Hooray for Hollywood!

I am a movie fan.  I am a pop culture fanatic and I know spoilers and great performances immediately.  I know when a movie will be good 4 months before its release. Even when I don't see all of the nominated movies, I love all of the nominated movies. Oscar night is a special night.

My nerd has to be up early tomorrow morning for a very important promotion-related training issue.  I have no such commitment, and invited our neighbors up to the apartment for a very relaxed pajama party Oscar viewing.

Just before the James Bond tribute began, my nerd took our dog out for a quick walk.  When he came back in, Shirley Bassey was in the middle of a "holy cannoli that woman has GOT IT at 76!" performance.  As she sang Goldfinger, someone asked what other Bond themes she had performed.  The answer seemed to allude all of us (there was drinking, in my defense), so I suggested we look it up.

I reached for my phone.  I suggested to my friend to grab our 50 Years of James Bond book on the shelf next to her.  Absentmindedly, I mentioned, "I sometimes like to stage races to see if we find things out more quickly with or without technology."  My nerd, who doesn't give one lick about the Academy Awards, and spent most of his evening playing Plants Vs. Zombies (available free at the App Store!), pointed out, "Books are technology.  She's still using technology."  There was then mention of stone tools and the printing press.  We're watching the Oscars!  All I wanted to do was make fun of Anne Hathaway's unfortunate darting!

Oh, and I predicted 21 out of 24 on my ballot, so there's that.

For those wondering, I missed Best Supporting Actor (Robert DeNiro), Best Animated Feature (Wreck-It Ralph), and Best Makeup & Hairstyling (The Hobbit).

Attn: Will Smith - Parents DO Understand

Allegedly, this blog is about dating (and living with) your very own nerd.  I say allegedly, because I'm the blog's author, and this is only the sixth post.  Seriously people, do you think Community knew what it was about six episodes in?

This may be the opportunity to highlight (and call out) the people who trained me to live with a nerd: MY NERDY PARENTS!

I never knew how much dear old mom and dad were preparing me for this cohabitation.  But I lived with them full-time for 18 years, and a few unofficial years after that, and I feel as if I'm more equipped as a result.

My mother is a two time Jeopardy! champion.  She knows the first line of every song ever written, and has this super annoying custom of singing a song that "relates" to anything you say.  [Sidebar: I say that it's super annoying mostly because I too have this habit, but I want my songs to last longer than a line.]  My mother is also a badass RN who has the highly disturbing habit of finding gross things to be awesome.  Never tell the woman that you may have a sinus infection unless you want several emails containing photos of the insides of people's faces.  ("It's so cool!  That's probably what your nose looks like!")

My mother also happens to be a bitchin' hippie chick lady who loves earth tones, Peter, Paul & Mary, and the beach.  Which is why when I really think of my nerdly up-bringing, I think of:

My dad.

Guys.  My dad.  When I was eight, my dad tried to teach me to solve for X in a homework problem.  I cried.  I then took it to school and my teacher laughed at my feeble tiny-brained attempt to understand algebra.  My mom eventually banned my father from homework help.  I don't want to give it all away, because I feel I have approximately 30 thousand more blogs with the theme of my dad being a nerd.  Not just a nerd, but my best nerd, and my first nerd.  

Neil deGrasse Tyson (in the running for New York City's greatest ever nerd) recently tweeted this simulated slide rule.  Don't worry, I was born in the Eighties and I'm not still not entirely certain of this tool's purpose.  But I included the link in a text to my dad.

My father responded with the subject line "UNsimulated".  The body of the email contained only the text, "The REAL thing!!" and this picture:

If you're going to take away anything from this post, take this: my father is a man who had a slide rule (obviously).  And a man who is proud of his slide rule (slightly less obvious?).  But more than that, he is a man who has his slide rule so readily accessible that he can send his daughter a picture of it in less than thirteen minutes.