Handy Joy

Magnet #1304 - Handy Smurf

I might have too many Smurf magnets. And I don't even know where most of them came from!

Handy Smurf would totally come in handy around my apartment lately. I've been putting up new magnetboards around the apartment. It's entirely possible that I don't have enough space for all the magnets I'm acquiring left and right.

But, dudes, I managed to put the magnetboards up with the power drills and everything. Handy Smurf would be so proud.

You know, if he tilted his head slightly to the side to check my handiwork...

What? Levels and I are not friends.

You don't *get* to complain

Magnet #1272 - Grouchy Smurf

Love Grouchy Smurf. Love him. I would never want to hang out with him, but in small doses, he's great.

Although, what do you suppose he's doing with his hand behind his back? (I mean, Smurfs don't have middle fingers, right?

Picking him for today because I find it hard to believe I've never used Grouchy Smurf on this magnetblog, especially given how miserable I was the last couple of years at my old gig. Granted, the misery was my fault, and I was too lazy to do anything about it for a dozen years, but it was misery nonetheless.

I've been thinking lately about how different I am from that stranger I became over the last few years. I look at myself through the filter of folks who have met me over the last year, and I can see it. I'm happier. I smile a helluva lot more. It's nice.

But I feel for the folks left behind. Well, some of them, anyway.

It's funny because I saw a tweet from the chick who replaced me last fall, and she was tweeplaining about it being a whole two weeks since she'd left the office before 8:30 at night. Really?

First, try a whole decade of that.

Second, really? Less than a year of time served, you don't get to complain, sweetheart. Not unless Edwin the nighttime car service dispatcher knows your travel information just by the sound of your hello.

Now the idea of an all-nighter/round-robin at the office is so foreign to me. I mean, I can't believe I ever lived by the mantra of "A Coke at 8 gets me to Midnight, a Coke at Midnight gets me to 3, and then I can call Edwin to get me home to wait for me while I take a shower and come right back."

Oh, yeah, completely surprised I never used a Grouchy magnet before. I just thank God and the universe for giving me the last year to learn some hard lessons and make me appreciate that things happen for a reason, and that it'll work out in the end.

I told ya'll it'd be fine.

And it was.

Sing a happy song

Magnet #1256 - Papa Smurf

I mean, who knew there were lyrics to the Smurf song? As near as I can tell, they didn't have one until the movie, but maybe I'm wrong.

The Smurfs was the third movie of my marathon yesterday - I couldn't wait, after months and months of waiting. And if you know me, you know that I'm not even kidding. I was totally looking forward to it.

With a cast of Neil Patrick Harris and Hank Azaria, plus the Smurfy voices of a million famous folks like Jonathan Winters, Katy Perry, Alan Cumming, Anton Yelchin, you can't go wrong. Right?

I think it's half right. The storyline was ok, of the Smurfs and Gargamel getting smurfed all the way to NYC, how they made a small, but smurfy impact on marketing executive Neil Patrick Harris, and how they smurfed all around town. (Except for the ****SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!**** pigeons. My goodness, I wanted to run out of the theatre during that part.)

I really liked how they meta'd the Smurfs and Peyo, coming right out and explaining who they were. That was totally clever. But I was slightly uncomfortable with the new Smurfs, especially when they had big roles...what? I like my certain set of smurfs, and some of them should have had larger roles, instead of being left behind in the village. And psbtw, I missed Baby Smurf. I mean, I know he was like the Cousin Oliver of the Smurfs, but c'mon. Where?

Oh! And I also totally forgot about Smurfette's origin story. Yes, she has one. Go look it up.

The pacing was a little uneven, some parts dragged and some parts flew by, and some should have flown by. You could tell where things were dragging by the rustling of hundreds of little kids starting to get louder...which usually happened when only humans were on the screen. Yep. Everyone loves those smurfs.

The funny part is that the audience was really made up of all the parents who grew up on the Smurfs introducing a whole new generation to the little blue puffs of Smurfiness.

Wonder what they'll do for the sequel. Maybe NPH could show up in the new Smurf village. Hmmm. An animated NPH!

DJ Skribble's Smurf song remix, click at your own risk:

Captain America

Magnet #1255 - Captain America

Now I know I'm definitely back home, getting things back to normal - I did an almost full-day movie marathon today, watching Winnie the Pooh, Captain America and The Smurfs.

I probably could have squeezed in Transformers 3 (yes, I'm totes late on that one), but I didn't have it in me to fork over another $17 for a 3D movie. Oiy. Pricing's gone nuts up here!

I think I bought this magnet at one of the Comic-Cons, or maybe even Forbidden Planet down at Union Square, but I remember when I bought it, I was all excited about the movie coming out this year.

