Vertigo, Pt. 2

No quotes today, nor movie things. Just a quick, "yes, I'm still alive," kind of post.

Well, I was wondering. So far it's been pretty reliable, but I was trying to be optimistic, thinking maybe I'd make it through this year with out getting slammed with a bug. No dice. For the past few years, sometime between December and February, I end up getting horribly sick. I'm not sure if it's a stomach flu or what, but it's damn reliable. Two years ago it struck in February, last year it hit the weekend right before finals (which ended up being a horrible mess - a two day fever over the weekend, followed by another handful of nasty vertigo days during finals). This year, it hit yesterday. I was up at five thirty in the morning, hunched over the toilet. What fun. Repeat roughly every half hour until around noon - that was my day.

Now that the throwing up is over, the vertigo has settled in. Used to be, my vertigo wasn't particularly tied to getting sick, it just cropped up whenever it wanted to. Now, only when I get sick. On one hand, it's nice because that means only once or twice a year instead of half a dozen or more. On the other hand, it means having to deal with throwing up and having a wicked case of the dizzies all at the same time.

What the hell am I talking about? Good question. I didn't even know until I was in high school. All I knew was that every now and again, I'd spend a few days having to be really careful about walking into bright lights, turning my head too fast, etc. It wasn't until my doctor sent me to an ear/eye specialist that I had a name to go with it, Vertigo. It's an inner ear problem that is infamously unpredictable, but which tends to lessen as the person with it gets older.

Put another way, it's kind of like getting migraines in that movement and bright light tend to be bad things. Instead of pain in the head, though, I get bouts of feeling like someone's grabbing my head in one hand, my stomach in the other, and squeezing with both. Not fun. Each time veries in its severity, one time I couldn't sit down or stand up without having to hold onto something. Other times, it's just a brief moment here and there. Fortunately, this time is fairly mild. Still a pain in the ass, but it could be worse.

Added bonus: computer monitors for some reason really aggravate it.

Amateur Night

“Ali,
I found this an interesting paper; informative. However, as I said before about this particular paper, the burden is on you to convince me that you have demonstrated theoretical sophistication in your approach. I don't neccesarily see a lot of that here.”
Dr M – Emailed comments on the rough draft of my final paper.

This is a verbatim quotation. I decided to keep the spelling error intact. Yeah, it’s kind of petty, but my irritation level feels it’s warranted. Let me just do a brief rant here – How the fuck does his reply help me? It’s a fifteen page paper. What does he mean by theoretical sophistication or how I’m lacking it? I don’t have the first fucking idea. Oh yeah, and the “as I said before” – he didn’t. It was a different paper he made that comment about. I told him what I wanted to do for my final and he said “I think that’ll work.” Dumbass.

Let me qualify – In his description of what he wanted in our final papers, he said “Three different critical approaches, stay away from jargon. I should be able to tell what you’re talking about without it.” Okay. So, I took that to mean that instead of saying “Now I’m going to take a Marxist perspective,” I should say, “One central theme that is illustrated through dialogue is the economic, and therefore class, differences between the characters.” Apparently, that’s not sophisticated enough. Why? Fuck if I know, he sure isn’t saying.

Of course, I thought it’d be more helpful to talk to him in person about my paper anyway. However, when I stopped by his office during his office hours yesterday, he was not to be found. I sat down and waited for nearly an hour, doing critiques for my writing group to kill the time. He never showed. Ditto that when I checked back a few times later. I had to resort to e-mail, because the man himself was nowhere to be fucking found. Notice the plethora of F-word, eh? I like it when I’m frustrated and angry.

My reaction, after the expletives, was a general “screw it.” I went back to my paper, added a few sentences to make things more blatant, and called it good. It’s now printed and ready to be handed in. I’ll do no more to it for his benefit. Sorry, I’m just not going to.

In related news, last night at the bar was what Dave called “Amateur Night.”

I really wanted to start this post off with a Dave quote from last night, but I couldn’t remember anything exactly. The closest I can get is him remarking on the urge to break faces. Dave is a fifty-three year old bartender. He is very laid back, makes a lot of jokes, and doesn’t get riled that often. He also is very big on courtesy. So, when Dave makes a comment about wanting to maim people, you know it’s no ordinary night.

For some reason, shit heads flocked to the bar last night. Mostly they were my age folks who didn’t know how to tip – or were asses enough to just not. Some tipped poorly, some didn’t tip at all. My favorite example: A very obese gal sat down, had a drink, had some dinner, and when her friends joined her, had another drink and more food. She gave me a credit card, and the slip looked like the following:
Subtotal: $20.00
Tip: $0.00
Total: $20.00
Adding to the bitchiness, and generally topping things off, was a note at the bottom. It read: [No Tip]. What the fuck? I didn’t ignore her. I didn’t make fat jokes. I was pleasant and gave her the shit she asked for. Her friends paid for their own drinks and an appetizer each, both left me a few dollars tip. Did she just figure they were tipping me for her? I mean, what the fuck?

