Fun with the Fitels

Vacations 2 and 3 - and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc.

2009-01-04T16:37:00.000-08:00

With all the excitement going on, I'm very behind on blogging. So here's a quick recap and a few fun pictures.

Vacation #2 this Fall was a trip to Manhattan for Thanksgiving and to meet our 4-month-old niece! She's gorgeous, and despite screaming like an opera singer when we first met her (it was past her bedtime) she seemed to like us. She especially liked Uncle Danny and he learned how to "do the swoop" like her daddy does to calm her down. We miss her like crazy! Michael and Betsy don't want pictures of the baby online, but here's one of her adorable chubby hand in Danny's.

We had gorgeous weather, which made for great shots of the shimmery skyline. Tuesday night we went downtown to see the Christmas windows, meet Danny's cousin for dinner, and see the broadway show "In the Heights." "In the Heights" is about Washington Heights, the neighborhood on the north tip of Manhattan where Michael and Betsy live and are very active (and very well-known!). It's a largely Dominican neighborhood, so the musical had a fun Latin music feel to it. We loved it.

Vacation #3 was a Hall family trip to Texas for Grace's graduation from ACU and a Dallas Cowboys game. We had a great time cheering for Grace and my Boys. Grace is returning to ACU to do a Masters degree, so we spent a lot of time fixing up her new home. We also spent a lot of time eating incredible food! I got to catch up with close college friends I hadn't seen in years, and we spent time with my Dad's aunt and uncle and cousin and their family. It was a fantastic vacation with my family, and we got to see the last Cowboys victory of the season (boo on the rest of the season, you heartbreakers!).

In other family news, my youngest sister Trisha is engaged and getting married on August 15. We're all happy for her and I'm having fun planning a wedding where I don't have to make all the decisions! Our family had a fun Christmas together, including cutting down the biggest Christmas tree in Hall family history. It was literally 13 feet tall and we could barely see the angel from the bottom. Of course, it didn't look that big out in the woods! It was ridiculous, but a lot of fun and it looked great!

For Danny and me, our tree was a "small" 6 feet, but it was a lot easier to put up and decorate. We opened the storage boxes to find the treetop angel broken (it was ugly anyway) so we improvised with a golf club cover. I think Rowdy looks great up there, and there is a star on his hat, so it kinda fits.

Danny and I had a lot of fun with teens over the break, but we also enjoyed a break from the usual routine. I've been off work for a week and a half, and both work and the new Fuller quarter start tomorrow, so it's back to the grindstone. After 4 breaks in 4 months, I'm ready to take it on! (Check back in a month or so to see if I'm swamped in Church History reading and missing my magazines.)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends out there, all two of you who probably read this, haha!

10 Most Memorable Meals of My Life - Florence

2008-11-21T14:45:00.000-08:00

Since Bethany provided the photos below, I will provide the story behind what was for me our most memorable meal in Florence.

Of course, Florence is known for fancy, expensive restaurants... but some of the best food we had there we got from a cafeteria! Just down the street from the Duomo is a place called Ristorante Leonardo. We read about it in our Rick Steves book and thought we would check it out since Rick said it was cheap and quick. We weren't expecting a cafeteria setting where you grab a tray and head down the line and point out to the person behind the counter what you want.

The book said that "Lucciano runs the place with great enthusiasm" and it didn't take us long to figure out who Lucciano was. He was a very kind and vibrant gentleman who dished up the food while a clean-cut kid in his early 20's worked the register. They were the only employees we saw that night, even though the place could probably seat over a hundred people. That night they were serving lasagna (we hadn't had any yet in Italy and I LOVE lasagna). But Lucciano was very well...enthusiastic about the osso bucco. I didn't even know what it was at the time and it seemed strange ordering such an exotic dish in a cafeteria style restaurant, but Lucciano was not to be denied. So we got that too. Both were really really good. And really really cheap. By the time we left the restaurant, I had concocted this backstory that made sense to me: Lucciano was a world-class chef who could be working at any 5-star restaurant in Italy, but he was at heart a man of the people who just wanted to serve the best food at rock-bottom prices, so he opened his own cafeteria in the middle of Florence. Until I hear different, that is what I am going to believe about Lucciano and Ristorante Leonardo.

We wound up going back for lunch another day, the only restaurant we ate at twice in Italy. This was partially due to how affordable it was, as well as how tasty and centrally located it is. If you're ever in Florence on a budget, you gotta go eat there at least once.

A Few Italy Pictures

2008-11-17T19:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted anything about our vacation to Italy yet, and with the exception of Danny's memorable meal post, our blog hasn't seen pictures from the trip. I won't take the time to write a full journal of the trip, but I will post a few pictures for those who are neither on Facebook or haven't seen the KodakGallery albums. I didn't include the artsy, pretty pictures, but the pictures of the two of us together.

Danny thinks it's hilarious to make weird faces when we take pictures together. This was in the Pantheon in Rome, which was incredible.

At Trevi Fountain in Rome - the legend is that tourists throw a coin over their shoulder and make a wish that they will one day return to Rome.

At the Colosseum

St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. The Vatican was my favorite site of the whole trip!

In front of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence

With the Duomo in the background. The Duomo church was gorgeous. Pictures don't do it justice!

Taken from the Ponte Vecchio, one of the few I didn't take myself!

An Unusual Week

2008-11-17T18:49:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been listening to my dad's sermons regularly. I know I'm biased, but he's done two incredible sermon series in a row. The first was on Spiritual Formation in a Material World and the second on Forgiveness. If you want to listen, either go to www.campbellchurch.org or look up the Campbell Church of Christ podacast on iTunes.

Anyway, God really has a sense of humor. The series on materialism focused on "holding on to things loosely." Not just money and posessions, but anything that's temporary. Holding on to things too tightly is like making a fist - the stress and tension travel all the way up your arm into your neck and shoulders, whereas living with an open hand is much more relaxing. That resonated with me considering I had a reputation in high school for saying "Don't touch my stuff." Sure I've matured, but I'm still pretty posessive of "my stuff." As I said, God has a sense of humor because while I was being inspired to start holding on to things loosely, He was plotting to see if I really meant it.

Now, it really wasn't a bad week. But it was unusual. On Wednesday, our water shut off during my shower. I wasn't really clean and had to improvise by rinsing the shampoo out of my hair with water bottles. I still felt pretty spoiled since the running water I take for granted shut off so I pulled the case of clean water out of the kitchen pantry. After spending the weekend with FCC high schoolers ministering to the homeless in San Francisco, I couldn't complain about my water situation.

Then Thursday, while I was hurrying out of garage to get to a meeting, I took off the side mirror of my car. I'm pretty proud of (and OCD about) my car, so I was pleased with myself for not panicking, throwing the mirror in the trunk, and continuing cautiously to my meeting. I stopped by the Honda shop on my way to work, and miraculously they had a spare mirror in the right model and color! So my car was broken for less than 8 hours and I had a chance to experience that material things are just....things.

Then on Saturday our electricity was off all day (PG&E was working on the neighborhood). It wasn't easy to put on makeup by candlelight, but it was way better than having no shower by regular light. Also on Saturday we discovered that there is a wasp nest in our satellite dish on our balcony! We've found a few wasps near the balcony door but had no idea where they were coming from until it was so hot Saturday that they were buzzing around like crazy. Ewwww! (By the way, it was 80 degrees here all weekend, a record for mid-November. Those not living in California feel free to be jealous.)

So that has been my week of holding on to things loosely. All is well in the Fitelson home and we have a lot to be thankful for! We're especially thankful that in a week we get to meet our niece and spend Thanksgiving in New York with Danny's family! We're also thankful the Cowboys' season might still be alive after beating a division rival yesterday! What a great week.

10 Most Memorable Meals of My Life - Rome

2008-10-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

I have not blogged in quite some time. I guess I’m not really into the “here’s what’s going on in my life” sort of posts… that what Facebook status updates are for! But a long term project – that is something I get excited about.

This is the first of 10 entries describing the 10 most memorable meals I have ever had. Most posts will also double as restaurant recommendations, although only a few are local. Just like my movie list, the list has already been compiled and will not change… unless I have a truly phenomenal meal in the next few months (which is not out of the question with trips to Texas and New York on the horizon). Unlike the movie list, this is not a “ranking”, it is just 10 great meals that I have had in the course of my life that I remember. Note that it is not the “10 best meals” – in that case my mom’s cooking would be featured in almost every spot!

The first meal I want to write about was our first dinner in Rome, pictured below. We flew in that day from SF, stopping over in Amsterdam, and were pretty tired and jet-lagged, but decided we needed to push through it and not take naps so that we could get onto Italy time. It made it a little difficult in that Italians tend to eat late… many restaurants don’t even open until 7 pm. We consulted our trusty Rick Steves Guidebook that recommended a restaurant not far from our hotel called Est! Est! Est! Now, according to the Italian translation tool I just used, est is not even a word in Italian, let alone Est! Est! Est! So most likely, this is a restaurant that is catering towards tourists who don’t even know how to speak Italian. I don’t care. It was good.

As you can see from the photo, we ate outside on the sidewalk. The restaurant was located at the end of a cul-de-sac, next to an interesting stone façade (pictured in the background) that may or may not have been the phone company (we were trying to figure out what the sign said). Across the street was one of a number of Chinese restaurants we ran across in Italy, this one named Mr. Chow’s. Needless to say, we never got around to sampling the Chinese cuisine in Italy.

Onto the food: in Italy, you don’t just order one thing off the menu. It’s not like you pick the “steak and baked potato which comes with a salad”. Nah, you get to pick every little part of the meal. Which can add up if you’re not careful, especially since you have to pay for water! It feels strange to go to a nice restaurant and not have the waiter come over and pour you some ice water when you sit down. You have to order the water: and then they ask you if you want it “naturale” (regular) or “gesata” (sparkling). It usually costs a couple bucks per person. The funny thing is that often you can find wine on the menu that is cheaper than their water! Certainly you can find wine that is cheaper than soda in Italy, at one restaurant we visited (and it wasn’t even a fancy one) they were selling cans of normal, everyday soda for 4 euros, which is about $5.75!

So the way it works is you start with an antipasti, or appetizer. At Est! Est! Est! we went real traditional and got 2 – a tomato/mozzarella salad and a plate of sliced salami and prosciutto. The salami was just alright – the wild boar salami we had later at the panini place in Florence that Ginger D recommended was better – but the prosciutto was unbelievable, and I am not big on ham (although some would say a big ham I am). It was sliced so thin, it just melted in your mouth. Eating it reminded me of the scene in Ratatouille where there are fireworks going off in Remy's head when he tastes something. Next to the gelato, that was the best tasting thing we had the whole time we were in Italy, I thought.

Next up, you order a primi dish, or first dish. This is usually pasta or pizza. That night we had a pizza Marghuerite, which is just sauce, cheese, tomatoes and basil. But that was one TASTY pizza. Be warned, if you go to Italy and order a pizza with pepperoni, they’ll bring you a pizza with things like peppercini’s on it. There is another word for pepperoni.

Next, you get a secundo dish, or second dish. This is usually some sort of meat and is more expensive than the first dish. Italians generally agree that the secondo is less interesting than the primi. So we didn’t bother getting one that night. Although there were other nights where we did, such as the MASSIVE steak-for-two we got in Florence. But I agree, the pasta and pizza in Italy was more exciting than the steak and chicken.

So that sums up our first meal in Rome. I forgot to include the best thing about it: the price! A mere 19 euros, or about $26. And that included a glass of wine for each of us! So, when in Rome, visit Est! Est! Est!

Mustache Night

2008-10-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know that we just returned from a vacation in Italy, these might not be the blog updates you're looking for. Blog posts from Italy will be coming, but not today as my brain is too foggy from a nasty head cold. Instead, enjoy a few pictures of the things Danny does for youth ministry. Our first Tuesday night youth group after vacation was "Mustache Night," so he had been growing facial hair (against both of our wishes, haha) since our vacation. He shaved the day of youth group and created what he called the "mustbeard." It was a hit at youth group, but it was a hit with me when it was gone the next day! (I was glad he kept it on long enough to get some pictures, though!)

For more laughs, read the writing on Danny's shirt. He thought it was appropriate for the look.

Tour of the Rock

2008-09-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

For Danny's birthday, we did what native Bay Area residents rarely do and toured Alcatraz. People who live in this area are generally fascinated with the Rock but have either never been, or only been when they were little on school field trips. So this was a first for me and the first for Danny since he was about 10, and it was fun! The audio tour was really well done and the legends surrounding Alcatraz are fascinating. It was also a gorgeous day with (rare) clear skies and made for some great pictures.

Danny wore what he calls his "jailbird" shirt (because it has fat horizontal stripes) and enjoyed posing in the cells.

This barely conveys how small the cells were.

The commentary from the inmates on the audio tour talked about how the close proximity to San Francisco was part of the punishment. So close to freedom, but so far.

Fall is here...yippee!!

2008-09-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

Fall is here, and while that induces a bit of stress in my work, school, and youth ministry life, it also induces intense excitement because we have three, count em', THREE, vacations coming up this fall. It was quite by accident, but we're excited all the same, and we're ready to take a break!

This summer on July 1st we celebrated our second anniversary and on August 3rd welcomed our first niece into the world! She's beautiful and we are dying to meet her but will have to wait until November since Danny's brother and his family are all the way in Manhattan.

So, for our three vacations this fall, we are counting down (see the post below) to trip #1, our big trip to Italy, in less than a month. We will be in Rome for three days and Florence for four, and I'm beside myself with excitement! I can't wait to introduce Danny to the adventure of 14-hour flights and jet lag and the joys of seeing a new country. I've been practicing Italian, which is close enough to Spanish that I'm picking it up really easily. I'm looking forward to seeing the Sistine Chapel and the ancient sites in Rome and eating amazing food and gelato in Florence! We will definitely post pictures on our blog, so stay tuned!

Trip #2 will be with Danny's folks to New York in November to meet our niece. Fitelson family trips to New York are a blast, and I can't wait to see the baby and see my old friend, the Manhattan skyline. Fall in New York just makes me happy, and we have a baby to snuggle to make it even better!

Trip #3 was a recent development, but we are going with my whole family to Texas to celebrate my sister Grace's graduation from Abilene Christian University! I'm so happy for Grace to celebrate this big accomplishment, and I'm looking forward to introducing Danny to my Texas roots and Harold's barbeque. I'm drooling just thinking about it. We'll be spending two days in Dallas so I'm looking forward to catching up with Pepperdine friends Travis and Meagan (and their two kiddos) and Kelli (and her new baby boy). Lots of new babies to meet and old friends to hug! But, the climax of our time in Dallas will be ..... drumroll, please..... my first Cowboys game!!!! We just got the tickets in the mail today and I'm about to explode with excitement. We'll be seeing the second to last game in Texas stadium (sniff, sniff) and possibly the biggest game of the season as they take on the New York Giants. I plan to deck myself out in blue and silver and scream my head off. As my mom often quotes one-year-old Bethany: "EEEEEE BOWBOYS!"

In between these vacations, we'll be continuing with life as usual with the Oakland youth group, I'll be taking a new class on the Gospels in the fall, and work at Fuller is busy as always. More updates to come after all the fun to be had over the next four months!

Year-End Trip

2008-06-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of trying to blog more frequently and not feeling compelled to write a novel each time, I'll just post a few pictures from the FCC high school year end trip last weekend. I missed half the trip (including the white-water rafting, dang!) but had a blast chillin' in Sacramento (well, more like melting in Sacramento) with some awesome high schoolers. Enjoy a few photos.

I love seeing Danny have so much fun!

One of our very talented teens made this bag out of recycled Target bags - with crochet needles. It was, as he put it, "the talk of the weekend." SO cool!!

I had a great time driving these girls around. They're a blast.

We went to the Sacramento Rivercats game (they are the Oakland A's minor league team) and watched them whoop up on the San Francisco Giants' minor league team. We sat on the grass so the kids could stretch out and run around and it was so much fun. $1 hot dog night too!

Mini-vacation

2008-06-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend felt like a full vacation even though it just lasted three days. First, I had a sleepover with my Pepperdine roommates who still call ourselves A-14 after the apartment we occupied for years. I haven't had a sleepover with adults in so long - and this was complete with brownies and the new member of our "apartment" - Patty's baby Zoe. Patty and Zoe came from Germany for the summer, and although Zoe is 9 months old, Friday was the first time any of us had met her and we're pretty much in love. She's beautiful and energetic and smart - you actually have to work hard to make her laugh because she's so smart that the usual "booga booga" amuses her only slightly. We had a great time catching up, discussing world issues, and laughing hysterically.

Saturday after the sleepover ended Danny and I went to Sonora (a small town in California gold country) to stay at a friend's mountain cabin with my parents for two days of relaxing. Since we had about a week in between the end of spring and beginning of summer for both our jobs, it felt so good to take two days to worry about nothing. I didn't even wear a watch. I took a book that was just fun novel reading that I didn't have to underline, memorize or process for later. We never left the cabin, but still got lots of fresh air and sunshine by spending our whole day on the deck. We ate incredible barbeque and fresh baked pies. We even had a vegetable pot pie from a local Mennonite farm - delicious!

Yes, we each have TWO plates of food in this picture. Glorious.

The Fitelsons are alive and well!

2008-06-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

Wow time flies! Yes, we are alive and well, and still very busy. The school year has just ended for both the high schoolers and Fuller, which means we get about a week to breathe before summer kicks off.

This week I completed two things that have had me swamped and stressed: Fuller graduation, which I was largely responsible for, and my Spring quarter class. Graduation took up all my time at work, and writing my final paper for my Spirituality class took all my time outside of work! Since Wednesday I've had some time to relax and it's been great.

On the youth ministry side of life, we had a great time at the FCC family camp on Memorial Day weekend (including Danny's annual "ballers only" grass volleyball game), Danny planned and executed a great grad banquet for the seniors, we had our last Tuesday night for the year, and now we're ramping up for the summer.

The past few weeks my youth ministry self and Fuller student self have been able to collide since my final paper for a class on spirituality was about teens and spirituality. As part of my research, I read Mark Yaconelli's book "Contemplative Youth Ministry" and was blown away by it. I highly recommend it to anyone in youth ministry or who has teenagers in their life. It's made me see the kids in our youth group in new ways and made me feel more convicted to be a good role model.

The most exciting news in our little family is that we have booked tickets to Italy in October! We are both in need of a vacation and I can't wait to explore a new culture and country I've never seen. It will be Danny's first time overseas, and he's starting to get excited - mostly because we saved a ton of money by going in October instead of August. We'll spend 3 days in Rome and 3 in Florence. We welcome any travel tips from those of you who have been to those cities! I've got about 20 travel books and am loving reading them with expectancy.

I'm off to bed. I hope to post more news and some pictures soon. At the moment I'm too sleepy to remember anything we've done the past three months, so I'll call it a night. Leave us some love!

The Next Fifty

2008-04-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

In no particular order:

The Pianist – for a different look at the Holocaust, right BEFORE it started and what things were like in Poland outside of the concentration camps

Schindler’s List – probably would be in my top 50 if I had seen it more than once

Glory – Denzel. Morgan. Together. The end gets me everytime.

Clockers – a Spike Lee film about drug dealing with Mekhi Phifer and Harvey Keital. I saw it 3 times in the theater and bought the soundtrack.

In America – just a beautiful little film about an Irish family living “in America.”

Philadelphia – Denzel. Tom. Together. The end gets me everytime.

North By Northwest – I love the twists.

Psycho – I love the creepiness.

Rear Window – I love the humor.

Silence of the Lambs – I’ll never forget my surprise the first time I saw it when Lector sits up in the ambulance and takes off his “mask.”

About a Boy – I also really like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill and Love Actually.

Do the Right Thing – I haven’t seen it since I was in high school… maybe I oughta change that.

Mean Girls – plays like a 90 minute SNL skit, and really understands today’s teenager.

Saved – some Christians were offended. I was inspired.

The Game – the most underrated and underappreciated thriller of all time.

Seven – packs one heck of a visceral gut punch.

Braveheart – I’ve only seen it once, I’d probably like it more if I watched it more.

The Matrix – on imdb.com, the 1st Matrix movie scores a 8.6, the second- 7.0, the third- 6.4. I’d give the second 3.5 and the third a .1

The Iron Giant – you gotta love the Brad Bird movies (Incredibles, Ratatouille).

A Few Good Men – one of the most quoted movies of my generation.

Field of Dreams – never has a movie captured the love of baseball this well, except for maybe…

The Natural – the shmaltz works for me. Still can’t believe he strikes out at the end in the book.

Aliens – one of the top 5 action movies ever. Love me the Bill Paxton and Michael Biehn.

T2 – also in the top 5 action movies. To this day it is still a killer story with great effects.

Forrest Gump – it amazes me how many adults let their kids watch this movie though!

Hotel Rwanda – horrific, challenging, inspiring.

Reservoir Dogs – I’m a Tarantino fan. Good storywriting here.

Kill Bill 1 & 2 – so stinking cool.

Pulp Fiction – so stinking funny.

Jackie Brown – I have no idea why.

Sin City – the best job a movie has done at really making a comic book "come to life" on the screen. I was surprised by the chivalry of the men in this movie.

American History X – now this one is tough to watch.

The Sixth Sense – I'm still an M Night fan, despite Lady in the Water.

Joy Luck Club – makes me cry every time.

Best in Show – I like dogs.

Something about Mary – nothing is funnier in the entirety of cinema to me than Matt Dillon in those fake teeth.

Unforgiven – great “anti-western”. Saw it with my big bro at the UC theater on Shattuck in 1992!

City Slickers – dang funny movie... with the great Bruno Kirby.

Kramer vs. Kramer – much better than I thought it would be.

Gladiator – spawned so many lesser movies: Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, 300, etc.

The Emperor's Club – great lesson on integrity here.

Back to the Future – probably should have been in my top 50, but I can’t watch it anymore. I’ve seen it too many times. Yet another example instance where the sequels never happened.

The Untouchables – underrated crime flick with a great cast.

The Big Lebowski – the dude abides. And the Coen brothers score again.

Minority Report – it has a character named Danny who went to Fuller Seminary in it, along with great action and mind-boggling musings on predestination vs. free will.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – I wish it didn’t have to end the way it does… so sad... but imagine how sad it would be if we saw 10 more seconds?

Raging Bull – although I never feel like watching it again. We’ve owned it for 3 years and it is still in the wrapping.

Ratatouille – the first of 4 movies from 2007 on this list, it’s more for grown ups than kids.

Into the Wild – it just stuck with me.

Gone Baby Gone – kinda like Good Will Hunting meets Silence of the Lambs.

3:10 to Yuma – some good discussion on manhood here.

There you have it! If you feel like I left one out or you can't see why I included one you hate, put up a post! In the meantime, I will be trying to think up something to blog about now that I finally finished my movie list!

Jury Duty

2008-04-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today I had my first jury duty experience. Ever since my high school government teacher told us we should take advantage of jury duty as a way to learn about the justice system I've been fascinated by the idea of being on a jury.

I was actually looking forward to the process - until I realized that on Monday I'm supposed to be in Pasadena for our Fuller staff meetings with all the staff from around the country. We do this just twice a year, and I've been looking forward to it for 6 months! Not only is it so fun, but we have meetings and training sessions that will affect my job for the next year. So I started to get a little nervous, but thought, "Nah, what are the chances?"

Shows what I know. I got what I asked for - I learned a lot about the jury system, starting with you never know what to expect and should prepare for anything! I figured I could check in over the phone and not even have to go in - wrong. I figured with only two trials that day and 100 people in the room I wouldn't be called - wrong. I figured if I did get called to a courtroom that they would do the selection that day and the chances were that I wouldn't be selected anyway and life would be back to normal before Monday - wrong.

On the way up to the courtroom I ran into a friend from church who happens to work in the D.A.'s office. It was fun to see a friendly face in a strange place! When we got to the courtroom they read the details of the case, and then had us fill out a questionnaire. Although my buddy wasn't in the courtroom, the D.A.'s office was prosecuting the case. On the questionnaire they asked if we knew anyone in the justice system in Oakland, so I mentioned my friend's name. I was hoping a little bit that would be my ticket out of there and my ticket to Pasadena, but also not wanting to exploit the system and be a whiner.

Then the judge said we would need come back another day for jury selection - on Monday! We had the option to fill out a "hardship" form if we wanted to be excused from the case. We had a two hour break and had to come back to plead our case before the judge. My heart was pounding the entire two hours! I spent time talking on the phone with my co-workers and Danny trying to come up an argument the judge would accept. I felt bad the whole time since I really didn't want to skip out on the system, but I really wanted to be part of the staff time in Pasadena!

I came back at the right time with butterflies in my stomach, ready to be grilled by the judge on why I wasn't smart enough to postpone jury duty before the day it began. (Like I said, I realize now how naive I was about the system.) Then the court clerk came out and said the judge had looked over our questionnaires and had a list of people who were excused. I held my breath...and my name was on the list! I'm thinking that the fact that I already bought plane tickets for next week and the fact that I know a guy in the D.A.'s office probably combined to get me excused.

I had been praying all day about it, alternating between selfish "I want to go to Pasadena!" prayers and "Take control and do what's best" prayers. When I heard my name called I was really thanking God! Danny asked me later if I would have thought to put my friend's name down on the questionnaire unless I had run into him, and I'm not sure that I would have! God may have thrown me a little bone by having our paths cross.

So I'm relieved of jury duty for a year, get to get on a plane and see my friends on Sunday, and learned a lot in the process. Not too bad for a day I didn't have to go work. (Now that my heart has stopped pounding, the change of pace was nice!)

Other than that, here's a quick run-down of what we've been up to:
- In one weekend, we went to a musical, a wedding, and a funeral
- The funeral was for an elder at the Campbell church who died suddenly of a heart attack. Browning was a dear friend, my adviser and confidante while I was a missionary in Japan, and I feel more like I lost a grandfather than an elder. Through the grieving process I've learned that not all churches have elders like Campbell elders, who are true shepherds and pastors and not just administrators. I'm truly thankful for my Campbell church family!
- The day Browning died Danny and I had tickets to see Bon Jovi in San Jose. I had been looking forward to it for about 7 months, but I wasn't really in the mood to celebrate. But, when my boys hit the stage and got a few songs going, I was on my feet and singing along, albeit a little more somber than my usual Bon Jovi-induced hysteria. I love them in concert!
- I've begun my Spring class at Fuller, Intro to Christian Spirituality. It's exciting to be "forced" to read spiritual classics like Celebration of Discipline!
- We're still planning on a vacation, maybe to Italy, but may have to put it off because we've got sticker shock on the airline tickets. But we definitely need time off, and I need to get off the continent, so I'm praying it happens!

