"Life's Just a Cocktail Party on the Street.."

I mentioned it before, but Mystic River is easily the best film I've seen all year. There are one or maybe two things I would have done differently or left out altogether had I been the director, but other than that... (and usually I completely pick everything apart thanks to the motion pictures class I took my freshman year of college), everything about this film is superb. The storyline is good... the editing and directorialship is good... and the acting (all the way through several of the supporting roles) is SUPERB. Hands down, this is one of the best films I've seen in a really long time.

Mystic River

Rotten Tomatoes Review Site (if you're into reviews... Sometimes I like reading the reviews on the really bad movies most of all because they can be so brutally hilarious.

Either way... if you plan to see this movie at some point... I recommend not reading *too* much of the synopsis at the actual movie site if it goes on for more than a couple of sentences or it may serve as too much a spoiler.

What a great weekend!

I not only got everything done that I'd promised myself I would do (a feat in itself!), but I actually had time to just "hang out" some with friends and also watch a couple of movies with Mike.

Saturday I truly busted my ass and did almost all of my shopping and now only have two more stops to make with very specific purchases in mind, which should make the experience a piece of cake (*crossing fingers*).

Sunday I made some kickass breakfast burritos and drank half a pot of coffee with whipped cream dolloped on top. YUM! I watched "I Am Sam" (Sean Penn/Dakota Fanning) and "Drumline" (both were okay... nothing to really write home about. S. Penn did a decent bit of acting in "I Am Sam" but he blew me away in Mystic River (which if you have not yet seen, you are *really* doing yourself an injustice!), then took a little nap and ran out to do another couple hours of shopping.

I got home in time to have dinner and sit down to watch HBO's film "Angels in America", which is an adaptation of a Pulitzer and two-time Tony Prize winning play, starring Al Pacino and Meryl Streep (two of my favorite actors!). What a weird show that was! The second half of it comes on this Sunday night... but the first half alone was pretty funky. I can certainly see the home it must've made for itself on the stage, but I'm not so sure about the movie adaptation. It's just... different. It also has that chick from West Wing that I really like (Mary-Louise Parker).

Anyways... I'll definitely tune in for its conclusion but wow... what bleak subject matter to be showing just a couple of weeks before Christmas! Don't they say depression/suicide rates already do something like quadringle during these couple of months of the year? LOL Anyone else out there watch this?

The only blah thing from my weekend is that I'd hoped to make it out to the BFE party in Orlando and just couldn't make it. Wah! I hear it was a really great time and man how I *hate* missing a good party!!! *stomps feet*

So.... I'm back at work. Another day, another dollar, eh? Have a million and twelve things to do this week and still going to try to leave at least a couple hours early (if possible!) on Friday to make the 4-hour trek down to my parents for our weekend holiday celebration. I know the visit will be enjoyable, and making the trip this weekend instead of the weekend of the actual xmas holiday ought to be helpful as well, but I still despise that drive!!

I'll check in again later... Right now I need to get some shit done here. Blah! ;)

Well... here I am at work again. and 'tis Friday.

And I seem to have some sort of unspoken rule that I do as little work as possible on Fridays (particularly when 3/4 of the rest of my co-workers are not in the office today for various reasons).

When the cat is away... the mice will play!

But the funny thing about that is that I have a desk full of work to do and by 10AM I'm already bored of surfing the net and figuring most of my net friends won't wake up and be online to chat with for at least a couple more hours. Wake up already people! You KNOW who you are! Don't be the one responsible for *forcing* me to work for lack of anything better to pass the time! The HORROR!

Too bad I can't be out getting my Christmas shopping done right now instead...

I want to strangle my boss.

Actually something slower and more painful might be preferable.

...

I feel completely disorganized, unmotivated, and up to my EARS with things to get done. I'm not sure wtf is up with that, but I vow to get it all together by this weekend. I just cannot go another week with so many loose ends. It's so... UN-Virgo! (And besides all that, my family is celebrating their holiday the weekend after this one, so this weekend is my very last chance to get everything done. Way to procrastinate, Rhonda! Woohoo!)

Things to get done:

-- finish my christmas shopping for main family gathering
-- wrap all that stuff
-- help mom plan the menu/figure out what i'm going to make/get the stuff to make it
-- finish christmas shopping for everyone *else* on my list
-- deliver nolan's bday/xmas prezzies to him
-- get from nolan (and deliver) the tapes he converted for John's friend
-- shop around on cell phone plans and upgrade mine, along with phone
-- get Jory some new jeans and a new heavy jacket (he's outgrown almost everything "winter")
-- bring Jory's old clothes/toys in to work to give away to the women here with grandchildren
-- make a decision on my vacation and New Year's plans and do reservations, etc.

