I'm a little weepy

It's 9:30 p.m. on May 30th. One year ago it was Memorial Day. One year ago we found out Dad wasn't going to make it. One year ago at this time, I was trying to leave the hospital and Dad cried.

Watching my father cry was one of the most painful things in the world. I only saw him do it a handful of times in the 30-some years I knew him. He cried the first time we watched My Girl and quickly ran out of the room. He cried when my 2 year-old cousin Max was killed in a freak accident. He cried when his mother died in 2010. (I never saw him cry when his father died when I was little. My mom said she only saw him cry once.) He cried over losing my mother to that evil world of Alzheimer's. And he cried that night when he realized he was going to die.

Because it was so rare for him to do so, his tears always triggered some of my own. That particular night was exceptionally difficult. For my whole life, he had been the one comforting me. Now it was my turn to comfort him.

That memory keeps popping up, particularly at night. Bedtime is that evil time when all of those thoughts invade your cerebral membrane. You lose the ability to stave them off any longer. Emotions are set free and tears being to roll.

Tonight marks three more days until his one-year anniversary. There is something peaceful to me with that number. I don't know why I keep going back to Jesus and the resurrection and three days when I think about my father. I am more of a spiritual person than a religious person. Perhaps it is because he was so faithful at the end of his life.

I also know that in three days, that first year's cycle will be complete. For me, I have to mark the passage of time. To make it through one full year after a painful event always feels like a triumph. I know I am that much closer to the end. I almost look forward to it in a weird way.

My tears this evening are not nearly as plentiful as they were a couple of days ago. They are more seeping out of the corners of my eyes. My sister would say that my eyes are leaking. They are responding to the pain and emptiness that I feel without my father around. He was one of my best friends; we were extremely close. That hole is by no means smaller one year later. It has shifted and readjusted itself, sort of like a woman's body weight does over the years. It is never going to go away, either. It just stings a little less with each passing day. And I breathe so much easier.

Remembering....

Today is Memorial Day. It's the day that we remember those who gave their lives to keep our country free. For me, it also is a different kind of memory.

Last year, I went home for Memorial Day weekend. I was personally finished with the school year and planned to stay home for a while. We were having a meeting to discuss Dad's future. There was also going to be a memorial that following weekend for his cousin who had just passed away from cancer. (Yes, my family had an extremely rough year.)

When I got to town, I went up to see Dad at the LTAC facility. They had him sitting up right in a chair, but his eyes were firmly closed. He was very uncomfortable and clawing at the armrests as if he were trying to get up and lie back down in bed. I remember crying and texting my sister that we just couldn't let this go on anymore. He was in too much pain and it wasn't fair.

By Memorial Day, my sister was in town and Dad's sister was in town for the meeting. His other sister and Mom's sister-in-law were en route. I was slowly getting up that day when I got a phone call from my friend. Her mother was one of Dad's nurses.

"Andrea! Your dad is awake! His eyes are open!"

Hallelujah! I had waited six long weeks to see those eyes open. I quickly called everyone and raced up to the hospital. I was so happy to look into his eyes that I cried and took pictures of his beautiful face. We were dancing with joy as we went out to dinner and then stopped by my cousin's house before our meeting.

Then the meeting came.

Dad's kidneys were at 50%. Our options were to either do dialysis, which his Power of Health would not allow, or to discontinue the feeding tubes and move him to Hospice. As much as it hurt, we knew what the right decision would be. I made my sister sign the papers, because my hand just wouldn't work. I called Dad's brother, whose gut reaction was, "I can't come up this week. I have to watch my granddaughter." You know how you get when slapped in the face with something so unbelievable.

The hospital agreed to take him off of his tubes and to just give him a little bit of water, to sustain his body until the rest of the family could arrive to say goodbye. I spent as much time up there with him as I could. I read to him. I played our favorite PBS version of Jane Eyre. I just talked to him. I wanted to squeeze out every last possible moment with him that I could.

That night was the most difficult. I was so tired I could hardly stand up. I needed to go home and get some rest. When I said I was going to leave, I hugged him and he turned his head so that his face pressed into mine. When I pulled away, he had tears streaming down his face. He knew he was about to leave and he didn't want to go. I can still feel that cheek pressed into mine. A few days later, he was gone.

