“If it’s the right chair, it doesn’t take too long to get comfortable in it.” – Robert De Niro

I love to watch movies.  I am not star-struck, I couldn’t care less what actors are doing in their personal lives.  I don’t care what their opinion is on anything, least of all politics.  It makes no difference to me what they stand for, whether they are good parents or bad, if they abuse drugs or alcohol, what products they endorse, or how they choose to live their lives.  I just love to watch movies.  I’m not sure where I got this adoration.  One of my earliest memories is going to a drive-in movie with my parents to see Disney’s Cinderella.  (It must have been a re-release in the early 1970’s because even my mother is not old enough for the original release date in 1950.)  Maybe that is where it began.  Growing up in a large family, meant there wasn’t money for a lot of extra things and going to the movies was an extra thing.  However, I remember going to the old theater on Main Street in American Fork, Utah when I would spend a week or two each summer visiting my extended family in Lehi.  I remember going there more than once, but I only remember one of the movies I saw there.  It was Mary Poppins.  (Again, not the original release.  1964 was also before my time.)  It was when I was between nine and eleven years old that watching movies at home became a reality with movie rentals of giant plastic-encased laser discs and players followed quickly by VHS tapes and VCR’s.  Then, we could bring the big screen to the little screen.  The technology quickly evolved and now we have home theater systems, enormous televisions, and digital movies we can carry in our pockets.  I still love watching movies so much that we have a weekly family movie night at our house.

As much as I adore being able to watch movies within my own home, I still love to go to the movies.  I am thrilled to sit in the auditorium and be drawn into the giant screen and the stories being played out there.  The Man of My Dreams says that movies are a lame date because we don’t get to talk.  I disagree.  I think movies are great dates because they give us something new to talk about.  We don’t go often because we are too busy, our schedules and show times don’t coordinate, or more often than not, nothing in theaters looks like it would be worth giving away two hours of my life to see.  I am extremely particular about what I will see in a theater.  I won’t spend money on trash or gore.  I don’t want to be scared – life can be frightening enough, I don’t need to spend money to feel frightened or be kept up at night.  I am not fond of intense action or suspense movies either, although, for the sake of My Warrior and The Man of My Dreams, I have been known to see an action movie now and then.  I want to see things that will leave me feeling good for several hours after I leave the theater. 

As finicky as I am about what I will see at the theater, I am frequently pickier about where I will go to a movie.  My anxiety has gotten to the point where I cannot enjoy a movie at a dollar theater any more.  (I was not disappointed when the last dollar theater near us closed.)  In my experience in dollar theaters, the aroma of years of spilled soda and popcorn coalescing on the floor is reminiscent of a diaper pail. The unclean appearance of everything from the seats to the floors renders visions of parasitic micro-organisms inhabiting every seat and leaves me unable to sit back and relax for fear of what may crawl into my hair.  In addition, I leave wondering if the glue-like biohazard my feet have been languishing in for the past two hours will eat through my shoes or the floorboards of my car first.  In essence, I cannot enjoy any movie at such theaters anymore.  I relish a cinematic experience in any clean, pleasantly-scented theater, but I am a huge fan of the Megaplex.   It is my theater of choice, and I have yet to go to a Megaplex theater that I didn’t like.

This weekend I had a movie-going experience that was so amazing that I may never be able to go to the movies any other way again.  The Man of My Dreams and I went to the Megaplex Luxury Theater in Holladay/Cottonwood area of the Salt Lake valley.  Every seat in this theater is a heated, leather, luxury, power recliner.  Two seats are together with the option to have arm rests in the middle or put them up and have more of a love seat.  They were super comfortable, clean, and spacious.  There was even enough room for my purse.  That’s a rare occurrence in the theater.  Each chair has its own little table that swings to be positioned over your lap or out of your way with a cupholder recessed in it.  The staff was friendly and treated us like royalty.  The menu for concessions was all the regular movie fare and included crepes and gelato.  Of course, all of this luxury comes at a price.  At least that’s the gist of what several reviewers said about this theater.  They are right.  Our tickets each cost two dollars and fifty cents more at this theater than at a regular Megaplex.  It was so worth the extra money.  I felt spoiled and pampered and I loved every second of it.  I hear they have showings at this same theater classified as “VIP Luxury” seating that include everything that the luxury seating does and have waiter services, so you don’t even have to go to the concession stand.  Hmmm, I may have to give this a try.

