Itchy Scratchy and Lost and Found

Okay... so I really need to do something to take my mind off my arm. The iron burn is driving me crazy... I just want to take my fingers and scratch my arm off.

Yesterday was a complete day of Lost and Found. First of all I headed off to school to talk with Ye ol Principal and realized I had forgotten my wallet upstairs. So I drive back around the corner, park, get up to my apartment and realize that my wallet was probably in my bag... back in the car. Yup.

So I park in the green zone and head in to talk to the principal who seems more interested in moving his furniture around than talking to me.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"You're not leaving are you? I really need an ELD teacher."
So he gives me the news that he hired a history teacher to replace Lunderville, rather than farm out all the sheltered classes to different teachers. He also moved Grace over to the Spanish Dept. and is now looking for a new ELD teacher for 2 and 3. Whoo hoo! Hoo Hoo Hoo! Maybe I'll get a replacement that is closer to my own age and doesn't have a penchant for cleaning up other people's rooms. (And not just mine)

So I finish my chat and wander over to the copy machine. I get halfway up the stairs to my class and realize I've lost my school keys. So I wander around the office looking bereft and in increasing mode of panic. I head out and search the car. Then I think I must have left them upstairs when I went to look for my wallet. So drive home, go upstairs, start searching and then realize said keys were in my back pocket. ARGHHHH!

So after class, where I lost my study sheet and had to get a new one from the prof, went to the bookstore to pick up my nice little copy of Just a Geek. Guy in the store lost it. He spent like 10 minutes trying to find it. I know they had it somewhere... They'd called me and said it would be in until the 4th of August. Finally he finds it and I wander triumphantly back home.

So up the stairs I go and see a red Netflix envelope sticking out of my screen door. So I figure someone got one of mine by mistake. I open it up and it's the Harry Potter documentary I reported missing in JUNE! Holy Mackeral!

Maybe the owl post got lost.

Not So Disappointed Anymore

Well, finally got down to looking at who one the Project Greenlight contest.  Not so disappointed that my script didn't make it if they were looking for the type of trash that won. The first few pages have people trying to dump toxic waste in caves only to be stopped by Greenpeace Hippies who are very shortly and graphically eaten by monsters.

Oh goody.

http://projectgreenlight.liveplanet.com/pgl3/writer/pdf/feast.pdf

It doesn't get any better from there. So I knew from the start that they were looking for something more thriller or horror like, but at least they could have picked a GOOD one.  This bloodbath would have never gotten past me.  I'm sorry, but a serious of graphic violence and idiotic one liners does not make a movie.

In the long run, I'm now not sure I want to see the trainwreck.  I'll probably just end up watching it for the amusement factor.  I doubt this movie will be financially successful either.

Idiots

I think there should be a law against idiots who peel past a building at six o'clock in the morning... making it sound like someone's about to come crashing into my window.  Yeah I know that's impossible, considering I live on the second floor, yet it's 6:34 and I'm sitting here at my computer typing away when I should still be sound asleep in my little beddy-by. Because now los gatos are up and wandering about as well. I think they're a little confounded by my cleaning.

I finally put down the trundle and then Norman simply stared at the narrow window ledge he's so found of looking out from.  Then I realized that's how Ed was getting up onto my computer desk.  As much as I complain about how much Eddie loves me, I didn't really mean to disrupt their well ordered lives. 

Oh, they're just going to have to get used to it.  Life is, of course, life.  And change is good. I need a few changes... except for the getting up at 6:30 part.  That will come soon enough when I have to get back into work schedule... but when I'm teaching, I don't go to bed at one o'clock thinking I can sleep in.

Again, despite my complaining, the coolness of the morning is my most productive part of the day.  Once the afternoon heat hits,  the only thing I feel like doing is sitting underneath my bedroom window and reading something. 

Norm's pacing under the window again. He's actually sitting up on two legs trying to look out... maybe I'll take pitty and put something there for him to... never mind... he just jumped up there by himself. I'm  amazed at his agility.

