Pizza and a Movie: Trainwreck

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Banana Peppers
Jalapeños/Extra Cheese *
Pepperoni

Movie:

Trainwreck

* For this week’s pizza, I agreed to moitié jalapeños, moitié extra cheese (that is, half and half), so my husband wouldn’t have to wait for years – or forever – to choose jalapeños.

I don’t really care for them, except in Mexican food – and even then, I’m not crazy about them. Why anyone would want them on a pizza, I don’t understand. But, to each his own.

As he was eating his second slice – and no, we don’t (necessarily) each eat half a pizza – I noticed his blue eyes getting watery. A minute later, well, it was like in that song by the Rolling Stones: [the jalapeños made] a grown man cry.

But he still claimed he likes them!

We had chosen to see Trainwreck because we heard it was funny, and good. I agree with that assessment, but my favorite scenes were the ones with LeBron James. He played himself, and he was fantastic. Super funny…awesome (and funny) in a scene playing basketball…and necessary in the plot. The only complaint I have about this film is that it’s just a little too long. But some of the dialogue and scenes in the movie had my husband and me still laughing, long after it was over.

I guess that’s just us. While we don’t agree on everything – or have everything in common – we do agree on many things (like Banana Peppers). We get each other’s sense of humor, and we laugh at the same things.

Which is pretty handy – and important – when a grown man cries. **

** Or woman

July 27, 2015 0

What’s left out of ALL THE ABOVE

My notes, outlines, and original drafts of ALL THE ABOVE included the following:

All the lyrics to the songs Jack and I listened to on the way to and from Emory (I was even going to use some of the lines at the beginning of chapters).
The time when, at an eye checkup at Omni Eye Services, another doctor (not Dr. Day or Dr. Sturdy) examined Jack’s eyes, put him in front of an apparatus, and he asked, “Is something going to touch my eyeball?” To which the doctor replied, “Oh, just a little touch.” I don’t know if it was the “air blow” thing they do, but afterward, Jack and I laughed at how the doctor responded (as if a little touch is nothing…)
The time when, at Egleston Children’s Hospital, while he was waiting to check in for yet another MRI, Jack made friends with a little boy with cancer who was bald. When they called Jack up to the counter, the worker said she didn’t realize he was a patient, and thought he was that little boy’s father.
The fact that Jack’s brother Brian was driving our van, and Jack was driving our Honda CRV that summer. We only had one other car, so I took Dennis to MARTA every morning to go to work, and picked him up each evening.
The time when two of my friends (from my Bible study group) met me at La Madeleine for a glass of wine a few days before we left for North Carolina, and I told them what was going on.
The fact that many of our close relatives didn’t ask how Jack was doing, even after he went public; I think other family members told them.
The fact that Jack was his sister Annette’s Confimation sponsor that November. (Jack is pictured below, a few weeks later in Texas.)

The fact that Dennis and I spent a weekend in Las Vegas that fall.
And, that in mid November, a friend from my Bible study, who had invited me to go to spend a long weekend at her beach house with her and another friend (in Seaside, Florida), graciously allowed me to bring my mom along, too.
Many other quotes from books and songs that I wanted to include, but couldn’t, such as:

Some of the above got edited out, and some of it wasn’t part of the story. But it was all there in my mind (or on my desk) when I set out to write the book back in April 2013 while I spent a week at the beach.

July 22, 2015

Pizza and a Movie: Mr. Holmes

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Corn
Greem Olives
Ground Beef

Movie:

Mr. Holmes

The Pizza: I know…corn?

It’s the second time we’ve had it on a pizza this year, and maybe because my husband grew up eating Jersey corn in the summer (always after the meal, not during), he selected it. I picked the ground beef because I didn’t want to go vegetarian, and we chose the green olives together.

Kind of like a summer meal with a martini.

Someone I met at a reception for my books (and book signing) asked me earlier this week if the pizzas at Corner Pizza are as good as those at Fellini’s. I haven’t been to Fellini’s in a few years (though I met the founder, Clay Harper, through a family member who knows him). So…I don’t know the answer. But I’m sure that Fellini’s pizzas are quite good.

So was ours, this weekend.

