A sunny Easter Monday for the tourists. I was surprised at how few people were out on the beach at Bolongo Beach Resort when we went to Iggies for lunch on Saturday. I enjoyed watching a dad with his two little boys - one in matching swim trunks and the other with a hat that matched - in orange. The dark orange sure did contrast with their fish belly white bodies.  Iggies has good hamburgers (not like Shipwreck)and it isn't so loud you can't hear yourself think. We could actually have a conversation without shouting to each other and repeating "What?" many times, like in Shipwreck. It was a breezy day so we decided that eating outside would be a better idea. Iggies is right on the beach and one of my favorite places to eat and people watch. The service varies greatly but we were one of 5 or 6 tables of people in the place so we had good service. We were contemplating how to sneak out of there with the cool hammock that is right out front, tied between two palm trees!

We had a relaxing Easter Sunday. Steve brought me dark chocolate filled crescent rolls for breakfast in bed. YUM!! It was a lazy day of working on the cross stitch blanket for the grandbaby due in October and playing mah jong on the computer. We watched GARDEN STATE and DERAILED. Garden State was one of those movies that grows on you as you watch it. Initially I thought it was one stupid movie, but the longer I watched it the more I got into it and related to the character and how he had been numb for years (from medication) so that he couldn’t deal with the accident that put his mom in a wheelchair and then her death. I loved the quirky girlfriend! Derailed was the exact opposite – at first I was enjoying the movie and then it just got stupid. The more the plot twisted the less I liked the guy you were supposed to feel sorry for. I picked it up because Jennifer Anniston is in it and I have liked most of the movies she has done. Not that she is a great actress, I just like her – ever since watching Friends. But, the one movie I absolutely loved we just happen to catch on TV Friday night – I laughed, I cried, and I sighed – was THE MIGHTY. The book, Freak, the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick came out in 1993 and I had a copy at one point but I didn’t get it read before lending it to someone and never getting it back. After watching the movie about the LD big guy and the brilliant little guy with his stunted body, merging to become a “knight” – I really want to read it. There is a sequel to it called Max, the Mighty. You might recognize Philbrick as he is a great YA author – also wrote Last Book in the Universe, The Young Man and the Sea, and Rem World.

I actually brought Easter Monday in at the wee hours of the night as I picked up Ellen Hopkins’ Burned when I headed to bed last night, thinking I would read for a ½ hour or so before going to sleep. I read until I finished it. I enjoyed her first poetry formatted novel Crank, about a girl who slides into addiction, but Burned is even better. Pattyn is a Mormon teen who is questioning her faith and the subservient role women play in her religion. She is the oldest of 6 girls and spends her time at home taking care of the girls and at school as a loner. Her father is trying to numb his memories of a previous family with Johnny Walker Black. But it is when he drunk that his anger erupts and he takes it out on his wife and eventually on his oldest girls. Pattyn’s escape it to hike into the desert and target practice. That is where she meets Derek for the first time and where she finds out about lust, not love. Love she finds in Nevada, where she is sent to live with her reclusive paternal aunt. She falls in love with Ethan, who lives on the neighboring ranch. But all good things must come to the end and in the Fall she returns to the hell of her family home and her abusive father. I couldn’t put this book down until I knew Pattyn’s fate and what I did discover was heartbreaking.

Sorry - the bold face and italics isn't working this a.m. Who knows why.