Vacation

I'm declaring a moritorium on actual updates in which I say actual things until the new year, if only so that I will have something to say for 365 days. I'm doing lists today, and tomorrow I'll probably do an end-of-2007 one, but that's all.

So you will hear all about my Christmas and the past week starting on Tuesday. Meanwhile, if you would like pictures, they're already on Flickr.

So, I give you, the top 10 Most Played Songs on my iPod. Or, Wow, What a Dork:

10.) Alone, Celine Dion
9.) Somebody Told Me, The Killers
8.) In Her Eyes, Josh Groban
7.) Don't Give Up (You Are Loved), Josh Groban
6.) This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race, Fall Out Boy
5.) PM's Love Theme, Love Actually (impressive, given that I got it a week ago)
4.) All I Need, Within Temptation
3.) Bones, The Killers
2.) When You Were Young, The Killers
1.) Lacrymosa, Evanescence

No, seriously, I don't cry into my pillow and cut myself.

Favorite Movies of 2007: (I would like to reserve a spot for Juno, which I think I will love but haven't had the chance to see yet.)

10.) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- Honestly, this movie could have been horrible and I wouldn't have noticed after "penetrate your mind". But I heard from people that it was good.

9.) Invasion-Please look past the fact that I saw it for Jeremy Northam and Daniel Craig and realize that it is a very good film. Which should be on DVD already and ISN'T FOR WEEKS GAH.

8.) National Treasure 2- I totally thought it was going to suck, but it didn't. Please just look past the glaring teensy issues like what the hell a gold pile in South Dakota would have helped the Confederacy.

7.) POTC: AWE- *tear* I can't...I just...*tear*

6.) The Good Shepherd- WHY DOES NO ONE ELSE LIKE THIS MOVIE!?!?! It's friggin awesome.

5.) Children of Men- Oh, so good. In that bleak, post-apocalyptic way. But Clive Owen- *squee*

4.) 3:10 to Yuma- Okay. This may have been another one I went to for the guys, and DAMN was it worth it. Given the fact that he's a raging crazy, I'm left to adore Russell Crowe in the movies, and this was quite a good character for him. Also? Christian Bale? Is still hot. In case you were wondering. And worth watching just for Luke Wilson's cameo which leaves you going, "Wait. Was that Luke Wilson?"

3.) Sweeney Todd- Pants aside, very good. Notsomuch with the singing, but still. I loved Mrs. Lovett's unabashed adoration of Johnny Depp. And after TWO people I was with leaned over and said, "That'd be you," I got a little offended.

2.) Elizabeth: The Golden Age- Oh, I love these movies even though they're all wrong. Barbossingham is also quite good.

1.) Waitress- I didn't even see it in theaters, but this was, by far, the best movie I've seen in a long time. It was moving and fun and made you think, just like movies should.

Best Books of 2007 (I'm sticking to ones released this year, although I've read and loved older ones.)

10.) Augustus, Anthony Everitt

9.) Sheer Abandon, Penny Vincenzi- Abandoned babies in airports? Sign me up. I don't mean to abandon a baby in an airport. Just to read about it.

8.) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling- All this time? Always.

7.) The Art Thief, Noah Charney- A mystery about a forger who may or may not be forging and already forged work. Oh yeah.

6.) Summer at Tiffany, Majorie Hart- Absolutely the sweetest book I've read in a long time. So adorable, made me really hope that I could have a summer that defined me like that.

5.) King, Kaiser, Tsar- You all know how I feel about dynastic families and their crazy.

4.) Supreme Conflict, Jan Greenburg- Gossipy tale about the recent Supreme Court developements. So yeah, I read it. And loved it. And it's amazing.

3.) Nefertiti, Michelle Moran- Maybe it was just because I read it while in the midst of an Egyptian civ class that was kind of taking up most of my brainpower, but I really, really loved this book. Except again, totally all not true.

1.) You'll notice I skipped 2. Or maybe you weren't paying attention. Either way, my favorite book this year is a toss-up between The Nine, by Jeffrey Toobin, and How to Talk to a Widower, by Jonathan Tropper. I adored both. I've done everything but steal them to get people to buy them. No one will listen to me, but at least I have an ally in my sister with the widower one. She's not so much into the judicial stuff.

I'm going to go attempt to swallow.

A thoroughly dry and uninteresting update as my creative muse seems to have taken a New Year's vacation...damn her.

Or, I swear on unborn Baby Ada that I'll update three days later.

I'm on vacation. I've had a lot of nothing to do...what do you want from me?

Sooo...2007 (which, btw, is way prettier in writing than 2006, n'est pas?) is going well. Spent most of Monday watching The Matrix, Into the West, and more Matrix, and have decided that TNT= Teh Loveliness, and Keanu Reeves dodging bullets= Teh Coolness. And then went and ate lots and lots of lasagna and such at Mickey's, and finished the night with some Baileys. Lovely times, really.

