Summer 2008 Day Sixty Four: Sharks, Sewing, and a Fortune Cookie

Took my well-deserved day off today. I had already cleaned my room last night, so I thought maybe I wouldn't have much to do today. oh no. Did laundry (well, dropped it off...and the guy accidentally gave me a 100 won piece instead of a quarter. you short changed me by 15 cents! ass. )...did some minor shopping (we needed toilet paper) and then came home to start watching my shark week stuff. I love shark week so much. I love watching great whites jump out of the water. it cracks me up to no end.

While I was watching all this crap I decided to finally work on the curtains for the west side of my bedroom. Up to this point I just had this giant piece of black fabric I'd purchased on sale about a year ago...just kind of draped over the window. So I pulled it down, cut it up, sewed it up...now I have two panels on that window. One's about 2.5 inches longer than the other...but...no one said I was a TALENTED seamstress... anyway. Then I started watching Jaws III...oh joy of joys. During this I started to recover a pillow that I keep on my bed...it's a pillow that we used in the FTC production of The Imaginary Invalid...it's green...kind of shiny...and doesn't match the room. I have a sheet that I bought at the department store (as a separate...not part of a set or anything) that had stains on it (from some kind of plant or something) that I couldn't get out...so I cut it up and made a new cover for this pillow. So now the pillow matches the room.

But wait, there's more. I also had this ribbon sitting around that came with some washcloths I bought...it's pink and brown...also matches the room. I decorated said pillow. It actually looks fantastic. If I'd thought of the ribbon beforehand it would look better, but it's still nice. Almost like it jumped out of a Crate & Barrel magazine. Once I have batteries I'll actually post a picture. I'm very proud of it. Then I watched Jaws: The Revenge...which is an...interesting piece of cinema in which Michael Caine is the ONLY name....and all he's really doing is...being Michael Caine. And, okay, he DOES narrowly avoid getting eaten by a vengeful, murderous, plotting shark. Woohoo. I then put on The Fortune Cookie (since I had it saved). I don't know how I'd never seen this movie. I love Lemmon & Matthau and assumed I'd seen most of their joint films but, apparently, I can't count to 11. Anyway. Hilarious. If it weren't so hot in the apartment, I might have loved it more, but it was still pretty darn funny.

So then I went to pick up my laundry. I was successful in this, except that my laundry bag has started to come apart. It's from bed bath & beyond and is mostly nylon-esque materials...but the nylon on the top had started to rip off with the constant weight. So when I got the bag home, I emptied it, put the clothes away, and took the top part of the bag off (with the pull ties and everything). I took another piece of the stained sheet and cut a long portion of it where the elastic ran (it's a fitted sheet...was a fitted sheet). I sewed it into a loop and attached it at the top of the bag. Then I cut holes in the material and ran the pull tie through it. I also reattached one of the shoulder straps that had come off. Again, it's beautiful and pictures will arrive...ish...shortly.

Then, feeling REALLY productive, I grabbed this ugly red dress my aunt gave me (it's red and tent-like and has African people on it. its not really...me. and it's more of a house dress anyway seeing as the skirt of it is pretty transparent. Anyway. It's boat-necked and has sleeves...I took care of it. Totally took off the top portion, relocated the waistline, took in the waist, and reattached some of the material to make it a halter dress. It works for while I'm laying here, typing to you people. But I wouldn't leave the house in it haha.

Summer 2008 Day Sixty Three: Shark Week, etc.

