Well it’s been awhile since my last post. Mostly this is because things are cray right now. I’ve been “packing” all week, Friday was my last day at work, yesterday we had family party, and today my grandparents are stopping over.

In all this craziness though I have had time to do a few fun things and also see a couple good movies. Because lets be real, even in the heat of finals week I managed to watch my television shows. I’m not one to forsake my entertainment.

So we’ll start there, movies watched:

Sex, Lies, and Videotape. I am now obsessed with this movie. It had some weak points (like basically every conversation between Andie MacDowell and her sister Laura San Giacomo) but the acting overall was so good that, ultimately, I almost forgot the weaker bits. My two favorite scenes include every scene with James Spader because hot damn that kid can act and the moment when Andie MacDowell finds her sister’s pearl earring on her bedroom floor and the audience just gets to watch as ten different emotions pass over her face as she realizes that her husband had lied to her, that he is cheating. I’ve only seen MacDowell in lighter stuff like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Groundhog Day so I had no idea she had this scene, let alone this movie, in her. Also did I mention James Spader? I pretty much like him in everything he has ever done but I especially dug this role because he got to play in that gray area between totally creepy and totally sexy.

Hmm, other movies…Well I did watch House at the End of the Street but it isn’t worth talking about so we wont. And those might have been the only two movies I’ve watched recently. This is probably because anytime that isn’t dedicated to packing is likely spent watch Spartacus. Guys, watch Spartacus. On the surface it looks like a mindless, overly gory show in the vein of 300 or something. But it is so, so much better than that. Honestly, everything that Games of Thrones is doing wrong (too many characters, too slow etc.) Spartacus does exactly right. Also, as pointed out by my brother, they don’t play around with their audience. Like if the characters have to climb a mountain they just climb it. There is no “close-call” scene where they slip and almost fall to their death. Plus the show is doing some really interesting stuff in terms of gender. Especially the first two seasons when the characters are still gladiators.

And now how about pictures from my phone:

I found three fantastic books on sale at the library the other day. An old nonfiction book from the children’s section on female athletes, a national geographic book from the seventies called “Wilderness, U.S.A” and, the best of all, a reallly old book on the zodiac. Enough collage material in each of these to keep me going for the rest of my life.

Sun on my sunflowers (thank you Catherine! I LOVE sunflowers!)

I don’t know about you but I am definitely ready for a redneck wedding.

Friends plus dog. I slept with MJ last night because she is the love of my life and I am going to miss her. Also I love that she lets me hold her like a stuffed animal all night long. Hawkeye was known to attack if squeezed in the night.

Post family party drinks with friends. Nothing like hitting up your hometown bar to make you especially ready to not be in your hometown anymore.

 

I’ll try to get better about posting here more regularly although I have the feeling that once I get to California I’ll be inundating you with stories and pictures.

Also, Happy Mother’s Day to my momma. I’m going to miss this lady big time.

crafting procrastination

I think I play around with the format of this blog too much. At one point it looked how I wanted it to but now it doesn’t. I can’t get it right and it is bothering me.

I have a pre-move ritual that involves crafting. I think it is actually just another form of procrastination. Like I should be sorting through clothes and putting things in boxes. Instead I am gluing sequins onto paper hearts. But it also has a purpose. The thought of sorting through clothes is stressful (like do I have enough shorts? and oh my god I might have to wear shorts REGULARLY) while gluing sequins is mindless and fun.

Right before I left for school the first time I made this long chain of paper cranes. And since January of 2011 they have shown up every place I have shown up. Except I can’t find them! I haven’t seen them since I moved back home. I remember putting them in my car so I know I didn’t leave them behind but since then nada. This makes me more sad than it should.

The dog is staring at me. I work all day today.

Welcome to the Hellmouth

I gave notice at my job the other day and while I had (naturally) gotten myself all worked up in anticipation it went just fine and they were perfectly understanding.Which brings me to my next bit of exciting news. I’m moving to Los Angeles.  It happened fast and it happened easily and, as such, I have decided to trust that it is what is supposed to happen right now and not agonize too much over thoughts like “is it the right place?”

I am also very, very excited. I’ve never been to California and while I am sure it will be an adjustment I am eager to embrace the change.

My whole post-grad life has been very pieced together. I did find work pretty soon after I got home but I was overqualified and knew that I wouldn’t be staying there for long. Now I am moving my life around for an internship in a new city. Sometimes a teensy part of me wishes the post college script was as straight forward as the script for all the years that come before it. I like knowing what I am doing months down the line, I like being able to plan. Basically, I really enjoyed being a student.

If I think about this part of my life for too long I get bogged down in worry about whether or not I am doing what I am supposed to be doing, about what the “right” path might be. My friend Anna literally just wrote about this. She recently got a neat new full time job but mentions feeling a little nervous about how this job might influence her day to day life. Like, will it mean that she stops creating things or starts watching a lot more television. I’m worried about these things too. I want to do well with this new opportunity and I will work hard (the hardest!) but I also don’t want to let my life get so overwhelmed by a new job and a new home that I stop doing the things that I value. Mostly this is writing and taking pictures. Sometimes it is others things.

