It’s always strange having a holiday in the middle of the week. For someone that gets up around 5am Monday-Friday, sleeping in on a Wednesday felt odd. In fact, I overslept and felt kind of rough upon waking up. My body just isn’t used to it. I’m typically hitting the weights or starting a run or practicing some yoga no later than 6am, not sunken into the sheets at 8am. My system was rebelling against me, and it let me know the moment I opened my eyes, sore and lethargic before I ever moved a muscle.
But I quickly recovered and had a pleasant day off. I managed a lot of reading, a trip to the grocery store for supplies, and a simple hot dog/kielbasa cookout with my parents. Those dogs were loaded down, the more the merrier. And it was quite tasty. I did find it interesting that the first thing my Mom looks at in the grocery store is price, while the first thing I look at is ingredients. Is it a generational thing? Or is it a gender thing? Maybe it’s just an individual preference. I am a self-proclaimed ingredient snob and it’s possible to avoid a lot of harmful additives if you look around, but it’s going to cost you.
Because being healthy in America is far more expensive than the alternative.
The night before, on July 3rd, a collection of co-workers and I hit up Outback Steakhouse and then a movie. I was the only man of the group, and if you’ve ever been out with a bunch of women it’s hard to get in a word edgewise. The stream of chatter is constant, unlike men who tend to let things breathe. But they were all very lovely and quite entertaining. And the food was good, grilled chicken loaded with sautéed mushrooms and bacon and cheese. And free bread! Love that free bread!
The movie, though, was another story. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom was dumber than I thought capable. The acting was fine. The dinosaurs were fine. But the plot somehow managed to be more absurd than the prior film, and not in a clever way but rather asinine. No spoilers here but they make a decision at the end of this film that everyone should be shot for making, for the good of humanity.
They continue to chase the original Jurassic Park which still holds up today, twenty-five years later. I remember seeing that one in theaters in 1993, the year I turned ten. Good times.