Crash

Kurt and I watched CRASH last night. I really thought it was good. Everything tied together a little too nicely, but I liked it overall. Kurt was saying how it wasn't really entertaining. I said most Oscar winning movies aren't usually entertaining. It was thought provoking though. I've thought about it several times today. The opening lines of the movie really struck a cord with me.

Tuesday night we went to my book club. I've missed not being able to go. I'm going to arrange work so that I can go from now on. The club started out with a bunch of ladies from church starting at my mom's age (60's) and going up to the middle 80's. Overall it's a pretty conservative bunch. Also a pretty Danielle Steele bunch with a few exceptions. Book club has always been more about the snacks than the books. One of the main problems with it is no one reads the books! I haven't been able to attend for a couple of years. Mom left for Europe that morning so I figured I should go so there would be one more persin that had read the book. This month's selection was Big Thaw by Donald Harstad.

Donald is a former deputy sheriff from Clayton County, Iowa. I lived in Clayton county for 7 years. His first novel 11 Days is a thinly disguised story about life in the county. When I read it several places and people were easily identifiable. It's pretty hard not to work in a convenience store that sells guns and not know the criminal element! The author was at book club and told many great stories about being a deputy and how the publishing industry works. Both aspects of his life were very interesting. Kurt now wants to read the novels, but I can't find them. They must be in one of our overstuffed rubbermaids in the basement. Next month we're reading a book from a series about a town called Mitford. I'm supposed to be studying for finals so I haven't picked it up yet.

Oh yes! The snacks were awesome! There was pre cheesed crackers, fresh asparagus roll ups, mini reuben toasts, cookies, crackers and dip.

Anticipation

Tomorrow is my day off! I am so very excited about it. It's supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny. I might take the pupper for a walk along the River. We both need the exercise. I made big list of to do items today during class. The teacher is awful. She's retyped the textbook onto note cards and lectures from there. She says "one might say" and "quote" constantly. She'd said "quote" 9 times in the first 10 minutes of class. She had a new word of the day today. It was "provocative". She used it 7 times (I didn't start counting until she'd uttered it at least 3x)(plus I bolted at 3:30 - I wasn't even there for the last 45 minutes). She told me the paper I wrote was ...."Provocative." We had to interview a resident of who lived in age segregated housing. It started out:

"Sunlight streams in the lace curtained east facing window. A white haired woman in a pink quilted house coat looks out at the birds feeding on seed scattered on the ground in front of the Redwood gazebo. She spends her mornings in front of this window enjoying the view. She is Zelma Crowden".

Of course I put it off so I had to make the entire thing up at the last minute. Got an A on it. The teacher said it was "visceral" and "I can see Zelma clearly." Egads. Fake it til you make it. That's what I learned in photography school. Looks like that is a life lesson that carries over.

Kurt is exhausted. He was too tired to do Astronomy homework tonite. We took the quiz over Mars, Mercury, and Venus. I read the material and he did not. I told him I thought we could manage because there was NO MATH in this week's lesson. We can take the quiz 2x anyway. So if we did badly the first round he could read it before we went again. 1o/10 baby! Perfect score first time in under 6 minutes!

The Tally

In case anyone was wondering...In 9 days it was 19 loads of laundry and 15 diswashers full.

Sunday night blahs

• I wish I had a job that I didn't have to work at night or on the weekend.
• I wish I didn't have this awful cold/whatever and I could cough without peeing and talk with out croaking
• I wish it didn't cost so much to go to the theatre. Mom, Marn, and I went to the LION KING on Friday night. The costumes/staging was spectacular! The music...not so much. There are so many cool shows I'd like to see but it's not like I have the time or money to go to Chicago/Minneapolis/New York to see them.
• I wish I were nicer to my husband.
• I wish I wouldn't let people's offhand comments/tones/inflections get to me.
• I wish my brave little tulips would continue to brave the unpredictable Iowa weather & the rat-fink squirrel and bloom already!
• I wish we'd hurry up and buy the house so I could rip the hideous, peeling wall paper out of our bedroom.
• I wish it were the weekend already.