 

Pontiac is Dead... Pour on the Bactine

Right... stabbed in the back (actually his head was smashed in) by another Indian.  That means I finished War Under Heaven, one of my history books.  I'm glad.  As much as I like reading history texts about how evil the British were to the Native Americans, this whole summer school thing is getting old.  At least I've only got a week left.  Whoo hoo.

And I'm going to see Dracula!  Mel bought tickets for this afternoon.  I swear the only thing I did today was read, clean and email Lizzie and Mel all day.  There was a rather long shower in there somewhere where I idiotically cut myself shaving (why is it always on the ankle?) so I've been spritzing myself with Bactine trying to stop the pain from my ankle and the inside of my arm where I burned myself on that stupid iron the other day. The center of the blister began to peel and left a bit of raw skin underneath.  It hurts... so I've become liberally addicted to the Bactine. 

Anyone ever tasted Bactine?  I accidently licked my fingers after using it once and my tongue went numb.  It was yucky. Blegh.

Revolutions

Just finished watching The Lady and the Duke about a British lady (well, mistress of kings and princes, more like) and the Duke of Orleans during the French Revolution.  It reminded me a lot of Pimpy, simply because she manages to save one guy from having his head cut off and nearly dies herself... good ol' Robespierre loses his first.

Lizzie called in the first five minutes so I chatted with her for a while and then finally bought my airplane tickets... so it's official... I'm going to Pennsylvania.  We're going to see the phone booth that Harrison Ford used in Witness.  Ah, come on, you know that sounds like fun.

Otherwise I've had a fairly relaxed day.  I saw The Sword and the Sorcerer this morning... which was kind of like someone setting Conan the Barbarian in Aurthurian England.  Odd.  Very odd... but with some cool cheesy bloody special effects.  And lots of sword jokes.  The hero had one... with three blades, two of which he could shoot off with great precision.  I wonder if people said the same things about bald men with swords as they do about bald men in convertible....

Random Act of Poetry

The ballet of dummies
bent down in the kiss of life
then up and firmly press
into a symphony of 15 clicks

Then down again for another count of two
one late performer struggling to catch up
but lags behind

chins tip up
and up in sychronous
and another round of kisses
of gauze and plastic
open wide and plug their nose.
The dummies show no passion
no reflection of effort
except the small rise of the chest
and the hiss of breath
two fingers up and two hands intertwine again
pushing and prodding thier hearts
until help comes.

Right so it's a poem on the spot, but as I took CPR training this morning I thought "There's a poem in there somewhere."  So there it is.

Monster Tops

So I finished my Monster Quilt top.  I cut everything out, sewed eyelashes on the Dragon Madam, and even managed to get some pretty good corners "for a beginner" (words o' Mom).  I used green sashing with yellow cornerstones and a single half triange square border of the background fabric and the various leftover batiques from the monsters. It's all iron mongered and now Mom's going to take it to one of her quilting buddy meetings and ask for suggestions on how to quilt it.  (Translate that into bragging about her daughter time and getting lots of attention in the meantime.)

Uh oh, Eddie's eyeing my mouse again... I know he's going to just sit right on top of it.  That seems to be his newest favorite spot to sit and watch me play with this little plastic clicking thing. He used to be content with sitting on the bed or trying to sit on my lap.  Have you ever tried to type over a cat?

Anyway... Mom dragged me to the butchers so she could buy stuffed porkchops... yum and then over to Vons to buy dessert.  I talked her into a dulce de leche cake.  It was pretty good.

Peace Counsel

This history class of mine has actually got my brain brewing.  For discussion section, Ingrid put us into groups and we had to try and settle for peace.  We were Pontiac's tribe.  I don't know about everyone else, but I had fun trying to taunt the English and the Iroquois.  They didn't seem like they wanted to argue though.  It's difficult to taunt someone into an argument when they just sit there on the bench staring at you.  Even though we were on the losing side (duh, we were Indians) I thought we did a better job than the other side. 

My brain has been brewing as of late.  I know November is a long way off, but I'm already thinking about Questiong... which I think is going to be the title of the third in my Great Mages trilogy.  Yes, I know my summer job was to get query letters out, but I've been busy. 

