I think today was "phone calls from friends" day.

I received calls from Zoe, Caitlin, and Candace. And I called no one. Because I'm clearly a terrible friend.

But it was so cheerful!


Anyway, so I'm back in Orlando after a week of traveling to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for my cousin Tiffany's wedding (she just turned 22, BTW).

The wedding was pretty good. The night I stayed at my sister Fayanne's house and got to meet my newest niece (who is a total cutie) was the best part of my week. The worst was most certainly spending 50 hours in a car with my parents. Ugh.


In other good news, I got an email today from my art history professor/thesis advisor about a possible internship, so I sent a resume to a woman at the Orlando Museum of Art. Still waiting to hear from her. If I don't by Monday, I'll start applying for other jobs (movie theater, Disney, whatever).


So yes. Family, friends, possible job. Things are feeling good.

Plus, I'm back in my own apartment with my own bed in my own room and my own bathroom. Which always feels good.


Oh, and I watched NPH on Ellen (he watched the Idol too!), and started watching "How I Met Your Mother" before Idol started. I love him. I really need to go see Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay...just for my NPH fix.

So I've been thinking a lot about the Mormons...the young, short-sleeved, collared-shirt wearing stooges have been continuing to solicit the residents of my complex.

Our neighbor Anthony even let them in and is apparently going to one of their events/meetings/whatevers. Crazy.

But it made me wonder about religions as a whole. Could you imagine if a Muslim knocked on your door and said he had a message from Allah? Selling religion door-to-door is just ridiculous.

Aside from that, though, I was thinking about general understanding of not only religion, but of social, cultural, political, economic differences in the world as a whole. Now, I try to learn a little about something before I decide that it's crazy and use it as fodder for hilarious rants and anecdotes. But I feel most people don't. How may people boycotting the Beijing Olympics know anything about Asian history, specifically that of Communism in China (or anything about communism at all) and the situation with Tibet?

I don't really have a point here, I just wish people would try to educate themselves. Perhaps that's what my neighbor Anthony is doing...getting some first-hand experience. I think I'll stick with the internet as a source for my broadband information.

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In a more shameful note, right now I am watching The Tuxedo, that horrendously terrible Jackie Chan movie. "Why?" you may be asking yourselves.

Because of the toe-curlingly amazing Jason Isaacs. (And the "toe curling" wasn't an exaggeration. His character started to speak and my toes got a mind of their own.)

He's just so beautiful and has that amazing accent and, dear god, those eyes.

I'll probably end up forwarding past every scene in the movie that doesn't have him in it, but it's so totally worth it.

Edit: Turns out his character goes into a coma within the first half-hour. Dammit. Maybe he'll come back later in the movie. Either way, it's making it a lot faster to get through this...especially on 3x fast forward.

Exciting news: our hot water heater should be fixed. I've taken 3 very cold showers (though sadly not the coldest showers of my life) in the past three days, so I shall undoubtedly enjoy tomorrow morning immensely.

Funny news: while the maintenance guy was here fixing the aforementioned hot water heater, the Mormons came to the door. I said I wasn't interested (and, I must admit, kinda laughed at them), at which point they asked me if the maintenance guy would be interested. I said "probably not," and promptly closed the door.

After, the maintenance guy made a call to the apartment manager to ask if the Mormons had gotten permission to go door-to-door and solicit residents. I'm guessing the answer was "no" because he responded with "alright, I'm going to tell them to leave."

Point breakdown: Maintenance guy - 1, Mormons - 0.


And for some appropriate humor, ( Julia Sweeney in her comedy routine 'Letting Go of God' )

Why is it that I always attract the chatty drunk guys when we have people over? It's happened 3 times this year...and we don't have people over that often.

I don't mind...I like chatting. But they are usually the overly-passionate type of guy who gets on a tangent and won't shut up.

Eh, whatever. He was a nice kid, if a little below the intelligence level which whom I prefer to associate.


BTW - I'm a huge snob.

My roommate Jane just made fun of me for listening to "Playbill Radio" on iTunes. Yes, I'm a geek and we all know it.

In my defense, they just played "Totally Fucked" from "Spring Awakening" (uncensored, as it should be). And then there was "Why Can't You Behave?" from "Kiss Me, Kate" (a musical I love, even though many people don't).


Anyway, I am back in Orlando and I had my first class this morning (History of Prints at 8:30am), and all we did was go over the syllabus.

But I'm done for the day, and all of my roomies are just waking up (their first classes are at 1, 1:30 and 2:30...bitches). And for as much shit as I talked about them over break, I did miss them and it was nice to get back together and hang out. Last night, Anna, Colleen and I even watched Funny Face (1957 Audrey Hepburn/Fred Astaire musical). And we have tentative plans to see some movies in the theater. (They want to see Sweeney Todd and Atonement...both of which I'd love to see again, along with others.)

Other than all that, I'm planning to go to Target and Publix today for groceries and other miscellaneous items. The grocery store seems to have some good deals on things like toilet paper, paper towels, and laundry detergent, so I figured I'd stock up for the apartment. Plus, I'm out of food and need to go anyway.


