1/8 Cherokee and a lot of freckles.
…that it snowed?
Like, a lot. Over fourteen inches. Man, the last time I saw so much snow in Virginia was when I was nine.
Fortunately in Lynchburg, we seem to get at least one good snowy storm a year. Last year was seven inches. But, really, I don’t know when we’ll be able get out. Until then, it is time for Star Wars (particularly Empire), Lord of the Rings, and Indiana Jones. Epic-movie time.
Is it weird that I can’t remember the majority of the day even though I got up at 7:00 am? We spent a while looking at Lynchburg city plans for mid-town (Memorial Ave/Plaza area). I really hope the city accomplishes half of what they have planned. It looks awesome. Mid-town has so much potential, but has become quite run down.
This afternoon we decided to go catch 500 Days of Summer at the Grandin before it went away. Chris drove, which was a bit of a relief, and we had pop corn for the first time in a theater since I-don’t-know-when. In fact, I don’t think I have gotten pop corn with Chris before. We caught a mantinee and it is a local theater, not a franchise, so it is nice to support local business.
I enjoyed the movie a bit. I could criticize the ending and so on, but, really, it was much better than your typical romantic comedy. I used to be so anti-movie for years, but since moving to Lynchburg with the dollar theater (and especially after discovering the Grandin), it has been kind of fun. The Grandin just feels so special inside.
Finally got my hair cut yesterday and I am so relieved. It had been since January. No joke. Chris is afraid of getting his hair cut, so we kept putting it off. Our hair cuttin’ lady does it perfect every time, though. No worries. Other than that, we went to school for a while to try to figure out some details about our program, but it seems like we’ll just have to wait a little longer. Then cleaning, school work, dinner, blah blah blah. Nothing exciting. I have a paper due tomorrow night that I’m not dreading too much, but I do need to focus on that alone today despite all of the other little things that are screaming at me.
(500) Days of Summer is coming to the Grandin Theatre next Friday. The movie looks typically untypical, you know, but I’m still looking forward to it. I think going to the Grandin is one of my new favorite adventures.
Busy busy busy.
I feel like I need a couple of days to sit and do nothing, but then I’d just feel unproductive. I get bored with summer rather quickly. Chris and I are continuing the summer job search today and getting things in line to go out of town. Tomorrow, I think, we’re heading up to Woodbridge to see his parents for a couple of days and drop off the pets, then down to Chesapeake Thursday night to leave early on Friday morning for vacation! I am so excited. Then I can just do nothing. When we come back, it’ll be lots of summer working, “real” job searching, and arranging to re-locate if necessary.
We went to see Watchmen last night with some friends. All I can say is that I’m glad I only paid a dollar to see it. I really liked some of the themes, issues that we must deal with. The question of time. The savage nature of humanity. The value of life. And so on. But, man, it went downhill and just didn’t come back. “I’m going to another galaxy where things aren’t quite as confusing.” What a cop out.
Today was my last day teaching as an English GSA. Well, I just gave a final, but it is the last time that I’ll see those kids.
The experience of teaching 101 has been just amazing. The students taught me so much about myself, writing, teaching, and public speaking. I’m not the same Katie who sheepishly directed students to their sections back in August 2007. I hope that someone can recognize the value of this experience and give me a decent job.
One of the other GSAs shared a quote from a paper. The paper was supposed to be analyzing an Indiana Jones poster, but instead the student just gave a summary of the movie. The paper ended with a comment akin to this: At the end of the movie, the high priest of evil falls into a pit of cockatiels.
Wow. Cockatiels? Really? Just amazing. It totally made my day. I made this picture on Paint as my response:
I also found this video clip and thought it was too hilarious NOT to post.
Slumdog Millionaire was satisfactory.
More than that. It was great.
And I knew the answer to the final question thanks to my Man in the Iron Mask days with Kimmy and Jessi.
Now I want to adopt a troubled Indian child.
My parents’ dog, Solace.
My parents visited this week. It was the first time that I saw them since July.
We’ll be making up for lost time soon since we’re going to Minnesota in a couple of weeks
and then we’ll probably go home two weeks after that during Thanksgiving break.
