Moana = Shiny

 

That darn SHINY song.

Why?  WHY did they make that song?!

In the middle of our first viewing I turned to my husband and asked “So, did David Bowie do this song before he died, or did they bring him back specifically to write it?” Because seriously, that song is full-on, Labyrinth-swamp-scene-headless-bird-weirdness.  And it won’t get out of your head.  Ever.  We keep pulling Marshall Eriksons around the house, singing what we would actually speak to our son with the word “shiny” at the end of the sentence.

Phew, now that I got that off of my chest, I can say that I finally saw Moana….and I love it. (Other than the aforementioned song.) I love it because…

• The music is addicting; even the background, non-lyrics soundtrack.
• The Rock can sing, which is cool and actually quite nice to listen to. (Still figuring out how he fit that many tongue-tying syllables into that short of a time, because I’m going to learn it, dangit! #MusicMajorProblems)
• The animation is phenomenal.  I even noticed the torches people were carrying around, the second time I watched it, and it looks like real fire.
• I plan on being the kind of grandmother Moana’s Granny is.
• The chicken ends up being the sidekick, even though he’s almost useless and they make you think it’s gonna be the smart pig.
• Mythology.  I don’t know how accurate Disney kept it, but I have a long love of all sorts of mythology dating back into my elementary school days.

But most importantly, I love how there are two main themes in Moana, and even though they are somewhat opposing, they work together so well.

Theme one: “You can find happiness right where you are.”

They may have gotten the point across in the main crowd-scene song, but it looks like it takes all of Moana’s growing-up years to finally convince her of this.  She has a longing for more, but she also understands the important role she has to play for her people.  So, she puts aside her personal desires in order for the greater good.

Moana and Spock would agree. 

 

Even with knowing her grandmother would support her, it takes her island starting to die to take her away from her duty in leading her people.

Theme two: You usually know your calling deep inside yourself, but it might take a LOT of outside prompting to discover and accept it.

You might be saying “Theme two doesn’t oppose theme one.”  And you’d be right…. kind of.

In light of that Moana’s calling is to leave her people and complete a mission larger than her or her duty to her people, then yes, these two themes completely oppose each other in Moana’s case.  She has the duty to fulfill the mission the Ocean has given her, and she has a duty to taking care of her people.

And in the end, she manages to do both: Moana completes her mission, by which her people are saved (I’m guessing, since the lava monster isn’t spoiling the sea and islands anymore), she returns to lead them (symbolized by conch shell on the stack of leadership stones[way to go to ruin the stack for your descendants, Moana!]), and helps her people return to their tradition and calling of being voyagers.

I seriously love this girl.  True to her family, true to her people, true to her calling.  And sassy as all get out.

I also have to say that I love Moana’s mother.  She has such a small part, but it’s so important.  When she realizes Moana is leaving, finally answering the call to leave the island, she doesn’t stop her.  But more importantly, she helps her daughter pack.   She cries as her daughter leaves, she obviously worries once her daughter is gone, but she realizes her daughter is grown and must do what she thinks is best as her people’s leader.

And that’s my stormy night brain dump, as I’m staying up, just waiting to see if any of these tornado watches turn into warnings-yay!  Pray for safety in the southeast, it’s nasty over here.

Did you like Moana?  Did you despise Shiny, or actually like the disco moment?  Have you also been listening to the songs on repeat in your car?  Let me know! 

What I’ve Learned about Moving

Moving is one of those things that is always guaranteed to be, well… interesting.

Today’s interesting part is sitting in the laundromat with my laptop while my clothes are drying, because we haven’t yet purchased a washer and dryer for our new home.  (Though we will be soon! My preggo belly can’t handle lugging all these bags of laundry from one side of town to the other much longer.)

Our move did go smoothly, or at least as smoothly as a move could probably go.  Bottom line, this housewife is happy to be in a house that is ours and we can set up any way we want!

Here are just a few things I’ve learned during this move.

1.  I despise being apart from my husband for long lengths of time. 

It sucks.  Really, really sucks.  So when you have to wait for mortgage paperwork to go through, then the company messes up and sets you back a few weeks, and you’re apart even longer than originally planned for, it TOTALLY sucks.

2.  It’s okay to have your extended family come and help. 

Especially when moving by yourself and your husband is already waiting for you states and states away.  My grandparents, my mom, and then my mom-in-law came and helped me get ready for the move.  Mom-in-law even let me stay with her for a week when I was waiting for our house and paperwork to be ready for us!  (Seriously, dealing with mortgage companies sucks.)

3. Moving companies are both great and a headache. 

I am one of those people who, if I have to pack up a room, will spend several hours on one box because I have to find just the right things to pack together.  I have no ability to just put a bunch of things from the same shelf/area/table in a room in the same box, and if I do manage to do it, it is only after a long span of thinking (out loud.. sorry, hubby) about the pros and cons of packing these things together.  And oh, look, I haven’t used this little gadget in AGES!  When was the last time I saw it?  Ooh, I have a picture of that day somewhere over there…   I think you get the idea.

