Stacy-crazy boy
It's been a busy couple of days followed by a spectacularly, and typically Rochesterian, Christmas. Here's one way to explain it: I was in D.A.'s in Saratoga on Christmas Eve Eve and ran into my friend Stacy, from Saratoga, who I hadn't seen in years and years, except on Facebook which we all know doesn't count. "Stacy" is not a very specific way to describe her because I realized that (a.) I know nearly as many "Stac(e)y" people as I know Kate/Katie/Katherine derivatives and (b.) I was on track to see all four Stac(e)y people in the span of just over 24 hours. To wit:
A Guide to Recognizing Your Stac(e)y(s)
Stacy '97: This is the Stacy I hadn't seen in many years. She was a year ahead of me and most of my friends at Saratoga High, and was sort of a big-sister figure to me. We went to midnight movies sometimes and I generally looked up to her for being a confident, good-hearted nerd. I also stayed with her at Cooper Union the first time I visited New York City by myself during my 1998 fall break. Now I live in New York City and she lives far away so I'm glad I got to see her for the first time in so long, a nice bonus on the usual D.A.'s lineup of Rob, Chris, Jason, and...
Stacy '00: This is Chris's younger sister Stacy, who shares the '00 Saratoga High graduation year (I think I have that right) with a bunch of my friends' siblings; that class was totally our Little Sister Mysteries. Stacy, as mentioned, was also at D.A.'s on Christmas Eve Eve, and in fact that's sort of why I was there: not to see Stacy (not that it wasn't good to see her, as I've probably hung out with her more than any of the other Little Sister Mysteries gang), but because Chris was her driver for the evening, so that got me and Rob out downtown on a far less crowded night than Black Friday.
Aunt Stacey: Aunt Stacey is my Uncle Joel's wife. They live in the greater Rochester area, like most of my extended family. Joel and Stacey are generally delightful and their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, totally remembers my name, which is impressive because she's part of the second wave of cousins that sees me an average of twice per year, and that average is held up by the three cousins who live in Saratoga. Hooray for Cousin Elizabeth! I saw most of my extended family all at once on Christmas Eve. It's sort of overwhelming for me and I've known most of these people for all or most of my life so I can imagine it may have been more so for Marisa, who is doing her first Rochester Christmas, or Rayme, who is not named Stac(e)y but came over from Buffalo to hang out with us on Christmas Eve, which was also pretty rad. Rayme may have known even fewer people than Marisa did, but I got the feeling she actually talked to roughly half of my family at the wedding.
Cousin Stacey: Technically, not my cousin, but my cousin-in-law. Usually I wouldn't see Stacey and Stephanie for Christmas until Marisa's dad's family gets together in January, but we saw most of that side on Christmas Eve Eve Day for a memorial service, which was the very sad first leg of our multi-stop trip upstate. It sucked to see them under those circumstances, but given the sucky circumstances, it was cool to share them with the cousins-in-law.
So Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve Proper happened in a whirlwind of forgetting my backpack with my phone and camera and laptop and Tiny Furniture screener DVD (sorry, Rob and Derrick!); attending a wake; hitting Albany to see my dad before he took off for Paris; hitting Saratoga and looking for a pinball machine with Chris; and then west to Rochester for family craziness.
My family's general Christmas tradition is to not do very much on actual Christmas, especially if you've decided not to go to church anymore (check!). In fact, exchanging gifts with Marisa this morning was easily the most exciting Christmas morning I've had in several years (though it didn't involve me waking up around six in the morning and unable to fall back asleep as in Christmas mornings past) (I think think this is good. Sleeping is really awesome). Then, after lasagna, my sister and I expanded our own Christmas tradition of going to the movies to include our mom and Marisa, and made further positive changes by going to see True Grit rather than something with talking animals.
So it's interesting: the Coen Brothers just completed a wild streak of four movies in four years, which both opened and closed with a western-oriented adaptation of someone else's material. True Grit is a far more audience-friendly adventure than the doomy No Country for Old Men, and a neat change of pace from the non-westerns that followed that movie in theme if not tone. I haven't read the book or seen the previous adaptation that won John Wayne his only proper Oscar, but apparently the Coens kept a lot of the novel's language intact in the dialogue of their True Grit, and if that's the case, I understand why they wanted to make this movie the first place: it has exactly the kind of elaborate, specific language that they love to write into their own movies. It's a joy to listen to, and thanks to the Coens and their frequent cinematographer Roger Deakins, it is flat-out gorgeous to watch: his now-trademark near-white skies juxtaposed with rugged brown western landscapes and shadows. The story itself is pretty straightforward and unadorned for the Coens, though a slow start allows for some nice in-depth characterization, and also big laughs. This is a funny, exciting, beautiful, pretty much wildly entertaining little movie, an adventure tale through that dark, sardonic Coens lens, with an ending I'd call "dryly moving," if that makes any sense. It's a lot of fun.
