Flower Dog Fan Club

2008 Best Picture Showcase - AMC

The 2008 Academy Awards have come and gone...some surprises, but mostly everything went as expected (including Hugh Jackman going all "musical theatery" on us).

In order to prepare for the Acamedy Awards this year, Charlie and I attended AMC's 2nd Annual Best Picture Showcase.  Basically, we sat in one theater for 13.5 hours with unlimited bags of popcorn watching the 5 Best Picture nominations back to back.  The day started at 10:30am with Milk.  We got to the theater at 9:45am or so to make sure we got good seats for the day.  It's one thing to have horrible seats for 2 hours, another for 11 more.  We ended up in the top row, center. The best spot, in my opinion.  I'm a bit farsighted and getting closer to the screen causes motion sickness-so the farther up, the better! And, it was nice not having anyone behind us.  So, after a long while, I could stretch my arms up above my head and not feel bad.  We made friends with the ladies next to Charlie-they were friendly and chatty and said they'll "see us next year for sure!"  Luckily the couple on my side were friendly, but had no need to chat.  It was the perfect seating arrangment :)  We would get breaks between each movie-about 20-40 minutes each.  We brought sandwiches for lunch and candy from home and had our popcorn.  The one time we get "free" popcorn all day-neither of us really wanted it. We made the smallest dents.  Bathroom breaks were fun because you could hear all of the commentary about the movies from everyone.

We had already seen Milk, but wanted to make sure we could get seats. And, while I liked Milk the first time, I loved it the second.  I'm not sure what was different.  Charlie also found that he liked Diego Luna this time-whom he did not like before.  The day continued with The Reader (Molly loved, Charlie liked okay-felt it was "forced."), then on to 3 very long hours of Benjamin Button (We both liked it okay, but felt like it went a little something like this, in a slowed down new orleans accent: Here's an event that happened this one time and here's every detail that went along with it, here's another one, etc.  The director needed a bigger pair of scissors for editing-it's all beautiful, but cuts definitely needed to be made).  We were probably starting to feel it the most after Benjamin Button-that was a long time to be in a theater.  And, that's about the time that people, and popcorn, and general food smells started to really infiltrate the space.  It was gross.  And, the air conditioner was broken for the first 3 movies-so it was hot in there-which didn't help.  We took a Chic-Fil-A dinner break (luckily the theater was the Northpark mall and is close to the food court) then headed back in for Slumdog Millionaire.  I almost fell asleep very early in the movie. And, I thought it was b/c we had been in the theater all day.  But, as the movie progressed I realized, that's helping, but no, I just don't like this movie.  It's boring and horrifically overrated (English Patient on Seinfeld anyone?).  Charlie liked it-and said when it was over, "it was good, but you hated it didn't you?"  He just knew-he knows me too well! (Sidebar-I have totally brought him to the darkside-and now he's less impressed with the movie-Bwa ha ha ha ha).  And, really, Jai Ho?  Boo.  It didn't even fit the tone of the movie.  Moving on. We then took the final stretch into Frost/Nixon.  This was when I first started physically feeling the long day-my back started to hurt and I had a wicked headache from watching movies and  eating junk all day.  We were both pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it.  I think I was most surprised-I went in thinking it would be super boring-especially at the end of the day.  But I found myself totally sucked into the story and Frank Langella was supergood. 

We left the theater at 11:45 or so, drove home.  What a long day-but not nearly as bad as I expected.  The fact that I didn't physically get uncomfortable until the last movie says a lot.   We'll definitely do it again next year, assuming we haven't seen too many of the nominations. 

Favorite Quote from the day: While waiting in line to pick up our tickets, an older gentleman was paying for his tickets with a debit or credit card and the lady was having problems getting it go through and he said, "You gotta be gentle with it...it's a female! heh heh"  His wife was off ot the side looking slightly horrified. 

Can't sleep...clown will eat me...

Okay, so I don't really have a scary clown bed like little Barty Simpson, but I do have insomnia-day 2.  Not pure insomnia-I've been able to get to sleep late-around 3ish or so.  But the act of falling asleep has been painful.  Last night I finished off the last 1/4 of Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins-which I thought might have been the reason I stayed up-I wanted to finish it-but every time I thought, okay, this is a good stopping place-I'd realize I'm totally awake-so I pushed to the end-then just laid awake.  So, while I was wanting to finish it-I was mostly trying to get myself sleepier to no avail (side note-good book-I recommend it!).   

Tonight, I have no idea what my problem is.  I started to read, but realized that I wasn't get tired at all again--and, while Charlie says my book light does not bother him-I think my awakeness and movement of page turning, etc does keep him from falling deeper into sleep.  So, I finally gave up and got up and came into the office.  I didn't want to keep him restless 2 nights in a row-no reason we should both suffer.  I've been up for over an hour and have done nothing of interest.  Checked email, facebook, monster, etc again.  That was pretty boring.  Strolled on IMDB for a while-that's usually a good time suck for me.  And, now I'm blogging.  I'm tired, but I know if I went to bed-I'd just stare at the ceiling or wall and listen to the sleep sounds of Charlie and Flower.   

