the moviegoer

I went to a film on campus tonight. I can't remember the title and I'm too lazy to look it up right now, but it was a Bollywood film from 2001. I was expecting it to be pretty long, because the flyer said 7-10pm, but we didn't get out of there until a few minutes before 11pm. Even with an intermission and a couple of pauses to fix the subtitles, that's about three big production numbers too long. It was good, though. I really did get caught up in the family drama and at least twice, I got a tiny bit misty.

What I really should have done tonight is gather and organize my stuff for the swap tomorrow evening and finish my handout for classes tomorrow morning. I guess I'm getting up really early to make sure I have enough time to fill my gas tank (the light came on during my drive home), get coffee, finish and proof the handout before printing it, and arrange the tables in the classroom. Oh, and maybe eat breakfast. If only I could get in the breakfast habit, I think my quality of life would improve by 50%.

So tired.

Roller Skate Skinny

Empty rink

I went roller skating tonight, for the first time in probably twenty years. Wow, twenty years ago was 1988 and I was 14 then. I am old. It was weird at first and I thought I might not be able to do it, but I managed to figure it out and not fall down. The newfangled skates are weird, though. They were like hockey skates or something and were hard to maneuver. Next time I think I'll ask for the old-fashioned kind, which I saw they also had.

There were only about ten kids at the rink when the three of us got there a little more than an hour before closing. The gal checking us in only charged us $3 because it was so late. It was weird to go roller skating and have it not be at the Marysville Skate Inn, where I spent so many Friday nights when I was in middle school. This place was a lot smaller, with a concrete floor instead of wood, and it didn't have as many tables or as fancy a snack bar and games area. I remember buying red ropes and drinking Green River while checking out boys and gossiping with friends. I used to be pretty good at skating and could go backward and do a couple of little tricks. This time, I couldn't even do that crossover thing that makes it easy to go around the corners really fast.

Skating used muscles I must be neglecting, because I'm a little sore. My thighs and knees are sore and so are my feet (I now have a blister on one instep). That's to be expected, but what surprised me was how much core strength it takes to balance and move forward at the same time. So, yet more motivation for getting stronger. My unlimited Netflix account is allowing me to stream as many movies as I want, and the other day I realized how many workout videos are available. So that's my new plan, to add in some strengthening exercise to augment the walking, which I've slacked off on during the cold. Maybe I'll go skating again, too.

speed demon

A colleague and I went down to Denver on Friday for a roundtable discussion with some academic librarians from other schools in the region. I drove us in a university car and we left insanely early in the morning. Right before we got to Cheyenne, I got pulled over. The trooper gave me a fun ticket in the amount of $180. Nice. He claims I was going 94 in a 75, but I'm skeptical. I was definitely going 85, but I never hit 90. What can you do, though? So, I guess I'm spending my clothing budget on a speeding ticket. I'll have to wear too-big pants for a while longer.

sleep deficit

What do you do when you can't sleep? I suffer from insomnia, which gets worse with stress or upheaval. To combat this, I've tried to follow the advice of The Experts, who say it's best to keep television and other activities out of the bedroom. Since I quit using my laptop, reading, or working in bed, I have seen an improvement in my ability to fall asleep at night. But following the rules forces me to get out of bed when sleep won't come or is interrupted by anxiety dreams. This was the case this morning around 5am, which isn't early to be up for some people, but when you fall asleep at 1am, it's pretty crummy.

To pass the time, I often catch up on music blogs. Bonus for you, because I can pass on all the good stuff I find.

• Lamestain has a post on Hammerbox, an old PNW favorite that was gone before its time. I can't tell you how many times I listened to "When 3 is 2" from their first record and danced around my bedroom like a lunatic, back when I was in high school.
  
• The Music Slut posted about a band called Boulevard that sounds right up my ally, describing their sound as "a wet dream involving Depeche Mode, Fischerspooner, T. Rex, ABBA, Junior Boys & The Rapture." OMG. The linked track, "Disco Lite," is pretty good. I'll have to hear more.
• KEXP is torturing me with news about festivals I can't afford to attend. It doesn't happen often, but I sometimes do kick myself for not selling out to the man. Leonard Cohen is playing Glastonbury. Huh. SXSW has every Next Big Thing slated to play, of course.
  