I am sobbing as I write this. Anniversaries always bring up the pain again. I will be completely caught off guard. Last night, we were watching TV while waiting to cook out on the grill. Eric turned on a Memorial Day concert and suddenly I was overcome with emotion, knowing what today was. I had to sit outside and just let it all out. Today I was okay, until I started writing this post. We shall see how I am next Saturday, when it is Dad's one-year anniversary.

Thank you for letting me remember.

Reflections on My Father From A to Z

When I embarked upon my first A to Z Challenge last year, I was expecting to just randomly post things that reflected who I was. Instead, it quickly turned into a way for me to deal with my father - his illnesses and his eventual death. He fell ill in the middle of April. My posts continued into May, ending, I believe, with P is for Peaceful Passing. Writing about what was happening was one way for me to deal with the inexplicable pain of the long goodbye.

This year's challenge began in time for an anniversary. To me, I started to lose my dad on April 14th when he went into the hospital. My gut told me it was the end, though I hoped for a better outcome.

[And rabbit trail here - it feels wrong to say a better outcome. It's a selfish thought. The right outcome happened. When he finally passed away, he was finally free of all pain and problems. We are the ones who wanted to keep him here, which wasn't right for him.]

Anyway, April 14th felt more like the real anniversary of losing my father. I have no idea how I will respond on June 2nd, the anniversary of when he finally slipped away from this world to enter the next one.

So, for this year's challenge, I decided to honor my parents. I blogged about my father from A to Z here, and about my mother from A to Z over on How to Laugh at Alzheimer's. It was a freeing, yet difficult task to accomplish.

I started plotting out the alphabet about my father back in about February. I felt stuck on so many of the letters, but had faith the right words would come when it was time. It felt freeing to share so many of my memories. As that anniversary approached, though, my writing voice disappeared for a little while. Part of it was I was really sick over Spring Break. Another part of it was simply having the weight of that first year being lifted off of me. I am the kind of person who has to mark anniversaries. I need to get through that first year and then I have some semblance of closure from the loss. Once I felt that initial closure, I didn't quite feel the need to purge as much.

I did make an effort to catch up, though. I did complete posts through the rest of the alphabet in time for the end of the challenge at 11:59 p.m. on April 30th. Now I am just a little late on posting my reflections.

I found myself using topics that were not on my original list. Some of them weren't as good as I had originally hoped they would be. But, they are off the cuff and honest and unedited. Pure, raw emotional responses to a word beginning with a particular letter of the alphabet. Now, a couple of weeks later, I find myself saying, "Oh yeah! I was going to talk about thus and such!" I realize I can still do that. I will probably blog about my Daddy memories for years to come. I will never fill that void that is left inside of me and will never stop missing him.

Will I do this challenge again next year? Yes. This blog is my everything blog. Anything goes here. I write about all kinds of thoughts and ideas. I just have no idea what the alphabet will bring me next year.

Here is the list of posts that I did this year about my dad. Following this list are the posts from last year's challenge, as well.

A is for Artist
B is for Books
C is for Cooking
D is for Daddy
E is for Ev'ry Mountain
F is for Farts
G is for Gardening
H is for Heart and Hugs
I is for Insert Intelligent Sarcasm Here
J is for Jail
K is for Kids
L is for Laughing
M is for Manly Man
N is for Naughty
O is for Opinionated
P is for Pride
Q is for Quiet
R is for Richard
S is for Siblings
T is for Tickling
U is for Unique Bedtime Routine
V is for Vicar of Dibley
W is for Watch
X is for Xenial
Y is for Young
Z is for Zappy

The 2011 Challenge:

A is for...
B is for...
C is for Candida
C is for Cookie
D is for David and Dylan
E is for Eddie
F is for Fiona
G is for Grover
H is for Hiking
I Am Mine
J is for Juggling
K is for Kindness and Karma


L is for Love and Loss
M is for Meetings and Memories
N is for Numb
O is for Options
P is for Peaceful Passing
Q is for Questions

Procrastination makes me play more

What is it about having parent-teacher conference reports due this week that makes me want to play even more? I was a good girl and started them over a month ago. I had the generic parts all filled out and even started to fill out several of them. I thought I would be done early. But no.

Actually, that isn't true. It is only Sunday, and conferences start on Friday. I have fourteen scheduled for Friday and 11 of those already emailed to my assistant and boss to review. Usually I am sending them through that Wednesday night. I always like to see if my assistant has something to add from her point-of-view and the boss must approve them all before they are shared with parents. I may even squeeze out another one this evening before I give in and go to bed.

