Intro

Hello,

My name is MP and I am Mary Poppins.  Kidding!  I don't believe that at all, I just dress like her for Halloween.  It was really easy. I thrifted a blue Jessica McClintock skirt from the Salvation Army for under three dollars.  Then I hit up the $.99 Store and got a hat, bought some plastic daisies from the Dollar Tree and glued them on.  I picked a white collared shirt from my closet along with a long black coat and finished the costume off with tall black boots.  The only item I paid retail price for were the short white Minnie Mouse gloves.  I know my coworkers were being nice when they said that if teaching didn't work out for me I should apply for the Mary Poppins gig in the Disneyland parade but it totally made my day.  I make my students watch this classic at the end of the school year because I don't think neither Cars nor Up can stimulate their imaginations the way Mary Poppins can.  I'm not going to lie, it's hard for a seven-year old to sit through the entire thing but that's why there's a Skip button on the DVD player.  I make sure to play the best scenes, like when Mary, Jane, and Michael tidy up the nursery, laugh in the ceiling, and dance on the rooftops.  It never fails that at the end of the movie a student asks me, "Is Mary Poppins real?"  To which I reply, "Of course," and then think to myself, She's standing right in front of you.  This is really why I teach, to give 20 children at a time a piece of Mary Poppins.  If all else fails, at least they'll remember me every time they hear her name. Sign your child up now for the 2013-14 school year! 

Mexican Mary Poppins carrying the extra weight on my face. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the scarf. Also part of my original wardrobe. I'll blame the double chin on that.

My Mary Poppins collection is small--Minnie Mary Poppins, a vintage 1964 original cast sound track, a Gold Edition VHS, the book by P.L. Travers, a 40th Anniversary DVD, and another vintage 1964 book and record--but I dare you to find someone you know with a bigger one.

Mary Poppins is so popular that she made it into the Gilmore Girls script; my two favorite shows in one.  I was watching season 4, episode 1 of my DVD collection when Luke made reference to her.  He took a snub at my idol but I don't think it reflected the writer's true feelings towards the movie.  I want to believe that Amy Sherman-Palladino wrote what she thought Luke would have said according to his character. 

A Gilmore Girls collection might be kind of odd for a thirty year-old woman to own but I think it's the right combination of Friends and Sex in the City, my mature friend's picks.  Lorelai, the mother, goes through the love drama, while Rory, her daughter, lives and learns with her friends.  I used to have cable up until April but I cancelled it because it was easier to watch my DVDs during dinner instead of flipping through 200 channels to find something good.  Paying one-hundred dollars for a weekly episode of Fashion Police wasn't worth it. Okay, sometimes it was because no one is as ruthless as Joan Rivers.  For about three weeks, before I bought a digital converter box, I entertained myself by watching The View online, reading my friend's blog (http://lasophialasophia.blogspot.com/), and viewing my other friend's vlog (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCottonShow).  Now, I'm lucky if I catch any programming because the antenna sucks; it only works when I physically hold it waist-high.  Since I have zero patience, I give up and succumb to my Gilmore Girls who relax me anyway.  After a long day of work, gym, and chores, I need a good laugh and Palladino was a genius when she created the show's characters.  As a matter of fact, I wish I was Lorelai, my modern-day Mary Poppins.  She is beautiful, smart, well read, witty, tall, slim, runs her own business, drives a Jeep, and owns her house.  I'm only a couple of books and a house away from becoming her, actually. I admire Lorelai so much that I would name a future daughter of mine Lorelai but it would never work. My Mexican family would butcher its pronunciation on purpose, leaving me no choice but to find a name that works well in English and Spanish like Cristina or something.

I leave you now with the scene I mentioned above.  It didn't want to appear as a video clip.  It's a minute long so don't be intimidated by the big bad link. Spit, spot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0mbK_yT8bY

-MP