What's going on with me?
Clue also made an excellent board game. I am not ashamed!
I was having a conversation between classes yesterday with that boy I have a crush on, the one I went to the beach with. We always have lots to say to each other. Once I mentioned that Wonder Boys is my favorite movie and he was like, “Oh, I have that book! I’ll let you borrow it.” So now I am reading it and we have little discussions about the book vs the movie. It’s like a little Coffee Klatch or something.
But anyway, we were flicking popcorn kernels back and forth across a table at each other and talking about our favorite movies when we were kids. It got me thinking about my weird taste. When I got Netflix last year, I first rented some of these old movies to see if I still liked them, and it most cases I still did. Which is odd. I have the same taste now as I did at nine? Anyway, here are the ones I remember looooving and watching countless times:
Clue - Okay, I LOVE scary movies and haunted house stories and dark-and-stormy-night motifs. I think I have seen Clue more times in my life than any other movie, ever. When I was young I especially loved Mrs. White, the “black widow spider” type lady. I loved her black bob and pale skin and tight black dress and wanted to look like her when I grew up. Hasn’t happened yet. Still one of my favorites.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks - Always my favorite Disney movie, because it took place in…yup, England. (I was a raging Anglophile from the womb, seemingly.) I loved the youngest kid, the little blond boy, basically because of his accent on ONE line, which I still actually remember, because I am sick in the head and can’t remember half of what I learned about Biology in college but I remember one line from a movie from ten years ago. The line was “Lovely bit ‘o string!” Also I loved this movie because of the witchcraft and spells and potions. When I was little I fashioned myself a budding witch, don’t ya know. This movie, I believe I would still love today.
Young Einstein - Ahem. Ahem ahem. Did anyone else used to watch this obsessively? I had a thing for Yahoo Serious and his mad hair. Also I loved his Madcap Wacky Adventures, like the hot air balloon thing and the kitten-rescue scene from the mental institution. I haven’t sat down and watched it since I was about 11, mostly because I am scared of how potentially bad this movie really was.
Hot to Trot - Also have not watched this in years. It has Bobcat Goldthwaite and Virginia Madsen, YES, the one who is all famous now, like 20 years later, because of Sideways. Proof positive that life is long, folks. So, I used to love this movie because I was a horse nut, like most little girls, and because Bobcat’s voice tickled me. Also, this movie features an excellent party-montage scene of farm animals trashing an apartment accompanied by “You gotta fight for your right to party.” I guess the Beastie Boys believed in Bobcat’s movie star power too.
Without a Clue - Not sure if anyone other me has ever HEARD of this movie, let alone seen it 30,523 times. It has Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley and it is very goofy. It’s a spoof of the Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle relationship, in which Holmes (Caine) is actually quite stupid and Doyle (Kingsley) is the one really solving the mysteries, but getting no credit or fame. Very excellent wry humor and put-upon eye-rolling by Ben Kingsley. Michael Caine…what can I say? There is one scene where the action cuts to a train screeching to halt, followed by him yelling “PROFESSOR MORIARTY???!” in the middle of a field, with the train like 50 yards behind him, in such a tone of bewilderment and what-the-fuckness that I will always love Michael Caine. I am weird, what can I say.
Now I’m embarassed. Be honest, what are the horrible movies you loved as a kid and why? Bonus points if you developed crushes on particular characters because of ONE fabulous line reading, like I was prone to do.
9.26.2005
Finish eating before you read this
My roommates and I just had a date. We went to Cold Stone Creamery and had delectable ice cream treats. Mine was cheesecake ice cream with chocolate chips, black cherries, and chocolate sauce all smushed together. It was very lovely.
I had a pretty good day. My knee still hurts, which worries me, and I am hypochondriachal (is that a word?) enough too think that it is slightly swollen. I have to favor it when I go up or down stairs; I have to keep it sort of straight so I swing my leg around and hop down onto my good leg. It’s pretty gimpy looking. Am supposed to go to work tomorrow so I need to request from my manager that they not put me in the kitchen, where I will need to go up and down stairs all day to run food, until further notice. Ah, special treatment.
My classes this term are very different from last - much more self-directed, and also all my professors are themselves abstract painters, whereas last rerm they were all realists so I had to do all portraits and still lifes (lives? ha ha). Here is one of the ones I did last term. The assignment was to copy a Cezanne still life, so that’s why the shapes are sort of lumpy and inexact-looking.