I think that's about it for the Fitelsons for now. Leave us some love!

The Greatest Film Ever Made

2008-04-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

During the winter of 2004, two young filmmakers were just beginning to hone their craft. One was new to the pressures of writing, directing, and starring in a short film. The other had never worked with adults before, only middle schoolers.

These two men faced challenges such as a shoestring budget, a narrow driveway, and the need to find a camera operator who shared their vision so that they could both be onscreen together for a few shots. In the booming and competitive FCC digital video industry, these two pioneers forged ahead in their quest to show people what they wanted, nay, BEGGED to know: "What do you guys DO all day?"

The answer, my friends, can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwIykc_7nB8&feature=related

Like other great films such as Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Howard the Duck, you may want to watch this again and again. But you may also want to learn more about what went into the making of the film. For a short documentary, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY1UE5XYggw&NR=1

To go behind the scenes and rewatch the first part of the film with commentary from the co-creators, directors, actors, and the key third camera operator, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIJCZM7E5DA

For commentary on the second part of the film, direct your mouse here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVkjO-8Pb-c&feature=related

Nobody is perfect. Screen legends are human and make mistakes too. For bloopers, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOyXprI58IM&feature=related

There you have it, #1 on my list of my 50 Favorite Movies. I encourage you to file your complaints in the comments section of this post. Also, come back next week when I list "The Next 50" - some of my other favorites that missed the cutoff.

One last thing. Hypothetically speaking, let's say that in the winter of 2002 these two filmmakers succumbed to one of the various pitfalls they faced while making this movie, such as the camera battery running out. Let's say the unthinkable happened and A Day In The Life of D Fitty and G Branny was never made. In that event, the world would be a sadder place. And I would have to consider the #2 movie on this list my favorite movie of all time.

Long Time No Blog

2008-03-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

I am finally making the shameful, apologetic return to blogging after taking far too long of a break. If anyone is still checking our blog, I'm sorry it's been so long since you've heard any family news from our end! (For those of you who are waiting expectantly for Danny's #1 movie pick, he might need some prodding. He won't even tell me what it is and I'm dying to know, but I think he's run out of steam. Give him a little encouragement!)

My reason for not blogging more is two-fold: 1) we have too much going on, and 2) there's really nothing going on. We are really busy, but since we don't have a cute baby to post pictures of and our lives pretty much follow the same pattern, there's not much to report! Plus, I haven't taken the time to learn how to upload pictures from my new phone yet, so I have absolutely nothing to show for what we've been up to the last few months.

In the spirit of cute baby pictures making for good blogging, here's a picture of a precious little one who I love dearly but have yet to meet! This is the daughter of my Pepperdine roommate, Patty Ortigas Surmann. Patty, her husband Olaf and little Zoe live in Hannover, Germany, and I will get to meet Zoe for the first time this summer!

Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to.

School

Last weekend I finished another quarter of school, and I have a month-long break in between classes! I'm very excited. In fact, this weekend was the first since January when I didn't either have class at 8 am Saturday morning, or I didn't have to write a paper all weekend. It's been fantastic. That said, I really love being in school! I don't always love writing the papers or going to class all day on a Saturday (especially since I work at my school - I feel like I'm working 6 days a week!) but I am loving what I'm learning. The class I just finished was on the Pentateuch and I'm seeing the Old Testament in a totally new way. I actually enjoyed learning about Numbers and Leviticus, which was a surprise!

One of the biggest things I've learned from last quarter is seeing the Sabbath in a new way. It's the longest of the 10 Commandments, but the only one that we have no trouble breaking! We don't take time to rest because it's completely counter to our culture. We feel guilty resting - but we shouldn't! I also realized that the idea of Sabbath was not solely about rest, but also about relationships. I used to think that napping and watching football on a Sunday afternoon was taking my Sabbath (and sometimes that's the rest we need) but the Sabbath was designed not for lazy self-indulgence, but for building relationships with family and with God. So this Sunday, instead of napping by myself, I took a nap with my husband, haha.

Family

The most exciting news we have is that we are going to have a niece or nephew! Danny's brother, Michael, and his wife, Betsy, are due in August and we are SO excited! We're also glad for a decoy from the fact that we're not starting a family any time soon, haha. We are really happy for Mike and Betsy and can't wait to meet the little Fitel. I'm doubly thrilled because I love babies and I love my brother and sister-in-law, and because it's another excuse to go to New York more often!

By the way, you should be thanking me that I didn't play a trick on you by saying "there's a baby on the way!" or "the Fitelsons are expecting!" It was really tempting....

Vacation

Danny and I have high hopes to take a vacation this summer and get some real time away and time off. Last year we took no more then 4 consecutive days of vacation together, so we're hoping for a good long one this year! I came to the realization around the new year that 2007 was the first year in EIGHT years that I didn't leave the continent of North America. I was pretty excited and proud to realize that every year from 1999 to 2006 I left the continent at least once for either trips to Japan, business travel, or mission trips. In 2007 I left the country to go to Mexico for a youth trip, but that was NOT a vacation!

So this summer I'm hoping to see a new country and to take Danny on his first overseas adventure. We hope to go to New York to meet Little Fitel in August, and then go East from there. On a sidenote, several times when I've told people we want to go to New York and then go East from there, I am met with a confused, blank look and the comment "You can't go East from New York." When I say, "Sure you can. Like Italy!" they just laugh. I'm not sure why that's funny. Anyone feel me on that, or is my circle of friends just really that weird?

I hope that our trip will be somewhere in Western Europe because the extent of my time in Europe was 3 days in Germany. We won't be going to Germany because my main reason for visiting Germany (see cute baby above) will be in California. So, if anyone has a suggestion for a European city that would be good for a week of vacation for two Europe newbies (and one who has never traveled abroad) we would love suggestions!! Rome and Florence? London? Athens? Paris is out because we still plan to do that with Danny's family some day, when Little Fitel is portable.

Youth Group

The Youth Group is still great. We've got amazing kids and they keep us busy. I've been bonding a lot with the sophomore girls and trying to spend one-on-one time with a handful of them - which is really difficult with my crazy schedule. Danny is working on a service project for the high school students over Spring Break so they can serve around Oakland and see that they don't have to go all the way to Mexico to help people in need. He's excited about it and it's saving the church a ton of money. He's hoping to take the kids back to Mexico next year.

Work

I'm still working at Fuller Seminary in Menlo Park and after a year there I finally feel like I'm getting grounded and know what I'm doing. That said, there is always something new to learn and it is always challenging. I am never bored or out of things to do! The best part about my new job compared to my old job is that when I tell people what I do it leads to theological discussions instead of a conversation about servers, networks, software, blah blah blah. I'm much more in my element at Fuller!

I think that's about all I have to update. I'm off to cook dinner and enjoy a relaxing Sunday evening with Danny, both of which are rare these days! Is this what weekends and Sabbaths are supposed to like? Because I'm loving it!

2nd Favorite Movie - Magnolia

2008-02-09T08:28:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

So I'm pretty glad that I've only got one more of these to do. While I used to look forward to writing about a new movie every week, lately I've had to work up the motivation to do even one entry a month. Last week Bethany asked me if I was going to blog on my day off and my response was, "I forgot we even had a blog." But talking about Magnolia does get my juices flowing. I can tell this is gonna be a long post.

Magnolia came out in theaters in 1999, in what has been called "the year that changed movies."
(http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,271806_7_0_,00.html)
During the year that served as the eve of the new millenium, an overabundance of spiritually and theologically rich films were released: The Matrix, Fight Club, Run Lola Run, American Beauty, Dogma, The Third Miracle, The Green Mile, The Big Kahuna, Keeping the Faith, The End of the Affair, and After Life. In my mind, Magnolia is the best and richest of them all.

The first time I saw Magnolia was on New Year's Day of 2001. I was living in Fresno at the time and my roommates and I had ordered it through Netflix. I woke up around 10 am, had the house to myself, popped the DVD in, and when it was done I rushed to my computer to find out everything I could about this movie that was unlike anything I had ever seen before. In the way that some people obsess about Star Wars or Star Trek, I developed an obsession for Magnolia. I trolled fan boards searching for Magnolia minutia (of which there is plenty - for example, the placement of 8's and 2's throughout the film and how many characters are named after flowers). I forced friends of mine who had not seen it to watch it with me. I downloaded the songs from the movie and listened to them over and over again. In a way that only a handful of movies in my entire lifetime will, this movie spoke to my very soul.

Magnolia boasts an impressive ensemble cast, many of who worked with director PT Anderson on his first hit, Boogie Nights: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, and Luis Guzman. Joining them is Tom Cruise, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the leader of a male chauvinist seminar. Be warned -some of the foulest statements ever uttered by mankind come from the lips of his character in this film. But as we discover, there is a reason for his character saying the things he does and acting the way he does, and that is what the film is all about. A line from the movie is "we may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us." It just occured to me that Magnolia shares this theme with another obsession of mine, the TV show Lost. Interestingly, they also share a cast member: actress April Grace who plays an interviewer in Magnolia and the Other on Lost who Mikhail shot in the "Entering 77" episode.

The film toggles between the male chauvinist played by Cruise, a drug addict, a man on his deathbed and his emotionally unstable wife, a TV game show host with a secret life, a washed-up former child star on TV, and a single dad who cares about success more than he cares about his son's well-being. Within this world of absolute anguish, joy can be found in the presence of a few "angels" - Phillip Seymour Hoffman's tender loving nurse, John C. Reilly's incorruptible cop, and a little boy who, in one scene, is positioned so that the angelic wings from a background mural appear to be protruding from his back. While most of the characters have been used and abused by people in their past and continue to draw others into this cycle of despair, these three are able to rise above the filth and seek to draw others out of it.

The Aimee Mann songs "Wise Up" and "Save Me" which were written for the film are two of my favorite songs ever and I cannot hear them without thinking of the movie. This film would not be what it is without the inclusion of these two songs. "Wise Up" comes at the point in the film when people are beginning to realize the poor choices they have made and how it has hurt themselves and others - that perhaps there is still a chance for them to "Wise Up" and redeem their broken lives. In just one of the bold moves that PT Anderson makes, he has the various actors stop what they have been doing in the film and actually sing the song out loud in their regular voices. It is somewhat like what you would see in a musical, but here they actually look directly into the camera, breaking the storied "fourth wall" of cinema and reminding the viewer that they are watching a movie and the people on screen are acting. For some critics, this was ridiculous. For me, in a film as big and bold as Magnolia, it works. Especially since until this point, for about 2.5 hours, there really is not much of an opportunity to ever stop and catch your breath. For a film with so much dialogue and not much "action", Magnolia builds a tremendous amount of tension. As director PT Anderson says, "I tried to structure my movie after (the Beatles' song) 'A Day in the Life,' how it would sort of build build build build build build build--fall off a cliff, and then start building back up again. I took more structurally from that song than from any movie I've seen." The "Wise Up" interlude provides a release of tension to viewers before the grand finale, which is an even bigger and bolder decision by PT Anderson.

The same people who have a problem with characters spontaneously bursting into song probably also have a problem with the random act of God/nature that takes place at the end of the film, but it is set up beautifully in the film's prologue about how some events in life seem to be orchestrated by a higher power. When we are desparate for help and circumstances become worked out in a perfect and incredible way, divine providence can feel like a more plausible answer than coincidence. For example, in the days leading up to our Winter Retreat last weekend, http://www.weather.com/ called for a 100% chance of rain (have you EVER seen that before?) on Friday, 90% on Saturday, and 60% on Sunday. Friday it poured like crazy. Sunday it poured like crazy. Saturday, we actually had blue skies, sunshine, and not a drop of rain. And that was the key day for us where we were outside for paintball, the ropes course, a night game, and "muggle quidditch" (ask me if you want to know more, it was awesome!). Coincidence or divine providence? I'm not a big "God orchestrated the weather in this whole region just for our group of 50 people" kind of guy, but it was pretty amazing. The other Aimee Mann song, "Save Me" comes at the end of the movie when a drug addicted, promiscous character has for once in her life found something pure, good and noble, and for the first time in the film actually smiles.

If you have made it this far, I want to mention that Bethany and I checked out PT Anderson's latest film, There Will Be Blood last weekend. We were watching the Super Bowl and with the score being only 7-3 in the 3rd quarter, we were getting bored and decided to go see a movie. The game started to pick up just as we were leaving, but we still figured there was no way "weak old Eli" could win a Super Bowl and Tom "the next Joe Montana" Brady could lose one. Our jaws dropped when we came home that night and watched the highlights on Sportscenter. Anyways, neither of us was all that impressed with There Will Be Blood. While all of PT Anderson's films could be considered bizarre and over-the-top, for some reason it bothered me in this film. I still thinkDaniel Day Lewis will get Best Actor, and probably deservedly so, but I think No Country for Old Men, which I liked a bit more, will take most of the major awards. Both films, however, lost me in the last 20 minutes and neither one's "knockout punch last scene", did anything for me. With the writer's strike looking like it will end in the next couple of days, I look forward to the Academy Awards on February 24. But I am growing jaded with the Academy. I don't understand how Gone Baby Gone, 3:10 to Yuma, and especially Into the Wild did not get more nominations, while a PT Anderson and Coen brothers' film that are inferior to their previous work could get so many. It has got to the point where the Academy members nominate and vote based on their previous mistakes: "What? We snubbed Martin Scorsese for Goodfellas and Raging Bull? Well, let's make up for it and give him the Oscar for The Departed, which isn't even one of his 5 best films." Or "Denzel Washington doesn't have a Best Actor Oscar yet? Let's vote him in for Training Day, since we messed up back in 1993 with Malcolm X." With this being the case, perhaps we will see a win for PT Anderson and There Will Be Blood, since Magnolia - the best film of 1999 - was shut out at the Academy Awards that year.

3rd Favorite Movie - 12 Angry Men

2008-01-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

In an attempt to get my mind off of that terrible Cowboys game (as well as stay out of Bethany's path) I thought I'd blog about my next movie.

I saw 12 Angry Men for the first time about 6 years ago in Fresno when some friends showed it to me. After they showed it to me, I went and watached it with another friend who had not seen the next day. The "12 Angry Men" are all members of a jury. A young man is on trial for murder and it is up to the 12 of them to decide his fate. While I have been playing spoiler left and right on this blog, I just can't bring myself to do it here with this movie. What I will tell you is that over the course of the movie one man (played by Henry Fonda) has the courage to stand alone against the rest of the jurors - not for personal gain - but simply because he feels it is the right thing to do.

I have heard of high school government classes showing this movie to look at how our legal system works. After watching this movie, a pretty good debate could get going as to whether our system is fair or not. I have also heard of sociology classes showing it to study the effects of racism. Subtly, the film suggests certain characters may have certain prejudices early on and then toward the end we understand why this is important. I am told that psychology classes even show this film to talk about the dynamics of being in a group. I think it is all altogether fascinating.

Henry Fonda's character (along with Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird) is one of my cinematic heroes for his persistence, his refusal to give in to "peer pressure", and his all-around goodness and integrity. The scene where he pulls the knife out and sticks it in the table is also one of my all-time favorites. Interestingly, we never hear the names of most of the men in the movie - in the credits they are listed as Juror #'s 1-12. Also, pretty much the whole film takes place in one room. But don't let that stop you from seeing it... you figure it HAS to be pretty good to be #3 on my list, right?

4th Favorite Movie - Signs

2007-12-27T18:43:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

I'm not sure why, but the closer I get to #1, the harder it is to get motivated to write each entry. It's weird, I know. You'd think I would be MORE excited about covering the movies that are in my top five! But while I may like the films that are closer to #1 more than the ones that are closer to #50, that doesn't mean I like WRITING about them any more. All that to say... I am going to try to get this one over with as fast as I can so I can do something else. Here are a few reasons why I like this movie so much:

*THE SUSPENSE: Like Hitchcock, M. Night knows how to use music, camera angles and settings to create suspense. The opening credit sequence is one of my all-time favorites, and a nod to films like The Birds and Psycho. Like Spielberg, M. Night knows it is sometimes better to NOT show the monster and thus allow the audience to scare themselves using their own imaginations.

*THE SCENES THAT MAKE YOU JUMP: There are a few of them here, especially the one involving the knife and the pantry door. This makes it a fun movie to watch with people who have not seen it before.

*THE HUMOR: The first time I saw Signs, I was surprised by the amount of humor in it. Joaquin Phoenix is hilarious, and both kids (the girl is the one from Little Miss Sunshine) have their moments as well. M. Night's attempts at humor in The Lady in the Water do not measure up, unless you count his made-up words like "narf" and "scrunt", which sound pretty funny when you say them.

*THE MESSAGE: Most people would say Signs is about crop circles, or aliens, but it is also about faith. Mel Gibson plays Graham Hess, a pastor who recently quit the ministry after his wife died in a freak accident. Graham figured that God turned his back on him and let his wife die, so he turns his back on God. In the pivotal speech of the film, Graham tells his brother that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who see miracles (faith group) and those who just see coincidences. As a reaction to his wife's tragic death, Graham has gone from the faith group to the coincidence group. Our first clue of this is in the beginning of the film, when we see the dusty outline on Graham's bedroom wall that indicates that a cross once hung there. Even though Graham put the cross away, it left an imprint on the wall that he cannot completely remove. Likewise, even though Graham has put his faith away, "signs" of it remain. Late in the movie he fumes at God, which may seem like a "faithless" thing to do, but it actually shows he has moved from the coincidence group to the faith group once again.

*THE HEART: When it looks to be the end for them all, Hess shares with his son and daughter the stories of when they were born. The stories that Mel Gibson's character tells are the actual birth stories of M. Night's two children. Again taking a page out of Spielberg's book, M. Night's films may always have something to do with the supernatural, but they also always have something to do with family.

Interestingly, production on the film began the day after 9/11/2001. While M. Night was filming a movie about the effect a tragedy can have on faith and on family, thousands of people around the world were learning firsthand for themselves.

Holiday Weekend

2007-12-19T19:30:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm done with the Fall quarter, life has been full of non-stop festivities. This past weekend was full of Christmas events and turned out to be more fun and less tiring than I thought it would be! Friday night Danny helped officiate a vow renewal of friends from First Covenant who have been married for 10 years. It was really a beautiful event and we had some rare time to catch up with church friends we don't get to see often.

Saturday was the Hall family annual "Tree Day." This event started when my family would drive into the Santa Cruz Mountains every Christmas to cut down our tree at one of the MANY Christmas tree farms, and it's now morphed into the biggest event of our holiday season. Even when my sisters and I were away at college and I lived in Japan, no one has missed Tree Day in about 10 years, maybe longer. There is often bickering about the size of the tree and if it's too thin or full of holes, but we always have a blast. This year we took three cars and brought home three trees, one for my parents and sisters, one for me and Danny, and one for Eve and her roommate Rebecca. We spent the rest of the day decorating the Hall family tree and then Danny and I brought our tree home and decorated it. Christmas trees always look smaller out in the woods so we were a little surprised at how huge our tree was - it barely fit through our front door! We were really happy with how it turned out. Both of us grew up with eclectic and sentimental ornaments on our family trees, so we inherited lots of ornaments from our parents that bring back fond memories! We found FOUR "Our First Christmas" ornaments that people gave us last Christmas, and each is unique so we love all four. We also have Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Rainbow Bright, and several Dallas Cowboys ornaments, as well as a few from trips we've taken together to Niagara Falls and New York.

The hunt...

The Hall family tree before (My sister Grace always does the cutting with her big biceps!)

The Hall family tree after

Our tree before

Our tree after

My sister Trisha is hilarious!

Sunday we hosted about 20 people in our small apartment for the annual youth group adult staff and student staff Christmas party. That was a blast. It gets easier every year to cook for 20 people and we love having our house full. We appreciate these folks beyond words for all they do for the youth group. A tradition at this party is a white elephant gift exchange, and the nature of the white elephant gifts is undefined. Some people bring garage sale finds while others actually buy real gifts. It's not fair, but that's part of the fun. I gave away a glass hummingbird figurine and Santa socks and got back what looks to be a new trifle bowl with mini trifle serving dishes! I will definitely be looking up some fun Pampered Chef trifle recipes to show off my new bowl, haha.

We tried to get a picture with our tree, but the only one in focus makes Danny look half asleep! This one's out of focus but the best we could do!

Merry Christmas to all!

5th Favorite Movie - Jerry Maguire

2007-11-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Recently, I realized that Forrest Gump is probably the movie that I quote from the most in my daily life. That movie alone added the following words and sayings to my lexicon:

*"Life is like a box of chocolates"

*"Run, Forrest, run!"

*"Stupid is as stupid does"

*"I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is"

*"I was run-ning!"

*"I gotta pee"

*Saying the word 'shrimp' like Bubba

*Pronouncing the name 'Jenny' like Forrest (Jen-naay)

Another movie from the past 15 years that the entire nation is now familiar with - whether they have seen it or not - is Jerry Maguire. From this movie we get "Show me the money" AND "You complete me" AND "You had me at hello" AND "Help me help you". Maybe this is just between me and some of my friends, but I don't think a week goes by in my life without someone referencing one of these four lines. But more than just being a fun movie to quote, Jerry Maguire taught me a lot about myself.

The movie begins with Tom Cruise playing a successful sports agent named Jerry Maguire. He has lots of friends, an attractive fiancee, and a high-paying job. But like Solomon in Ecclesiastes, he is discontented. One of the athletes he represents who is supposed to be a role model gets arrested for indecent behavior. Other clients have become corrupted by the almighty dollar. One night, after being told off by a hockey player's son for attempting to get his injured father back on the ice, Jerry cannot get to sleep. He is disgusted with his lack of concern for his client's long-term health and he is disgusted with the trends he sees around him in the industry. He knows that the problem is not just around him but inside him. So he bares his soul in a 20-page office memo entitled, "The Things We Think But Are Afraid To Say." He talks about how as sports agents they should be more involved in their client's lives... which means less clients... which means less money. Many of his co-workers congratulate him for his courage, but his efforts get him fired.

All that happens in the first five minutes of the movie (see The Apartment). The question for the rest of the movie is: Jerry has talked the talk - now will he walk the walk? Will he live up to everything that he wrote, everything that he believes and stands for... or will he just be another shark in a suit?

In my second year of seminary, I wrote a paper for a class called "The Things We Think About Youth Ministry But Are Afraid To Say." My paper was structured around scenes from Jerry Maguire, and dealt mostly with the concepts of mentoring and accountability. In the movie, Jerry's mentor was a man named Dicky Fox who appears in flashbacks a few times to deliver some gems of wisdom. Here's some of his advice from the movie:

*"If the heart is empty, then the head does not matter."

*In life, I don't have all the answers. I have failed as much as I have suceeded. But I love my wife, and I love my life, and I wish you my kind of success."

*"This business is all about personal relationships."

This last statement sums up Jerry's new strategy in his job. He winds up going from 72 clients to just 1: a football player named Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.). In youth ministry, as in sports agency, it is easy to get caught up in numbers. People always want to know "how big is your youth group?" And sometimes, we think that a bigger group means we are doing a better job. But even if a youth group consisted of just one kid, we need the heart of the shepherd in Matthew 18 who goes looking for that one sheep. Sometimes in youth ministry we only see the multitudes and overlook the individuals. Jesus handled this dichotomy well - he saw both. He found Zacchaeus in a horde of people and the woman who was bleeding amongst the crowd. As youth ministers we can never become too busy, too lofty, or too consumed with the multitudes that we are not available for individual students.

Jerry and Rod become friends and wind up helping one another. Their relationship is a great example of men holding each other accoutable, because they are able to be tough and vulnerable with one another. In one scene, Rod looks Jerry in the eye and asks, "How's your marriage, Jerry?" Ephesians 4:15 says, "But speaking the truth in love we will all grow up into the Head, that is Christ…" In order to grow, we need to speak the truth in love to one another, which occasionaly involves confrontation. But there is a difference between speaking the truth in love, and giving the "brutal truth", as Jerry's fiancee does earlier in the movie.

The movie also addresses something that is difficult for most men: building intimacy. Jerry is known for being a guy who is "great at friendship, terrible at intimacy." He tends to hide himself in his work rather than discover his own feelings or share them with someone else. But his "memo" and meeting Rod Tidwell are breakthroughs for him in this area that wind up changing his life forever.

Some people think of Jerry Maguire as a "chick flick." I believe it is a movie that every man needs to see.

6th Favorite Movie - The Apartment

2007-11-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

A few years ago, I was reading an interview with Cameron Crowe, one of my favorite writer-directors (Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire, Say Anything, Singles). He was asked what his favorite movie was, and he said it was The Apartment. Even though I had never even heard of the movie before, I immediately rushed out and didn't just rent, but bought the DVD.

Written and directed by Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot), The Apartment took home Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 1961. In the movie, Jack Lemmon plays an everyday white collar worker at a large office building in New York City and Shirley Maclaine plays an elevator operator in the building. Now, don't be turned off to the movie because of Shirley "The Psychic Friend" Maclaine, because she is very charming in this movie. Lemmon's character is trying to work his way up in the office world, and he has a hard time saying no to his bosses who constantly ask to borrow his apartment to rendezvous with their mistresses. One of themes of the movie is assertiveness - for most of the movie Lemmon's character is a pushover and lets people walk all over him. But twice toward the end of the movie he finally works up some courage and risks telling people exactly how he feels in a very appropriate way. I guess that theme has some appeal to me.

Another theme in the movie that I enjoy is the struggle between ambition vs. integrity. At first, Lemmon is so focused on getting promoted that he doesn't care about his bosses using his apartment for their extra-marital affairs. Later on though, he has a change of heart, an "awakening" much like Jerry Maguire does at the beginning of that film. I also find the beginning of Jerry Maguire to be very much like the beginning of The Apartment, in which a lot happens in a short amount of time and you are caught up on a lot of information very quickly.

Another similarity to a Cameron Crowe film (Bethany noticed this one) is the way the female lead character is written. Shirley Maclaine's character is similar to Penny Lane in Almost Famous in that she loves another man who does not treat her nearly as well as the leading male would, and it pains her to the point of considering suicide. Jack Lemmon plays the innocent, love-stricken, puppy dog role that Patrick Fugit had in Almost Famous who takes care of the smitten lady while secretly pining for her.

"Romantic-comedy" would be the best way to classify this movie I suppose, but there are also elements of drama in it. While it is certainly feels similar to many Cameron Crowe movies, I also think the ending of When Harry Met Sally, in which Harry is running on New Yea's Eve in New York to be with Sally, is borrowed from this movie. As you can tell, this movie continues to be highly influential in cinema today and if you have not seen it before, rush out and don't just rent, but buy the DVD.

