Unlike my aunt (that’s not her to the left, btw), who doesn’t miss a single serve, I don’t really follow the sport of tennis much anymore.  The “characters” are pretty much gone, so I have to admit I lost interest.  Something caught my eye in a newspaper this week, though.   I saw a picture of a very young girl, a professional tennis player, and beneath the picture was the word Retired.  At 25.  According to the story, she’d lost her passion for the sport.

We’ve all been there, right?  Irregardless of our career path or walk in life - sometimes the next step seems more monumental than all the ones before.  Other times, the steps ahead seem blase’, unimportant, and fail to inspire us any more than Jack Black in a Speedo.

I’ve been there before.  Because, irregardless of what some people may think, just because you work from home doesn’t mean it isn’t work.  When web publishers, writers, graphic artists, web designers, etc. sit and work for hours each day - it’s not exactly free time!   Yes, working from home has huge, beautiful benefits - but the lack of respect and the jokes about “getting a job” are enough to make a person want to eat pencils.

That’s why I don’t keep pencils on my desk.

Oh, and my, my, my…  A word about full-time mothers.  You want to talk about WORK?!?!  If anyone assumes that a full time mother doesn’t work - I’d invite them to do what she does.  If they survived a full day, they’d give her flowers the next day and well-deserved respect every day thereafter. 

Irregardless of where you work or what you do, there will be times when your motivation and, even, inspiration, fail you.  Fortunately you don’t have to stay in the Lost Zone.  

There have been days when I’ll open a blog editor or pick up a pen and paper to write an article and…. and, nothing.  I’ll just stare at the white space until I get swimmy eyed, then I close whatever it is I have open along with my mind.  Sometimes “it” just isn’t there and for the life of me I don’t know where “it” went.

Lost Zone, incidentally, is a name I came up with for this feeling while I was in high school.  I loved Literature, English, Composition, Biology,  Spanish, and History.  (I don’t have any kind words for Math and it doesn’t have any for me.)  Still, there would be times when I just didn’t care if I finished the Shakespeare play I was reading at the time or if I ever saw another art thou again.

My mom and my Bassett Hound would always tell me to leave the books for a while and do something else.  Mom would suggest cleaning my room, “Honey” would suggest a walk. We walked a lot.

When you feel like you’re in the Lost Zone, you need a new perspective.  Fortunately, one can be found just around the corner.  Below are a few of their favorite hiding places:

• New Perspectives love to hide near water.  Lakes, Oceans, Rivers - you can almost always find one simply by looking out over a beautiful body of water. 
• Parks.  Whether it’s a State Park or a City Park, these are some of the most ALIVE places on earth.  One of the great things about them is the way they conjur up amazing memories from yesterday.  Trips to the park when we were children, times we took our little ones to the park, etc.  It was even in a park, by a lake, sitting at a picnic table that my husband asked me to marry him.  Is it any wonder water and parks are numbers one and two?!
• Don’t look now, but a new perspective might just be in your own yard!  Grilling out, planting flowers, feeding birds (and squirrels, raccoons, possums…), soaking up a few rays, spying on the neighbors, petting your cat or dog, throwing a frisbee - they’re all perfect ways to just get away from it all and find a new perspective.
• Taking a ride through the country - or across the country - can do wonders to clear your head.  Some people (moi included) like to turn the radio up, sing along, and even, when the move hits, do a little seat dancing.  Others like to just roll the windows down, turn the radio off and listen to the world as it passes by.  That’s cool, too.
• Watching a movie is also a great escape.  Whether it’s on your sofa or your nearest movie theater, this one’s a great way to get away.  (Btw, if you haven’t seen Iron Man yet, you really should - I’ve seen it twice and that’s something I never do.  What’s even more telling is I’d go a third time!  Yeah, he can fly. And, yeah, I loved it.)
• The zoo!  Another one of my favorite places on the entire earth is the zoo.  Even though I always make my husband spend a fortune in the gift shop.  (This polar bear figurine, that lion coffee mug, those stuffed bears…)  Watching amazing, beautiful, and always entertaining animals takes you away from anything and everything troubling, unsettling, or even mildly annoying.  Who could fret over writer’s block when a monkey is clowning at one turn and a polar bear is taking a dive at the next?