Wednesday is supposed to be my day off, but A) I rarely take it, and B) I was covering for Tova. So I left for work at about 8:25. I walked up to the 135th street stop and got out my metro card. A woman goes through the turnstile in front of me...as I reach out and swipe my card, the world goes black. The woman in front of me...her perfume was so strong and so...potent...that it made me faint. I remember swiping the card and I remember it telling me to swipe again, but then it's black. Fortunately, as I crumpled backwards towards the ground, the guy behind me caught me under the arms...when he grabbed me, I came to almost immediately (fortunately) and helped myself up. I don't think I've ever fainted in my LIFE until today. That was rough.
Worked about 9 hours and despite talk of strapping keyboards and computer mice to Dylan so that he could knock over a Duane Reade in nicotine desperation...it was pretty much same-old, same-old. Went home and put on the tv...began by watching some Shark week nonsense that I'd recorded...not interesting. Started cleaning. Put on Trouble with Angels. Cleaned. Put on Project Runway. Cleaned. Put on a shark week special on Sharks in the Mediterranean which was actually pretty interesting. Blue sharks are pretty. Basking sharks = awesome. And....that's pretty much it. more cleaning. now, bed. woohoo. tomorrow: day off. yes.

Summer 2008 Day Sixty Two: The French Lieutenant's Woman

It's funny, the things that Netflix will "recommend" for you to see once you've rented enough period pieces and literary dramas. A few months ago, it recommended this film which I'd A) never heard of, B) never read the book, and C)...never realized that Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep were in a film together! What could be better? I mean...Jeremy Irons at age 33 and Meryl Streep with a crazy wig. Ahh! So I finally get it from Netflix. Good choice, Flix known as Net. Good Choice.

It's not a brilliant picture, it's not even spectacular, but it's beautiful and it's pretty in-tune with the films I do like. Period piece - check. Duality of plot - check. It's everything that Possession strove to be, but in a different way in that Possession is more of a flashback while TFLW is more film ACTING as flashback. And Meryl Streep is much better than Gwyneth Paltrow when it comes down to it. I don't know why I'm bothering to compare since they're two stories that have nothing to do with one another, but it made sense in my head.

I've decided to get the book from the library and, once I'm able to return other certain books and finish reading other ones, I'll pick it up and hopefully love it, just not enough move to Lyme Regis and have a torrid affair with the author...who is dead, so that would be out anyway. I also wouldn't be the first one. Dammit.

Summer 2008 Day Sixty One: Brooklyn Cyclones vs. Staten Island Yankees

I'm not sure what the score was. I know the Cyclones won, but I'm not sure by how much. Certainly by enough since, with the exception of Addison, everyone on the Yankees minor league team is both ugly and untalented. Oh well. My friend Phil had these comps to this game out in Staten Island (right off the ferry) and invited me to join. We had no idea that our seats would be in a SUITE. Yes. a Suite. huge room with 10 seats outside, separated by thick windows and a door. Two leather couches, two chairs, coffee table, lamp, tv, closet, sink, fridge, carpeting, AC, stools....holy crap it was wonderful. I ran around the suite like a moron. And yet. So wonderful. Nothing's better than getting comps to a baseball game, riding the free ferry out to it, getting to sit in the AC while watching it, and only have to pay for the food. Which, by the way, food...ugh. amazing.

Summer 2008 Day Sixty: Travel Drama II

I spent the day at work. Not where Rory spent it. Rory's original flight was set to leave for Orlando at 6:55. At 5:15 she called me. Her flight's been delayed until 8:30. Fine. Oh, and Jet Blue has cancelled every flight today up to this point. Even better. Calls me again at 5:35. The flight's been cancelled. She's getting on a cancellation line. Oh great. She gets on the line. She's on the line until 9:19 at which point they decide to put her on a plane that leaves the gate at 9:25. Unfortunately it was also in a separate terminal. Not a chance. Missed that flight. They immediately rebooked her onto another flight that was supposed to leave at 9:30 and instead was now scheduled to leave at 12 midnight. Then it was pushed to 12:15. Then 12:35. When I went to sleep at 10 it was scheduled to leave at 1:05am. I woke up at 12:40am and there was still no update. So I stayed awake until 1am. At 1 they updated the status to say the flight was boarding. Finally. I passed the hell out.

