Cough hack gasp
I'm staying home today due to sinus infection/bad cold/allergy attack/something. It started last weekend when the weather was preparing to change with a bunch of crap in my chest that I can't stop hacking up and general exhaustion, but yesterday I could actually feel my tonsil swelling up into my ear, so I decided today was going to be a sick day. I envy people who can take a sick day without planning it out like a major battle . . . lesson plans for the sub, explanations about student teacher/special needs kids in last period, negotiations w/ principal and other teacher about saturday school/composition for one studnet, student council applications, lesson plans for the next week, saturday school referrals (including calls to parents) . . . all dealt with while feeling like crap. However, I've had some sleep, I'm going to have more sleep, and I'm actually experiencing a few hours of quiet time in between. Wow.
I'm thinking I need to restructure the story I'm working on to start at the end and back-track. There's just not enough *drama* in the actual rising action portion. If I present it in flashbacks while dealing with the fall-out, I can skip the boring parts. Of course, that means I have to scrap over 2,000 words . . . well, maybe some of them can be recycled into the flashback scenes. I dunno. I think this weekend will be a writing/sleeping/hacking up lungs weekend. I have tea and honey, though. It'll be all right.
It must be a little chilly in my house. Two cats so far have come to sit on my lap at different times, and both of them keep tucking their noses under my wrists. Which makes for interesting typing.
I hate to say this, because I try to avoid being a female-regular-hater just because they're female. But Bela? I just don't like her. At best, she's boring. Maybe it's because the only character depth we have on her is that she apparently had something to do with a family member's death, which we got in the last few minutes of the second episode with her in it. Other than that, she's just a smug, self-centered thief with no compassion or humanity. I mean, Sam's going to die without the rabbit's foot, but she's more concerned about money. All those people who saw the boat? Dead, but she cares about the money. (I'll grant you, the brothers probably deserved it, but what about the chick who doesn't know how to conserve water?) It's hard to have sympathy for people who consistently act like asses. Also, to be honest, something about the actress or the way she's playing this part grates on me. Maybe it's just that I find her hard to look at. She's pretty, don't get me wrong. But there's some bizarre combination of the highlights of her hair, the color of her eyes, and the shade of lipstick she was wearing that are, like, all exactly the same reflectiveness. I kept thinking, she's all one color. It was disturbing.
Ruby, on the other hand, is interesting. This may be because I just like the actress better, but we have a bit of built-in depth in that she's a demon fighting other demons for mysterious reasons. We learn that, by the way, in the first episode she has a real role in . . . we didn't have to wait and see nothing but her kicking ass in a super-duper-mary-sue kind of way. Also, *if* it turns out that she has some connection to Mary, I'm not going to be surprised. I'm not sure why I think this, unless it was because I'd forgotten the spoiler that she was a demon and the blonde hair made me think "Mary's relative" in the first episode she was really in. But then, having completely forgotten that, something she said made me think the same thing in the episode with the exposition-demon, so who knows? Anyway, I'm probably wrong, but if I'm right, I'm reserving an "I totally called it".
I like the ongoing car arguments. Someone said they were retreading old ground, but isn't that how unresolveable arguments go? Dean's locked into his heroic martyr role, Sam's determined to save him, and neither is really giving an inch. I think maybe Sam made Dean think last night, though, between the guilt of "I can't really save anyone (and by anyone I mean you, Dean, in case you weren't paying attention)," and the "I don't want you to live for me, I want you to get over your self-pity trip and live for yourself (because really, if you go? I'm going to be totally alone, and yeah, I *can* do it, but why would I want to?)."
I loved Gert, but I cringed at how heavy-handed that dancing scene was. I think if they'd switched to something different instead of the second dancing scene, it would have been somewhat funny, but as it was, it was mostly sad. *Or*, if Sam had been less uncomfortable and more willing to play the attentive suitor. Or something. Still, that actress had awesome hair. And speaking of too long scenes, the tux-reveal was too . . . something. Self-conscious of how pretty Dean is. Plus, his tie wasn't laying right, but whatever . . . it was just too deliberately "OMGDEANINATUX!!!!". It would have been sexier if they hadn't smacked us in the face with it. I did like Dean's little moments when he was obviously drifting into fantasy, though. That was funny.
