Spring Break So Far

Easter weekend was really nice. We enjoyed visiting with family and eating lots of food both days. We also visited that new church which turned out to be a really interesting experience. It was pretty usual for the most part, but some of the smaller things about it struck me strange. For example the pastor sat on what looked like a bar stool (it swiveled!) beside a little round table that had a candle burning and a glass of water on it. With the band's instruments and the colored lighting (for the band) behind him, it looked a lot like a night club. The message was really unstructured too. I felt like the pastor knew what he wanted to say and had given that thought, but that he didn't plan how to say it. There were times he would stop and look up, or look off to the side as if trying to decide how he wanted to finish his sentence or how to make his point. In the end, it was an Easter message. I think I'd like to hear the guy a couple more times before I decide if this is a church I want to attend regularly or not.

In other news... Josh and I decided to watch a Red Box movie each night to celebrate spring break. It's only $1 so we figured we could splurge. The first movie we got was Atonement on Saturday night. I had heard that it was somewhat sad, but everyone was raving about it so I really wanted to see it. I didn't see what the fuss was all about. It was fine. I didn't like the ending. It was one of those disappointing love stories, so you got the whole romance piece but still walked away feeling considerably depressed. So then we thought we'd go for something fun and uplifting - Dan in Real Life. It's Steve Carrell, that's gotta be funny, right? Again, very mediocre for us. It wasn't really classic Steve Carrell except he played a guy that was kind of a pitiful person. We didn't feel great at the end or laugh out loud at any point during the story. So we went dramatic again last night with I Am Legend and were once more disappointed. I think the problem is that Josh and I both watch movies to escape from reality for a few hours and really get lost in some fabulous alternative. We want to feel good when we walk away. We want to be amazed, thrilled, uplifted, cracking up, you name it. So I Am Legend - being about total despair and the end of humanity - didn't really do it for us. I held out hope the entire time for a good ending because I could deal with the despair if there was a really exciting ending that made everything all better. Needless to say, there wasn't. It was somewhat better in the end but not to my satisfaction. In short I'd have to give all three of these movies a thumbs down. Tonight I'm pretty sure we're going "no fail" with something like Enchanted or Shrek 3. It's just sad when we had to turn on a few episodes of Scrubs after these movies to cheer ourselves up and get the creepies out of our heads before going to sleep.

Overall, I have certainly enjoyed the two full days that I've been home from work. Yesterday I went to visit Amy and her new baby, Myla. She was so perfectly cute I coudln't believe it. After watching some of the other babies grow up- my own neice and nephew, little Lucy Cooke, and even my sister's new baby, Evan- Myla looked so teeny tiny. Unfortunately I meant to bring my camera and totally forgot so I don't have any pictures to post :o( I realize that seeing little babies gets me excited to have my own, but hearing the stories about being awake all night and, well general labor & delivery, I know I'm still not ready. I do want to finish grad school as soon as possible so children can even be a consideration though.

As for today I've got some homework that I'm avoiding, which sounds lame but at least I have the whole day to read two chapters in my pajamas instead of working all day and trying to read two chapters in two hours while cooking dinner. Because it's more than half way through my grad school semester all of my papers are due in the next 3-4 weeks. So as much as I'd like to sit around and vegetate the rest of the break, there will probably be some serious paper writing going on in the next few days. I'll be so angry at myself when I'm back to work if I don't use all of this time off to make some progress on those. And just like grading the papers, I know it will feel so good not to have all that school work hanging over my head, especially when the break is over. Time to get to work.....