Flicks

I am posting movies I've seen recently, mainly so I have a place to remember them. Don't worry, I'm not back to blogging again.

EU Film Festival 2009:

Mein Fuhrer (Germany)
Loss (Lithuania)
A Woman in Berlin (Germany)
Fear Me Not (Denmark)
Jerichow (Germany)
Nightwatching (Holland/GB)

Let the Right One In (rented the one with bad subtitles, apparently)

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, seasons 1-6

Hot, hot, hot

Sebastian Koch and a Jack Russel Terrier

It's really warm out and I'm unusually energetic, so I will make the next few posts quickies while I get stuff done outside. I'm headed to my 2nd BBQ of the weekend later today (pics to come, don't worry - I know I'm far behind) and must spend quality time with the sun and my pooch.

Since I don't have any real-life crushes right now, I thought I'd tell you about my movie star crushes. I recently saw Black Book, so the actor who plays the Nazi you hate to love is at the tip-top of my list. I think I fell for him first in The Lives of Others.

How can you not love a guy who does a fashion spread for a men's mag with a dog in one pic and an old-school cruiser bike in another? Hot stuff!

Happy Memorial Day!

Pretty

I watched a film last night called Broken English. Though I loved it for many reasons, mainly style and topic - everyone should see it so we can talk about it - I did have some issues. One is the entire Parker Posey thing. I do not find her particularly attractive, though I really respect her choices as an actress and think she's smart (but in this movie, I noticed that - well, she walks sorta funny. I know, I suck). Is anyone out there with me on this?? The whole movie seems to me to be predicated on this assumption that she's so pretty, I think, but a) I don't buy the gorgeous with her and b) her character is pretty shallow, self-loathing, and frankly, seems to be a alcoholic/drug-using basket case. I don't really know why the interesting, smart, hot, self-confident leading guy falls for her (and sticks with her), unless, and we get back to problem A, it's purely on looks and guys are as shallow as we think they are. But I still like her, because I want to like her character, I feel for her, etc. The mood and feel of the film, and most of the writing, and especially the subject matter, is right up my alley. But I guess her struggle at why she's single would make more sense if she was not always swilling drinks/getting wasted and acting like an idiot in conversations and actions with men. I think I wanted to sympathize/empathize with her more than I could.

But that said, I'm really looking forward to the next film by Zoe Cassavetes. She's like a breath of fresh air, mood-wise, and I am so glad she joined in the family business!

I swam my ass off yesterday for a full hour, and now am bereft of my beloved pool for a while. I'm gong to try another, farther-away pool this week. Other stuff is going well; still at 10 pushups per set - but I can do the sets of 10 pretty close to one another. Running early morning (I hope my dog wakes up - she's like a teenager lately), biking to the farther-away office, and triathlon club info session tomorrow night.

Cold Comfort

You know, I am usually the one who says "I like the rain," or "Winter is fun!" BUT: It's fucking cold here. It's May 12. This is ridiculous.

I mean, my nose is cold and I've been inside for over an hour. It's so cold out that I bought those shitty grocery store cookies pictured above (because I wanted one, to eat with my tea, and I've had 2 already.) and a frozen spinach thin-crust pizza. And I ate the hell outta that thing - all but a couple pieces.

Now, I'm getting ready to settle in with No Country for Old Men, which I never saw in the theatres, which the video guy (who is my stand-in for habit #1 today because I flirted with him halfheartedly) sorta convinced me to get.

I have been doing great on habits 2 & 3. The pushups are going really well - a set of 10 2x a day now. I haven't settled into any exact flossing time or place (shower, lying in bed, bathroom, sitting on couch), but it's usually before bed, so my gums have that interesting, just-exercised (?) feeling as I fall asleep. You know what I'm talking about.

My original idea for that habit, to remind me to do floss, was to get a tattoo of a tooth, like this image, (but without the brush,) on some very visible spot on my hand or wrist, so I'd always see it, and remember to floss. Plus I think a tooth tattoo would just be cool. I still do. I'd get the outline and then fill the tooth part in with white ink - white ink looks very nice. Recently, though, I've thought about just getting a very, very thin-line tattoo of white floss, just wrapping around one hand, wrist, or thumb area. It would be barely visible to others but I would know what it was. That might be even better than the molar. But I have no immediate plans for it - I have no tattoos yet at 38 and probably will never get any, but I do want to reserve those two ideas for when I go crazy and decide to do it. Let this be my copyright protection.

Aiiight, I'm off to lazy-ass-couch-potato land to watch the movie and pet Lois. Luckily I swam a lot, and fast, today, or I'd be a total loser.

(Phew, right?)

Core

Ugh. I have very little abdomen strength. I realized last night, as I struggled with even 5 situps, that it's been wayyyyyyyy too long since I worked on my abs and it's high time I did. Whenever I've been doing pilates in the past 8 years or so, even just once a week, it helped everything. I need to get back to that. Until I do, I'm gonna do a crunch or three and some situp-ish things every night before I go to bed.
I talked to one new male at the run this morning, but since M met him first and introduced us, he says it only counts as half. Whatever. I ran 40 minutes and swam 40 minutes today. Flossed, did my pushups.

