What Makes Me Cry?

I just filled out one of those "About Me" surveys on Facebook, and one of the questions asked was "When is the last time you cried?" Well, I did get a little teary-eyed and full of pride watching Kiki Aru and her basketball team play their hearts out on Saturday.

But there are certain things I can watch over and over again on TV, and they make me cry.

Like yesterday. I got home, and I wanted to veg out a bit before I headed back to KMS for a meeting and then the Tostado Feed. The last two final episodes of "Gilmore Girls" were in the DVD player, so I watched them.

The tears first started coming when Rory graduated from Yale. Then they came when Luke threw the surprise party for Rory and Loralie. Then they came when Luke and Loralie kissed. Z2 got home, and I'm a blubbering mess on the couch, all red-eyed and smiling, with her rolling her eyes at me, because she knows full well I've seen this a few times already. But, hey, when tears come, tears come.

It happened a month or two ago, while watching an old "West Wing" episode. The Bartlett administration was having a rocky go of it, and Jed Bartlett and Leo, his Chief of Staff, started going at it. Then Leo wrote "Let Bartlett Bartlett" on a pad of paper, and I started crying. Again, I have seen this episode numerous times, and I just came in on the last five minutes of the episode, and it still got me.

But I like having my emotions pulled by a good movie, or a good television show, or a good book. It means it has touched me in some way, and the characters have become real. And that is a good thing.

All in all, I think we like happy endings. We don't like getting invested in a character, and then have them killed off. We like things to turn out. PKR and I were having a conversation with some friends who had come to dinner on Sunday.. PKR shared about having his students write short stories, and if he left it to them with no boundaries, all the stories would be very bloody, and gory, and the bad person would kill of the good person in the end. He would have to explain to the students that a publisher would not want to publish that story, because no one would want to read it.

We still like happy endings. We still like things to turn out. We like our heroes to be heroes, and our villains to be villains. We talked about the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight", and how we didn't really like this Batman being more of an "anti-hero" than an honest to goodness hero. But The Joker was definitely the villain...and what an amazing performance by Heath Ledger. The movie was okay, but that performance was brilliant.

The nice thing is, if I ever need a good cry, and know what to pop into the DVD player...it works every time!!

If you feel like it, share with me the books, movies or television shows that make you cry...I could always add some to the shelf.

Top Ten Things To Accomplish While My Family Is Gone For Spring Break

10. Work on writing at least three more chapters on the book I am writing about the Silver Valley.












9. Type up a months worth of dinner menus so we can maybe have a few more home cooked meals around here.

8. Type up a Master Grocery List.







7. Pray and seek God’s Wisdom on a variety of issues in my life.









6. Weed the flower beds outside (weather permitting…this is the Silver Valley).





5. Make chore lists for the family so I can see if someone other than me will tackle scooping the cat litter boxes.








4. Make use of the new exercise equipment in the basement every day. My new rule…I can’t blog until I exercise.




3. Do my taxes. Ugh!






2. Tackle some spring cleaning projects inside the house.






1. Take the plastic off the fifth season of Gilmore Girls on DVD that I have been hiding from my daughters in my lingerie drawer and watch it uninterrupted.

I Found Love

I'm a big fan of the Gilmore Girls. I've never watched it on TV, but we now own the first 5 seasons I believe, and it is a great show to have on DVD. Because of my love of the show, I decided to buy the soundtrack called "Our Little Corner of the World". There is a song that I have come to love on the CD called "I Found Love". You can listen to it here. The group who recorded it is called The Free Design. According to their website

The Free Design were a New York City based, mostly studio orientated band that did seven albums between 1967 and 1973. Chris, Bruce, Sandy, Stephanie and Ellen Dedrick were brothers and sisters and, as a result, they showed a tendency to sing in a similar manner.
They grew up in Delavan, N.Y., near Buffalo, surrounded by music. Their father, Art Dedrick, played trumpet and was chief arranger for Vaughn Monroe´s band and later had a band of his own until an attack of polio put him in a wheelchair. Since then he taught music and formed a pair of music publishing companies. Their uncle was Rusty Dedrick, who played trumpet with Red Norvo, Claude Thornhill and Ray McKinley. What a background!
Sandy played the keyboard instruments; Bruce was a master with guitar and trombone, and Chris showed supreme skills with guitar, trumpet and recorder. Ellen was also extremely talented in different facets. All of them studied music - All of them were granted with bachelor´s degrees in music education and master´s degrees at the Manhattan School of Music. They had a frightening amount of musical talent between them.
At the end of 1966, they had moved from upper New York State to New York City. Sandy´s apartment was a handy gathering place. There they started singing folk music together during the embryonic days.
Chris, the leader of the group, recalls, "but we tried to make our own arrangements. People who heard us said, ´Boy, what a great blend.´ So I decided to try writing some songs of our own." His first effort was Kites Are Fun. After his father had heard it - and complimented him on it - he suggested that Chris try writing something with trumpets in it. The result was The Proper Ornaments. These two songs became their first single - and it hit the charts!

You can read more about The Free Design here.