Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Citizen Kane and other random thoughts

You know, I really hate that movie Citizen Kane. I'm not sure why I am telling you all this. Something about Christmas time brings that memory and memories of "Rosebud"to the forefront of my mind. I used to teach that movie in my film class. I remember the first time I showed it to my students. When they realized what Rosebud was, they were sorely disappointed at how anticlimactic it was. "You mean that is what we sat here for ten hours to find out?!?"

I know some of you will disagree. And you know, that's okay. As you can tell from yesterday's post, I'm okay with not winning arguments. The "Johnocracy" is, unfortunately, alive and well. For those of you who hadn't heard this before, this was a term JB coined on our trip to Africa. There was no doubt in anyone's mind: back me up here Tara (I'd say Kelsey and Ajit, but they are only occasional blog readers) that JB was the leader of our group. And whenever he couldn't back up his reasons for a decision, he'd simply remind us that it didn't matter what his reason was: this was a Johnocracy. And you know what? We were okay with that. We listened. We fell into step without question. Were we brainwashed? Maybe. But it made for an easy trip. Truthfully, besides ending up stuck in Mozambique and having to bribe our way out of the country (minor inconvenience), the Johnocracy came through for us without fail.

All right. Another random thought. I hate to cook. I hate to bake. And last night, only proved it to me. My adventures in baking cookies for our cookie exchange went anything but smoothly. My wonderful fellow wives were very sweet and told me that my cookies looked great, and they would have never gathered that they caused me and JB so much angst had I never said it. Awwww, how sweet of them to lie to my face to make me feel like I belonged in their amazing-wives club. JB aren't sure if it was the pans or the oven, but we just couldn't get those things to make normal size cookies. They were either so big they covered the entire pan like a brownie mix or so flat that you couldn't even pick them up.

JB was determined to let me make these myself since he thought it a bit odd to help make cookies for a "ladies" event. (I won't mention the fact that one of the wives said he was "metro" today. Ronnie, are you reading this? You are the king o' metro! Is JB metro too?!) However, he quickly stepped in to help nonetheless. And even he was having a heck of a time! In the end, they tasted fine, but man they were a PAIN. Cooking stinks. I had flour all over the place. What a mess I made. Scrubs even got his first taste of chocolate as one of the cookies hit the floor. We have taught him to "leave" until given the instruction to eat. But after picking up the cookie, we decided to let him have the crumbs since he "left" so well.

Add to it that we were baking them late last night, well past our bedtime, after dog class with Scrubs. Oh, while I am jumping topics . . . let me jump to dog class. Our dear Scrubby was a perfect angel in dog class last night. He was amazing everyone with how well he listened to every command. Of course, I kept quiet the secret to his success: eating Benadryl like candy! "Get in a down and stay there for ten minutes?" He would look at me as if to say, "Could you please give me something harder?"

Seriously though, Scrubs is turning into a great dog. He will now sit and stay until I give him the command to come. I actually got him to sit outside the bedroom the other day while I cleaned a spot on the carpet. This was a great test because he loves pieces of cloth. I'm sure it was driving him crazy. He will lie down and let us walk all over the place and wait for the command to get up. He will give five, roll over, wait to eat until we tell him, leave anything on command, etc. We are even working on him going to a "spot" when the doorbell rings. So far, I can get him to do this if I know the ring is coming and have a treat ready (i.e., JB standing outside and waiting till I give the command to ring it). However, if it rings randomly, he still goes a bit crazy. I really do love my puppy!!! And the Benadryl doesn't hurt any.

I actually could go on and tell you more about my day, but to prevent people thinking I am a total spaz by jumping topics again, I'll sign off for now.

As Bara loves to say: Peace out!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ya know Wen, I used to think that about your dad. He was always right. Now I look back and I think he just had a way of convincing me he was always right. I found out that he doesn't know everything or maybe it's just because he told me I was right once in awhile. His being always right didn't seem to last as long as JB's has though. Maybe JB will let you know you are right about something one of these days. lol!!! mom

Anonymous said...

I am going to answer the metro question. I personally would say that John is definatley "metro." Ronnie on the other hand likes to refer to John as "renaissance man." I don't know what the difference is, but I call it like I see it. Ronnie and John are both metro.

Anonymous said...

First of all, I remember "Citizen Cane" from my high school media class back in 1980. Amazing they still use that film. I agree that it was a let down, but still a good film. hmmm... I'll have to see about renting that.
As for your cookies... don't give up. I stunk at cooking for many years. You will finally get it. Things like, not melting your butter in the microwave, because you forgot to bring it to room temp. make a big difference. Also, how much you stir the batter, or using med eggs when it calls for large etc... Baking is very precise. Hang in there. I know you can do it.
As for Metro Man - I think of them as guys who wear clear nail polish and are very "coiffed". That's not you is it John? :)

Linda

Anonymous said...

There was no lying whatsoever happening in the "wives club" today, your cookies really do look and taste great! =) (And I know a thing or two about cookies.. lol)

AW said...

There is no shame in the Metro Man. I'm married to one and he is probably the handsomest, funniest, art and music appreciating, gifted chef, and well-dressed guys I know!

Anonymous said...

Personally, your Tante thinks john is NOT a metro man -and is a renaissance man --they are not the same to me -but then again i've been gone for 20 years!
love you