September 16, 2004

"I'm exhausting my reds."  :)  That's a line from the movie, "Eddie and the Cruisers II:  Eddie Lives."  It's an artist talking about her current "red" phase.  I just recently saw the movie before, excited that one of my obscure favorites made it to some commercial infused pay channel like TNT or something.  It was absolutely terrible.  I'm terrified to watch the first "Eddie" now.  I love that movie too and it also might be horrible.  Isn't it so funny how our taste in and expectations from a movie changes as we get older?  Eric was for years talking up the movie "Real Men," telling me how great it was.  As we were watching it, I was stealing looks at him from the corner of my eye to see if he was registering how terrible of a movie it was.  Just... blah.  There are some movies that are timeless classics.  "The Breakfast Club," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Blade Runner," "Cool Hand Luke," "Raising Arizona," "Taxi Driver..."  The list is truly endless.  The Eddie and the Cruisers sequel, sadly, isn't on it.  I still love John Cafferty, who did the vocals for Eddie Wilson in both movies.  If you haven't heard him, be sure and check him out.  He's a little known wonder. 

Dylan is balking at his assignments today.  I was surprised by how much work the home school teacher assigns to us.  Some of it has been stretching my brain and it's 2nd grade work!  I just pray that there is an opening for him in the little school next year.  pleasepleaseplease

I just (finally) finished The DaVinci Code.  I didn't realize how little nonprofessional (as in not book reviews) reading time I have until I tried to get through it.  It was a wonderful page turner, but I kept getting my page turning interrupted.  I do believe the vast majority of what is put forth in the book, which is presented as factual within a fictional context and enjoyed it immensely.  I love most writing that evaluates the writings of the Bible juxtaposed with the historical facts.  One of my very favorites (and one of the hardest to get since it's out of print) is The Jesus Scroll." It presents a lot of the same ideas that are covered in The DaVinci Code  and then some.  I felt like my brain was opened for the first time after I read it.  I have just spent a good bit of time on a DaVinci Code message board and I can't say I'm surprised to read such extreme conflict and impassioned ("spitting") anger over the subject.  I found nothing in the book (and I was carefully screening) that disputes the wisdom, power and greatness of Christ.  It makes me sad that people are so defensive of something as subjective as religion.  We have a hard enough time getting recent history straight, much less information that has been handed down through centuries and centuries and rewritten by many different regimes along the way.  With that being actual historical fact, one would think that the historical facts presented in the Bible would be considered in that light.  I don't think it lessens the importance of the document (or the ones that were decided by Constantine not to include in the full Biblical text).  It also has to be considered that while we tend to report news more in a factual state, people in Biblical times spoke in symbolism and allegory and told stories to teach.  It was an entirely different method of communication back then.  I'm still impressed that we have the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution after a couple hundred years, much less that we have Biblical text, the Quran, the Torah and other holy texts from even further back.  It's a miracle and they should all be treasured without it turning into "right fighting."  I'm also grateful that there are people in the world smarter than I am who can help us to better understand these texts in the context of the time period in which they were written.  Rather than detracting from their value, I think it makes them infinitely more interesting!

Anyway, I highly recommend The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown.  It's quite enlightening and interesting.

I just stepped out of my box, so to speak.  Nathan's bus driver, Mark, invited me and Dylan to ride with him up to the school to get Nathan on the school bus.  He had 4 little ones to drop off along the way, then just Nathan to bring back.  It was weird that mine was the only kid on the bus.  Our school district has started charging for bus service for kids ($100 a year per kid, no family discount) and the number of kids riding the bus has dropped considerably as a result.  If you qualify for free or reduced lunches, they reduce or eliminate the transportation fee accordingly.  That could really hurt if you have 3-4 kids in school.  Since Delena is 30 minutes from school and we only have one vehicle (which Eric takes at 6am to work), the bus is the only option.  If it wasn't so far and uphill, I'd walk Nathan back and forth, but with a great deal of snow and rain coming this winter, I think I'd rather lock in the bus.  Besides, Nathan loves the bus. 

So Dylan and I rode with Mark for his (very short) route to drop off the kiddies, pick up Nathan and then back home again.  We were gone for a total of about a half hour and it was nice to get out of the house for a while.  I also found out how to get to South Lake Tahoe from my house.  : P  Want directions?  Ask a bus driver.

Yesterday, I skipped the general cleaning and decided to focus on Delena's room instead.  Every few months, I go in for a complete clean since she always half-asses it.  It is absolutely sterling!   Today, I have to clean the kids' room, try to get some carpet shampooing done (I hate that) and do a mountain of laundry (the same mountain as before).  I'm thinking green chili chicken enchiladas for dinner.  (Go to http://www.eyeonsoaps.com\AMC\recipes.htm for the recipe, bottom recipe)

Hope you have a wonderful evening!

Love,
Katrina