The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

For its August selection, my book club chose The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. It is a sad story with an ending that is, ultimately, very uplifting. Harold Fry, recently retired, is is in a loveless marriage, is estranged from his adult son, and is filled with regret about his mundane life and his many missed opportunities. Out of the blue, he receives a goodbye letter from Queenie Hennessy, a former colleague who is dying of cancer. He immediately writes a response and, while on his way to post the letter, he makes the irrational decision to take the letter to her in person by walking more than 500 miles from his home in Kingsbridge to her hospice in Berwick Upon Tweed.  He is ill prepared for this journey (he is out of shape, is wearing inappropriate footwear, and left his phone at home) but he becomes convinced that he can save Queenie if she can just hold on until he gets there. As he walks, he encounters many different people from whom he learns important life lessons and the walk becomes less about Queenie and more about Harold finding his way back to himself and to his wife, Maureen, with every passing step. The writing is beautiful and evocative and there were many times when I felt such profound sadness for Harold.  I really loved his character and I found Maureen to be an absolute shrew until an unraveling of past events, little by little, reveals the reason for her bitterness.  In fact, Maureen goes on a metaphorical journey of her own living without Harold, eventually finding her way back to him.  It makes their eventual reconciliation all the more powerful. I must admit that I cried during some of the final scenes.  I did start to lose interest as the journey dragged on and on and became rather predictable but it is worth it to push through because the message that it is never too late to begin again is absolutely lovely! I definitely recommend it.

Mistress America

There are three films that I want to see at the Broadway this week (and another opening next week).  Last night I went there fully intending to see the documentary Meru, which was at the top of my list, but it was completely sold out because Jimmy Chin, one of the co-directors, was giving a Q&A after the screening.  I quickly defaulted to Mistress America, the second film on my list.  It is absolutely hilarious!  It is a madcap screwball comedy where eccentric characters find themselves in crazy situations with lots of fast paced dialogue.  I laughed and laughed!  Tracy (Lola Kirke) is a lonely college freshman who is finding her first semester to be a disappointment, especially when she is rejected by the literary magazine.  Her mother suggests that she call her soon-to-be stepsister, Brooke (Greta Gerwig), and she immediately finds herself in Brooke's orbit.  Tracy is enchanted by the free-spirited and flamboyant Brooke but eventually realizes that she is full of plans and ideas which never come to fruition, such as running a restaurant/hair salon.  Tracy writes a short story about Brooke's life (titled Mistress America after a superhero character created by Brooke), which is finally accepted by the literary magazine, but it causes a rift in their relationship.  Gerwig gives a fantastic performance, playing Brooke with a frenetic energy that is fun to watch.  The film is full of witty dialogue, giving Gerwig, who co-wrote the screenplay, the opportunity to display her almost perfect comedic timing (my favorite line is, "He's one of those people that I hate, except that I'm in love with him.")  The supporting characters are also a lot of fun, especially Mamie-Claire (Heather Lind), Brooke's arch-nemesis and former best friend who stole one of her ideas (and her fiance).  This is the perfect film for a fun night out with friends and I really enjoyed it.

It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times

This week I had a really big setback with the sale of my house which put the purchase of my new house in jeopardy.  It was beyond frustrating to me because we were ready to close next week.  I packed up my entire house and was in the process of getting ready to move everything to storage until I could close on the new house the following week.  I shed quite a few tears!  Thankfully everything has been resolved with my house (and it looks like I will probably be able to move forward with the new house) but the timeline has been pushed back three weeks.  Of course, I am so grateful that I don't have to start the entire process all over again but it hasn't been a lot of fun living with everything I own in boxes this week and I certainly do not relish the thought of another three weeks of this!  It is hard to come home to empty rooms!  My only solace has been school (solace was a vocabulary word this week).  I absolutely love my classes!  My sophomores have started a short story unit and my seniors have started reading Beowulf and we have already had some amazing discussions.  Also, my officers are just so much fun to work with.  We have already been so busy and we've spent a lot of time this week getting ready for Homecoming, staying late at school for several nights working on a banner.  They keep me laughing all the time so I don't have time to dwell on my real estate woes!