The Movie:

Lots of people loved this film, and my husband wanted to see it, so we did. I found it a little long, sad, but a moving story nonetheless. Ian McKellan was great, and if you’re a Sherlock Holmes fan, you’d enjoy this movie. (My husband is one, but I’m not.)

Maybe, like corn on a pizza, you just have to have a taste for it.

July 19, 2015 0

Pizza and a Movie: Amy

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Bacon
Black Olives
Shallots

Movie:

Amy

This weekend’s toppings were (eerily) similar to the “BBC” pizza we had a few weeks ago when we saw the film Inside Out, and there was a little negotiating involved:

My husband initally suggested something other than Bacon (I don’t remember what, exactly, but I think it was vegetarian). I vetoed it, though, saying we needed something with a little crunch, so we chose Bacon.
I pushed back on the Black Olives (proposing Green ones), but he didn’t agree.
And – the Shallots were his idea.

Like every pizza we’ve ever shared at Corner Pizza, it was delicious. However, we decided that we’ve had enough Black Olives * for a while.

Now, for Amy:

I like documentaries, and this one was very good. I didn’t know much about Amy Winehouse before I saw it, but I learned a lot. The music was fabulous and haunting at the same time. And there’s something about true stories…

I knew how the story would end, and watching such a talented singer spiral down so fast and so hard was difficult. But – maybe because of that, and because she was so talented – I still enjoyed it, tragic though the story was.

Life can be very complicated, even – or, especially – when it’s short.

* And after last week’s film and then this one, I’ve had enough of sad movies for a while, too.

July 12, 2015 1

List Post, juillet 2015 (July)

More than halfway through 2015!?!?!

So happy to read my latest REVIEW on UNDERWATER (5 STARS!): “Very well written and suspenseful. Puts you on the edge of your seat. Looking for more by this author! Amazing.” Thanks!
Looking forward to Sunday Sept. 6, when I’ll be a Mystery/Thriller Panelist at the Decatur Book Festival! Check the website often for updates on the festival schedule.
Preparing for 2 July Book Signing Events: Saturday July 18 from 12;00 to 3:00 at Crema Espresso Gourmet in Dunwoody, GA (Mt. Vernon & Jett Ferry), and Saturday July 25 from 1:00 to 4:00 at the Fayette County Public Library,where I’ll join some of my Sisters in Crime for a panel.

July 8, 2015

Pizza and a Movie: Me & Earl & the Dying Girl

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Fresh Garlic
Portobellos
Spinach

Movie:

Me & Earl & the Dying Girl

This one was another vegetarian pizza, and all topping selections were my husband’s.

Initially, I balked at the choice of garlic, and even offered to switch it for jalapeños (on only half the pizza, though). But I like garlic, it’s healthy, and with all the other ingredients on the pizza, I knew it wouldn’t be overpowering. Besides, he didn’t agree to switch.

The pizza was very good, and someday, I’ll agree to jalapeños – just not yet.

Now for the movie. Poignant, witty, cleverly done, well cast, and well acted…and, in the words of one reviewer, “rips your heart out.” Shades of the films The Fault in our Stars and 50/50. The awkwardness of high school faces cancer (the “dying girl” has leukemia) – and the result is both relatable and difficult to imagine.

However – as a mom (and a caregiver), not as the patient – I could relate to the film more than I couldn’t. My son was in college, so a little older than the dying girl, when he was diagnosed with cancer. In my latest book, ALL THE ABOVE, I tell his story from my perspective.

The movie brought one particular passage in that book to my mind:

“My thoughts traveled back to when I was nineteen and in college, a time when my biggest concerns were writing papers, studying for exams, and meeting boys. If I had been told one day that I had a brain tumor, my whole world would have crashed and collapsed.

I would have cried for days, if not weeks. Like Jack, I would have mourned the loss of my summer, the plans I had looked forward to. [But unlike Jack,] I would have felt very sorry for myself. I would have wanted to stay in my room and hide.

I wouldn’t have been able to deal with the crushing blows that just seemed to keep on coming for Jack.”

Unlike pizza topping choices, you can’t even try to bargain about cancer, notwithstanding that bargaining is one of the stages of your grief.

But you can hold onto hope.

Me and Jack in Fall 2010. His hair was just starting to grow back after radiation treatment.

July 5, 2015 0