Strikeout

My dear Netflix,

This week you and I are not seeing eye to eye. I'm not sure where we went wrong, but I think we both need to put the time in and work on making this relationship successful.

You recommended A History of Violence to me, so I got it. It came, the disc was cracked. I sent it back. You sent me a new one. It sat on the table for a week because I was feeling lukewarm about watching it. Yesterday I started to watch it. I didn't like it. It started weird, it was overly graphic, the characters were hard to identify with, and I knew it was only going to go downhill. I turned it off and today I'm sending it back. [cue the anonymous commenters who will not leave their actual name but still leave a comment telling me I'm crazy and this is the greatest movie ever and Viggo Mortensen is the greatest actor alive blah blah blah - though let me save you a little trouble. I really like Viggo. I'm a big fan of LOTR. I know he's talented. This movie just wasn't for me]

I put Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow in my queue. I've already seen this movie and I already know it's not exactly award-winning, but I was reading something about it on imdb the other day and I talked myself into wanting to watch it again. I like Jude Law and Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow. I really WANT to like this movie. Plus, as I recall there's a miniature elephant in it that I'm pretty sure I would have for a pet if it actually existed. I was eager to pop this baby in and give it a second chance. The movie arrived yesterday, cracked. Two cracked DVDs in a row, Netflix? Where is the quality control? In fairness, I'm not sure if my beef is with you or my postman (who is already on my list after the whole Harry Potter debacle) but still. This is not cool. I was looking forward to watching this crazy blue screen fantasy land flick last night and instead I had to settle for the first part of that movie up there and then this:

Ratatouille. You recommended this, and I figured this was probably a safe bet. I hadn't been too excited about it in the theatre, but it's Pixar. I like Pixar a lot, as you well know based on my ratings. After A History of Violence didn't pan out I put this in, because I figured at least I could watch one movie I'd probably enjoy. I'm sorry to tell you that halfway through I left Houseguest watching it and I went into my room to read. I wasn't loving it. Try as I might I just can't get past the fact that it's a rat in a kitchen. That just doesn't say "cute Pixar movie about cooking" to me. It says, "kind of unsanitary, this rat is sort of a know-it-all jerk, and maybe they were trying too hard with this one". [I know, crazy internet people, it won an Oscar. But keep in mind The Simpsons Movie wasn't even nominated and that was WAY better - admit it, you know I'm right] We probably share the blame on this one, I just wanted you to know it was a let down.

So I guess what I'm trying to say, Netflix, is that we need to work on our communication. I will do a better job of researching and evaluating your recommendations, and you could probably work on making sure you're not sending out cracked discs that cause me to have to wait two extra days before I can watch a particular movie. Cause I gotta tell you, it's a pretty big disappointment to open up one of your bright red envelopes only to find that I have no way of watching the movie it contains.

Fondly,
Jessie

PS - Becoming Jane was excellent. Thanks for that one! That Anne Hathaway is pretty great, and James McAvoy isn't exactly hard to watch either. So you see, the magic is still there, we've just hit a rough patch!

why dreams and movies don't mix

So I stayed up last night to watch the Oscars. The whole thing. This is despite the fact that I was running on about 4 hours' sleep because of going out on Saturday and having made plans for all day Sunday. I mean, there's no one to blame in this situation but myself, and I'm not saying I would have done anything differently, but I was feeling very heavy lidded come the award for Best Picture.

Overall it was an enjoyable watching experience. I mean, it wasn't the most entertaining thing I've ever seen, but let's be honest, it's the Oscars. It's kind of a bland telecast every year.

A few highlights for me:

• I enjoyed seeing John Stewart host, as I am not-quite-secretly in love with him


• I liked that unexpected ladies took home trophies


• The actor categories were not exactly a shocker, but I liked the speeches, I thought they were both very gracious


• I could have done with a few less montages, but I understand it was the 80th Academy Awards so they had to do a little something extra and I did enjoy the one where they showed every Best Picture winner


• The couple (I don't know if they're actually a couple, but it was a guy and a girl) who won best song were cute and I was very happy when they let the girl come back out after the commercial break and actually give her acceptance speech because the guy talked for too long and she got played off stage before she even said anything - and it was a pretty good speech


• I liked Tilda Swinton's acceptance speech, I've only ever seen her play slightly scary serious roles, and I'm glad she has a sense of humor and that she made fun of George Clooney a little (I feel like it's good for ridiculously hot men to be ridiculed now and again, it keeps the ego in check at least a little)