That's it. It's now time to get ready for work and I'm finally feeling sleepy. Unfair.

quirk

Even though I don't have cable, I can catch enough television online to be pretty aware of what's going on. Lately I've noticed that television has become quirkier. I'm not anti-quirk, by any means. I loved Twin Peaks back in the day, and really liked some short-lived shows like Wonderfalls and Joan of Arcadia, which each had a supernatural quirk. While I liked them, mainstream audiences thought they were too weird and they were canceled.

I'm not sure what changed, but now this stuff is all the rage. These days, it seems like half the programs on television are mining this trope. Pushing Daisies has a guy who can bring back the dead with one touch, and kill them forever with a second. Chuck has a guy who downloaded a supercomputer into his brain (remember Jake 2.0 and his nanites?). Reaper is about a kid whose parents sold his soul to the devil. Don't forget Heroes, which is populated with all manner of folks with special powers. And now Eli Stone has a lawyer who sees visions that lead him to help his clients, perhaps thanks to a brain aneurysm (is that what was wrong with Ally McBeal, too?).

What's going on here? And why can't I enjoy this new crop of quirky entertainment? It only seems to work for me when it fits into sci-fi/fantasy or spy genres. So yes, I like Chuck. Heroes was good at first, though it's become ponderous lately. But the rest of it gets on my nerves. I'm not talking about dramas like Medium, where the supernatural element is played straight. Too bad Journeyman was so boring, because that could have been kind of cool. What bothers me is the wink-wink quirkiness that seems designed to show how cool and clever the writers are. It's a tone issue, I think, and it makes me crazy. I can hardly stand Ugly Betty for this reason.

So I've been watching trashy soaps instead, like Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle because they have new episodes and to fill the void left by Dirty Sexy Money. And that's also unsatisfying, in a different way. If there's a point all this, I can't remember it.

quotation

"Even more, I had never meant to love him. One thing I truly knew - knew it in the pit of my stomach, in the center of my bones, knew it from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, knew it deep in my empty chest - was how love gave someone the power to break you.
I'd been broken beyond repair."
— Stephenie Meyer (New Moon)

Found on Goodreads.

leap year!

Hey, did you know it's leap year? Woot! Whatever will I do with my one extra day? It's hard to believe we're already into February, and this short month will probably fly by before I know it.

I had a really good weekend. Friday, I went to the art museum reception, which I try to hit every time. This time was special because it was the student juried exhibit, and I'm all about that. After, some friends and I went for a quick drink and then out for sushi dinner bonanza. Seriously, Cass and I commented a few times that it was like a taste of home (the 206). We ordered crazy amounts of food, and the chef also sent over an amazing sashimi platter. We of course got a bunch of rolls, and one of our party commented that we certainly had a theme going when he noticed we had, among other rolls, Boy Friend, Rainbow, and Crunchy Sexy. We also had 911, which nearly made me die when I shoved a piece in my mouth, hot sauce-side-first. It was a really fun night.

Then on Saturday, it was Thai dinner night with a fun group of people. We cooked up fun stuff and ate and had good conversation for a couple of hours. Everything was so, so good. And now I crave more Thai iced coffee, which I made for the first time after loving it for years. We definitely need to do it again.

After all that, Sunday was a more low-key affair. I stayed in pajamas until after noon, when I was shamed into dressing and going to the library to work on lit review stuff for the class Rick and I are taking this semester. It's nice to be taking it with a friend, because I stay on task better that way. The other people in the class are nice, too. I think it's good for my brain to take a class outside my discipline background but within my professional interests. And it can't hurt that it will help me do a better job with research.

Note to self: order The English Patient from Prospector and find my copy of Running in the Family and re-read it.

new snow

A light snow fell during the evening tonight. It was different than the snow that came down last night and on and off all day. Tonight, it looked like the city was covered in glitter. I was driving home just before midnight and I wished so much I could capture how beautiful it was.