I am nearly in violation of my discipline...

.........so have to write quickly! This a.m. is Bible study and probably lunch at Longhorn. The reason I say "probably" is because we have a Ladies' Group dinner social tonight and some people do not like to eat out more than once a day. I know, I know, people are quirky sometimes...

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Our dinner is at Up the Creek, a rustic-looking restaurant in OakLeaf, just up the road from church. This area is being developed tremendously, or at least it was before the housing slump. Or thump, as the case might be. When we were first looking for areas to build in when moving here 20 years ago, our partners' friend, Al, steered us away from Argyle, saying it was going nowhere. Well, Al??? What do you say now????

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The movie Joanne and I saw yesterday was fantastic and I really recommend it. "The Soloist" is a movie based upon a real-life situation, where a newspaper writer has a chance meeting with a schizophrenic musician, beneath a statue of Beethoven, of all things. The writer manages to get the guy's name and tracks his history backward to determine what happened that this genius musician ended up living on the streets in LA. The movie exposes or shows the underside of the way some live as street people, the ugliness and sense of hopelessness mentally ill people experience. But the beauty is weighed against the ugliness, the writer's words expressing the unheard music of his protege.

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Memorable thoughts from the movie include the musician, Nathaniel, describing the flapping wings of the pigeons as they fly off as sounding like applause. That struck me. At one point, the writer, Steve, managed to get a private seating to hear the symphony rehearse so Nathaniel and he could listen without him being freaked out. We "watch" the music through Nathaniel's eyes, the colors swinging and swooping behind closed eyes, much like the colors you see when your eyes are shut. He was obviously tranformed, and served to transform others at the safe house where his donated cello was stored. His music soothed the savage breast around the facility. Steve did not want to care about or for Nathaniel, starting out as "only a story" but then was sucked into his life and and and....I won't give the whole thing away before you all go see it!

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Afterward, we met Twila and Jean at Mojo's BBQ for a wonderful dinner. They had been at the new theater with us, only saw a different movie, "Earth". Their movie began 15 minutes after ours so the timing was just right. We liked the new theater on Fleming Island although all four of us were plenty cold. Joanne and I could not figure out how to lift the arm rests but the nice young man said they do go up if you pull really hard. Because they are new, they don't operate quite freely yet. It cost twice as much for popcorn and soda than for admission, though, and I ended up bringing 3/4 of the popcorn home with me...too expensive to waste!