I dare YOUnot to be a fan if you watch every single episode from the beginning like I have over the last few weeks. It’s, just, inevitable. There is no escaping fandom. There really isn’t.
Just try mocking me.
I double dare you.
Mock away.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan fan. But I am as fan-like as one can get who works on films doing makeup for a living. I know actors, they’re just like us. Some are dorky, some are cool. They poop, just like you and me and are imperfectly human, just like you and me. Knowing this, and working the long 12+ hour days/six day weeks necessary to create things like Smallville, pretty much takes away the fantasy for me.
Usually.
It is extremely rare that I am able to escape fully into a plot-line. In fact, it’s probably only happened a handful of times in the last ten years. So finding myself acting like an dry alcoholic craving some wetness on my tongue each time I go more than a day without a Smallville fix, has been… surprising to me.
I am laughing at myself right now, so you can too.
Go on, laugh at me, it’s ok.
But I tell you, there is something intriguing about seeing The Man in Tights wearing plaid and afraid to have sex for fear of killing the poor girl.
And, like a druggy needing a fix, I have to confess that I am hooked. My imagination has been completely sucked into this small town story-line of love and trust, friendship and betrayal, right and wrong. I find myself drifting off (reluctantly) each night with the stories and adventures continuing on in to my dreams.
Hook me up to a drip and pump me full of this stuff. I can’t seem to get enough. It is like reading an awesome book series that you never want to end.
It’s all Michael Rosenbaum’s fault, you know.
And Star Treks.
I had never thought twice about this series because, I mean, how could a mere TV show possibly compare to Christopher Reeve in tights, right?
And then, something devastating happened – I ran out of Star Trek episodes to watch! It’s not that I am a huge TV watcher per say, I just love having something nerdy on in the background while I’m arty-farting around making jewelry or painting. Now, with no more Star Trek, making jewelry was going to feel so lonesome! The loneliness quickly crept in… Until a few hours later when I saw Smallville seasons 1-6 half price at Smiths marketplace!
I was weak. I was vulnerable. My will power? Non-existant. My mind was in therapy-shopping mode and putting that stack of Smallville DVD’s into my trolley made me feel good.
So you see, it is plainly the fault of the Star Trek franchise that I have been injecting Smallville in to my system non-stop, for the last three weeks. If they had just continued Enterprise for 5 more seasons, I would be fine right now.
Thanks Star Trek. (sheesh!)
And how is it Michael Rosebaums fault I hear you ask? Well! If I didn’t know him, I would have never noticed the DVD’s sitting there on the store shelf in the first place. A DVD cover kind of sticks out just a bit when the bald person on the front is someone whose face I have touched, yes that’s right ladies, whose face I have touched, over and over….. with… a makeup sponge of course (naturally). So yes, clearly, if he was not in the show, I would never have seen it there on the store shelf, I would never have purchased it and I would be a nice normal person right now with no unusual addictions to a certain TV show.
Thanks a lot Michael. (sheesh!)
And this, my dear readers, is my fan confession.
Nerdy as I am.
Love Jaz
xox
Post Script: You know, I have never been one to kill for a job, I have always been quite happy taking whatever film work floated my way.
But dang…
I would give a lung to work on this show.
(Hint, hint Michael. If you are reading this, feel free to put in the good word for me ;)
(And if you are wondering if I took this picture, well, I did…… n’t…)
(You know he’s married right? So quit your drooling.)
Since moving back to the US, we have had to make difficult decisions based on the cost-of-care, that has compromised both the short-term and long-term health of our two children. Due to the inflated health insurance premiums we were paying – premiums that provided less than 5% of their daily healthcare needs – coupled with the providers expensive deductibles, co-pays and ‘out of pocket’ fees, major stress and worry for our future compounded the worry already felt in a home that has two children with a rare disorder. The compromises we have had to make in the last year may have saved money initially, but ultimately, cost more down the road. For example: My three-year-old daughter was eligible for the RSV shots last winter because of the high risk of respiratory failure the virus posed to her. Unfortunately, we had to literally turn the deliveryman away at the door upon discovering the cost was $3,300 for three shots. Her deductable was almost as high, so even with insurance and having the shots ‘approved’, we would have had to pay the full amount ourselves. My stomach churned at the thought of having to turn the shots down, as my son almost died of RSV when he was three. Several weeks later, she was admitted to intensive care with Respiratory Failure and was ventilated for two and a half weeks. The cost was almost her life, and a $100,000 hospital bill.
Our Previous Medical Care Issues:
There is no roadmap for the family or physicians where rare illnesses are concerned.