It wasn’t just the youngsters, either. Later in the evening a large group of middle aged folks came in. Some had food. They mostly tipped like shit too. One couple had drinks and hot wings, I got them a box to take the extra home.
Subtotal: $15.00
Tip: $0.00
Total: $15.00
They left a dollar on the table. Do people realize how insulting it is to have a less-than-%10 tip? Or are they just being assholes?

For a good three or four hours straight, I was running from one table to the next, to the bar, and back again. My total sales for the night were $912 and change. That is the most I’ve ever done in one night. Somehow, I got enough decent tippers to almost balance out all the assholes. So, even though it was a pain-in-the-ass night, I made okay money. The fantasy football guys helped, they’re pretty nice and leave a good tip. So did the gal from the Christmas party and Rob and Melissa. Rob and Melissa are regulars and Melissa’s a student at the university. They’re nice and I usually chat with them a while when they come in. It was good they came in yesterday, because by the time they did, I was getting very pissed with everyone else.

*Deep Breath*

Okay, I think I’m better now. Really. It helps when I remind myself that, since I made extra cash last night, I’ll let myself spend more on Sunday when I go up to The Bead Gallery in Springs before the writers group meeting. I’m hoping The Bead Gallery proves worth the trip to the north side of the city.

Whew

"Another aspect of residual orality present in Austen’s novel is the fact that, at the time it was published, Austen knew many of her readers would not experience Pride and Prejudice as text at all, but through someone else reading aloud."
-Me, Final Paper (15 Pages)

After staring at a computer all day yesterday, I finally finished it in time for my 5:30 class. It gave me a headache and made me tired - some of which is still lingering today. That's all, thank you.

Young Guns & Bad Tippers

"Dirty Steve" Stephens: Damn good riding with you, Chavez.
Chavez: Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're all right...
-Young Guns

Here we are, almost at the beginning of Finals Week. It’s crunch time. I’ve got a 15 page paper to write (mostly from scratch) by Monday. Instead of writing it, what am I doing? Checking my e-mail, updating this blog, and getting ready to go to the store for Christmas presents. Hey, I still have two whole days before the paper’s due, I can procrastinate if I want to. The upside of this crunch? Once I finish the paper for Monday, I’m done. I’m giving the exact same paper to both of my professors. 1. I don’t want to put the effort into writing a paper just for my Lit. Crit. Class. 2. He likes the papers I’ve written for my other class better than those I write for him anyway.

I’ve come to the conclusion that, even without my campus job, four days at the bar in one week is a bad thing. Ugh. I still have to go back there tonight, too. Damn drunks. Damn drunks who don’t tip.

Word to the wise: If you have enough money to go out drinking, you have enough money to tip. Period. Otherwise – keep your ass at home.

I don’t bring drinks to the drunks for my health. I do it because the bar owners pay me only a few dollars an hour and anything else comes from tips. I can’t pay my bills on my hourly wage. I need tips. It’s that simple. Also, a reasonable tip is a dollar for the beer I bring you, or 15-20% of a tab. People who get a $20-$30 dollar round of drinks and give me a dollar piss me right the hell off. People who don’t tip at all make me want to be violent. You know why they don’t make eye contact when they’re stuffing my tip into their pocket? Because they know they’re being a Shit Head.

Last night, I had a table of four ladies. They paid for their drinks separately and while some tipped okay, others did not. They paid for the food together. $19.27 for the food. They set out $20.00 for me. One of them told me to keep the change. Like there was any fucking way I was bringing back change anyway. Bite me, Ho-bag.

See where the disgruntlement comes from? See why I’m going to college? See why I have an aversion to going to parties where I know people will be getting drunk? Any previous aversion I had to dumbass drunks was only strengthened by working at a bar.

Next week, fortunately, I’m only there two days. This is good. I probably won’t have to kill anyone.

Movie Review: Young Guns. Lots of names I know, like Keifer Sutherland. Weird to see them young. Otherwise, it’s pretty weak. I worked on a loomed bracelet for Julia while watching and looking away from the TV to focus on the beadwork was no big sacrifice. That said, it was kind of fun in a hokey way. Gotta love the obviously 80's score. The Billy the Kid plotline was interesting. Favorite character: Chavez.

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.

