Aloha!

Yay!!! I made it to Hawaii after a hellish couple of weeks leading up. I literally had spent 12 to 16 hour days at work, preparing lesson plans for this week off, grading projects, and getting my final grades figured out. What a challenge, but now is TOTALLY worth it!

No, I haven't read a SINGLE THING in the midst of all this madness! I am feeling like both Les Miserables and Tess of the D'Urbervilles were a great success. That is a huge relief for me, as I hate making students dread a novel. Neither are perfect, chipper and happy novels, but both have amazing messages about culture and society. So, what could I possibly need to post about, since I haven't yet read a single thing??? Well, I didn't dare read on the plane--since I knew I'd get plane sick and end up freaking out whoever sat next to me--, but the plane from LA to Honolulu was really great, and outfitted with your own video screen filled with TONS of great, new releases. Having followed the Oscars, and it's nominees, I had heard a lot about the film "Doubt," which was offered for free viewing on the plane.


I clicked on it, and have to say that it was pretty engaging. I really liked it, although it's not a feel good film. Set in the 1950's or 60's, it centers around a Catholic school where Meryl Streep is the head principal. The lead actress from "Enchanted," Amy Adams, plays the classroom teacher who becomes suspicious of the attentions the head priest begins to pay one of her young, and only African-American, student. You get where this is headed! Anyway, Meryl Streep plays this amazingly tough-as-nails nun, who demands a type of strict discipline and adherence to a clean lifestyle, that she refuses to sit by and see one of her students suffer at the hands of one of her fellow members of the cloth. Standing up against her own superior, Streep confronts the priest, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and while she has doubts, she puts the welfare of the student first and challenges the priest to be honest about his actions and behavior.

As you can imagine, it is a hard-hitting film. Based on a famous play, the filmography works amazingly well to propel the story, and not distract us from the dialogue and relationship between characters. I don't know if the film was edited for the plane, but it was gritty yet clean. Yes, I still agree that Kate Winslet's performance in "The Reader" was oscar worthy, I have to say that I TOTALLY see why Meryl Streep earned yet another Oscar nod for this performance!

Well, I'm off to finish preparing Sunday dinner! :) Doc went down to the beach to soak in some rays, and I'm sure mom and I will follow suit later this afternoon. I can't wait to sit in a beach chair, the ocean rolling in, and a nice book in my hands. Until later then...Mahalo!