Sundance

so cool
so very cool
still can't believe I went

My parents have a place in Deer Valley
a little place in Park City Utah
so my mom has been attending
the Sundance Film Festival
for about 5 years now

she raves about it
so this year
she offered a trip
to me
and my oldest
for our birthday presents

well
last year
my brother
and his wife
went for theirs
it wasn't like we had thought of it before
we just didn't know we could ask
my brother is the smarter one
he knew to ask first
what's new
i have been quieter when
it comes to asking for things

anyway
we both were so excited
the whole process starts in the fall
getting on a "list"
getting an access code
then a special time to buy ticket packages
or passes
my mom always has the first class package
she always does everything
first class
that's her
but Karen and I got a ticket package
20 tickets for 3 days.
Our goal
10 movies
together for 3 days.

All of this happened before December.
Then in January
we received the list of movie titles
and stars
and the schedule
the hard part was
picking out all the movies
that we wanted to see
but within our special days
and
within the schedule of what was playing when
and only in Park City
because other cities
have movies too.

We picked 10 movies
we were able to get 9 out of the 10 we wanted
then added an extra
which ended up starring Parker Posey-
-so how could we go wrong-
we actually got to see 2 extra shorts too
because they were paired with our movies
12 total (one "short" was 45 minutes long)

Out of the 12 we saw
we are big fans of 9
pretty good odds

one film was slow
one film I liked
but she didn't
one film we liked
but then heard from an insider
some issues with it

some made me laugh
some made me cry
some made me angry
in a good way

the experience was so powerful
i have already decided to go back next year
my middlest
and one nephew who is interested in film
will be high school seniors next year
what great gifts to give them

and I haven't even discussed the stars we saw
maybe later