Riddle Me This...

How is it that I can lay out in the sun for 45 minutes and barely get any color - just a touch of red that fades in a day - but I wash my car in the very same yard - only out for about 20 minutes - and my back is burnt and hurting? Bizarre, I say.

DaVinci Code Broken

Very rarely will I go see a movie for full price. It's just...WRONG! Both financially and morally, it gives me pause to pay someone my hard-earned money for the privilege of sitting in THEIR seats to watch a movie. However, I do recognize that there are quite a few movies where part of the film is the experience of seeing it in the surround sound, coming at you off the screen, or where I feel it would enhance the movie to see it in a darkened theater to set the ambiance by forcing me to take two hours out of my busy life to focus on something.

The DaVinci Code was one of my rare exceptions. I read the book a few years back and loved it. I've been waiting on the movie to come out sice before the casting was complete, and I knew I would go see it as soon as I could. Opening weekend, I was dancing my tootsies off, getting some great lindyleads and awesome blues moments in there, but no moments for moviegoing. So last night, I decided to mix up my hockey karma and go see a movie instead of going to a sports bar.

In short, I can sum it up in three words - too damn long! - but it was well done and I feel like it deserves a little more explanation. The DaVinci Code has been an anomaly in my opinion: a work of fiction that makes you think that still manages to grab the attention of a nation where thought is too often discarded. A novel that truly is novel. A book embraced by the faithful and the secular alike, for different reasons but to the same end. The creation of a shared culture in a time when culture is splintering into microcosms.

It proved to be an anomaly on the big screen as well. Most of the time, the book is better than the movie because the adaptation leaves out what the reader would find to be key points or gets details wrong, or excises entire chunks of story in order to stay within the time allotted by Hollywood. The DaVinci Code is better as a book for all the opposite reasons. It stays very true to the story line. In fact, nothing is cut out because so much is necessary for that story to make sense and have the impact. That makes the movie drag at times. It's quite thought provoking...but at times plods along. I applaud the visuals in the movie - a nice bit of foreshadowing in technique with the power point presentation behind Langdon at the very beginning. Ron Howard did well illustrating memory and history and keeping you in the moment at the same time. However, it just didn't translate as well onto the big screen. I didn't feel the urgency of the chase that was there in the book. I've often called Dan Brown an author for the MTV Generation - writing appealing pieces that also cater to the shorter attention spans of today's multitaskers. Believe it or not, I felt it slowed down on the big screen.

Final opinion: Glad I saw it, not likely to buy the DVD, VERY glad we won or I'd be upset I wasted the time and money and didn't get out of the theater until 1 am!

What did you think?

Pure Exhaustion

I have spent the last three months helping organize a dance event. Four days and nights and overnights of activities (mostly physical in nature), housing for all the guests, setup, tear down, the works. It was a small weekend as far as these things go, which is good, because the committee was TINY in comparison to some of the other events.

The event was this weekend, and I am STILL exhausted. As I told my boss yesterday, I think I got 12 hours of sleep TOTAL from Thursday night until I went to bed Monday. I'm still recovering. And tonight there are more playoff games to watch. I missed last night's cause I hit the hay so early.

Brain, tired. Body, exhausted. A good weekend of kicking up my heels? Priceless :)

Ping me

A nifty little exercise that I found on Wordnerd's blog invites folks to take an assigned letter and list ten things about themselves that begin with that letter and why they are significant. She assigned me the letter "P"...so here goes, in no particular order, thought pattern, or importance:

Packed: The best word to describe my schedule of late!

Prioritize: Something I have to do to get through the day...and let me say, I lament the things that fall to the bottom of the list!

Pet Lover: Okay, it's two words, but the first starts with a P! I'm a fan of nearly anything with four legs and fur, and right now my life is all the emptier without an animal in it at all.

Pierced: No, this isn't as exotic as it sounds. The only additional holes in my body are in my ears, but I'm an avid earring collector! I *love* earrings, and they don't have to be expensive or flashy, just unique. I even have my "International collection" - it includes earrings from Japan, China, England, France, Mexico, Canada, and (my favorites) Namibia!

Piqued: As in, my curiousity. It doesn't take much for me to become intrigued and want to dig up more on some tidbit I hear or read.

Press: I'm both an avid consumer and creator of media!