Of course, packers/movers don’t always use as much common sense as you’d think they would.  I mean, who packs a giant coffee maker into a not-too-big box, so the coffee maker is taking up most of the box, but DOESN’T WRITE “COFFEE MAKER ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOX?  Seriously, who does that to their fellow human beings?!!

4. I hate unpacking. 

I’ve been trying to understand why I have absolutely no motivation to unpack any of the boxes around my lovely little new house.  If I dig back into my college psych classes, I could probably deduce that my reluctance to unpack is due to my reluctance to accept that we have fully moved way far away from anywhere we’ve lived before.  Or maybe I’m just too obsessed with making sure every little item has it’s perfect, final home the first time it comes out of the box so I don’t have to find another home for it before the next move we make.

Whichever it is, thank the Lord that my patient husband finally said “We’ve been here long enough, we’re unpacking, don’t argue just put stuff away!”  And it actually worked out pretty well!  Within a half hour we had found that darn coffee pot, and managed to unpack most of the rest of our kitchen.  Sure, some pans, bowls, and storage containers still need to find a final resting place in the pantry, but at least they are out, I can use them, and I can put them away in the space of a day.

5. It’s hard to move. 

Not physically, though it is pretty dang tiring!  I mean a move this big is really emotionally draining.  To give you an idea of where I’m coming from, as far as I can remember I’ve lived in the land of the south, the land of “Do all y’all want some more sweet tea?” and “Well bless your heart!”  (That is not a compliment, people.)

Now I live so far north that yes, I can take a five minute drive and see Canada across the river.  Oh, and apparently get some Canadian radio stations in clearer than the American ones.

One great thing has been cooler weather while I’m at the beached whale stage of pregnancy, though according to the locals “It’s so hot and humid, how do you stand it being pregnant?”  (I sweetly explain I’m from the south, so for me “hot” = “over 95 degrees and if we’re lucky it will get down to 90 degrees overnight” and “humid” means “100% humidity on a sunny, cloud-free day.”)

But I digress.  It’s hard to move.  It’s hard to be more than a day’s drive from family and friends, and to be in a completely different area of the country where the culture, retail stores, and even people’s mannerisms are all just different enough to make you remember every day that this isn’t home.

Yet.

I keep reminding myself that this will feel like home soon.  As far as our house goes, it already feels like home.  I think that’s mostly because my husband and puppy are there, but it definitely helps that our house is cute (if needing a few updates), and we have pretty friendly neighbors.  And the rest is slowly starting to feel more like home, as I get used to going to the same church every week, the same grocery store, and getting into a daily routine so I don’t wake up thinking “what am I going to do today?” every single morning.

So far, the most important thing I keep reminding myself is…

6. It’s okay to be a little sad. 

You thought you might get through this post without a Disney pic, didn’t you?

About a week after we moved, we decided that we needed a break from unpacking, cleaning, and finding out what had broken during the move.  So we decided to go see the new Pixar movie, Inside Out.  Of course, we went in not knowing that the entire premise of the movie revolves around a family moving across the country, from Minnesota to California.

Apparently my husband realized what the movie was about and thought “Uh-oh, this might not be the best movie for us yet.”

It’s Pixar, so of course there’s the chance you’re gonna cry.  And yes, I cried, but I’m blaming the pregnancy hormones since I cried more than once.  (Before I was pregnant I didn’t cry during movies, except for UP.  UP is my teary weakness.)But this time I cried for a different reason.  I was sitting in the theater, looking at what this family was going through, and thinking “I get it.  This is hard, and it sucks, and even though we know it can get better, right now it is all awful.  I get it.”

And what I loved about the movie was that it had a wonderful message:

Your feelings are important, and it is okay to feel a little sad.

It doesn’t mean everything is awful, that life won’t get back to normal, or that this new place will always feel big and scary.  It means you miss something that was special, even if you’re looking forward to finding a new place that will become special to you, and probably sooner than you think.

So now that I’m finally starting to see my house come together into a home, with familiar books, dishes, and that lovely coffee maker, not to mention and handsome husband and cute puppy around, it’s not as sad.

The last thing on my list is:

7. Moving can be a fun adventure. 

Some days it’s just the adventure of “wait, pull a u-turn, that was our road!”  Other days it is the adventure of having a stove delivered, but not installed, and having to completely re-think dinner (hello, pizza night.)  Sometimes it is just the lovely adventure of “Let’s enjoy our backyard, watch the dog play and sit and enjoy each other’s company.”

Since I have a hubby who is pretty good at seeing the sunny side of life, it has seemed like an adventure more often than not.  And of course, the puppy sees nothing but SQUIRRELS TO CHASE IN MY BACKYARD!!! adventure and fun all around her.  Between the two of them, and now prepping to get a nursery ready for our October arrival, I think I’ll make it through this move feeling like it’s a fun adventure.