My Life. Medication Optional.

I made a training mistake that I shouldn't have. And it's all TV's fault.

So, I watch Make It Or Break It, which is teenage drama and gymnastics. When I was 8 I wanted to be a gymnasts, so this show is like candy to me. Anyway, my favorite character Payson has to retrain as a more artistic gymnast and is starting over. She started out with cartwheels, which made me think, 'Hey, I bet I can do a cartwheel now! That looks like fun! I should try learning some basic gymnastics stuff!' And that's where I went wrong.

I hit the gym and decide I'm going to screw around in the big aerobics room and try some cartwheels. (I stretched first, natch.) It's fun! So I do a few more, do two in a row, etc. Then I think, 'Well I used to be able to do a handstand. Let's try that.' So I do. I have some trouble getting up, but I manage a few. So 15 minutes goes by and I'm sweaty and warmed up so I decide today is the day to run my 2 miles for my race training.  I hit the treadmill and do two miles in 21:13, my best time ever. So I'm feeling great. Awesome, right?

Then I wake up the next morning.

It seems there is a huge difference in a teenage gymnast doing cartwheels and me doing them, because I am god-awful sore. I hurt EVERYWHERE. Back, shoulders, forearms, butt, thighs. I soak in Epsom salts. Nothing. Take Ibuprofen. Nada. So I decide to take the day off, because OW.

That's the mistake. When you wake up sore like that, the best thing to do is work out at a medium pace, nothing challenging, but long enough to work the muscles and get the blood flow going. I skipped out and I'm paying the price. It's two days later and I still hurt. I'm scrounging up some icyhot today.

Also, Make it or Break it rules.

I know I should write more substantive posts, and I will (probably) but for now let's just be grateful for the small things.

Life is super, as always.  I can to a really nice relevation about why I enjoy my job.  It's not an important job or a fancy job.  It do=esn't require a degree of any kind.  It works perfectly for me, though. (If you missed it earlier, I'm a grocery merchandiser, part-time.) I get to go to the store, work my product, order and stock, talk to other vendors, issue credits, plan for the week, etc.  I love it.  It has just enough structure to make me fee comfortable, since I have to do certain things every week and day, but enough freedom to make my life easier. I can alter my schedule if need be, and I can work longer to get projects done as well.

Some times I feel guilty for enjoying it so much, especially when I know several other people who don't love what they do.

What else? Lots of family engagements this week, which is equal parts nice and stressful.  The family is awesome, but we require space from people in order to maintain a sense of peace in the house.  After tonight we should have some free evenings again.

TV-wise , I'm watching Justified (the show I watch with the hubby, very dry and funny), Parenthood (SO GOOD!) and V.  And lots of Noggin. Oh, and The Ultimate Fighter.  I watch that with the husband and he watches Top Chef with me.  Good times.

On thing I love about my job is that I get a lot of time to think. I put groceries away and it's pretty mindless, so I have a great deal of things going on in my head during the day.  During most of my shift I thought about what I should say about Parenthood.

Character-wise, it's strong but not perfect. Adam (Peter Krause, who I recognize, but I don't recall anything of his I have watched before.) is the oldest of the Braverman siblings and looks to be the solid, go-to guy. He works a nice corporate job, has a nice house, a nice wife, nice kids. On paper, he's perfect.  In life, he cusses out the ref at his kids' baseall game, forgets his other kids' soccer match, has an obsessive streak and has to come to terms with his sons' Asbergers diagnosis.  Adam's wife Kristina is trying to hold her family together and take care of her son.  She's both vulnerable and forceful.  Monica Potter can get a little heavy-handed with it, but for the most part she's great.
 
