Adventure Round-Up

It is SO easy to fall behind on these things! I can't believe how fast this month is going by, but the upside is that it's partly because I've got a fair bit going on these days. So I thought I'd just do a quick round-up of my recent adventures.

• After the disaster that was Wanted, I'm back on track for seeing good movies again. Last week was The Visitor, a wonderful small film that puts a poignant and human face on the immigrant experience.
  
  Tonight was the opposite end of the genre spectrum: Iron Man. It's actually been out for quite a while already, but I wasn't sure I wanted to see it. Even though I was a comic book fan growing up, I always preferred the superheroes who actually had some kind of “powers,” and a big metal suit never really thrilled me.
  
  But I had heard a lot of good things about the film and I've always liked Robert Downey Jr.'s performances, so I thought I would give it a try. And I'm glad I did—he was great in the role, and there was a lot more character development than some action flicks. And then there was just one gigantic laugh-out-loud moment in the middle of the film that took me completely by surprise, which is always a plus in a movie!


• I'm taking an intensive Spanish class, so I'll be able to enjoy unas aventuras en español en el futuro. I'm really enjoyiing it and, at the pace we're moving through the material, I should be pretty conversational at it by the end of the class. I feel a little stupid that I can't speak the language already, considering I speak French (which is very similar), I studied Latin (which is the main root language for Spanish) for four years in high school, and I live in California, where there are more than enough opportunities to use it!


• I finally started getting out on my bike again last weekend after not having done so in I-can't-
  remember-how-long. (Let's just say the flat tires told a sad tale...) I'm taking it very slowly so I don't push myself to the point of giving up. My first ride was just over ten minutes. Today was my sixth time out in nine days, and this ride was more than twenty-two minutes.


• My two straggler squirrels moved on to an outdoor enclosure last Monday, so I'm rodent-free at the moment. But since we got in the first new babies of the summer season on Tuesday, I'm not sure how much longer that situation's going to last... I've also been keeping busy working with the animals at the Center one morning a week, as well as taking classes there, so I'm finally feeling a little less incompetent at this whole wildlife rehabilitation thing! :)

So that's what I've been up to. What summer adventures are YOU having?