• I liked that no one seemed to take themselves too seriously and there were no overly blatant political speeches one way or the other


• I liked that no one dwelled a lot on the writer's strike aside from what was said right at the beginning, I thought it was appropriate to acknowledge it but then to remember that this night is a celebration

Anyway, here's why watching the Oscars and having movies on the brain and then going to sleep is not the best idea. I have weird and overly realistic seeming dreams anyway, but I have to say last night was pretty up there. In the dream I was getting ready for work Monday morning when suddenly I remembered that on Friday I had made the Governer, played by this guy,

extremely angry and he had fired me from my job (and I'm pretty sure he yelled at me a lot and was very intimidating). Suddenly I didn't have a job, I wasn't going to be able to pay my rent and I was going to have to move back in with my parents or something. Not only that but I'm pretty sure the reason I got fired was because of leaking some sort of government secrets or violating some kind of really important law completely by accident. I don't remember the exact circumstances. Anyway, for whatever reason I decided it would be a good idea to go to this party I knew the Governor would be at in order to try and explain the situation and get my job back. I snuck into said party, made my way to the Governor and just as I was about to plead my case, the alarm went off. Pretty weird, huh?

Now for the even weirder part. I have this problem where I'll wake up from a dream and for approximately 2-5 minutes I will forget it was a dream and be completely convinced that whatever happened is my reality. Let's not talk about the time I dreamed I was 9 months pregnant. It was a terrifying 5 minutes. Anyway, very first thing this morning, I was completely convinced that I had lost my job on Friday. Not only that I had lost it, but that I had forgotten I lost it for two whole days. I started to have a little panic attack, but thankfully I realized at that point that the Governor of Massachusetts is not, in fact, Bruce Greenwood (the actor up yonder who does play presidential types quite a bit). Also that I have never met the Governor, I do not have a government job and even if I did it's extremely unlikely that I would be in the sort of position to have important secrets at my disposal and that it's unlikely I would break any serious laws.

I'm not really sure what it is exactly that's wrong with me that causes these sorts of things to happen, but I've just accepted them as little quirks of mine and moved on. However, it did make for a stressful start to my day and I'm sorry to tell you it hasn't gotten less stressful since then. So I did what any sensible girl who's seen waaaaay too many movies would do. I bought a movie ticket for after work so I can relax for a couple of hours and avoid rush hour traffic which I feel certain would result in my grinding my teeth to nothing by the time I got home.

So yea, um, happy Monday. :)

progress for progress' sake

True to my word I came home today, put on an outfit of fleecy goodness, watched TV (sadly I only got in part of a movie before Houseguest came home) and made french toast for dinner! I had been thinking about the french toast at my neighborhood cafe for a couple days and how I wanted to go there for breakfast this weekend. Then my mom mentioned that she was thinking of having french toast for dinner and I thought hey! I bet I could make french toast! It sounds delicious, I'll try it!


I have never made french toast before. There are many, many things that I have never made before because I've just never been interesting in cooking. Sometime in the last year or so that all changed. So far, (knock on wood) most of the things that I've attempted to cook have turned out quite edible and possibly even well. After a couple of dud slices (which Houseguest still claimed tasted fine and gobbled up) I got my technique and system down and the majority of the pieces turned out quite splendidly! I look forward to the next time an opportunity presents itself to make french toast. I'm telling you, I'm on a roll. Just wait until Lent is over and I start eating cheese again. All bets are off :)


Anyway, once dinner was over (and please let me just mention one great thing about having someone else here when I cook dinner. I make him a delicious dinner, he does the dishes. This is genius. I should have taken in a boarder a long time ago) I stayed true to my other word and ripped out the ugly pink sock and got straight to work on the fair isle pair I'm knitting for myself. Sock #1 is almost completely finished. The closer I get to finishing, the more I like it, yet at the same time the less likely I am to actually wear it. I'll probably look at them a lot and smile, thinking, 'these are really nice, I'm glad I made them' and they will continue to stay where they are. We'll see. Anyway, here's a picture of the progress:

All that needs to be completed on this one is the ribbing (striped? solid? brown? blue? I can't make up my mind) . Tomorrow I hope to start the 2nd one and get as far as possible because I want to start knitting on these:


This one is Minestone (I love love love love love these colors. Love them)

And this one is Philosopher's Stone (I can't wait to see what all these colors look like knitted up. Plus I just couldn't resist the fact the name reminds me of Harry Potter. Yes, I'm almost 27 years old, what of it?)


