My All-Time Oscar Picks!

The Way We Were (Barbra Streisand)

http://youtu.be/1Yrd6caXygw

     I didn't watch the Academy Awards this year, but I did see some of the movies that were nominated for the awards (loved Les Miserables) There has been so much "Oscar" buzz this past month that I thought it might be fun to make up my own list of favorite movies and post it here. AMC has been showing the winners from past years throughout the month of February, and it has been fun to see some of the old ones again and reminisce. I was surprised at how many I had actually seen! My mother was a bit of a movie musical fan, and she exposed me to many of those during my childhood. I have to admit, this is one of my favorite movie genre and so few are made anymore. Next to that I would have to choose the romantic comedy as a favorite. So, here is my list of  "must see in your lifetime" movies. Check below the "Academy Award Winners" list for my picks of great movies that did not win Academy Awards, but are worth watching anyway. Enjoy, and don't forget to bring the popcorn!

Academy Award Winners include:

1940 - Gone With the Wind - Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable - timeless

1944 - Casablanca - Humphrey Bogart!

1952 - An American in Paris - Gene Kelley - the best dancer ever! 

1957 - Around the World in 80 Days - a grand adventure

1958 - Bridge on the River Kwai - lots of excitement and explosions

1960 - Ben Hur - Charleton Heston! 

1962 - West Side Story - Natalie Wood

1965 - My Fair Lady - Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison - yes! 

1966 - The Sound of Music - Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer!

1967 - A Man for All Seasons - Sir Thomas Moore!

1968 - In the Heat of the Night - Sidney Portier

1969 - Oliver! "You want more!!!"

1974 - The Sting - Yes, Robert Redford and Paul Newman on the same screen!

1977 - Rocky - Gonna Fly Now!

1983 - Gandhi - long, but Ben Kingsley is brilliant as Gandhi.

1984 - Terms of Endearment - bring out an extra box of tissue for this one - sniff, sniff

1990 - Driving Miss Daisy - sweet movie

1991 - Dances with Wolves - Kevin Costner.

2004 - The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King - of course!

My Oscar Picks include:

Funny Girl - Barbra Streisand and Omar Shariff

On Golden Pond - Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda and Katherine Hepburn

Sleepless in Seattle - Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks

You've Got Mail - also Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks

Hello Dolly - with Barbra Streisand 

Mame - Lucille Ball

Singin' In The Rain - Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds

The Unsinkable Molly Brown - also with Debbie Reynolds

Flower Drum Song

South Pacific

Brigadoon

The King and I

Annie - though I must admit, I like the play better.

Les Miserables - with Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, etc.

The Muppet Movie - the Rainbow Connection, Kermit and Miss Piggy, of course! 

The Jazz Singer - for the Neil Diamond Music

Somewhere In Time - Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour at the Grand Hotel!

Kate and Leopold

Serendipity

Pride and Prejudice

Star Wars - all, of course

Harry Potter Series

White Christmas

Miracle on 34th Street - Dylan McDermott and Elizabeth Perkins - "A baby brother, see ya!"

Fried Green Tomatoes - "Towanda!"

Superman - Christopher Reeves

The Other Side of the Mountain - the Jill Kinmont Story

The Slipper and the Rose - Richard Chamberlain with the cleft in his chin.

The Natural - Robert Redford

The Robe

P.S. I Love You - tissues, please

The Blind Side

The Theme from "Star Wars"

http://youtu.be/Jwu4S996VZI

When You Have Your Health....

Every Breath You Take (The Police)

http://youtu.be/_wsMEj2ZfW8

     "They" say that when you have your health you have everything. My recent bout with a nasty virus has caused me to ponder on this truth. It all started with some congestion in my chest and some slight wheezing. The weather was changing abruptly - again - so I just thought it was my body trying to adjust to the barometric pressure shift. Twenty-four hours later I felt like I had been hit by a truck! After many days and hours of rest, pumping Coldeze, Sambucol, Luden's Cherry Flavored cough drops and eventually some Theraflu (at night so I could finally sleep) into my system, and watching way too many hours of television, I have survived. This experience has given me a new appreciation for good health. This morning, after more than a week, I could actually take a deep breath without coughing, and I finally had a good night's sleep! Life is good!

    It has been a long time since I was this ill. I have had other health challenges within the past year or so, but this one seemed to be the one that tried my patience the most. There is definitely a mind/body connection when it comes to one's health.  There is nothing quite as unsettling as feeling like you have little control over your health and what is happening inside of your body or your mind. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to live with a chronic illness or disease every day of one's life. It must be very difficult to endure and remain positive and upbeat. I'll admit it, I am not a good sick person. In fact, one of my greatest fears is that I will lose my health, but still keep my mind and will. (I secretly hope that if I lose one I will also lose the other). To add to it, the side effects of the over-the-counter medications are worse than the illness is for me, so this is why I usually choose to take the homeopathic ones over the pharmaceutical company brands, if at all possible. 

