Wake Me Up When September Ends

When I was serving a mission in Chile, I was scheduled to go home in September of 2007.  My last few months in the field were spent listening to fellow missionaries sing Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends" to remind me that the end of my mission was drawing near.  Nowadays, whenever the month of September draws to a close, I inevitably think of that song.

This month has been a very interesting one for me, mostly because I am now back in school.  It's a strange thing, really.  After taking a two-year break from the classroom environment with all the homework, tests and stress that come with it, I at first felt very out-of-place and ill-equipped for success.  Luckily I am only enrolled in two classes at the moment, so my workload hasn't been too overwhelming... yet.

My favorite of the two is British Literature: Beginnings to 1800 (English 2610).  My professor is a delightful woman who is full of energy and great insight, carefully orchestrating the class discussions so that I always feel I am learning something without ever feeling bored.  We have read and analyzed Beowulf, Judith, The Wife's Lament, selections from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (focusing on the "General Prologue" and "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale"), selections from Malory's Morte D'Arthur and we are now moving into the 16th Century with Sir Thomas More's Utopia.  Very interesting stuff, even if I feel like all my time outside of class is spent reading!

The other class I am taking is Ethics and Values (Philosophy 2050), and I am getting tired of everyone laughing and saying, "You sure need that one!"  Ha ha.  I'm gay so I have no values... ha ha.  I get it.  Besides, the class isn't what people think it would be.  Instead of going into Aristotle and his philosophies, for example, we spend class discussing things like healthcare, immigration, and political correctness.  Every week I am required to watch two hours of political commentary (an hour that is liberal and an hour that is conservative) and report on the topics and opinions conveyed.  Overall, I find the subject matter interesting, but the professor lacks a clear objective when he is teaching and the result is a two-and-a-half-hour class period of his rambling.

Assignments for both classes have been minimal thus far, but currently I am studying for a big test in my Brit Lit class and sometime in October I have to lead a class discussion on pornography and prostitution in Ethics and Values.  After those get graded I'll have a much clearer picture of how I'm doing, but for the moment, I'm doing just fine!

Aside from school, not much has changed.  Brian is still working for Culinary Crafts and he's been getting a lot of hours lately.  He brings home twice as much money as me, which doesn't exactly make me feel awesome.  I'm still at the movie theater, but am seriously considering a new job because minimum wage just simply doesn't cut it.  Brian and I went apartment hunting the other day, and if we are ever going to move out I'm going to have to bring home some bacon!

Our financial situation isn't completely bleak, however.  We have finally paid off all our credit card debt!  Yay!  And we actually have a sizable dollar amount in our savings account, which is rare for the two of us.  So in that aspect, things are looking up.

Enough about money, though!  September has had plenty of fun moments!  We've seen lots of new movies, Glee's new season started, Brian took me up to Thanksgiving Point for the first time and later today I am going bowling!  Brian's sister Courtney celebrated her "sweet sixteen" on the 27th, my sister Renee turned eighteen on the 28th and our friend Michelle's birthday is today!

September really has been good to us, and I hope that October can be even better.

The Gleek Critique: "I Am Unicorn" Episode

Brittany is dressed as a unicorn, and Kurt is concerned it's "too gay."  Image property of Fox.

Brittany wants to help Kurt run for student body president, but her campaign ideas involve lots of pink, glitter, unicorns and rainbows.  Kurt doesn't want to be seen solely for his homosexuality, so he tells her they aren't going to use the posters she made.  However, she's stubborn and goes ahead and puts them up all over the school without his permission.  Kurt, of course, is upset about this, and it doesn't help matters that he's seen as too flamboyant to play the male lead in the school musical...

Speaking of the school musical, Coach Beiste and Ms. Pilsbury are co-directing it along with the help of Artie.  Mr. Schuester was going to do it, but he decided instead to focus all of his attention on New Directions.  He's putting the kids through a "bootie" camp to improve their dancing.  Obviously Finn is struggling the most...

And since Mr. Schuester wouldn't let the tone-deaf Sugar join New Directions last episode, Sugar's father has hired Shelby Cochran to start a rival glee club at McKinley that she will star in.  Having Shelby around creates some drama for both Rachel and Quinn.  Rachel now has to see her estranged mother at school everyday and somehow come to terms with that.  Quinn isn't sure she's ready to be a part of her baby's life, which Shelby adopted at the end of Season One.  However, with some nudging from Puck, she decides to get her life back in order to try and gain custody of her daughter!