I think the concept of otherness and some of the tribes that we've been studying about are going to end up in my book.  I think there will be a tribe that gives gifts as signs of respect, and maybe even one tribe or place where eating their food and breathing their air will turn you into them... kinda like how the English thought they were going to be transformed.  And there's going to be a tribe that thinks they are witches and tries to kill them.

Of course for anyone who as not read my other two books, this may sound a little confusing, because it's all in note form.  But there's going to be a prince... son or grandsone of the King (who's a woman [see book 2]) and he feels pressure that he should go on a quest and prove his right to rule, like his mother did.  So Lasser, the Quest Master (see also Book 2) sends him on a quest to collect seeds from the sister trees of the Calca to complete the healing process that killed the magic (Book 1). The only problem is that the whole court tries to go with him as protection. 

So he runs away and bumps into a common boy, who happens to have run away from his parents whose names are Malek and Mitty (Book 1) . So with Snult (a dragon) in tow, they start off to the other countries where the seeds are located.  When M&M finally catch on, they panic and send the various Great Mages (except for Lynah... who still suffers from memory loss[book 2] and Saratin, who has to hold down the fort at home,) out to the different countries in search of their son. 

The Catch!  Oh you knew that was coming.  The catch being that they learn when they get their that the Calca tree's influence does not cross over the boundaries... and therefore, they lose all their magic and become regular people again. 

That's as far as my head plans have gotten.  I think it's all starting to come together nicely.

Latest NetFlix

You know those times when you just get the urge to watch a movie that you remember seeing as a kid, but then when you finally resee it, you can't remember at all what it was like?

I actually had put Blackbeard's Ghost into my queue a long time ago... and now I'm thinking, how much different is this movie from Angels in the Outfield?  It's the same type of thing, but this one, made in 1968 probably started a lot of the cliches.  Sports coach becomes friendly with a bunch of old ladies, of course led by a gorgeous and intelligent young one.  The old gals are on the verge of losing their home so Mr. Brave accidently finds a spellbook that allows him to see and hear a ghost.  So everyone begins thinking he's crazy when he talks to the ghost, and of course he hates him for it, but in the end the ghost ends up saving the day with miraculous special effects that knock the bad guys on their collective asses.  This of course allows the sports team and the old ladies to win and everyone's happy.  In the end, Mr. Brave ends up proving to young one that he's not really crazy and everyone lives happily ever after. 

I'm surprised Disney hasn't tried to remake this one.  They seem to have a knack of taking classes and killing them.  Ahhh well.  That's life. 

Block Quotes

So I turned in my paper today.  Ingrid had a stapler.  It seems strange, realizing that you don’t personally own a stapler… and that the only one you have is in your classroom, locked away in a closet.  I just might have to go to Staples and get one. 

One of these days it’s going to surprise me how easy it is to write a paper.  It took me all of like two hours and I’d cranked out four pages, plus bib and the source we were supposed to analyze. 

This guy seriously needed an editor.  It took me forever to get through his article.  If I’d have been his teacher I would have handed the mess back to him and told him that you can’t have a page and a half block quote in an eleven page article.  I think I might have had two much fun criticizing his article and not enough describing what questions I would have asked or researched if I had used that primary source.  To me, it seems a little strange to wonder about things like that.  If I have a plan, then I’ll follow it, but why ask a question if you know you’re not going to follow up on it?  Pointless.

Gremlins

I got distracted.  By my quilt… and Gremlins… seriously.  It came on about midnight and I would pause it… (TiVo is sooo cool) and then head over to my monster quilt and start sewing. That way, I could skip all the commercials.  I totally forgot this was a Christmas movie.  I loved the movie when I was a kid.  I think I remember having nightmares about Gremlins at the foot of my bed and those big ugly dog monsters from Ghostbusters outside my door. I loved noticing all the Spielberg touches.  The local radio guy had mock Indy posters and the gremlin in the toy store was hiding behind an ET doll. Yeah, the whole thing is cheesy but I don’t regret staying up to watch it… even if it meant a night on the couch at my parents house. Besides… this morning, Mommy let me make her French Toast.  Hehehe… she wasn’t hard to convince either. I’m sure she’s find some sort of errand for me to accompany her on this afternoon, if I stay that long.

