Prolly All the Time: all by myself...

I spent the day on Friday taking care of t'pon -- I needed the break. Between work, Bean's recent run in with the devil, and an alarming sleepless trend that has developed over the past few weeks, I was five seconds short of rocking the day away in the front yard wearing my old, grayed out maternity underwear. Clearly, the time had come for a mental health holiday.

My original plan was to simply veg out all day, watching piteously bad TV, indulging in the worst possible assortment of "food" and napping as the mood struck me... but then I remembered that it is a tad bit awkward to sloth around the house mossy-toothed, un-showered, in your ratty ass pajamas, while someone else cares for your child and washes your clothes. So, that only lasted until about 11 AM. At that point, it became abundantly clear that an alternative plan was needed.

(We also won't dwell on the fact that I spent the better part of the morning clinging to my laptop, checking messages every 15 minutes waiting for someone to chuck a flaming pile of shit into my inbox forcing me back to work... I have boundary issues. I know this. I checked in with work from my honeymoon, OK? I only made it three weeks into my maternity leave before I called in to see how things were going with work. So, one day off... yeah, I am going to check the email.)

So, on Friday, faced with the contrasting needs of recharging and getting out of the house... I did something that I have not done in easily 7 years. Something that had once been such an important part of my leisure time, I actually completed the equivalent of a minor in the subject in college and applied to grad schools, based solely on the intent to justify spending more time doing it.

I went to the movies, by myself. And it was AWESOME! I had forgotten how great it is to go see a movie with no expectations, to simply enjoy sitting in a cool, quiet place and not having to try to think about ANYTHING that matters to ANYONE. I didn't have to shoosh anyone, I could sit wherever I wanted to sit, I ate an entire bag of popcorn and a box of milk duds by myself. And best of all, when I left the movie... it didn't matter if anyone else liked it.

It was exactly what I needed, and as such, I am thinking about adding a new feature to my little corner of the Internet -- "Guilty Mama's Cinematic Adventure." I am thinking that it would work something like this. I pledge to see one movie a week, mostly by myself (I might take N. if he begs...) and I will report on the movie here. I will tell you if it is worth two to three (in some cases almost four) hours of your precious "no-child" time based on a scale of one to five guilty points. (hopefully, it won't be too confusing -- the more points, the more guilty I feel about not spending the time making Bean into a better person... so a five point movie would most definitely not be recommended.) Here is the bonus... I will see just about anything. I am not all that picky, or intellectual for that matter, so make a recommendation.

For those interested, this week's adventure was... "Stick It" -- the tale of a rebellious teenager forced to face the music and come to terms with her competitive gymnastics talent and her competitive fears through the guidance of an unconventional coach.

I found it incredibly entertaining in the way that only teen movies can be... great one-liners; fantastic attitude; great tricks; unrealistic, yet completely predictable plot twists; and of course, an important growth message that I hope to one day impart on Bean...

Given the already extraordinary length of this post, I will cut to the chase on this one... I give "Stick It" a big thumbs up... ONE guilty point (catchy icons coming soon!).

So, Wubbies... what am I seeing this week?