Caught

I have looked at these pictures many times, but only just now -- a year later -- noticed the bee making a be-line (bee-line?) for the flower.

I could not have caught that moment if I'd tried.

Rather, it caught me.

Happily ever after

It has to be a first. And I congratulate the writers of the recently released movie, Knight and Day, for breaking the mold.

For once, in a romantic comedy/adventure romp, the wedding went ahead as planned. No flattened wedding cakes, no musicians with emotional problems, no brides changing their minds at the last second, no embarrassing in-law speeches, no lies being admitted in front of the masses, no ruined dresses. Whew. And yeah.

It was the dress part my daughter and I were worried about.

Early in the movie, Cameron Diaz tries the bride's maid dress on, gets several compliments, then manages a chase scene or two without a spot of dirt. Still, when the bombs are dropping and everyone's running for cover on the island, we know it can only be bad news for the dress, which we'd earlier seen her tuck into a black handbag.

And while our husbands were watching the action ("what handbag?"), my daughter and I were watching the black handbag with the dress as it escapes with its owner in a helicopter and ends up someplace in Austria.

I can't tell you more without seriously affecting the many surprises in the plot, but I'll just say the short wedding scene was such a relief I didn't mind the destruction that followed every other place they went and every other vehicle the two touched and every other person who might have been a threat.

Weddings are ruined way, way too often in movies. And those of us who've been in them or who've tried to make them perfect for those we love have a hard time seeing the humor in their ruination.

Seriously, did any woman anywhere laugh when Matthew McConaughey crashed that beautiful wedding cake in that movie about girlfriends? Or why couldn't Sandra Bullock have come clean with the family before she was at the altar in that movie about US/Canada work permits?

I'm all for drama, but let's give the 50 percent of the audience who thinks weddings are dreams come true a little breathing room. Sigh.




Speaking of weddings. I attended a perfect one just last Saturday.
Congratulations Maria and Rich!!

The picture tells the story

I didn't ask the girl sitting on the floor with her crutches about what happened. But I think I know. I think that maybe just the day before, or maybe just a few hours before, she was one of the girls standing in front of the windows and dancing. And maybe she slipped or maybe she landed wrong or maybe she was hurrying somewhere too fast and tripped on something or someone she didn't see.

But she didn't go home. She's still there, watching, learning, waiting until she can join in the kicking and cheering. And in the meantime being disappointed.

I've tripped before. Not maybe the kind of tripping that requires crutches, but the kind that means something you tried to do didn't work. Maybe even you failed.

So you have to sit and watch other people who maybe weren't so clumsy or unlucky, and hope you learn what they're learning, even though you're sitting on the floor.

And then you get up and do it all again. Because it's no fun sitting on the floor. And even when there's always that possibility that you're going to tumble again, you know you just have to get up and dance.