To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. ------ Joseph Chilton Pearce
I wonder how many people can actually do that? I know I live in fear of being wrong. Or even worse of being found out.
So I was a good girl today and went to the movies with my mother. I haven’t done anything like that in a while. It’s hard for her to leave my father for any length of time, as if he gets disoriented he can really get lost in a very small space. My father is multiple handicapped. He has an artificial leg, which has been the case since he was in his twenties, and he has totally lost his sight within the last six years or so. He’s also eighty-five years old. It’s not easy for him, or for any of us. He’s a difficult person sometimes. We pretty much try to make sure he’s not alone for too long.
The movie excursion did not start out smoothly. We’d checked the Thursday paper to find out what time the show started, and decided to meet a half-hour before. I got there a bit early and went in to buy the tickets to discover that the times were very different. They change the times DAILY! Who ever heard of such a thing? So if you don’t get the morning paper, on the day you’re planning to go, you’re shit out of luck! Even the evening paper from the night before is useless.
I intercepted my mother when she came into the parking lot and gave her the news, so she thought we should go get a burger and call my father to tell him she’d be late. We went to Johnny Rocket’s at the mall, and she made ME call my father. She’s a chicken!
Finally we made it to the movie. Of course they totally lie when they say it begins at 2:15. Commercials and previews begin at 2:15. The movie starts at 2:35. It’s irritating.
I loved the movie. It was light, funny, and frothy and made you feel good at the end. You sort of knew how it was going to end, but it didn’t matter. It made you smile anyways. I’ve ready critical reviews talking about the poor dialogue and the Mayberry feeling of the Midwest town, but I think both of those contributed to the movie. It wouldn’t have worked set in a more sophisticated place. And the dialogue was very "quippy". My life is filled with "quippy" dialogue, often spoken by me. I could totally relate to that. I also got a big kick out of the barbershop quartet that kept popping up. They are a quartet from the men’s barbershop organization SPEBESQA, so as a barbershopper myself I liked that. There is many times that one of our quartets or choruses are hired to stand in a mall and sing, so this didn’t seem in the least bit farfetched to me!
I also liked the characters. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere have a great chemistry and it was very easy to believe that these two people could have this kind of relationship. The supporting characters, especially Joan Cusack were very well done. There were some very funny small moments, particularly at the very end, and while they were running the final credits. I love movies where I laugh out loud.
I don’t understand why Richard Gere is so easy to love, but he really is. He’s not drop dead handsome. His nose is too big, his eyes are too small and too close together. But for some reason he seems just to die for. It might be his voice. It might be the way that you feel as if he’s really looking at and seeing the people around him, or it might just be that there always seems to be a soft heart and a vulnerability under the hard veneer. Whatever it is, he wins me over every time.
I liked this movie much more than Notting Hill, and I really liked that one too.
After the movie my mother wanted me to come home for dinner. I really didn’t want to, but she’d bought swordfish and had gotten enough for me as well. I couldn’t get out of it without hurting her feelings so I went.
She was BAKINGthe swordfish. I have never heard of anyone baking swordfish. Grilling and broiling, yes, but baking? I stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes before it came out of the oven. It ended up tasting ok. I stayed long enough to do all the clean up, then scooted out of there.
I know I should do more with my mother, but it takes so much energy. I just need to get beyond it.
I think part of the problem is that I seem to be doing things with other people a lot when I sort of want to do nothing. Or just be alone. I don’t always understand it myself. I always enjoy being with other people when I go, but sometimes it’s such a push to get out of here, and then when I come home and see that this place is a disaster area, and I’m too tired (or lazy) to do anything about it, I get discouraged, or overwhelmed.
I really am an unhappy person.
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