We very quickly became the doctor and nurse to our children. We learned to fight for the care they need and suggest possible treatments because the doctors just don’t know what to do and what to expect. As young, new parents, our days saw us writing the book on RSMD. Figuring the disease out, alone, the hard way. Imagine the worry of seeing a beautiful baby waste away without a clue as to why; Seeing his file put in the too-hard-basket; Living in a dark cloud of fear and worry because there are no answers why and no clue what was to come.
Multiple hospitalisations, traumatic resuscitations and ventilations – our lives became something we could never have imagined. These beautiful children, with amazing talents and personalities, typical in every possible way other than their bodies refusal to work properly.
It took five years to find a diagnosis and even then, there were no research papers, doctors or specialists that could tell us that our children will most likely die before their prime, or will develop crippling scoliosis as they grow needing multiple spinal surgeries before they even hit their teens. There are no roadmaps for us or for our doctors. We have had to write it, map it out, from hard, sometimes near-death experience; through trial and error. And more recently, through meeting a family who had all four children with the same disease. I understand that this is the way of rare diseases. But it is very difficult to live through.
My Hopes For The Future
I used to wonder if my children would be able to marry, have children, lead relatively normal lives as adults. Even the doctor who knew most about this disease in the world couldn’t answer these questions for me. I know now. I know that they may not live long enough, or have the independence, or the strength. They will hope for it and wish for it though, just like we all do.
I don’t think about this anymore. Now my thoughts are consumed with how on earth we are going to pay the next hospital bill. I fret over how we are supposed to pay for their tube-feed supplies when it costs more per day to feed them than the average middle class salary earns.
I wish I didn’t have to think about this side of things, but it is the reality for us at the moment. I would like to be thinking about loving them, caring for them, keeping them as healthy and as strong as possible. I resent the amount of time trying to get them the healthcare they need has been taking me away from them. I wish for less worry in life, for continued research about this disease and the gene affected and I wish to see them grow up happy and content in their own skins.
mmMMMmmm I’m so lucky. I am a guest artist on Emilies ‘Life is Beautiful’ Blog this week. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her blog and so does everyone who visits. She is a magic mumma and so inspiring to me creatively. Emily has just had another bub (a gorgeous ten pounder who I can’t wait to photograph when I go home for Christmas) and has a few guest artists filling in for her 52Q Challenge while she gets settled. This is a creative weekly challenge and in many ways, it is also a spiritual challenge – you should join in and post your link! We would love to see your beautiful creative expressions :)
This weeks question is:
What brings me joy?
There are a handful of things that bring me true and deep joy in my life, and I treasure those things and hold them very close to me.
I know Emily from back when we were in our late teens. We rocked the stage together in Arsenic and Old Lace and some other fun things happening in Perth at the time. And guess what? I just found the pictures!! Go on, have a snort and a giggle and a smile – I sure did!! I still laugh so hard looking at these memories, even twelve years later. I LOVE Emily’s bright red gorgeous lips (she is one of the only people I know that can do red like that! So saucy!) and the tea towels padding my bum! And the thing that makes me laugh the hardest, even now, is remembering how we had to try so hard not to laugh on stage when Aaron started to have an impromptu evil fit. Notice Leia and I hiding behind our hankies? It was such a great show. (I am laughing out loud so bad right now just thinking about it - these memories are bringing me joy for sure. There is nothing quite like a good belly laugh over a great memory :)
Fun times. Funny memories. (REALLY funny memories!)
What a blast of a day! It was so much fun shadowing Loralee Choate (author of the well known blog www.loraleeslooneytunes.com, instant bosom-buddy and invite-ee to the White House) to capture an ordinarily beautiful, beautifully ordinary, ‘average’ day in her life. (Although, with Loralee, you quickly learn that nothing is ever truly ordinary.) I look forward to sharing our day with you, in all of it’s wonderful ordinariness next week (she rivals me for days gone without showering – I love it!) But for now, a sneak peak to get your ovaries crying out for one of your own yummy bubbies like Loralees newest family addition :) (I just couldn’t resist, I had to share!)
So here I am, by popular demand, showing you around my garden. It’s an interesting place full of lots of pretty mixed with lots of not-so-pretty. Overall though, it is a slice of heaven hidden in suburbia. Trees so old, they are as tall as the sky. Junk piles with old rusted gadgets from decades ago. A hidden fort under the old pine tree. An acre and a half of bees buzzing around fruit trees and birds filling the mountain air with their sweet songs.
