Hunger Games movie makes me hungry for the Appalachians

So, the movie is good.

Friday, March 23.

At the end of the hour-long radio alarm this morning, I wretched myself from a dreamy snoozing, stretched, and rolled from the narrow bed onto my haunches. Routinely, I walked to the door of my apartment to see what the morning held outside. Dreary. ‘Should I go for a run?’ I asked myself. That thought quickly sluffed away, forgotten when the Raisin Bran box came into view.

Last night I considered going to the midnight opening of the Hunger Games movie.

Why? First, I got home around 10 p.m. from the office, where I had been monotonously weighing sorghum plant samples for Total Nitrogen analysis. My brain was tired from the repeated staring at the balance scale and moving fractions of grams from the sample cup to the foil wrappers that are inserted into the analysis machine and then back to the cup when the weight topped 0.2020 g. You get the idea. So, sometimes a mental change of pace is just as restful as going to bed.

Second, the movie is getting a lot of hype. Many folks are discussing it–not only prepubescent teens were for Harry Potter and Twilight (of which viewers this weekend will be subjected to a short preview for the final ridiculous vampire-wannabe movie prior to the Hunger Games). Lots of my friends are reading the book or have read it. In my church family, a single copy is making its rounds through a large circle. I have not read the book or series, but maybe it is worth  a matinée price to see the film?

Getting back to the apartment from the lab on campus, I browsed with Google search to the theatre film lists here in Columbia. ‘Whoa’, I thought. The big cinema in town had four theatres showing the film from midnight through 1 a.m.! beside the movie title was listed the show time: over 2 hours. Wait, so folks will be up till 3 or 4 a.m. if they go to the latest opening night show?! Um…

Curious as to the demand for the film at 1 a.m., I clicked on tickets for each showing thinking that no one would or could stay up that late to see those showings. Everyone was sold out!

‘Well’, I thought, ‘this is a big movie.’ So, I clicked on today’s schedule to see when and if the film was available. Today’s schedule was full of afternoon showings in three theatres. I then clicked over to the Forum Theater‘s page so see what the more comfy and intimate environment provided for viewing opportunities. Really, if one has a choice between Forum and the big cinema, I choose Forum as its plush, rocking, red chairs and shorter drive take the cake (or popcorn).

Friday I will go see it. I knew some friends were going to see if Friday evening, but their choice, the 7:15 show, was sold out. A matinée is the best choice anyway.

After my bowl of Raisin Bran, I relaxed a bit around the apartment and intended to go into the office and lab to start some soil separations for my thesis research, when the rain began. Most of the week, steady rain has fallen. The joy of the rain breaks blue sky themes and makes everyone question their plans. My plans changed. ‘After the film I will go into the office to do some evening work, since Friday is date night, so not many folks are available for hanging out’ I concluded.

Forum had a 12:30, 12:40, and 1 p.m. showing. I chose the 12:40 show, then made a turkey wrap and jogged to the car for the short drive to the cinema, then jogged to the cinema doors in a light rain. With 30 other fellow Rain-day patrons, I plopped down in the middle seat on the 10 row, leaned back in the cozy, velvet cushions and slipped of my sandals to stick my feet on the arm rests in front of me. Ready for whatever would come.

As the previews played they oddly made the feature presentation look less-appealing, with Twilight, Avengers, and G.I. Joe trailers flashing across the screen. I half-tuned them out as I had seen them before and thought back to the few reviews I read about the Hunger Games. Most folks use Rotten Tomatoes or some other lame-o rating website; I do not want someone to tell me to watch it or not, I want to know the elements of the film which is what is so wonderful about Plugged In Online. The review I read this morning gave me a better expectation for preparing my heart and mind: teenagers killed and blood abounding, but not in a gory or needless way, the reviewer suggested. It painted a solid picture of one girl’s fight against odds by being compassionate and strong.

Powerful cinematography with imagination-saving shaky shots of bloody scenes. The heroine and hero truly capture hearts (of both the cinema audience and the Pan-Am citizens). But what captured me was less to do with the story or characters. No, they were solid and enjoyable, but the scenery held me locked to the screen.

Hello Smokey Mountains!!

Scenery? Really?! Yes! For those, like me, who have a love affair or close connections with the Southern Appalachians, then you will love the familiar oak-hickory forests and the granite lines streams.