The Pros:

• Brittany's definition of a unicorn (someone who knows they are magical) was pretty adorable.
• I loved Sue's comment about Quinn's "thin, forgettable alto."  Mostly because it's true.
• A great duet between Lea Michelle and Idina Menzel!!  "Somewhere" (from the musical West Side Story) was moving and I thought they fit it nicely into the plot.
• Kurt's rendition of "I Am The Greatest Star" (from the musical Funny Girl) was a lot of fun to watch!  No wonder Coach Beiste said, "He owned that song like it was his prison bitch."
• I loved when Santana said (of the posters), "This is toned down.  In the original the unicorn was riding you." Ha ha ha...
• I like that Finn is now working at Burt's garage.  Smart move, writers!
• Sue's exploitation of Quinn's life to further her anti-arts campaign was pretty funny.  And I really loved when Mr. Schuester told Quinn straight up to quit blaming everyone else for her problems!  Someone had to do it...
• Blaine's audition singing "Something's Coming" (also from the musical West Side Story) was fantastic!!  I LOVE BLAINE!

The Cons:

• Only three songs??  That's it?
• Seriously, I'm loving Season Three so much that it's hard to find things to complain about...

The Gleek Critique: "The Purple Piano Project" Episode

Rachel singing the intro to "You Can't Stop the Beat," image property of Fox.

I started my day with a text from my friend Rebecca saying, "Happy Glee Day!"

Yes, that's how excited we gleeks are about the start of Season Three!  Don't judge.

So Mr. Schuester is trying to motivate the glee club after their loss at Nationals last year, so he's come up with a crazy scheme to let their inner musician shine through!  Purple pianos are placed sporadically around the school, and every time they pass one they are supposed to break into song!  Crazy, right?  And Mr. Schuester is naive enough to think that this will recruit people...

However, instead of turning kids on to music, it's turned them off.  In fact, the purple pianos have motivated Sue Sylvester to run for political office with a personal vendetta against the arts in schools.  Mr. Schuester is appalled of course, and it seems like those two will be at odds forever, even despite last year's emotional truce at Sue's mother's funeral.  Sue is just evil, I guess.  So evil that she's roped Santana back in to the dark side.  She and the other Cheerios torched one of the pianos and Mr. Schue had to kick her latina butt out of glee.

Meanwhile Rachel and Kurt go to meet up with some other kids who love musical theater, and lo and behold, there are other talented people in the world!  They start feeling like they are simply big fish in small ponds and that perhaps they aren't good enough to ever make it on Broadway.  And they aren't the only ones unsure about their futures.  Finn has no idea what he wants to do, and Quinn suddenly thinks she's a rebel.

But at least they have Blaine now!  Yes, folks, he has left Dalton and joined McKinley High!

The Pros:

• "I have pepperoni in my bra."  "Those are your nipples."  Ha ha ha!  Sorry, but that was just funny.
• Will's Superman lunchbox.  Love it!  And it's adorable how Emma packs it for him, while he's making lunch for her.
• I'm happy that Kurt and Rachel are friends now.  I feel like last season they hated each other then loved each other at random, but their touching scene together this episode makes it seem like their friendship is real!  No wonder Ms. Pilsbury handed them a "Me and My Hag" pamphlet...
• Great songs!  The mash-up of the Broadway classics "Anything Goes" and "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)" was phenomenal!  Loved that girl's voice (even if her face was kinda creepy).  I also really enjoyed "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead" and "You Can't Stop the Beat" featuring lots of Rachel Berry!
• I'm happy that Blaine is at McKinley now!  That means I can see more of him.  And was "Unusual" great or what?  Loved it!
• Quinn's Ryan Seacrest tattoo.  It's so weird that it's awesome.
• Mercedes has a boyfriend! Yay!
• All in all, I'm feeling positive about Season Three!

The Cons:

• Quinn suddenly being a "bad girl" with pink hair, tattoos and a smoking problem just seemed a bit... sudden.  And unbelievable.
• Santana needs to pick a side already!
• I'm getting SO TIRED of the school not recognizing that the glee kids are talented and awesome!  Seriously?  You're going to throw food at them?
• Sugar's singing voice!!  AAAH!  So awful!  I'm also unsure whether or not I'm going to like this character.

