And...We're BACK!!! {Monday Morning Therapy with Dongsaeng}

Good Monday morning to all of you!

Were you beginning to worry?  Wondering where the ever-wordy Dongsaeng had taken off to?  I kind of disappeared without a trace or even much of a word of warning, huh?  I didn't even realize just how long I had been gone until now.  Dec 10th was my last normal post.  The 12th if you count Seungri's birthday greeting.  That's a really, really long vacation.  I hope that you all enjoyed your holiday and festive season.  I also hope that so far 2013 has been good to you.  My family and I have been crazy busy trying to soak up as much fun time as possible with our little break and, thankfully, I think that we were pretty successful in accomplishing that goal.  Now I'm recharged, re-energized and ready to jump back into "work".  I just sent the kids off on their merry way back at school and life is returning to its normal schedule. Ahh!  It's a wonderful thing!

Now, while I did take a break from writing for a few weeks, I certainly did not take a break from my dramas, no sirree.  C'mon, you know me better than that, right?  As if I could survive without them.  Perish the thought.  So, which ones have been keeping me entertained and breathing?  Number one, hands down, has been King of Dramas.  I can't believe that I haven't really even talked about this one.  Oh my goodness - how I am loving this drama.  There is only one episode left and it airs today.  SQUEEEEE!!!!!!!  So excited for the finale, yet so sad to see it come to an end.  Kim Myung Min as Anthony Kim and Jung Ryu Won have kept me on tenterhooks with their slowly budding romance.  But seriously, one cannot talk about King of Dramas without mentioning Choi Siwon of Super Junior playing the over-the-top actor Kang Hyun Min.  He has stolen the show if you ask me, and by you being here, I'm just going to assume that you are asking me ;) I have laughed so hard at his comedic genius spattered throughout this drama.  My favorite are all of his awesome Engrish moments.  I have had to fight hard not to use his "Mother Father" line.  Like when I clumsily and with amazing grace and skill clunked my head while plugging in a vacuum cleaner last week  {I had a house full of children, none of which have seen the show and therefore couldn't appreciate the hilarity that me using that line truly would have been.  No, instead they would have gone home to their mother and father - my incredibly virtuous brother and sister-in-law - and told them how Aunt Dongsaeng cursed, and then they would have been banned for life from ever stepping foot into our home again and my children would have never forgiven me for driving their dearly beloved cousins away.  We couldn't have that, now could we?  Talk about mom guilt. Aish.}.  ;)  So, 17 episodes in, one to go and I am so in love with and impressed by this drama as a whole.  It has solidified my love of Jung Ryu Won, who, you may remember, I fell in love with in the movie Castaway on the Moon.  She is beautiful and her acting is just mesmerizing.  As is Kim Myung Min's deep, gravelly voice.  Oh my!  That man, an actual real-for-real oppa of mine (wahoo!), won me over with his voice alone.  I could do without the lacquered hairdo, but between the voice and the suits?!?  Forgittaboutit.  Sealed the deal right then and there.  If you haven't given this one a try yet, I would recommend it.  If for no other reason than the interesting insight it gives us into the behind-the-scenes world of dramas.

If I could just watch King of Dramas all day every day, I'd be good with that, but as we, I'm sure, all have come to find out, two episodes a week is not nearly enough drama.  There must be supplements in there.  I found one supplement in I Miss You.  That's right, I finally dove into it head-first.  At least for a couple of marathoning days.  I got nearly caught up, and then fell back behind.  I'm liking it, it's just that, like most melodramas, I can only handle so much at a time before the palette needs cleansing for my own sanity's sake.  Granted, while definitely a heart-rending story, it's not quite as bad as I had built it up to be before I started in on it and so I'm doing better with it than I thought I would.  Yoochun has also stolen my heart.  It's no big secret that I'm a big ol' JYJ fan, but my attention has always been focused on Jaejoong and a little bit on Junsu.  Micky kind of always missed the mark for me.  Personality-wise I adore him.  I'm just not that in to him as an idol.  And, though this will certainly earn me a few shoes thrown my way, I wasn't a huge fan of Rooftop Prince.  He just simply didn't win me over in that one.  And I've only seen a few minutes of his other drama, S-something Scandal so far, and none of Miss Ripley or the other few on his resume.  For some reason though, with Missing You, he's finally grown on me.  While no one can ever outshine my Jae (duh), I can finally get an idea of how Yoochun can be so popular as well.  Maybe it has to do with how he is aging.  He looks more...substantial?  Less twiggy and more manly.  He, like a few others who took some time to grow on me *cough cough GDragon cough*, is growing up quite nicely.  Quite nicely indeed.  He's reached swoon-worthy level in my book and I couldn't be happier.  Now it feels like my JYJ fangirl trifecta is complete.  I adore the whole set and can appreciate them all "as men".  I think this must be what fangirl heaven is like.  Unnie and I are ironing out the reviewing of this drama, so I don't want to give too much away yet, but it will be talked about in greater detail in the future to come.  Sorry for the lousy timing and thank you for your patience.  I know we, okay, I, have been promising for a while now and have yet to deliver *hangs head in shame*, but it is coming.  You know, like the review of Full House 2's finale (bet you thought I forgot about that one too, but no, just got insanely busy with Real Life).

