The Zen of Popcorn

For reasons that escape me now, I decided that today was the day that we'd take the kid to a movie at the theater. Her attention span, while still abysmal under most circumstances, has gradually increased. So, I figured maybe the time had come. We decided to take her to the budget theater so that if we had to bail out, we'd only be out twenty bucks or so. The movie we selected was "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep."

Things started out well enough, but we began to notice that as the volume of popcorn available for consumption decreased, her level of discontent increased. Like so:

I don't know if we'll be brave enough to try another movie anytime soon, but all in all I thought the outing went pretty well. We had to hold down A's seat because otherwise the seat bottom flew upward and next thing she knew her kneecaps were smashed against her forehead. I had a little flashback while we were waiting for the movie to start. When my middle sister and I were kids our uncle took us to a movie. My sister was too little to see the screen well, so my uncle and I wadded up our coats and put them in the seat so that she could sit on them. So yeah, my sister peed on our coats. She loves it when I tell that story.

The weekend flew by, as usual. Yesterday I did make it to Weight Watchers bright and early. I lost 1.2 pounds this week, which would be really exciting if not for the fact that I continue to lose and gain the same few pounds. I am still 10 pounds over my goal weight but I try to focus on the fact that I'm more than 50 pounds less than my starting weight in September of 2005. But still, I need to get those 10 pounds back off. The topic of the meeting was positive thinking, and this is surely an area where I need a lot of work.

After the meeting I hosted an Arbonne party at my house. A friend of mine sells Arbonne, and I told her I would host a "foot spa" party. I have to say that the products are very nice, even if they are a bit out of my price range. I got a bunch of free stuff for hosting, which rocked. I figured I'd get some little token, but I made out like a bandit.

My final event for the day was a dinner with my therapy dog group. The group no longer exists in any formal way, but a bunch of us still keep in touch, and several of the members take turns hosting an annual dinner at their home. I am hoping to get my boy Gideon certified for therapy work within the next year or so. I do love hanging out with dog people. At one point, Kelsey the Golden Retriever squatted and peed on the floor in front of all of us. With nothing resembling alarm, one of the women said, "She's peeing." Then we chatted about how it would only be right if Kelsey followed that act by dragging her butt across the carpet and then puking up some cat poop or something.

Other than the trip to the budget theater today, we didn't do much. A and I went to church this morning. The guest speaker today was the owner of a local yoga center. She is also a Zen priest. I have always been curious about yoga. I don't think of myself as being very athletic, but I think I could do it. The speaker spent a lot of time talking about "being vs. doing" and much like the Weight Watchers' meeting yesterday, the topic was a relevant one for me. I really have no idea how to sit and just be. I wonder if I could learn? My life definitely feels too frenzied and serious sometimes. I will say that having a young child gives you a special pass that allows you to do silly stuff you would not ordinarily do. Like right now I am wearing a Hello Kitty sticker on my bosom because that's where the kid thought it should be. And sometimes we dance around the living room for no reason. And sometimes we eat green popsicles.