First Snow

Father: [comes into room after gunshots are heard after an arguement with his wife] Hey, champ... pack your bags! We're going on a little trip! To DISNEYLAND!
Son: Is Mom coming?
Father: DISNEYLAND!
-Robot Chicken

When I woke up this morning, I turned on the TV and the morning show weather man told me it was two degrees outside. Which was up from an hour earlier when the temperature was negative two. (Insert expletives here). Only a few days ago, it was sunny and warm. Lovely weather on Thanksgiving, almost nice enough for shorts and a T-shirt. Now there’s snow on the ground, ice on the road, and it’s below zero. Bastards.

Urgent news: Robot Chicken is FUNNY.

Other news: I’ve officially decorated for Christmas – easy to do since all I have is a four foot artificial (pre-lit) tree, a gold garland for my entertainment center, and a wreath. Viola! Christmas! Of course, I still have to do the shopping part. Still, I’m part way ready for the holidays.

TV Review: Queer as Folk. It’s over, *sigh*. You know, in five whole seasons, it never got stale? I think it helped that every season after the first had only 13 or so episodes. Still, top notch TV making.

Movie Review: Straight into Darkness. I had misgivings as soon as I saw the title. They were fulfilled. A film festival wonder, this movie ended up amazing me. What did the Milan film festival see in it? Granted, it’s bizarre, but is that enough? I guess so. Moronic plot, shallow characters, and a dumbass premise all gather together to create this movie that leaves the watcher wondering, “What was the point of that?”

Movie Review: The Aviator. Not bad. Gets a bit weird in spots, a bit drawn out in others. Still, interesting. Makes me very curious about Howard Hughes.

Thwarted Plans

Me: There's a problem with my check.
Payroll office gal: (chuckles) What, they pay you too much?
Me: Actually, yes.
-Conversation, five minutes ago

This morning I made a list in my head of things I need to accomplish. It looked something like this:
1. Write & Mail checks for electric, gas & credit card bill.
2. Pick up work study check from campus.
3. See a professor to get an article from her to summarize for my next paper.
4. Go to the bank.

All was going well, until I got to number two on the list. I went to the cashier, picked up my check, and thought, "That's not right." The check before this one was slightly short due to an error on my part in filling out my time sheet. So, I marked the difference on the sheet, had Katherine sign it and returned it to the payroll office. Instead of adding the difference to my current check, they repaid the whole month. So, here's the dilemma: Do I take the check to the bank, deposit it and count it a windfall? Do I bring attention to the mistake and return the excess money? I opted for the second one. Otherwise, I figure they’ll realize the error sooner or later and I’ll have to write them a check. Then again, maybe they never would have and I’d just have a little more money. Hard to say, really. In any event, I already returned the check. *Sigh* Now I have to make another trip to campus to pick it up.

This brings us to number three. My professor’s office hours are 10-12, MWF. I stopped by her office at 10:50 to find the lights off and the door shut. Why are things being so difficult today? Is there a particular force in the universe that’s decided I’ve been having too easy a time of it lately?

Movie Review: The Transporter. Fittingly, to go with the tone of the rest of the day, this movie was disappointing. When I saw The Transporter 2, and kept rolling my eyes at how insanely far-fetched Jason Statham’s stunts were and how ridiculous the plot was, well, I chalked it up to sequelitis. Little did I know… I mean, come on, the man hijacks a plane so he can jump out of it and parachute onto a moving semi. That, my friends, is pretty damn absurd. Granted, some of the fight scenes were nifty for their creativity, but it just pushes the believability envelope way too far. The high point: Getting to see a very buff Jason Statham without his shirt.

Toilet Paper, Candles, and Pistols

“You got a nice little town here... GREAT PLACE TO DIE!"
-David Bowie, Gunslinger’s Revenge

Yesterday I did some shopping for necessities, toilet paper, and something for a housewarming present for Mishell and Michael. Since I know Mishell likes candles, and since Michael is in touch with his feminine side, I think I’ll make a candle/candle holder for them. A nicely shaped glass, some polymer clay, and viola! holder. Depending on what I find at Hobby Lobby, I’ll add wax and a wick to it also. I love going to Goodwill or the ARC store for glasses, they always have fun and oddball stuff.

Also yesterday, while I was taking a walk and thinking of how I’d get to working on the housewarming present when I went back to my house, I got a call from Kiera “Can you come in for me tonight?” Tough call, but I could use the green stuff, so I agreed. Poof! Crafting canceled on account of waitressing. The worst part was the fact that, thanks to a jazz band that played until almost 11:00 and the drunks who lingered after, I didn’t get to leave until midnight-thirty. Ugh. I got home, decided I would rather stay up just a little longer to take a bath than go to bed smelling of the bar, and ended up not getting to sleep until about 1:30. I was awake, thanks to my internal clock, by 8:15, which means I did not get my preferred eight hours of sleep. To top it off, when I got into my car, the put-on-your-seatbelt chime wouldn’t go off, so I got to drive with the *ding – ding – ding* all the way to campus.

