Dog-Gone It and Greenberg

My dog, Lila, got out last night. And ran like hell. She's a yellow lab and she's so sweet and wonderful but when she gets loose...she runs like a greyhound. I can never catch her. She eventually wears herself out and returns on her own but it's still scary. There are cars out there! I chased her for a while and gave up, hoping she was smart enough to stay away from the large objects with headlights zooming toward her. She started to make her way back to the house because she was found just down the street, by a wonderful man who caught her. She just plopped down right in front of him, exhausted. And happy. Very glad she is safe. I need to take her to a huge dog park where she can get some of that running out of her system. My other dog, Izzie, also got out. But she didn't go anywhere. That's my girl.

Anyway - I think somewhere along the line of panic I thought, "I don't care if I never get published! Just bring my dog back!" Oh, universe. Don't hold me to that, okay? Can't I have a safe dog and a published book? Pretty please? I've been good.

Transition.

I watched part of this movie the other night with Ben Stiller. It's called Greenberg. It looked like my kind of movie, indie and moody and all, but I couldn't finish watching it. And I think it was because it's pretty depressing, really. I kept worrying something horrible was going to happen to the German Shepherd, not something I want to watch as I cuddle on the couch with my two labs. It's a good movie to watch when you are angry at the world--and Greenberg is an AWESOME character--but I just wasn't in the mood for it.



But as I was watching, I kept wondering who the lead actress was, who played Florence. Dang. She looked so familiar...what else had she been in? Or did she simply remind me of someone?

Twenty minutes later...it hit me! That's Diane Court from Say Anything! One of my favorite movies ever! Except...it wasn't her. I looked it up. But dang. Did it look like her for a minute and I got all excited, although I don't know why.




Anyway. That was a tangent. Greenberg is a great character and I learned a lot by watching just a part of that movie. He hates the world and he likes old things and he writes letters to establishments that irritate him. Little quirks like that can make all the difference. Your characters can drive the story.

But...stuff still needs to happen. And there wasn't a whole lot happening in the movie which may be the real reason I lost interest. I like character movies. But something was missing from this one. It started out well. Had a decent conflict. But eventually it was the same thing over and over again. It felt like a hamster running on a wheel, cute and fun to watch at first, but boring if that's all it is.

I never know how to end my blog posts. Do I say...See You Later! Bye! Happy Tuesday! Seacrest Out? Peace and Love?

How about this:

Do you make secret deals with the universe in hopes you will get you want?