Dealing with disappointment

"He could have stayed at the party. I'm sure they wouldn't mind."

Sam was invited to a schoolmate's birthday party on Sunday. At BUGS Gym. And of course Wil was disappointed that he had to stay home and miss the fun.

When we went to pick Sam up, another parent, seeing that Wil was upset, mentioned that other siblings had stayed at the party and Wil probably could have. While I appreciate that the hosts didn't mind siblings coming to the party, that isn't a lesson I want my boys to learn.

When Sam brought the invitation home, addressed to him, he said that someone else in the class had asked if their big brother could come so maybe we could ask if Wil could come to the party too. I explained that it is rude to invite your own guests to someone else's party. And then that was undermined by a well-meaning parent.

We reminded both boys that Wil went to some birthday parties last year while Sam had to stay home. And that they both have different friends and will do things with their friends. They have different interests. They won't always do everything together. And that's okay.

There aren't consolation prizes in life. Learning to deal with disappointment now is important. Now is when they will learn how to handle their emotions. Was Wil disappointed that he didn't get to play at BUGS Gym? Yes. Was he scarred for life by the experience? Nope. He has already moved on.

And next time one of them gets invited to a party and the other doesn't, we'll have this conversation again. Until they don't need the conversation because they know that they each get to do things the other doesn't.

A fitting nightmare

I welcomed the alarm clock this morning, even though it was an hour earlier than normal, on a dark Saturday when I could sleep in. I welcomed the alarm because it woke me from a nightmare.

And what a sad, sad nightmare. Was anyone in danger? No. Were there scary monsters? Nope. Spiders? Sorry, this wasn't one of my recurring spider nightmares. What was so scary?

Bad UX.

I know. I have pathetic nightmares, but I suppose this might be a sign I'm headed in the right direction.

Because my nightmare involved trying to fill in a web form. The worst web form imaginable. Where it randomly bumped me to a new field in the middle of filling out another. And pop-up video ads would play when I tried to return to the field to finish filling it out. Where the form required information that was totally unnecessary for the purpose.

My dream-self was in tears trying to complete this form.

And then the radio turned on, waking Chris for a busy day of piping. And relieving me from my dreamland torment.

And as a reward for reading about my nightmare, here is a picture of a sleeping cat.

Ciaran sleeping

Re-watching and rereading

Re-watching. Rereading. Enjoying all over again.

I feel like that has been a theme for me the last week or two. And it's reminding me how much I love certain shows, movies, and books. I remember why I loved them in the first place.

Several years ago I borrowed The Absolute Sandman from our local library. I was captivated by the story. The bound volumes are expensive. And there are four. So we never picked them up. But then, on one of our regular trips to our friendly local comic shop, we picked up the trade paperback of The Sandman #1, Preludes and Nocturnes.

I reread Preludes and Nocturnes (the first Absolute Sandman volume contains the first three trade paperbacks) over the weekend. While not the strongest storyline in Neil Gaiman's version of The Sandman, I really enjoyed reading it again. I want to reread the rest of the series and the new storyline, The Sandman: Overture.

Saturday I sat down and watched Return of the Jedi with the boys. I've seen it many times, but the last few times they've watched it I have been busy doing other things. I think this is the first time in a couple of years that I just watched the movie. And I remembered how much I love the original Star Wars trilogy. I think a viewing of the complete saga will happen this summer. Yes, probably including episodes 1-3, because the boys will insist. (If only I could convince them to skip the podrace....)

Also over the weekend (what was up with this weekend?) I caught a couple of episodes of the Battlestar Galactica reimagining. Up late, waiting for Chris to get home, flipping channels.... and BBC America was airing Kobol's Last Gleaming parts 1 & 2. I've been wanting to re-watch the series and even picked it up on Blu-ray a while back (gotta love those Amazon deals of the day!), but it's not something we can watch while the boys are around. Now I really want to immerse myself in that series again.

There are other series I want to watch again: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Star Trek: The Next Generation. There are other books I really want to read again, although my to-read pile is now three shelves and some of the books are so long: Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (I so love the Starz tv adaptation, another Ron Moore gem, along with the aforementioned Battlestar Galactica), the Harry Potter series (maybe I'll reread those when the boys are ready to read them), A Wrinkle in Time (actually, I just read the graphic novel adaptation, which, yes, reminded me of how much I loved that book), the Anne of Green Gables series.

What is it about certain books or shows that makes us want to read or watch them repeatedly? Is it like comfort food? I'm not sure that's right, at least not for me. Certain stories speak to me. They are like old friends that I know well, but they continue to surprise me. They tell me truths about myself or the world. I'm not sure I've found exactly the right words for why some stories keep hold of me or return to me while others can just float by, entertaining me, but not needing a return visit.

What books/movies/shows do you continually revisit?