I got the idea for the title of this post from a thread of messages on IMDb. An individual copy-pasted a magazine review of Inland Empire and tried to pass it off as his/her own, and was caught--the next46 posts were pretty much about how this user had been "Punk'd."
Anyway.
I should probably do the personal-travelogue portion of this entry first, just because that's the blog's main purpose and I don't think many people will be left after attempting to wade through the mire of...well, you'll see. I didn't want to write anything resembling a review of that movie, but thoughts just keep coming.
On an impulse, I decided to see Inland Empire last night, even though I should probably have stayed in and nursed my flu which has now degenerated into a nasty hacking cough. Tired of hanging around Micklegate House, especially since for the last 3 days it has been home to the most abominable slice of mankind--150 12-14 year olds. Which pretty much means noise 24 hours a day. Screaming, stopming up and down stairs, you name it....plus I'd run out of Tess Gerritsen medical thrillers to read. [Don't hate. She's an M.D.-cum-novelist, and because of her detailed descriptions of medical procedure, autopsies and gruesome killings I now was able to precisely identify what Nikki Grace--or Susan Blue, I guess--died of on Hollywood Boulevard in the film: pulmonary edema. The blood caused by the screwdriver wound slowly filled up her abdominal cavity, including her lungs, until she finally drowned. That's why she spat up all the blood. Slow, nasty way to die. I should be an M.E., eh?]
Sorry, back to the real story. So I impulsively decided to see this movie. On a further impulse, I emailed my friend from choir Marion to ask if she wanted to come, because she had mentioned once that she was a fan of David Lynch. I wasn't really expecting her to say yes, since I knew she was studying for exams, but she ended up emailing me back and saying she'd be happy to come.
I had to rush home after work, because the movie started at 8:05 and I had to do laundry first. That got done. What didn't was dinner. I had planned on picking up some Mickey D's before the show (yeah, yeah...but it's the cheapest fast food there is and it's right by the York City Screen). But when I got there, there was a crowd standing outside and they weren't letting anyone in. Turns out the smoke alarm had gone off for some reason and they had to close for an indefinite amount of time. Bugger.
I know Inland Empire is not a popcorn kind of movie, but I was hungry. And, happily, movie theater popcorn tastes the same here in the UK.
Now for all of you people out there reading this who think you've been to nice theaters--yes, that includes all of you Los Angelenos--you have not been to the York City Screen yet. I am telling you, this theater although small could beat the crap out of any theater in LA I've been to in terms of class, style and comfort (I haven't been to the ArcLight yet). Restaurant on the mezz level. Bar and internet cafe downstairs. Classy glass walls, bloack leather couches...all very chic. And upstairs, in the hallway that leads to the theaters themselves, the whole left wall as you're walking in is glass, affording an amazing panorama view of the River Ouse. I wish I had brought my camera--I'll have to go back. The Bridge at Howard Hughes promenade can suck me.
About the film itself: I wasn't really going to say anything, but I have a few comments.
three films kept coming to mind: Mulholland Dr. I guess goes without saying. People say it's a lot like Lost Highway too, but I can't asy that myself becuase I've never seen it. The other two films are The Shining and The Ring. Before you even say it, i KNOW The Ring does not belong anywhere near the same category as the first two films, but I was reminded of it several times as I watched Inland Empire. I can't remember if it was the music or the camera angles or the SFX, but if it can turn my mind to that film more than once, I think it's worth noting. I felt a lot of Kubrickian things in the film too. It started right off with the rabbit people(OK that was just me. People in animal suits. Whatever.), and then and quite a fair amount of the music, especially when Nikki/Susan gets skewered with the Philips. And one sequence in particlar towards the end where the camera is from Nikki/Susan's POV, moving toward the window of a room on an upper floor of a building on that snowy street, and you can hear a pulsating rhythm that reminds you of a heartbeat. I just KNOW Lynch had to be thinking of that slow, MOS scene in The Shining where Jack Torrance inches toward the bathroom in Room 237, the heartbeat sound growing ever louder. Lynch is no fool; filmmakers pat each other on the back like that all the time (Think the "Pullman party" scene in Some Like It Hot. That was Billy Wilder saying "I salute you" to the Marx Bros.' crowded-stateroom scene in A Night at the Opera).
You have for all intents and purposes no real idea what is "actually" happening, yet you laugh, cry, get really scared...react and respond to what is happening on an emotional level. (That should be anybody's clue first off that the film is not a waste of time!) That's one thing that fascinated me about Mulholland Dr. and fascinated me again with Inland Empire. I had no freaking clue what was happening when Nikki/Susan fired those gunshots at the man in the hallway, but damned if that scene didn't scare me so badly I almost started to cry. And I can't say that of many movies.
Heh heh... watch enough of David Lynch and you stop getting nervous when characters approach and turn corners. If it was any other director, watch your back cuz something's going to pop the hell out and scare you!...but not Mr. Lynch. He's just messin with ya ;-)...well, most of the time, anyway. *** (Side note: clearly this is an indication of how much of film is convention and what we come to expect as audience members. Therefore, I don't know anybody else but if I were ever to make a suspense/thriller and I needed someone to walk around a corner and have the audience be really, really nervous about it...I'd watch Lynch for some tips.)
too long. Perhaps some of you might think, well, this is a criticism typical of someone who does not know how to appreciate film that isn't mainstream. Not the case. The latter end of the middle of this film did drag a bit, and I was in danger of nodding off a few times. There doesn't have to be plot movement to keep me up, but there has to be something to keep people intrigued pretty much at all times. Can't let things languish for too long, even when you're David Lynch.
dizzying. I started to feel like I was going in circles. And I was too fascinated to be annoyed about it! Like being in a hall of mirrors, or a spiral. I actually chuckled at the end when the girl is sitting in the room and watching herself sitting in that same room on the television, and in the TV you can see the TV with her sitting in the room watching herself on the TV...that pretty much sums it up. ***(Another side note: My brothers and I did that once. We set up the camcorder in our TV room and taped ourselves watching ourselves on TV, and in the TV you could see the TV with us on it, etc. etc...). Kinda blows your mind if you try to think about it too hard.
i KNEW that was Naomi Watts' voice! ...I also recognized Laura Harring. Hardy har.
I understand some Polish. Not very many, but some very basic words are intelligible across the Slavic-language board. Words such as "understand", "recognize,", "heart", "know", and the phrase "I have the key" were ones I was able to understand without the help of subtitles.
Don't feel like writing any more.
