Other crap that's on my mind.

A website about things you probably don't care about, but I do so shove it.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Movie of the Year

I haven't seen a really good movie in awhile. Sure, I liked An Inconvient Truth, but that wasn't really a movie. It was Al Gore talking. But I saw Little Miss Sunshine and was disappointed. I saw March of the Penguins (finally) and almost fell asleep. I saw Brokeback Mountain and thought it was the most boring movie I had ever seen in my entire life.

Sure, there have been some good movies along the way, like Marie Antoinette, Volver and Me and You and Everyone We Know but honestly none of these compare to the one I saw yesterday -- Pan's Labyrinth. Don't read the next 2 paragraphs if you haven't seen this yet. I wouldn't want to spoil anything for you.

Talk about a great movie. If I had to compare it to other movies, I'd say it's a mix between The Never Ending Story and The Princess Bride, but not as cutesy funny. Actually, this movie is pretty dark. Not just in tone, but in hue- as in everything seemed to be either at night or had a tinted dark green feel to it. Oh, and for those who can't read, there are subtitles. The art direction is crazy beautiful, and the story line is magical.

The main character is this little girl, Ofelia, who reads a lot. It all takes place during some Spanish war. I honestly can't remember which one, but it seems like a minor war. Of course, there's a spy and a mean dictator guy and death and all of that goes along with the storyline very smoothly, without feeling removed. But the main course centers around Ofelia, and her adventures in doing all these crazy tasks who are given by a Faun -- a scary looking character that you think will end up being evil at the end, but then you realize that that's just his demeanor and he never means any harm. The reason she has to do all these weird things is so she can be the princess she was supposed to be in her previous life. Sounds confusing, but it so isn't. It's funny and sad and entertaining and not too long. All of these things equals totally awesome to me. There are also some pretty gross parts that would make even the toughest of guys squimish. And there's a cute little fairy/cricket thing for the girls. Oh, man. It's just the best.

YOU CAN CONTINUE READING NOW:

It's the first movie I've seen since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that I would actually pay to see again in the theater.

And I almost completely forgot about this:

http://movies.go.com/trailer?cid=866049&vid=866050

This was one of the previews and everyone in the theater expressed some type of emotion when it came on. To me, that means it will totally rock the house. I've been reading mixed reviews (which can be found on the link I provided), but the preview looks way too sweet to not see. So that will be the next flick I catch. Oh, and Children of Men. And the new David Lynch movie. And so on and so forth, the wheel goes round and round....

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Never have I ever...

Here's another meme I created just because:

I haven't watched: CSI, The OC, a full episode of Everyone Loves Raymond, Still Standing, The Class and Heroes.

I haven't read: Moby Dick, The Old Man and The Sea, The New York Times, an article in Vogue and The Da Vinci Code.

I haven't purchased: a digital camera, a laptop, a flatscreen TV, a cellphone that flips or slides or is as thin as me, a CD in the last 2 years or a song on itunes.

I haven't eaten: fast food in over 3 years (I had 2 sliders last Valentine's day, but that was for the occasion), cow's brains or caviar.

I haven't drank: Manichevitz in a long while, a coke product in an even longer while and a coffee malted from Haagen Daaz in the longest of whiles. (mom, we forgot to do that! and the ice cream at larry's doesn't count!! maybe next time...)

I haven't seen: Citizan Cane, Casablanca, all of A Wonderful Life, A Million Dollar Baby, Pi and Dreamgirls (although I don't think I'll care either way about the last flick).

I haven't heard live: Elliott Smith (I'm bummed about that one), The Beatles, The Postal Service, Cat Stevens (more bummage) and Interpol.

I haven't traveled to: South or Central America, Australia, Eastern Europe, Africa, Toyko, South Korea, Mexico, Hawaii, Maine, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

I haven't had the desire to: make babies, have a fancy wedding, get married altogether, snowboard, scuba dive, snort coke, become someone's boss, be on tv (even for a second) or slit my wrists.

I haven't: kissed anyone since October(!), been in an actual snow fight, gone to jail or sewed anything on my new sewing machine (but i will soon enough).

Friday, January 19, 2007

Hopefully this won't happen anytime soon.

I just rented the last season of Six Feet Under (thanks library for being free and shit!), but it really got me thinking about death.

