Movies and Weather and Nails, Oh My [2011/10/15]

I'm not entirely sure that October knows what season it is. So far we've gone between rampant humidity, cold rain, rainy fog, and sunny-but-brisk. Also, wind. There's been a lot of wind, which is irritating because it means that apparently nobody can hear me ever when I talk on the phone while meandering around outside.

I'm not going to miss the humidity, but I am a little sad that we're moving into proper fall. I like being able to walk outside in shorts and a t-shirt, and recently I've had to start wearing pants and scarves. I mean, I'm pretty sure that layering is a requirement for all NELA (New England liberal arts) students — it's entirely possible that where other schools have core curriculums, we have core wardrobes — but it can be kind of a pain to have to wear so many clothes all the time. It means that getting dressed in the morning takes almost twice a long.

Plus, you know, it's a sign that time is ticking inexorably onwards and we're all getting older but not necessarily wiser and oh god soon this semester is going to be over and then I'm only a year and a half away from graduating WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE—

...but I try not to think about that too much. On to the recap!

[Below the cut: my week so far. There will not be a soliloquy about study abroad; look for that next Saturday.]

So I survived last Saturday's delightful festival of "Let's see how long Sasha can go without eating or drinking water before she starts feeling dizzy every time she stands up!" I did it, though, so yay me. It's funny; I never used to care about fasting for Yom Kippur, or keeping Passover, before I came to college. It's not that I'm more Jewish now — I'm definitely not more Jewish now; I'm fine with religion in other people, but the closest I get to a spiritual experience is reading a new Terry Pratchett book — but I grew up culturally Jewish, and I think it helps me feel a little closer to home. The act itself is significant, not the religion (or lack thereof) behind it.

After the sun started going down and I crawled to the kitchen to grab myself some sweet, sweet sustenance, I hopped over to the CFA to go watch I'm No Angel at the film series.



It stars Mae West and a young Cary Grant, and is basically just an excuse for Mae West to be awesome while throwing out a bunch of innuendo-laden one-liners. BEST MOVIE EVER. Mae West was such a cool person I can't even stand it.

Also, speaking of best movies ever? THE TRAILER FOR THE AVENGERS IS OUT. Yes, this did actually make my week significantly more fantastic. (Robert Downey Jr.! Jeremy Renner! Samuel L. Jackson being a badass with an eyepatch! Superheroes!!!) Now I just have to wait until next May — but hey, at least I know for sure that I'll be in the country. More on that later.

As for the rest of the week, well. Most of it couldn't live up to the excitement level of those two things. Rehearsals for the Curious Savage continue — we go off-book on Sunday, which ought to be interesting. Luckily, not only do I have the best lines in the play, I only have four of them (my character refuses to submit to the tyranny of petty conversation), so hopefully I won't embarrass myself too badly. I did indeed end up making the apple-sweet potato-onion latke-type things (delicious), and the orange-olive oil-yogurt cake (really delicious), and nutella oatmeal walnut cookies (pretty good, but the proportions of the recipe were a little off, so I think I need to experiment a little more on those).

And now it's raining again. WHAT THE HELL, OCTOBER.

Anyway! Continuing on: this week I also painted my nails (or, you know, resumed contact with the alien species that excretes nail color-changing chemicals), which I am sure does not interest you in the slightest but too bad, I'm going to show you a picture anyway:



Not my most elaborate job, but pretty solid nonetheless. It's amazing the things you can do with two bottles of nail polish and a toothpick. Some patience and a fair amount of obsessive perfectionism don't hurt, either. I like doing my nails, anyway; there's something very cheerful about looking down to see bright orange at the ends of your fingers.

And then, of course, we watched Heathers in Narrative and Ideology, which was easily one of the best parts of the week. This movie, okay! It's like Mean Girls, except better (I really don't like Mean Girls), made in the 80's, and featuring multiple homicide.

As a friend of mine put it: when Christian Slater is the romantic lead, you should know something's up.

It's purposefully surreal and over the top and it took me about an hour and a half to decide that yes, I actually liked it (up until that point I was mostly just sitting in class thinking, "I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT ANY OF THEM ARE"), and the entire movie has been lingering in my mind since Wednesday. SO GOOD. Just don't watch it if you're not prepared for creepiness and blood.

Speaking of blood and death, etc., tonight I'm going to see Assassins! I've heard it's brilliant, so I'm pretty excited. I'll tell you about it next Saturday.

Next week, I think I'm also going to talk a little about study abroad, and the reasons I'm not going to take a semester abroad in the spring — not that anyone will necessarily be interested in reading this, but I would've found it useful to hear about three weeks ago, so I figure I might as well. This post is already long enough as it is, though, so next week it is. Cheerio, dear readers!