9 Degrees, Bar Overload, and Garp

T. S. Garp: (After a plane crashes into a house the real estate agent is showing Garp and his wife) We'll take the house. Honey, the chances of another plane hitting this house are astronomical. It's been pre-disastered. We're going to be safe here."
-Robin Williams, The World According to Garp

Finally! The day’s high will be well over freezing, instead of the below it’s been for almost a week now. Snow will melt, the roads will clear. Hoorah! I’m so happy, it’s not even funny. Yesterday it was nine degrees when I went to the store to get groceries. Nine bloody degrees! It’s not pretty when you have single digit temperatures. Over the course of the week, my car door has frozen shut three times. Can you see why a high of forty-five has me excited?

I just got a call from Kiera.
Her: “Want my shift tomorrow? Midori has her Christmas pageant tomorrow.”
Me: “Okay.”
A few days ago, I was scheduled to work at the bar two nights – Wed. and Sat. Then I said I’d pick up a shift on Friday because Megan couldn’t work. Now I’ve agreed to a Tuesday shift. Four days of waitressing in one week. I’m not excited about that, even though I volunteered. Still, since I’m now on hiatus from the campus job, I can use the money. Especially since Christmas is fast approaching. Christmas, and Christmas shopping. All accounted, I have a light burden – only three people (mom, dad, brother) on my shopping list. Keith and I are planning to do something together in lieu presents, like taking a mini-trip to Estes Park, which still requires moolah.

I’m just glad I’ll have Thursday off, a chance to recuperate. Technically, I have class that night but I’m thinking about skipping. Wait, I can’t. Thursday we’ll do our instructor evaluations and there’s no way in hell I’m missing those for this class which I loathe. Get this – last class I got a paper back that had the comment “Not bad, but what theory are you using?” I went to the prof. and said “About that, I was using Formalism.” He replied, “Well, at this point in the semester, I expect you to do more than that.” The thing is, he never bothered to fucking tell anyone that his criteria had changed from what he said at the beginning of the semester. Maybe on the evaluation I should make the comment that he needs to add to his syllabus that students must exhibit psychic abilities. See? See why I’m frustrated as hell with this class?

Movie Review: The World According to Garp. Any movie that opens on a scene set in 1944 where a young woman is holding an newborn and telling her parents “I didn’t need his [wedding]ring, I needed his sperm” automatically wins my respect. Even though the plot wanders and characters develop in spurts and stops vs. in a followable way, I had to keep watching. Glenn Close’s feature film debut has great odd-ball value and some very wonderful lines. Add John Lithgow as a transsexual ex-football player, and it verges on hysterical in parts. I keep wondering what the movie missed that the book had, but overall, it seems they did an all right job of making a fun movie out of a novel. It’s worth a watch, especially if you have good popcorn and nasty weather outside.