A Fresh Perspective will do a world of good when you need a break.  

The ones above are just a few of my favorites - your own fresh perspective may be hiding on a golf course, in a fishing boat, in a bowling alley, etc.  It may be at a baseball, basketball, or football game.  Sporting events are great places to get away from it all and just have fun.  If you need and want a fresh perspective, it’s there waiting for you.

Make it a point to find at least one this weekend.  Monday will thank you for it! 

…stay until after the credits (even though they’re, like 12 minutes long).  Don’t leave your seat - trust me.

BTW, Cloverfield debuted with $41 million, a record opening for January - making it the “monster hit” people were predicting it’d be. 

Emily, Stephany (daughters 1 and 3) and I went to see Juno last night. I expected it to be good - but I had no idea just how good. I loved every single minute of this delightful movie, from the adorable opening sequence to the closing credits.  

As I’ve said before, I have a total fascination with words - whether they’re on a cereal box, shampoo bottle, Scrabble board, e-mail message, CNN.com, or in a Dean Koontz novel….. I’m right there delighting in their song and dance.  So, this movie, with it’s amazingly brilliant and witty dialogue had me on the edge of my seat.  My ears haven’t been that happy since the last time I listened to my favorite Motown CD. 

Ellen Page (Juno) is one of the reasons I’m so in love with this movie.  The 20ish year old Canadian is simply amazing, all 5′1″ of her.  She’s a breath of fresh air in Hollywood - a town that was long, long, lonnnnggg overdue for freshness of any kind.  Ellen Page is the next Keira Knightley and watching her career sholud be pretty exciting.

Michael Cera, who plays her friend Bleeker is also adorable.  The entire movie is perfectly cast with flawless performances by J.K. Simmons as Juno’s dad (he was also Buffalo Bill Cody in Hidalgo), Olivia Thirlby, Allison Janney, Jennifer Garner (who reminds me a great deal of one of my favorite actresses on the planet, Julia Roberts) and Jason Bateman.

I think the language and suggestions are a little past the film’s PG-13 rating.  In fact, as we were leaving, I double-checked the poster to make sure I hadn’t been seeing things - yep, PG-13.  Another woman exiting in front of me did the same thing.  I’m not uptight about language or things like that…but, 13?  That seems a little young for a movie like this.  But that’s just my opinion.  Then again, with the language used on MySpace, in IMs, in school, and on TV - there probably isn’t anything in this movie that’s exactly new to most 13 year olds.  Now I’m getting depressed.

At any rate, if you’re looking for a very enjoyable movie - you won’t go wrong with Juno.  Even the music is incredible!  I can’t wait for the soundtrack, the songs were as delicious as the dialogue.

At The Movies Tin Sign
Buy at AllPosters.com

Three of my favorite young people (two daughters and a boyfriend….Brittany’s, not mine) and I saw Hairspray last night.  I was expecting it to be good - after all, if John Travolta and Queen Latifah are on board - it has to be a fun ride.  What I wasn’t expecting was for it to be great. 

I’d read review after review saying things like, “I smiled through the whole movie…” and I kept thinking, No one smiles through a whole movie - unless it’s my husband and there’s a lot of kicking, shoving, punching, and throwing bodies going on.  Yet, I lost track of the number of times I caught myself smiling ear to ear.

The entire cast is simply perfect - I don’t know when I’ve seen a better job of casting.  John Travolta (Edna) is adorably hilarious as a larger than life mother, Queen Latifah proves that she’s one of the most gifted singers we’ve ever had, and Niki Blonsky (Tracey), Zac Efron (Link), Amanda Bynes (Penny), Elijah Kelly (Seaweed), and James Marsden (Corny) are each mesmerizing.