It's a fun and exciting first day of my last semester of classes. Obviously.


Oh, and by the way...it was AMAZING to be back in my own bed, in my own room, with my own door, and my own bathroom. It's been damn-near a month and I was starting to go crazy.

Also, seeing Sydney White today was like a visual sex-fest.

First, there was a preview for Atonement and I was so excited, I may have done a combination gasp-squeal. Most of the audience was ogling the fair James McAvoy, and while he is rather dishy...I only have eyes for one. *swoon*

Directly after, there was the Elizabeth: The Golden Age preview, and my uterus jumped for joy at the site of that testosterone-driven hunk of a man, Clive Owen. That curly hair and that little beard and he's just walking sex.

Well, then there was the actual movie. And I just love Amanda Bynes so very much. She's so cute, and sweet, and her characters are always so genuinely good. You can't help but love her quirkiness.

The "I'm a dork" part at the end reminded me of In & Out. *Snort*

It was really an endearing movie, and I'll own it and watch it over and over and over again (just like What a Girl Wants and She's the Man).


Hollywood eye candy. You gotta love it.


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In other news, there were the most annoying women behind me at the movie today. I should have seen it coming as they gabbed all the way through the previews. Then, one woman came in late, right during the opening credits, and her first comment was, "I don't even know what this movie is about," which spawned a full minute of at least three of them throwing out major plot points. You know what else would have helped her figure out what the movie is about? Shutting the fuck up and letting her WATCH THE MOVIE! Then....THEN! They decided to see how many of the seven dwarfs they could name!

The talking continued through many major moments and was much more than just, "oh, that's funny," or anything like that. At one point, Sydney is introducing all of the boys in her house and after each one, they practically shouted out the corresponding dwarf!

Oh god, it might have been worse that the two chicks who giggled and rattled on in Spanish throughout Babel. Or the fucking teenagers in Blood and Chocolate who held cell phone conversations, then proceeded to yell back and forth things like "shut up," "YOU shut up," and "shut the FUCK up!"

It was definitely in my top three "worst movie experiences ever."


*breathe*

Now that that's out of the way...

My roommates' parents (the Russians) are in town. I love them, they are hilarious. There's a lot of Russian tossed around that I don't understand, but some of it I can catch the gist of.

With them, they brought two dogs (an ugly but lovable little pomeranian and something that resembles a small version of an Australian Shepherd...aka Allie's dog, Bailey), so that's amusing.

Also, two gallons of paint, so tonight, we all painted the living room a dark-ish brown (it was described to me as "Coach brown"...the darker, logo brown, not the lighter, canvas-y brown). It looks pretty good, but it doesn't go as well with the furniture a they say it does. It will take getting used to, but it's nice to have it painted. White walls can drive a woman insane. My back aches a little already, and I expect tomorrow will feel stiff.


I swear there was something else, but now I have plumb forgot. I have to wake up early (the first movie is at 10:30, so I have to leave at 9:30-ish), so I'm going to read a chapter of "Emma" (it's taking too long just reading before/between classes...I need to read at home, too), then I'm going to bed.

Bonne nuit, mes petits.

One of the major reasons I love my roomies?

They use the dishwasher!

For the past two years, everyone has been so separate and individualist that it never made sense to just put everyone's dishes together and wash them, but not this year!


But all joking aside, I'm really enjoying myself down here in central Florida, for the first time since I transferred here (not including fun family times in Spring Hill...I'm talking the college experience).

A lot of things flash me back to Indiana, where I had a really solid group of friends and we did the hanging out/living together/partying it up/having fun thing. The girls I'm living with are a little more on the party side, perhaps not so much on the intellectual side (if you catch my drift), but it feels so good to be social again.

That said, I totally baled on going out with them tonight. They were heading to the Roxy (perhaps not as cool as the one in LA, but whatever...) and I wasn't going to go. Then I decided I was being stupid and I should go. But after realizing that I have no clubbing clothes, and that I hate clubs when I feel uncomfortable, and I was definitely going to feel uncomfortable in stupid clothes with girls I've only known for 8 days...I ditched them. They were appropriately saddened, but I'm sure they will have a better time without me, and my self esteem will be better served feeling gross at home than being self conscious all night next to three incredibly skinny, pretty girls. At least here I have The Colbert Report and comfy pajamas.


So yes. Things here are going exceptionally well. My classes (the gen-eds especially) are dull and bordering on worthless, but at least there are only 4 of them, and my concern about them is at an all-time low. That's not to say that I won't try hard and do my best. The gen-eds should be pretty easy, and the other two classes are interesting enough to help me pull a high grade. And I should have enough free time left over to hang out with the roomies.

The only downside to an increase in social life is a decrease in my individualistic lifestyle. I didn't get to go see Death at a Funeral by myself today because Jane ended up not having to go to work, so we went to Old Navy, ABC Liquors, and Publix (grocery store), then hung around in the afternoon with Colleen and the boys from 305. Pity, eh?