Summer 2008 Day Fifty Nine: Work and Rest

Worked til 4 when I went and met Jess and Rory outside of the Palace theatre. Rory and I accidentally wore matching colors. Way to go, genes. Way to go. headed to gramma's where we ate deliciousness. Went to La Salle and got delicious gelato. mmmm. Gelato. Went back to gramma's and watched Cinderella III (actually not a terrible movie) and then headed home. Joy of joys. Went right to sleep.

Summer 2008 Day Fifty Eight: Columbus Circle Vanity

Got an email this morning from the New York Public Library:
Please return the following long overdue item(s) or your account may be
turned over to a collection agency.

uh...whoops. ayep. grabbed that book. Went to work for 4 hours and then directed Rory and Jess to meet me at the library so I could return it and then we could go explore. They had tickets for a show at 8 so I had about 6 hours to hang out with them. We walked to the Manhattan Mall where we wandered into Lush (mmm lush) and then headed to Strawberry to try on clothes we weren't going to buy. we were going to eat there, as well, but they're currently GUTTING the mall...apparently July's a good time to do that!...so we had to go elsewhere for sustenance.

Took the train up to Columbus Circle and headed to Whole Foods. Mmm. Whole Foods. Got our food, got our Jamba juice. Sat and ate and talked and digested and started the picture taking. Oh the picture taking. We left Whole Foods and went to sit by the fountain at Columbus Circle. And we're vain. So we sat and took pictures. Of ourselves. Hilarity and blueberries. That is all. Once they had to leave for the show I walked up to 62nd and waited for the M7 to go home. Ridiculously crowded, as usual. Got home and watched tv....as usual.

Summer 2008 Day Fifty Seven: Travel Drama

My sister was making a simple trip to New York to see some shows, hang out with our cousin Jess, and stay with my gramma. Well...the airlines suck and Rory's initial flight (for, like, 7am) got cancelled. She was put on a later flight, which left my cousin to wander the city, and my grandmother to go half insane with worry. It was a mess. Rory eventually landed around 4:30 and finally got to the city around 5:45. Wonderful. Except at this point, my cousin was lost somewhere on the upper east side and they had a performance to be at, at 7. Uh...whoops. Jess finally made it to my grandmother's at 6:35. We threw them in a cab and they got to the theatre AT 7. Perfect. I spent the evening with gramma, chillin' in front of the tv and just kicking back...something I don't get to do with her often....so it was lovely. Until I had to take 3 trains to get home. boo.

Summer 2008 Day Fifty Four thru Fifty Six

Nothing to see here. Just work. Stupid work.

Summer 2008 Day Fifty One-Fifty Three: Hilarious

Let's just say it was a fun, stupid, hilarious weekend that involved very little boredom. And a cat. Cat-faced killer, to be specific. It also involved Dinosaur BBQ tonight...which was very very tasty, though I missed the Texas-ness of Hill Country.

Summer 2008 Day Fifty: Alice, Dark Knight

The plan for today WAS: Work from whenever I want to until Ali gets into the city, then hang out with Ali for a few hours, then go see WALL-E with Dylan, then see Dark Knight with Jess & Co. Problems arose very early in the day--I was on my way to work around 11 when Ali called me: her bunny, Alice, who is 5 years old and her mother's surrogate baby, died this morning. That magazine-eating-pig-noise-making-3x-the-size-of-a-real-dwarf-bunny-bunny died after some kind of sickness that the vet couldn't do anything about. She was a beautiful rabbit....needless to say, Ali and her mother are distraught.

So. Part 1 of the post-work plan began to fall through. Ali DID end up coming in, but not until 4:30 so I only had an hour with her before she had to head downtown for her class. At 5, I get a text from Dylan that there's been some form of chaos at work and there will be no Wall-E today. Boo. Boo chaos. So I went back to work and sat at reception with Dee for an hour and a half or so and ate my dinner there. Then I walked around a bit, sat at Port Authority, finished my Ian McEwan book.

