Journal (cont.)!!!!!!!!
11:53am ~
(Sarah) Resolved: to write more on "boring" days. Right now, Rachel is typing up past journal writes, and we are reliving our adventures with glee. Last night we went over to my dad's for dinner. Delicious! Cicci made cheese tortellini and bread and Caesar salad. Afterwards, we played Scene It, Rachel and I versus Dad and Cicci. They won the first, we won the second, and then they won two out of three tiebreakers (Rachel had the smallest shoe size, but Cicci was born the farthest north, and Dad named "Black Beauty" seconds before I said "Brokeback Mountain" when asked to name a movie beginning with "B".) Then we returned to my mom's, tried to get to bed early but opted instead to talk in bed for an hour and a half.
12:37pm ~
(Rachel) We're off to see the wizard! Or, to take George to his Build-a-Bear field trip. He is telling us graphic Nascar stories about collisions that almost happened as "we" were coming out of the pit stop, and is horrified that Sarah turned on the child locks so he can't roll down the window.
12:57pm ~
(R) Best pizza commercial ever. Guy describes amazing cheesy, crispy pizza with Gregorian chant playing in the background. As he finishes, one of the Gregorian chant guys gets louder, singing, "Oh-Brother-Benedict-is-looking-stop-chewing-we're-so-busted." Then the commercial ends.
1:05pm ~
(R) As Sarah plays around in mall with George, elderly woman in black leather jacket and huge gold-and-jewel earrings shoots furtive glances and tries not to appear suspicious.
1:12pm ~
(S) Dear Izzy, Rachel and I just met a little black boy named Zion. With love, Sarah (and Rachel).
1:24pm ~
(R) We see members of the Red Hat Society cruising the mall.
2:46pm ~
(R) We just got finished watching the preschool field trip. The kids picked out bears, named them, stuffed them, gave them "air baths," and picked out clothes for them. The lady in charge had the time of her life harassing Zion's poor dad, as soon as she learned he played for the Seahawks. She promised not to sell anything to the news about the macho Seahawks guy singing "The Toody Ta Song" with his preschool son's class. Poor guy. But he was a very good sport. Then we went to Baskin Robbins and got ice cream cones, and I barely managed to beat George (by about 10 seconds) in the finish-your-ice-cream-cone-faster contest. Now we are back in the car and headed home.
4:24pm ~
(R) After eating chimichangas and watching the enlightening, but thoroughly creepy and annoying show Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Sarah and I settle down to log on and of alternately and poke each other on facebook. Only for a few seconds, though, lest you think we would sink to that degree of lameness for more than that period of time.
5:28pm ~
(R) We entertain the children by swing dancing. They think it's great. Kathryn and Molly are decked out in swimsuits (I think because the sun came out today).
**(Quote from last year that I just now remembered):
[George and Amy are shrieking at each other and the doorbell rings]
"George, stop killing your sister, there's someone at the door." - George (the older one)**
Molly attempts to give Amy a piggyback ride, loses her center of gravity, and falls forward. There is a look of sheer panic in Amy's eyes as she is thrown from Molly's back, but upon finding herself alive and unhurt once she hits the ground, she looks up cheerfully and announces, "I'm okay!"
6:41pm ~
(R) Dinner was as exciting as only dinner in a house full of small children can be. The children arrive - Kathryn and Molly in swimsuits, George shirtless, and Amy in an elaborate purple princess dress - and sit down. Daniel, enthusiastic about the food, says, "I'm feelin' the veggies!" Sarah remarks about the creepiness of this statement, so Daniel begins stroking his broccoli. Definitely creepy. We hold hands to pray, and Amy knocks her milk over. It goes everywhere. While Amy laughs gleefully, everyone else rushes to soak up the milk before it touches Amy's dress (and she reacts in true Buttercup style, watching everyone else clean up her mess and shrieking delicately when the milk threatens her). Daniel gets the candles out of the way, and puts them on the counter, halfway falling off. After the milk is cleaned up and we have all heard the story of the pizza box that caught fire, we pray, and start eating. I sit by George, who took great care to sit by "Ray-chole", and we tell the family our favorite and "worst favorite" (George's phrase, not mine) parts of the day. Somewhere along the way, Kathryn tries to explain the concept of division to George. Many interesting conversations ensue. After dinner, Andrew calls, and I talk to him while Sarah's siblings run around in various stages of avoiding getting ready for bed.
