Don't Think Twice

For several years now, the movies that topped my All-Time, Worst Ever list, were really just two, and they came out around the same time: A.I., the science-fiction poopfest that Speilberg had to finish off for Kubrick (which explained a lot, really), and The Talented Mr. Ripley, just a poopfest all around. It makes me think there is something about having Jude Law in a movie. I'd dare say that most of Jude Law's movies stink, which is unfortunate because he is hot. Or at least, he used to be -- I think he's losing his hair now, and it's not a great look for him.

But fear not, lonely duo, for a third flick is joining your ranks. This weekend the BF and I slogged through all 17 hours* of I'm Not There, the amazingly craptacular "biopic" about Bob Dylan's life. I am not a big Dylan fan or anything -- I actually think that his songs are best done by another aritst -- but I wanted to see Cate Blanchett play him, and I just thought it would be a cool pic. Oh well. From start to finish, I'm not sure I understood anything that anyone said. It was English, for the most part, but from what I could tell it was mostly bullshit, which apparently was all that ever came out of Bob Dylan's mouth in the '60s, or since. The movie portrays the different "lives" of Bob Dylan with different characters. The one that made the least sense was Richard Gere, who was playing some sort of hermit from a Western movie that winds up confronting "the man" at a little county fair. But I will say that the best part of the movie occurred during one of these random Western scenes, when there was a surprising performance by My Morning Jacket. Those guys saved me from slitting my wrists at that point, let me tell you.


I could go on, but I won't, because I already lost enough hours of my life just watching the thing.


*It was really only 2 hours and 15 minutes, but that was the longest 2 hrs/15 of my life.


***BREAKING NEWS***

Mid-blog breaking news today... the BF and I have acquired a new pet. As I was literally typing the above rant, someone knocked on my door and offered me a puppy. A little back story: we had some neighbors who were fond of domestically disputing in public, and so the Flo-Po were constantly coming out to deal with them. A while back, they got the cutest black and white puppy that they would leave out sometimes for way too long. I was always worried about her because they never used a leash, and a lot of cars come through this parking lot. BF, being the friendly talker that he is, struck up a conversation with the lovely couple one day and found out that they were probably going to need to find a home for the dog because the landlord (a different one from ours) didn't want them to have pets. This was several weeks ago, so I thought maybe they had worked it out. But today, dude knocks on my door saying that the chick finally R-U-N-N-O-F-T and left him with the bills and the dog. He was moving, couldn't take doggie with him, and wanted to know if we still wanted to take her. BF was sleeping, but of course I couldn't say no, so.... here she is, meet Sally!





She is the sweetest. We think she's some kind of Border Collie mix, and she is smart as a whip. Now, I must go and play with her! But expect more pictures in days to come...

Yeah Yeah Yeah

I know, it's been too long. I bet nobody even bothers to check this blog anymore, but I need a space for my thoughts, so here goes!

A lot has happened since last time I guess. I turned the great 3-1, as in the number of flavors Baskin-Robbins boasts. I wasted the actual day of my birthday trying to get to a wedding in Lafayette that I still to this day do not know whether it actually went on or not. That day I learned my first valuable lesson of being 31: Don't do anything you don't really want to do. Don't do things out of obligation anymore.

Now of course, that doesn't apply in every situation -- there are things I may not want to do for work that I have to/am obligated to do or else I lose the job. And I may have family obligations that are unavoidable. But in situations like this one, where I was really going out of my way for someone who would never go so far out of her way for me, I should have sat that one out. And I will from now on!

My new job is going swimmingly. I'm headed to Vegas in a week or so for our annual retreat, and it will be nice to get away and finally put some faces with the voices I've been hearing on conference calls for the past two months.

I did another adult thing this past month and got preapproved for a mortgage loan. Scary!! It was a lengthy, pain-in-the-ass application process, and at the end of it all I still don't know if I can really afford to buy a house. The fact that I chose a social services field coupled with the fact that I have a reasonable amount of debt means that I am not worth all that much, financially speaking. It sucks that one person (in my situation) can't afford to buy a decent house all on her own. Not that I could count the BF's income anyway, because right now there isn't any, but even if he did have some I wouldn't want to include that. I want to do this all on my own or not at all. I guess I should have gone to law school or something, but then I'd have a buttload of student loan debt. It's a no-win situation. Anyway, I am going to try my luck with a different mortgage broker, but I have a feeling I may be a renter for at least another year.

On the flip side of that, though, I keep thinking about all the other things I'd rather spend money on than a mortgage, property taxes, and maintenance and repairs on a home. I want to travel. I want new clothes. I want to eat really well. I want to get my sewing machine fixed and start making a lot of stuff. I want to upgrade my cable subscription so I can get HBO. I want to take tap dance classes.

I'm not sure I could do all of those things if I were spending all my money on a home and the things that go with it.

For now, I'm just going with the flow. I'm calling a realtor who also knows a mortgage broker this week and I will see what he says.

The BF and I have been spending a lot of time at his P's pool. We are quickly becoming brown berries, and also getting into shape. I usually just float like a lazy manatee when I "go swimming," but this year I'm trying to actually exert some energy in between sunning sessions. I have decided to really bite the bullet and do whatever it takes to get my butt in shape this year. I've even *GASP* started getting up EARLY on most weekdays to work out. SHOCK! AWE! SURPRISE! It actually isn't so bad. I get up at 6am and turn on the Exercise on Demand channel, pick out a workout or two, and I'm done in 30 min. or so. And since I now don't have to be at work until 8:30, I still have like an entire hour to do stuff in the morning. I have absolutely NEVER been a morning person, but for some reason lately I really have enjoyed having all that time in the morning to lounge, eat cereal, watch the History Channel or make fun of the inane stories on the morning talk shows, and read. Good Lord, I'm becoming an adult.

I think I'll go for now, but I will make just one more comment. The Netflix fairy delivered The Kids in the Hall this past week and I was watching it last night. I used to watch this in high school all the time, and watching it on DVD made me realize 1) they must have shown a crapload of commercials during the show, because each episode is about 15 min. long, and 2) the skits themselves are really really short. And maybe 3) A lot of their skits are not so much funny as they are performance art. I guess performance art is lost on a 15 year old, because I don't remember the show being that way at all. I need to re-watch The State now too and see what else I was missing.