It is a large piece of land we live on, and I am grateful to have found it. It is so large in fact, that weed control is not something I invest too much time in. I would rather paint a picture or make my children laugh. I have in truth, left the bulk of our vegi patch to fight for itself this summer - survival of the fittest - and I am very proud of how strong so many of the vegi’s have been, especially with that nasty weed morning glory bullying so many of the plants back there.
I love seeing the sunflowers slowly shrivel as summer comes to a close and hear the bees flitter from flower to flower. Squirrels chirp, hiding in the pine trees, never coming out to play. Horses puff next door. Dogs bark to the right. Cats hide in the bushes, watching me harvest, curious, twitchy, but soon relax again and sleep in the sun. The cats are my quiet companions when I am out there. Cats from all over seem to make a path through our yard at some point each day – I like it. They fascinate me, these soft little creatures with mysterious eyes. Garden spiders run around my feet as I tread through their play ground. They don’t hold it against me. Grass seeds cling to my skirt as I make my way through the fruit tree jungle.
As I went from apple tree to apple tree picking the largest ones my short little arms could reach, I found, tucked shyly between two wise old apple trees, a small humble plum tree. My heart raced at the discovery. Plums? PLUMS?? Beautiful plums, untouched by bugs, just about ready to pick – the juicy sweet kind with yellow flesh inside. All of these fruit trees, thriving, all by themselves. No tender love from me, just their big old roots stretched deep within the rich earth soaking up the last of the melted snow from spring.
Amazing.
When the children came home from Isis’ piano lesson, I showed them our harvest filling the wheel barrow outside. Pumpkins, cucumber, twisted carrots, onions, heirloom tomatoes, giant turnips, squash, apples and pears.
Very satisfying.
And the sun did my soul a lot of good. The sun is magic like that, isn’t it.
As many of you know, my children have a rare form of muscular dystrophy called Rigid Spine Muscular Dystrophy. This often makes the simplest of tasks seem overwhelmingly difficult. As a result, we do not spend enough time in the back yard. Phoenix can’t get around easily over the rough terrain in her walker yet and Isis often gets tired or intimidated by the size of the yard. It was so good to see them out there today. Exploring. In the sunshine. Squishing bugs. Picking grass. Enjoying themselves.
We were disappointed however, to see that our friend, the dead squirrel, had…. vanished. We have been enjoying checking the carcass (on an ancient washing machine) every few days to see if it had turned into a skeleton yet. It got a little flat looking as the weeks passed and had it’s eyeballs eaten out, but that’s as far as we got in observing it’s decomposition.
*sigh*
It probably became a kitty play thing. Or maybe the other squirrels gave it a fitting squirrel burial, secretly, at night.
Darn.
It’s little skeleton would have been so cute to see :)
I am still laughing over this, and I am allowed to!! Oh it feels SO GOOD to LAUGH over a topic that usually has me pulling out my hair or wishing I was a drinker!!! English humor is the funniest in the world to me. Oh I miss all the english shows on TV at home in Australia. (American’s, if you are like my husband, you may have to watch this more than once to understand the accents… and the humor ;)
laslopezlas’s etsy shop makes THE most BEAUTIFUL scarfs. I am in love with the two I bought as a birthday present for myself. In fact, I would buy almost everything in her creative and unique shop if I had the funds. I was so excited to get my package from Argentina. They came wrapped so gorgeous and with a $10 gift certificate to boot!
Look what little treasure I found drawn onto an old shopping list of mine from a few years ago. I kept it at the time because it was so precious me – and actually, I keep almost all of Isis’ drawings because they are all so precious to me (especially the more recent ones of clone troopers with no heads and blood splatters – bless his cotton socks.) He is an amazing and talented little guy.
(Beware, I am about to name drop…)
So I had the afternoon to myself today and spent it watching my old pal Michael Rosenbaum playing Lex Luther in the TV series ‘Smallville’ and bringing my sons ’superman-esque’ picture to life (quite fitting don’t you think?) I love coloring my sons pictures – they have such a unique and wonderful feeling about them and have a life to them that only a child can give. I think he was about five when he drew this one.
And you know what? I think I am going to really enjoy this series of Superman as a teen and I am so happy to see Michael has been keeping busy since last we met (busy is an actors dream and doesn’t happen for many of them, so I am stoked to see Michael doing what he loves and totally rocking at it). I know Michael from when I was Key Makeup and Hair on the film Pool Hall Junkies a few years back and although I knew he was in Smallville, I hadn’t seen the show until today. And, erm, gee, umm…. that Clark Kent fellow is rather… errrm… asthetically pleasing isn’t he? I thought a few months ago that I may be part lesbian (my lesbian friend said, “oh yeah? Which part – your little toe?”), but Clark Kent is sure swinging me back the other way.