A friend from school who lives just a block away called me yesterday to say that her car had gotten broken into. Pretty freaky. Apparently, the thieves hit her neighbor’s car, taking some things, then moved on to her car, but got scared midway and fled with only her checkbook. After they had left their crowbar and flashlight behind in her backseat. I mean, stupid criminals, table for two. So the forensics team showed up and fingerprinted, and hopefully it’ll be like the one car break-in, ever, to be solved.
HOWEVER. One last detail. The criminals also TOOK A CRAP in the other car (her neighbor’s) that they broke into. What is the world coming to? Can people not stop at being garden variety robber assholes anymore? Insane.
9.25.2005
My job has broken me
Wow, is it 4:00 already? What have I done today? I guess I have done a lot, but it feels like nothing since technically I still have not gotten dressed.
I am really tired from working at the restaurant four days this past week (the last three in a row). My right hand hurts, from using the tongs incessantly to dole out bread, and my right knee hurts too, I assume from going up and down the stairs to run food orders. I am falling apart here, you guys! I am going to need workers’ comp for my crappy little student job! Am a loser.
So this morning I have spent researching and comparing auto insurance quotes as well as loan options. I got a loan through a private bank that my stepsister is the manager of, after she assured me she could get me some kind of relatives’ interest rate reduction. Well, when the papers arrived for me to sign I saw that my interest rate is going to be 8.5%, which is insane, because just this week I got a random email from my credit card company offering me an auto loan at, like, 6.1%. So now I am looking into getting a better loan, on my own, to pay off that FIRST loan, and oh god, this is tiring just typing it all out. Plus it’s about as interesting as it sounds. I am so damn cheap, though, that I am willing to spend an entire Sunday doing this type of thing if it will save money down the road.
Also I cleaned half of the bathroom before I got tired and told my roommate I was taking a break from it. Now I am back to my internet researching.
How did people do this type of thing before Al Gore invented the internet, anyway?? Is a mystery.
Next maybe I will do some homework. I have an artist proposal to write. All I really want to do is watch tv. Can I get a job doing that? Anyone hiring? I’m really, really good at it. I wouldn’t even need a paid lunch break; I’d be willing to eat on the job.
9.22.2005
My day-timer, as if you cared
Thanks for all the car congrats! I am very happy with my choice. It’s fun to constantly be finding out little details about the car too. For example, when you lock the driver’s door from the outside, all the doors lock. Neat! Also, the windshield wipers have a “Mist” setting. Furthermore, the little compartment next to the parking break is the exact right size for two packs of crackers.
(I am known around my house for my crackers. I buy those boxes of 6-packs of peanut butter crackers, or wheat on cheese, or cheese on cheese. The boxes are like 3 for $5 at Kroger, so I always have a TON, and my roommates mock how they take up about half of my total pantry space. You gotta have snacks though, right?)
And, never fear, Jay, I still get on my good ole “Good Vibrations” bike! Every day, in fact. My schedule ended up this weird way where every day my morning class/work shift is downtown and my afternoon class (the painting building) is across town, near the river.
Now, if you park downtown during the day, you have to continually run outside and feed the meter. So I have a plan all worked out where I ride my bike for my morning activity, saving money and burning off maybe 10% of the huge serving of Pop Tarts I most likely recently consumed, then I ride home, eat lunch and sit around for a half hour, and then drive to the further-away class. I stay a while after class ends and paint some more. Then I come home for dinner before heading right back to the studio, to paint some more until 10 or 11. At that point I come home, consider writing an entry, consider answering emails, but generally just take a shower, say hi to my roommates and dog, and go to bed. Sometimes I read a little Anna Karenina (yes, I’m still chugging away at it) too, just to shake things up a little.
Weekends are pretty much the same - either studio and then work, or the other way around. My work schedule is different every week, which is weird. You’d think it would be easier on them to just assign us shifts and stick with them, but whatever. At least this way it is easy to get out of a particular day if you have something special. You don’t have, like, this assumed shift that you have to cover yourself; you can just tell them in advance not to put you down for that day.
