Catching up!

So remind me to never plan my kid’s birthday party for the Saturday before Easter again.

Actually, remind me to just skip every part of April that isn’t his birthday, because that would make life easier. April is pure chaos.

Catching up, then …

First of all, because I know everyone who reads this has been waiting with bated breath, THE BOY LOST HIS TOOTH! The day before his birthday, even. He still has the other loose one, and if that doesn’t come out in a few weeks the dentist is going to yank it, but still. THE FIRST ONE IS OUT, HALLELUJAH!

(Below we have spoilers for Glee 5.16 and 5.17, very mild spoilers for The Goblin Emperor, me crying, and a two-sentence discussion about Chuck E. Cheese. Be aware.)

1. Glee! I don’t actually have that much to say about the last two episodes. “Tested,” besides having my second-favorite Glee scene ever (Artie telling the guys he has chlamydia), left me sort of jumbled in my thoughts and feelings–more Kurt anger to untangle; oh, Blaine; okay, I don’t have to untangle how much I like Sam now, much better than season 3–and “Opening Night” felt much more like they’re setting something up than it did a culmination of … anything, really: Rachel’s dream, Will’s dream, the whole Funny Girl storyline. (I did dig the gay bar number; that was fun.) That’s not to say that they’re bad episodes–season 5 has had some of the best-structured episodes of the series, I think, and these are solid.

Really, I feel about Glee right now the way I felt about season 6 of Buffy–like they’re building to something, but I don’t know what and I really want to skip to the end and find out so that I can watch the build-up with the end in mind.

2. I read The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (aka Sarah Monette) and really enjoyed it a lot. It’s a sort of bottle-episode of a novel, and it’s a coming of age story, where the tension is more about how Maia, the main character, learns to navigate his role. This may be the weirdest comparison ever, but it in that way–not having Huge! Events! Throughout!–it reminded me of Poppy Z. Brite’s Liquor novels. (Which I should really re-read. I love Rickey and G-man.)

3. Stupid Neil Gaiman made me cry. I was listening to An Evening With Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer and “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury” came on and the next thing I know, I’m sobbing in the parking lot of AC Moore and cursing Neil’s name. Go listen to that story. Preferably not while driving. It’s on Spotify.

4. Chuck E. Cheese as a birthday party site is surprisingly not horrible. It is loud. But the look on the boyo’s face when he got his rock star medallion was worth it.

5. Still haven’t watched the Orphan Black premiere. That tells you how my weekend was. But I am catching up on everything now, slowly.