I'm Just Sayin' . . .

Have you seen this child?

If you've been around here any time at all, I would guess the answer would be "yes!"

Well, last night, this wonderful child (teenager) and I sashayed on out of the house to see a movie together. (Hannah Montana at the $2 theater, in case you're wondering.)

Since the movie has been out a while (and since we were at a bargain place) the theater was very empty. Like about 95% empty. Which is fine with me. I'm good with empty.

However, what I am not so good with is what took place in that almost empty theater.

Five minutes before the movie started, three sort of loud teenagers came crashing in and sat in the seats Right. In. Front. Of. Us. There were one bajillion empty seats all over the theater but they chose to sit as close to us as they could possibly get.

Being an inveterate "people observer" from way back, I sat in my little chair and pondered human nature and why someone would choose to sit so very near someone else in an almost empty theater.

However, once the movie started, I got distracted by Miss Montana and her complicated life and I forgot all about our "in front of us neighbors."

But then? Then the unthinkable happened.

A family with two small children came in and sat in the row Immediately. Behind. Us.

Are Sarah and I "theater go-er magnets?" Or what?

The two little girls behind us were of the wiggly, giggly variety and they managed to hit our (rocking) theater seats about four or five thousand times during the course of the movie.

Now I have had small children in my lifetime and back in those (wonderful, stressful) days, my very FIRST thought upon entering an almost empty theater would be to corral said children into a densely unoccupied area where they could spread out and wriggle around to their hearts' content. I would most certainly NOT guide them into a row RIGHT BEHIND a middle aged mom with (obviously) middle aged nerves. And I would NOT let them kick their legs and move around and hit the chairs in the front of them.

Sigh.

I truly have a very long fuse regarding most things. I would consider myself a tolerant, patient person almost always. And if the theater was completely full and those were the only seats available, I would be even MORE tolerant than usual.

But people. I'm telling you that there were only about seven movie attenders in the entire theater. So WHY did the family of wriggly children choose to sit right behind us?

If anyone out there has any clues, please, I beg of you, fill me in so that I can better understand the unusual thought processes of that species called the Child Accompanying, Theater Going, Human Parent. It would be a great help to me.

Now to look at this whole scenario from a different perspective, a couple weeks ago I took myself off to a matinee showing of "My Sister's Keeper." I made it a priority to find a seat far, far away from anyone else in the room because I knew I was going to be blubbering like a, well, like a blubber-er. I even got my little pack of Kleenex out of my purse ahead of time so that I would be well prepared.

And I did use the Kleenex, four or five of them, at least.

But I was comforted by the fact that I wasn't the only one in the room crying; there were sniffles galore. It is definitely a touching, sad, poignant movie for anyone who views it. But to watch it as someone who has actually had a child with cancer? Whew! Incredibly, utterly heart wrenching.

But for me at least, it was well worth seeing. (Steve's still not so sure he wants to go.)

So that's my "movie going stories" for the past couple of weeks. If anyone has an opinion on My Sister's Keeper, or has any movie-going stories to share with the rest of us, go for it! I always love to hear from you! (And so do all the other Smithellaneous folks.)

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PS In regard to my entry about the turkey yesterday, Heather asked what wonderful recipes I served along with the turkey.

Well, the truth of the matter is that by the time I finally got done with the preparation and cooking of the turkey, I was so thoroughly traumatized and exhausted that I had no creativity or cooking fervor left. I think I did manage to whip up some mashed potatoes and I made gravy from the turkey drippings. Along with some peas and bread, that was the extent of my fabulous turkey feast.

And then I went and laid down.

A Wordle, Words, and Wordiness

First the Wordle:

(double click on image to enlarge)

If you've never heard of a Wordle, you can go here and make your own. It's really fun because you can choose your own fonts and colors and designs and put in any words you want. For this particular Wordle, I had the program just "grab" words from three of my recent blog entries. It's a cool activity for kids, too. So go Wordle, already!

