Eat Pray Love - but no babysitter!

Trailer for Eat Pray Love

This will be a risky blog entry. Because the response from the grandmas (squared, i.e. both of them) will be: well, why did you decide to move so far away? But it's a risk I'm willing to take as they both know the answers to that question, and this isn't about them. Not directly.

This is about us. Well it's about me, and a movie that I'd really really like to see. Jeff just said that he'd go along to see anything. So I take it, he's just as starved for an honest date night as I am!

About 3 weeks ago, I discovered a film I'd really like to see: "Eat Pray Love" - it's basically the new Julia Roberts flick, and as far as I can tell it's about changing your path and following your dreams... sound familiar? Well, that's what I thought (minus the divorce as the catalyst of course), so as she's taking off to Italy and Bali (well... we've not got there yet) I realized I have to see this movie. She even uses the title of my blog in the trailer!

And I prefer to watch it in its original language - somehow Julia Roberts speaking Italian doesn't quite appeal. Not to mention I would miss all the nuances. OK let's be honest: also about 40% of the dialogue. No subtitles. The DVD isn't out yet, and I don't want to watch some grainy hand-held video from an American movie theater over the internet either. So my options are limited, but there is one: the base.

A-ha, they show it on Friday the 29th of October at eighteen-hundred hours. Period.  What, you say? Only once? Yup. That's the deal. So I get ONE chance, and one chance only. Had it been last Friday - Ida and Simon would have volunteered happily. But they're gone. And so are any options from our 200-member church, as there is a guest preacher on Friday night. Trust me, it would be rude to ask.

So where does that leave us? Now, normally one Friday night a month the base has something called "Parents night out". Basically babysitting service. It's coming up for sure. I could feel hope rising, only to be pounded down again with Jeff announcing that this time - as an exception - it will be on Saturday the 30th, because it's Halloween.... aargh.

Call 1-800-babysitter? I don't think so. Trying to get a stranger to put her to bed (6-8 pm is prime go-to-bed time for her, and with teeth on their way... uh-oh. Not going to work. Call grandma? Kinda tricky, one in NY and one in Finland. Pricy movie tickets that would be...

So, the almost 3-week build-up is looking like it will amount to absolutely nothing. I'm running out of creative ideas. And, after all... the DVD will come out eventually. And I'm sure our 21" Mac screen will do justice to all the beautiful Tuscan and Bali scenery. I can wait. Right?