When sitting around with a good friend solving all the world's problems over a bottle of wine or two, make sure you take notes. No crummier feeling than waking up the next day feeling refreshed and accomplished and realizing that you can't remember a dratted thing. I don't think it's so much the wine as the massive endorphine rush you get when you realize that you've just cured the world of all its ails. That good feeling is what makes your brain turn mushy (anyone who has ever been in love can attest to that fact).
So, keep a notepad handy, just in case.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Time Marches On
I realized this weekend that I'm old.
I was outside on a friend's patio having a cigarette when I noticed a group of girls chatting outside my local across the way. All three were dressed in "crazy dress-up" outfits, the type usually associated with Embarassing Birthday or Ella's Getting Married outings.
I could hear the conversation quite clearly and realized that they were dressed in 80's wear for the Crazy 80s Party Whooo! going on in the upstairs room of the bar across the way.
My first though was "My god, that's not how you dress 80's style!".
My second thought was "You're not old enough to remember the 80's!"
My third and last thought was "A person born in 1990 is now legally of age to drink. I now know how all my friend's parents felt and what they all thought when they saw us dressed up to have our Crazy 70s Party Whooo! times."
Then I went back inside, wrapped myself in my ratty grey cardigan and watched the end of NOVA before going to bed at a reasonable hour.
The End.
I was outside on a friend's patio having a cigarette when I noticed a group of girls chatting outside my local across the way. All three were dressed in "crazy dress-up" outfits, the type usually associated with Embarassing Birthday or Ella's Getting Married outings.
I could hear the conversation quite clearly and realized that they were dressed in 80's wear for the Crazy 80s Party Whooo! going on in the upstairs room of the bar across the way.
My first though was "My god, that's not how you dress 80's style!".
My second thought was "You're not old enough to remember the 80's!"
My third and last thought was "A person born in 1990 is now legally of age to drink. I now know how all my friend's parents felt and what they all thought when they saw us dressed up to have our Crazy 70s Party Whooo! times."
Then I went back inside, wrapped myself in my ratty grey cardigan and watched the end of NOVA before going to bed at a reasonable hour.
The End.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Shhh!
I've spent the better part of my day at the library down the street from my house doing some work and non-work related things. The couple I speak about in the following rant plunked themselved down in front of me about an hour ago....
Okay, I get that the library is a public place but for the love of all things good in this world what makes you think that you can sit RIGHT across from me and have a loud chitty-chat conversation when I am clearly trying to get some effing work done!? Perhaps going to a cafe where you can chat freely or maybe MOVE THE FUCK AWAY from me so that I can do my work in peace and not listen to your assinine conversation about Germany and children and FUCKING ROOT BEER!!
Seriously, can you please go somewhere else if you're going to chat? Please?
I don’t want to hear about your cat or dog or the way your cat and dog get along and how cute it is that they think they’re people. Some of us still believe in the sanctity of the Library and the quiet and peace and learning that used to come with it. For some of us, the Library is our Church. Please don’t shit on my hymnal and don’t talk over the sermon.
Or how about learning some basic manners? How about that? Be aware of your surroundings and not think that you are the only two people on the planet. I mean, for the love of god dude, clearly she thinks of you just as a friend, can you not see the crossed arms, the lean back to her body, the hunched shoulders? You can lean in all you want with your open arms and your laid back attitude but she’s not going to fuck you. Sorry.
Ha. That made me feel much better. I only wish that the keys of my computer were louder so that I could type my 60 wpm and interrupt your OH SO IMPORTANT conversation with clickity-clackity-clickity-click. And if I had long nails to type on said keyboard with, well that would be all the better.
Seriously, shut the fuck up. Now you're bothering the people two tables down. How completely oblivious are you to your surroundings? Shut up.
And that's the end of my rant. I am pretty cranky today and I suppose I could have asked them to please move but then again I think that if the tables were turned I would have moved away. But that's just me.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Love and War
What would you do if you knew the future? Would you carry on on the same path knowing that it's inevitable or would you do something to change it?
What if you knew that you were in a relationship that would never go anywhere? What if you were told point blank that you would never be loved by the person you're dating? Everything else in the relationship is perfect; you get along, never fight, have great sexual chemistry, make each other laugh, trust one another but the only thing is that (s)he is never going to love you, would you stay or would you go?
What's so great about love anyway?
If it were me (and it might be) I'd stick around. Maybe because I believe on the one hand that if there's a 0.0000001% chance of something happening, there's still a chance. And on the other hand, why not stick with what's good - the sex, the laughing, trust, spending time together, everything that everyone strives for in a lasting relationship but without the love. If every other relationship you've ever had that had all those things including love, has failed, well, wouldn't that make you think that maybe it's love that's been getting in the way of a successful relationship all these years?
Maybe it's not love that makes the world go around, maybe it's trust. Most of the relationships that I've been in that failed have failed because there was no trust. But if we're going to talk about trust then we might as well talk about faith, the faith you have that your relationship will grow and move forward and become something bigger than the two of you. And nothing makes a relationship grow faster than love.
Maybe it's not one thing; trust, love, faith these are all nice words but they're all notions, ideas, whisps of smoke. What about chemistry and physical compatibility? What about the tangible elements that you can see and hear, touch and taste.
But then again, trust tends to fade when there's no love to back it up, at least in the world of the romantic relationship.
What's worse? Having love and knowing it might end or knowing it might never end but there might never be love?
