Hey, the Oscar results weren't half bad last night! Scorcese finally won his Directing Oscar, and the second-best movie of 2006 (The Departed) actually won Best Picture. Unfortunately the real best movie of "last year" (Children of Men) wasn't even up for the award. So all is right with the world, sort of. Children of Men and Apocalypto were shut out. And if you're counting at home, that's Forrest Whitaker: 1, Leo: 0. Oh well, you can't have everything. If you watched last night, you saw one of the funniest moments in Oscar history, with the song by Will Ferrell, Jack Black, and John C. Reilley (an accomplished stage actor btw). Hilarious. At least we got that, which was some restitution for having to sit through freaking Ellen hosting the Academy Awards. Sheesh. Anyway, go rent The Departed (be careful though, a lot of language, and violence), The Prestige, and cross your fingers for a quick release date for Children of Men. Oh yeah, and Flags of our Fathers is VERY good, but Band of Brothers is more worth watching. Different battles, I know, but BOB is AMAZINGLY good.
It's official. The O.C. has ended. I watched the series finale last night, and there will never be another new episode of one of my favorite TV shows. I'm actually pretty sad. I know, I know, it's pretty pathetic that a freaking TV show can get me all misty, but I was watching the show last night, and at the end, all of a sudden, I found tears rolling down my cheeks. That's never happened to me before during a TV show. And I think there were a few reasons that contributed to my feeble condition. First of all, I really loved those characters. They have been through a lot, and they're extremely well drawn. It's obvious that they were close to Josh Schwarz's (the creator) heart. It was a pretty sentimental ending, and a very fitting demise for the show (a baby for two of the characters, a wedding in the future, the main character reaching his goals, and of course the inevitable Marissa flashbacks from the first episode). Of course, it's not like the best years of the show were ahead of it...the last season and a half have been pretty rushed, and disappointing. But the show is ending at a time where it's kind of like an end to a section of my own life, as well. I literally remember watching the first episode ever, on the floor of Matt and I's apartment in West Monroe, right after I had moved there. Lacey and I were playing cards, and it was on in the background. We were, to be truthful, making fun of it at first. The point is, the start of the show was kind of like the start of our relationship. It began while we were dating, continued through our courtship, engagement, marriage, two moves (Springfield and Indianapolis) and now we're about to have a baby. That part of our lives is over, and a new (even better!) part is about to begin. So, bon voyage O.C., and bon voyage to our life without children. It was fun while it lasted, and I look forward expectantly to the next set of challenges.
Lacey got me his first CD for Valentine's Day, and I absolutely love it. We kinda stumbled upon him while listening to the Last Kiss soundtrack, and he is an excellent songwriter. He is on Norah Jones' label, which isn't a surprise, once you hear his music. It is very soulful (as is his voice) and is mostly acoustic-guitar and piano driven. In fact, on his first album, he uses Norah Jones' band, the Handsome Band, and Norah even guest-stars on two of the tracks. It is a very stripped-down, mellow-vibed record, and is an excellent disc. I recommend it highly, especially if you like that kind of music.
Yeah, so I agreed to take Lacey to a chick-flick on Valentine's day. It had Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore in it, both of whom I like, and who make pretty good choices as far as these movies are concerned. And it got decent reviews on rotten tomatoes, so I figured it was safe. I wasn't expecting much, being as though it was a romantic comedy released ON Valentine's day, but I was extremely surprised to find an excellent movie! It was absolutely hilarious. The premise is that Hugh Grant is one of these has-been 80's stars who was in a huge band, but the lead singer went solo and now he's living off that success, but is a complete nobody. However, he survives, mostly due to the resurgence of 80's interest. Seeing a parody of those bands, with Hugh Grant as the keyboard player, was worth the price of admission by itself. I think I disturbed a lot of the people around us, laughing at his hip thrusts, hairstyle, and horrendous outfits. You really have to remember the 80's to get some of the humor (which I do), but it's totally worth it. This movie nails the music industry SPOT ON. So anyway, he is hired to write a song in 3 days for this bubble-gum pop star a la Britney/Christina/Shakira. He finds Barrymore in a meet-cute, and, well, you know the drill. I laughed a LOT, and the script was excellent! I really cared about the characters (which is hard for me in a chick flick), and although there were the obvious cliches, I really think this one's a buy-when-it-comes-out-er. I don't know how they got all those in-movie pop songs to be catchy, and "moving" but they succeed on almost every point. It was a very enjoyable time, and I'm STILL singing the main song they put together. I highly recommend this as a date movie with something extra to offer.
Seriously, how many times do you think my little play-on-words in the title has been used? It's been done to death! Which is why I use it, because I am the king of un-originality.
Ok, so I had the last 2 days off of work. Two whole days of freedom, completely paid for!! The skinny of it is that we had almost 16 inches of snow in about a 30 hour period. That, combined with crazy-cold temperatures and ice in Indy, lead to 2 snow days; every kid's dream (and secretly, every teacher's dream), and every parent's nightmare. Anyway, they were pretty much the 2 best days of the ENTIRE YEAR! And I'm not exaggerating, although, it's only been a little over a month since 2007 started, so there's not a lot to compare them to. Here's the rundown.
