DINNER AND A MOVIE

My daughter and daughter-in-law took me to dinner and a movie last night-belated birthday present. We dined at the WORLD PEACE CAFE in Sandy Springs. The two story, airy restaurant is Buddhist themed in every way; paintings of Buddhist monks; soft chants in the background music, large circular paper balloons swirling between floor, and delicious organic food. Notices about meditation classes and volunteering grace this place. I wore a large PEACE pendant, a large PEACE ring, and large PEACE earrings. My daughter said I looked like a throwback to the sixties. Hul-lo! My dinner salad included a vegetarian burger surrounded by beet strings, carrots curls, cucumbers and chickpeas. I've never felt so healthy! The pleasant atmosphere makes you want to speak in hushed whispers. And your stress levels out. And you want to mediate.

Then . . .  we saw SEX AND THE CITY II. The shoes, the clothes, the accessories, the shopping. I was beside myself. Although I had never viewed any episode of SEX AND THE CITY, this movie appealed to my shallow nature.  Should I, like Carrie, wear stilettos, 24 hours a day? Is there enough drama in my life? Should I lunch out more often? Alas, Charlotte is a bit too simpery-dimpery, Miranda too driven. And Samantha will likely combust if her sex meter continues to climb.  Living in New York City sounds so glamorous--for Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda. I do love NYC, but after visits there, I, like Candide, long for the solitude of my garden.

An Abu Dhabi sheik,enamoured with Samantha's public relations expertise [no pun intended], invites the four women to stay in an exotic, glamorous $22,000 suite in his magnificent hotel. They fly on his private airline, and upon arrival in Abu Dhabi, learn that each has been assigned handsome male servants who dress like Princes of Persia. At that point, lounging around the pool, sitting around their fancy boudoir sipping cocktails, shopping at the bazaar, riding camels, or dining under a Ritz Carlton-like tent in the desert, they wear haute couture outfits: long flowing gowns, bodacious jewelery, and sexy summer strapless dresses. The palpable irony in this movie is obvious. Four sexy American women garbed in glam provide a stark contrast to the oppressed Muslim women draped from head to toe in Abayas.

Then, of course, Samantha's lacivious behavior changes the entire dynamic of the plot.

Throw out the gossipy talk, the girly interventions, the philosophizing about life, and feast your eyes on the fashion.

Thank you, Alicia and Sloane, for such a wonderful evening!