Friday, April 25, 2008

Traveling

This isn't really a post, per se, as much as it's a reminder to myself of the movies (both released and upcoming) that I really want to see. They are in no particular order, except the order of which movies I remembered the fastest.

Released
The Forbidden Kingdom
Baby Mama
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day
Spiderwick Chronicles
In Bruges
Chicago 10
Paranoid Park
Under the Same Moon
The Flight of the Red Balloon
Jellyfish

Coming Soon
Iron Man
Speed Racer
Prince Caspian
Wall-E
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Children of Huang Shi
The Happening
Get Smart
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Dark Knight

Holy crap. I'm going to need a lot of money to see all of these. I'll start taking donations for Erin's Movie Fund immediately. If the funds don't appear, well, I suppose I can wait the 2 months it takes to get a newly released DVD from the public library system. Free is free, right? ;o)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

8th World Wonder

I'm back from Ohio and so thankful for the sunny, warm weather we've been getting in Boston. But like all times past, the weather will turn to wet and chilly over the weekend with highs back down in the 50s. Boo. However, it's 75 and sunny right now and the day couldn't be more beautiful!

Megan's birthday was good, if not a little stressful for her. Much as she would have loved to be fancy-free, she had a massively loaded week awaiting her at the end of the weekend that dampened her joviality. I'm so thankful that part of college is no longer something I have to deal with. She received 3 Jodi Picoult books as a present, though, so at least she's got some good reading material to relax with once today is over.

Speaking of relaxing, a big congratulations to all the Kenyon drama kids who just completed their comps! Rejoice, for you are finished! With drama, at least. But don't worry, English kids, those comps are easily passable as long as you read the Spark Notes on each book. That's how yours truly managed a B+ on her English comps without going insane, which suited me just fine! After all, what do future employers care that I can adequately prepare a discourse on the themes of racism and colonialism in Cambridge and Robinson Crusoe? All they care about is that I can write coherently! So take heart. It really won't make or break your life if you don't get Distinction. I promise.

My allergies are much more under control now that I'm taking Claritin every day. Praise Allah. The Bruins are officially out of the Playoffs now after getting spanked by Montreal on Monday. Yuval is, understandably, disheartened, but I keep telling him there's always next year. The Red Sox are still getting into their groove, and Chad Johnson may be benched for the whole season since he is refusing to accompany the Bengals to training camp. Ah, it must be Spring!

Tonight I'm seeing The Cry of the Reed by Sinan "Huntington Playwright Fellow" Unel. It's about Turkey and whirling dervishes--should be interesting. Tomorrow is my second to last accounting class, which unfortunately is preventing me from playing in my team's first kickball game of the season. Damn you, Academia! Saturday night (as well as the next two Saturday nights after) will see me back in Dylan's hilarious presence. Babies are seriously the most entertaining thing when they're first learning how to walk. They stumble five steps, fall on their butts, and shove the nearest object into their mouths. Fascinating. Like really cute, shaved monkeys!

My aunt had a double mastectomy yesterday to permanently rid herself of a lump in one breast. They found another lump in a lymph node so they took out all the nodes on the right side of her body as a precaution. They won't know until Monday if the cancer has spread to all the other nodes or is just isolated in that one central node. She's a sassy, kind lady who deserves much better than this. Please keep her in your thoughts/prayers!

The platelet donation went well yesterday, and I've decided to become a regular donor (which means I'll be back every two weeks). I don't think I'll ever get used to the all-encompassing tingling feeling that accompanies the anti-coagulant they put in your blood as it re-enters, though. But free candy and pop! Yay!

Seen
Leatherheads
Bonnie and Clyde
Psych: Season One

Read
Breaking News: A Stunning and Memorable Account of Reporting from Some of the Most Dangerous Places in the World by Martin Fletcher
Hellboy: Strange Places by Mike Mignola
Hellboy: Conquering Worm
by Mike Mignola
Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Others by Mike Mignola

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Tired and Beautiful

Wow. My sinuses are acting up wicked bad today. The whole facial area around my eyes is throbbing. Do we think it's okay to take sinus medication in conjunction with Advil? Or might I perhaps be liable to OD on such a combination?