At 10 I headed over to the movie theatre on 42nd Street to meet Jess and Hannah and Bree for Dark Knight. The line was already beginning to wind past the Times building. Fortunately, Jess and Hannah had gotten on the line at 9 and were sitting on the corner playing UNO.

Dark Knight was great. Fantastic, even. The script, the framing, the sound editing, the cast, the special effects,t he score...everything was superb. I only had one qualm with it, and it was a simple character choice made mid-film that didn't seem justified for Christian Bale to be making, but I got over it. I had not one single problem with the cast. Heath Ledger and Christian Bale and Michael Caine and GARY FUCKING OLDMAN and Aaron Eckhardt and Maggie Gyllenhall and Nestor Carbonell and Morgan Freeman...superb.

Summer 2008 Day Forty Nine: Nothing to see, here

No, really. Nothing. Nada. Niet.

Summer 2008 Days Forty Six-Forty Eight: Pathetic Reigns

Yeah, it's been pretty dead the past few days and, somehow, I've still managed to do absolutely nothing but watch movies. Well, I mean, we watch them at work...then I come home and watch something I've never seen...it's..oh so thrilling. Saturday later on I watched Indecent Proposal (had never seen). On Sunday we watched Hairspray, followed by 3 other movies, one of which was Postcards from the Edge (which I'd never seen). We also started on Order of the Phoenix. When I went home on Sunday I watched Thelma and Louise (had somehow never seen it).

Monday we finished OOTP and also watched Nightmare Before Christmas. Last night when I got home I started watching New York, New York (never seen it) but I have to take my Liza in doses. So I turned it off. Today we watched Monsters, Inc (Love!) and Hook (most of it...long movie!)....and then I came home and did some rewriting of cover letters and submitting of resumes stuff. Boring stuff.

All was good and right with the world until about 11:30 when the restaurant downstairs started playing music so loud it could have been coming FROM my ears. I called 311 on their asses around 12:05. By 12:30 the noise was gone. :) If it hadn't stopped I was going to go down there and go all white girl in Harlem on their asses. And, as fun as that sounds, you'd probably be attending a funeral in the next 72 hours so just be thankful the cops came :)

Summer 2008 Day Forty Five: Oh Sweet Jeebus

Today was truly pathetic. 10 reps and a manager, paid to sit around and do absolutely nothing for the company other than answer MAYBE 7 calls apiece. Seriously. I answered 2 calls then then started watching The Sting. Took 4 more calls during hte course of the film. During all of this I was reading my book, as well. Then I watched 6 hours straight (8 episodes) of Chuck...I got a total of 2 calls during that. Then I sat and blogged for the last 15 minutes. I could have been at the gym, at the park, cleaning my room, at home watching The Goonies, at a bar, out with friends...ANYTHING but sitting at work for 10 hours. What a waste.

Summer 2008 Day Number Forty-Eight

7/9/08
I try very hard not to put a book down once I’ve begun it. At least, not if it’s a book that I’m reading for pleasure. In school, textbooks got put down for weeks. There have been a few exceptions—the first in recent memory was a book by A.S. Byatt—I think it was Angels & Insects. I very much enjoy A.S. Byatt’s poetical writing, but did not enjoy that one. I got through the first 30 pages or so and gave up. The only other one I can remember not reading to the end was a Dumas novel—again, I love Dumas’ writing, but wasn’t enjoying that novel…maybe because it was about the Netherlands and not about France, perhaps it was the translation….I just couldn’t finish it.

Now I’ve hit another one. I wanted so much to love this book. E. Nesbit seems like a very colorful, inventive, and intelligent writer. But I can’t get into Five Children and It at all. I’ve read all the way to page 31 of the illustrated version (large print) and can’t get through another page and a half without desiring to be doing something else. The vocabulary is lacking any interesting facets. The language has no musicality to it, and the plot is static. Usually, it’s fairly easy for me to get into books designed for 4th graders—I usually love them. But this novel doesn’t give the reader any credit…does not assume that the reader is intelligent at all. Instead, it assumes that the reader has only the basest of knowledge with no intention of growth.

