1466 - Haircuts and Hippies

I last had my hair cut (other than a trim) about seven months ago. The comments I've received about it vary as time goes on. There was a "it looks great" phase, about two months in. Then there was the "get that hair trimmed" phase, followed by the "you look like a hippy" phase, and finally now the "it looks terrible, and you can't go out in public looking like that" phase. Every time I speak to Mum, the first thing she says is, "did you get a haircut yet?" It's been more of a joke lately, but it's a joke that never seems to get old (to her). It's still relatively short (except when the wind whips it up into a loose afro), and I don't think I'm done my experiment just yet. I do need to find a new hairstyle though, as I've had no positive comments in about a month now (from anyone). I can't just keep slapping gel into it, hoping to avoid the problem another day. My goal is to get to the one-year mark (five more months) with only one or two more trims. I'll evaluate things again at that time. I just hope I get there without having a gun held to my head :)

Monday evening I cooked, cleaned then watched The Royal Tenenbaums. It was really funny - so funny that I had to keep stopping it to write down quotes! Gene Hackman played an irresponsible, self-serving father with some great lines. Gwyneth Paltrow was good in the movie, playing the sad wife of a brilliant man (Bill Murray). Hackman fakes having terminal stomach cancer to get a place to stay, after being booted out of a hotel he'd lived in for twenty years. He moves into his estranged wife's home to live out his "remaining days", and through various occurences, his grown children all wind up living in the home with him. The movie is largely about the interactions of this collection of very strange and different people, each perfectly contrived to interact humourously with the others. It reminded me a lot of Arrested Development (TV show), which I've seen twice, but would like to see a lot more!

I went over to JW's after work on Tuesday. We watched You and Me and Everyone We Know (or some ordering of those words). Like The Royal Tenenbaums, the movie relied heavily on the interactions of odd characters. It was less funny, but more odd than Tenenbaums. I liked the story, and I especially liked the character played by the person who wrote it. She reminded me a bit of myself the way she had trouble interacting with people due to shyness, though instead of walking away, she would somehow generate an incredibly-awkward situation with some really interesting dialog. The movie also featured an interesting concept defined by keyboard symbols:

( )( ) << >> ( )( )

I'll leave it at that :) I liked the movie a lot. I was totally drawn into it, not even noticing the time until 1:25 into it (which is very unusual). For some reason, I'm remembering myself as a twelve-year-old, standing on the front steps of my house, yelling as loudly as I could, for no good reason. I did a lot of strange things for no good reason as a child - that's an only child for you.

Wednesday evening finally saw me finish my "new song." It's not as good as I'd hoped, but I like it. I'd put it somewhere in the middle-front of the pack as far as my songs go. It is certainly more complex than most, and it has real vocals, a first for me (though they are spoken word). It has three distinct components, which is also a first for me. It also is in 6/4 time, and the tempo changes back and forth a bit, other firsts.

Thursday evening was wild! I went to Rogue's Roost to catch the final show for a member of a local band. The place was pretty empty at first, but by the time the band went on stage it was packed. It was kind of sad really, because of all the people in the bar, my group was probably the least friends with the band member, yet we sat the closest. Even worse, we sat there straight-faced, looking fairly bored a lot of the time (drunk). The band is called "The Plugs," though they were joined by the brother of one of my friends on the drums to form "The Wives," their other band. Apparently, the brother is going to take the place of the departing member.

I somehow managed to drink two pitchers of beer plus two other drinks. I was drunk - big time. AD drove and did not drink, but his car was already full, so I left the bar around 12:15 to catch the last bus, not really knowing when it came. Of course, I watched it pass by in front of me yet again (missing the bus has been my life's theme the past few weeks). I called the bus line, only to find that all buses were now out of service. I started on the long, cold walk home, only to be passed five minutes later by a bus that would've taken me most of the way home. Instead, I was forced to run/stumble all the way home. Once home, I forced down a glass of water and went to bed. It was a good night, and I got to see: AN, AB, AD, RD, JP, TA, AB, RD (another one), IF and D?.

Friday wasn't too bad, considering. I woke up early and drank more water before sleeping in a bit. I had a headache, and my muscles ached a bit. I literally just caught the bus, a surprising twist of fate. The guy getting on ahead of me even commented on how perfect my timing was. I listened to a woman talk about having children in high school.