All in all, not a terrible episode but not a brilliant one, either.
I'm thinking I need to restructure the story I'm working on to start at the end and back-track. There's just not enough *drama* in the actual rising action portion. If I present it in flashbacks while dealing with the fall-out, I can skip the boring parts. Of course, that means I have to scrap over 2,000 words . . . well, maybe some of them can be recycled into the flashback scenes. I dunno. I think this weekend will be a writing/sleeping/hacking up lungs weekend. I have tea and honey, though. It'll be all right.
It must be a little chilly in my house. Two cats so far have come to sit on my lap at different times, and both of them keep tucking their noses under my wrists. Which makes for interesting typing.
I hate to say this, because I try to avoid being a female-regular-hater just because they're female. But Bela? I just don't like her. At best, she's boring. Maybe it's because the only character depth we have on her is that she apparently had something to do with a family member's death, which we got in the last few minutes of the second episode with her in it. Other than that, she's just a smug, self-centered thief with no compassion or humanity. I mean, Sam's going to die without the rabbit's foot, but she's more concerned about money. All those people who saw the boat? Dead, but she cares about the money. (I'll grant you, the brothers probably deserved it, but what about the chick who doesn't know how to conserve water?) It's hard to have sympathy for people who consistently act like asses. Also, to be honest, something about the actress or the way she's playing this part grates on me. Maybe it's just that I find her hard to look at. She's pretty, don't get me wrong. But there's some bizarre combination of the highlights of her hair, the color of her eyes, and the shade of lipstick she was wearing that are, like, all exactly the same reflectiveness. I kept thinking, she's all one color. It was disturbing.
Ruby, on the other hand, is interesting. This may be because I just like the actress better, but we have a bit of built-in depth in that she's a demon fighting other demons for mysterious reasons. We learn that, by the way, in the first episode she has a real role in . . . we didn't have to wait and see nothing but her kicking ass in a super-duper-mary-sue kind of way. Also, *if* it turns out that she has some connection to Mary, I'm not going to be surprised. I'm not sure why I think this, unless it was because I'd forgotten the spoiler that she was a demon and the blonde hair made me think "Mary's relative" in the first episode she was really in. But then, having completely forgotten that, something she said made me think the same thing in the episode with the exposition-demon, so who knows? Anyway, I'm probably wrong, but if I'm right, I'm reserving an "I totally called it".
I like the ongoing car arguments. Someone said they were retreading old ground, but isn't that how unresolveable arguments go? Dean's locked into his heroic martyr role, Sam's determined to save him, and neither is really giving an inch. I think maybe Sam made Dean think last night, though, between the guilt of "I can't really save anyone (and by anyone I mean you, Dean, in case you weren't paying attention)," and the "I don't want you to live for me, I want you to get over your self-pity trip and live for yourself (because really, if you go? I'm going to be totally alone, and yeah, I *can* do it, but why would I want to?)."
I loved Gert, but I cringed at how heavy-handed that dancing scene was. I think if they'd switched to something different instead of the second dancing scene, it would have been somewhat funny, but as it was, it was mostly sad. *Or*, if Sam had been less uncomfortable and more willing to play the attentive suitor. Or something. Still, that actress had awesome hair. And speaking of too long scenes, the tux-reveal was too . . . something. Self-conscious of how pretty Dean is. Plus, his tie wasn't laying right, but whatever . . . it was just too deliberately "OMGDEANINATUX!!!!". It would have been sexier if they hadn't smacked us in the face with it. I did like Dean's little moments when he was obviously drifting into fantasy, though. That was funny.
All in all, not a terrible episode but not a brilliant one, either.