Misc.

American Gangster: long, languid, dull-ish, but sort of interesting as far as the story. Denzel Washington=completely impressive. The Departed: ten times more entertaining on every level.

Enchanted: Unsurprisingly delightful. I've talked before about how fantastic I think Amy Adams is, and she proved it again here. Just a peachy keen holiday movie good time.

Football games: Fun when you're with your brother and your mom even when it's really, really cold and your team loses in triple overtime and squanders its shot at the national championship.

Sushi: Delicious. Consumed with B. and his school friends tonight as they talked about things I did not remotely understand. Though my crunchy roll was a bit puny.

Weird: Not having Thanksgiving in N.O. for the first time in my life that I can remember and my sister being in South America instead of with us. The Katrina-flooded convent where we've always had it is still not fixed. The house we went to last year in lieu of the convent is no longer available due to family strife. (Not our family, but our dear family friend who is like family's family.) I called my aunt early Thursday morning to tell her it was Bizarro Thanksgiving and had to fight back the tears. Embarrassing, sort of. So we just had it at our house! Very small and quiet but enjoyable and with tons of my mom's excellent cooking. Baked turkey, fried turkey, rice dressing, cornbread dressing, broccoli casserole, rolls, cabbage crunch salad, ice cream dessert, cookies. My dad read aloud an e-mail from my sister, and we all laughed and cried. (Well, I cried.)

The weather the entire weekend: Vile beyond belief.

Group projects at school: Utterly sucktastic in every way. Not the people, just the organization and the experience and the ridiculousness of trying to pull it all together this late in the game. UGH!!! Don't even get me started; it is making me unreasonably upset and crazy.

I don't know what else to say. Except that my sister will be here Saturday, which is not soon enough for me.

Movies, thanks, etc.

Here's what I really wanted to be good: August Rush. Here's how good it was: not very. It was great to get the afternoon off and head to the movies with my little brother and eat Milk Duds (sort of good, sort of gross, as usual) and drink a frozen coke, but the movie was not so great. Keri Russell was luminous and radiant and gorgeous and wonderful as usual, and everyone else was good. Except for Robin Williams, who was awful. AWFUL. His performance: awful. His character: awful. The whole storyline involving him: awful.

With a bag of white chocolate peppermint Hershey's Kisses in hand, clearly there is only one thing to do tonight. And that is watch Hairspray. So I'm starting it, right, and the world's longest trailer is showing for The Golden Compass. I swear it's been on for like fifteen minutes now. And don't get me wrong -- it looks fabulous. And WOW, is Daniel Craig a perfect Lord Asrael or what? But it is also showing the entire movie. Perhaps they accidentally put an advance screener in the DVD case instead of Hairspray? I'm not sure. But I'm getting pretty fired up. I have very poor retention of books I haven't read a million times, even if I loved them, so I can't comment on whether this movie is faithful to the book that I loved with my whole heart. But holy mackerel, it sure looks awesome. (P.S. My mom's been getting lots of e-mails from religious groups saying that this movie is horrible and anti-God. She asked me if the book is anti-God, and I just said, "Um .... I don't really remember. Mostly it's just about a girl and a polar bear.")

I'm not sure how to explain the His Dark Materials trilogy to her when I don't completely understand it myself. Especially book three. And I'm sort of sad that there is religious objection to the movie, though I guess it doesn't surprise me. BUT, I can't imagine an anti-God movie being made that's being marketed to children at Christmas? Really? I just highly doubt that. I doubt that the film is remotely anti-God. I guess I'll just have to see it and see. It's mighty beautiful to look at according to this hour-long trailer I'm watching, that's for sure.

And now a Weepies song is playing in a JC Penney's commercial! ("All that I Want.") What the heck? Did they say, "Advertising agency music people: come and listen to our songs and put them in Christmas ads!" It is very mystifying.

B. is studying tonight. I am thankful that three Thanksgivings ago we had not met except over e-mail and that three turkeys later we are still together.

I am thankful for my brothers, both of whom I saw today, and for my sister, who'll be home soon, and for my parents, who are the two nicest people on earth. I'm thankful for my friends, near and far. I'm thankful for my animals and for my job and even school, which has driven me somewhat out of my gourd this semester. I'm thankful for the amazing little girls in my life whom I love like they are my own blood nieces. I am thankful for wonderful books (like The Incredibly True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie in case I haven't mentioned it which I know that I have because it is WONDERFUL) and wonderful movies and Mindy Kaling's blog.

I am lucky.

