"Looking for somewhere to stand and stay, I leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away." ~the national

Pretty soon I'm heading off to the New York Athletic Club to meet my aunt, uncle, and cousin for lunch. Then we're going on a backstage tour of Radio City Music Hall. I can't wait. The NYAC is running this program/outing, and my relatives are members and kindly decided to invite me because they know I love all things theater/music-related.

I remember the last time I went to the NYAC. It was about a year ago, when I was still living at home in NJ. My mom and I came into the city, and on the spur of the moment my uncle decided we should all go to the NYAC for lunch. I was wearing jeans, not expecting to go out for a fancy lunch, and jeans are not allowed at the NYAC. My cousin Bess, who's 14 years old, is 5'7" and wears a size 0 or 2. I can't exactly share clothes with her. The only thing of hers that I could fit into was a pair of fancy, flowy velour pants. There was a matching jacket that I wore as well. Basically it was a fancy velour track suit, and I looked ridiculous in it, especially with the brown boots that I was wearing. But I amused my cousin and still managed to enjoy lunch (the food is really good there). My uncle reminded me not to wear jeans today (not that I needed reminding), and I plan on looking sharp enough to make up for my last appearance at the NYAC.

Here's a hilarious video you should see, spoofing the Tom Cruise scientology videos that have recently surfaced. Jerry O'Connell's impression is dead-on. He even looks a little bit like Cruise. I like Jerry O'Connell. I met him at my cousin's confirmation party, and he was very nice. He used to live in the same apartment building as my relatives and babysat for my cousins a lot.

"You’re on the road, but you’ve got no destination. You’re in the mud, in the maze of her imagination. You love this town, even if it doesn’t ring true. You’ve been all over, and it’s been all over you..." ~u2

I went to an advance screening of Forgetting Sarah Marshall today. I was super excited about it; I've been anxiously waiting to see this movie since I first heard about it a loooong time ago. My absolute favorite actress in the world, Kristen Bell, plays the title character. Jason Segel, whom I've loved since Freaks and Geeks, wrote the screenplay and acted in the lead role. Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, Superbad) produced it. Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill had supporting roles. Basically it was made by an amazing group of people whom I greatly admire. So I jumped at the chance to see it. It doesn't open until April 18th, so I was surprised they were screening it so far in advance, but I'm definitely not complaining about that. I loved it. It was hilarious. I only had a couple of complaints (pacing, choppy editing), but overall it was a really fun film. Jason Segel is adorable as always, and he has a couple of awesome musical performances that made me laugh incredibly hard; his character writes a rock opera based on Dracula. Jason Bateman had a really small cameo in the movie, which made me very happy. And, of course, Kristen was lovely.

The last two episodes of Chuck aired tonight. I'm so sad they've run out of episodes. The last episode? Oh. My. Gosh.
Lizzie (to Chuck): "I have two guns. What do you have?"
Sarah: "Me."
That killed me. I nearly started crying.

"Is there a time for keeping a distance, a time to turn your eyes away? Is there a time for keeping your head down, for getting on with your day?" ~u2

Watch The Colbert Report tonight and look for me! I went to the taping. It was fun, although it entailed a whole lotta waiting time. I got there at 3:45 and was #30 (and I had been worried about not getting in!). It was absolutely freezing outside in line. They started letting people inside the holding area around 4:45. They didn't let us into the studio until after 7:00pm, which seemed really late. They were having problems setting up or something. So they didn't start taping until 7:30. But it was worth it. Stephen Colbert is absolutely hilarious. I love him. And he gave me a high-five!

During the last 6 periods of the day today (and there are only 8 periods total), the principal sequestered my class in the library and buried them with work. They even ate their lunch up there as they worked. They had to stay quiet and in their seats that whole time. They missed their regular classes during those periods, and two of those periods were supposed to be gym, which they always look forward to all week (they only have it once a week). They're really been acting up lately, especially for the art teacher, and it got to the point where serious action needed to be taken. I was glad about it, although I have a feeling they'll be absolutely furious tomorrow.