So the whole student thing, it turns out, is just as rush-rush as the working world was. The difference is that every day is a little different, and I do get to move around from place to place during the day. I cannot overstate how much I prefer this to sitting in one office all day long. Even on the worst, most annoying days - the days where, for example, I almost get hit by a CHURCH BUS (did I tell you about that one?) - I am so glad I moved here.
I love you, Savannah!
9.19.2005
I am cruising in STYLE, y’all
Oh my word, I am a car owner. Behold, the majesty and beauty!
I love it already. I was lucky enough to have my friend and his mechanic roommate with me for the entire search, which was incredibly nice and patient of them. We spent almost two entire days hopping from dealership to dealership, test driving Civics, haggling with used car salesmen, and racking up a variety of offers. Finally I settled on one that is MUCH newer than I thought I could afford - a 2001 with only 45,000 miles - because they were so much help with the financial negotiations. I got an amazing deal, and I will probably be able to drive this car for like ten years. So, I’m psyched.
Now I can leave the house at night! I’m no longer on Darkness House Arrest! Also I can come home after classes and eat and rest, and then go back to the studio to work again late at night, so I’ll get more done. This is good, since I’ll definitely need to work more shifts at the restaurant if I’m going to afford both the car and, you know, food.
9.16.2005
The Bee Gees are pumping me up right now
I am going to look at cars today! With a hangover! Possibly the worst hangover timing ever!
I am very excited. I haven’t owned a car in about four years now, but what the hell. I’m 26, I’m old enough to have a car. A friend and his mechanic roommate are taking me around to look at used (or, “pre-owned,” as the modern parlance goes) Civics and Accords. I have a Honda fetish.
Wish me luck! Have a good Friday.
9.14.2005
Achoo achoo achoo
Today is the first day of fall classes. I got a haircut yesterday, not specifically BECAUSE of this but because I was due for one, and it makes me feel like a little kid again. You know, first day is coming up - gotta get a haircut and a notebook and a new pair of jeans. Time to hit the mall! That kind of thing.
I also got a cold. Achoo!
Also I dyed some hot pink highlights into the front parts of my hair. I like it. I don’t think it’s going to last very long though. I used Manic Panic and a toothbrush. This is another good thing about being a student again. Actually, my old boss told me once that he’d be totally fine with me doing weird colors to my hair, but I felt weird about it. I guess I am an old fogey deep down, or something.
I haven’t talked to my dad since he left here on Sunday. My stepmom called that night to say he made it home fine. She sounded okay. She had spent the weekend while he was gone going through all this stuff in the attic, some stuff she had bought on a spending spree and some other things that are older, to see what she could sell to consignment stores or to ebay. She’s really trying to make an effort to both get rid of all their extra stuff and to make some money to pay down the debt.
Apparently my dad “gave her til the first of the year” to make some big serious inroads in her debts, so of course I’m really relieved to see her getting on that. I don’t really feel like talking to my dad about all this stuff again for a while, especially over the phone. Things are busy here anyway; I don’t need to speak to him constantly.
In my first class this morning, the professor embarassed this one girl who was brushing her hair in class. I felt really bad on her behalf. I hate it when people go out of their way to make others feel bad. There are many effective ways to show that you are dissatisfied with someone’s behavior, there’s no need to bring actual humiliation into it.
Oh yeah, and I went back to work yesterday. I wear capris when I work the lunch shift, so my New Ugly Shoes looked like big black boats at the bottom of my little pale ankles. I felt like Linus from Peanuts. It was HOT.
Happy Hump Day, y’all.
9.10.2005
This only begins with a happy story
I went to the beach with the cute Southern boy in the studio next door! Just the two of us! It was thrilling. I went to the studio on Thursday, to assemble this drafting table I had gotten for free(!) from the friend of a friend and to start a painting that I need to send to a friend as a wedding present (I have a year for that, right? Hope so). After I did all that, I remembered I had told him I’d call when I got back, to say hi, so I did that, and he was like, “What are you doing now? Let’s go to the beach; it’s beautiful out.”
So I had to race home and shave my legs and SPF45 my entire albino body and put on my most flattering bikini and then we went and it was so much fun. He broke up with his girlfriend while I was gone. Whoa. I have to keep repeating to myself, “He is a man-whore. He is a man-whore,” over and over, so as to keep from bursting out Tourette’s Syndrome-esque declarations of love.
