Troy and first date?

I can’t believe I am up writing this, but I just have to mention two biggies around here.

(The evening ended with us having to be disciplinarians to our Youngest because she did NOT follow accepted procedure tonight — but BLAH BLAH BLAH … that is the story of our Parenting Challenge these days.) But no, here are the two things that MUST be mentioned:

Hubby, MiddleSon, and I saw Troy this evening (the girls had already seen it last weekend). OH MY GOSH!!!!! THAT IS ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY WHOLE LIFE!!! Now, understand, that as Hubby and I met while getting our liberal arts university education, we have read the Iliad, The Odyssey, and the Aneiad. Plus my mom (super-Grammy to our kids) was always a teacher of literature — high school then, and community college these days– as well as student (she lacks only that major dissertation to complete her doctorate in humanities with a focus on American literature…) ANYWAY — my older 2 kids have read the Odyssey, and my MiddleSon has read the Iliad (news to me, until we began discussing the movie — but I believe him, as he does read wild stuff that one might not expect a 10th grader to pick up). As far as I know, Youngest’s only exposure so far to the Odyssey is Oh Brother Where Art Thou – (a wonderful adaptation that we all highly recommend). But here is the review: all 5 of us LOVED the movie Troy. Now, granted, I have not actually read Homer’s Iliad since, well, lessee…. Hmmmm…. that would be 24 years ago, but as far as I remember, none of the important stuff was left out. The movie even showed Paris giving the Sword of Troy to Aneias, setting up the founding of Rome later. Do we hopefully smell a sequel in a few years??? I actually looked up the guy that had that tiny part of Aneias, accepting the sword in hopes of a sequel someday. His name is Frankie Fitzgerald. All I could find out about him (besides being positioned to a great role if this Troy film does well) is that he is a star from that British soap EastEnders. I also loved the actor who played Odysseus, Sean Bean. I HOPE he is in this for the sequel potential. I asked MiddleSon during the movie “where do we know that actor from” and MS replied “Boromir, from Lord of the Rings”. This is correct, but it is not where I know the actor from. I looked him up on the Internet tonight, and I know him from the James Bond film Golden Eye. He is agent-gone-bad Alec Trevelyan. Of course I would love to see Brad in any sequel, but it is just not fated for Achilles. Ha!

So, too much review, I know.

The other thing that must be mentioned, is best mentioned at the end of a long, boring entry like this one, as that way it will be least likely to be read… perfect choice for my MiddleSon.

Yesterday afternoon, he invited a girl over for the first time ever. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE: He actually said that he wanted to invite her over because he NOTICED on the bus that she was having a really bad day, and he wanted to cheer her up. ****!!!! This is my nerd-y boy that until this spring didn’t apparently even realize that he was going to a co-ed high school – in that to hear him talk about his world, no females ever crossed his radar screen. But lately, this girl and her friend have been getting together and calling the house to talk to him as a group. Both girls are in the band with MS and the one he invited over just moved to our town this year. Meaning she and he do not know the way each other was in elementary and jr high. Perfect!

I had to pick her up, since her mom had just left for the grocery store. I made sure Mom knew that we were bringing her to our house (coincidentally, Youngest is friends with the little sister of this girl, so we moms have actually already met, although I had not met this girl before yesterday). She (aka S*), MS and I chatted in the car on the way to our house. Then MS had one other guy come over, whom S* had not met before, and the 3 of them, with my home-from-college FirstBorn sometimes joining in, played video games upstairs. Then other guy’s mom called him home, FB left with her friends, and S* + MS stayed upstairs playing video games. Counting time with other people, they played for about 4 hours. Then S*’s dad picked her up, and Hubby and I shook his hand, meeting him for the first time.

She was cute, athletic, low-make-up type like MS’s older sister and like me, smart and like my MS, enjoys video games and is a part of the awesome high school band around here.

We have entered the dating era in a very positive way with our MiddleSon.

**big proud mamma grin**