Maybe I was just an intelligent 3rd/4th grader, but this book would have insulted me a little at that age. Even if I wanted to love it, I simply can’t get through it. It makes me sad because I also borrowed the same author’s The Enchanted Castle from the library and don’t think I’m going to get through it. I think I’ll just return the two of them and hope for the best with another author. I think I need to get out of Children’s fantasy and move onto History, or something gritty…I have two history books sitting at home—One is about Vienna, the other is about Hungary. Not knowing much about either, I hope I’ll be able to embrace them as vessels for learning rather than be focused on the writing itself.

I have some Auel books at home, too, from the library, but I think I’ve got to cleanse my palate for a good long time before I can turn to Auel. Perhaps after the next influx of new books I’ll return to Redwall and use that as an appetizer to Auel. I also have T.H. White’s The Book of Merlin at home, but I need to put off fantasy for a little bit. Give me some history, give me some Brontë…something.

7/12/08
Made the happy mistake of going to Borders yesterday…on the way home I started reading my McEwan novel, even though I’m starting to chug through Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture…so now I’m kind of in the middle of two very different books, but I’m more comfortable in this situation than I was TRYING to make it through Five Children and It so….success! ☺

Summer 2008 Day Forty Four: Working Girl, Breakfast Club, What's Up Tiger Lily?, DJ's, Borders, Sabrina

It was a long day. As you can tell by the title. Once again we were some form of NOT swamped at work, so Tom and I put on Working Girl which is a kind of perfection. Once that was over, we switched to The Breakfast Club which is BETTER than perfection. Gotta love Judd Nelson. You just gotta. It was my once-a-week day, so I left work at 1, going home and hoping to settle my stomach a little more before venturing out into the world again.

Sat at home and watched What's Up Tiger Lily? (Woody Allen....No Name Cast....Egg Salad?) which Ben had saved on the DVR. Stopped the film about half an hour from the end so that I could clean...the apartment was a shambles and needed to be cleaned...so I cleaned it. Color yourself amazed, yes I cleaned. After cleaning I showered and then napped for about 45 minutes before heading out to meet Brianna.

I beat Bree to DJs so I sat at the bar and ordered a Ginger Ale. Right before she showed up I finally had let that settle and ordered a drink. Right at that time, the owner of DJ's (Dennis) walked in and ordered a round of shots for everybody (which is always lovely). Then Bree came in--Bree and I haven't seen each other in....probably about 8 months. It's been a long while and we live and work so close to one another...it's kind of unacceptable. So we caught up...discovered a lot had happened to the two of us both good and mediocre....interesting stuff, really. One day I'm sure one of us will write a book about stasis. Anyway.

Bree ordered up a Bass while I finished my drink. I had two more drinks and Bree had another Bass. My card was at the register where Brian (the bartender) had put it when I sat down. But the bartender shift changed somewhere around my 2nd or 3rd drink and somehow those last 2 drinks didn't make it onto my tab. When PJ came by to close me out my bill was a whopping $10. Brian had already left...who was I to complain? Besides, PJ would have probably waved it off because he's an amazing eternally-tanked old man. So yeah. $10 and I drank 3 malibus, a gingerale, and got a free shot.