Yesterday I sat at home, which can be lovely in it's own way, and I had to work at night, which was very much of the suck but slightly necessary as I have a write a seizure-inducing check to UWM tomorrow and have decided that if Mary and I want to got to the U.K. and Paris next January I'll need to have $3,800 saved as well as money to pay for the trip. This appears to be, if one works a slightly-higher-than-minimum-wage job, an insurmountable task. Hmmm. We'll have to see. I will not be deterred from drinking in a pub in Stratf0rd-Upon-Avon (drinking age is 18 and I'm too young to rent a car---cheers!!!) or walking slowly down the aisle of Westminster Abbey while pretending to look at the architecture but actually pretending I'm marrying Prince William and returning the realm to it's Roman roots...*ahem*

So yeah. Money. Boo.

Today I spent a lovely leisurely morning at home and then went to lunch with Mary. Good times were had by all, until I discovered inadvertantly and through absolutely no fault of my own (and yes, the police report will back that up) that REAL detectives do not, sadly, resemble those on ANY of the CSI's, not even the supposedly "unattractive" ones...*sigh* Will there ever be any wonder left in the world?

Hot Pockets are good...until you realize that you're wasting four hundred calories on fake food that will fill you up for about twenty minutes. Then you mostly feel sad.

Working my way through Jane Eyre movies, trying to find the definitive version. I'm pretty sure it's the 1983 one with James Bond, who is way too pretty but still manages to pull of Rochester.

Just to give you a little glimpse into my twisted psyche, in the book Jane herself actually bugs me a lot (Seriously. Stop being such a wuss. And do something with your damn hair.), but I am very protective of Rochester, as I am weirdly and ridiculously attracted to him. Even when I read it for the first time at twelve I was like, "Okay...I want him. Now."

Sidebar: I have a tendency to fall in love with male characters in books, and hate the women. Hating the women might be strange- and probably only is so because I have met, ooh, about five women in my entire life that I can stand to be around, but I can't belive I'm alone in the guy thing, because no way in hell could Pride and Prejudice have had two hundred years of loyal followers and spawned and entire genre of films without generations of women falling in love with Mr. Darcy. It's good, but as Imladris and I have agreed, it's kind of 19th century chick lit. And yet, it's managed to become quite possibly the most beloved book of all time. After the Bible. Maybe. I know a ton of women who could quote you from our beloved Jane here, but couldn't finish "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and...?" This may actually be a bigger commentary on our society than the enduring power of getting the rich hot guy in the end, but that is another sidebar for another day.

It's also one of those parts I tend to cast in my mind, like Heathcliff and Max DeWinter. I have yet to find a suitable guy for any of these, though, and it bothers me almost as much as my literary baby name crisis. As much as it pains me to say this, Alan would be a PERFECT Rochester, but he's *gags* too old. *tear* Heathcliff---well, Heathcliff is tough. They came close in '94 with Ralph Fiennes, but at the end of the day good ol' Ralph is still a refined British dude that we all love but don't really take seriously as a monster. And Max is easier to get, I guess. You just need rich and hot. Except I wouldn't want anyone to screw with the 1940 version too much, because it is My Favorite Movie Of All Time I Think Maybe If You Take Johnny Depp Out of The Question.

Alas, no one wants my casting ideas. Woe.

Le anyhoodles, to wrap up that incredibly long digression, I'm halfway through the William Hurt/Charlotte Gainsbough, which is good but goes way too fast. Ten minutes in and she was leaving Lowood. It's a travesty.

Continuing with today's theme of Kathleen is a Dork, allow me to share with you, in all their glory my books, courtesy of LibraryThing. com, a lovely website that now has my undying devotion because it allowed me to do what countless notebooks and weekends sitting in my bedroom with Erin Shanley couldn't---catalog my books. All of them, in one place. Well, just the adult ones. I thought the two hundred Nancy Drew and countless Thoroughbred/Saddle Club/Pony Club/Other Outlets For My Childhood Obsessions were slightly unneccessry.

Except that Betsy-Tacy got an honorary spot, as well as Christy, which made me want to be a missionary for about twelve minutes just so I could marry a hot preacher guy, until I realized that I a.) don't like not having a bathroom, b.) don't like people, and c.) am Catholic and if I married a hot preacher of my own religion I'd burn in Hell for all eternity. Sadly, C was not, at thirteen, the most pressing deterrent. I think it was the bathroom. That bathroom was a biggie.

It is now permanently linked on the sidebar as well, in case you need are reading this one day and are struck with the sudden and intense need to know what is overcrowding my shelf.

So. I'm going to go watch Without A Trace with the Empress. Somebody abandoned her baby. Oooh.