When I picked up the kids this afternoon. ARK, my 11-year-old, was in a bit of mood. I suppose in an effort to discourage me from engaging him in conversation, he announces, “I’m going to read during the ride home.” ZoZo, the 5-year-old, quickly chimed in, “I’m going to make a lot of noise.”
Tag Archives: Ark
At Last
Well, today is the day. Actually, tomorrow is the day. But it feels like today. After years of waiting, finally it comes to an end. At midnight I will see Revenge of the Sith. But it isn’t only about the movie.
I was nine when my Dad took me to see Star Wars. I know, I know, we’re supposed to refer to it as A New Hope now. But back in the day, when you said Star Wars, everyone knew exactly what you meant.
Attending that one movie transformed me. I remember the excitement surrounding it. I remember being completely overwhelmed by the opening scene. The monstrous ships, battling in outer space. I recal thinking, “But we’ve only put a man on the moon. How did they does this!? It was completely awe inspiring. I remember the fear I felt at the first site of Darth Vader…not completely understanding if he was man or machine, but knowing he meant death. I remember thinking Princess Leia was the most beautiful, most brave woman I’d ever seen. I knew I wanted to be like her when I grew up. The geek was born. The love of science fiction and fantasy blossomed in my heart.
I’ve been told by some that I’m a late bloomer. That the sci-fi geek-gene usually surfaces at a much earlier age. I don’t know. I don’t really care. What I do care about is finding other geek souls of this world. I care about gathering with my brethern to revere and line the pocketbooks of our geek gods. But what I care most about is knowing that I am not the last of my line of geeks.
So, tonight, tomorrow is more than just the final Star Wars movie for me. It is a rite of passage. The official confirmation of geek-dom from one generation to the next. I was nine when the torch was handed to me by my father. Tonight, tomorrow, sometime after midnight, the flame will pass to my ten-year-old son.
There was a time, not too long ago when I would not have believed this night would happen. You see, my child fought the transformation at first. He refused to play with his Star Wars action figures. His first passion was dinosaurs. Yeah, occassionally he would take out a light saber and attack something of value, usually the dog. I think his Jurassic Park T-Rex with a working digestive track ate Yoda or C-3PO on several occassions…but we can’t really call this playing Star Wars.
But something happened. About a year ago, a transformation began to occur. He started asking questions. The sort of questions only hard-core, fanactics like my self would care to ask. The sort of questions only George can answer. And so, as THE day grew nearer, I found myself toying with the notion of taking my son to see the movie on opening day. And then on a whim, I decided, no, my boy needs more. This will be his one real opportunity to really see it. Because, lets be honest, its not only about the movie. It’s about the movie and its people. My boy needed the opportunity to watch THE movie with ITS people.
The wait is over, the circle is complete…
Weekend Recap
Stayed pretty busy this weekend.
Friday night TKs played, so I stayed home with the kids. I helped ARK with his research project on Rhode Island. I think pulling my eyelashes out, one at a time, would be a less painful undertaking. Lefty came over, and we crammed for our karate test. If I pass the test tomorrow, it will be because of Lefty. ZoZo stalked Lefty while we practiced.
Saturday I spent the day at the do jang for testing. I was quite disappointed in my performance. I made stupid mistakes on continuous form, parts of basics and hol sin sol. I think I did okay on terminology, bong form, and il soo sik. I hope I didn’t screw up enough to fail, however I won’t be surprised if I don’t advance. After testing, I came home, ate an eggo, helped ARK some more with his project, put a cartoon on for ZoZo, and took a power nap on the couch. I know it was a good nap because I woke up with my face in a puddle of drool.
After nap time I had to hurry up and get ready for a big night on the town with TK. We went to Ninfas for dinner. I had two ninfa-ritas and three cheese enchilladas. Yum. Then we went to see The Life Aquatic. Willem Dafoe is a comedic genius. I so wish I could own a pair of Zissou Adias.
After the movie we went and crashed the E-Dan celebration at On the Border. The group was just finishing up with dinner as we arrived. TK went to the bar to get me a margarita and himself a DosEquis draft. Some folks at the table were lamenting the fact that the waitress was a complete moron. She proved this only moments later when she whined because she didn’t know which tab to put mine and TKs drinks on. Of course the obvious reply is “no one’s stupid; we paid for these at the bar.”
At some point the group started talking about who would play each of us in a Tang Soo Do movie. A young Kirstie Alley and Bridget Fonda were suggested for my part. I’m not sure I see either of them, but at least no one suggested Martha Plimpton or Kathy Bates play my part.
Do-over, Please
I am very disappointed in my performance during testing today. I made some pretty silly mistakes. I wasn’t really nervious, I guess my concentration was just off at times. I wish I could say the same for my boy.
I felt bad for my little Ark. He had to do two forms all by himself in front of the testing board…with a room full of people looking at him. He was so nervous you could see him shaking. He did one form fairly well. He made one mistake in it, but he realized his error on the next move. I thought it was going to completely throw him, but he got through the rest of it okay. The second form he had to do alone was a complete disaster. I had a mom moment, I wanted to run to him and hold him and tell him he was doing a good job. Then to top everything off, he wasn’t able to break his board. I’m not sure if he’ll pass. He doesn’t seem to think he’ll pass. I’m assuming Sa Bom Nim will tell me ahead of time if he isn’t going to get promoted. I’d hate to make him go to promotion night and sit through everything and then not get his second stripe put on his belt.
I Don’t Know What Happened
Ark, my nine-year-old who has hated karate since we joined…well “hate” is too strong, he likes getting promoted, he just dislikes doing everything one needs to do in order to get promoted. Anyway, he has whined and/or thrown a temper-tantrum prior to almost every karate class he’s attended. That is until the last month or so.
Last night he decides he loves karate, he can’t get enough of it. In fact, he loves it so much that he wants to share his love for the martial art with other karate kids throughout the world.
How is he going to share the love? He wants to write two karate books: “Gup Goodies” and “Dan Doings.” He’s really jazzed about “Gup Goodies.” He started jotting down ideas he has for the book when we got home from karate last night. He’s a little worried about how he’s going to know what to put in “Dan Doings” but he’s pretty sure Sa Bum Nim will be so wowed by his book ideas that he’ll help fill in the information gaps. He also knows about a web site that will turn his English written books into Korean…yeah, I know, but he’s nine, the concept of linguistic complexities is beyond his ability to comprehend.
The most bizarre thing about this is that I think this has all come about over the last few weeks because of the love he has for a certain green belt (soon-to-be red belt) who is, let’s see, more than 20 years his senior.