My little monsters are coming quite along.  I finished the appliqué phase and started cutting and sewing together all these little squares that I’m going to cut apart make into more squares.  Hahahah… I’m going a little batty.

Beware the Cheese Sticks

I once again have escaped the heat at the rents on the pretense of completing laundry and having some slight problems with the appliqué.  I figured out how to fix the tension so that the white of the bobbin isn’t popping up in my stitches… I was afraid to touch it after the many dire warnings Mom gave me when I was a kid.

The other problem I also fixed by myself… there was a gap in the stabilizer from when I had done the eyes, and then moved down to the feet.  I just tore it from around the foot and sewed over it.  Since it’s only going to be torn off anyway, I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference. 

Laundry is going well, and I should be home before 10. Sitting here taking a break from writing my paper.  Mom queried me as to what I wanted for dinner.  I had a strange craving for cheese sticks.  So if I went and picked it up, Mom would order.  All was well and good until I got home and realized THEY HAD FORGOTTEN THE CHEESESTICKS!  Grumble grumble grumble… get back into car and drive around the corner back to Dino’s for cheese.  Then I get home and grab four.  I should have grabbed more.  Dad scarfed the rest of them down.  Never leave Dad alone with food.

The not so Quiet American

Have I mentioned how much I adore Brendan Fraiser and Michael Caine?  Well, despite some of his past flix (umm…. George of the Jungle) Mr. Fraiser has a set of brains to match his disarming good looks. He’s actually pretty talented too.  He did a great job of playing secretive CIA agent undercover as innocent and charming medical aide worker who falls madly in love with Michael Caine’s mistress.  And Mr Caine, well he manages to take a slightly skeezy guy and turn him into a very sympathetic hero. Yeah, so what if he’s got a wife back in England and he’s at least 20 years older his lover.  He does love her.

In case you’re wondering… check title.  The Quiet American.  I’d never really understood the history of the Vietnam War before this.  In school you’re really lucky to get past WW2.  I do remember one week of Reaganomics and the Vietnam and the Korean War all rolled up in one.  I think that’s going backwards, but most of those weren’t on the AP test so we didn’t put a whole lot of effort into them,  The DVD had a really interesting timeline that explained the events that led up to the war.  And I loved the Anatomy of a Scene that went into great detail of how they completed the bomb scene where we have our first person narrator loop us back to remember the important events of the scene.  I love behind the scenes footage.  I love watching the vision slide away to reveal the machinery.  I was always taking things apart when I was a kid.  I think that habit still sticks with me to this day.

KMK

Lizzie gave me a coolio Porterific B-Day present today.  We went to see KMK at the Carpenter.  Tricia surprised me the other day by actually making a reference to it.  I really think this was one of the best productions I've seen of it, even though it lacked CW. 

I was really impressed with the opening number and the dresser.  We must have been in her cheering section.  I think her daughter was seating the row in front of her and the people in the back kept making catcalls.  Another Openin' is hard to sing and the one we saw on tour just didn't seem to have the lungs for it.  They did cut out From this Moment On.... it was in the program, but nobody sang it.

Lizzie took the metro so I met her downtown at one of the stations.  I was a little early so I figured I'd pull into the Ralphs parking lot and hang out for a bit before making a circle.  Lizzie scared the shit out of me when she showed up at my window.  She apparently got off the train just in time to see my little neon pull into the lot.  We drove around until we hit The Pike and went to CPK.  Our waitress was peppy. Lizzie tried to get her to sing, but she said they didn't do that here, so instead we got free dessert.  About halfway through dinner, a group of about 50 teenagers came in and filled up an entire section of the restaurant.

Overall, it was an extremely pleasant night.  Thanks Lizzie!

