Boo FaceBook!

I have been avoiding FaceBook like the friggin' plague for several years now and after an insatiable craving to find my dear friend from college Anne Pries, I soon realized that the only way I was going to be able to contact my long lost friend was via the dreaded website.

So I signed up.

And it's just as awful as I expected: it's completely addicting, I can't turn it off and I now spend all my free time "lurking." Yes, I confess - I'm too chicken to actually friend half the people I'm curious about, so I just nose through their lives (or at least, what's available on facebook) and let one person's page lead me to another and then another....augh, it's disgusting. I'm totally a lurker and I'm totally addicted. It's after midnight, my laptop battery is nearly extinguished and I can't stop. I'm exhausted! I don't want to look anymore!! Yet....I can't shut it down. (Stupid facebook.)

I will admit, it's nice to touch base with peeps I've previously been out of touch with, but there's something sickening about my relationship with this site already. Why do I feel compelled to enter every preference I have into this stupid website? Why do I feel like I'm doing a disservice to the world by not uploading my photos? Why am I constantly trying to come up with something to put on my wall? It's a disease. I have facebookitis. Bad. I'm going try not to develop a terminal case, but it will be hard.

Good-bye free time, it was nice knowing you.

Movie Review: Valentine's Day

I know, I know - cheesy, girly, chick flick is written all over this movie - I won't deny it. But at least I salvaged a shred of self-respect by waiting until March to see it (I mean, right?).

In any case, I recently had the opportunity to go see the movie Valentine's Day with my new friend Katie and we made the best of it. I had actually heard the movie wasn't very good (which is saying a lot when a known quantity like a sappy chick-flick gets the thumbs down from a gaggle of girls), so our expectations were pretty low.

I think the idea behind the film was to build on the success of popular tangentially-related, multiple-plot type movies like Love Actually* or She's Just Not That Into You. Unfortunately the attempt comes off much like that kid in junior high with the cotton candy pink Wet n' Wild lipstick who is clearly trying too hard. In an effort to avoid the stereotypical, cookie-cutter endings to which most romantic comedies fall victim (and thus, why we love them), nearly every plot has an "unexpected" twist. While the effort to do something different is appreciated (...kind of), the end result stinks. It is instead a movie of overly predictable endings. You expect the unexpected (except of course for the main plot, which is 100% predictable...and probably the most enjoyable part of the movie, actually).

If you're going to attempt something like this, it requires authentic story lines with quality character building. Do I even have to tell you that quality plot doesn't touch this movie with a ten-foot poll? I didn't think so.

However, all is not lost for Valentine's Day. Even though the formula for the movie is clearly a poor man's Love Actually (even to the point of sub-plot mimicry), I will give it bonus points for humor. As much as I want to dislike Ashton Kutcher, he is goofy and awkward and completely charming in the most wonderful way. I was having absolute giggle fits over some of his scenes with Jennifer Garner. Jamie Foxx has a few good lines too and really, even though the plot with McSteamy turned out to be kind of lame - who cares! HE'S McSTEAMY!!!

As far as entertainment value goes, I have to give it a passing grade. I laughed, I cringed at the horrifically embarrassing high school scene, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself for 90 minutes. You've got to at least give it that. Would I recommend it? Not to spend money on. But at the same time, I felt like I got my $5/hour of entertainment out of it...just not as a quality movie. If you watch it, keep your expectations low, try to limit your predictions (for your own sake) and let yourself get sucked in by Ashton and Jennifer's charm. It'll be worth it (if you rented it from a Red Box or are watching it on someone else's dime).

My favorite part though was an out-take. For all you Julia Roberts fans out there, this one's for you (Note: this does not spoil the movie in any way - although, why would you be worried about that? - but it does spoil this funny out-take so continue at your own risk). During a scene near the end of the movie she is riding in a limo. The driver asks her if she's ever been shopping on Rodeo Drive. Without missing a beat she half-smiles and says, "Yeah....one time. Big mistake. Big. HUGE!**"

I was absolutely tickled! She used one of her own quotes in context. She's my new hero, I could've died happy right there :)

*If you haven't seen this movie - you really should. It's wonderfully done and the opposite of this movie I'm currently tearing to pieces.

