Thursday, December 8, 2011

My Birthday

I celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago.  The last few years, my birthday's have gained a slight reputation of being on the bad side.  Two years ago, my beloved and wonderful husband totally forgot it.  He had an excuse, he had court the next day to defend himself from being sued and had remembered my birthday for the days leading up to it, but it escaped his mind entirely the day of.  Last year, while planning where to celebrate with a nice dinner, Tiny E somehow poked herself in the eye REALLY bad and cried for over an hour while we conceded and warmed up frozen spaghetti.  This year, I found myself driving on the top of a mountain amidst the worst snow conditions I have ever driven in.  There is more to it, but you can see the pattern here.  Nothing I would define as epically bad, but still.......Anyway, I wanted to record that weekend I spent, cause it was an interesting time.

My birthday fell on a Friday, and it happened to fall the weekend that Breaking Dawn Part 1 came out (for those of you that follow my life, you would know that my family has a strange tradition of seeing these movies up in Wyoming in this crappy theater together.  More on that in a bit.) Also, my sister in law Bronwyn was in her very first play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as a made up fairy "Foxglove" at the local college.  Also, my dad was speaking in church that Sunday and planned to tell some life experiences he doesn't share very much.  It was a total no brainer to go up there.  So my sister Cat and her son Booker, my sister Sue and me and my girls headed out on Friday afternoon in two cars.  We were making good time until we were about 2 hours away, the snow started to fall.  No problem, we just needed to be there by 7:30, to make B's play that night.  We had plenty of time.  Did I mention that my family lives on the other side of the infamous "South Pass"?  This is an infamous place in Mormon Pioneer stories, it is the place that the Martin and Willy Handcart Company got stuck in a winter storm that caused a lot of suffering and many to lose their lives and had to be rescued.  Anyway, we were making our way through this pass with some MAJOR snowfall.  You know the kind that pretty much blinds you?  The very lucky thing was that there was miraculously no wind.  South Pass winds are legendary.  They cause the pass to close a lot in the winter cause they are menacing and blow semi trucks down and little cars right away.  Speaking of closing, they closed the pass that night WHILE we were in it.  We must have barely made it in there before they closed it, and there was an official vehicle waiting at the other closure, waiting for us last crazy people to get out so they could lower the gate. 

Yeah, my skills got us through without one slip (with the help of the 4 new tires Rob had made sure were on there before our trip).  Man, it was a good thing we had those things.  It didn't get any better off the pass, we still had a 30 minute drive to Riverton, which took waaaay longer then that.  We didn't make much of the play.  We made it for the last few acts and pretty much missed B's entire performance.  My birthday dinner was wolfing down my requested sweet and sour chicken cold my sister had lovingly prepared in my honor and then left the girls with Cat, who decided the play was a total loss and skipped it.  It could have been worse, I could have spent my birthday dying on the top of a mountain as a tin can a semi ran over.  OR, it could have been spent turning around because the pass was closed and spending the night in a flea bag hotel in Rock Springs.  We shuddered over that thought more then the dying one.  So we triumphed South Pass, not a bad birthday after all I say. 

Sadly though, early that afternoon a beloved member of their community and orthodontist to my nieces and nephews, crashed his plane and was killed.  This is the man that makes his own fireworks and then puts on a free show every 4th of July that totally kicks butt (spoken about in a previous post, here).  So sad.  He was a good friend to my family and husband and father to his family, was a good support to B when she joined the church and is very missed by all.  Kind of sad it happened on my birthday, it's weird to think that day will be such a sad day for his family for the rest of their lives.

The next day was Saturday and we went to a matinee of Breaking Dawn.  I don't want to complain or anything, but the movie was legitimately pretty good and the theater had gotten a new sound system and the generator had been replaced and the audience was pretty quiet also- Taylor Lautner has obviously noticed the way his voice sounds when he talks and modified it this time  (WHERE IS THE FUN IN THAT????).  Luckily, the movie did give us some gems such as the werewolf pack conversation.  I sure missed that generator going off every 15 minutes or so, picking it's times to go eeeerrrrrrrrrrrrr...bumbumbumbumbum..... during a particularly brooding Edward moment.  The theater did seem to want to at least remind us where we were at the very end and produced a loud and nondescript crash somewhere in it's annals at the very last poignant and quiet scene.  Thanks old friend, you still have it in you, at least a little.

