I have to say it was a good month

So I do this Favorite Things list every month and usually I'll just post it on MySpace. But since I rarely go there these days, I thought I'd relocate my monthly nostalgia fest to this blog. February, despite its obvious setbacks, was a truly wonderful time for me. I've spent most of my time reading, writing, watching documentaries and fantastic cable television shows, cooking, driving around town, and generally just enjoying myself. And the best part is, I was paid to do all of it! So here's a little rundown of the highlights...

-the Giants winning the Super Bowl
-Jeremy Davies
-reading about John McCain
-The Lady Vanishes, Saboteur
-dinners at the Metro Bar & Café and Buckley’s
-Johnny Depp on Inside the Actor’s Studio
-the Super Bowl ep of Seinfeld
-Lost
-white cheddar cheese puffs
-baking a bunch of brownies and cup cakes for peeps at work on my last day
-moving on from C-K
-The Hoax
-Breaking Bad on AMC
-Bryan Cranston
-the cute guy in the political science section at Half Price Books
-Dexter on CBS
-iced tea with mint and lemon
-Mika
-Jacob from Intervention
-watching MSNBC in the morning
-re-reading my U.S. history “magic” book
-keeping the apartment clean
-learning about Vietnam and the Nixon presidency
-spending my afternoons at Barnes and Borders
-Dennis Lehane books
-Christian winning Fan Favorite on Project Runway
-my late Feb mix CD
-Kevin Spacey in American Beauty
-Why We Fight
-dessert at the Knick and brunch at Café Hollander with K
-The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
-the Oscars
-David Archuleta, Michael Johns, David Cook, and David Hernandez from AI

Here's hoping I can make March just as lovely and I get a new job to boot.

Attack of the Killer Davids

A little homage to my three favorite AI men of the moment...

Oscar predictions!

Okay, I have just enough time in my busy day to squeeze this post in. As some of you may know I am sans Internet at my apartment and now sans job so I'm spending only a limited amount of my time online every week. I have no idea if I'll be back on here before Sunday night so here are my Oscar predictions a few days early. Enjoy!

Best Picture
No Country for Old Men

Best Director
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Best Actress
Julie Christie, Away From Her

Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
(This is the category where I'm most likely to be wrong but I've gotta stand by my lady!)

Best Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

Best Original Screenplay
Diablo Cody, Juno

Best Adapted Screenplay
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Best Foreign Film
The Counterfeiters (Austria)

Best Animated Feature Film
Ratatouille

Best Original Score
Atonement

Best Original Song
"Falling Slowly" from Once

Best Achievement in Cinematography
No Country for Old Men

Best Achievement in Film Editing
No Country for Old Men
(Apparently everyone is predicting that The Bourne Ultimatum will snag this prize but I can't in good conscience vote for anyone but the lovely and talented 'Roderick Jaynes')

Best Achievement in Art Direction
There Will Be Blood

Best Achievement in Costume Design
Sweeney Todd

Achievement in Makeup
La Vie en Rose

Best Documentary Feature
No End in Sight

Best Documentary Short
Sari's Mother

Best Short Film - Animated
I Met the Walrus

Best Short Film - Live Action
Tanghi Argentini

Achievement in Visual Effects
Transformers

Achievement in Sound Mixing
Transformers

Achievement in Sound Editing
Transformers

Alrighty, kids, this was one TOUGH year to predict let me just tell you. The crop of talent is mindboggling and if I'm wrong about every category it's because almost everyone nominated this year deserves to win. The Oscar voters had a difficult job and I won't be disgruntled with any of them should my peeps not land the big prize. I wish everyone the best of luck particularly DDL, Javi, Amy, the Two-Headed Director, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, Charles Ferguson, and Roger Deakins.

Leaving it all behind

So I wrote a whole blog about my 'feelings' regarding being laid off from my job. It was pretty negative because, well, how else is one supposed to feel when unemployment is only days away? But suddenly I had an epiphany and decided to scrap the whole thing. It was like reaching an emotional fork in the road where you can either succumb to your own negativity or abandon the whole sloppy mess and decide to be happy even though there isn't much at all to be happy about. For some reason I just feel like being a foolishly happy idiot who just assumes everything will work out rather than a cynical bitch with nothing but bad things to say. The life of the happy idiot has always sounded pretty appealing to me. Why not live it?

Okay so the future is a little scary for yours truly. If I don't get a job soon, I'll have to use my severance, tax return, savings, and possibly unemployment to survive. It sucks that I may have to use all this extra money I've earned to pay the bills rather than use it to pay down my debts or buy something special for myself. On the other hand, having that money means I won't have to borrow any from anyone else for at least three months and consequently go further into debt. That's certainly a better position to be than I was a few years ago when I was unemployed. I will also have oodles of time to read, work on my book, and just relax. When I'm not actively pursuing the job thing, I get to do whatever I want. And since when has 'doing whatever one wants' been such a bad prospect?

My head has been so clouded with the fear, frustration, and stress of looking for a job that I haven't been able to fully comprehend how absolutely glorious it is to finally be free of this job. I always felt stifled and held back by it and now I'm getting the opportunity to move on to bigger and better things. Who knows, I may even be challenged by next job. What a concept! Not to sound dramatic but it really does feel like being released from prison. Sure it'd be nice if when I walked through the gates I wasn't greeted by five feet of frozen snow and sub zero temperatures, but the relentless Wisconsin winter is something I should probably just ignore if I'm going to make this whole 'happy idiot' thing work.

So to paraphrase some of the immortal words of Patrick Bateman, I think it's time to stop sounding so fucking sad. Winter will be over soon, this annoying cold will pass, and I will get a new job. The best things in life are worth waiting for and I know it's all going to work out for me eventually. I'll be content and comfortable in my new cozy life and it'll be difficult to remember ever being upset about anything. So if only good things await me, why not start being happy this very second?