...except can someone please set me up with Mr. Theroux? That guy is HOT STUFF. Thought so ever since that episode of Sex and the City where he plays Vaughn, the guy with the really awesome family. I want in his pants.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Requiem in the Minster
Last night was the York University Choir, along with the Northern Sinfonia,'s performance of Mozart's famed Requiem in d minor.... kerkel 626, you know the one. The one we sang is slightly different than the one everyone is used to hearing. This is because we performed the new 1992 completion by Duncan Druce. It's mostly the same as the Sussmayr completion, but with a slightly different 2nd half of the Lacrimosa and slightly-altered Amen, Agnus Dei and Osanna. I think Mr. Druce knows better than to mess with anything else. People would come after him with torches and pitchforks if he did.
(You know, it really kills me when people go on and on about Sussmayr and his lack of creativity and vision, and how they themselves, writing 200 years later, could do a better job of figuring out what Mozart was really trying to say. You can research all you want, but at the end of the day, regardless of his amateur status, Sussmayr was the only one to actually know the guy, work with the guy...probably snuck peeks at a lot of Mozart's shit that we'll never see, probably stole some of it too...so I think we have to give the guy some due credit. Write your completions how you want to, but let's get real here. Don't say you can somehow do a better and more accurate job than Mozart's own freaking student.)
Anyway, the concert itself was magnificent. The echo in the Minster is about 5-7 seconds....which is VERY amusing if there is a long, loud dominant and the tonic resolution at the end is an eighth note (I'm sorry, I'm in Briatin, I mean quaver. And yes, I have giggled at the word "crotchet".). What echoes is the dominant and not the finished cadence. Haha. A little frustrating to hear! Ha.
I'm pretty sure everyone who is reading this has access to my Facebook, so I would encourage you to go there and look at some of the pics if you want to see what the setup was like. Those risers were incredible. Very high and very scary--they wobbled! I didn't have to stand on them, however, because I was one of the last people to be herded onstage and they ran out of room...so myself and a few others were stuck on these supplementary platforms on stage right. I was actually in the very front row...how familiar. I was happy with that, because it afforded and excellent view of the orchestra and conductor. There is nothing worse for me during a concert than having to constantly sway back and forth to find a window so I can see the beat. You tall people wouldn't understand, would you?
Other observations I made about this concert--I liked the fact that the getting-off and getting-on didn't have to include a 20-minute torture chamber of arguments over lining up and "row leaders" and all of that shit that makes you feel like a kid in grade school again. We just walked on. Brill. And I doubt anyone in the audience cared. I would have appreciated a bit more discipling with how we held our music, though, as we walked on. It looks bad when some people are holding it at their sides, others are clutching it to their chests, etc.
And why don't Brits warm up properly?? We did a fair warmup but everything was in the same key. Just different vowels, the same tetrachord or arpeggio. It was DUMB!! If you're going to call it a warmup, let's warm up shall we? Not regress back to kindergarten and make sure we remember A, E, I, O, U. Ok don't get me wrong, practicing vowels is important, but I think more important, especially when dealing with sopranos and tenors of whom many are past their voal expiration date (seriously), is GETTING UP THERE. Ugh. Oh well.
But all in all, it was gorgeous. The soprano soloist in particular was amazing. Very light, peaceful and beautiful. I got goosebumps during the Confutatis, my favorite movement...as I have every time since I first heard it. And I had great fun with the 7th leaps in Domine Jesu, as ever. NE ABsorbeat EJUS tartaRUS NE caDANT IN obscuRUM...you know ;-).
And, perhaps best of all, Christine and DJ came to the concert!! I was very flattered, and happy that two more people in the world have now been exposed to the magic that is Mozart...and maybe are changed a little for it. One can only hope.
:-)
(You know, it really kills me when people go on and on about Sussmayr and his lack of creativity and vision, and how they themselves, writing 200 years later, could do a better job of figuring out what Mozart was really trying to say. You can research all you want, but at the end of the day, regardless of his amateur status, Sussmayr was the only one to actually know the guy, work with the guy...probably snuck peeks at a lot of Mozart's shit that we'll never see, probably stole some of it too...so I think we have to give the guy some due credit. Write your completions how you want to, but let's get real here. Don't say you can somehow do a better and more accurate job than Mozart's own freaking student.)
Anyway, the concert itself was magnificent. The echo in the Minster is about 5-7 seconds....which is VERY amusing if there is a long, loud dominant and the tonic resolution at the end is an eighth note (I'm sorry, I'm in Briatin, I mean quaver. And yes, I have giggled at the word "crotchet".). What echoes is the dominant and not the finished cadence. Haha. A little frustrating to hear! Ha.
I'm pretty sure everyone who is reading this has access to my Facebook, so I would encourage you to go there and look at some of the pics if you want to see what the setup was like. Those risers were incredible. Very high and very scary--they wobbled! I didn't have to stand on them, however, because I was one of the last people to be herded onstage and they ran out of room...so myself and a few others were stuck on these supplementary platforms on stage right. I was actually in the very front row...how familiar. I was happy with that, because it afforded and excellent view of the orchestra and conductor. There is nothing worse for me during a concert than having to constantly sway back and forth to find a window so I can see the beat. You tall people wouldn't understand, would you?
Other observations I made about this concert--I liked the fact that the getting-off and getting-on didn't have to include a 20-minute torture chamber of arguments over lining up and "row leaders" and all of that shit that makes you feel like a kid in grade school again. We just walked on. Brill. And I doubt anyone in the audience cared. I would have appreciated a bit more discipling with how we held our music, though, as we walked on. It looks bad when some people are holding it at their sides, others are clutching it to their chests, etc.
And why don't Brits warm up properly?? We did a fair warmup but everything was in the same key. Just different vowels, the same tetrachord or arpeggio. It was DUMB!! If you're going to call it a warmup, let's warm up shall we? Not regress back to kindergarten and make sure we remember A, E, I, O, U. Ok don't get me wrong, practicing vowels is important, but I think more important, especially when dealing with sopranos and tenors of whom many are past their voal expiration date (seriously), is GETTING UP THERE. Ugh. Oh well.
But all in all, it was gorgeous. The soprano soloist in particular was amazing. Very light, peaceful and beautiful. I got goosebumps during the Confutatis, my favorite movement...as I have every time since I first heard it. And I had great fun with the 7th leaps in Domine Jesu, as ever. NE ABsorbeat EJUS tartaRUS NE caDANT IN obscuRUM...you know ;-).
And, perhaps best of all, Christine and DJ came to the concert!! I was very flattered, and happy that two more people in the world have now been exposed to the magic that is Mozart...and maybe are changed a little for it. One can only hope.
