Ketchin' up

I am an old lady now. So there's that.

I've been seeing a few movies lately...in the theatre even. Recently, I have been keeping Block E alive. Not much else is. Hard to believe that place is only 10 years old. It is a virtual ghost town now. Everything is gone. Borders, GameWorks, even the Cold Stone Creamer is gone. The Mrs. Fields must be closed because it hasn't been open the last few times I was there even though there are still sodas in the fridge and cookies in the display case. So sad.

Downtown Minneapolis is very different from when I first moved here 20 years ago. City Center was basically a mall then with many of the same stores one would find at Southdale or MoA. Now, it has Len Druskin and GNC, plus some random shit like ProStaff and Kaplan University. What the heck happened?

Anyway, back to my recent movie adventures. Today, I saw "Dream House". I went in with low expectations because I thought it would be your standard haunted house movie. I don't tend to like haunted house movies. Ghosties just don't do it for me. Instead, it was this kinda Lifetimey mystery/thriller. Reviews are saying the "twists" were spoiled in the trailer. I never saw the trailer, so I didn't know what to expect, but that didn't stop me from figuring out half of what was going on within 10 minutes and well, the movie provided that twist at the halfway mark. The resolution (?) was pretty dumb and nonsensical and also, I do not get what people see in Daniel Craig. He has pretty eyes, but that's about all I can say about the guy.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw "Contagion" which despite what horror fans so want to believe is NOT A HORROR MOVIE!!! It's kind of like "The Stand," but without all the God vs. the Devil stuff thrown in. That is not a complaint. I would call it a disaster movie, but with less Irwin Allen. I really enjoyed that movie. And well, Gwyneth Paltrow dies in the first 5 minutes. Always cool.

I also saw "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark". See my comments above about me and haunted house movies. I don't know who was more bored by the experience, me or Guy Pierce.

"Dream House" was not helped by the fact that I watched a Netflix movie last night with a plot twist that was kinda similar. It was call "The Haunting". It's a Spanish movie about a couple who move into a giant house in the middle of nowhere (SURPRISE!!!) and the wife starts hearing noises and seeing things. It was a-ight, but I could have never seen it and been okay with life.

Not much going on in the social life. Had sushi with the girls for my birfday. Went apple picking with Bean the day before. There were no apples to pick really, but we did go through the corn maze which was pretty awesome. I would love to go through one of those at night. Wish I knew some adventurous sorts who would be down for that sort of thing.

Did I ever tell you about the times I tried watching "Breaking Bad" and just could not get into it? Twice I Netflixed the first disc of season one and twice I didn't make it past the second episode. Well, about a month and a half ago, I came across the first 3 seasons on sale at Best Buy for just $14.99 each, so for some random reason I bought them. Me and my impulse buying, right? I started watching that same day and pretty much devoured those first 3 seasons over the course of two weeks. I kinda love this show with its complex characters and cute Aaron Paul.

By the time I had finished my DVDs, AMC was over halfway through with season 4 and the first 3 episodes were no longer on On Demand. I thought about waiting until S4 comes out on DVD/Blu-ray, but who knows when that will be...so I bought a Pass on Amazon last Monday (Happy Birthday to Me!!!). I have watched 9 of the 11 so far. The only reason I'm not watching right now is because I am typing this little update and because I wanted to try to finish my book.

Speaking of books, that's the other thing I have been doing lately: reading. Earlier this year, I decided to give those Stieg Larsson books a whirl and really enjoyed them. Now, I am checking out other Scandinavian mystery series. Currently, I am reading the Erlander books by Arnauldur Indridason. I picked up the latest in the series, "Hypothermia" at the library this afternoon, but still have a few more pages to finish in "Arctic Chill". I am liking this reading thing.

I have also decided to revisit my Spanish learning. I was trying French for a little bit, but decided that my experience with Spanish called for me to handle that first. I have "Spanish for Dummies" and "The Complete Idiot's Guide", but finally decided that my best source was the one I paid over $100: my textbook from my Metro State Spanish class. I am taking it kinda slow and I am starting from the beginning even though it is a lot of stuff I have already learned, like, 5 times since I have taken about that many different Spanish classes. Every once in a while, I even get to use a word or two at work with a customer. Look at me with my international self.

And speaking of work, very busy of late. This nasty business of a cold has run amok through our offices for the last 3 weeks. We are really short-staffed, not helped by Lindsay going off to become a Driver Examiner last month and Vicki unceremoniously quitting about a week ago. That doesn't stop me from continuing to hunt for work with the Fourth District. Right now, there is a post that is basically the criminal version of what I do at the DMV. It would mean a pay cut, but it would be worth it to not have to take those hell-buses to and from St. Paul 10 times a week. They will keep posting jobs and I will keep applying. I may be old, but my will is STRONG!