And Now for Your Feature Presentation

I'm not a huge movie/t.v. person. When I watch a movie, I usually need something to keep me busy . . . papers to grade, pants to hem (I'm short . . . everything has to be hemmed), clothes to iron, shoes to polish, scarves to knit (the last two were lies . . . I've never knit a thing in my life and I don't polish shoes). Anyway, I just don't have the attention span to sit through a long movie unless it's really, really good. Books, on the other hand, are a completely different story. If I got paid, oh let's say, $5 for every book I've read I'd be a bazillionaire by now. I can read for hours and hours without stopping. I. Love. To. Read. I got the flu last year and read the entire Hunger Games series on my iphone in the four days I was in bed. The Tamiflu gave me wicked insomnia. It was pure bliss . . . the reading . . . not the flu.

So . . . yes, I'm going somewhere with this . . . Patrick and I don't go to the movies all that often. It's so expensive, and I sit there looking at my watch every fifteen minutes and sneaking peeks of twitter and facebook on my phone. Please forgive me if I've ever annoyed you. Anyway, from what I can remember I've seen these movies in the theater in the last year:

Secretariat - Y'all I love this movie. When Penny Chenery yelled, "Let him run Ronnie, let him run!" I wanted to stand up in my seat and scream, "That's right Ronnie! Let him run!". I didn't. I didn't think anyone else, my husband included, would appreciate it. But oh my gosh, I love that movie.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Chronicles of Narnia. How can you go wrong? I took my nephew on a "date" to see this one. Very intense. Very well made. I cried.

Ramona - With the kids at school. The people at the theater had the volume so low we could hardly hear it. We had to rewatch it when it came out on DVD. (very cute btw)

Hop - Yeah, well, anyway. Nuff said.

Cars II - Pretty good. Not my all time favorite, but definitely better than Hop.

Winnie the Pooh - Very cute. Great for young kids. And short to boot. (I've been trying to work "to boot" into a blog for quite some time).

Apollo 18 (spoiler alert) - Okay, Patrick and I went to the movies rather spontaneously the night before Labor Day. Apollo 18 is kind of a SciFi/Horrorish/Conspiracy Theory flick. Normally, I'm all about SciFi. My dad raised me on Star Trek, Star Wars, and Dune . . . Dune, now there's a really weird movie . . . I love it. Anyway, this movie was . . . well first of all, it was done in the Blair Witch, camera moving everywhere, documentary style. A little bit of that goes a long way. Secondly, it was cheesy. The rocks came alive and invaded people and turned them into zombies/crazy people. There wasn't much of a story line. Sorry if I spoiled it for you, but it's not that great no matter how you slice it.

Actually, I've seen more movies than I thought in the past year (nevermind that four of them were kids' movies . . . actually five if you count "Voyage . . . "). We've also watched a few good ones at home. "True Grit" and "The Lincoln Lawyer" were both good.

Okay, I promise I'm getting to my point. There are a couple movies I want to see in the theater. The first one is "The Help", but I haven't read the book yet. I know, I'm a slacker, but I've been hooked on these mediocre, pre-WWII, espionage, spy books. I plan on reading "The Help" asap. I may not make the movie in the theater, but I'm okay with that.

The other movie that I feel compelled to see is "Contagion". I'm telling y'all that to warn you. I should not be allowed to see this movie. I'm a germaphobe, hypochondriac, Type-A, OCD, freak of nature. I almost had a complete breakdown (slight exaggeration) during the H1N1 crisis of 2009/2010. Last year I googled small-pox, don't ask me why, and almost had breakdown numero dos when I realized which countries have live viruses. Do not google it. If you do, I cannot be held responsible. So now you know why this movie is on the must not see list.

"Hunger Games" comes out next year. That I will see. Even if I have to go alone.

Why I Love Lucy

Did you know that today is Lucille Ball's 100th birthday? And come October, it will be 60 years since "I Love Lucy" first aired. I'm sitting here in bed watching an "I Love Lucy" marathon, and even though I've seen every episode like a bajillion times, it still cracks me up. I just laughed so loud that Patrick came in the room to ask me if I had been drinking again. Can you say vitameatavegamin? Just so you know, I don't make a habit out of drinking. Patrick was joking. Now that we have that cleared up. The point is a show that originally aired 60 years ago is still, in my opinion, one of the funniest and best shows ever made.

So why do I love Lucy? Maybe, it's because I can turn it on at any time of the day or night and not worry about what is being said. Maybe, it's because it's good clean humor instead of a string of vulgar, dirty, and crude jokes. Maybe, it's because it's wholesome, and the fact that Lucy was pregnant on television was about as risque as you could get in the 50s. Maybe, it's because Lucy is just plain crazy, and there is a lot little bit of Lucy in all of us (or at least in me). Maybe, it's a combination of all of those things. Whatever it is, I will always love Lucy.

Someday, I'll blog about my love for "The Cosby Show". Where have all the family shows gone?