Monday Smiles – 11/4/2013

From the first time we saw the trailer for the new CBS Films comedy, Last Vegas, Muri have had it on our must see list.   In case you haven’t heard of it, Last Vegas is the story of four childhood friends now in their late sixties who get together for a bachelor party in Las Vegas for the only friend who has remained single, Billy (Michael Douglas).  Archie (Morgan Freeman) has suffered a mild stroke and is under the care of his over-protective son.  Sam’s (Kevin Klein) married but his marriage has been running a bit cold and Paddy (Robert DeNiro) is living alone, mourning the death of his wife, Sophie.  He and Billy have not spoken for fifteen years because Billy didn’t come to Sophie’s funeral.  First of all, how can you ignore a film in which four Oscar winners are having a good time playing men their own age?  (And, by the way, five Oscars if you count Mary Steenburgen, who is the sixty-something love interest).   Personally, I’d see any film with Morgan Freeman … he’s one of the most likeable actors in the business and with that voice, I’d listen to him read the phone book.   The trailer was funny and filled with the kind of white-hair humor I enjoy these days.

Date Days

I haven’t said this in a long time so perhaps it’s time to say it again.   One of the secrets of our 45 year marriage has been a Saturday Date Night virtually every week, come hell or high water.  Yes, that’s a cliche but we’re fortunate to have had no hell and never water so high that we went under.  Like all of my secrets of a long marriage, Date Nights can’t save a doomed relationship.  And yet several men I know whose marriages were faltering found a quantum improvement when they took my suggestion and began regular dates with their wives.  Why does it work?  Ask Dr. Phil.  No, on second thought, don’t.  I’ll tell you.  Dating your wife is a reminder of your courtship, making it easier to see again the things that led you to marriage in the first place. From that place, it’s more natural to be romantic, to hold hands or cuddle in the theater. It distracts you from the dramas, big or small, that might be grinding on your relationship.  It gives you a chance to talk things over without the burden of HAVING A TALK.  It’s fun.  What marriage doesn’t need fun?

Monday Smiles – 8/5/2013

Every once in a while, Muri and I find ourselves out of synch.  Sometimes it happens because one or the other has been busy.  Last week was like that for me, filled with 12-Step commitments and work on the job where Nothing Works.  Sometimes, we have things on our mind that distract us, our no-longer-kids doing things we’d rather they didn’t or an illness in the family.  Yes, my brother is improving but slowly.  And sometimes, it’s just a mood. I am prone to those. I say, at those times, we’re Spinning in Different Orbits and it looks sort of like this.

Monday Smiles – 10/22/2012

Friday night, I had plans to meet a friend at a 12-Step meeting.  Usually, I do my 12-Stepping during the week and leave my weekends for Muri but he is a good friend and really wanted me to hear a certain speaker.  Like many 12-Step meetings, this one rents a room in a local church … The Wilshire Presbyterian Church, he said, on Wilshire Avenue.  On line, I could only find a Wilshire Community Church on Wilshire, so I assumed that was it.  Presbyterians are part of the community, right?  I arrived at the church at 7:10 for a 7:00 meeting and followed some people up to the second floor to the multipurpose room.  The multipurpose room was full of parents watching little boys play basketball, so I checked all the rooms on the first and second floors.  Nada.   I took the elevator to the basement but while I was looking for the meeting, I discovered that that the basement was the church pre-school … which meant that every entrance was barred by a heavy, locked iron gate.   No way out.  I found my way back to the elevator and pressed the Call Button … nothing.   Apparently, they don’t want the little buggers to escape … or bigger

Monday Smiles – 2/20/2012

Saturday night, after a week of family and Phoenix, Muri and I were ready for a real date night.   I consulted Goldstar, the half-price ticket service and found that the Yasmina Reza’s hit play, The God of Carnage, was at playing the International City Theater in Long Beach.   Last summer, the play, starring James Galdolfini, was getting raves at the Ahmanson Theater in L.A. but tickets were a cool $100 a pop so we passed on it.   ICT is a professional, non-profit theater whose productions we’ve enjoyed in the past and tickets were a bargain at $25 each.  Our plan was to eat at our favorite restaurant, The Original Fish Company but when we arrived, the wait was 70 to 80 minutes!  Time for plan B.  Now, let me say that we are not good at anything other than Plan A … spontaneity usually ends poorly for us … but you gotta do what you gotta do.   We consulted my Tom-Tom, found a new seafood restaurant, Gladstone’s, near the theater.  It turns out that Gladstone’s is part of a new entertainment complex within walking distance of ICT called The Pike after an amusement park that was on the site in the old days.   With restaurants, clubs and bars, the streets were alive with people … mostly young … and all very friendly.  It was like we were almost hip again.   Gladstone’s was excellent … Muri had Parmesan crusted halibut and I had blackened mahi-mahi.  We had plenty of time to walk to the theater.

Monday Smiles – 3/7/2011

Whatever nasty little bug swept through my insides starting on Thursday seems to have departed, just in time.  Bananas, rice and toast were getting old.   Yes, I know the acronym is BRAT but I can’t convince myself that applesauce is a good choice with intestinal ailments, as much as my wife and the internet insist it is.  I suppose I’d be in trouble if I said it was an old wives’ tale.   But I’m feeling better, thank you very much.  That alone is enough to bring a Monday Smile.  Yes, I’m still eating cautiously, just to be sure.

The Best $15 Ever

Friday afternoon, after my wife and I saw the only current film one or the other of us hadn’t seen … Unknown (not so good, by the way) … I decided to look on Goldstar, the half-price ticket brokers, for something for Saturday Date Night.   I found a show at the Curtis Theater in Brea, California.  I’ll admit … I’ve been known to be both a theater snob and  a venue snob.  I never went to community theater and I never went to performances in public libraries, presidential libraries, or city community centers.   Goldstar has changed that by emailing me weekly listings of performances I’d never have given a glance in my past life.  We’ve tried some and most were entertaining, a few extraordinary.  But the last time I was in the Curtis Theater, it was to see my teenage daughter in a performance of Oliver.  Come on, my Inner Venue Snob whispered but in the interest of egalitarianism … and having something to do on Date Night … I read on.