SMITTEN

I am officially smitten by this...

It's the Volkswagen Eos. To me it is a perfect "SoCal" car. Who wouldn't want to ride around in a convertible up and down the PCH? I don't even know anything about the car -- specs, power, etc. I just like how it looks. I saw some woman driving one today. The top wasn't exactly off, but it was open in a way that I thought was kind of cool... like a sun/moon roof on steroids or something. I can't really explain it. All I know is that when I saw it, I couldn't keep my eyes off it. However, it is priced way out of my budget. Not that I'm looking for a car right now, but it's too much regardless. My brother is trying to turn me towards the new BMW 1 series, but I am not exactly BMW-friendly. Truth be told, I am content with a reliable (and affordable) Honda or Toyota. But if it is in my cards, the Eos will be mine... *mwuaahhahahaahhahahaa*

Anyway. I was running tons of errands this AM. I went to drop my car off at my mechanic to have my back breaks fixed. They were screeching and making all sorts of embarrassing sounds. So to pass time, I decided to walk to The Promenade. I was hungry, so I grabbed a Chinois Chicken Salad and coffee at Wolfgang Puck Express. Then I went to study at the SaMo library for about an hour or so (after looking for a new hi-lighter at Michael's and CVS). After studying, I went to take care of stuff at the bank, then I walked back to The Prom. I happened to drop by Borders, and I found The Sound of Music DVD on sale for $8.99. Now this was not just any rando TSOM DVD; this was the 40th Anniversary Edition... for $8.99! I had to get it at that price. I'd been meaning to get it for a while now, but I just kept putting it off. Funny thing is that TSOM is on the ABCfamily channel right now, and yes - I am watching it.

I'm a sucker for this movie. For some reason it reminds me of my brother and sister. Put the three of us in a room together, ask us to sing any song from the movie, and BAM... you've got yourself a show; and a good one at that. My bro, sis and I could literally recite lines and sing songs from the movie - verbatim. It's scary, now that I think of it. But it's just one of those things that my mom got us into as children. I remember each time it came on TV, she would gather us together and we'd watch it while she cut up apples or peeled oranges and then we'd snack on those as we watched. As the years passed, we sang along... and laughed before the funny parts would even happen, or when a certain character would make a face that we had decidedly made-up dialogue for.

As the years passed, we waned off watching it together as a fam. But we would catch it on TV every now and then - on our own - and we'd just sit back and watch. The story is pretty sappy, but in a good way; it's not melodramatic. It's just simple and honest, and probably has one of the best musical scores in the history of the big screen. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer were just genius on screen, and the children --- those actors didn't have to do anything after that one. It's one of those movies that, if you were a part of it, you could easily go in, do your thing, then call it a day. You could then fall into a life of obscurity (which most of them did, actually), but you still did The Sound of effin' Music!!!

The movie itself is genius... it is classic... it is family.