Long story short: I am moving to California! It is exciting! Today I bought sunscreen!

I got my wisdom teeth pulled yesterday morning. Because I am a baby and because I have never been put under with anesthesia before I was wiggin’. Although what I was actually worried about wasn’t the pain or anything but rather spilling all my dark secrets to the dentist under anesthesia. Which is crazy for a handful of reasons number one of which is my “dark secrets” are more along the lines of “one time I stayed up all night and ate an entire bag of oke-doke cheese popcorn.” Which perhaps as a dentist he would have frowned upon but not in a “we’re sending you off to jail young lady” way. Clearly I watch too much television.

Which speaking of TV, T.Sean and I had been watching the new Netflix original series Hemlock Grove. We knew going into to it that it hadn’t gotten the best reviews. In fact I am pretty sure the AV Club gave it an F but I don’t always see eye to eye with the AV Club* and besides the pilot showed promise. But, in the end, it blew. Like majorly. There were way too many undeveloped characters and the relationships between these characters rarely made sense. The dialogue was shitty and cliche. In fact my favorite bit of the show was probably the cut to the credits on the second or third episode when a Jolie Holland song played. The most frustrating bit though is had this show been done well (i.e. had they trimmed back the bazillion characters and restructured the episodes so that you did sit around wondering when the hell anything exciting was going to happen) it probably would have been a show I could have gotten into. My preteen obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer instilled in me a love of the whole supernatural existing alongside the real world teen drama thing. Alas it sucked. T.Sean and I skipped ahead to the finale last night just because we were curious how they were going to wrap stuff up. All I will say is this: UGHHHHH.

So then we watched The Avengers. I wanted to see this when it was in theaters since I do dig me some Joss Whedon but I think I was in school when it came out and so never actually made it out to see it. T.Sean and my dad did and they both came back saying things like “too quippy” and “boring villian” So I took it off my to-watch list. Or I took it off until last night when frustrated with our Netflix choices and looking for a post-Hemlock Grove pick-me-up T.Sean and I trekked out to THE MOST DEPRESSING PLACE ON EARTH: The Redbox.

All this is just to say that the best way to see The Avengers is with low expectations. I went into it prepared to be disappointed and found it pretty entertaining. Personally I think that it would have been better off as like an hour-long dramedy on starz or whatever since that way Whedon would not have had to rush through all the relationship building bits. Actually that is probably my complaint for most superhero movies. Obviously the expectation with those films is that they will include exciting fight scenes. What often gets sacrificed then is the other bits. The heroes getting to know one another and building relationships over smaller battles, leading up to the season finale which of course would be some huge blowout with Magneto or Venom or I can’t remember anymore villain names.

I’m nearly done with Tom Perrotta’s Little Children. I recommend it. I also recommend the movie which I saw a few years ago and remember thinking it was done well. It is kind of like Revolutionary Road but set in contemporary times. And by that mostly I mean it is angsty and no one is happy.

And now I must leave you to track down the ibuprofen. Ooh but actually before I do can I just say one last thing? I’ve missed my little Iowa apartment so bad these past few days. I even miss all the bugs that hung out around my front door and the mouse in the wall. I especially miss those things.

Iowa was good to me.

*Edited to add: I went and read the AV Club review. I agree 900% with it.

my life as a drama queen

This past weekend my friends decided that I am 11% melodramatic. Initially I think the number was more around 32% or 26% but eventually it was suggested that while I was double-digits melodramatic, I was just barely double-digits melodramatic. Alas 11%.

What makes me laugh though is that when the first number was suggested (let’s say 32%) I thought that was way, way low! I mean people clearly I am a drama queen. Maybe not a drama queen in the most conventional sense but a drama queen nonetheless. For example, I think about myself all the time. In fact just recently after listening to me ramble on about how different foods were doing different things to me and what I thought I needed to cut out of my diet to feel better my dad suggested that maybe I was just paying a bit too much attention to myself and that if I refocused on other things my “symptoms” might not be so noticeable. I also over think everything and am quick to get offended or annoyed. I gossip too but I’m in a perpetual state of working on that one.

And while I do firmly believe that there are positives to being a drama queen (like I totally relate my tendency to over think/agonize to my interest in writing as a career) I wouldn’t say it is a trait I am especially proud of.

All of this is just to say that I am deciding right now to not be so goddamn worried about what these next few months or years will look like. I’ll figure it out. And while I do hope I go to new and different places in these upcoming months I will be beyond totally fine if I stay in Chicago for a bit too. Things will happen as they are supposed to happen. Well, I don’t know if I believe that exactly. Rather they will happen as they happen and I will embrace the shit out of it.

T.Sean has an interview today in Chicago. Last night we left the house at one in the morning for burritos and horchata. I’d miss him if we end up in separate states.