:-)
Monday, March 12, 2007
MONEY
"money" being used in different senses. Currency yes, but also that delightful expletive used as such:
"I'm going to the Sox game on Sunday. They're playing the Giants."
"MONEY! You get to see Frank Thomas and Barry Bonds."
Anyway, this is why it was a money week/weekend:
On Thursday--and I don't know why this did no occur to me earlier--I realized that now that I have proper proof of addess--a National Insurance Number letter, other government docs such as a criminal abckground check--I can now upgrade my bank account. Because if you will recall, they gave me the shittiest-of-shit account and told me it was because my proof of address was not official enough. So I returned to HSBC on Thursday, armed with all my official docs, and they showed me in.
First they said I had to wait 3 months to upgrade. I said, but I'm going abroad and want to have a proper debit card so I'm not forced to carry around tons of cash. They accepted that. Then they claimed the reason they didn't give me a good account in the first place wasn't because of my address, it was because I didn't have a credit history in the UK. I said I understood that, however I personally know 3 people who have gotten proper debit cards from HSBC and didn't have any credit history either. I had to prod a little, and prodding works!! I could literally see this banker lady weighing her options and decide that it was better to just give me what I'm asking for than to risk losing my business.
They didn't even check my proofs of address. They said your new debit card will be sent to you in 4-5 business days. I was content and spent the rest of my Friday afternoon and evening laying in bed and reading--with the window open. It was that mild.
My card arrived Saturday morning. I had just finished moving all of my luggage up to the 4th floor (well, here in the UK it's the 3rd floor) from the 2nd (1st) because we had groups coming in who needed our room. I made it downstairs just in time to meet up with Meimei, with whom I was goign to the National Railway Museum and then to watch some rugby. Jacqui called me into the office and told me I had some mail. Lo and behold--there was my brand-new debit card. I felt like a real person finally, haha. Over halfway done with my journey and I'm now almost fully on-the-grid in the UK (only thing missing would be a UK credit card)!
But that wasn't all. Jacqui handed me a flat parcel, and my heart leapt. Sure enough, it was from amazon.com -- my Mulholland Drive DVD!!!! I actually jumped up and down. My Saturday was getting better and better.
So Meimei and I went to the museum. There's a reason why it's free...not a whole lot going ont here. But still, interesting and impressive. The sheer size of some of these engines is amazing, especially the hundred-year-old steam engines. We found a green one that looked like Percy from Shining Time Station, and Meimei took a picture of me next to it--I loved that show when I was little and Percy was my favorite train--or, I guess, character (Thomas was for morons). They also had a car from the Japanese bullet train that you could walk in. That was kind of cool.
Then we went to Sainsbury's to pick up supplies for the rugby game. And damned if they didn't have pizzas on sale for 2 for £4 (still a ripoff by US standards, but I've stopped comparing). We also bought plain Doritos whcih are really hard to find. They were also a ripoff, but I haven't had tortilla chips in far too long. I bought a can of chili to dip the chips in, and we got a bottle of Diet Coke. Good to go.
Now I'm not much into sports, so I mostly zoned out for the games. But Meimei's housemates were fun conversation, especially Glenn from Edinburgh. He looks like Dr. Heiser, my junior year Latin/Greek teacher. That was very amusing. And Gabor, another housemate who is from Hungary, made PALACINKE. I kid you not. Palacinke are crepes. They tasted like the ones I love when mom makes. It was awesome...I ate three even though I;d already eated chili and a whole pizza by myself. Live it up while you can, I say.
After two rugby games (Ireland vs. Scotland and Walse vs. Italy) I went back home. I set up my laptop and settled in to watch Mulholland Drive. I had the room to myself so I was able to watch with the lights off and the volume up. I was quite satisfied.
After that, I went down in the basement to the Dungeons Bar to visit Christine, who was bartending. I ended up helping her slice limes. There weren't too many people there when I first arrived, but it got more crowded as the night wore on. There were two parties goign on--two bachelor parties. Christine and I and Becs were the only girls there for a while. After some time, Nick, Jacqui and Becs said I was going to Toffs with them. Toffs is this club that is directly behind our hostel. It's the one whose noise kept me up all night before we moved to the bigger room.
Toffs is bigger and more impressive that I had imagined. It has three floors, first of all. The ground floor has two bars and a dance floor and the upstairs is a smoky lounge area. I danced for a while, until I twisted my ankle badly. Then I limped back to the hostel. i meant to go straight up to bed because I had volunteered to take Lyndsay's breakfast shift the next morning at 7:45am, but someone told em that Christine needed to talk to me downstairs for a minute, so I went back to the bar. It was "chockers", as the Aussies would say. Packed. Christine was overwhelmed with people. I ended up staying down there for a while longer ebcause I got into a conversation with some people from Newcastle. That and some beers. Then the rest of teh crew came back from Toffs, I looked at my phone to check the time and realized I really did need to get to sleep.
I never heard my alarm. And I had fallen asleep with my clothes and shoes still on. But miraculously, I woke up at 7:37--just enough tome for me to get downstairs and set up all the breakfast. Turns out I needn't have hurried, because Jacqui was 10 minutes late unlocking the café. There was a mob scene to get in, and DJ who had just finished door had to help me set up so that it got done faster.
Why is giving groups food such an ordeal? Every time I went into the kitchen to keep p with dishes (again, no dishwasher!) when I came back into the café I had to shoo people out frmo behind the counter. WTF?? Do people go behind the counter or the bar in a restaurant? No! Why do people think they can do it in ours? After a while I got tired of beating around the bush and flat-out said, "you are not allowed back here. if there's something you want, ask the one in charge--that's me." But that wasn't the worst. The worst was that almost nobody put away their own dishes. The rule is, and there is a clearly posted sign, that you put your dirty dishes on the cart and throw away your trash. Nobody did. And I don't care that they were from Germany; they all spoke English. Anyway, it took me two hours to clean up after them. It wasn't that unpleasant though, all things considered. It was sunny in the café, adn I could play whatever music I wanted on the stereo. I fell to the Amadeus sountrack and blatantly started singing along to the soprano solo from the Kyrie in his c minor mass, and the aria from Zaide. And nobody could say anything or complain, because here I was slaving away cleaning up THEIR mess. Suck on that.
After that I dragged all my luggage back down to my normal bed. Then I went to Sainsbury's, Poundland, had my pork/applesauce/stuffing sandwich, and came back.
