Hope for the Hopeless

We can't all be wrong.

Consequently, I very much enjoyed Sarah Palin's appearance on SNL. That opening was one of the best things I've ever seen on the show. And Amy Poehler...whoa. That's one serious baby bump. But you totally rocked it with the rap.

I had the junket this wkend for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. After my last blog about the movie, my friend Lyndsay had asked for my true advice as to whether she should see the movie. I told her if she was a film buff looking for a great film, sure. If, however, she was looking for an entertaining weekend movie...not so much. It was a great talking point to kick off my junket interviews tho. (Thanks again, L!) How do you tell your friends to see a movie that will break their hearts? I posed it to everyone. They all had thoughtful answers as to why the movie is so important and relevant and bigger than its heartbreaking story line. But I most enjoyed the response from the movie's director Mark Herman. "Sometimes it's good to get your heart broken." Wow.

After the junket (which also included a fun discussion about intrauterine hiccups with Vera Farmiga) I got my eyebrows waxed and unsuccessfully hunted for a new pair of jeans.

Then it was off to the Huntington botanical Gardens with NDG and pals. It was for an event called Drama After Dark: A Night of the Macabre with Poe and Gorey. I am not a haunted house or scary anything kind of person. (She says as she is obscenely obsessed with a book series about vampires.) But I am a literature person. And Poe was nothing if not a literary. Picture candlelit monologues of your favorite Poe works interspersed with flashlight walks through the gardens. It was super enjoyable, and beneficial, as I had apparently combined every Poe story into one crazy drama wherein someone was buried in the floor, and then bricked into the wall, and there was a Raven and a one-eyed cat...I've been set straight now.

There was a brief moment in the evening when I was sitting next to the youngest member of our party and we were discussing the challenges of growing up and the struggles of 6th and 7th grade. When she told me she was about to turn 12, I did the quick math and turned to her in horror. "Wait, so, you were born in 1996?!" I think she was in awe of my mad subtraction skills as she innocently replied "Yep." My horror continued as I told her that while she was being born I was in the middle of finals my FRESHMAN YEAR OF COLLEGE. WhuWhat? I have obviously met people younger than me and remember when several of my cousins who are now mostly grown up were born, but to sit next to someone and have them tell you they were born the year you graduated high school is a startling moment.

I had a Lazy Sunday lounging and reading and wandering around my neighborhood. Oh wait, then I bought curtains. Chocolate brown. To block out the sun in my bedroom so I can sleep past 7:30a on the weekends. I've never bought window treatments before, and I don't have a lot of confidence in my abilities to do so, but the guy who checked me out at Bed Bath and Beyonce told me I could return them if they're "all wrong." I think I might need a third panel as I'm attempting to cover the window and the door. I measured and everything, but curtains don't come in very many different widths so we'll see how it goes...

NDG and I capped off the weekend by seeing The Secret Life of Bees. I liked it. I cried tho. A lot. But not in the heartbreaking way of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This was more of a common-for-me movie cry wherein the tears run down your face and neck and don't stop until they're puddling somewhere near your belly button. Dakota Fanning brought it - and brought me to tears. A LOT. And I can't believe we never would have known about Jennifer Hudson had it not been for American Idol. That is crazy. Alicia Keys. On the cello. Great performances all around.

I read the book a couple of years ago and enjoyed it, so I'm always apprehensive about movie adaptations. As I walked out of the theater, I heard the woman behind me say, "she did such a good job of adapting it." Always looking for community, I turned around and said "I was just thinking the same thing!" I was looking right into the face of Regina King. You know her from Jerry Maguire, Friday, 227...We commisserated briefly about our love for the book and then went on our separate ways.

Then it was off to The Waffle for perhaps the best scrambled eggs I've ever had in my entire life. That's saying a lot because I love me some scrambled eggs and have them quite frequently. They were so fluffy and the color of perfection and super amazing.

I have a busy week ahead, but I'm mostly looking forward to it. I see Synechdoche, New York tonight. I was supposed to see "The Changeling" Weds, but now instead I'm covering the "Role Models" premiere. I super wanna see The Changeling, but I would much rather find myself face to face with this guy:

Not to mention my buddy Seann William Scott. I have high hopes for that red carpet. (If you'll remember, I luerved the movie.) I hope they're not too high (my hopes, that is...not the actors).

The title "Hope for the Hopeless" references the A Fine Frenzy I was jamming to thanks to Pandora when I began this blog. And now it's over. The end.