The Goodness of Tuesdays

I don't know about you, but around our house, Tuesdays are good days. This might seem weird, since on Tuesdays you're barely into the work week and Friday is still a number of days away. However, for us, it's date night. Yeah, I know that makes us sound like old married folk, but hey, you've just gotta do what you've gotta do! Given that a lot of church ministries are in the evening, and that Josh (and I, but mostly Josh) is involved with a number of those ministries, it's been important for us to set aside a specific night during the week (and it's our only "free" night Monday through Friday - yes, including Friday). So, Tuesdays are good days.

In the winter months it can be a little harder to find something to do... or rather, harder to find the motivation to leave the house and warm blankets and venture out into the frigidly cold (and dark) evening. However, there are still some fabulous things out there. One such activity is a popular one -- movies. But it's always fun when the movies have a little twist, such as being independent films part of a big film festival.

Last year I found out about the Philadelphia Film Festival rather last minute (as in the day before it ended), and Josh and I just went downtown hoping to get tickets for something... anything. While we didn't get in to our first or second choice (both sold out), we did get tickets to go see Mongol, which actually ended up being a brilliant movie (and got an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film, too). This year we were a little more in the know, and bought some tickets early (the ones we could work into our schedule, anyway). I'm super excited.

Tonight we're going to see For My Father, a story about a Palestinian suicide bomber who's bomb doesn't detonate, who is forced into hiding in Israel, and who then meets a Jewish Orthodox woman... yeah, it should be good. We're also going to go see Heart of Stone, which is about a principal in Newark determined to "save his students". Yup, I know I'm predictable, but can you blame me? I'm totally interested to see how they portray things. I also really wanted to see (500) Days of Summer, given that it's been getting fantastic reviews everywhere (and, for once, sounds like a "realistic" love story... excuse me, anti-romantic story), but unfortunately, we had church stuff going on THE ONE DAY they showed it. Boo. (Why just one day? Why?) I'll just have to find it some other time, because it looks quite entertaining.

If you're looking for a film festival near you, you can search on filmfestivals.com. I think they have EVERY film festival in the world. Seriously. Just start looking for ones in the US, and see how long it takes you to get through the ones that start with 'A'..... um, yeah. That's what I thought. So, we're off to have some fun tonight -- hopefully you can find a festival near you and enjoy some indie goodness soon, too!