Monday, November 28

There's only us

I chastise Elaine for not updating ... and here I am, doing the same. Sigh.

I don't have a thankful post. I think Dustro's metaphor-turned-simile says a lot of what I think. There's only us, there's only this. Forget regret, or life is yours to miss ... [Another Day]

I finished the baby mittens. They are warm and fuzzy and undelivered. I've almost finished a Ravenclaw-colored hat, either for Katie or Timmy. Really, Katie asked first.

I've seen RENT twice, first with Timmy and second with Brie, which was fitting since we saw it together in high school when it came to the Civic Center. I cried a bit the first time, so it was good I had brought tissues. When I went the second time, I saw D12 — the 'other' Dustin — with Katie, who's teaching in Truro of all places. Awkward moments aside, it was cool to see them.

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How much of a lazyass am I? I played The Sims 2 almost all day yesterday. Mostly by myself. I quit for a while when my character, Fancy Schmancy, spontaneously caught fire and died. I couldn't find the Grim Reaper to bring her back, so I quit without saving. Then I started again later with my brother, and his character lost his job and all his friends.

Honestly, what a downer.

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I'm going to find some sustenance, as I had some Ruffles and a Nut Roll for lunch.

And maybe try not to hate my life so much.

Friday, November 18

Goblet of Fire

Whoa. What a cool movie. I'm kinda sad they couldn't smoosh the whole book in, but you'll have that, I suppose. But it was nice. Very dark, very everything's going to change now, isn't it?

Things that I loved about the movie:
  • The way Filch ran through the dining hall. Twice.
  • Moaning Myrtle, better known as Shirley Henderson, whom I spotted in Bridget Jones' Diary
  • Description of the boot / portkey to the Quidditch World Cup as "manky" ... just like in the book. Honestly. I was very happy about that.
  • The tension (dare I say sexual tension?) between Ron and Harry. It was fairly delectable.
  • The Weasely twins, Fred and George. They're great actors, James and Oliver Phelps, and they are distinctly Fred and George — hilarious, mischevious, and quite clever. (And also, one of them said, "Get back to your knitting.")
  • The graveyard scene where Harry's and Voldemort's wands link. That was almost exactly as I imagined it. To the T (whatever that means).


Things that I wanted a little more of:
  • The QWC. We didn't even get to see the veela — no mention of them at all, actually — which doesn't explain exactly why Ron was so infatuated with Fleur.
  • Hermione harping on Harry to find out what the egg was about. She did it loads in the book, after all.
  • Rita Skeeter, as much as I hate to say it. She's sort of important ... if annoying.


But really, T-Baz and I had a great time, even if there were a bunch of hormonal little high schoolers running around.

Oh, and I made one of these hats in Gryffindor colors and wore it. Sans earflaps, actually, because I didn't have enough time to finish it. T-Baz made the pom for me. (Okay, actually, since we left for the movie at about 10.30, I wove in ends and attached the pom at the theater.)

And a pygmy puff, which T-Baz dropped irretrevably at the theater. They take not very long, though, so it's all good.


Sorry, Dustro, for another post that didn't likely interest you in the least.

Tuesday, November 15

Weekend



We had a lot of fun.

Monday, November 14

Cake or death?

I think I have the plague.

I'll post pictures of the zoo soon enough, though unlike Dustro I did not stalk an unsuspecting woman clothed in purple jogging-wear.

Friday, November 11

Chasing Crimson

Ellis 001
Ellis,
uploaded by crimson.
Friday* evening: Part the first.
(In which wine and beer are consumed.)

It's interesting what happens when old friends get together to reminisce. Of course, they all talked about UB. But I'll start earlier, when Dustro made some of our famous Pasta e FAGioli soup. Honestly, he's well on his way to becoming a sous-chef.

Tracie came over while Dustro was finishing up the soup, and not much later Dustro's summer roommate, who has huge hair, showed up. (Really, I think it was bigger than my mom's hair was back when I was born. But that's not the point.) It was nice to meet him, after Dustro talking about him all the time. (You know it's true.) After a while, Sam showed up with Kraig-with-a-K in tow. He stuck around for a few minutes and then went to find his boy. And Mrs. Smiff stopped by after drinking with her math teacher friends.

It's hard to describe the night, really. They (except Sam) drank so much beer that we had to make another run, and I drank my own bottle of wine (with a shot of tequila at the end, of course). When I started to get a little less drunk, I started working on HiP, because they were all talking about UB.

It had to have been two-ish by the time we finally dragged (drug?) our asses to bed. Of course, the Biddy and I stayed up for a long time talking about knitting. (What else?) It was good times.

Saturday afternoon: Part the second.
(In which Simon and Garfunkel play a large and crucial role.)

