Lifestyles of the poor and nameless

About 2 days ago I started reading the latest John Grisham book, "The Broker". I just finished it. I thought it was a great book. Of course, I'm so starved for reading these days, that most books seem "great" to me, so you may not want to take my word for it.

"The Broker" wasn't any different to the majority of Grisham's legal suspense novels. With the exceptions of "Bleachers", "A Painted Hourse" and "Skipping Christmas", his books pretty much adhere to the formula:Lawyer (or former lawyer) gets caught up in a scandal involving $1 million or more. The lawyer's life is endangered because of the scandal and he spends the better part of the novel on the run and/or trying to clear his name. Lawyer may have been a womanizer of sorts prior to the scandal, but inevitably, there will be one woman who makes a difference. Lawyer outsmarts all his foes and/or exonerates himself and then disappears into the sunset with the money and his lady love.

Don't get me wrong...he tells the stories well. Once I get caught up, Imust keep reading until the very end, even though I know what's going to happen. I wonder if the stories would be as effective if the lead lawyer were a woman on the run from the CIA or something.

Anywho...as I was flipping through TV channels, I came across the movie"50 First Dates" with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. I had wanted to see it for quite a while, but couldn't bring myself to rent it. So I sat there and watched and I was disappointed (if you don't want to hear about the ending, stop reading now)

The premise of the movie is that Drew Barrymore permanently lost her short term memory when she got into a car accident. So every night when she goes to sleep, her memory resets and she thinks that she's starting the same day all over again. The passage of time doesn't register with her. Aside from that, she's completely normal. Adam Sandler sees her and decides that he's in love with her. Every day, he flirts with her and takes her out, then the next day she forgets that she met him, and they start over. He makes video tapes of the times when they are together so that each day she can be "briefed" on their progress.

In the end, they get married and have a child, and she still doesn't remember things, so he keeps making videos to remind her of the wedding and the fact that she had the baby (who is about 4 years old by then).

So was this a testament to the wonders of love, or a painful reminder of what single people are missing?

By the way...is it just me, or has Tiger Woods become sexy all of a sudden? He was always cute in a strange kind of way but now it's like WHOA.

On that note, I think I'll be spending another evening with my new boyfriend Billy Blanks, courtesy of Tae Bo.