Things

1.) I can't decide if I liked The United States of Leland or not. Parts were really good; parts felt tacked-on and pointless. Good: Gosling, Cheadle. The rest: sort of unnecessary? Charlotte's Web ended up being really good and made me cry so hard at the end that Daisy became flustered and squealy and pawed me and pawed me in concern. And Miss Potter was a sweet and lovely if someone boring in parts little movie. My favorite part was when Ewan McGregor sang, no shock there.

2.) I just heard "Stars," one of my favorite songs by The Weepies or anyone, on an Old Navy commercial. I am not sure how I feel about this.

3.) I am positive about this: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful book. I just finished it and want to turn back to page one and start over. It made me laugh out loud and also hurt and filled my heart. The cartoons are brilliant. LOVED IT. If you need a book to give someone for Christmas, you should probably go ahead and give this one. Or The Book Thief. But The Book Thief is so devastatingly beautiful that I don't think you can give it to the faint of heart. My heart is still in pieces after reading that book, but in the best possible way.

4.) I am suddenly now seeing my sister on December 1 instead of several weeks later as originally planned and am close to freaking out about it. I already bought two six-packs of Christmas Reese's trees for us to break open in celebration in the airport parking lot.

Boots

Lately I've been missing my faraway friend. She's about 4,000 miles away, give or take.

When she moved away, she left me her boots. These are boots I've always admired and coveted. I went to the shoe store to get some and tried on endless pairs, but none of them ever fit me properly. But she left hers with me. And I wasn't sure they would fit. The first pair of socks I tried on with them made them too snug and I was seriously bummed, but then I tried on a pair of thin running socks with them, and now they are perfect.

I wear them and I feel closer to her, less lonesome for her. But just a little.

Right now I'm baking cookies and watching the new Charlotte's Web. I thought I never would, but I am, and 20 minutes in, it is so sweet and adorable and lovely that I have deemed it acceptable even though it makes me intensely long for the songs of the original. I'm not sure how I feel about Julia Roberts as Charlotte though. She's being a little too cheeky in her first scene. I don't remember the original Charlotte being this cheeky. And I don't remember the other animals shunning Charlotte and calling her ugly? Maybe I blocked that out. I also rented Miss Potter and The United States of Leland.

So far this weekend, I've spent lots of money getting my car fixed (some more), finished up a project at the library, gone to an art show/party where I felt awkward and square to a shocking degree, eaten Thai food, done laundry, and gone to the Farmer's Market for a hazelnut latte and garlic cheese biscuits and raspberry scones. I'm looking forward to having coffee with my friend and her daughters tomorrow. I've decided no longer to freak out about school. And I'm really glad I've got my boots to keep me warm.

Update

B. said that the bathtub is starting to resemble "Gollum's lair." True enough. It takes forever to drain so the dirt just settles instead of going down with the water. The plumber is coming Friday, thank God.

I just read The Year of Magical Thinking, and at first I thought it was brilliant and moving and then it kind of started to slog and then I decided it's overrated. Is that wrong? Maybe I hardened my heart because reading about death and grief is just a little too much to handle in that large a dose.

Yesterday I walked into a wall and now I have a large goose egg and scrape on my forehead. It's very becoming.

School remains sort of soul-crushing. I try really hard, but after a C on the midterm and two consecutive Bs on assignments, I am feeling a little discouraged. Perhaps I must surrender the fantasy of getting straight As. I did the last time around in grad school, so I guess I thought I'd do the same this time. But probably not. UGH. I am right on the A/B borderline in one class, and with the coming assignments, things are not looking good.

"Finally...I LOVE FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS! I'm not sure I can say it enough. And boy...Riggins. Riggins! The tortured soul! The bedroom eyes! Jesus! Let's end the strike for Riggins!" -- Jenna Fischer. I will miss my favorite shows if they all go black because of the strike (The Office, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, Pushing Daisies), but I will miss Friday Night Lights most of all. But still - how can I not support the strikers in my heart? If there's anything I've learned this semester in school, it's that intellectual property is no joke and you can't just use people's creations without giving them credit/compensation. Go read this editorial by one of the creators of Lost.

What else? So much for my healthy eating plan. This weekend I ate chicken pizza, shrimp pasta, chocolate chip and sugar cookies, and a giant roasted egg plant/roasted red pepper/goat cheese/walnut sandwich. Fantastic!

I would just like to say that any program that allows me to talk into my computer and hear my sister talking back from a coffee shop in Bolivia is a fine program by me. Thank you, Skype!