Meatloaf said two outta three ain't bad, Tina Turner asked what love has to do with it and The Supremes said you can't hurry love.
But it does make the world go 'round....
What if you knew that you were in a relationship that would never go anywhere? What if you were told point blank that you would never be loved by the person you're dating? Everything else in the relationship is perfect; you get along, never fight, have great sexual chemistry, make each other laugh, trust one another but the only thing is that (s)he is never going to love you, would you stay or would you go?
What's so great about love anyway?
If it were me (and it might be) I'd stick around. Maybe because I believe on the one hand that if there's a 0.0000001% chance of something happening, there's still a chance. And on the other hand, why not stick with what's good - the sex, the laughing, trust, spending time together, everything that everyone strives for in a lasting relationship but without the love. If every other relationship you've ever had that had all those things including love, has failed, well, wouldn't that make you think that maybe it's love that's been getting in the way of a successful relationship all these years?
Maybe it's not love that makes the world go around, maybe it's trust. Most of the relationships that I've been in that failed have failed because there was no trust. But if we're going to talk about trust then we might as well talk about faith, the faith you have that your relationship will grow and move forward and become something bigger than the two of you. And nothing makes a relationship grow faster than love.
Maybe it's not one thing; trust, love, faith these are all nice words but they're all notions, ideas, whisps of smoke. What about chemistry and physical compatibility? What about the tangible elements that you can see and hear, touch and taste.
But then again, trust tends to fade when there's no love to back it up, at least in the world of the romantic relationship.
What's worse? Having love and knowing it might end or knowing it might never end but there might never be love?
Meatloaf said two outta three ain't bad, Tina Turner asked what love has to do with it and The Supremes said you can't hurry love.
But it does make the world go 'round....
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Saturday, January 31, 2009
REALITY BITES
Reality Bites explored the lives of four generation-x college graduates looking for work and love in Houston, Texas. The main character (played by Winona Ryder) is an aspiring film-maker who documents their lives, hoping to make a film from the footage. The film was released in early 1994, when i was 25 years old.I'm simply not sure whether I am remembering this correctly or not, so perhaps my fellow gen-xers can help me out. I remember watching this movie and thinking OH MY GOD, SOMEBODY FINALLY GETS ME! THIS IS MY LIFE! THIS IS SO GREAT! ETHAN HAWKE IS SO AMAZING AND DISTANT AND COOL AND MISUNDERSTOOD, I WANT TO DATE SOMEONE JUST LIKE HIM! WINONA RYDER IS SO BORED AND SMART AND SARCASTIC AND UNDERVALUED - I'M SURE I'M JUST LIKE HER! I'm so GLAD they got back together at the end! That's JUST how it works out in REAL LIFE, when the boy FINALLY realizes he screwed up, and he comes back changed, loving and PERFECT and after that they stay together FOREVER!
I didn't watch it again for years, but I carried around this memory of a movie that had encapsulated my life at that time MOST perfectly. I'd refer to it from time to time fondly, reminiscing about the plot as though I was reminiscing about my own memories.
Last night I watched this film again, for the first time in fifteen years (in two weeks, it will be the fifteenth anniversary of its release).
OH MY FREAKING GOD. The SHALLOWNESS of the characters! The INSIPIDNESS of their lives! The TRANSPARENCE of Ethan Hawke's ridiculous detached facade! The HORROR of Winona Ryder's acting! The TRITENESS and PREDICTABILITY and CERTAINTY OF RELATIONSHIP DOOM of the final reunion love scene!
The only saving grace was Janeane Garofalo. Her character was at least SOMEWHAT three-dimensional, and she was, as always, brilliant. Why didn't I want to be HER??
I'm not certain what upsets me more.. the fact that I was so FREAKING naive at 25 (was that SERIOUSLY my life???) .. or the fact that I'm so UNREMITTINGLY cynical at 40.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
You Are
You are the knot that sits between my shoulders
... the pea under my matress when I sleep
... the forgotten pin in my shirt
... the tear in my pants, the tangle in my hair
... the car alarm going off at 3am outside my window
... the song I can't get out of my head
... the lyric I can't remember
... the weed in my bed of roses
... the splinter in my finger
... the smell of gas coming from my furnace
... the streetcar I missed when I was already late for work
... the one pint too many
... the part of my brain incapable of rational thought
... the diet that made me gain weight
... the joke I told that no one got
... the weird smell I can't find the source of
... the promotion I was passed over for
... the tattoo I never got and the one I did
... the crack in my window that lets in the cold and rain
... the adrenaline rush I get when I do something bad
... the constant ringing in my ears
... the party I threw that no one showed up for
... the white lint on my black cashmere sweater
You are the nagging feeling that I have forgotten something.
... the pea under my matress when I sleep
... the forgotten pin in my shirt
... the tear in my pants, the tangle in my hair
... the car alarm going off at 3am outside my window
... the song I can't get out of my head
... the lyric I can't remember
... the weed in my bed of roses
... the splinter in my finger
... the smell of gas coming from my furnace
... the streetcar I missed when I was already late for work
... the one pint too many
... the part of my brain incapable of rational thought
... the diet that made me gain weight
... the joke I told that no one got
... the weird smell I can't find the source of
... the promotion I was passed over for
... the tattoo I never got and the one I did
... the crack in my window that lets in the cold and rain
... the adrenaline rush I get when I do something bad
... the constant ringing in my ears
... the party I threw that no one showed up for
... the white lint on my black cashmere sweater
You are the nagging feeling that I have forgotten something.
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