That's when I started to feel really rotten. And I knew damn well what it was. The last time I'd felt this bad around this time of the month was in November. I spent the next four hours in bed, cramping and popping advils for my lower back which was all but throbbing. Watched Mulholland Drive twice through because it was what was in my DVD player and I was in too much pain to move. It finally let up in the evening, and I dragged my haggard carcass to the kitchen to make dinner.
That's all, until it was time to shower. I hung my pajamas on the wall next to the shower, and afetr I got out i accidentally pushed them over the side of teh wall, into this crevice. I ended up having to climb up the wall like Spiderman, launch myself headfirst into the crevice and reach down to get the pajamas. I could have fallen and broken my neck, but I needed those pajama pants. So...that was my adventure for the evening.
Tonight is the last reharsal at the University. Tomorrow is 3 hours in the Minster and I am going to try and take some film clips. Wednesday is the concert....
"I'm going to the Sox game on Sunday. They're playing the Giants."
"MONEY! You get to see Frank Thomas and Barry Bonds."
Anyway, this is why it was a money week/weekend:
On Thursday--and I don't know why this did no occur to me earlier--I realized that now that I have proper proof of addess--a National Insurance Number letter, other government docs such as a criminal abckground check--I can now upgrade my bank account. Because if you will recall, they gave me the shittiest-of-shit account and told me it was because my proof of address was not official enough. So I returned to HSBC on Thursday, armed with all my official docs, and they showed me in.
First they said I had to wait 3 months to upgrade. I said, but I'm going abroad and want to have a proper debit card so I'm not forced to carry around tons of cash. They accepted that. Then they claimed the reason they didn't give me a good account in the first place wasn't because of my address, it was because I didn't have a credit history in the UK. I said I understood that, however I personally know 3 people who have gotten proper debit cards from HSBC and didn't have any credit history either. I had to prod a little, and prodding works!! I could literally see this banker lady weighing her options and decide that it was better to just give me what I'm asking for than to risk losing my business.
They didn't even check my proofs of address. They said your new debit card will be sent to you in 4-5 business days. I was content and spent the rest of my Friday afternoon and evening laying in bed and reading--with the window open. It was that mild.
My card arrived Saturday morning. I had just finished moving all of my luggage up to the 4th floor (well, here in the UK it's the 3rd floor) from the 2nd (1st) because we had groups coming in who needed our room. I made it downstairs just in time to meet up with Meimei, with whom I was goign to the National Railway Museum and then to watch some rugby. Jacqui called me into the office and told me I had some mail. Lo and behold--there was my brand-new debit card. I felt like a real person finally, haha. Over halfway done with my journey and I'm now almost fully on-the-grid in the UK (only thing missing would be a UK credit card)!
But that wasn't all. Jacqui handed me a flat parcel, and my heart leapt. Sure enough, it was from amazon.com -- my Mulholland Drive DVD!!!! I actually jumped up and down. My Saturday was getting better and better.
So Meimei and I went to the museum. There's a reason why it's free...not a whole lot going ont here. But still, interesting and impressive. The sheer size of some of these engines is amazing, especially the hundred-year-old steam engines. We found a green one that looked like Percy from Shining Time Station, and Meimei took a picture of me next to it--I loved that show when I was little and Percy was my favorite train--or, I guess, character (Thomas was for morons). They also had a car from the Japanese bullet train that you could walk in. That was kind of cool.
Then we went to Sainsbury's to pick up supplies for the rugby game. And damned if they didn't have pizzas on sale for 2 for £4 (still a ripoff by US standards, but I've stopped comparing). We also bought plain Doritos whcih are really hard to find. They were also a ripoff, but I haven't had tortilla chips in far too long. I bought a can of chili to dip the chips in, and we got a bottle of Diet Coke. Good to go.
Now I'm not much into sports, so I mostly zoned out for the games. But Meimei's housemates were fun conversation, especially Glenn from Edinburgh. He looks like Dr. Heiser, my junior year Latin/Greek teacher. That was very amusing. And Gabor, another housemate who is from Hungary, made PALACINKE. I kid you not. Palacinke are crepes. They tasted like the ones I love when mom makes. It was awesome...I ate three even though I;d already eated chili and a whole pizza by myself. Live it up while you can, I say.
After two rugby games (Ireland vs. Scotland and Walse vs. Italy) I went back home. I set up my laptop and settled in to watch Mulholland Drive. I had the room to myself so I was able to watch with the lights off and the volume up. I was quite satisfied.
After that, I went down in the basement to the Dungeons Bar to visit Christine, who was bartending. I ended up helping her slice limes. There weren't too many people there when I first arrived, but it got more crowded as the night wore on. There were two parties goign on--two bachelor parties. Christine and I and Becs were the only girls there for a while. After some time, Nick, Jacqui and Becs said I was going to Toffs with them. Toffs is this club that is directly behind our hostel. It's the one whose noise kept me up all night before we moved to the bigger room.
Toffs is bigger and more impressive that I had imagined. It has three floors, first of all. The ground floor has two bars and a dance floor and the upstairs is a smoky lounge area. I danced for a while, until I twisted my ankle badly. Then I limped back to the hostel. i meant to go straight up to bed because I had volunteered to take Lyndsay's breakfast shift the next morning at 7:45am, but someone told em that Christine needed to talk to me downstairs for a minute, so I went back to the bar. It was "chockers", as the Aussies would say. Packed. Christine was overwhelmed with people. I ended up staying down there for a while longer ebcause I got into a conversation with some people from Newcastle. That and some beers. Then the rest of teh crew came back from Toffs, I looked at my phone to check the time and realized I really did need to get to sleep.
I never heard my alarm. And I had fallen asleep with my clothes and shoes still on. But miraculously, I woke up at 7:37--just enough tome for me to get downstairs and set up all the breakfast. Turns out I needn't have hurried, because Jacqui was 10 minutes late unlocking the café. There was a mob scene to get in, and DJ who had just finished door had to help me set up so that it got done faster.
Why is giving groups food such an ordeal? Every time I went into the kitchen to keep p with dishes (again, no dishwasher!) when I came back into the café I had to shoo people out frmo behind the counter. WTF?? Do people go behind the counter or the bar in a restaurant? No! Why do people think they can do it in ours? After a while I got tired of beating around the bush and flat-out said, "you are not allowed back here. if there's something you want, ask the one in charge--that's me." But that wasn't the worst. The worst was that almost nobody put away their own dishes. The rule is, and there is a clearly posted sign, that you put your dirty dishes on the cart and throw away your trash. Nobody did. And I don't care that they were from Germany; they all spoke English. Anyway, it took me two hours to clean up after them. It wasn't that unpleasant though, all things considered. It was sunny in the café, adn I could play whatever music I wanted on the stereo. I fell to the Amadeus sountrack and blatantly started singing along to the soprano solo from the Kyrie in his c minor mass, and the aria from Zaide. And nobody could say anything or complain, because here I was slaving away cleaning up THEIR mess. Suck on that.