I probably could have had them all written today. Writing 22 narratives is never an easy task. I think the writing wheels were well-greased from the A to Z blogging challenge last month. Words and thoughts were constantly spinning through my head and coming out of my fingers. I have had ideas about what I wanted to address in each report for several weeks now. I have been taking extra notes and doing extra evaluations for the past two weeks.

Ah, but for that desire to play. I was going to do a lot of them on Saturday, so that I didn't have to work all day today on reports. Then I got hungry, which led to the text message to The Man about getting food. Mid-day food always leads to various adventures. Sometimes it is going for a drive. Sometimes it is going on a hike. We also ended up meeting dogs at the local Humane Society and shopping for bargains. And then there was the dinner invite from a friend, and of course watching Svengoolie. Lots of playing on Saturday means lots of writing on Sundays.

It has been hard to restrain myself from playing all day today, too. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I picked up one flat of flowers from a greenhouse yesterday, and really wanted to plant them. I need to finish clearing out the beds. Digging my fingers in dirt makes me happy. Had I given in to that temptation, though, I never would have made it back in to work on these reports. I have also wanted to play all day with my Kindle Fire and read. I did allow myself a little bit of both, to break up the monotony of writing reports.

I always wait until the last minute to get my work done. I guess this time around, I have actually made myself extra time to play, instead.

May Challenge Day 3: Something with which I struggle

Honestly, I am struggling with even writing this post. I have several things with which I struggle, but I just cannot admit some of them to the entire world. I am sure my father would find that somewhat ironic. He always thought I had a tendency to overshare as it is. Yes, I am outspoken on many areas, but admitting to my faults is not easy to do.

**I have a temper. I get catty and bitchy and mean. But it takes someone REALLY pissing me off for the claws to come out. I also get nasty if I am close to you. That means that only three people on this earth right now ever really get to see that side of me.

**I have a clutter problem. And I get mad when people make fun of the show Hoarders. No one chooses to have that problem and simply ripping everything away from them is not going to help.

**I am an overachiever. I want to do it all and I want to do it now. I get cranky when I fall behind. And then I can give up too easily.

**I don't like to admit when I am wrong. I hate to ask for help. At the same time, I hate it when people ask me if I want help. When I truly need it, I will ask for it.

All of these things, plus a few more, tend to make me a giant pain in the ass. I am the first one to admit it. Trying to fix it all is the hard part. I like to think that I have made a lot of progress in the past several years. I am never going to be a perfect person. I try to curb my annoyances and work toward organization every day. You just have to take me for who I am and embrace me with all of my faults.

May Movies: Dracula

Ack! I have fallen behind two days! No worries - I will catch up! I have a ton of older movies to share with you this month! So, without fail, here is the entry for May 4th.

A few weeks ago, Svengoolie featured the 1931 movie Dracula on his weekly show. I was intrigued to watch it as I had never seen the original. I think I made it part way through the version with Winona Ryder, but didn't care for it at all. I just reread the book in 2011 after I got the Kindle app on my Droid. I am a big fan of reading a book prior to seeing the movie version, so I was looking forward to it.

The story in the book is told primarily through letters, journals, ship logs and newspaper clippings. It is like a compilation by someone who is researching the events, in a different form of first-person narrative than someone synthesizing the material to tell a story. You get different points of view from several of the characters. Jonathan travels to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania to assist him with some legal matters and quickly figures out he is a prisoner there. He notes all kinds of strange occurrences.

Soon after he escapes, Dracula makes his way to England and is smitten with Jonathan's finacee, Mina, and her best friend Lucy. Lucy and Mina are both bitten by the vampire. Lucy dies and Mina alternates between consciousness and unconsciousness as she continues to be held under his power. Dr. Seward, one of Lucy's suitors, is suspicious of her illness prior to her death and gathers a group of men, led by Van Helsing, to determine what is going on. Van Helsing recognizes the signs of vampires. Seward has a mental patient named Renfield who consumes bugs and creatures and is able to somewhat track Dracula's movements. When Jonathan returns, he helps the group on their mission to find and destroy Dracula.


The movie version has the fundamental story the same as in the book, but some marked differences. Count Dracula makes his way to England after receiving a visit from a young gentleman. Only in the movie, the visitor is Renfield, who goes insane during the ship voyage to England from Transylvania. Dracula meets the women and their suitors, including Jonathan, while attending the theatre. The women are attracted to Dracula and he quickly makes them his own. Van Helsing, Jonathan and Seward work toward eradicating Dracula for good.