District 12 scenery in the beginning did not grab me, but when the 24 tributes (or what was left of them after a few minutes) began running into the woods, the foliage grabbed me! The central character, Katniss Everdeen, began running away from the initial melee, she rolled down a hillside– covered in rhododendron!!!!

What?! So much does my heart yearn for a bit of time-even a day-to stroll through the old southern hills of the Appalachians! A true joy of mine is hiking through the Georgia mountains or taking weekend backpacking trips into the North Carolina National Forest land. I knew what I saw immediately.

The credits proved it to me: the casting and shooting was done around Charlotte and Asheville and other North Carolina towns. Charlotte (the Capital), Hildebran (District 12), and the DuPont state forest between Brevard and Hendersonville (the Arena) were all featured in the film. Want to go? Tourism is gearing-up.

Rhododendron first. Then distinct shots of stately hickory trees. Trillium cover the understory as the teens race for their lives through the film. Then beautiful wildflowers are featured: foxglove, Queen Anne’s Lace, more trillium, and others are used to decorate the fallen Rue of District 11.

Now, the mockingjay is not real and does not live in the Appalachians, but the mockingbird is common. The quail that fly out of the bushes in the early minutes of the movie are real.

Several times the characters are scrambling across the smooth granite that lies exposed by the river. This natural feature is common throughout the lower mountains and hills, lying beside cold trout-filled waters.

The opening where the cornucopia sits in the film is most likely an old glade that a farming family cleared 150 years ago for building a homestead.

Folks, the ambling and rambling is real and gorgeous! The scenery and flora is just as striking as the story and provides the diverse landscape and dense forest that gives the ‘Arena’ its allure of beauty and makes it the ideal hunting ground.

Go see them– the Southern Appalachians and the Hunger Games.

P.S. What’s up with the author using the Boy Scout hand sign as the Pan-Am hand sign? Haha! I hope the Boy Scouts get some press out of this…

Hidden Cupids: 14 Days of Valentine Stories: Day 13

Hidden Cupids are all around us. These cupids remain hidden among the regular folks you see each day from the grocery store to the bank to your office. For two weeks from Feb. 1-14 we will reveal a few stories of these Hidden Cupids. For the full introduction on this series see HERE.

Day 13: Missed-delivery

Tom Seagraves called the florist a few days before Valentine’s Day 1996. He wanted a bouquet of flowers delivered to a dear friend to be placed on her doorstep on Feb. 14.

“I wanted her to know that I cared about her,” Tom said.

This friend he had been pursuing for some time. He had called her once before about going on a date, but she told him ‘no’. He considered it a bit of a ‘friendlationship’ with him liking her more than she was ready to go along with. Tom wanted to make their friendship something a bit deeper, take her on a date; his friend was not sure about that.

But they stayed friends all that time, until Valentine’s Day was approaching. Tom decided to make another move, this time flexing a bit of his romantic muscles. What better day to do that than on V-Day, when a single lady is maybe open to a bit of romantic expression from a potential beau, right?

This time it might work. This time she might come around and be convinced to say ‘yes’.

—-

Janice graduated from college and found a job with the USPS doing data entry in a Lynchburg, Virg. office. She joined a church in Lynchburg and the single’s ministry there. It was a big group and they did a lot together.

Occasionally, as single’s ministries are often designed to facilitate, Janice was asked out on dates by various guys in the group. But, just as we all know, these groups can be filled with studs and duds, not just in the physical way. Fortunately, Janice had met a guy friend in 1993 who would help her out by letting her know if a potential suitor was actually boyfriend material. This probably helped her avoid many a bad relationship.

Janice spent a lot of time with her friend, even riding along on some of his U-Haul routes. They had a close relationship. He was like her big brother, she said.

“People would tell both of us that we should date each other,” Janice said.

Unfortunately, Janice’s heart was growing weary from toiling through the potentials. She decided to take a committed time to singleness and focusing on pursuing her relationship with Christ. This meant no dating for a while. She called it a vow.

—-

Fast forward to the New Year’s Eve party their singles group had where they partied like it was 1996.

Tom had watched that night as various guys had flirted with his friend Janice and a strange feeling in him emerged.

“I was upset Janice was being flirted on,” he said. “If she did want to date then it was going to be with me.”

