In college I video-taped the Lifetime movie "Wildflower" starring Patricia Arquette, who plays 'Alice' and William McNamara who plays 'Sammy'. It is based on the novel "Alice" by Sara Flannigan. I have a copy of this novel and it is one of my very favorites. It is about an abused teenage girl who lives in a shed and has had little or no education and no friends. Two young neighbors (Sammy and Ellie) discover her and befriend her. I have watched the movie enough (I own the DVD now) to have memorized the lines and how they are said too. One of the lines I picked up and often say to myself is "Goodbye, Sammy." Alice is trying to forget Sammy, whom she loves, but whom deeply hurt her. Alice is hard of hearing so when she talks she often pronounces words as if she had a perpetual cold, so when she says Sammy, it comes across almost as Tammy. (BTW, I think Patricia Arquette did a wonderful job in this role.) She says, "Good bye, Tam-MEE!" with much finality that I started saying it for all the things I wish to never experience again.
I do not like New Year's Eve. It is too sad with all the looking back on the past year's transgressions. The new year will come whether I have a say in it or not, so I don't mind just going to bed early. However, I hate being left out of things, so I usually stay up to be a part of something the whole world is sharing in. But this year, I am just going to lie in bed and hopefully not cough all night from this horrible sinus infection I caught for the second time this month. I am going to watch movies.
And to 2009, a year that caused me pain, I say "Good bye, Tam-mee!"
I welcome in 2010 and hope to make myself better in this year, so when things I can't control take me by surprise, I will be in a better place to accept them.
Goodnight. Happy New Year!