I think they did an amazing job on the banner (the moon was made with chalk) and they have received a lot of really positive feedback from students (and teachers) so they are very excited.  I don't think I will look back on selling my house with any particular fondness but I always want to remember what a great start I had to the 2015-2016 school year!

The End of the Tour

This weekend my sister and I packed up my entire house!  This included 18 medium boxes of paperback books and 14 large boxes of hardbound books!  Why do I have so many books?  By the time Sunday rolled around, not only did every muscle in my body hurt, but I was in serious need of a distraction.  I ended up at the Broadway, my usual Sunday night destination (although I went to the early show because I am now in school), to see yet another movie that I tried, unsuccessfully, to see at Sundance.  I had heard so many great things about The End of the Tour so I was very eager to see it.  David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) is assigned to write a profile of the author David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) for Rolling Stone.  He joins Wallace for the last five days of his 1996 book tour for the epic novel Infinite Jest (which I tried, unsuccessfully, to read several years ago) and records their conversations.  The movie opens 12 years later with Lipsky hearing the news that Wallace has killed himself and then flashes back to the tour as Lipsky listens to the tapes.  Believe it or not, this film is quite riveting, despite the fact that much of it involves two men talking, because the two men are so complicated.  Wallace just wants to be an ordinary guy and worries that fame will turn him into the very thing he criticizes in his novels.  Lipsky is an ordinary guy and wants nothing more than to be a famous writer.  He is in awe of Wallace but Wallace knows that it it is only the persona of "famous writer" that he admires.  Both men are desperately lonely and are immediately drawn to each other, bonding over junk food, but they inevitably become combative in their roles as "interviewer" and "interviewee."  It is an intense examination of loneliness, fame, depression, and popular culture and I couldn't look away from the screen!  Both Segel and Eisenberg give extraordinary performances.  I was particularly impressed with Segel because I am not a fan of much of his previous work (I am an absolute snob when it comes to TV) and I underestimated him!   I sometimes grow weary of Eisenberg's twitchy-talk-as-fast-as-you-can-in-a-monotone-voice characterization but it works in this role. The soundtrack is fabulous and features a score by Danny Elfman and songs by R.E.M.  (I think all soundtracks should feature R.E.M.).  I'm not sure that this movie is for everyone, but I found it fascinating!

Note:  After I see Meru and Mistress America, which both come out next weekend at the Broadway, I think I will have checked off everything on my Sundance wish list!

Welcome to Hunter

On Friday the SBOs and Class Officers sponsored the Welcome Assembly.  We now have the ninth graders at HHS so our studentbody is quite a bit bigger.  The administration thought it would be better to have the assembly in the afternoon because some students would naturally go home early.  I was afraid that everyone would go home early!  I needn't have worried because the gym was packed with an enthusiastic crowd and it was a lot of fun!  The assembly was a huge success (after only three days to prepare!) and I am so proud of the officers!  We had all of the performing arts groups involved and the officers had some fun games.

My favorite part of the assembly was the Spirit Can.  The officers asked me if I could get them a galvanized metal garbage can and, since that sounded perfectly reasonable, I found one at Home Depot.  They spent an afternoon painting it and we filled it with Hunter shirts, candy, and other prizes.  Whenever there were any transitions or set-ups during the assembly, the officers would take the Spirit Can to a section of the gym, raise the lid to get the crowd cheering, and throw out the items into the crowd.  It was a huge hit.  Even our principal commented on what a good idea it was and offered to order more Hunter gear to fill it.  We plan to use it throughout the year at assemblies and games!

I am usually a bit stressed out about assemblies but I was very relaxed about this one.  The officers were so pumped up all day and very enthusiastic about what they had planned and I guess it rubbed off on me!  They all have more personality than they know what to do with and they keep me laughing all the time!  The first week of school is usually a bit difficult getting everything ready and adapting to new schedules and classes but I have had so much fun with this group and I am excited for the coming year!  Now bring on Homecoming (in three weeks!)

Note:  I am not a hugger but after the assembly we were all so happy about how it went that a spontaneous group hug happened.  Our principal caught the moment and I'm kind of glad he did!