Movie Reviews: Driving is Contagious

Contagion movie poster, image property of Warner Bros.
Drive movie poster, image property of FilmDistrict.

Contagion ADMIRABLE

Director Steven Soderbergh’s thriller about a pandemic quickly killing off millions of people is stylish, straight-forward and highly entertaining from the get-go.  Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns from a business trip to Hong Kong feeling sick—very sick—and moments into the film she is spewing foam out of her mouth and convulsing before dying unexpectedly.  Her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) finds that he is immune to what scientists are discovering is a deadly virus with no known cure and is left to grieve while protecting his daughter (Anna Jacoby-Heron).  Meanwhile Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) and a crew of scientists and medical authorities (including Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle and Elliott Gould) all race against time to discover the origins of the virus and how they can best stop it.  All while blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) and the rest of the world deal with the fear of world destruction.

Contagion was a very interesting look at how connected our world is and how very easily we could all be affected by something so sinister.  The movie reveled in believability and created interesting characters and situations that could potentially arise from a pandemic of that nature.  Casting so many well-known and gifted actors really helped to give the film authority and a reason to invest ourselves in their characters, but unfortunately some of the storylines got lost along the way leaving some of the actors underused.  But aside from a few plot lines that lacked resolution, I felt that the movie did a very good job of painting a frightening—yet ultimately hopeful—depiction of the personal trauma and political banter that would derive from such a threat.

Drive AWESOME!

Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive is a calm, cool and collected film noir that is as gritty and brash as it is stunningly stylish and horrifically beautiful.  Ryan Gosling stars as a part-time stunt driver and mechanic who is very withdrawn and mysterious.  At nights he drives the getaway vehicles for various criminal heists—never getting involved and only driving.  But things get messy when he falls for his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan).  Her husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) returns from prison and if he doesn’t do a job for some guys, they will come after Irene and their young son.  Gosling’s character—unnamed, mind you—agrees to drive for him, but things go awry and soon the driver must break his own rule and get involved in order to protect the woman he loves.

One of the things that I loved about Drive was that it was very controlled.  Every scene seemed necessary, every shot was given importance, and the characters weren’t overly “talky”.  It’s a nuanced film that isn’t afraid of silence, only employing a soundtrack at the crucial moments.  Another thing I loved was the beautiful photography, paying very close attention to lighting and framing.  My favorite scene takes place in an elevator and the whole thing is shot in a very surreal way, where time seems to stand still.  It’s stunning.  The scene quickly goes from dreamy and romantic to raw and brutal, and even the shocking violence is handled with an artistic flair.  Drive is simply captivating.

Read Brian’s reviews of Contagion and Drive on his new movie blog, Addiction to Film!

Love movies?  Check out my MoviePage!

Emmys 2011

Michelle is awesome.

In other news, we watched the Emmys tonight.  She came over and watched them with Brian and me, so I guess that was actually a pretty decent opening.

Here are some of the pros and cons of the evening, assuming that A, you didn't watch it or B, you give a crap what I have to say about it.

The Pros:

• Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester from Glee if you are stupid enough not to know her) hosted and she was phenomenal!  I sure do love that lesbian!  Her opening musical number featuring lots of stars from popular TV shows was very funny, as was her bit as a Jersey housewife.  And I disagree with the characters from The Big Bang Theory because I would LOVE IT if spontaneous musical numbers passed through my apartment!
• Apart from Glee, my favorite television show is Modern Family and I was very happy that both Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell won for their roles as Claire and Phil Dunphy!  Oh, and Ty's speech was very funny!  I'm also happy to say that Modern Family took home an award for Best Direction, Best Writing and for the second year in a row they've won Outstanding Comedy Series!
• The Emmytones (a group of actors who sang little doo-wop songs) were pretty cute.  But I really loved the performance by The Lonely Island featuring Michael Bolton and Akon!  So hilarious, especially when they started grinding on poor William H. Macy!
• Matt LeBlanc (of Friends fame) has gray hair now.  I didn't know this.  He looks really good with gray hair!
• The nominees for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, starting with Amy Poehler, all ran up on the stage when their names were called... and it had all of us laughing.  Melissa McCarthy (who I love most for her role in the movie Bridesmaids, although she was nominated for her TV show Mike and Molly) won and I was very happy about it!  They gave her flowers and a crown just like she won Miss America or something.  Even backstage that woman would not take off her crown!
• Although I've never seen Boardwalk Empire or Mildred Pierce, I was happy that Martin Scorsese and Kate Winslet won awards... mostly because they are awesome and deserve it.  And did Kate Winslet look sexy tonight or what?  Loved that red dress!

