kapachino

Category: thoughts

  • drive: not really a movie review

    This past weekend my husband and I went on an Actual Date to the movies, just the two of us. When deciding what to see, we went strictly by the description on my Flixster app, since neither of us get out enough to have heard anything about the current movies out. We chose to see Drive, with Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. It seemed like it’d be a fun action flick, had an 8.4 rating on imdb.com, and over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Sounds promising, right?

    The reason this isn’t really a movie review is because I don’t deny that it was very well made, and I’m sure many people will love it and even rave about it. (My brother, for instance, told me that he quite enjoyed it.) But it was NOT what we were expecting, and not something I’d ever like to see again. In fact, I wish I could un-see it. It was dark, depressing, eerie, and violent; the kind of violence that is personal and disturbing. There is a scene where one man shakes the hand of another man who had been his friend, and as he does so he slits his arm with a knife severing the artery. “That’s it, it’s over. There’s no pain,” he says to the dying man, as if it’s some kind of consolation. This murder was committed just because the man knew something incriminating.

    At this scene my stomach turned and I actually began to cry. There were several other similar scenes and it really got to me. My husband told me we could leave, but it was almost over so we stuck it out. It’s not that I can’t handle blood – I’m a nurse. And it’s not that I dislike dark or emotional movies. But I’ve always hated gratuitous violence, and now that I’m a mom it almost makes me sick. This movie did not leave us with any positive feelings or hope.

    Last week David and I attended the viewing of an 18-year-old girl, his boss’s granddaughter, who recently passed away from a brain tumor. That’s my baby, her father said to us. That night I dreamed that Meredith died, and I woke up sobbing uncontrollably. Even when I realized it was a dream, I couldn’t stop because I felt so much fear that something bad will happen to her and I don’t feel like I could survive that. I know it’s not possible or even ultimately best for her, but I want her life to be perfect. I’m hypersensitive to anything evil or bad in the world now, and I don’t need a movie to remind me of it.

    We should have just seen Dolphin Tale.

  • Cube Dog App Review

    The Clever Girls Collective offered me the chance to review this new iPhone app that just came out called Cube Dog. The reasons I wanted to do it are: 1) Since I just upgraded to the iPhone 4 I’ve been rediscovering my love for apps, 2) my favorite games are the simulation-type, and 3) I’m a dog lover, of course!

    Cube Dog just became available this week, and I spent some time playing around with it. The first thing you do when you open it up is design your very own 3D cube dog and name it. If you hit a creative block, just give your phone a shake and a random design will come up! I designed this first one and named him Kiwi:

    And this is the random one I got, and named Sally:

    Once you have your cube dog it’s time to play! There are lots of cute 3D animations you can go through with your dog like playing with a ball, making a phone call, sleeping, and even ninjapup! It’s pretty adorable, but after you go through them once that’s really all there is. You do have the ability to purchase additional animations (and parts for the design of your dog) in the store, though.

    Another cool thing you can do is enter camera mode, which puts your pup in the room with you. Here’s Kiwi in my hand:

    As far as I can tell that’s about all you can do. I was really hoping for more of a point to it, like actually taking care of your pet and maybe seeing it grow. But it is extremely adorable. I think it’d be great to keep kids entertained.

    Here’s a little more about the app:

    Check it out on Facebook also, and watch for a fun contest running June 13-17!

    Disclosure: While Cube Dog provided me with the app to review, the opinions I’ve expressed here are solely my own and represent my honest viewpoint. Cube Dog, Clever Girls Collective and I promote Blog With Integrity.

  • what’s goin’ on

    For about a week now I’ve been meaning to get a post up about the front room of our house that I’ve been working on in my spare time. It’s in the middle of its transformation & I thought it would be fun to show you some pictures and ask for advice. I started working on it today, but I’m having a lot of trouble uploading the photos. Since I have a million other (probably more important) things to do today and not much time to do them, I gave up. I’ll try again when I have time, but for now how about a simple life update? It feels like forever since I’ve spent any time here and I miss it.

    ***

    I’ve been feeling all wrong lately, since about the end of last week. I don’t feel well, can’t ever get enough sleep, I wake up with headaches, and food doesn’t really interest me. Just today I had the brilliant realization that this “off” feeling coincided with the coming of my period. It all makes sense now! So hopefully it won’t be lasting much longer. Along those lines, I get to have another lovely test on Friday to determine if I have the uterine septum I told you about before. I’m not looking forward to it, but I will be glad to know if I have to have surgery or not.

