The Good Stuff....

Happy Birthday to me.... and the rest of the song... blah blah blah.

I turned 33 today. And in 8 minutes my birthday will officially be over. I spoke to friends old and new, received many wishes of happiness from my friends via Facebook, and got a couple of text messages and voicemails. So to everyone, thank you. It was a good birthday. My day was filled with a new Thai restaurant for lunch with Steph, laundry, and rearranging of the furniture. Then I topped it off by heading out into San Antonio on my own to go to a movie. In Utah, Monday night is movie night. Theaters are always packed as families head out to catch a flick. Apparently here it is not the same. I chose a movie that had received a decent rating and I went early because, in Utah, 7:40 is a prime movie time and I didn't want to not get a good seat. Interestingly enough, there were only two of us in the theater. I am not sure if it was the movie or this new city, but either way it meant that I got to meet a very interesting lady tonight and we enjoyed a movie together.

So what did we see? The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.


 Now, I know if I had been in Utah or Virginia I would have had friends that would be willing to see it with me. But here it was just me and one other lady. I later learned that my movie companion had lost her husband of 40 years last July, which means this movie was especially poignant for her. Yet, as we talked of the movie afterwards we found many things that crossed the age barrier.  Whether we are 20, 33, or 65, we all worry about life in general. New places, new faces, or the loss of friends and family, though the trials may wear different clothes, they seem to all be the same. But, as the movie says time and again, "Everything will be alright in the end. If it is not alright, then it is not the end." Life will continue to cycle, and when we are at the bottom of the wheel we must remember that it is not the end. It is just a stage in the cycle that we call life. This idea is then expanded in a short conversation between two of the women towards the end of the movie.

Mrs. Greenslade: Nothing here has worked out quite as I expected.
Mrs Donnely: Most things don't. But you know sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff.

So here is to a life that has been lived. One that, though alright, is not at an end. If I have learned nothing else in my 33 years, it is that we must battle through the hard stuff, deal with the emotional stuff, and enjoy the tangents that bring us the good stuff.