The Cons:

• Some dresses were less than spectacular tonight.  Let's not lie.  Gwyneth Paltrow, Katie Holmes, Drew Barrymore, Amy Poehler and even Julianna Margulies wore some pretty ridiculous dresses.  I thought Amy Poehler was going scuba diving and Gywneth Paltrow was suddenly a belly dancer...
• Sofia Vergara's new hair color.  What was she thinking?
• Charlie Sheen.  SHUT UP ALREADY!

Fire Me Good!

“You look like you’re sitting at your own little desk!”

I simply smiled and laughed politely at the customer’s comment as I rang up her large popcorn and large soda.  The cashier’s box does sort of look like a cubicle, I suppose.  There is a counter at about desk level on three sides of me with a short wall behind.  I sit at a stool facing the register which is really just a black computer, just without a keyboard or mouse—it’s touch screen, ya know.  There are even pens and highlighters and oftentimes papers lying on the counter next to me.  I could see what she meant, although I typically thought of my workspace as more of a prison cell than an executive’s office.

“You must feel so superior to the other workers over here in your own little office!” she continued.

The man she was with seemed to be looking at some candy, so while he contemplated the wide plethora of expensive cavity-inducing options I relented to the fact that I would have to carry on this little conversation.

“Yeah, it’s kinda cool I guess.  I never really thought of it like—”

“Do you know what would be really cool?  Is if you were facing the other direction when we approached, you know, like you are in a high-backed desk chair… and we can’t see your face… and then when the customers get here you spin around and fire them or something!  Like on The Apprentice.”

Her husband or boyfriend or friend or whoever the heck he was had decided on some Red Vines so I rang them up and told them the total.  As he and I handled the transaction, she said excitedly, “You should do it right now!”

“What?” I asked her.

“Try out what I just said.  Spin around in your chair and fire me!  Fire me good!”

I suddenly felt very uncomfortable and I looked towards the man she was with to see if he thought she was as crazy as I did, but he seemed nonchalant as I handed him the receipt.

“Well,” I said, “This stool doesn’t actually spin…”

“It doesn’t?  You’re kidding!  It looks like it would!” she said, with over-exaggerated disappointment.

“No, it doesn’t.  But thanks for coming to Cinemark, guys!  Enjoy your movie now!”  That was my subtle hint to get the heck away from me, but the woman wouldn’t budge.

“I’m not leaving until you fire me.  Right here.  Right now.  Fire me good.”

Again I looked at her boy toy for help, but he was looking at the movie poster behind him, completely unfazed or even interested in the odd demand she was making of me.  Odd, and might I add somewhat sexual, by the tone of her voice.

So what choice did I have?  None really.   

"I guess I can just pretend the chair spins..."

"Oh yeah!  Play pretend!"

So I turned away from her then spun my body quickly back around and said, “You’re fired!” with as menacing a face as I could manage.

She smiled as wide as the Cheshire Cat at this, exclaiming, “That was so good!  You fired me real good!”

And then she walked off into her movie, with her silent fella trotting along behind her like a sad, sadistic little puppy.

Movie Reviews: Day of Warrior Sharks

Warrior movie poster, image property of Lionsgate.

Warrior AWESOME!

Warrior, co-written and directed by Gavin O’Connor, is in many ways everything you would expect from the fight movie genre.  It’s the classic underdog story where the characters—against all odds—rise up to victory.  However, Warrior manages to be a lot more than a fighting movie:  it’s a compelling family drama that is as emotionally raw as it is brutally macho.

