The Oscars Sucked.

I don’t even know where to begin. I’m one of those nerds who still gets excited about the big Hollywood schmooze-fest. I love movies. And I mean it when I say that. I look forward to Fridays because Ebert’s new reviews come out. The happiest month of my year is February, when Turner Classic Movies does the 31 Days of Oscar. I’ve been known to skip a meal so I can buy a movie ticket. I think movie critics have the best job in the world. So the Oscars are a big deal to me. And this year had so much potential…The Aviator, with Leo all grown up and the awesome sets and Cate Blanchett doing Katherine Hepburn…Hotel Rwanda, which seems to be way more socially relevant than The Passion, which the Academy fittingly snubbed…all this buzz about Sideways…and of course Clint’s latest work of art. And Chris Rock hosting. How could it go wrong?

But it did, and drastically. The jokes were fairly funny, but nobody seemed to know whether or not to laugh. Sean Penn apparently has no sense of humor. Why oh why did we have to hear Beyonce sing three songs? The duet with Santana and Antonio Banderas lost me after about thirty seconds. And of course I was pissed about the cop-outs for best actor and actress. Of COURSE Jamie Foxx won, there was no way he couldn’t have. And I’m not saying anything bad about his performance, but did we really have to hear the “i love my grandma” speech again? And does Hillary Swank really need another oscar? And while I truly, dearly love Clint Eastwood, won’t SOMEBODY throw Martin Scorsese a bone? I’m telling you, last week’s Apprentice had more suspense. The Academy better watch it, or pretty soon the Oscars will be as out of touch as The Grammys are…

So having said my piece about that, I will apologize for having taken so long to update this thing. It’s been a bad two weeks, but that’s no reason to ignore the blog. A synopsis of the last ten days or so: I’m getting over bronchitis, I’ve been dealing with some major politics at work, I had to pretend to be smart and do a presentation for class, and my current strategy of dealing with adversity by consuming massive quantities of chocolate mini-doughnuts seems to be taking its toll on my ass. On the upside, my friends have been fantastic. And yes, drumroll…there is a new man in my life! So far he seems to be passing muster: he’s a liberal, he has a good job, the sense of humor is definitely happening, and he seems very amused by me, which I take as a good sign. More details will come as things progress, I promise. For now, wish me luck. After The Boy, The Guy I had to abandon, the one date wonder who never called, and no-eye-contact Blind Date man, don’t I have have some goodness on the way? I know my life is a controlled disaster at best, and I should be focused on getting myself in order and finding my identity and all that crap, I am SO ready to be finished with this stupid game and find someone to settle down with! Geez, I’m starting to REEK of desperation.

I’m off now to run a staff meeting and then head home and pray for a snow day tommorrow. If I have to freeze my ass off, drive around in this crap, and risk cracking my head open every time I try to walk across campus in the slush, at the very least don’t you think a free day off is in order?
-pg

My Act, Together

I’m so used to everything in my life–work, relationships, the state of my apartment–being a mess that when I actually feel a sense of order, it kind of freaks me out. Today is one of those days. My job is going well, I’m feeling good about my place in the world, and I even vacuumed and did laundry this weekend. I haven’t really thought about The Boy in weeks, I’m not worried about Blind Date guy, I’ve completely let go of obsessing over the Crush–it’s almost like I’m sort of embracing singlehood at the moment. (Well, not really, let’s face it, this is a temporary state and I’ll start up again with the “biological clock” and “plight of the single woman” crap soon enough). Seriously, though, I had a good time with my friends last night and reflected about the decisions I’ve made, and I can honestly say that I don’t have any regrets about moving up here. Yes, I hate the cold. Work could be better. There are days when I want to be where everything is comfortable and my mom is only three hours away. But this was the right thing to do–I know it in my heart. And it’s so rare that I know anything in my heart that I’m feeling pretty blessed at the moment.

But let’s get into character and do a little ranting. Here are a few very minor, shallow, unimportant things that are getting on my nerves these days. First of all, what the hell is up with people who don’t pull their hats down, so they’re just sort of sitting there on top of their heads, serving absolutely no purpose? What is that? Isn’t the point of the hat to keep your head warm? If you don’t want to mess up the hair, don’t wear the damn hat! I’m just saying. Also, why do people reverse into parking spaces? Now I hesitate to bring it up, because I have a lot of friends and family members who do the backing-in thing, but honestly, why? To make it easy for a quick getaway? Maybe I’m jealous because I can’t reverse worth a damn–I’m convinced that people who do this do it just to show everyone they can. And finally, I’m irritated by the fact that I’m so intimidated by the idea of going into the Rec Center. See, I’ve been working out every day for over two weeks now (whoo-hoo for me!), but I do it at home with free weights. I need to start upping the weight and adding cardio, which, since it’s like 5 degrees outside lately, means either an indoor track or a treadmill. But I don’t want to go to the Rec! I don’t know where anything is, the last time I circuit-trained was like five years ago, and I REALLY don’t want one of my discipline cases to see me sweating and bouncing around. Yes, it’s silly and shallow of me. But it’s the truth.

So the Oscar nominations are out… yup, I’m one of those nerds who watches them faithfully every year. I used to invite my all-female staff over for Oscar parties. In college, my two best friends and I would place bets on who would win. I get into it. And this year there are definitely some good contenders…I think Sideways is probably going to take it all, but I really liked The Aviator. The acting was fantastic (Leo has finally come out of the shithouse with me for his performances in The Titanic and The Beach, and can you believe Cate Blanchett? She rocks!), the cinemetography was flawless, the costumes were cool. I haven’t seen Million Dollar Baby yet, though, and I hear it’s Clint’s masterpiece. We’ll see. I really loved Finding Neverland, but I think it’s one of those movies that just won’t get its due. I’m a little pissy that Mick Jagger’s song for Alfie got passed over, but maybe they figure it was such a silly movie that it didn’t warrant a nomination even in the “Best Song” category, but really! That awful Counting Crows song from Shrek is up, what the hell? I’m still a little peeved at Adam Duritz.

So on the subject of movies, gotta give a little shout to my buddy LD, who, I discovered, now has a blog of her own, and had a similar reaction to In Good Company–we both zeroed in on the great Iron and Wine songs. Honestly, if you haven’t listened to this band yet, what the hell are you waiting for? Even my mom likes them. And while we’re talking about music, gotta give one more plug to Mason Jennings. It’s January, so listen to “Dr. King” and reflect on what you can do to love your fellow man.

I finally seem to have run out of things to say, so that’s all for today.

-pg