I'm leaving for Cincinnati after work today, going home for Megan's 20th birthday. My grandma is already there, and together with my mom we're driving up to IU on Saturday to visit the munchkin. I got her present at Barnes & Noble yesterday along with Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis (to replace the copy I seem to have lost) and Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore (which I had a first printed edition of that I stupidly sold).

If you plan on seeing The Dark Knight this summer--which all of you should do--then I highly recommend reading The Killing Joke first. Moore's incarnation of The Joker and his history is what the movie is based on, and it will give you more insight into just why portraying the "psychotic, mass-murdering clown" kept Heath Ledger from sleeping during the shoot.

Sadly, the Boston Bruins are out of the Playoffs after a ridiculously exciting final game against Montreal. Needless to say, Yuval was a little depressed for a day. Happily, though, we got to spend a lot of time together during this week to make up for the fact that I'll be gone this weekend. That's going to be the only rough part about this trip home...

Monday is a paid holiday, so I won't be back until that night. Next week promises another platelet donation session (they give you free full size candy/snacks/pop! and Direct TV movies to watch! and blankets fresh from a warming oven! and a heated lounge chair!), a trip to the Huntington to see The Cry of the Reed by Sinan Unel, and possibly a jazz concert featuring one of Adrienne's coworkers.

Seen
Once Upon a Time in the West
Hellboy
MST3K: The Movie

Read
Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others by Mike Mignola

p.s. I have another blog that I just started, The Complainist. Mostly for my own venting, it's where I rant about the little everyday things that annoy me/kill the planet's soul one affront at a time. There's also occasionally some cool positive things thrown in there just so it's not all negativity. Check it out, rant along with me or against me, etc. :o)

Friday, April 11, 2008

The Internet Is For Porn

Happy Friday! Today sure took its sweet time in getting here this week. But it's almost the weekend at last, which means time with Yuval, babysitting Dylan, a massage, and the Boston Comic Book Spectacular for me.

Despite the fact that I had no class last night, my time since the last post has been pretty busy. Trivia night yielded a 5th place finish for our team ("What's Kosher Bacon?") out of 10, but what mattered was we had fun and my love of country music actually came in handy. I've been easing back into a regular workout schedule, so of course I'm sore from running on the treadmill on Wednesday. After a quick post-workout shower, I rushed (and had to wait for the 25 minute late 66 bus) to Yuval's so we could head over to Ryle's in Inman Square and see his friend Yulia Musayelyan, perform with her jazz flute (please say "yazz flute"). She has her own jazz band, the Yulia Musayelyan Quartet, and has toured all over the world. And she's only 25! Very cool performance. And yummy chili cheese fries.

Yesterday after work I spent an hour and a half waiting at the DMV to get a mistake on my license corrected. When I was filling out the paperwork to donate platelets on Tuesday, I noticed for the first time that my MA license has the wrong birthday on it--they had switched the day around so it was 2/12 instead of 2/21. Since that kind of thing could potentially cause problems for me in the future, I decided it would be best to get it fixed ASAP. At least the waiting gave me a chance to read all of the Hellboy comic I had brought along--all 80+ pages of it.

And now, to end, another sampling of the poetic inscriptions I often find at the end of the porn spam emails I receive at my work email. I came up with a title for these things.

Spam Poetry of the Week
"Lake in the world and the princess loved this the two months which followed were not only full any water in them) into the lagoon. The harut of her tenderness, and trembled a little lest in the proportion ofto 64. Although in number a factory on their coast, and then suggest to said. They've come back, and i thought they'd knew, were in the finest condition and fit for think what that baby will see and meddle with far as the amazon river. Its feathers are of a some literary dinnerhe is rather a big bug, carruthers, him kill that renisenb agreed eagerly. Yes, that they chatted gayly, and, with laughter, ate. When in my own mind the information i want respecting and kettles of gold and silver coins are continually."

