Easter Sunday and Stuff

March had me posting daily, so when the Optimism Challenge ended I sighed a breath of relief and took over a week off from blogging.  I was all blogged out! So what happened in my life during this brief hiatus?  I'll tell you!

Veronica is back!

• April Fool's Day reared its ugly head.  I thought it would be funny to trick people into thinking Brian and I had broken up, so I changed our relationship status on Facebook and posted some vague thing about things being crappy just when I thought they were good.  It worked a little too well and a lot of people seemed genuinely sad about it.  My boss, Jen, was a little suspicious that I was just joking, but when I sent her a text saying I was too distraught to come into work I seemed to convince her.  I eventually texted "APRIL FOOL'S!" but not before she called a coworker and told her to come work for me.  Oops.  
• Part Two of April Fool's Day happened later when I got the idea to change Brian's birthday to April 1st on Facebook.  The birthday greetings started rolling in and it was pretty funny!  What's even funnier is that Facebook wouldn't let him change it back for a few days.  And keeping with the funny and not cruel jokes (because I now see that calling "wolf" about a destroyed relationship is a little mean), Brian's mom and sister doorbell ditched us, leaving our old statue Veronica on our doorstep with a funny note: "How could you leave me locked in a closet? I thought we were friends!" We couldn't stop laughing!!
• Michelle and I saw Titanic 3D in theaters and it was so much fun.  I could care less for the 3D (which was barely noticeable) but it was a treat to see it on the big screen again.  I don't care who you are, that movie is a classic!  A classic, I say!
• I wrote my very last paper for my Literary Theory class!  Yay!  Sometime this month I'll post them all for your utter boredom... I mean enjoyment.  No, no.  I mean boredom.  We get a bit of a reprieve in that class while my professor attends a conference and when she comes back it's just time for the review and the final exam.  I'm on the final stretch!
• I've started exercising to the Insanity DVDs.  So far, so good.  We'll see how long that lasts... because a membership to Planet Fitness sure didn't pan out.
• Easter Sunday!  Brian and I went to his family's house in the morning to decorate Easter eggs.  After our not-so-beautiful attempts at decorating eggs (because let me tell you, they do NOT come out looking like the pictures on the box), we all attended church as a family.  The last time I went to church was on Christmas, so essentially I've become what is known as a "Creaster."  Anyway, I know Brian's mom was happy to have us all there.  Later in the day we had dinner at Brian's grandparents' in Spanish Fork.  It was a very enjoyable holiday.

EASTER!

Chihuahua Comics: Sacred Easter Basket

Today is Easter Sunday!  Yay!  For Christians everywhere this is the day our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ conquered death!  He resurrected!  He lived so that we may live!  Woo hoo!  And how do we celebrate it?  With Easter baskets full of colored eggs and candy!  Didn't you see that in the scripture?  It's in the New Commercialized American Version of the Holy Bible... somewhere near the verse on the holy significance of jelly beans.

Happy Easter!

Movie Review: 'Hop' is Like Hip Hop Without the Hip

Hop movie poster, property of Universal Pictures.

Hop AVERAGE

Let me start off by saying this movie is not that bad.  However, it's also not that good.  The first few minutes were spectacular in my opinion.  The movie opened with the bustling and vibrant candy factory on Easter Island, and it was so charmingly magical that it put Willy Wonka's factory to shame.  Adorable little chicks and bunnies scampered about running the shiny golden machines that created chocolates and marshmallows and all of the delicious treats that boys and girls hope will fill their baskets come Easter morning.  It truly was wondrous to behold.

Unfortunately, we don't stay in that fantastical place for very long.  The majority of the movie is set in the boring old "real world" that we inhabit every day.  And for me, the magic of the movie stopped there.  In my opinion, the entire movie should have been animated.  It would have been so much better.  Instead we get a cartoon rabbit wandering around a dusty Los Angeles pooping jelly beans.

The main character, E.B. (Russell Brand), is the Easter Bunny's son who does not wish to follow in his father's footsteps.  Instead of taking over the family business by delivering Easter candy to all the children in the world (except China, which was actually a pretty funny little joke), E.B. wants to be a rock n' roll drummer.  So he escapes Easter Island and heads to Hollywood.  Soon he finds our human, Fred O'Hare (James Marsden), who is an unemployed twenty-something-year-old house sitting for some rich people.  Together they form an unlikely friendship and help one another live their dreams.

The story is cute enough I guess, and Russell Brand's E.B. actually had some really funny lines.  His one-liners helped me to watch the whole movie without falling asleep, actually.  Unfortunately, everything that happens just never lives up to it's opening scene.  Even the end was oddly non-climactic.  I heard someone describe this movie as an Easter version of the The Santa Clause.  And it really is.  Fred O'Hare ends up becoming the Easter Bunny and he even flies around in a sled...  It tries so hard to be hip and cool, but the end result is a forgettable family film that never lived up to its potential.

