"After the Thin Man"

I saw The Thin Man at the Times Cinema tonight and it was as great, if not better than I remembered it from four years ago. It is such a charming film and I really had a fun time reexperiencing it again, this time with friends, Jay and Amanda. I think they enjoyed it as well.

My brother did a bang-up job at the theater tonight, despite some pretty hefty obstacles, and I think that overall, the people who had the fundraiser there, Team Fox, could not have had many complaints, if any. I had no idea what Team Fox was about, and it turns out that it is a group of volunteers who do their own fundraising for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Most of them receive sponsorship for running marathons, or in one case, climbing ten mountains in ten years, and it really was heart-warming and interesting to see what they did. They showed a video before the film that was a benchmark for stuff that the Federation should do for fundraising for their annual campaign in terms of emotional impact. It's something I may talk to Laura about this week, though I'm pretty sure that creating a video far exceeds anything we have in our operating budget this year.

In other news, I lost almost nine inches of hair today. I finally kicked myself in the ass and went and got my hair cut. I don't know why it's such a difficult thing for me to do - it's not a matter of being afraid of getting my hair cut; I could honestly care less how it comes out, it's just hair. Besides, how much can they screw up "all the same length"? I think that a lot of my apprehension comes from just having to sit there and make small talk with some anonymous stylist who is just there in what is essentially a hair cutting factory, since I refuse to spend any actual money on getting my hair done anymore. Been there, done that, wasted plenty of money on it. But, I finally went in, with Chris in tow so I wouldn't chicken out, and about five minutes later, almost nine inches of my hair was on the floor. Despite my "Pinko Scum" tshirt and olive drab cargo pants, I felt like a million bucks and practically flounced my way down to Caribou for a few games of backgammon with Chris to pass the time before the movie started. (I creamed him, by the way, four to zip) And of course I had to keep asking, "Doesn't my hair look fuller??" as I threw it around like an idiot. Eh, it's nice to feel girly once in awhile I guess. I may even break out the makeup that's been hiding in my Burberry purse that is currently stashed in the back of the closet one of these days.

On the home front, I don't know if it's the (finally) warmer weather, but I'm starting to get antsy about getting the place done and little obstacles are beginning to become bigger by the day. I think that I've been using some things as an excuse to not do other things by saying, "Well, once THIS is done, I'll be able to take care of THESE things". The problem is, THIS is usually something I can't handle myself (like moving major appliances) so I just need to get my butt in gear and concentrate on the things I CAN do so that I feel like things are happening around here. I'm sure it will get better once Chris has his office situated, because living in chaos can't be that much of a fun thing to deal with, so I'm optimistic. Maybe picking one small project a night after work will get things going, because I really want to have people over for a housewarming. A housewarming party when you've been in the place for over two months will be just kind of pathetic, but that's the reality we're facing starting in July.

I just love this place though. I seriously am so thankful for it daily and really take the time to stop and look around and appreciate it. I don't think I've ever lived in a place I love so much, which is part of the reason why I want to get things going around here. Another thing is that my work area is so much better now and this den is really conducive to sitting down and digging in (though there are a few things left to do in here) so I really want to take full advantage of everything, especially since I'm really trying to get my writing thing going again. It's time.

Work should be interesting this week. Things have been really chaotic lately with budgets and allocations, etc. This week I'm really hoping to get some of the projects done or at least started that I have had to drop or table due to emergencies coming up. (It's amazing how I can mainly have worked on "emergencies" only for the last month!) After tomorrow's paycheck we have one more before we start seeing our pay cut so that is going to be a huge adjustment to make, especially since a couple of my bills have slightly gone up. (Another good reason to stay home and write!) But the good news is that I think that we have purchased most of what we have to around here in terms of big ticket items, with the exception of needing a few bookcases still for my gazillion books so I'm not terribly worried. Chris is even talking about going to Gen Con this year so I think that the lower bills is working out for him, and I'm really happy about that because despite how much we squabble, I really do want to see him get out and do some of the things that he loves doing, even if it's without me, and Gen Con is one of those things.

This week I'll be seeing Angels and Demons so we'll see how that goes. I have absolutely no expectations and I have a feeling that's the best way to go into this film.

Shel