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Owning a boat is something that you would think a celebrity might do right? Certainly there are plenty of superstars out there who own their own boats. It’s not quite the same as owning a boat when you’re a regular person though.

Owning a boat is a big responsibility. It’s a great luxury for the average person and totally worth all that it requires but it’s a responsibility nonetheless. You need to be able to maintain the boat, replace parts as needed, take it out regularly, pay for the slip that it’s in and so on. When you’re a celebrity, you can just pay someone to do that. You can hire someone to tell you that you need new OMC parts or Mercruiser parts or whatever and you can send them out to go get them and install them for you. The average person does that stuff for himself.

Most celebrities don’t even bother with this though. Instead, they spend their time on the boats that other rich people have. Most of them prefer to spend their time on luxury yachts. They hobnob with people who have a lot of money and who like to use that money to treat celebrities to a day out on the water. Sounds nice but I think I’ll stick to owning my own boat. There’s a level of pride in that which you just can’t buy!

Technorati Tags: Mercruiser Parts, OMC Parts

The other day, my mom and I were talking about Somewhere in Time, our favorite of Christopher Reeve’s movies.  When I looked it up online, I realized that the 5-year anniversary of Christopher Reeve’s death was earlier this month, on October 10th.

Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in a horseback riding accident in 1995.  Despite how much he hated being compared to his role as Superman, he showed what an inner reserve of strength he had when his accident didn’t ruin his life — only motivated him to become involved in promoting neurological research in order to try to find a cure for those paralyzed by spinal cord injuries.

At the time of Reeve’s accident, I didn’t ride, so I never made any connection between his injury and what could happen to me.  Now, however, I have a horse I ride regularly, and I’ve even had a few (relatively harmless) falls.  When I think of how an accident could change my life and distort all my hopes and dreams, paralysis  is the second scariest for me, right after blindness.  (I love to read and I’m a writer by profession, so blindness would be the absolute scariest for me.)  I don’t even know how we could operate a wheelchair lift in our parking area, or install stair lifts on our basement and porch stairs.

Would I be able to face such a life-changing injury with as much grace and inner strength as Christopher Reeve?  I don’t know, but I sure hope I would!

Technorati Tags: Christopher Reeve, horseback riding, show jumping, Somewhere in Time, stair lifts, wheelchair lift

After three and a half years of driving halfway across town to see a movie, a nice new state-of-the-art movie theater has finally been built near our house.  Can we say, “FINALLY??!!!!”

It always interests me to see how new establishments deal with the handicapped accessibility requirements.  As usual, this theater has the required handicapped parking at the front of the lot, so that a handicapped vehicle has room to operate a wheelchair lift.  Also, there are those nifty handicapped buttons on the doors, and the handicapped seating is right in the front where it’s easy for someone to wheel over to — no stair lifts needed.

Other aspects of the theater are quite nice, too.  The seating is quite comfortable, and everything looks and smells brand new.  The screens are big, the sound is awesome, and the lobby and everything else is clean and attractive.

And of course, the biggest advantage is that it is CLOSE.  How we ended up in such a black  hole, where there were no theaters, I don’t know — but thankfully those days are over!  We went to the new theater for the first time this weekend and saw District 9, and I have to say I’m very, very happy with the theater and the location!

Technorati Tags: accessibility, movie theater, stair lifts, wheelchair lift

Parents of young girls should consider encouraging their daughters to take acting classes in their childhood. That’s because there are a lot of benefits to these classes.

Important benefits of acting classes include:

• They help girls learn to speak up. Girls often hide in the shadows of classrooms and events. Acting classes put them in the spotlight and teach them to be comfortable there.
• It lets them explore a variety of emotions. Play-acting with different emotions can help girls to understand the different types of feelings that they have inside of them.
• They’ll have a chance to explore new interests. One day she comes home talking about the latest Jean Bourget clothing and you discover it’s because they play she’s in is all about girls european clothes. That’s an interest she probably wouldn’t have discovered any other way.
• It helps girls learn to work as part of a group. The benefit here is the same one that children get from playing sports. They learn to be a part of a team. They learn to speak in their turn and to let others have a turn as well.

These are all important things for kids to experience when growing up. Girls particularly benefit since they get a new opportunity to have their voices heard. That’s why parents should think about seeing if their daughters want to take a few classes.

Technorati Tags: girls european clothes, Jean Bourget