Then my sister wanted to see the Harry Potter movie 'cause she hadn't yet, so Marisa and I went with her to that. This is actually the first time I've seen a Harry Potter movie for a second time theatrically (and probably only the second time I've rewatched a Potter movie straight through). Harry+Hermione 4-eva!!! Just kidding. Sort of. Happy Christmas and Star Wars marathon, everybody!
A Guide to Recognizing Your Stac(e)y(s)
Stacy '97: This is the Stacy I hadn't seen in many years. She was a year ahead of me and most of my friends at Saratoga High, and was sort of a big-sister figure to me. We went to midnight movies sometimes and I generally looked up to her for being a confident, good-hearted nerd. I also stayed with her at Cooper Union the first time I visited New York City by myself during my 1998 fall break. Now I live in New York City and she lives far away so I'm glad I got to see her for the first time in so long, a nice bonus on the usual D.A.'s lineup of Rob, Chris, Jason, and...
Stacy '00: This is Chris's younger sister Stacy, who shares the '00 Saratoga High graduation year (I think I have that right) with a bunch of my friends' siblings; that class was totally our Little Sister Mysteries. Stacy, as mentioned, was also at D.A.'s on Christmas Eve Eve, and in fact that's sort of why I was there: not to see Stacy (not that it wasn't good to see her, as I've probably hung out with her more than any of the other Little Sister Mysteries gang), but because Chris was her driver for the evening, so that got me and Rob out downtown on a far less crowded night than Black Friday.
Aunt Stacey: Aunt Stacey is my Uncle Joel's wife. They live in the greater Rochester area, like most of my extended family. Joel and Stacey are generally delightful and their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, totally remembers my name, which is impressive because she's part of the second wave of cousins that sees me an average of twice per year, and that average is held up by the three cousins who live in Saratoga. Hooray for Cousin Elizabeth! I saw most of my extended family all at once on Christmas Eve. It's sort of overwhelming for me and I've known most of these people for all or most of my life so I can imagine it may have been more so for Marisa, who is doing her first Rochester Christmas, or Rayme, who is not named Stac(e)y but came over from Buffalo to hang out with us on Christmas Eve, which was also pretty rad. Rayme may have known even fewer people than Marisa did, but I got the feeling she actually talked to roughly half of my family at the wedding.
Cousin Stacey: Technically, not my cousin, but my cousin-in-law. Usually I wouldn't see Stacey and Stephanie for Christmas until Marisa's dad's family gets together in January, but we saw most of that side on Christmas Eve Eve Day for a memorial service, which was the very sad first leg of our multi-stop trip upstate. It sucked to see them under those circumstances, but given the sucky circumstances, it was cool to share them with the cousins-in-law.
So Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve Proper happened in a whirlwind of forgetting my backpack with my phone and camera and laptop and Tiny Furniture screener DVD (sorry, Rob and Derrick!); attending a wake; hitting Albany to see my dad before he took off for Paris; hitting Saratoga and looking for a pinball machine with Chris; and then west to Rochester for family craziness.
My family's general Christmas tradition is to not do very much on actual Christmas, especially if you've decided not to go to church anymore (check!). In fact, exchanging gifts with Marisa this morning was easily the most exciting Christmas morning I've had in several years (though it didn't involve me waking up around six in the morning and unable to fall back asleep as in Christmas mornings past) (I think think this is good. Sleeping is really awesome). Then, after lasagna, my sister and I expanded our own Christmas tradition of going to the movies to include our mom and Marisa, and made further positive changes by going to see True Grit rather than something with talking animals.
So it's interesting: the Coen Brothers just completed a wild streak of four movies in four years, which both opened and closed with a western-oriented adaptation of someone else's material. True Grit is a far more audience-friendly adventure than the doomy No Country for Old Men, and a neat change of pace from the non-westerns that followed that movie in theme if not tone. I haven't read the book or seen the previous adaptation that won John Wayne his only proper Oscar, but apparently the Coens kept a lot of the novel's language intact in the dialogue of their True Grit, and if that's the case, I understand why they wanted to make this movie the first place: it has exactly the kind of elaborate, specific language that they love to write into their own movies. It's a joy to listen to, and thanks to the Coens and their frequent cinematographer Roger Deakins, it is flat-out gorgeous to watch: his now-trademark near-white skies juxtaposed with rugged brown western landscapes and shadows. The story itself is pretty straightforward and unadorned for the Coens, though a slow start allows for some nice in-depth characterization, and also big laughs. This is a funny, exciting, beautiful, pretty much wildly entertaining little movie, an adventure tale through that dark, sardonic Coens lens, with an ending I'd call "dryly moving," if that makes any sense. It's a lot of fun.
Then my sister wanted to see the Harry Potter movie 'cause she hadn't yet, so Marisa and I went with her to that. This is actually the first time I've seen a Harry Potter movie for a second time theatrically (and probably only the second time I've rewatched a Potter movie straight through). Harry+Hermione 4-eva!!! Just kidding. Sort of. Happy Christmas and Star Wars marathon, everybody!