You're so Vain, You Probably Think this LJ is About You

It's time for what is becoming a bimonthly check in. Very bad, but what can I say? When did I get so busy? Seriously. I don't have kids or a demanding family or a wide circle of friends. And yet, somehow...my days are filled. Not with important or exciting things. Just...things.

I hope everyone had a good holiday. I was off this past week, so mine rocked. Tomorrow I return to work. Blargh. At least it should be a fairly quiet week (I hope). I don't think I mentioned it, but my boss got a really big promotion and now has only VPs reporting to her. She was nice to me, though, and placed me in a Technology/Project Support team run by her bestie, so I feel pretty safe for the time being. I am still working on that horrible project, but I think they will probably yank me off of it (or so my boss promised, but we'll see).

I am 40 now. It feels weird to say it. No big shindig or trip or even a weekend at Nay-nays, which is my normal way to celebrate. We had to postpone because we were both too busy. And I wanted to take a "dream" trip for this birthday, but since my brother just had his baby and tickets to Alaska were hovering around the two thousand dollar mark (for me and JP), I decided to postpone that as well. Instead, we went to Yuma to see my brother, his wife, and the baby (cutest thing ever, but I'm not a gusher so I will leave it at that). I am actually okay with being older. I think I freaked out a couple of years ago, so I am mostly over it.

We had a nice, quiet Christmas with no drama or problems. I have enjoyed this week off so much that I really want to look into retiring early. I guess I can't avoid a financial planner any longer, although I've been doing my best to not think about annuities and life insurance and IRAs. Yuck.

In concert news, I don't think I mentioned that JP and I went to see The Civil Wars, who were totally awesome and cute and wonderful. They performed in Austin, at Stubb's Barbeque, so I spent a lot of time looking around for people older than us, LOL. And apparently, I am hip as shit because every teenager I know (all three of them), were supremely jealous when I told them about the concert. If you get a chance, check out their music. They rock.

We also went to see Louis CK, also in Austin. He was flipping hilarious! Nice, long set. He got this annoying shithead thrown out of the venue, which was awesome. We almost didn't make the show because I took us to the wrong concert hall. What can I say? Sometimes I am sleepwalking through this life.

In movies, we saw The Hobbit (excellent and wonderful and Richard Armitage is my boyfriend...I saw him first!), Hotel Transylvania (a little late to that party but it was really good - Genndy Tartakovsky is my hero), Pitch Perfect (cute, but overrated IMO), and This is 40 (so fitting). My only beef with that movie is my frustration with the "bankruptcy" plotline - they run small businesses, drive a BMW and a Lexus, live in a big beautiful house and have parties catered...and they have money problems?! You don't say! I wanted to scream at them, "Sell your fucking shit!" Sorry - I have a beef with people living beyond their means and acting like it's so unfair that they get into financial predicaments. I have been driving the same Jeep wrangler for 12 years - suck it up, motherfuckers!

Ahem, anyway. I guess that is enough for now. Have a safe and happy New Year!

This weekend, we went to see Moonrise Kingdom and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (I HAVE NO REGRETS!).

Moonrise Kingdom is just wonderful: funny and sad and strange and poignant. If you grew up in the 60s/70s, there is something about the whole flavor of the movie that will really resonate. I am actually not a big fan of Wes Anderson (I have to be one of three people on the internet that did not enjoy The Royal Tenenbaums) - most of his stuff just depresses and confuses me, but this movie is lovely. Hearts in my eyes, you guys.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (STILL NO REGRETS) isn't as horrible as I thought it would be. The action sequences were actually pretty bad ass. The story was just eh and I am still not a fan in any way, shape, or form of vampires. But overall, I'm glad we went to see it and I would see it again for the fight scenes alone.

I feel like I had more to report, but what a surprise! I can't remember...

I did get motherfuckin' BOX seats to Madama Butterfly with my email discount. I'm gonna live like the rich folks! LOL...

Only one more week (and a day) until my vacation! Woohoo! The Kid and Traci will be here and it will be party time!

So lazy with the memage and LJ in general. I don't want to come and blather about work (it's mostly going well) and we haven't been doing much lately because I work a lot and also, we are boring.

Although, last weekend I went to see Nay-nay in Austin and she took me to the best place on Earth: Pinballz, an old-school arcade with hundreds of pin ball machines, also air hockey, skeeball, and 80s games like Pole Position, Donkey Kong, and (my fav) Ms. Pac-Man. As if this cacophony of awesomeness wasn't enough, they were also giving (GIVING) away Dos Equis beer because it was Cinco de Mayo. There weren't a lot of people there, so we (I) drank up and played old-timey games (I rule at the Star Wars pinball machine). I feel as if this visit should qualify as a good thing for my mental health, LOL...

Also, we did go see The Avengers (twice!) and it was excellent (both times!). While I do not proscribe to the 'Joss Whedon is a god!' theory, I do think he is one Hell of a storyteller. The humor and the chemistry and the flow were just great. And yay for him getting some serious mainstream love.

Oh, and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye? Hubba hubba!

It's a sin and a shame, but I have to admit that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter looks pretty bad ass. I saw the trailer when we went to the movies earlier (best part of new job is the recognition events - every couple of months, we go to lunch, see a movie, and go home for the day...although I sometimes end up working from home, which is still cool but not as cool as ditching).