When I was growing up, one of my dad’s favorite music groups was The Statler Brothers.  We listened to them a lot, and I grew to love them.  They sang a song called “The Movies”.  A line in the chorus of that song says, “The movies are great medicine.  Thank you, Thomas Edison . . .”  I whole-heartedly concur.  Thank you, Mr. Edison.  You are one of my heroes.

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” – Mahatma Gandhi

My brain heard “Spring Break” and left on vacation.  I wish they had called it what it really is: homeschool college week.  At least then I would have been able to convince my brain it needed to focus on school work and not run off to the land of wedding plans and cookie baking.  I had so much homework over spring break that the only difference between what I needed to get done this week and any other week of the semester was the commute.  If it is not going to be a break, let’s give it a different name.  Maybe we could call it Almost Spring Change of Venue Week or Study Hard without the Aid of Your Professors Week.  I really have loved being at home and alone this week.  I did not miss being with the crowds for even a second.  Okay, that is all the ranting I have time for because I still have homework to finish!

“We do not remember days, we remember moments.” – Cesare Pavese

It’s hard to believe that it has been almost three years since I last posted.  So, this will be a quick bit of a catch-up post. 

My Warrior has grown so much.  He is eighteen and preparing to graduate from high school this summer.  His biggest, most recent adventure has been high school rodeo bull riding.  He loves it.  I’ll try to post a video, but I am not very successful at that usually.  Last fall, on the second to last rodeo of the season, his bull used him for a spring board and broke his collar bone.  His reward for that was surgery that included a titanium plate and six screws in his shoulder and no bull riding all winter.  He has just been released to ride again and can’t wait for rodeos to start up again at the end of this month.

My Swimmer is still out on her own, sort of.  She is currently living with her “real family” as she likes to call them.  She is more involved with us than she used to be and the animosity that used to prevail when she came around has dissipated, but she doesn’t want to come home because we still have rules that “take away her freedoms.”  You know, like we don’t allow drinking or drugs in our home and your boyfriend may not sleepover.  Yeah, I guess we are a little unreasonable.

My Princess went on another dancing tour to Europe last summer and loved it, but realized it is more costly than she can afford at this time in her life, so she has taken a break from it for this year.  Last summer she also ran in the Wasatch Back Ragnar.  She loved it so much that this year she is captaining a team.  Her biggest news is that she is getting married this summer to a wonderful man.  We are busy planning and preparing for that.

My Scholar is getting closer to finishing his undergraduate degree and working hard to prepare for the LSAT so he can get into law school.  He has won an internship for the summer and he and his wonderful bride will be moving their family to Boise for the summer.

My Scholar’s Smartest Decision completed her degree last spring and graduated.  She now uses her amazing skills to teach English to children in China.  I got to watch a little of what she does once, and I think she is amazing!   

Together they have blessed our family with a wonderful, remarkable, beautiful granddaughter.  Being a grandma is the best thing ever.  She is still very young, but we can tell already that she is brilliant and will do many great things.  She has already accomplished what I thought was impossible:  turning a frugal, sometimes cranky, strict dad into a cooing, smiling, whatever-you-want grandpa.  He is completely wrapped around her finger.

The Man of My Dreams is my most wonderful support.  He is strong and encouraging and the greatest blessing in my life.  He sports a beard these days which I love because it’s got a little more gray in it than the hair on his head and makes him look very distinguished and almost as old as I do.

As for me, I have begun a new adventure.  Last fall, I went back to college.  That semester, I took classes at the BYU Salt Lake Center, which I loved.  Beginning in January, I began classes at Utah State University, which I am sure I will come to love, also.