Resolutionary Road

Yesterday, I decided to take the first day back to work in the new year and really grab it by the horns. I started a blog. I thought really hard about each and every toy I was working on. I sat down with a grey model of a Kai Lan toy and went step by step through the logic script for about an hour. I took detailed notes. I was diligent. I listened during all of my meetings. I didn't even pick my nails. And I ended the day with a trip down Revolutionary Lane. Road. Whatever.

Well. That was one way to start the new year. Have ya'll seen this film yet? Phew. It was something all right. Kate looked pretty. Leo looked fat. Life looked grim.

They're at the beach, but life is not so sunny.

And all of the so-called 'steamy' sex scenes I'd been hearing about? Not so steamy. In fact, it was all pretty horrifying. Kate in her drab dresses and Leo with his oily hair going at it against kitchen cabinets to this monotonous piano music, all the while hating their empty lives in the New York City suburbs. Ack. Their sinking ship back in the 90's looked like High School Musical in comparison.

And while I thought the film was quite powerful in depicting a crumbling marriage in the 1950's, painting a very particular and severe portrait of the desperate housewife, the realization that things have not changed very much, if at all, was very unsettling.

Among many other things, it was a film about choices. And the fear of making, not the wrong ones, but the right ones. And I think that the beginning of a new year is exactly the right time to see this film. If for no other reason than you want to make sure you don't end up like the two tragic heroes in this story. I'm serious. You don't want to end up against that kitchen cabinet! It's not steamy. Not steamy at all.

So all of the plans you have right now, at the beginning of January, when you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and more idealistic than you might be, say, next December...make them happen. Because coulda, shouldas, and wouldas were not fun in the 1950's and they sure as hell are not looking any better in 2009.