I was amazed with myself for having spent so little....so I went to Borders and spent $70. I'm silly, I know. I wouldn't have spent so much except they had things I really wanted. I bought the 1995 version of Sabrina-- Harrison Ford (ehhhhh), Julia Ormond (too old for the role), Greg Kinnear (perfect for the role)....it was $7.99 and I kind of had to...never seen it, love the original... anyway. Also bought a new notebook since my old one is more than exhausted, bought A Tale of Two Cities since I've managed to never read it, and the fact that Jim Barbour is going to be in the production kind of requires me to see it...I'd like to know it first; also bought "In Between the Sheets" by Ian McEwan...it was the cheapest McEwan book they had and I love his writing and was craving it....and then they had two items I'd never seen before: published, bound, foreworded versions of Charlotte Brontë's Juvenilia..."The Secret", and "The Spell"....and since I already own everything else by Charlotte Brontë that Borders has on its shelves...it was kind of a requirement. I had never seen these two items on the shelves before and I didn't want them disappearing between tonight and the next time I swung by Borders. So there ya go.

Came home and ate some Whole Foods dinner....and then came to my room and watched Sabrina. It's not the original. It's...not a HUGE dash from it, but the expanse is fairly large. I mean, for one, Harrison Ford is no Humphrey Bogart (Bogart is no Ford, either, but that's a separate issue). Bogart was 55 when he played Linus Larrabee and Ford was 53...and yet Ford managed to seem older in the role. Meanwhile, Audrey Hepburn was 25 when she played Sabrina...Julia Ormond was 30...and looked it. Unfortunately. I mean, she's beautiful but when she smiles she's got those lines around her jaw that give away the whole NOT A YOUNG'N thing. I did enjoy the update of the film's backstory, if you will...modernization of it, really. It made sense...but at the same time kind of....took away the heightened tragedy of Sabrina's love for David. I don't know. I'm tired.

Summer 2008 Day Forty Three: Food Poisoning is WAY fun

Whatever I ate for lunch...not a good call. Made me muy sick. Going back to bed now.

Summer 2008 Day Forty Two: WALL-E

Words...text...cannot really express my love for this film. I love this film the same way that I loved Tarzan when it was first released. The beautiful thing about Tarzan, as a Disney film, is that it relied heavily on the viewer's ability to understand body language and signs and gestures. There is an absence (yes, absence, not lack) of dialogue that allows the beauty of the story, imagery, and message to really shine through. I loved every second of this film.

Everyone told me I would cry...I'm sure they had no idea I would start crying in the first 10 minutes or so. Literally. WALL-E opens the door to his garage/home and I started tearing up. And by the end? Forget it. It's pretty brilliant for a Disney film, pretty brilliant for a Pixar film...it's pretty high when it comes to animated films in general, as well. Though, in recent years, animated films have begun to tackle social commentary and intelligent subject matter more often. The Triplets of Belleville is a good example of this.

Do yourself a huge favor: Go see it. Just....go. Go now. Turn the computer off and go. But before you go, you should know: there's a trailer before the film for another Disney film coming out this fall (I think)...it's called Beverly Hills Chihuahua and, trust me, you don't want to be in the theatre for that trailer. It's an abomination...a tragic mess...beware. Beware.

Summer 2008 Day Forty One: Plans 'a changin'

Plan A: Go see the Marriage of Bette and Boo on comps....
*gave away to Kate*
Plan B: Go see WALL-E...
*asked everyone, no one wanted to come with, Dylan finally said he might, then decided to go tomorrow instead, decided to wait*
Plan C: Meet Ali downtown for a quick coffee before she ran to class.
*check*
What's nice about where Ali has class (on Barclay) is that it's right by a Starbucks AND right by the 2 train. Highly convenient. After meeting up with Ali, I ran to the train and took the 1 up to 59th where I got out and went to Best Buy and FINALLY bought our TV for the living room. With the 4-year-coverage it was really pricey, but in the long run, it'll be worth it! Took the TV home, finally set it up with cable, watched half an episode of something and then went to bed. Too darn hot to do anything else.

Summer 2008 Day Forty: No life, tra la

It's not even worth a blog post really, but there it is. Did absolutely nothing today. Whoopee.