In a fortunate turn of events, however, shortly after I arrived and got to my office, Nicole stopped by. Nothing like gossip to put a more positive spin on one’s morning. She finished watching Firefly this weekend, and I’m ready to return Queer As Folk Season Four (only one more to go!) to her tomorrow. I have this foreboding feeling about Season Five, too, because Season Four ended on, more or less, such a high note. Something bad is going to happen, I can almost promise you.

Movie Review: Gunslinger’s Revenge. A flippin’ hilariously bad movie. It has a few redeeming parts, like the turn at the “big showdown,” but is ultimately pretty stupid. Also not helping is the fact that whenever Leonardo Pieraccioni (Doc Lowen) spoke, his words and his mouth didn’t quite jive. It was also weird to watch a western made by Italians – speaking of things not quite jiving. Add a bit of David Bowie flamboyancy and hoo-boy, it’s absurd. Oh well, they tried.

P.S. Keith picked this one out, not me. :)

Dining Tables and Car Explosions

Michael: You can't open someone else's mail. It's a federal offense.
Hunter: I can see it now: I'm on Death Row awaiting a lethal injection. This mass murderer who killed 48 babies and ate them asks me what I'm being executed for. I say, "Opening Ben's letter."
-Queer as Folk, Season Four

Weird weather this morning. During the ten mile drive from home to campus, I went through an assortment of overcast, sunny, and very foggy weather. Odd stuff. It rained yesterday for a few hours straight in the morning, took a break, and rained for a few hours more in the late afternoon/evening. For the most part, it wasn’t too heavy, which was fortunate since my folks and I went out to Marianne’s mother’s house to pick up a kitchen table and chairs. She wanted to sell me some other stuff, but screw that, I refuse to give her any money. The kitchen table and chairs were free, and now they’re sitting in my kitchen, in place of a card table and folding chairs.

Movie Review: Mad Max. Talk about an over-rated flick. Egad. Throughout the movie I kept having thoughts like: “Why is that important? Why do I care? What was the point of that? Why is everyone mumbling?” Oodles of pointless explosions and car/motorcycle chases combined with people acting stupidly – see the scene where the baddies come after Mel Gibson’s wife, so he grabs a gun and runs off, leaving her behind. Dumbass. Mad Max is ultimately like Predator – dumb as all hell, but fun to make fun of.

Finale, Disappointment and Cookies

Rat: I’d miss you if the human race died from pollution but rats lived on. So I’m dedicating my life to learning the science of preserving mankind.
Dilbert: Conservation?
Rat: Pickling.
-Dilbert

Well, ladies and menfolk, I’m now done with Season Three of Queer as Folk, and I’m hoping against hope that Nicole somehow picked up on my psychic brainwaves (as I forgot to e-mail her) that I want Season Four. I’ll find out pretty soon, since I’m going to class in about twenty minutes. Season finales are interesting things, what’s the right way to go about them? Big bang? Quiet moment? Something completely different? Queer As Folk did an excellent finale for Season Three. Fantastico! Both thematically and cinematically nifty. To see Liberty Avenue change to black and white, then back to color again ala The Wizard of Oz was just badass.

In other news, my mom made Farm Cookies for me, which are at the top of the list of greatest cookies ever. Think oatmeal, but with crunched up Corn Flakes and coconut. Mmm… Other good news, the newest issue of Realms of Fantasy came for me, and I’m taking it to class so I can read it. Ugh, I just looked at the Gallery section (usually one of my favorite parts) and it’s fairies. Please, people. Get original. Can we see some fantasy art that’s more than girlies? Oi. More Michael Whelan, please! He kicks ass.

On a final note: The bar is having kitchen problems, yet again. Last Saturday, Rob wanted part of the day off, so I was scheduled to cover the kitchen from 2:00 – 8:00. At 8:20, I called him to ask where he was. His reply – Denver, I’ll be there in about an hour and a half. Right. Wednesday, he didn’t bother to show up at all. So, in the five months or so I’ve been out of the kitchen (more or less), he’s the second to piss out. Now there’ll be yet another new person who’ll be learning the ropes, and I’ll be filling in meanwhile (yay for me, a pay-cut). Bloody hell, don’t people know how to keep commitments? Since they don’t, I get stuck being the good guy and doing something I don’t want to do. It pisses me off.

Kids & God

Carly: Ali!!
Me: (From the other room) What do you need?
Carly: I can’t see you!
-Conversation, last night

I’ve been babysitting for this family for about eight years now, since the middle child was still in diapers and before the youngest (Carly, age five) was even an eye-twinkle. I’ve babysat her since she was a newborn and it makes for a different dynamic. The parents are out of town for a few days, so I’m staying over. Carly is being a bit clinging since she’s missing mom. Oi. As much as I like the family and the kids, spending that much time playing mom always emphasizes why I don’t want to have my own offspring.