Politics Shmolotics and Ya Ya

So after all the Fahrenheit 911 hype and crappiness, I was a little tentative when Bowling for Columbine showed up in my mailbox.  Yes, I’d put it in my queue, but months ago before everything was stirred up.  I plugged it into my Playstation and watched Michael Moore harass and harangue everyone and then shout after them when they shut their doors in his face.  I do believe he has a point about the media exploiting the fears of America.  What he fails to say in his rather one sided emotional plea to his fans, is that the media is just as liberal as those gun toting Republicans are conservative.  I have a hard time taking him seriously after he spent so much time media hyping using the same machine he wanted to blame for the Columbine Massacre.

On to other things.  Politics Shmolotics.

In complete contrast to Mr. Moore, the YaYa’s also invaded my mailbox.  It was cute… especially the Irish fiancé. Grrr.  For some reason I had a slight problem identifying with the Mom and her breakdown.  I did like the relationship between the mom and the daughter though.  There’s always a lot of humoring going on between a mom and daughter.  At least that’s how it is in my family. Again… good stories have something in it that people can attach universally to.

El Day After

SWOTD El Dia Despues... or would that be El Dia Segunda.  Anyway... I've officially been 27 for a day now... whoo hoo, and productivity has slowed to a halt. Well, I did finish my reading for History 40A, but other than that Harry Potter has been busy battling dementors and casting Flipendo Spells at vases for Bertie Botts All Flavor Beans.

This game is slightly different than the last as it has the same grittier feel to it.  The one thing that I must complain about it is not being able to fly over the castle with a broomstick and land on the many parts of the roof.  You do get to fly Buckbeak around though.  This one has you playing with Ron, Hermione, and Harry.  Each of them knows different spells and you have to solve the different puzzles with all three of the characters.  It took me forever to find out that Rom was the only one who could search the bookcases for Beans... which you then trade to Fred and George for Coolio stuff like Folio pages and Dungbombs to distract trolls.

One of these days there's going to be a Playstation game based on one of my books.  I can imagine it now... you could have Dragon slaying, and spell casting, and people could ride Snult around... right.  That would be fun.

Feliz Cumpleanos!

SWOTD: Cumpleanos - Feliz cumpleanos a mi, Feliz cumpleanos a mi, Feliz cumpleanos a mi, Feliz cumpleanos a mi!  - And if you can't figure that one out... sigh.

So heading back from the Cheesecake Factory, where I had a loverly birthday dinner with my family and my "one friend" (eye roll for Tricia's sake), I decided to take the long way home and drive down PCH. Nikki got a little worried that I was actually lost and honked.  We had a short cross car conversation where I told her I meant to be exactly where I was and then she turned off to her street.  It was a nice time for me to reflect upon the day.  It was a good day.  My film class sang Happy Birthday to me, and Ingrid demanded to know what kind of cheesecake I was having (Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough). 

Nikki, Tricia and Michael gave me the coolest present - a whole lotta classic DVD's in a spiffy box with pink froufrou balls on a string.  Mom gave me HP3 for Playstation... which I asked for when I got the vacuum... well I actually said, "You mean we're not going shopping?  I was waiting for my bday to buy the PofA game." (Mom's new tendency for birthdays is to take us shopping.)

I've so far resisted playing... so far.

Maurader's Map

I'm miffed for no real reason. I decided to try and get out of some of the heat of the day and see HP3 for the second time. So I get to the end of it, and realize something I'd forgotten about. The midnight opening showing (12:05 really) had totally left off the ending credits. I remember thinking... Did John Williams do this score as well? Let's wait and see...
They finished the movie and then turned off the film and let everyone out. Liz and I pondered it, but went home anyway.

But the ending credits were cool! They emulated the maurader's map and rather trailed across the screen with little footprints... one of them tapped away next to the music credits, another turned into paws and back again, and yet other little feet danced. At the end, Harry's voice came up and said "Mischief Managed, and the map with the credits folded up to reveal the title screen, then disappeared like the map. Spiffy.

