Some things just stick with you...

My son is now 6 years old and I have become more aware that whatever I say/do, he'll always remember. Okay, I admit I do have memories going back to when I was 2, but they're kind of hazy.

Some of my favorite things of my childhood were the day trips we'd take with my Dad. Cultural stuff. During our school breaks, my father would occasionally take a day off from work and take us on "adventures", like a ferry boat across the bay, day at the zoo, long bike rides on Sundays, and, of course, museums. My Mom was not into museums and such, so we'd have some alone time with Daddy.

I always loved the Museum of Natural History at Quinta da Boa Vista, in Rio. I remember vividly the noise of the floorboards creaking when you walked in. But the most impressive thing was what my Dad said about the exhibits. There was a wax face of a woman, and the nose was missing. It was so gross and terrifying to a perhaps 5yo -can't remember how old I was. Well, I guess the woman suffered from some sort of flesh-eating disease, but my Dad said she was like that because she got a germ from drinking water from the faucet. That was totally ENOUGH for me, I was so deadly afraid I'd never drink water from the faucet (in Brazil the water is not exactly safe to drink as in the US).

I also remember this field trip we took in kindergarten, to this huge firehouse. AMAZING! The firefighters demonstrated so many things, they jumped from buildings, they used a rope to go down a wall, they slid down the poles. Oh, yeah, there was the thick white foam we played with. I remember the white cafeteria, the sandwiches and the little cups of groselha juice (yuck, I hated that, I drank nothing). We had another field trip to the beach, and I deadly afraid of going into the water because the kids found this huge sea urchin, and I didn't want to hurt my feet. Oh well...

Bringing the past back has its price. I had an argument with my Mom yesterday. She can't believe I remember this stuff. My friend's daughter turned 9 - I feel old! - and had a manicure to celebrate her birthday. So I reminded my Mom that I also had my first manicure when I was 9. I grew up around women mostly - 4 aunts and 1 uncle (I'm also the oldest of all my cousins and there was only one boy). So, naturally, I watched everyone getting their nails done - one time my Dad's cousins came over with blue nail polish on and I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Anyway, just about every week I was asking my Mom if I could have my nails done. Finally, at the occasion of my cousin's baptism, she finally gave in. As my Mom was doing my nails, my 6-yo sister walks in and demands to have hers done too, which my Mom promptly agrees. What? I waited so long for this, and my sister just gets it with no effort. Just to add insult to injury, my 3yo cousin wanted to copy us so my aunt did hers too. I was devastated.

So I had an argument with my Mom that the oldest kids always suffer, since they have to conquer everything, and the younger ones just "get lucky". She agreed with me, since she's the oldest of 4, and my Dad is also the oldest, so I complained to her that they should have been more responsible, that they should have denied my sister to get her nails done until she was 9.

But life is not fair, what can I do? Everything that took me years to get, my sister just had it handed to her. Except, of course, her driver's license. THAT she had to wait 3 more years to get. Oh yeah, but she can't ride the bus to go to her friend's house and do a group assignment. I'd have to drive her... Oy vey!

"You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are."

I have waited so long for this, and it's finally here!

This afternoon we watched Alice in Wonderland 3D (or rather, "Underland"). I don't know how to put it in words properly...

In a way I was disappointed because the movie wasn't exactly what I expected, and because our seats were on the side of the theatre with a railing in front, which kept reminding me we weren't really in Underland. On the other hand, it was still great and Tim Burton once more showed his greatness as a film maker.

The art direction is just too awesome to describe and I bet Colleen Atwood had a blast designing the costumes. For some reason the red playing card guards kept reminding me of the Star Wars stormtroopers. But that's the geek in me... LOL

How wonderful was it to hear the lovely voices of Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman playing the cat and the caterpillar. Talking about Alan's familiar voice, Hubby exclaimed "it's the guy from Harry Potter" (seriously, I'd expect more from a guy married to a Bachelor in Film).

Johnny Depp is once more delightful as the Madhatter. His character has the most unique accent, crazy laughter, and flows easily between the thin lines of normalcy and madness. On a more detailed note - I saw the folks at Imdb caught that too - one pupil is more dilated than the other, which denotes brain injury.

Helena Bonham-Carter' Queen of Hearts - or rather, Red Queen - stole the show along with the Madhatter. So much that I was pulling for her and the Jabberwocky. The White Queen was just too plain and boring - Yawn! - and the eyebrows rather distracting.

Oh yeah... Unfortunately there was a moron who did not silence his cell so we were subjected to the ringing through a portion of the film. I say OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

Breakdown, not Breaking Dawn

I wrote this review for my book club, so I thought I should publish it here as well. BTW, spoilers galore below. If you haven't read the book and will be mad at me for spoiling it, don't read this - although I think I may be doing you a favor, saving your time and $$$$.