Wall-E

What a lovely, fun movie!

I heartily suggest seeing Wall-E as a date movie if you're not a kid-toter and, perhaps, even if you are you can leave them at home and watch this without the distractions. (They will watch it a million times on dvd later anyway.)

The plot is precious and the characters endearing. The animation, as is usual with Pixar, sets the standard high above all other animation thus far. For the first act of the show, you may even forget that it's animated.

Go see it, it will be ticket money well-spent.

Twilight

I had noticed in recent years the rise in popularity (especially among teenage girls) a book series by Stephenie Meyer about vampires. The cover art was compelling, but I'm not a vampire book kind of girl. One might note that I'm also not 15, but I find adolescent fiction to be the perfect books to get lost in on summer days - I call it "cotton candy reading" because it generally has little nutritional (critical) value and is gone so quickly. I know I'm not the only one because of the multi-generational popularity of the Harry Potter series.


It's usually just fun to get lost in a story for a while, but I really connected to this Twilight book. It wasn't for any literary reason: the plot is a bit contrived in places, most characters have little depth to them and the prose was sometimes repetitive and weak. It was just that I felt like the story reflected so well the romantic fantasies I had as a teenage girl myself. Not that I dreamed of vampires, but my little heart did swell with hope every time I watched Sense & Sensibility or Meet Joe Black. I had the yearning and desire for that romantic sensation that I knew was part fairy tale, part possible. As a grown-up, with most romantic ideals come and gone, it was really fun to reconnect with those flutterings that were so compelling when I was younger.

I'm gonna be honest here: I pre-ordered the next book in the series, I'm considering going to the release party at B&N when it comes out, I've already got someone else committed to going with me to the movie (December 18), and I'm now a member of the TwilightMoms group online. I'm sure this phase will pass, but I'm going to revel in my teenagery infatuation for just a little bit longer.

Copying

I always warn my students against this, but I'm totally copying someone else's ideas. I mean, seriously, I'm off for the summer! How could anyone use their brains in the thick coastal heat?

Anyway, Claire mentioned blogging about the people she loved and I'm inspired. I think I'll start with the short list:

Frankie
The Boy

This is easy peasy, right?
Husband.
Child.
But really(!), I have reasons.
The Boy has changed me, softened me and yet totally allowed me to be all I've ever been. He smiles when I do silly voices and looks into my eyes when I sing. He charges toward me (on his belly) when he sees me coming and acts like my peeking from behind the couch is pure comedy. He is, also, the definition of the love in my marriage.
Frankie + Leah = The Boy
I've mentioned before about my husband: awesome. One of the best things is that he and I contain the exact same ratio of geekiness to coolness. Other people may disagree about what that ratio is, but we're fully aware of our delicate balances.

I made a list when I was about 15 or 16 about the things I wanted in a husband. (I could probably dig that precise list out from some shelf or basket in a couple of hours if I thought it was important, but it feels unnecessary.) I knew him then, but he was not on my internal list of potential husbands: that really only included a wispy idea of a man.

I wanted someone who:

• was musical (especially one who could sing),
• was attractive (more attractive than me or less? Always the quandary. Do I want to have a trophy husband or be someone's trophy wife? I'm not making any grand claims to beauty here, just ),
• could make me laugh (so much more important than romantic: this I learned from a combination of ex-boyfriends: Shawn & Dan. One was the romantic poet, the other a constant joker. I remember the moment of epiphany: I was so much happier with the funny guy.),
• was more intelligent than me (not quite the Feminist, I guess),
• was athletic - specifically good at baseball (a girl's got to know what she wants),
• was Christian,
• & could be publicly affectionate (How many of us have had that boyfriend who won't hold your hand at the mall, but wants to explore forms of affection when you're alone together? Yes. I thought so.).

These are not groundbreaking desires for a girl of sixteen, but I honestly didn't believe that I could find someone with all those properties who would be interested in me. I know better than to think I just got lucky: this guy claims to have been pining for me since the 6th grade, so I know God just looked down at my list and said, "I've been wondering where I put that blueprint for this guy!" (Ok, so, if you know us, you know there's one thing missing. Frankie doesn't sing: at least, not publicly, right? When I made my list I was thinking of some bold tenor singing a solo in church, but I realize now that made-up lullabies sung to an audience of one count, too.)