Elsewhere the big mystery project continues, and is no longer a big mystery project (I told you, I'm total crap at keeping secrets. My mother's birthday weekend was truly a miracle in the fact that I managed to keep my mouth shut). This is Todd and Amy's wedding afghan. Obviously not in time for their wedding, but as I explained to the bride, technically I have a year from their wedding to give them a gift (though I did already get them something - I'm not a total cop out) so time me. Between now and December 15, 2008 I have to finish this blanket. I think I'm on skein 2 of 10 for each color. Yikes, I better get a move on!

oy with the poodles already

For those of you who watch Gilmore Girls, you know where I gratuitously stole that title from. We are having a snowstorm today. I'm not sure how much snow we're supposed to get, but judging from what's falling outside my window at the moment, I'd say a fair amount. Now, I know we haven't had NEARLY the snow that Michigan has, but keep in mind that when we do get it it's accompanied by wind the likes of which you in the mitten state probably cannot imagine. It's brutal. I tell people it's brutal and then they get here and they're like, "oh my gosh the wind is CRAZY!" as though I had in no way prepared them for what it was like. Just take my word for it, the wind is something else. Also, for whatever reason (well, probably the reason is that the roads are completely insane and make no sense and are extremely narrow) when we get a lot of snow this place sort of freaks out and actually managing the snow accumulation with plows and the like becomes an overwhelming burden that no one seems to have figured out how to deal with.

However, I'm happy that this is the first big snow of the winter which has not found me traveling at the same time. At work yesterday not less than two people came into my office and said, "So Jessie, we're getting a whole bunch of snow tomorrow, where are you flying this weekend?"

Ha. Ha. Ha. No, tonight I am going straight home after work, putting on an outfit of fleecy goodness and watching movies. I'll probably also be dipping back into the jug of wine from last Saturday (hooray!).

In houseguest news, I think he found a place he likes! He could be leaving! Next weekend! However, let's not count our chickens before they hatch. I'll keep you posted.

And now onto the knitting front. Yesterday I received two new skeins from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I love Socks that Rock! The colors I got are Philosopher's Stone and Minestone. They are both completely GORGEOUS. I don't have pictures yet because I'm posting at work (shh!) and my camera and the yarn are both at home. Now then, what this new yarn means is that this weekend I will be working furiously to finish one of the socks I have going so I can free up my size 1 needles, and it also means that I will be ripping out another sock that I had started because I don't like it and I don't want it making me feel guilty for working on something else. These would be the hot pink ones (yes Amy, the ones I said were for you - sorry). I just don't really like them. Plus they're a little TOO thick and hard to work with at the moment. So I think I will take them apart and go back to the drawing board for something a little more fabulous and easy to work with. Part of the problem could be the needles, they're very sharp. Either way, they're history.

I think that's about all I've got for the moment. I'm sorry, I just feel completely uninteresting this week. Here's hoping the spark of imagination and creativity hits me this weekend, or at least that I go out and something totally ridiculous happens so I can keep you all entertained. :)

Empty

Today my brain just feels empty. It's like I try to have a thought and nothing is there, instead I just get slightly dizzy. I'm sure it's just a tired thing, but if the condition continues, it could be cause for alarm. I mean, my brain could be slowly leaking out my ears in the form of earwax or something.

OK, that was a little gross.

I'm coming off a glorious three day weekend. I say that because any weekend is glorious when it consists of three days. It's like a mini vacation, particularly when you've employed the fail-proof system of extending your weekend.

What is this system, you ask?

It's very simple. All you really have to do is...wait for it....go out on Friday night right after work instead of going home and putting on your pajamas. This is ground-breaking. It's like you've just added a whole other day to your weekend. And when you add a day to an already longer weekend, well let's just say it's enough to blow your mind. And it allows you to stay in on Saturday night drinking a jug of wine with your friend and not worry about suffering any consequences to your productivity on Sunday because you still have all of Monday! Don't worry, we didn't drink the whole jug. :) (For the record, I was shockingly productive on Monday. I even went so far as to vacuum my ceiling fan. I know, whoa.)

Anyway, the best thing is that the work week will be shorter! I advocate that the standard work week should go from five days to four with three days for every weekend. I think productivity would increase hugely. I know mine would.

squatter

So I have this "houseguest" at the moment. I say it like that because it's still unclear how long this guest is staying. He moved here for an internship but hasn't yet found an apartment and so has been squatting on my couch for about a week. He might find an apartment of his own, he might not. It's anyone's guess at this point.


