Rally wrap-up & other weekend events

I had a busy weekend! I went to see David Alan Grier do stand-up on Friday night. He was funny but that was expected. I thought the opening act, Brian Parise, was really funny too.

Saturday was the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear and that turned into a very long day. I left my house at 8:45am and planned to Metro downtown but it was already ridiculously crowded and we had to wait awhile before a train came through the station that actually could fit us. Then, our train was a couple of stops away from the Mall and one of the doors malfunctioned so it was taken out of service - but only after we were all packed like sardines in the stopped train for about 15 minutes while they diagnosed the problem. Luckily we could walk from that point very easily and my other friend was on the train directly behind us so once they took that train out of service, she met up with us in no time. The Mall was already super crowded but we managed to find space and sit down. It only got more and more crowded by the time the Rally started at noon.

Overall, I liked the rally but it was more political than I expected. I wanted more funny. But apparently I was in the minority because most people there seemed to expect it to be all about politics, considering all the crazy signs people made and the fact that people traveled from all over the country to attend the rally. I've loved Jon Stewart for nearly 20 years and I will continue to love him but I won't lie that I was a little disappointed in the rally. The musical acts were pretty awesome though. Here are some clips from the event.

After the rally, my friends & I decided to stay downtown and get some food to avoid all the crowds heading home on the Metro. But apparently everyone had that idea because every place we went to had ridiculously long lines, even when we wandered a few Metro stops away from the Rally. We ended up at this place called the Banana Cafe and it was really good (don't let the circa 1995 Web site fool you) so I'm glad we decided to wait it out for an hour or so. By the time I got home after eating, it was after 7pm. A long, long day.

Today was a friend's birthday so she had a potluck brunch so that meant I had to get up and make something and be at her house by noon. Turns out all we did at her house was watch the Rally, which she had DVR'd. I guess I was lucky because most people had difficulty hearing anything at the Rally. Well, judging by the sample size at the brunch. But, then again, no one else got there anywhere near as early as I did.

After the brunch, I had a couple errands to run and didn't get home until about 6pm. This is my least favorite kind of weekend, where I'm barely home at all. It makes it worse when I am busy during the week after a weekend like that and right now I have plans for this coming Monday night, Weds. night, Thursday night and Saturday night. Something in my schedule might have to change.

Three Day Weekend

It's Saturday morning, I just slept in and I have a 3-day weekend ahead of me! It's not that unusual that I have a 3-day weekend thanks to our work flex schedules (although usually I have a Friday off) but it has been awhile that I've had three days ahead of me without any plans. The next two weekends will be busy for me so I guess I should make the most of this downtime!

One thing I definitely have to do is find out if there's something wrong with my car. I failed the state inspection because I needed new bushings and finally got them replaced yesterday (goodbye $550) but on my drive home from work last night, I heard this weird clunking noise that hadn't been there before. It was late (I'd had dinner with a friend) and it's only 1/2 mile to my house so maybe I was hearing things but I need to check it out and see if that noise continues and, if so, take it back to the stupid shop as soon as possible. Ugh.

Another must is that I need to clean. I've been busy the last couple of weeks and I realized when I got home last night that my apartment is quite the disaster area all of a sudden. In fact, as I sit here on the couch, I realize there is barely a clear walkable path in my living room. Stuff just has a habit of piling up. Ugh.

Otherwise, I think I'm going to watch a movie or two, read, go for some walks, play on the Wii, maybe hit up a mall (or maybe just unpack my winter clothes that have been stored away) and lay low.

Movie Review: 127 Hours

I went to a free advance screening of 127 Hours this past week and it was followed by a Q&A session with its director Danny Boyle, who is probably most well-known as the Academy Award-winning director of Slumdog Millionaire. The whole experience was amazing.

The movie tells the true story of Aron Ralston, who made news in 2003 when he got trapped while hiking in Utah and ultimately had to cut off his own hand in order to free himself. He was trapped for 127 hours, so over 5 days. I realize that's nothing compared to the Chilean miners' 69 days but it's an equally fascinating story.

Because Aron was trapped all alone in such a remote area, the filmmaker decided to film it as it happened and not intersperse it with any sort of outside story. So, basically after about 15-20 minutes, the movie depicts Aron's entrapment and that's all. It's pretty intense and James Franco is so fantastic in it. The movie and James' performance has really stuck with me ever since I saw it. I'd be shocked if he's not nominated for an Oscar.

The Q&A with the author was pretty cool but unfortunately they took questions from the audience and most people had really stupid questions. It would have been nice if they had done some pre-screening. "Why did you decide to use humor when Aron was trapped?" (Gee, I don't know, to break up the seriousness!!) "It seems like you spend a lot of time picking out music in your movies. Do you?" (Yes, don't all filmmakers?) I watched the Q&A session videos for a similar screening in Boston and Boyle said a lot of the same things, so if you're interested, I'd watch...

If not, I'd definitely recommend the movie!

Catching up

Look ma, I updated my blog! It's been a long time coming but I'm done traveling for the time being and had a fantastic four-day holiday weekend where I purposely made few plans so it's one major project I got out of the way. There will probably be more tweaks but I like what I've done so far, should have done this a long time ago.

With all the traveling (5 trips in about 6 weeks), this was my first full weekend home since mid-August, minus one weekend in September when I luckily had no trips scheduled but had a very bad cold. Three of the five trips were work trips so that typically means 15-hour workdays. Exhausting! Anyway, now it's all over, I'm rested, and my next trip will probably not be until Thanksgiving or more likely Christmas. And I'm okay with that.

Book Review: The Forgotten Garden

My book club met last Monday and our book was The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I was not looking forward to the book because it was nearly 600 pages (ugh!) and there was a lot of mention of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett in reviews, which was a kid's book I don't remember enjoying. But this new book I really enjoyed. It was a very quick read, considering its length, there was a mystery to unravel, and there were three generations of stories that are told in various orders throughout the book so it switches up the characters a lot. Basically, it's about an Australian woman who tries to investigate her grandmother's past when she inherits a home in England after her grandmother passes away. It turns out she didn't really know her grandmother like she thought she did! There is a lot of references to and symbolism of fairy tales throughout the book, which is pretty cool. Because who doesn't like fairy tales? And, perhaps best of all, I don't think there are really too many similarities to The Secret Garden.