Early yesterday evening, I went to Scott’s to take advantage of the last day of the ground chuck sale, and actually found two Manager’s Special roasts aw well. And then I went to the Redbox and saw that “Marley and Me” was available. The scene with Marley going out the car window and running with two legs on the road and the back two legs on Owen Wilson’s lap has been on TV a lot. I didn’t know if Summer had seen it, but thought, hey, for a dollar, I’ll watch it slapstick around.

But, It isn’t that. I think I knew in the back of my mind it was something real and real is unreliable. When I gave it to Summer, I thought she’d take it to one TV or the other and watch it; instead, she decided we should watch it together. Well, okay. We did. As we were getting to the end, I came to understand they were going to the whole lifetime thing with Marley – the getting old and you know.

Then we had a burst of commotion in the house and by the time we got back to the movie, the menu was on. I called my mother and then flipped the movie back to where I had left off to see how they would handle it. I can take a bit of sadness, I thought. Well, it was heart-wrenching; I choked up, I cried, I made little quick intake of breath sobbing whimpers. And then my daughter-in-law came out and I told her not now, this is a sad part. She tells Summer I’m crying and Summer comes out and sits down and watches. We were a mess. After the movie was over, I still cried.

Then I distracted myself with something else and before I knew it, it was one in the morning. This morning my eyes are still puffy and aching and I think I’d be happy to pull a blanket over my head.

So, it’s morning and I’m awake and I don’t know if I’m all sobbed out about Marley or not. On the way back from the fairground with Sydney my throat got tight and my eyes teared and I had to take deep breaths in the driveway.

***

I think Owen Wilson is like the character he played in the movie – being really good at something and people wanting him to do that because it makes them feel good and him wanting to do different things. Sure, you can act, Owen, but we love it when you make us feel so upbeat . . . so just do that okay. We think,” I need some Owen Wilson feel good moments to cheer me up.” I think he’d like to do more, maybe like Bill Murray in The Razor’s Edge” but people want him to be their medicine.