And so it begins.......

Today is my first day in this new world of blogging. I've created it because we women have no time or opportunities to girl talk.

I just returned from a 3 day silent retreat. My co-workers believed that I could not possibly be silent for 3 days. Ha!! Ha!! Ha!! I can be quiet, but there usually isn't a reason to be so. I did spend enough quiet time to realize I definitely need an outlet, so here it is. I may not be talking to anyone at all (just cyberspace), but at least I'm putting it out there.

What I hope is that this blog may provide a forum where girls (well okay, we're really women, but do we ever call ourselves "women"? No, we're girls!) can get together and talk about whatever we usually talk about but never seem to find the time due to jobs, kids, husbands, and/or life. Everyone around me is so tired of me getting on my usual rants or raves about things so, this blog is really written to give them a break . There will be a couple of things I'll always include each week -- discussions of Books & Movies I've recently seen or read or those that I love so much I have to talk about them. I'll probably also add the name of new song or group I've found, if I've gound anything I like out there.

Books: my friend, Christina (or Tinta as I call her), reads deep and thought provoking books and talks about them in a way that even my square mind understands why she's so enthusiastic about them. It also reminds me that she's truly a brilliant renaissancist (is that a word?--maybe I should say "renaissance woman") and that I'm neither brilliant nor a renaissancist (I don't care if it's not a word--it is now). Genna, my English Lit major, lawyer friend, reads books that take me years to finish. But once you finally get the book read, she's right! They do have all the beautiful irony, satire and incredible premises (is that the plural for premise, Genna?) that you'll never forget them. I recommend all of the Genna books I've read to all my sophisticated and well-read friends. Now, I'm going to go out on my limb and expose my dark secret here. Historically, I've been into reading books with great literary value or deep meaning. I actually decided to read all the novels that have won the Pulitzer Prize. I got quite far in my quest. But then one day, I was wandering around Borders Books and discovered a new treasure: the book with no literary value whatsoever - usually (gasp!) romances. So, for the past 2 years, I have voraciously read paranormal romance, action/fun romances, and smut. My husband, I think is mortified at my recent fall from sophistication, but he's a trooper and accepts this new embarassing facet of my personality. Frankly, I love to completely escape in a book and read nothing about heavy moralistic decisions. Heck, don't we have to deal with that in everyday life??? I'll recommend to anyone with any sense of adventure and willingness to open your mind and suspend your disbelief for a short while, to read the Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse) series of books by Charlaine Harris. Yes, these are indeed the books the new HBO series, "TrueBlood" is based on, but there is no way a t.v. series (even as good as this one appears to be) can capture all the great parts in these books. They're funny, sexy and just crazy. I love Sookie's character. She's so quirky.

Movies: I did recently see Gone, Baby, Gone (directed by Ben Affleck)which was surpisingly good. I'd never heard of it but rented it on a whim, but it really is worth seeing. Good acting, very thought provoking. I don't actually travel to a physical movie theater very often (but watch my fair share on On Demand and DVD. I will, however, take the entire day off and see the new James Bond movie three times on opening day. This new James Bond just does something to me...... (sigh). Believe it or not, my mother in law plans to join me. (She's not your normal MIL, and our crazy relationship merits it's own blog entry.) I also have my all-time favs: The Red Violin is definitely up there. Also, I love gratuitously violent movies, like all the Cohen Brothers' films (e.g., Raising Arizona, Fargo) I haven't seen Burn after Reading, but plan to as soon as I can figure out how to either get away to see or it comes to my cable box. Also, I love good foreign films -- A good one that isn't too well know that I LOVED is Facing Windows. You must see this movie if you haven't!!!! My friend, Cheryl and I share our Netflicks picks with Tim, this guy in our office, who makes fun of all of our movies choices. He actually talked me into renting The Caine Mutiny and Twelve Angry Men! Clearly, he's a movie snob, but have to admit I find some great movies through him. Cheryl's movie choices, however, make me laugh out loud and I give her absolute crap about it. In exchange, she thinks my favorite choices and recommendations are wierd (can you believe she hated Fight Club?????) I believe after her soon to be born son arrives, she'll join me in the love of violent movies. It's a wonderful vent.

I don't plan to limit this blog to just books and movies (cause that would be plain ole boring), but I do love to talk about them. Also, expect to hear my recommendations for music because it is food for your soul. Listen to Paolo Nutini if you haven't heard of him by now. He's a poet and wonderful musician. Can't wait to hear what he's got coming next. My husband has discovered the Arctic Monkeys (because of a song I downloaded, I might add). I like them too. Check em out.

That's it for this first blog I've ever written. I'll try to update weekly.