Oh, and I got into another car accident - I was moving my car (like, a few spaces, just so no one could claim it's abandoned) and this woman came barrelling down my street and right into the side of my car, the front and rear passenger-side doors. I might as well set the damn thing on fire, it's so ugly, beaten up, and such a pain in my ass. I swear, the car has a curse on it.

(Hey, did anyone else notice that both bad guys in Ironman were bald? What's up with that??)

In other news, M being single at the same time as me is fun. We went to Ironman tonight, and it was pretty good! Stay til the very very end, esp. if you are a comics fan type.

Lois - 3 years!

Here is a weird laptop pic of my special pooch, with whom I am celebrating our 3-year anniversary today! Yea! You can also see her fancy new $30 bra (that's a "harness" to most people) and please note how wide it is - I had to special order a size L because she gained 8 pounds in the past year, tipping the scales at 50 pounds! That's comparable to me gaining 40 pounds in a year - yikes! So, now we both need to lose a few.

I got up the guts to talk a bit more to the cute new guy at work, and also to a couple of other ones there - we had a special workshop/meeting today. That was good. I like to, um, rediscover every once in a while that there are actually guys all around, it's just that I don't have crushes on them very easily or often. Maybe if I get more desperate, horny, or bored as the spring progresses, I will become less resigned to singledom, and actually do something about it.

So: yep - I'm home blogging on a Friday night. The plan for dinner with the family was cancelled due to a crazy bike accident in which my stepfather broke his collarbone, so here I am with a free night. Instead of taking the opportunity to go to a really good show at my place of work, for free, I came home, walked Lois, talked on the phone with my mom, ate a weird cheap dinner, then texted back and forth with my friend M, who just broke up with his gf/fb over the phone after like 7 months of dating. Ugh. Such a guy. (At least he feels kinda bad about it.) I'd go drink with him, but I am just so comfortable here at home...plus, he's playing a show at a bar I don't wanna go to, and it's far away for biking, and it's cold out.

I watched a so-so German film about these rich kids in the 1920s who shoot each other because one (played by an actor I like) is secretly gay and depressed. Hm.

So that's my exciting Friday night. I'm gettin' up early tomorrow to go running, even though I'm totally bad at it.

And, even though I am not perfect about pushups, flossing, or talking to new guys either, I think it's time for me to add habit #4: SITUPS! I will start tonight with however many I can do, and report back to you tomorrow.

xo

Popcorn for dinner

On Sunday night, without a date in sight, I rode over to the Music Box for the evening showing of Lady Chatterley, the new French adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence story.

I recommend it. It was long, though—nearly 3 hours, and it was odd in some ways, too. But the chemistry/sexuality was smoldering, the actress playing the lead was riveting (and so were her boobs), and the sex itself was funny and perfectly done - as awkward and fumbling at first as her awakening was. It was also romantic and sappy, and at some points oddly paced, but the acting from the two main characters and the simplicity of the the story (and some quirky choices in the storytelling) made it worth watching.

The weirdest thing was seeing a French/Belgian film, set in England, and a script that mentions characters being English, but all spoken in French.

Plus, just think! Tomorrow, after work, I'm going to see Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart with the girls' movie night group (well, 4 of us) who have been trying to do this for two weeks. I'm very excited to compare and contrast the acting...

Today:

I went to a wonderful dinner party tonight at M&K's. It was really good to hang with work people away from work, and see them with their other people (kids, boyfriends, spouses etc.) Ate more than I can really justify, but I'm heading for the pool in about 6 hours.

Also, I made an actual salon haircut appointment for Thursday - only my second this year. Yes, I'm a fancy lady...

Takin' what they're givin'

Yep. Sadly, I finally had to go back to work. It's been so nice lying in bed for days on end — I've never gotten more sleep in my life. And I didn't get anything fitness-, afghan-, or housecleaning-related done while I was at home, but it was apparently necessary for me to spend the time sleeping. I was trying to"listen to my body." (I wish sometimes it would listen to me!)

During my convalescence, I also signed up for Facebook, which is interesting, and I have like four very random friends. What a weird world of networks our internet age has started.

One facebook "friend" is the M guy I haven't even met yet. He owes me an email. I sorta want to just meet him, get it over with. I have no patience with this dating stuff.

I spent the evening at work, til after 8, and then went to the record store and then came home, took Lois for a long walk, made the world's most delicious sandwich, and then watched Little Children, which somewhat depressed me but I liked it. I now have that awkward-movie-taste-in-my-mouth thing, though, which makes me want to watch another movie before I go to bed, to have a different mood with me. I don't know. Part of me identified with the Ronnie character - unable to connect properly with anyone. It was a lonely film.

I saw The Lives of Others last night at the Davis with Sally and Eva. Almost too much of a feel-good ending for my tastes, though. What's with these movies that wrap it up all neatly? I like the raw edges. I guess I expected more of that from a European film.

My missing digital camera is a real issue. (See how boring this post is? It's the no-pics problemo.)

And I can't figure out what to do with my time tomorrow. If only I had a burning motivation to do ANYTHING with my life at this moment. And, you know, it doesn't help to feel as alone as I have recently. Maybe that will eventually help things along, I'll have to just face aloneness...

Wow. OK, this is getting a bit whiny; time to stop!

G'night.