Saturday, October 26, 2002

once the yard was bright with natural light

"Wherever there is a flat surface, someone will find something to put on it."
Col. Lawrence Ballweg, Quoted in a Book on Borders Bargain Table that I didn't buy

FFP fixes a frozen pizza and we have that and spinach salad for lunch. He is going to watch the game. I figure I'll just do reading and writing and watch old movies in my office. But SuRu calls.

SuRu suggests seeing Real Women Have Curves. I'd seen a little about this movie and it seemed positive. We dug out the listings and discovered that it was showing at the movie in the mall. Barton Creek Mall, that is.

I never go to the mall. Never is too strong, of course. I do go a couple of times a year, maybe. Usually just straight to a particular store or to the movies. Itook my mother a couple of times to Highland Mall and directly from a handicapped parking spot to Dilliard's to buy cosmetics and accessories.

We can't find a parking spot near the theater so we park a short distance away and go through Sears. It's been ages since I've been in Sears. We walk through the mall a bit. There are kiosks selling Halloween costumes, toys, cell phone acessories and, um, crabs. Yes, live sea animals crawling around in shells that had been decorated with bright paint. I guess they were hermit crab pets. There was also a booth giving flu shots. SuRu and I bought our show tix and then went around the mall some more. It seemed crowded with people who didn't care about UT football but who needed a place out of the unrelenting rain.

We actually went inside three stores. Two were luggage stores. We didn't buy anything but I noted for future reference the things on offer. I have trouble going on a trip without buying a new bag or accessory but I've apparently succeeded this time. We all have our foibles. FFP tends to buy clothes when he arrives because of something he's forgotten, a weather change or a spot on the one article he brought. Or just because.

Lastly we asked directions to Radio Shack so I could buy batteries for the small travel alarm/calendar/calculator I have. I don't plan to take it on the trip but I am starting to do errands like this because I have the time.

The movie is great. It's almost like a documentary of LA Hispanic culture with humor and a spin on the usual growing up tale where the kids are more mature than the adults. And there is no violence. No one feels threatened. Sure you see the fenced front yards and know the score but it is about that time most of us are in most of the time when we don't feel threatened.

Did you notice how the Washington sniper made everyone keep their kids inside? There are neighborhoods where stray bullets and drive-bys are a way of life and you don't eliminate them by catching two miscreants. But most of us don't live in them. And those who do gradually try to live normally.

People in the Middle East ride buses and go to school. In spite of the constant threat. We really don't need violence to move a plot, no matter what the media says to us in subtle ways.

My point is...see this movie. It's a nice counterpoint to all the other movies you see where there is gun play at the center, where a shooting is the 'something that happens' to move the plot.

Home again, I make some tuna salad and we have dinner and read and watch the World Series. The Angels survive to fight again. I only get interested in baseball at this last possible moment. And, even then, not that interested.

It has been a day without much accomplishment. I was shocked that movies at this theater cost $8. We got a six dollar ticket (before 6PM) and there are $6 for those over 55. (Soon I'll qualify.) Seems high, though, huh? If you buy popcorn and soda...well, you know.

A month into retirement and I don't feel the need to 'work for a living.' I am starting to feel the need to accomplish something, however. I'm just not sure what that accomplishment will be.

I would love to write. But I often think that my story (the stuff I really know) isn't worthy of writing about. Isn't interesting enough. This is never true, of course. Everyone's life is interesting enough. If you dig deep and tell the truth. That part is hard.

JUST TYPING
A mall.
Such an ordinary thing.
Unless.
You never go.
Then a gulp of culture.
That should be yours.
But isn't.
A culture that belongs to someone else, another people.
A culture whose influence on you is so subtle that you believe.
You are a culture of one.