The Office

For some reason, as told on previous postings, Chad and I have become addicted to watching episodes of TV shows. First it was "Big Love" then it was "True Blood" and now? It's "The Office."

I blame Netflix and its really cool tekkie ability to stream tons of stuff to your computer ON TOP of shipping us movies for the incredibly low price of $14.83 per month AND NO LATE FEES. Can you tell I'm a Netflix fan? I was a little late in coming to the party, but now that I'm here, I'm having fun with it. And I have been sitting with my husband for (I kid you not) for like 3 hours at a time catching up on "The Office." We started with Season 1 and we're now on Season 3 and can I just tell you that there are 89,000 episodes per season?

For those of you who have been living under a rock and don't know what "The Office" is, let me give you a brief recap. It's like a faux documentary of, well, a typical corporate American office, complete with all the personality types and drama that goes along with cooping a group of grown-ups together for 40+ hours a week. It's funny if you haven't experienced corporate America. But if you HAVE or the corporate world runs your present LIFE...it's pretty much like the holy grail of comedy. Steve Carrell, who plays the main character Michael Scott, is a genius. (You may remember him from the "40 Year Old Virgin" as the wearer of the "man vest." If you don't know what I'm talking about, please go rent the movie. You will laugh until you can't breathe. It's my mom's favorite.)

I think fellow fans of the show would agree that it's much closer to the truth than not. From the office romances (why yes, Chad and I really were in a "Pam/Jim" situation) to the coworkers who are completely nuts, it's closer to reality than say, "Grey's Anatomy." (Okay I'm sorry. I've seen some hot doctors, but that many in close proximity to each other? Whatever.)

The reason for this post? Work has been kind of slow lately and I keep drawing comparisons to people I work with to characters on the show. It's keeping me busy.

The Curious Case of a Long Movie

Since Chad is going camping with his buddies this weekend in the mountains, we decided to veg out last night and watch a movie. I didn't know that my butt would be grown into the couch after it was over because I was sitting for so long.

The movie in question was "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and since we are on a budget and rarely go to movies anymore, it was $1.00 at the RedBox vending machine in Bloom. With the groceries I bought for dinner last night, our "date night" totaled about $11.00. Can't beat it.

Anyway, this movie is the one with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt is born old and instead of progressively getting older he does the opposite and gets younger. Okay, first of all, can I just get an Amen on how hot Brad is? The man is a freak of nature, I'm convinced. He looks as good now as he ever has, and I'm including his Tristan ("Legend of the Falls") days when I feel like I should have been the one who galloped around with him on his wild horse. Wow, I just remembered that I'm married. Love you Chad. And Cate Blanchett - I can't decide if I think she is incredibly beautiful or not. She is a fantastic actress and I'm about to google whether or not she was a previous ballet dancer because she dances in the movie and does it beautifully.

Okay back to actual movie...it is long. It's good and definitely worth watching (anything that is based on a Fitzgerald novel is - did I mention he's one of my favorite authors?), but be prepared to be watching it for A WHILE. It left me with that same feeling "Forrest Gump" left me with - happy that I had seen it and feeling like I had learned something, but sad, too. Just to forewarn you. Oh and Julia Ormond is in this movie, too, which I didn't know. I adore Julia Ormond! I think she is just absolutely beautiful and such a wonderful actress.

One of the most poignant quotes from the movie is this, by Mrs. Maple:

"Benjamin, we're meant to lose the people we love. How else would we know how important they are to us? "

You need to watch it. If you already have, let me know if you liked it (and if you swooned over Brad as much as I did)!

The Movie That Made Me Weep

I know I have said it a lot, but I really do have an amazing husband. Not only did he bring me a Starbucks frap yesterday at work because I was literally about to make my keyboard my new favorite pillow, but he cooked dinner last night - grilled chicken, green beans, and fresh corn on the cob - one of my favorite meals! AND he told me that he rented a movie and bought a pint of Half Baked for us to share. Heaven!

The movie was Marley & Me, one that I had wanted to see on the big screen, but never did. Luckily. We all cuddled up on the couch with Jake, obviously sensing that his presence was needed sitting in either Chad's or my lap the entire movie. All 90 pounds of love.

Okay, I read the book several years ago following the death of my beloved mutt, Boo, who had been with me since I was 6, and yes, I cried buckets. John Grogan is an excellent writer and anything about dogs or animals is enough to send me over the edge. I should have known that seeing it in live action color was not the best idea. This is coming from someone who flinches during THAT scene in Bambi, sobbed over Where the Red Fern Grows, can't watch The Fox & The Hound, and thinks that Old Yeller should be outlawed. I should have known that Marley would unleash all kinds of emotional crazy.

Yup. I sobbed. Loudly. The kind of sobbing that is usually reserved for something major in REAL life. There were times when you couldn't even hear the movie I was crying so hard. Poor Chad (who cried too, I would like to add) probably thought I needed an extra Cymbalta or something. And Jake kept stretching his head back at weird angles to make sure I was okay. By the time the credits were rolling, I could hardly see because my eyes were so puffy and tears kept leaking out the sides of them.