One might think that that is surely enough drama to keep a busy mom occupied during the busiest time of the year, but no.  I had to throw another one into the mix.  I needed a fluffier piece and finally started one I've been meaning to watch for quite some time now - Mary Stayed Out All Night/Marry Me Mary.  I've made it to episode 12-ish I think and I'm enjoying it.  I was loving it, then it started to drag a bit towards the middle.  Yet another case of When Good Dramas Go Flat.  All my JKS Eels out there, hold onto those shoes, I'm not saying that I don't like it, I'm just not as obsessed with it as I was in the beginning.  JKS is sure pretty though, I will give you that.  This is one of those dreaded dramas where I equally love both male leads and wish she could end up with both.  I keep waiting and hoping that one of them will do something to fall a bit in my esteem, but no, they're both pretty much still amazing.  Grr.  I don't like when I love both so far in.  You know she can't end up with both and so it's just going to hurt that much more when one loses.

Yeah, so that was supposed to be just a brief recap of what I've been up to in dramaland the past few weeks while we have been apart.  Guess my drawn-out absence has made me extra chatty.  What I've really come here to talk about (i.e. crazy fangirl SQUEEEEE over) is the very exciting event happening today sometime.  I don't honestly really even know what to expect.  A video?  Just a track?  Will it be available here?  Agh!  I don't know.  I'm nervously anticipating that I will have something awesome and epic to share with you sometime tomorrow in the way of video.  Any guesses as to what the heebie jeebies I'm talking about yet?  So cryptic I'm being.  In case you missed the most exciting news, my Hero, Jaejoong will be releasing his first solo album this month on the 17th.  But, wait, there's more!  One of the songs titled "One Kiss" will be released sometime in the afternoon on the 8th.  With the time difference, that puts it somewhere late Monday-ish for me.  But like I said, I don't even know for sure if there's going to be a video.  Here is the release from C-Jes, see if you can decipher it better than me.  I sure hope so because I'm a little confused.

“Kim Jaejoong’s album title track is “Mine”, a rock genre song with a strong sound, which has been worked on with Kim Bada. A large-scale music video has also been produced to match with the lyrics. He’ll be pre-releasing “One Kiss” during the afternoon on the 8th. As a song showcasing Jaejoong’s unique emotional yet husky voice, it’ll be a sophisticated song that matches well with this cold winter season.”

“After releasing the pre-release track on the 8th ahead of the January 17th release date of the album, the music video for ‘Mine’, its making-of footage, and teaser videos will be released in the following week.”

I'm going to guess, according to my not-so-good deciphering skills, that there will not be a video for "One Kiss", that it's just the title track "Mine" with the video.  I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.  Please, oh please, prove me wrong, but either way, there should hopefully, fingers crossed, be a song coming out sometime today with or without a video that I'm hoping will be available on iTunes for purchase.  EEEEEEE!!!!!  So exciting!

And finally, I must leave you with a prescription to help lift those Monday blahs you may be experiencing today.  It's probably pretty obvious what it will be.  Since I don't have a Jae video to share, how about Super Junior M's new video that came out late last night?  I stayed up wayyy too late, but was so excited that I did when this one popped up in the feed!  I really liked this song.  Not the biggest fan of the video itself per se, but I really liked how the guys looked, and that's all that really matters, right?  Did you see my Donghae???  And Siwon's eyes?  I'm not even a big Siwon fan, save for his performance in King of Dramas, but his eyes captivated me through this whole video.  Ryeowook has popped up on my SJ radar for the first time.  I was all like "whoa" when I saw him.  And Kyuhyun.  And Sungmin.  And Henry.  Okay, they all were fantastic.  So, if you haven't seen it yet, here's SJ-M's newest video "Break Down".

And with that...I just got a call from the school nurse.  Aigoo.  Looks like we're off to a fantastic start of the second semester with Little Popper #2.  The child just got a bike for Christmas so that he can ride with his bestest buddy that recently moved down the street and today was his first time riding it to school.  Wouldn't you know, that no sooner had that morning bell rung, then I get a call letting me know he had an accident on the way in and may or may not need stitches.  Delightful.  So I'm going to dash now and do the mom thing.  Never a dull moment, and I only have 2!  Imagine what poor Unnie deals with ;)  (P.S.  Just so you know, I'm not doing the whole 'blog before I go pick up my kid' thing here.  The nurse and I both decided to let him try to stay and we're just watching and waiting to see how he does.  I'm on call so to speak.  He tends to be a little lot overdramatic so it's the best course of action to take with him.  Just trust me.  We've got a nice 9.5 year history going together and this momma knows her boy).

As Real Life beckons me once again, I bid you a fond adieu.  I hope you have a wonderful (and accident-free) Monday!  Thank you for sticking with us despite our extended vacation and I hope that you are just as excited as we are about what this new year will bring here on The Crazy Ahjummas!!!