My mom and I had a nice afternoon on Saturday. We decided to escape from our chores and obligations and go to see Dan in Real Life. It was silly and cute and we ate popcorn and it was fun to hang out together. We listened to showtunes on the way there and she made the declaration that Rodgers and Hammerstein never wrote a bad showtune. Then I tried to sing along with "People Will Say We're in Love" and got the lyrics wrong and she corrected me. "It's 'here is the GIST, a practical list of 'don'ts' for you!" It was amusing. She reminded me that Oklahoma and The King and I were the only albums she had as a child. When we got home, I showed her clips of Hugh Jackman as Curly. (I think I might start watching this every single morning before facing the day.) Then of him hosting the Tony Awards. Then of him singing "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" on Inside the Actors Studio. (Note: terrible video, good audio, which is all that counts here.) Now her life is richer because she has seen Hugh Jackman in his three shining moments of glory and in fact now knows who Hugh Jackman even is, which she did not before. (Note: I completely agree with everything Miss Alli said about Hugh Jackman. He was SO charming on the Tonys and Inside the Actors Studio, but none of his movies have aptly captured his awesomeness. This must change.)

More remedies for the blues

Remedy: Listening to Gordon MacRae singing "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" on the way to work.

Not a remedy: Toasted marshmallow hot chocolate from Starbucks. It tastes like someone dumped the powdery dust at the bottom of the Lucky Charms cereal box into a mug of hot chocolate. It is not good.

Remedy: Going out for an impromptu evening of beers and dinner with school friends after class when we all simply could not face the library and opted instead to walk on a beautiful night to dinner and where we visited and where I feel like I saw them all in a completely new way. They are all very neat people.

Not a remedy: Feeling somewhat awful about the state of several assignments.

Remedy: Suddenly deciding after 32.5 years of life that I rather enjoy cooler weather. Not cold, but cool. I slept more solidly last night than I have in months, and it was the coldest night we've had since last winter. No heater ... just nice warm pajamas and an excellent comforter. Coincidence? I think not.

Remedy: I don't know squat about the television industry other than I love television a whole lot and always have. I've been closely following the strike story on Pamie's site, Stee's site, Jenna Fischer's, James Gunn's. Striking reader Tony sent me these links, and I thought I'd pass them along. I just think that regular people should not get screwed over by big business and it's kind of that simple in my mind.

Remedy: George Bush's veto override. I don't even know what he vetoed. I'm just glad Congress handed it to him. SUCK ON THAT, GEORGE BUSH. I only wish they'd pulled it together and done it for the stem cell bill. That still burns me up so ferociously when I think about it that I become physically ill.

Remedy: Watching the dogs investigate their early Christmas present from B., their first-ever proper doghouse.

Remedies

Recommended cures for unexplained sadness:

1.) Garlic chicken pizza from a new pizza place in town where they make your pizza when you order it and then send it home with you for baking. It's really fresh and fabulous.

2.) Habitat for Humanity -- I did NOT want to get up at the crack of dawn and do this again, but it was awesome for the 3rd year in a row. I always show up feeling inept and incompetent, but this year I used a nail gun to install hip trusses along the corners of the house to support the roof, used a giant spinning electric saw to cut 2x4s and then showed other people how to do it, and stood on ladders and nailed brackets into support the ceiling beams! It was very empowering and totally sadness curing! The great thing about Habitat for Humanity, as I've said before, is that they show you something once and trust you to show the next person and everyone learns from each other. I screwed up when nailing a bracket and a very old, very tough lady named climbed up on my ladder and wrenched the nails out using her hammer and God knows what kind of super human strength. It was awesome to behold.

3.) Our team winning the game on Saturday afternoon, not because I care so much but because my loved ones do and it makes them all extremely happy. Hearing my little brother announce all of his Very Strong Opinions about the game at dinner last night was highly, highly amusing. Also, he told a story about a very Buddy Garrity-like man near him at the game being totally drunk -- he was wearing a ring that indicated he's probably kind of a big shot from our school -- and turning around and screaming very ridiculously to the masses of the other team's fans behind them in the stadium -- "GO TO HELL, YOU INBRED MOTHERFUCKERS!" and my brother and his friends were all like, oh dear, we are all going to get killed. (Turns out their fans are nicer than our fans, though.) And then the man got so drunk that someone put a Bear Bryant hat on his head and he did not even notice. Things like this make me laugh and laugh when my brother tells them.

4.) The parish fair yesterday + my mom's homemade trout almandine for dinner last night, which was pretty delicious. (We loved the fair growing up. LOVED IT. My parents ran a very popular booth and good times were had by all. Then the fair added rides and carnies and lost some of its magic because the moms these days all seem to dress like Jessica Simpson. I swear someone was in line for the ferris wheel wearing purple suede wedge pumps. It's just wrong. But still, a good time was had.)

5.) A boyfriend who is nice to me no matter how inexplicably grumpy and sad I am.

6.) Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream.