After a boring Academy Award ceremony celebrating movies from 2007, I thought I’d talk about an Oscar winning movie from 2006, “Little Miss Sunshine.”

Let me fill you in on something about me and movies. Obviously, I don’t watch them. I used to when I was dating and married. Mostly because I went to the movies on dates and my ex used to rent and record them. Going to Blockbuster to rent movies was part of his routine, like putting gas in the car, he’d rent movies. Albeit, they were usually action or big blockbuster types of movies. I’d watch them with him the first time and when he’d watch them repeatedly, I’d pass. “Oh, you’re going to watch ‘Independence Day’ or ‘Alien 4′ for the fourth time, well, I’m going dancing with the girls.” For five years, since my divorce, my entertainment center’s been bare. He inherited the VHS movie collection. VHS?!, That’s right. He started collecting DVD’s when he moved out. Continue Reading »

Ten years ago, a friend made me a handmade clock for my 30th birthday. She decorated it at Color Me Mine. It’s white ceramic with black lettering. Instead of numerals she personalized each hour with a saying. For example, 12 o’clock reads, “Turn 30!” 2 o’clock is “Question ‘pasta’ as a food group,” and 3 o’clock is, “Charge friends counseling fees.” 9 o’clock is really funny, it says, “Fax Julie new David Duchovny nudes.” Julie, who created this timepiece, loved Duchovny, who I appreciate now because of Californication. I never faxed her nudes photos of him, however, if I did, I’d like to know where they’re at.

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Over the last few days, the idea of letting go has cropped up a lot. It’s a simple idea in theory, yet in practice it isn’t as easy as it seems. Some lyrics come to mind that serve as reminders. I often think the “shuffle songs” feature on my iPOD is really a channel to the angelic messages I need to hear. I bought myself the Apple iPOD nano exactly a year ago, and I must say, shuffling every song in my CD collection is a feature I adore. One day this week on my lunch break I did “the double traverse.” I began to call this route where I walk up a huge hill, turn around at the bottom and go back up, the “double traverse” ever since a climber attempted to do it on The Discovery Channel’s show, “Everest Beyond the Limit.” Continue Reading »

Driving to see a Steely Dan tribute band, Pretzel Logic, I called one of several friends of mine that can’t stand Steely Dan. I don’t understand, maybe they’re one of those bands that’s either loved or hated. Obviously, I love them. I have ever since elementary school when I’d sing, “Get back Jack, do it again,” every time I saw a schoolmate named, Jack. However, I really only knew the “hits,” until I my ex, who was older than me, introduced me to all the songs. The first time I heard “My Old School,” Tom and his friend started going crazy, singing and playing every air instrument known to 35 year old men. Continue Reading »

Photo Courtesy of Debra Powers

Last night I felt a little pressure about Valentine’s Day. Not the kind of pressure, a lot of couples feel about the holiday of love and romance. I just felt a bit uninspired about the subject. I thought I might write about a Valentine’s Day date with Tom and Matthew at Taco Bell that was cut short by a sick three year old throwing up all over the dining area. Maybe now you can tell why I felt uninspired. So I turned to one of the best resources I know for help, Matthew. Before prayers, I asked him to help me brainstorm by asking him to define love. His definition was, “Love is God.” Perfect, Matthew! I probed him some more. He told me, “There are two kinds of love. The first one is when you help someone in need and the second kind is the ‘marrying kind.’ Helping a friend kind of love is likelier than the marrying kind.” He further explained, “Helping humanity is good for the soul while the ‘marrying kind’ is good for the heart and feelings.” Wow. He’s right on, huh? Continue Reading »

The moon is orange and plump like the tabby, outside kitty,
Threatening to fall into the ocean,
If I weren’t here to see it, would it still be so pretty?
Like a tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it,
It’d be a shame to miss it, an outcry and a pity.

Will he go for a night, night swim?
“Go on, just do it, take the Nestea plunge,
You go first and we’ll come right in,”
The stars encircling him cry.
I beg him, “Don’t listen, stay strong and you’ll win.”

Selfishly I can’t bear to have a fat cat douse the silvery highway,
A mirrored road that leads to where ever I want to go,
He hangs on with imaginary claws, batting at the stars to play,
Illuminating the sky with an apricot glow,
He purrs and gives me a wink assuring me like all true things, he’s here to stay.

(by Linda Latta)

I was on the computer last night when Matthew asked if I wanted to read with him. It was as if he read my mind because I was about to take a break from the computer to dig deeper into A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. An avid reader from my writers’ group, who can sense that I don’t read as much as I should, being a writer and all, let me borrow it. Over the years the recommendations from my writers’ group have been right on. Continue Reading »