I thought I had learned my lesson with that whole Vampire!Darcy book, but apparently not.

I called in sick today...and spent all morning reading Voltron fan fiction.

VOLTRON. FAN FICTION.

It was excellent and I do not regret one minute of it.

This afternoon we went to see Haywire, starring my new girl crush Gina Carano. I love to see women kicking ass. I must also admit that I am a closet action-flick freak (don't tell the Jane Austen Appreciation Society...they will be scandalized).

Still crampy.

Okay.

Whoever (my sister) told me that the birthing scene from Breaking Dawn was "not that bad" LIED TO ME. Ugh, why do I continue watching these movies...

Ew.

Last night we went to my company's Christmas party. It was nice, as usual. Huey Lewis and the News sounded great, but they didn't sing Stuck With You. Boo! Otherwise, very nice. Huey Lewis looks exactly the same as he did in the 80s. That's the power of love!!! LOL...

Paul and I went to my parent's house to help mom decorate her tree. My older brother showed up for a bit, energetic and happy (so awesome to see), and for half an hour there was a lot of laughter and reminiscing. Also, my dad was roasting a turkey (just because) and he cut it up and gave us all some delicious meat to take home.

I decided not to apply for the manager positions. I hope I am making the right decision.

OMG, the Daily Show's 'World of Class Warfare' bit cracked me up even as I felt dizzy from anger. The fact that anyone would say someone is not poor because they have a refrigerator? Seriously?! Did the U.S. become a third world country while I was sleeping?!

But Jon Stewart was in fine form and the writing was fantastic. And it made me think of one of my favorite parts of History of the World (forgive me...I have not the ability to make gifs):





Indeed. So, to cheer me up when I look at this post again, I will include a picture of the cutest sleeping cat EVAR:

( Spike in repose )

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Things I Did
- Drank lots of alcohol
- Watched/re-watched all 3 seasons of The Mighty Boosh
- Went shopping
- Saw Friends with Benefits (funny, but could have used a serious edit) and Captain America (better the second time around, really good!)


Things I Did Not Do
- Clean my closet
- Take the bags of stuff I trip over daily to Good Will
- Call my doctor to pay this stupid bill because the only way I can pay via credit card is over the phone (how safe)
- Schedule someone to come out and look at my shower because I think it is leaking
- Start on any of the other half dozen home projects that need taking care of

Priorities, I do not haz them.

I did, however, make a smashing good lasagna! It was very yummy but the thing about lasagna is that you can't really make a small one (or at least, I can't). So I know what we will be eating for the next few days...

Got back from Fort Davis last week and I've been running around like a crazy person ever since. We had a blast at both state parks (nearby Balmorhea had a giant spring-fed swimming pool). The Davis Mountains are beautiful and lonely. No cell service at the lodge (although we had cable TV...score!).

We went to the highest point in the park to star gaze and watch passing storm fronts. We drove up to the McDonald Observatory (still not totally impressed, but we had a cloudy night and didn't get to see the giant telescope). Fort Davis proper is like two blocks long and everything is mom and pop-type places. No Walmart, no fast food. It was totes awesome, but I don't know if I could have survived more than a few days there. However, all in all, it was a fantastic vacay - exploring the parks and Fort Davis (the actual fort is really cool!), vegging out, kicking back with my Kindle in the middle of the afternoon.

( Peektures )

In other news, we saw the documentary Buck, about the real life Horse Whisperer. As predicted, I cried through a respectable portion of it. But it's a sweet and simple film with a beautiful message. If you are an animal lover, you will love it.

Also, we went downtown to catch Harry Potter again but while we were killing time at Rivercenter Mall, JP had his wallet stolen. >__< Thankfully, they found the wallet (minus the cash and credit card) at the bottom of the pool at the Marriott Hotel that is attached to the mall. They made off with about $30, but JP cancelled his card right away and the thieves missed the Game Stop card and movie passes. All in all, best possible scenario for a robbery.

We did wind up seeing Harry Potter (but not then...IMAX comped us tickets for the following day) and I did like it better the second time around. I dunno...spoilers? Highlight to read: 

I love Alan Rickman and I thought he did a great job in his flashback scenes, but something about it left me cold. Like, if you didn't know the story already it was just as if he lost his childhood friend, not the love of his life. I guess I felt a bit cheated. I also wish that they would have shown the other people who came to fight for the Order. It wasn't just a handful of adults and children versus thousands of Death Eaters. Voldemort was creepily AWKWARD but I guess they were trying to make him tragic? A slice of his back story would have solved that.

Anyhoo, all the kids were great and I cried when McGonagall did the spell on the statues and when Harry was talking to his mom and the Maurauders (dude, his dad gets NO screen time...where's the love for poppa?!). I also hate how his parents are too old...they were killed when they were what, 21? They are not aging well in the ghost world. I actually liked the fan fiction ending on film...it seemed sweet and not totally cheesy and forced, the way I felt it was in the book.

So, overall, I did enjoy it although it wasn't exactly how I envisioned it. I have begun re-reading all the books. YAY!!!