Yesterday, Brady and I celebrated his birthday. We had dinner at Pizza Amore, went to a psychic to get our palms read, saw The Marvelous Wonderettes at the Muse Theatre, then went downtown and ended up playing cards at the Bodega. Even though the day didn’t go as I originally planned (I wanted to have a larger surprise party but was not able to because nobody could join us), I think it was a very successful day and hopefully he enjoyed it as much as I did.
For me, going to the psychic was the highlight of the day. I have wanted to get my palm read by Gina (the psychic) for the longest time and finally the fates aligned and we were given brief glimpses into our persons and surroundings (as explained to us what a palm reading actually is).
Mine started off by Gina asking my name and birthday. She made a few comments about me being “so young” and then asked that I stay optimistic during the reading and not skeptical. She then looked at my right hand and instantly said I am going to have a long and healthy life. None of these things, other than asking for a name, did she do with Brady.
She then delved right into my work and financial situation. She said she can tell that I am having some struggles when it comes to work, mainly because there is not much room for advancement in my current situation and I am not as happy as I thought I was. She can see that I am a hard worker but said I’m not getting appreciated for my work and that I have been thinking about making some changes to better my situation. She also said that I recently just came into a little money, but that more will be coming (HA). Moral of the story, though, is that I am on the right path and if there are things in my life that I want to change I should (duh).
Then, she moved onto the relationships in my life, which is the more entertaining part of the reading (keep in mind that the gays litter my life and straight men have become mythological creatures to me). Anyway, she began by saying that she can tell I am a true friend: once I consider a person my friend, I will stand by that person no matter what. This friendship, however, is usually one sided as the other person doesn’t always reciprocate those feelings. I have a few close friends that I can really trust but she also sees that there are some two-faced gossipers among them (hence the one-sided friendship). Like my job, I’m not getting the appreciation that I deserve.
When it comes to love, she said that there is a guy in my life and the feelings between us are mutual but there is some sort of block (either I have the block or he has the block) and once the block is gone, everything will work out. She went on to say that there are two men in my life: one sincere and one insincere. She asked me if I knew who the second one is and when I said that I don't she said he is coming. Ultimately, though, I will end up with the sincere one. This is where I get confused. Is the first guy (the one who apparently feels the same way about me as I do him) supposed to be the sincere one? Or is the first guy just someone in my life not romantically attached to me. I don’t know. Also, I don’t even know if I know who the sincere one is (again, if she was speaking romantically).
At the end of the reading, she began to talk about my hair color (which is currently blonde). She asked if it is natural and when I said no, she said it looks natural and suits me because it is very bright and matches my aura. I laughed because I only dyed it a few days ago and was worried that it looked fake. When I mentioned this to her she said she must have picked up on that and that’s why she brought up the subject in the first place (yeah, okay…).
Obviously, the point of a reading like this is to make general statements and hopefully the person (i.e., me) can figure out how those readings fit into their (my) life. I learned this when I tried to study runes (sort of like tarot cards, but with stones instead) for a paper in high school and in college when a friend gave me a set of tarot cards and I tried to learn how to read those. Gina probably said a lot more to me in my reading that I don’t remember because I couldn’t figure out how to relate it to my life. While I really want to believe that there are people out there who can read a person like Gina claims she can and can predict the future a little, I can’t shake the skeptic in me that thinks it is too general to be accurate.
I am seriously tempted to go back in a few weeks to see if she says the same things.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Workout: Day One (sort of)
With only a few days crossed off in the April calendar, I have decided to seriously buckle down on my workout schedule. To tell the truth, I have had this goal for quite some time, but only recently have I really made an effort to follow through with it. I began going to the gym with a coworker a few weeks ago and got in a good rhythm for a bit. Not only were we going pretty much every day, but instead of me quitting after only 15 or 20 minutes, I had been staying for 30 or more because that’s how long she was staying.
But, as always happens when I begin working out, I get distracted by other things in my life and I tell myself I am too busy to go to the gym. The sad part about it, though, is that I actually like to workout and the feeling I get when I leave the gym. Thankfully, I was only on a two-week hiatus from working out this time and have gotten right back into it.
Not only am I going to try and hit the gym more often, but I am going to try to fix some other behaviors in my life too. Here is my list:
• Replace “snacks” with fruits and veggies when possible
• Cut down on fast food
• Drop soda (I have actually eliminated soda from my diet for years before, but started drinking it again when I started working at Kaplan to keep me awake. Which brings me to my next goal…)
• Get more sleep during the week (so that I do not rely on soda/food to keep me awake during the day)
A few of these things I have already started working on. I can usually go a few days without having a soda and really only get fast food once or twice a week. Even today, after I worked out and had the massive urge to stop at McDonalds on the way home, I resisted and ended up eating cereal instead.
