movie night: Freedom Writers
Friday night fun and adventure. (okay, fun and adventure for *me*, which means everyone else will be amazed at my boring life)
After work I stopped at home for about 30 minutes, then I began the drive from one suburb to another, 30 miles away. I got there early. Amazing, especially considering the Friday traffic. I met my friends in front of theatre, we got our free tickets (yay! free tickets to this film for teachers this week!) and we didn't even have to wait in line. Tickets in hand, we walked to a nearby restaurant, where a line formed right behind us. After dinner we stopped at an ice cream shop and again a line formed right behind us. Wow! Frankly I can't recall an evening where things fell into place so easily. Getting back to the theatre we saw a huge line, which we bypassed. Hah!
Previews: Hey, Gina Torres is going to be in a Chris Rock movie. Mark Wahlberg is doing a film in which he plays a former sniper being set up to take the fall for an assassination. (random connection: "The Truth About Charlie" was a moderately okay movie, but the best part was Mark Wahlberg. And the music was awesome.) And, erm, lots of other previews. Something with Eddie Murphy playing multiple roles that just looks bizarre.
"Freedom Writers." Teacher movies make me cringe. There's always some scene that makes me think, "yeah, right." This movie did have a few of those moments. Thankfully a lot of the movie focused on the lives of the high-school students. I do think the film was well-done--not a masterpiece, but enjoyable. (By the way, it's surprising how many middle and high-school age students we saw there. Interesting.)
One of those "yeah, right" moments--the newbie teacher walks into her classroom the first morning of school without having been in that room before. She looks shocked at the blank walls and the desks with grafitti all over the tops. Every baby teacher I know (me included, once upon a time) was in his or her classroom days, if not weeks, before the first day of school... primping the classroom, having the perfect bulletin board, arranging the desks just so. In fact, I still do that. Oh well.
A moment I liked: when a troubled girl feels compelled to do the right thing because of what she has experienced in English class.
A moment I adored: the teacher's father is talking to her about her job, at a moment when she is depressed and uncertain about continuing. He tells her, "You are blessed with a burden." I chatted about this line with my teacher pals after the movie was over. Some of our thoughts: a burden of caring, a burden of a teaching talent, a burden of wanting to make a difference, a burden of knowing that if we don't care about our jobs, others have to bear the consequences. Blessed with a burden is a great summation of how I feel about my job sometimes.
So after the movie and our chatting was over, I dug through my purse to get out my keys. This purse is new and I've only used it once before (in purse rotations--which last a week or two, depending... sheesh, I am such a girly-girl). I couldn't find the the keys. I felt in all of my jacket pockets, but no luck. We popped back into the theatre to see if they fell out of my coat pocket during the movie, but no. We went to the front desk to see if they were turned in. No. We walked to my car to see if I had left them in the ignition. Nope. I started saying mental prayers, because losing keys? Is bad. God can count the hairs on our head, and I firmly believe He cares that I'm concerned about my car keys. We started walking down the sidewalk back to the restaurant. I kept getting that feeling, that little voice--I call it the holy spirit, you can call it your guardian angel, whatever... you know what I'm talking about, right? The feeling was to look in my purse again. I went through it again as we walked, twice. Nada. At the restaurant the guy cleaning up said nothing had been turned in. I checked under our table and in the bathroom there. Still zero. We walked to the ice cream shop, and nothing. Normally by now I should have been in a state of panic, but I felt weirdly calm. We walked back to the theatre and asked again. I went to check in the theatre bathroom while Michele went to find a flashlight and look in and under the car. I checked in the bathroom stall. No. Before going out to the car again, I stopped at the bathroom counter where it was brightly lit and dug through the purse ONE.MORE.TIME. And lo and behold, the purse has two small side pockets running just under the central zipper, parallel to the outside pockets. I had never noticed them, because the purse is smaller than most that I own and it just isn't obvious that those pockets are there. The keys were nestled at the bottom of one of those pockets. Oh my.
Of course, then I had to tell my friends AND the theatre manager AND the cop loaning Michele a flashlight that the keys had been in my purse the whole time... but it's a small price to pay. Happy return of keys, only one-half hour of slight angst.
