Geek-posal

Let me preamble:
It's Geek Tears' 1 year anniversary! So many tears. Lots of changes coming up for me...like finishing my internship and living with my husband full-time again, hooray! I'm going to be changing things up a bit here, too. Instead of the weekly post, I'll be updating as the tearful mood takes me. Might be a little less frequent, but I'll try to keep it geeky for ya.

Let me sum up:
My husband's super-geeky proposal...


Let me splain:
Reader Niles recently showed me this movie geek proposal. Sweet--but the couple look to me like they could definitely sit at the cool kid table. I also recently saw this article on Geeky Proposals. And I posted a while back about the PAX proposal this year (not the first PA proposal to make me cry).

My husband, however, can give all these folks a run for their geeky money. So here it is...


Trip to Vegas with his family. I spend the day with his mom and sister and aunt and cousin while he is secretly setting up. He calls and asks me to come meet him. A sign on the door says "Come in..."


The room is done up like the scene from UHF when Weird Al tries to get his girlfriend back. Balloons, flowers, crazy sign. He's nowhere to be seen (hiding behind the couch, apparently). The Nightmare Before Christmas "My Dearest Friend" song is playing (later, another of our favourite songs, "Simple Truth" by Tsunami Bomb starts to play).


There is a box on a table. As I walk up, a hands pops out of the box holding roses, ala the Joker's present to Vicki Vale in Batman. (The fact that his proposal involved a manikin hand elaborately rigged up on a car antenna, but that wasn't where he put the ring confused people no end). There's a note on the hand saying "Look under the table..."


Under the table there's a laptop on a box and a cd that says "Play me..." The CD has a power point presentation with many inside jokes, and which culminates in a recreation of the way Lisa Simpson gets proposed to on the Simpsons...fireworks, glitch, a cow with a sign that says "Marry Me?" The final slide says to look in the box under the laptop.


Which, of course, contains the man eating rabbit from Holy Grail with the ring in its mouth.

~Geek out

Save him

Let me sum up:
"Saving the Frogs" scene, among others, from E.T.





Let me splain:
I can't pinpoint the precise moment I became a crier. But this is definitely one of my clearest memories of a complete crying jag. I'd seen the movie many times as a kid. But when I was about 21 I was home on vacation, entertaining my 12 year old cousin along with my Mom. We watched E.T., and it was one of the first times I remember completely losing it. Along with my Mom. While my cousin just stared at us in confusion and horror.

~Geek out

In-N-Tears

Let me sum up:
Video of the opening day of the Dallas In-N-Out (if you don't have 2 whole minutes to spare, skip to 0:58-1:30).

Let me splain:
I've devoted very little space to what a food-geek I am. I don't get snobby about many foods (other than Mexican food...as a transplant from California to the Midwest). But do I spend an enormous amount of time thinking about and enjoying food. For instance, my husband is about to do a bike marathon, and I spent 2 hours today googling delicious off-road sites where I can eat while I'm shlepping his gear from one town to another by car. Also, the main perk of my current psychology internship is that I get to be a cheese mule for an amazing local goat cheese (and get free samples) when I commute home on the weekends. Also also, I recently consumed my first (but not last) donut cheeseburger.

One of the first research labs I worked in studied hedonic capacity--essentially, the ability to enjoy things. I am very high on what they call anticipatory hedonic capacity (interestingly, this is often impaired in folks with schizophrenia). Early on while dating me, my husband realized you can't mention getting Japanese food in the morning and then decide you want pizza while driving to dinner. I've been thinking about that sushi all day, dang nab it...things could get ugly.

As a former Californian, I know that few things match the food fervor surrounding In-N-Out. I anticipate those burgers like few others (Kuma's Corner did recently blow my mind, though). Pre-smart phone, my husband and I had a hard-copy map to track In-N-Outs on our annual drive home for Christmas. I used to have a contest with another friend who had departed California to see who could eat at In-N-Out the most times during visits home. I remember feeling über-cool in Jr. High, in the back seat of my sister's boyfriend's car, enjoying a 3x3 while they ate their grilled cheeses with grilled onions (an enormous boon to vegetarians). All of which is to say, I feel your tears, random Dallas lady.

~Geek out

Baby Mine

Let me sum up:
"Baby Mine" from "Dumbo"



Let me splain:
A moment for Disney geeks. Such a heart tweaking scene. Even Timothy Q. Mouse can't help tearing up. For those who haven't seen the flick in a while, Dumbo's Mom is locked up because she was defending her baby.

The song is so 40's-tastic. There's an extra verse not included here...fits over the instrumental. I'm not sure who added it--possibly Bette Midler for her cover? At any rate, I remember being really moved listening to the lyrics for the first time as an adult. Which was while enjoying Bonnie Raitt's fabulous cover on the equally fabulous album "Stay Awake." I'd always heard this album was an underground, non-Disney-authorized affair. And it's totally worth it for the Tom Waits "Heigh Ho" cover. Not to be enjoyed alone in the dark. Check out "Music From the Park" while you're at it. It IS Disney authorized. And has Tim Curry singing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," for goodness sakes.

Here are the full lyrics. Yay Mommies.

Baby mine, don't you cry
Baby mine, dry your eyes
Rest your head close to my heart
Never to part, baby of mine
Little one when you play
Don't you mind what you say
Let those eyes sparkle and shine
Never a tear, baby of mine
If they knew sweet little you
They'd end up loving you too
All those same people who scold you
What they'd give just for
The right to hold you
From your head to your toes
You're not much, goodness knows
But you're so precious to me
Cute as can be, baby of mine

~Geek out

The Friend Zone

Let me sum up/splain:
Top 10 Geeks to be Stuck in the Friend Zone (and make me cry)

Xander (Buffy) “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”


Willow (Xander) “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”


Ducky (Andie) “Pretty in Pink”


Dean Venture (Triana) “Venture Bros”


Hermione (Ron) “Harry Potter”


Mulder (Scully) “The X-Files”


Brian Krakow (Angela Chase) “My So Called Life”


Sally (Jack) “Nightmare Before Christmas”


Bert (Mary Poppins) “Mary Poppins”


Frye (Leela) “Futurama”


~Geek out