    My husband is recovering, although he is still pretty weak. He’s slowly doing more things for himself, although I can tell that he is going stir crazy being stuck at home for as long as he’s been here. Poor guy.

    I’ve been running on all my days off, going through the C25k program once again. I’m so out of shape it’s not even funny, and this was proven to me when I played a soccer game on Sunday. First of all, I think 11 a.m. games should be banned. Secondly, since I’ve only ever played the summer season with this team I had no idea that summer is for fun and fall is when the serious teams come out. We got drubbed, and I couldn’t believe that at one point in my life I would have been able to keep up. I kept asking our team manager for a sub, and she said, “I know Kat, you always want a sub.” I told her she could either take me out now, or wait for the paramedics to carry me off with a stretcher.

    Work is killing me a little bit. Maybe I’m just saying that because yesterday was craziness, but the thought of going back again tomorrow makes me want to hide under my covers. All my vacation time is spent though, so I need to get back into the swing of it.

    I am the leaderof our church’s youth group along with the help of my husband and a few others. I just kind of fell into this position, and have been really struggling with what to do with the group this fall. Today I found a study that I’m excited about and I’m spending some time putting together what I think will be a fun and interesting lesson.

    In my spare time I’ve been reading a lot, working on the house, trying to catch up on Gossip Girl, and playing nerdy video games like Civilization 4. With the rest of today I need to clean, get ready for youth group tomorrow, go for a run, and shower before David and I head out to our first meeting of Financial Peace University. It’s a lot to cram in, but I’m hoping it’s possible!

    I hope to be back regularly soon, but until then just know that I miss you all. :)

  • humor me

    Y’all, my life is a little bit crazy right now. It seems like, with David and me, we’ll just be going along fine with our little lives for awhile and then all of a sudden something big will happen – usually not something very good – and then the sky opens up with a bunch of other annoyances.

    Oh, you want to refinance your house? No problem, everything is in perfect order, you’re guaranteed a huge reduction in payment along with a refund. But wait, what’s this! Two foreclosures in your neighborhood? Hold on just a hop skip. You’ll probably end up getting the refinance, but you might not get the refund and it definitely won’t be for at least another month.

    Oh, your husband needs his hips replaced? That’ll be close to $4000 for surgery and medication, at least a month of unpaid sick leave, and by the way don’t even think about that vacation you have planned. What’s that, you want to have a baby? Not so fast – we need you to experience a healthy dose of miscarriage & infertility first. And just for good measure we’re going to clog up your bathroom sink so good that not only will nothing go down, water will actually come up.

    Not enough stress at home? We’ve got you covered at work. We’ll start with a patient who’s having diarrhea every thirty minutes and is too weak to wipe her own behind, add to that an angry man who is ready to call administration if you so much as allow his IV pump to beep more than once, and just for kicks we’ll throw in a nice smelly wound full of tumor and infection that you need to keep clean.

    Whew. That was ugly.

    So, now that I have that out of my system, I hope I can get over myself already. There are worse things in the world.

  • steps to recovery

    I’m the kind of tired where I barely have the energy to take care of myself, but since I have to go back to work this weekend to continue taking care of other people, I’m trying to get myself back on my feet today.

    Step One: Pop some pills. I woke up with a killer headache, and though I usually try to avoid medicine for as long as possible, I didn’t want to deal with it today. Four ibuprofen, down the hatch.

    Step Two: Take a shower. The only reason I did this was because I was meeting Tabaitha for breakfast. I’m grateful for this not only because I got to see her, but because the shower did a lot for my energy level.

    Step Three: Food and coffee. Tabaitha introduced me to my new favorite place, just five minutes from my house, The Bagel Cafe. I’ve already told David that we’re starting a new tradition of going there every Sunday before church (when I’m not working, of course).

    Step Four: Relax. Spend a few hours reading blogs, playing with my dogs, & reading.

    Step Five: Be a little productive. Pay bills, get a few groceries, and clean the floors.

    Step Six: Work on a fun project. I’ve decided to make vacation jars to display in our home a la Young House Love, and today will be the day that I begin.

    Step Seven: Cook dinner for family. The perfect way to end the day, with comfort food and loved ones.

    Hopefully by the end of today I’ll be ready to conquer another weekend of work!