My life. My card.

My name: Alice

childhood ambition: Princess fairy bride

fondest memory: the few days I spent in Switzerland

wildest dream: living in the star wars universe

proudest moment: hearing some of the responses to my blog

biggest challenge: these past 6 weeks

perfect day: a good book, a great camera and my family and friends.

indulgence: i have to list one, don't i? ice cream

last purchase: eclipse special edition

inspiration: my parents

My life: is coming along swimmingly

My card: American Express


No, I don't have an American Express card but I love their advertising. Which is why I did this. Also, check out the picture I added with it.

National Parents Day; Iron Man

I declare today National Parents Day. Since I have a lot of pull at the Committee Who Decides National Holidays, I can do that. It is set for today, because it is the day right in between Mothers and Fathers Day (I think).

Because I am just plain awesome, I am making this interactive. I say what I'm grateful for about my parents, and in the comments you put what your grateful for. It doesn't have to be a lot, just "Thanks mom for making me pancakes", "Thanks dad for driving my silly self to baseball practice 5 nights a week" will suffice. Or, better yet, just tell your parents. The chances of them seeing my comments are astronomical, so that might be a better plan.

Since I am dead positive that 4 out of my 5 readers are adults, you might have different things your grateful for. But the idea still stands.

To those who might be saying "but Alice, they know we love them, why must we go through this silly practice?", I say this: you say (or at least you should) thank you to the bag boy at the grocery store, the stranger who holds the door, the ticket seller at the movie theater, the waiter at the restaurant. But do you remember the last time you thanked your parents for bringing you into this world? Don't even think about "just telling them tomorrow". Life is to unstable for waiting. You just can't know when something horrible, like a motorcycle accident, might happen.

Thanks Mom for driving me to dance 5 nights a week. For letting me cut and color my hair countless times, allowing me to experiment with make-up and clothes. For supporting my decision to buy a laptop, allowing me to work for it. Teaching me the desire to learn, giving me the tools to teach myself, rather then being fed information. Taking me to see the dolphins, walking to the park, helping me pack when I decided to run away, schlepping us kids all over town, reading me Harry Potter, picking me up at a friends at midnight, spending hours at the library. For being a great Mom.

Dad, thanks for sharing your love of the motorcycle with me. For letting me (and my brother) form and develop our own opinions and thoughts. For the countless debates and discussions that we had around our table. For catching me every time I jumped off whatever high surface you set me on, and dancing with me after you came home from work. All those years of Scare Em, those books you sped read and then threw under the couch, the time you tried to teach me long division when I was 6, taking us to Peter Piper Pizza when Mom was at work, sharing your love of music. Most of all, thank you for being an amazing Dad.

Before it gets to sappy (it might have already), lets talk about Iron Man. Everybody should go see it. Right now. Stop reading this and go to the theater. I have already seen it 3 times, but if you need company I will gladly go with you. The movie is amazing. I can't remember if I have already blogged about it, so thats all I'm gonna say.

You see, thats the problem with not blogging for weeks. You forget what you have already said. Which is a problem, because you run the risk of repeating yourself. But I seem to remember saying something about Robert Downey Jr.'s amazingness..... Well, you get the point.

Now please excuse me while I try and remember what I blogged previously.

UPDATE: I did blog about Iron Man! So glad I figured that out. I stand by my earlier statement of going to see it, but perhaps more vigorously. The more I see it the more I love it, I tell ya. Also, I would like to take a sentence to let my friend who checks for updates, and was continually disappointed I hadn't posted anything: I shall be writing more frequently now since life has settled down a bit, and thank you for being my friend and reading whatever my convoluted mind can excrete. Great magical mushrooms, its sappy again. IRON MAN!! IRON MAN!! IRON MAN!!

Top Gear

Is the funniest car show ever. 3 British guys and a bunch of awesome (and awful) cars. They review cars, take road trips (drove to the North Pole, drove through the USA South, made a trip across Africa), and play car soccer. I don't know what channel it is on (BBC, but I don't know how to get it in America). I just watch it on YouTube. Highly recommended.

I say that because my friend challenged me to find cars I like and could afford. And while I can see the reasoning behind that (how many people have 1.3 million laying around to splurge on a Bugatti Veyron?), there is no real reason I should limit myself. Why couldn't I get a Lotus, or Audi? I can't remember exactly who said it, but "The only thing stopping you from your dreams is yourself". If thats what I want, there is no logical reason as to why I can't one day own a Lotus Exige S 240, or an Audi R8.

For the record, I would take a Volkswagen Rabbit or Jetta, (starting new at 15,600 and 16,990 respectively) a Toyota Prius (starting new at 21,500), or a Honda Fit (starts at 13, 590). Just while I'm waiting, though.

