Not Just For Skirts

My sisters-in-law and I walked into the Broadway theater in Salt Lake City and knew we were in the right place.  Why else would people be dressed up in Regency rags but for the movie Austenland?  We got our tickets taken by a very nice woman, skirted the concessions line to validate parking, then found some seats on the right side of the screen in the darkened theater.

The mood there was eager.  Palpably eager.  Mostly, the seats were filled with women, but men took up several.  In fact, a few men wore a top hat and tails. We watched a few other indie movie trailers and threw out the commandment that tells us not to judge and judged them as surely as we were all judging everyone else.

In the moment right before the feature film began and the screen went dark, a girl sitting in the front squealed "I'm so excited!" in a voice I'm sure she thought wouldn't carry, but did.  So, as Austenland started I was already laughing.  The movie kept me laughing.  Keri Russell is the perfect Jane Erstwhile.  The over-the-top characters were golden.  There are so many one liners that I'm sure I'll be quoting.  And, oh my, JJ Field has some sexy hands.  Scoff if you will, but just wait till you see the kiss at the end.  I couldn't stop looking at his HANDS.

So, in my expert estimation, you should go see Austenland.  Support good book to movie adaptations! Create more opportunity for other indie movies!  And laugh for an hour and a half.

Horse of a Different Color

Did the Salt Lake City Color Run this morning.  See?

I know it looks like I didn't get any color, but I ran right next to every single color thrower and they opted to hit the people running next to me.  Every. Time. Also, I use the word running liberally. 

Whoever came up with the idea of charging people to run races was a genius.  Genius, I say.  6000+ people ran in today's race, and each one of them paid $35-$45.  I'm thinking, someone just made a lot of money.

One last observation:  Does it look like I'm a fifth wheel?

Thanks for the good times, guys.

Smite! Smite Them All!

A couple of weeks ago, we were standing in the foyer of our church building, waiting for the rain to lighten up.  There were several people waiting with us, watching the lone man who ran to the parking lot to roll up his car's windows.  My older son said, "Doesn't anyone but me know that running in the rain doesn't keep you drier?  It actually makes you wetter."  Mythbusters proved it, so that makes it true.

When the man's windows were safely rolled up, he came back into the church, bringing with him the smell of desert rain.  Everyone in the foyer took a big breath.  There is nothing quite like that smell.  In places where it rains frequently, rain smells almost like the everyday air.  In Utah, rain intensifies every other smell and makes it somehow better.  Suddenly, hot pavement is something you'd put in an air freshener.  Dirt is a shower gel fragrance.

You think I jest.

Without warning, a bolt of lightning zinged down and struck both the steeple of our church and a tree across the street.  The church has a lightning rod on the steeple for just such an occurrence so the building wasn't damaged, but I felt the electric current from that strike flow under my high heels, travel up my legs and stand all my hair on end.  The thunder that followed left ears ringing.

You may have heard that while filming "The Passion of the Christ", the actor who played Jesus, Jim Caviezel, was struck by lightning while on the cross.

Granted, being in a building that was struck by lightning isn't such a personal divine finger-point as that, but it does make me wonder...

Passing on the Mania

It was a Saturday.  I was out jogging in the summertime heat.  Before you get too impressed with my physical prowess, I have to add that my jogging is the speed many people walk. Even still, Saturdays are my long jog day.  I add a whole mile.  Saturdays are also my day to yard sale.  Often, I do both at once, and look for yard sales along my jogging route.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I have given out several damp dollar bills from my sweaty hands.  I even told one woman to wait a little while before picking up the dollar I'd just put down to let it dry off.  She said I was funny, but I was being serious.  What's funny is watching me jog home with my purchases: books, wall hangings, clothes.  Yeah.  I'm super cool.

Well, as I was out jogging one Saturday, I saw two teenaged girls on scooters while wearing pajamas.  It looked as though they had just had a slumber party and were going home, or something like that.  But come to find out, they were girls with hearts beating in rhythm to mine.  They were scooting along the sidewalks, looking for yard sale signs.

I tell you, it was a sublime moment.

*sniff* I was witness to the next generation of tightwads.  I'm so proud.

Husbands Rock

On Saturday my lovely niece got married.  She was radiant.  Her husband was obviously smitten, and looked like he couldn't believe his good luck.

To view this sealing together of two people in love, I had to leave the ones I love to fend for themselves for an entire day.  I rarely, if ever, do things like that, so it's kind of a big deal.  Usually if I go somewhere the kids go with me.

Luckily, I have a husband who takes fathering seriously.  Which means that even as I'm blowing good-bye kisses to the kids (which they don't care about because they're watching "Phineas and Ferb") my husband is yawning in the doorway saying, "Have fun.  Call if you need anything."  And I'm able to walk away knowing that my kids are in the best possible hands.

His hands are pretty amazing.

Anyway, I had a great day hanging out with my family, and when I got home I found my kids in the living room and my husband in front of the computer.  He kissed me, asked how the wedding was, and then, looking sheepish, pulled a boutique bag from behind his chair.

He had taken the kids clothes shopping.  For me.  After forbidding me to look at the price tags, he told me to try them on so he could see my reaction, if I liked them or not.

Most men would find the results to this impromptu gift disastrous, but my husband is actually really good at this.  Some of my favorite items of clothing have come from him.  And now I have more.

So, if you're getting married, invite me to come.  I may get more out of the day away than I expected.  Hopefully you would too.