More Movies You Should NEVER Watch

Great day today - worked my entire shift, only goofed off a little, good talk with a pal, good interaction with A, great gift from A (thanks for the ear rings!), first BBQ of the season. I made a corn and pepper salad with the Simplest Marinade by Raw Foods for Busy People that went over surprisingly well - so well that one of the other guests asked if she could take the leftovers home! Yeah!

Also had Trader Joe's masala patties which are so yummy. Got to introduce those to both A and another Indian friend of ours who is...skeptical of pretty much every word out of my mouth, but especially anything having to do with Indian food. They both loved them, though and now I'm feeling smug. Happy that A likes them, though, because they're sure to become a staple food.

After all that good food, everyone was feeling like watching a movie. After watching the trailer for Marley and Me several times during my recent flights, that sounded pretty good. Even with the warning that "oh yeah, this movie is really sad" and the obvious possibility that the dog will die at some point in the film (hard to miss since a lot of time passes during the film as evidenced by the growth of their children), I was unprepared.

Yes, the dog dies. And it's incredibly sad, because along with the dog dying, you see the family acknowledging that despite all of his antics, Marley was really a very good dog. I cried. A cried. I heard a few other sniffles from hear and there in the darkened room. It's also sad because it reminds you not only of all the pets you have lost, but all that you are going to lose. And because it makes you wonder if you're really doing everything you can to make sure your companion animals have a happy and healthy life. Well, it makes me wonder.

Since I'm supposed to be studying, I don't want to start down the list of memories about my relationships with animals and I can't handle thinking about losing my current companion dog, so I'll just close with the recommendation for filmmakers everywhere: Stop making your movies so damn sad - when they're that sad, we'll only watch them once! Like Nights in Rodanthe, I'll probably never be able to watch Marley and Me again. But maybe I can read the book...maybe.