Monday Smiles – 11/18/2013

Like the sun breaking through the autumn gloom here in Orange County today, Monday Smiles are a little late in coming.  And just as I knew the sun was there behind the gloom, I knew the smiles were waiting.   I was just to busy to smile them.  You see, at 7:45 this morning when I groaned out of bed, there will still those last few lost files to be loaded into my new computer and several programs that needed installing.  Several needed to be run in compatibility mode because they’re a remnant of my Windows XP days.  And then there was the state of my office, with several computers and various hard drives scattered around the room, cables running helter-skelter between them.  But now, it’s 3 pm and all that remains is my brand new Dell desktop humming quietly beside me, chock full of all the data that I thought I’d lost.  There is a part of me that loves the challenge of a seemingly insurmountable computer problem, a part of me that keeps me going through the frustration.  And that part of me is smiling big time.

And the weekend wasn’t a total loss.  Saturday afternoon, in need of an escape from the Computer Cave, I went to the movies with Muri to see a delightful little British romantic comedy by Richard Curtis, About Time.   As About Time begins, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) is being told by his Dad (beautifully played by Bill Nighy) that the men in his family have the ability to travel back in time.  Skeptical, he tries it, going back to a New Years Eve party during which he regretted not kissing the girl he was with at midnight.  Shortly afterwards, he meet and falls for Mary (Rachel McAdams).  In the course of his time travels he loses her then goes back multiple times to meet her again and again, finally winning her heart.  Like most British comedies it is pleasantly quirky and if you go into it without looking for plot contrivances, it works.   In addition to working as a pleasant love story, it speaks to what’s most important in life, living each moment.   Of course, not all the critics liked it.   Chris Klimek on the NPR blog, monkey see, spent an entire review pointing out that Tim’s actions weren’t actually romantic … they were wicked and manipulative.   And Josh Bell of the Las Vegas Weekly said the film was Eventually undone both by the flimsiness of its own sci-fi conceit.  I guess the notion that one shouldn’t look for scientific consistency or moral lessons in a romantic comedy is beyond some critics.  However, 85% of viewers liked it and it made me smile.

Then there was Saturday night.   My University of Southern California Trojans were headed for an awful year about six weeks ago when the school fired the then coach, Lane Kiffen, promoting his assistant, Ed Ogeron, to Interim Head Coach.  Ogeron immediately started to bring fun back to the football program, whether it was cookies at dinner or music at practices.  Ad the team began to play for him, winning four out of the five next games.  Saturday, we played Stanford, who, the week before had beaten Number 2 Oregon and was ranked fourth in the nation.  USC dominated the first half but Stanford came back in the second, tying the score at 17-17.   After an interception by USC and getting a first down with a 14 yard pass on fourth and two, Andre Heidari kicked a 47 yard field goal with 19 seconds left to win the game.   And the fans … including this one, who was bouncing around his family room, scaring the cats … went wild.

And here I am, posting my first post via my new computer.   It’s Monday … I’m smiling.

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Tags: computers, football, gratitude, humor, Monday smiles, movies, smiles, USC Trojans

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