Having the time of your life

Ahhh, Mama Mia.  Here we go again, my my ... went to see it for the second time tonight (that makes three times if you count the broadway play) *shut up Linda, it's fun to say it, even though I went to see Wicked in London, not Mama Mia!*

And it was fabulous.  I just sat there in my comfy rocking seat with a big smile on my face, my feet tapping, my whole body moving to the music.  Meryl Streep is just amazing, she really is.  And the three potential father's were nothing to sneeze at either (though Poor Pierce (Brosnan) can't sing, but that's okay.)  Really.  It doesn't matter.  The movie itself is so funny that it almost fits that when he opens his mouth he sounds like he's kidding.

It's one of those movies that makes you realize how much fun you've had in your own life.  I identify with Meryl Streep's character in terms of her being a free spirit (though she had a child at a very young age, as did I) and even though your life for a good 20 years isn't all that crazy, if you have that inside of you, it never goes away.  When she does the scene where she is bouncing on the bed and then jumps in the air and touches her toes -- it just feels so right.

I drove around a Greek island on the back of a motor bike with some Australian, I've seen sunsets there that would break your heart.  I've looked out across the sparkling ocean and thought that it wasn't possible to see anything more beautiful.  I've danced on tables, I've sat on a rooftop and watched the sun come up.  I've laughed and danced some more and I've sat in the middle of a square in Athens at a table with an umbrella and held up my legs as a sudden storm turned into a river, but I continued to eat the scrambled eggs, bacon and toast because it was the first real food I'd eaten in weeks.

Mama Mia brings back a lot of my Greece experience because I went there seeking something.  And in the end, like Meryl Streep's character, I ended up married.

But inside forever is the girl who can drive in an open Jeep with three kids and a friend and scream at the top of her lungs until she is hoarse to the soundtrack of Mama Mia -- because it is things like that that make you feel young and alive.

I would go see this movie again, I swear!  It just makes me realize how lucky I have been, to have great, close friends that I can go crazy with (there is a scene on a boat in the movie when Meryl and her two friends are running on deck, and I thought, heck, we've done that.  And that.  And that.)  

It's a reminder that life is worth celebrating, both the past and the future -- and if you can set it to a soundtrack, then even better!  Just turn up the volume, stare up in the sky at the stars and let it all out.

You are the Dancing Queen ...

Oh yeah.