What an appalling night's sleep!

It was an absolute nightmare. I got home very late, 3.30a or so, but didn't feel like diving directly into bed, so I puttered a little and fed the cats and watched some TiVo, then went to bed around 4.45a.

And woke around 6a because it was so cold! I got up to go to the bathroom, then went back to bed and just lay there shaking, couldn't get warm. I figured that perhaps it wasn't as cold as I thought it was, because the cats weren't trying to get under the covers or cuddling really close to soak up my body heat, but I was cold down to the bone and if it really wasn't that cold, that was just an intellectual exercise.

I couldn't get back to sleep. My body wanted to sleep, but my brain did not one bit want to, and kept wrenching me back awake. It was like I had had a nightmare and was afraid to go back to sleep, but I didn't remember having a nightmare. So between the convulsions of shivering racing through me and my brain insisting that it was too scared to go to sleep, I was exhausted and miserable and insomniacal.

I managed to sleep for a couple of hours at last, but then around 11a I woke because of the herds of wildebeests galloping over my head, aka Bonnie and Molly, not to mention Fran yelling at the dog, "Stockon, give!!" every two minutes.

Then I went back to sleep again until 2.30p, and was much happier. But wow, it was cold. I need to brave the horror that is Home Depot to get a new space heater, since my current one bought it at the end of last winter. And this chilly little apartment cannot take me through the winter without some help, and leaving the oven on to heat it is just too Dickensian for New Jersey.

Yesterday was another easy day at work, though I accomplished a bit more than I did the day before, since it would have been pretty difficult to have accomplished less.

After work I went to the book store to get a couple of things for people, managing to escape without getting anything for myself, but then went to Virgin to see if they had something (I got the same Christmas gift for both Fran and The Raccoon, but Amazon has only sent me one so far, even though I ordered them at the same time and long long ago), but they didn't, so instead I got myself a present!

And only one, so I was most proud of myself, but since I haven't gotten Xmas presents from Cynthia yet, no point in buying anything obvious, so I got, most happily and for only $20, Randy Newman Live at the Odeon! Not bad for someone just off a (cough cough) no buying year, huh?

Afterwards, I grabbed some dinner and decided to go to the movies.

I went to the AMC and got a ticket for the 9.45p show of The Man Who Wasn't There, which I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen yet, and I could use a pass because it had been open for more than ten days.

It was up on the seventh floor, where movies go to die, but when I got off the last escalator, the first theatre I saw had The Shipping News (could be a bad sign, but since I think it's in four theatres there, the fact that one is on the top floor probably doesn't mean much) starting right then, 9.15p, so why not go in and see the later showing of The Man Who Wasn't There at 12.15a?

So I did. But when I got out, even though I didn't have a watch I knew that it wasn't anywhere near 12.15a, so I popped in to see the second half of my beloved Ghost World, where I noticed that Enid's glasses are actually much bigger than mine (I think I may have Alton Brown's glasses instead), and then when I got out I thought that maybe I'd leave, but The Man Who Wasn't There was just starting and no-one was looking, and it's what I got a ticket for after all, so I went in.

I got out at 2.45a. Five and a half hours, two and a half movies, and it only cost me the dollar that I had to pay on top of my pass, now that's value. And I thought that having this hair would mean that I wouldn't be able to sneak into movies anymore! Ha! Not at the AMC, whose slogan should be "We don't give a shit how many movies you sneak into, we only get minimum wage!"

By the way, loved the films.

I have a thing about Newfoundland, ever since I discovered Great Big Sea, which is similar to my thing about Iceland, they are the most exotic, the most other places I can imagine. They are both so far away from everything else, so they are very unique, very themselves, and the people have these accents that are like songs.

I do find it funny that these places that I am dying to go to both are islands and lean very heavily on fish for their cuisine, so when I go I will be as unable to find anything to eat as I did in Greece (until I discovered grilled feta and tomato sandwiches, which I had for three meals a day, every day), but hey, there are McDonald's everywhere, I'll live.

So anyway, I had to see The Shipping News. I'm sure that it isn't quite so damn quaint any more than Ireland bears too much resemblance to those twee filums with the twinkly old people, but I still want to go there. And I liked the film very much. Spacey made himself look big and lumbering and tamped down his mental quickness, and nobody who ever saw Notting Hill would ever believe that Rhys Ifans was really that beautiful. Nice performances, good story, Newfoundland landscape, I was happy as a clam.

The Man Who Wasn't There was great, too. The cinematography was stunning, the black and white looked so beautiful, and Billy Bob was swell. His eyes say so much. Frances McDormand was perfect, as usual, and the script was the purest of film noir. Meaning if you sin, you pay. Nothing is more hard line moral than a film noir.

Today's horoscope:
Be willing to make changes. Sensitivity and a different perspective could add zest to your interactions with your beloved.

One year ago today:
I don't think it has anything to do with bravery, more just with not caring if you look silly.

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Last Updated Mon 7 January 00:36:09 2002