Picky: I prefer discriminating, but I didn't get "D". I know what I want and I go after it, and when I don't know what I want, at least I know what I don't want and won't accept that either. But at least I know it and try not to be a pain about it.

Perfectionist: I am my own worst critic. 'Nuff said.

Papasan: My favorite place to curl up with a book or some crocheting on a rainy day like this...

and

Photographer: I'm far from professional, but I love to click away with my little Olympus digital. I've even framed a few and hung them on my walls...not bad for a picky perfectionist, eh? I've had a camera ever since I can remember, and when I was a kid, I truly think two of my parents' largest expenses on me (aside from the standards) were books and developing film!

So there ya go - ten "P" words that give you a slice of who I am.

Edited to add: "P" is also for Playoffs. We survive to play another day. Well fought, Flash. I do tip my hat to you for a helluva series!

The Wayback Machine

Well, I remember it all very well lookin' back,
it was the summer I turned 18....

Mr. Schprock started a very intriguing thread on his blog called Time Portals, its basic question being: what triggers your memories? Sounds? Smells? Sights?

For me, there are some of each, but the strongest trigger is music. A few notes of a song can send me right back into the annals of yesteryear, some so vivd in my mind I feel as though I'm watching the movie play back, or standing in the room watching it happen. I'm in my dorm room sophomore year, dancing to "Fields of Gold" with the man who thought I was the one. Or singing "Hotel California" with the brothers as they learned to play guitar. Getting my first birthday dance to "My Baby Just Cares for Me"...and tearing down the streets of our small town in Dan's convertible screaming the theme to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

But I digress. The conversation in the comments made both an interesting observation and provided fodder for another topic, so rather than pollute schprock's comments with the conversation, I'll drag folks over here. The question is: What songs are hard for you to listen to, for personal associations one way or another. I'll start (after all, I can't really expect an answer if I'm not willing to give one, can I?)

In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel - I still can't listen to this one because it takes me straight back to a green wool plaid couch from the 70s where I got my first kiss (and second and third and 10th) from the one who got away, as three tracks were programmed on permanent repeat - In Your Eyes, Red Rain, and Mercy Street - but for some reason, IYE is the only one that still makes me cry.

Under the Milky Way by the Church -how ironic that the song to which I lost my virginity to that man could also be such a theme for the way the relationship ended... "Wish I knew what you were looking for...Might have known what you would find."

Ol' Rugged Cross and Amazing Grace - my grandfather's absolute favorite hymns. He wasn't a religious man, but he knew what he liked, and he knew what he believed. My mom and I were the only ones at the funeral who could sing the old songs (as he called them) but I don't think I'll ever hear them the same, at wedding or funeral or even a basic church service of some sort.

Anyone else?

Who gave that chick some caffiene?

I can tell I did a late latte tonight! It's 1 am and I'm still up and typing. Whew! I'm still taking opinions on the photos below, but I thought I'd pose another question, and I'll try to do it in schprock's three-graph format! :)

What do you do when you work toward a goal, only to achieve it and discover it's nothing like you thought it was and that you've been going after the wrong thing? I'm feeling that way in a number of areas in my life right now - that a series of successes have all fallen flat, all about the same time, and all I can do is chase my tail to keep up with a life I'm no longer fond of.

I know the long term solution is to start looking for new situations to replace the current ones, but how do you survive that space in between? How do you live with yourself day to day when everything you do is falling short, every project you take on is greeted with cheers that turn to jeers once you're too deep in to turn back, and you can barely stand to see yourself in the mirror in the morning out of disappointment in yourself?

There are band aids...quick fixes that can get me through the worst of it, but to employ them daily would result in a lack of self-respect and the respect of those about whom I truly care, even though they are at times part of the reason I feel I am a disappointment. I guess what I'm asking is - what do you do when plenty of things in your life turn south at once to make you feel worthless and at times even less than human? Or am I the only one who lets life get to her that way?

Back by Popular Demand

Okay, so really only by about three people's demand, but I'm back. I fixed what needed to be fixed and perhaps it won't break again. If it does, well, we'll cross that broken bridge when we get to it, now won't we?


Until then, which of these do you like best for my avatar? I think I know what people will say, but I'm curious anyway. After all, I knowit won't be the one I would choose :)