Christ Alive It's Only June *Thousand-Yard Stare*

All my nostalgia-tinted childhood stories are finally coming in handy for OT sessions. One OT I'm shadowing uses the Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) model, but calls it the Action-Behavior-Consequence mode in large part because I think it's easier for kids to comprehend it. Although...action is something I think of as something you do not something that happens to you but I'm not fixing to yuck your yum. So far I've used The One Where My Brother Shot an Arrow at Me (Like, a Real One With a Real Bow)* and the adult story where a puppy showed up at our door. Ones I'm considering using in future are:

- The One Where We Rode Our Bikes Toward Town From the Country and Freaked Our Parents Out
- The One Where I Wouldn't Fucking Stop Riding Goats and That's How I Broke My Arm
- The One Where a Kid We Knew Fell In the Pond and Couldn't Swim and I Ran Clear Across the Pasture .25 Miles to Get the Parents
- The One Where I Punched My Brother In the Nose Because My Godfather Told Me To

I'm sure others will come to me as we go. Most of them don't apply to the specific situations - but the above do. I think.

Every so often I'll be minding my business, driving my car, doing the dishes, folding laundry and thinking of nothing in particular (dangerous!) when - BAM: the chorus of "Good Lives" by Eve 6 will blindside me. Ugh.

I'm starting to see the t-rex arm and autism eyes everywhere I go, most of all in myself.  ...but I wonder if the questionnaire could include more "Did you force your childhood friends to reenact the same scene from Star Trek several times in which nothing exciting was going on at all? Or are you neurotypical?" In retrospect, my great-grandmother was for sure autistic. Her strategy when I knew her was to clutch a crumpled tissue in her non-dominant hand at all times to disguise the t-rex arm.

Every time I drive toward Eagle River (there are eagles; there is a river), I pass by an Arby's that has had the same sign up for over two years now: NT management needed. I always autocorrect that to "neurotypical". Neurotypical management needed! Get out of here with your neurodiverse selves! We don't like your type 'round here.

I would like to compare and contrast the two versions of Annie I currently have access to and watch waaaaaaaaay often because L loves her some spunky orphans:

• Annie (2014): It's fine. Not great, but fine. Everybody does a fairly good job and I do like the fake-out in the beginning when you think there's going to be one Annie but lol no you're wrong! Jamie Foxx doesn't do it for me as Daddy Warbucks; he doesn't really commit to the role in the sense that he doesn't shave his head. There's a nod to this later in the movie, but just...c'mon man. Shave your head or give the role to Samuel L. Jackson. Now that I want to see! Cameron Diaz does a decent job, but I never wanted to hear "Little Girls" reimagined as an early 2000s pop song and now, having heard it, I still don't. Also, it seems like she wanted to pay tribute to Carol Burnett but the producers failed to tell her that this wouldn't really make sense with the way the role is reimagined. Oh. Rose Byrne plays Grace and there has been the role of a random sleazy campaign manager added to the movie for no reason. Except! Perhaps the reason is that irl the actor is married to Rose Byrne and she talked the movie people into casting him so they could have a nice vacation in New York after shooting. Quvenzhane does a good job and carries the film if I'm honest. Hm. What else. They cut several songs and completely did away with the conceit of the fake parents being related to Ms. Hannigan which...I liked that! I never wanted her to be a decent human! Redemption? Ew. No thank you!
• Annie (1982): The one where L has historically said, "If I'm moving around and dancing, it's because this Annie makes me feel like dancing and I can't help it!" The best I've seen so far? But it's also, like, kind of a Specific Thing. Like, if you don't appreciate a 20s aesthetic you probably aren't going to appreciate this. Everyone knocks it out of the park in the sense that you can tell pretty much everyone who was cast cut their teeth on Broadway (or The West End, in Tim Curry's case ig?) and Carol Burnett is a national treasure so she can do whatever she likes. I remember watching it when I was 11 and wondering why the Grace character was so badass (the dance! The voice! The stage presence!) and then moving on with my life. It turns out she was so badass because she was played by fucking Ann Reinking, Bob Fosse's muse of stage and screen. So. That's why. I enjoy how they cast Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters as Ms. Hannigan's brother and (his) love interest. The only part I'm "meh" about is where they insert an excerpt of Camille to illustrate...something? Unclear. The pacing is reminiscent of a zany 1920s/30s screwball comedy which I'm always here for, and there are multiple references to The Depression and the weird dichotomy where Daddy Warbucks is as capitalist as they come while FDR is trying to get his New Deal stuff going. It would almost make sense to reimagine the concept during the time frame in which the 2014 version was set if they'd just pushed the recession aspect a little bit more? But idk. I can have some rigid thinking around film and casting (see my teen obsession with making Wheel of Time cast lists and being outraged that Andrea Parker was not cast in that one remake of The Avengers. Uma who?). But I also think that there should/could be a stage version set in Alaska (or Your Town USA! The trauma of colonialism is everywhere, baybee!) at the turn of the 19th/20th century in a boarding school. Some parts/songs rewritten, cast appropriately, but the broad strokes being the same. I think it could be an interesting concept and illustrate the point of oppressor/oppressed in a novel way. But! There is the question of why the fuck did someone decide Little Orphan Annie was a good idea in the first place? Was it the fantasy that is you're Good Enough, someone In Power will eventually See It and Fix Your Life For You? It doesn't appear that Annie started her journey in the Depression. 1924 is smack in the middle of the roaring 20s, which gels more with the inherent optimism of "Tomorrow". But I'm going to put this rabbit-hole down for reason of needing to do other things.

On drives to-and-from Eagle River, Chugiak, and Palmer a part of my brain has decided that it's time I learn all the words to "Dance Ten; Looks Three" from A Chorus Line to eventually probably perform at a burlesque show. It's a good time. And a compulsion!

Speaking of compulsions, there's this compulsion to fit as much outdoorsy nonsense into Alaska Summer weekends as possible. It's rainy and gross here, but it's supposed to shape up by the weekend so...camping? Last weekend was also rainy and gross, but that didn't stop us from hiking Thunderbird Falls again!