I’ve been working from home since March 5 and I have to be honest, I really really love it. I never realized how much I hated commuting until I no longer had to do it. And I know its a privilege that my employer allows and trust me, I am very grateful to them. Getting back 10 hours a week is a blessing and one I am trying not to squander. Its meant more time with my family which I treasure and appreciate since I know that a lot of people do not have this luxury. I’m still very far from having the house set up to where I want it to be but we try and tackle a little bit at a time on the weekends. Even with all this time at home it just never seems like there’s enough time to do all the things we want to do…..

We’ve been doing a lot of movie watching together and started a YouTube channel where we post our videos – I have really enjoyed this. I enjoy the time spent with the kids and sharing with them something that I love to do. I remember as a young child, our family would spend a day at the movie theater – sometimes a Saturday or sometimes a Sunday. If there were multiple movies, we’d often sneak into other theaters to check them out. We always brought snacks and if we were there for a long period of time, we’d always end up at the Chinese food place across the street for dinner. My favorite day to go was Saturday because then it meant that we could have lazy Sundays and a tradition I’ve carried into my adult life.

I have always loved movies – the going to a movie theater and seeing a movie on a large screen or even on a TV screen – it was time that I spent with my family and a tradition we indulged fully. And my parents, being from another country where English was not their first language, we were often taken to see things that probably were not for children – I remember seeing movies like DEATH WISH, PROM NIGHT and the original HALLOWEEN. But we also saw other movies like STAR WARS which was excellent and still holds up to SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER with all the cool Ray Harryhausen practical fx…sadly, these do not hold up to current fx but the fond memories of childhood puts them in a special and safe category all their own. I absolutely loved going to the cinema with my family and while I miss going with my husband and kids, we’ve been watching a lot of stuff from home and I especially get a kick out of sharing something I’ve seen and loved with them. Its always so fun to see their reactions to something that I grew up with and see what their takeaways are. I love hearing the kids and their opinions on what we’ve watched. Its sometimes fun to see my husband or my personality shine through in a comment made by one of the kids. Its funny how much they are ours….and we’ve really run the gamut with them, from SINGING IN THE RAIN to LILI to FLASH GORDON to RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK to HAYWIRE to THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS to THE CHILDREN’S HOUR to SOME LIKE IT HOT to TROPIC THUNDER to THE CONJURING 2. I’m sure people will judge us on some of the movies we allow the kids to watch but I really appreciated that my parents didn’t bubble wrap me and were there to discuss the stories we’d watched because in the end, that’s all these movies were – storytelling with moving pictures.