Visiting the Doctor: Jones that is..

Although this may be common knowledge to most people.. I am really starting to wonder if my brain is in backwards... if I am just a little left of normal (or way left quite possibly.) That's me.. just a freak of nature. I should go and move to the North Pole to live with Rudolph's misfit colony.

Why am I so off base? Let's see.. I collect toys aimed at 4 year olds (Star Wars Galactic Heroes), my favorite breakfast is a piece of cheesecake, I love to wear my socks half on and half off (warming comfort of the sock on my toes, yet bare on the heel.. ahhh), I love eating the film that develops on hot pudding when it sits in the fridge (that one grosses a lot of people out), and I like the new Indiana Jones movie.. Yes.. (gasp!) You heard me correctly, and I will proclaim to the world: I LIKED THE NEW INDIANA JONES MOVIE!!!

At first, I didn't think this was such an oddity. I mean, the movie got descent reviews. Sure there are the critics that just dashed it to pieces, but they did that for each of the 3 previous films, so that can't be an indicator. Little Calvin loved it as well. Yes, he is 7, but still, it was a good time by all at the movies. The audience even applauded at the end of the film, something that just doesn't happen much these days. I came out of the theater happy as a clam, humming the Indiana Jones song, feeling like I had just spent 2 hours with a good friend I hadn't seen in almost 20 years.

I keep very fond memories of the Indiana Jones films: Seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time with my Webelos Scout group. I remember seeing my favorite Indy poster, the Temple of Doom one-sheet with a uber-buff Indy holding a sword and looking all torn to shreds. I couldn't wait to see what would happen to him next.

By the time the Last Crusade came out I was almost through high school, and yet my Dad and I still made it a point to see it together on opening night at Denver's giant "Century 21" theater with a 70mm screen (forget IMAX.. THIS was the way to see a movie with the giant screen and the curtain that would open up to reveal the beginning of the film.. good stuff). We even got our specialty printed tickets for watching it on opening night, something that theaters just never do anymore.. cheapskates..

The Indy movies were just a great source of memories... I even remember playing Indy as a kid. We lived in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at about 8,500 feet. Our backyard wasn't some little fenced number with grass. Nope it was a big expanse on the side of a mountain.. with rocks to climb, even caves. I still remember the look on my Mom's face when I came in late one summer night after playing all day. I was dressed in full Indy garb, and I had even wet my face in just the right areas and powdered it with some nice dirt to give me that perfect Indy light beard. I thought this was pretty cool. My Mom just looked horrified and sent me to the shower. But those back yard adventures in my head.. new relics to find, new swordsman to fight off and new villains to shoot with my stick gun (My mom would let us have toy guns... maybe that's why I am so deranged now).

And so it was with all these memories floating around my head that I walked into the theater with my own son, just slightly younger than I was when I first experienced "The Jones". We came in tired and exhausted.. Little Calvin had been in school all day, then had a Thursday evening soccer game to attend (where he played his best game ever, according to him, from all his pre-Indy excitement). I had purchased my tickets 2 weeks out.. just to make sure our show didn't sell out, thus missing out on our opening day opportunity. I entered the theater a little panicked as, thanks to the soccer game, we could only arrive 30 minutes before show time. I figured on opening day I'd be doomed to have to sit in the front row, or crammed against a side wall. Much to my surprise.. when we walked in (T-minus 25 minutes to show time) we were the only ones in the theater. It did fill up eventually, but it was just surprising to me when compared to other big movies on opening day.

So that all leaves me to the film itself. Like I said, I very much enjoyed the movie. Was it perfect? Of course not.. It did have some typical Indy plot holes and there were a few sequences that I felt were unnecessary.. In other words I think the film would have been perfectly fine without them so I just didn't see their point (my code words for these are "Fridge" and "Tarzan"). But still, most films have those and it was just a good time spent at the theater.

But then I cam into work and began to compare notes with my co-workers. This is where I began to analyze my sanity and movie taste. It seems my co-workers.. every last one of them all stand united: They HATED the film.. they despised it. "George Lucas.. stop destroying my childhood memories.." seemed to be the common thread. Now, I am getting all their little e-mails from others online that seem to also hate it, disagreeing with every concept, picking apart each little plot point. "Why are there jungle cutters if there are already roads.." "Why'd it have to be about aliens..." "why do the good guys and the bad guys have the same goals?" Blah blah blah on and on and on they go...