To date he has taken over my apartment with boxes and clothes (and clothes and clothes), and on Tuesday (when I was very sick) he picked a fight with me over ice cube trays. I have a very sohpisticated ice cube tray system: I use up one whole tray, fill it, and use the other while that one is freezing. Rinse and repeat. Apparently, according to the gospel of Houseguest, this is not correct and you should refill whatever you use everytime you get ice. Does anyone else see a problem with this? Let's say he fills two cubes' worth of ice and then I go to use the tray shortly after not knowing he has just refilled part of it. I crack it to get my ice out and suddenly I'm covered in very cold water. He doesn't seem to think this is a problem.


Anyway, a couple of days ago I joked with him and said, "so, what are you gonna get me for Valentine's Day?" He just sort of laughed.


Well imagine my surprise when last night he showed up after work with these:





I told him he could go ahead and stay another day.


To round out the evening we got some Italian takeout and watched Broken English (which is a very good movie).

I guess he's not such a bad roommate/guest after all....though ask me again next time I don't fill the ice cube trays properly. :)

sickypoo and I love you.

Phew. Being sick effectively knocked me on my a** for the last two days. I left work just before 11 on Tuesday, got home just after noon and fell into my bed. I always figure that when I have a cold all I really need is one day in bed and then I'll be functional enough to return to normal life. Usually this theory is correct. Not so this time. I was feeling a little better Tuesday night until I tried to go to sleep. And I couldn't find a position that allowed me to be comfortable and allowed me to breathe at the same time. I think you'll agree that it's pretty hard to sleep when you can't breathe. I woke up Wednesday feeling worse than I did on Tuesday (which I would not have thought possible). I called into work and then stayed in my bed until 4:00pm. However, through the miracles of DayQuil and Airborne, I started to feel better yesterday evening. Here I am, back at work and almost totally better, thank goodness.


And just in time for Valentine's Day! Now, I am usually pretty vocal about how much I do not like Valentine's Day. About how I think it's silly and kind of mean. I mean, at this point with all the commercialization it's designed to make you feel like total crap if you're single (and I just think there are enough things that make you feel like total crap if you're single). I have been known to go on a tirade or two about how much I hate Valentine's Day.


But I will let you in on a little secret.


I am completely full of crap.


I love Valentine's Day. I love the thought of getting your significant other a little gift and going out for dinner and a movie or something on an otherwise random day in February. I love that there's a special day of the year set aside for people to show how much they love each other. I love that more people get engaged on Valentine's Day than any other day of the year. It's romantic and fabulous, and I am kind of a hopeless romantic when it all gets down to it. I just don't love that I never have anything going on that day. The last time I had a boyfriend on Valentine's Day was the 10th grade. He stopped at my house and dropped off a pair of ski socks and the ugliest necklace I have ever seen on his way to a hockey game. Nothing says romance like horrible jewelry and ditching your girlfriend for a hockey game.


So it's easier just to say it's stupid and move on, in true bitter-single-girl fashion. But this year I have decided to do things differently. This year I embrace Valentine's Day. I reject the commercialization of it (except for the chocolate, I mean come on now) and I reject that it's supposed to make me feel like I should have a boyfriend in order to fit with the program. Instead, I am taking this Valentine's Day as an opportunity to show love. This is my public Valentine to all of you who are special to me in some way or another. Whether I see you every day or hardly at all. Whether we're very good friends or just friendly acquaintances. Whether you know how much you mean to me or you don't. Thanks for being a part of my life.


Happy Valentine's Day, I love you. :)

blech

I have succumbed to being sick. I have fought valiantly over most of the winter to not get sick, as I spent approximately 2/3 of last winter feeling under the weather and was not looking for a repeat of that situation.

However, I finally have to admit defeat. A coworker was sick last week and Sacha was sick over the weekend when we all hung out. It appears that it is now my turn. I'm sorry to tell you that I'm at work, but it's pretty imperative for me to be here this morning for an event in the building, but I'm pretty inclined to go straight home once it's over and get into my bed and not move until tomorrow.

Ugh.

Mr. Castorini

I swear to you all, Mr. Castorini from Moonstruck came into my office today. If you don't know who that is, go rent the movie and cue to the scene where Mr. Castorini (a plumber) is talking about pipes (I can't find it on youtube or I would have posted it here) . If you don't want to do that, I'll give you the second best I can do. This little speech:



"There's three kinds of pipes. There's aluminum, which is garbage and you can see where that's gotten you. Then there's bronze, which is good - unless something goes wrong. Something always goes wrong. And then there's copper. Which is the only pipe I use. It costs money. It costs money because it SAVES money."