And while all that is just grand, one of the happiest things I will ever see in my life is this -



(in case the picture quality is to poor, that is my dad. In his chair, at our house.)

I don't know that I will ever find a car that compares to that.

But I'm not opposed to looking.

Cue manical laughter

Folks, I had a fantastic weekend. I renewed my love for Apple, regenerated my love for AC/DC, fell in love with a wonderful book, and lost myself utterly and completely in an amazing movie. To top it of, I found some new pretty cars. Does it get better? No, my gentle readers, it does not.

I will start with my book. It's called The Host, by Stephenie Meyer (the woman writing the Twilight series). I am a huge fan of Twilight, and really doubted that she could equal or top herself. Never have I been so happy to be proven wrong. It started a little slow, but picked up and was completely gripping. The characters were very well written, the plot was intricate, it was morally intriguing, and was thrilling until the very last page. The Host takes the cake for best book I have read in quite awhile. (It's a science fiction book)

Aw, AC/DC. I was never really a big fan, but as of recently I have been craving the drums and crazy guitar. So, my new favorite AC/DC songs are Back in Black and Hells Bells (sorry Mom).

Now, the movie. Yesterday my friend's mom called. Her son wanted to see Iron Man, but she didn't want him to go alone, and his sister (my friend) would go if I went. Did I want to? I said sure, and we made a plan to see the 1:00 showing. Earlier I had been planning on seeing it with my brother, but it couldn't hurt to go now.

It was so good. Robert Downey Jr. was amazing and had a lot of fun in his role of Tony Stark/Iron Man. It didn't hurt that he is pretty easy to look at. The supporting cast (Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrance Howard) did a superb job. The score was very well done, keeping with the tone of the movie (lots of heavy guitar and drums, ya!), CGI was not stupidly over the top, the dialog was witty and entertaining, with minimal cheesy-ness. It was a "guy" movie in some ways, i.e. lots of blowing things up, fast cars, fighting, ect. Personally, I like the blowing stuff up and fast cars, so it was all good. Over all, it was a first class movie. Which is why, when my brother got home that very same day, I hustled him to the 7:30 show. It was just as amazing the second time around.

Which leads me to the cars. Oh, they were pretty. And so, so fast. I got these cars from Iron Man. First, the Saleen S7. Capable of over 200 mph, 0-60 in under 3 seconds and, unless I am very much mistaken, 750 bhp. This is the orange car in Tony's garage. $395,000

The Audi R8. Oh my goodness. It's yummy. 420hp, 0-62 in 4.6 seconds, manual 6 speed transmission, top speed of 187mph, and leather interior. Its sleek, its fast, and it starts at $109,000. A friend once asked me if I had a dream car. I think this just might qualify. This car in the movie is driven a lot of places. It is silver with black side panels.

The Telsa Roadster. Any car that has pictures for the "exterior" and the "cockpit" has to be cool. And this is no exception. The 2008 Telsa Roadster is the first 100% electric sports car, going from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, 248hp peak, top speed of 125mph, and it has heated seats. Inspired by the Lotus Elise, with design help from Lotus cars. My favorite thing about this car is it's electric. That just tickles me no end. $98,000

Bugatti Veyron 16.4. Holy cow. 1,001 total hp (this information is coming from the Bugatti website), with a top speed of over 400km per hour (thats 248 mph), 0-62 in 2.5 seconds. German made, it has a price tag of $1.3 million.

Lamborghini Revneton. Inspired by the F-22 Raptor, 650hp, 0-60 in 3.5 seconds. It apparently comes with a built in G-Force meter. I can't decide if that is necessary or aesthetic. $1.54600 million dollars.

Whew. Well, that is just about all that has happened as of recently, so I am now going to read my Discover magazine. Good day, and good luck.

Surprises and spiders

Last night I typed up a post. I hit Publish, and then went on to check my mail, mess around on iTunes, pick gunk from under my nails, ect. The stuff everybody does after blogging. So imagine my surprise this morning when I opened up my blog and found my new entry wasn't there. My question is - why do you do this to me, Blogspot? I hit Publish and you thumb your nose in my direction and cry out "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!" (name that movie reference).

Since Dad has not yet deemed us worthy and continues his stint in ICU, Mom is with him a lot. That means I have to up my self sufficent-ness. An example.

I really hate spiders. It might have been mentioned before. So yesterday, when I walked into the hall and saw a brown spider, I just about joined Dad in ICU with a heart attack. Or respiratory arrest. Probably both. But I digress.

My first thought was to kill the thing. It wasn't that big, and if I could find a tennis shoes it'd be even smaller (I think I hear environmentalists gasping in shock). Subsequent to that idea was "Mom would fillet me". Being health conscious as I am, I tried to think of a different plan. The best scheme I could come up was to put a cup over it and wait for somebody to take it away.