Summer 2008 Day Thirty Nine: So much time, so little to do, so much we could do

For the first time in a long while we had almost nothing to do at work all day. Les Liaisons Dangereuses is in its final performance as I type this and, since there was next to nothing to sell, most of us didn't have any reports to file at the end of the day. We literally spent all day answering the odd call and watching movies. We started with A League of their Own (always a classic...anything is, that shows Geena Davis before the facelift). Next up was Bullets Over Broadway which, surprisingly, I'd never seen...I was pleasantly surprised and grew fond of it quickly. We finished up the work day with The Devil Wears Prada which is always hilarious...even if Anne Hathaway is totally the new Andie MacDowell.

When I got home this evening, I attempted to watch Casablanca all the way through for the first time...Netflix is kind of awesome sometimes and has a feature where you can watch some of the films in your queue online. The bad thing about this...or one bad thing, at least...is that you can't do it on a Mac, and since my PC is slower than a dead dinosaur...that makes it suck. That, and my internet is not always... consistent... so. yeah. Got through about 20 minutes before I had to give up. That sucks. Boo, Netflix. Work on Macs, please, thanks.

Summer 2008 Day Thirty Eight: Bed, Bath & Beyond

This morning I woke up hung over as hell. And by hell, I mean the devil after a helluva bender. Yup. Got through the work day..which was pretty boring...attempted to correct mistakes I'd made in the past 24 hours...always pleasant...decided that Bed, Bath & Beyond was on the menu for the evening. There are a few things that the apartment has been lacking and, being not completely poor this weekend, I decided to go ahead and buy them. A curtain rod for my room (I've had a curtain hanging by thumb tacks for the past 2.5 months), an over-the-door hook contraption for the back of our front door, a window fan for the kitchen, a screen for the window in the living room, batteries (my camera's been dead for 2 weeks now), a hanging shower caddy, and new washcloths. Yes, I know, you really wanted to know all about my shopping habits. Get over it. The best part was that, when I got to the register, the cashier tied bags together and made little shoulder bags for me so that trudging through the subway would be a little easier. I was such a bag lady heehee.

Summer 2008 Day Thirty Seven: A Catered Fourth of July on the LES

Working at Roundabout, we tend to get comps to all kinds of things: previews, shows that aren't selling well, shows that are closing, etc. This time it was A Catered Affair at the Walter Kerr theatre which closes this month. If I actually liked it, I might have more to say about it...but alas. The only really memorable thing for me was how much I actually did enjoy Harvey Fierstein. And I never enjoy Harvey Fierstein. That's what I remember about the show. There WAS a woman sitting in front of Dee and I (mind you, we were in the 5th row orchestra center) who had a dog with her. Yes, a dog. In the theatre. In the 4th row of the orchestra. Yeah, I don't get it either.

Other than A Catered Affair (which is neither catered, nor an affair: discuss), my 4th of July plans consisted of drinking the night away downtown. We managed to hit both Ottos and Manitoba's...we were going to go get sandwiches across the street from Manitoba's at this bodega...but somehow (my fault-ish) Dylan and I managed to knock over a tower of cups and straws and piss the owner off so...no sandwich for us. Think the soup man, only Asian and slightly more upsetting.

Summer 2008 Day Thirty Six: Lagrangeville, or "Too Much TV Makes Lauren Go Blind"

Woke up around 5AM because of how poorly my tonsils were reacting to the air conditioning. Wonderful. Checked my bank account, made sure everything was cool with paychecks and such, then passed out for another 4.5 hours, which was when pretty much everyone else was waking up. First order of the day was to watch countless hours of "Burn Notice" which is a show I've avoided because its premise just doesn't seem that interesting. It's actually not TERRIBLE and Gabrielle Anwar does kind of save it for me, but it's not wonderful either. Over it. Fast.