When I mention children to Keith, his response tends to be along the lines of: “If you ever have a kid, I’m leaving you.” An interesting thing to say, since he says nothing about me cheating on him, which creates the assumption that the kid he’d dump me over would be his own. An interesting point, yes, but ultimately moot. Just goes to show that, for all that I love Keith, he’s a stubborn ass on some points.

Movie Review: Bruce Almighty. When I was a kid, I liked The Mask. Otherwise, I didn’t think about Jim Carrey much. Now that I’m older, I think even less about him, with the exception of The Majestic – a pretty decent, if ultimately forgettable, movie. Anyhow, going into Bruce Almighty I wasn’t sure what to expect. The idea of literally playing God is interesting, and Morgan Freeman plays the Big Guy in a great way, but there are annoying over-the-top moments where Carrey whips out his trade-mark Ace Ventura gags. Ugh. Still, he was toned down. Overall, a decent movie – though, like The Majestic, I don’t think it’ll stick in my head very long.

Movie Trio + Class-Based Whining

Turkey Creek Jack Johnson: Why you doin' this, Doc?
Doc Holliday: Because Wyatt Earp is my friend.
Turkey Creek Jack Johnson: Friend? Hell, I got lots of friends.
Doc Holliday: I don't.
-Tombstone

I finished Season two of Queer as Folk, and didn’t realize I had until I put the next disc in, only to realize it was all special features. I do like special features, but I wanted more episodes, dang it! Nicole is very entertained that she’s got me hooked. She’s bringing Season three to our Lit. Crit. class tomorrow.

Writers Group this month was fairly slim, only nine of us and only two fresh submissions. I slacked. I blame it on my classes. Yeah. It’s all my professors’ fault.

Great news! Slither is now out on DVD. It’s hilarious, gross, and full of innuendo. Watch it! Oh, the wonderful lines. Full of colorful language, for sure, but very, very funny. Nathan Fillion is, of course, wonderful. Keep an eye out for nifty DVD extras, such as a behind-the-scenes tour with Nathan and a clip of cast & crew ragging on him, saying how horrible he is (mundo funny). There’s also a neat clip showing the different stages of some visual effects.

Movie Review: Tombstone. Oh, I love this movie. It’s everything a great western is – funny, gritty, and full of great lines. Watch out for Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), most of the things that come out of his mouth are just great, like, “You are a good woman. Then again, you just might be the antichrist.” Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton, and Sam Elliot are featured as the Earp brothers and do great jobs being generally tough bastards – particularly Russell and Elliot. Keep an eye out for a Charlton Heston Cameo.

Movie Review: Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. The period parts were fun, the “behind-the-scenes” bits were mostly boring as all hell. Makes me curious to read the novel – which, since it’s assigned reading for my Lit. Crit. class, is probably a good sign.

West Side Snoring

"Although "West Side Story" was named the best picture of 1961 and won 10 Academy Awards, it is not much mentioned by movie fans these days..."
-Roger Ebert, http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040215/REVIEWS08/402150301/1023

We've been hearing for a few days about this big nasty blizzard that was going to hit last night. Co. Springs got nailed and everything is closed - even the Air Force Academy. Here in P. Town it just began snowing (instead of raining) around 9:30 this morning. We may get nasty weather yet. My class tonight's been cancelled, which is great. Now, all I have to do is find Nicole, trade her Queer as Folk DVDs, then go home and watch Season Two. Couch, here I come!

Movie Review: West Side Story. I watched the famous movie last night, sorta. I ended up fast forwarding a lot and skipping entire scenes. Classic movie, eh? Bah. Not that good. Ebert's review pretty much says everything I would, except unlike him, I didn't give a fig about all the dancing. A moment here and there and it was fun, but egad - if I wanted to see the ballet, I'd go to the ballet.

Queers and Casanova

Brian: So in other words, for Justin to live here with you, he has to deny who he is... what he thinks... and how he feels. Well, that's not love. That's hate.
-Queer as Folk, Season One

Good news! The gal at work who I have a hard time standing gave her two-weeks notice and will no longer be at the bar. Hoorah!

On Friday night (the one I requested off but couldn’t get it because whiney gal – see above – swindled her way into getting it off instead) I went to work only to find out that the bartender who was scheduled for downstairs called off. Long story short, Jan said I could go home. Yeah, I ended up getting the night off after all, but only after I showed up and skipped the Hungry Eye reading because I knew I wouldn’t make it until 2 a.m. without a nap. Ugh. The bright side – Constance, Lynn, and Nicole were at the bar so I chatted with them for a while then went to Nicole’s to watch the pilot episode of Queer as Folk. She let me take Season One home and I did a Queer marathon. Now I need Season Two.