After work I stopped at home for about 30 minutes, then I began the drive from one suburb to another, 30 miles away. I got there early. Amazing, especially considering the Friday traffic. I met my friends in front of theatre, we got our free tickets (yay! free tickets to this film for teachers this week!) and we didn't even have to wait in line. Tickets in hand, we walked to a nearby restaurant, where a line formed right behind us. After dinner we stopped at an ice cream shop and again a line formed right behind us. Wow! Frankly I can't recall an evening where things fell into place so easily. Getting back to the theatre we saw a huge line, which we bypassed. Hah!
Previews: Hey, Gina Torres is going to be in a Chris Rock movie. Mark Wahlberg is doing a film in which he plays a former sniper being set up to take the fall for an assassination. (random connection: "The Truth About Charlie" was a moderately okay movie, but the best part was Mark Wahlberg. And the music was awesome.) And, erm, lots of other previews. Something with Eddie Murphy playing multiple roles that just looks bizarre.
"Freedom Writers." Teacher movies make me cringe. There's always some scene that makes me think, "yeah, right." This movie did have a few of those moments. Thankfully a lot of the movie focused on the lives of the high-school students. I do think the film was well-done--not a masterpiece, but enjoyable. (By the way, it's surprising how many middle and high-school age students we saw there. Interesting.)
One of those "yeah, right" moments--the newbie teacher walks into her classroom the first morning of school without having been in that room before. She looks shocked at the blank walls and the desks with grafitti all over the tops. Every baby teacher I know (me included, once upon a time) was in his or her classroom days, if not weeks, before the first day of school... primping the classroom, having the perfect bulletin board, arranging the desks just so. In fact, I still do that. Oh well.
A moment I liked: when a troubled girl feels compelled to do the right thing because of what she has experienced in English class.
A moment I adored: the teacher's father is talking to her about her job, at a moment when she is depressed and uncertain about continuing. He tells her, "You are blessed with a burden." I chatted about this line with my teacher pals after the movie was over. Some of our thoughts: a burden of caring, a burden of a teaching talent, a burden of wanting to make a difference, a burden of knowing that if we don't care about our jobs, others have to bear the consequences. Blessed with a burden is a great summation of how I feel about my job sometimes.
So after the movie and our chatting was over, I dug through my purse to get out my keys. This purse is new and I've only used it once before (in purse rotations--which last a week or two, depending... sheesh, I am such a girly-girl). I couldn't find the the keys. I felt in all of my jacket pockets, but no luck. We popped back into the theatre to see if they fell out of my coat pocket during the movie, but no. We went to the front desk to see if they were turned in. No. We walked to my car to see if I had left them in the ignition. Nope. I started saying mental prayers, because losing keys? Is bad. God can count the hairs on our head, and I firmly believe He cares that I'm concerned about my car keys. We started walking down the sidewalk back to the restaurant. I kept getting that feeling, that little voice--I call it the holy spirit, you can call it your guardian angel, whatever... you know what I'm talking about, right? The feeling was to look in my purse again. I went through it again as we walked, twice. Nada. At the restaurant the guy cleaning up said nothing had been turned in. I checked under our table and in the bathroom there. Still zero. We walked to the ice cream shop, and nothing. Normally by now I should have been in a state of panic, but I felt weirdly calm. We walked back to the theatre and asked again. I went to check in the theatre bathroom while Michele went to find a flashlight and look in and under the car. I checked in the bathroom stall. No. Before going out to the car again, I stopped at the bathroom counter where it was brightly lit and dug through the purse ONE.MORE.TIME. And lo and behold, the purse has two small side pockets running just under the central zipper, parallel to the outside pockets. I had never noticed them, because the purse is smaller than most that I own and it just isn't obvious that those pockets are there. The keys were nestled at the bottom of one of those pockets. Oh my.
Of course, then I had to tell my friends AND the theatre manager AND the cop loaning Michele a flashlight that the keys had been in my purse the whole time... but it's a small price to pay. Happy return of keys, only one-half hour of slight angst.