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Labyrinth is one of my favorite 80’s movies - * not FAVORITE movie* - but favorite 80’s movie - completely different things. I can’t argue with the fact that it is probably one of the cheesiest movies of all time - but I love it nonetheless.

The movie is about this over-dramatic teenage girl Sarah who has to babysit her baby brother Toby while her father and step-mother go out for the night. She is tired of her little brother and begins quoting her favorite book - The Labyrinth - in doing the Goblin King comes and takes her baby brother away to the Goblin City. She must find her way through the Labyrinth in 13 hours - or Toby becomes a Goblin himself.

Jennifer Connelly plays Sarah and David Bowie plays Jareth - so of course he sings.

The Labyrinth might be a cheesy movie - but the special effects - for 1986 are pretty cool and fun and there are quite a few good messages.

1. Be careful what you wish for - it might come true.

2. (and I have to thank Aunt L for this one) - There are people in your life who want to keep you in the past - who want to make you forget and leave your treasures behind while you focus on the trash that sounds so appealing. When I was a freshman in college in Phillie - I was very homesick- Aunt L wrote me a letter in which she described a charachter in Labyrinth. At one point in the movie Sarah is given a peach that makes her forget what she is doing - saving Toby - and she wakes up in a junkyard where a woman leads her to a room - Sarah’s bedroom - with all her stuffed animals and jewelry and storybooks are waiting for her. This woman is bent over and has PILES of trash on her back - things that she has picked up and thinks she needs and adds to the pile - things that drag her down - things from her past that help her with grudges and selfishness - things that she will never need but cannot let go of. She tells Sarah that she is fine here with all her things - everything she has ever wanted - is right here - in her room. Sarah starts a ballerina jewelry box and begins to remember the masquerade ball with the Goblin King and that Toby is gone and she has to save him - she leaves all that she thought she needed behind to save him. Aunt L wrote to me about that woman with all the trash on her back and how she is so weighed down by the past and the trash that she carries with her. I will have to look for that letter and post what she wrote to me - her exact words flow much better - they always do.

3. All throughout the movie Sarah says - That’s not fair. At one point she says it to Jareth and he replies with - “You say that so often, I wonder what your basis for comparison is?” One of the best movie lines ever. That’s not fair - at PK on Wednesday nights I hear it quite a bit - so much so that we resorted to playing games that I named “Danielle Ball” instead of the correct game - because Danielle makes up the rules as we go. That’s not fair - she kicked it too hard - he bunted - she didn’t raise her hand that time - and yet every time “that’s not fair” is uttered - almost without skipping a beat - that same kid is doing the same “unfair” thing. I love that Sarah whines unfairness and Jareth just looks at her and says - you say that so often - i wonder what your basis for comparison is. So true - what is our basis for comparison. I find as the oldest of 3 children - things were never “fair”. Samm and Derek had different rules than I did - different times called for different measures. I remember when I went to college - my dad had moved into a better paying job - and the first time I came home my brother had a really nice leather jacket and I looked at my mom and said - that’s not fair - she said - we didn’t have that money when you were here - or we would have bought you things like that - I realized then that it wasn’t that they loved him more - but it was a different time - a different situation. When you say things aren’t fair - or when you think things aren’t fair - what is your basis for comparison?

If you haven’t gotten a chance to see this movie - check it out - don’t expect an Oscar worthy film by any means - just a fun 80’s movie.

We left at 6 AM sharp this morning after going to bed at 2 AM - thank you drive-in. We got to the beach at 3ish - which is not usual but the traffic was CRAZY - Jared and I still pretend we are “kids” and sleep in the back seat while mom and dad drive - that will ALWAYS be one of the best parts about vacation. It will be a sad day when we actually have to be the parents and let our kids sleep in the back seat of the car.

I am logging on and blogging b/c it’s only 10 PM and we can’t go to bed yet - it’s vacation! I also wanted to write about Batman - The Dark Knight. I am a “guy” movie girl at heart. I have been SO excited about this movie since I heard it was coming out. I usually don’t go into a movie with expectations - but not this one - and I was a little disappointed - not much though. I was a little too long - but otherwise good. I have to see it again too - I am so busy trying not to miss anything the first time I see a movie that I cannot wait to see it again right afterward. We went to the Elmira drive-in with PM, Mateo, dad, Derek, and Jessica. I LOVE THE DRIVE-IN - I wish there was still one in Wellsboro. The night was perfect - warm and slightly breezy. The company - most of my favorite people. I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t seen it but I will say that the origianl Batman will ALWAYS be my favorite - for sure.

The second feature was Get Smart - which we were excited to see. About ten minutes into the movie - the screen started to skip a little and then WHOOSH - the actors faces starting melting down and the whole film was melting, melting, melting. They said they would be back up and running soon - but we figured we might as well call it a night since we were already putting ourselves getting home at 2 AM - only to get up 3 1/2 hours later.

So - the agenda for the week is to lay on the beach - nothing more - nothing less. We will more than likely stop at some outlets if there is a rainy day or just hit them on the way home. I plan on getting some ideas for blogs while I lay on the beach - relaxing. I have already taken over 100 pictures but I have no way to DL them while I am here.

Our friend Mara is a fellow “The Office” addict, not to mention a Jim Halpert addict. Two Wednesdays ago I asked her what her plans were for the weekend. She said, “I’m thinking about going to see Leatherheads. I said, “No, wait for us and we will go with you!” She said, “Okay.”

Jared and I went to Athens that weekend to spend time with my parents. Saturday night mom and dad wanted us to go square dancing with them. We kindly declined and all went to see Leatherheads instead. Now, I know that I am the one who asked Mara to wait and see it, but I can’t turn down a good movie. I told Jared that we would just go see it again with her when we got back to Mansfield. But I thought to myself, I am not going to say anything to Mara about going to see the movie.

Monday I had to drop something off at the church, and since Mara is the youth pastor at CNC, I ran into her. The first words out of her mouth were, “Hey, when are we going to go see Leatherheads?” Now, any normal person would have confessed that they had already seen it and they were sorry, but I am not normal. So I said, “When is good for you?” It was decided that Saturday would work for both of us.

I love Jim Halpert, therefore I thought I would love Leatherheads. I did not. I’ve seen a few movies in the theaters twice, i.e. Titanic, a few of the Harry Potter’s, Star Wars maybe, but I was not excited to see Leatherheads again.

We went to Pizza Hut with pleasant dinner conversation and bought our tickets, again, for the movie. There were about eight other people there in the theater so we picked our choice seats and settled in for a repeat of a not so wonderful movie.

Cue Jared to the rescue. He leans over me and says to Mara, “Now that we have already paid for the movie, we can tell you that we have already seen this.” Mara laughed and said, “So did I.” We laughed until we cried. We both felt so bad about seeing it without the other that we thought the best thing to do was say nothing. Thank goodness Jared spoke up, ‘cus neither me nor Mara were about to.

And then we left the theater and settled in to watch 21.

Which neither of us had seen yet.