One thing I must say about the show is the writers are good. This is a show where they set up a situation and I think, “Now, if they were smart they’d do this,” and they do. It also pisses me off because a lot of the being smart means not resolving all the issues they bring up in a given episode, which means I have to watch the next one to find out what happened (except they bring up something else and don't resolve it so I have to watch another episode, and it just goes on like that). They really pissed me off, though, with the Season One finale. At the end of the episode, Justin is rushed to the hospital thanks to one of the students at his school taking a baseball bat to his head. We see him pulled out of the ambulance, blood everywhere. We see Brian sitting on a bench, also bloody. We see Michael come and sit by Brian, obviously worried. We see the credits. So, what happened to Justin?! Bastards. Of course, I know he lives, but damnit, that was mean of them. Luckily, since I’m doing the DVDs vs. watching it on real TV, I don’t have to wait months to get to the next season. Ha! I just have to catch up with Nicole.

Movie Review: Casanova. Yeah, um. No. Come on people, Casanova was a man-slut. “Rewriting” him as the man-slut turned loyal hubbie type is just wrong. Give me a friggin’ break. I love Heath Ledger, but this movie fell flat. Sienna Miller was good as Francesca, and Charlie Cox was cute. Ultimately, though, the plot conflicts were resolved too neatly, everything/everyone got matched up and tied in a pretty knot. Ugh. Get real. Yeah, the Masterpiece Theatre Casanova kicks this one's ass.

Guess what? I just looked up Russell T. Davies on imdb.com and found out that not only is he responsible for producing Queer as Folk he is also responsible for the Masterpiece Theatre version of Casanova! Funny ol' world, aint it?

How to Make Rouladen

If you google rouladen you can find dozens of recipes. Here is the recipe my mom taught me, courtesy of my german grandparents. Note: my mom makes them much wider than I do, entree size vs. appetizer size. I made these last night, letting them simmer while I watched Desperate Housewives. Mmm...

Ingredients:
Beef roast, approx. 1 & 1/2 lb.s
Bacon, approx. 1 lb
Pickle spears, 1 regular sized jar
Mustard, approx. 1/4 cup
Toothpicks
White wine, 1/2 cup
Water, 1/2 cup
Oil/butter, 1 Tbs

Slice the roast into thin strips, roughly as wide and long as half a slice of bacon. I like to partially freeze the roast before I cut it, that way it's much easier to get even slices. Cut the bacon in half (whole strips are usually too long). Cut the pickles in thirds.

Assembly: Lay a slice of beef on your prep. surface. Smear the top side with mustard. Lay a piece of bacon on the beef, then roll them up together with a pickle in the middle. Use a toothpick to secure the roll.

Once all of the rolls are assembled, put them in a large pan with the oil and brown them. Then add the wine and water and simmer for at least half an hour. Viola! Rouladen. You can eat them in civilized fashion with a fork and knife, or just eat them off the toothpicks (make sure you have a napkin handy, though).

'Twas a Dark and Chilly Day

"I got one foot stuck in paradise, another foot in the grave"
-"One Foot," Seven Nations

Last night it rained where I live and thirty miles north they got the year’s first snow storm. Today it was actually colder at 2pm than 10am. Go figure. Winter’s coming. ‘Tis the season when I wish I had a fireplace. I do, however, have hand-crocheted afghans that my grandma made, flannel bed sheets, and flannel PJs.

Gotta work at the bar tonight, and I’d much rather not. What I’d like to do tonight is go home and curl up on the couch with my latest Netflix DVDs and a cup of something warm to drink. Mmm… Instead, I get to go to work. Ugh. Still the worst of it won’t be until this weekend – which was remarkably like last weekend – when I’m scheduled for both Friday and Saturday. The up-side of this weekend is that I asked for Friday off, and since I didn’t get it, Marianne scheduled me for a short shift (5-midnight). The down-side is that my coworker for the night noticed, “But isn’t the person who gets here first (4 o’clock) supposed to go home first?”

“Yes, but I asked for the day off.”

“Well, do you think I could go home first, ‘cause I have a test to study for and I flunked it the first time, and I really need to study.”

“We’ll see.” (Nuh-uh)

The part that makes it worse is that this gal only works at the bar one night a week. If she was scheduled to be back Saturday, I’d send her home first without much thought. However, since I’m the one due back Saturday, I’m not feeling generous. After all, I’ve got school demands too. Also not on her side is the fact that she tends to whine and gives the impression, whenever she’s working, that she’d rather be anyplace else. A kind of bare-minimum type of gal who asks for a lot of favors but has yet to do any for me. *Sigh* Can you tell I don’t care for her much?

