...and my mom just left with her friend to meet the family up north for Memorial Day weekend, while I stay here and contemplate ways to get it through Asperger boys' thick skull that I think he's cute and perfect and we should date. This weekend better be damn well promising.

Today is WHISK day at school. I had to drive a student to UofR so that she could shadow a genetics physicist. I get to the front of Strong Hospital and the security guard asks me if I'm this girls mom... she's dressed like a yenta. Meanwhile, my phone is dead so I have to drive all the way back home so that I can get yelled at about my student loans. FML.

Little Miss Snitch

While the kids are away, everyone else will... play rock paper scissors to decide who gets to ride in my car to the movie theater.

I swear my life is like that sketch out of this past Saturday's SNL with Tina Fey and the Bieb. Of the 18 students who stayed back during the eighth grade trip to Washington D.C. this week, 17 of them are boys. Two of those boys have giant, laughable, palpable crushes on me. So much so that other teachers are now running interference for me.

As I announced in the parking lot that I had four seats open to drive students to the movie, there appeared four boys behind me as if they'd already worked out who was coming. Oh wait, they did. As I talked video games with one of my students during lunch, a group of eight (ish) boys circled up to see who would get a coveted spot in my car. I wish there was a less embarrassing way to tell them I'm really not that cool.

This week has resulted in me wanting their collection of J-Bieb's hits.

Brothers

This is extremely overdue, so I apologize for a review I should have written two months ago. In fact, I didn't even see the film until this afternoon so that's my excuse.

At this point if you haven't seen Brothers, then I can't say I blame you because it got overshadowed by a lot of other bigger bolder winter blockbuster films but it was exquisite in it's own quiet way. I haven't seen many war movies simply because I have found that more often than not, when they're made well these types of films are ultimately too much for my heart and mind to handle. Brothers doesn't disappoint in that realm. It is emotionally tangled from the moment you meet the main characters, and it's evident before the lights even go out in the theatre that the audience will be watching a love affair of sorts.

What I wasn't expecting was the scenes that follow Toby Maguire's character Sam in Afghanistan as he struggles through torturous circumstances in order to get home alive. Those scenes are undoubtedly too real, leaving the audience caught between two worlds.  Existing simultaneously are the different stories the film follows and they are edited in such a way as to wake up viewers from the increasingly loving relationship that blossoms between Sam's brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), Sam's wife Grace (Natalie Portman) and Sam and Grace's two daughters.

I digress to say that I think the real breakout acting in this film is done by Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare. Two young actresses who flawlessly protray Sam and Grace's daughters. There is never a question that these girls are as grounded and wonderfully candid in only a way that a young child can be during what would be an incredibly painful situation, especially so early in life.

Sam ultimately returns [as is shown in the trailer] and suffers from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which subsequently keeps him isolated from his newly reunited family. It also keeps him guessing about Grace and Tommys' relationship, as is the audience. We never really get answers, but what we do get is an extraordinary scene involving all three main characters as Sam struggles with his inner guilt and anger. It is truly heart-wrenching, and incredibly suspenseful.

When the credits roll, you end up astounded and wanting more. Without giving anything away I have to say that I felt unsatisfied. I walked out feeling like I'd seen half of an extremely captivating film.  Check it out though - in some places Brothers is still in theatres, but if not it comes out on DVD March 23.

How To Make It In America

I just had the privilege of watching the first episode of "How To Make It In America", since I'm off from work this week due to February break. The new series on HBO which is produced by Mark Wahlberg and his team of miscreants who also created Entourage, follows two "twenty-something" guys trying to make it in The Only City That Matters (TOCTM aka NYC).

Something about the blog they've been using to promote the show caught my eye a few weeks back, so since the first ep was free (!) on iTunes I thought I'd take advantage of that and watch. What a delight.

If you happen to be a twenty-something, like I am, trying to make it basically anywhere this show is for you. I can't help but be drawn in by the city setting though. The show and it's characters remind me so much of why it is I made my goal to move to the city in the first place.

Check out the episode. It's as much full of laughs as it is full of empathy for the main character (played by Bryan Greenberg) who oozes heartbreak with his facial expressions. If you're in a similar situation to mine; aka moved home to save some money cause you got a job offer that you kind of like and it's smarter than immediately moving to where you really want to be then this show is for you.

(Photograph above from HBO Canada.)