3 suitcases in 10 days, again

2007-10-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

My life is generally based on school calendars: that of Fuller and that of the Oakland high schools. So life is somewhat predictable, and every year October and April tend to be a perfect storm of work events, youth group events, and personal events. That's why I found myself traveling to three different cities, with three different suitcases, for three different reasons, all in the same ten days. (If this sounds familiar, check out my blog entry from October 2006 when I had YWAM, a business trip, and a personal trip in 10 days. Sounds a little too familiar.)

YWAM
Our youth group goes to the YWAM base in San Francisco every October to minister to the huge homeless population in San Francisco. This year we had a record amount of teens who wanted to come - 40 kids with only 5 adults. Based on the last time we were outnumbered (that nutty trip to Mexico) Danny was pretty stressed before the trip. But, the kids were fantastic! God really answers prayers (and we have great kids). I was especially thankful to get good sleep, with this group of girls who love each other and love to talk I've had trips when I only get 3 hours of sleep each night! The first night of YWAM I gave the girls a 15-minute warning before all talking had to cease, and less than 5 minutes later it was silent! I was so thrilled I blurted out into the silence how much I loved each and every one of them.

I was really impressed with the high schoolers and the way they cared for the homeless in San Francisco. They approached people boldly just to start a conversation and listen to them without any judgment. We had a large amount of freshmen and new students who had never done something like that, and they all made us really proud.

FULLER IN PASADENA
The Sunday that YWAM ended I came home early to do laundry and pack the next two suitcases. That night I flew to Pasadena for three days of meetings with the other Fuller extension staff at the Pasadena campus. I love these meetings since all the other Fuller staff from around the country are amazing people. I especially enjoy hanging out with my friend Airika from Seattle. Her and I have very similar jobs so we brainstorm a lot, and I love hearing about her wedding photography business she runs with her husband. If you're looking for an amazing wedding photographer in the Northwest, check out http://geraldpope.blogspot.com/

Our meetings in Pasadena are always busy - we get a full year's worth of meetings with all the campus departments in three days - but the face time is great! At times like that I really do love my job, and that's a great feeling. There's a lot of stress and way too much to do, but I'm proud to work for a school and ministry like Fuller.

DENVER, PART A
From L.A. I flew to Denver to attend the wedding of Cass Tallon, one of my Japan teammates and Pepperdine friends, and Alex Huffman, another Pepperdine campus ministry alum. Danny and I also took the chance to have three days of vacation together (the longest time away we've had in a long time!). We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast up in the mountains outside of Denver and really enjoyed being out of the city. We experienced local color, great homemade breakfasts made from eggs laid the same day (yum!) and ... the bird room. Our room at the B&B is called the Bird Suite, and it was full of stuffed birds, both taxidermy-stuffed and cotton-stuffed. It was cozy and very unique and we had a great time. I was sick with a bad cold the whole trip, so we did a lot of napping, relaxing, and just enjoying down time.

We did take an afternoon to explore Red Rocks Park which is famous for both its tall rust-colored rock formations, and for a gorgeous outdoor amphitheater. When we arrived we were looking forward to visiting the Colorado Welcome Center, which is supposed to be open until 4 every day. When we arrived it was closed, and we could not figure out why. Sure, it was a Thursday afternoon, but it didn't say it was closed on weekdays. Maybe it's only open on weekdays in the summer? But the sign says right there it's open from 9-4 every day! After visiting the other visitors center on site, we figured out why the welcome center was closed: it was 4:30! We had napped so long we had no idea what time it was! At that point we really felt like we were on vacation.

The wedding festivities were so much fun, mostly because I was reunited with Pepperdine campus ministry family, some of who I had not seen in years. Unfortunately, I was a dummy and left the camera in the car for the bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, and wedding! If anyone reading this has pictures from the wedding, send them my way! The wedding was beautiful, mostly because the bride and groom have been best friends for 12 years and just recently found romance - they were glowing with excitement! It was also beautiful because it was outdoors with a beautiful mountain backdrop. An outdoor wedding in the Colorado mountains in October was certainly a gamble, but the temperature was in the low 70s and perfect. Two days before it had been 40 and frigid, and 12 hours after the wedding it dumped snow! I'm convinced God plays weatherman for occasions such as this.

It was really exciting for me to have Danny get to meet lots of my Pepperdine friends. I did a lot of introductions followed by a long list of how I know the person and who they are connected to. He was a great sport! Many of those friends I talk about constantly but Danny has never met, including Pepperdine campus ministers (and my college mentors) Scott Lambert and Linda Truschke. I loved catching up with them and they loved meeting Danny. Of course, it was special to see my Japan team: Cass, Leah and Tim (we missed you Timbo!). They are the greatest friends I could ask for and I still can't believe all three of us girls are married! If we had only known what would come when we had late-night talks about the boys in our lives and our hopes for the futures. Cass would always quote Ephesians 3:20 "Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" and she was right! None of us would have imagined having the husbands we do now, and in fact Cass was the only one who knew her husband at the time and she never thought they would date! When we let God plan our lives for us he has a better plan in mind than we could imagine.

DENVER, PART B
I split the Denver trip into two parts because it feels a bit surreal as if it were two trips. Danny and I woke up Sunday morning to find it had snowed overnight and our rental car was buried. By buried I mean there were 2-3 inches on it, but to a pair of Californians it looked buried! While he checked out and got our breakfast to go, I scraped off the car and was starting to pride myself on my Canadian blood that knew how to properly scrape snow off a car. I was wrong - my Canadian blood has fully retreated under a California girl driver, and on the way to the airport I ran the car off the road. In my defense, it wasn't snowing when we left, but it all of a sudden came down hard. Where I made a mistake was deciding to stop and fill up the tank at that point. As soon as I nudged the wheel to change lanes, the tires let go of the road. Danny and I both felt it immediately, but at first I thought they would find traction again. As we slid more Danny said "Are you okay?" and I responded "I'm not sure." Then we knew we were in trouble, we were both trying to turn the wheel, and I tried to hit the brakes but we couldn't do anything except sit and wait to see where we landed. Eventually we impaled the car on a guardrail. Looking back, it could have been so much worse, and I'm really thankful. The only injury between the two of us is a rug burn on my wrist from the airbag.

I'm not sure if it's because the engine was so damaged or because the air bags deployed, but the inside of the car immediately stunk like smoke. We didn't think it was safe to stay in the car, so we got out - but keep in mind it was still pouring down snow. And then the thunder and lightning started. We made the phone calls to 911 and the rental car company, but it was snowing so hard that there were 5 other accidents on the same stretch of freeway and since we weren't hurt it was going to be a while before anyone showed up.

Just as we were soaked and starting to shiver, a pair of angels showed up. God is just too good to us sometimes. This sweet couple pulled over (I am still baffled as to how anyone else drove in that weather without sliding off the road) and offered to let us sit in their car until help came. I was hesitant to inconvenience anyone, but we really needed to get warm and dry. We sat in their car (on leather seats, I might add) for the next hour and in between phone calls to insurance, the rental car company, the police, etc. we got to know our rescuers. Their names were Rich and Charlotte, and Rich turned out to be a Pepperdine alum! They were on their way to church, which did not surprise me at all. As we apologized repeatedly for ruining their morning, they said it was more important to be Jesus to someone than to sit in a pew. They were such an amazing couple. When we found out it was going to take the tow truck a long time to arrive, Rich loaded our luggage in his car and they drove us all the way to the airport. I am still amazed by this couple and their generosity and kindness when we were desperate!

So if we recap, I have wrecked a car twice in the last three months, both immediately after attending the out of state wedding of one of my Japan teammates. Good thing I'm not superstitious or I would not be attending Tim's wedding when that happens! Haha. All in all, the Denver accident was traumatic but could have been so much worse! I did have a hard time driving to work the day after the accident - I was pretty paralyzed with fear, which is unusual for me behind the wheel. Old people were zooming around me and shooting me dirty looks because I was crawling along the road. I'm doing better now and trying to focus on the blessings instead of the helpless feeling of sliding off the road.

Mostly, I'm just glad to be home after so many trips! Thanks for reading my novel (if anyone is still with me) and I hope it won't be so long before I update again.

7th Favorite Movie - Traffic

2007-10-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

I confess that I have not seen this movie in about 5 years. The reason is because I loaned my DVD out to someone and I couldn't remember who! Don't you hate it when that happens? I was happy to find when I married Bethany that she had a copy (I was glad about other things, too). So I am sure I'll see it again soon.

In 2001, Steven Soderbergh looked to become one of my favorite directors. He had already made Out of Sight (1998) and Ocean's 11 (2001) and Traffic (2000), all of which made this Top 50 list. That ties him with Steven Spielberg and Spike Lee as the directors most represented on my list with 3 movies each. The problem is what he has done since. Solaris (2002) would probably make my top 50 for WORST movies of all time, and Ocean's 12 (2004) would make my top 5. He made a few more underwhelming movies (so I hear) Full Frontal, Bubble and The Good German before righting the ship a bit with Ocean's 13. But back to 2001... one year after being nominated for Best Director for Erin Brockovich, he won for Traffic, despite Gladiator taking Best Picture that year, which rarely happens. Apparently the Academy was as impressed as I was at the skills of the up-and-coming Steven Soderbergh.

Traffic is about drug trafficking, and it follows three different intersecting storylines. One features Michael Douglas, who is the new head of the War on Drugs campaign in Washington D.C., and his teenaged daughter, who brings the war close to home for him. Another storyline concerns the drugs getting made and smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico, where Benicio Del Toro works as a police officer. The third story surrounds a major dealer in the U.S. and his wife (Catherine Zeta Jones) and the cops (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman) who try to bring them down. Each story has a beginning, middle and end, intersects with the others, and has a unique look to it. The scenes in Washington D.C. have sort of a blue-grey haze to them while Mexico has a yellow-gold-brown look to it, which accentuate the "scorching, brutal and chaotic reality of Mexico and the sterile, cold & bureaucratic one of the United States" (i stole this from someone on imdb.com).

My favorite character in the film and one of my favorite characters in the entirety of cinema is the cop played by Benicio Del Toro, who rightly won Best Supporting Actor. Living each day in the midst of unfathomable danger and poverty, when he gets a chance to escape and make a better life for himself, he chooses instead to make a better life for the children and families around him for generations to come. The last scene in this movie makes the whole messy journey worth it to me and never fails to bring a tear to my eye and smile to my face.

8th Favorite Movie - Almost Famous

2007-10-19T10:57:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

During the summer between 9th & 10th grade, my brother introduced me to classic rock. He had already gone off to college, but left behind his extensive collection of homemade-dubbed cassette tapes. I think that he was already buying CD's, so he didn't need to have the tapes with him at college. I probably spent 8 hours a day on the computer that summer, playing adventure games and - believe it or not - chatting with people "online". You may be surprised at that since the year was 1989, a good 5 years before most people heard of email and Al Gore invented the internet. But I had a Commodore 64 computer in my room with a 300 bps dial up modem, and there was this thing called "Popnet" where you could dial up and chat with folks, post messages to bulletin boards, or play simple text-based games like Battleship online with people. The first half of that summer, I listened to the latest pop music station on the radio whenever I was on the computer. The second half of the summer, I listened to Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. My brother refuses to remember this next occurence, but I distinctly recall the day when I grew tired of hearing "Girl You Know It's True" 8 times a day (the radio station would play it once every hour) and asked my brother if he would recommend one of his tapes for me. He gave me The Eagles Greatest Hits, which he still denies to this day. Apparently he is not much of a fan of them anymore. I listened to that tape for a few days until I got to know all the songs and then asked him for another recommendation. Again, I distinctly remember him saying, "maybe you are ready for Zeppelin", and handing me a copy Led Zeppelin I.

If you have seen Almost Famous, you know where I am going with this. There is a scene in that movie where the older sibling goes off and leaves behind her classic rock collection for her younger brother to experience for the first time. He grows to love the music, and before he is even out of high school he winds up covering the tour of an up-and-coming rock band for Rolling Stone magazine.

The premise for the film is based on the real life experience of director Cameron Crowe (one of my favorites) who toured with several bands in the 1970's - Allman Brothers, Lynryd Skynryd, and Led Zeppelin - while writing for Rolling Stone. Two lines in the film he supposedly overheard from bands while on tour: "I'm the singer and the frontman, you're the guitarist with mystique" (Robert Plant arguing with Jimmy Page backstage) and "We don't care what you write, just make us look cool" (Glen Frey of The Eagles to a teenaged Cameron Crowe). Crowe almost called the film Untitled, as a reference to the album more commonly known as Led Zeppelin 4, but settled on using this title for his Director's Cut.

With these experiences being so close to his heart, Crowe injects so much warmth into Almost Famous. Frances McDormand, who plays "his mom", turns in a wonderful performance, as does Kate Hudson who plays his crush, Penny Lane. Hard to believe how far she has fallen after winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress here in 2000.

The Director's Cut DVD has some great extra scenes in it that are actually inserted into the original film. It also has a great deleted scene in which William plays "Stairway to Heaven" for his disapproving mom, who is also a college lit professor - to show her that that not all rock and roll is about sex and drugs, that this one actually talks about Tolkein. Zeppelin's asking price to use their landmark song was too high though, so in order to watch the scene with the music you need to have your own copy of the song ready to play along with the DVD.

How much you like this movie may depend on how much you like classic rock. Essentially, Almost Famous is Cameron Crowe's love letter to 1970's rock music.

9th Favorite Movie - The Hudsucker Proxy

2007-10-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Everybody has one.

A movie that you absolutely love… a movie that you have seen so many times that you can quote it almost verbatim… a movie that you could watch pretty much any day, anytime… a movie that most people have never even heard of. For Bethany, it is Big Trouble. Geoff B has I Heart Huckabees. Jessica D has A Goofy Movie. The Hudsucker Proxy is my “diamond in the rough”.

Like any Coen brothers movie, The Hudsucker Proxy features great writing, witty dialogue, cartoon-like characters and a cartoon-like feel. It's as if what you are watching is not completely grounded in reality (think Raising Arizona or O Brother Where Art Thou?). In these regards, The Hudsucker Proxy resembles an episode of The Simpsons more than any other film that I can think of. Unlike most Coen brothers movies, The Hudsucker Proxy features neither John Goodman nor Frances McDormand. But it does have Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Steve Buscemi, Bruce Campbell (he made the Evil Dead movies) and the dad from Frasier.

The story surrounds Hudsucker Industries, a big corporation in New York City. Paul Newman is the #2 in charge, advisor to Mr. Hudsucker himself. One day a young, ambitious, and naïve Tim Robbins arrives to town, freshly graduated from business college. He is looking for a job – any job – but finds that his degree doesn’t help much. Everyone is looking for someone with experience. I first saw this movie when I was looking for a job after moving to Fresno, and discovered that my college degree did not mean as much as I thought it would. I related to this movie immediately, and whenever I watch it I am taken back to my experience of hitting a new city and feeling like I had something to offer… but after submitting over a hundred resumes and getting no calls, beginning to doubt I really had anything to offer. This film is a lesson on dealing with failure and success.

Eventually, I found a job at Fresno State and Tim Robbins is hired at Hudsucker Industries, where he hopes to move up but has to start at the bottom (he literally works in the basement of Hudsucker Industries as a mail clerk). On his first day on the job, tragedy strikes the man at the top of Hudsucker and a new CEO is needed. Paul Newman (who gets to play the villain in this film) appoints Tim Robbins to be the new boss with the hope that his inexperience and incompetence will deflate the stock so that he and the rest of the nefarious board members can buy it up for themselves, fire Robbins, and appoint Newman as the new CEO. It turns out that Robbins has something to offer after all – “you know, for kids!” The awkward title of the film (a 'proxy' is someone who is somehow controlled by another - like a patsy or a puppet) I believe is the main reason why the film flopped at the box office and continues to be ignored.

Within this movie is:

*The best 5 minute economics lesson you will ever find (high school teachers take note).

*The feel of a screwball comedy from the 1940’s like His Girl Friday with Jenifer Jason Leigh doing her best Audrey Hepburn impression of the fast talking, wise-cracking girl who can hold her own against the fellas.

*One of my favorite openings in cinema: a long, slow, majestic zoom throughout the snowy skyscrapers of NYC that ends on Robbins about to jump off the top of the Hudsucker building. (I even like this this opening more than Raising Arizona’s).

So, if you like Raising Arizona, O Brother Where Art Thou?, and The Big Lebowski, I urge you to check out The Hudsucker Proxy.

10th Favorite Movie - The Godfather Part I & II

2007-09-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Along with Citizen Kane and Casablanca, The Godfather is often considered to be the best movie ever made. The Godfather Part II, which director Francis Ford Coppola made two years later in 1974, is often touted as the best sequel of all time with many people even preferring it to the first film. You may think that you remember hearing about or even seeing a Godfather Part III, made 17 years later starring Coppola's daughter, Sofia (who is a much better director than actress). But I encourage you to pretend that never happened. Trust me, it is better that way.

When I was in the 11th grade, The Godfather I & II were not just my favorite movies, they had consumed part of my life. For an english assignment that year, we were to read a book and then see the movie version and draw comparisons between the two. I chose Mario Puzo's book The Godfather, and the films starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, James Caan, Rovert Duvall, Talia Shire, Diane Keaton, James Cavale, Bruno Kirby and a host of others that it was based on. The result was a FIFTY page paper. No joke. In a famous Fitelson family story from that time, my dad came home from work for lunch one day to find a teenager he had never seen before sitting on his couch and watching his television with his son nowhere in sight. I was in the computer room in the back of the house working hard on the paper... while we were both supposed to be at school. My friend had heard I was "cutting" and wanted to come along. I'll never forget the feeling I had in my stomach when I heard the front door open and close that day and my dad saying "Well, hello there" to my friend. Sorry about that, dad.

These films are darn near perfect. I think the first one overall is superior to the second, however, my favorite scenes in the series are the ones in the second of Robert De Niro playing the young Don Vito Corleone. It is amazing how De Niro plays the role with Brando in mind (who played Corleone in the first film) but still makes the character his own, all without saying a single word in English. I also have to give a shout-out here to one of favorite actors, the late Bruno Kirby, who holds his own alongside De Niro.

I think a very underrated scene in the second film is the last one of the movie. Everyone talks about the murder in the boat out on Lake Tahoe, which was quite haunting and all, but I think the follow up scene to that is even more powerful. There is a flashback to the time before Michael was involved in "the family business", a family birthday party for Vito. Apparently they couldn't afford to bring Brando back for the scene or he was too busy/flaky, so he does not appear in it. Instead, everyone else is waiting around the table for him to come home. Seeing how the characters have transformed since then - especially Michael - is really moving. I recently saw a list somewhere of the "Best Film Endings" and was pleased to see this scene on there.

I must have said all I have to say back in the 11th grade about these movies, so if you want to hear more, let me know and I can loan you the paper. I still have it somewhere... I think I got an A- on it. The minus was because we were not supposed to go over 20 pages. Whoops. Sorry about that, Ms. Casey.

11th Favorite Movie - Apocalypse Now

2007-09-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Fresh off the success of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II in 1974, Francis Ford Coppola had to be feeling pretty sure of himself. He had just directed two of the most critically praised and financially successful movies of all time and must have felt that he could take on the biggest challenge. So he did. For his next project, he took Joseph Conrad's book Heart of Darkness (which some said was impossible to put into film) and set it during the Vietnam war. His friend George Lucas was set to direct, Warner Brothers would finance it, and another masterpiece in line with the Godfather films would be made. And a masterpiece was made. But it didn't come about as expected. His wife's documentary film Hearts of Darkness chronicles the making of Apocalypse Now and includes some of these tidbits:

*George Lucas, who was going to direct it at first, bowed out after American Graffitti became a hit, so Coppola stepped in to direct. This supposedly resulted in some bitterness between the two men.

*Warner Brothers refused to finance the film because Coppola wanted to shoot in Vietnam, during the war. So they shot in the Philippines instead, but Coppola wound up financing the film entirely by himself anyways so he could have complete control over it

*The helicoptors they used were on loan from President Ferdinand Marcos who kept having to get them back so they could be used in actual combat

*Shooting was supposed to last 6 weeks, but wound up lasting over a year. Harvey Keitel was originally cast to play the lead role, but two weeks into shooting, they decided to go with Martin Sheen instead, who suffered a heart attack during production and was battling alcoholism. The first scene was shot on his 36th birthday after he had been drinking all day. Sheen says he never intended to break the mirror, he was drunk and was improvising and urged Coppola to keep the camera rolling. Brando showed up overweight and didn't know any of his lines. A typhoon destroyed a lot of the sets and pushed back shooting schedules. 200 hours of film were shot, and it took almost 2 years to edit.

Somehow, amidst all of this chaos - perhaps because of this chaos - one of the greatest films of all time was made. Most of the characters in Apocalypse Now are insane, so maybe the insane shooting conditions actually helped.

The story is simple: Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is called on to travel from Saigon into Cambodia by boat to assassinate U.S. Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has gone insane. Along the way he meets a score of colorful characters, played by Harrison Ford, Laurence Fishbourne (he lied and said he was 17 at the time of filming but was actually only 14!) , and Robert Duvall, who steals the show as Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore. The movie has an incredible drawing power and makes the viewer feel the characters' fear, insanity, and longing to meet Kurtz at the end ("this is the end..."). Much has been said both positively and negatively about the end of the film and Brando's performance. He has a few long monologues which are not easy to decipher. This is my take: the movie is about the darkness that lies within every person. It is about "the horror" that is in the world and what it does to the human psyche. If you take the three officers in the movie that we spend the most time with - Willard, Kilgore and Kurtz - all of them are insane in one way or another. The movie begins by showing Willard's dark side when he punches the mirror in his hotel room. Then we meet Kilgore, who orders his soldiers to surf while bombs are going off all around them. Finally, we meet Kurtz who has become like a god to the natives. The horror of war has made each of these men what they are.

One interesting note: Apocalypse Now is one film that cannot make the claim "none of the animals seen here were hurt during the making of this film". The bull that is butchered at the end is a real bull being slaughtered, but it was not the film crew that decided to kill it. They filmed a real sacrifice that some of natives on the Philippines were performing and used that footage in the film. This continues to produce some controversy and many film lovers refuse to see it because of this scene.

I must comment on which version of the film I prefer. In 2001, Coppola released in theaters a version he called Apocalypse Now: Redux which added about 50 minutes of new footage to a film that was already two and a half hours long. I do not recommend this version, except to the biggest Apocalypse Now fans who have already seen the other version. It has a few scenes which really drag on and it also includes a scene in which Willard steals Kilgore's surfboard and then jokes around about it with the other guys on the boat like a bunch of frat boys. This scene seemed completely out of character for Willard and should have remained cut, or at the most, included as an extra (deleted scene) on the DVD. This version also includes a 20 minute scene at a French colonial plantation right before the finale at Kurtz' compound which disrupts the building intensity of the river journey. I cannot bring myself to believe that Coppola is touting this Redux version as the "official" Apocalypse Now. If you have not seen this movie and have a choice, get the original theatrical version and stay away from the Redux.

12th Favorite Movie - Goodfellas

2007-09-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Many of the remaining movies on my list were at one point in my life my favorite movie. With Goodfellas, it was 1991 when it first came out in the theater. I saw it 4 times in the theater, which to this day is the most times I have ever seen one movie during its original release period. I think that had a bit to do with how old I was at the time - 17. See, I had wheels and freedom, I had money for tickets but was not burdened with a job, and other technological time-wasters like DVD and Facebook and iTunes and Playstation hadn't been invented yet. It seems like of all the people who go repeatedly to see the same movie in the theater, the 15-17 year old crowd does this the most. Once you get to college, there is other stuff to do and spending $10 on laundry or pizza often seems like a better investment.

I'm not quite sure if this movie is what really got me interested in film (compared to just movies), but it is possible. It certainly got me interested in Martin Scorsese. After seeing this, I immediately rented Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, neither of which came CLOSE to impacting me in the way Goodfellas did and neither of which I have seen since. I have seen most of Scorsese's movies and I think this is his finest work. I was actually a bit disappointed with The Departed... the way critics and people everywhere were gushing about it, I wanted to say "haven't you people seen Goodfellas? This is rubbish compared to that." I think that after seeing Goodfellas, pretty much EVERY Scorsese film has been a letdown for me... especially Casino, which is a sort of sequel to Goodfellas. Both movies are based on the real-life findings of Nicholas Pillegi, who wrote a couple books about gangsters that became these two movies.

So what is so great about this movie? It isn't inspiring, like Shawshank Redemption. It doesn't make you want to be a better person, like Braveheart. It doesn't even really have a positive message. If anything, the message of Goodfellas could be summarized as, "times were great when we were breaking the law, but now everything is pretty lame". The funny thing is, 'pretty lame' is describing a lifestyle that would be perfectly acceptable to most of us. Goodfellas is about wanting to be at the top of the world, getting there, loving it, and then losing everything and being left wondering, "did that really happen?".

I was reading somewhere (I think it was an interview with Quinton Tarintino) that a character who is in the mob but trying to get out (like Jules from Pulp Fiction) is the perfect character to create. Here is why: the dilemma of a character who is stuck doing what they don't want to do but yearns for a better life often parallels our own lives, and the moral/spiritual implications can be strong. Scorsese himself was studying to be a Catholic priest before making Mean Streets, which is also about gangsters - some of which are trying to get out of that lifestyle. The gang member who longs to get out of the mob can parallel our own longings for redemption, to be saved, to be forgiven and absolved of wrongdoing. Perhaps that explains some of the fascination I and others have with gangster movies, including Goodfellas.

Or it could just be the camaraderie, the humor, the unexpected outbursts of violence, and the idea of being able to get whatever you wanted from whoever you wanted whenever you wanted simply because of the power you wield and the fear you instill... and not having to work all that hard to get it. To a race of beings who were once tempted in a garden to be "like gods", what could be more appealing?

13th Favorite Movie - American Beauty

2007-08-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

The tagline found on posters and billboards for American Beauty was "look closer". These two words beckoned the viewer to look past what they may first see on the surface for something deeper, something hidden underneath. Unfortunately, many people missed it. Granted, this is a seedy film, a dark film, and a challenging film. But there is profound truth to be found here.

On the surface, the suburban family that is at the center of American Beauty seems to be idyllic. Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening play two married, "successful" parents, with a healthy teenage daughter... but underneath there is conflict waiting to boil over, pain that has not been addressed, dreams that have not been pursued. After first seeing them as an ideal family... then seeing them as a horrible one... writer Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes pull the carpet out from under your feet again, showing you the heart of each of the characters and the beauty that exists there.

