Mishaps and other haps

1) Taxes have been filed!

2) (The Matrix)(Dogma)/The Exorcist = Constantine?

I think that if Keanu keeps playing the same kind of roles long enough, in fifty years people are going to say “Whoa, he is a good actor!” I am predicting that he will live a very long time and have a lengthy career. I also think he will age well. So he started off a bit green, but in about thirty years, Keanu is going to be a suave, sexy leading man. White hat.

3) I am currently reading The Time Traveler’s Wife. I am enjoying it immensely, judging by the pace at which I am flying through it, and would recommend it to certain friends of mine who keep lists of things that they plan to do if they ever have the chance to travel through time. Also, it brings up an important question: if I ever ran into my past or future self, would I try to get into her pants?

Well, it certainly gives me something to consider as I begin a fresh, new week.

Speaking of which, I would like to dedicate this week to Julie, my sister, who will be celebrating her 24th birthday on Wednesday. Happy birthday, sis!

Sometimes it is good to have a nap with someone you care about.

It gives you a better shot at escaping if the ninjas should attack while you are sleeping.

I turned on PBS this morning (probably the most-watched of the 7 cable-free channels I have) and there was a program on about a community in Alabama that used to have a large plantation with slaves. After the slaves were freed, many of them stayed in the area and now many of their descendants still live there– as attested to by the last name the freed slaves had been given.

So I wondered why anyone would want to stay in a place where their family had previously been enslaved. Wouldn’t that be a place with horrible memories and reminders? Wouldn’t a new place mark a fresh start? Or would leaving the community simply prompt people to forget about their history and heritage?

And someone at work yesterday was wondering outloud why people often rebuild their home in the same place after it has been destroyed by a natural disaster like a hurricane, an earthquake, or a mudslide. She suggested that people were either idiots or did not believe that another natural disaster would happen– I think she was looking for a quick and easy answer that justified her opinion about this course of action.

*****
When it comes right down to it, the reason for staying must be strongly rooted in the emotional definition of home– family, friends, familiar places, memories– both pleasant and unpleasant memories are a strong magnet for place. Sense of self can be very connected to place.

Practical considerations such as employment and money also must play a part, but I think that the overriding force is emotional attachment. We have no control over the circumstances that bring us into the world, but we immediately start making connections to our surroundings and our people. I think that people have an intelligent predisposition for logic and reason, but it takes a lot of time to develop these skills. Emotion is sort of tangled at our roots.

This might help explain why my logical, reasonable parents made the decision last year to “ride out” the hurricane that hit near them, rather than evacuate as many did and as authorities were urging. The decision had to be made before the outcome of the action could really be estimated very well. I was appalled by this decision when they made it, but now I understand something about them that I didn’t understand before and I feel like I know them a little better.

Now the reasons they gave to explain their actions were very logical. My parents are very logical and very reasonable people. But it would have been much more logical and reasonable to get the hell away from the projected landfall. So sometimes the reasons people give as explanations are not what is really driving them deep down. Maybe they just can’t always identify, or maybe they don’t want to admit, the emotional drive.

Granted, I did not accomplish everything on my list of things to do this weekend. However, I did take care of several things that were about fall into the “time-crunch” category.

I also slept a lot, which is good because around 4:00 Saturday morning, I was ready for a nice, long coma.

I registered for PAX, which was not a time-crunch issue, but committing to it now means that I can plan ahead.

Some cleaning and scheming happened.

I finally saw “Titanic.” I was waiting until all the hype died down.

Oh, and Friday night I saw “Hero” and watched “Chronicles of Riddick” for the second time.

Studio Ghibli, in conjunction with Disney, is supposed to release a couple more Miyazaki films to DVD this week. That could be exciting.

GRAD SCHOOL! MLITIAGRL! PARTY!

w00t!

After celebrating Not Valentine’s Day with the previously mentioned fun, cute boyfriend person, I decided to stop for some videos that might provide viewing pleasure for tomorrow night. I selected three DVDs, took them to the counter, & engaged the counter guy in conversation because I wanted to know if they had the first season of Invader Zim, which is either out or soon-to-be out. They did not. It was sad. But I had three good selections in hand, so I decided to check them out and pay. I gave the counter guy my account number.

Then the guy told me I had $17.50 in late charges. So I asked “What for?” because I didn’t remember returning anything late, much less late enough to rack up almost $20 in late fees. And he told me the title. (If you haven’t figured this out yet, see subject line)

I was on the cusp of falling on my ass, laughing. I said “Are you serious?” in the defaultlisa voice that really means “Are you fucking with me?” So then I gave him my membership card so that he could type in my account number correctly. Apparently, he had typed in the account number of one “Lori” by accident. At that point, we speculated about the likelihood that “Anal Princess 2″ would need multiple viewings in order to understand the plot, thus explaining Lori’s huge late fee. Sorry, Lori– we had a laugh at your expense.

Then I said “I’ve got to go home and blog about this!”

There is a boy. I suppose he is really sort of a grown-up boy, just to clarify. I guess the thing that stumps me (and I usually keep this to myself) is how anybody can meet him and not immediately and completely fall in love with him. I guess I didn’t, but I am an idiot sometimes.

There was a lot of laughter today. It felt good.

So I just had my first massage by a CMT and I am really relaxed. My fingers have a whole new feel when they hit the keyboard. Anybody wanna cuddle?

But yeah, I would pay to have this done pretty frequently if I had the money.

I was not sure how I would feel about being mostly naked in a room with a complete stranger doing massagey things to muscles. But it was fine. There was no need to remove my socks, anyway. And there were sheets and a blanket on the table.

For 5 minutes or so, it was sort of unusual to have a person I had just met maybe 10 minutes earlier touching my neck and shoulders. Which is sort of sad in a way. People stay isolated in little “don’t touch me” zones. Sometimes, I am like that– very “keep your distance”, standoffish– especially with people I do not know. It made me feel happy to have the tension leaving. I relaxed more after that and I think if I had this done frequently, I would just melt into a tensionless glob immediately at the beginning of every massage.

The aromatherapy and music bits were just the right amounts. Not enough to annoy me (although if I had allergies in the moderate to severe range, the aroma stuff might be a problem) and just enough to make me feel relaxed when I walked in.

Hey, all you vegetarians who eat FISH:

There is a word to describe you now. No, not that word.

It’s pescetarian.

Maybe it has always been a word, but I just discovered it was in use on another site.