Woke up Tuesday morning around 5 AM to the phone call that we had no school. Sweet release! More sleep! That lead to laziness most of the morning, but of course, that's a good thing when you've been snowed in! Plus, I've been able to feel the baby move lately, which is freaking cool. So we were lazing around the house, and Lacey checks her email to see that her Aunt has bought us all this cool baby stuff! How incredible are her Aunt and Uncle, you ask? Well, I won't go into details for fear of embarrasment, but let's just say that we're getting flown down to a wedding in April, and many large items are now checked off our baby registry. Shortly after that, I check MY email, and find out that one of my sister's best friends (and a good friend of both mine and my family's) is engaged...to an offensive lineman for the INIDANAPOLIS COLTS! So, after that, more lazing around is done, it was still snowing at this point, so we weren't going to get much done. We had a late breakfast, and I decided to (after a long, hot shower) go out and brave the roads...just to have a look-see. They were completely terrible, but thanks to the miracle of 4-wheel drive, I got around just fine. I picked up the special edition of The Departed, and some flowers for my wife, and headed home for some more laziness. We pretty much got nothing else done the rest of the day, except for watching American Idol. Oh yeah, we also found out that school was cancelled for the next day as well!!
Valentine's day dawned as white as ever. We got up late (again) and (kinda) exchanged gifts. I ended up with Amos Lee's first CD, and The Last Kiss DVD, while Lacey got Gilmore Girls season 2, and an I-Home, just like The Booths'. She'll be able to put it up when we finally buy a house. So yeah, we kinda lazed around again, but this time we had a plan. We did a little grocery shopping, after (finally!) getting the car out of the drifts that had been plowed off the streets into our parking space, and followed that up by going to see Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. It was very, very good. I will review it later. After that was lunch at Chilis, followed by some more lazing around. We ended up not getting to anything else...except more American Idol! What a deliciously boring, yet incredibly satisfying Valentine's day! Today we had a 2-hour delay to school, so we got to sleep a little longer (which is always nice), and we'll be heading to Lafayette after school to eat at Olive Garden, and visit with Vickie. Tomorrow we head to Michigan to visit with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece, and that is capped off by being a 3-day weekend! Could life be any sweeter??
No, not homeboy. This isn't the 90's any more.
Did you ever get to the realization that you have become a boring person? I have. I feel like Lacey and I have become bums. We work, we lay around, we sleep, we eat. There is a lot of stuff we COULD be doing, a lot of opportunities to get out and have fun, especially in the area where we live. But we rarely take advantage of these. Of course, one reason is that we are up at 5:30 every morning, and I work every Saturday, so we're tired a lot. Add that to the fact that pregnant Lacey becomes a zombie right around 9 PM, and you have a coupla couch potatoes. Another reason this has happened is our ridiculous television schedule. We have actually dropped a few shows from our list, and it's still insane! We've definitely resolved to drop a few more shows once the baby comes, but when you find yourself having a conversation at night about which shows are being dropped first, and why, you know you have no life. Anyway, gettaload of our schedule:
Monday: 24, The Hills, How I Met Your Mother
Tuesday: American Idol, Gilmore Girls (Lacey only)
Wednesday: American Idol, Lost
Thursday: Survivor, The O.C. (which is cancelled, so that's one down)
Friday-Saturday: NOTHING!
Sunday: The Amazing Race, The Girls Next Door, Desperate Housewives, Entourage (when it comes back)
And that's having dropped Smallville and Las Vegas (which we will watch on DVD when they come out, along with Scrubs)! Is that ridiculous or what? I know I said we'd drop a few once the baby comes, but once that happens, we won't be able to get out much anyway! Maybe this is what is supposed to happen once you get married and start having kids, I dunno. But in a year when I'm about to turn 30, I just got to thinking about how little I do. Don't get me wrong, I love my life. I love so much about it, it's crazy. I just think that maybe we should be taking advantage of some stuff around us...y'think?
THE INDIANAPOLIS COLTS HAVE WON THE SUPER BOWL AND MATT WILKINS IS A LOSER!
That should have been the headline across the country, as he doubted our ability to win the big game. And yet, the Colts overcame the sloppiest super bowl in history to absolutely beat DOWN the Bears and claim the first ever major sports championship for the city of Indianapolis. It is PANDEMONIUM IN THIS CITY! People stormed the circle downtown after the game, despite subzero temperatures. It was -6 this morning, with a windchill of -21, and it's only supposed to climb to 2 degrees today...TWO! And yet, there is a parade planned for the Colts players, climaxing inside the RCA Dome. Lacey and I are planning to go down there to see if we can find a parking spot and get in the dome. If not, we'll go home, because hey, my baby (both of them) can't be outside in this crazy weather. Anyway, you should see my classes this morning. I had 2 students out of 28 in 1st period...and that was with having a 2 hour delay to school!!! People are celebrating like nobody's business (which is none of your business), including Joel, who went out last night after the game, and took the day off work. I guess if you're single, you can do that. There was a 40-page section with exclusive Colts material in the paper today, and the town is going nuts. It is glorious.
CONGRATULATIONS INDIANAPOLIS COLTS, WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Update:
I thought about it some, and I realized that after 40 super bowls of knowing not one person who was on the field or at the game, I knew exactly NINE of the 76,000 fans at the game. Lacey's aunt, uncle, cousin and her husband were at the game, as well as my uncle, aunt, and friends melody, josh and his wife. Not only that, but we actually met one of the players who was at the game, Dylan Gandy, a backup offensive lineman! That is really weird to me, having so many connections. But I'm sure everyone in Indianapolis has their own little stories about connections. Go figure.
Lacey is officially over the halfway point now. 4 and a half months down, 4 and a half to go. Keep her (and Noah) in your prayers.
In other news.....Bienvenido a miami, THE COLTS ARE IN THE SUPER BOWL!!!!! We've looked forward to this for a long time, and it's finally here. And it has blown UP in this city. We're all praying Peyton can finally get rid of the gaggle of monkeys on his back and win the biggest game this town has ever seen.
GO COLTS!