And now for the "Words" part of the title

First of all, I must say that you all have some very interesting sleeping habits; I think the guest book included just about every sleep/wake schedule known to mankind! Some of you go to bed early (like me) and others of you are awake til all hours. Some are up at the crack of dawn (unlike me) and others are later-in-the-morning risers. (Like Nathan, whenever he can get away with it.) I really enjoyed all of your entries; it was fun reading! And I'm especially glad I'm not the only one who needs to be in bed early. That makes me feel better.

And on the subject of the guest book, "Mary from Iowa" asked what movie Nathan and I saw the other night. We went to "Knowing" which I pretty much enjoyed although it was a little scarier than I had anticipated. Since it was an Apocalyptic story, I found it interesting from a Biblical perspective, to see how they would handle an end-of-the-world scenario compared to the Bible's account. I must say it was a bit of a depressing movie because the world really did get destroyed at the end. In a lot of movies like that, someone is usually able to "save the day" (and the earth) before total destruction happens.

I wouldn't see it again but I thought it was worth seeing once. It definitely gave Nathan and me plenty to argue about all the way home as we discussed the movie's viewpoint vs. the Biblical viewpoint.

(Note To Self: Try to never attend a movie with a 19-year old who attends a Christian university. He will be WAY more knowledgeable than you about philosophical meanderings, theological subtleties and movie making in general.)

Speaking of Nathan, Steve and I appreciate those of who you have taken the time to e-mail or sign the guest book with suggestions on financing Nathan's upcoming college year while being (currently) unemployed; your comments were extremely helpful. We should know some final things in the next day or two, but I think we might have some solutions percolating, some inspired by your advice.

I was so proud of Nathan when we sat down with him in his room recently and had "The Talk." (No, not THAT talk, the College Talk!)

I don't know about you, but if I were nineteen years old and my parents had just sat down with me to tell me that there was a fairly good chance I couldn't return to college for my junior year, I would be more than a bit bummed.

Nathan listened pretty calmly, asked a few pertinent questions and got kind of a sober, sad look on his face. Steve and I left his room after the conversation to give him some private time to digest what we had told him. I didn't know if he would end up staying in his room all night and just wallow in despair--that's probably what I would have done at his age.

But no, in about fifteen minutes the door to his room opened and he emerged looking calm and at peace. He ate dinner, teased his sister and spent two hours playing Apples to Apples with us. I was very proud of his mature attitude in accepting the fact that life doesn't always turn out the way we want. (And the sooner we all learn THAT fact, the better!)

Well, this was supposed to be a short post, but I guess I got carried away with wordiness. I'm good like that.

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Some questions:

What is your favorite movie?

What is a movie you've already seen this year that you would recommend to the rest of us? (I'm ALWAYS on the look out for great movies.)

A Great Night For A Showdown

Nathan has been kidding me about the fact that I like to be in bed by 9 pm whenever I possibly can. He's been telling me that being "older" has rendered me completely incapable of staying up late and partying with the likes of him. He's been happily hassling me by telling me that I don't have enough perkiness to stay up til after midnight, the way he does.

In short, Nathan has been spoiling for a showdown. And Friday night, he got it.

As I mentioned earlier, Friday night our whole family went to see Monsters vs. Aliens. Steve, Nathan and I were actually thinking about going to another movie that Sarah didn't want to see; however, we figured that since she had just graduated from seventh grade that day, we should do something of a celebratory nature that included her. (Because we're nice like that.)

In the process of making our movie night plans, it occured to me that after months and months of being unmercifully teased by my son, the time had come to throw down the gauntlet.

I said, "Nathan, how about if you and I drive to the theater separately. After the first movie, Dad and Sarah can go back home and you can I can stay for the 9:15 showing of the movie we had wanted to see in the first place."

Nathan stared at me as if I had just lost what was left of my mind. He looked a little quizzical and a lot worried, obviously wondering if his aged, decrepit mother had taken a sudden leave of her aged and decrepit senses.

He asked, "Mom, do you think you can really stay up that late?"

