Skip to main content

Throwback: February 5

Roosevelt (2007)

Jay often poses this unprompted, mindbending offer: "I'm a baby kitty cat, and you can call me whatever you want to call me."  There are two ways to answer this, and they are:

1) "Can I call you... Roosevelt?" - Jay will be overjoyed that you have chosen of your own volition to call them "Roosevelt", or as Jay says "Rose a belt".

2) Any answer not involving "Roosevelt" - so, for example, you might reply "Hmm, since you said I can call you anything I want to call you, and you are the one who offered that in the first place without any prompting at all, how about if I call you Patches?"  Jay will always reply to any statement such as the above (saying anything other than "Roosevelt") by stating "Well, you can call me Rose a belt."

Over the summer, we visited Wisconsin to attend and participate in Uncle Elliott and Aunt Liz's wedding.  As is their nature, the kids were impressed by their cat, Roosevelt.  Jay subsequently talked a lot about Roosevelt and continues this game, now more than 6 months later.

It is worth noting that Seeker, the hairless cat living with Aunt Kristen in California, has recently gained some favor as an acceptable answer to the above logic puzzle.  However, it is yet unknown whether the acceptability of this answer will be true over the long run.

Idk about the game but I still think of Seeker fondly, even though we only met once. Fantastic cat. I’ve always been a fierce hairless cat defender because of him.



American Idol (2009)

Angie and I have been watching American Idol this season.  Jay is also a fan of the show, though he's only watched about 30 minutes of it with Angie.

That's on the record.  Off the record, Jay has watched hours of American Idol.

Here's how it works.  The kids go to bed. Then, Angie and I do a few errands as quickly as we can.  I might do the dishes, Angie might sort some laundry.  We meet back in the living room and fire up the DVR.  Voila!  It's American Idol, sans commercials -- the way it was mean to be seen.

As we begin to watch, I look up the stairs.  Nothing.  A couple minutes later, I might look again.  Still, there's nothing.  Maybe 1/2 way into the show, I look again, and there's Jay, sitting on the step, watching American Idol.

To ask Jay, they’re sitting on the step because of some unrelated issue.  Last night, their belly hurt.  Another night, they were too hot.  Other times, they can't fall asleep.

Lately, I've been asking him "And how is sitting on the step solving that problem?"  He stares at me, perhaps betrayed, or maybe just delirious.  Either way, I follow it up with "... now get back in bed."  He does, and the malady subsides.

I remember often sitting at the top of the stairs, being worried to interrupt whatever my parents were doing, so I’d just be up there quietly chanting “moooommy, daaaaddy… moooommy, daaaaddy…” And yes, if I could bear witness to some adult tv in the process, I’m sure I would. I can’t remember if that was truly the reason I came out those nights. 

---

Angie was sure that Danielle and Jay would love The Brady Bunch, but it was a challenge to find reruns.  Finally, we located some around 2:30AM.  We've been recording them on the DVR, and Jay and Danielle have been watching.  They love it!  And Tiger hasn't even made an appearance yet...

A dead Wikipedia link, oh no!! Tiger has become a bullet point under “Recurring Characters” on the main Brady Bunch Wikipedia page. This can be attributed to shifting Wikipedia guidelines. They’re now much stricter about what gets its own dedicated page, I’m assuming for storage and cost’s sake.

We continued watching The Brady Bunch — we eventually got the series on a DVD set, its case lined with a green shaggy rug. When I got older I was eventually allowed to actually watch American Idol. I remember downloading favorite performances on my MP3 player and watching them on loop. I particularly remember Time After Time, performed by someone I can’t remember.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Things I Liked In April 2026

We are so back with another list of things I liked this month, this time featuring a spinner! The idea is, you spin the spinner and are presented with a link to something I enjoyed. Kill some time, check out some neat stuff.  Everything has a link associated with it, so grab your board and get read to surf the web! Don't worry, I made sure they're not linking to any bullshit virus littered websites. The act of turning your joy into a list you're going to share with people really makes you think about how you spend your time. You spend a day reading and researching and engaging with art and come away with a handful of items to add to the list, but you spend a few hours doomscrolling and go "hm. Didn't add anything. Is this really how I want to spend my time?" Also, I'd go to put something on the list and stop to think "did I really engage fully with this? If my friend checks it out from my blog post and comes back with a conversation, will I be able to...

Something about Dune (1984). Or something.

     I'm 17 and I'm lying on the least comfortable couch in our house. It's firm and scratchy a nd not as long as I am tall , b ut it i s the couch at the foot of the bed my dad is dying in.        I haven't slept. I'm up on my phone, my brightness down , t rying not to wake my mom. Her alarm goes off intermittently throughout the night s o she can check on my dad's oxygen levels. I don't think she sleeps more than half an hour at a time. M y sister is in her bedroom above us. Hours before we had a conversation d eciding if we wanted to be in the house when he died. She planned to leave for our aunt's house in the morning.        M y phone. I'm reading a story online that someone wrote. I don't remember the details or where I could find it today. It's a h orror s tory set in a hospital. I'm new to the horror genre. I always thought I couldn't handle it b ut as I sat there working my way through the story, I...

A Report on Transgender Psychoanalysis

Here’s a script (in radio-ish format) I wrote up for a book report presentation in my senior film seminar. We were assigned to read a book on psychoanalysis, so I of course chose one on transness. It's a 5 minute read (nice work sticking to the assignment, past Jay). The book was written by a cis woman who works with trans patients, so it was definitely interesting to read as a trans person. I didn't include much of that perspective in my presentation, but had this been a reading group I wouldn't have shut up about it. There's for sure chapters that'd be excellent for trans book club but I'd have to go back and find them, especially because some definitely aren't great for people new to psychoanalysis :P I'm experimenting with including audio in my posts, so I've also included a recording of the script. Enjoy! I did my project on Transgender Psychoanalysis: A Lacanian Perspective on Sexual Difference by Patricia GHER-o-VEE-chi. It’s a follow up t...