Moral of the story: day one: check.
But, as always happens when I begin working out, I get distracted by other things in my life and I tell myself I am too busy to go to the gym. The sad part about it, though, is that I actually like to workout and the feeling I get when I leave the gym. Thankfully, I was only on a two-week hiatus from working out this time and have gotten right back into it.
Not only am I going to try and hit the gym more often, but I am going to try to fix some other behaviors in my life too. Here is my list:
• Replace “snacks” with fruits and veggies when possible
• Cut down on fast food
• Drop soda (I have actually eliminated soda from my diet for years before, but started drinking it again when I started working at Kaplan to keep me awake. Which brings me to my next goal…)
• Get more sleep during the week (so that I do not rely on soda/food to keep me awake during the day)
A few of these things I have already started working on. I can usually go a few days without having a soda and really only get fast food once or twice a week. Even today, after I worked out and had the massive urge to stop at McDonalds on the way home, I resisted and ended up eating cereal instead.
Moral of the story: day one: check.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Movie review: The Last Exorcism
WARNING: SPOILERS
I meant to post this weeks ago, but I have not been able to figure out exactly how I wanted to end it. Well, that actually seems sort of fitting for this movie.
The Last Exorcism could have easily been the best horror film since A Haunting in Connecticut if it has not been for the last five minutes of the movie. Because of the “surprise” ending, all of the great elements leading up to it burned in flames faster than the lead character when he decided to charge into a bonfire during these last five minutes.
The movie, shot documentary style, began great. The viewer was introduced to Cotton Marcus, a former priest who performed exorcisms turned non-believer set on exposing the truth: exorcisms are not real. He picks a seemingly random letter from a pile asking for his services and hires a documentary crew to follow him as he performs his “last exorcism.” Marcus uses a series of smoke-and-mirror-type tricks to make his clients believe they are actually getting the exorcism they are paying for. After faking the exorcism of Nell Sweetzer (the random letter picked earlier in the movie), Marcus leaves the Sweetzer farm proud that he has yet again proven that the belief a person has in exorcisms is all that is really needed to expel a demon.
What Marcus doesn’t know is that there is more to the story. The same night that he leaves the farm, Nell shows up in his hotel room in the middle of the night miles away from her home with no clue as to how she got there. Believing that Nell needs psychological help, Marcus and his crew take her to the doctor where her father refuses care to be given to her and takes her home, still believing her to be possessed. The next morning, the crew shows up at the farm right after Nell has cut a large gash in her brother’s face and is then tied to her bed by her father. It is then that Marcus and his crew start to believe that maybe Nell is being abused in the home, this being further evidenced when a message is left on the machine from the doctor attending Nell saying she is pregnant, even though her father claims she is still “innocent.”
What makes this story entertaining and worth watching (if not for the last five minutes), is that even though many of the “scary” plot moments would be expected from a movie about exorcisms (strange twisting of the body, multiple voices from one person, etc.), it keeps the viewer questioning whether or not Nell is actually possessed. The fact that we are watching a move called the Last Exorcism makes us believe that all of these strange events are being caused by Nell’s possession, but they could also be explained by a sheltered girl’s psychotic response to family abuse and getting pregnant.
Forced by Nell’s father, Marcus conducts one more exorcism where he realizes that Nell is NOT actually possessed because she offers to give him a “blowing job” and of course any demon will know that the correct act is called a “blow job.” Caught in the lie, Nell admits she used possession as a way to hide that she had sex numerous times and got pregnant by a boy she met at a church party. After this revelation, and receiving a promise from Nell’s father to get her some help, Marcus and his crew pack up the van and drive out of town.
If Marcus had continued driving along the dirt road leaving the Sweetzer farm, I would have been happy. Yes, it’s still a somewhat unconventional ending to an exorcism movie; but, it seemed to fit the story. But, like every other recent scary movie on the market, this one decided that the “possession by pregnancy” was not a surprise enough ending so they decided to tack on what really should have been an ending for a different movie.
Without giving too much away, Marcus runs into the boy Nell claims is the father of the baby and figures out that he is of the g persuasion and can barely kiss a girl let alone get one pregnant. Figuring out that he must have missed something, they go back to the Sweetzer farm to find that no one is at the house and a bunch of demonic and cult-like symbols have been painted all over the walls and on the ceiling. Out of some weird strength that only people in scary movies have, ya know, the times when normal people would just drive away and never think about what they were driving from again, the crew run into the woods to find Nell and her father and stumble into a clearing where the town priest has gathered the townspeople in some sort of cult ritual where they are all chanting around a bonfire while the priest is helping to deliver Nell’s baby. Well, not so much a baby as a demon that has been growing inside her. Once out of her body, the priest holds up the demon baby and the townspeople begin to worship and chant the name of a demon that was mentioned ONCE earlier in the movie. In a move so unlike his character up until this moment, Marcus runs cross in hand towards the flames in hopes of saving Nell from the townspeople, where he is ultimately caught and killed. The two crew members try to run away but are also caught and killed. The movie ends with the camera on the ground filming only the darkness that is left.