Here is my answer to #6 of the http://sh1ft.org/blog/September Photo Questionnaire(I know, I know, I’ve been so slow to finish this questionnaire girls, but I had to go shopping! And email my mum for the recipe!)
Q: What is your favorite meal?
A: Roasted Sweet Garlic, Bread and Almond Soup, by Jamie Oliver
(This is definitely a sometimes food folks and not for the weak hearted – I mean that literally *wink* – five stars for flavor and originality though. I love this recipe! It is heavenly manna to the taste buds…and YES, those are indeed oranges you see in the center of my delicious dinner!)
Ingredients
3 large bulbs of fresh garlic, broken up and skins left on
1 medium white onion, peeled and finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil
285 ml/1/2 pint double cream
1 litre/1 3/4 pints chicken or vegetable stock
1 large loaf of ciabatta bread
2 tablespoons sherry or white wine vinegar
200g/7 oz. whole blanched almonds, lightly toasted in the oven
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 oranges, peeled and segmented
1 handful fresh coriander, leaves picked
Roast the garlic cloves in a preheated oven at 180C/350F for around half an hour until soft to the touch. Meanwhile take a large pot and slowly fry the white onion in 4 tablespoons of olive oil for about 10 minutes until really soft and translucent. Add the cream and the stock, bring back to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes, awaiting your garlic. Remove the garlic from the oven and allow to cool slightly before squeezing out all the sweet, golden paste. Whisk this into the soup. Discard the garlic skins.
Remove the crusts from the bread, rip up into small pieces and throw into the soup. Add the sherry vinegar, then allow the soup to simmer for 5 more minutes. Whizz it until smooth in food processer with toasted almonds. Season to taste and serve in big bowls sprinkled with some orange segments, torn up coriander and mint, and drizzled with a good lug of extra virgin olive oil.
You can eat this cold in the summer – it’s obviously going to be thick, which I think is a nice thing, but you can thin it with a little milk or stock if you want to.
You may want to big up the sherry vinegar to give it that twang you get sith a Spanish gazpacho soup.
There’s a similar recipe from Spain where sliced white grapes are added to the soup – this contrasts really well with the garlic, so give it a go. A handful will do. Nice when eaten both hot and cold.
I am so excited to introduce you all to my new etsy goodies for September 2009! Thanks to Emilies unbelievably FANTASTIC idea, I have made a whole bunch of Dreadlock Twistie-Twirlies! Beautiful bling for beautiful dreadlocks!
I have also made a bunch of beautiful wire-twisted copper and gem rings, and some sterling silver goodies. With Christmas coming up soon, it is the perfect time and place to buy something really unique for the people you love! Go take a look! Enjoy xox www.glooart.etsy.com
I am also so excited to be a guest artist on Emilies Blog this next coming month while she is busy with her new bub. Stay tuned for some yummy scrapart coming this way soon :)
In ancient times, many Greeks made drinking vessels out of amethyst (a purple quartz) in the belief that it would prevent intoxication. (Chuckle, chuckle) I wonder if it worked :)
I am certainly intoxicated by the amethyst copper ring that I made yesterday. I am not usually a purple person, but I like. Stay tuned to my etsy shop over the next few days because I will be adding a bunch of yummy copper rings (which will be going for around the $30 mark) and a few more sterling silver goodies. xox
mmmMMMMMMmmmm I’ve been making topaz, citrine and amber copper rings! FuuuUUUUuuuun…. I’ve been trying to figure these little things out all day. A friend of mine, Ane Marie Kofod (wife of actor Tomas Kofod), gave me two wire rings ten years ago on the set of Testaments, as a thank you for doing her nails. She was so sweet and generous, and I loved the gifts. I loved the rings then and I still love them today – one of them actually served as my wedding ring for a time. Ane Marie and I recently got back in touch via facebook (she looks even prettier now than she did 10 years ago!) and it inspired me to to have a play today :)
And how is it Michael Rosebaums fault I hear you ask? Well! If I didn’t know him, I would have never noticed the DVD’s sitting there on the store shelf in the first place. A DVD cover kind of sticks out just a bit when the bald person on the front is someone whose face I have touched, yes that’s right ladies, whose face I have touched, over and over….. with… a makeup sponge of course (naturally). So yes, clearly, if he was not in the show, I would never have seen it there on the store shelf, I would never have purchased it and I would be a nice normal person right now with no unusual addictions to a certain TV show.