It’s a wonderfully fun feel great movie and we all know there aren’t nearly enough of those. I’m hoping that it’s such a runaway hit that Hollyood starts shelling them out like they once did Spaghetti westerns.

Go see Hairspray only if you want a toe tapping, fun, feel good, spirit-lifting evening full of smiles.  I honestly didn’t want it to end.

You’d think that a reasonable, sane Ophidiophobic (one with a phobia of snakes) would stay as far away from “Snakes on a Plane” as possible, wouldn’t you?

Guess that means I’m not terribly reasonable, and sane might even be up in the air. As I’ve said before, I’m absolutely wild about movies - I love everything about them.  So when a new movie comes out causing a stir - I’ve got to see it asap.  Just my luck one of the biggest stirs was caused by a plane full of beings that make my hands clammy and my knees weak.  Trust me on this one - I’m terrified of these things. 

But the movie fanatic won out over the phobic and my husband, two of our daughters, and I set off to see the movie everyone’s talking about.  I kind of surprised myself - I only had to look away twice (well it wasn’t looking away as much as it was holding the huge bucket of popcorn in front of my face) and I only screamed out once.  Fortunately, there was a boy around 17 in front of me that screamed along with me.  Maybe louder.

The movie was awesome - I absolutely loved it.  Non stop excitement and adventure and lots of unexpected laughs - thanks to an amazing cast.  See the cutie patootie at the top of the post?  His name’s Kenan Thompson and he’s the ultimate scene stealer, in fact he’s the biggest scene stealer I’ve seen since…well…okay, he just may be the biggest scene stealer I’ve ever seen.  And I’ve seen more movies than you can even imagine.  He’s pure genius and I’m vowing to see everything he’s ever been in or ever will be in.

Samuel Jackson was his brilliant, flawless self.  He makes it all seem so effortless - you never catch him acting and that’s what makes him brilliant.

The movie does an amazing job of making it all look very realistic - unlike, say, King Kong.  It’s visually incredible.  

My daughters and I loved it, but my husband wasn’t quite as enamoured. I practically dragged him to see it. I think the difference is we females watch tons of movies like this. (The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs, etc.) So, very very little shocks us - even though a few bathroom scenes made us recoil, so to speak. If you’ve seen the movie, you probably know the scenes I’m talking about.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you’ll know….oh, you’ll know. 

My phobia came through it better than I thought - but I didn’t get much sleep that night. I finally just got up and sat in the living room - with the lamps on and my guard cat on duty. The thing is, we have a ceiling vent above our bed and I have an active imagination….and, so, well, you know.  My mind told me that I’d have a visitor before the night was through.

But, part of the fun of this type of movie is the spooks it gives you.  Isn’t it funny how some “stay with you” and others don’t.  Take The Hills Have Eyes, for example - scary as helllllll while you’re watching it. My girls and I rented it and got a work out while watching it.  We screamed, we jumped…I pounded my chair and nearly ate a pillow…Stephany grabbed Brittany, Emily made us hit pause while she walked around for a minute…. Halfway through, I looked on the floor and our cat was watching us with the funniest expression.  The thought bubble above her little head read “Total Morons.”

Be that as it may, it’s big fat FUN - and that’s exactly what SoaP is.  Even if it cost me a night’s sleep and has me high stepping around the yard.

Joi

—–SPOILER FREE REVIEW —- -

My 3 daughters, one of their boyfriends, and I went to see Superman Returns last night.  We’d been looking forward to it for MONTHS, so I was a little nervous - when you’re all hyped up about a movie, it can go either way.  On the one hand, you can get sheer gold - like Memoirs of a Geisha, but on the other hand you can get something of an all together different color and odor - like King Kong.

Thanks be to the movie gods, Superman Returns was a brilliantly amazing movie and worth every moment spent in anticipation.  The effects were mind-blowing and the direction was flawless.  Movies like this can tend to have kernels of corn here and there, but Superman Returns never came close to even having one.

