7 Quick Takes Friday, #51

1. If you haven't noticed yet, it's February. And you know what that means, right?

February means I am beyond ready for spring to get here. I've been holding in my desire to defame and badmouth February for the past two weeks, and it's getting the best of me. I don't want to let it all rip though, for fear of frightening you with my ferocity, so I'll just mention a few things about this month that are wearing me out.



2. First, the dry air, and not even what it does to my hair and nostrils, which is substantial enough. I'm talking about the dry air's effect on my hands. They're so unbelievably dry that I've removed all rings but my thin wedding band in order to better apply lotion several times a day. Even with all that lotion (I'm on my third bottle this winter!) my hands are still too dry, and for that I blame February. With such dry hands, I've endured countless paper cuts this winter and February has only made it harder to maintain my cool when a cut happens. The dry skin would be bad enough, but....



3. Second (and perhaps more importantly), is the lack of color in the world. Barring an infrequent bright blue sky, the color in my part of the world has been sucked out by February's dreary weather. Oh, spring. Oh, color. Come back to us now, I beg of you!

OK. I'm done griping for now. As you were.



4. Wait, scratch that. There's one more gripe. Justin has been busier than usual this week and I've barely seen him. I know it's good that at least we get to sleep under the same roof and give quick hugs in passing, but not having him here any evenings for help with the girls or to simply catch up on each other's day has been maddening. He's only gotten home before 10 o'clock one night this week, and it's felt...lonely around here. I think a date night is in order, stat.



5. If I have my way about making a date night happen, I know exactly what we'll do. The same thing we did on our last date night: head to the movie theater, buy outrageously priced tickets, slap on a pair of goofy 3D glasses, and watch Avatar.

When we were trying to decide what to see last time, I really didn't want to go to Avatar. There were at least 4 other movies I would have chosen first, but their times didn't match up with when we could go to the theater. I may have pouted a bit when we decided Avatar was the only available movie for us; I was not interested in a movie that was being hailed as a technological masterpiece but had been criticized for having an underdeveloped plot. Plot and I? We go hand in hand. I need plot. What I don't need is technology which makes me wear silly goggles in order to be made car-sick and dizzy and disoriented.

Maybe because my expectations were so low, or maybe because I am a movie-lover at heart...I can't really explain what happened when we got into the movie, other than to say I LOVED it. It drew me in and made my heart race and made me laugh and made me almost cry happy tears. It was beautiful. I was a little sad when it ended and we walked out into a world (a FEBRUARY world, at that) with no glow-in-the dark plant life. I wanted more, immediately. The 3D aspect was subtle and unobtrusive, not like things were jumping out at us, but like we were being drawn into that world. Like live theater, maybe, if you were on stage while the play was being enacted.

The story I was so afraid would be shallow and lacking was anything but, from my perspective. If it was shallow, it was deep enough for me. If it was lacking, it was full enough for me. I loved every minute of Avatar. Keep in mind that I like movies like Lord of the Rings and Star Trek, but I also like Pride & Prejudice, Dirty Dancing, Atonement.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would search for piles of lost coins in order to pay the hefty ticket price again. Avatar would be my pick for date night, hands down.

(Wow, I really can go on about a movie, huh?)

6. Yesterday Mia hauled her plastic, primary-colored, alphabet-naming, toy laptop onto the kitchen table, and told Lauren that it was her BLOG.

7. Those infrequently bright blue-skyed days of February? We were blessed with one yesterday, and took full advantage of it to play outside.

I hope your weekend will include lots of playing outside, and a visit to Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!