We were in our own that night, Amy and Scott had their company party that night, but in true form, mama bird made us a yummy casserole before she left.  We hung out that evening with my parents and watched a movie, then at about 10 they decided to head home (they live in Riverton too, but when we come to town, we stay at my sister's house).  Anyway, my parents had taken separate cars, coming at separate times, so they left in two different cars.  Shortly thereafter, I saw to my crying baby and then went back downstairs in time to see my brother shoot up and say, "you did WHAT?"  Turns out he was on the phone talking to my dad who had just rolled his truck on the ice.  He had called 911 before Matt (surprisingly, if you know him), and thought he better let us know what's going on.  We couldn't believe it.  We immediately bundled up and drove to where he was, thinking that he could be in shock and hurt worse then he thinks, which was not hurt at all according to him.  Amy and Scott were still gone and my mom wasn't answering her phone.  We got to the scene and there was a police car there already and surprisingly- Amy and Scott.  They had driven past and seen his truck there.  My dad was fine!  Crazy guy was fine.  The police man called the ambulance anyway just to be sure, we were glad, as we think we should be a bit cautious seeing as he is the "octo dad" and by that I mean he had 8 bypasses this summer on his heart.  He didn't have a scratch on him!  While they were checking him out we noticed that we were about 7 people standing on the side of the road in like 0 degree weather at 11 at night next to an ambulance, a cop, and a rolled truck- laughing and making jokes.  Don't come across that every day.  I took a picture on my phone and didn't send it to anyone and my phone has been washed since and is dead, so I guess those pics are gone forever.  I am sad, cause it is quite the memory.

The next day was Sunday, and at nine o'clock that morning, my dad stood up at church and delivered his talk.  Scott told him that he is a hard man to kill and he is right.  This world is not through with him yet and for that I am grateful.  I am not ready to be without him, and I am glad someone agrees with me.  After church Sue, Cat, Scout and I went to the first part of B's play for the matinee.  I am glad we did, it was fun seeing B and it was Scout's first play and she liked it.  In fact, B's part was pretty much done, so we all agreed to slip out and I told Scout and she said that she wanted to watch the fairy princess (Titania) wake up and see who she falls in love with.  I love that she was following along and liked it and wanted to know what happened next.  I loved that she had no idea that it was going to turn out to be a man that was turned into an ass.  I knew she would get a kick out of that.  She loved that group of guys (Bottom and company) and laughed really hard when they were on stage and I wish she could have seen the play they put on, she would have loved it.  We'll take her again when she is a few years older.  Good to know she enjoyed it though.

We went home that next morning and had a beautiful clear day and two of the best behaved little girls on the planet.  I can't think of one thing to complain about them on that drive home.  They were fabulous.  We got home and gave Rob a big hug and Lola sure was glad to see us too.

Notable moments to remember:

The giant Twilight cups and my disgust that I got Bella.  Then, Matt offering to go back to get me an Edward cup and then thinking it through in his head that he would have to ask the girl for the Edward one.

Leprechan Puck

Matt imitating leprechan Puck

Watching Paranormal Activity 2:  B staying awake the entire time and not watching a second of it, then asking us questions to get the story clear, Kyle's creepy room happenings and my rational explanation of the circumstances.

Did I forget anything?  I know I did, but I am out of ideas tonight.

I promise I didn't forget Hunch Cat.  I will NEVER forget Hunch Cat.  We watched that video on Amy's big screen tv I am not lying- no less then 50 times.  It kept getting funnier and funnier and I will NEVER ever not laugh upon viewing hunch cat.  I laughed just as hard on viewing number 49 as I did on viewing number 2.





I dedicate this video to my fellow hunch cat peeps, you know who you are and I know you are going to laugh:

For all of you that haven't seen Hunch Cat, first of all: you're welcome and second, do yourself a favor and watch it at least 3 times back to back. 

(Or 50 as we did.)


15 comments:

Amy said...

Of course I laughed again at Hunchcat...all by myself. Fun reading your post and remembering the fun, yet sometimes sad and stressful weekend. I wish I didn't have so many other things going on so I could have done more with you guys. I still haven't seen Breaking Dawn! Am I the last female in America? Probably. Anyway, good times. Glad you were safe and come back again soon (after the weddings :) Haha.

Cat said...

It was fun to revisit that trip, Em. Thanks.

Haley said...

Oh man, I can just picture you guys laughing at that 50 times! Hahaha. Marcus and I just watched it a good 7 times and we laughed so hard. The way it walks off on it's hind legs is so funny and creepy! Sounds like a fun weekend, besides some drama of course. Glad everyone was safe. YES! The wolf pack scene was absolutely hilarious. The Star Wars voices were so great. Nia and I were laughing so hard! I also laughed at the idea of Matt going to ask the people for an Edward cup. Hahaha.

Emily said...

