Wonderful surprise

I have always been a voracious reader.  I remember as a child checking out books from the library and reading them in one night, often sitting in the corner of the kitchen with my back to the refrigerator and my feet up on the broom closet door with the radio playing the latest 'rock and roll' music on a show that played from 7:30-9:00 every evening (It was called Groove Yard)  For a while I was into biographies, I can picture in my mind those orange colored books that had a ribbon kind of logo around the titles.  Then later I switched to Nancy Drew books.  I would always look forward to the Scholastic book order where I was occasionally allowed to buy a book for all of 25 cents. I still had some of those old books when I started teaching.  ANYWAY, you get the picture.  I love to read. 
Occasionally I am lucky to find a book that really speaks to me and is a treasure to relish.  This past year Sara sent me one such book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog.  I read the book slowly but wanting to rush through it to find the end yet still cherish the beauty of the language and the characters.  It is rare to find such a book but I really did enjoy the experience. 

WELL, the other day I was looking through the paper and noticed this advertisement for a movie called Hedgehog.  It was a busy day and the computer was not on so I didn't go and check to see if it was the same book made into a movie.  Wednesday I finally did check and realized that the wonderful book had been made into a movie but it was leaving town on Thursday.  We have this terrific independent movie theater downtown that plays very good movies, often foreign movies.  The movie was playing for the last time on Thursday afternoon at 4:00.  I decided to take a risk and see if the movie would match my joy of the book.  That rarely happens but I have been finding that foreign movies do a better job so I was hopeful.  I knew that Bud would not treasure this movie as much as I would and since I was going at the last minute, I didn't try to rally any friends to join me.  I think I subconsciously just wanted to enjoy this movie alone, in the solitude of the theater without any discussion or outside influences other than my text to Sara to let her know I was going to experience this event. 
The movie was wonderful!!!!!  It was in French but I found that the subtitles really didn't distract me from the movie, another thing that I have noticed about foreign movies that are well made.  This is not a 'hollywood' movie and I would not recommend it to just anyone but I sure did treasure the experience. 
This is the first time I have ever attended a movie by myself but I think I will try to go more often.  I missed another movie I wanted to see earlier because it didn't fit into our schedule and I thought it really wouldn't be one that Bud would enjoy but now I think I will just broaden my experiences and go whenever I find a movie that calls to me. 

Sara, thanks for the book and sharing the text before and after the movie.  I wish you had been by my side while watching the movie but I felt that you were there in my heart. 

By the way, the book and movie take place in a Paris apartment and I made me feel like it was the apartment building like where we stayed.  That was just a bonus of the book/movie esperience.