Monday night is date night for me and Tara, as it's usually the night that Bee has her yoga class, and Bug has the house to herself to do computer maintenance. Yes, there are actually people in the world who enjoy keeping our computers running - nature loves diversity, remember? You go, Bug!
So last night I took Tara to Amazing Hot Dog near home and we had dinner while watching a bit of the Yankees game against Tampa. I got the Oriental dog (of course) and the Phoenix dog, while Tara got two Jersey Breakfast dogs. The interesting thing about these hot dogs is that they wrap them with bacon and then deep-fry them. Plus, all the toppings reminds me of Pink's in Hollywood, which I had the opportunity to visit about four years ago. They don't call me the queen of condiments for nothing!
After dinner, we went back to my apartment to watch A Beautiful Mind, one of my all-time favorite movies that Tara hasn't seen before. It won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director (Ron Howard) and Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly). The last award I felt was richly deserved (albeit it should have been the Best Actress award, not Best Supporting), not only for Ms. Connelly's performance, but because this is one of the few modern movies that celebrates the female spirit.
Not to give too much away for those of you who have not seen the movie, but while the story is ostensibly about Professor John Nash and his achievements, the real driving force behind all his accomplishments was the heart lesson he learns from Alicia, his wife. She teaches Nash that it is the heart, not the head, that holds the secret to the truths we are all seeking. Without Alicia, John Nash might have still been a brilliant scholar and mathematician, but he would not have lived a life worthy of such admiration. When I speak about the female spirit, I mean that the true achievement in the movie is not really the mathematical or mental struggles that are overcome, but the triumph of the heart over the head, of love over logic, that moves the viewer.