Yeah Aim, it was too bad you had so much going on, we still managed to have some good times though.

Once in a while randomly while we watched hunch cat, Matt would go, "it was so funny that time!" and I totally knew what he meant. Ahh, good fun.

Yeah Haley- why did they feel the need to make their voices like that? I know Jacob said something especially funny that Kelly and I kept repeating, but it is escaping my mind at the moment. Amy, you need to go see it and report back the funny thing Jacob says.

Sue said...

I love this post! I love reading about that weekend! Too bad you lost those pictures of us standing on the side of the road at Dad's accident laughing. What is wrong with us?

You really glossed over the whole ruckus in Kyle's room while we were watching Paranormal Activity 2 and your explanation of how it happened due to air compressure caused by the furnace going on. I forgot that B listened to the entire movie hiding under a blanket and did not look at the screen once. Hilarious.

And yes, we did watch Hunch Cat about 50 times downstairs, but then we watched it about another 20 times upstairs the next day. Mom hadn't seen it yet. I laughed so hard that night it hurt and gave me a sore throat.

Okay here are some things that were left out that I think need to be recorded.

Emily and I thinking that South Pass was only 12 miles long and started at the Rock Shop and how incredibly wrong we were.

Me telling Emily that we were done going downhill once we got out of South Pass and then we started going downhill and Emily yelled "You said we were done going downhill!"

Me deciding I was just too stressed out to figure out Emily's Ipod and find the Tobolowsky Files and I wasn't even the one driving.

Emily and I getting the giggles that first night we went to the play. The bad kind of giggles. The kind that you can't stop and you are in an inappropriate place to be giggling. And the look we gave each other when we both realized that Puck was a leprechaun.

And finally:

Tan wrinklies. That makes me laugh almost as hard as hunch cat.

Haley said...

Ewww.


So what was going on in Kyle's room. I'm curious.

Haley said...

I also remember him saying something funny but can't remember either. How did you like it though? I started getting light headed at the end there, pretty greusome! I thought it was pretty good. Could have done without the sex scenes in the movie and in the book. We all know what's going on, we don't need the details!

Sue said...

We were in the middle of the movie and most of us were watching it pretty frozen in place by fear. The people on the right end of the couch could see down the hallway to Kyle's room and they noticed his door opened a little. It was like 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning. That kind of freaked them out and then a little while later we hear a crash in his room. I cannot believe we didn't wake up Amy, two floors up, with our screams. Didn't wake up Kyle either for that matter. None of us dared go check on what happened. Emily finally got up the courage to go check. I would have, Booker was clinging to me in fear and I didn't want to leave him, haha. She was only checking to see if Kyle was even in his room asleep and he was. We didn't know what caused the crash until the next morning when Kyle told us he remembers his arm kind of jerking in his sleep and he knocked his light off his bed side table. Oh yeah, after the crash we could see a light flickering in his room. Of all the movies to be watching when something like that happens!

Emily tried to come up with some scientific explanation and Matt was pretty convinced it was an hour long prank that Kyle was doing. Good times.

Sue said...

Oh yeah, we never did get an explanation for his door opening a little on it's own. I think we all wanted Em's air compression, furnace theory to be the explanation.

I thought the movie was okay. I thought the worst part was when her back broke in the living room. Other than that, it wasn't so bad.

Emily said...

I did gloss over the PN2 thing, but I figured my post was long and wordy enough. The comment section is a fine place for that talk. Yes, during the movie, simultaneously Kyle's door came open and there was a crash and his light went out. Then at intervals, the light would flicker on for a second then go out. Perhaps my explanation that explained the events had a few too many "sometimes that can happen" in them, I still feel like the furnace/air compression thing was very plausible.

Thanks for the added memories. I particularly laughed at you too stressed to work my ipod and not being the one driving. Ha!

I thought BD was pretty good, emaciated Bella was done so well, she looked as terrible as I pictured her in the book and the spine breaking was crazy gross and awesome. Personally, I thought the sex was done tastefully enough. You know there are scores and scores of people that have been waiting for that and needed to feel like it was worth the wait. There are people that feel seeing that kind of stuff is important, so with that in mind it was done in a fine manner. The part in the book that made me roll my eyes was the vampire on vampire sex and how much that was talked up. I thought it smacked of a lame fantasy in Stephenie Meyer's brain, but perhaps that's just me. She got pretty fantastical when it comes to vampires, so I suppose their love making would have to be equally over the top.
The birth scene was pretty dang bloody and in my opinion awesome, but then again- I'm cool rolling with the gore.

Haley said...

