And a very wet New Year

We were supposed to host a party on New Year's eve - with soup, board games and a celebration of "New York New Year" - where we watch the Times Square ball drop at 9pm and yell "It's 2006!" and then feel like we're free to go to bed. But none of that happened (except the going to bed early part).

We woke up on Saturday morning to no electricity. In a fit of optimism, I drove down to Berkeley Bowl for provisions, but it took hours to get down there because there were trees crossing nearly every road around us. It was like driving around a series of mazes,each passage cut off by a giant, horizontal tree. One poor neighbor (not someone we know) had a tree crash in one window (and the roof, too) and out another. Somebody nearly drowned in flooding in their car at the bottom of our hill.

By mid-afternoon it became clear we wouldn't be able to hold this party, no matter HOW many candles I burned. It was just too cold, too dark, no hot water and no clear way to reach us. How disappointing.

So the girls went to spend the night with friends, and John and I took my mother out to dinner and to see Memoirs of a Geisha. Blech. He called it a "flotilla of B.S." She LOVED it. I was completely squicked out by the blue contact lenses (is this so we could tell her apart from all the other beautiful Asian actresses?), the women-as-object theme, the young-girl's-virginity-as-commodity theme, and the women-clawing-each-other-apart-in-hatred-and-competition-theme. The only thing going for it was the very pretty photography of the landscape and architecture, although the cute little Village did seem a little Disneyesque. And the kimonos were gorgeous. But I wouldn't recommend it. It was just too sad.

Now it is a new Year. I begin teaching again in a few weeks. I'm wishing everyone lots of good writing, great books and love.