apropos of anything

Do not have enough fingers and toes to count how many things I have to do, but… in the process of doing them, I think maybe, maybe, I found a picture for one of my blank 8×10 frames:

It’s from right before Aamir’s valima. This is what happens when I finally look at the pictures on my camera — I find one I love.

Last year, my heart just wasn’t in it, and I never made it to Screen on the Green. I kept seeing the words “Big Momma’s House”, followed by the words “Presenting Sponsor: Pepsi” and I just couldn’t taint my memories of sitting under the stars at Piedmont Park, singing along to “My Favorite Things”, with a cross-dressing Martin Lawrence flanked by posters of Atlanta’s arch-nemesis.

I mean, Pepsi. Seriously?

The schedule’s out this year, and it’s being hosted by Peachtree TV again. Not entirely surprising considering P’Tree TV is trying to gain a foothold in Atlanta, and while I’d still prefer the classics TCM would have chosen to air instead, I think I might just have to accept that for now, I’m going to have to catch my classics at home.

There’s one movie on the list that does make me go oooh! though: Field of Dreams. My love of baseball movies predates my love of baseball (no, I can’t explain it either), and FoD is really the one that got me hooked in the first place.

So I suppose this year’s got one up on the last year, even if the festival is still at Centennial and not at gorgeous Piedmont. And I’m glad to have it to look forward to again, all things considered.

Heather pulls into a gas station to restock on basic supplies (e.g. sugar and caffeine). Leta and I have been napping in the back seat, but she wakes up as the car stops moving and decides to join Heather and Jason on their run. I wake up to the slamming of the car door and hear them discussing whether it would be okay to leave me alone and asleep in the car, so I wave cheerily at them to convey that I was awake, yes, but I’d be staying in the car. They wave back, and Heather uses the remote control to lock the car.

A few minutes later, Leta meanders back outside. I hold up one of three chocolate bars that I’d fished out of a bag in the back seat and gesture emphatically to indicate that I’d be taking this one, please. She gestures back that I am not making any sense. I reach over and slowly unhook my seat belt, and then, equally slowly, unlock the door. Leta watches me dispassionately from the outside as though she’s curious what my next move will be. I open the car door.

The car alarm blares.

Leta doubles over with laughter. I am cracking up myself, and also trying to figure out how to turn the alarm off from inside the car (as obviously outside the car makes the car angry). It takes me only a few seconds to realize there is no way to do this without the keys.

Meanwhile, inside the convenience store, way in the back, Jason looks at Heather and asks, “Is that our car?” And because she is a wise, wise woman, she sighs, rolls her eyes, and says, “YES.”