Oh yeah I didn't mind the gore, just started getting a little woozy. Probably because they did it so well! Yeah it's crazy how bad they made her look. I loved how they showed the "change." So cool. I also thought they did a good job sticking to the story. That's so funny what happened in Kyle's room, I would have died. I wouldn't have been EVER watching that movie though. I wouldn't be able to sleep for months.

Emily said...

Sue- we didn't mention my windshield wiper traumas. During the thick of it, they got really loud and would make us all jump and for a while only granted me a few square inches in which to see down at the bottom. I had to hunch like a little old lady (or hunchcat if you like) for a good long wile, long enough to give me a back and neck ache. Then on our way home, I got out to examine what their problem was and the whole thing came off in my hand! I gingerly put it back and we drove on and it actually worked ok, but during a bad time outside of Heber, it totally failed me and we drove blind for a panicky moment or two. We luckily found an open auto place in Heber and the guy replaced it for us very nicely and the garbage can outside was FILLED with empty wiper blade packaging. Good times. South Pass totally shredded my wiper.

Amy said...

I can TOTALLY picture you guys driving over South Pass, stressed out, hunched over, and of course, laughing. I love the "I thought we were done going downhill" comment. On nights like these it seems the pass goes on forever.
OK, I saw Breaking Dawn last night! Sarah's visiting this weekend. We had a marathon day yesterday. We got the announcements in the mail, her wedding slideshow almost finished, tied her quilt Grandma's giving her, I made a big pot of Steak Soup and 4 loaves of wheat bread! Anyway, the subject of Breaking Dawn came up and Sarah said she hadn't seen it and I said, "we should go tonight at 10 after we finish the quilt." Matt said that he'd see it again, Kelly, Annie, and Kyle all piped up, too. (Kyle hadn't seen it either). So we almost finished the quilt by 9:45 and ran to the movie. I wish I had known before I left that I had an assignment to look for lame Jacob lines. How about this: EVERY line that Jacob says is lame! We were joking that the screenwriters hate him and just sit there trying to think up lines that make him sound like an idiot. What I do remember is that he ripped off his shirt literally in the first 30 seconds of the movie, said "Hi Bella" really lamely. I agree, the wolfpack scene was pretty bad. We were calling them "Transformer voices". "You did this!" to Edward was a particularly memorable Jacob line. I'll try to come up with more. Anyway, overall, I liked the movie. I thought the sex scenes were done pretty well, too. Just a little awkward for a mom of a 13 year old boy sitting nearby, but really not too bad. Great job of making Bella look terrible, like you all said. What I felt as I was watching this and really all of the movies is that I guess I just like reading the books so much more. I have a hard time with all of the special effects; the vampire quick motion moves, the wolves, etc. just bother me a little. I don't love the way they make the vampires move around so jerky and fast. It seemed to bother me more in this one than the others. Example: when Carlisle, Emmett, and Jasper came to pick Edward up for his Bachelor party and they kept jumping up on his window sill and jumping down to the ground. Did anyone else think that was cheesy?

Haley said...

Oh good! Glad you saw it. Yeah I agree that picturing their movements in your head is a lot better. They just can't do it as graceful as I imagine. Yeah in the book, the window scene is just jasper peeking his head in to tell her they won't be late to the wedding. Haha about making up stupid lines for jacob. I think he's just a bad actor. The other ones can disguise the bad lines a little better with better acting. I've always hated the screenwriter for these movies. Blech.

megandjon said...

oh emily i love this whole post and it makes me miss you. a few comments: one, it seems like every time anybody ever talks about wyoming its always a story about snowstorms of death and crazy mountain passes, etc. didn't a woman and two boys just die driving to wyoming like, a month ago? i'm beginning to think they should just close down the state for the entire winter or something, "sorry, wyoming is closed from september to may! we recommend new mexico!"

also, i was dying of embarrasment during the werewolf scene. i was embarrassed for myself and every single person in the packed theater and also every single person associated with the movie. good night nurse it was bad. i agree with your sister, as much as i enjoy the books and get a semi-kick out of seeing them done in movies almost all of the special effects through the whole series have made me cringe. and lastly why is no one mentioning the creepy weird CGI baby at the end? what the heck? what's wrong with real babies? I mean really. Every movie and tv show since the beginning of movies and tv shows have just borrowed some cute small baby to be the newborn and no one sits there going, "she doesn't look like her parents!" newborn babies never really do anyway, they just look cute and squishy. i don't know, the CGI baby pissed me off, i'll be honest.

last but not least, em, i actually posted on my blog. can you imagine? i can't decide if its the start of a new thing or just a one-off. we'll see!

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