Most Depressing Movie Ever

"Ever" seems like a strong word. But of the movies that is about ordinary life — if your version of ordinary life is a small college town where you're so smart and bored that your only entertainment is spouse-swapping — this one is up there. And I have now seen it twice. Saw it the first time in the theater ALONE because it was arty and likened in reviews to Raymond Carver, one of my favorite writers. But I liked Raymond Carver at a moment in my life where bleak scenes of suffering and ennui were poetic to me. Nowadays...well, I am neither suffering nor bored, but still, I get it a little more.

And I don't need to see a movie about the worst-case scenario of my upper middle class life. Especially not twice (thanks to a combination of prime time, the World Series and HBO). It was one of those movies where I felt compelled to say to Jason, again, as I do after many movies about poor decision-making: "Let's just agree not to [sleep with our best friends, smoke crack, gamble away all our money, etc.]

The movie is called "We Don't Live Here Anymore." Except that we do live here, and we won't be doing any of the stuff you'll see in that movie.

P.S. Jason reminds me that this blog is about Lu. All I can say is that Lu will thank us one day when we don't end up like the people in this movie. So it IS about her. So there.

Singing in the Nude

When Lucy is getting ready for her bath or otherwise underdressed, we sing this song we call "The Nude Song." It is inane, like most of the songs from the Lu repertoire: "Tiny Lu, Woo Woo" (to the tune of "In the Mood"), "Twinkle Twinkle Little Lu" and so on. From a songwriting standpoint, Lu is magic because it rhymes with and can be substituted for "you." And also ryhmes with "poo."

Thanks to our constant stupid singing, "The Nude Song" has stuck. She will bring you a stuffed mouse (the character from "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie") and say "Kose off," and when you strip the guy down (he wears removable boxers and overalls), she will sing "Lu, Lu, Lu," as though singing "The Nude Song." To help with your mental picture, the tune is vaguely surf-like, and the lyrics are:
Lu is nude and she's totally rude
Lu is nude and she's acting lewd
Lu is nude
Totally rude
Lu is nude

And so on. It is one dumb-ass song. But it is our song. Which explains our pride in hearing her sing it. She will also sing it about us, or anyone she perceives as naked, although it's subtle, because in her 1.5-year-old brain, the words are just "Lu, Lu, Lu." It's all about her.

Same thing for talking on the phone. She will pick a phone and speak this gibberish language in the perfect rhythm of actual phone English, with a few actual words thrown in: "Hello, dis Jason. Blah blah blah Mama, blah blah ok, blah blah, oh man, blah blah diaper crackers, blah blah blah blah yeah uh huh." Which my friend Chad explained to me is exactly how she hears us: a bunch of nonsense peppered by occasional words she understands.

So, for the moment, we have a self-involved nudist on ours hands. Here's hoping it's a phase.