After we finished up several hours of that, Jessica tried to get me to play with the Wii. I've never touched the Wii before, nor am I completely invested in it now. I made a Mii and we attempted classic Mario Brothers....it was...interesting. But now I'm over it. We paused the Wii business to help unload round one of groceries from the car. Then we discovered that the 4th of July Twilight Zone marathon had already begun on the SciFi Channel...this, of course, meant that all other TV was forgotten. I mean, come on, the Twilight Zone is only really on twice a year. Let me get my fix, dammit. This lasted a few hours and then I discovered that we'd be able to hook up the Nintendo 64 and I got really excited. Excited enough to play two rounds of Mario Kart and a whole game of Mario Party. Ayayayayay. Dinner happened which led to watching Back to the Future III. And now we're onto Spaceballs.

I'm not complaining, since once 2pm rolled around I was in charge of what we were watching...I just wish we were, you know, doing something that didn't involve the television. My eyes are actually starting to twitch from too much TV. Can't do it. Ugh. I'm just happy that we do, in fact, now have wifi in this house. That makes me muy muy happy :)

Summer 2008 Day Thirty Five: Mahopac to Lagrangeville

My plan for this little mini-vacation was to start in Mahopac with my mom's sister and end up in Lagrangeville with my dad's brother. So I spent last night with the first family and had a good time with the kids. Woke up this morning and Ben had already left, Stacey (my aunt) was feeling pretty gross, so I was left to entertain the kiddies...which is pretty easy with these kids because, for some reason, they seem to love away at first after I dunked him into the water...he's kind of emotional and whiney so...it was to be expected, I guess...He eventually warmed up to the idea of getting into the water. We played a bit and then I organized my stuff. Around 7, my uncle Jeff and cousin Matt came to pick me up and we headed out to Poughkeepsie. We made a quick stop at Lowes and I got to pass all of Ali's stomping grounds (haha yes even Giggles heehee).

We passed through Potown and headed up the hill to Lagrangeville, where my Uncle Jeff lives. Jeff is married to Tricia, they also have a son: Matthew (18) and Jessica (20). Matthew just graduated high school and is getting ready for college. His party is on Saturday...I can't make it because of work, but because of my vacation I'm able to spend a few days with them. So here I am. of course, I get here and Jessica's already watching Buffy episodes. I stopped caring about Buffy about 7 years ago, but everyone seems to forget. Whatever. We watched like 4 or 5 episodes. Oy.

Summer 2008 Day Thirty Four: Mahopac & National Treasure II

Roundabout was good enough to give our department the day off for the Fourth of July, so I was able to take my summer half-day earlier in the week. Since I had plans to leave town later on today, I opted to leave work at 1 and head upstate early. I know what you're going to say, Mahopac isn't really upstate yadda yadda yadda. Sorry, but anywhere north of Yonkers feels like Upstate to me. When I left work at 1, I still had a few errands to run and pretty much assumed that I would have to take the 2:48 train. But even with those errands and waiting for the shuttle and taking my time getting through Grand Central, I still got to the train at 1:32, 16 minutes before the 1:48 train. Woohoo early train. The ride up to Mahopac takes about an hour and fifteen minutes, during which I managed to do nothing interesting.

Arrived in Mahopac at about 3 o'clock and headed to my aunt's house. This would be my mom's sister. She's married to Ben and they have 2 kids: Gabriella (9) and Michael (7). They have a big house on a big old lot and everytime I'm there I'm so happily situated in terms of space...happiness :) Tonight consisted of us sitting down, watching Roman Holiday, and then wishing we could find National Treasure II. Which we finally did. Ben picked up pizza for dinner, and after that we sat and watched the film. I'd watched most of it while on the cruise back in May, but we'd had to leave because of the rain...it was an outdoor movie... So this was the first time I got to see the whole thing through....I have to say: didn't love it as much as the first. Definitely did not enjoy Ed Harris' performance at ALL. Did love Helen Mirren, though. Kind of a lot. And I'm a little excited about the anticipation of the third one. Just a little :)