I like finding beauty where it is least expected. I get a kick out of finding something true, something lovely, in people, songs, books, movies (like this one) or anything that others have written off as having no redeeming qualities. And that is a major theme of this movie. Finding God in the ordinary, or in the mess. One scene in the movie is of one teenager showing a friend a video he took of a plastic bag blowing in the wind. Here is what he says:

"It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it, right? And this bag was like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever."

But the movie is not just about the relationship between people and God, it is also about how we treat one another. At one point someone asks Kevin Spacey's character "how are you?" and he stops and thinks for a moment and says, "It's been a long time since anybody asked me that." It is really sad that his wife, daughter, co-workers and friends never stopped to ask how he was doing and took time to listen. This film is about how we need other people in our lives. The first line of the movie is a teenage girl, looking directly into the camera, saying, "I need a father who's a role model..."

It is also about the relationship between us and our "stuff", and how if we are not careful, our possessions will end up possessing us. In one scene, Annette Bening's character interrupts a rare romantic moment with her husband to scold him because he is about to spill beer on the couch. His response: "This (couch) isn't life. This is just stuff. And it's become more important to you than living. Well, honey, that's just nuts." Truth from an unlikely source.

Covenant pastor and Fuller Seminary professor Robert Johnston wrote an entire book comparing the message of American Beauty and other movies to the message of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. It is called Useless Beauty: Ecclesasiastes through the Lens of Contemporary Film and is available on Amazon. Somehow I don't own this book... yet.

A Colonial Wedding and Lessons in my Lack of Invincibility

2007-08-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

Life has been up and down and all around lately, and now that I'm back to some semblance of normalcy, it's time to reflect and share. In the past few weeks I've learned a lot of lessons, all of which point back to how blessed I am.

At the end of July Danny left for a 10-day youth mission trip to Alaska. They had an amazing time and he has some great stories to share, but he'll have to blog about that himself. (A little encouragement from a handful of our readers might help.) While he was gone I realized how glad I am to be married to him! It was no fun being a bachelorette for ten days. Without my sister to come keep me company and listen to my stories I may have gone nuts. Luckily, five of the ten days he was gone I was also traveling. I flew to Williamsburg Virginia to attend the wedding of one of my Japan teammates. Four of the five of us were at the wedding, and we called the fifth on speakerphone to have some team time again (we missed you Timbo). I can't explain how lucky I am to have these friends! Getting together with them is so much fun, and there are parts of me that no one else understands like they do (such as my Japanese vocabulary).

Leah, the bride, was raised in Williamsburg and is very proud of her colonial heritage, so the wedding took place in the Historic Jamestown church. The church is the oldest in the US, and legend says that Pocahontas and John Rolfe were married there (although facts say otherwise, but oh well). It was beautiful! The reception was at the Williamsburg Inn, another colonial historic building, and also where the queen stayed recently for the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. Leah and her new husband Frazer were glowing all day and I'm so happy for them! Leah picked a fantastic guy to marry, and you can tell he's crazy about her. He's from New Zealand so I really enjoyed spending time with him and his Kiwi family and friends. Did you know New Zealanders call swim trunks "togs"? Our Virginian hosts were also very gracious (and generous to loan us their van multiple times) and it was great to get to know Leah's family and new husband. We even talked Frazer into getting pedicures with us (no polish of course) and we reassured him he wasn't the first poor guy to be dragged into a nail salon with the three of us. I think Tim is really glad to finally have some more guys around with Frazer and Cass's fiance Alex!

The wedding and time in Virginia was awesome, but getting there was another story. I won't go into the whole saga, but the short story is that my connecting flight from Dallas to Richmond was cancelled so I was almost stranded in Dallas (and the Blocks almost had a surprise houseguest, which would have been fun!) but I really needed to get to Virginia that night to help with the wedding rehearsal the next day. I ended up flying into Norfolk around 2 am, in a different city than both my rental car and my luggage. About 24 hours and a million phone calls later I met up with both the car and my luggage, and I learned a lot of travel lessons in the meantime. Here's a rundown for you future travelers:
1) Don't prepay for a rental car. You might as well have signed the contract in blood and no changes can be made, even if your flight was cancelled and you are stranded due to no fault of your own - unless of course you want an upgrade, then they are glad to change your reservation and take your money!
2) It doesn't matter what flight you're on, what city you land in, or what it says in the computer -- the only thing that matters is what is on the luggage tag, your bag is going there no matter where you end up.
3) Never assume anything a person tells you is true. Call back and talk to someone else and double check. Phrases like "Oh sure your friend can pick up your car" and "I'm re-routing your bag right now so it will be on your flight" cannot be trusted.
4) Don't use Hotwire. They don't understand that you actually want to get to your destination on the same day you left home.
5) Having friends who will: a) loan you their parents car to drive to an airport in the middle of the night - twice; b) drive to the airport to pick you up in the middle of the night; c) search the airport for your lost luggage while you're describing it to them over the phone; d) loan you their clothes and toiletries until yours arrive; e) be worth flying across the country for -- that's priceless!

So the travel problems were my first lessons in my lack of invincibility. I have never packed an extra set of clothes in my carry-on, and for domestic flights I don't even take a toothbrush or contact solution (or expensive items and important medication) in my carry-on. I scoff at the possibility of losing my luggage because that never happens to me! Needless to say I've been a bit humbled.

My second lesson in my lack of invincibility came Monday after returning from Williamsburg. Coming home from work I rear-ended someone in stop and go traffic and did some serious damage to my trusty Honda. No one was hurt thankfully, so it's just a big headache. And I feel like a dummy. After the initial tears and fears and nightmare of logistics, I've been actually calm about the whole ordeal. That's not to pat myself on the back, but I think after my initial freak-out I realized how materially blessed I am to even have a car, let alone three between Danny and me. Additionally, his youth group van, which was going to be my back-up this week, broke down and is now stranded somewhere outside of Chico. So I'm borrowing my sister's car this week and possibly my mother-in-law's next week, which is again just humbling and reminding me of how lucky I am! It's unbelievable how many options I have for transportation and how many people are willing to help. There are people around the world who walk three hours one-way to work, or just to find food. I don't dare complain.

It's been an interesting lesson to examine how materialistic I am. Can I honestly say "it's just luggage" or "it's just a car"? Or am I more attached to those things than I should be? The night I came home after my accident, Danny was still gone so it was even more frustrating to be home alone after a stressful day. I was worried about my car and how I was going to get around the next few weeks, and the beginning of Psalm 23 came into my head: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want." So I started reading Psalm 23, and when I finished I read Psalm 24 which begins "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." I had to have a few of my posessions taken away (albeit temporarily) to realize that I do have all I need, I should not be in want, and all I have is God's anyway because he has given me everything good in my life.

Sorry this turned into a mini-sermon. I don't blog often but when I do I can't seem to stop rambling. I'll end with a few more fun pictures from my adventures with Cass, her fiance Alex, and Tim in Jamestown. After the happy couple was married the four of us took a day to sightsee (and sweat a lot!) in the historic Jamestown Settlement. We got to climb on replicas of the British ships that settled there, try on colonial armor and tour replicas of a Native American village and Colonial fort.

14th Favorite Movie - We Were Soldiers

2007-08-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Before I get to the movie, I want to remind everyone what this list is all about. About a year ago, I came up with a list of my 50 favorite movies. These were not what I considered to be the best movies ever made, but the ones that I consider to be my "favorites". I did not spend much time nitpicking whether I really liked #32 more than #33, but rather what 50 movies would make the list and what "tier" they would be in: top 5, top 15, top 25 etc. So just keep that in mind when you're thinking, "how could a great movie like x be #18 when a piece of garbage like y is #15"? My (and Bethany's) blog, my list, my rules.

All that to say... I am a bit surprised at how high I ranked this movie! I wanted to watch it with Bethany the other night but I must have loaned the DVD out to someone. If you have it, please give it back. We watched Saving Private Ryan instead, which altogether is probably a better movie than this one. But here is why I thought so highly of We Were Soliders:

-It does a great job of depicting the first battle in Vietnam to involve U.S. forces. And the way it ends says a lot about how the Vietnam War overall turned out for our country. But let me warn you, this film is not for the squeamish. Director Randall White is from the Saving Private Ryan school of shooting combat - in one scene, a soldier tries to move a fellow comrade who has been burned, and his skin comes right off his legs like a turkey drumstick.

-It has some great performances in it. Mel Gibson plays the Lt Col. Hal Moore, who leads a troop of mostly young soldiers who have never seen combat. Madeline Stowe is his wife back home. Sam Elliott plays another veteran officer, while Chris Klein plays a young up-and-coming soldier. Greg Kinnear is a helicopter pilot. Barry Pepper trades his sniper rifle from Saving Private Ryan for a camera, playing a journalist embedded in Vietnam. The DVD extras include interviews with some of the real-life people who are portrayed, and while this is a Hollywood big-budget film, it feels authentic.

-It shows the effects of the war on the soldiers' wives and girlfriends who are back home. Everyday, the army sends messengers bearing telegrams to notify the women whose loved ones have fallen in battle. Halfway through the movie, two of the women, one of whom lost her man already, decide to deliver the bad news themselves every day, face to face. This illustrated to me the concept of being "Wounded Healers" that Christian author Henri Nouwen talks about. The women are the right ones to provide healing to other women because they know them, can relate to their pain and can grieve with them.

-It has some insights into leadership. The line that was in all the trailers is when the new father/soldier Chris Klein asks veteran father/officer Mel Gibson how he feels about being a father and a soldier. Gibson replies, “I hope that being good at one makes me better at the other.” Many people have told me recently that they think that my being in youth ministry will help me be a better father someday, and I hope this is true. I guess I could relate a little bit to this line and the movie overall because I too have wondered how I would do balancing fatherhood and youth ministry someday. I am pretty sure writer/director Randall White is a Christian – he also wrote Braveheart and is currently working on a film version of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters due out in 2008. There are also a couple deleted scenes that lend weight to my theory – one is of Mel Gibson’s character praying with Chris Klein, and another features one of the wives singing Amazing Grace in church.

I think a big reason why I put this movie so high up on my list is because I feel that it deserves more attention… so go see it if it sounds like something you would enjoy. For some people, the presence of Mel Gibson in this film will prohibit them from watching it, just as Tom Cruise's real-life persona keeps some people from seeing his movies. I guess that is not something that has ever bothered me, I can get pretty sucked in while watching a movie and forget about the actor's personal life. I mention these two - Gibson and Cruise - because between the two of them, they are featured in 3 of the next 13 movies.

A trip to Seattle and no cheese for a month!

2007-07-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break from reading Harry Potter (don't you dare tell me what happens) to give another overdue update. This summer is turning out to be busier than I expected!

A week ago I traveled to Seattle for a retreat with the other Fuller extension staff from around the country. It was a fantastic retreat and I really admire and enjoy the people I work with. We did a scavenger hunt around Seattle, one of the few main cities in the US I had not been to. We even got to visit the first ever Starbucks! We also went up in the Space Needle, which was much smaller than I thought it would be. It's dwarfed by the impressive Seattle skyline, but still quite a sight. The picture with the troll was one of the scavenger hunt items, it was the oddest, largest statue I've ever seen tucked under a bridge. We then stayed at a retreat center right on the Pugent Sound and had a great retreat.

Unfortunately, because of an illnes I wasn't able to enjoy any of the Seattle coffee shops - and they were everywhere! After returning from Seattle I went to the doctor to try and figure out why I've been getting sick to my stomach so much in the past 6 months. One thing she asked was had I been under stress the past few months, to which I replied with a list of the life-altering changes that have taken place since last summer. It's a bit overwhelming when you list it all at once, so I'm trusting that 2007-2008 will be much more stable. Most of the changes have been positive, don't get me wrong, but I'm looking forward to a year of not so many "firsts."

The doctor's conclusion was to do blood tests (ugh) and take me off dairy for a month just to see if that might be causing the pains. I'm now hoping I get sick this month just to prove that it's not dairy! On the way home from the doctor's office I went to the store to buy soy milk and soy creamer for my coffee - and of course I was craving cheese, yogurt and ice cream just because I can't have them. I had my first Starbucks mocha with soy milk and it was better than I expected, just tasted a little like wood. If anyone has non-dairy advice, I'd gladly take it, although I'm hoping this doesn't last longer than a month. Dietary restrictions have made me rethink some things that I eat and drink. For example, I assumed that coffeemate, which I put in my coffee every morning, was a milk product, thus the purchase of the soy creamer. But when I read the Coffeemate ingredients, it's mostly high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors. Ick. Margarine is not a milk product but just a bunch of oil clotted together with, again, artificial flavors. Yuck.

On a nostalgic note, my dad called a few weeks ago and asked that I come collect 6 boxes from college that he had pulled out of the attic. I guess now that I'm married he thinks I'm an adult enough to store my own junk. Darn. I had no idea what to expect when I opened the boxes, and I really enjoyed going through them. It was strange to look at the stuff I thought was important 4 years ago, like a 3 liter Dr. Pepper bottle and a bunch of stuffed animals. I found countless pictures of close friends doing goofy things I had forgotten about, and enjoyed looking at pictures of college friends who I hadn't thought of in years. I found jars full of Canadian and Japanese money, which will be given to people returning to those countries soon. Again, what was going through my mind when I packed that away for years? I had a lot of fun looking through stuff from my first visit to Japan, and I cracked up at the stuff I saved because I thought it was so novel. I had no idea when I first visited Japan that a few years later I would be living there. The Japanese newspapers that I wadded up for packing material in one box were carefully folded and preserved in another box just because it had Japanese writing on it. It's fun to look back on things like that and see how I've changed. It gave me goosebumps to read letters from some Japanese friends before they became Christians and how they talked about how fun it was to practice English and learn new words. A few years later letters from the same friends talk about what God is doing in their lives and how they love going to Bible study and learning more about Jesus. So cool!

As summer comes close to the end, Danny and I are both traveling, but to separate ends of the country. He left yesterday for Alaska with 15 high school students. They will be putting on a VBS for a small church in a remote town. I would appreciate prayers for his safety and stamina! Later this week I head to Williamsburg Virginia for the wedding of one of my Japan teammates. I can't wait to see the team again and celebrate Leah's wedding!

Now back to Harry. Leave some love if anyone is still reading my ramblings!

15th Favorite Movie - A Walk To Remember

2007-07-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

I fully expect to take heat from some people for this. And I don't mind that... as long as those dishing it out have actually SEEN the movie first. If so, then fire away...

While I argued that When Harry Met Sally was not a chick flick (see #20), I can make no such argument here. This is probably the consenus favorite movie amongst girls in our youth group. The bottom line is most chicks dig it and most guys scoff at it. But here's the thing that separates A Walk To Remember from the rest of the chick flick drabble: it does not just entertain, it does not just talk about how girls and guys are different, it inspires. It is a chick flick with substance.

I think what appeals to me so much about this movie is the character of Jamie Sullivan (played by Mandy Moore). The teenaged daughter of a widowed preacher, Jamie walks to the beat of her own drummer. While other students at her school are out to impress their peers by spending money on nice clothes and cars, she wears the same sweater and takes the bus to school every day. Other students sleep in on Saturday mornings, she gets up early to volunteer tutoring little kids. It makes me glad that so many of our high schoolers like this movie because Jamie Sullivan is a great role model. My hope is that the students in our youth group would have compassion for every human being like Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (#47), that they would take a stand for truth and justice like Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird (#31) and that they would not get caught up in silly high school stuff but care about the things that really matter in life like Jamie Sullivan in A Walk To Remember.

And it probably doesn't hurt that Switchfoot, perhaps my favorite band, does the soundtrack.

First anniversary Celebration Continued

2007-07-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

We milked our first anniversary for all it's worth! Since we couldn't go out of the town the weekend of our actual anniversary, we went the next weekend to Sausalito for an overnight and relaxing day. For those of you not from the Bay Area, Sausalito is a sleepy seaside town right across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. It's main street is right along the water with a great view of the city and Alcatraz. That is, if the sun is out. It was 80 degrees when we left Hayward (wearing flip flops and shorts) and this is what the bridge looked like when we got into San Francisco.

We thought we were in a time warp and were suddenly in November. You couldn't even see the tops of the towers! Danny was worried it would ruin the weekend, but the weather was actually really fun to watch. This is the view from our hotel room. We had a corner room with a great balcony. Beautiful views of the Sausalito shore but San Francisco was veiled almost the whole weekend.

Eventually the fog lifted and all of a sudden we could see The Rock right out our window! It was foggy but still cool.

The next day we read magazines in bed until about noon when we had to check out, and as we started cruising around town the sun came out and the weather was perfect. We walked from one end of town to the other, ate fish and chips in a window seat with a great view of The Rock and The City, and did a lot of window shopping. I can't believe I'm posting this picture, but Danny thought this store name was so funny he made me pose with it.

After walking around and seeing all there is to see we randomly decided to go see a movie. We bought a paper and found out that Live Free or Die Hard was playing in a town we knew was about 15 minutes north of Sausalito. The movie started in 20 minutes. We just hopped in the car for a little adventure, crossing our fingers that we would be able to see the theater (or at least the street it was on) from the freeway. It was a long shot. But, it worked! We found the theater and rolled in right as the previews started. The movie was a lot of fun and it was a great relaxing day!

For dinner Danny surprised me with reservations at The Melting Pot. It's this amazing fondue restaurant that I've wanted to try ever since I had dessert at one in Dallas with my posse years ago. It did not disappoint my high expectations! The food was incredible (and fun to cook!) and we had a private booth in "Lover's Lane" which we thought would have made us very nervous if we weren't married. They even gave us a centerpiece of red roses and let us take the flowers and vase home as a gift. It was a five star meal all the way around! See our dessert below - they call it Yin and Yang because it's dark and white chocolate together. It was almost too pretty to wreck by dipping stuff in it, but that didn't stop me. Fabulous!

16th Favorite Movie - Raising Arizona

2007-07-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Raising Arizona is a movie that I think I will watch again every year or so for the rest of my life. It is that enjoyable.

The film begins with H.I. (played by Nicholas Cage) being thrown in jail for armed robbery. He has a bunkmate who rambles on and on about his childhood in a "Bubba" sort of way: "and when there was no meat, we ate fowl. And when there was no fowl, we ate crawdad. And when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand." In a movie full of memorable secondary characters, this guy is my favorite. H.I. gets out of jail, robs again, gets thrown back in jail, gets out, and decides to propose to Edwina, played by Holly Hunter, who works as a guard at the jail. They get married, and try to start a family, but as H.I. tells it "her insides was a rocky place in which my seed could find no purchase." Edwina gets so depressed she quits her job at the jail and mopes around all day. Then they hear about a couple in Arizona having septuplets, and figure the mom and dad "got more than they can handle", so they set off to kidnap one of the babies.

And that all happens before the opening credits, in what has to be the longest intro in cinematic history.

Like all Coen brothers movies, the ingenuity here is in the writing. Here are some of my favorite lines from Raising Arizona:

"Do these balloons blow up into funny shapes and all?"
"No, not unless round is funny."

"Ya hear that? We're using code names."

"What would happen if you went outside and got run down by a truck, then how would Ed Jr. be provided for?"
"Yeah, honey, what if you get run over?!"

But my favorites come from the mouth of Nathan Arizona Sr.:

"No leads!? Everybody leaves microbes 'n what not!"

"I don't know what his *dang* jammies looked like! They had Yodas and *stuff* on 'em!"

When asked for his comment on the theory that aliens took his baby, he says, "Son don't go printing that. If his momma reads that, she's just gonna lose all hope."

This movie has pretty much everything you expect to find in a Coen brothers movie: great dialogue, funny accents, memorable facial expressions, dream sequences, a ridiculous plot, an element of fantasy, John Goodman and Frances McDormand. I don't think they had discovered Steve Buscemi yet.

Week of Celebration

2007-07-03T22:45:00.000-07:00

I'm way overdue for a post, I know, but honestly nothing that exciting has been happening lately until this week! Certainly nothing photo-worthy has happened, and I'm sure you're all tired of my babbling with no pictures to break it up. So, finally, some fun stuff to share and I'm even including pictures!

Sunday was our first wedding anniversary. I can't describe how strange that feels! It hasn't been that long, we're still newlyweds right? We are both amazed at how quickly a year went by. Saturday we got to celebrate the wedding of some great friends and fellow servants, and we had the most fun wedding reception table we've ever sat at! Becuase of our friends' wedding, we didn't go out of town for our anniversary so we're going to Sausalito this weekend (more stories and pictures to come, I'm sure). But we still celebrated the whole weekend!

Friday night I arrived from a business trip to Sacramento (complete with the longest Sacramento Rivercats game in history - 16 innings! We finally left at the bottom of the 14th at 11:30 at night, but we had a blast. Moving on...) and we met my parents and sister and sister's boyfriend (Grace, I didn't say "family gathering" in your honor) for dinner. My mom was gracious enough to pick up our free anniversary cake from our wedding baker, so after dinner we came home and got to eat the cake that we never got to eat at our wedding. It was fantastic! I would imagine it was worlds better than a year-old frozen cake. Although, we took the leftovers to church for the high schoolers on Sunday and told them all it was the actual wedding cake that we had been saving for a year.

Sunday Danny and I went to dinner at Shadowbrook in Capitola after visiting friends in Santa Cruz. It was such a relaxing day and we were pleasantly surprised at how warm the coast was. We arrived at the restaurant a little early so I could take some pictures. This restaurant is the only restaurant in the country that you access by cable car. It's so cool. We took a friend's advice (thanks Janelle!) and walked down to the restaurant through the gardens and then took the cable car back up to the road.

My favorite part of the gardens was the herb garden. As I was standing there snapping pictures a waiter walked past us, hopped the fence, and started plucking herbs for the kitchen. That was fun to watch.

Tomorrow, of course, is July 4th, one of my favorite holidays. We're just so glad to have a day off together that we didn't plan much, but we'll be going to the A's game! We weren't even planning to do fireworks, but Danny came home tonight and suggested we drive to the A's Coliseum to see the fireworks after the game. So we watched the A's win on TV and then hopped in the car. We love living only 15 minutes from the Coliseum! I was very impressed with our spontaneity since we're usually about as spontaneous as a snail. We drove right into the parking lot and sat in the car eating more wedding cake while watching a spectacular show. The best part is we get to stay home tomorrow night and relax. We're planning to watch a movie like Gettysburg or Saving Private Ryan to actually commemorate the holiday. I don't know why getting drunk and barbequeing is the regular practice to celebrate our nation's independence, but I'll save that soapbox for later. (For the record, I do love BBQ on the 4th!)

I hope you are all having as joyful and celebrative week as we are! More updates to come, including stories from our weekend away. Happy Independence Day!

17th Favorite Movie - City of God

2007-06-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

City of God did not receive much attention when it was released in theaters in 2003, but it has picked up a following on DVD. It is currently #17 on the imdb.com Top 250 of all time, and it even spawned a television show called City of Men. I imagine there are a lot of people who would love this movie but will never see it because it is a Brazilian film in Portuguese with English subtitles. It took me a few years to convince my last roommate Brent to watch it... he kept saying he doesn't like having to "read" during movies. I think he owns a copy now.

The film is about a group of kids growing up in the slums of Rio De Janeiro surrounded by gang and drug activity. It begins when they are elementary school aged and follows them until they are in their late teenage years. Think Boyz in the Hood or Goodfellas, although even bleaker and more harrowing because of the impoverishment where they are growing up. They live in a neighborhood called called City of God, but it is about as far from paradise as you can imagine. The main character, Rocket, hopes that his passion for photography will one day provide an escape from the neverending cycle of violence which has claimed the lives of many of his friends and family.

City of God has some great names for its characters: Shaggy, Carrot, Lil' Dice... and it is broken up into chapters, each one beginning with a title such as "The Story of Knockout Ned". It was nominated for 4 Oscars in 2004 including Best Director, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Writing, but was shut out in all four categories (that seems to be a reoccuring theme in this list). While it is very violent and stylized, your heart will break for these kids and you will discover that there are places other than L.A. and New York in the world with communties that are devasted by gang warfare.

18th Favorite Movie - Munich

2007-06-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Message to Bethany:

Sorry hon, the final Spielberg movie to make my list is not your childhood favorite, E.T. Nothing personal against your beloved long-necked, flashlight-fingered alien, but I've only seen E.T. once and that was when I was in the third grade. But I do want to watch it again with you sometime!

Something that my wife realized years before me is that Spielberg is a genius. I had always thought highly of Indiana Jones and Saving Private Ryan, but a couple years ago after rewatching Jaws and then seeing Munich in the theater, I realized how big of a Spielberg fan I am. I really like Duel, Close Encounters, Jurassic Park, Amistad, Minority Report, War of the Worlds... I just have such confidence in his work, when I watch one of his films I just know that I am in good hands (except for A.I., but that was probably due to Kubrick's influence on that project).

Munich, released in 2005, is about Israel's response to the 1972 hostage situation at the Olympics when 11 Israeli athletes were killed. Spielberg uses this situation to pose some serious philosophical and theological questions: when is it justifiable to take a life? Does violence just beget more violence? How does being Jewish affect the life of a soldier who is paid to assassinate people for his country, which was founded to be God's light to the nations?

The acting in this film is terrific. Eric Bana turns in his best performance to date in the lead role. Daniel Craig plays his partner and shows why he was picked to be the new James Bond. Geoffrey Rush plays his shady supervisor. I think Geoffrey Rush is a very underrated and versatile actor. This guy is hilarious as Barbosa in the Pirates movies, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1996 for Shine, and he has been nominated twice for Best Supporting Actor (Shakespeare in Love, Quills). He even provided the voice for the pelican Nigel in Finding Nemo! He should get more attention than he does.

I don't want to spoil the movie by talking about the plot much, but know that it is deep, dark, and a bit depressing. The film ends with an intense conversation between two characters in New York with the camera framing the World Trade Center in between them in the background (remember, it takes place in the 70's). The shot makes you wonder... is Spielberg suggesting that the events set into motion at the 1972 Olympics somehow led to the tragedy of 9-11? Or is he just making a general statement about the massive casualties when nations war against one another? I'm not sure, but I will always think of the last shot of this film as one of the most powerful in the history of cinema.

19th Favorite Movie - L.A. Confidential

2007-06-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

This movie came out in 1997, the same year as Titanic. I remember seeing it with my dad and my brother one night after our neighborhood "Block Party" in that old-school theater in North Berkeley. I liked it the first time and grew to like it even more over the years. Had it not come out the same year that everyone went ga-ga over Titanic, it probably would have won more Academy Awards and become more well-known.

