Just got home from seeing "Where the Wild Things Are."  Some movies, I can wait for the DVD.  Others, I can wait until it hits the cheap theater.  But this one...there was no chance I wasn't going to see it on opening night.  I've known that since about six months ago, when my 19 year-old son pulled me away from making supper, overcome with urgency that I needed to "look at this right now"...a trailer from the film. 

I remember reading the book at my best friend's house when I was a little girl.  I think I picked it up every time I was there.  The prose was short and simple, the artwork imaginative, and the enormous space for fantasy therein captivated me.

But that wasn't all that drew me in.  There was my fascination with Max, a little boy much further out of control than anyone I knew.  In my little corner of the world in the early 70's, kids were kept under control.  Max was an enigma to me.  Fascinating and other-worldly.  I had never heard the term "ADHD."  Max shocked me as much on the hundredth read as he had on the first.

My son's girlfriend went to the show with me tonight.  Leaving the theater with her, I realized Max probably never looked as strange to her as he once did to me.  The world is full of Maxes today, and parents, schools and experts of every stripe strive to find solutions for their impulse control problems. 

Truth:  watching this move made me deeply sad.  In my life and very close to my heart are some very real and very out-of-control people.  I saw them in Max tonight, and it was poignant.  I saw them in the monsters tonight, and it was wrenching.  I watched how their world didn't work, and it was the same familiar ache I feel when someone beautiful and precious to me falls down again, undone by their own rage, overreactions, and misunderstandings.  I hadn't expected to cry at this film.  But I wasn't the only one. 

I am painfully aware tonight that I'm filtering everything through my own experience, which makes me curious to read others' takes on the film.  Do send me your thoughts, please!  (And I'm headed off to hunt reviews...I didn't want to read what anyone else said until I'd gotten my own words down on the page.)

I recommend it in so many ways.  Visually compelling.  Incredible soundtrack.  Hilarious.  Deep.  Scary.  Real.  Heartbreaking.  Beautiful. 

Simply:  good cinema, methinks. 

Today I worked the holiday.  It was nice enough...the dynamic in a shelter really changes when you get down to one staff, and today I was that one.  Living alone means that working the holiday doesn't put anyone out at home.

I am having a very rough night.  I have a long list of things I'd like to get done, but I'm hitting a hard patch of extreme sadness for several somebodies whom I love and cannot help.  I should make myself busy.  But it's pretty easy to sit in front of the computer in a funk, and the night is slowly going away in just that manner. 

I did accomplish a bit:  while I cooked supper, I also cooked up some extra stuff for lunches.  I should have it covered for the rest of the week, methinks.  I am discovering, as I purpose to eat reasonable/actual individual sized servings for a change, that my gladware is all too big.  For now I'll just let it bang around in the oversized-ness; I have other more important financial priorities at this point than perfectly sized plastic.   

At least the house is clean (other than my bedroom) while I am sulking around. 

Maybe I'll go try to write poems or something.

Crazy busy day at work.  Stayed late solving a problem.  I worked something like 4 hours of overtime this week.  The fun part of this:  overtime is not authorized.  So most of that time will be donated as volunteer hours, and I'll maybe compensate for part of it by arriving late/leaving early next week.  Not too stressed about it; no one forced me to do this.  I was just trying to help things flow well.  The important thing here is that I not focus on the math of what I might have gotten paid for it, had it been authorized!

I love cell phones.  Both of my kids were in touch via that vehicle again today.  Beautiful.

Didn't really love having no one here to yack at when I got home; I was feeling kinda talkative.  Eh.  It wasn't so bad, though.  Mostly, I am just tired. 

Nothing of any significance to offer tonight.

k