A Tuesday List by Ree

1. Have you seen “Arrival” with Amy Adams? It’s a tale about aliens visiting Earth (you’ll have to watch the movie to see why), and I really liked the movie. Without giving anything away, I wound up sobbing at the end of the movie quite unexpectedly. It wasn’t necessarily that the ending was overtly sad…just thought-provoking. Again, without giving too much away, it explored the question “If you knew ahead of time that something painful was going to happen (in this case, it was the death of a loved one) would you rearrange your decision-making so that you never had that loved one in your life to begin with in order to avoid the pain?”

That’s an oversimplified form of the question, but for some reason it made me cry, and Marlboro Man was confused as to why I was crying after an alien movie. But it just made me realize what a gift everyone who enters our life is, no matter how brief their stay or how much it hurts when they leave.

Gosh, sorry to start off the week this way! I’ll turn this around in another direction…

 
 
D. We sell this funny line of greeting cards at the Merc, and this one makes me smile.

 
 
3. My sister Betsy visited this weekend and it was glorious in a sisterly sense. And we had fun trying on the exact same shade of lipstick, Bobbi Brown “Brownie” pictured above. When I put it on, it was a deep brownish-plum, definitely a lipstick I would describe as rich and dark. Almost chocolatey. But when Betsy put it on, it looked like a mild, neutral mid-tone pink. It was an optical illusion! We even stood in front of a mirror and compared our lips, and indeed, the lipstick looked like a completely different color.

Ree = Red Hair
Betsy = Black Hair

(This was a much more compelling activity, by the way, than either of us doing the dishes…as evidenced by the full sink this morning.)

 
 
9.I was digging in an old—I mean old, as in 2008!—hard drive and found this photo of me at an old barn on our ranch. I had two thoughts when I saw it. The first was that there’s no way you would catch me sitting in the doorway of this old barn now! It looks like it’s about to go at any second.

The second was that there’s no way you would catch me wearing these jeans now! No sirree, I didn’t like those jeans at all. They were so small and boring!

Ha.

I think I’ll stop digging through old hard drives at the earliest possible convenience.

 
 
3. In other news: We had a great weekend at The Merc!

 
 
Todd helped hand out bakery samples to folks who were waiting in line for the restaurant.

 
 
The store was fun and active!

 
 
11. (If you haven’t been to The Merc’s online store, here ’tis! Fun things all around.)

 
 
6. I’m visiting a college with Paige this week.

Hold me.

Please? HOLD ME?

Love,
P-Widdle

P.S. Let me know if you have seen “Arrival” and if it sent you into a tailspin at the end.