Ratatouillie in San Diego

hello. good morning. saw ratatouille (sp?) yesterday. like some others I was pleasantly surprised. when i first saw the previews i thought "what a joke. gimme a break. the premise is a rat who becomes a great cook by puppetteering a human aka pinocchio style." also, the previews didn't --as shania twain might say-- impress me much. i didn't find anything in the previews particularly laughworthy or attention-grabbing. however, when the reviews started coming in-A, A-, A, A- and a good friend told me how she was dragged into the movie with the same mindset as i but left pleasantly surprised i started to think that maybe ratatouillie was worth my 5 bucks.

then, once i determined that i wanted to see ratatouille i started to get excited and anticipate it. i didn't want to get too excited though because from past experience i know that if i get my expectations too high up then no matter how good a movie actually is it will not fail to disappoint and not live up to my impossibly sky-high expectations. inevitably though, the more i tried not to have expectations the more i DID have expectations. but surprisingly, ratatouille still not only lived up to my expectations but far surpassed them.

maybe i'm just on a high after watching this pixar delight but right now i'm going to say that it's so good that it's tied with "finding nemo" as my fave pixar pic. i laughed and (almost) cried and in the end i must say it was better than "cats" (at least until i actually see "cats")

so i'm getting ready to move to san diego pretty soon. i'm excited but also nervous. i know that the past doesn't always repeat itself and i also know that what we expect, anticipate and believe makes it more likely to come true (aka self-fulfilling prophecies) but a part of me is still dreading the fall and winter since i have been low-energy and down during that season for as long as i can remember. however, i could be standing on the brink of the cliff of an exciting and radical change for the better and just can't imagine what the freefall will be like until i actually experience it. who am i to predict the future? looking back and then flashing forward would i ever have guessed an inkling of half of what i would enjoy, learn and experience during the past four years? not a sumo wrestler's chance in a marathon. i have no idea what the next week holds let alone the next year.

the best way to approach uncertainty is with an eager expectation of hope and faith. what happens when the faith and hope don't feel that eager and natural coming though? well, then you think back and remember in the depths of your being what past experiences of faith and hope were like and then you accept by faith, with a confident assurance of things not seen that they will be well...and that all shall be well whenever you choose to meet whatever you may meet with, not your own, but God's life and love.

that sounds cliched but it's true. actually it's become very cliche to say it's cliched but true. what would really be original is to say what's true without having to falsely apologize with "this may sound really cliche but..."

oh, i almost forgot! i just found out recently that one of the most intelligent, charismatic and ebulliant men of the 21st century has his own blog.