Little Miss Sunshine

Saw the movie, enjoyed it, laughed at/with it, loved it, but didn't loooovve it. In the end it was too neat, too wrapped up in a little bow. One reason I like movies like this one is because they have a roughness to them, something that won't make them so palatable for every schmoe.

Take The Royal Tenenbaums for example. It was sweet and endearing in it's own special, scathing way. A way that a lot of people didn't get or didn't like. And I LOVE that.

Maybe it's just that I don't like liking things that are too popular. I really enjoy the fact that I can go straight to the Sale rack at mall stores because it never fails that they will have plenty of something I love because no one else liked it. Woo-hoo!

Either way, it was a really well-made film, the characters were simply irresistible and I felt a genuine human connection with the people who made the film. And really, can you ask for anything more?

Keep on Keepin' on

I am working on a new embroidery piece based on a flag I saw on Cape Cod years ago during one of my worst bouts with depression. I am not really sure how this is going to turn out.
What you can't see in the photo is the wool felt underneath the blue fabric. My plan is to stitch everything that you see chalked out in white and then cut away all of the fabric between the outline of the flag and the letters so that the wool felt shows through in that area.
I'll keep you updated as it comes along!

My Alma Mater...Almost Over?

I'm an alum of Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, VA. I graduated in 2000 with a B.A. in Communication and many, many wonderful memories of the four years I spent there.

Now the school is facing a sad fate. On September 9th the board of trustees is set to vote as to whether or not R-MWC, which has been a woman's college for the entire 113 years of it's existence, will become a Co-Ed college under a different name. The reasoning behind this, so we're told, is becase of a (seemingly sudden) financial crisis that threatens to force the college to close down altogether.

Last night I received an email from which contained a survey from the President of the Alumnae Association (and someone I consider to be a friend and true champion of the college) made by a group of concerned (angry?) alumnae. The questions in the survey were to the effect of the following examples (paraphrased):

How do you feel about the possibility of R-MWC going COED?
*Very UNhappy
*Somewhat UNhappy
*Doesn't matter to me
*Somewhat happy
*Very happy

Would you prefer that R-MWC go COED or close it's doors?
*Yes, make it COED to keep it open
*No, close it down

Would you change the contributions you make to the college if it were to go COED?
*No, I would continue to give to the school
*I would not give as much
*Yes, I would stop my contributions 100%

Why would you decrease or stop contributing to R-MWC?
*I would stop until I saw that the transition to a COED school was successful
*I would stop because I won't support R-MWC as a COED school
*I would stop because it won't be the same school
*Other

It was at this point that I froze. I turned to J, eyes stinging swelling with salty tears, and tried to explain what I was feeling. I simply did not know how to answer that last question. Gently he told me,

"If they go COED and change the name, the school you went to will be gone. Either way you look at it, your school as you know it will close."

With that sobering thought I clicked "because it won't be the same school" and cried.

"Begin Again in Love"

I used to have a blog all about my life up thru my failed marriage and subsequent divorce. And then for a while there I didn't write much and then not at all anymore.

I also tried to start another blog, but that never took off either. I think that was because I didn't have a point to it. No motive or direction. I think for a successful* blog one needs a point; a springboard because then you can digress all you want, but ultimately you still have you main 'something' to fall back on.

[* ah, but success by whose terms? and as far as blogs go, success compared to what? for me I choose being happy with my content, perhaps making myself, and maybe even a couple other people, chuckle or nod in knowing]

So my purpose here is to give a little peek in on my world, this new one I have been able to scramble together since my divorce. These days that means continuing my yoga therapy, group therapy and the occasional couples counseling. (well, that certainly makes me sounds pretty wacko, but I'm not really - the yoga is for old, deep-rooted issues; the group is for current issues and the couples stuff is mainly to help J and I to communicate better. ok, so maybe a smidge wacko...I'll explain as we go along here.)

Also in my life: working part-time at a upper-scale furniture retail store at the mall, spending the other part of my time cleaning and doing minor improvements to our 1940's home, loving on our 2 cats and dog and now, planning my second (J's first) wedding(!!). For fun I like to stitch, create and make random things and watch Law & Order as though it were going off the air forever.

Oh, and I use parenthesis. A lot. You may wonder why you should read my blog. Fair enough. I wonder that too.

Welcome.