Oh Bother

I'll go see just about any animated "kids" movie alone, but I think I might have to borrow a kid or two to go see Winnie the Pooh with me. I think it looks adorable. Plus, it's hand drawn (love!) and She and Him have 4 songs on the soundtrack! I really do want to see it, but will it look really weird for a 32 year old to walk in alone? Maybe I can follow in behind a family and pretend I'm with them. It'll have to wait until after this weekend, though, cause I'll be seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2 double feature. Sorry, Pooh. The studio wasn't paying attention when they picked your release date.

I haven't thought about the Pooh Bear in a long time. I started seeing some previews recently and memories came back. Some good, some frightening.

I don't remember which came first, my love for all things Pooh or people finding out that I fancied the yellow bear. I just remember that I must have told someone in my family that I liked Winnie the Pooh. Big mistake. Never tell anyone that you like something because you will receive gift after gift with said "like" tattooed all over it. So, people started buying me stuff with Pooh Bear on it. This wasn't just when I was little...oh no. This went well into my teen years and even followed me to college.

I had:

• stuffed animals - including one HUGE Pooh Bear that an exchange student my senior year of high school was given and couldn't take it back to New Zealand with her. I was supposed to take care of him till she could come back for it. He went to college with me and later I think he was re-gifted to some child.
• bed sheets - which were given to me when I was around 16 and used as wrapping paper for a new stereo. Both went on to college with me. The stereo is still around but thank god I graduated to more adult bed spreads.
• slippers - I got two pairs of theses. The part that went around the foot was all red and perched on top of the toe was Pooh's head. Pretty terrifying and never worn. The first pair was gifted to me by my brother and the second by a cousin. I returned the second pair and the first lived buried at the bottom of my closet until finding their way into a yard sale.
• bank - I think a boyfriend my freshman year of high school brought this home for me from a beach vacation he took. The bear took up a lot of dresser top space but sure did hold a lot of change.
• tee shirts - I was wearing one in a senior picture. If you think that's dorky...see the next line.
• embroidered denim overalls - yeah, I was the definition of cool. Bought them for myself too.
  
• wall art - I cut out anything that had Pooh or his friends on it and taped it to my wall.

I am proud to say that I am a recovered Pooh-a-holic. The only signs left are two small stuffed animals (Piglet and classic Pooh) which live in a footlocker along with some other adorable plushies I've been keeping to give to my future generations.

After seeing a preview for the movie, I started thinking about the circle of life. No, not the one where animals eat other animals, but the one where things from our past somehow find a way of circling back around to us. This year I started keeping bees.* Bees make honey. Who loves honey? Winnie-the-Pooh :) He sings about it, dreams about it, and spends his days trying to figure out how to out smart the bees so he can fill his jars and his belly. See, the circle of life.





*A new hobby means a new theme for people to gift. Family and friends - please refrain from gifting me bee stuff. Right now, it's manageable, but I can see this getting out of control really quickly.