Zeek and Amber

Omigod I love this SHOW.

How beautiful that nobody can convince Zeek to have the surgery, but then when he hears from his granddaughter that she's pregnant, that is what makes him want to live longer. And all she needed was someone to encourage her and be happy for her, and Zeek was that person. They were both exactly what they needed to be for each other, just by being themselves.

Gosh, so much of our lives we spend trying to take control of things: fix other people, fix ourselves, fix our circumstances, when really when we just get our eyes off all that and be fully present as ourselves in our situations, that might actually be what's the best thing to propel us and others forward into our God-given purposes.

And it's funny that we could do that even in our messed-up selves. Maybe we got pregnant in a way that's not ideal. Maybe our health's been bad and we're suffering the consequences of that now. We all have issues, none of us is perfect, and yet we can still be used to love and help one another if we can just settle into the moments we've been given.

Life is made up of beautiful moments. We don't have to have a perfect family like the Braverman's to realize God has given us people to listen to and share with, and He places these people in our lives at exact, specific times, and it is such a beautiful thing once we really begin to embrace it. So take the time today to look around at who's around you: ask them how they are, share with them about you, really connect, and watch what can happen when we start living life for more than just ourselves.

Season Premiere, but hey, let's talk about me

Max Braverman! Welcome to Chambers Academy! Omigosh, seriously the scenes with him are almost starting to annoy me, but I can't help but get caught up in his story, and the part where Adam tells him to go to school not for him but for his mom. Oh MAN. I love it. That is what life's about: doing things for others. And then in the end, we usually get fulfilled too. (How can I learn to remember this when I'm making decisions?)

Lately I have felt very far from God. This has nothing to do with Parenthood, but I just feel like a mess. I guess there's just been a lot of changes going on lately - mostly because I just moved into a new apartment but also because I've been going back and forth about sharing my room with a roommate or not and been meeting with different people for that and also I'm feeling old and not married (because I'm not) and I've been working a lot of jobs which has been great for money but also makes me feel a little bit all over the place, and I really just want to be acting, but I don't have a lot of money or time for it right now which is probably why I should get a roommate, so I can stop feeling like a slave to all these jobs, but also it's not like acting opportunities are flying at me either, but I do have a strategic plan about it for October but it'd probably help to have a roommate by then so I can have money for my strategic plan but also I really like having my own room because I really like having my alone time. (Let's be honest though, my alone time is probably not really helping me that much.)

So anyways it felt good to get back into Parenthood, a constant in my life the past few years, and it also consistently helps me reflect on my own life and think about things I'm trying to suppress, which is what I think all good TV and movies should do.

My brother's in prison, and my dad never called me on my birthday. These are things I end up thinking about when I'm watching Parenthood. So maybe the show doesn't have any crazy fantastical things happening on it, but the people and situations remind me of things in my life, and all of a sudden just when I thought I was escaping my busy-ness to watch a show, I'm now thinking about things I really should be pausing to think about. And it makes me want to write, as all good stories do.

So anyways, I'm going to be sad when it's over, but hey, it's just the beginning.

Well, good things are expensive.

So that was just the season finale. (I emailed my mom about it but I guess I forgot to tell you guys.)

There will be one more season, the sixth and final season (glad they know for sure now so they can wrap it exactly as they like). However apparently each of the principal cast only gets to be in 11 of the 13 episodes so that they can cut costs because I guess it's a really expensive show.

Season Finale? Or Series Finale? (Dun, dun, dunn.)

Was this the Series Finale of Parenthood? They really seemed to wrap everything up, almost in a too wrappy kind of way.

And Haddie's back! But she's.. gay?? I guess that would explain why nobody heard from her for so long.

The only thing that wasn't wrapped up was like.. Is Amber pregnant now? Does nobody remember that Amber is the one that cut things off with Ryan? Does Amber remember that she's the one that cut things off with Ryan, and that there were legitimate reasons for her to have done that? But now that he's been gone forever, she can romanticize all the good stuff and be "madly in love" again just because she cares about him so much when he's hurt. You know, you can care about someone without wanting to have sex with him. I think this is something our world in general needs to realize.