After that I dragged all my luggage back down to my normal bed. Then I went to Sainsbury's, Poundland, had my pork/applesauce/stuffing sandwich, and came back.
That's when I started to feel really rotten. And I knew damn well what it was. The last time I'd felt this bad around this time of the month was in November. I spent the next four hours in bed, cramping and popping advils for my lower back which was all but throbbing. Watched Mulholland Drive twice through because it was what was in my DVD player and I was in too much pain to move. It finally let up in the evening, and I dragged my haggard carcass to the kitchen to make dinner.
That's all, until it was time to shower. I hung my pajamas on the wall next to the shower, and afetr I got out i accidentally pushed them over the side of teh wall, into this crevice. I ended up having to climb up the wall like Spiderman, launch myself headfirst into the crevice and reach down to get the pajamas. I could have fallen and broken my neck, but I needed those pajama pants. So...that was my adventure for the evening.
Tonight is the last reharsal at the University. Tomorrow is 3 hours in the Minster and I am going to try and take some film clips. Wednesday is the concert....
Monday, March 5, 2007
FINALLY, an update!
Hmmm, so to begin correctly I guess I will have to go back to Wednesday, Feb. 28--because I think that's the first day anything interesting or worth noting took place after my Feb. 19th entry.
Wednesday
was the day we had designated for the water park excursion. It went like this: I had had an absolutely exhausting day at work. I was also famished. I wanted nothing else in the world than to skip out on water park activities, especially since I hadn't donned a swimsuit in months and wasn't looking my grandest in a bikini--I was so white I was the "second sun of the earth" as my cousin Derek would say (when I heard him say it, it was in reference to Grandpa's bare legs). So I was a little miffed when, 15 minutes after I walked in the door, DJ and Sarah rush into the room and say we have to get ready and leave now. UGH. So I shove what I think I'll need into my bag, and get bundled up (it is FREEZING outside), mix up the quickest shake ever and shove some bread into my mouth just so I won't pass out from hunger, and go to wait in the lobby. They knew I had a door shift. They promised we'd be back in plenty of time.
There are more people going than I originally had thought. Becs, Jacqui and Wes came. Nick planned on it, but wasn't back from work yet.
We walked to the bus stop. Mind you, the water park closes at 8pm and it is past 6:30 at this point. Someone has the bright idea to actually look at the bus schedule and see IF we even had a bus back. Nope, we didn't. We were going to have to catch a cab. And guess who was the only one that had a phone OR the number of a cab place. Yeah, that's right. It grinds my gears the way people are so stupid and irresponsible when it comes to think like this--I mean, if I had decided to not go, what were they going to do? So I decided to let them stew for awhile, and not mention that I had a phone and the number for A-Team Taxis.
Finally the bus rounds the corner and we see Nick running down Micklegate to meet us. Great. Luckily, the York bus drivers are slow as hell at collecting fares--AND they do give change--so Nick made it onto the bus, and we were finally off.
A 10-minute bus ride took us to within 2 blocks of WaterWorld York. And I can't remember the last time I felt such strong, biting cold winds. Probably the last time I was in Kloten, ND, which was years ago now. So by the time we got inside, we were freezing to bits--with probably less than an hoor to spend in the damn water park.
But, the waterslides were pretty fun. There were three: fast, medium, and slow. The the fast one, you went down on your bare ass--or back, I guess. For the medium one, you had to sit on a mat--a new experience for me; in all my USA water park experience I've never had to sit on a mat--and for the slow one, you went down on inner tubes. Fun! The funniest thing was how giddy and excited we all got, especially when we saw that all of us had at least 12 years on every other waterslide "customer". It was great. Here we are, a bunch of 21-25 year-olds, waiting in line for waterslides with 7-and 8-year old kids. We had a good time. After we did each slide a few times, we went around the lazy river once or twice. It was not terribly lazy, though--the current knocked me off of my feet a couple of times and one couldn't really swim against it. There was also a wave pool, which we had great fun with. It wasn't huge like the ones I remember going to when I was little, but it was fun nonetheless.
After the wave pool, the whistle blew to signal closing-time, and we all had to get out. I was exhausted and famished again, and anxious to get home because that night I was on door shift, and I still had to shower and washout my bathing suit and set up for the night. So we got out and everyone kind of stood around like dunderheads wondering what we were to do now. I was to tired to mask my annoyance so I actually said, "Since I'm the only one with a phone and I assume the only one who has the number of a taxi place, I guess I'll be calling them now." And I did. And we were all set to wait for them; it would be 10-15 minutes. Good.
But then Jacqui says she wants McDonald's. Everyone pipes up that they want it too, and they implore me to call the cab place back and etll them to come in 45 minutes--at 9:15. I try to tell them that that's too long, and McD's will be closed by then, but they laugh in my face. So, gritting my teeth, I call A-Team and tell them to turn their minibus (for all 7 of us, ha) around and come later. I was madder now because I might not get back in time to start the door shift, and certainly I would not have time to shower or eat. So I had to spend more money, and on awful food. I was now cold, wet, and very annoyed. Sure enough, they finished eating at about 8:45--still 30 mins before A-Team would show up. Then the boys decide theyre going to the grocery store a few yards away. and Jacqui and Becs decide they want to harass the next-door Pizza Hut into letting them order just the all-you-can-eat ice cream. I try to tell them to make sure and pay right away, becuase we're on a time budget (British table service is notoriously slow, I've noticed). They tell me to stop being a stick in the mud. I didn't bother trying to tell them about my door shift; they didn't care. Only Sarah felt for me.
We did end up making the taxi. And DJ paid for it, which made me quite happy. And I did get there in time for my door shift, but barely. I hoped that the rinse-off at the water park showers had made me clean enough. All in all, it was a good time. I was annoyed throughout a bunch of it, but I'm trying to work on calming down and not getting upset over things I can't control--like other people's lack of foresight or consideration of others. And, well, I got some good exercise.