Then, the semester is almost over.
Abed-nego has been really bummed about them leaving.
He whined for a while and then wouldn’t eat anything until about 8:30 pm.
He and Solace are bff.
Obama is coming to JMU on Tuesday, but I have night classes. Bah.
As a grad student, it would appear that I have a rather flexible schedule, but I actually have never been able to go to a rally because of school even though Obama has come within two hours of us many, many times. Arg.
I think we may take a hit–by that I mean a sleepless night–and go see The Mountain Goats in North Carolina next Wednesday. Surprisingly, the venue is only about two hours away. We shall seeee.
More puppy photos on flickr.
So I’m not alone in my criticism!
I went to Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago looking for something fresh, something amazing, something for fun instead of for my thesis. I noticed Evelyn Waugh at the front of the store, you know, on one of the tables that they think will appeal to the masses. I wondered, “What is he doing up here?”
I wandered around some more and considered picking up a novel by Virginia Woolf. While in the “W” section, I noticed that Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited had a new edition. Then I had a common sense revelation. “Ah! They’re making a MOVIE out of it!” I was happy for Waugh. This would be the second time that the novel received attention as it also was turned into a television series. Not bad for a Modernist who tried to avoid becoming a writer. If only I had the curse of constantly being pressured into making a living as a writer…. Anyway, I had considered buying Brideshead Revisited about a year and a half ago, but chose Vile Bodies instead. Vile Bodies was made into a movie called Bright Young Things or something like that.
Then I saw the trailer for Brideshead Revisited. What. the. heck. Now, I admit that I have not read the novel and I am a far from a Waugh expert,–though I’d love to study him indepth–but I know Mr. Waugh well enough to say that what I saw on that trailer was NOT Waugh. It seems like a deep drama. Waugh is a dark, hilarious, comedic writer. He is amazingly funny and ironic.
Slate’s Troy Patterson has something to say about the novel and film. I’m glad that I didn’t pick up the novel and instead chose Vile Bodies. I must admit that my decision was based on embarassment of being seen reading a book with “bride” in the title; that would have been very girlish of me, something I try to avoid.
Waugh’s smirk kind of looks like T.S. Eliot’s, no?
P.S. And what’s up with Batman having a smoker’s voice? Really. I laughed. I don’t think that I was supposed to.
Chris: [while watching Anthony Bourdain] One of my favorite things about you is that you like calamari. Well, actually, that is kind of lame to say as one of my favorite things about you, but it is pretty cool.
This week has been perhaps one of the most dangerous weeks of all time. By that I mean that everything feels fragile, like it could break at any second. The end of the semester is in sight. This thought is not very comforting. It means that I have a lot of work to do in short amount of time and also some decisions to make. Well, I wish that I had more decisions to make and more options to choose from.
Thursday was the last day that There Will Be Blood played at the dollar theater. Luckily, Dr. Yaw had to cancel our night class so Chris and I were able to see it. It wasn’t exactly my kind of movie, you know, but it was excellent for what it was. I liked how the music offered a commentary. The things that were occurring would have been good and profitable, but the music set a more menacing tone. Man, Eli creeped me out. The whole time, he looked so familiar. Then I realized why I recognized it. Little Miss Sunshine! Duhhhzz. It is amazing how he could change from one role to the next in just a year.
From There Will Be Blood
From Little Miss Sunshine
Juno and There Will Be Blood are both at the dollar theater!
I was almost disappointed when I saw that these movies finally came to the dollar theater because then it’d be a little silly to see them with Netflix. Then I remembered that it is enjoyable to see movies at the theater too–especially when it only costs a buck. We saw Juno on Saturday. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I don’t recall ever seeing a teen pregnancy movie where the baby is given up for adoption that doesn’t end horribly in a fit of jealousy and regret. I hope to see There Will Be Blood this weekend since everyone just loved it.
In other news, I registered for class for the fall. My semester will look something like this:
Dante
Old English
Thesis Research on Vonnegut
(apocalypse due to attempting to gain influence through science/technology, religion, and social power)
I finally saw The Darjeeling Limited.
I loved it.
