Well, today's wolf encounter was very disappointing compared to last year. The wolf was penned in behind fencing where he and his handler sat and talked to people hanging around the outside. He's still not an adult wolf and is really only about a year into his role as ambassador. So, I guess they're trying to make sure he feels secure. Maybe last year was too much for him. But the nature center that sponsored the event also had some other groups present with educational tables. A Game and Fish guy was there. I saw maps where various Mexican Grey Wolf packs hang out in our area. I learned that the Mexican Greys are on the smaller side of wolf sizes. Turns out those two smallish wolf-looking canines I saw silently running about 20 yards from me and my two unleashed dogs early one morning about 8 years ago could very well have been wolves. Wow! And that shockingly large"dog" print in the snow many years ago could also have been a wolf track. I had dismissed it at the time because a friend said that wolf tracks are about as wide as a woman's fist. This one wasn't that large and I didn't know if had melted any, thus spreading it bigger than the paw that made it. But today I saw track impressions that were smaller than the standard huge wolf print, so maybe it was. Pretty exciting to think I saw two wolves right on our property. I'm very glad my dogs didn't see them!
I ended up spending ALL day in town, though that was not the plan. I had such exciting things to do as go to nearly every store here on the mountain including K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Big Lots, (some of the finer establishments so well known to small towns!), Safeway, and Home Depot. Not to mention stopping for an early lunch and later on stopping for dinner because I was STILL there, stopping by the quilt store to pick out my border fabric, and hitting the kettle corn stand in the Safeway parking lot. (When we did our This-Is-A-Brilliant-Idea, But-Utterly-Failed Kettle Corn Adventure in Alaska in 2006 this local guy was the one that taught us the ropes....so I stopped by to say Hi....and got a free bag out of it! Nice guy. Must still feel sorry for us.)
But the BIG event of my very long trip into town was that on a whim I stopped by The Movie Gallery, a rental place that's going out of business. I stopped by about 5 weeks ago and things were discounted quite a bit but prices were still in the $7.50 range. Today I thought that surely things had been marked down again and I'd check it out since I'd been forgetting every other time I'd been in town. My first clue should have been that the parking lot was nearly full. But, fried as I was from 8 hours of running around, I didn't catch on. I walked in and though the shelves were nearly bare, there were these wonderful hot pink signs over 90% of the shelves that said: 50 cents. 50 CENTS! Hey, for 50 cents, I'll try movies I've never heard of. Apparently everyone else in the store was thinking the same thing. People had STACKS of DVDs. And, well, a certain blogger did, too.
I bought some completely unknown movies to gamble on (hey, it's only 50 cents, right) and some interesting titles like Saint of 9/11 (the story of the priest who rushed to the scene of 9/11 to pray and serve and was killed when one of the towers collapsed), The Ron Clark Story (an awesome true story about a teacher who believed the rebellious and failing students of an inner city school could actually excel in learning), Sometimes in April (based on a true story of two brothers and the horrible conflict in Rwanda), John Adams (an HBO mini-series about the second president...Oops! I just looked closely at the DVD and it says 'Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. Dang! Have to go back!)
I bought Ambulance Girl, the story of a writer whose life is falling apart and decides to become an EMT - based on another real story. And Shop Girl. Shop Girl is a remake of the original movie The Shop Around the Corner starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan. If "Shop Girl" and "The Shop Around the Corner" make you think of the movie, You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks...you're thinking rightly. You've Got Mail was also a remake of the movie, The Shop Around the Corner. In the original movie, the man and woman were pen-pals and actually worked in the same gift shop but didn't know the other was the pen-pal they were falling in love with. In You've Got Mail, they meet in an online chat room. Meg Ryan's character's handle is "Shop Girl" and she owns a bookstore named "The Shop Around the Corner." It's one of my all-time favorite movies so I thought it would be fun to see how another rendition does it. [*Update: This movie was NOT a remake of the old Shop Around the Corner and You've Got Mail. It was something completely different, a story written-and starred in-by Steve Martin. It was a disappointment.]
