Boy how time flies! Before I know it, I'll be shopping for the least cheesy Valentine's Day card along with the search for a birthday present for my lovely bride. Until then, I present to you my first post of 2008:
It's amazing how the human mind loves to play tricks on my own existance in this vast universe.
For example: Have you ever woken up from a deep sleep, glanced at your alarm clock, and thought, "Holy crap! I'm late for work!"? By the time you realize that it's your day off, and your racing pulse has dropped back down to a much slower "lub dub" in your chest, you've already slapped your psyche square on the face. Good luck trying to be able to go back to sleep now.
This morning I looked down at the date on my calendar and then proceded to rubbed my eyes. I blinked a few more times and waited for my vision to return to normal. The page still reads January 19th. Apparently this was not a trick. It really is January 19, 2008. I'm just a little disappointed that we still don't have flying cars. Haven't they been promising this to us since the 1950's?
Anyways...
New Year's Day 2008 presented a rather interesting journey in my relationship with my wife. An idea popped into my head a few weeks before January 1st that we should partake in a movie marathon. Neither of us are big enough college football fans, and there was no way in the world that I was going to spend half the day watching "The 119th Tournament of Roses Parade." Why you might ask? Well, I'll tell you.
Living in southern California for the better part of my existance here on earth, I had spent enough sleepless nights and even more sleepless mornings watching the parade, "admiring" the construction of the floats as well as the seemingly endless walk back to my Aunt and Uncle's apartment where our vehicle was parked.
Enduring the three-hour-plus event in person is torture enough. Watching it on television was an even less likely possibility. I've never truly understood the general public's facination with the "All-American Main Street Parade." I don't think I ever will.
Instead, we decided to do an all-day movie marathon. I suggested we both pick two films that the other hasn't not seen (or at least in it's entirety from beginning to end). Lisa was able to read my mind so well that she already knew at least what one of my two choices was going to be. The only stipulation that I tried to set forth in our selection, was that it had to be a movie that we either held in high regard or felt it was something that everyone should see at least once in their life.
My first choice was The Godfather. It's world renowned as one of the greatest films ever made and she had never seen it before. However, I do sadly have to admit, that as much of a movie buff that my wife is, there are dozens upon dozens of films that reflect the same stature, which she has yet to see. My intentions are to correct this over time (and I'm more than willing to admit that I haven't seem them all myself).
I was, on the other hand, having quite the dilema for my second choice. I racked my brain for over a week and didn't decide until the morning of January 1st. After a quick browse through the DVDs that were actually visible (I'm currently struggling with a large volume library and a limited amount of room to display them all), I finally came to the conclusion that this wasn't going to be last movie she was ever going to see, so I grabbed Orson Welle's masterpiece Citizen Kane. (Although I can't imagine a better one-two punch combination of films to "go out on.")
On Christmas day, Lisa opened one of her presents and immediately decided that her first selection for the movie marathon would be The Wizard of Oz.
[insert dramatic pause here]
Yes, I know, I can't even believe that I had never seen The Wizard of Oz myself. But to be completely honest with you, the film never posed much (if any) interest to me. I've seen several clips from the film hundreds of times, but I had never (at least not according to any childhood recollection) sat through the film from beginning to end.
I've expressed my opinion here before about my distaste for musicals. There are very few that reside in my massive library, and even those I really have to be in the mood in order to watch them. Now, all that Lisa had to do was pick her second movie and our line-up would be complete.
This decision, apparently, was much more difficult for her than it was for me. There are many more films out there that she had not seen that I had. So she struggle for several days trying to find a film that she had enjoyed that I had not seen. She pondered the possibility of introducing me to Victor Victoria but decided against it (at least for the time being).
After days of serious contemplation as well as desperation, she settled on King Arthur. I didn't want to pass judgement on her decision, but for some reason, this film just didn't seem to fit the criteria of the other three. The other three were classics in their own right and her second choice was going to be this?