Given by this guy with a old school New York Italian accent:






This will give you some indication of the little man that came in here today to try and show us the benefits of using his product in our office (only his accent was obviously Boston Italian). He was approximately 200 years old, and from the moment he opened his mouth I thought of this scene from this movie. And then he ACTUALLY STARTED TALKING ABOUT COPPER PIPES. It took every ounce of my willpower to keep a straight, professional face and not totally break out into laughter. It made my day. I love it when movie characters come to life!

-



In other news, last night my company had a dinner (a belated holiday dinner) that involved a wine tasting and food at a French restaurant. I learned all about how to actually taste wine and try to pick out all the different flavors so I feel pretty prepared to be snooty and wine-snobby at any given moment. In all seriousness, it was pretty great, and I actually started to pick out flavors myself by the end of it (I used to always secretly think people were full of crap when they said they could do that). The food was delicious, I tried escargots for the first time in my life (which I would not have done had they not been placed directly in front of me to be paired with the wine when I was sitting right next to the president of the company and trying to make a good impression) and I have to tell you that they were completely delicious. Let's be honest, I'll never actually order them, but at least I feel confident that if I were ever somewhere fancy and they were presented I know that they're ok and I won't want to immediately spit them back out and make a total fool of myself (but let me be clear: if I was ever actually in a fancy place I would definitely make a total fool of myself, just not with the escargots).

Surprise!!

So now I can finally post about the thing that's been occupying my time and my planning for the last few weeks.

This past weekend I went home to surprise my mom for her birthday! My dad and I started planning this the day after Christmas when I was sort of perusing flights online and found a cheap one for that weekend. Somehow we managed to make it more than a month without accidentally spoiling the surprise (which is shocking - I'm the worst when it comes to accidentally spoiling a surprise). When it got down to Friday afternoon and I was actually lying right to her (Mom: "What are you doing tonight?" Me: "nothing much, really" Mom: "are you going to watch the superbowl with the boys?" Me: "Yea, probably") it was DEFINITELY tough, but now I can say it was totally worth it.

Probably the biggest threat to maintaining the surprise were the issues with my flight (yes. again.). There was a pretty good amount of snow falling in Michigan on Friday, and it was rainy and windy in Boston. I had more confidence this time that the flight would actually get off the ground, but I knew it would be delayed. Sure enough, they took off a little late from Detroit and then were put in a holding pattern in Boston for half an hour because of the wind. While I was sitting in the terminal, the fire alarm tripped and went off for about 35 minutes, which was nice. Anyway, once we got on the plane and were about to take off, the plane instead turned around and went back to the gate because there was some sort of computer issue and they had to have a mechanic come on board to restart it ("just like your PC at home" according to the pilot - very reassuring). At this time I called my boss who had been teasing me for a week leading up to the trip that something was going to go wrong and I wouldn't make it. I told her it was all her fault and at we both laughed because as she said, "stuff happens to you when you fly that never happens to anyone else" and we decided that it's probably better if I just stay away from airports altogether. Anyway, the computer reset worked out and we took off, arrived an hour and a half late (which is not that bad) and they served free alcohol (which is the least they could do, really, for being very inconvenient). My little brother picked me up and we got to my folks' house around 1am where we tiptoed around in order to avoid waking my mother up - she's a very light sleeper.

Anyway, Saturday morning I woke up around 6:30am (excitement) and heard my parents in the kitchen chatting and reading the paper. My mom's back was to the hall so she didn't see me until I actually got into the kitchen and said hi. Her reaction was priceless: She shrieked "JESSIE!!?!???!?!?!???!!!" and hugged me harder than I've ever been hugged before, then had to sit back down because she was having palpatations. :) My dad and I could finally come clean about how hard it had been to keep it a secret and how when I was late coming in my dad was obsessively checking the flight status every time my mom left the room and how I felt bad about lying right to her face (which got me a, "you little stinker!"). I think it's safe to say she was surprised. :)

But the fun wasn't over! Little did she know that we coordinated with my older brother and his family to show up as well! About 1:30 in the afternoon they pulled up, my dad heard the car and opened the door to the garage. My mom was getting ready to work out so she wasn't paying much attention, just lacing up her ankle brace. My sister-in-law and nephew got right in front of her before she looked up and did a double take, saying "what are you guys doing here?!?". My nephew then leapt into her arms and said, "happy birthday, Grandma!" which can pretty much be classified as the cutest thing ever.

I still can't believe we pulled it off. But we did and she was definitely surprised and very happy. And keeping your mother happy is always a good idea. :)