A Critic

It has been a long time since my last post.  Life has been crazy since then, a lot of fun things have been happening and a lot of really stressful and sad things including a death in the family. 
School is starting tomorrow and summer vacation is officially over, not that I didn't end it a little early.  I've been going in to school to help get the classroom ready and, I must say, it looks amazing.  We are doing an Asian theme this year and maybe I'll be able to take some pictures and put them up.  I really am just a little impressed with Michelle, the teacher I work with, and myself.  I can't wait for school to start and to see the kids' reactions when they come into the room tomorrow morning.

I also went to Yellowstone with my mom, my aunt Bonnie, and cousin Joe last week.  We had a great time and I am so glad that I was able to spend some time with them.  We were only there for a day but were able to see Old Faithful, of course, a beautiful waterfall, pictured below, some bison and elk, and the Playmill's version of Beauty and the Beast.  The play was ok.  Gaston and Lumiere were great but I was hoping for more from Belle.  She was alright but seemed just a bit too giggly and happy to me, Belle seems like a more somber character, not prone to sudden high pitched giggles at some of the most awkward times.  It seemed as though she was acting like one of the princesses from Disney Land instead of how I would imagine a girl who was forced to stay with a beast would; just too cheerful.  Maybe I'm a downer.

I've also been busy getting all sorts of nervous that Christmas is coming up and that my plan has been to hand make about 75% of our gifts this year and I didn't have anything done.  I know that I am extremely early for this kind of stress but the way I see it is that if I get started now I won't be nearly as stressed when I have a list of twenty people to give to and I want to make 15 of them gifts. It will also help if I am slowly purchasing things along the way instead of a sudden dump of money a few weeks before the big date.  It makes a lot of sense to me. As I've been frantically crafting I've watched the whole first season of the X-Files and am on to the second.  This is my third time watching all of the X-Files.  I'm obviously a big fan. 

On the subject of repetitive viewing, I watched the newer version of Wuthering Heights on Netflix instead of the old standby from 1992 and decided I should read the book again, for the third time as well.  The movie was pretty good, although I don't think they made Heathcliff nearly as despicable as he seems in the book.  My husband doesn't really think much of Wuthering Heights, because it is a romance but I would definitely recommend the book to just about anyone.  The story is dark and not nearly the girl's silly romance that some might think.  I really do love the book and think Emily Bronte was very talented.  It's really too bad she died before she could write more because I would love to read more.