I was kinda disappointed today.

True to form, I fell asleep during a pretty important part - well, important to my sister, anyway. She's been waiting on Captain America because her boyfriend Richard Armitage was in it, and only for like 10 minutes. I totally missed about eight of those minutes.

Oops. I know, ridiculous to wake up and see cute Richard Armitage running away from Chris Evans. I'm sure I'll have to watch the RA sequence over again, probably with DCsis - whose birthday is today - Happy Birthday!

But it wasn't just that sequence - I fell asleep again, and woke up to Steve Rogers fronting the USO...and at that point, I figured you know what? Maybe I should just leave, and catch the earlier showing of The Smurfs at the next theatre. Then Steve Rogers had to go and save his BFF and 400 POWs.

Don't think I didn't spend the next hour considering walking out, but I'm glad I stuck with it, given all the cool Avengers content at the end. (C'mon, that's not a spoiler!)

I'm also glad, because it did remind me also that I totally forgot to see Thor in the theatres earlier this year.

Yep. I need to get on that.

What makes a keepsake, a keepsake?

Magnet #952 - Smurfs

Today, I've entered the next stage of clearing out the clutter in my life. Or, my apartment, really. Closet, if you want to get specifical.

Ya'll know I've been a little worried that I'm exhibiting signs of a Hoarder. Not like those crazies on television...but close, as it would seem. Instead of collecting random odds and ends like those people on tv, I'm a big hoarder of my life.

Odds and ends that remind me of places, people, events and things. Ticket stubs and tchotkes, programs and cards. Lots and lots of cards. (That's a whole other magnetpost, it seems.)

Just some of the things I've found:

• My cousin's birth announcement. Hint. She's old enough for Facebook.
• The registry for my friend's wedding. Hint. They're celebrating their 13th wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks.
  
• The Student Caller for my senior year. Of high school.
• My very first paycheck stub from Putnam Berkley, here in NYC. The job that made me want to run out to Madison and 36th, and throw my beret (if I had one, I'll never tell) up in the air, and sing, "You're gonna make it after all!"
• The office invitation I got on my first day of work - for office party to celebrate the launch of Tom Clancy's Op Center. Book one, ya'll.
  
• Letters, notes, Christmas and birthday cards dating as far back as 1995, when I moved to NY.
• The cheesy fangurl letter I wrote to all the Loveswept authors when I first started.
• The sweet letters and cards and notes that the Loveswept authors sent to welcome me on board.
• The cheesy fangurl letter I wrote to all the Loveswept authors when I left.
• Two boxes of old checkbooks, ATM receipts and random purchases - dated anywhere between 1995-2001. Hello, paper shredder.
• The Sears receipt for the first and only tv I've ever bought or owned - a tiny Sony 20" box TV, $352.44 in 1996. (No, I'm not giving her up until she breaks. She's served me well, I won't give her up for a prettier, newer flatscreen model!)
  
• A whole photo album that I forgot about. It included this funny picture from Halloween 1994 with my college roommate. I was Jokey Smurf. Though, really, maybe I was ahead of my time and really part of the Blue Man Group? Once you see that picture, you'll know why I picked today's magnet.
  

So, as I've picked through the last 20 years of my life, the question that's been running through my head all day is, What makes a keepsake, a keepsake?

Example, the plastic winecup with "Iris 2/4" markered on it. What's that even mean? (Toss. Sorry, Iris, you were wonderful to work with, but I can't remember why I'd keep a winecup...)

Another example, the plastic alligator from one of the many, many nights I spent at any number of Brother Jimmy's back in the late 1990s. (Keep. I drank a FISHBOWL of liquor to get one of those.)

In the end, my answer to myself is this:

If you're looking at something and you don't remember the memory (or the person) it's attached to - toss.

If you're looking at something and you get warm fuzzies from it - keep.

After all, you're keeping something for the sake of a good memory!

OND 9OU!

Magnet #911 - Papa Smurf

Sitting here at home at 1:45am while my parents are sleeping away what's left of the night.

Mind you, I'm up magnetblogging because if I close my eyes, I'll see red brake lights in front of me. Like I saw from Teaneck to Fort Lee, which according to Google Maps is like 3-4 miles.

It took us 3 hours to get to the GWB from Teaneck. All because someone made the decision to have only two cash-handlers on duty tonight (we had an EasyPass), which then backed up all the traffic for miles. Oiy.

But, you learn a few things about who your papa and mama are when you're roadtripping...

My dad's graduated from "Sorry for you, guy." to "Big deal!" (Trust me, it's funnier in a Filipino accent.)