And now my dad, who lives a few hours away but still in Georgia, is in town. He got here yesterday and leaves tomorrow. My stepmom was supposed to come too, but when he arrived he told me she hadn’t and that he would explain why later – it was very odd and vague-sounding. So we met for dinner, and it was there, in the sushi restaurant, that he said he was “about ready to pull the plug on this relationship.”
And I was like, “Whuh?” I mean, I was completely bowled over. As far as I knew, my dad and stepmom have the most successful relationship I’ve ever been around. Apparently, she has a problem with running up really big credit card debts, which I knew was an issue between them that surfaced every two years ago, but apparently there was recently an incident that has just pushed him over the edge.
So I sat there, listening to this, and just could not believe he was all set to give up on ANOTHER marriage. I mean, what is my dad going to be? One of these men who marries a woman for 12 years and then leaves, just like clockwork? It’s appalling. And I pointed out that it sounds like she has an actual addiction or compulsion about shopping, certainly something that makes her act in ways totally unlike her in other ways (deceiving him, hiding receipts, etc). But he is one of those “old-fashioned people who doesn’t believe in this ‘everything is an addiction, I’m not responsible for my own behavior’ ways of viewing problems.”
Anyway, I was crying in the sushi restaurant. We had this whole back-and-forth, and I gave this very impassioned speech which actually seemed to move him because he sat there looking at my intently and not speaking, and then I wrapped it up with, “I feel really weird talking to you about this, actually,” and he said okay, and then we went back to talking nonsense about the food and the weather and the town. It was bullshit.
When I got home, my roommates were really nice to me, offering me tequila shots, ice cream, Tylenol PMs, whatever I needed to self-medicate. We watched Bend It Like Beckham.
My dad and I spent today together, and when we stopped for lunch I brought it all up again, because it was this total elephant in the car, and honestly it is a testament to just HOW devoid of emotion both he and I am that we were able to not talk about it for 2 1/2 hours to begin with. And then I cried in the Subway downtown, talking about it again.
Basically, if you were walking around downtown Savannah anytime in the past 24 hours and passed a grey-haired man and a young-looking girl who was crying, you saw me.
But I do think he is re-thinking his previous hardline stance. I ended the conversation with, “I just don’t want you to do anything rash, I really think you guys should try conseling or mediation or something,” and he agreed. So, that’s a step I guess. It just brought back all these feelings I had about my parents’ divorce – you know, how generally people who have a child vow to “do anything, for the kids, before turning to divorce.”
But I don’t think my parents did that at all. I don’t think they even tried counseling. It’s like I wasn’t a mitigating factor in their deciding to break up at all. And it’s really hard to know that.
9.7.2005
My big cheese head
(Um, I added a PayPal button, because I am po’ and shit. Feel free to ignore at your leisure, OR to send me money to encourage me on my quest as I rack up a yooge student loan for possibly the lowest-financial-return degree I could have chosen.)
I have to say, Independence Air has good branding. Their signage and color scheme is nice, and the silly pre-recorded in-flight speech actually made me chuckle. But why do they have to send such a small plane to do a big plane’s job? I think that a four-state flight deserves a full-size jet, not a dinky four-seater like we had yesterday. Oy, the turbulence. Flying is scary enough! We don’t need to experience every little gust of wind!
Back at the ranch, if by ranch you mean Georgia. Spent the day doing some errands and getting re-accustomed to my bike. It was nice and chilly outside. In the late afternoon, an old friend from a past job in DC surprised me by calling to say she was en route on 95 South on her move to Orlando, and did I want to meet up as she passed through Savannah? Very out-of-the-blue. After giving her crappy directions (sorry, friend!) we finally met up for coffee. I am proud of her, chucking everything to move five states away with her new boyfriend. It’s almost like the first episode of Felicity or something.
I feel really crappy. I think I am PMSing, because in addition to my normal, daily meals (sandwich, yogurt, soup), today I have also ingested FOUR Pop Tarts and, like, half a jar of nacho cheese dip. Without the nachos. Yes, this is disgusting. And now I feel awful. A) I have a big sodium-induced headache, and B) Holy crap, my pants aren’t going to fit in the morning. What the hell am I doing eating half a jar of cheese dip?? I am 5′4″ – it’s not like I have tons of space on my frame on which to hide an extra 5,459 calories.
