We haven’t done any activities/tried any new restaurants in a while but we concentrated on some mental activities with our Short Films and Poetry.

SHORT STOP

We saw three very enjoyable short films this month and decided to give them their own awards. The Phone Call was an Oscar winner and Barb understood why. It was a simple story of a young woman who works at a crisis center and how she handles a call from a man who’s lost his wife, and how this in turn changed her life. What could have been depressing turned out to be an uplifting film. While Laura liked it, she wasn’t quite as enthused as Barb was. Barb gave it the award for Most Moving.

The second film, The Present charmed us both. It is an animated film about a young boy – quite addicted to video games – who receives a dog as a present and how they connect.  Obviously, this film won the Most Charming award. 

The third film, Pas de Deux, definitely wins the Most Creative Award. The film consists of male and female ballet, but because the director took multiple – as many as 10 – shots of each frame, there appeared to be many more people, and it was something we hadn’t seen before. We both thought the beginning went on a little bit too long with just a double shot of each dancer, but as the director added more and more visual images, it was really quite fascinating.

PRACTICING OUR POETRY

We previously did Spine Poetry where we had to pick the words from the spine of 4 books to make a poem. This time we each picked 4 random words from a book and had to use them in a poem. While this exercise demonstrates why we did not earn our salaries from writing poetry, we found it amusing so we are going to do it again when we’re in the mood for a good laugh (at ourselves).

Barbara’s words: Dramatic, Delicious, Quit and Team

The word around the office was that I am quite fanatic.

So, I quit my business team last week in a way that was dramatic.

They saw me forage in the fridge and thought it looked suspicious

When I stole away with all my things and 3 cakes that were delicious.

A crème brulee, a carrot cake, and one banana cream

At home I live the pampered life of which they can only dream.

Laura’s words: Worst, Would, Congregate, and Still

The worst squirrels in our yard

Congregate on the patio table.

This morning we saw two rascals –

Lady Chatterly and Old Mabel.

They would frolic and romp

And occasionally stomp

But still remain willing and able.

We had so much fun with this that we are contemplating doing a Poetry Corner each month!