*Today I am participating in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop by answering the prompt: 1.) Create your own comic strip.

THE MANY FACES OF SHARKBOY!

Why? No reason. No reason at all.

Towards the end the school year, my son’s high school classes shift from the normal biology and math requirements to more interesting electives like The Sociological History of Hair.

I saw this book on the table tonight and thought, “huh; how about that?”

I’m hoping that the classroom discussion spills over into our dinnertime table talk. Especially since my son’s hair resembles the cover of the book in dreadlocks and it’s certain that 99.9% of the class does not.

If they had classes like this when I was in high school, I might have paid attention.

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My kids’ school is very Green: they recycle, compost, organize environmental clean-ups and recently built a LEED addition to the school. There is a parent-run Green Team that is serious about making the school have as little impact on the earth as possible. I am always in awe when I hear that the school-wide Thanksgiving Feast produces a single tiny bag of trash. All the food scrap food is composted and the containers recycled. The dishes and forks used are made of corn. It’s amazing that they can feed over 900 kids at a traditionally glutenous meal and not have any trash!

So, practicing Green habits is a daily occurrence at the school, not just something that they do on Earth Day. But once a year they ask the parents and students to do something that they might not normally do: walk, carpool or ride bikes to school. There are meet-up points near and far for walkers and bike riders to travel to school together, so it’s fun. We don’t normally walk to school; it’s a 6 minute drive, but a 40 minute walk. The walk is not so long, but it would require getting up early (!) and moving quickly in the morning and we don’t do that very well. But today we got up at 6:30 and met the science teacher at the corner at 7:15 to walk as a group. It was chilly outside, but fun walking and talking together.

We were able to do it because we didn’t eat breakfast before leaving home. We knew that this would be waiting for us:

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

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Right now, for just a few short glorious weeks I have a longer than usual day without kids or puppy and all the responsibility that goes with that, so I’m using that day as “me time.” I drop the puppy off at daycare (yes, he goes to daycare; don’t judge me), come home to exercise and then I have a whole 6 hours to myself. Sometimes I get my hair done or a pedicure or go shopping. I even have enough time to see an early movie and yesterday that’s just what I did.

Monday – Thursday Fork & Screen AMC has $6 movies. If you have never been to this theater in Atlanta, you must try it. Or I’m sure that there are similar theaters where you live as well. The seats are very comfortable, the theater is small and best of all, you can eat a meal while you watch the movie. I had a very good chicken quesadilla, but passed on the alcoholic drink. I was surprised to see that there were at least 14 other people in the movie with me (and they were drinking too). Who goes to the movies on a Tuesday at noon and orders a Cosmopolitan? Apparently many people.

I saw Death At A Funeral.

I was excited to see this movie because of the cast: Loretta Devine, Chris Rock, and Danny Glover among other talented and funny actors. I purposely did not watch any trailers or interviews on morning talk shows because I didn’t want to be tainted. I wish now that I had known what I was getting into because I wouldn’t have gone to see the movie. I did not know that it was a remake of the 2007 British movie of the same time. I saw that movie and liked it. But I did not need to see THE EXACT SAME MOVIE three years later.

The new Death At A Funeral is EXACTLY the same as the original. EXACTLY. Except for the African American cast and references to American culture. And they changed the funeral food to potato salad and macaroni and cheese. Other than that, EXACTLY the same. One of the actors, Peter Dinklage, even has the same role in both movies.

I suppose if you hadn’t seen the original movie a mere three years prior than you might think that this movie was hilarious. Except for Chris Rock; he was wooden and emotionless. I know that he was playing the straight man, but dude, did you have Botox before the shoot? Can you move your face to express some emotion? Martin Lawrence was Martin Lawrence–not that funny, but not horrible, just played; I’ve seen him act like that so many times. Luke Wilson’s character was totally off and if I hadn’t seen the original movie then I would have been confused to why he was even there. James Marsden played the part of the drugged boyfriend perfectly; I enjoyed him. And while I am not a big fan of Tracy Morgan, surprisingly he was my favorite in this movie. He was funny, spot on and didn’t overact. The scene in the bathroom–which almost made me throw up, even though I knew what was coming–was the funniest scene in the movie. I really can’t tell y0u much more than that without spoiling the movie. The hilarity of the movie is in the surprises and exposure of family secrets.

If you haven’t seen the original movie, then perhaps you will like Death At A Funeral. It’s a family comedy (meaning, that it’s about a family–not that you can take your family to see it because the language is about as bad as it can get) and mostly funny. Also, some people, like my husband, don’t “get” british humor and would better appreciate the American version.

But, if you have seen the original movie and liked it, then don’t bother seeing this one. It is almost EXACTLY the same script. And really, who needs to see that bathroom scene again?

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*Today I am participating in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop by answering and combining two prompts: 2.) Create and share a Whrrl story and 3.) Write a Haiku that describes what you love about an ordinary day.