You wish Mindy was your...

Reasons why you should wish Mindy was your person:

You wish Mindy was your roommate because because she'll laugh with you at 3am when you both walk into the bathroom at the same time in the dark and scare each other. 

       Because she can reach high places without getting a chair

       Because she plays the recorder outside your bedroom door.

       Because she sings you lullabies as you go to sleep but changes the words to make the song about you.

       Because she has killer dance moves. I mean those hips can really move.

       Because when she makes dinner and always shares.
        Because she would be your travel companion and play "My Heart Will Go On" on her recorder in a crowded public restroom in San Francisco. 

You wish Mindy was your sister-in-law 
     Because she will meet your wife's emotional needs that you cannot recognize or understand.
     Because she will sympathize and side with you when you're right. Sometimes. 
     Because she'll love and respect you, even if you are still human and flawed. 
     Because she'll labor and fret over gifts for you because she wants it to be awesome. 


You wish Mindy was your friend because she makes you laugh so hard that you literally pee all over the floor.

       Because she will break into a friend's phone and read texts you aren't supposed to.

       Because she always offers you the best advice and helps you see other people's perspectives.

       Because she can fit 6 in the lumina and will coast you all over town.

       Because she can always celebrate everyone's happiness and successes.

You wish Mindy was your daughter because she will make you laugh, like when she said "That sausage has been in a lot of places and it was hot in every country!" (as a child, when you were cooking sausage first by boiling, then in microwave, then frying pan). And because she is clever, wonderful, and artistic.

You wish Mindy was your aunt because she'd send you a video of her dancing to Taylor Swift with signs that say to have a happy first day of school.

You wish Mindy was your sister because she'd send you this picture because she was honest-to-goodness amazed at the recent bit of celebrity trivia you had dug up (Chris Sarandon, Humperdinck from Princess Bride, was married to Susan Sarandon when they were first starting out in Hollywood. She kept the last name after they split).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE PERSON!

Love, 

Mel, Chris, Tari, Kate, and Marcia

Complex Character, How I love thee

A Meryl Streep movie: so much to analyze. This movie could be considered slow to some, considering it’s all dialogue and some scenes are drawn out in talk, talk, talk. However, it will keep you interested and watching if you let yourself get involved in the complexity of what’s going on (even though it seems like everything is quite simple).

The movie begins with Father Flynn giving a sermon on doubt, the doubt we all have in our faith and otherwise. We are all united in doubt and in the feeling of being alone, he says. Throughout the movie there are moments where each character doubts, and where we as the viewer doubt as well. This is an easily relatable subject, for I think I could say we all doubt daily about various matters. Is what I’m doing with my life really important? Is my faith really as rock-solid as I think it is? Is that person who was just given the death penalty really guilty? Am I ever going to sleep again?

I can’t get enough of movies where the right and wrong is not so easily spelled out. Where the characters are painted into a corner and there seems to be no solution. Where the lines of black and white are blurred, and you know what’s right, but there are multiple problems keeping the characters (and you the viewer) from carrying out the solution to the problem. This happens Doubt. A nun suspects a priest is abusing one of the altar boys. Too bad it’s not that simple. There are layers uncovered that make us doubt and wonder what is the best solution to all of this? When there’s no evidence, should we just let it go? Even though if it's true, it's clearly a devastating and horrible thing for the victims and their family? We can’t just act out of pure emotion and experience, can we? Following the characters in this movie is rewarding because of the superb acting. There is a complexity to them, even down to the altar boy, that gives this movie its layers and therefore the enjoyment to the viewer.

Spoiler alert: continue on only if you’ve seen the movie.

Questions:

1. Does Sister Alouicious love the children, or is she just on a power trip?

I think she does love them, and here’s the evidence pointing to it:

-After she has the conversation with the boy’s mom, she realizes how important it is that he stays at the school until graduation in June. This causes her to “leave him out of it” as much as she can, as his mom requests.

-Her treatment of the old, blind nun shows her loyalty and protector instincts.

2. Why doesn’t Sister James tell Sis. Alouicious about the undershirt in the locker?

This could be the most incriminating piece of evidence and Sis. James doesn’t share it. I’m not sure why, but I would guess because she really, really wants to believe that he didn’t do it and that’s the driving force behind it.

3. What does Sis. Alouicious have doubts about at the end when she started crying to Sis. James?

I don’t think she was doubting Father Flynn’s guilt at all here, in case you were confused by this. She was confessing her doubts about her faith. It was a full-circle movie moment, drawing back to the sermon at the beginning. The conversation leading up to this shows she was still convinced as ever about the Father’s guilt, because of the way he gave up and didn’t fight when she lied about phoning the nuns at his previous pastors. But because the montsenior promoted him even after she told him everything, that fueled her doubt in her faith. How could the men be so corrupt? Sis. Alouicious is sure this Father has molested many boys, and now he is the principal of an entire school? I don’t think she ever doubted his guilt, but I’m sure she has doubted in her faith (as most of us do) over the years of serving as a nun. 