Ah well. Cool I got to watch the final episode while it was actually airing and that I got to watch it with my mom in Chicago (I'm visiting for Easter), so it feels pretty full circle. Still, what am I going to do about this blog now?

I need to Google to see if it's really over.

Oh, I guess Season 6 is still uncertain. So here we go again--

Crosby you're everywhere!

Omigosh so I was watching the latest episode of About a Boy (another Jason Katims masterpiece), and Crosby showed up! Like, as the character Crosby, ha! And with his baby! He came over to poker night at the main guy's place, and it was so perfect.

Reminded me of the old school days of Full House / Step by Step / Family Matters, when characters used to sometimes cross over to another show.

So anyways if you're a Parenthood fan and haven't found a good half-hour comedy show you like yet, check out About a Boy. It's not the movie, but they've certainly done the concept justice. (PS I loved the movie too, so if you haven't seen THAT, you really should. Hugh Grant and the kid that plays the boy are phenomenal, and I love Nick Hornby, the author that inspired it. You should check out some of his books too! Like How to be Good, that's one of my favorites.)

Is it ending soon or something?

Okay so I'm really happy Joel is coming around, but now I'm really pissed because that means Julia's going to have to eventually tell him about her slip-up and OMIGOSH Joel couldn't even handle a kiss so how's he going to deal with this, is he going to run away again, DON'T DO IT JOEL DON'T DO IT. Just learn to forgive, so we can all move on.

I'm also very happy about Natalie and Drew. Is today the season finale or something? And Hank's being all perfect-man-perfect-dad type, and pretty soon he and Sarah are going to get together.

And Kristina and Adam are going to get to buy the school.

Oh man there was a funny line again that I forgot! I always do that!

I just like watching Joel be his normal self, he's so likeable! Dear Joel, I am so sorry for what the writers tried to do to you. We all hated you for so long, but it wasn't your fault, you were just doing your job. And you probably didn't like you either.

So who is the school teacher going to get with then because I do like him you know? He's going to start flirting with Amber now, isn't he? No Amber has Ryan again. What was that? So much weird stuff is happening. This has to be nearing the end.

I liked Sarah when she brought the cupcakes to Drew. Mmm.. I want a cupcake right now!

I don't know what else. This one was actually a little slow, but I think it would be impossible for every single episode to be phenomenal. Only Freaks and Geeks can do that, but that's probably also because it was only on for one season.

Haddie? Did someone say Haddie?

Ashes of Rome is back, woohoo!

But I think my favorite scene was the one with Drew and his roommate and the beer cans, ha ha ha, I love his roommate, (what's his name?).

And I really enjoyed watching Julia become herself again. Not sure how I feel about her making out / about to have sex while she's married, but Joel is a jerk and he sort of was the one that started it.

Adam brought Haddie up! Wow. It was almost a joke to me at this point, like oh sure now that it's convenient to the plot line, you're going to bring her up, that's just fine, just use her and abuse her but don't ever show her. (I realize I'm being overdramatic here, but stay with me. I miss Haddie!)

What else? The Ray Romano thing is starting to bore me a little. That really was a tease last week with Mark Cyr, I'm still a little hung up on that.

Oh, I am SO glad Sarah finally found out about Drew, and that was really funny how Amber was like, "Thank God" under her breath at the end of that scene. I want to see some new stuff happen with Amber. And with Drew. When Sarah was like, "You two," in exasperation, I think that was pretty accurate.

Zeek and Camille are going to buy a new house that looks like the Full House house, so that's cool.

I liked the boy band and that they're waiting for marriage.

And that's it! Excited to see what happens next week.

Oh and Joel wasn't even on this episode, and I can't say that I missed him. I also can't say that I'm sad Julia said no to Ed. I mean he was the one that messed it all up in the first place, and also did everyone forget how he got really drunk and crazy at that thing?

Okay now I'm done.