Blind Sided by Blind Side

Saw Blind Side with Sandra Bullock on Friday.  

I know I’m late but remember, I was the babysitting grandma.  

I really wanted to hate it.  I thought it would be sappy.  I thought it would play right up the alley of all us guilt-ridden folk and try to twang our heart strings at every turn.  I’m tough, you know.  I see it coming.  

After all.   The rich, white, southern Taco Bell family pick the huge, black poor kid off the streets of Memphis, bring him into their spacious, fancy-Dan home, raise him as their own and turn him into an NFL player.  Come on.

But dang it was good.  I liked the kid right off.  Sandra Bullock can’t lose and the little dork of a kid was just a kick in the head.  

I liked it.  Gol, durn it, I did.

At the end they showed actual pictures of the real family, and they actually looked like the movie family and the real football player -- I actually bought him too.

I saw the real woman (that Sandra Bullock played) on the news the other night and she said “They took a few liberties”, but I’d guess they didn’t take many.  It was, . . . it was, . .(I know I’m going to get this out)  . .quite inspiring.  

No real cheese on the side either.

The picture above is of the real family.  Thought you'd like to see them.

When Elephants Retire

Thanks, Wendy.  This is great.

http://s436.photobucket.com/albums/qq89/jaynewr/?action=view&current=When_elephants_retire.flv

Sand Faces

Don't these sand faces make you long for summer RIGHT NOW?!?!

Greatest Salesperson in the World

Is there an award for the best sales person in the world?  I found the winner today.

But i’m ahead of myself.

I forgot to tell Carl I’d decided to store my glasses on the floor of the garage, so he didn’t realize they were there when he drove out.  And nasty.  He pulverized the frames.

Amazingly, though, the lenses escaped with only a scrape and a divot or two.

I went to Eyeglass City today (or some such spot) and asked if they had frames that would fit my lenses.  

This amazing woman picked up the one lens that had popped out and strode to the banks of frames while this officious man was informing me at length that no one could guarantee that any frame could fit the lenses precisely, particularly if, blah, blah, blah, blah.  

I followed the woman leaving the man as quickly as I could turn and leave.  

As I got to the woman, she held two frames.  “These two would work,” she said with assurance.  “These,” she said, are more like the ones that your husband smashed.”  

“I didn’t like those anyway,” I said.  “I’ll take those.”  I bought them without trying them on.

As we went back to the counter, she popped the one lens right into the frame and when we arrived, we removed the other from the old, ratty frame and popped it right in.  She cleaned it spiffily, then we went over to the checkout place.

“Thank you,” I said, “for not trying to sell me new glasses.”  

“I knew what you wanted,” she said.

“And thank you for not lecturing me on what might go wrong with what I wanted, too,” I said.  

“Don’t mind him, “ she said.  “He’s from another store,  He’ll be going back soon, though we’ve been told we’ll have him for another week now.”

“Maybe it was his wife who put in the recommendation?” I suggested.

“Do you really think he’s married? she said?  

That’s the only time she tipped her hand but that solidified it.  I really love her.  She’s the best salesperson in the world.  And I think the sale took only about ten minutes.

Justice for Henrietta

You have those stories that hit you and stay with you for years giving you pause more than once and making you think, cringingly again and again?  One to me was the story of Henrietta Lacks.  It came up again the other day with some consolation.  Here's the link:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Henrietta-Lacks-Immortal-Cells.html

It's been years and years ago that I first heard of this woman and her ubiquitous cancer cells and she creeped me out then and gave me periodic willies ever since.  I thought how cruel of history to remember her so horribly -- to have her cells torment labs throughout the world like they have.

The story then was that when labs thought that they were culturing one thing, HeLa, was actually on the job.  it was horrifying.  Henrietta Lacks' cells somehow migrated from lab to lab throughout the world, appearing in cultures everywhere: HeLa cells.  The poor woman had become something worse than Frankenstein's monster having done nothing more than dying tragically and much too young.

I'm grateful to have learned that her life meant more than that.  Her cells actually helped as the Smithsonian Magazine reports.  That she's not bedeviling science but helping post-mortem.  I'm also glad that Henrietta Lacks, whose pretty face I finally see, can rest in peace in my heart.

Avatar, Redux

I am not a geek of any rank.  Just a minion, I guess.

However I sat beside one of their lieutenants yesterday at my second viewing of Avatar.  The woman and her husband had travelled two-hundred and fifty miles from a place called Baker, Nevada to view the production in 3D, IMAX.  I thought Carl and I were weird to have travelled across the Salt Lake Valley on a Monday afternoon to see it for the second time on the larger screen.

I was also glad that we bought our tickets on Friday night because surprisingly, we got good seats though it was full up by Monday afternoon at 3:05 P.M.

Did I tell you last time I raved on that it's BEAUTIFUL?  The people are beautiful.  The scenery.  The music (I think).  The animals.  There wasn't much to the story that was made clearer because the storyline isn't all that complex, but it's crazy beautiful.

Even I feel beautiful, lithe, speedy and beautiful during it.  Swinging through trees, flying, just like in dreams.  It's wonderful.  What therapy.

I really didn't like the battle scenes all that much.  I am a sixties pacifist, after all.  If I were to recommend times to go to the restroom, it would be during those,  I would also recommend that you not drink much before, not have drinks during and definitely anticipate that the movie is three hours long, so go to the biffy before taking your seat.  In our theatre, there is little access to the aisle if you have nifty seats like ours, so plan to stay for the long haul if possible unless you're on the front row of the balcony.  Hey!  There's a thought.

It was great.  Did I mention that?   Don't let me build it up too much, though, because we don't want too many disappointments.

Church Education, What Have Ye Done To Me?

I went to a BYU Alumni event last week to hear the venerable Dr. Susan Easton Black (pictured right,) address “Martin Harris, More than a Lost Manuscript.”   She has submitted the topic to Oxford.  It’s all very exciting.  

"Hot dog",  I'd thought. "This'll be a plate of scriptural meat for sure."  (I always think  in witty puns, you know.)

Karren Ashley and I headed to the beautiful Hinckley Alumni Building to first labor through a plate of mystery meat to arrive at the real entree, Dr. Black.

She quickly went through a timeline of Martin Harris' life accompanied by a Power Point presentation, and then and then . . . Wait!!

 She's bearing her testimony!  She's winding down!  She's done!  Noooo.  They're now giving her the lovely parting gift!  That was just the appetizer, wasn't it?  I have the attention span of a gnat and yet it's over?

These people have never been to a Church Education presentation.  That was nothing!  (I’m using way too many exclamation points.)  I wander off to my car, drift home and wonder what happened.

I guess it's all in perspective. I think I'll just have a Diet Coke and watch an episode of NCIS.