I immediately picked up the phone and called my mom, who is even more emotional about animals (if you can imagine) and begged her not to see it under any circumstances. I knew that if she did, we would have to admit her into Marshall Pickens. For those of ya'll "not from around here", Marshall Pickens is the local loony bin. Not to be too politically incorrect about it.

It was a wonderful story that followed the book well and it served its purpose. To send semi-normal people into sobbing heaps. Needless to say that when Jake jumped into bed with us late last night, I snuggled up to him for a little while before yelling at him to get back in his own bed.

Just a side note - what the heck was going on with Jen Aniston's face in that movie? I am a Jen Aniston fan. I even call her "Jen" because we're BFF like that. I think she's hilarious, even if she needs to eat a Hardee's biscuit 'n gravy every morning for the rest of her life. I also think she's very pretty and has great hair. Even her hair looked jacked up in the movie, but her usually flawless face? It looked...wrong. You'd think with that kind of money, she'd be able to get a plastic surgeon who made her look like she hadn't had plastic surgery. That's the point people!

How this got from a sad movie about dogs to plastic surgery dos and don'ts, I'll never know. The point is, only see Marley & Me if you need to cry. Hard.

Entertaining Angels

Yesterday was incredibly long.
I had to work (like, at my actual job) from 8:15 to 2:15ish and headed straight over to my SIL's house. It is our weekend with Chadee, so Chad brought her over to wreak havoc on Christy's house with our niece, Tori.
It was nice hanging out with the SIL and future BIL, Matt. We made brownies, which we ate with non fat-free ice cream and Christy and I settled in with Christy's best friend, Tanner and her new baby boy, E, to watch a movie - "The House That Prey's." Okay, honestly, I did not have high expectations of this movie, even though I am a huge Tyler Perry fan. If you haven't seen the "Madea" movies, you are really missing out.
Anyway, the movie was really good, mainly because of the awesome acting of Kathy Bates (I adore her - remember her playing Evelyn in "Fried Green Tomatoes"?) and Alfre Woodard (who also acted in "Beauty Shop" as the lady who busts out singing "Amazing Grace" when the power goes out). There was one part in the movie that really touched my heart. Alfre Woodard's character, Alice, owns a diner (A Wing & A Prayer) that she runs with one of her daughter's. This homeless guy, Nick, comes in, all dirty and looking more than a little crazy. You know, the kind of person that would usually be ushered out of any "decent" establishment faster than you can say needy. Alice walks immediately up to Nick, whom she obviously knows and has helped many times before, and welcomes him in, offering a hot meal and a shower and clean clothes in the back. She orders her daughter, who is doing her best to ignore Nick, to show help him. After she sits down and eats with him in her restaurant, she asks him to stay longer for supper, which he declines and says he needs to be on his way. She tells him that any time he wants to come back he's welcome and he leaves. Alice's daughter asks her mother "why she's entertaining that man, who's obviously crazy" and Alice's reply was, "because you never know when you may be entertaining an angel." Whoa.
That hit home for me. How many times have I overlooked people, chalked them off as beyond help, beyond hope? How many times have I declined to "entertain an angel" because of my own self-centeredness?
The movie is pretty deep and very moralistic, which is probably why it didn't get very good reviews, but the group that watched it last night are all fans!
To sum up the rest of the night:
My MIL came over to Christy's and we cooked out and then played a game of Apples To Apples (which I won) and then I headed back home right before Chad, Chadee, and Tori. When I got home, I was hit by the noxious aroma of poo, courtesy of Lucy who had had a blowout in her cage. Because I freeze in times of disaster, I called Chad and told him he needed to hightail it home. I will spare you the gory details, but needless to say, I was bathing a very yucky pup at 10:00 last night while my sweet husband cleaned up the majority of the mess. I love him.
We settled in last night with one clean puppy and one semi-stinky dog in our bed. Life just doesn't get much better.

Lessons From Horton

Well, we didn't get to watch The Nativity Story this weekend. And we didn't get to go to Hollywild because the mile and a half long line was not moving. Overall, I'm disappointed with myself because I really wanted this weekend to be a reflection on the true meaning of Christmas. I'm not doing so hot with this whole parenting/good example thing. We didn't even get up and go to church on Sunday. And it's ADVENT. More importantly, it's just good practice. I think that me not being spiritually fed is a direct result of not being actively involved in church. Duh.

We DID watch a really good movie though, one that teaches life lessons and all that jazz. And it's really funny. Most people read the book as a child - Dr. Seuss - "Horton Hears A Who." For those not familiar or the ones who have forgotten (like my husband did), it's basically about this giant elephant who hears a sound from this floating spot looking thing and becomes convinced that there is this whole other world contained in this tiny spore. Which there is - Whoville - responsible for The Grinch and all that. Anywho (pun intended), people don't believe Horton and basically it's a metaphor for how something small can be huge and how even though you think your world may be the biggest world, there may be a bigger world out there. It's also about believing in something you can't see and that may seem strange to others.

Anyway, it's really good and it's actually kid-friendly, unlike most everything else out there. It was a gift to Chadee from my step-mother and it went over well! :)