I think the ending symbolism was a smidge cliche, though. Details like that really bother me for some reason, like they were trying far too hard when the rest of the movie had been minimalistic and spoke for itself. The “baggage” idea wasn’t described in depth, so it remained minimalistic, but I think that it harps on this pop-psychology notion that we’ve all become accustomed to and that is lame. That is what minimalism does at times, but I would never use the word “baggage” in my life–much less use it as a symbol. I know. I’m being picky. And it probably didn’t bother anyone else so much. It is a shame that such a good film left me with such a bad taste in the end due to me being silly. Forget what I have to say; see it. Then again, everyone else probably has. I just wait for movies to come to Netflix before seeing. I get very behind. Oh well.
All right. We have about two more days left of spring break…. We didn’t go anywhere fancy or do much. We watched Chris’ cousin for about three days and his sister visited for a few days. This gave us an excuse to explore and get out of the house more. I’m Not There finally came to the dollar theater, so we saw that. I thought it was pretty good. If you don’t know a lot about Bobby, then you might now understand it really. I felt bad for Elizabeth because it is a rather long movie and she didn’t follow it all. However, she does know a bit about Bob Dylan since she is related to Chris.
We climbed a few mountains…. Sitting on top of peaks is one of my absolute favorite activities.
Chris’ parents came for a couple of days and then my parents came. We were going to camp with my parents, but the weather threatened coldness and rain rain rain. Instead we had more movie-watching and mountain climbing. It hasn’t even rained one droplet. BAH!
Christopher picked up some fresh chamomile tea and made me a cup. It even had a flower in it, so in a way I guess I drank a flower.
The New Year always comes so quickly and I anticipate having trouble adjusting to the need of writing “2008″ on papers. As always, my resolution is be better. At everything. I find this to be very broad and it is so on purpose. That way I know I can’t quite mess up.
For New Year’s Eve, we had dinner with my cousins and then dessert at Cold Stone. Then we came home and watched Pirates of the Carribean 3, which I found mostly to be disappointing. I didn’t exactly have high expectations anyway, so I wasn’t really crushed.
Last night we watched Blame it on Fidel, a subtitled French film following a brooding young girl whose father becomes involved with politics in Chile. Her mother takes interest in women’s right to choose an abortion and the use of contraceptive. Although trips to Chile result in exotic presents, as featured below, sacrifices must be made. The family down-grades from a large home with a servant to a small apartment. The film wasn’t plot-driven or extremely thrilling in an anticipatory sense, yet I found it to be delightful anyway. I like movies that follow a character around. It has some amusing lines, such as, “You told me Mickey Mouse was a fascist.” Not to mention that the girl had a pretty awesome pea coat for most of the movie since she attended a Catholic school. The scenery was nice as well.
Class starts on Monday for me with a week-long intensive. I’m not sure if I feel completely ready to go back. Once it starts, it doesn’t stop and I kind of go crazy at points. Oh well. I’m not getting much done here sitting around anyway. Gotta get that degree and move on!
I have my jacket and shoes on. I refuse to take them off; it has gotten cold. This morning it was cold, cold, cold in the apartment (68 degrees, which I guess isn’t too bad), but now it is up to 72. The benefits of living on the top floor.
The weather makes me want to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Crazy that we only have one more book to read for Faulkner… Where did this semester go? Just a step closer to graduation. Can’t wait so I can feel normal and gain some security. All in due time, I suppose.
I watched “The Science of Sleep” tonight, but I don’t have too much to say, because I am… well… sleepy. I think that I was expecting it to be a little different and I was fine with it all until Stéphane started acting too psychotic at the end. However, the ending of the movie was appropriate.
I just really liked the cat costumes and would like to find one to fit my boy for Halloween.
And I liked the horse just because I am a girl so it is my duty to enjoy such things.
Chris took a pretty picture of me yesterday. I think it may be my default myspace picture for all eternity.
