Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2009. Mattie was in the hospital and as you can see was shoving something in his mouth. The item in questions was a CUPCAKE. Whenever I went home with Mattie in between treatments (which wasn't often), I would bake about two dozen mini cupcakes and frost them. Why? Because cupcakes (for a long period of time) were Mattie's food of choice and in order to provide him an incentive for doing physical therapy, I would reward Mattie with a cupcake for his participation and compliance with Anna (his therapist). Mattie guarded those cupcakes carefully and to this day, I LOVE cupcakes. They have a special meaning to me. Mattie went through many food phases while enduring chemotherapy and surgery. We had the Utz potato chip phase, the vanilla frosted donut phase, the big salty pretzel phase, the vanilla shake phase, the pasta phase, the chicken nuggets phase, and as I mentioned the cupcake phase. Whatever phase Mattie was in, Peter and I worked hard to find these items in order to get Mattie to eat. Mattie became quite emaciated during cancer treatment because he was usually feeling ill and had Mucositis (sores that lined his mouth and stomach from the chemotherapy).
Quote of the day: It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower. ~ Paul Graham
In any case, I LOVED, LOVED Breaking Away. I even love the title! It is so symbolic and prepares the viewer for the experience they are about to have. I think all of us have times in our lives we wish to break away, to change the patterns, and the misperceptions that we have of ourselves and that others have of us. The beautiful part about this movie is that the change that occurs happens because four friends stick together to support one another..... in meeting a goal. Yet in the process of helping someone meet his goal (winning a bicycle competition), the others learn a lot about themselves, their strengths, and the fact that they can accomplish whatever they put their minds too. Changing one's perceptions and thoughts isn't easy, and despite this movie being from the 70's it is still very timely and applicable today!
I am not sure what I loved more about the movie..... the story, the cinematography, or the music.... music composed by Rossini. The main character is enamored by Italy and the Italian culture and hearing all of this (since I am an Italian American) was truly fun and transports you away.
Movie Synopsis:
Best friends Dave, Mike, Cyril and Moocher have just graduated from high school. Living in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana, they are considered "cutters": the working class of the town so named since most of the middle aged generation, such as their parents, worked at the local limestone quarry, which is now a swimming hole. There is great animosity between the cutters and the generally wealthy Indiana University students, each group who have their own turf in town. The dichotomy is that the limestone was used to build the university, which is now seen as being too good for the locals who built it. Although each of the four is a totally different personality from the other three, they also have in common the fact of being unfocused and unmotivated in life. The one slight exception is Dave. Although he has no job and doesn't know what to do with his life, he is a champion bicycle racer. He idolizes the Italian cycling team so much he pretends to be Italian, much to the chagrin of his parents, especially his used car salesman father, Ray Stoller, who just doesn't understand his son. Dave crosses the unofficial line when he meets and wants to date a Indiana University co-ed named Katherine Bennett, who, intrigued by Dave, in turn is already dating Rod, one of the big men on campus. Dave passes himself off to her as an Italian exchange student named Enrico Gismondi. Beyond Katarina as he calls her, Dave's main immediate focus is that the Italian cycling team have announced that they will be in Indianapolis for an upcoming race, which he intends to enter to be able to race his idols. After an incident at the race, Dave, with a little help from his parents and unwittingly by actions of his friends, has to reexamine his life, what he really wants to get out of it and how best to start achieving it.
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