I tried to grab a bunch of action/adventure titles for The Fisherman, but it was difficult. To me, they all looked unappealing. I did my best to follow what I know of his interests and, of course, his values, and steered clear of the highly thriller, victim, or evil predator type story lines. Which didn't leave many on these picked over shelves. But I went with some good and favorite actors like Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Val Kilmer. I also found some movies that had a distinct Christian sound to them. Good wholesome sounding films about people finding faith. And then I bought a bunch of chick flicks!
Because I had to stand in line for over an hour, though I was behind a mere 5 people, I didn't get home till close to 9pm. Had an almost immediate visit from one cute little raccoon on the front porch, and have been hanging out on Facebook, email, and now here. Nearly midnight...so, goodnight all!
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Time Traveler's Wife - Almost Done
I have 60 pages left to read in The Time Traveler's Wife and I must say that I simply can't recommend it. It's only because of the coarse and graphic sexual language that is sprinkled occasionally throughout. It's unfortunate to me that the author writes so bluntly and graphically, and with a hardened sort of voice at these various points. It disrupts the flow of the story for me with a roughness I don't appreciate. I suppose it SORT OF resembles the roughness of her writing, but for me it taints the characters and taints the sweetness of their love for each other with an indelicate ugliness. That's coming from my frame of reference. I really like the overall story though. Lots. But I just can't whole-heartedly recommend you go out and read it. You have to know that some of the language and snippets of the story, contrary to my first post which I've just updated with a parenthetical retraction/correction, deserve an X rating. It's sad, that the way of things these days is to write a perfectly good story but sprinkle in vulgarities here and there, perhaps thinking it will make it better or more appealing. To the contrary, it often ruins an otherwise wonderful work of art. Sad.
P.S. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, the movie was better, leaving out the vulgarities that pop up in the book. Check the rating before you rent it with the kids.
P.S. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, the movie was better, leaving out the vulgarities that pop up in the book. Check the rating before you rent it with the kids.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Random Life Soup
I debated what to call this post. It's going to be a bulleted list of random miscellanea (yes, that's actually a word; I looked it up) of things going on in my life. It reminded me of soup, since I just made chicken chili last night. So I settled on Random Life Soup. Perhaps there will be more of these so titled entries at other times when a list fits better into my schedule than the more lengthy posts I would much prefer to write.
So. Random Life Soup. August 11, 2009.
* I got some pre-cancerous patch of skin frozen off my nose today at the doctor's office. I considered going blog wild and taking daily photos of the developing ugliness - and titling it "Wanna See Something Gross?" But then I thought better of it.
* I am working hard to get us ready for the Fall Festival (Sept 25-27) and the Wildlife Festival (Oct. 3-4). I have been inventorying what we have, seeing what we need, ordering, cutting mats, matting photos, packaging photos, re-inventorying, and then doing it all some more. I have yet to frame - my most dreaded task but I am determined to begin tonight and put it off no longer. (Rrreah! Too late now as I proofread this much longer than intended post! Not happening tonight!) Also on the list is making note cards by affixing 4x6 photos to 5x7 note cards. I have set up shop in the basement because, frankly, there is no peaceable room elsewhere in the house. My cats are becoming lonely kitties because I spend hours down there working while watching movies on my laptop. I'm home, but they don't get to see me....or nuzzle my elbow as I work like one Bobo is doing now.
* Had a very "down" day Saturday...one of those midlife identity crisis, beat-your-self-up kind of days where I wondered about the usefulness of my life, why I'm still really just a child inside, will I EVER grow up, and what am I to do with my life in this newly opened chapter. Feeling weighed down under a boulder of such burdens, I took out some water color paper and drew a little depiction of how I felt. It was mostly words, forming a sort of concrete or rock wall that took up all but the lower inch of the paper. Under this burden was a tiny little, bent over, stick figure crawling wearily beneath the squashing weight. Overly dramatic maybe, but such is the way I think any of us can feel at times.
