Mark it on the calendar

Today we are all well. Unless you count Sam being on an antibiotic and me still not really being able to eat without feeling sick. But other than that, all four of us carried on our normal, everyday lives today. Hoorah!

Just saw Stranger Than Fiction, and I was amused. Not the best movie I've seen, not the worst either. Very clever. Reminded me a lot of Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author," which I haven't read in about 15 years but I remember liking a whole lot when I did read it. Emma Thompson was really good, I thought. Very believable. And although DH thought the cast was "odd" (Thompson, Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Queen Latifah and Dustin Hoffman) I thought it worked quite well. It especially spoke to me as a writer, as I'm one of the annoying ones who often says that when I really get going I don't write the story, the characters do. Except that this character Harold Crick, didn't. But the idea that the character is an entity separate from the author--that's it's out there beyond you--I wholly subscribe to that (Derrida, anyone?). Or is it structuralism? can't remember. It's the theory that once a work is published and out there, there is no author anymore, and author intent is null and void. Ah, Foucault. Charlie Shepherdson, where are you?

Apparently at SUNY Albany

This is news?

Seriously. Front page news on the web site for the Dayton Daily News, the local daily for our new home town. Well, technically, there is a Springboro paper, but I'm not sure if it's a weekly or a daily. And there isn't much in it. I think the editor writes the entire thing (curbgirl, don't take offense, it's nothing like your weekly--trust me! this is about 12 slim pages of nothingness).

Guess Ford dying is just yesterday's boring-ness compared to today's pantless wonder!

We are, by the way, healing slowly in these parts. DS has a scary cough and icky runny nose that hasn't quit for days. He is on Amox for possibly pneumonia (doubtful, but possible), while I slam Sudafed to try to combat the impending sinus infection.

I will let all (four) readers know when we are all four healthy, so that you can mark it on your calendars as a red letter day!

Merry F***ing Chrismukah

Chrismukah is what my brother and his wife have christened their holiday at this time of year.

I am in a crappy mood because a) I have not been out of the house in 48 hours b) I have Scrooge blood running through my veins c) I have had my dear daughter home in my presence since 11 am on Tuesday morning--almost one full week of sheerly blissful, sick almost 4 year old. witness the grey hair sprouting on my head with each whiny half-syllable of complaint out of her tiny, fever and cough-ridden body.

I am also fighting a major virus. Ick. Sore throat and fatigue.

I am also ready to hurl the television out of the window. If I have to watch "Franklin's Magic Christmas" one more time, I will lose my mind.

If you find it, please let me know.

even cowboys get the blues

Somehow, despite the increasing insanity as the holidays grow nearer (or perhaps because of the increasing insanity), I managed to watch Brokeback Mountain today. Yes, I am probably the only Oscar-watching person on the planet who hadn't yet seen the film, but I will remind all readers (all three of you, on a good day) that my darling son was less than a year old when the movie appeared and the younger the child, the fewer films you get to see.

anyway, imagine me, crying my eyes out on my couch for the last 30 minutes of the film. i felt bad all around--bad for the wives, bad for the kids involved, and bad for the cowboys who couldn't find it in this life to be together. i just kept thinking "this is what happens when you try to deny who you are and live to someone else's standards." and i just wanted to shout and scream at the tv, "c'mon bud, admit your damned feelings already. c'mon. you know you want to be happy." and i know that rationally, in the time, he just felt he couldn't, but damn, jack had to go and die (sorry, spoiler alert is too late, for the one remaining person that has been living under a rock next to me and hasn't yet seen the film) just as he was getting there.

and honestly, to live with that kind of passion. wow. it blew me away.

it's midnight. darling son is crying (his teeth, I guess). must cut this short.

oh for the love of two cowboys...