Movies: Thirteen. Many families come to a tipping point - their see-saw has been rising for so long they forget they are on one and that the possibility of crashing through the fulcrum to the ground is very real. The family in this movie, which is probably the most realistic version of what it can be like to live with an out-of-control teenager as I've ever seen, experiences that point and wavers on the edge of disaster for the better part of a year. You want to believe that once the evil friend is gone the family's thirteen year old daughter will be able to return to a more stable life, but the end leaves you wondering if that could ever be true.

Dreams: I was in a luxury hotel - either the Plaza or the Ritz or the Four Seasons - and I think it was in Philadelphia. It was opulent in every manner - all the surfaces were covered with gilt or heavy fabrics, and the hallways were very, very quiet due to the depth of the carpet. I was trying out the hotel for work, to see what it would be like, perhaps to have our clients stay there. I was treated poorly by someone, either the staff or the old woman who owned/ran the place, and I ended up screaming at her that we would never have anyone stay there as a result. She had unnatural ginger-colored hair done in a hard helmet of hairspray, an overage of make-up and lots of jewelry. She intimidated me, so it was easier to yell at her than to try to have a rational conversation.

Another dream involved returning from grocery shopping (I must be feeling guilty that I didn't do the shopping yesterday) in a small station wagon. I was in the passenger seat and my husband was driving. We pulled into the driveway of the house I grew up in, where the bushes had been cleared away from the house and it had been given a fresh coat of paint. I felt an enormous sense of euphoria - that somehow everything everywhere in the world was right, if just for a moment. I knew Caitlin was inside the house and that she was doing fine. There was a carved wooden statue of one of the Disney country bears outside the house and we joked that the bear needed to go, or at least be moved into the backyard. When we got out of the car to take the groceries inside, I had to root around on the floor of the backseat because either something had fallen out of one of the bags, or there was some trash that needed to be picked up. I never did get to go into the house.