Evolution

Lesson learned the hard way #1764: Even if you know you don't really want something anymore, your stubborn nature might make you keep fighting for it simply out of habit.
"Habit" can also be a euphemism for "desperation". . . Realizing this, however, indicates the possibility for growth-- or so one hopes!

In related behavior patterns, I discovered (and ate) ice cream sandwiches in my hosts' freezer, then ran to the nearest grocery store and bought good old, tried-and-true Ben and Jerry's.

Then I vegged out.

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay surprised me. I liked it. I wasn't the biggest fan of the first movie, and I admit I watched this sequel after a number of cold dessert products and several glasses of wine (which, also surprisingly, went well with the ice cream). The two title stoner buddies set off for Amsterdam to follow Harold's dream girl and smoke legal weed; through bizarre, slapstick scenarios they find themselves mistaken for terrorists and dumped in Guanatamo. They escape and make their way across the South to Texas, where Kumar's ex-girlfriend is marrying a Republican frat boy. (And yes, guess who they run into in Texas?) Along the way, they encounter others' prejudices and stereotypes as well as their own; however, these are frequently dispelled only to be revalidated.

It is not a deep, poignant film about the great melting pot that is America, nor is it a particularly thoughtful movie about tolerance. It included a wedding-wrecking scene, a well-documented pet irritation of mine. It's just a story about two dudes who want to get high, check out chicks, and make bathroom jokes ... and apparently that's all the rest of America wants, too. Even El Prez in Crawford.

Also, I'm a fan of Kal Penn. And NPH. Rob Corddry was great as an irrational Homeland Security agent.

The whole thing was actually fairly predictable. But really, I just needed to sit there staring at a flickering screen, shoving spoonfuls of ice cream into my mouth and sipping shiraz occasionally.

Damn, I need to go running tomorrow ...

All astonishment once more

Thanks to the FG for posting this. I love all these social media retellings of P&P!

Pride and Twitterverse

My favorite excerpt:

Darcy:
DM to @LizzyB
In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire & love you.

[series of DMs between LizzyB and Darcy]

LizzyB:
WTF?

LizzyB:
Can you deny that you made Bingley quit Twitter thus destroying my sister’s chance for happiness?

Darcy:
I cannot. I even deleted all her comments on his blog so he wouldn’t know she was reading. Marry me anyway?

LizzyB:
And don’t even get me started on your offenses to poor Wickham.

Darcy:
Wickham? Oh yes, poor downtrodden Wickham. #eyeroll

LizzyB:
Gah! You are so haughty!

Darcy:
And you are such a hotty.

LizzyB:
Ugh. You are the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry. okthksbai

[Msg to LizzyB from Twitter: Are you sure you want to block Darcy? BLOCK]

EMAIL FROM DARCY TO LIZZYB:
You have blocked me on Twitter which leaves me no other recourse than to email you an honest account of my dealings with Mr Wickham. In short, he is a pedi-perv who tried to bone my sister when she was but 15. He had hoped to marry her for her fortune, but I stopped him. So there.

[Msg fwd to JaneB from LizzyB]

LizzyB:
@JaneB Oh shit. Have I ever made a mistake. Darcy = good. Wickham = bad.

Check out the rest! Love it.

All astonishment

One of the friends for whom I'm house-sitting was really excited for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou when it came out a few years ago. She was ultimately a little disappointed that it didn't live up to her hype; that might have colored my opinion while watching the film, because I was bored and indifferent to the characters and the plot.

It's supposed to be both a parody of and a tribute to Jacques Cousteau, I believe. Bill Murray's aging explorer deals with bad relationships, a possible son, an elusive sea creature, evil rivals, and pirates. (Actually, the fact that the pirates spoke Tagalog was kind of cool. It's not a language usually heard in American films.) His quirky, ragtag crew are all misfits of some sort, searching for a deep-sea jaguar shark that the scientific world doesn't believe exists. There are metaphors in there, to be sure. I just wasn't very drawn in by it all.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, on the other hand, rocked! I admit, the skeptical part of me, the Austen purist, thought at first that nothing --nothing!-- should be allowed to soil the sheer, brilliant piece of literature that is Pride and Prejudice. But that damn Intellectual Property class has affected my thinking more than I thought it could: the great thing about public domain works is the possibility for endless creative engines.

And it worked! Fighting zombies actually fit in with the much-beloved P&P characters; the fight scenes were a bit random, but also completely hilarious. The book followed Austen's original pretty closely, including most of the dialogue. Grahame-Smith took a few small liberties with the general plot (the biggest one involving Wickham's fate, which had me rolling with laughter), but other than that remained reverently faithful to the story itself.

All of England are fighting the zombie hordes, and I loved how the fact that the Bennet sisters studied with Chinese zombie-fighting kung fu masters still marked their class status, true to one of Austen's themes (wealthier citizens studied in the Japanese warrior schools).

A good, quick read that can really only be fully appreciated if readers are familiar with the original ... but enjoyable nonetheless for those that aren't.

R & R

Housesitting for some friends for the next week and a half -- a welcome, quiet break from the babymania! While trying to figure out dishes in order to use up all the perishable foods, I mixed myself a tasty concoction: Absolut Peach and lemonade. Normally, I'm not a fan of peach-flavored things, but it was good!

Whirlwind

Obla di, obla da, life goes on!

• The wedding was awesome. It was at a bar, which was a first for me. The ceremony itself was less than four minutes, and consisted only of the exchange of rings. Fun times!
  
  
• While I was preparing to head out to the wedding, La Otra Hermana was giving birth to my new niece. It took them a day and a half to agree on the name, but it's Repeka -- the Samoan version of Rebecca, pronounced the same.
  
  The neffy now demands more attention than ever, and wants to play nonstop (which is fine with me, since I've never quite been sure what to do around newborns) . . .
  
  Also, in the ever-small world of Western Washington, a classmate from middle and high school is a nurse at the birthing center where La OH had the niecester.
  
  
• I'm totally moved out of the old apartment in Boston! Woot. My back is killing me after sleeping on an inflatable mattress for a week, but a few hours of yoga today should start to remedy that.
  
  
• During my four-hour layover at the Cincinnati airport, I got ridiculously excited to try Chick-fil-A when I saw it at the food court. (A friend, who grew up all over the South, raves about Chick-fil-A; one opened up in Bellingham recently, and she seriously drives up every couple of weeks for some fast food chicken burgers. She ignores the company's religious indoctrination program.)
  
  At any rate, I decided to give it a try. Not bad, for fast food. I was also extremely hungry.
  
  Also: I realize Cincinnati is just across the Ohio River from Kentucky (a dorm-mate from the area would go on about this my freshman year in college), but I was not expecting to hear so many Southern accents!
  

And now, loads of laundry...

Wicked smaht

Xtina and I, once again known as Captain Blunder and the Awkward Silences (this time accompanied by a trivia newbie friend), finally came in first place at pub quiz!

My last night in Beantown, too. It makes sleeping on an uncomfortable inflatable mattress worthwhile...

Woot, woot!

The list, the list, the list is getting smaller...

Got back from a weekend camping trip in the Olympics to find an email from my program director that I passed the comps and thus have the degree.

The resume has been updated accordingly.

And now, off to Boston again for a friend's wedding!