Some memorable AI performances

Well the ever popular "Hollywood Week" episode of American Idol aired last night and it definitely delivered. I think the best part about it for me was that several of the contestants I was somewhat luke warm about before truly, truly impressed me. Most notably...Michael Johns, David Archuleta, and Josiah Leming.

John McCain circa 1973

I really love this photograph. It was taken during an interview with John McCain after he was released from captivity in Vietnam. Some people don't know this but his hair actually turned white from his experience as a POW. Before I knew anything about him, I always identified McCain by his white hair like it was his trademark. Now I look at it as a symbol of his bravery and perseverance. He endured more pain and suffering than most will see in a lifetime simply to protect his fellow soldiers and defend the cause that brought him to Vietnam in the first place. Republican or Democrat, you have to be inspired by that.

The Talented Mr. Davies

Don't you just love it when a person who you've looked at a hundred times and felt nothing toward suddenly has this magic about him? Well, for me that happened last Thursday night when a handsome, young gent called Jeremy Davies appeared for the first time in my favorite TV series, Lost.


I always thought he was a cute guy but compared with the Adrien Brodys and Javier Bardems of the world, it takes a lot more than 'cute' to catch Zeetlebug's attention. So what was it about this time? I really don't know. Maybe it's his character, Daniel Faraday, and the adorably neurotic way he stumbles around the island. Or perhaps Charlie's death left me desperate for another misunderstood yet unabashedly sweet character to root for. I'm not sure what it is but I feel like this is going to be a rough one for me to shake. Not since Sylar from Heroes has a television character left me so dumbfounded and giddy.

And as luck would have it, turns out I'm not the only one crushing on Mr. Davies. E-dubs has once again read my mind (or am I reading theirs?) and put the man at the top of their Must List for the week...


I really didn't think Lost could get any better but with the introduction of Daniel Faraday, it truly has. Now I just have to hope he doesn't suffer the same fate as our dear friend, Charlie.

The latest gift from E-dubs

Someone up there doesn't just like me, they fucking love me.

Vanity Fair does Hitchcock

I recently had one of those 'somebody up there likes me' moments when several friends of mine told me about the latest issue of Vanity Fair. Around this time of year, Vanity Fair puts out their annual "Hollywood Issue" which includes a pictorial of the Academy Award nominees as well as other "hot" or "buzzed about" actors from the past year. This year has been my favorite year for cinema in over a decade and I feel nothing but love and adoration for all of the actors and actresses who have contributed to that. That being said, I really didn't care what the theme was this year. You could imagine then how elated I was to discover that this year’s theme was none other than the Master of Suspense himself...Alfred Hitchcock.


Any year I would have flipped out about this but right now I just happen to be in the thick of the research I'm doing for a Hitchcock encyclopedia I plan to publish in the next few years. So not only am I getting a bunch of awesome photographs of my favorite actors (you know how I love those!) I also get to see them posed for scenes inspired by Hitch's best films. Yes, somebody up there likes me indeed.

So here are just a few of my favorites...








To catch the rest, click here. But if you're up for a more Z-esque experience, visit your local Barnes & Noble, order yourself some coffee or tea, then find a quiet corner where you can enjoy this issue in a way Hitch would have appreciated: slowly, meticulously, and with undivided attention to every detail.

Chikezie, my main squeezie

Okay, surpassing the cute farm boy I fell in love with a few weeks back, Chikezie Eze is now at the top of my list of peeps to root for on American Idol. Check out those pipes!

Must we hit the bottle so hard?

Today is the last day I can drink alcohol for the next 47 days. Why, you ask? Well, I've decided to give up imbibing for Lent. This will be my first attempt at extracting booze from my life since that seven month stint three years ago. And I've got to say, I don't think I've ever been so excited about something so unexciting.

With the exception of my sister and my mother, I really don't know many people who are innocent of at least one alcohol related problem. Whether it's binge drinking, driving drunk, having intoxicated one-night stands, calling in sick at least once a week due to hangovers, or drinking alone, every one in my life makes poor decisions because of alcohol. Obviously I am included in this bunch which is why I'm doing this. I can't change the people around me, but I can change myself. Then eventually I may have to find new friends.

I've been dealing with this stuff since high school and it never gets any easier. When I'm not being the binge-drinking idiot who loses control after too many T&Ts, I'm the smart, sober goody-goody who feels sorry for all the poor folks around her. Neither is very much fun, let me assure you. Why does it have to be one or the other though? I've been wondering that for awhile and I think the answer is fairly plain. I live in Wisconsin.



UW Madison was the #4 party school last year, and I think it was #2 when I went there. So the fact that much of my college life was spent in a drunken haze is no surprise. When I graduated and moved on, however, I was expecting things to change, and three years later, not a whole lot has changed. I drink less because I have more responsibility and my body simply cannot handle it. But a lot of the people around me act as though they are still living out their college glory years. It's just the way things are in this state, and it's really sad. If the weekend rolls around and you don't feel like going out to the bar or downing a few six-packs at someone's apartment, good luck finding an alternative...at least one you can do with another person. For me, the options have always been...go to a movie, read or write at Barnes & Noble, or sit at home and watch TV. Not that I don't thoroughly enjoy these things because I do. I just wish there wider variety of social activities to choose from.

Someday all of this won't matter. I'll have a family, smart and responsible friends who actually have priorities, and of course my love of cooking, writing, and acting to get me by when all else fails. Being in your twenties is surely overrated and I know that now. So to get through the next five years I've just got to try as hard as I can to stay true to myself and not fall by the wayside. But first, I've got to get through the next 47 days.