Julie & Julia & Linda

I am a weird sort of foodie. I like to eat (God, do I!), but I have never been a cook. Even simple things like boxed mac and cheese filled me anxiety in the kitchen. Still, I have always been an avid fan of Food Network (which I have often joked with my Sister is porn for foodies) and I will read books about cooking endeavors with genuine enjoyment, even if I do have to keep running back to the web to figure out what the cooking terms (and sometimes the ingredients, there's some bizarre crap out there) are.

Yesterday, I finished reading Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. I'm sure a lot of you saw the movie a while back, like I did, and maybe you too went through a Julia Child craze. Though in my case, it mostly meant watching a lot of "Baking with Julia" on PBS and eating Hostess cakes rather than actually trying any of her recipes. I also read, As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, which was a bit of a struggle to get through for someone so unfamiliar with cooking and that portion of America's political history.

Anyway, I adored the movie, so I picked up a copy of Julie's book... And then never got around to reading it until now. It's an entirely different animal than the movie, and not just because it lacks the half & half between the J's lives - I knew about that going in. They made Julie so, I guess, innocent in the movie, that when I read the book - where she talks about sex and curses like a sailor - I was shocked, and then, I was relieved. It made her so much more relatable to me, a twentysomething with what can only be described as an "interesting" vocabulary.

It was a good ride to be on, really, and I enjoyed every bump in the road. There are enough things that didn't make the movie (maggots, for one... yeah.) to keep you from getting but-I-know-what's-going-to-happen boredom, which is often an issue when I go back and read a book after seeing it's movie.  Even though the recipes I've been trying are WAY less complicated and don't have insane ingredients that I have to search the state for, (I say state because grocery-options-wise it probably takes all of Indiana to equal NYC) reading about her flubs made me feel a little bit better about my attempts at learning to cook since I moved in with the Fiance a couple of months ago. I say if you liked the movie, or enjoy insane kitchen adventures, give it a shot.

As for my next adventure, I'm going to enjoy a little fiction (a friend gave me the first of The Hunger Games for Christmas, so I think I'll try it out) and then I might get into my copy of Julia Child's My Life in France that I picked up in a bargain bin for $4 a few weeks ago... And I'll keep on cooking. How could I not, after that?

The Amazing Disappearing Me!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I am so rubbish at any regiment. Write this much a day? Sure, for the first week. Exercise this much every week? Probably, not at all.

So, after more than a year absence, I reappear, idly dropping in a post over my morning's third cup of coffee.

What happened last year? A lot. I had started that job at the local pharmacy. Well, the sheer act of getting my rear-end off of the sofa and moving four days every week has caused me to drop around 35 pounds. (I also gave up soda, on and off the whole year, but I'm not sure I stuck to it enough for it to matter, diet-wise.)

I became pretty close friends with everyone that I work with, which made it a nice upside to a job that can, on occasion, suck. (Old people are not fun to deal with, everything is, apparently, a personal affront to them.) One such friend, which I adoringly call my Squirrell Sister in a not-so-clever inside joke, introduced me to a friend of hers...

I didn't think much of him at first really. But on an unseasonably warm December night, after Squirrell Sister and I had been hanging out at his house, he kissed me. And the entire world changed. By the end of the week, I had moved in, and by midweek the next, he had proposed. I, the girl who said she would never marry, accepted and was whole-heartedly excited about it. We set a date for April.

The New Year came and went, we told everyone we know about the wedding and all that. I came very close to being disowned by choice members of my immediate family... Then we started getting to know each other. I could just say, "Then I started to really get to know him," but that seems unfair, as I'm sure he's discovered a lot of stuff about me that he's not fond of too.  So, while after only two and a half months, I love this house and I do still have feelings for him... I don't know where we're headed exactly. He has already decided to move the wedding back to October (I suggested that from the start, it was him that decided that was too far away.) because April was just too soon to plan something. I suspect he's regretting our whirlwind get-together. I can't regret it too much myself, no matter how it turns out. Because it did feel amazingly fun and cinematic while it was happening.

When I once asked myself, "Where tomorrow?", I never dreamed it would be here.