L.A. Confidential features Russel Crowe before Gladiator, Guy Pearce before Memento, and Kevin Spacey riding the wave of The Usual Suspects. I have always felt like The Usual Suspects gets a little too much attention and L.A. Confidential does not get enough. This movie had a twist I didn't see coming (The Usual Suspects' twist is obvious if you know you should be looking for one) and is a more epic and ambitious film. The cast is incredible - rounding out the three leads mentioned earlier are Danny Devito, James Cromwell and Kim Basinger (for which she won Best Supporting Actress). It is a very entertaining movie and I cannot point out a single flaw in it. The only reason I did not rank it higher is because it is not a movie that is trying to impact you in a big emotional way except for it just being a great movie. Most of the movies ranked this high on my list have some sort of emotional, educational or transformational impact on me.

By the way, there is a film to begin shooting in November called White Jazz (also based on a James Elroy book) that will feature Russell Crowe reprising his role as Bud White, but Guy Pierce, Kim Basinger and director Curtis Hanson are not involved. Hanson is in talks about a true sequel that would cover what happened to the characters in the 10 years following where the original film left off. Sounds pretty cool. I hear that Ocean's 13 is pretty good, temporarily restoring my faith in sequels, after plodding through the garbage that is Pirates 3 and Shrek 3. Stay away. You've been warned.

20th Favorite Movie - When Harry Met Sally

2007-06-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

It has been said before that all great love stories are the same: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Think for a second: what percentage of "chick flicks" have that formula? It has to be at least 75%. The only other way to write it is to make it so they don't get together until the end (Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail), which accounts for the other 25%.

Speaking of "chick flick", I will argue to my death that When Harry Met Sally is not one of them. I will grant you that it is a romantic comedy, but it is not a chick flick. Here is why: it is a Billy Crystal movie, not a chick flick. By nature, Billy Crystal is incapable of being the leading man in a true chick flick. Even Forget Paris had the basketball scenes for guys to enjoy. Chick flicks are often more wishful and sentimental, while When Harry Met Sally is more edgy and realistic.

Also, there is something about the scenes where Billy Crystal is together with Bruno Kirby that is completely un-"chick flick". They are actually very funny, and they are written for men to enjoy. By the way, Bruno Kirby is one of my favorite actors of all time and I was sad when he passed away last summer. He was also brilliant in City Slickers and Godfather Part II. His screaming "baby fish mouth!" during the Pictionary scene when the correct answer was "baby talk" is one of my favorite scenes in this movie.

I don't want to give the impression that a chick flick cannot be a good movie, or a funny movie. I thought Notting Hill was good and very funny and I have probably seen it 10+ times. And coming soon on this list is a undeniable, no-doubt-about-it chick flick. So stay tuned.

Crunch time!

2007-06-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

This will be a quick post, but I think short is better than nothing! The past few weeks have been hectic and busy (I know, I sound like a broken record - I should stop being surprised by how crazy our lives are) and the chaos is now culminating in the end of my school quarter. I have to read two books, write reports on them, and write a 10-page paper in the next week. Doable, but stressful! It doesn't help that I'll be working all day tomorrow because it's the Fuller Northern California graduation day. Should be fun!

Even though I've enjoyed my class, I'm really looking forward to the quarter being over. I'll finally have time to do those luxurious things that fall by the wayside -- like laundry and cleaning the bathroom. Besides housekeeping, Danny and I do have a great summer planned. We get to attend the wedding of two great friends, then the next day we celebrate our one year anniversary! Where has the time gone? I keep thinking we're still newlyweds because honestly, I'm not tired of Danny yet! Haha. But seriously, I thought the first year of marriage was supposed to be a lot harder than this, so I kept waiting for the fun to run out before the one year mark. But it's still great! We're planning a quick getaway to celebrate, somewhere near the ocean - woohoo! The details are still being kept from me, which makes it way fun.

July will continue with the birth of our ringbearer's little brother (hang in there Adelle!) a trip to Seattle for me (mixing work and play) then a trip to Alaska for Danny (youth group mission trip). At the beginning of August I head to Colonial Williamsburg for the wedding of one of my Japan mission teammates. The yon-nin matsuri (that's Japanese for four-person festival) will unite again! Can you tell I can't wait for school to be over and the summer to begin? One more thing I'm excited about for summer - this summer I'll be in an office with windows. Call me silly, but the past few summers have been very depressing while all my high schoolers are out in the sun and at camp and I was freezing in cubicle-land with no natural lights for miles. Just another perk to the new job, which is BUSY but so much fun!

Anyway, back to quickly recapping the past few weeks. Danny and I got to host some fun people in our home, including my sisters at different times for some sibling bonding which included getting Trisha addicted to American Idol. Don't judge us, you know you love it too. We also got a huge surprise visit from Tim, another member of the Japan yon-nin matsuri! He came to San Francisco for training and treated us to dinner at the hotel where he was training. Dinner was Asian-Cuban fusion, very unique and really tasty. We had a ton of fun. I love catching up with friends that I've known for years (almost 10? Yikes!) and it feels like you just saw each other the other day. Tim's really a blessing and it was great to see him!

Then it was time for Camp Cov, the First Covenant Memorial Day tradition. This was my first year to experience an entire Camp Cov, and it was really fun. We spent the whole weekend in the Santa Cruz mountains with fresh air. Highlights were napping in the sun while chatting (me) and playing volleyball (Danny) with friends, drive-in movie and Marianne's ice cream with the teens, and getting to know some First Covenant family better. The low was Danny being subjected to the traditional "Dunk the pastor" dunk tank, but that's another story.

Gotta run, will share more soon!

21st Favorite Movie - The Shawshank Redemption

2007-05-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

When this movie came out, no one and I mean NO ONE saw it coming. It wound up earning a paltry $18 million, $7 million less than it cost to make, and it didn't win a single Oscar. I think more than anything, the title kept people away. C'mon... 'Shawshank'? If you haven't seen the movie, you might think the movie is about a lamb bone. And now, it is ranked #2 overall on the imdb.com list of 250, receiving an average rating by users of 9.2. Only The Godfather is ranked higher. And the part that kills me is that most of them still don't give Stephen King any credit for writing the short story that was adapted into the film.

Bethany is taking a mentoring class right now and one of their assignments was to pick a movie from a list that the professor came up with that featured mentoring relationships. One thing though was that you could not pick a movie that you already seen. Astoundingly, one of her classmates had never seen this movie before. How is that possible? Do they not have USA or TNT where it is aired at least weekly? Have they never met one of the thousands of people who have rated this movie so high on imdb.com? Are they Amish?

As you can see this has become one of the most widely loved movies of all time. No one dislikes The Shawshank Redemption. And pretty much no one has never seen it before. Since you have all already seen it and already love it, I don't need to go into detail here. Plus, Bethany and I are going to dinner in the city tonight with a friend of hers from her Japan team, Tim N. So I gotta get ready. I'll leave you with my favorite quote from the movie:

"Get busy living... or get busy dying."

22nd Favorite Movie - Boyz in the Hood

2007-05-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

This movie came out in the theaters when I was a junior in high school. By the time I was a senior and it had been released on VHS (no DVD back then!) it was already the favorite movie of many of my friends. In fact, I had one friend - Daniel P - who whenever we went to Movie Express in Montclair (no Blockbuster then!) to rent something, he would only beg us to rent Boyz in the Hood or Juice, even though we had already seen both movies 20+ times. For some reason it seems like people didn't own movies that much back then... I don't remember people collecting movies on VHS like people do with DVD's now. Maybe we just didn't have enough money, but I can't remember it ever crossing our minds that maybe we should just buy these two movies instead of paying $3 to rent one of them every 2 weeks.

I was excited to watch this movie with Bethany a few months ago because she had never seen it. I wound up being a little disappointed with how dated it felt... at times it truly seemed like a "made for tv movie". Some of the music is a little sappy... the production a bit cheap-looking... and those clothes!!! I mean, just check out Cuba's yellow-orange shirt on the picture above with the one big polka dot on it. But the movie still has undeniable power.

So you got Cuba Gooding Jr. before Jerry Maguire as the teenaged Tre', Laurence Fishbourne before The Matrix playing his father, and Angela Basset before Akeelah and the Bee playing his mother. But Ice Cube steals the spotlight from all of them playing Tre's friend, Dough Boy. The last scene where Dough Boy says in reference to local newscasters, "Either they don't know or don't show what's going on in the 'hood" always gets me.

Boyz was the directorial debut of John Singleton and at the time it seemed like this was the beginning of a promising career that perhaps would even rival his mentor, Spike Lee. But after being nominated for best director and best screenplay for Boyz, I would have to say that Singleton has not made another film that compares to the power of his inaugral effort.

One of the main themes of the film is fatherhood. When the movie begins, Tre's mother decides that he is getting to the age where he really needs his father's presence in his life, so she sends him to live with his dad until he is in high school. Many of Tre's friends do not have fathers, and the film shows how being raised by his loving and disciplining dad affects the choices that Tre' makes later in life.

I've been reading a book by Donald Miller (he wrote one of my favorite books of all time, Blue Like Jazz) called To Own A Dragon. The subtitle of the book is "Reflections on Growing Up Without a Father". Miller says that not having a father around to teach him how to make wise decisions, to make him feel significant, and to just give him an idea of how a man is supposed to conduct his life made him often feel lost, like he didn't belong, and like he was worthless. The book says that 85% of people in prisons grew up without a father.

Although they may be intended for different audiences, Boyz in the Hood and To Own a Dragon are saying the same thing: as a father, there is nothing you can do that is more important that raising your children to know right from wrong and to have a sense of purpose in their lives. I have been more and more grateful for my dad as I read this book and also I have been more and more eager to learn HOW to be a good father for when that day comes. Heck, I even watched a couple episodes of Run's House for the first time on MTV today, hoping to glean some parenting tips from Reverend Run, formerly of Run-DMC. But I guess all that will come in time. I guess Bethany and I should enjoy this time we have together without kids because someday there will be a lot for us to do.

Lost: Simply The Best

2007-05-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

It has been forever since I blogged about something other than one of my favorite movies! But today will not be much different. Today I would like to talk about my favorite tv show of all time. That's right, Lost is better than Seinfeld (my favorite show 5 years ago), better than The Simpsons (my favorite show 10 years ago) , better than The Brady Bunch (my favorite show 25 years ago).

Not only is Lost my favorite show of all time, this current season is its best season yet. So many fans have jumped ship, complaining that they want this question answered or they want see more of that character. But I believe it just keeps getting better and better. Right now the series keeps building off of little hints that were dropped in previous episodes (Jacob's list? VW buses on the island? The Purge?) which makes it feel more like you are reading a book than watching a one-hour, stand alone, tv show. Is it any surprise that Stephen King is a big fan and has been referenced twice now in this season? (a rabbit with an 8 on its back is mentioned in his book On Writing, and in the first episode the characters were discussing the book, Carrie) Lost is taking on the feel of a saga, a masterpiece, much like Stephen King's Dark Tower series, which I have a feeling the producers are very familiar with. JJ Abrams, in fact, has expressed interest in making those 7 books for the screen --http://www.writerswrite.com/wblog.php?wblog=214071

Within this - the best season of the best show of all time - I believe last week's episode was the best episode ever. Maybe I am getting a little carried away, but after watching it I spent about four hours online researching stuff. And the image I posted here is the lightning-quick glimpse we got of the person who was in that chair in the shack in the middle of the jungle. Some say it looks like Locke. Others say Ben. Still others suggest Kelvin or Alvar/Magnus Hanso or Dennis Hopper (you have to admit it does sort of look like him!). All I know is that I am a little bit frightened to see what happens in these next two episodes. The producers say, "only an extremely deranged individual would think of doing what we're doing". Me scared!!!

Also in case you missed it, the producers of the show announced that there will be 3 more seasons after this one, each one containing 16 episodes. These are significantly shorter seasons than they had been doing... they averaged 23 episodes per year the first 3 seasons. But the good news is that each season will be 16 straight episodes, no breaks or re-runs, which is pretty much what we are in the middle of right now since the show came back from its (Day)break. So that means that by May of 2010, all of our questions will have been answered.

And in case you have never seen an episode but have grown interested... whatever you do, DO NOT tune in this week thinking that you will just "jump on board." This would be like deciding that you are going to read Les Miserables this summer, and then opening the book to somewhere in the middle and starting from there. It would be like deciding you are going to watch the movie Psycho and then starting from just after the shower scene. Completely and totally unacceptable. Get Season 1 on DVD. You will not be disappointed.

23rd Favorite Movie - Lord of the Rings Trilogy

2007-05-05T12:41:00.001-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

I know some of you will think I am cheating by counting this entire series as one movie. But I have a couple reasons for it:

1. The movies are all so close to one another in terms of quality that to rank them against other movies would be difficult. I CAN say that I liked the third one the best, then the first one, and then Two Towers. But rating each one against other movies like Saving Private Ryan and Jaws feels like splitting hairs to me.

2. To the non-hobbit/elf loving reader out there... three posts on LOTR would have been quite the bore. Plus, it's my list and you're not paying me anything to read this so I can do whatever I want! Ahhhhh... the beauty of blogging.

A great deal of my childhood was comprised of three things: baseball, Boy Scouts, and monsters. My older brother could probably say the same thing about his childhood. I don't know what it is like now, but we lived in a neighborhood without any other kids my age and I didn't have any other siblings, so I was always tagging along with him. One of the infamous family videos is of me as a kid smashing the clay Godzilla figures that my brother had left sitting on the table to dry. Yup, my big bro introduced me to monsters, Dungeons and Dragons, and Lord of the Rings (although my mom, a librarian, may have been partially responsible for that last one).

In the first grade, I submitted a story of epic proportions to the school newspaper entitled "Samwise and the Bats". It was a sequel to LOTR in which Samwise and his dog, Woof-Woof, find a new ring and whenever he places it on his finger, bats and other monsters appear that he has to fight. The story ends with the bats capturing Samwise and taking him to their lair and Woof-Woof triumphantly saving the day. I still have a copy lying around somewhere if you want to check it out sometime. Tolkien's estate tried to buy the copyright from me but I turned them down.

All this to say... if these three movies had been released when I was seven, I would have wet my pants.

My friend Chris C (who was Dungeonmaster when we used to get together and play D&D during recess) described them as a "masterpiece". I can't think of a better word. Peter Jackson made all the perfect choices: the perfect actors, perfect music, perfect location, perfect special effects... I know hardcore fans of the books dispute his decision to leave things out like Tom Bombadill or the final confrontation with Sauron at the shire, but with each movie at 3 hours+ already, he had to cut some parts.

I only have one complaint, and it isn't even Peter Jackson's fault.

***BIG TIME MAJOR SPOILER ALERT***

I kind of wish that Frodo would have died.

It's funny, even though as kids my brother and I were really into LOTR stuff, we never actually read the books. We had audio tapes that would tell part of the story, and children's picture books, and the 197o's movie that was part live action and part animation, but we didn't have the full story. So watching these movies together when he was back for Christmas (remember a new one came out every December from 2001-2003), we kept expecting that Frodo was going to die in the end. My brother's wife, Betsy, had read the books when she was little and even she thought Frodo died in the end. In the movies they did such a good job of making it seem like there was no hope for him and Samwise - that this really was a suicide mission - it just seemed impossible for them to get out alive.

Here's the real problem I have with the ending... I just think that to go that far... to be 9 hours invested in this thing... to have the ring destroyed because Gollum got too close to the edge while holding it and fell in, well, that was a little disappointing to me. I think it would have been better if Frodo died a heroic, sacrificial death by plunging into the fire while wearing the ring. That would have been way better than Gollum slipping and falling in. But this is what I REALLY wish would have happened: Frodo, Samwise and Gollum all make it to the fiery pit of Mount Doom, and Frodo pulls his "no, it's mine, my precious" thing which is cool because it shows the power of the ring over anyone and makes Smeagle into more of a helpless victim. And then what should have happened is Gollum grabs Frodo, bites off his finger, and you think he is about to put the ring back on his scaly finger but then you see him become Smeagle in his eyes and he plunges himself into the fire carrying the ring, not wanting to live as Gollum anymore and never wanting the ring to do that to another person again. That would have been boss!

Anyways, I haven't had the taste for LOTR since we did a marathon with the high schoolers a couple years ago one day. We watched all three movies - extended editions - back-to-back-to-back. It was excruciating. I was so sick of battles by the end of that. It was over 12 hours with the extrage footage added. Just brutal. But one of these days, after I have fully recovered from that nightmare, it will be fun to revisit a true masterpiece and feel like I am seven again.

The Happiest Place on Earth

2007-05-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

If you read our last update you know that Danny and I spent the weekend at Disneyland. It was the perfect weekend getaway! Everything was great and it felt so good to be away with no responsibility. I got to leave work early on Friday so we stopped at Harris Ranch for dinner on the way to LA. I had the chicken. Haha, just kidding. We had fabulous steak! We got to our hotel at about 9:30 so we had plenty of time to enjoy the nice room and relax. We highly recommend The Annabella Hotel in Anaheim - we paid motel prices for a gorgeous room with a super comfy bed.

Saturday morning we hit Disneyland. My biggest fear was that the free tickets we got from a friend at church wouldn't be valid. I read them a hundred times but I just knew it couldn't be that easy and they would say the tickets are only good for certain days or certain people - but we waltzed right in without paying a cent! By lunch we had done all our favorite rides and not waited in any nasty lines. We ran into Jerry and Christine, friends from the Campbell Church, and then had lunch at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant inside the Pirates of the Carribean. I've always wanted to eat there because of the atmosphere but now I want to eat there again because of the food! Man, that was an amazing meal. That meal was so good that it actually inspired a new blog countdown for when Danny finishes his movie countdown: Top 10 meals he's ever eaten.

After lunch we hit California Adventure, a first for both of us. We enjoyed all the rides (and the Bug's Life and Muppets 3-D shows!). Tower of Terror was our favorite ride - at one point I didn't know if we were going up or down, I just knew we were going fast! We ran from the Muppets 3-D show (it really was great!) to have dinner with Mandy and Danny, college students from the Campbell Church at the ESPN Zone. More great food, but the best part (besides Mandy and Danny's company) was the private TV screen in our booth! We swapped back and forth between baseball, hockey, and Pepperdine volleyball!

We headed back to Disneyland to hit Tomorrowland and call it a day. We did have to stand in line for almost two hours to ride Space Mountain - and then were scared out of our minds since we were in the front row and couldn't see anything! Fun stuff. We passed out in the soft hotel bed at about 1 am after a great day. The weekend ended with lunch with Jessica and Alex, college students from First Covenant and a relaxing drive home. I'm so grateful for time away just the two of us, and it couldn't have been more perfect! I highly recommend a romantic getaway at the happiest place on earth.

24th Favorite Movie - Saving Private Ryan

2007-04-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

So we are past the halfway point! The end is in sight! Hopefully I will finish this thing sometime in October, which will have been one year from when I started.

A second straight Steven Spielberg movie comes in at #24 on my list, Saving Private Ryan. And there is actually one more Spielberg movie to go at #18. Bethany has gone on record saying that if it is not E.T., there will be serious repercussions. I have not seen E.T. since we went to see it in the theater for my birthday party when I turned 8. But that does not mean it could not have made a sizable impact on me... As you can tell, Bethany is a big E.T. fan. She has a life-sized doll of him as well as a pillow of his face. When I was moving in, the pillow gave Tommy B the creeps and he turned it around so it wasn't looking at him. Anyways, more on E.T. and Spielberg in a few weeks.

I really have no time to talk about this movie except to say it really should have won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1998 instead of Shakespeare in Love. I heard that Band of Brothers is really good too, so I just queued it up in Netflix. I'd write more but I have to go to Disneyland now. WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!

April Adventures

2007-04-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

Ever since I started traveling internationally, about every six months I start to get the itch. It's time to get on a plane, leave the country and go on vacation. In April, I get to do all three of those things, but on three separate trips. It's less exciting than it sounds but it's been a busy month! The foreign country was Mexico, the plane trip was to LA on business, and the vacation is a weekend at Disneyland. All of this is mixed in with the usual full-time job, part-time grad school, and volunteering with the youth group. Oh yeah, and I have a husband that I like to talk to every once in a while, haha. Needless to say, things have been really busy, and blogging is a last priority! Thankfully Danny keeps up with his movie blog or our page might have expired.

Back to the chaos that has been April. It started on Easter Sunday when we left Oakland with 40 teenagers to drive to Mexico for a week-long spring break mission trip. Driving a 15 passenger van full of teens through the dirt roads of Mexico is stressful, to say the least. Despite the fact that I maxed out all my vacation time at the new job, this was not a vacation. Most of the trip was great - we had a good group of kids, did some great construction and ministry at Rancho de sus Ninos orphanage and had a lot of fun. Then Thursday hit. I won't go into details, but I'll summarize by saying we had some discipline issues that escalated so much that by the end of the night the adults decided to bring them home a day early. Instead of making the trip home in two fun days, we did it in one rough day. After a major delay at the border (another long story) we left the Mexican border at 5 pm and had to drive all the way to Oakland through San Diego and LA traffic. We rolled into Oakland at 3 am and I spent the next two days in a fog that felt like jet lag. I have to take a minute to brag about Danny and what a great job he did on this trip. I was impressed to work with him and so proud to be his wife! It's incredibly difficult to lead a trip like this Mexico mission trip, but even more difficult when there are discipline problems, and he handled everything with such integrity. His theme for the week was "speak the truth in love" and he had to do a lot of that!

Here's a picture of me helping some girls decorate hair clips.

After Mexico I had a day and a half to rest and do laundry, and then got on a plane at 5 am to fly to Pasadena and visit the Fuller main campus for two days of meetings. I had a blast being at Fuller as a staff member and meeting all my co-workers from around the country. I flew home Tuesday night just in time to get to my 7-10 pm class. By Wednesday, my brain was fried!

On Friday Danny and I are driving to LA to play at Disneyland for two days - just the two of us! This will be my third trip to (or through) LA in three weeks, but I think this one will be the most fun! This will be our first getaway alone since our honeymoon, so we're excited to get out of town for some much needed R&R. We're not taking any teenagers, and I'm not taking any homework!

Talk to you again - sooner than two months this time, I promise!

25th Favorite Movie - Jaws

2007-04-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

The first time I saw Jaws, I was about eleven years old. It was in the middle of the summer, there was nothing to do, and so my mom brought home a few movies on VHS from the public library for me and my friends to watch. I think we had just gotten our first VCR. Kinda funny, huh... to think that now we have Tivo and DVD and movies on the internet and I didn't have a VCR in my house growing up. Anyways, I started watching and got really frustrated and bored because they were not showing the shark. So I found the fast-forward button and just fast-forwarded to all the "good parts" with the shark attacks and didn't bother with the rest.

I don't think it needs to be said, but I will say it anyways: this is not the best way to watch Jaws.

Some of the best scenes in this movie don't involve the shark at all. The scene where the shark hunter tells his sea farin' tale is one of the best. Or the one with the body underwater that is guaranteed to make anyone who hasn't seen it before jump. Or the suspense for the first half of the movie... when you know that there will be an attack, but you don't know which one of the people in the water it will be. Stephen Spielberg is just a master, at everything. I have always liked directors like Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola but right now I would have to say that my two favorite movie directors are Stephen Spielberg and Spike Lee.

Anyways, if you haven't REALLY seen this movie before, maybe you've just heard all about it or done the tram ride at Universal Studios or caught a few minutes of one of the zillion showings on TNT... check it out. But not now. Wait until the summer, in the height of tourist season, like August. I have a friend who preaches the importance of watching certain movies at a certain time of year, and this is one of them. Two others are American Graffitti and Stand By Me, which he always watches toward the end of the summer.

Oh, and as for Jaws 2, Jaws in 3-D, and Jaws 4... like Ocean's 12, they never happened.

26th Favorite Movie - Malcolm X

2007-04-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

The third and final Spike Lee movie to make my list ties him with the most of any other director on here. Stay tuned next week to see who the other director is who has 3 movies on my top 50 list. Actually, next week we will be in Mexico with the high school group working at an orphanage. The next couple of days Bethany and I are trying to take it easy to rest up for the loooong drive down and back.

I think there are two main reasons why I appreciate this movie so much. The first has to do with the filmmaking. Denzel is amazing as always in his performance and Spike Lee makes the movie feel so epic... and I'm not just talking about the 3+ hour length, but everything he does lends a grandiose sense to what you are watching. The second reason has to do with the person of Malcolm X himself. While I do not agree with some of his beliefs, there are certain attributes in him that I admire. The spiritual transformation that he went through. The humility he shows before God. The passion he displays in the pulpit. The drive that keeps him going even when he is tired, has been betrayed, and is getting death threats.

Malcolm X is also interesting to me because it shows a man trying to balance his family life with a very demanding work schedule. Something I have been thinking about lately is the idea of "putting family first before work". That is something that I hear talked about a lot and I agree with... but I think how it is played out may look different at some times. For most men, work is how we get a lot of our self-worth, and it seems to me that if someone is passionate about their work at times that will directly cut into family time. If the person is in the middle of a project, has an important business trip to take, or needs to take classes or tests in order to become more proficient at work, during that "season", time with the fam will likely be impacted. But sometimes that season goes on for too long. Sometimes we men take on more work in order to provide a more stable home and future for our families... when all our wives and children really want is to see us around more (the great book For Men Only by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn talks about this). If we ALWAYS put work first, that is a problem.

I started thinking about all of this after watching 2 movies this last week. The first is called Something the Lord Made, and it is about the men who performed the first successful heart surgery about 50 years ago. You get the feeling watching the movie that they weren't exactly home for dinner every night... but their families understood that was because they were on the verge of discovering something that would save thousands of lives. But you also never get the sense that the men didn't adore their familes, they just had important work to do that they were very passionate about. The other movie is The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith. Again, this guy loved his son but was also passionate about becoming a stock broker. He had to put his son into a day care that he didn't feel all that great about and was always dragging him around on sales visits and studying for a test he had to take. But I think in both of these movies the characters DID put family first in their hearts, even though they chose jobs that may have kept them from spending more time with their families. I just hope that when/if the time comes for Bethany and I to have children (calm down, Grace!), that I would be able to find the right balance between work and family, because I think it is one of the most important factors in a man's life.

