So why did the mom leave the family in the 1st place?

It doesn't need to be said. She left because she was one wild, crazy son-of-a-bitch. She loved to party go out explore etc.. you know what I'm saying?

Eh, I think it's more than her just being crazy and immature. I mean, at one point the grandma tells Kally (Cally? sp) that she was really attached to her father and how he 'jumped' out of a building while Jude was in another room and then came back only to see her father gone and the window open, etc. So I mean that must have screwed with her psychologically and emotionally and how she views her relationships with people. But I do wish they went into detail more about how and why she left. She left before that because she had postpartum depression... I'm stumped. =( I think that maybe some of the reasons were shadowed with her oldest son because at one point the grandma says that the son is just like his mother... but I can't figure out exactly what was paralleled between the son and Jude that would give it away. Sorry for rambling like a mad woman and not answering your question :-X

She wanted to pick up Eskimo men in a Klondike bar. What would you do for a Klondike bar?

"When you throw dirt, you lose ground" --old proverb