Okay, who in the bloody HELL wrote the screenplay for Cold Mountain? Did they even read the damned book?!?

I finished reading it yesterday, and I watched the movie for the first time last night. And I got hot under the collar for all the discrepencies. I'll give a brief *spoiler* warning, but since I watched it on USA Network, I'm not going to carry on about it.

Per the book that "I" read:

Monroe prounounced Ada's name AH'da Muhn ROE'.
She wasn't terribly fond of the piano.
They didn't own slaves.
Ruby only heard that her father was dead once.
There were NO rape scenes.
The ferry girl wasn't shot, the preacher wasn't in the boat, and she certainly didn't offer to "pull her head over her dress" for $30 more scrip.
Inman was NEVER that outwardly emotional.
Teague never showed that much interest in Ada.
Ruby didn't marry Reid (Georgia), Ada did, and bore three of his sons.
Ada didn't give Inman Bartram's book.
Inman's eyes should have been blurred in the photo.
Ada never said, "I'll be waiting."
Ruby never bothered crying over her father, or at all, that I can recall.

These are things that strongly defined the characters of the story. To alter them to the complete opposite makes a huge difference in who they were.

There's so much more than that, too. They made Ruby seem almost crazy, instead of just rough and disregarding of "finer" manners. You don't get to see the drastic transformation in Ada going from a young woman who has had every need and desire attended to, into a young desperate woman who is made to become self-sufficient.

Ugh. So MAD.

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Speaking of being so mad.

I decided to let Mercedes and Alex have Samantha and Angel spend the night. Their guests arrived around 5 o'clock or so, so I told the girls that they could walk down to the park if they wanted, as long as they were back before dark.

Just about the time I was starting to get annoyed, the doorbell rang. I opened the door and Samantha is standing there all out of breath. I figured, at first, that they had raced back to the house because it was starting to get dark. Then I asked Samantha where Mercedes was.

"She's over there."

"What do you mean 'over there'? Where exactly is my daughter?"

"She's still at the park."

*blink blink* WTF?

Basically, what it boils down to is this. I had Samantha stay at the house with the boys (Corey was in bed sleeping) with strict orders to KNOCK on our bedroom door IN AN EMERGENCY, and then I sped off to find Mercedes. I pulled into the park, and she came running up to me (THANK GOD) with tears running down her face sobbing that she can't find Samantha.

The conundrum here is that it's hard to declare the guilty party, though, biased as it may seem, I'm inclined to put it on Samantha. She claimed that she told Mercedes that she was leaving. However, she walked away and never waited for her. She didn't go back for her. There was no reason for either of them to come back alone unless there was an emergency. I explained to them that there is a reason that I make Mercedes take a friend to the park. It's a safety in numbers kind of thing. Later that evening, Samantha said that she thought a truck was following her on the way back here, in defense of me asking why she had been running. I said, "And who would have known if someone in that truck had taken you? It was dark and you were alone!"

Mercedes had asked if they could camp out on the trampoline when the kids first got here. I thought it was a great idea, until the Park After Dark Incident. When I told them that they would be sleeping indoors, they both pitched a fit and started throwing out excuses about the whole thing. I dismissed them, and explained again that there are reasons for my rules, and they can't expect to disregard them without consequence, and not getting to bounce in their sleep was the consequence of abandoning each other. After all, Mercedes should have known where Samantha was, since they weren't playing hide and seek. Just my ever-so-humble opinion.

I'm such a mean mom. MEAN, I tell you.

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Another thing to be upset about. I just got a call from the hospital.
I realize that being on-call means I have to go when I'm called. But WHY, WHY did they have to call me in on Coffee Night?!?!? Dammit! I'm going to have to be there from 2 until probably at least 10. Crap.
CRAP!!!!

the last trail...the next path