The movie is rather enjoyable, especially as an example of a classic horror movie from the 1930s. It is the definitive form of Dracula, as Bela Lugosi's interpretation has been mimicked ever since. I will admit that I do not see the appeal of the character, is Lugosi simply is not that attractive to me. And I snickered every time he gave his hypnotizing stare to one of the women he was attempting to seduce. One eye would close ever so slightly while the opposite eyebrow raised a little. Had I seen it 80 years ago, though, I may have been more creeped out.

I will also admit to falling asleep every time the movie has come on. I am not so sure that it was from boredom, as opposed to sheer exhaustion. I like to fall asleep to movies. This one, having no music soundtrack, is good at allowing for that to happen.

It is, however, much better than any of that other vampire stuff that is out there right now in the movies. :-P

See it once just to see it, so that you can say you have viewed a classic. You can rent from Amazon here. Or, you can always just purchase a copy for your own collection.

May Challenge Day 2: Something I regret not having done last year

I try to focus on not having regrets about decisions that I have made in my past. Those experiences that you have had in your past shape who you are today. If you were to go back and change them, you wouldn't be the person that you are right now. Haven't you seen all of those movies? (A Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, etc.)

Are there some things that I wish were handled differently last year? Absolutely. The last two years have royally sucked. I do wish I could have made it back to Ohio to try to visit my mother again before she forgot who I was. At the same time, my presence always agitated her. The nurses would have to help me sneak out of the ward and then were left with trying to calm Mom down and to distract her. It wasn't healthy for me, nor my mother.

I wish I could have made it back sooner to bring back more of my things in storage. I have had to impose on friends and family to store so many of my parents' belongings. I thought I was going to make it back by now, but just can't afford it. I feel terrible.

I wish we could have taken more time to properly plan and announce my father's funeral. A man like him should not have had only a handful of people in the church. That place should have been full. He died at 10:30 on a Thursday evening. The memorial was Monday morning. People didn't even see the announcements until over the weekend and couldn't plan accordingly. I heard that many times.

I admit to having the tiniest bit of regret that I didn't make it back to help Dad get Mom situated in the facility. Had I been there, perhaps he wouldn't have fallen. Or had he fallen, I would have made sure he received medical attention.

But like I said before, I can't change any of it, so I can't dwell on it. Had he not hit his head, some other medical problem would have taken his life, and the timing would not have been too far off. It was better this way. He was devastated by Mom's Alzheimer's. It probably would have killed him to have her forget him, anyway.

I only think of these things when I am prompted to do so, such as with today's meme. It does pop up here and there in conversation, as well. Otherwise, I try to live my life according to one of my all-time favorite Pearl Jam songs, "Present Tense": "You can live your life alone, redigesting past regrets. Or you can come to terms and realize you are the only one who cannot forgive yourself. Makes much more sense to live in the present tense."

Watch the video with lyrics here:

Movies in May: I Was a Male War Bride

I have been in love with Cary Grant for a couple of decades now. He was the Man's Man and every woman's dream. In I Was a Male War Bride, a movie from 1949, Grant plays a French office of the Army opposite Ann Sheridan who is a Women's Army Corp officer. The two act like they can't stand each other, constantly poking fun at each other and bickering. But we all know what usually happens in cases like these.


The two end up having to go on a mission together to Germany, to track down a lensmaker who is working on the black market. Their trip includes the usual screwball comedy for which Grant was famous in that era. Think of finding more than a needle in a haystack, broken doorknobs, backrubs and waterfalls. Along the way, the two finally succumb to their love for each other and decide to get married.

Because Grant is a French citizen, they run into all kinds of problems when they try to get married, ending up with three separate ceremonies. Before they have a chance to consummate their marriage, Sheridan is called back to the United States. Grant is obviously going to return to his wife, but gets stalled by even more red tape. The only way he can get there is as an American War Bride, because there are no separate distinctions for men.  People are tremendously confused by his title, "Alien Spouse of Female Military Personnel Enroute to the United States Under Public Law 271," and never know how to accommodate him. More hilarity ensues, including Grant finally having to dress up as a woman to sneak on board a ship. Cary Grant was a beautiful man, but he is absolutely hideous as a woman!


Apparently, this movie is based on a true story about a man also named Henri Rouchard, who had to travel under such a title. They always say that truth is stranger than fiction!