The ball fell and Auld Lang Sine was sung. The new year had arrived and the party quickly dissipated as folks headed for the door.

Tom was not much for flirting, but at the end of the night he went over and gave Janice a good hug goodnight.

The next Saturday night he convinced himself to give Janice a phone call. He had to lay all the proverbial cards on the table and let her know that he liked her and wanted to take her on a date. Tom asked Janice if she would be interested in taking their friendship deeper.

She said ‘no’. Then she told him that she had taken a vow to take a break from dating and that she would not consider dating until springtime.

Remember, that was a Saturday night, and he would see her the next morning at their church gathering. How would they interact? Would it be uncomfortable and awkward?

“I decided that I wasn’t going to treat her any different,” Tom said.

—-

After that phone call that Saturday night, Janice realized that she expected Tom to ask her out.

“There was nothing I could put my finger on,” she said. “For months I saw it coming.”

But the New Year’s Eve party had given her a clearer inclination of Tom’s intentions.

“The New Year’s hug was just a little too cozy.”

Why did Janice tell him ‘no’? If she saw that Tom’s advance was coming and if they were close friends, what caused her to turn him down?

Well, there was the vow she made to herself and God. Then there were a few doubts about Tom.

“One of my concerns was that he wasn’t very romantic,” she said, among other things.

—-

Tom had not given up his attraction to Janice. So, sending flowers to Janice for Valentines was the next best move. He did not want to send roses to be too over the top, so he ordered carnations, the flower of friendship.

As Janice put it: “Roses would have freaked me out.”

But there was a glitch, Tom said. The flowers were delivered early -on Feb. 13 instead of Feb. 14. The wrong day! What kind of message did that send Janice? Tom wanted to coincide with Valentine’s Day to make a real romantic expression and show that he valued her friendship.

Of course, God has his own plan and will work out the good despite our plans.

Janice arrived home from work that evening of Feb. 13 with a silver basket of carnations on her doorstep.

“I was relieved that it was not on Valentine’s Day,” who said that she was able to handle it all a bit better since the flowers did not arrive on V-Day. She actually liked this better!

Plus the flowers surprised Janice, who had previously been concerned over Tom’s apparent lack of romance.

Tom knew that this helped his chances when Janice finally decided to start trying to date again.

“I was on her short list,” he remembered.

Then in March, Tom asked Janice if he could escort her to a mutual friend’s wedding. This time she obliged and was pleasantly surprised when he made effort to open the car doors for her as well as bring Janice drinks at the reception.

“It again confirmed that he has a romantic side,” she said.

Several days later, Janice and Tom drove to a parking lot under a street lamp and talked for three hours that night.

“I remember him asking if it was spring yet,” Janice said.

She considered it a bit and told him ‘yes’ and they decided that they were going to date. So Tom made the next move and asked her for a legitimate night out.

April 1 they started dating with a dinner at Olive Garden, where Tom had arranged a friend to deliver a dozen red roses and a card to their table prior to their arrival.

Could she have any doubts about his romantic side after that?

—-

Tom and Janice are now married and expressing love to each other is intrinsic to their lives. While money is tight since Tom started his own business last year, they dry to make the most of regular opportunities to serve each other each day, where even Janice taking out the trash can be a loving way to serve Tom.

They never do the traditional Valentines stuff now, even though Tom sent her flowers many years ago and they were engaged on V-Day as well (a whole nother story). Although sometimes they do a special dinner, they will occasionally do bigger things too. But then, they are okay with doing nothing some years.

But they never miss an opportunity to say “I love you” each morning. And when they say goodbye, they take a moment to hug or kiss. It is strange to see other couples say goodbye without embracing each other, they said.

So, one has to wonder, where would Tom and Janice be if the carnations had been delivered correctly, on Valentines?

—-

*Come back tomorrow, Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day for one final powerful and fun Valentine story to get you in the right mindset for the hearty day! We have a great story for you:

• Feb. 14: A Paranormal Proposal (and other Activity)

**Hey Married Folks! Do you want to win an iPad 2 or $25 gift card to Starbucks?! Go to the Focus on the Family’s Facebook page and enter their Focus on Love contest by submitting a 2 min. video by Feb. 13! Then, get everyone you know, including me, to vote for you! Full details are in my Day 6 blog or on the contest link’s page. The contest ends today!!!