Less urgent:
-- put closet door back on in J's bedroom
-- mail J's 2nd grade school pics out to family
-- finish scanning my stash of rave flyers
-- finish updating my RPG's webpage (narrative and October thread of the month)
-- install calendar on the RPG webpage
-- find pics/drawings to use for 3 of my characters in the RPG and tweak the bios that I wanted to rewrite
-- get marc started with an intro thread in the game

This be SOUP weather! Can I get a witness?

Formal Dining Must Dos (Eating Soup)

Soup, usually the first course, shows you off as a savvy diner or someone whose
manners could do with polishing! Soup is served either in a wide, shallow dish,
or a smaller bowl, resting on an under-plate.

• Spoon the soup away from you, towards the center of the bowl.

• Sip from the side of the spoon. Never put the whole spoon in your mouth or slurp.
Noisy eating is better placed in the farmyard, rather than the dining table!

• Tip the bowl away from you and spoon the soup across the bowl to get at the last bits.

• After finishing the soup, place the spoon in the under-plate, or in the soup plate at
a 10:20 position.

...

From what I read, slurping one's soup is quite acceptable in China, however. ;)

...

John Belush -- R.I.P.
Deathbed Soup Tales

...

I'm off to eat some soup!

I am not your rolling wheels
I am the highway
I am not your carpet ride
I am the sky
I am not your blowing wind
I am the lightning
I am not your autumn moon
I am the night

I *still* haven't quite recovered from my weekend out of town. The visit on Wed night and Thurs with my parents was great, but visits home anymore always seem to end up with me spending most of my time in my mom's bedroom trying to fix her computer or install something new on it or explain to her over and over how to to do something on it. Ugh. I love my mom and I really and truly don't mind helping her with that stuff, but when I only make it down to see them 3 or 4 times a year... I'd rather be able to spend my time there actually visiting with them, ya know?

Left mom and dad's on Thursday afternoon after Tgiving dinner. **Note to self for future: Don't plan stuff that requires one to be really motivated shortly after eating a huge Thanksgiving dinner.** haha! It was REALLY hard to get my butt up off the couch and load up to head out to my sister's Peace River property for the weekend campout. But... I managed.

The campout was a lot of fun. There were about 30 people actually camping and then during the day on Friday and Saturday another 15-20 would show up for the day and leave later on, but not stay overnight. The weather was great! Almost rained, but didn't. Almost got a touch too cold on Saturday night, but not quite (course all the substances in my system likely changed my own personal perception of exactly how cold it felt! haha!) I didn't take NEAR as many pictures as I'd planned to, but did get a few good ones though I haven't yet had a chance to even nab them off of my camera yet. I also didn't make it to the bone orchard nearby that I ALWAYS say I'm going to go roam every time I go camp there (and then forget until we leave and drive past it again on the way out). Figures. :P

The ride home on Sunday was definitely the suck and I was *so* glad I wasn't the one behind the wheel. I'd had about 6.5 hours sleep since Wed and the going-home-on-Sunday-of-Thanksgiving-weekend traffic was NASTAY. That came as no surprise really... but still... having to be in it anyways was no fun at all. What is normally a 4-hour drive home took 6 hours and we were damned lucky we were heading north instead of south. At least northbound I-75 kept a pretty steady (but REALLY thick) 50mph cruise. The southbound side was barely rolling starting at the turnpike exit at Wildwood and was completely backed up all the way until we exited in Gainesville and beyond. NOT PRETTY!!

Got home just in time to speed-unload the car and jump in the shower before the season finale of Carnivale started at 9. Watched that (juicy cliffhanger for certain!... now I'll probably only have to wait a year or so for Season 2 to start *rolls eyes*). Then... I COLLAPSED!

It's been busy back at work and I went to bed early again trying to catch up on lost sleep last night. Now I've just got to get my shit together to finish up my shopping for my family's xmas celebration which is the weekend after this one. Yes... ANOTHER 4-hour drive out-of-towner. I know I must be getting old because I just don't wanna do the every-weekend-out-of-town thing anymore! No BFE this Saturday for me... *pouts* Guess I'll make it down there one of these days. Just turning out to be bad timing for me this year (and I was really wanting to go too!) If anyone is reading this who plans to be there... have double the fun so you can make up for my missing out on it! ;)

Now... I return you to your regularly scheduled activity. I have a ton of work to get done.