Volver.

The new Almodovar film is a total treat, and a very, very good story. Penelope Cruz is amazingly good (I am one of many American moviegoers who had no idea how good of an actress she is; thank goodness she left the shadow of Mr. Cruise). My only pet peeve about the film is that they dub Cruz's voice for a singing solo -- I have no idea if she can sing like a gitana, but I nearly giggled in the theater when an audience member clapped at the end of her song.

Dude, she was dubbed!

A had a school interview today. The interview required that he wear a tie. Silly me, I went to H & M last night to buy one, NOT the clip-on kind, because I figured he could figure it out with the help of one of many HOW TO TIE YOUR CRAVATE websites. After 45 minutes of HOW TO TIE YOUR CRAVATE, he gave up, and so did I.

We phoned a neighbor.

A: "Erm, hello, Atsushi? Sorry to bother you, but I have an interview and I need your help."

Atsushi is our downstairs Japanese hipster neighbor. He came up to our apartment. With methodical precision, lasting 30 minutes or so, he demonstrated the art of tying the tie. I felt like we were sitting through an origami class. The point was to help A remember, and not ask for his help again. I was worried we were going to be late to the interview.

So, when we arrived at 1:20 p.m. and not 1:00 p.m. to A's school interview, our excuse was, "We had to learn to tie a tie, which was a requirement for this interview. We had a Japanese origami-errr-tie artist show us how."

I am hoping that that earns me single mom points. Or something.