7:53pm ~
(S) Things settle down a bit in the Anderson household as the siblings are finally coerced into bed. Katie comes over before Daniel's and her (nightly?) tradition of Bubble Tea. Rachel and I look for a movie on On Demand and decide to watch It Could Happen to You.
9:41pm ~
(S) A bitter rant. I've noticed a disturbing trend in movies. When we want a racy, sex-filled romance movie, the main characters are teenagers, or, at least, unmarried. When we want a sweet, innocent love story, however, more often than not at least one of the characters is married or otherwise taken. Why? If the main characters are single, all the prelude needed to going to bed together is, "hey. I'm attracted to you." If one is married, though, there is a pretense (at least) of a platonic friendship. "Hey, let's have lunch." "Let's go skating." "Let's go hand out money in the subway." And through all these innocent activities, they (sweetly) fall in love. Then, of course, there's the little matter of breaking the existing ties so that the new lovebirds can have their happily ever after. Aww. He married the wrong girl, but he still found love (with someone else). Marriage, after all, is not about promises or commitment or unconditional love. It's about luck. And finding the right girl out of the billions out there. Or, the right mistress if that fails.
I demand movies about sweet romances between unattached people. People who don't sleep together for some other reason than that one of them is still married and feels guilty. Or, about a married couple who decides their marriage is worth saving, even if they don't see eye to eye on everything. Breaking up a marriage over someone you just met three weeks ago but makes you feel young and in love again is not sweet or innocent, damn it.
I'm done.
(R) But I'm not.
Here's a movie I would watch (with a sequel!)
The Falling in Love Movie (or, insert romantic and/or slightly cheesy title here):
Boy meets girl. They are drawn together by what draws couples together--mutual wishes, dreams, desires, interests, or just that special spark. They are naive, yes. To make them wise and overly mature would be preachy and unrealistic. They do stupid things together. He takes her golfing and she hits him in the nose with the club. She takes him to a restaurant and he accidentally catapults his fork into the lobster across the room. One weekend they go skiing and have a beautiful romantic night before falling asleep in separate beds. Then there's that fateful night night when he goes over to her apartment for dinner. A blizzard comes up and they are snowed in, alone. They love each other so much; they look into each other's eyes and tell each other so. They kiss, slow and romantic. They dance to "their" song on the radio. They get tired, but not too tired to...argue over who gets the sofa and who gets the bed. But she does end up falling asleep, and so, smirking because he's won yet again, he puts her in bed, closes her door, and lies down on the sofa with his coat for a pillow. The proposal happens at an appropriate spot (i.e. not in bed) and they get married. There's a sex scene, sure, but they've earned it.
Sequel: Staying in Love (insert impressive dramatic title here):
They are not so young, and admit they were naive. They have kids in middle school and feel like they don't have much in common. She likes what bores him, and vice versa. But there's a hot new secretary at his work who understands him so well and makes him feel young again. Her boss is smart and attractive and makes her feel beautiful and attractive. They are both available (ok, so the boss is married, but his wife is just plain boring). Here's where the movie gets deep. If I were to elaborate on its depth, it would sound cheesy, but a good filmmaker could do it well. Let's just say they begin to realize their marriage is worth something. Their marriage is a unit, not just a he and a she who deserve luck. They begin to discover the passion they once had. There are flashbacks to that adorable snowed-in scene when they discovered their great love for each other (face it: it's a lot harder and takes a lot deeper of a love to sleep apart than to sleep together). They move toward that. It doesn't work, and they conclude they just married in haste as naive kids. Boss and secretary look like good options. But they keep fighting, and eventually, of course, fall back in love, or rather realize they've always been in love, because cute teenage couple feelings are only a part of real love. Then there's the REALLY racy, scarring sex scene. The middle school son and daughter think it's gross (the kissing that is, not the sex, because they don't see it), but we, the viewers, are moved to tears.
Then there's volume 3: Growing Old Together, but although it's cute, it's pretty boring. How much money would a movie make if it features an old couple scooting around town in motorized wheelchairs, stopping occasionally to kiss, flash flirty looks, and make sure their son isn't breaking into young ladies' cars?