Saturday, February 25, 2006

A B C

"A" is for alone. I've been spending a lot of time alone lately, as my husband has been working 16 hours a day for two and a half months. Don't get me wrong, I spend time with my friends, too. But, I've been having a whole lot of alone time. My days mostly consist of auditioning, grocery shopping, working out (I started again last week), walking Bogie, laundry, cooking, and fitting in some social stuff. But recently I've been doing something I never do: going to the movies alone.

Going alone to a movie is a whole different experience. I feel free. There's no, "Where do you want to sit?" There's no worrying about how my companion will react if the movie makes me cry. There's no worrying about whether or not the person with me is enjoying or hating the movie as much as I am. There's no sharing of popcorn. As a matter of fact, I brought my own popcorn to the most recent movie I saw. I was mostly doing it to save myself a lot of fat and calories, but I also saved ten bucks. And I wasn't worried about anyone making fun of me for bringing my own. All in all, it's a pretty great experience.

"B" is for "Brokeback Mountain". This is the movie I saw by myself last week. I had two appointments over the hill, one in the morning, and one at night, so I spent my time in between at The Grove and decided to see "Brokeback". Now, keep in mind Russ and I never go to movies. The last movie we saw in a theater was "Wedding Crashers", and the one before that was probably "Flashdance" or something.

The reason we never go to movies is because we always have a bad experience. For example, when we saw "Shrek" in Las Vegas, there was a couple BREAKING UP at the end of our aisle. I'm not kidding. They were breaking up!! There are also always people taking calls, or talking, or chewing loudly, or yelling at the screen. So, we tend to wait for stuff to come out on DVD or show on HBO.

So here I was at the Grove, watching a movie. And, at the most climactic moment in the movie, right before Jake says, "I wish I knew how to quit you"... The movie STOPPED and an ALARM went off!!! This is my luck in movie theaters! Then a calm, female voice said, "There is an emergency in this building. Please make your way to the nearest exit". She said it over and over again.

One thing about going to a public place alone is, when an alarm like that goes off, you're scared. Even as I laughed to myself about my dumb luck, my heart was beating one hundred miles a minute and I was sort of terrified. It's hard not to immediately think, "It's the terrorists!" But the fire trucks and paramedics came within minutes and ruled it a false alarm. I am not kidding when I say the movie restarted a breath before that now-famous line. All in all, I didn't agree with all the hype surrounding "Brokeback". I thought it was good, but not incredible. I was kind of hoping to cry since I was alone and all, but to no avail. However, I enjoyed my movie-going experience, false alarm and all.

"C" is for "Capote". Holy shit, you have to see this movie. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is so absolutely magnificent, I can't begin to tell you. I truly enjoyed every moment, every frame. Plus, I had my own popcorn, a whole row to myself, and my feet up on the seats in front of me. This is how movie-going should be! I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed my company that day. Please see this flick.

I plan on seeing many more movies by myself, even when Russ isn't working 16-hour days. Maybe I'll start a matinee club. Only, everyone in the club will have to sit in separate rows. Otherwise, it wouldn't be seeing a movie alone, now would it?

Monday, February 20, 2006

Pussy!

Okay, it's been nine days since I've posted. Big lapse. I feel terrible. Let's forget it ever happened.

Lately, my cat has been making me cry. Yep. That's right. You know the movie, "Broadcast News"? You know how Holly Hunter's character takes the phone off the hook in her hotel room, puts it on her lap, and cries really hard for like two minutes, then puts the phone back on the hook and goes on with her day? That's what's going on with me. Only, my cat Misty is the trigger.

It happened the first time last week. Misty is usually an outdoor cat, but lately she comes in for a week or two or three at a time, and lives in the guest room. We now refer to it as "Misty's Room", since we never really have guests.

So, I visit Misty in her room a few times a day and pet her and talk to her and play. And last week I looked at her and just started crying. Bawling, really. The thing is, I've had her and my other cat, Sonny for about 10 years now. And Misty used to be a really anti-social cat. She didn't let me pet her for the first two years. Then, she'd just let me pet her head. Then gradually she let me pet her back, and she'd even sit next to me for a minute or two. Well, over the last year, she's let me pick her up and pet her belly and practically throw her around! She even sits in a ball in the middle of my lap and lets me knead her head. She loves it! She trusts me! And that makes me happy... and maybe a little emotional.

But last week, I really looked at her. And I saw how gray she's gotten, and how old she is. And I guess it made me realize how much time has passed, and how quickly it all goes. I mean, a minute ago she was this scared, mean little kitty and now she's got this trust, and wisdom and she's... older. Even as I type this I realize how cliche' it must sound. But it's how I felt at the moment, and I lost it.

Then it happened again the other night. I was petting her and I just started crying again. And it's kind of embarrassing! But it's also kind of cathartic. And it makes me hyper aware of the fact that I'm getting older, and hopefully smarter, and I really have to start making the most of my time. I procrastinate a lot, and I want to stop doing that. It's time to get stuff going, you know?

So, there you have it. My beautiful cat, Misty is obviously trying to teach me something. She wants me to get off my ass and live life to its absolute fullest!! Or maybe she's just playing a cruel cat joke on me, and she's spraying some sort of pheromone in her room that makes people cry. Cats have been known to do that sort of thing. They're vindictive little shits.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

How Symbolic

I needed to put something in the wash that I bought last week. As I'm sure most of you have seen, instead of words on the tag there were symbols. Only symbols.

Well, I need this damn thing to be washed, and I just took in all my dry cleaning and I'm not going back there. So, here's what I did:

I went to www.textileaffairs.com, and it answered all my questions. My garment is now happily spinning around in a cold wash which will be followed by a low-temperature drying, and a light, steamy ironing.

Moments like this make me love living in the age of the internet.