In other news, my CDs from CD Universe came. I now have seven more albums than I did yesterday, mostly Church, but also Eve 6, Seven Nations, Third Eye Blind, and Rusted Root. These are the first new albums (save one GBS) I’ve bought in six months, maybe more. It makes me happy to think I can go home and fill my stereo (holds 5-discs) with completely new music. Yay!

Movie Review: Beloved. I read the novel a few years ago in class and, from what I remember of it, the film is very true to the gist – if not quite every single detail – of the story. Danny Glover is great as Paul D, and Oprah holds her own as Sethe. Denver and Beloved were also cast well and the actresses deliver high-caliber performances. Watching the movie, I couldn’t help but think of certain parts of the non-fiction book Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin. Though the book was written in the late 1960’s a lot of the same themes occur in both. The most striking instance is the scene in Beloved where Sethe kills her baby and one of the white men, who came after her to take her and her children back to slavery, calls her an animal. Griffin addresses the stereotype of African Americans as somehow subhuman, and basically says “Can you blame people for it when you’re the one driving them to it?” The event he’s talking about is different, but the principal is there. A good movie, but not for a superficial viewer.

Famous Literature Turned Movies

Henriette: The man of parts.
Giacomo Casanova: Many parts.
Henriette: Is that how you win over the ladies? Cheap innuendo?
Giacomo Casanova: No, you just make all my best lines rubbish.
-Casanova (Masterpiece Theatre)

Yesterday I slept in by about three hours. Then I took a nap later in the day. I’m still tired. Ugh. That’s what happens when I’m scheduled at the bar both Friday and Saturday from 5:00-2:00. I’m not sure how much of it is due to working until the wee hours of the morning, and how much of it is being on my feet the whole time, walking back and forth from tables to the bar, but it makes me very exhausted. It definitely didn’t help that on Friday I was awake and at the dentist’s office by 9:00 a.m. (the good news there is they fixed my cracked tooth for free).

I can’t wait until tomorrow, when I have a whole day to myself (in theory, anyhow) and I can be a bum. Yesterday was somewhat like that, but since I slept until noon and then Keith came over a few hours after, I didn’t have much free, by myself, time. Of course, tomorrow I really should do laundry, but I might have to procrastinate that, we’ll see.

Movie Review: Beowulf and Grendel. A far cry from the staleness of the original saga as read in my Brit. Lit I class a few semesters ago, the movie makes the famous characters 3-D instead of 2-D. It also throws in some humor. I love many of King Hrothgar’s lines. While there are a few scenes at the beginning that probably could/should have been cut, the storytelling is pretty tight overall. Awesome scenery, costuming, etc. Gotta love the attention to detail with the helmets.

Movie Review: Casanova. After seeing this version of Casanova on PBS, and assuming it’s fairly accurate to the original tale, I’m at a loss for wondering what the heck the Heath Ledger version will do. I have to say, though, that I really like David Tennant’s portrayal (and Peter O’Toole’s) so Heath Ledger will have to work to overcome my bias – never thought I’d say that about him. Think about it, what kind of man could really pull of being one of the world’s most famous lovers? Where Ledger has the looks part nailed, Tennant’s performance was extremely endearing and you can’t help but like him. Although it's rather hilarious how these "venetians" have british accents and use british terms. Anyway, I’ll have to see them both before I can really start comparing. The Ledger version is at the top of my Netflix list, so it won’t be long.

Jesus-Dog

"$72 dollars due"
-Dentist's bill I received yesterday in the mail (despite the fact that I paid, in full, the day I got the filling).

Netflix is pissing me off again. Most of the time when I send a DVD back, I get a new one two days later - i.e. I send one back on Monday, and get a new one Wednesday. However, they've fallen behind again. Last week I sent DVDs back on Fri. & Sat. Today, Thursday, is when I'm supposed to get my fresh DVDs. Almost a whole week's wait. Bastards.

So, for someone who doesn't have recurring dreams, I've been having a lot of them lately. One theme that keeps coming up is Highlander, the other is my now-deceased dog. Except, she's not dead in the dreams. In the dreams, I have a Jesus-dog. I know she died, yet there she is, alive and well. In one, it was like her death actually was good for her because she was healthier after she was buried than before. In another (which I had just a few days ago), not only was she alive and well, she had puppies. Of course, they weren't quite right - all hairless and pink with legs so small as to be almost invisible, in short, mammal catepillars. I think part of it is that, even now, when I go over to my parents' house, I still expect her to come to the door. I still find myself looking through the window for her as I walk to the porch. Every now and again, I even almost ask my mom how the dog's doing. It keeps making me sad, to think that I don't have a dog any more.

I wonder how long the dreams will last.