27th Favorite Movie - Cinderella Man

2007-03-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

So one of the problems I have found with this little endeavor of mine is that the order of my list is highly dependent on how I was feeling back in Fall 2006 when I sat down to order my 50 favorite movies. Since I began blogging, I have not changed the order except for once or twice when I moved a movie down one slot because I didn't feel like writing about it that week. Other than that, the list has remained the same. By the way, after I finish I am going to post a list of what would be the next 50, #'s 51-100. I'm not going to write about each one, just post the list.

I have only seen Cinderella Man once, when it was in the theaters. It is the only movie on my list of 50 Favorites that I have seen just once. All this to say... I was a little surprised to see it so high on my list. I am not surprised that I put it in my top 50, just that I ranked it so high back in the fall. We bought it on DVD immediately and haven't gotten around to watching it. With Netflix, it seems we rarely watch the DVD's we own. We have Something the Lord Made here now that we plan to watch tonight. Bethany's parents enthusiastically recommended that movie.

I do remember really really enjoying Cinderella Man. Bethany liked it too. When Kevin and Rebekah H got married last year Bethany and I got them a "chick flick", a "guy flick" and this one as a movie that both guys and girls could enjoy. It's based on a true story and has Russell Crowe playing a boxer, Renee Zellweger as his wife and Paul Giamatti his trainer. What made it stand out to me though was its depiction of life during the Depression. Watching Russell Crowe's character work the docks (shades of On the Waterfront) and do whatever it takes to provide for his family makes me thankful for my job and our economy right now and really impressed by the people who made it through that time. This is a film that truly will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you stand and cheer.

28th Favorite Movie - The Exorcism of Emily Rose

2007-03-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

I wasn't planning on ever seeing this movie until three things happened. First, a friend of mine told me how seeing this movie inspired him to be a more devout follower of Jesus (and it wasn't just because it "scared the Hell out of him"). Second, I learned that the writer and director, Scott Derrickson, is a Christian who believes that spiritual warfare is real. And third, I learned that the film was based (albeit loosely) on a true story.

During pre-production of the film, Derrickson's faith stood in opposition to producer of the film's agnosticsm. The two friends would often argue about spiritual matters: "is there a God?" "are demons and angels real?" "does demon possession realy occur or is it just psychological?" Their debates are reflected in the two main characters of the film. On the side of faith is Father Moore, the parish priest who is called to perform an exorcism on his parishoner, Emily. On the side of agnosticism is Erin Bruner, the lawyer who is called to help sort out the mess after the exorcism fails. Should the priest have relied on doctors and psychologists instead of exorcism? Was Emily possessed or just sick? The film does a great job of making a case for either side... although I think in the end Derrickson makes a stronger case for the spiritual explanation. In fact, there are a couple clips that I have shown during talks to the high school group.

So here's why you really should (or should not) see this film: it is dang scary. You WILL have a hard time falling asleep, and you will never look at 3 am the same way again (you gotta see the movie to understand). I had a bunch of the high school guys over to watch this movie one night last summer because they all love horror movies. We were having a good time scaring one another until one of them says, "Danny, there's someone standing on your balcony." I was like, "good one... that would be pretty freaky". And they were all, "no look, really, there is someone there." We turned to look and sure enough, something was there. EVERYONE freaked out and started running into the other room. I figured as the adult, it was my job to go see what he/she/it wanted so I got a little closer... and discovered that when you catch a glimpse of our Direct TV satellite dish at our new apartment while watching a scary movie in the dark, it can easily be mistaken for a head.

So if you don't mind being freaked out for a few nights, check out The Exorcism of Emily Rose. While you will most definitely be scared, you could also be inspired.

30th and 29th Favorite Movies - Ocean's 11 & Out of Sight

2007-03-09T15:07:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Question: have you ever met anyone who does not like Ocean’s 11?

I mean, who wouldn’t like that movie? It's fun, it's funny, and oh-so-cool.

But here’s a question I have: if everyone likes Ocean's 11, why have so few people seen Out of Sight?

Check it out: both are heist movies. Both blend comedy, action and romance. Both were directed by Steven Soderbergh. Both star George Clooney, Don Cheadle, and an excellent supporting cast. Both have that jazzy soundtrack. Both have a high “cool factor”. I don’t get it. Why did Ocean's 11 gross $185 million and Out of Sight just $30 million?

The bottom line is, if you liked Ocean's 11, I can’t imagine you not liking Out of Sight. The problem is no one has heard of it! You wouldn’t believe how difficult it was to find the DVD a few years ago… no one at Best Buy and Blockbuster and Target had heard of it, and Bethany finally found it for me online.

And don’t worry, J-Lo is actually tolerable in it!

31st Favorite Movie - To Kill A Mockingbird

2007-03-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

To Kil A Mockingbird is one of my favorite books, and there really is no drop-off with the movie.

How many times can you think of where the movie lives up to the book? I thought of a few:

*Lord of the Rings
*Harry Potter (this shows I am not a true HP fan)
*One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
*Shawshank Redemption (originally a short story by Stephen King)
*Goodfellas

Of the books we were assigned to read in high school, To Kill A Mockingbird was one of my favorites, along with The Catcher in the Rye. The book/movie are about a family growing up in the Jim Crow south. The story centers around the trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. The father of the family, played by Gregory Peck, is the defendant in the trial. His name is Atticus Finch... and he is my hero (it even says so on my Myspace!). Atticus stands for all that is good in the world: honesty, compassion, patience, and standing up for what is right. One of my favorite scenes is when one of the men in the town spits in his face for defending someone who is black. Atticus gets real mad... but he doesn't do anything to retaliate. He just walks away.

The title refers to a line in which Atticus says (paraphrased) "it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, because all they do is sing and make other people happy". This idea of it being a sin to kill something or somebody good is related to different characters in the movie, especially the creepy but harmless neighbor, Boo Radley, played by a very young Robery Duvall. One of my favorite moments in all of cinema is Scout saying, "hey Boo..." at the end.

Overall, the movie is a faithful retelling of the book and nothing gets lost in translation.

I only hope that they do as good a job with Catcher in the Rye someday...

32nd Favorite Movie - The Empire Strikes Back

2007-02-22T16:20:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

The Star Wars series has had a big impact of my life as a kid as well as an adult. When I was little, I had the Darth Vader carrying case full of action figures. As an adult, I went to the midnight premiere of each of the last three movies, even sleeping in line overnight on the sidewalk in Westwood with Rob R before The Phantom Menace. But I must say, taken individually, The Empire Strikes Back is the only one of the six films to make my list. And since this is my list I can do whatever I want, so while back at #40 I included the entire Indiana Jones series as one film, here I just want to point out the merits of Empire. Here is why Empire stands out above the other Star Wars films:

A New Hope: too cheesy (special effects, dialogue, and story)

Return of the Jedi: too cutesy (ewoks)

Phantom Menace: too boring (all that talk about trade embargos and the Federation and the Senate... show me one 7 year old kid who can explain what is going on in this movie. I think that is partially why the last 3 did not catch on with this generation like the first 3 did. Also more options like Harry Potter and LOTR now)

Attack of the Clones: too nauseating (dialogue between Anakin and Natalie Portman)

Revenge of the Sith: too anti-heroic (who are you supposed to be rooting for in this movie?)

Empire is the best in the series and one of the best films ever made, in my opinion. For starters, it is just beautiful to behold. From the white plains of Hoth to the green swamps of the Dagobah system to the final light saber background against that blue-orange background... you can tell that there was a lot more money and technology available when they filmed this in 1980 compared to the first one in 1977.

And don't forget that this Star Wars film has:

*the first appearance of Yoda
*the immortal line, "Luke, I am your father"
*the carbon-freezing of Han Solo
*the first appearance of Bubba Fett, who became the coolest character ever who got less than 5 minutes of screen time
*the peak of the Han-Leia romance and banter

Here is how I would rank the films:

1. Empire
(drop off)
2. A New Hope
3. Revenge of the Sith
(drop off)
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Attack of the Clones
6. Phantom Menace

Anyways, it is a bit sad to me that this series is done. I wonder what my kids some day will think of these movies? I'm guessing probably the same thing I thought of Lone Ranger and Buck Rogers and other childhood heros from my parents' childhood: bo-ring.

How many people will this feed?

2007-02-19T20:51:00.000-08:00

Danny and I had guests over for dinner on Saturday night. Looking at this picture, can you guess how many people we had over? If it helps you estimate, we also made three boxes of cous cous. Does it surprise you that we only had 4 guests? I counted, and we made 5 kebobs per person, and that wasn't even using all the meat and vegetables we bought. I have an issue with being paranoid that we won't have enough food for guests, and Danny is very patient to let me buy enough food for twice the people we invite. In my defense, the three boxes of cous cous was his idea. His favorite line is "I used to eat one box all by myself" and then I remind him that he probably ate nothing but cous cous.
Anyway, dinner turned out to be yummy and we had a great time with our friends from church. Danny and I always enjoy time with other adults when we get it!

34th and 33rd Favorite Movies - Good Will Hunting & Rounders

2007-02-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Ok, so I was just about done writing this a minute ago when my finger hit the wrong key and somehow sent my browser back, and when I went forward again everything I had written was gone. Super frustrating. I guess now I know to click that "Save As Draft" button more often.

Last week was one of the few times I have missed a week in my movie countdown! The reason? I just didn't feel like blogging. Today I still don't feel like it much, but I know I gotta give the people what they want. Seriously, will all of you rabid fans please stop calling and flooding my account with emails? I think that I have reached that part in my list where I am getting sick of writing the articles each week... and I'm not even to the top 30 movies yet. But I am betting that my excitement level will pick up again once I get to the top 25 or so because those ones I REALLY care about.

Good Will Hunting brought instant fame and a lifetime of work in Hollywood for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. If you recall, they won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing it. Nobody had even heard of these two guys and they go and write and star in one of the best films of 1997. Pretty amazing. This one has some classic lines in it, among them: "how 'bout them apples?" "it's not your fault" "I had to go see about a girl" and Steve (Stew) B's favorite, "I'm telling you, you're suspect". I think this movie is one of Stew's favorites. Stew, if you're out there can you verify that?

Rounders, also starring Matt Damon, beats Good Will Hunting out by an Ace kicker in my book. How much you like this movie probably depends on how much you like poker, though. I have been getting more into it lately by playing online with play chips (I am quite proud of the 50K I have amassed at PartyPoker.net) and reading a book about the history of the World Series of Poker that Bethany bought me for Christmas. I truly believe that this movie is the biggest reason for the poker boom we have seen in the last few years. In 1998, the year the movie came out, 352 people paid the $10,ooo entry fee to the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas. Last year, there were over 8,000 entries - mostly amateurs and internet players. While the rise of on-line gambling and better television coverage has certainly contributed to poker's rise in popularity, I believe that the almost daily airing of Rounders on channels such as TNT and USA cannot be overlooked.

In Rounders Matt Damon plays a law school student who is also really good at poker, which probably happens more than you realize. Ed Norton plays his buddy, Worm. This is definitely one of those "dude flicks", seeing as the romantic relationship is pretty much cast aside and there is a lot of card games and talk about loyalty and respect. Fun movie, even if I still don't completely understand what Teddy KGB's tell is (yeah, I know it has something to do with the Oreos, but what EXACTLY?).

And if you think a pastor who likes poker is funny, how about a professional poker player who is a Christian and not ashamed of either his faith or his occupation? Daniel Negreanu, aka "Kid Poker", says, "it's not gambling if you win". He is estimated to have won over $4 million playing in tournaments and is probably one of the top 10 poker players in the world. I started watching him on TV and it is unbelievable how the man can just tell what 2 cards other players have. I started reading his blog online and even sat through an episode of Rob and Amber because he appeared in it. I like this guy so much I had to add him to my list of "Heros" on Myspace!

See you next week. Uhg. What did I get myself into with this list? Now I know how Desmond must have felt pushing the button (that's a Lost reference... if you don't get it, I feel sorry for you. Go rent Seasons 1 & 2. NOW!)

Resurfacing

2007-02-11T16:20:00.000-08:00

You know how dolphins breathe air but stay under water for a long time and then resurface to get breath before going under again? Well hello, I'm dolphin girl. I feel as though I've been doggie paddling to keep my head above water, and then every few weeks or so I get to come up for air. I don't mean to sound like life is rough -- it's full of good stuff, it's just FULL. My new job is keeping me really busy but I love it. I'm taking a class on World Religions this quarter as I pursue my MA degree, and that has been an amazing experience! Youth ministry is really busy, especially since we had a weekend retreat at the end of January. The retreat was a ton of fun, but it took me a few weeks to recover from the lack of sleep!
Here's a picture from the retreat. Our tradition is to go inner tubing at a snow park, and each year we do one last run with the entire group, all 40-ish of us. I'm the blue dot at the top left, and Danny is the yellow blob at the bottom left!

So that's been my life lately: work, classes, writing papers, and playing with teens. The paper I'm working on next is about Judaism so yesterday Danny and I visited a Jewish temple for their Sabbath service. It was really interesting and a lot of fun, although we really disappointed the rabbi after service when we told him we were Christians. I think he got excited for some fresh blood at the synagogue. It was a neat service and they do so many things I wish we did in church. They had junior high students involved in the service -- even leading the Scripture readings. I think in churches we often make the kids sit still and be quiet, but I wish we let them participate in worship more. Another thing I admire about Jews is the joy they have in worship. Jews know how to party, and for all the right reasons! They ended the service with bread and wine to remember to be thankful for our daily bread and to celebrate life.

Speaking of celebrate, congratulations to Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo for winning the quarterback challenge at the NFL Pro-Bowl. Yup, that means my boy Romo is the best quarterback in the NFL. Peyton Schmeyton.

So that's been life lately. This has been a bit of a random post, and there's not much ground-breaking news to share, but thanks for keeping up with us! Now it's back to reading and doing laundry!

35th Favorite Movie - Frailty

2007-02-01T21:17:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

This is one of those gems that most people have never even heard of, let alone seen. It is a "make-you-jump" horror film, a touching family drama, a thriller with plenty of twists, and one of my many "spiritually interesting" films. But let me warn you: the subject matter is pretty heavy.

Bill Paxton (you may know him as the "No way, man!" guy from Aliens or the star of the show Big Love) directed and plays the father of two young boys. Their life is pretty normal until one day he has a vision in which God tells him that he and his boys are to serve Him by hunting demons. The only problem is the demons look and talk and act like people.

This is one of those movies where the less you know going in, the better. But I can tell you this much:

1. Frailty provides a great lead-in to a discussion about the nature of visions. To what extent would you do whatever God said if he appeared to you in a vision? Can or should a person's faith be based entirely upon receiving a "vision"?

2. Frailty is made sort of in the style of a Hitchcock film... dark subject matter, suspenseful, but no on-camera gore or nudity and hardly any language. The R rating is due pretty much to its disturbing subject matter.

3. Matthew McConaughey is in it. I thought knowing that might get some of you ladies to check it out.

That's about it. This one will freak you out, mess with your head, and give you something to talk about afterwards.

36th Favorite Movie - Inside Man

2007-01-26T10:18:00.000-08:00

I've got no time to talk about this movie since we are leaving for our High School Winter Retreat to Twain Harte today. Should be a great weekend, we are taking about 50+ students and staff up to Camp Berea in a chartered bus. Hopefully there will be SOME snow to play in!

As far as the movie goes, the cast is great (Denzel, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen) and it provides a great twist on your standard heist/hostage premise. This is Spike Lee's highest grossing and perhaps most accesible film.

I just realized that this section of my list is heavy on recent films. When we get to the top 25 or so it evens out a little.

Also, after I get to #1, I am going to post a list of what the next 50 would be. But I will be WAY sick of writing about them by then so a list will have to do... apologies to my faithful readers, I mean reader (thanks Grace!!!).

37th Favorite Movie - Walk The Line

2007-01-18T20:21:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

This one comes as no surprise to anyone who was at our wedding ('Ring of Fire' was the recessional) or who saw me much when this movie came out last spring. Geoff B jokes that after I saw this movie I went through a Man In Black phase and wore black every day for a month and listened only to music by "The Cashman". And you know what? It's kinda true.

I walked into the theater knowing nothing about Johnny Cash except that he had a song about some boy named Sue. I left the theater humming 'I Walk the Line' and rushed home to download it and other songs from the movie. Honestly, it took me a while to get used to Cash's voice, I actually preferred Joaquin Phoenix's voice from the movie at first! But after Gladiator and Signs, I was already a pretty big Joaquin Phoenix guy. Both he and Reese Witherspoon are great in this. One of the small scenes that I really enjoyed was when Johnny is talking to his brother before bed when they are kids. Johnny asks his brother why he is always reading the Bible and he responds, "If I'm gonna be a preacher I gotta know what story to tell people when they need help." I really liked that part. You get periodic glimpses of Cash's faith in the movie.

Speaking of Cash's faith, check out this excerpt from an article I found online...

In a recent interview with Christianity Today, master guitarist Phil Keaggy, a Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) veteran since the 1970s, expressed regret for the many years he was consigned to a genre that wound up reaching the converted more than the people he had been able to reach before signing up with CCM labels. With CCM’s contractual constraints on lyrical content, artists are kept from singing about all aspects of life and must have so many mentions of Jesus per minute (known in the industry as “JPMs”) to please the label management. This self-limiting system keeps the artists singing to the choir and away from other topics that might get secular listeners’ attention. Whereas Cash hadn’t been allowed to sing songs of faith at Sun Records, CCM didn’t allow its artists to sing anything but “Jesus music.” Ever the maverick, Cash left Sun for a label that gave him that freedom.

In a way, Cash broke ground for artists like Switchfoot, P.O.D. and Sufjan Stevens who follow Christ but do not want to become pigeonholed by calling themselves "a Christian band" or "Christian musician". Johnny Cash's music reached a wide audience, both saints and sinners. To read all of that article, go to:

http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=2834

I'll wrap things up with this anecdote. Once, Bono and bass player Adam Clayton from U2 visited Cash at his home. Johnny gave thanks before the meal and then opened his eyes, winked at Bono, and said, "Sure do miss the drug though.”

That's what I call a sinner saved by grace.

38th Favorite Movie - About Schmidt

2007-01-11T09:29:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

About Schmidt is more an Alexander Payne movie than a Jack Nicholson movie.

Let me explain: a Jack Nicholson movie tends to have him smirking a lot, making witty wisecracks, looking sexy, etc. Here, Jack is not smirking, not witty and not sexy... unless you like old guys who spend most afternoons in their pj's eating frozen dinners in front of the TV.

Alexander Payne is the writer/director who also made Election and Sideways. I couldn't really put my finger on what makes his movies stand out, so I went on imdb.com and snagged this post from someone: "Payne has a wonderful capacity for balancing bittersweet wit and black comedy with a genuine, heartfelt compassion for his characters. He can really capture a certain fragile, ephemeral quality to life that most other writer-directors seem incapable of pinning down."

Thank you SugarSnap, whoever you are, you hit the nail right on the head.

This movie is flat-out funny. A few years ago when I was running the college/young adult group at church, we would gather to watch movies and talk about what they meant. Some scenes from this film brought the house down with laughter.

But it also led to some heartfelt discussion. About Schmidt is a very personal movie. As you can tell from the title it is about a guy named Schmidt. But it is also about you, the viewer. As Schmidt looks back on his life after retirement and wonders if it all meant anything, we are forced to ask ourselves the same question: what mark, if any, will I have left on the world after leaving it?

My favorite element of the movie is the relationship that Schmidt builds with a child he sponsors in Africa. Throughout the film he fights his loneliness by pouring his heart out in letters to this six year old boy.

******SPOILER ALERT!!!******

In the last scene of the movie, he receives a letter back from the child. The link below is to the last 3 minutes of the movie. I debated whether to post this link because it is much more powerful after seeing the entire movie before it, but it is still one of my favorite endings of all time in the history of cinema and it never fails to move me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfcjyXmSqOs

******END OF SPOILER ALERT!!!******

Schmidt finds meaning in his life not through work... not through retirement... not through having a big house and new motorhome... but through discovering that he has helped another less fortunate person - "the least of these" as Jesus said. Speaking of, I recently learned that the saying "It is more blessed to give than to receive" is not only from the Bible, but from the mouth of Jesus! It is found not in the Gospels but tucked away in Acts 20:35. Through giving, Schmidt finds a purpose to his life.

We should all be so lucky!

39th Favorite Movie - Collateral

2007-01-04T14:13:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

In that most of my creative energy is going in to making the films and skits for our upcoming Winter Retreat with the high school group, this will be a short review.

I think what I liked most about this movie is feeling like I had no idea what was going to happen next. The setup is Tom Cruise is a hit-man who waves down Jamie Foxx's cab one night and forces him to drive him around from one "job" to another. I am a sucker for movies and TV shows that take place in just one night, or one day, or a couple hours - real time, they call that. Apparently millions of "24" fans feel the same way. I also thought the scene where Jamie Foxx had to bluff the guy in the club was fantastic. I felt so nervous for him and so bad for him to be in that whole situation. I loved it when he finally takes control of his cab and stops giving in to Cruise's demands.

The film was directed by Michael Mann, who is never short on style points. He also made The Jericho Mile (a cool little 70's movie about a man in prison for life who becomes an Olympic-caliber runner), Manhunter (which tells the same story of Hannibal Lecter as Red Dragon, only better), The Insider (which everyone loves and I can see why) and Heat (which everyone loves and I can't see why). But Collateral is my favorite of his movies. Like Quentin Tarantino, Michael Mann has a knack for making even the most simple shots "cool".

A Great Day

2007-01-02T21:28:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days when you get in bed and smile and think "today was a great day." (Danny is now singing the Ice Cube song "Today was a good day" and says I'm missing out because I'm not familiar with it.)

Although I did have to wake my night-owl self up at the unholy hour of 5:45 am, I started my new job at Fuller Seminary and really enjoyed the day. I have a lot to learn and a lot to remember, but it's a great place to work!

After dinner Danny and I scratched off the lotto tickets that his mom gets us every year for Christmas. We've never won more than a free ticket, and on my last ticket I was just commenting on how no one ever wins anything on these, when I won $100! It's not a fortune, but it'll do! Danny thought I was joking so we both had a good laugh over the moment. We'll have to think of something fun to do with the free money!

We hope you all had a great new year's holiday!

40th Favorite Movie - The Indiana Jones Series

2006-12-29T00:10:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

In that I am the Creator of this list, I am naturally the one who sets the rules. And according to my rules, I can categorize an entire series as one movie as I have done here, or just focus on one or two movies of a series and act like the others don't exist, which I will be doing later.

If I had to rank them, I would rank the Indiana Jones movies like this:

1. Raiders
2. Crusade
3. Temple

which seems to be how most people rank them, although for some it looks more like this:

1. Raiders
2. Crusade

(this space represents a large gap)

3. Temple

I guess most people were disappointed by Temple of Doom, but I wasn’t. Yeah, all Kate Capshaw did was scream the whole way through it… and it was definitely darker than the other two, with the beating hearts getting ripped out of people’s chests and voodoo dolls and the kidnapped children being used as slaves. But it was still a good adventure flick. I saw it in the theater when I was in the 4th grade, sat in the front row, and loved it - especially the chase with the railroad car. Something strange I remember about the first time I saw it: my class that year was taking an overnight field trip on a sea ship and we were all learning how to tie complex knots. I actually took a rope into the theater and was practicing the “monkey’s fist” during the movie. Don’t know why I remember that. I guess I was a multi-tasker before we knew what that was.

There is no need to discuss plot and acting and all that stuff because you have all already seen these movies. But I have to mention John Williams’ score. That guy is “simply the best”. Bethany and I were watching Superman Returns the other night and the only thing I liked about the movie was the music, which was the same theme Williams wrote for the original 1978 Superman film. Just a few of the other hummable scores he has written: ET, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Harry Potter, Close Encounters, Home Alone, Catch Me If You Can… let’s just say the guy picked the right profession.

You may have heard that there is an Indiana Jones 4 in the works, to be released in 2008. Harrison Ford will be joined by Sean Connery once again and Natalie Portman is rumored to be in it. Marion (from the first film) and Sallah are also said to be in it. Hopefully Lucas and Spielberg will make a worthy addition to a one-of-a-kind series.

P.S. Tom Selleck (from Magnum P.I.) was originally offered the role of Indiana - as was Nick Nolte but he too turned it down. So the next time you are trying to think of things to be thankful for in life, there you go.

Random Happenings

2006-12-20T13:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted pictures and random family news, so here is a quick rundown of what we've been up to.

The first ever Fitelson-Hall collaboration Christmas tree is up! Actually, it's been up since Thanksgiving weekend, but I didn't have time to get the pictures onto the computer. We love our first Christmas tree because it has ornaments from both our childhoods as well as new ones we (meaning I) bought this year.

Our tree is leaning just a bit, probably because we couldn't agree on where to put it AFTER screwing it into the stand so it was dragged all over the living room. Danny says it has a "gangsta lean" which his friends think is hilarious and I don't understand at all.

Two weekends in a row we hosted big events at our little apartment, and it all went really well! Danny was the best husband ever since he worked so hard to clean the whole house while I stressed about cooking and baking to feed a ton of people. I hosted a bridal shower (the picture is for the moms, aunts and grandmas) and we were able to use our wedding china for the first time! Then we had people over to watch the Cowboys beat the Falcons (and served bridal shower leftovers) and the next day we hosted the youth group student and adult staff Christmas party. Yup, that means we fed and accomodated about 17 people, but it was a ton of fun! I've said this before and I'll say it til I die: Pampered Chef is a life-saver! All the food I made for all the parties was from Pampered Chef recipes (and using their super cool tools) and they make it so easy to throw a party for 20 people!

Now that the parties are over, we really get to relax and enjoy the holidays, although we're filling our calendar up fast because we don't know what to do with all this time! Plus, I have two days left at work before I start my new job, so work has been really easy and it feels great.

I'll leave you with a little laugh, and although it's at Danny's expense you should know that no one laughs harder at himself than Danny. I'm always telling Danny he should spend more than 6.99 for a haircut, so he sucked it up and went to a nicer place that charges a whopping $14 for a haircut. The day after his haircut, we were driving in the car and I was in the driver's seat with a perfect view of his left ear....and the huge bald spot the lady left on his head! I couldn't stop laughing, and for the rest of the day as we drove around I would turn to tell him something and it would come out like this: "We should remember to...teeheeheehee!" So, we had to share with the rest of the world.

41st Favorite Movie - A River Runs Through It

2006-12-15T15:26:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

With most of the movies on this list, I can tell you why I like them and what I think it is that they are "saying".

With A River Runs Through It, I'm really not sure about either.