* I went to the same church on Sunday. After my bout with .....with... whatever that was on Saturday, my Sunday was filled with people. People reaching out to me. People introducing themselves to me at church, people I know making a point of grabbing me to give me a hug or say hello before I left, and running into an old friend at Wal-Mart afterwards. (You always run into people at Wal-Mart after church up here. I'd forgotten that.) In the back of my mind I faintly heard the echo of Saturday's skewed vision which cried "useless" and it was being softly and unknowingly challenged by all these people on Sunday. I could almost feel the sweet little smirky smile on God's face as He said, "Useless? People care about you; do you know that?" Well, DUH! How easily we can lose sight of the obvious when all we can see is a mountain of burden placed suddenly on our back by a skewed, negative perspective. I intended, Saturday night, to do a companion drawing, one of opposing nature. One that listed, in some sort of depiction of life and freedom, the things the Bible says GOD says about me. But it grew so dark on the porch outside, and I grew tired, and I could not find a design to my satisfaction, so I decided to wait. I must make a point of getting it done. Funny how often the good stuff comes less freely. It reminds me of a line by Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" when she is recounting her life and how she ended up becoming a prostitute. When challenged by Richard Gere that she could be so much more, she says, "The bad stuff's easier to believe." Hmmm. Yes.
On to more Soup Ingredients!
* I bought my ticket to Alaska. I'm flying up and driving home with The Fisherman in September. I'm looking forward to seeing the north country in Fall, excited to be with my husband, and taking another (the same?) road trip with him. I'm even SLIGHTLY looking forward to living in our van home. Although it is with a bit of trepidation I state this because I have been warned that through the passage of the summer "it's not going to be as neat as it was when the summer was new", and that "there's not as much room as there was when I was there before". Yikes! I am also somewhat anxious about two other factors this trip means. 1.) It means I have to have EVERYTHING done for the festivals by August 30th. And, 2.) it means we will most probably be arriving home just 4 days before the festival! Yikes and double yikes!
* Today I saw "Julie and Julia". Loved it. If you haven't heard of it, it's about the lives of Julia Child and a woman named Julie who starts a blog about cooking all 524 of Julia Child's recipes from her famous cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". It's very cute. Meryl Streep plays Julia Child and, as usual, does an excellent job. It seems over the last several years, I have been seeing quite a collection of "writing movies." I'm loving writing more and more (still not sure I have anything to say or not, or if I can begin to say the things I have an inkling I MIGHT be able to say...someday) and I seem to keep stumbling upon movies about writing or with main characters who are writers, whether or not the story line revolves around their writing. I am tucking them all away as little treasures of inspiration and encouragement as well as tidbits of advice and warning about the field of writing. Included in my little collection of writing movies are: Finding Forrester, Little Women, Becoming Jane, Miss Potter, and even the partially risque The Holiday, and now Julie and Julia. Even Dances With Wolves inspires me because of how he narrates from his journal throughout the movie.
* Thinking also of separate but agreeing "words" I've heard lately about what we spend our lives "doing." One, a conversation with a friend. The other, my continued reading of Ken Gire's, "Seeing What Is Sacred." Both have basically said the same thing in the last 7 days, and it is this: that while, yes, we are each given gifts, abilities and talents, and that, yes, God has intention and purpose for us in His giving of them, the most important purpose He has for us is much simpler than the using of those gifts. The ultimate purpose of our lives, which overrides all specific utilization of our talents and gifts, is our relationship with Him and with others. When our life is over and summed up, it's not so much the questions of "What did I do with my talents? Did I create art? Did I write a book? Did I run the company well? Did I reach the potential of my gifts? The questions God is interested in are more along these lines: How well did I trust Him? Trust Him with ME? How well did I love? How well did I love Him and how well did I love others? What did I do with all those people, precious to Him, whom He brought across my path while I was using the talents and gifts He gave me? - I think they're right, that God's focus for us is much more simple and basic, quiet and beneath the surface. It's the quiet strength of an intimate relationship with Him that really trusts Him, receives His love for us, and loves Him dearly in return. And it is loving others. Others. Me. We make up a WE that is the focus of God's love, and His pleasure. My high school Young Life leader said something to us once. He said, "There's only two things that we know are eternal from this life: God's Word and people. Spend time in these two areas." Simplified down, it's how well we love. I add to that, how well we trust. Trust Him. (See yesterday's post about the True Faced blog post on Trust as well as the post itself here.) Trust and people are not exactly the strong suit of this fear-prone introvert who prefers to write from behind a computer monitor.
