White Oleander

Better late than never!
White Oleander is a really good book. I confess I saw it on Lifetime TV, and I never watch Lifetime, but I suppose the odds were in their favor to show something that wasn't humiliating their viewers. and there it was. I miss Michelle Pfieffer. She was everywhere in the 80's-mid 90's and then poof-gone. The girl who played the lead was good too, but I'm not familiar with her.
The book is so pretty and sad. I love it when authors use sensory adjectives and this one is rife with them. I loved the desires and failures of the mother and daughter, how the writer framed their separation, and how she left everything open at the end. I want to read it again because I read it in two days and it deserves something besides a binge, but I'll wait a month or two until it's spring and I can read outside. I wonder if oleanders will grow in Oklahoma?

Movies I Will Not See

So many films, so little time. Here's this weeks' round up of the films that didn't make the cut.
27 Dresses. This could be 27 Pairs of Shoes, or 27 Times I Ate Taffy, or 27 Random Times I Spaced Out, anything twenty seven times? Loser!*
The Bucket List. One old nasty man and one old man with philosophy-spiked senility equals 5400 seconds of regret.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Has beens and nobodies that chase pretty lies amongst kabooms and stereotypes is not entertainment.
Rambo. This has boat payment written all over it. In blood.
How She Move. Actually, my grammar is not that much better than this. I just think dance movies are boring....except this!
Untraceable: The Internets are dangerous? Baloney.
Meet the Spartans. I would, were it permissible, take this franchise out to the field and put it out of misery.
Mad Money. Please, enough with the naughty good girls crime capers....what I see are grown women acting like 12 year old boys. Did they play Lady Marmalade during the trailer or am I making this up?
I Am Legend. Will Smith is the last human being after vampires devour the rest of humanity....hmm. Apparently he tastes as bad as he acts.
Atonement. Thanks, but I can manage without Keria's moping but I did like the dude as Pan in the Narnia movie. You know what they say about satyrs, though.
*Note: I actually saw this one, and I stand by my initial evaluation

Vitamin D

I'm kinda bored. I feel like something is missing, or astray, or that I need to run for a moment or two and not look around to see if everyone is keeping up. Or how far behind I've become from everyone else. I don't regret my decision to stay home with my children. Also, I can see the light at the end of this very long, life transforming process by which I raise my children and they raise me. I'm so very behind my ex-contemporaries, I don't know where to begin. How do I leave here and regain my foothold? How can I make any sort of income? I used to have a plan, and that plan was going accordingly, but then came two kids who needed me. I like that they need me. It's adorable. I need them too. But the light is there, and I'm here, this close to decision time and goodbye time. Maybe I need to exercise more.

It's been a while!

So much has happened since I last checked in. Christmas, New Year, my Grandma died, Britney went crazy and I went back to work. But what did I learn?
I must listen to people. I need to stand, or sit, or slouch and turn off the inner voice and simply listen. For instance, this Christmas I hosted my family and my husband's parents at my house. The only way I coped with this potentially disastrous situation is that I disconnected. I just let everyone do what they needed to do and stayed out of their way, which is the same thing I do every Christmas regardless of location. Lots of people, in cowboy parlance, put me off my feed but I should have listened to their stories nevertheless. My boys have so much to talk about and I don't listen, my husband, my students; I tell them what to think or do.
On the other hand, I rocked the eulogy I wrote for Grandma's service and my students this semester are this close to falling under my spell.