“After all… tomorrow is another day.”

The Movie: Gone With the Wind, 1939 (Sidney Howard, screenwriter, from the novel by Margaret Mitchell; Victor Fleming, dir.)
Who says it: Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara, archetypal Southern belle
The context: Undaunted by war, reconstruction, the death of her best friend Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) and the loss of her husband, Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), Scarlett keeps fighting. This is the last line of the movie.
How to use it: To express optimism when the odds are against you.

Let's be honest: I have no reason to think that the work on my car will actually be done today. Yes, they've told me things that make me think so, but hasn't that happened before? They also told me that the car would be ready on September 7, September 9 or 10, and September 14. Today is September 20. The car has been at Lou Ehlers Cadillac (yes, my car's a Volkswagen; this is part of the problem) since August 10. Given the way things usually work, a rational person would say that at some point the work must be finished; even Jackson Pollock got to a point at which he considered something finished. So I'm hoping -- expecting, even -- that that point is today.

I was in my old neighborhood last night, for my friend Garth's yoga class and then dinner over at my cousins Kathleen and Mark's. The Ralph's supermarket at 3rd and LaBrea has been completely remodeled in the three weeks since I left my apartment; I dropped in for a bag of salad and felt as if I'd already been gone a year. Weird.