So Grateful

I am nearing the end of a 16 day cross country trip and it occurred to me that I haven't taken the time to tell you what I'm grateful for this year. So while Ron and I are resting at the glorious JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa, I thought I'd reflect and give you my list. I am so grateful...

...that my hair grew back!

...that I have been able to play Scrabble and Words with Friends almost competitively with Anita, Eileen, Megan, Debbie, Katie, Gibby and Rita. (Thanks for keeping my brain working!)

...that I got to visit my good friend Don and his feathered kids.

...that I am well enough to have gotten a new job and that my boss at my new job was so understanding and flexible about me taking 2 weeks off even though I just started there at the end of October.

...that I continue to get to spend time with the Wild Thing!

...that in all our travels this year, the airlines never lost our luggage, we never missed a flight and that we arrived safely at all our destinations.

...that I finally got to meet my dear friend, Meredith.

...that we got to see Ron's parents, brother and sister this year.

...that I got to see Kevin, Leah and Kimi this year.

...that even though it's been a challenging year, my girls, Ron and I are all healthy.

...that I got to spend real quality time with Stef and Tim and their families. (Next year, Ginger?)

...that my beautiful, healthy baby nephew Wyatt arrived to the enthusiastic welcome of the whole family and that my brother and sister-in-law allowed me to go to Georgia to meet him and spend some time with all of them.

...that after 30 years of being married, Ron and I are still best friends and that he loves and accepts me blonde or brunette, thin or fat, in sickness and in health!

Tomorrow Ron and I will be driving the last 7 hours (480 miles) back home. It's been a whirlwind of a trip, but we made it! I wish you all a belated "Happy Thanksgiving!"

back to the theater

It's been a while since I written any movie reviews, but Ron and I did go to San Francisco yesterday and saw 2 movies. They were both good, so I thought that I should tell you about them.

First up was Ender's Game. I have to confess that it has been MANY years since I read this book and I didn't remember much of the story line, so don't count on me to tell you how well the film measured up to the book. However, I noticed that the author was one of the producers on the movie, so he was probably ok with the way it turned out.

Otherwise, this was a very enjoyable movie. The young actors were all pretty impressive and the special effects were spectacular. The subject matter here was fairly serious - children trained for battle against an alien race. It also focused on how these young soldiers were manipulated and lied to by the government for the purpose of guaranteeing the survival of the human race. Many ethical questions are posed here and will make you think. Ron had a problem with a couple of the plot points which I can't tell you without giving away an important part of the movie. The downside for me was the adult actors. With the exception of Viola Davis, (I thought she was the most believable) I found the adult actor's (Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley) performances to be pretty cheesy. Even so, the overall impact of the movie was good and I really liked it.

How about a charming romantic comedy to balance out a sci-fi movie? About Time is a very sweet, enjoyable film about a young man who finds out after his 21st birthday that he is able to travel in time to correct or change things that have happened within his lifetime.  He decides to use this power to find a girlfriend. This is exactly the kind of movie that I love. There are very touching scenes between the main character Tim and his dad played by Bill Nighy, Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams play the young couple with charm and wit - there's nothing better than a British romantic comedy! Richard Curtiss is the writer/director here and was also responsible for a couple of my favorite rom/coms - Love Actually and Notting Hill. It's probably not as good as Love Actually, but I plan to see it again just to make sure!

I'm a little rusty writing about movies, but give me another couple tries at it and I hope to get back into the swing of things.