After work, I picked up the car, got some groceries, and headed home as it started to snow. It was a bad storm - snow, ice and a lot of wind. Unable to leave the house, I watched Dodgeball, a movie about, strangely enough, Dodgeball. It starred Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn. Stiller, the owner of a upclass gym, tries to buy a deeply-in-debt "Average Joe" gym across the street, owned by Vaughn. Vaughn gets a team of his members together to enter a Dodgeball tournament - of course, the Average Joe's are anything but. One of them acts like a pirate, another plays roughly the same oddball character as he did in Office Space (the guy who'd been fired years ago but hadn't been told, who winds up working in the basement of the office). The characters are bumbling, lovable idiots, so naturally, you root for them. The middle part of the movie is physical comedy at it's best - no one is spared. I love watching someone get hit in the face by a thrown wrench. The last third of the movie, and the worst third, follows the team in a Dodgeball tournament (put on by the American Dodgeball Association of America), where they pick up win after unbelievable win, ultimately winning the tournament, and enough money to save Vaughn's gym (and take over Stiller's in the process - props to Vegas).

Saturday was a day for gettings things done. I had perhaps my most productive day in many months. I cleaned the upstairs bathroom (and I mean CLEANED - I didn't just rub a dry cloth across the floor and declare victory). I got some exercise on my cross-trainer. I also re-organized my filing cabinet. Finally, I looked into yoga classes and into potential vacation spots for JW and I. Later on in the day, it got really nice - it was sunny and really warm - in stark contrast to the night before. Talk about instant gratification! I was getting really antsy to go outside when JW called - she'd been out dress-shopping for her friend's wedding. We went to the Dingle to soak up the last few rays of the day. JW was in an energetic mood, and it caught me totally by surprise. It was kind of fun actually, to have her jumping around like a frog, dancing along a retainer wall along the water.

After the Dingle, we drove further out toward Crystal Crescent, only to stop at a frozen lake, where the ice had been pushed up along the shore to form really awesome structures. The ice itself was made up of straight up-and-down fragments of ice - in some places, these fragments had somehow arranged themselves to look like ice flowers - it was really cool. We watched the sun set, then headed into town for a bite to eat.

We wound up at Taj Mahal, after being rejected by Talay Thai (or Thai Chin - I get the two mixed up). They serve Indian food, and I'd been meaning to try it again. The restaurant was darker than the streets outside, so we lit a few extra candles for ourselves. We ordered a lamb-in-sauce dish - the sauce was rated three peppers, and it was crazy hot - somewhere between hot and suicide wings at most places. The lamb tasted really good, but I often swallowed it quickly to spare myself unnecessary agony. We also ordered a limey chicken dish, supposely with a cashew paste. It was tangy and tasty. Rice and naan bread rounded out the meal. I love bread, and the naan was no exception.

After the meal, we went back to JW's and watched Crash, a movie about racism. It is a multi-plot movie that movies back and forth across five or so story lines. I was able to rule out the multi-plot mechanism as being the element of Love, Actually (I'm not going back and putting quotes around my movie titles) that I didn't like, because I really liked Crash. It was really tense - people were constantly getting into arguments laced with racial slurs. No one trusted anyone else. People were corrupt, though the end of the movie was used to largely highlight the personal growth most the characters underwent. The ending was eerily similar to Love, Actually, except without the romance. There was the music, the slow motion, the quicker scene changes, happy endings (there were some sad ones though), etc. I felt like I was being manipulated (big time), and I wasn't about to let the director get me that easily. I went from being totally engrossed in the movie to being on the outside looking in. The ending was just too much. But overall, I really liked the movie - maybe I'll stop it fifteen minutes from the end next time :)

Sunday morning, JW and I walked over to Cora's for brunch. It was my first visit there since I'd been there with my family (including my grandfather - the lone time he'd agreed to go somewhere other than Smitty's). The menu is amazing - so much delicious fruit. JW had sausages wrapped in glutin-free pastry with old-cheddar, plus an impressive side of fruit. I had some kind of hot cross bun/cinnamon bun/french toast hybrid that was pretty tasty, but it got upstaged by a few strips of common bacon. I also had a scrambled egg that I could've done without. Mine had fruit too, but it wasn't as good as JW's.

After Cora's, we walked over to Winchester's, a wedding/prom dress joint, where they thank you for removing your shoes before you've even done so. I enjoyed our visit - I got to see JW in several beautiful dresses - she looked great in them all, but there was one that I really liked in particular. I hope I get to see her in whatever dress she decides upon.

We walked back to JW's over Citadel Hill. It was wet and muddy, but nice and far from the traffic below.

I had a fun weekend - the weather was great (after Friday), and it felt like spring for the first time. I'm looking forward to golf - if lucky, I'll be playing in a month and a half. I dreampt about it last night, but the course I was playing had no greens (that I could find), and thus no holes. So it was kind of pointless. I also didn't like it when the old man that owned the course chased after me with a gun (the course wasn't open yet - apparently I'd snuck on).

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

I’m currently listening to: Accidents, from Watch Out! by Alexisonfire.

Movies watched this week: The Royal Tenenbaums, You and Me and Everyone We Know, Dodgeball, Crash