The casting was also flawless.  Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane was a perfect choice.  She’s even prettier as a brunette - draws more attention to her gorgeous face.  She’s the real life love of Orlando Bloom, btw. Now there’s another movie - Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man’s Chest - I’m all hyped up about seeing.  I know it’ll be gold - it has two of my faves, Keira and The Depp.  Can’t miss.

Kevin Spacey as Lex Luther was as good as Jack Nicholson as the Joker.  That, for me, is the ultimate measure of a villain.  IN FACT, the original Michael Keaton Batman movie is my measure of a “Comic Book” movie, and Superman Returns is every bit as good.  It blows Spider-Man’s drawers completely off.    

Parker Posey and James Marsden were also flawless as Kitty and Richard.  I’m not at all familiar with Parker Posey’s work, but now I’m going to hunt out other movies she’s made.  She was adorable.

If there’s any justice left in Hollywood, there’ll be all kinds of awards handed out to this movie - especially to its young director, Bryan Singer.  You really ought to see this movie - it’s one of the best.

Oh, on a sidenote - you know I’d posted before about Brandon Routh, Superman.  How he had been on One Life to Live before, but was fired?  Yes, One Life to Live, the soap opera.  And, no, I don’t watch it - I just happen to not miss an episode.

Anyhoo, on the drive home we were talking about how, after he was fired, Brandon put a message up on his website.  He’s a down to earth midwestern boy, a very devout Christian, and full of faith.  Very, very inspiring for anyone, but especially for such a young anyone.  After he was fired, he was extremely disappointed.  He wrote on his website how he felt that he’d been treated unfairly, and how sorry he was for his fans.  He went on to say that he was leaving it in God’s hands because he just KNEW He had something big planned for him.  He said he was trusting the Lord to help him, and pretty much said that with God’s help, he’d one day show those who’d wronged him what he could do.  Super, Man!

Um, that brings us to the Quote of the Day:

“If God’s on your side, make your plans as big as you want them to be.”

***The amazing Stand Ups at the top of the post, as well as the poster at the bottom are available at All Posters.com. 

Joi

We went to see Last Holiday last night. It was my husband’s turn to pick the movie, and when he did so, our daughters and I thought he’d lost his mind. When he said “Five tickets for Last Holiday,” all four of us looked at one another and mouthed, “Last Holiday,” with question marks dancing above our heads. Then we started looking around, trying to be nonchalant, but frantically searching for the movie poster for this particular movie…you know, the one we’d never heard of!
When we found the movie poster, we saw that Queen Latifah was in it, and we’re all big fans of the Queen (Could listen to her sing all day)….so we breathed a sigh of relief - at least there’d be a friendly face in the movie from obscurity!

The movie proved to be very, very, very good. It was terribly cute. The Queen and LL Cool J were amazingly adorable, and quite talented. I don’t want to give away any of the plot that you may be unaware of, because there’s an awful lot to be said for watching a movie without knowing what the next scene will bring. That’s why I often never even read a movie review until after I’ve seen the movie - I don’t want a road map to my movie, I just want to enjoy the ride!

And Last Holiday was a great ride. I hate that there’ve been so many other movies lately getting all the attention - From King Kong to Brokerback Mountain and from The Chronicles of Narnia to Glory Road (Loved them, too!)… Heck, even movies that stunk are getting more attention for their stink than Last Holiday has been getting. Apparently, The New World and Rumor Has It are so bad it’s laughable.

Last Holiday seems to be getting somewhat lost in the shuffle. And that’s a King-sized shame, because the Queen is something to behold. You really oughta see this one! It’s a real feel good movie that’ll leave you feeling….well, good! It has a lot of heart, a lot of lessons, and a lot of fun.
Timothy Hutton, Alicia Witt and Gerard Depardieu are also in the movie. But make no mistake about it, Queen Latifah and LL Cool J are the stars. And they certainly shine.
Joi

P.S. Happy Birthday, Michael, I love you muchly!