Oscars and a GREAT Weekend!

Sunday night was MY Super Bowl.  People who know me that I spend nearly every weekend at the movies--so the Oscars are such a treat!  I saw seven of the nine nominated pictures--I had no desire to see either The Tree of Life or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close--but I DID see the other seven: Hugo, The Artist, War Horse, The Descendents, Moneyball, The Help and Midnight in Paris.  Of the seven I saw, I think that The Artist was wonderful, and Midnight in Paris was easily Woody Allen's best picture in years.  I liked but didn't love Moneyball or The Descendants and wouldn't have nominated either one for Best Picture!

I had SUCH a great weekend.  Saturday, Whit and I went to Goldsboro and watched my school's basketball team win their playoff game.  We spent the evening with his youngest daughter and had Chinese food for dinner.  On Sunday, I cooked for Whit, his daughters, Jenny and Jackie and Jackie's boyfriend, Adam.  I made roasted garlic chicken and potatoes, which turned out so well that the kids had seconds and thirds.   We all laughed and enjoyed dinner together and then Whit and I cleaned up and spent the rest of the afternoon watching Bambi, and even though I've seen it a dozen times, I still cried when Bambi's mother died.

The Oscars are on and I'm going to go finish watching!  My pick for Best Picture?  The Artist.  It's different and charming, and I LOVED it.  By the time you read this, you'll know how it (and I) did!  Have a merry Monday!!

The Linus Syndrome...

In Charles M. Schulz's beloved comic strip, Peanuts, the character of Linus is happiest when he's holding tightly to his blanket, which gives him a sense of security and peace. Wouldn't life be easier if we all had a blanket we could cling to--a talisman that would bring us a sense of peace, calm and above all, security?

No matter who we are, how confident we may appear to be, we all suffer with moments of insecurity. We are always competing to be thinner, smarter, prettier, more fashionable, more successful...always. We may have some moments when we feel good about who we are and what we have to offer--but there are also those moments when our security is shaken.  I have a former student who is brilliant, and yet she seems surprised whenever she gets an "A" or some other accolade.  Look at Hollywood.  Brilliant actors are almost always surprised when they win awards, even though they have been identified as the best of the best on other occasions.  Everyone suffers from insecurity.  Everyone.  

Lately, I've been feeling very confident about myself.  My life is going so very well right now--I'm happy in my job, happy with my weight loss, happy with my health, happy in my social life.  I've met a nice man who makes me laugh, and yet the other day when I received an email from him rather than a text,(his usual way to contact me) I immediately feared that his email was to end our budding relationship.  He had given me no indication that he would have made such an effort, but I still dreaded reading his email because I was certain it was going to be bad news.  (It wasn't. He had left his phone at home, so he was just letting me know he couldn't text me that morning.)  Is the insecurity in this new relationship just an old habit dying hard?  Or is it something more?  

Are we insecure because we have reason to be?  Is it merely habit?  Or is it the result of being beaten down again and again?  I think that it's the latter coupled with the need to self-protect.  If we tell ourselves that he's not going to like us, that we're not going to get that "A", that someone else is going to win the award, we won't be disappointed, right?  I used to say, "Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall not be disappointed."  Pretty sad, right?  Today, I think that they who expect it all are the ones who are blessed, for they will at least get something!

Have a super Sunday, everyone...I'm going to spend a large part of the day with my new friend--and I'm expecting to have a great time!

(Oh, and yes, there's a new photo on the site right below my "before" photo.  It was taken 1/7/12 in Garner, NC.)

And the Oscar/Tony/Emmy Goes to...

In college, I took several theatre classes.  I love performing and the performing arts in general.  I teach drama, have acted in community theatre productions, and when I was younger, I watched all the awards shows on television and fantasized about winning either an Oscar, Tony or Emmy.  When I dreamed about winning when I was really young, it was as a performer, but as I got older--and fatter--my dream switched to winning not as an actress but as a writer.  And who knows?  That still could happen, although I would have to start writing screenplays rather than novels...

In order to be eligible to win any award, one must be in the competition, right?  I'm never going to win an Oscar for a great movie unless I actually write one.  I couldn't win a Tony unless I was in a play on Broadway or an Emmy unless I was on television.  Well, the same is true in our lives.  We're never going to win unless we get in on the competition.

William Shakespeare (oh, how I love him) said "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players."  Are you a player in your own life?  Or are you sitting in the audience watching the action from the comfy, but limited, front row.  Or are you standing in the wings, waiting for...waiting for...well, waiting for what exactly?  Waiting to lose ten pounds?  Waiting for your kids to graduate high school?  For your partner to achieve his or her dream?  Seriously, waiting for what?  You do not win an acting award if you aren't on stage, folks!  You can call yourself an actor if you're standing in the wings, but at the end of the show, the flowers are presented to the actual performers, not to those standing by in case the lead actor can't go on.  And those people in the audience?  All they have to show for their time is a playbill and a ticket stub. 

So, it's time to decide.  Are you in the audience? In the wings?  Or on the stage?  When all is said and done, are you in the competition?  Because you can't win an Oscar sitting at home!  Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading!