this post is eggnog and fruitcake-free
How I Spent My Winter Break (The Cliff Notes Version)
by Anne H.
- Christmas morning I went to the movies with my cousins, both younger and older. P.A. took the little ones to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. Just typing that out gives me the shudders, though to be quite honest, I think P.A. got more out of the movie than the young'uns because she kept singing "Single Ladies" throughout the day. Phong and I, being too cool for singing rodents, opted for Sherlock Holmes. It was an enjoyable movie experience, and even though it was a bit light on plot, it didn't really matter because the focus was on Holmes and Watson's relationship. And as much as I like Rachel McAdams and Kelly Reilly, I couldn't help but think, "Why are there girls in this movie? This is totally the Holmes/Watson show!" (Oh, what would the feminists say about me wanting to throw out the entire Bechdel Rule?) Later when I went to use the restroom after the movie ended, I couldn't unlock the stall door from the inside so I had to crawl out from underneath it in order to get out. It was humiliating, yes, but in the words of William Wallace, it was for freedom!
- I mostly received cash as gifts, because that's how my family rolls, but I did get three more books from the Coralie Bickford-Smith Penguin Classics series (Pride and Prejudice, Tess of the D'Ubervilles, and Sense and Sensibility), so I just need three more before my collection is complete. Well, four more if I'm going off of the original UK series, but I fear that I may never get my hands on a copy of Madame Bovary. Boo.
- I played one of the Scene It? board games with Kimberly and Michael, and I'm not kidding when I say that I completely kicked their asses. I was way ahead for most of the game, and I won pretty much all of the All Play challenges, so I'm almost sure that they won't want me to play with them anymore. Hey, I can't help it if I've got a head for entertainment trivia. I mean, I even know shit about movies I've never seen before. I answered a question about Rollergirl from Boogie Nights even though I have never watched it and probably never will.
- I learned that I'm never going to get my Band of Brothers DVD back from Michael. I lent them to him a few months ago, and he told me the other day that he hasn't even gotten around to watching the first episode. Yep, never going to see them again.
- P.A., after hearing so much about my apple pies, asked me to make two pies for the family: one sugar-free for the diabetics and one with sugar for everyone else (though I opted to turn the single sugared pie into mini apple-shaped pies with the help of my super cute mold from Williams-Sonoma). Everyone else really enjoyed the pies, which A) I found surprising because normally they don't care much for western desserts, and B) was good because it meant that I hadn't slaved for hours over them for nothing. In fact, the pies went over so well that every time I've seen my relatives since, they kept asking when I'm going to make more even though they all claimed to want to start eating healthier after the holidays. They're practically as rabid about my pies as zombies are for brains!
- Speaking of zombies, I finally watched Zombieland yesterday after having saved it to my laptop over a month ago. I just learned that I can transfer movies onto my USB drive and watch them on a regular-sized TV via our PS3, huzzah! Anyway, I fucking loved this movie! It's so smartly written, and it succeeds on all levels as a comedy/horror/romance/road trip flick. Loved the callbacks to Columbus' rules for survival, and honestly, has Woody Harrelson ever been better? For those of who saw it and loved it as well (paging Angie!), I highly recommend listening to this Q&A with screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. They talk about the ideas for the different actors they had in mind for the celebrity cameo, and everyone one is hilarious and awesome. I wish they could have shot them all and included them as extras on the DVD.
- Oh, and I did some laundry.
THE END