Why do I like it? Maybe because it is about a minister and his family. Maybe because it is sort of a retelling of the parable of the prodigal son. Maybe because it is beautiful to watch (and I don't mean Brad Pitt... the film won the 1993 Academy Award for Cinematography). I'm not really sure what it is, but this film moves me.

What is the movie "saying"? Well, it seems to be making some sort of comparison between fly-fishing and religion (both invole ritual? both involve waking up early on Sunday mornings to go somewhere?), but other aspects like nature and family play an important role in it as well. Overall, I'm not really sure what it is saying.

But I can tell you what I hear everytime I see it. I hear the words that the minister says in his final sermon:

"Each one of us here today will, at one time in our lives, look upon a loved one in need and ask the same question: We are willing Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true that we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give, or more often than not, that part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is that those we live with and should know are those who elude us. But we can still love them. We can love—completely—even without complete understanding."

I think we all probably know someone who is in need who really wish we could somehow help, but we don't know what to do. And I think we all have someone close to us that we just don't understand (sometimes it may be our own spouses!) And this lack of understanding so often leads to conflict, frustration, and separation. But the message of this film is that we do not need to understand in order to love. Maybe it is possible to love completely without complete understanding.

This statement can be true of our relationship with God as well. Last week at youth group one of our high school staff members gave a talk about the question "why, God?" Not understanding God or his plans can lead to these same outcomes: conflict, frustration, and separation. But maybe it is possible to love completely without complete understanding.

Understanding is so naturally a part of love, but it does not need to be. In the most well-known passage about love in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul concludes by talking about the role that understanding plays in love:

"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:12-13

While we will never completely understand God and why he lets some things happen, we can take comfort that there will be further knowledge to come and that love trumps all.

Is this what the film saying? I'm not entirely sure. But this is what I hear.

Big News (no, it's not a baby)

2006-12-14T16:38:00.000-08:00

This has been the year of change. In 2006, I moved twice, got married, changed churches, started graduate school, and now...I got a new job!

Most of you know I have started studying for my Masters in Theology at Fuller Seminary's Northern California extension campus. Through being a student I found out that Fuller had a job opening for a new staff member, so I applied and got the job! The job title is Marketing Associate, but what I'll be doing is pretty open-ended and will change every day. I'll do office work and help with student needs like applications and phone calls, and hopefully I'll get to do some marketing, writing newsletters and other PR as well as student recruiting. I'm thrilled to be leaving Information Technology for a job that's both writing and ministry with a lot of people interaction. No more fixing computers, yay! (No offense to the computer geeks, it's just not for me.)

The staff at Fuller Northern California has been so wonderful during the interview process and I'm confident it will be a great working environment. I can't wait! I start January 2nd, so I have two more weeks at Juniper (less with Christmas vacation). Come January, I'll no longer roll my eyes and mumble something about "It's really not interesting" when people ask me what I do for a living! (Again, no offense to the computer geeks, but when you tell someone you work at the Helpdesk then they start asking about the new Microsoft patches or something and like I said before, it's just not for me.)

If anyone in Northern California is looking to do Biblical graduate school, now you know who to call!

42nd Favorite Movie - The Incredibles

2006-12-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

A few weeks ago we had a "Disney Night" with the high schoolers. That night I said my favorite Disney movie was Robin Hood. Now this can be a touchy subject for some people, but if you were to include Pixar under the category of "Disney", then my favorite Disney movie would be The Incredibles.

The mastermind behind The Incredibles was neither Disney nor Pixar. It was Brad Bird. Previously an executive consultant for The Simpsons (he is partially responsible for taking the show from 1 minute sketches on The Tracey Ullman Show to half-hour episodes) and King of the Hill, Bird wrote and directed The Incredibles despite never before being involved in a Pixar project. Brad Bird earned that opportunity by making The Iron Giant, a fantastic movie with a deep theological message that just missed making this top-50 list. It seems that The Iron Giant impressed enough folks at Pixar that Bird got a chance to make his next film with them. He went out on a limb by making The Incredibles, a cartoon that grown-ups would love.

Pretty much everybody in the world has seen this film as well as some space aliens that are just now receiving a constant video feed since it was released in 2004. Of course there is action and humor and great characters and a great story and impressive animation, but that is the case for pretty much all Pixar films. The thing that makes The Incredibles unique is that it works on two levels: a child can watch it and enjoy it for one reason and a parent can watch it and enjoy it for an entirely different reason... and the two reasons actually complement one another. It could have been that the adult issues took a backseat to the action/humor and the kids got bored, or the action/humor took a backseat to the adult issues and the adults would be left with just another movie that the kids would want to watch 5,000 times on DVD. But it all blends perfectly, making The Incredibles a film that is truly "for the whole family" - which is appropriate since it is about the relationships within a family.

In The Incredibles, each character's superpower was not assigned randomly but ties in to where he/she is in life and to their struggles. Mr. Incredible himself is the strong and courageous hero every dad wants to be... but he is approaching middle age. His wife Elastigirl is able to stretch herself... which she needs in order to "hold her life together" as she tries to raise three kids, support her husband and keep the house clean. Violet, the middle school aged girl, is shy and beginning to figure out who she is... so she naturally can turn invisible and is just learning how to harness her ability to create force fields. Dash, the elementary school aged boy, has legs that don't stop moving and a head full of steam... so he struggles with wanting to show off and not stopping to think before acting. The "normal life struggles" that each character is going through have a direct tie-in to the superpower that Bird gave them.

Some of you might think I am reading in to this too much, but this film was obviously intended to work on two levels - one for kids and one for adults. As proof of this, it is the only Pixar movie to get a PG rating. Plus, Bird himself has a family who supposedly inspired him to write The Incredibles. Bird has gone on record as saying that animation can be used to tell any kind of story, not just stories for children as American animated films and shows tend to be.

The next story that Brad Bird and Pixar will be telling is about a rat in Paris named Ratatouille, scheduled for reason this summer. As you can see from this description on imdb.com, Bird is at it again in making a cartoon that grown-ups will love:

"Remy is a rat, constantly risking life in an expensive French restaurant because of his love of good food, as well as a desire to become a chef. His father and brother do not approve, and would rather stick to the normal rat life of eating garbage. The family can't be split up, but who is in the right? The one wanting the dangerous but better life, or the ones who believe in an easy, if somewhat lesser, life?"

John Lasseter, who is now the Creative Director at Disney after the Pixar merge says about Ratatouille: "It is a wonderful story about following your passions when all the world is against you. A rat to a kitchen is death; a kitchen to a rat is death."

You can check out the trailer here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/trailers-screenplay-E27826-10-2

Normally a cartoon about a rat would not appeal to me, but with Brad Bird's name attached to it, I'm going.

Establishing Thanksgiving Day

2006-12-06T11:05:00.000-08:00

This is a little late, but I wanted to share this Thanksgiving Proclamation because it really impressed me. My Dad shared this in his sermon Thanksgiving weekend so I asked him to send me the notes. (Shameless plug: if you want to hear great sermons every week, you can listen to my dad at www.campbellchurch.org under the Listen link, or subscribe to the Campbell Church Podcast on iTunes.)

In school we always learned that Thanksgiving began with the Pilgrims and Native Americans, but I never learned that it was Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, who made Thanksgiving an official holiday. Lincoln's spirit is remarkable as he looks for the good in circumstances, even during a brutal and heartbreaking war. Read President Lincoln's words:

Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day

October 3, 1863

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

A. Lincoln

43rd Favorite Movie - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2006-12-01T12:39:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

On our trip last week, I noticed one of the signs in a subway station said "To Montauk" and I immediately thought of a key line from this film: "meet me in "Montauk". I had never realized that the film takes place in New York and that Montauk was an actual place. Now I want to see it again and see if I can pick up on any other NY references. The day we got home from the trip, I skimmed through The Catcher in the Rye (one of my all-time favorite books) to see how many Manhattan locations are in it that we saw. There were a lot: Radio City Music Hall, the carousel and pond at Central Park, Rockefeller Center, the Museum of Natural History, Broadway, the interior of a NY cab... ok now I'm stretching. But for some reason it is more fun to see these places after you have read about them in a book or seen them in a movie. Why that is, I don't know. Maybe it just provides some context and meaning to the place. Maybe it makes for a more solid memory in your head since you have seen it in person.

The next movie on my list, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, is about the power of memory. The film stars Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, and Tom Wilkinson. Pretty solid cast, huh. But it is first and foremost a Charlie Kaufman movie. Charlie Kaufman is the guy who wrote Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind along with Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. He has a style all to his own. In a Charlie Kaufman script, reality is thrown out the window and you often find yourself "in the head" of one of the characters. This is never more true than in Being John Malkovich, which is about a portal that literally takes you into the head of the actor John Malkovich. At one point in the film (the scene I liked the most) Kaufman shows us the memories of a caged ape who reflects on being free in the jungle before he was captured. In short, I don't like Kaufman and I absolutely hated Adaptation. I think his style is pretentious and show-offy and too "Kaufman-esque". But with this story, which requires a break from reality and for us to really get into the minds of its principal characters, it works perfectly.

The film is basically a love story. Anyone who has ever been through a bad break-up can probably relate to this film. After breaking up with Joel (Jim Carrey), Clementine (Kate Winslet) decides to take advantage of the newest technology and have all memories of him erased from her brain. Who hasn't wanted a totally fresh start after a painful breakup? Joel hears about this and decides to do the same thing. Although halfway through the procedure, he decides the memories he has of Clementine are so precious they are worth the pain associated with them.

I'm not going to say any more and spoil what happens for those of you who haven't seen it, but the film makes you wonder, "if I were to have met the person I love now at a different time in both of our lives, would we still be together?" It also poses the old question, "is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?" Can 'eternal sunshine of the mind' only be achieved by ridding the memory of its painful 'spots'?

This is a movie for people who love cinema and like to analyze films, which is evident from its #38 ranking on the Top 250 at imdb.com. I think it is cool that Kaufman chose to name Kate Winslet's character Clementine. After hearing that she has decided to erase him for her memory, you can almost imagine Joel being tormeted by that song that goes, "you were lost and gone forever, oh my darling Clementine..."

Thanksgiving in New York

2006-11-27T17:58:00.000-08:00

Danny and I just returned from a week in New York to celebrate Thanksgiving with Danny's family. I am in love with New York City but I had not been in 8 years so I was so excited and energized to walk through the streets of that amazing city. We got to do fun tourist stuff but also had Danny's brother Michael and his wife Betsy as local tour guides.

We crammed a lot into a few days, so I'll list them off quickly and post a few pictures. If you want more pictures, I have them posted on Kodakgallery.com and you can email me and I'll invite you to view them.

We went to Michael's photography show at an art gallery near their home on the Upper West side of Manhattan. We met some very interesting people and I really enjoyed getting to say "I'm the sister-in-law of the artist."

We took a horse carriage ride through Central Park.

We went ice skating at Rockefeller Center and saw the entire city from the Top of the Rock observation deck.

We visited Ground Zero and saw the September 11 timeline and several memorials.

We walked through downtown and saw Trinity Church, Battery Park, and a long-distance view of the Statue of Liberty.

We saw the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes.

We left the country, meaning we visited the U.N. which is on international territory.

We saw the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! Even if it was only 20 minutes and it was raining and cold, I was thrilled! We went down the night before to watch the balloons being filled. Up close, they are HUGE!

I took a LOT of pictures, we ate great food with family and celebrated Thanksgiving with Betsy's family in Connecticut. It was a great week!

Us at the Top of the Rock observation deck overlooking Central Park

With Manhattan and the Empire State Building in the background

The view of Times Square from our hotel room, thanks to Danny's brother and his wife. Mike and Betsy put us up in the Marriot Marquis on Times Square as a wedding gift.

At the parade: Danny, Scooby and Mike

Tomodachitachi!

2006-11-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

If I'm correct, the title above means "friends" in Japanese. And Japanese friends are the theme of this post! This week we had visitors from Japan: Chiaki and her son, Kanta, who I used to live with in Osaka, and Shiho, a member of the church in Osaka that I used to work for as a missionary.

Our week was exhausting but so much fun! For all three visitors, it was their first time to America and they seemed to have a blast. Chiaki had a list of "goals" that included everything from seeing Victorian houses in San Francisco to eating Taco Bell! Fortunately, a cab driver convinced them to try a Mexican taqueria instead of Taco Bell and they really liked it. We also ate at In-N-Out, Texas Roadhouse, and ate clam chowder in a bread bowl on Fisherman's Wharf. They were constantly amazed at how large American portions are. They also commented on how fast Americans drive. Kanta even said "Bethany's car is like a rocket!"

For me and Danny, we enjoyed playing tour guide on a PERFECT day in San Francisco (and it was supposed to rain, haha). We saw the sea lions at Pier 39, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Kanta was enamored with the cable cars. We also showed them around the entire Bay Area (we crossed every bridge in a span of 3 days) and took them to both Campbell and First Covenant for church. It is such a joy to have a special friend see your home, church and family for the first time!

One of my favorite moments over the past week was talking and praying with Chiaki. Chiaki and I were really close when I lived in Japan, and her and her husband took me in when I needed a place to stay for a few months before returning to America. We used to have deep talks and pray together and it was such a blessing to do that again! Chiaki is one of the close friends who I may not see for a few years, but when we meet again it is just like old times. I am very blessed.

Here are some pictures from our adventures:

Me, Kanta, Chiaki and Shiho at the Golden Gate Bridge

Kanta with his new cable car toy

Shiho and Kanta with Alcatraz and the city behind them

44th Favorite Movie - Singin' in the Rain

2006-11-15T22:34:00.000-08:00

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

45th Favorite Movie - Die Hard

2006-11-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

With Christmas time approaching (see other posts for my feelings about this), now is a good time to snuggle up by the fire and check out one of the all-time great Christmas movies.

Die Hard.

What does Die Hard have to do with Christmas you say? Remember, it is Christmas Eve when the German terrorists take over the Fox Plaza building in L.A. Bruce Willis' character, John McClane, a New York cop, is in town trying to patch things up with his estranged wife who is attending a Christmas party in the building. You get characters dressed as Santa Claus, "Let It Snow" on the soundtrack, and apparently there is even a Christmas theme to the DVD cover. What better way to bring in the Christmas cheer?

Of course, I'm kidding. The real reason to see Die Hard is to enjoy one of the best and most influential action movies ever made. It is funny, suspenseful, action-packed, and you can't help but root for the good guy. It actually holds up pretty well after nearly twenty years. Ok, writing that last sentence made me feel incredibly old. I still remember seeing this in the theater during the summer of 1988. It was the movie that me and all my friends wanted to see, it was rated R, and I was only 13. Somehow the guy taking tickets at the UA theater in Berkeley let me, my friend, and his 10 year old brother in to see it.

And we were never the same again.

I cannot convey to you just how COOL Bruce Willis was at the time this movie came out. He had made a name for himself as the wisecracking detective in Moonlighting, but he never really got a chance to run around and shoot guns in that show, which is what we as 13 year-old boys really wanted to see. My parents' generation had John Wayne, we had Bruce Willis.

I want to thank two of my friends from Fresno, Phil and Adam, for telling me about this: if you are ever channel-surfing and come across one of the Die Hard movies on FX, wait to hear Bruce say his infamous “yippee-kai-ay" line. The dubbing over this line is so awful, it is absolutely hilarious. They leave Bruce's voice alone for the “yippee-kai-ay" part, and then there is some other voice that tacks on, "Mr. Falcon", which makes no sense because there is no one named Falcon in any of the films. Comedy in the highest if you ever get a chance to hear it.

I really don't have much else to say about the movie, so I found some trivia on the IMDB that I thought was interesting:

*Bruce and Demi Moore tied the knot at the Golden Nugget hotel in Las Vegas during this shoot, Moore having recently broken her engagement to actor Emilio Estevez. Little Richard presided over the ceremony and former brat packer Ally Sheedy was a bridesmaid.

*Bruce Willis was the fifth choice for the main character. It originally went to Arnold Schwarzenegger then Sylvester Stallone then Burt Reynolds then Richard Gere before Willis got it.

*Bruce Willis's lines during the scene when he pulls the glass out of his feet were ad-libbed.

*The title in Spain was translated "Crystal Jungle" and in Poland "The Glass Trap". The Hungarian title is "Give your life expensive", the title of the sequel is "Your life is more expensive", and the third part is "The life is always expensive."

The most wonderful time of the year

2006-11-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

At the risk of sounding crazy, I am so excited for Christmas! I don't know what it is about this year, but I can't wait for December! In the past, when I saw Christmas decorations in stores before Halloween, I scoffed at the marketing ploy. But a few weeks ago I started buying Christmas ornaments, Christmas movies, Christmas music, and I can't wait to use them! Danny says he can't get into the Christmas spirit while the temperature is in the high 70s, so I'll have to wait a few weeks before we get to read "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" together and put jingle bells on the door.

I think that my excitement about Christmas has to do with being a newlywed. For the first time, I get to splurge on Christmas decorations for my house and my own Christmas tree! I can't wait for Danny and I to buy our own stockings, tree ornaments, and house decorations.

Of course, I'm also looking forward to Thanksgiving and a great trip to New York. I might even have a chance to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in person! Still, Christmas just can't come soon enough. Anyone else with me?

46th Favorite Movie - Napoleon Dynamite

2006-11-02T18:37:00.000-08:00

This is one of those movies that people either love or hate. Case in point, the reactions of two different people from my church:

*"Bone" Branagh, who is a currently a sophomore at Wheaton, saw it 11 times before it left the theaters the summer it came out.

*Nancy, our children's pastor, said she "didn't get it" and thought it was "one of the stupidest movies she'd ever seen". What she remembered most about the film a couple days later was feeling sorry for Napoleon because his grandma left him for a week with nothing to eat but frozen steak.

The one thing that everyone can agree on is this: it has been a long time since such a wholesome film had such a massive appeal to young people. Napoleon Dynamite was a gift for every youth pastor who struggles to find a clean film to show on movie nights that the students will like. Is there a youth group or youth pastor in the country that did not love this movie? At First Covenant, we named our VEHICLES after characters from Napoleon Dynamite, right down to paying for personalized plates.

I could sum up the plot, but I bet that 90% of the people who read this blog have already seen it (Mom, Dad... if you ever decide to get a DVD player, go out and rent this, ok?). Instead, I will explain why this is one of my favorite movies.

1. It is the most quotable movie of all time. If you saw it and liked it, chances are you have uttered one of these beauties in your best Napoleon or Kip accent:

"whatever I feel like, gosh!"
"your mom goes to college"
"you ever take it off any sweet jumps?"
"Pedro offers you his protection"
"Tina, you fat lard, come get your dinner!"
"Do the chickens have large talons?"

On a similar note, check out some of the vocabulary that we (we meaning my contemporaries and I) picked up from Napoleon Dynamite and have incorporated into our everyday language:

Tots
Nunchuck skills
Liger
Tigon
Happy Hands Club
Rex-Kwan-Do

2. The wide range of characters.

I think this was my problem with Nacho Libre. It was funny, but Jared Hess' follow-up to Napoleon Dynamite did not resonate with me or most people like Napoleon did. I think it is because Nacho was pretty much a Jack Black one-man show. The only other funny guy I can remember was his wrestling partner, who was pretty much Pedro version 2.0. In Napoleon you've got Pedro, Kip, Uncle Rico, Don, Randy, and my favorite, Rex, to complement the star.

3. It is somewhat... charming

Really, there are a lot of life lessons in ND. No, seriously, check these out:

-Find something you are good at and share it with the world
-There is a companion out there for everyone
-It's ok to be a little different

I'm sure I am leaving some great quotes, vocabulary, and life lessons out. If you can think of any, post a comment!

Two more things I want to say. First, Jon Heder will never duplicate the success he had playing Napoleon. Never going to happen, because he is not a super-funny guy. Have you ever seen him in interviews (I have) or any of his other movies (I haven't, thankfully). He is a nice guy, a charming guy, but not a super-funny guy. In Napoleon, he was playing a super-funny character. That is the big difference between Jon Heder and someone like Will Ferrell, Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler. Second, I fear that his inability to make an impression playing any other character, along with people continuing to identify him as "the guy from Napoleon Dynamite" when he has already been in four films since then, will lead to the inevitable decision to make a sequel to ND. And like most sequels, it will suck (the only exceptions in the entirety of cinema being The Godfather Part 2, The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones, LOTR, X-Men and T2) . So please... Jon and Jered, don't taint the legacy of a perfect film by trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

3 suitcases and a funeral

2006-10-31T18:16:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have been hectic. In 10 days, I only slept in my own bed 2 nights, and they weren't consecutive. Twice I came home from a trip only to unpack, do laundry, and pack again to leave the next morning. Three different suitcases in 10 days. I'll fill you in as quickly as I can!

First, two weeks ago my grandmother (my dad's mom) died. She had Parkinson's and dementia for several years and her passing was peaceful. We are grateful she is finally released of her disease and in heaven. I had lots of time to reflect on life, death, family, and the reassurance that comes with knowing what happens to our loved ones when they pass, but I'll have to blog on that later. My sisters, my aunt, and my dad's aunt and uncle came for the funeral and while the event was sad, we shared great stories and had some fun family time in celebration of a beautiful woman.

After the funeral began trip one of three. Danny and I drove to San Francisco to meet up with the FCC high school students for our YWAM service project weekend. We spent the weekend working with YWAM staff to feed and befriend the homeless. Saturday morning we did the "Gulu Walk," a four-mile walk through the City to raise awareness and funds for the young victims of war in Northern Uganda. It was tiring, but so much fun!

Next we went to Carmel Valley for a conference I had to attend for work. Thankfully, they let Danny join me so we were put up in a hotel suite the size of our apartment with a fireplace, a king size bed, and a gorgeous view of the valley. I had to work during the day, but not too hard, and we got to spend the evenings together in a beautiful setting. We ate room service in bed while watching Monday Night Football. It was just about a perfect evening except for the way the Cowboys played. But I'm over it.

When we got home from that trip, I had to repack and get ready to leave for Abilene, Texas. I went with my parents and Eve (our "fourth sister") to visit both my sisters at Abilene Christian University. We had a great weekend, ate a LOT of good beef, and got to see my sister Grace perform at the football game with the ACU marching band. Good food and football; it was a great Texas vacation!

Now that I'm home from my whirlwind trips I'm enjoying some time at home with Danny. Next, he leaves this weekend for a junior high church retreat, and the following weekend we have visitors from Japan and will be doing the tour guide thing! After that we go to New York for Thanksgiving with the Fitelson clan. We'll try to post pictures from all our adventures soon!

47th Favorite Movie - Dead Man Walking

2006-10-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

When I was working with the college and young adult group at First Covenant Church, we began a monthly gathering called “Fade to Light” where we watched a spiritually rich film and discussed it afterwards. The first film that we saw was Dead Man Walking.

Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins (who directed) all were nominated for their work on this film. The only winner was Susan Sarandon, for playing the real-life nun Sister Helen Prejean. Sean Penn plays a convict on death row named Matthew who gradually warms to her care and counsel. In both life and the film, Sister Helen is one of the only people to think of Matthew as a person and not a “mistake of God” that needs to be executed. When her family and friends question why she is spending so much time with someone who committed such heinous crimes she responds, “Jesus says a person is worth more than their worst act.”

Sister Helen’s style of ministry is contrasted with that of the prison chaplain, who tells her, “you can save him by getting him to receive the sacraments before he dies – this is your job, nothing more, nothing less.” Sister Helen sees much more in her job then simply getting Matthew to perform a ritualistic acceptance of salvation. She hopes Matthew will find true reconciliation with God and the families of his victims, which she believes can only happen through spending time with him.

Dead Man Walking is the rare film that features a positive portrayal of a Christian. In most cases today, the Christian character in a film is judgmental or pious or two-faced or harbors more hate than love. Sister Helen, however, is the walking embodiment of love –
she writes, visits, defends, counsels, and prays for Matthew as well as his family and the families of his victims. She never puts on a “holier than thou attitude” but is genuine and honest with everyone she encounters. She also shows vulnerability in the face of adversity - in one scene, she excuses herself from counseling Matthew to go into the bathroom and plead with God for guidance on what to say next.

In Sister Helen, I found an example of who I want to be as a minister. She cares so deeply and consistently for everyone around her, including the underprivileged children in her neighborhood that she invites over to play board games. I should also point out that her book changed my views on the death penalty. Now, not only do I believe that every person matters to God, but that expensive trials and lengthy back-ups on death row demonstrate that taking the life of another is not something that we are equipped to do.

Next week’s film will be on the lighter side, I promise...

48th Favorite Movie - Platoon

2006-10-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

So here we are, two movies in already... and I have received a total of zero comments on my first two posts. What's up with that? I was hoping I'd get some good lively discussion going with this list. Maybe I will slip in a truly awful movie like Battlefield Earth just to see if anyone is paying attention.

My 48th favorite movie is Oliver Stone's Platoon, which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1986. Said to be based on Stone's own experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, the story of Platoon is told through the eyes and voiceover narration of Chris, a private played by Charlie Sheen. Chris is caught in the middle of a power struggle for the command of his platoon between the compassionate Sgt. Elias and the veangeful Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger). The film focuses on the war that goes on within the platoon as well as the war going on around them.

The first of four war movies on my top 50, Platoon is gut-wrenching, but is not without its warmth. The film balances the harshness of war with a sweet camraderie found among the soldiers in the platoon. Some of these soldiers are played by actors who went on to become stars: Kevin Dillon, Forest Whitaker, and Johnny Depp (he is only in a few scenes). To me, Platoon's greatness lies in the moods it creates. After seeing this movie I can almost imagine the horror of trying to sleep through a rainy night in the mud in the middle of a jungle while having to trust one guy to stay awake and keep watch. Or the insanity of witnessing soldiers take their fear and anger out on innocent civilians. Or the pain and regret that comes with losing a close friend to a war that does not seem to make sense. Many war films - and Vietnam war films - have been made since, but Platoon still holds its own twenty years later.

49th Favorite Movie - I Am Sam

2006-10-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

I Am Sam makes my list because it is a movie that has the rare ability to make you cry not so much because it is sad but because it is beautiful. I guess it is kind of like a wedding in that way - there may be some elements of sadness present in a wedding that bring about tears but really it is a celebration of goodness and beauty and love and that is why people cry.

So the question that I want to address here is "what makes I Am Sam a film that is not just good, but 'beauitful'?"

I would have to start with the story. Sean Penn plays a single dad with autism who has the intellectual capacity of a seven year old. The movie begins with his daughter, Lucy's, 8th birthday. What happens when a child's intelligence and responsibility exceeds that of her parent? Is it ok if a child needs to remind her parent that she can't play because she has homework to do? What if her parent cannot help her with that homework because it is too difficult for him? Questions like these lead to the State's decision to take Lucy away from Sam, despite his tremendous love for her. I like that while you cannot help but root for Sam to win the case in the film, you still have questions about whether Lucy would be better off with another set of parents that she did not have to take care of so much.

