Movie Reviews

Today I watched The Departed, with Leonardo Dicaprio, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlburg. GREAT movie! I now understand why it was nominated for so many Oscars. It reminded me a bit of the movie Heat, but was different enough. I loved the plot line of looking for a rat in both the Costella organization and amongst the state troopers. Loved it and give it a full five stars on Netflix!

I also saw Pirates of the Caribbean with Jimmy and Erin (there's your shout out!!) today. It was better than I expected. I had been hearing from people that this movie had way too many new characters, and that it was extremely difficult to keep tracking with all the story lines....and that it was just too long. I really liked it, but parents take heed - this is NOT a kids movie!!! Something else to think about is that the cinematography was very different than from the first two - there are several graphic and gory scenes in it. I wouldn't let anyone younger than high school watch it, and only if they don't have nightmares...this one is scary and I was disappointed in Disney for producing the first two so family friendly and this one being ghory and too scary. If you go see it - get there in time for the previews - there are some GREAT movies coming out!! Also, stay put at the end and watch ALL the credits. There's a very sweet surprise scene at the very end that you do not want to miss!!

Las Vegas Reunited

Is anyone else ridiculously excited about this show? Because I totally am. Go ahead and judge me - I'm aware how juvenile my excitement is.

Previews show that Arissa hasn't talked to any of them since the last show, and it sounds like there's major drama with her and the other girls. It should be explosive!!!

California Knows How To Party...

So I was in California last week. Thursday through Friday was Urban Youth Worker Institute's National Convention, which is one of my favorite conferences all year.

I went out a couple days early to connect with some Evangelical Covenant churches (denom of the school). I stayed in Redondo Beach at a hotel, and visited churches in Pasadena and Manhattan Beach.

The couple who pastor the youth in Manhattan Beach were really amazing, and I feel like I made two new frieds. Thanks, Grace and Matt!!

I spent some time in Manhattan Beach before I headed over to Azusa Pacific. I ate Wahoos Fish Tacos, drank Peets coffee, and had lots of mexican food.

A superfun 'plus' for me was that my good friend and youth ministry mentor, Josh, lives in LA. He is getting married this summer, and I have had the opportunity to spend time with him and his fiance, Kate, when I go to this conference the last two times. This year, Josh was teaching a workshop on programming for urban/suburban blended youth ministries. I was so impressed, and proud of him!! It's fun to watch your friends stretch and grow, professionally.

Here are some photos from Manhattan Beach....

AAADD

Ummm....I'm NOT old, and suffer from this daily....

Recently, a friend said she was diagnosed with A. A. A. D. D. -
Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it develops:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------

I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide my
car needs washing.
As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch
table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.
I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can
under the table, and notice that the can is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage
first.
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox, when I take out
the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.
I take my chec kbook off the table, and see that there is only 1 check
left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the
house to my desk where I find the can of Coke that I had been drinking.
I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside
so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I see that the Coke is getting
warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.
As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the
counter catches my eye--they need to be watered.
I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that
I've been searching for all morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water
the flowers.
I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water
and suddenly I spot the TV remote someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looki ng for the
remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide
to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the
flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the
floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and
wipe up the spill.
Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day:

----the car isn't washed,

----the bills aren't paid,

----there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter,

----the flowers don't have enough water,

----there is still only 1 check in my check book,

----I can't find the remote,

----I can't find my glasses,

----and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really
baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired.

I realiz e this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it,
but first I'll check my e-mail.

Do me a favor, will you? Forward this message to everyone you know,
because I don't remember to whom it has been sent.

Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!

GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY.
GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL.
LAUGHING AT YOURSELF IS THERAPEUTIC.

P.S. I just remembered.
I LEFT THE WATER RUNNING IN THE DRIVEWAY!

--

Another accident prone moment...

So the Sunday Night Crew ventured out to a really hip bowling alley on Saturday night, 10pin, located in Marina City (HOB complex).


It was fairly cheap bowling, very cool shoes (totally wanted to steal them!) good drinks, good music, good dancing, and good food. I got a plate of warm cookies with two shot glasses of milk - how cute is that?

The sad news, however, is that I fell down outside of HOB on State Street. As in, I tripped over the curb and fell flat on my face on the street. And rolled my ankle, AGAIN. It's not very happy with me and now it hurts in new places. Blast my damned ankle!! And my skinned knee.

To quote Tricia, "OMG!!! I'm SO glad there were no cars coming!!!"

The Color Purple

I saw The Color Purple last night with Amy and her co-worker/friend Cristin. They are in town for a work conference, so the princess coordinated this awhile back.

LOVED it!! The woman who placed Celie (Jeannette Bayardelle) was phenominal. Castmembers of note were Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child. She played Shug Avery, the lounge singer who is a little sleezy. I was a tad disappointed in her performance. She's not a great actress, and the majority of the songs seemed not appropriate to her vocal range, and we believe she had a cold...hindering her further. She never really 'belted' any of the songs, so I was disappointed.

My favorite character was Sofia (Felicia P Fields), who is from Chicago. I love her sassiness. My favorite song was her singing, "Hell, No!" We decided that it should be an anthem for me - and that we could replace some of those lyrics with my stories. lolol

Amy decided I needed to buy this shirt. I finally told her, "Let's think about where I work...am I actually going to be able to wear this, and have people understand it...or will they just think I'm another snotty Chicagoan?"

A good time was had by all. Dinner, however, was another story. I'll defer you to Amy and Cristin's blogs about that. Check back in a week or so, when they've finished their conference and have returned home.