Oops, I guess I gave away the entire ending. Now it won’t be much of a “surprise” for you.
I meant to post this weeks ago, but I have not been able to figure out exactly how I wanted to end it. Well, that actually seems sort of fitting for this movie.
The Last Exorcism could have easily been the best horror film since A Haunting in Connecticut if it has not been for the last five minutes of the movie. Because of the “surprise” ending, all of the great elements leading up to it burned in flames faster than the lead character when he decided to charge into a bonfire during these last five minutes.
The movie, shot documentary style, began great. The viewer was introduced to Cotton Marcus, a former priest who performed exorcisms turned non-believer set on exposing the truth: exorcisms are not real. He picks a seemingly random letter from a pile asking for his services and hires a documentary crew to follow him as he performs his “last exorcism.” Marcus uses a series of smoke-and-mirror-type tricks to make his clients believe they are actually getting the exorcism they are paying for. After faking the exorcism of Nell Sweetzer (the random letter picked earlier in the movie), Marcus leaves the Sweetzer farm proud that he has yet again proven that the belief a person has in exorcisms is all that is really needed to expel a demon.
What Marcus doesn’t know is that there is more to the story. The same night that he leaves the farm, Nell shows up in his hotel room in the middle of the night miles away from her home with no clue as to how she got there. Believing that Nell needs psychological help, Marcus and his crew take her to the doctor where her father refuses care to be given to her and takes her home, still believing her to be possessed. The next morning, the crew shows up at the farm right after Nell has cut a large gash in her brother’s face and is then tied to her bed by her father. It is then that Marcus and his crew start to believe that maybe Nell is being abused in the home, this being further evidenced when a message is left on the machine from the doctor attending Nell saying she is pregnant, even though her father claims she is still “innocent.”
What makes this story entertaining and worth watching (if not for the last five minutes), is that even though many of the “scary” plot moments would be expected from a movie about exorcisms (strange twisting of the body, multiple voices from one person, etc.), it keeps the viewer questioning whether or not Nell is actually possessed. The fact that we are watching a move called the Last Exorcism makes us believe that all of these strange events are being caused by Nell’s possession, but they could also be explained by a sheltered girl’s psychotic response to family abuse and getting pregnant.
Forced by Nell’s father, Marcus conducts one more exorcism where he realizes that Nell is NOT actually possessed because she offers to give him a “blowing job” and of course any demon will know that the correct act is called a “blow job.” Caught in the lie, Nell admits she used possession as a way to hide that she had sex numerous times and got pregnant by a boy she met at a church party. After this revelation, and receiving a promise from Nell’s father to get her some help, Marcus and his crew pack up the van and drive out of town.
If Marcus had continued driving along the dirt road leaving the Sweetzer farm, I would have been happy. Yes, it’s still a somewhat unconventional ending to an exorcism movie; but, it seemed to fit the story. But, like every other recent scary movie on the market, this one decided that the “possession by pregnancy” was not a surprise enough ending so they decided to tack on what really should have been an ending for a different movie.
Without giving too much away, Marcus runs into the boy Nell claims is the father of the baby and figures out that he is of the g persuasion and can barely kiss a girl let alone get one pregnant. Figuring out that he must have missed something, they go back to the Sweetzer farm to find that no one is at the house and a bunch of demonic and cult-like symbols have been painted all over the walls and on the ceiling. Out of some weird strength that only people in scary movies have, ya know, the times when normal people would just drive away and never think about what they were driving from again, the crew run into the woods to find Nell and her father and stumble into a clearing where the town priest has gathered the townspeople in some sort of cult ritual where they are all chanting around a bonfire while the priest is helping to deliver Nell’s baby. Well, not so much a baby as a demon that has been growing inside her. Once out of her body, the priest holds up the demon baby and the townspeople begin to worship and chant the name of a demon that was mentioned ONCE earlier in the movie. In a move so unlike his character up until this moment, Marcus runs cross in hand towards the flames in hopes of saving Nell from the townspeople, where he is ultimately caught and killed. The two crew members try to run away but are also caught and killed. The movie ends with the camera on the ground filming only the darkness that is left.
Oops, I guess I gave away the entire ending. Now it won’t be much of a “surprise” for you.
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