Sean Penn's character is contrasted by Michelle Pfeiffer's, a high-priced lawyer who does not connect easily with her young son. The things that come so naturally for Sam - being able to play with Lucy and do things that make her happy - are a stretch for Michelle's character as a parent. This offers some insight on how we sometimes define "success".

Dakota Fanning delivers one of the best child performances I have ever seen, but Sean Penn's portrayal of Sam is equally amazing. If Dustin Hoffman hadn't already won an Oscar for playing an autistic man in Rain Man, I think Sean would have won for sure.

There are two more factors that I think contribute to this film's beauty. The first is the soundtrack, which consists entirely of Beatles cover songs. This fits in well with the story because Sam is a Beatles fanatic and named his daughter after the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". It is fun and not at all sacreligious to hear these classics done in a new way by folks like Eddie Vedder ("You've Got To Hide Your Love Away"), Sarah MacLachlan ("Blackbird") and Ben Harper ("Strawberry Fields Forever"). The other element that makes this film so beauitful to me is the colors. From the opening shots of Sam arranging the sugar packets at the Starbucks where he works to the last shot of kids' bright jerseys swirling on a soccer field, the bold colors make you feel like you are watching a painting move. And that, to me, is a beautiful accomplishment.

50th Favorite Movie - 25th Hour

2006-10-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

25th Hour, directed by Spike Lee and released in 2002, was one of the first films to refer to the tragedy of 9/11. Spike was already in pre-production when the attack on his beloved city occured, but rather than ignoring it he decided to incorporate the post 9/11 feel into the background of his story.

The story focuses on the last 24 hours of freedom for a drug dealer played by Edward Norton before he is sent to prison for 7 years. I didn't know that happens in real life, but apparently for non-violent crimes someone could receive their sentence and then have some days or weeks to spend with family and friends before checking in to the not-so friendly confines of prison. So while the film isn't necessarily about 9/11, there are glimpses of Ground Zero and snippets of dialogue about it throughout the film. The cast is superb: joining Ed are Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Bryan Cox and Anna Paquin. Many of them play characters who love NYC like I love the O-A-K and they are still visibly shattered from being so close to something so terrible. Which I guess parallels the predicament of Ed Norton's character.

The first time I saw 25th Hour was late at night at the Bay Street theater with John L. I remember really liking it, especially the "what if" sequence at the end when Ed Norton's character is riding in the car with his dad. The funny thing is I did not get around to seeing it for a second time until recently, when Bethany and I watched it together. We watched it partly because of the 5 year anniversary of 9/11 and partly because we will be travelling to New York over Thanksgiving. I had forgotten how emotionally powerful the film is. "My boy" Mick LaSalle, movie critic for the SF Chronicle, says it is "still the best film made in the 21st century". I recommend 25th Hour to anyone who likes Ed Norton, anyone who likes good films, or anyone who ever wonders what it would feel like to have one more day of freedom before 7 years of hell.

My 50 Favorite Movies

2006-10-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks I have been trying to identify and rank my 50 favorite movies. Now that I have finished, I feel compelled to share this information with you. I have decided to write about one film from my list each week starting with #50 and moving toward #1.

Please note:

*These are MY FAVORITE films and so this list is very subjective. While I would argue that "Citizen Kane" may be one of the 10 best films ever made, it is not one of my favorite films, so it is not on my list. I guess you could say this is a list of films that resonated with me for some reason. Hope that makes sense.

*Many of these films contain material that you might find offensive. If you are interested in seeing one of the films that I write about but aren't sure of the rating or content, check this website: http://www.filmratings.com/ or leave a comment with your question.

*Speaking of comments, this won't be fun unless I hear some of your thoughts as I write about each movie. If you have seen it, tell me what you thought and if it would have made your list. If you haven't seen it, let me know if reading about it has made you want to go see it!

Our Weekend

2006-09-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend attacking our guest bedroom, which has been piled high with boxes since I moved in. It was hard work but lots of fun going through boxes and finding things I hadn't seen since I moved home from Japan three years ago! While sorting through my stuff Danny found my Ab Roller, which I think every woman between the ages of 20 and 40 has owned. Guys apparently aren't as familiar with the Ab Roller. When I walked into the living room I found Danny like this.
He was asking "Is this how you use it? I don't feel anything in my abs." It was too funny not to take a picture and share with the world.

Sunday evening Danny facilitated a baby dedication at Refuge, our church's Sunday night worship service. He was asked to be Honorary Uncle for baby AJ, so he held the baby during the dedication and then led a prayer of blessing.
Everyone enjoyed teasing the newlywed who has had little experience holding a baby. After a little squirming from both the baby and Danny, they bonded and Danny got a sweet smile from the little one.
Congrats to the proud parents of all the babies dedicated this weekend! If you need babysitting, call us because my husband could use some practice before we even think about having little ones of our own. No, Grace, not yet.

Speaking of, while watching SportsCenter last night we came up with the name for our first child: Dallas A. Cal Fitelson.

Happy Birthday Danny!

2006-09-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

My handsome new husband had his 32nd birthday yesterday, September 13. Instead of having people over or going out to dinner he chose to have a quiet night at home. It felt great after all the running around of the past few weeks!

The cake may seem a little large for two people, but there's a reason I went all out. While planning our wedding and tasting many different flavors of cake we decided on our favorite: marble cake with Kahlua filling. It's divine. I didn't think everyone would like Kahlua as much as we did, and Danny thought it might be too scandalous to serve at the wedding, so we opted to have only the top tier of the cake made out of marble cake with Kahlua filling. It was going to be a special cake tier just for us and the bridal party. Of course on the actual wedding day, the reception was so hectic that we didn't get to taste any cake (except the little bit we shoved in each other's mouths). We have no idea what happened to our special Kahlua cake. It was probably served to the seniors the next day at the Community Center.

So, for Danny's birthday, I went back to our wedding baker and had them make a birthday cake just for Danny with the marble cake and Kahlua filling. They also did all the A's decorations (that decal on top is edible!) and he was really surprised. I was very glad the A's won yesterday! It would have been awkward if they played awful and he came home saying "Our season's over, I don't want to talk about baseball for the rest of the year" as he does every time they lose. Since they won, the decorations and the yummy cake were a hit and we finally got to enjoy our wedding cake. Now we need people to come over and help us eat it!

As a funny side note, Danny's youth group found out his birthday was this week so at youth group on Tuesday night they sang "Happy Birthday" and had him blow out a candle. The catch was that the candle was an "Over the Hill" candle that played the death march, and it wasn't on top of a cake but a port wine cheese ball.

Are You Ready For Some (fantasy) Football?

2006-09-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

"My two favorite days of the year are Christmas and fantasy football draft day." -- The Daddy, 2006 Commissioner of the "Buncha Crazed Dogs" Fantasy Football League

Last week marked the 10th year that I have taken place in a fantasy football draft. All ten of these years I have been in a league with Brent and The Daddy. For a few years while I was living in Fresno, Brent, The Daddy and I took part in a league with guys who lived in Oakland, Fresno, L.A. and Hawaii. This year, the league is comprised entirely of Bay Area residents: Icy J, GuruWoo, Castro, the Rhoads Bowl (he lives in Santa Cruz, but close enough), D Roth, Brent's brother Todd, and Paul Fig who hosted the draft in his garage. This was probably the first draft that I have been a part of where all the owners were present and nobody had to call in or send their picks in via a chat room.

Ours is a "keeper league" where everyone gets to keep 2 of their players from the previous year and then the rest go back into the pot, along with any rookies like Reggie Bush. The aforementioned Bush went #1 overall to Rhoads, who is banking on him becoming a superstar. I protected Larry Johnson and Cadillac Williams and got Anquan Boldin with the 4th pick overall. Overall, I was happy with the team I ended up with, but feel that Castro with his core of Ronnie Brown, Clinton Portis, Larry Fitzgerald, Torry Holt and Antonio Gates has the strongest team.

Why do I "waste my time" on fantasy football you may ask? Well, first and foremost I do it for the camraderie. Nothing beats snickering at your friend after he has unknowingly drafted a player who is already injured and out for the season.

Here is a list of my Top 5 favorite moments from previous drafts:

5. 2006 -- P Fig leans back a little *too far* on his chair and goes down to the delight and guffaws of all the other owners

4. 1998 -- When Maddy inherited Hulk's team, it was so bad he had to protect the fantasy monster Vincent "Ultimate" Brisby and world-reknowned A Pupunu

3. 1997 -- GuruWoo offers Maddy this post-draft doozy of a trade: "I'll give you some J Pathon for Randy Moss!"

2. 2002 -- Brent, ever the gangsta, writes "C Peezy" on the board meaning "Clinton Portis". Two rounds later, my friend KC who is from Fresno and entirely unaware of Oaktown slang, tries to draft Portis thinking "C Peezy" was the name of a real guy in the NFL.

1. 1998 -- "I'll take Eddie George". Dan Fig thinks he is getting a steal when one of the best RB's in football at the time slips to the 15th round. Oh, what's that? Paul got him in the first round? My bad.

City Folk

2006-09-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

For Labor Day weekend Danny and I attended the Labor Day Youth Rally at Daybreak Camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I have been a camper or volunteer at Labor Day since my freshman year at high school, so to me this weekend is more like a family reunion than a youth rally. It's a highlight of my year every year.

Usually adult volunteers have to bring their own tent and camp out for the weekend, but since I've been single in past years I could always sweet talk my way into a spot in the cabins with the high school girls. This year I had the joy of teaming with Danny as small group leaders and we had to move up into the ranks of real adults. That means no cabin for me and our first camping experience as a couple!

In preparation for camping, Danny bought a tent at a garagle sale and then purchased an air mattress so we could be rested enough to lead small group discussions. The only problem was that the tent could barely sleep two people and the air mattress was queen-sized. Can you tell we're not accustomed to camping? Yes, my husband, the Eagle Scout, is just a city boy at heart. We set up the tent and then realized how tiny it looked next to the other multi-room canvas palaces. We had a good chuckle, but Danny was so proud of his purchase and claimed we had "the cutest" tent. The real hysteria came when we tried to blow up the queen-size air mattress in the 4 by 5 foot tent. As the mattress swelled I was trying to be supportive and encouraging of my husband's efforts, but when the mattress literally popped out the door I lost it and doubled over in laughter.

Eve Medina, my former roommate and best bud, witnessed the entire event and between wiping her eyes from all the laughing managed to snap a few pictures. Even though Danny loved our cute tent and we were trying not to bruise his ego, Eve and I went to her truck and brought down her tent which actually did hold our comfy air mattress. Danny was a good sport and didn't let my rejection of the "cute" tent hurt his feelings. We had to let the air out of the mattress just to unwedge it from the little tent and move it into the larger one! We kept both tents up, one to sleep in and one for our luggage, and we quite enjoyed our little Fitelson neighborhood of tent city. Once again, what would I do without Eve Medina?

The entire weekend was a great experience. I think Danny and I made a great team leading a small group together, and we got to play and worship in the fresh mountain air with some of our favorite people!

Blessed and Thankful

2006-08-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

Many events have happened over the last two weeks to make me realize how blessed Danny and I are and how much we can take that for granted. I'm truly in awe over why God has chosen to bless me in such amazing ways and I'm thankful for reminders to be thankful!

Last week both Danny's parents and mine celebrated their wedding anniversaries. My parents have been married for 33 years, Danny's for 40. I realize how rare that is for a young couple to have both sets of parents alive, healthy, and still examples of a loving marriage. The day my parents celebrated their anniversary, a dear friend of mine lost her mom. As I have grieved with her over the past week, I have been reminded of how much I take my parents, their health, and their love and support for granted. Not only are my parents loving and supportive, but I have amazing in-laws as well!

Lately I've been having strange dreams, often about running from terrorists. Either I watch too much violence on TV or the world news is getting to my subconscious. I wake up in the middle of the night, relieved to realize it's only a dream, and immediately am sorrowful for those who live that nightmare day in and day out. Again, I'm truly grateful for the life I've been given.

Last Sunday I spoke to the FCC high schoolers about my trip to Africa and how much it changed my life. Surrounded by poverty and homeless children made me realize how rich my family is, although we don't often feel like it. We're not rich by American standards, but we have a home, food, and clothes, and that is more than most of the world can claim.

For 15 years my dad drove a green minivan, a true family car. When he bought it, he didn't buy it for his own enjoyment. The van served us well on numerous trips to Texas and our annual Christmas tree cutting parties. My dad saw each of his daughters get a new car and still he served our family by driving his green van. It finally broke down one too many times and my father bought something for himself for the first time in 26 years: a new Mustang. I'm so thankful for the van that gave my family many great memories, for my dad who is so generous and selfless, and for the fact that he finally has a sweet new ride!

I hope none of this sounds trite, and I don't write any of this to brag, but I am really humbled by the blessings God has lavished on me, my family, and my new husband. We've had struggles at times, but what a shame it would be if we focused on the negative and took the blessings for granted.

In what ways has God blessed you? How do you remind yourself not to take blessings for granted?

I Married a Champ

2006-08-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

I know blogs without pictures are boring, but you've seen our wedding pictures and we don't have a cute baby yet, so you'll just have to deal with words instead. Although I was talking to Anna Luce at church about our wedding and she asked "So do you have children now?" as if they came with the marriage license. Cracked me up. I love seeing the world through a kindergartner's eyes.

We had quite a busy weekend! On Saturday Danny and John Leestma teamed up to take on an amateur volleyball tournament. (They played "Bs" for those of you who actually know what that means. I'm not even sure I used that correctly in a sentence.) They played 7 games over about 9 hours. And they won the whole thing!! I, for one, am impressed that I'm married to a studly volleyball champion. I thought he would at least get a trophy to put on our mantel, but he just got a sweatshirt. Maybe we'll frame the sweatshirt.

Saturday night I was at a BBQ in San Jose with church buddies (after a productive day of getting my hair cut, chatting with my parents, and working on papers for grad school) and I get a text message that says "Can you bring me Gatorade? I can't move." I restrained myself from the wifely "I TOLD you to drink more today!" and rushed home to find my husband in a groaning pile on the couch and an ice pack on his head. And he had to preach the next day....

Sunday, despite sore legs and a short night of sleep, Danny delivered a great sermon (twice) on 1 Corinthians at FCC. My mom did double duty as she attended Campbell's early service to hear my dad preach, then drove an hour to FCC's second service to hear her son-in-law preach. It was great to have her there. I got to teach the high school class in Danny's absence and talked about my trip to Kenya and how it changed me. It was a little scary since it was my first time flying solo with my new youth group, but I think it helped that I had cool pictures of safari animals.

Monday night we decorated Danny's parents' house since this week marks their 40th wedding anniversary and they were out of town. Happy anniversary to both Danny's parents and my parents this week! We love you!

Feeling Cozy

2006-08-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

Danny came down with a cold this week so he's been sleeping in a little to save his energy before taking the teens to Marine World tomorrow. I couldn't resist snapping this picture since he is under the down comforter AND has a pillow over his head, even though it was 75 degrees in our bedroom.

Time of Merriment and more

2006-08-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

Since we've been married, Danny and I have enjoyed entertaining a few times thanks to all our fabulous wedding gifts!

Last week we had "A Time of Merriment" with 2 other couples. We were really looking forward to an evening with close friends, and I was excited to host a grown-up, sophisticated, triple-date dinner party. Dinner was a hit thanks to Janie Riddiough's artichoke dip recipe and Eve Medina's Pampered Chef inspiration. All was going smoothly until Danny brought out the after-dinner entertainment: sponge animals. Remember when you were little and you bought those capsules you put in hot water -- and soon the capsule dissolves and you have an animal shape? Yes, that was what my husband thought would make great entertainment at our dinner party. Actually, as much as I scoffed, even I enjoyed watching my capsule turn into a safari animal! Then, the boys started daring each other to swallow one of the capsules (I won't name who actually DID swallow one cough--Geoff--cough) and the sophistication of our party took another dive. There sure were a lot of laughs though!

Sunday night we had 5 First Covenant youths over who will be going away to college for the first time. It was another night of good food (thanks again, Janie and Eve!) and lots of laughs with good friends. It was so fun to hear about the mixture of fear and excitement they all feel about going to college for the first time. We are excited for them and the wide open road of possibilities they face!

We are having so much fun hosting people in our home, and maybe someday I'll get brave enough to make more than one specific meal when friends come over!

Best Bachelor Party Ever!

2006-08-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

Although this event took place over a month and a half ago, it simply shall not and cannot be forgotten. Just two days before I was to stand before my bride and vow to love, cherish and honor her as long as we both shall live, Groomsmen Brent and Rob threw the best bachelor party a guy could ever imagine. They even let me wear this sweet Raggedy Andy costume! Make that, they made me wear it. For the entire night.

Around 4 pm on June 29, I was led blindfolded into a car and driven to an unknown location. When the blindfold was removed, I found myself in a place that I picture heaven being like. Within the Tillman's basement were 10 computers all networked together, 2 Xboxes projected on the wall with 8 slots for Halo, and 2 felt poker tables with real clay chips. I knew right then that this was going to be a late night.

Back when I was leading the college group at FCC, it was not uncommon for us to play Warcraft, Age of Empires, and other games until midnight... 2 am... sometimes 7 am the next day. With wedding and ministry busyness, I had not played a single game of Warcraft for over a year until the bachelor party! So it felt good to be able to just kick back and let my orc wolfriders and wyverns kick some elvin booty. Yes, I realize that I am a giant nerd.

One of the nicest surprises of the night was finding out that Groomsman Brent drove all the way to San Rafael and back during rush hour to pick up 20 Red Boy Pizzas for dinner. A lot of us including me, Brent, Rob, Kevin H, Lopez and Stew worked at the Red Boy Pizza in Montclair together before it became Jamba Juice. It was a little bit nostalgic and quite tasty to have Red Boy again.

The guys at one point took some time to encourage and pray for me which was pretty cool and lent an air of seriousness to an otherwise playful night. All in all, I do declare that this was the Best Bachelor Party Ever!

This picture accompanies Danny's blog below.

2006-08-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

Shout Out

2006-08-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

I can't resist giving a congratulatory shout out to Troy Aikman, my favorite Cowboy of all time, who was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame this weekend. Congratulations also to Cowboy Rayfield Wright, and John Madden, my favorite NFL commentator.

CHIC 2006 No Ordinary Day

2006-08-04T13:16:00.000-07:00

Exactly two weeks after our wedding, I boarded an airplane with 36 high schoolers and without my beloved new bride. Now what would drive me to such madness, such cruelty, and such utter buffoonery as a husband? The answer lies in 4 letters: CHIC.

No, it is not the French word meaning "fashionable". And no, it has nothing to do with "chicks", although some of the guys in our youth group may argue that point. CHIC is a week long conference that our denomination puts on every three years at the University of Tennessee. It stands for Covenant High In Christ, and while it may be one of the worst possible names imaginable... leading to an unending amount of confusion ("Can guys go to CHIC or is it only for girls?") wisecracks ("I hope I'll pick up a chick at CHIC!") and befuddlement ("Are the people who run CHIC aware of the connotations that the word 'high' can have?"), the camp itself really is a once-in-a-lifetime event. That is, unless you happen to be in youth ministry, in which case it could be a third-in-a-lifetime event, which it was for me. I attended once as a high schooler in 1991 when it was at Indiana University. We actually took Amtrak there and back that year and I almost got arrested in Denver for washing my hair in a fountain in the middle of a shopping mall. Good times. And then in 1997 I attended as a counselor, when it was at Colorado State just days after a massive flood devastated the campus. But it was during that week that I saw Five Iron Frenzy perform live for the first time. I am not much of a concert-goer, but they are the best live act EVER. Not just for their music and intensity, but for their jokes and crazy antics (I once saw the lead singer pick his nose and wipe it on the lead guitarist's arm during the middle of his guitar solo... the guy couldn't do anything to prevent it because he needed both hands to play his solo!) and for what they would do at the end of every show. After 1-2 hours of complete mayhem, involving a complete horn section a lot of skanking and quite often a cow suit, they would put down their instruments, and sing a worship song acapella with the audience before walking off the stage. They were also the most AVAILABLE band I have ever seen... always willing to sign autographs and hang out with fans after the show.

Anyways, this post is supposed to be about CHIC, not FIF (RIP). So this year's trip was pretty epic... around 7,000 youth and staff took over the UT campus for a week, staying in the dorms and eating the dorm food. The folks in charge of the whole event got a great lineup of bands to come including Hawk Nelson, Cross Movement, Salvador, GRITS, Family Force Five, Lost & Found and Bethany Dillon. The speakers were interesting in that instead of having one speaker go for like 45 minutes every night, they had 2 or 3 speakers talk on a subject, coming at it from different angles and adding new insights. This led to a little confusion at times, such as when Bart Campolo declared that "God is not in here, He is out there" while speaking on Matthew 25 and Jesus' call for us to serve the poor and needy around us. The problem was that we had just heard that "God was in this place" in reference to his Spirit being in there with us as we worshiped. I sort of liked the disparities, because it helped us hash things out with the students and talk about how different speakers might be wanting to emphasize different things, but I also agree with those who said, "Bart Campolo's statement was just plain false."

The students LOVED this trip. They had the freedom to choose what they wanted to do for free time every afternoon: river rafting, paintballing, going to the mall, hanging out by the pool, bowling, sports, you name it. Also, the times where all 7,000 of us were singing together at night were really powerful. Once in the middle of a worship song the band broken into "With or Without You" by U2 and everyone looked over at Nick Z and he had a look on his face that just said, "I'm in heaven right now." For me, heaven is probably more along the lines of a quiet night with my wife rather than a jam-packed concert but I must say that CHIC really was a once, I mean, thrice-in-a-lifetime event.

Wedding pictures are online

2006-07-27T14:43:00.000-07:00

Our good friend, Steve Babuljak, took amazing wedding photos and has posted them online for people to view and order prints. If you're interested, the link is http://www.babuljak.com/fitelson/

Danny and I really enjoyed looking at the photos last night as we were reminded of how joyful our day was. We were blessed to share that day with so many suppotive family and friends!

Back to...normal?

2006-07-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Danny is safely home from CHIC (and has promised to blog on it later), which means that life is back to normal in our home, except that I wouldn't call it normal. Considering we had one week to adjust to married life before he left town, we're still adjusting to the newness of living together. I'm not sure our lives will ever be "normal" as we seem to be going at a hectic pace most of the time.

The night Danny came home from CHIC, I started my first class at Fuller Seminary as I begin pursuing a Master's degree in Theology. I'm very excited and nervous about this learning experience and the time it will take to study and -gulp- write 20 page papers again. I knew starting two weeks after the wedding wasn't the best idea, but this is a rare opportunity with a visiting professor, and 5 of my friends from First Covenant are taking the class as well, so I didn't want to pass it up. Danny carpooled to class with our friends and I came straight from work, so in class was the first time we spent together after a week-long separation. When the professor found out we had been married three weeks and apart for one, he was very congratulatory and then insisted we shouldn't be in class. We couldn't tell if he was kidding, and I wasn't about to ditch my first grad school class ever, so we stayed -- despite the hopeful look on Danny's face when we had permission to leave. In case you're worried about our marriage at this point, we did get a date on Saturday night... after I finished another full day of class.

Last night we had our first official night of hosting. The three Levey teens came over for homemade pizza (thanks Eve!) and we took them out to a movie: Nacho Libre. (I wouldn't call it good but I did laugh out loud throughout the whole movie.) It was so much fun to have teens over, although they weren't as excited about our new dishes and placemats as we were. Danny and I hope to do a lot of hosting as we both come from families where hospitality was a way of life.

But, every once in a while, we'll need to plan a "normal" date that doesn't involve seminary or high schoolers. I think we can manage that.

What's in a Name?

2006-07-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

Adjusting to married life has been an adventure! There are lots of fun, exciting, strange, and downright puzzling things about all of sudden combining your life with someone else's.

The first thing I did when I got back to work after the honeymoon was change my name on all our systems at work. Within an hour emails were going out from me with the name "Bethany Fitelson" in the heading. As I saw the change take place "officially" in writing, it was really fun and really...odd. Not in a bad way, but odd.

Just an hour ago, a week and a half after my name was changed at work, a long-time friend and co-worker was asking someone "Who is this Bethany Fitelson person who keeps sending me emails?" Another friend reminded him that I had been married and changed my name. I overheard the whole conversation and butted in, laughing hysterically. He said "I knew you had gotten married, but I've known you for 10 years as Bethany Hall, so the change didn't register in my mind." I countered that I've known me as Bethany Hall for 26 years, so the change was ever weirder to me!

I just spent the last 30 minutes or so trying to make a new signature. I can't even remember how to write a cursive F! Writing the entire name Fitelson in cursive is a bit daunting. I'm not even sure how you go about changing your signature "officially." I guess I can do that when I change my name legally. First I have to get the official marriage certificate, then get a new Social Security card, then get a new license. I have to do all this AND bear children?

I like the name Fitelson, as hard as that is to believe. I like it because I love a man named Danny Fitelson and I'm excited to join my life to his -- in every way. We're no longer Danny and Bethany...we're the Fitelsons! I love that! I just wonder how long it will before I answer the phone "This is Bethany Hall, uh, Fitelson, uh..."

I would love to hear from other women who have dealt with this exciting but odd change in the past! Leave me a comment or send an email and share any advice you have on this whole process!

Home Alone/CHIC

2006-07-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Today is the two-week anniversary of our wedding, and I just put Danny on a plane to take about 40 First Covenant High School students to CHIC, a church camp in Tennessee. Danny has been excited for this trip for three years and he has an amazing group of kids going with him. As I was driving away from the airport I seriously considered the consequences of quitting my job and getting on the plane with them. They're going to have an amazing week! Please pray that Danny and the kids will have safe travels and a fun, spirit-filled week. Pray for me too as I'm home alone this week. We've been apart for a week before, but for the last two weeks I've enjoyed seeing Danny every morning and night and I have a feeling this separation will be harder than all the others!

Home Sweet Home

2006-07-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

Our furniture FINALLY arrived! After a long drawn-out process, our furniture is here and our apartment is starting to feel more like home. Our mattress was sitting on the floor the first week of our life together in our new house. Thanks to a gift from the Fitelson and Linenbach families, we now have a beautiful, comfortable bed!

Our living room is also complete so now we can have people over. We love our home! So come on over!