* So...a balance. I prayed that God would teach me the balance between having creative passions and I think even dreams given to me by Him, and the higher purpose of loving and trusting Him and loving others along my way. Wow. Mmm, mmm, mmm. And, wow.
*Oh...and a man sat behind me in the movie today who could very well have been Captain Sulu from the old Star Trek. He even sounded like him! I'm telling you, he was the spitting image in both face and voice. What he would have been doing in my po-dunk neck of the woods I can't even imagine. And he was with a white haired, average looking woman, not with his "partner" (correction, "husband", but I'm not going there) whom I would expect to see him with. ....As if one expects to see Sulu at the movies in small town Arizona. (And, yes, I realize, it probably wasn't actually him. But I'm tellin' ya...)
So. Random Life Soup. August 11, 2009.
* I got some pre-cancerous patch of skin frozen off my nose today at the doctor's office. I considered going blog wild and taking daily photos of the developing ugliness - and titling it "Wanna See Something Gross?" But then I thought better of it.
* I am working hard to get us ready for the Fall Festival (Sept 25-27) and the Wildlife Festival (Oct. 3-4). I have been inventorying what we have, seeing what we need, ordering, cutting mats, matting photos, packaging photos, re-inventorying, and then doing it all some more. I have yet to frame - my most dreaded task but I am determined to begin tonight and put it off no longer. (Rrreah! Too late now as I proofread this much longer than intended post! Not happening tonight!) Also on the list is making note cards by affixing 4x6 photos to 5x7 note cards. I have set up shop in the basement because, frankly, there is no peaceable room elsewhere in the house. My cats are becoming lonely kitties because I spend hours down there working while watching movies on my laptop. I'm home, but they don't get to see me....or nuzzle my elbow as I work like one Bobo is doing now.
* Had a very "down" day Saturday...one of those midlife identity crisis, beat-your-self-up kind of days where I wondered about the usefulness of my life, why I'm still really just a child inside, will I EVER grow up, and what am I to do with my life in this newly opened chapter. Feeling weighed down under a boulder of such burdens, I took out some water color paper and drew a little depiction of how I felt. It was mostly words, forming a sort of concrete or rock wall that took up all but the lower inch of the paper. Under this burden was a tiny little, bent over, stick figure crawling wearily beneath the squashing weight. Overly dramatic maybe, but such is the way I think any of us can feel at times.
* I went to the same church on Sunday. After my bout with .....with... whatever that was on Saturday, my Sunday was filled with people. People reaching out to me. People introducing themselves to me at church, people I know making a point of grabbing me to give me a hug or say hello before I left, and running into an old friend at Wal-Mart afterwards. (You always run into people at Wal-Mart after church up here. I'd forgotten that.) In the back of my mind I faintly heard the echo of Saturday's skewed vision which cried "useless" and it was being softly and unknowingly challenged by all these people on Sunday. I could almost feel the sweet little smirky smile on God's face as He said, "Useless? People care about you; do you know that?" Well, DUH! How easily we can lose sight of the obvious when all we can see is a mountain of burden placed suddenly on our back by a skewed, negative perspective. I intended, Saturday night, to do a companion drawing, one of opposing nature. One that listed, in some sort of depiction of life and freedom, the things the Bible says GOD says about me. But it grew so dark on the porch outside, and I grew tired, and I could not find a design to my satisfaction, so I decided to wait. I must make a point of getting it done. Funny how often the good stuff comes less freely. It reminds me of a line by Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" when she is recounting her life and how she ended up becoming a prostitute. When challenged by Richard Gere that she could be so much more, she says, "The bad stuff's easier to believe." Hmmm. Yes.
