. But I find the pieces everywhere. Lately I’ve started putting it all back together whenever I get a chance. I had finally, finally found the last pieces right before I took that picture – I was actually saying to Drew, “Hold him for a sec, just a sec, hold him back–” while I was trying to grab my phone and turn on the camera, while B was crawling maniacally playfully toward the train to reclaim the smokestack for his own.
This is just scratching the surface. If anyone ever tells you that your child will accumulate a lot of stuff…they’re not kidding. People cannot resist giving toys to kids. And I totally get it. But I think I will start looking for nice, 1-piece toys to give to my friends’ kids from now on.
On the other hand…this weekend he started picking up his Duplos from the ground and putting them BACK in the box…which could open up a whole new world for us.
There was A LOT of hype around Disney’s latest film, Frozen. So when Drew and I finally saw it, we were both like, “Oh, okay…I mean, okay.” Some reviewer was running around calling it “The best Disney film since The Lion King,” which…no. And our friends were really talking it up.
But we walked out of the theatre with a lot of questions about a lot of plot holes.
WARNING: There be spoilers ahead.
For instance:
1. Wait, why is Kristoff’s family the trolls? Wasn’t he the son of one of the ice men in the opening number? If he wasn’t someone’s kid, what was he doing there? Where’d he get a sled and a reindeer?
2. I’m not sure I understand why the trolls have to modify Anna’s memory. There’s no other way to fix her? Why do they have to create this big fear in Elsa and her family? (See number 6)
3. At the end. How does Elsa suddenly understand how to thaw everything with love? What the heck does that mean? And how does one project it onto a frozen kingdom?
4. Why do the villagers suddenly accept Elsa and her sorcery, when they were previously so scared of her? But now it’s ok because she made us an ice rink?
5. Okay. So Elsa is a sorceress, Anna takes off after her, and leaves Hans in charge of the kingdom. He rules benevolently, handing out food and blankets to people. And then he mourns Anna when they all believe she is dead. No one in the kingdom knows about his treachery…So why do they all applaud when Anna punches him?
6. Do the trolls have to apologize for ruining so much of Elsa’s life with their fear mongering?
So, like I said, Drew and I both walked out of the theatre a little bit blah. We were both glad that Disney had made this movie, found it enjoyable if not thrilling, happy it’s part of the Disney oeuvre, etc etc.
But then, a crazy thing happened. Over the next 5 days, we must have watched the video of Elsa’s (Idina Menzel’s) coming-of-age song, “Let It Go,” a total of 2000 times. That is only a slight exaggeration. The view count for this video goes up by, like, millions every day. It’s insane.
Here, watch it now:
And now tell me that you’re not like, drooling to see this movie (even if you’ve seen it before). The more I watched that video, the more I was like, “Yeah! I can’t wait to see Frozen again!”
I started spotifying the soundtrack, and making coworkers watch the “Let It Go” video with me.
For our holiday gift exchange at work, someone gave me a CD of the soundtrack. And I wasn’t disappointed.
One night, I just searched out scenes from the movie on YouTube, then watched some behind-the-scenes footage with Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel…then just watched some Kristen Bell videos. (She is adorable, by the way.)
So now, yeah, I’m a fan of Frozen.
But I’d still like to get answers for the questions above.
(Or am I being too picky? Should I just…LET IT GO??)
I’ll back up a bit. I was at Barnes & Noble the other day, and their 2014 planners were 50% off. I picked up a cute polka-dotted one, but then I stood there thinking, “When was the last time I even used my planner?”
I just pulled it out of my purse. It’s open to the week of October 28.
I love scheduling things and all, but scheduling is so much more straight-forward when you do the same things week after week. My planner was extremely useful when I was juggling three part-time jobs and making sure that I could get to all three of them, and also trying to coordinate seeing shows around the Bay Area. Now that I just go to the one job, and I don’t go out anymore, it’s a lot easier to keep straight in my head where I’m supposed to be. (Answer: work. If not work, then go home.)
Also, Drew and I had a wall calendar this year, which we actually used. And that makes more sense, since it’s accessible to both of us.
I guess my purse planner has been replaced by a combination of kitchen wall calendar and iPhone calendar…which I hate to admit, but there it is. The thing is, I can put appointments into my phone, and they’ll show up on my work calendar as well! Which is very helpful.
So, I guess I don’t have a dilemma, so much as I have a sad fact to face: 2014 is gonna be the first year in many years that I don’t bother buying a planner for myself.
Even though it was $4 at Barnes & Noble, and very cute. Did I mention it was covered in polka dots?
But I didn’t buy it. Instead, I bought the board book version of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which I later discovered Drew has never even heard of. So I think it was a good choice. (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom also has polka dots on the cover.)
Happy New Year! Let’s raise a glass to 2014 and to moving on, however (un)willingly we do so.
The Cameraphone Diaries 