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Time Only Knows

Okay, this just in: Orlando Bloom will be playing the title role in Disney's Prince of Persia movie, based on the very same beloved video game. Why, God, why? He's way too pansy to play the badass prince and command sands of time! I mean, come on, does anyone out there think that this could plausibly be transformed into this? Others up for the role were Milo Ventimiglia and Zac Efron. Also, a man named David K. Zandi--who is actually of "Persian" heritage and apparently has royal lineage--lobbied to play the role since "people are fascinated that a real Persian with royal lineage could be hired to play this role." Right. Although given a choice between all four contestants, I'd go with Mr. Zandi. Because out of all of them, he's the only one who doesn't look like he just barely finished puberty.

Also! I'm totally for serious contemplating getting a neti pot for my sinuses. They've been driving me nuts all winter/"spring" and I've had enough. Has anyone out there ever tried one of these before? It sounds kind of gross, but Adrienne says singers use them when they can't phonate well and anything singers trust to clear the sinuses is worth a shot.

One reason I'm so glad March is over? I can donate blood again! Since I was in the Mayan jungle for five hours looking at the ruins during one of the stops on my family's cruise, the Red Cross said I wasn't allowed to donate for a year because of malaria concerns. Because I was clearly showing signs? Right. Stupid red tape and policy bullshit. Anyway, today I'm making my first donation not of whole blood (the usual), but of platelets, which replace themselves in two weeks (as opposed to eight) and so allow for more frequent donation. Basically, they suck your blood out via a tube, it runs through a machine, separates the platelets, and puts the blood back in your body. I hear the only difference in feeling from regular whole blood donation is that the blood is kind of cold when it goes back in. Yay for donating life-saving fluids!

Tonight is trivia night (hopefully) with Yuval and some of his friends. I need to cram as much useless information into my head as possible today so I can be an asset to the team. Learning machine GO!

I've decided to drop my pursuit of the graduate certificate in fundraising management. Not because I don't want it, but because I can't afford it. See, BU lets you take all the free undergrad classes you want as an employee, but grad classes are different. You are allowed a total of $5,250 in grad classes (which amounts to two) before they treat the class fee as additional income and take taxes out of your paycheck accordingly. So you still don't have to pay much out of pocket, but for one class they would pretend you were making an additional $315 a week for two months. Essentially, if I took this summer class as I had planned to do, my take-home pay for September and October would be reduced by $140 a week because of the extra taxes. And that's way too painful when I'm not bringing in that much to begin with every week. BUT! Grad school and that MBA in Public and Non-Profit Management is still in my future (if they accept my application when I send it, that is).

You'd think the break from Lost until April 24 would give me time to catch up on all the other TV shows I've fallen behind in (House, Ugly Betty, Chuck, Battlestar Galactica), but no, of course not. Because of course I have to go and check out 9934 books from the library in a fit of literary madness. Currently I'm finishing up The Painter From Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein, a based-on-real-life story of Pan Yuliang, one of the greatest 20th century Chinese artists. Her uncle sold her to a brothel when she was 14 to pay off his opium debts, she quickly rises through the "ranks" to become top girl amidst tragedy, meets a city inspector who's interested in her for her brain (weirdo), he pays her way out of the Hall, and her interest in art is allowed to finally blossom as she studies in Shanghai, Paris, Rome, and Nanjing. Keep in mind that this all takes place during the early 20th century when China was fighting off Japan's invasion (again), Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-Shek were facing off for control of the country, World War II is gearing up, and foot-binding was still commonplace. It's a fascinating read, if a little reminiscent of Memoirs of a Geisha at first.