**If you don't get this - I'm sad for you. Go watch Pretty Woman. Right now. Go!!

Missing In Action

I know it's been quite a while since I touched base with the blogging community and the truth is my answer to "Where have you been?" is two-fold: I've been busy and I've been sad.

Busy
Not long after my last post, I got a job. I applied for and interviewed (twice!) for an Executive Assistant position at a non-profit, was one of the final two candidates - and didn't get the job. However, apparently I made enough of an impression, and they asked me to interview for another position (a program assistant). I got that job. Now I've been there a month.

Actually, I can hardly believe that last statement is true but, there it is. The world of non-proficy (?? hahaa...ahhh, good times) is a lot to absorb. It's complicated, complex, and surprisingly interesting. The organization I work for is kind of like a middle-manager: we get grants from the government, match them with private funds and then re-grant them out to organizations that provide services (health care assistance, economic opportunities, case management, etc.) to homeless families. We track the organizations, the success/failure of the programs, and ensure compliance with the terms of the grant (so essentially we're micro-managers) all while providing technical assistance for our grantees (not IT, but rather, how to successfully do X or screen for Y or whatever) as well as apply for new grants from the government and advocate (read: pester) our local and federal legislators to be sure funding is secured for our programs. Sounds like a lot, eh? Well it is.

The nuts and bolts aren't really particularly important to you, so I won't get any more detailed (convoluted?) than that, but I will tell you that my job is specifically to support the grantwriting and evaluation team. If that sounds dry and boring, well it is a bit. However, the people who do that work are really awesome and the work they ask me to do, while administrative, is pretty intellectually challenging, so I like it. It's not teaching, but it's what I can handle right now, so I'm happy about it (and you should be too). Plus, did you know that non-profits have bomb benefits? 'Cause they do. Or, at least this one does. WAAAAAY better than my old job. That's for sho'.

Sad
The reality is also that even though I have been busy establishing my new life in Seattle (which really is going well, don't get me wrong), it seems that everything reminds me of mom. Whether its a movie we used to both love (The Untouchables, Bull Durham, Diggstown), some project idea that pops into my head (hmm, I need curtains. How should I do that? I know I'll ask...oh, yeah), a song on the radio (this actually happens more often than you'd think) or something I know she'd get a kick out of - she's just constantly in my thoughts. There seems to be no way around it.

Mostly the brunt of it hits me when I'm alone (because let's face it, I'm still the same optimistic, slightly naive, happy-to-be-around-other-people person I've always been). So when I come home, watch some show mom and I used to watch, eat some cookies (man, she really loved cookies), or get some random project idea, my heart feels like it's actually constricting with loneliness for her. My eyes brim with tears and I let out a small wail a lá Mary Tyler Moore, "Oh mom!" and indulge myself in a moment of weepiness. I suppose this is probably pretty normal, especially since I'm only 28, still a kid in my mind's eye, and it's only been four months. So I'm trying to go with it and "grieve healthy."

One of the side effects of this, however, is a marked listlessness. Doing anything outside of what is considered absolutely necessary (things like say, blogging) requires an immense amount of energy. But I've recently come to realize that even though it's important to let myself grieve, it's also really really easy to slip into a kind of spiraling self-pity and that's not okay. (Besides, I'm getting kind of tired of just being a bump on my couch.) So in order to help temper the unhealthy - here I am! (Although, ironically, this activity requires me to sit on the couch...I guess I could sit on the floor - but that's not really the point.)

Anyway, all that to say: that's where I've been. For now, I'm going to attempt to churn out some content more regularly, but I have no idea what's going to come out when I actually sit down to write (so be forewarned!) but I hope you'll stick around anyway. :)