Filling in

Warning: This is not Vikki so lower your expectations right now! As you all know Vikki is out of town this weekend at a writing retreat so she asked me to guest post, ironic isn't it? When she first asked I laughed, then I said no way, and now here I am writing a post - how the h*** did this happen?

Anyway since I have to write I thought I would give you a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which I went to see last night with 3 kids and 2 other adults. If you are not a Potter fan then you'll just have to come back tomorrow when this blog will resume its regularly scheduled posts, otherwise read on (no spoilers).

We have all been very excited about the release of HP7, well at least Miguel and I have, so we made a date with friends to go see it on opening day. I bought the tickets last Sunday for the 6:45pm show, made plans, and on Friday there we all were at the theatre at 5:55pm. There was a line to get in and so we waited. In line with us were Hagrid, several people wearing Gryffindor robes, Bellatrix and people in Quidditch garb (we were none of those). At 6:15 they let us into the theatre, we got good seats and then it was time to get the treats. It was the "junk food follies" as one of our friends likes to say. Finally at 7pm, after some pretty lame previews that make me think our X-mas day movie selection will be fairly weak, the show started and everyone applauded! So here's my succint review:

1. Hermione kicks butt

2. The 7 Potters scene is pretty cool

3. Grimauld place looks much better than before (Kreacher must have been busy)

4. There were moments that should have been in the movie that were not, and things that were in that were not needed

5. Bill Weasley is poorly cast

6. The Batilda Bagshot scene is very well done

7. I will probably see it again (at the very least on video), and can't wait for Part 2

When the movie was over, people clapped and whistled and everyone in our party agreed that it was pretty good but wished they had some things differently. The books are still better!

I hope you enjoyed this post and stay tuned for the return of the intrepid writer from the wilderness of Oak Lake tomorrow. Who knows there might be another bat, or perhaps a bear, fox, or some other wildlife story...

Unbearable Lightness

I do not usually read celebrity memoirs and I certainly don't make a practice of buying them. They are generally poorly written but, more importantly, I worry about what it would say about me to have a bookcase lined with them. This week, however, I watched Portia de Rossi on Oprah talking about her book "Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain" and her struggle with an eating disorder and I wanted the book. I tried talking myself out of it for the reasons cited above and told myself that the only thing worse than buying a celebrity memoir was buying it in hardback. Then, I went to Barnes and Noble on Thursday to buy Miguel a book as part of our Halloween Candy Buy Back program and decided that I would just look at Portia's book . Of course, I didn't just look - I bought it. In the end, I didn't buy it because Portia is married to Ellen DeGeneres. I bought it because I wanted to read her story and compare it to my own.

This book is not really a celebrity memoir - it is simply a memoir, a story of a young woman's struggle to accept herself. She wrote every word of it and, after finishing the book, I find myself hoping that she writes more. She writes beautifully about horrible things using imagery that is almost poetic at times. It is vivid and painful and takes you into the depths of the insanity of a person with an eating disorder. It is graphic at times, ugly and unflattering. She writes explicitly about her self-hatred but also her judgment of others. Telling the truth always requires courage. Telling the truth is such raw detail when you live under constant media scrutiny requires even more. Unbearable Lightness is a book about perfectionism, control and self-destruction but it is also about acceptance, healing and love.

I highly recommend the book if you've ever struggled with an eating disorder, body image or accepting yourself as you are. If you have a thing about buying celebrity memoirs, you can borrow my copy - it will be right there in my bookcase.

Autostraddle has a more in-depth review. Check it out here.

Let's Fight

I have to tell you something, something that is very hard for me to admit. I often say that my life is an open book, that I don't have secrets, and that is true. Mostly. This thing that I need to talk about, however, is one of those things that could change the way you think of me forever. That is scary but, as with most things in life, living a lie is even scarier. So, here goes: I watch Grey's Anatomy.

I have watched Grey's Anatomy for a long time, even before they had a lesbian storyline that I could use to justify my viewing. At this point, I watch for three reasons: Sandra Oh (Christina Yang), Sara Ramirez (Callie Torres) and Jessica Capshaw (Arizona Robbins). For those of you don't watch the show (and I don't judge), Callie and Arizona are the token lesbian couple on a show full of hetero-romping and they are cute and hilarious and, well, have you seen them? So, I am rather invested in them and then, last night, this happened:

I was a tiny bit upset. I may have gasped and yelled, "NO!" I can't recall exactly but I do remember that things in my own little lesbian household went awry because Luisa and I took sides. She took the wrong side and I took Callie's side. I identify with Callie because I would give up everything for love. Call me a hopeless romantic or call me a crazy, impractical person who blogs while wearing her winter coat inside her house. Wait - that has nothing to do with anything. The point is that I would go with Luisa to Africa even if I didn't want to and I would make it work but Luisa wouldn't want me to go because she wouldn't want me to sacrifice my happiness for hers and so clearly she doesn't want me to go to Africa with her and I can't believe she doesn't want me to go to Africa with her and what does that say about our love and my world doesn't make sense anymore because our life is a sham and OH MY GOD we are arguing about a fictional situation and fictional people and neither of us is going to Africa and Jessica Capshaw isn't even going to Africa because she's just on maternity leave!

There aren't that many lesbian storylines on television and we are desperate for better representation. So, when a couple like Callie and Arizona come along, we want them to stay together forever. It's not surprising then that their break-up makes people sad and angry and leads people to complain that lesbians never get good storylines. As much as I hate their break-up, I have to admit that this is a good storyline because it is realistic. We have to stop thinking of "good representation" as getting a guaranteed happy ending and start thinking of "good representation" as realistic. If we can put ourselves in the characters' places like Luisa and I did last night, I'd say the writers are doing something right even if it feels very wrong. Now, that doesn't mean I don't hope those crazy kids work it out. I do and I hope that ABC will give us some make up sex to go with the reconciliation. A girl can dream...