Best of...

It was a family, friends, snow, ice, rain, warm, choc chip cookie, movie kind of Christmas and now it is over, and New Year's Eve looms.  We ate perhaps too well - with food from Whole Foods (ran into Don Sleeman), Plum's Market, and a new restaurant in Ann Arbor named Cubana.  We passed by some old fave's:  Bandito's, Seva, Red Hawk.  Ann Arbor remains a primo town.  Our past parades before our eyes.  We saw two movies "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Milk."  Both were spectacular in very different ways.  SM was quite the spectacle, complete with splashes of color, an amazing end-sequence of Bollywood dancing as well as incredible violence.  I'd recommend the film, but be aware of the brutal treatment of children.  I liked "Milk" so much I went and saw it twice, the second time with Sally, Mark and Bern at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck.  What a performance by Sean Penn!  And Josh Brolin, who, Barbara tells me, is married to Diane Lane, looked more amazing the 2nd time.  

We saw it first at the Michigan Theater with Midge and Jay.  The theater had a list of 'must-see' movies playing the week b/t Xmas and New Year's, which included some of my favorite films:  "Wall-E," "The Visitor," "Frozen River," "Man On Wire," and "Rachel Getting Married."  As I think of that list, Wall-E," "Frozen River" and "Man on Wire" stand out as seriously entertaining and, maybe more valuable,  interesting.  

I heard from and saw friends from all over my life this season:  Michelle Young, John Campbell, Cathy Arcure, Jean Nelson, Mary Kahl, Maria Callas, Dennis and Yvonne, Marilyn Knepp, Kathleen Stadtfeld, Linda Blakey, Sarah Boulton (who is a senior in college), Candace Vancko, Celia Soden, Janet Billek.  

Steve gave me Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife, and I was riveted to it all during the break.  I read on the plane.  I read in the car going between Ann Arbor and Grand Haven.  I read in the airport.  I read at Ray and Veda's.  I read at Midge's.  I finished the book just as the plane landed in Albany.  I passed along the book to Shelly W and look forward to talking about it with her.  I'm not too sure it is well written and am not too sure how faithful it is to Laura Bush's life, but I am sure it kept me entertained.  

Happy New Year!  2009 will be wonderful (and terrible), and I plan to enjoy every minute.