We have six days left until our GSA training begins. Unbelievable. This has been my first summer since I graduated from high school–I have taken summer school each year so I could graduate early. For some reason, this summer did not feel like much of a break. I suppose it is due to being so busy and everything changing. Graduating college, the wedding, the honeymoon, the what-do-we-do-now?, the move to Lynchburg, getting all of our paper work straight… Grad school is going to be most excellent, but the closer we get to it happening, the more nervous I get and the less exited I am. I don’t want to sound ungrateful. Starting a new school is always difficult and we will have some big additional responsibilities. I know it will be great once we get going.
Chris: You’ve used that line for a blog before.
Katie: Yes, but I like it.
Chris: You do. It’s like your favorite line, but it’s so true, except it’s usually a hawk that actually turns out to be a turkey vulture. They’re everywhere. They want our animals.
Katie: “You caaaan’t have it.” Do you know where that is from?
Chris: No.
Kati: “Tooo much magic bus.”
Chris: No way. I don’t believe you, but you’re probably right….
Need I say more?
We came back to Chesapeake for a couple of days. I don’t know how insanely busy we’ll be when the school year starts and we’ll take some of our wedding presents back with us and start moving in on Thursday or Friday.
Creative writers have a new academic level to complete. From my understanding, previously a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (a little larger than a regular Masters of Arts) was recognized as the highest level of education for writing and so teaching at a university with just an MFA was accepted. This all might be completely untrue, but that is what I had been led to believe. Virginia Tech is starting a Ph.D. in writing and rhetoric program beginning this fall. I also noticed a few other universities offering this degree as a new program. I suppose this may become a new expectation for writing scholars.
I found this, because Chris and I were looking at information on English Ph.D. programs. We may be dreaming; I don’t know what is realistic. There aren’t many programs in Virginia, mostly just UVA for literature. At least we’re headed in the right direction. I never know what really will happen until I’m right there. No plans are solid until they are happening, no matter how much I plan or try to prepare. That is all a couple years away, so for now I’m just really excited (and terrified) to start grad school in August.
I’m not sure what I’ll be doing tomorrow, but for tonight I’m just sitting here watching “Pan’s Labyrinth” with my parents, Chris, the puppies, and the bunny. I’m trying not to watch to see if I can pick up on the Spanish without the subtitles. It’s not working too well. I can read Spanish so much better than picking up on it audibly.
Later: I don’t think my parents enjoyed “Pan’s Labyrinth” very much. My dad doesn’t like foreign films too much, nor does he like subtitles, which quite often accompany foreign films. He’d prefer they be dubbed. Not me. I like it a bit, but I felt so sad afterward. Plus it was a little graphic…. the guy with the eyes on his hands, and the captain’s mouth. I’m quite squeamish. I did like it, though I probably wouldn’t watch it again since it had such a depressing feel to it.
Yesterday was one month of marriage for Christopher and I. Time is going so fast already. Chris still is entertained by pretending his wedding band is the one ring of power.
Since we spent most of the day in Lynchburg yesterday, we were rather tired when dinner time rolled around. I still had to fight Chris in order to get him to let me cook dinner alone and he kept popping in to give me hints. I wanted to make a surprise experiment. I made coconut chicken with roasted pecans and some cuoscuos. Not the most nutritious meal since we were running out of food.
After dinner we watched “Little Miss Sunshine.” I really enjoyed it and it takes a lot for me to enjoy the movie. Usually I am easily annoyed by kids in movies when they try to make them cute, but I didn’t mind Olive. It might have been because the movie wasn’t totally centered around her. Or it may have been that I kind of looked like her as a kid. A little. Also, I was surprised that the mom had come a long way in her acting career from this:
Today we spent most of the day packing, organizing, and cleaning. Then we went to Wal Mart (oh the insanity) for typical fourth of July food. Hot dogs, mac and cheese, and baked beans. All that was missing were the various salads (watergate salad, chicken salad, and so on). We offered Abed-nego half of a hot dog, partially just because everyone always yells “Hot dog!” or “Weiner dog!” when they see him.
Of course, he accepted.
Now that I looked back on it, that is a really disgusting photo. Anyway, we had banana-coconut smoothies for dessert. Chris has gotten really good at making smoothies. Then we headed to Wilck’s Lake for a run. I’m still at 30 minutes, but my pace has increased some.
The End. How boring.