My Response to Rage Against the Minivan's "Let's Bring the Holidays Down a Notch"

I, like so many of you, felt vindicated by Rage Against the Minivan’s rant about toning down holidays.
For about a minute.

Then something started to nag me and wouldn’t stop all night, so here I am. Her blog post now has 660 comments (almost all of which agree with her) and hundreds and hundreds of re-postings on facebook.  That means a lot of us found validation in the tearing down of others. There’s something wrong with that.

I don’t do anything for St Patrick’s day for my kids, I don’t do elaborate birthday parties or give them anything for Easter besides a small basket of candy. I don’t make home-made Valentines or do Valentine’s breakfasts or do Elf on the Shelf. But I know many moms who do. And I guarantee they don’t do it to make you feel bad. I guarantee they don’t do it to raise the expectations of motherhood to unattainable levels. They do it because it’s a way for them to fuel their creativity, to create moments of joy with their children, and to simply break up the monotony of mommy days.

Maybe there is a small percentage of moms who splash it all over facebook and pinterest merely to show off. I don’t know any of those people. I’m sure there are a few out there. I’d say those people have issues with self-worth.

But who is the one placing expectations on me? It’s me. I own my expectations, no one else can force them on me. If I feel threatened or unworthy when I see pictures of my friend’s happenings with their children, it’s my problem, not theirs. We all put ourselves out there with social media in one way or another. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be looking.

Sure, I’d like it if we generally agreed the holidays should be toned down. But I’d never stand in the way of someone being creative or make them feel guilty for it. And if someday I do feel like going “big” for one holiday or birthday I’m not going to let the idea that it might make other moms feel bad stop me.

This Rage Against the Minivan mom is a great writer (I read through some of her posts last night) and that is her way of being creative. There is potential to be jealous and resentful of her success. But that’s not her problem.

I personally don’t need permission to be the kind of mom that I want to be. As moms, we already have enough to feel guilty about with no external forces being involved. Is uniting together in our anger and validation really doing anything productive if we’re united against others who, in the end, probably have the same underlying goals? We all struggle. None of us are perfect. If you think someone is portraying themselves as such that’s your issue. We all want to teach our kids, love them, and try to stay sane along the way.

In Defense of Netflix or How I Learned to Love Again

For those of you out there that know me well, you may have heard me state on more than one occasion that my relationship with Netflix is one of the most successful relationships in my life. From the very beginning it has gently guided me through an awkward dating phase- one where I would constantly doubt how quickly I would receive the next DVD in the mail and therefore forget to update my queue with something I actually wanted to watch- to a committed, steady, relationship of convenience.

I remember a time when I was waiting for a movie to arrive in the mail and it was taking longer then usual. Eventually I received an email saying they had sent it, and had it arrived? It hadn't! I began to panic slightly, would I have to pay for this lost DVD? Was this the moment I had been dreading when the proverbial other shoe would fall and a dark side would finally reveal itself? I took a breath and clicked "no" the DVD had not arrived yet. No other questions were asked. They would send another one right away. Such trust. It was then that I changed my relationship status to one of convenience, to love.

The past few weeks have been pretty hard on Netflix. Once loyal customers are now throwing rotten tomatoes and demanding answers. I'm here to offer you some. When netflix began, DVD by mail was ahead of it's time. The idea seemed almost... lazy. Why wouldn't you just go to your neighborhood blockbuster and find something to watch? Once the math was done and the concept finally caught on it seemed crazy not to jump on the bandwagon. People warmed to the idea and movie rental chains began to disappear over night.

This pattern is repeating itself. It's hard to accept the idea of just streaming. Words like 'obsolete' send chills down our spines when referenced with DVDs. Those last few people that don't own some sort of gaming system or blue ray player capable of streaming are being backed into a corner as I type this very sentence. Nevertheless, our future is streaming. Netflix is right. You're wrong.

So in the meantime, stand by your man.

Must-See TV

Here are two TV shows I urge you to watch.

Sherlock* on Netflix play instantly (originally aired on BBC/PBS)

Platinum Hit on Bravo, can be found on Comcast on demand

Then you can thank me.

I've been laboring over how to introduce these television shows to The Pickwick Review, when it just dawned on me that it's more important for the recommendations to be out there so you can start watching than for me to do it in a fun, well-written, interesting way.

The essence of it is this: my husband watched the 3 episodes with me of Sherlock and enjoyed it, which is a feat since he hates TV. After the 3rd one, I missed the show terribly.

As for Platinum Hit, I've never purchased itunes music from a show- until now. These song writers are talented and it's amazing to watch the songs they come up with in 1-2 days.

I haven't had much time to watch TV lately, but when I do there's certainly slim-pickings in the summer. What do you watch to stay entertained? Any hidden gems on netflix instant-watch I should know about?

*There's dozens of Sherlock Holmes' out there- make sure it's the one with Benedict Cumberbatch.