Fireworks

Mancub is going to be gone for the next three days, off with the girlfriend's family for some relative's wedding. We thought the neffs would be gone by now, but at least the oldest one is still here (well into week two, or is it three?). One of the others may be returning as well. This won't be the adult time weekend I was hoping it would be, but that's okay.

The neff, M~, that is still here was absolutely adamant that I develop a character on RuneScape. He has been bugging me daily for weeks. He tells me how cool it is by going into what sounds like Pentecostal speaking in tongues. I have no idea what he is saying, but clearly he is a firm believer. Saying that I have no interest at all in video games of any sort is also similar to saying to a Christian that I don't believe in God. It doesn't register. It is like claiming that reality as they know it doesn't exist and they have no choice but to disregard it.

So finally, more to get some silence and also because I really do take an interest in what makes the kids happy, I got on and made a character (bald with a long gray beard and leather wrist bands). I also started the tutorial which has something to do with chopping wood and cooking shrimp over a fire to get some gadgets or something, but all I saw were cheesy computer graphics that left me cold and restless. I can see how the boys enter into that reality, in much the same way that I could do the same with certain books and films and album covers at that age. But I guess for once I'm a Wendy and I can't follow Peter back to that land.

Along the same lines, we took Mancub and M~ to see Wanted yesterday. They really wanted to see it, and I'm using the omnipresence of teenage boys as a way to be open to new experiences (in the hopes that at some point they may return the favor, but so far the Yoko Ono and John Coltrane CDs remain undisturbed). I'll be fair here - while it is not my favorite kind of film - it was a lot of fun and kept my attention, whiplashed as it was. I gave myself over to guys having the shit beat out of them and ending up looking better than I do when I bang my elbow on the doorway, and the fact that a lot of the film takes place in vehicles - fast moving vehicles - and tried to sit back and enjoy it. At times it was clever in kind of a poor man's Fight Club kind of way, but haven't we seen it all before? Still, it wasn't the worst way to spend a couple of hours and the boys sat there with mouths and eyes wide open riveted to the screen.

They gave it about the highest rating one can give a film, although they said as we were walking to the bus that what happens to a bullet near the end of the film couldn't really happen. Interesting comment, because unless I missed something there were not two consecutive seconds in the entire film that could really happen. I caught on to that very early on, and when Angelina Jolie breaks through the front window of the car she is "driving" and crawls out to lie on the hood shooting straight up at the bad guys and then looks picture perfect two seconds later it confirmed that this was more of a fantasy than a documentary. But then again I'm an adult and should catch on to these things faster. My experience being stretched out on the hood of a reckless vehicle gunning down my enemies is why I now prefer being bald. It is brutal to even the lowest maintenance hair style in real life. Another plus, the film has Common once again as the quiet intense guy with the killer smile and I'm a sucker for that.

Although fireworks of any sort are illegal in our city, they have been going off in our neighborhood pretty much non-stop for the last two weeks. Apparently the best time to shoot off the loudest ones is three in the morning. Luckily we don't have the kinds of dogs that freak, and although I suspect I have a simmering case of PTSD it also has prepared me for assault movies, video games, and election season

If I were to list my favorite Holidays from top to bottom, you'd have to use the scroll bar to get to today. It isn't because I hate America, although there are plenty of things about the concept of America as currently accepted by the majority that I don't like. It is because this isn't my idea of fun and people don't really bother to celebrate America. Wearing a flag shirt from Walmart isn't celebrating America. Racing your car up and down the street isn't celebrating America. Drinking cheap beer isn't celebrating America. Starting a Revolution, now that would be celebrating America. But I also need to take advantage of the time off and rest while I can so I'll have to turn that over to someone else.