The story is of two brothers, Brendan (Joel Edgerton) and Tommy (Tom Hardy), who haven’t seen or spoken to each other in years.  Their problems seem to center around their drunken and distant father Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte) who is riddled with grief over his past misdeeds and the broken family that resulted from them.  Tommy—an ex-Marine—shows up on his father’s doorstep unexpectedly, wanting to be trained in Mixed Martial Arts but still unwilling to forgive the man.  Meanwhile, Brendan—a former MMA fighter turned teacher—is struggling financially and about to lose his house.  Against his wife’s wishes, he returns to the cage to try and win some money.  The two brothers progress to the point that they must finally come head to head in the biggest MMA Championship in the sport’s history, and only then can the two face their demons and come to an understanding.

The movie thrives on its terrific performances.  Nick Nolte does terrific work as the damaged father and does the role with restraint and control.  This is probably the best work I’ve seen Nolte do in a long time and I was really very moved by his character.  He and actor Tom Hardy have some of the greatest scenes in the film, which leads me to say that Hardy was equally impressive in his role.  Edgerton does a great job as well, and the finale of the film with he and Hardy had me in tears.  Really moving stuff.

Besides all of the great emotional characterizations, Warrior has a lot of great fights that really get your adrenaline going and manages to balance the two sides very well.  It might not be as Oscar-worthy as last year’s The Fighter, but it’s definitely up there.

One Day AVERAGE

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess star in this film based on the novel by David Nicholls (who also wrote the screenplay) and directed by Lone Scherfig.  Hathaway plays Emma, a bright girl who finds success as a writer late in life and Sturgess plays Dexter, a man who has everything but nothing.  The two meet on the night of their graduation in the late 80s, and the movie shows us where they are in their lives every year on that same day.  Sometimes they are together, sometimes they are a part.  It is essentially a romantic drama and the two friends find that they love each other by the end, but the movie suffers from a lack of humor—everything is very heavy-handed—and the “one day” premise makes it hard for us to really see the character progression.  It feels like we keep fast-forwarding through the good stuff.  That being said, I still liked the movie well enough and admired Hathaway for taking on the British accent.  She really is very underrated.

Shark Night 3D AWFUL

A less-than-all-star cast led by Sara Paxton and Dustin Milligan get terrorized by sharks in this ridiculously awful horror movie.  The premise is this:  a group of college kids go to a lake house to spend a weekend of drinking, sex and fun but lo and behold there are sharks in the lake!  It’s a salt-water lake of course.  It turns out the sharks were placed there by three hillbilly psychopaths who get their jollies off of seeing people get torn apart and devoured.  They’ve even put cameras on the sharks to sell the footage on the internet.  Sound stupid?  Well, that’s because it is stupid.  The stupid script coupled with cheesy over-the-top acting of the soap opera variety make for one horrible movie.  Oh, and it’s also really predictable.  The entire time I was saying things like, “It’s gonna jump out and eat him” or “he’s bad, isn’t he?” and I was correct every time.

Love movies?  Check out my Movie Page!

Jack of the Month: Jack and Jill

Since I recently posted my own little snippet of writing based on the nursery rhyme of "Jack and Jill", I thought it would be fun to feature the story as September's Jack of the Month.

For those unfamiliar, the verse goes like this:

Jack and Jill went up a hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after


Up Jack got, and home did trot
As fast as he could caper
To old Dame Dob, who patched his nob
With vinegar and brown paper

Illustration of "Jack and Jill"

I have heard the first verse many a time, but have never in my life heard the second verse until today.  Although I hardly feel that I can incorporate Jack just getting up and running off (because it seems highly unrealistic after such a horrendous fall), I do think I could easily involve a female doctor by the last name of Dob.

Anyway, second verse aside, there are many different theories as to the meaning of Jack and Jill.  It was first published in the 1760s as part of Mother Goose's Melody, but the rhyme probably dates back even further than that.  Some scholars believe that it could be related to the brother and sister Hjuki and Bill of Norse mythology of the 13th century.  Their story also involves a well, but instead of falling down they were taken up to the moon.

Another theory is that Jack and Jill are really King Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette, and "broke his crown" signifies their beheading.  Or perhaps it has to do with England's King Charles I who led a tax reformation on liquid measures.  "Jack" was a term for a half-pint and "Gill" was a quarter pint.  This "Gill" might seem a stretch to you, but there are some old versions of the poem entitled Jack and Gill.  Many pint glasses in the UK even have a crown above the half-pint mark.