I'm not sure which sister comes next, but I'm going to say Sarah (Lauren Graham, of Gilmore Girls fame) since she has the kids that are older.  (Plus, and absolutely no offense to Lauren Graham, who is perfect, but Erika Christensen looks younger.) Sarah's an ex-bartender who has to move back to Berkley to live with her parents.  I actually relate less to Sarah than I thought I would. My kids are younger and I hope they will always be much less smart-mouthed than her kids are. I loved her plot line that had hooking up with Jim the barista (Mike O'Malley, who I will always fondly remember as the host of Nickelodeon's GUTS).  I also like the dynamic between her and Julia, the younger sister.

Julia (Erika Christensen,Traffic and Swimfan) is the conflicted working mom. She's a high-powered lawyer and her husband Joel stays home with their daughter Sidney.  She seems to love her job, but she feels the pain of what feels like missing her daughter growing up.  It's a familiar story and in other hands it might be boring and trite, but the writing is strong and Christensen is convincing as a woman who loves working and wants to enjoy her child.  The plot steered towards Julia's husband spending a lot of time with a mother from Sidney's school, which is cliche, but gave Christensen a chance to bring out the bitch-face, which is where she is at her best. Joel is Julia's husband and he's got no personality at this point. He's either oblivious or pretending to be oblivious to the woman interacting with him inappropriately and he's not a great communicator. Also, he's boring.

The last of the Braverman kids is Crosby. Who names kids Adam, Sarah and Julia, then busts out a Crosby? That's the least believable thing so far. Anyway, Crosby is the rebel, the drifter, the unreliable one. Dax Shepard is getting a lot of flack for being cast, but I like his laid-back approach with Crosby.  I find him sincere, but mischievous.  His plot line is stupid and the 'hey, you have a kid I never told you about' is boring and not something I've seen happen five years later to anyone I know. It also has about a million holes in it.  It's easily the weakest storyline of the show.  Still, I like Crosby. He reminds me of how sometimes you think about how easy and free it was before you had kids and then you remember is was great and it wasn't, just like now.


The mother has no plot at this point and just wanders in and out of scenes.  The dad (Craig T. Nelson from Coach) is the grumpy, the world-is-a-war patriarch.  He's irritated and irritating, but I have a fondness for him.

The kids are all fine actors.  The stand-out is obviously Max, who is AMAZING as a child with Asbergers. He gives a really nuanced portrayal of a child who just isn't normal, and it never feels forced or coached.  This kid is going to win awards.  (Which I never would have guessed from watching him in Daddy Daycare.)


Plot-wise, it's solid and well-written for the most part. The dialogue is believable.  All of the characters have fairly relatable issues, with the exception of Crosby.  The biggest issue seems to be trying to cram major storylines for each of the siblings into every episode. It can seem like a really full show, even when nothing happens.

The best thing about this show for me, is hands-down, the sibling interaction. I have a sister I am very close to, and we have conversations like that.  I have two brothers as well, and while we don't get together as often as this clan does, when we do it's full of the laughing, and the inside jokes and the sharing of gossip, just like with this group.  The strongest scenes are the four siblings hanging out, such as the scene at Adam's where all the sibs show up, or the smoking scene outside the elementary school.


This show is definitely worth DVRing. The first two episodes were solid, the third a little weak, but better than most things you could be watching.

I've been thinking about starting an adjacent blog for book and TV reviews.

When I was a kid I wrote reviews of every Clarissa Explains It All episode in a notebook and in college I started a journal of every book I read.  (I made it to fifty before I got bored of it.)
 

Now that I think about it, I'm not posting here as much as I had planned, so dividing my attention would be dumb.  Maybe I'll try a few reviews/recaps and see if I like it first.

FYI- Right now I'm reading 'Columbine' by Dave Cullen and I'd probably review Parenthood as my first TV review.

I'm seriously considering recaping the random shows I watch on TV.  I've seen this 7th Heaven episode enough times today that I can quote dialogue.

The list would go like this (IE, crap I have watched this week):
7th Heaven
Real Housewives of OC
Max and Ruby
Psych
Friends
The Golden Girls
Child's Play 2