I've always been a night owl-and until I lived with Charlie-I always had a problem going to sleep at a decent hour-even when I woke up early the next day.  It was worst in high school-I could never fall asleep and would end up functioning on 3ish hours of sleep for school and would try to catch up on the weekends-hence the terrible sleeping in-I wasn't just a bum, I was a bum who really needed her sleep. Charlie is a "bed on time" fellow and I think I finally trained my body to be the same way-and it's probably better b/c I do get a lot more sleep that way.  I still stay up and read for a while-but I'm not staying up as late as I used to ---until this week for some reason.  I read an article recently that said that night owls have the wrong chemistry-that we as humans, are meant to be early to bed, early to risers-it's in our dna or chemical make-up or what have you.  And those who are not that way have a glitch in their system.  So, maybe my "glitch" needs some attention-it doesn't like me always fighting it.  Side note-I also read several months ago that blue eyes are a defect as well-and that a very high percentage of blue eyed individuals can be linked back to the first blue eyed person who had a defect in his iris.  The did a study of 800+ people and only 1 was not linked.  Weird.  So, I guess, in conclusion-I'm defective with my blue eyes and night owlish nature...

On that note, I'm going to try to read on the couch to see if that helps...

pain subsiding...arm straightening...strength returning... And old journals

I had great news after going to PT today-I get to only go 1x/week now instead of 2x/week and she said I'm almost done with everything and by the time I go back to my orthopedist at the beginning of March I'll be able to impress him with all my movement.  He really must impress easily.  "ooh ahh, look! My arm can...wait for it...Bend!"  I'm just happy that I was able to change my necklace for the first time in several weeks. That was liberating! Of course I ended up putting the same one back on several hours later (I've grown accustomed to it being there now :)).  Tomorrow it will be 2 months since I broke it.  2 months and counting to rehab an elbow.  Geez.  Oh, and the click is still there-but it's getting better-slowly but surely...

I've found myself intrigued by old journals of late.  From the time I was in elementary school through, well, I guess now, I've kept journals.  But, the amount of detail I've outlined has diminished considerably. I pulled an old one off the shelf and just start reading a passage and was like, good lord-these are so detailed! But, they're detailed about only certain things-friends, boyfriends, etc.  And, my voice was so bratty and all "whatever!" back then. I had no idea.  And, "sucked," while still a member of my vocabulary club, was apparently my word of the day everyday.  It was actually really funny to read the oldest ones.  

But, the best part, is that while I kept journals for 2 main reasons 1) I just liked to write really young but couldn't figure out what to write about so I just wrote about me and my days etc  (For a while I even kept a fake journal for "Ruby" because that was the only way I could figure out how to write fiction-was in that format.  I really wish I still had Ruby's journal. I actually wrote it in daily for several months. And, I went all Doogie Howser for that one b/c I actually wrote that one on our computer-and not in a book, journal, or notebook  like all of my others).  And, reason # 2) I figured out young that it was the best therapy a kid, teenager, young adult, and now adult could ask for. Whenever I was feeling overwhelmed or sad or even crazy happy-I would journal and feel so much better. And, if I was happy I was happier b/c I knew that moment was captured.  I found several entries that were just to "get it out" and that I would end by even commenting on the fact that it was my therapy session.  Oh back to the actual best part is that while I still have a pretty good memory-I had forgotten a lot of the details about the things I wrote about.  Or there were events I had forgotten about completely.  It was nice to have those back.  I'm sad I don't have that amount of detail anymore-and now that I'm getting older, my memory is only going to get worse!!! :)

Another thing I found that I thought was funny -and I'm not sure I really noticed that I did back then-is that I used to write the journal entries to the journal itself.  I'd always make sure to write a "Thank You" at the end to the journal for always being there.  I lost that by the time I was done with College-along with the detail.  That makes me sad.  I wish I still had that relationship with journaling-now I journal so rarely-and then the invention of the blog watered that down somewhat too.  

One of the journals that I started in High School was recommended to me by my friend Suzi--it's a journal specifically for my future husband and children to read-so it's almost a book of "letters" for them.  I actually was pretty good about updating that one every so many months or years.  And, apparently one of the years I updated it was when I was friends with Charlie-and I always include people I spend time with, etc (b/c I hate when my mom will tell me stories about people she used to know and I have no idea what's she's talking about-and by the time I think to ask, she's moved on-or just says, "oh yeah, it's a girlfriend from high school) So, Charlie has this whole little section-and it says something about, "well, we dated shortly at first, but then realized we were not meant to date-so now we're really good friends. "  Ha! I loved it.  And, back in college, I had a good friend, Shawn who I wrote about in this journal and said, "see boys and girls can have platonic relationships! It's great!"  Then, he and I dated for 3 years.  So, when I started Charlie's entry, I said, "This is nothing like Shawn and I! I still have faith in platonic relationships!"  So, while I do absolutely believe that males and females can be good friends-I have nothing going for me in this journal to really prove that :)  I need to give Charlie that one to read now that he's officially my husband (I forgot about it-hence the not giving it to him like almost 2 years ago when we got married)! It's been fun to go back and read them.  It's almost like I'm reading someone else's story.  Not always terribly interesting or well-written stories-but fun nonetheless! 

Peace to the Out!

Fantastic time-waster for my Twilighter friends...

http://riddles.juliakniep.de/

It says it's a riddle, but it's really just more of a list of tricky questions...and by the way-it's way addicting!