I hate that I can't show my grandma that I finally took up knitting, that I've made matzah ball soup, chicken soup, haroset and potato laktes thanks to her recipes. I wish her funeral consisted of all her favorite things, instead of us just sitting in some cheap looking temple and then hanging out at our house just staring at eachother, wishing it was tomorrow instead of today.

So, this got me thinking about my own death and what I would like. My mom will absolutely hate this blog, calling it a "Caniena Herah" which is yiddish (and very bad spelling) for jinxing yourself.

My list of songs I'd like to play during the ceremoney and thereafter would be (in an order I haven't figured out yet):

If you want to sing out, sing out. Cat Stevens
Hide and Seek. Imogen Heap
Oh Yoko. John Lennon
Needles in the Hay. Elliott Smith
This Woman's Work. Kate Bush
Dog Got a Bone. The Beta Band
The Good Times Are Killing Me. Modest Mouse
Sittin' On The Dock of The Bay. Otis Redding
Lovely Day. Bill Withers
Heartbeats. The Knife

I'd want at least one person to pass around a joint and talk about the good ol' days. I'd want there to maybe be a pool party (if I die in the summertime). Or at least some kind of card game played, as I think only my sister and Mike know how to play backgammon. I think the knitters should definitely knit and the food should consist of only good produce, smoothies and lots of peanut butter. If there has to be something bad to eat, then I think there should be an abundance of reeses peanut butter cups and tuna fish sandwiches that my mom should make, with lays potato chips and dr. brown's soda (cel ray or diet black cherry because no one really like cel ray except for me). I think there should be goody bags too.

Inside the goody bags, there should be the following:

A mix of the above songs.
A notebook that I've made.
A necklace made out of one of my backgammon or mah jong pieces.
An advertising or knitting book I currently own.
One of my many jackets.
A garbage pail kid (A friend of mine recently bought too many on ebay, and has been giving them away to anyone who comes to his apartment. That means I have a lot now too.)
A concert ticket that I've attended and have been keeping for whatever reason.

Maybe there would be Degrassi on in the background, or Project Runway or Lost (but that would just things weird, right?). I kinda hope there's a breakdancer, just cause I think they're cool and it could lighten up the mood a little. And maybe there could be a roulette table that always lands on 13, but I think that could be pushing it a little.

The more I think about this, the more I think it would be a pretty eventful occasion. It would be like My Super Sweet Funeral, but without the expensive car and all that "I want it now, Daddy." bullshit.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

It'll rot your brain.

The more TV has turned into American Idol/Deal or No Deal/Survivor/Identity, the more I can't stand it. None of these shows peak my interest. They make me feel dumb. I try to watch at least one episode though to see what the big fuss is all about, but usually I'm right. These shows fucking suck.

Thus, I have to resort to totally weird shows like Degrassi: The Next Generation. It's like 90210, without Brenda. It's actually pretty bad, but I'm sucked in to their vortex and there's no way out. I think I even got the old roommate into it at one point. It's that bad.

But now, I've discovered something even worse. The AZN channel. That's right it's the Asian channel. Specifically, a show called My Lovely Sam-Soon. I really haven't watched too many episodes, and I think it's more like a mini-series with only 5 long episodes which I can never get through. And honestly, I have no idea what's going on because I don't speak Korean, but I love it for whatever reason.

There's the smart ass, clumsy "fat" girl, who I think is in love with the cute Asian guy but he's torn between her and some dying chick he once loved. I put fat in quotes, only because she constantly says she's fat when she must only be a size 6, which I guess in Korea must be obese. If only she lived in the U.S.

Anyway, I usually end up watching this when I'm knitting, which means I can't follow what's going on all the time because I haven't mastered the skill of reading subtitles and following patterns at the same time.

So when I told my friend about this show she said, "Uh oh. Once you go Asian, you don't go Caucasian ." And I almost pissed myself because it was funny and possibly true.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Just another day.

