Pretty busy for a holiday

Accomplishments For Today:

!. Shaved legs for the first time since August. This may be TMI, but I have a doctor's appointment and even though they're only looking at my shoulder, I have to be prepared.

2. Doctor's Appointment. I got my shoulder biopsied. I'm missing a chunk of me. As well as some leg hair.

3. I made a pie! Its called a Creamy Strawberry Pie. It's made of strawberries, jello, and ice cream. It's not as good as the homemade blueberry syrup I made the other day, but still pretty tasty.

4. I cleaned up for company. I even scrubbed the shower, which company isn't likely to see unless things go really bad.

5. I introduced company to the joys of Adagio fandom teas, Monsters and Mysteries in America (the puckwudgie episode), AND Expedition Unknown.

Critters

I just finished reading American Monsters and my favorite line out of the whole thing is: "As one of Edgin's companion eyewitnesses said, "There ain't nothing right about that thing." I love it. It sounds so formal up until the quote, as if some proper English lords were out on the moor when they spotted something unusual. They stop and stare and fidget and harrumph because there is no seemly way to scamper and it really is rude of this mysterious creature to put them in this situation at all. And then the peculiar beast begins to bound about on its hind legs and one of the valets turns to young Lord Edgin and says it.

Of course, it actually happened in the Ozarks, which isn't nearly as funny. Imagine the British actors of your choice in the role anyway. It's still good for a grin.

The book has also given me something new to look up and think about: the ringdocus! Is it a legendary creature, a wolf, a hyena, or just a botched taxidermy job? Whatever it is, it reminds me a lot of the Beast of Gevaudan.

Oh, I'm never gonna be the same again...

Is it weird that the main thing I carried all through 2015 was Strange Magic? I mean, it came out in January and I saw a preview maybe twice that had all the weird eyebrow expressions and “Yeah Right!”s in it and honestly, looked pretty terrible. But then I heard it had Alan Cumming in it and reconsidered, but still didn’t go see it until I saw a photoset on tumblr that someone had done of the big fight scene with Maybe You’re Not the Worst Thing Ever written on it. (song lyric from Galavant.)

So I went out to watch it by myself one afternoon. I admit I cringed a little when we opened with a song, but it was a good song, so I went with it and it wasn’t long before I was fucking delighted. I loved it. I clapped and chortled like a happy seal. I stopped at a Walmart on the way home to get the soundtrack and they didn’t have it, so I went home and bought it off itunes.

The next order of business was to get somebody else to go with me. I dangled the thought of Alan Cumming singing in front of Debbie until she gave in and went with me. I still loved it, but she ended up in a fetal position whispering “I can’t! I can’t!” by the end. However it only took her two days to decide that yes, in fact she could, because she wanted to see it again.

By then, it had mysteriously vanished from theaters. We got Fandango on it and found that three hours away, in Martinsville, there was a dinky little theater still playing it. We debated whether we were crazy enough to drive six hours to see a movie we had both already seen, but then decided that yes, in fact we were.

After that, we couldn’t find it playing anywhere at all, so there was nothing to do but wait for it to be released. Meanwhile, I wrote fanfiction and regaled my class with stories of fairies and goblins in love until they were as excited for it to be released as I was. When I finally got it, they all sat and watched it all day, which was a miracle.

And then I began to lend it to people. My mom teaches 8th grade and they loved it. My sister teaches 5th, and it was a hit with them. My nieces and nephew loved it so much, I bought them a copy. I lent it to the kindergarden class and they loved it. Everybody I lent it to thought it was great. One of the subs who only got to watch part of it looked me up later to find out what happened. Everybody loved it! So I can not for the life of me understand why it did so badly.

We also did a tri-state merch search to find any merchandise we could. There was NONE. I don’t get it. This is Disney AND Lucas here. They haven’t had trouble merchandising in the past. And it came out right before Valentine’s Day so there shoulda been all kinds of stuff! Like those cheap boxes of kids’ Valentine’s? That would’ve been PERFECT.

And even now, the fandom is amazing. There is so much good fanart and fanfiction out there that it almost makes up for no merch. This whole year has gone by with me just as goofy over it as I was at the beginning. Now the only licensed product I really would interested in is “The Art of-“ because I would sell organs for that. Maybe not my own, but still.