I put the cup on it, and went into the kitchen, succumbing to the shivers of fear and revulsion. Ya, I'm brave. After about 20 seconds, it occurred to me that spiders could squeeze through really small cracks. Like the crack between the cup and wood floor. Wait, wasn't that cockroaches? No, it must have been spiders. Roaches could survive huge amounts of radiation (100 times the lethal dose for a human), but spiders could get under stuff. I think. Um....

Not wanting to take any chance of the little booger escaping, I put a huge book on top of the make shift prison cell. Secure in my victory, I strutted back to the kitchen. Which is about when it struck me that a savior might not come back for quite some time. As in hours, not minutes. There was no way I was going to let that thing defile my good floor but sitting for hours. It would probably poop or something.

After sucking it up, I got a piece of paper (the nice kind, not the flimsy kind). It took me 4 tries to get the paper under the cup (couldn't risk an escape), and flip it all over. Once I finished squealing, I shuffled outside, walking 50 feet. The mailbox was the chosen release point, and as soon as the deed was down and the spider gently chucked, I ran back to the house.

Aren't you all glad I started a blog to share my scary spider stories with you? I know I am.

Dreaming

I was going to post something not related to my dads accident, but that is whats going on in my life right now.
Human brains are funny (at least mine is).

I can now talk about him and not tear up, but seeing his closet, or holding my dance teachers hand makes me sad. His closet just smells so much like him, it's like running into a wall of Dad. My dance teacher has hands the same size as Dad, so holding his hands is like holding Dads, which makes me miss him.

I really want him to wake up, not because I want to hug him, but I want him to hug me. Nobody else hugs like my dad, and its been a week since I've had a Dad hug.

Weird things make me think of him. When somebody talks about Myspace, I think of him. Rope, certain pillows, going to a restaurant and hearing someone ask for hot sauce, little quirks my uncles have that are exactly like Dads, all those things make my throat tighten.

Every time we eat out on the patio, my dad is the last one back in the house. So, last night when my uncle came through the door a couple minutes later than everybody else, I almost opened my mouth and fired out some witticism aimed at Dad. Then I saw it was Mark, not Matt. It was like missing the last step on a staircase. You step down and for a split second think you've got it, then comes the sick sensation of an unplanned drop, then the hit.

Everything is slowly going back to normal. The mail keeps coming, the paper continues to be delivered, and Mom still has to go to the grocery store. My brother still goes to school, I got spacers (in preparation for braces) on yesterday, and now my mouth hurts like nobody's business.

Apologies must be offered regarding the lack of posts this last week. It was pretty crazy, but I could have tossed out a short entry. So, I am sorry about that.

Yesterday

When I first saw Pirates of the Caribbean, I was terrified. It took me about a year and a half before I could really get over it and enjoy the movie.

But as scary as that was, it was nothing compared to getting a phone call from your mom, saying your dad got in a motorcycle accident, and is at the hospital.

Yesterday at 8:30am the phone rang, and it was Mom. She made some small talk, than dropped the bomb. "Honey, Dad got in a accident on the way to work. Someone wrecked into his motorcycle, but he's going to be okay." Even hearing "but he's going to be okay", I was scared. What if he wasn't? What if he couldn't walk again, or got hit hard in the head? An hour later, we went down to the hospital to see how he was.

First let me say, everything is fixable. He will eventually make a full recovery, according to what we know. He is going to be okay.

He had broken multiple ribs, twisted and broken at least one wrist, bruised his lung, broken his tibia, fractured his femur in 2 places, cracked where the femur meets the hip in 5 places and his kidneys have shut down right now (they don't like being in motorcycle accidents).

Yesterday afternoon we saw him, he talked to us for a little bit before his nurse told him to shut up and go to sleep. I really like her .He went into surgery a couple hours after we left, to fix his legs and wrists. The surgery went fine, and right now he is resting. When I called the hospital this morning, the nurse said he was on a ventilator and dialysis. The ventilator is because of the bruised lung; he can't yet oxygenate well enough on his own, the dialysis for the kidneys.

After my mom called, I called a bunch of friends and family, letting them now what happened. My uncle and three friends joined us at the hospital that afternoon, and when we went back later my uncle and another friend were there.

We just got home from the hospital, and there is no change really. He was hooked up to a bunch of tubes (including the dialysis and ventilator) and was lightly sedated. He couldn't talk, but he did open his eyes.

During the past 36 hours, we have received more phone calls than we would have gotten all week. People calling to make sure we were ok, did we need food, a ride, someone to talk to, anything at all. I cannot accurately describe how much that support was welcomed. It feels so good to know that everybody is hoping for the best, for him and us. You know who you are, and we cannot thank you enough.

Now we are to the waiting game.

I will post when we know something else. Thank you all so much for everything.