This Saturday I turn 28, and just in case you want to give me gifts (cause I know you do):

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/gallery-movie.php

and anything on my wishlist at:

amazon.com (just type in my email address under the wish list part. it's easy and fun to give gifts, i promise)

oh, and ya know anything from Aprie, Pitaya, Club Monoco and Anthropoligie

I was thinking of everything that's happened when I was 27, and man oh man:

-I quit one job
-Left Michigan
-Moved across the country for my brand, new (and much better) job
-Drove across the country to get there
-Dealt with my parents divorce
-Got robbed (and almost arrested)
-Got an ipod (that's a big deal)
-Finally bought that ticket to Portugal (only took 3 years)
-Found a great boyfriend
-Broke up with great boyfriend
-Got a sewing machine from great ex-boyfriend
-Sold my first car
-Found out I'll have to move from the apartment I just moved into within a year or so (thanks Seattle Light Rail System!)
-Learned how to silk screen

There's probably a lot more, but I just decided that I'll be leaving early today and the bus comes in 10 minutes.

Kisses!

Monday, January 08, 2007

Where did the time go?

I was gonna write a little blurb about how a drunk girl crashed on my couch, how I ended up eating mac 'n' cheese at 3am with my neighbors friends, how my friend got kicked out of a club because she went to the boys bathroom (after I said it was all clear), how I went to the newest Daiso that's now in walking distance to me (!!) and how I hate my gym.

But instead I have to work.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Let's back up a bit.

Before saying good-bye to my precious (car), I went home. Well, not exactly home, but nearish where home used to be. I guess it's now my new home, with my new pool and my new patio and my new room with my new fold out couch (instead of my old bed). It was all very very different. Not in a good or bad way, but just different.

But I realized how far my mom has come from. Imagine never ever living alone. And then, WHAMO, you're 60 and suddenly you're on your own for the very first time in your life. I'm not sure how I'd handle it, but I totally look up to my mom. She's courageous and I guess, really, she either had to do this or not survive. This is what living is- it's surviving circumstances that are thrown your way. However you handle them is up to you.

Now that I've gotten all that out of the way, let me describe how hard it was to get out of Seattle and then back to Seattle. VERY FUCKING HARD!

I've never really had problems on planes. A few minor delays, but besides that, nothing to really cry over (oh wait, there was that one time I just lost my ticket, before electronic tickets were invented and I had to buy a whole new ticket- what a mess!)...

And everything was seemingly fine as we were pulling out on time from Seattle, when- what is this?- we had to pull back in because "something is wrong with the plane and we're gonna try to fix it" (words I just love to hear). It was supposed to take only "30 minutes". Now imagine a Seinfeld episode and 3 hours later we were all still sitting on a plane that was going nowhere. At the 3 hour mark the pilot decided we were allowed off the plane. At the 4 hour mark we were cleared for take-off. I had already missed all connections from Dallas, and American Airlines set me (and about 200 others) up in the Hilton (and gave us $10 vouchers for dinner at the hotel where the cheapest salad was $15). That day I had woken up at around 7 am and had finally found my hotel bed at around 1:30 am. I then had to wake up 3 hours later to make the only connecting flight I could find out of Dallas to Fort Lauderdale. It only took 2 days, but I was finally home (well, my sort of home)!

From home, I did the following (in no particular order):

-Went to my new beach
-Went to the pool
-Watched way too much TV
-Finally saw Borat (which wasn't as great as I thought it should be/nor did I find it at all offensive/but I did think it was humorous, even if Christopher Guest does a better job doing the mockumentaries)
-Went to the Bodies exhibit (if you have this in your area, go go go! it's just crazy amazing)
-Went to the Everglades and Robert is Here (a farmer's market right near the Everglades and probably the best place ever to get a Strawberry Banana Cocunut smoothie)
-Got my nails done. I only do this once a year, and it's always when I come home.
-Got a much needed haircut. And then found out if you have curly hair (to my surprise I've discovered that my hair likes to change it's genetic makeup and has gone from straight and frizzy to overly curly like overnight) that you should only shampoo it once a week. I know you're thinking, gross! But I tried it and it totally made my hair awesome. Plus I save all that money on shampoo! This just makes me happy all around.
-Knit my ass off
-Smoked too many cigarettes thanks to my mom. I should never live with a smoker.
-Ate out way too much. The healthier I become the more I dislike going out to eat. I've become weird. I know this.

And that's about it. It went by way too fast, as most vacations do. But it was fun and very much needed.

Then I had to fly back. And let me tell you, if you have to take American Airlines I warn you with extreme caution that you should bring tissues because there's a good chance you will cry at least once from their stupidity or negligence.