2011. Resolutions, anyone?

How is everyone doing in this fine new year? Good, I hope. I brought in the new year at a friend's formal dress party, wearing a new dress and shoes that I couldn't afford and carrying a gift bottle of champagne that - you guessed it - I couldn't really afford to give. I ended up far drunker than any of the other guests, because when I am uncomfortable, I tend to drink more quickly for lack of knowing what else to do. Embarrassing, but too late to do anything about it now.

Generally, on New Years, I like to make a big list of resolutions, usually all of which will broken by January 31st. Instead of doing the crazy specific things, I think this year I'm just going to make a few general ones.

So, for 2011, I intend to:

1. Write more. I claim to be a writer. I read non-stop. Fiction, it seems, is my life... Why not just give in and live it?

2. Get up and move. Walk, dance, run, whatever. Get my blood moving. It's supposed to stave off depression, and I need all the help I can get. My taking up bellydance will help with this one. At least one night a week, I will be up and about.

3. Use my brain. I was a straight A student until I got lazy partway through college. I have entirely too much smarts to not be doing something with it. So, I'll take up a hobby, learn a skill, watch a documentary, do something to exercise that grey squishy thing between my ears.

4. Grow up. I think now, with birthday #25 just 6 months away, it's time. Live. Learn. Step up and be who I want to be, instead of just talking about it.

What about you? Any resolutions you intend to keep? Or, perhaps, more honestly in most cases-that you intend to break?

Hangovers and Realizations

Last night's ridiculous, though fun at the time, rum binge brought something to my realization. (Other than the fact that making silly blog posts while intoxicated is a bit stupid and embarrassing.) I realized... I'm too old for this. Today, I feel absolutely wretched. I'm tired and dizzy and couldn't sleep for the better part of the night for jumping up thinking I was about to puke my guts up. Maybe that kind of drinking is for the young and robust only. I'll be 25 in six months - maybe it's time to leave the liquor-swilling to the newly twenty-ones.

The Secret of Captain Morgan

What is it about watching movies you love when you're drunk? They seem to be paced 5x faster, though whether it's because you're anticipating each event or because you can't quite keep track of the action - no one knows. Try watching a really abstract film you love when you're really drunk, and see how much fun it is.

Tonight, a darling friend and I sat about, drinking a little Capt and Coke, and having a grand time. When the evening culminated in him waking up to ralph, while his gf and I had a deep philosophical conversation, I made silly jokes about being a rum veteran. Much later in the night, I realized that between the two of us, we'd finished off about half of a 1.75 ml bottle of 70 proof rum. Suddenly all the jokes I've had planned to make tomorrow seem inappropriate. It's a wonder we didn't both keel over, given that we never drink. Brava, brother, brava.

Let's Talk Crushes

When I was in the third grade, I saw a boy (out in the hall getting in trouble, of course) and fell madly in love. He was in the fifth grade, and gods alive, I thought he walked on water. Well, that little crush went on through middle school, into high school, through my first actual boyfriend, and on into college. Boy and I sort of became friends at a point, though it was based more on his enjoying my adoration rather than any actual friendship. He was a trouble maker, through and through, which started my life-long obsession with the 'bad' type. He dated pretty, preppy girls his own age, and I was none of those things.

I forgot Boy for the most part when I went to college. I hadn't seen him much since he had graduated 2 years ahead of me, and I suppose it was a case of out-of-sight-out-of-heart. (Except when I would pass someone on campus wearing his cologne, then it was flashback induced pining time.) I only spoke to him once, online, when I was a college freshman, a brief conversation involving me sending him a photo of my new college self (suddenly thin, blonde, and rather cute) which resulted in the comment 'next time you're home, we should hang out.' My internal reaction to which (after I had a heart attack) was 'after all these years, don't do this to me now.' We never actually hung out.

That conversation was four or five years ago. I haven't seen hide nor hair of Boy since then. Until today. I was at work, and in he walks with his best friend from the old days. My heart stopped. Boy was still perfect, beautiful. Somehow even better looking than the idealized version of him that I keep in my head for drunken reminiscing with the girls. I could scarcely breathe. I was suddenly humiliated to now be 60lbs heavier than the long ago photo that had finally sparked some interest in him, and to have hacked off all my hair. He came up to pay, and I spoke to him familiarly, asking about his life, and realized... He hadn't the vaguest clue who I was. Ouch. I bid him a good day, not bothering to explain myself. (Oh, you don't remember me? I was the odd goth girl who sat by you on the school bus for 6 years and mooned over you.) I thought about him the rest of the day. Apparently, even after nearly 16 years, the crush still isn't dead.

