I feel all keyed up.

[annakovsky]

So I had a good Thanksgiving, how about you guys? Both my brothers were home, and we played a lot of Wii, and I pulled some arm muscles "running," which was vaguely humiliating. The weird thing about Nintendo Wii is that it's a video game system my parents can play, so we had a lot of family time doing that. My dad is weirdly good at the long jump in the Mario Olympics. I don't even know. We also went to the movies -- my dad and brothers all wanted to see No Country for Old Men, and my dad, knowing that my mom and I didn't want to see it, said to rockstar!bro, "Well, maybe we can see that one, and the girls can see Enchanted instead." Me and my mom, overhearing, were like, HEY. But, uh, then that's exactly what we did. What can I say, sometimes you do in fact want to see the princess movie instead of some stupid gritty realism Cormac McCarthy movie, even if it is vaguely insulting when male family members suggest that. Ha. (And, I must say, my mom and I were in MUCH better moods coming out of the theater than the boys were, so whatevs!)

Spent a lot of time with family friends over the break, too. Here is a story: so, I am not Jewish. However, we have a really close family friend who is -- I've known him and his family since I was a little kid, they're practically like extended family, etc. And he's been super psyched ever since I started learning Hebrew... 8 years ago, to the point where he has spent those 8 years forwarding to me any and all Jewish jokes he gets on email, as though learning biblical Hebrew has somehow given me a Jewish mother. It's really cute. And he always teases me that he prays for me to marry a Jewish doctor -- I don't even know. (His wife isn't even Jewish, you guys. His daughters didn't marry Jewish. And yet.) SO. It turns out he really must mean this, because we're out to lunch with them, and my mom, for some reason known only to herself, mentions this guy friend of mine with a very Jewish name. At this point, apparently my family friend lost his head and forgot I'm not actually related to him, because this introduced a series of increasingly personal questions about this guy, starting with "Is he taller than you?" and ending with, "Well, if he wants to take you out, tell him he'll have to call me first!" Hahahahahaha. At this point his wife said, "You're so NOSY," and my mom said, "AARON, I said he was a friend of hers, not that he was taking her out." To which he said, "Well, why wouldn't he want to take her out?" Hahahahahahaha oh my god. Thanks, everyone, for making this meal really awkward for me.

Being at my parents' house was also weirdly like going to Television Cultural Exchange Sleepaway Camp or something, because I watched a lot of TV I do not normally watch, and saw an awful lot of fandom alumni unexpectedly. Luke from Gilmore Girls on Aliens in America! Jayne from Firefly on Chuck! Sookie from Gilmore Girls on Samantha Who?! Faith from BtVS on Ugly Betty! Matt from Seventh Heaven on Samantha Who?! (shut up) Rachael Harris from the Daily Show on Notes from the Underbelly! I-I'm glad to see all you guys are working?

Unfortunately, now I too am back working. :-( And today in the class I help teach, like half the professor's lecture was unexpectedly directly related to storylines in my life to a degree that actually really creeped me out. Like, is it just me, or has whoever's writing the script of reality lately gotten really lazy and unsubtle? It's practically season 4 of Buffy all up in here. Is this because of the writer's strike?

Now for the real point of this post, last night's SVU: HOLY CRAP, YOU GUYS, THAT WAS REALLY GOOD. How do they DO that, and why don't they make it that good all the time? I very much enjoyed how they took the second half of the episode and were like, "Screw Law, we're doing angst instead." Also, does Kathy Stabler have two husbands or what?

1. That hug at the end, you guys, omg, ohmygod, OH MY GOD. I can't even. I cannot. Even. The way they clung to each other? The look on their FACES? That was like the most fraught thing I've ever seen, good lord. WHY AREN'T THEY DOING IT? Er, I mean, why aren't they showing us them doing it, since they CLEARLY ARE OFF SCREEN GOOD GOD?
2. The whole episode was even good. What was THAT? I liked how they gave Meloni all those quiet scenes to play, instead of the raging scenery chewing kind, because he was AMAZING. Him and Kathy giving that kid a bath? The conversation about whether the baby's his? That little kid clinging to him? Oh man. Good work, sir.
3. I never really thought I'd say THIS, but Mariska was ALSO really knocking it out of the parking acting wise. Good work to you too, sir!
4. I was all prepared after the "Mormons make the best nannies" thing for the episode to be ridiculous and offensive like most SVU episodes, too, it really threw me off.
5. I am so glad they didn't name that baby Oliver.
6. DID I MENTION THE HUG AT THE END?
7. As an aside, when Olivia was investigating the girl's internet boyfriend or whatever and said, "34 emails in 8 days" like that was a ridiculously large amount to send, moireach and I burst into hysterical laughter. M-maybe we send too many emails. (Haha, not just to each other, to other people. That sounded weird.) After our laughter died down, M said, "The only thing sadder than Olivia saying that was our reaction." True.
8. Kathy's lucky that one of her husbands remembers her doctor's appointments.
9. I know the actress playing Kathy was doing a distressed/in pain expression, but with Olivia's hands cradling her face like that, it really, really read as a "This is so incredibly socially awkward" face. Kathy's had nightmares about her and Olivia like this, you guys. Haha, when she passed out, and then came to again, M said, "Right now, she's thinking, 'Oh God, it's still happening,'" and that's pretty much exactly what her face looked like. Ahahahaha.
10. So, do you remember that part when they hugged? That was pretty good.