I've been very impressed with some of the credits lately. Last week it was with the signatures for The Terminal. It really matched the visual image of the movie. Both were really cool ideas. Anyway...

Tomorrow's my birthday, my birthday, my birthday.

I'm old... and I have to go to class on my birthday. Sigh. Nobody can be mean to me.

Ten Big Ones

Okay, so one of my guilty pleasures is Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. She has ten madcap952222222222222222222222222236. Argh! Eddie decided to try and sit on my mouse and keyboard. I guess that's his version of trying to catch the mouse. Or maybe he's just jealous.

Anyway, as I was saying, though they only take an hour or two to read, I laugh my ass off out loud. I enjoyed this one... though I thought the ending was a little weak. I suppose that she knows if she really plummets Stephanie into a real relationship, she'll end the sexual tension... you know, like Mulder and Scully, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, happens all the time. So keeping reader's frustrated is keeping alive the bread and butter.

Anyone mention that it's hot as blazes? Ed's just staring at me, only the last end of his tail flicking, as if I'm too stupid to know that I'm supposed to be petting him right now. I'm glad he didn't plop on my lap as usual... too hot for that.

Jackie Chan and Billy Bob

Once again, I had a Netflix and IMDB weekend. So I was sitting there, watching this great anime flick called Princess Mononoke. It was one of those that kept popping up on Netflix so I put it in my queue. So I'm a sucker for cartoons anyway, but this was great. I kept hearing the voices and thinking... this person sounds familiar. Dunno who it is... though. The only voice I could recognize was Gillian Anderson. That's where IMDB comes in. "Oh! That's Minnie Driver! That's Claire Danes. Right... that's Billy Bob." IMHO, BB is not a talented voice actor.

So the next movie I recieved was Gorgeous. I think it's my new favorite Jackie Chan movie. I started to watch it with the English VO's and then stopped when I noticed that THEY HAD SOMEONE ELSE VOICE JACKIE CHAN! Even when he was speaking English in the film. So I went back to subtitles. I think the voice overs rather take away some of the beauty of the original performance.

Batiks and The Terminal

So I call Mom up this morning. "I know you're busy next week, so you want to help me with my homework?" (aka go see a movie)

So I drive over there and hang about waiting for Mom to get ready. Mom tells me my birthday present is in the kitchen. It's a vacuum... been plugged in and used.

"Uhh, thanks. Why are you giving me your vacuum? You bought a better one?" (Rents are notorious for this type of regifting. [my vcr they borrowed on condition they'd buy me a new one when I moved out... instead got old one wrapped for Christmas while Dad bought new one for himself])
"No... there's a SPECIAL story behind this one. One of the Rainbow dads works for Home Depot and they were throwing away two perfectly good vacuum cleaners. So he took them and donated them to the assembly and I bought it off him for $50. See the slot on the top? It's missing a tool, that's probably why they couldn't sell it."

Thanks Mom. I was looking forward to some Playstation2 games. Now I do need a vacuum cleaner. The one I got a few years ago is not worth the plastic it's made of... but yeah. Anyway.

We went out to Mimi's and I had some French Onion and a French Dip. Yum. Mom and I both liked the Terminal. I thought it was funny and Mom actually liked the fact that it was long. Nikki seemed to think it was slow, but I enjoyed the pace of it. I thought the character was really well developed and amusing.

Got home and Mom convinced me to iron her batiks. She's off to Camp Watchapathca or somethingorother next week. Who knows what monstrosities she'll create with all the fabrics she's been storing up. I humor her. I do. It makes my life much more pleasant.

Outfest

Winning moment of the evening.

Pauline, elderly British lady in my screenplay class turns to me.

"Have you seen that big lady? She's huge. She's got like 40 DD there."
"Umm... Pauline, that's not a woman."
"No!"
"Yes, dear."
"No. Why would someone dress like that to something like this."
"Maybe that's how she feels comfortable."

This little anecdote really sums up the whole experience. The five of us, gathered in our little square of the silent auction, making comments on everything we observed.