After waking up and packing for my week at home, I started my trek through southwest Iowa. I threw in a little Simon and Garfunkel, a mix that Sam made for me, after I lost the radio stations. I hadn't listened to them in a long time, so it was fun. And then suddenly, during Cecilia, I had a revelation — I will be a librarian. Then next goal: put this into action.

Saturday night: Part the third.
(In which three hot women get to stare at two hot musicians.)

The whole reason I was heading home was to meet Beth and Sarah and go to an Ellis concert in Des Moines at the Ritual Cafe. The only problem with that is downtown DSM: I'm not that familiar with it. There are lots of one-way streets and, to top it off, I-235 has got some major construction work going on. Oh, and it was dark. Beth decided that we should eat at Spaghetti Works for dinner, so we looked up the address in a gas station phone book. I thought, Eh, that's only ten blocks from the Ritual Cafe, and I think I can find it. Turns out I drove too far on I-235, so I took an off-ramp, turned around, and headed back for downtown. I found the right exit, then saw that I would have to turn left to go toward downtown. It's interesting how darkness can give you a completely different perspective on k rails. See, I thought it was a gentle curve off to the left, but it was definitely a 90ยบ angle. Almost killed us. We laughed. There were other cars there (read: witnesses to my stupidity).

I finally found Spaghetti Works, but we didn't get there soon enough to be done in time for the show (less than an hour before the show + 20 minute wait + 10 blocks west and a few streets over to find the cafe = not enough time). We decided to just go to the cafe and chill — maybe they would have food, as they're a cafe. So I'm driving, and suddenly the road I'm on turns into a one-way. In the opposite direction. So to avoid breaking the law, I took a hard left onto a not one-way street, almost killing us again. We laughed. There were witnesses once again.

And then suddenly, we found it. (The journey was almost as fun as the destination.) We parked and went inside, stomachs rumbling slightly. All the tables (of which there were only five or six) were full-up with Halloween'ed out women. Sweet. There were chairs set up by the tiny stage, which had guitar cases, miscellaneous percussion instruments, and a large-ish couch on it. We claimed three chairs and ordered some coffee (at which point I decided chai might be safer, as I had almost killed us twice and caffeine would probably be a bad choice) and ate ginormous cookies.

After a while, the emcee for the night started to get the show going. By this time, it was getting a little crowded-ish, and chairs were in short supply (enter the large-ish couch). She decided that she'd ask who'd driven the farthest: Did anyone come from out of state today? Having driven from Omaha, I raised my hand. No one contested me, which was funny because Beth and Sarah drove much farther than I had, since they live in the bulbous nose of Iowa. She asked how many people we were, and I answered three, and she told us to come sit on the large-ish couch on the stage. Talk about exciting!

So here we are, sitting on the couch, and Betsy West comes up to open for Ellis. She is a meter (if that) away from us. During one of her songs, she messes up a chord a little. After she finished, she apologized and said, "Sorry I messed up. I got nervous because I think Crimson and her crew are staring at my ass." At which point I nodded and laughed. She laughed. The audience laughed. It was good times.

Ellis' performance was pretty indescribable. Somehow, she played exactly the songs that I needed to hear (not the ones I wanted to hear — that's different). She opened with "Doin' Fine".
drivin’ around at three o’clock in the morning / i try not to see the time / i have a long way to get to where i’m going / but i push that out of my mind

it’s good to understand where you are standing / and it’s good to know where you been / and it’s good to work through the tough times / and let the lessons start to creep in / i think we’re able to let go of more baggage / than we give ourselves credit for / and the sunrise sayin’ hello in the morning time / makes me believe that more and more

...

Ellis closed with Freedom, after playing Beth's request of "How I Sound". It was a lot of fun. I got another autograph after I bought one of her CDs. It was very very enjoyable.

Monday night: Part the fourth.
(In which Halloween turns from scarity to hilarity.)

I was invited to hang out at Brie's house for the duration of handing candies out to small children. After finishing at the paper a little later than anticipated and going to Godfather's with the fam, I finally got there. I watched them play Kingdom Hearts for a while, then watched a movie that she and Katie had made. It was pretty interesting, and not too bad for amateur work.

After discovering that there were absolutely no scary movies to be found on tv on Halloween night, we decided to make a scary movie of our own. It didn't go very well — there wasn't enough light outside for the camera to catch much of anything. We decided to use their five(!) Build-A-Bears as actors in a movie. Instead of three of us standing unsafely on the stairs where there was half-wall to act as a stage, it ended up being me and Brie improving movie scenes and generally just acting weird. We messed around for probably 15 or 20 minutes, and then decided we were tired of risking our life on the stairs. And then we watched it. Let me tell you, Hollywood ... you better watch out. Witha little fine tuning, it will be a blockbuster. I'm sure of it.


* This was Friday, October 28, through Monday, October 31. I've been gone for a while.