Wordy Wednesday

I have not enough brain power to put a word up today. Enough about me being hard on myself. I am taking a day off. Today is the first of many "Be Nice To Chelf Today" days, and I am celebrating. I am hoping to get lots of rest. Soon, I shall be taking a little trip north, to visit a friend, and make two new friends. I am going to meet the lovely Midwest Girl in person. I can't wait! I will bring back pictures (if I remember to take them!) and blog a little about our adventures. If I am allowed to, and not sworn to the silence of Girls' Night.

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's day. I don't really care to celebrate a day named for a guy I never even met, and that Hallmark seems to have immortalized. Our Blog Buddy Meet was planned last week, before I was reminded that THAT Thursday was a special day, and our hubbies might object to a Girls' Night Out on the National Holiday. So, we quickly changed to this week. Which makes me a busy woman.

Thursday, I go north. Friday I come back south. Saturday, DH and I go north again, but not so far. We are going to our church's Couples Retreat. We go to a campground north of here, and spend a night or two (varies by year) studying God's Word about marriage and related family issues, and playing board games and sitting up all night talking to other couples about all sorts of subjects. It is funny to me, that this campground has rooms, like a college dorm. With Bunk Beds. Two Twin sized bunk beds. Yep, we get to sleep separately for our retreat. Now before anyone suggests ways to co-sleep, let me inform you that DH is 6' 6" tall, and I am 5'4" and... fluffy. We can't fit on a twin together for real for all night. We tried to put the mattresses on the floor side by side, and it didn't fit. The rooms are TINY. There are a lot of ways to grow as a couple. Sleeping separately is not my best idea of a way to grow. However, the weekend usually is filled with other ways to be intimate. Sunday, we come home again.

DH and I have been going to the local dollar theater on their $0.50 night. We have seen The Golden Compass and August Rush this week. OK, August Rush was on Friday night, not Tuesday. Either way, we have seen cheap movies. Then we go to Vintage and play Scrabble. I don't know why I like that, but I do. I suppose part of it comes from the fact that we don't have a kitchen table set up right now. We play board games across a folding wooden tray. It is fun to play Scrabble in a quiet little coffee shop.

Friday night there were some guys there, who were going to compete in a talent contest the next day. They had written a song, and were practicing it. Two guitars, three guys, and a lot of laughs. They were creative. One of the guitar players works at the shop, so I hope to ask him soon if they won anything, even an honorable mention for their guts and creativity.

Yes, you saw that right, I went to see the Golden Compass for myself. I spent the least amount of money possible, so as to not support the author too much if I didn't like it. I liked the movie. I personally thought that it was an interesting combination of good CG effects and bad acting. I like the girl that played Lyra. She seems to have a gift. Having not read the books myself, and having read lots of reviews, critics and friendly discussions, I have come to a borderline conclusion. I liked it, for the fantasy fiction it is. I did not like it, because it seemed somewhat lacking in plot and depth. It felt rushed. It felt as if it were a cheap imitation of good fiction.

Now, I don't know how the books would feel. I don't care to find out. I saw a fun quote recently. "Never judge a book by it's movie." AMEN and amen. (Book snobbery showing through) So... I have judged the movie without the book. If the point was to get me to read the book that would try to snag my innocent daemon out of my body, and make it walk around like a puppy learning to heel, then it failed miserably. If the point was to pique my curiosity about this daemon idea, and to lure me into believing the morality of the compass, it still failed. I hate to say it, people, because I shouldn't have to. Kids (those old enough to really read these books) and adults alike should know the difference between fact and fiction. This is fiction, and kids know it better than some adults. Same with Harry Potter, same with Star Trek, same with Star Wars. Fiction, all of it.

Fiction can draw you a verbal picture, and can show you a little different way of thinking than you once had. It can seep into your open heart to the possibility that there is something bigger than yourself out there. But Fiction cannot tear you from God's Love, cannot change what you know to be true, cannot excuse weakness of faith. This movie is not for small children, it is not for anyone questioning their faith to use as a guide, and it should not be marketed through Scholastic. This watered-down depiction is simply designed to tease you, to make you think that the God-killing ideas this man writes are soft, and cuddly.

I can hear the hiss of the serpent in his ideas. You don't have a real moral compass, and you don't need one. You know what is right better than anyone else. When lying gets you a good result, it is OK. Age is a terrible thing, don't trust adults because they lie to you, they only want to hurt you. Children always know better than adults. Go with your gut, not instructions. Folly. The man was clever, and the movie studio more so. Parents should definitely be on their guard. If nothing else, for the gory way the Ice Bears fight. I would never have thought to kill a bear would require punching his jaw off, literally. That was gruesome.

So, I wasted fifty cents and a couple of hours of my life that I can never regain. Eh. I have wasted far more money and far more time on far less eventful distractions. Now I know not to bother reading, until my own future children want to. Then I shall do as Niki suggested, and read WITH my children, and discuss the topics as they emerge.

August Rush was not so great as I had hoped, either. It is a good movie, but not so great. I liked it. I may actually buy it when it comes out. If it fits into my budget, which it will likely not. It had good music, it had Robin Williams (so it couldn't have been that bad), and it had a family healing in the end. It seemed a little fairy tale when August gets to go to Juilliard. That kind of education isn't cheap, and he was a street kid. But, it was a speech to adoption, coincidence, hope and music. "You just have to listen." I cried. I am doing that a lot more in recent years... crying over movies that shouldn't impact me so much. I can't relate to being a 12 yr old wandering the streets of NYC. But knowing that the music brought them all together, as August hoped it would, touched me.

I know that tunes and smells are the two most powerful triggers of memory. A song on the radio can take you back a week or a decade. A smell can bring your childhood to your moment. Go explore your world for the scents and songs that take you back, and enjoy the mini vacation!