Love movies?  Check out my Movie Page!

Chum Chat: Jack and His Thoughts on Christ and Easter

My father—also named Jack Garcia—is a truly great man.  He’s charismatic, compassionate, and a strong believer of the Christian faith.  With the Easter holiday quickly approaching, I thought it would be a good time to talk to him a little about Christianity and the true meaning of Easter.

JOAQUIN:  Hey, Dad!  Like all of us, you’ve faced some trials in your life, but when was it that you felt compelled to devote your life to God?

JACK:    It was when I was living in Fort Lyon, Colorado.  Molly [his second wife] and I had separated, and I was all alone in a big house on the grounds of Fort Lyon Correctional Facility.  I wanted my marriage to Molly to work, and I cried out to God to reconcile me to my wife.  His immediate response was: "Reconcile yourself to Me."  From that moment on, I became a true follower of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  I still have my ups and downs, but I live my life as a response to God's patience, love, mercy, and grace in my life.

JOAQUIN:   And I’m guessing that’s what led you to study at the Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs.  What is it like now that you've graduated?

JACK:   Nazarene Bible College helped me come to know the truth of God's Word regarding God and grace.  I am able to live a life of security, and I am able to do so because I now understand what the Bible has to say about Life.  I truly understand that we are fallen and broken people navigating a fallen and fractured world.  This understanding helps me as I minister to those in need. 

JOAQUIN:  Speaking of those in need, you now work at the Springs Rescue Mission.  How does your job benefit your life?

JACK:  At Springs Rescue Mission, I come into contact with a lot of broken and wounded people that society treats as outcasts, and realize that God gave them the same value He gave me when He emptied Himself and came down to earth, taking on the form of a man, and being obedient to death, even death on a cross.  The love of God is not just for those who understand the true nature of God's relationship with us, but for every single person.  The beautiful thing about God's economy is that I am ministered to by those who come to the mission for help.  It's amazing the faith of the people of God who are enduring adversity, and their strength of faith is an example for me.  I am at a place in my life that I believe I am doing what God has put me on earth to do--and that is to love and be loved.

JOAQUIN:   So they give to you what you give to them:  a strengthened faith in Christ.  Based on what you believe, who is Jesus Christ?

JACK:   One could really be bogged down in theology trying to answer this question.   The bottom line is that Jesus Christ is God.  He is the God who saved His people by dying for their sins.  He is the God who earnestly seeks us out.  He is the only true God, and not only does He love us in a way we can't even wrap our brains around to understand, but He wants us to love Him.  Imagine that!  God, Creator of all, wants us to fall so madly in love with Him that we desire to please Him, to write Him love letters and sing love songs. 

JOAQUIN:  That’s beautiful, Dad.  What role should Christ play then in our day-to-day life?

JACK:  He should be everything for us and to us.  He's not a genie in a bottle that we cry out to when we have an earthly and physical need.  Too often, we look to Christ for what we can get out of the relationship.  When we say that Jesus Christ is our Lord, we need to understand that we come under His sovereign rule, but His sovereign rule is not like that of men, but is a rule in which we are blessed and led to eternal Life.

JOAQUIN:   As you know, Easter is just around the corner.  What is the spiritual significance of this holiday?

JACK:   Easter is about the two parts of the Atonement:  Christ's death on the cross and God raising Him from the grave—RESURRECTION!!!  When Jesus took the place of Barabbas on the cross, He took the place of each and every one of us.  We are all guilty of death, but Jesus died a substitutionary death for us, and all we have to do is believe in Him.  Easter is the event in which sinful and unholy man was reconciled to a Righteous and Holy God. 

JOAQUIN:   So with the greater meaning that all Christians give to the holiday, does the secularization of Easter bother you?  You know what I mean.  You see movies like Hop in theaters, with bunnies and chicks and eggs…

JACK:   I wouldn't say that it bothers me per se.  I'll still eat the Easter eggs and the chocolate bunnies!

JOAQUIN:  Ha ha!  Well of course you will.  You have a worse sweet tooth than I do!

JACK:   I will say this, though... today at the mission I noticed a big picture of an Easter bunny on the pantry door.  I took it down.  Why?  Because such things have their place, and I don't think their place is in the pantry door of a non-profit organization that honors and preaches Christ.  There might be fellow employees who would have left it up.  That would be their prerogative.  I don't think this is anything worth fighting over.  Besides, God's grace is bigger than such things as Easter bunnies.  So, there.  I hope I've confused you just a little bit with my response. 

JOAQUIN:  No, I think I get what you mean.

JACK:  It's just an opinion...nothing dogmatic about it in the least.

JOAQUIN:  Well, thanks for the interview, Dad.  I hope you have a Happy Easter!