I thought since I had a yucky experience coming to Florida, that maybe the airplane gods will be on my side going back. I was dead wrong.

My flight was cancelled. When I called to ask why, the first lady I talked to simply said, "Dallas is experiencing tornados and if you notice, all flights going to Dallas are cancelled." Really? REALLY?!@ Because when I checked all the flights going to Dallas, mine was the only one cancelled. All others seemed to be going everywhere just fine. So for some reason my flight was the only one that was effected by this mysterious weather that was happening. So be it, let's find me a way back to Seattle.

I purposely called AA on two phones, just in case. So when I got the first lady she said that I wouldn't be able to leave anywhere until Monday. It was Saturday. I was slowly getting pissed yet again with AA. I asked to speak to their customer service, because this was just not acceptable anymore. She said AA doesn't have a customer service that you can actually call. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!! I was fucking shocked by this. Apparently, so many people have called to complain about AA, that they stopped having operators and only function through email or fax. Now, that's customer service.

So, I asked the lady if maybe their were flights out of West Palm or Miami. She said only one in Miami for that Monday. I said book it and hung up. Now, the second lady had just come on my second phone. I explained that I wanted to get to Seattle, blah blah and she's informs me that there is a flight from West Palm to La Guardia then I'd have to take a shuttle to Newark to which I'd then go to Seattle. That plane was leaving on Saturday in about 3 hours. WHY DIDN"T THAT FIRST FUCKING LADY FIND THAT FLIGHT?! WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE AND WHY DO I HAVE TO TALK TO TWO PEOPLE TO GET SHIT DONE!!!! I HATE AMERICAN AIRLINES WITH A FUCKING PASSION!!!!!!

I changed my Monday reservations to the one that was leaving on Saturday and hoped to god that nothing weird was going to happen. The only weird thing that did happen, was when I missed the $30 shuttle at La Guardia and since the next one wasn't coming for another hour (which would have made me miss my flight) I had to take a $90 cab ride to Newark instead.

Don't you just love travelling?

Next time I'm going direct. And I won't be dealing with American Airlines. Because I hate them. A lot.

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Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Goodbye old friend.

It was my sophmore year in college. I needed some mode of transportation so I could do things like drink and drive. Thus, my very first car.

It was a Nissan 200sx and it was red and pretty much perfect for me. All I really cared about was the CD player and sun roof. It was a great car for Florida, except that one time when the air decided not to work on a 5 hour trip back home.

It's gone on so many road trips. It's gone camping, shopping, gambling and even just plain driving. It's been as far South as the Keys and as far West as Seattle. It's moved me to 3 states and countless apartments/homes. It hit a parked car in Gainesville, FL. It got broken into on 8 mile in Detroit. It even got hexed thanks to a real life (but dead) chicken foot in Royal Oak, MI. And I'm pretty sure it's been thrown up in twice.

It's been to Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington D.C., Maryland, Deleware, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecicut, Ohio, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Indiana (where it stopped briefly in Gary and then decided that Gary was the scariest place on Earth and quickly turned around). It's been through a horrendous snow storm in Illinois, where Carl had to drive very slowly otherwise I would've cried the entire time getting to our destination. Then it went West!

Through Iowa, Minnesota and both Dakotas. It almost hit 3 deer somewhere in Montana. It's seen all the important presidents thanks to Mount Rushmore. It found the Badlands and of course, Wall Drug. It went through Wyoming and Idaho and then lots and lots of land in Washington. It settled in a parking garage for 7 more months in its last resting place of Seattle. But it also travelled to the Olympic mountains (where it experienced its first ferry!) and then also made it to Vancouver and Portland, Oregon.

It's been to countless parks, Disney World, Cedar Point and some state fair 2 hours north of Windsor, Canada.

It's been stopped for speeding about 4 times: 2 warnings/2tickets. It never got a parking ticket and was never towed.

It comfortably fits one person in the trunk, which I proved possible on my 23rd birthday. It's been smoked in, drunk in, slept in and had sex in... It's never broken down on me completely, even if it has needed over $2000 in repairs.

It's basically been my best friend for 8 years. And tonight at around 9pm it will no longer be mine.

Goodbye old friend. You've treated me well (sometimes)... and I will miss you.

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