The Bucket List

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0825232/?ref_=ttqt_qt_tt

I loved this movie! 

First, I love Morgan Freeman's voice. Morgan Freeman's, Sam Elliott's, and James Earl Jones' voices are the best. I think I could listen to them for hours even if they were just reading the dictionary. 

Second, does anyone play a psychopathic personality any better than Jack Nicholson? Okay, so maybe he's not exactly a psychopath in this movie, but he definitely plays some character traits that are ... shallow? self-centered? crazy? Yes. All of the above. (Makes me wonder what he's like in real life.)

Then there is the whole 'bucket list' concept. I loved that some of the items on the list were intangible, like "laugh until I cry" and "witness something majestic". 

The movie was beautiful. The storyline:

"Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers have nothing in common except for their terminal illnesses. While sharing a hospital room together, they decide to leave it and do all the things they have ever wanted to do before they die according to their bucket list. In the process, both of them heal each other, become unlikely friends, and ultimately find joy in life." 

-Written by r2k443, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0825232/?ref_=ttqt_qt_tt

And yes, I cried at the end.  

Certification Testing

I am really not looking forward to my upcoming certification test. The first time I took it (and 'not passed') was an incredible experience.

I was instructed to arrive at the testing site, an elementary school, 45 minutes prior to the start of the exam. At that time, all students were herded into the auditorium, where we were read very specific instructions about what is and is not permitted at the testing site and in the exam rooms. For example, water is not permitted unless it is in a clear, plastic bottle with the label removed. No mechanical pencils. No purses or bags. Nothing with a power button, including cell phones, iPods, iPads, smart phones, mp3 players, etc., unless you are taking a Math test, and then only certain graphing calculators from a State-approved list are permitted. 

After the rules were read, we were escorted to classrooms to take our certification exams. The rules were again read. It was announced that the bathrooms would be closed for the first 45 minutes to hour of the exam. The monitors then began coming around the class to clear everyone's graphing calculators. 

One of the students in my room did not have an approved calculator. She had a scientific calculator, and said that was all she had. She was told it was not permitted, which she should have known prior to coming to take the exam because the list of approved calculators is sent with the admission ticket. She burst into hysterics and began asking if anyone had an extra calculator. (They are $100+ calculators; not likely anyone would be carrying an extra. Besides, we were not permitted to bring any purses or bags into the room. Where would we keep an extra calculator?) At this time, she is instructed to calm down or security would escort her out. My nerves were beginning to fray.

Then someone's cell phone went off. I couldn't believe it. After the 45 minute lecture that included "NOTHING WITH A POWER BUTTON"? We were held up until security arrived to escort him out. I noticed I had begun to tremble and was having trouble writing my name.

The next announcement? "The bathrooms are now closed."  I don't care if you haven't had anything to drink in a month, as soon as you are told you cannot use the bathroom, that's exactly what you need to do! All I could think of was Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop saying, "There is no bathroom!" 

By the time the test began, I couldn't remember my name. I'm not kidding. So when I opened the text booklet and had to find the volume of a rectangular prism, I drew a complete blank. I couldn't have added a column of figures at that point. 

This time, before the test, I am going to take some precautionary steps. I am going to make sure I get up early enough to have eggs for breakfast, because I will need protein to get me through the four hour exam. I will not have any coffee (which is a diuretic) and will have just one glass of milk. I will meditate before I leave, arrive early, and meditate again in my car. I will make sure I have new batteries in my (State-approved) graphing calculator. I will have two sharpened pencils with new erasers. And I will be calm.

Xanax, anyone? :D

Wine Glass Charms

Blizzard 2014

Welcome 2014!

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