Maybe I'll Just Get Dentures

"I guess you've got the Eickholt teeth. By the time your grandmother was twenty, she had lost all of hers."
-My mom

I had a pretty good day yesterday. I had no work, no class, and Keith came over and we watched the Venture Bros. while lazing about on the couch. Then, at about eight thirty, I ate dinner and broke a tooth on some broccoli. It went like this: "Munch, munch, munch, CRUNCH - what the fuck was that?" This is the same tooth I got filled a few weeks ago, and now I have to go back to the dentist yet again to get the bastard fixed. (Making for three visits in one month) Fortunately, though, while the tooth is broken it is not causing pain. I'm really hating my teeth right now. I limit my sugar, even though I love sweets, try to drink lots of water, floss, brush well, etc. However, that's apparently not enough. Damn genes. Mom added, "At least you didn't get the Metzger gums." See? There is a bright side.

I called it a night around ten thirty and was woken at one a.m. because my phone was ringing. Keith was calling. No, it wasn't some kind of emergency, "You should come over to Jason's." Because that's exactly what I want to do - get woken up at one in the morning so I can go over to Jason's and hang out with drunk people. Don't get me wrong, they're nice drunks, but, well, screw that. I'm going to have to have a conversation with Keith about not calling me after eleven or so on week nights and not calling me when he's drunk (not to mention when both are the case). Dumbass.

Movie Review: Deliverance. Meh. I've heard a lot of people talk about how everyone should see this movie. I did, and I really don't see what all the fuss is about. The plot lacked cohesion and I didn't really understand what the point of the story was. I think my problem is that I lack testicles. That probably makes the movie better.

Cartoon Review: Venture Bros. Keith is an adult (not adult) cartoon affectionado, so every now and again I get subjected to things from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Yesterday, was Venture Bros. (A revisitation/satire of Johnny Quest) I had reservations going in, but I have to admit, the show is pretty hilarious. There's plenty of juvenile humor (lots of potty jokes), some obscenity, etc. Basically, it's not the most "intelligent" humor. However, they make some good digs - like a Fantastic Four parody - and Brock Samson is damn funny. When Keith left, I had only finished disc one, and I liked it enough to keep the box so I could watch disc two. Fun stuff.

Mrs. Dalloway, Highlander Dream, and Hysteria

"Holy Mother of Oats! I turn my back for five minutes (that's how long it takes to admire my lovely back) and the interweb goes banoonoos! Isn't there any ACTUAL news to get wrong? Sorry about all this; it might be best if I just stay off the computer for a while. Or just glut the feed with wild conjecture. Hmm, let's see... I'm me, so... let's glut! Here are some ABSOLUTELY TRUE statements of factiness. Gentlemen, start your websites..."
-Joss Whedon, http://whedonesque.com/comments/11513#144407

See? This is why Joss is my hero.

I had another Highlander dream the other night. That brings my total to four. It was about Duncan and Tessa in Renaissance Italy (or somewhere like it, anyway) except they weren’t in period dress. Duncan was trying to convince Tessa why he couldn’t love her, because she’s not an immortal and he didn’t want to love her just to lose her. Of course, the fact that part of the dream was the same argument, but in modern times, means that she lived a couple hundred years anyway, so the argument was more or less moot. *Shakes head* Don’t ask me what’s going on there.

Oh yeah, some school based gossip. There is a man in both of my classes who I don’t know well. When he speaks in class, he tends to say odd-ball stuff, but I didn’t think much of it. A few days ago, one of my friends (who is in this guy’s group in one of the classes) told me that while they worked together he made frequent remarks about how she, and the two other gals in the group, were hotties. He also made a lot of inappropriate remarks in group e-mails – one example is the time he e-mailed everyone a poem about boobs. No joke. Mind you, my retelling of the situation is not at all detailed and rather more G-rated than what my friend told me.

The point is, he made her so uncomfortable that when he sent an essay to the group about hysteria – i.e. detailing all the gruesome details of how it used to be “treated” (for those who aren’t aware, hysteric women were sent to the doctor and hooked up to vibrators or manually “treated” by the doctor) as in more porno than academic essay – that she approached the professor who he was going to turn the essay in to, and the professor told him it was not appropriate to share with the class (which is what we usually do). He did not come to class that night at all. So, my friend, that professor, and the chair of the English department are discussing the situation. We’ll see what happens.

In other news, I watched Mrs. Dalloway last night. Perhaps I was just tired, perhaps I was just bored, but either way I fell asleep before I got to the end. Basically, I missed Mrs. Dalloway’s actual party. Funny, eh? I thought about watching the last part again this morning, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. No interest at all. I haven’t gotten all that far into the book yet, but I’m thinking the fault lies in the structure. Namely, I don’t think it’s all that translatable.