On to more Soup Ingredients!
* I bought my ticket to Alaska. I'm flying up and driving home with The Fisherman in September. I'm looking forward to seeing the north country in Fall, excited to be with my husband, and taking another (the same?) road trip with him. I'm even SLIGHTLY looking forward to living in our van home. Although it is with a bit of trepidation I state this because I have been warned that through the passage of the summer "it's not going to be as neat as it was when the summer was new", and that "there's not as much room as there was when I was there before". Yikes! I am also somewhat anxious about two other factors this trip means. 1.) It means I have to have EVERYTHING done for the festivals by August 30th. And, 2.) it means we will most probably be arriving home just 4 days before the festival! Yikes and double yikes!
* Today I saw "Julie and Julia". Loved it. If you haven't heard of it, it's about the lives of Julia Child and a woman named Julie who starts a blog about cooking all 524 of Julia Child's recipes from her famous cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". It's very cute. Meryl Streep plays Julia Child and, as usual, does an excellent job. It seems over the last several years, I have been seeing quite a collection of "writing movies." I'm loving writing more and more (still not sure I have anything to say or not, or if I can begin to say the things I have an inkling I MIGHT be able to say...someday) and I seem to keep stumbling upon movies about writing or with main characters who are writers, whether or not the story line revolves around their writing. I am tucking them all away as little treasures of inspiration and encouragement as well as tidbits of advice and warning about the field of writing. Included in my little collection of writing movies are: Finding Forrester, Little Women, Becoming Jane, Miss Potter, and even the partially risque The Holiday, and now Julie and Julia. Even Dances With Wolves inspires me because of how he narrates from his journal throughout the movie.
* Thinking also of separate but agreeing "words" I've heard lately about what we spend our lives "doing." One, a conversation with a friend. The other, my continued reading of Ken Gire's, "Seeing What Is Sacred." Both have basically said the same thing in the last 7 days, and it is this: that while, yes, we are each given gifts, abilities and talents, and that, yes, God has intention and purpose for us in His giving of them, the most important purpose He has for us is much simpler than the using of those gifts. The ultimate purpose of our lives, which overrides all specific utilization of our talents and gifts, is our relationship with Him and with others. When our life is over and summed up, it's not so much the questions of "What did I do with my talents? Did I create art? Did I write a book? Did I run the company well? Did I reach the potential of my gifts? The questions God is interested in are more along these lines: How well did I trust Him? Trust Him with ME? How well did I love? How well did I love Him and how well did I love others? What did I do with all those people, precious to Him, whom He brought across my path while I was using the talents and gifts He gave me? - I think they're right, that God's focus for us is much more simple and basic, quiet and beneath the surface. It's the quiet strength of an intimate relationship with Him that really trusts Him, receives His love for us, and loves Him dearly in return. And it is loving others. Others. Me. We make up a WE that is the focus of God's love, and His pleasure. My high school Young Life leader said something to us once. He said, "There's only two things that we know are eternal from this life: God's Word and people. Spend time in these two areas." Simplified down, it's how well we love. I add to that, how well we trust. Trust Him. (See yesterday's post about the True Faced blog post on Trust as well as the post itself here.) Trust and people are not exactly the strong suit of this fear-prone introvert who prefers to write from behind a computer monitor.
* So...a balance. I prayed that God would teach me the balance between having creative passions and I think even dreams given to me by Him, and the higher purpose of loving and trusting Him and loving others along my way. Wow. Mmm, mmm, mmm. And, wow.
*Oh...and a man sat behind me in the movie today who could very well have been Captain Sulu from the old Star Trek. He even sounded like him! I'm telling you, he was the spitting image in both face and voice. What he would have been doing in my po-dunk neck of the woods I can't even imagine. And he was with a white haired, average looking woman, not with his "partner" (correction, "husband", but I'm not going there) whom I would expect to see him with. ....As if one expects to see Sulu at the movies in small town Arizona. (And, yes, I realize, it probably wasn't actually him. But I'm tellin' ya...)
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