Jasper Jones

One of the movies that Alex’s parents bought for him today is called “Leatherheads.” It’s a comedy about the early days of professional football, starring George Clooney, Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski.

I didn’t get to watch the movie with them since I was in class, but they invited me to watch it later tonight if I want to. But I have to run off and do a shift at the hospital tonight. By the time I get home I’m sure Alex will be sound asleep and won’t want the TV on. Maybe tomorrow.

Stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home from Kelly’s and picked up a few things. I really needed some time to just walk around and think about things and be alone for a bit. Although I suppose it sounds strange to say that being in Wal-Mart constitutes being alone. I’m alone with hundreds of other shoppers. But none of them are talking to me or expecting anything from me except to not run up on the back of their feet with my cart.

There were a bunch of new movies out, with a special display of horror movies because of Halloween being just a few weeks away. I have a nice collection of DVDs at home but I only brought a handful with me to the dorm because sometimes things have a way of walking themselves out the door, if you know what I mean.

I was going to rent the new but since it was on sale at Wal-Mart I decided to just go ahead and buy it. I don’t have time tonight to watch it because I have to go in for a shift at the hospital, but I might have some time tomorrow afternoon. The movie is “Leatherheads,” starring George Clooney and Rene Zellweger, about the early days of pro football. The helmets they were back then were made of leather - it’s all they had to protect their melons.

Bummed to hear that Bernie Mac died. He was a funny man and a good actor, too. I really liked all his movies and I watched a lot of his TV shows.

The cool thing about his TV show was at the beginning or at the end of every show he would talk to the audience directly and express his frustrations or his view of the situation covered in the show. And he did it in such a funny way. The premise of the show was pretty unique, too. He played himself as a comedian and brought in a wife and three kids who weren’t his kids but he agreed to take them in. So you had an almost stepfather situation and I think a lot of stepfathers could identify with what went on during the shows.

So, Bernie Mac, thanks for the laffs and for all the good things you did while you were here with us. We’ll miss you and your work - I can’t think of a single person who could ever take your place.

Looks like Wednesday will be movie night for us. I found a showing of Batman that starts at 8:10 and that gives us plenty of time to get home from work (me) and school (her) and change clothes, grab a quick bite to eat and get to the theatre in time for a long ticket line.

Really looking forward to this - I’ve heard so much from all the advance publicity and my friends that have already gone to see it. I was thinking about taking my 5 year nephew to the show but my friends all say that it is way to violent for him. I’m not sure about that - he’s pretty matter of fact about violence on the TV and movies - he scoffed at me once when I asked about a different movie that he’s seen and he said, “It’s JUST a movie! It’s NOT real!” I was pretty impressed that he said that, but I still have doubts about exposing a kid to really violent scenes. Even if it doesn’t scare him, I wonder what kind of impression it is making on him? It can’t be good on some level - will he grow up so de-sensitized to gory things and cruelty that he has no compassion for people? That is what makes serial killers for goodness sake.

Well, I called Gretchen tonight and talked on the phone for a long time. She’s really nice and actually very easy to talk to. I don’t want to talk too much about my dating life on my blog, so let’s just leave it at we’re going to get together again this week and go see the new Batman movie. I don’t know why I haven’t seen it yet - I’m a sucker for action movies and this is the blockbuster movie of the summer.

I’ll let you know if we think it measures up to all the hype.