I swallowed my comments, not only because I was the one who came up with the idea of the movie marathon in the first place, but I also didn't want to discourage her by being a prick. After all, knowing how much of a "snob" I can be in this area (beer being another one), I had little room for arguing, considering the large assortment of "guilty pleasure crap-filled" movies that also took up residence in my library.
The beginning of a new year also presented us with a few other resolutions we decided to put into play for 2008. We were going to start cooking and eating healthier as well as start working out at least three times a week. The movie marathon presented us with the opportunity to go out with a bang!
January 1st was to be our last day of mind-numbing junk food indulgence. On December 31st, I cracked open our "Fry Daddy" that had been given to us as a wedding gift. If we were going out with a bang, we were going out with style. Everything was set in place for an "all-day fat and calorie filled tasty feast."
Unbeknownst to me, there lied a serious road block that kept us for completely giving in and unabashedly consuming our tasty morsels. Lisa had spent the better part of the day during the previous week, watching a marathon of "The Biggest Loser" on Bravo. This road block posed two issues that affected the final outcome of our movie day marathon.
First, it affected the overal time schedule of watching our movies. Before we began as well between each movie, we ended up watching at least one episode of another "The Biggest Loser" marathon. This happened after each film, including the two-hour season finale. So by the time we reached The Godfather (with Citizen Kane and The Wizard of Oz behind us), it was already after 7:00 PM.
Secondly, it seemed to subconsciencely affect what I was eating and how much. That didn't mean that I didn't continue to dip my buffalo chicken fingers in the ranch in front of me, all the while watching these over weight people work their keisters off. It just made me feel quite guilty.
By the end of the day, we had watched at least five hours of "The Biggest Loser" along with two and a half movies. We finally finished the other two films over the course of the rest of the week. Needless to say, the marathon was a bit of a letdown (at least for me), but it also produced some very good side effects.
Since the marathon, we've become much more aware of our daily caloric intake and we've been able to provide each other with continuous positive encouragement and reinforcement. I've discovered that I have a decent amount of self control, much more than I thought I would have, starting down this new road in our lives.
Also, starting next week, we'll be working out at the Recreation Center where Lisa is currently employed at MTSU. We're going to attempt to start with the "early morning" workout and see how that progresses. Right now, it's been a bit of a struggle to get out of bed on time, so were not sure on the outcome. The current weather conditions don't permit us the enjoyment of evening walks right now. Once it starts to warm up, we might just start doing that instead. Heaven only knows that we both love our sleep and we don't like things that come between it and us.
Lisa enjoyed both of my movie selections. Neither one was what she was initially expecting. She can even see herself watching them again at some point in time in the future. If you want to hear more about her first impressions of the two films, you're gonna have to ask her, since I can't exactly write her thoughts down for her.
I found The Wizard of Oz rather enjoyable, most parts at least. What really ended up peaking my interest was discovering all of the political symbolism throughout the film. Before the end of picture, I had popped open the laptop and started searching Google for these things. What I'm really looking forward to now, is watching the film again, but this time while listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at the same time. Who knows how well it will go without the consumption any mind altering drugs beforehand.
King Arthur was better than I was expecting. But to be completely honest, I wasn't setting the bar that high in the first place. It had some pacing problems as well as some serious believability issues. It was, however, probably a more accurate account of the "larger than life" legend that was King Arthur.
I can't really recall now, much detail of my high school term paper that presented the question: was King Arthur fact or fiction? The legend everyone knows is really just fiction, with obvious examples like the film Excalibur among many others. At the present time, my brain just doesn't have the strengh, nor desire, to analyze this subject any further.
Well, on that note, I bid you all a fond farewell. It's rather cold in the spare bedroom right now, with my bare feet and toes quickly turning into popscicles, so I feel the strong desire for a long hot shower and large lunch.
For those of you who are interested in what else is going on around the house, click here.
Until next time, dear readers.