My dad gets bored when he's not driving. Seriously. He wasn't in the passenger seat for more than 2 hours before he was itching to stop. At the Peanut factory outlet. (Not even kidding.)

My mother loves looking at vanity license plates and trying to figure out what they say. But not only that, she likes to yell them out randomly as we're driving, almost like a Tourette-sy thing. Like, all of a sudden, you'll hear, GOHOMES! Or, SQUEAL! and then the faint twitter of laughter to herself.

There was a van from some forgotten state with the plate: OND 9OU. Mom spent a good five minutes trying to figure that plate, down near Elizabeth, NJ, somewhere around 8:45-9pm.

Somewhere around 10-11pm in Leonia, NJ, out of the blue from the passenger seat, I hear Oh, Deny, Oh, you! And some satisfied chuckling.

Seriously. My sister wasn't kidding. We make up our own fun.


eta:
Oh! But, yay for my parents! They let me exit 95 at Richmond to buy a Richmond magnet! Whoot!

(So I bought two. Plus a book on the Jeffersonian Hotel.)

What?

A Smurfy New York

Magnet #816 - Smurfs

For the last few weeks, folks at work and I have been running into The Smurfs movie shoot around town. Seriously.

What's funny is how big this cast list is. Neil Patrick Harris, Anton Yelchin, Katy Perry as Smurfette, Paul Rubens, Alan Cumming (playing Gutsy Smurf? Huh?) and even Jeff Foxworthy. And Tim Gunn. And Wolfgang Puck.

Uhhh, huh?

Ya'll, I don't care. I watched both Alvin and the Squeakquel. I enjoyed them both. Shut it. I won't even lie and say I watched them for Jason Lee and Zachary Levi. I watched them because I loved watching Alvin and the Chipmunks (with my sisters, of course).

So, if they're doing the same think to the Smurfs, yeah, I'll watch it. It might be on DVD, but yeah, I'll watch it.

Although, really, how much live action can there possibly be in this movie? The Chipmunks made sense, because hi, they lived with Dave. In a house.

But the Smurfs lived in the woods. In mushrooms. What the heck are they doing in New York? Are those woods really in Central Park? Is Gargamel's Castle really Belvedere Castle?

Yep. Color me blue with curiosity.

Princess jewels?

Magnet #688 - Glittery Snow White

Yesterday, we walked into a Target and I beelined to the dollar-store section, and my friend was like, Whhhhhy do you have to look there?

My question is, why not? I swear they put all the colorful items there just for the kids (and me) to pick up.

And, it's not like I'm picking up the crown jewels there or anything, just the odd Disney/Snoopy/Smurfs magnet set or two. Heh. What? I can't resist when they're just sitting there.

But, speaking of jewels, I just looked at this magnet closely. I wonder why the artist thought they should glitter and glorify the apple that poisoned Snow? Moreover, refresh my memory - did Snow White even include any princess jewels?

Very confusing magnet.

eta:
Oh! Speaking of confusing...a friend of mine shared this image of the Disney princesses dressed up as their Disney villains counterparts. Freaky!

La La, la-la-la-la, La la-la-la-lahhhhh

Magnet #682a & 682b - Smurfette

You have got to love Target for their 99-cent aisles up front. So. Many. Magnets. I totally bought a Smurfy set of magnets. What?

And, you've got to love Sony Pictures for trying to bring back the Smurfs. Noooo, I'm not talking about Avatar. They're seriously trying to bring back the Smurfs in a live-action flick.

Live. Action. Can you imagine? Supposedly, and I guess quite rightly, the director attached is the same guy who did the Scooby movie several years ago with Buffy as Daphne and Mr. Buffy as Fred.

Then again, I just saw the movie's been moved to 2011, so who knows if it'll really ever get produced, but c'mon. Who doesn't love a Smurf?

I mean, they even had a Smurf Island down at Carowinds theme park (on the border of NC/SC). It was an acre-ish big island at the park, aimed at the young-uns with those plastic ball pools that parents are so afraid of nowadays, and fun little jungle gyms. And, the best part was that Papa Smurf and a few of the other Smurfs got to roam around to hang out with the kids.

As usual, in my childhood, I was a little older than the average Smurf-lover, I went, because my two baby sisters had to go. And, I'm sure at the time, it wasn't all that cool to be hanging out there.

But the most scandalized a pre-teen girl can be? Clear as day, while all the other kids were standing with her getting pictures and autographs, I watched as an 8-year-old boy grabbed Smurfette's behind, and hit on her, with a hey, baby.

On Smurfette!

Who doesn't love a Smurf, indeed!