Swallowing Spiders

I woke up this morning rather suddenly with a sharp pain in the back of my throat.  I couldn't imagine what caused it, but the first thing I did was count my teeth, since I was afraid I had probably lost one and it stabbed me in the back of my mouth before I swallowed it.  I grind my teeth at night, and have had dreams about my teeth crumbling, so it isn't as outlandish as it sounds...though maybe it is.  Anyway, after accounting for all of my teeth, my next thought was something else I've had dreams, or better, nightmares about:  a spider got into my mouth, and bit me in the back of my throat just before I swallowed him.  I guess I won't ever know what really happened, but if I die, at least you'll all know why.

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Last night, I let me daughter watch INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULLS with me.  It was her introduction to the Indiana Jones series of films.  She really enjoyed it, and it was my first viewing of the movie since it came out in theaters.  It was a little better than I remembered, but what I remember is that it wasn't very good.  But it was fun to watch, and it planted a seed in her to want to watch the other movies.  So we watched RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK tonight, and it was a rollicking great time!  My daughter loved seeing "younger" versions of both Indy and Marion, his love interest from ...CRYSTAL SKULLS.  I always loved RAIDERS....  It's an exciting, roller coaster of a movie, and Nazis always make the best villains because they were the worst.  We'll probably watch the rest of the series over the next few weeks.  TEMPLE OF DOOM, the next movie, was generally pretty bad, and it appears that the only thing it succeeded at doing was grossing out the audience.  Plus, Kate Capshaw's constant screaming throughout the movie drove me crazy.  I thought the third movie, THE LAST CRUSADE, was a nice recovery.  Sean Connery was a great addition to the cast as Indiana Jones' father.

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Speaking of movies, during one of my sick days last week, I downloaded WORLD WAR Z, starring Brad Pitt.  I enjoyed the movie, overall, and thought it was better than the reviews I read.  I know that the film was plagued by problems with the story, and the big finish, a battle in Moscow, was cut from the movie in place of a less exciting but, in my opinion, much more tense-filled ending.  Brad Pitt was okay, but it's a shame he can't clean himself up for a role like the one he played.  He just doesn't look like a "leading man" in a movie like this one.  There were some pretty graphic scenes, as the movie deals with a plague that essentially turns citizens into blood-thirsty zombies, and it gets grisly at times.  There's a scene on a plane that defies belief, as well, but the movie makes you wonder about our future in the warfare against germs.

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I've been watching a ridiculous battle take place on Facebook over the past two days.  My crazy family tends to like to argue about politics, a subject I stay as far away from as possible.  But I have several aunts who constantly harp on how awful the Democrats are, and they don't hide their hatred of our President.  While I am not a big fan of the President, and I understand it's their right to say what they want, it rubs my father, a life-long Democrat, the wrong way, and he feels like their complaints are aimed at him (and I'm not so sure they aren't!).  So he responds in kind, and then they have a full-blown argument, all of it captured on Facebook.  I'm not about to take sides, as I think the whole thing is ridiculous.  I wish my father could just ignore them.  There's absolutely no reason for him to get himself all worked up over this stuff, but I agree, I get tired of my aunts seemingly taunting anyone who disagrees with them.  The fact that 95% of their Facebook friends are family members just adds to the ridiculousness, since they're not preaching to strangers.  I just know that everyone seems to be a bit too thin-skinned about the whole thing.  Aren't we supposed to stay away from politics and religion when talking to our family, anyway?  Aren't there better uses for Facebook than to throw our political leanings out there to our FRIENDS???

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Report cards came out on Friday, and I can't be more proud of my daughter.  12 As and 3 Bs.  And she wasn't happy about it.  She called it a "medium-good" report card.  It's become apparent that she's rather hard on herself.  She set her standard at straight As after getting them all of last year, so any Bs aren't good in her mind.  So I need to make sure she doesn't get ridiculous about her grades.  Her mother was that way, too.

And it's well past my bedtime.  Have a great night, everyone!