Happy Birthday Jackson Pollock

Today is Jackson Pollock's birthday, and you can celebrate by going here and making your own Jackson Pollock style painting. Just move your mouse over the white screen, click your mouse to change the color of the paint. I had way too much fun doing this. Now I am going to drink some coffee or go to bed. This week my body has decided that by 5:00 it is done, and ready for bed. It tells me this by giving me a giant headache as soon as I get home from work. Doesn't it know that after work is playtime?!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

On Friday, I left work at noon. I had some comp time, and so I made my shortened week even shorter. I was really looking forward to a date night with Kevin, and that's what we had. We ate dinner at a tasty and cheap happy hour, and then we went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I had been wanting to see the movie for quite some time, and I convinced Kevin that it would be worth the money spent (why do movies tickets cost as much as a tank of gas?). I won't say anything about the movie, except that it deserved the 13 Academy Award nominations it received. But you should also read F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story that the movie is based on.

While the movie was great, the actual movie-going experience was even more interesting. Imagine with me, if you will the following.

We arrived about 30 minutes before the movie was set to begin. The theatre employees were cleaning the theatre, and so a large group of us waited for the doors to open. I was surprised to see how many people arrived early. Some of the crowd was restless. A woman and her son walked up to Kevin and I, and another couple standing near us (we were at the front of the line), and she asked us "did someone tell you that we can't go in?" We explained that the room was being cleaned. I wanted to say something more rude to her, insulted that she would question why we were staying outside. But I didn't. Thank God. One woman got tired of waiting and just walked right into the theatre. I thought it was funny, because the employees walked out about 1 minute later. Little did I know that that impatient lady would majorly influence my entire experience that night.

We chose two seats sort of in the middle of the theatre, and only one row in front of the impatient lady. 7:00 on Friday night is apparently the time to see a movie, because the theatre filled up very quickly. A couple sat down to my left, and we all settled in for the previews. During the previews impatient lady would clap- for example, she clapped for a commercial for the Marines, she clapped during a preview for a movie in which Jaime Foxx is starring. She clapped every time his face popped onto the screen. After his preview she exclaimed "Yaaaaaayyyy!" The movie began and her clapping had stopped.

About 30 minutes into the movie I smelled food. Not movie food. I smelled a meal. I looked over and the person next to me was eating what I can only imagine was an onion burrito. It was so smelly I could hardly stand it. I placed a redvine between my upper lip and nose like a mustache and breathed it in deeply. Smelling an artificial cherry scent rather than the Mexican fiesta to my left.

I was dealing with the smell, and the clapping had ceased, so all seemed well again. Until Brad Pitt made his on-screen entrance. Impatient lady REALLY likes Brad you see. Every time she saw his face, bare chest, back, arm, or anything she would sigh heavily, and say "oh, there he is. mmmmm hmmmmmmm." To the point that it was just gross.

Meanwhile a small child sitting a couple seats down from impatient lady decided to eat every piece of ice in his soda cup- with his mouth open. He picked the most inopportune times to crunch that ice. It would be a very quiet and/or emotional scene and you would hear "crunch, crunch, crunch." It was hard not to imagine smacking the ice out of his hand, and throwing the onion burrito to the other side of theatre, and telling impatient lady that "we get that Brad Pitt is hot, but keep it to yourself." Thankfully I did not give into these strong urges, and at some point all these annoyances became a part of the experience. It will probably take a lot to get me back to the theatre, but at least it was for a great movie.

It's Been Too Long

Don't you think so? Apparently my friend Lindsay does. She's threatened (what I can only assume is) physical violence if I didn't blog soon ( she said, "blog, or else"). She's quiet, but I think her "or else" is actually quite scary if you know her well enough, or if you've lived with her, as I have.

I don't have much to say, or even a well-formed blog idea today. But tonight, Kevin and I spent some time being very L.A. Actually, we were being very much ourselves but it fits an L.A. stereotype. Tonight we went out to eat wearing short sleeves, and driving with the windows down in the gorgeous 80 degree weather. We went out for sushi, and then we stopped by Pinkberry for dessert. I had original with raspberries and blackberries, if you're familiar with the system. Anyway As we were walking in downtown Pasadena, everywhere I looked I saw men and women who were near perfection. Perfect hair, perfect clothes, perfect cars, perfect shoes, perfectly white teeth- you get the picture. Now, it's not as though there weren't imperfect people sharing these sidewalks. The problem (for me) was that the imperfect, or even average individuals were far outnumbered. Outnumbered by women wearing skin-tight dresses that barely covered their bottoms, by men driving hideously bright $100,000+ cars, and everyone filling their cars with bags and bags of merchandise.

Kevin and I talk a lot about what we will do after he graduates. One of the options is to stay here,* but it is hard for me to imagine raising children in this area. Of course there are millions of hurting people in LA county who need salvation. I know that the Lord will guide us as we make our next steps, and if we stay here, I am sure he will provide me with the wisdom I will need to raise a family here. But on nights like tonight, I feel overwhelmed by the excess of LA culture.

*Please note that we still have no idea of what we actually be doing next, or where.