I have watched this movie at least a dozen times on classic movie channels and now on Netflix's Watch Instantly. Or, you can purchase your own copy. It's one worth having in the collection!

May Challenge Day 1: Something I'm looking forward to this year

It has been eleven months and one day since my father died. Since going through that ordeal last year, I have been focusing more on taking life one day at a time. Yes, I may know what is going to happen a couple of days from now, but have learned that life can really throw you a curve ball. I'm not really sure what I am looking forward to this year, other than finally hitting that one year anniversary.

I am the kind of person who needs to mark the passage of time with anniversaries. The first year is always the most difficult. Once you get through that, it is usually smooth sailing for whatever that situation is. At least, that is the way I have always looked at it.

I think the more important anniversary to which I was "looking forward" was the anniversary of when Dad went unconscious. My gut instinct when that happened was that it wasn't going to turn out the way we were hoping. I prayed every day, many times a day, for whatever was meant to happen to happen. If he was meant to recover and stay here with me, then awesome. But if he was meant to pass away from this world and move to the next one to ease his suffering, I would be heartbroken, but knew it would be for the best. I started mourning him that April.

Saying I was looking forward to that anniversary is probably not the proper choice of words. I do not take any pleasure in it. In what will I actuallly take pleasure? I suppose things like having time to work in my garden, to see if I can bring it back to life, being able to go hiking again as my various injuries heal, spending time with loved ones, reading a lot more, writing a lot more, should also top my list. Those are just general plans, though, and are starting to slowly creep back into my life.

Why don't children play anymore?

I help drive around kids a couple of days a week. They are involved in all kinds of sports and classes and activities, and their parents just can't keep up with all of the frenzied shuttling around the area. Granted, their jobs are such that it is impossible to be available to do this all of the time. It's great that the kids are able to get in some regular exercise as they practice with their teams or individual sports. But where is the play time?

When I was a kid, my parents owned their own furniture store. Because it was a "Ma & Pa" operation, they couldn't depend on someone else to keep an eye on things while they drove us around. The only other adult available was my grandmother, but she had macular degeneration that prevented her from driving at night. My parents knew they couldn't return the favor, so they didn't impose on any of their friends. My sister and I did not participate in a ton of extra activities, but that was okay. We played.

As soon as we got home from school, we often ran outside to go play in our yard. We lived at our store and had a full acre to explore. We had a side yard with a swing set and a swimming pool. We lived next to a neighborhood where we could ride our bikes. There was an abandoned lot with a track for riding bikes or running or simply creating adventure mysteries.

If we were inside, we played all kinds of other games. Some were store bought. Many were made up on our own. 

Play is important to children. As they act out situations, they learn how to deal with the confusion of their own lives as they try out different scenarios. They do not necessarily realize that this is what is happening, but it is. They need time for unstructured running around and craziness. But today's society seems to have driven them to even schedule their fun; and that makes me sad.

The New May Challenges

Yes, A to Z this year created a monster. I can't sit near my computer without wanting to write something. I have a zillion other things that I should be writing, especially for money, but it isn't happening. I think it is more important that I am writing anything.

One of my fellow members of the GBE2 group found an old daily challenge from last year. Some of us have decided to take it on to see what will happen. Each day has a different prompt. They are not related to a letter, nor any other specific theme. It just gives you a meme and you go with it. Because we are starting three days late and there are three days off, we will just eliminate those three extra days.

Here is the meme list, in case you were wondering or were interested in trying it:

Day 01: Something you're looking forward to this year.
Day 02: Something you regret not having done last year.
Day 03: Something with which you struggle.
Day 04: Something that is part of your routine that you enjoy.
Day 05: Something in life that gives you balance.
Day 06: Something that excites you and fills you with joy.
Day 07: Vacation Hiatus
Day 08: Vacation Hiatus
Day 09: Vacation Hiatus
Day 10: Something at which you've been a champion or the best.
Day 11: Something about which people seem to compliment you.
Day 12: Something you hope to change about yourself and why.
Day 13: Discuss some of the things on your bucket list.
Day 14: Someone who has made your life worth living.
Day 15: A band/musical artist whose music impacted your life.
Day 16: A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.
Day 17: Someone with whom you shared a friendship/relationship that simply drifted out of your life.
Day 18: Someone you met randomly that's made an impact on your life.
Day 19: Something that shook your belief system to its core (a big disappointment in your life).
Day 20: Discuss your favorite movie and why it's so special to you.
Day 21: Write about your best friend (not significant other) and what makes them special.
Day 22: Describe a dark/turbulent moment in your life.
Day 23: Describe a truly spiritual moment in your life.
Day 24: Discuss a spontaneous moment in your life that that turned out to be fantastic.
Day 25: Discuss something you planned that ended up not being what you expected.
Day 26: How do you handle/deal with both success and failure?
Day 27: What is your vocation (why are you here on earth)?
Day 28: What is your biggest dream in life (what one great thing do you want to accomplish)?
Day 29: What WAS your biggest dream in life (you wanted to do as a kid but no longer can)?
Day 30: Someone in your family that means so much to you.
Day 31: Epilogue: Write a letter to yourself.