     The past few months of health challenges have also caused me to re-evaluate the importance of taking better care of myself. I am certainly not getting any younger, and apparently not a lot healthier either. I think it is past time for me to get my act together and start doing something more about it. I just hope I am not too late to make the necessary changes for a better, healthier me. I know that I will be limited at this time in my life as to what type of exercise I will be able to do, especially considering my back/leg/knee/ankle issues. I used to bike much more frequently than I have the past few years and I always enjoyed it, but the added weight and joint issues have kept me from participating.  I could return to that but would most likely need to "graduate" to a recumbent bike due to my back and leg issues. Swimming is another healthy option. However, I am not a very good swimmer and I really dislike smelling of chlorine, not to mention how dry my skin gets and (gulp) the thought of putting a bathing suit on this out-of-shape body and being seen in public! I used to participate in a water exercise class and I really liked it, perhaps that would be a good place to start again, if my leg and knee can take the motion and jarring. If not, there is always Yoga - great exercises for the mind and body connections.

     My mother used to say that growing old was not all it was cracked up to be. "The golden years, aren't so golden". Aging is certainly not for sissys or the faint of heart. Sometimes one just has to set aside one's pride and take the plunge (no pun intended) and jump in with both feet. I have not felt as good as I could and should at this stage of my life. I haven't been as happy as I have been at times when I have taken better care of myself. I hope it is not too late to start over. It is time to start doing some research and focus on taking care of me - my body with physical exercise, my mind with learning new things, my soul. Since they are all connected perhaps if I start taking care of the one - the body - I will be better able to take care of the rest. It is also time to start accepting that I will never be as young as I was nor as old as I will be. The place to start is here, the time to start is now. 

Suddenly I See (KT Tunstall)

http://youtu.be/QrbO-Tw-mEY

(my apologies for the expletive - I didn't write it, I just used it ;-))

     

An Examined Life

"An unexamined life is not worth living"
- Socrates

February Song (Josh Groban)

http://youtu.be/qEKrPID-PeI

    I have a ritual that I have been doing since February 2006. There is something about losing one's parents that brings to the forefront the reality of ones mortality. So, in February 2006, I decided that I needed to write my autobiography. I think this was a response, in part, to the fact that I had just lost my last parent and I was trying to make some sense of my life. Now every February, usually around my birthday, I try to update this autobiography with details of the previous year. 

    Another factor that contributed to my decision to doing this autobiography, was the fact that neither of my parents left much of a personal history for me and my siblings, nor therefore, our posterity. My parents were wonderful people, real people. They had their share (well, maybe more than their share) of sorrow and challenges, as well as joy and happiness. They lived rich, full lives and I felt like my children would never have the opportunity to really know them or about them unless I did something about it. These feelings later led to my organizing and writing each of their biographies for our family members. That was no small task. I had to put together their stories from bits and pieces of materials and information they left behind. I did my best to put the pieces of their lives together, but it would have been SO much easier if they had either done it themselves or allowed one of us to help them do it while they were still living. There were so many questions I would have liked to be able to ask them about certain events, places and people in their lives. Some questions still remain and will forever remain unanswered. 

     As part of my motivation to write this year I decided to dig into some old photographs of myself and my family. These photos have been sitting in a box in my closet for about thirteen years. I was determined I was going to make a dent in sorting through them and organizing them into some kind of an album or scrap book. My intentions were really noble, but the reality proved to be something much different. We are not the best at taking pictures of events throughout the year, but we are really good at taking pictures on birthdays and at Christmas time. Therefore, a lot of the pictures I started working through were of Christmases past. As I began looking at them I was quite shocked at what came to my attention.  When I looked at the pictures of the Christmas just prior to my mother's death in 2000, and the pictures of the Christmas in 2005, just after my father's death, the contrast of the look on my face and my demeanor between the two photos was so stark and so contrasting that it took my breath away. The look of grief on my face was obvious, and I felt that old familiar lump begin to rise in my throat. I simply could not, at that time, continue to sort through the photos. I had to put them aside for another day and another time.

      This experience has caused me to stop and think about who I was then and who I am now, and about the journey that has led me to this place. I saw the innocence and the joy on my face as I had opened a special gift from my mother that Christmas of 2000, before she died. It was a clock like "barometer of my husband's moods" that had hung on her wall ever since I could remember. On our trip to their home earlier that year I had expressed my desire to have that item when she died, and she had decided to gift it to me for that Christmas. Did she somehow know what would happen to her in just a few months? Needless to say, it is one of my most precious possessions. Fast forward 5 years to the Christmas following my father's death. He had died about a month earlier and the look of heavy grief and anguish was written all over my face. 

     Much has happened in our family since those Christmases of not-so-long ago. Time has moved on amazingly fast, and we with it. Children have grown up and moved on, and our family has grown larger with the addition of two in-laws. We have had much to celebrate over the past few years. Still, as I approach each February I always get that tug at my heart to revisit my life story and examine my life over the past year. It just seems to help me to get a perspective and to realize my blessings and just how important it is to not take anything for grandid; and to chose to live my life fully and mindfully. Sometimes I get fearful and restless, wondering what is next along my path. I get fearful of the future and what challenges might or do lie ahead. Restless about what new adventure is just around the bend. But when I look back, I am always thankful for the blessing of having lived one more year, one more day. My hope is that someday when my children look at my life story they will see someone of whom they can be proud to call theirs, someone who met her challenges with grace, dignity, courage and faith and trust in God. 

This One's For You (A song Barry Manilow wrote for his deceased grandfather, who started him on his journey to becoming a musical legend.)

 http://youtu.be/wLeNzA1OIcM