Thursday
was more fun. It was Christine's idea. We were supposed to start cooking the massive pasta dinner at 7:30, but since it was Christine, things didn't really get underway until after 8. We made pasta shells with both marinara and alfredo sauce (from scratch), two whole roast chickens, garlic bread, and mushrooms that I made. They were supposed to be for some sauce for the chicken, but it didn't work out right so I ended up trying to guess at my mom's sauteed-mushrooms recipe. It would have been great if I'd realized I should have used mainly butter to fry them in and not olive oil (the olive oil made them taste a little wrong), and that I should have used rose wine and not red or white). But it ended up OK. Yum. It was dinner for about 12 people, some of whom came especially for the occasion from elsewhere. Meimei showed up, which I was happy about because I hadn't seen her in almost two weeks. If Andrew hadn't shown up, it would have been absolutely perfect.
Haha, except for the monster cleanup job we had in the kitchen afterward. IF ONLY this hostel had a damn dishwasher!! IF ONLY the building didn't have to use little water-heater boxes for its hot water supply. The dishes took ages to complete because we kept running out of hot water. DJ got impatient and started heating water in the electric kettle and using that. But it got done eventually, and it was worth it. Good times.
Friday
Was Sarah's farewell bash. I woke up with an absolutely monstrous headache, and I couldn't imagine why! I had only had a couple of glasses of wine...I really couldn't figure it out. And I felt miserable! At work I did some Google research, and found something out: red wine has a special toxin that isn't present in any other wines, I think it's called tyramine--or something like that--and the cheaper the red wine, the more tyramine is in it. Add that to the general principle that the cheaper of any type of alcoholic beverage, the more toxins will be in it and the more likely you'll be to feel it in the morning. Anyway--whatever we were drinking with dinner the night before must have been about 90% tyramine becuase I'd had so little and my head felt like it was being sledgehammered. :-(. Or maybe the headache actaully was something else..I don't know. Either way, I held off taking any type of painkiller until I got back from work.
Before going home for the day, I stopped at Adecco. Sarah who is temping there told me to come in, becuase Adecco would certainly be able to find a good job for someone with my experience upon my return to York after my week's vacation. I was excited because Bridge (wo got me the Benenden job) and Kelly Services (didn't seem too optimistic when I talked to them). The Adecco ladies were fabulous, and flat-out told me that they'shave a good job for me--possibly with the British govt. here in York, at the city centre, and possibly paying £7.50/h!! that's almost £2 more than that I was making at Benenden...wow. So I left there feeling pretty good.
Got ready and went to Wetherspoon's for dinner. They're a chain pub 1 minute's walk from the hostel and they offer so-so food at cheap prices. What more could I ask for...:-). The company and food was great. Helen, Sarah's co-worker from Adecco and the one who had been helping me out, came along! She was great. And this guy named Ed who Sarah knew all the way back to Hobart, Tasmania (he is currently living in London) surprised her and showed up! I ate a burger, forgetting that it was Friday and Lent and I wasn't supposed to eat meat. I felt bad...but then I considered that I almost never eat meat these days--that McDonald's had been an exception--and, well, life goes on.
After Wetherspoons we stopped back at the hostel. Finally biting the bullet, I shed my coat and purse. We all did, becuase as per Sarah's farewell wish we were headed to a club, and there is never any space--let alone a safe space--to put down your things at these places. LuckilyYork is a small town and we didn't have to be in the cold for too long. Kennedy's--this would now be my third time here--wasn't crowded when we got there, but was to become so as the night wore on. Helen and I got into a good conversation as best we could over the blaring music. She talked about how her husband proposed to her right before he had to go away to Bosnia for 6 months (army). She talked about her baby girl. It was nice. Oh...and she bought me my first Sapphire tonic in months. I never thought of myself as being that much of a drinker that I could differentiate between gins, but wow. Could I taste the difference! I just found it interesting.
We danced for a while. The DJ was only so-so and kept playing lousy 70s crap that nobody really liked. Nick and Sarah complained a lot at first but I noticed the complaining lessen the more they drank. And boy did they drink a ton... Ed and Christine danced together most of the night. Helen, Meimei and I stepped abck and watched the show, dancing occasionally when a song we liked came on. Then my feet started to hurt and Meimei and I went and sat in the VIP booth. We talked for a while, about boys and underwear (giggle giggle. that's a joke, mind you). Then we realized we were tired, and kind of wanted to head back. So we said goodbye to Nick and Sarah, who probably didn't notice because they were too drunk, and headed out and went straight to sleep. I was glad; it was only 1.
Saturday
I was so happy I had gone home. Sarah was up and about and nursing a hangover. Nick wasn't showing any signs of waking up soon at 10:30. I went out for a nice breakfast with Sarah and Ed. It was nice, except I hadn't talked to him much the night before and now that I was, i realized that was a good thing. He is one of those individuals who thinks of himself as very cultured and refined and knows everything about wine and cheese and clothes and those who don't are clearly beneath him...so that vibe was unpleasant. I wondered how he and Sarah were such good friends. But the food was good, and the waiter nice. Outside the restaurant, we saw the man and his upright piano--he's downtown every weekend--, playing showtunes as usual. Today's choices were "I Dreamed a Dream" and "On My Own" from Les Mis, and "I Don't Know How To Love Him" from JC Superstar. Too bad he was playing in the keys he felt like and not keys they were written in for singing....actaully, that was just fine. I'm sure the passers-by didn't need to hear me karaoke haha. It might have been fun, though. I took a film.
After that I returned back to the hostel, while Sarah and Ed went to go pick up her car from the shop. She got home, finished packing, and I went with her to this secondhand store to drop off some of her clothes that she didn't want anymore. And I bought a VHS of Monsoon Wedding--it was only £2. Sarah took off after that, and it suddenly felt quite lonely in Micklegate House.
I went down to the kitchen with my laptop, put on The Aviator and drew. I like to draw with movies on on the background, and the kitchen is the only place besides the women's washroom that has good enough light for drawing. I worked on thispicture I'm doing til I needed a break. Christine came in and started cooking dinner. It was then that I got the bright idea that she should watch Monsoon Wedding with me, because in two weeks she is GOING TO INDIA (Bombay) to attend her friend's wedding. So we and a buch of others watched Monsoon Wedding together--everyone loved it!! An added cool thing was that the girl getting married in the movie is named Aditi, and that is Christine's friend's name as well.
After that we lounged around some...i met a girl who is from Chicago and getting her master's from Cambridge. I told her about my car search and strongly suggested Hyundais because they have a 10-year warranty and can be as cheap as $10-11k new. And the cars don't suck. The reason the warranty is so good is that in years past the cars did suck, but about 6-7 years ago the company turned around but to encourage people to buy they had to offer these warranties. A new Hyundai for $11k with a 10-year/100,000mi warranty vs. a used Toyota for the same price with 40k miles on it? Hmmmmm...the plot thickens.