The other challenge that I came across is a month-long challenge on one topic for Blog Her's NaBloPoMo. This month's theme is "Play." If I can't come up with something every day for that, then I am not the youthful person I thought I was!

So, here comes the madness. You may remember I also had set myself up with the Movie May challenge, where I talk about movies that were created in the 1950s and earlier. And one of these days I need to finish They Live On.....

Movies in May: Abbott and Costello Meet The Killer Boris Karloff

The new tradition on Saturday nights has turned into watching Svengoolie on METV. He's the male version of Elvira, full of bad puns weaving in and out around the movie segments. It's as cheesy as any of those other movie gimmicks, like Dinner and a Movie that used to be on some channel, yet he has grown on me.

His favorite movies to play are the old horror movies and thrillers. Some of the movies are absolutely horrendous; but some actually are entertaining. The one that was on a few weeks ago was Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff.


I was intrigued by it because at the time I was in the middle of watching the TV show Thriller on Netflix (before they decided to remove it from Watch Instantly, those bastards!). The show was a sort of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but with longer and darker episodes. You can actually catch some episodes on METV on occasion.


I was also interested in finally watching a full-length Abbott & Costello movie. I don't think I had seen one all the way through before.

I actually really liked this movie. Sure, it is corny, but that is part of the charm of the comedy team. When attorney Amos Strickland is found murdered in his hotel room, the bellboy, played by Lou Costello, is considered the primary suspect. He is the one who happened to find the body, though, and had nothing to do with the murder. Bud Abbott plays the house detective who is determined to clear Costello's name and to find the real murderer. Boris Karloff is the swami who keeps trying to hypnotize Costello to make him confess to the murder. Costello keeps finding a dead body in various rooms of the hotel, but every time he tries to show Abbott, the body disappears. The hilarity ensues as they try to track down this moving dead body while determining the real killer. The comedic routines are familiar, yet worth watching. Out of all of their movies I have watched since this, this one is at the top of my list.

This movie is currently only available for purchase as a part of a collection.

Movies in May: We're Not Married

We're Not Married is a comedy from 1952 that stars some of your favorite classic actors, such as Marilyn Monroe, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ginger Rogers, Eddie Bracken, Mitzi Gaynor and many more.

What would you do if you found out you and your spouse really weren't married? Five couples have a big decision to make after finding out that their marriages were not legally valid. They all were married by a Justice of the Peace who jumped the gun and performed the ceremonies a few days before his license was valid. Some of them are still madly in love with each other. Some have kids to worry about. (Back in those days, it was frowned upon to have unwed parents.) Others are grateful for the chance to escape an unhappy union. 

The movie is light-hearted and worth a chuckle here and there. I watched it over a period of several nights, as I kept dozing off while it was playing. This was not an indication of any poor quality in the movie - I was just really tired that week. I did enjoy it and would probably watch it again. It was one of the few Marilyn Monroe movies I had not yet seen. I don't remember ever watching Zsa Zsa in anything. The stories are cute, even if a little predictable. With the Netflix rating system, I would give it about 3.5 stars, though I marked off 4. 

You can rent the movie for Amazon for $2.99 here.

Or, you can purchase your own copy. 

Movies in May

I had a lot of fun challenging myself through the A to Z challenge this past month. While I was doing it, I was already thinking up new challenges for this year, as well as some alphabet ideas for next year. I have decided that this May, I am going to do a movie challenge. I am not going to follow an alphabet or any other such strict rule. All of my movies, though, are going to be from the 1960s and earlier. I will not review anything later than that - at least not this time around. I like to fall asleep to these movies on a regular basis. I have even seen some of them in their entirety. My only challenge to myself is to have one post per day. We shall see how it goes!