Also it has made me grumpy, and my roommates are out in the living room watching some crappy football movie but I am hiding out in my room like a freaky hermit. They’re probably discussing what a freaky hermit I am right this second.
Welcome to my head. My pounding, salty head.
9.4.2005
Must. Stop. Spending. Money.
Thanks for all the words of solidarity re: The Ugly Shoes. I will think of all you internet people whenever I wear them.
Well, to go back to like two weeks ago, I did eventually find my phone. It was lost for 36 hours – the longest 36 hours of my life. I don’t have a house phone and of course I had never bothered to write down all the numbers I have stored in it, so I was pretty much freaking out and feeling realy isolated.
Finally I asked the person who SWORE to me he had searched his truck if I could take a look myself, and of course it was right on the floor of the backseat, in plain view. I think he only looked in the front seat, because technically I had only ever BEEN in his front seat (ahem), and it had just slipped through the crack in the seats or something. I was so relieved when I found it, I cannot even tell you.
Incidentally, this is the cute Southern guy I am slightly in love with. He had invited me out for sushi, but I don’t think it was a date. Because he has a GIRLFRIEND, argh.
Anyway, so that was in the middle of finals week. My last paintings and exam went fine. The day after, I took off for Chicago to visit a girlfriend for five days. I had never been before and didn’t really know what to expect, but I had such a great time there. My friend was a perfect tour guide because she has lived in the area all her life and LOVES Chicago and is so enthusiastic about it, and really wanted to show me stuff, so it was a blast.
We went shopping, and saw a play with her mom, and had that super-dense deep dish pizza, which was delicious. Also, on my own I took an architectural tour by boat. It wound up and down the river and it was a beautiful day, very crisp and blue, and I learned all kinds of factoids about the skyscrapers. On my last day I visited the Art Institute. I love you, Chicago!
And now I have been at my mom’s in Maryland since Wednesday. It has sort of been a madcap whirlwind of lunch, coffee, and dinner dates with various combinations of old friends. I am worn out. I am also broke, and puffy from all the good food. Must get back to my little bike in Savannah so I can work some of it off!
I called John when I was in the Chicago airport on Wednesday to say I was coming in for a visit, and said I’d like it if we could meet for coffee. His response: “Well, I don’t have to work tomorrow, so how bout we go to Kings Dominion?” Sweet. We had a really fun time.
On the way home we stopped off at the Cracker Barrel in the town where I went to college, which brought back nice memories. We played the peg game. For some reason on my first go I managed to leave only one peg (which makes me a “Genius,” according to the Peg People), but I was never able to replicate that later.
We sang along to the radio – “Margaritaville” and “Candy Shop” were highlights of the drive. He is just as fun to hang out with as ever, and I can understand that he doesn’t want to have a long distance relationship. I am completely willing to; in fact I think I’d prefer having a boyfriend who wasn’t in Savannah at this point, since school takes up so much of my time and I really don’t want to get distracted from that. But his lifestyle is different from that, so I understand his wanting to have someone he can actually see. I guess we’ll just be sort of loose phone friends when I’m away and then Superfriends when I am in town. Weird, but maybe I can handle it. We’ll see.
I leave to go back to Sav on Tuesday.
9.1.2005
Ah, my lovelies
Oh yes! I do have a blog, that’s right. I am alive and well. Here is a lowdown:
– Found my phone.
– Took exams.
– Partied my ass off on my last night in Savannah.
– Went to Chicago for five days and had an outstanding time.
– Flew to DC and am now staying at my mom’s for a week.
– Went to King’s Dominion (like Six Flags or Wild Adventures or whatever local amusement park each of you is familar with) today with my ex-lovah, because even though he is sort of an asshole I am weak and only human and everyone has needs, you know? (Ha ha, that makes it sound like I have a burning need to go to amusement parks, when that’s not exactly what I was getting at.)
– Came home and remembered I have a new requirement at my restaurant job to have non-slip shoes when I start back there next week, so I ordered up some of the ugliest damn shoes known to man.
– Behold:
Will write more in-detail tomorrow. Good night all, and condolences/positive thoughts/empathy to everyone in the flooded areas. I hope you all are safe.