But it still makes me wonder.. is there something wrong with my brain? If one or two disliked it, that's one thing. But EVERY person in the office, didn't just dislike it.. they can't stop talking about their dislike. So... what does that say about me? Is there something that I am missing? Did I sleep through the suckiness? Is the "recognizing that old Indy stinks" chip missing from my brain? I just don't get it.. and so I'll just accept the fact that I am one weird individual, And I am fine with that.

You know what.. I can't wait to see the film again! And so I'll sit in my empty theater, smiling wide at my whip wielding friend, enjoying myself.. while everyone else sits outside and gripes. Their loss. My gain. Go Indy! Don't wait for another 20 years before coming back for another visit!

Growing Up, Growing Over

It just so happens that my wife is an awesome artist. With busy schedules, jobs, sports, and all the craziness that motherhood brings, she doesn't get a chance to use that artistic skill as much as she might like, but occasionally, she gets the chance to dream big and do something really cool.

One of those cool things is a wall in Little Calvin's room. Being that straight white walls tend to send us loopy.. like being stuck in a cell, we immediately had to start adding some color when it was his baby nursery, and so the wall became turquoise with a slight sponging effect (looked like clouds when it was all said and done). That then led to a full wall sized city mural back in 2004 when Little Calvin was going through his "Transportation phase". Back then he loved any kind of car or train or airplane and was one excited little kid to get his wall painted like a big city.

But fast forward 4 years. He's now almost 8 and he's gotten over the whole transportation thing. Instead of being fascinated by all thing that move on the planet, he has accepted these things as a part of everyday life and moved on.. to space aliens. But what becomes difficult for my wife, who spent a HUGE amount of time painting that city on the wall, is coming to terms with the fact that as he grows up, it must be erased.

So for the past few months, Little Calvin and his mom have been in planning mode, trying to figure out what to put on the wall instead of the city. The answer wasn't hard to find.. it's Little Calvin's constant obsession: Ben 10, the cartoon series about a boy who can turn into a large number of alien super heroes to help fight off the invading evils from other planets.

And so the "Ben 10 Room" began to take shape and the project started to take shape. It included.. replacing all the trains on his shelves with his Star Wars toys, making a new bed spread, new curtains, and finally the new wall. Essentially, everything with a car or train motif had to be replaced.

I think the most painful moment of the project came towards the beginning. WIth all the paint ready to go, the room prepped and ready, I let Little Calvin do the "ceremonies first brushes" to kick off the project. With paint roller in hand, he immediately wiped the truck (painted with a Wiggles logo) out of existence, as a sign of his growing up and moving on.

Many coats of primer and several coats of grey later, the wall looked remarkably different, all signs of city life completely gone. Then it was time for the Ben 10 mural to take shape... A chance for Dawn to have her giant, wall sized palette to work from once again.

Now the room is done.. painting complete, new curtains and bed spread in place and, as yet another sign of the times, his once hidden desk has now been pulled out, so he has a place to work on his homework.

Sure the kids grown 4 inches in just a few months.. he's now interested in sports, school, his piano and fiddle lessons, etc. But sometimes it's hard to watch those remnants of his childhood start to slip away. He is now "too grown up" for those "little kid things". While part of me is really excited to see these changes as it gives us more things to do together that he can handle, part of me will miss all his little trains, his old fascination with "bing bings" (railroad tracks, thanks to the sound the gates make when the trains go by) and the fun growth that early childhood brings.

Combine this with my daughter getting ready to start high school in a few months, and new found obsession with boys.. (I'll save that for another blog) and suddenly I find myself realizing my family is changing.. growing up.. and growing over their old interests. It's very weird to me, and so I have to try to enjoy each day before they go to sleep, to become a little older by tomorrow.

If you'd like to read Little Calvin's take on the whole new room thing, head over to my wife's new blog (she decided to jump into this blogging world last week), where she's going to let Little Calvin do some guest blogging for her. Click here for her blog.