Just Plain Tired

Work was soooo long. Not only did it seem to take forever, even though it was busy all afternoon, I had to stay a little later. One of the teenage boys never appeared. He never even called, and the lines were down to the aisles. I actually would have stayed longer, but I was dead tired and not in the best of moods. The manager let me go at 8:30, despite there still being a long line.

I spent most of the day doing this week's laundry session. Dad was in the living room messing around with his computer when I arrived. I joined him for a movie, a sci-fi/fantasy called City of Ember. It was really fascinating. Three children, two teenagers and a toddler, make their way out of a crumbling underground city using the box with the directions left by the city's long-ago builders. They're pursued by the city's corrupt current mayor and his hirings, not to mention some really nasty bug-like monsters.

This isn't the kind of fantasy with duels and damsels in distress, but if you're looking for something that creates a whole different world and does it well, this is excellent. There were a lot of great character actors (including Bill Murray as the mayor and Tim Robbins as the inventor father of one of the kids), some not-bad special effects, kids who were there for more than being cute, and an interesting look at a whole other culture.

In fact, my only mild complaint about the movie is...I wanted to see more of the crumbling world of the City of Ember, from its vaguely Communist-esque social structure (the kids choose jobs out of a hat instead of choosing their own) to ongoing lack of food and blackouts. Apparently, this movie was based after a series of novels, which explains the scope of the story.