Stanley Tucci does a laudable job playing a creepy mofo, and Susan Sarandon shows up to provide what might be the only thing that can even come close to qualifying as good.
I loved the book. In fact, after reading it, I went out and bought Alice Sebold’s Lucky. (I’ve yet to get my hands on The Almost Moon.)
The movie has great potential.
The book was fantastic.
The cast is pretty fantastic. Marky Mark and Rachel Weisz as eye candy and Susan Sarandon for comic relief (and fabulous hair.) And Stanley Tucci pulling out all the stops as the sinister guy you’d never ever let your kids go near.
And Saoirse Ronan does a decent job as the dead kid.
But the movie is a hack job. If I were Alice Sebold, I’d be pissed. It’s all special effects, and lacks the substance with which the book overflows. Honestly, I want my money back. That’s 2.5 hours of my life and $10 I’ll never see again.
The physical fitness test. I hated it. Actually, I hated the run.
I was a really fit kid. I started playing softball at 6 years old, soccer at 7. I had tennis lessons 1-3x a week – which morphed into playing 5-6 times a week in-season in high school. I went to tennis camp. I played volleyball and basketball – neither of which very well… but you get the point.
I was always picked near the top of the list in gym class, could do boy push-ups when other folks were on their knees, and arm-wrestled with my guy friends.
I was fit and strong. And then I went to college.
But back to the physical fitness test. I hated that run. 2x around the block was a mile, and we’d take off like crazy people, all gangly arms and legs flying. Most of us could make it around 2x in under 9 minutes. And that was with a bit of walking.
I remember it was urban legend that Jill Craybas (she was a senior when I was a freshman) ran a 6 minute mile. I wanted to be like her. I wanted to be a real tennis player. I had thoughts of playing at Stanford or Dartmouth.
Go Nads!
I went to RISD… where at the time there was exactly one club sport – ice hockey. (You have to be an art school geek to appreciate heckling like, Clark still uses Color Aid!)
RISD (as of 2000) also has the balls (basketball), and as always, the sporadic trips to the indoor soccer facility. 30 or so students (in all manner of attire) will pile onto the field and kick a ball around a bit – something Megan fondly recalls making fun of, from her perch in the upstairs bar with her fellow ‘real’ soccer players.
Back to the running.
I’ve always hated it. Like a lot. I hated wind sprints even as Margaret Rose and I were running them as captains of the varsity tennis team. I hated the one trip around the fields at the farm – even as we watched the field hockey team make 3 and 4 laps with their sticks held over their heads.
So here we are. I’m no runner, and I never have been. But I’m going to train for, get my ass in shape for, and run this relay with my Lincoln girls.
The training has begun in earnest. I started out a couple of weeks ago alternating running and walking – taking over 40 minutes to hit the 2.5 mile marker. Today, I did that 2.5 miles in 36:37.
Progress!
Maybe by the end of this, I’ll have some kind of satisfying relationship with running. Or maybe I’ll just feel satisfied to have reached my goal of doing this cool thing with 11 people I really dig.
Today, my buddy Erika Napoletano posted An Open Letter to Andy Pugno… and mentions me and Meg. You should read it. I mean, you should read everything she writes (she’s a smarty pants)… but you should read this, because we’re in it.
But Mr. Pugno – fuck you and every one of your Protect Marriage supporters for saying that my childhood is worth less because I didn’t come from an intact heterosexual home. And double fuck you for condemning those who choose to live a life that doesn’t fit your “ideal” of a “marriage.”
Last night, I allowed our friend Kris to drag me to a Zumba class.
It was awesome and sweaty and horrifying (I can’t dance, like at all) and hysterical. I think I actually laughed the whole entire time.
I’ll totally go back. Our instructor Katy is awesome. And adorable. And like 19 – so now I feel old and dirty for thinking she’s cute.
There really is very little that can make one feel like a fat, old, out-of-shape mess than a cute, young, fabulously in-shape dance/fitness instructor.
In our house, we have a pretty strict budget. Megan’s a math geek, and so she’s in charge of it, and it works out really well.
In tandem, we use Ta-da lists for things we want, helping us squelch the impetuous buyer in both of us, and helping the other when it comes to gift-buying time.
A similar concept, the 30 day list:
Keep a 30-day list. If you have an impulse to buy something you don’t absolutely need, put it on a 30-day list. You can’t buy anything but necessities — everything else goes on the list, with the date that it’s added to the list. When the 30 days are up, you can buy it — but most likely, the strong urge to buy it will be gone, and you can evaluate it more calmly.
Stanley Tucci does a laudable job playing a creepy mofo, and Susan Sarandon shows up to provide what might be the only thing that can even come close to qualifying as good.
The physical fitness test. I hated it. Actually, I hated the run.