Anyway, then she and her friend wanted to watch Braveheart. We wanted to stay up all night becuase that night there was a total lunar eclipse. I didn't make it through all of Braveheart, but I did wake up at 12:30 purely by accident and saw the eclipse. It was neat. The last time I remember seeing one was sometime in high school, same time of year. Cool.
Sunday
Was boring. I drew, ate, and waited ALL DAY for the TV so that I could watch a movie. At 10:30pm I finally had it free. I had a strange hankering to watch the 3-hr epic JFK. I told myself I'd only watch half, but, well...I didn't get to bed til 1:30. It happens.
Now I'm stewing. I am nervous for Mom's CAT scan results, which won't come out until Tuesday. I am scared...
Wednesday
was the day we had designated for the water park excursion. It went like this: I had had an absolutely exhausting day at work. I was also famished. I wanted nothing else in the world than to skip out on water park activities, especially since I hadn't donned a swimsuit in months and wasn't looking my grandest in a bikini--I was so white I was the "second sun of the earth" as my cousin Derek would say (when I heard him say it, it was in reference to Grandpa's bare legs). So I was a little miffed when, 15 minutes after I walked in the door, DJ and Sarah rush into the room and say we have to get ready and leave now. UGH. So I shove what I think I'll need into my bag, and get bundled up (it is FREEZING outside), mix up the quickest shake ever and shove some bread into my mouth just so I won't pass out from hunger, and go to wait in the lobby. They knew I had a door shift. They promised we'd be back in plenty of time.
There are more people going than I originally had thought. Becs, Jacqui and Wes came. Nick planned on it, but wasn't back from work yet.
We walked to the bus stop. Mind you, the water park closes at 8pm and it is past 6:30 at this point. Someone has the bright idea to actually look at the bus schedule and see IF we even had a bus back. Nope, we didn't. We were going to have to catch a cab. And guess who was the only one that had a phone OR the number of a cab place. Yeah, that's right. It grinds my gears the way people are so stupid and irresponsible when it comes to think like this--I mean, if I had decided to not go, what were they going to do? So I decided to let them stew for awhile, and not mention that I had a phone and the number for A-Team Taxis.
Finally the bus rounds the corner and we see Nick running down Micklegate to meet us. Great. Luckily, the York bus drivers are slow as hell at collecting fares--AND they do give change--so Nick made it onto the bus, and we were finally off.
A 10-minute bus ride took us to within 2 blocks of WaterWorld York. And I can't remember the last time I felt such strong, biting cold winds. Probably the last time I was in Kloten, ND, which was years ago now. So by the time we got inside, we were freezing to bits--with probably less than an hoor to spend in the damn water park.
But, the waterslides were pretty fun. There were three: fast, medium, and slow. The the fast one, you went down on your bare ass--or back, I guess. For the medium one, you had to sit on a mat--a new experience for me; in all my USA water park experience I've never had to sit on a mat--and for the slow one, you went down on inner tubes. Fun! The funniest thing was how giddy and excited we all got, especially when we saw that all of us had at least 12 years on every other waterslide "customer". It was great. Here we are, a bunch of 21-25 year-olds, waiting in line for waterslides with 7-and 8-year old kids. We had a good time. After we did each slide a few times, we went around the lazy river once or twice. It was not terribly lazy, though--the current knocked me off of my feet a couple of times and one couldn't really swim against it. There was also a wave pool, which we had great fun with. It wasn't huge like the ones I remember going to when I was little, but it was fun nonetheless.
After the wave pool, the whistle blew to signal closing-time, and we all had to get out. I was exhausted and famished again, and anxious to get home because that night I was on door shift, and I still had to shower and washout my bathing suit and set up for the night. So we got out and everyone kind of stood around like dunderheads wondering what we were to do now. I was to tired to mask my annoyance so I actually said, "Since I'm the only one with a phone and I assume the only one who has the number of a taxi place, I guess I'll be calling them now." And I did. And we were all set to wait for them; it would be 10-15 minutes. Good.
But then Jacqui says she wants McDonald's. Everyone pipes up that they want it too, and they implore me to call the cab place back and etll them to come in 45 minutes--at 9:15. I try to tell them that that's too long, and McD's will be closed by then, but they laugh in my face. So, gritting my teeth, I call A-Team and tell them to turn their minibus (for all 7 of us, ha) around and come later. I was madder now because I might not get back in time to start the door shift, and certainly I would not have time to shower or eat. So I had to spend more money, and on awful food. I was now cold, wet, and very annoyed. Sure enough, they finished eating at about 8:45--still 30 mins before A-Team would show up. Then the boys decide theyre going to the grocery store a few yards away. and Jacqui and Becs decide they want to harass the next-door Pizza Hut into letting them order just the all-you-can-eat ice cream. I try to tell them to make sure and pay right away, becuase we're on a time budget (British table service is notoriously slow, I've noticed). They tell me to stop being a stick in the mud. I didn't bother trying to tell them about my door shift; they didn't care. Only Sarah felt for me.
We did end up making the taxi. And DJ paid for it, which made me quite happy. And I did get there in time for my door shift, but barely. I hoped that the rinse-off at the water park showers had made me clean enough. All in all, it was a good time. I was annoyed throughout a bunch of it, but I'm trying to work on calming down and not getting upset over things I can't control--like other people's lack of foresight or consideration of others. And, well, I got some good exercise.
Thursday
was more fun. It was Christine's idea. We were supposed to start cooking the massive pasta dinner at 7:30, but since it was Christine, things didn't really get underway until after 8. We made pasta shells with both marinara and alfredo sauce (from scratch), two whole roast chickens, garlic bread, and mushrooms that I made. They were supposed to be for some sauce for the chicken, but it didn't work out right so I ended up trying to guess at my mom's sauteed-mushrooms recipe. It would have been great if I'd realized I should have used mainly butter to fry them in and not olive oil (the olive oil made them taste a little wrong), and that I should have used rose wine and not red or white). But it ended up OK. Yum. It was dinner for about 12 people, some of whom came especially for the occasion from elsewhere. Meimei showed up, which I was happy about because I hadn't seen her in almost two weeks. If Andrew hadn't shown up, it would have been absolutely perfect.
Haha, except for the monster cleanup job we had in the kitchen afterward. IF ONLY this hostel had a damn dishwasher!! IF ONLY the building didn't have to use little water-heater boxes for its hot water supply. The dishes took ages to complete because we kept running out of hot water. DJ got impatient and started heating water in the electric kettle and using that. But it got done eventually, and it was worth it. Good times.
