Russ Have I Loved!

Well - there has definitely been "radio silence" from me for the last week +. I have been dealing with the stomach flu...and apparently it can go on for another whole week! Ugh. I am so ready to not be sick. I have happened to get several movies and books in while sick though - So I have plenty of material.

Yesterday was 9/11. Ten years to the day after the terrorist attacks in New York and D.C. I won't bore you with my "where was I" story - since my safe butt in the middle of no-where Wisconsin was just fine. It was hard to deal with and I remember being scared that my brother would be drafted, but that never happened...Thank God. After reading and watching several Crusades movies - it has me wondering if this is some just great big karmic play-out from the Crusades. Lord, I don't want to think about what kind of karma Westerners would get from the treatment of Jews throughout the millenia! Let's just hope it doesn't come to anything like that!

I've watched several Russell Crowe movies recently - on a Russ Crowe binge! I watched Master and Commander and Cinderella Man. Both movies were pretty good. I much preferred Cinderella Man - just because it didn't have some of the DORKY things that Master and Commander had - then again, I wouldn't be surprised if men stuck on a boat together thought "You always pick the lesser of two weevils" was funny.

Master and Commander tells the story of Capt. Aubrey and his ship. He is ordered to keep one of Napoleon's ships from entering the Pacific. Well, he doesn't do that, he ends up chasing her into the Pacific. It wasn't the worst of movies and I loved seeing Billy Boyd in the movie.

Cinderella Man was really interesting. I loved that it told the story of James J. Braddock and all the struggles he went through to make his second chance. I thought one of the cutest points in the movie was when Jim Braddock tells his son that he will never send him away.

I re-read Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson - and I totally LOVE this book. It is kind of one of those books that makes you feel like crap because you bawl the whole way through. The story is of two twin sisters - Caroline and Sara Louise. Caroline is the beautiful twin that every one loves and everything comes easily too. Poor Sara has to see her friends, loves, and dreams achieved by her sister while she closes up from the world. She finally realizes that she doesn't have to wait for things to come to her - she can go out and get them. She finally is able to overcome her feelings that she, like Esau, was hated by God while her sister, like Jacob, was loved. The parallels between the biblical story of Jacob and Esau were interesting.