One of the guys almost got himself in trouble early on when he commented on the catering only to be approached by the smiling caterer handing out cards. There were three appetizers - Mango Soup in Shot Glasses, Jerk Chicken with Mango Salsa in a Bowl of Dried Plantains, and Salmon on a Stick... the last definition, courtesy of one of the guys... whose name is currently lost in my brain. I, of course didn't try the salmon. Neither did Pauline, for as she said, it was served on a bed of grass. "It's not even fake grass. It's real. How totally unhygenic."

The catering cards made the rounds. Though the other (unmarried) guy looked as if he'd rather drop it than touch it. "I'm not sure I'd want this caterer. She probably specializes in other things."

Personally, I thought the appetizers were pretty icky. Now, keep in mind I don't eat salmon, but the soup was just too strange... something about spicy and whip cream should just not be mixed. The jerk chicken was fine, but the bowl tasted like stale corn tortillas, not plantains. And I was hungry enough to eat anything at that point, having only two pieces of cheese for lunch.

The whole experience was a bit surreal in a way. There was a lot of people watching, and while my classmates ogled the other people, I watched them. The feeling of "Otherness" was making a good show. My classmates were fish out of water, and were amusing to watch. We so often think of homosexuals as being the other, the abnormal, the ones who don't fit in with our expectations. Here, in our little circle, we were the other, though no one could have really known that but ourselves. We were intimidated by it, and it bled through every conversation.

I think the whole experience would have been quite different if we'd been given a job where we weren't just required to stand around. I thought the drink passers had a lot more fun than we did. As it was, we stood around, feeling the comfort of our little group, until it was time to go home.

Spidey

Finally broke down and went to watch a movie by myself. I tend to feel a little self conscious just heading down there by my lonesome. I'm always afraid I'll run into some students and they'll think I'm weird.

I was totally surprised at how many people were in the theater to see a Tuesday 2:00 matinee of Spider-Man 2. Once I seated myself with my megacinnapretzel and my medium Diet Coke (of which I can't even drink half and still have no idea how Liz does), I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. With that kind of crowd, I understand why Cartier wants us to actually go to the theaters. Laughs seem bigger when you're with a crowd. I really do love to go to premier nights, especially with large fan bases - Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter. All of those were lots of fun.

Spider-Man really made use of the sympathetic ordinary man hero. It was corny and cheesy and sappy in parts, but that's what I went to see. I've not been disappointed by any of the sequels I've gone to see this summer - HP3, Shrek2, or Spidey.

I think next time I'll go see the Terminal.

Long Day

Man, two classes can make for a very loong day. The classes themselves don't seem to drag on; they are both completely different from each other. I just wish Martel would speed up her delivery, and Cartier would slow down a bit, or at least make the expectations more clear.

As a teacher I see ways to improve the structure of both classes, but I think as a student I'll keep my mouth shut. :) Anyway, I sat with Akemi after class and we really got a handle on our outline... though I honestly think we're probably 5 steps ahead of the game. I mean we've got a plot outline, and I've got a pretty good grasp on the characters. Akemi really has helped get the fine tweaking going and now we've just got to push and pull it like pie dough to fit.

Decided I wanted to go to Cheesecake Factory for my bday next Tues. It's in Newport Beach and therefore close to UCI so I can get there. I know it'll be hard for some of my friends out in LA, but it should work for most of my family, though I don't want to be said to be copying Nikki, but it's the Cheesecake Factory!

Typity Type

Homework: Type the first ten pages of Thelma and Louise. Read Witness.

The Thelma and Louise script had me cursing. It had typos. Do you know how hard it is for an English teacher not to fix them as she goes along? Anyway, I also watched the special edition extra features of the DVD. Cool. I do agree that the ending they originally shot was not as good as the one they came up with, and I definitely recognized a lot of the material of the deleted scenes from the screenplay.

Of course, reading Witness was a piece of cake, especially it being a Harry movie. I have another DVD waiting today. Dead Heat on a Merry Go Round. (Harry's debut!) If I finish my reading for my history class I'll watch that tomorrow morning. And that may just be the last of the Harry movies I haven't seen!

