Timing & "The Dead Girl"

Yesterday I arranged for in-home massages for myself and my husband. No one has wanted to see our house (listed for sale) for three weeks, so of course you can guess what happened. No sooner was I naked on the table than we got a call from a realtor wanting to bring someone over right away. I hesitated a second or two, but it was just too much to ask. Yeah, that could have been the one. And of course he didn't call back later like he said he would. Fuck it.

I went back to Dreamy Draw this week and saw Wilson's warblers, lots of them, in the mesquites down in a wash. I think they are migrating through.

Mesquites have me confused (honey, western honey, screwbean, or velvet?), and they also have me irritated with my Field Guide to the Plants of Arizona by Anne Orth Epple. She doesn't give comparable foliage characteristics (leaflet number, length, and width) for each species but seemingly this for one and that for another as if at random (and me with no ruler). Maybe one was screwbean mesquite, but pods aren't out yet. I did manage to identify catclaw acacia and desert hackberry.

"The Dead Girl" is a film about a serial killer, the best I've seen. The story is told in five parts, each focused on one person who has some kind of connection with the killer. Toni Collette is first; she finds a dead girl. The aftermath triggers her escape from an abominable mother. Marcia Gay Harden is the dead girl's mother, who finds horror and a granddaughter. The killer runs a storage unit with an abominable wife who covers for him. The hapless victim of (of two crimes) tries to do right but life is hard. A young woman who does the autopsy hopes it's her missing sister. Each of these stories is extraordinary on its own and superbly done. Their juxtaposition produces a complex, heartrending piece of work. Bravo!