Sex and the City 2 (2010) ***

I don’t have as much to say about this movie as what happened as a result of it.  I went to see this movie with my usual FPW girls (minus Erin, who is on MML: movie maternity leave).  In the movie, Samantha is given an all expenses paid trip to Abu Dhabi (the capital of UAE).  It’s a very rich city and if I remember correctly, a sheik invited her.  She decided to bring the girls with her.  They were treated like royalty… mostly.  They each had their own butler, their own chauffeured car, and many, many other amenities.  What I really didn’t get was: why didn’t they each get their own bedroom in the humongous suite they got to stay in?  They had to stay two in a room… whatever!

Anyway, it was an entertaining movie… not the best, but we all loved it.  Most of all, in hindsight.  It was very inspirational!  What I mean by that is that right after it ended, Pam looked at the three of us and said that we should go to Abu Dhabi!  Well, the next day, she called us to let us know of some dirt cheap flights from here to Orlando.  It just so happens we have a dear friend who lives with her new husband in a 3-bedroom house in Orlando.  So, 30 days later, we were off to Abu Dhabi (aka Orlando) for a long weekend for less than $150 each!!!! 

Well, you know, we’re all poor (not like homeless poor, but you know) so we decided to do a lot of free stuff while we were there.  We went to Steak and Shake for burgers (under $5, including drinks) on Friday night after we landed.  Saturday morning we got up early and drove to Clearwater Beach… only had to pay a few dollars in quarters for parking.  We brought our food with us.  We swam in the Gulf (it was really, really warm!) I got a sunburn, but only on my scalp right where my hair parts… that’s just now begun to peel… yuck.  The beach was fantastic!  Saturday night we went to Downtown Disney, which is free, and saw some street performers and had a little boat ride. 

Sunday morning we all piled into our friend’s car and went to her church.  It was way different than the Episcopal service I’m used to.  Very contemporary.  Christian Rock music on the stage for at least 15 minutes to begin the service… that was really great!  The pastor spoke for a while… he was very entertaining… funny and fabulous!  I can see why she loves going to church.  She had told me before we flew down that it was important to her that we all go.  I don’t think anyone else got that message and they weren’t planning on joining her.  I had decided that if it was important to her, I would go and think of it as an adventure.  The others didn’t want to go, but we talked them all into it and we all really liked it even though we are all used to much more traditional church services.

After church, we went to a house in her neighborhood where the couple legally changed their names to Mickey and Minnie and ALL of their house is decorated in Disney stuff… EVERYTHING is DISNEY!!!  It was very, very, very cool!!!  Then, we went shopping at a Disney outlet for souveniers.  Later, our friend had dinner for us and invited my father and step-mother, who live about an hour away.  We had so much fun!

Monday, we drove to the airport and before we left, stopped at Chili’s for lunch… I had a craving for Buffalo Chicken Salad for about a week, so I got that and it was terrific!!

Our Abu Dhabi may not have been as luxurious as the SATC girls’, but I’ll bet we had at least as much fun, if not more!