Also watched Apartment Zero today. Weird. Set in Buenos Aires, an uptight cinema buff with a mom who's going crazy, decides he needs a roomate. He finds one who is James Dean like, but who turns out to be a serial killer working for an Argentinian subversive group. I liked it. The story line was complicated and the ending is well, don't want to spoil it.

So that's one more to mark off my list of Colin Firth Films. I think I'm almost caught up with Colin. Here's my list of "have I seen all their movies?":

1. Harrison Ford
2. Colin Firth
3. Alan Rickman
4. Cary Grant

Notice a trend? 3 Brits and my favorite... if you can count Cary Grant as British... but he was born there, so I guess I can. Maybe I should add Kevin Kline to that list... hmmm. I need to see Pirate of Penzance again. Okay, so I'm rambling... time to shut up now.

4th of July

After facing the prospect of facing the holiday alone in my room completing logic puzzles, which though being entirely pleasant was slightly marred by the sounds of a family barbeque floating up from below, I trekked over to my parents and escorted my mother to a celebration in San Juan Capistrano to help sell donuts on behalf of Infiniti Rainbow Assembly.

Man, I like that sentence. It's very pretentious. Anyway, I had fun hanging out with the girls, playing crazy eights and B.S. and helping to sell Krispy Kremes. We managed to sell 20 dozen, and probably could have sold another 5 or 10.

I'd go again just for the fireworks. They were the best live large show I'd ever seen. They felt like they were right on top of us. By the time they started, we'd already sold out and taken down the canopy. We planted our chairs and watched the show with a perfect view.

I got home, just in time to watch the end of the Boston Pops concert on TV with their cutie conductor and their fireworks interrupted by a commercial break. Now really. Sigh.

Monkey Shorts

Last evening I spent an hour making monkey shorts. Now how many people can say that? My sister wanted a new outfit for her monkey. During Christmas I made her a rather ugly hat with some yarn we dragged out of Grandma's drawers. It probably had the same date as the ugly shag carpeting. Then she demanded a hat and scarf to match for her monkey... so off I went. Yesterday she wanted a new outfit. We started with a toga, and I ended up making shorts, complete with elastic waist band... but she'd better be careful, because "they're not active wear." I put in just enough stitches to hold them together, and that's it.

Today, I drove out to The Grove to meet Liz to go to Johnny Rockets and then see a movie. I got there about 3:45 and we had a nice lunch... mmm... milkshakes. When we headed to the theater, we noticed Delovely was sold out until the 10:45 show. Now that's a long time to wait for a movie... so we packed back into our cars and over to Century City and caught the 5:00 show which gave us just enough time to wander around the mall, checking out the reconstruction... and the bookstore before the show.

Delovely was a great movie, if you're a Cole Porter fan, like myself. I had a hard time not singing or poking Liz every time I heard a song I loved. The man was amazingly talented when it came to music, except it seemed strange to hear Kevin Kline, who I know has a better voice than that, sing like Cole Porter, who was simply an average singer.

The story was a bit oddly told, rather like "this is your life." The angel Gabriel comes to show the old Porter the times of his life before he dies. Lizzie was sniffing quite loudly at the end... I was too, but only a little.

Binky Patrol

Just got back from Binky Patrol. It's a group of ladies who get together the first Friday of every month to make blankets for children in need. I went with my mom and cut, pinned and basted several different quilts. Then mom dragged me on some errands.

Yesterday I went to class and managed to watch a Netflix before bed. Arnold in Terminator 3... it was good for what it was... if that makes any sense. I mean when you go to see a T movie, you don't expect high quality dialogue and in depth characters. You expect lots of damage and crunching and crashing... and there was lots.

After T3, I sat down and wrote out some more of the story ideas that were muddling around in my brain. I haven't finished, but I got the beginning sorted out in my head at least.

I woke up around 2 with a stomach ache. It seemed rather random, but I threw up and went to back to bed. I did manage to get back to sleep after my cats resettled themselves.