So tell me, dear readers, do you have some school-age crush that lingers on? What is it about guys (or girls) like Boy? I mean, my god, he could've at least had the decency to have gotten fat or something. But no, all those of the former crush camp get to remain perfect. So unfair.

Of Super-Powers and Handsome Actors

It's been a big 24 hours for me as a sci-fi nut. First the finale of my favorite new series, The Walking Dead, and then I made a big tv-on-dvd accomplishment this morning.

I finished working my way through the four years of Heroes.

Here's the thing. I remember when this show started. It wasn't that long ago. I ADORED IT. I REVELED IN IT. ("Want to go out on Monday night?" Hell no, Heroes is on.) Season 1 was so fresh and exciting that I was hooked beyond my own realization. It looked like a comic book, it played like a comic book, I loved it so much more than a comic book! (and I love comic books.) Milo Ventimiglia's sweet and hopeful Peter Petrelli tugged at my fictional-character-crush-strings even more than his bad-attitude-tough-guy on Gilmore Girls (and that's usually my ideal cup of tea.. though Future Peter with the scar filled both bills nicely). Season 2 was still good, but felt like it resolved too quickly and a bit unrealistically for how the story arc was developing. Of course, DVD features inform that how Season 2 ended was not the original plan. I think the original would've been more satisfying. Damn writers' strike. Somewhere, a few episodes into S3, I lost interest. College got harder, the mood of the show changed a bit, and I just didn't keep up the viewing.

After about the 20th viewing of my Heroes S1 dvds, I decided to finally see how it all ended and rented the other 3. It took me approximately 4 weeks to watch 3 seasons. (That's a lot of TV.) I have to say, I don't think the show ever reached the same 'Whoa.' quality it had in it's first season again. BUT, I still found it INCREDIBLY entertaining, to the point that I might purchase the later seasons to complete the collection.

Favorite points? This show had an ENORMOUS ensemble cast. Fantastic, all of them. I could watch Masi Oka (and his side-kick James Kyson-Lee) for hours. You just want to pick him up and give him a good squeeze like your favorite teddy bear. Sendhil Ramamurthy is a beautiful, beautiful man (who could do genetic testing on me anyday), though I often wonder if Dr. Suresh ever knows what the hell he's talking about. There aren't words for Jack Coleman, who plays HRG. And though Tracy never grasped a tight hold on my fan loyalty the way Niki did, I'm so glad they decided to keep Ali Larter around. Robert Knepper was wonderful in S4, as Samuel Sullivan - whose neck I wanted to wring, but at the same time found very charming.

The characters developed, as they must in a long running show, but the one whose development I enjoyed the most was Zachary Quinto's Sylar/Gabriel Grey. In Season 1 he was the perfect villian, (perfect to the point that when I would ride the campus shuttles with a boy who looked remarkably similiar, it was a battle not to make ticking noises to myself when said boy approached) but as the show progressed, it was impossible to gauge where he was going. And it was fascinating. Did he really want to be good? Could he do it? A glimpse into the future showed us a happy and domesticated Sylar. But then he's a villian again. Oh, wait - He doesn't know who he is. The jumps go on and on. The Sylar trapped inside Parkman's head is sexy as all get out, something I never thought I'd say of Quinto after seeing him as Spock. The lost broken Sylar/Gabriel/Nathan who finds himself in Samuel's clutches is heart-breakingly adorable, always looks like he just needs a good cuddle. By the finale "Brave New World" Sylar had replaced Peter (sorry, Milo) as my favorite Hero (not to be confused with my favorite Hiro, which was- of course, Hiro). When the final "to be continued" screen rolled, it was Sylar that held my heart in his hand. (Telekinetically, of course.)

What I really need to know is, what happens to Sylar? Is the rush he felt saving Emma enough to keep him from going dark side again? Also, is the fabulously twisted relationship with Peter something that will continue? Best friends with your brother's killer - sounds like an amazing arc to me. Will Peter and Emma get together? The poor guy's been alone since he lost his Irish lass in the future. Will Claire finally get to not cry every episode? Will Hiro and Ando get to go back and be 'simple' again? Oh yeah, and WHAT HAPPENS TO SYLAR?!