I bought a gardenia plant for my office, and now it feels a lot more like spring.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

An Eternal Secret

Not dead! Bet I had you fooled. Forgive the lack of updates: I could exaggerate and say that life has been super busy, but really I'm just interminably lazy. However, you probably already knew that. Also, please vote on my poll! I'm curious as to where your daydreams take you these days.

Let's see, how to sum up the past few weeks? I met Yuval's good friends from work for the first time and a jovial time was had by all. Saw Avenue Q with said boy and got him inescapably hooked on it by giving him the soundtrack (so evil). Skipped out on going to the gym for nearly an entire month and wanted to flog myself as punishment for letting the money go to waste. Avoided the streets on March 16th for fear of getting trampled and/or accosted by drunken Boston revelers of Irish descent (or those who wish they were). Spent my actual St. Patty's evening babysitting Dylan, who has moved--along with the family, of course--to a new place right behind the Caulderwood Pavilion in the South End. I'll get to see the new place on the 12th when I come over to babysit.

I attended an info session for BU's full-time MBA in Public and Non-Profit Management program, which pretty much swayed me to its side in the battle for my future. Hopefully I'll get to sit in on some classes soon! Didn't have my accounting class for two weeks in a row and then spent 5 minutes in the first re-convened class, just long enough to turn in my midterm case study. Saw Shining City by Conor McPherson (who Contemp Brit Drama folks may remember from The Weir) at the Huntington Theatre for free. And finally, Mom came to Boston this past weekend for a visit courtesy of an airfare sale on Delta. During said visit, one of the major points of my relationship with Yuval occurred: I met the parents. I enjoyed them, they seemed to like me, and my mom was completely enamored of them. All in all, I think it went over very well. And the food they made! My God, my taste buds haven't had food like that in...well, ever.

Adrienne and I watched the first three episodes of The West Wing Season 6 last night and now I'm completely addicted all over again. Just the first measure of that opening theme is enough to get my heart swelling with unconditional love for that show and its characters. I own all seven seasons but have never seen past the first two episodes of the sixth season (don't ask me why, for I have no answer). It's good to finally be back in Aaron Sorkin's warm creative embrace.

I've taken on a number of projects/goals since I last posted...

--->NStar's Walk for Children's Hospital Boston: I used to do a walk for Cincy Children's and always had a good time, so I figured it's time to help out the children's hospital in my new city. Every walker has an obligation to raise at least $150, so if you'd like to help me out, please donate on my page! I really, really appreciate it. :o)
--->MSPCA-Angell Walk for Animals: I haven't registered officially for this one yet because it's not until September, but I will! And Yuval's doing it with me, although I think he's going to be there more to play with all the dogs than walk. But that's okay, fundraising is fundraising!
--->Matt & Kelli's wedding site: Just what it says, for two of my friends from high school (who now live in Boston where she's going to BU Law School). Yay web design, and yay weddings!
--->Kickball! Yep, I joined an adult kickball league. My team is "Strangers in the Alps" (if you've ever seen the censored version of The Big Lebowski you'll get the reference) and it consists largely of Yuval and his co-workers. Yay fun and outdoors and drunken kickballing (well, drunk for others, caffeined for me)!
--->Tennis! I haven't officially signed up yet, but I'm comparing two different summer tennis clinics and trying to decide between them. Apparently all I needed was a 4 year break to come running back to the game...

Read
Feud: A Lady Grace Mystery by Lady Grace Cavendish
The Best American Non-Required Reading 2007 edited by Dave Eggers
Whiteout by Greg Rucka
Magazines: Foreign Policy, Wired, National Geographic, Marie Claire, Rolling Stone

Watched
The Shining
The Road to El Dorado
Brokeback Mountain
Pitch Black
The Bourne Supremacy
Surf's Up
The West Wing: Season 6
[in part]

This weekend I'm seeing a college lacrosse double-header (Div I Cornell vs. Harvard and Div II Merrimack College vs. Bryant University) in Foxborough before heading back to Boston for a birthday party/fundraiser for one of Yuval's co-worker's who's running the Boston Marathon.