Friday
Was Sarah's farewell bash. I woke up with an absolutely monstrous headache, and I couldn't imagine why! I had only had a couple of glasses of wine...I really couldn't figure it out. And I felt miserable! At work I did some Google research, and found something out: red wine has a special toxin that isn't present in any other wines, I think it's called tyramine--or something like that--and the cheaper the red wine, the more tyramine is in it. Add that to the general principle that the cheaper of any type of alcoholic beverage, the more toxins will be in it and the more likely you'll be to feel it in the morning. Anyway--whatever we were drinking with dinner the night before must have been about 90% tyramine becuase I'd had so little and my head felt like it was being sledgehammered. :-(. Or maybe the headache actaully was something else..I don't know. Either way, I held off taking any type of painkiller until I got back from work.
Before going home for the day, I stopped at Adecco. Sarah who is temping there told me to come in, becuase Adecco would certainly be able to find a good job for someone with my experience upon my return to York after my week's vacation. I was excited because Bridge (wo got me the Benenden job) and Kelly Services (didn't seem too optimistic when I talked to them). The Adecco ladies were fabulous, and flat-out told me that they'shave a good job for me--possibly with the British govt. here in York, at the city centre, and possibly paying £7.50/h!! that's almost £2 more than that I was making at Benenden...wow. So I left there feeling pretty good.
Got ready and went to Wetherspoon's for dinner. They're a chain pub 1 minute's walk from the hostel and they offer so-so food at cheap prices. What more could I ask for...:-). The company and food was great. Helen, Sarah's co-worker from Adecco and the one who had been helping me out, came along! She was great. And this guy named Ed who Sarah knew all the way back to Hobart, Tasmania (he is currently living in London) surprised her and showed up! I ate a burger, forgetting that it was Friday and Lent and I wasn't supposed to eat meat. I felt bad...but then I considered that I almost never eat meat these days--that McDonald's had been an exception--and, well, life goes on.
After Wetherspoons we stopped back at the hostel. Finally biting the bullet, I shed my coat and purse. We all did, becuase as per Sarah's farewell wish we were headed to a club, and there is never any space--let alone a safe space--to put down your things at these places. LuckilyYork is a small town and we didn't have to be in the cold for too long. Kennedy's--this would now be my third time here--wasn't crowded when we got there, but was to become so as the night wore on. Helen and I got into a good conversation as best we could over the blaring music. She talked about how her husband proposed to her right before he had to go away to Bosnia for 6 months (army). She talked about her baby girl. It was nice. Oh...and she bought me my first Sapphire tonic in months. I never thought of myself as being that much of a drinker that I could differentiate between gins, but wow. Could I taste the difference! I just found it interesting.
We danced for a while. The DJ was only so-so and kept playing lousy 70s crap that nobody really liked. Nick and Sarah complained a lot at first but I noticed the complaining lessen the more they drank. And boy did they drink a ton... Ed and Christine danced together most of the night. Helen, Meimei and I stepped abck and watched the show, dancing occasionally when a song we liked came on. Then my feet started to hurt and Meimei and I went and sat in the VIP booth. We talked for a while, about boys and underwear (giggle giggle. that's a joke, mind you). Then we realized we were tired, and kind of wanted to head back. So we said goodbye to Nick and Sarah, who probably didn't notice because they were too drunk, and headed out and went straight to sleep. I was glad; it was only 1.
Saturday
I was so happy I had gone home. Sarah was up and about and nursing a hangover. Nick wasn't showing any signs of waking up soon at 10:30. I went out for a nice breakfast with Sarah and Ed. It was nice, except I hadn't talked to him much the night before and now that I was, i realized that was a good thing. He is one of those individuals who thinks of himself as very cultured and refined and knows everything about wine and cheese and clothes and those who don't are clearly beneath him...so that vibe was unpleasant. I wondered how he and Sarah were such good friends. But the food was good, and the waiter nice. Outside the restaurant, we saw the man and his upright piano--he's downtown every weekend--, playing showtunes as usual. Today's choices were "I Dreamed a Dream" and "On My Own" from Les Mis, and "I Don't Know How To Love Him" from JC Superstar. Too bad he was playing in the keys he felt like and not keys they were written in for singing....actaully, that was just fine. I'm sure the passers-by didn't need to hear me karaoke haha. It might have been fun, though. I took a film.
After that I returned back to the hostel, while Sarah and Ed went to go pick up her car from the shop. She got home, finished packing, and I went with her to this secondhand store to drop off some of her clothes that she didn't want anymore. And I bought a VHS of Monsoon Wedding--it was only £2. Sarah took off after that, and it suddenly felt quite lonely in Micklegate House.
I went down to the kitchen with my laptop, put on The Aviator and drew. I like to draw with movies on on the background, and the kitchen is the only place besides the women's washroom that has good enough light for drawing. I worked on thispicture I'm doing til I needed a break. Christine came in and started cooking dinner. It was then that I got the bright idea that she should watch Monsoon Wedding with me, because in two weeks she is GOING TO INDIA (Bombay) to attend her friend's wedding. So we and a buch of others watched Monsoon Wedding together--everyone loved it!! An added cool thing was that the girl getting married in the movie is named Aditi, and that is Christine's friend's name as well.
After that we lounged around some...i met a girl who is from Chicago and getting her master's from Cambridge. I told her about my car search and strongly suggested Hyundais because they have a 10-year warranty and can be as cheap as $10-11k new. And the cars don't suck. The reason the warranty is so good is that in years past the cars did suck, but about 6-7 years ago the company turned around but to encourage people to buy they had to offer these warranties. A new Hyundai for $11k with a 10-year/100,000mi warranty vs. a used Toyota for the same price with 40k miles on it? Hmmmmm...the plot thickens.
Anyway, then she and her friend wanted to watch Braveheart. We wanted to stay up all night becuase that night there was a total lunar eclipse. I didn't make it through all of Braveheart, but I did wake up at 12:30 purely by accident and saw the eclipse. It was neat. The last time I remember seeing one was sometime in high school, same time of year. Cool.
Sunday
Was boring. I drew, ate, and waited ALL DAY for the TV so that I could watch a movie. At 10:30pm I finally had it free. I had a strange hankering to watch the 3-hr epic JFK. I told myself I'd only watch half, but, well...I didn't get to bed til 1:30. It happens.
Now I'm stewing. I am nervous for Mom's CAT scan results, which won't come out until Tuesday. I am scared...
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