Monday Smiles – 4/15/2013

I love a busy weekend.  It’s interesting, I guess, that after five or so years of being semi-retired … and able to divide our recreation and whatever work I have throughout the week however I see fit … that I still divide the week into weekdays and weekends.   That’s partly because the things we like to do most, like go to the theater, are more available on weekends and partly because younger friends’ lives are still divided that way by their jobs.   But it’s also because old habits die hard.  Whatever the reason, this was the kind of busy weekend I like.  But that doesn’t mean it was perfect.

On Friday night, Muri and I went to see 42, the new film about Jackie Robinson starring Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford.   Without turning this into a movie review, I’d say that although it was good but not great, it was definitely worth seeing.   As always with films like this, I wish the audience didn’t consist primarily of gray-hairs who already know how far we’ve come in seventy years … from the abuse Jackie Robinson took for simply being the first African-American major league player to the first African-American president.  I hereby move that we require everyone under thirty to see this film.  Any seconds?  Shall we vote?  Anyway, by catching the early showing, we were able to get home in time to watch the fourth quarter of the Lakers-Golden State game.  I have told you I’m a Lakers fan, haven’t I?   The game was good and very bad.  Lakers win, keeping their playoff hopes alive, Kobe Bryant suffers a complete tear of the Achilles tendon, ending his season and at least possibly, his career.  Sigh.

Saturday morning, it was time to spend some time in the park, reading and writing and even meditating.  After Muri joined me for a walk, I had some weekend work to do.   For the better part of a year, I’ve been working on and off as an expert on a legal case involving trade secrets, and Friday, I received a huge stack of documents to review.  After several hours of that, it was time for a nap before going to dinner and the theater with our Dinner-and-Theater Friends, Ron and Kerry.   We tried a new restaurant in the area, the Canyon Restaurant.   Everyone’s verdict on their meal was, Well, it was Just OK.  Muri’s pan-sauteed cod was actually better than OK, but the portion was minute, and my pork chop was slightly less than OK, spiced with something that kept repeating on me all night.  The play we saw was The Thirty-Nine Steps, a farce based on the 1935 Alfred Hitchock film at the local StagesTheater.  Farce would not be my choice of comedy and the production was less than professional.  It was Just OK but we had fun anyway, laughing along with some of the audience that thought it was hysterical.  We can be theater snobs, I’m afraid.

Sunday, I suggested to Muri that we drive out to Old Town Temecula for lunch.  Consisting mostly of restaurants, tchotchke shops and antique stores, it is a popular Sunday destination for semi-retired couples, motorcyclists and other people with nothing in particular to do.   We chose a Just OK small cafe featuring crepes and paninis and the slowest service in the history of … well … Old Town Temecula.  Fortunately, our Caprese paninis were good and ample.  There is nothing like an ample panini, is there?   We wandered around until we’d had our fill of tchotchkes and antiques then drove home for a nap.   I made flank steak with baked potatoes and mixed vegetable for dinner … which was Just OK … then we settled in to watch my Lakers try to keep their playoff hopes alive without Kobe.  Amazingly, they did, but without Kobe, it was Just OK.

So, here it is, Monday.  Tax day.  For the first time in many years, we have money coming back.   Yes, I know it’s my money that the government arranged to hold for me just in case I ended up owing more.  Still, after last year, when I had to shell out even more on Tax Day, getting some back is nice.   Some weeks, Monday Smiles are built out of lots of little smiles amidst a Just OK weekend.  And so, it’s Monday and I’m smiling.

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