I said, "Just watch me!"

And so, according to our plan, Steve and Sarah went home at 8:30 which left Nathan and me with a little time to kill before the second movie started. We decided to walk about a block down the street from the theater to a little book store/coffee shop that features live music on Friday nights. Here's a picture of the shop. (Taken in the daytime, obviously. And yes, that IS Snowy's head, lurking in the foreground.)

There was a delightful group of five fellas in there last Friday evening, playing country bluegrass music. The youngest guy might have been in his late fifties, and the rest were at least in their 60's and 70's. It was so refreshing to watch people making music with that kind of simplicity and joy. They weren't worrying about their light show, or CD sales, or publicity tours. Shoot, they weren't even worried about playing all the notes right.

They were just five guys, having fun, grinning from ear to ear and obviously enjoying the simple pleasure of playing music--in a small town, in a small coffee shop, in front of a small audience.

Nate and I sat and listened to several songs and then walked back up the block. I teasingly asked him while we were walking if I needed to stay five paces behind him so that no one would know he was out on a Friday night with his mom. He said he thought he would be fine. (smile)

Just to give you another glimpse of small town life, here is the theater we were going to. Our family sees most of our movies at the Howell since tickets are just two dollars. It's a quaint, old timey place that always makes me feel like I've stepped a few decades back in time.

As Nathan and I were standing in the ticket line out on the sidewalk I looked across the street and had to smile just a little bit as an old memory hit. (Old ladies tend to ponder old memories, you know.) I had told Nathan this story a time or two in the past, but standing right there with him, I just couldn't keep from repeating it. (Old ladies tend to repeat their old memories a lot, too!)

Here's how the memory goes:

Almost twenty years ago, Steve and I were youth and music pastors at the same church he just resigned from last November. After being on staff at the church a couple years, we made the decision to go on the road with my brother and sister-in-law as full time musicians. (Where we stayed for FIFTEEN years!)

Since we figured we would need some promo materials, we made arrangements to have a publicity photo taken. And the place we chose was this photography shop that just happened to be right across the street from the theater.

What made that photo shoot especially memorable was that I was three months pregnant with Nathan at the time and therefore dealing with lots of pregnancy nausea. The guy would take a few shots and then I would run down the hall to be be sick in the bathroom. Then he'd take a few more and off I'd go again.

It was a really weird feeling to be standing across the street from that same shop almost twenty years later with the big, tall, wonderful guy who was a result of that pregnancy. Talk about precious memories!

At any rate, we finished reminiscing, bought the tickets, watched the movie, and exited the theater at about 11 pm. I was pleased to note that Nathan was yawning and I was still feeling perky! Ha! I was showing HIM a thing or two about partying late at night!

As we drove home together discussing the movie, he suddenly announced that he was hungry. No surprise there. We went through the drive through at McDonald's where he treated me to anything I wanted--as long as it was from the dollar menu! (A man after my own heart.) We took our dollar treasures back to the house, and sat at the kitchen table to eat and talk. And talk. And talk. We ended up talking so long, it was 1 am before I finally made it to bed.

But people, I DID it!

I stayed up past 9 pm!

I hung out with my college son!

I didn't fall asleep and/or become incoherent at 9:01!

I was immensely PROUD of my middle-aged self!

Of course, the next day I felt like I'd been in a wrestling match with a 300-pound armadillo but that was okay. My son had been impressed by his mom's amazing ability to be a night owl and I had been impressed by my son's amazing ability to make me feel young again.

It was a great night for a showdown.

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On the subject of movies, we use a great website that reviews movies from a family perspective and lets you know exactly what each movie contains as far as sex, language, violence, etc. The Smith Family highly recommends it and uses it frequently.

And now a few questions for class discussion.

Are you a morning person or a night person? If you're a morning person, why do you like the morning better? If you're a night person, why do you like the night better?

Does age make a difference for you? In other words, as you got older, did early bedtime look more appealing? I just need someone to tell me I'm not alone here in my desire for 9 pm bedtimes!