Movie Hunt/Slice of Life

Did you see the movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief? Since I have now read the 5 books in this series and the movie recently became available on DVD, I decided that it was time to see the movie. I was looking forward to seeing the movie with the hopes that it would hold me spell-bound like the Harry Potter movies based on the books by J.K. Rowling. I unclipped my Family Video gift card from Teacher Appreciation Week and headed for the video store. I entered and immediately saw the posters showing the June releases. Right there on June 29th was a picture of Percy. So in I went, walking the movies backwards. Around the corner to the left about halfway down the wall I saw row after row of Percy Jackson DVD cases. "Here they are. I have found them." I thought. But upon closer inspection, I realized that none of the actual DVDs in the clear cases were left behind all the tantalizing covers. Well, that was disappointing. Now what would I get. I began my normal stroll through the nearly new releases where I usually find my movie of the night. Nothing was beckoning, probably because I really wanted to see PJ. I saw scary movies, romantic movies, funny movies, silly movies, kid movies and Christmas movies. There wasn't anything that appealed to me. I decided to wander around the new movies and see if anything caught my interest. As I began to walk toward the back wall, I noticed an employee carrying several of those clear cases. He was returning movies to the shelves. I began looking at the choices. But my attention was drawn back to the employee who was headed toward the wall with the PJ movies. Could it be? Yes! I think he was returning a PJ movie. I headed that way. There were two clear cases hidden behind a PJ case. I picked them up as a man and his daughter came that way. Happily, there was one for me and one for them. Sometimes patience pays off.

Gift Card Slice of Life

My dad and I went to eat at Longhorn Steakhouse tonight. We used one of my gift cards from Teacher Appreciation week. The food was delicious and we had a bit of an adventure as well. We had eaten our salads and our steaks had arrived. After about 3 bites, the lights all dimmed! Everybody looked around wondering what was happening. There was no storm. It was a perfectly sunny day so it was not really very dark in the restaurant. We all went back to eating. Soon a manager came around and said that a circuit breaker had a problem and they hoped to fix it soon. Since it wasn't really a problem, we weren't concerned. Now parts of the restaurant had lights, other parts had lights that would dim, get brighter and then dim again. The computer station near our table would beep occasionally. When we finished eating, the waitperson came with our bill, so a computer was working somewhere in the building. We paid, finished our drinks and walked out into the bright sunshine. It seemed an odd time for a power surge, but it added a little excitement to our outing. It was a yummy dinner!

Morning Hugs

Is there a better way to start the morning than with morning hugs? This morning I drove to my friend’s house to begin the summer morning walk ritual. I meet M and K and their 4 children and we walk, talk, plan and retrieve dropped items for an hour 3 or 4 days a week. This morning I pulled up and slid out of my car. I heard, “It’s Amy. Go give her hugs.” I am soon surrounded by a 2 year old, a 3 year old and 4 year old while my knees are encircled by six small arms. The 1 year old is securely strapped into the stroller but he still waves and beams at me with his ever present smile. What a welcome!

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