Or the poem could even be about money!  "Jack" and "Jill" once meant "dollar" and "cent", meaning that their climb up the hill was an economic boon, followed by a horrible recession when they came tumbling down.  This recession could even be blamed on a drought, giving meaning to "fetch a pail of water."

But whatever the rhyme may truly mean, it is definitely a large part of popular culture.  Shakespeare references Jack and Jill in Love Labour's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Countless bands have sung of Jack and Jill, including The Dave Matthews Band in their song "What Would You Say."  Even hip hop artist Eminem mentions Jack and Jill in the last two lines of his song "313".  In fact, just looking up "Jack and Jill" on Wikipedia brings up a magazine, a novel by James Patterson, an adult film, a comic book, a television series, an organization, a song by Raydio and even an upcoming movie starring Adam Sandler and Katie Holmes.

Not to mention an upcoming book by me!

Source:  Wikipedia

Movie Reviews: Apollo 18 and the Colombian Debt

The Debt movie poster, image property of Miramax.
Colombiana movie poster, image property of TriStar.
Apollo 18 movie poster, image property of The Weinstein Company.

About a week ago Brian set up a new blog called Addiction to Film and is also once again writing for examiner.com.  So before when it was just me begging and pleading for us to get off the couch and go see a movie, now it’s Brian saying, “I need to review that new movie so let’s go.”  It’s kind of nice that both of us are motivated to see movies now.  Maybe I won’t get so far behind!

The Debt AWESOME!

Helen Mirren gets top billing for her role as Rachel Singer, a retired Mossad secret agent who was once part of a dangerous mission to capture a Nazi war criminal.  However, Jessica Chastain is the actress who plays the younger version of Singer who we see for the majority of the film.  Although the movie begins and ends in the 90s, the majority is set in the 60s where we watch the secret mission go down.  The movie has quite a few surprises that I won’t give away, but just know that the acting is superb by both Mirren and Chastain (as well as from costars such as Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas, Jesper Christensen and Tom Wilkinson), the action is intense and violent, the suspense builds, and some interesting questions about justice and truth are posed.

Colombiana AVERAGE

Zoe Saldana stars in this action flick as a Colombian woman named Cataleya who witnesses the brutal murder of her parents as a young girl and then grows up to become a killer set on one thing—revenge.  She spends the majority of the movie running around in her underwear (or something equally skanky) killing mobsters left and right.  The action sequences are all pretty entertaining, even if they are completely unbelievable and sometimes silly.  Just watch the opening sequence and you’ll know exactly what I mean.  Another flaw to this movie was the lack of any character development.  When all we know about our main character is that she seeks revenge, we don’t know enough.

Apollo 18 ADMIRABLE

Brian only gave this movie one star out of five on his blog.  He wasn’t the only one who hated it though.  An old woman in the theater bellowed out, “Well that was stupid” as soon as the credits rolled.  I, however, liked it quite a lot.  I also have the reputation for being “too nice” to movies by the more cynical critics, so perhaps my opinions are simply to be ignored.  I don’t think that’s the case though.  Apollo 18 is about three astronauts (Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen and Ryan Robbins) who go on a secret mission to the moon.  Slowly they begin to realize they are not alone, that their country knew it, and they are left to their own devices to try and survive.  The movie had me jump out of my seat a few times, look away in squeamish horror at one particular scene, and sit in an uneasy sort of anxiety for the majority of the film.  In short, I thought it was pretty scary.

Love movies?  Check out my Movie Page!

Popcorn Poetry: Renee's Poem

Although Popcorn Poetry began with poems written exclusively at work, I've decided to expand them to include a wide variety of poems or short stories written by myself, my friends or my family.  My sister Renee posted a beautifully sad poem on her blog the other day that I just needed to share.  It is so good!

Untitled by Renee Garcia 

There comes a time
when all the things you pushed aside
come back and affect you

there comes a time
when all the things you tried to hide
come out and swallow you

there comes a time
when the joys you brought to light
turn around and deceive you

there comes a time
when all the things you did right
get lost behind you

there comes a time
when the tears in your eyes
dry up just to mock you

there comes a time
when even the sky
loses its beauty above you

there comes a time
when your love inside
overwhelms everything in you

but there comes a time
when you just say goodbye
to the darkness that surrounds you