"One man come in the name of love, one man come and go. One man come, he to justify, one man to overthrow. In the name of love, what more in the name of love. In the name of love, what more in the name of love.
One man caught on a barbed wire fence, one man he resist. One man washed on an empty beach, one man betrayed with a kiss. In the name of love, what more in the name of love. In the name of love, what more in the name of love.
Early evening*, April 4. Shot rings out in the Memphis sky. Free at last, they took your life. They could not take your pride. In the name of love, what more in the name of love. In the name of love, what more in the name of love. In the name of love, what more in the name of love..." ~u2

*Interesting fact that you probably already know if you're a U2 fan and might not know if you're not a U2 fan:
This song is obviously about MLK. In the original studio version, the one line reads, "Early morning, April 4. Shot rings out in the Memphis sky." After the record was released, though, Bono found out that MLK was actually killed in the evening and not the morning. So when he sings the song live, he replaces 'morning' with 'evening.'

There is soooo much to write about tonight and not nearly enough time. I don't even know where to start.

1. I guess I'll start with U2, the greatest band ever. Tonight I went to a free advance screening of the new Imax film U2 3D. It was AWESOME. It made me tear up a few times because it reminded me of the three U2 concerts I went to on the Vertigo tour. Of course the movie wasn't as cool as being at the concert in person, but it was as close as a movie could possibly take you. It really got you up close and personal. My main complaint is that I think they could have chosen a better setlist to film; I read somewhere that it was geared more towards the general U2 fan than the diehard fan, and I agree with that assessment. As a diehard fan I would have liked some more rarities, but overall it was still spectacular. This film really is groundbreaking. It is the first digital 3D, multicamera, real-time production and you can't imagine what it's like until you see it up on the big Imax screen. So go see it when it opens near you. Even if you're not a huge fan, you'll love it. I heard that Bono was at the screening tonight, but i didn't see him. If he was there, I'm mad I missed him.



2. The Oscar nominations. Overall I'm pretty happy.
~Biggest thing that made me happy: Laura Linney's nomination (for The Savages). I'm a huge fan of hers and I absolutely loved her performance in that film. She definitely deserved the nomination (and she stole it away from Angelina Jolie, which makes me doubly happy!). I'm also relieved that Ellen Page (Juno) was nominated in that category; I was pretty sure she was a lock, but you never know.
~Another happy surprise: "Falling Slowly" (from Once) being nominated for best song. If you haven't seen Once, go watch it now. It's on DVD already (I got it for Christmas).
~Biggest disappointment: Sweeney Todd not being nominated for Best Picture. I definitely think it deserved Michael Clayton's spot. And Tim Burton not being nominated for Best Director. Seriously, what's up with that?! It won Best Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes, and Tim Burton won Best Director from the National Board of Review, yet it wasn't even nominated for an Oscar in either category?! That's messed up.

3. Heath Ledger. I don't even know what to say. I'm seriously at a loss for words. I only stopped at home to change clothes before tonight's screening so I didn't turn on my computer or anything, and I didn't know about it until Nicole met me at the screening. The very first thing she said to me as she walked up was, "Did you hear about Heath Ledger?" When she told me what happened I was completely floored. It's so incredibly sad. Especially because he has a 2-year-old daughter. What is there to say about a tragedy like that? I just don't know.

"How does it feel, how does it feel, to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?" ~bob dylan

I knew school was going to suck today. Like, absolutely suck. I had been dreading it for awhile. It was the first day of the state test, which they took in the morning. I then got to teach them periods 4 and 5 and periods 7 and 8 (they had lunch sixth period). You can't imagine trying to teach these kids (for four periods, or three hours) right after they've just taken a stressful, difficult test that they know is incredibly important. They went crazy, just as I expected. I didn't have particularly difficult lessons planned, but most of them refused to do any work at all and instead decided to play indoor basketball with paper balls and the trash can. I let them. There was really nothing I could do.
The first lesson I did was reading a picture book to them called Courage. Each page began, "Courage is..." and then gave an example of courage (like, "Courage is getting your hair cut."). I had the kids each make their own page by writing their own "Courage is..." statement and drawing a picture to go along with it. Here's my favorite:

It says "Courage is my teacher." How sweet is that?? And during the last two periods, about five students crowded around me and we did their social studies worksheet together. The rest of the class was out of control, but I actually managed to get some of them to work (and they understood it, too). So my lessons weren't a total waste, and we ended the day with no injuries, which meant it wasn't so bad. I'm dreading Thursday even more than I was dreading today (it's the same schedule as today, except it will be after they finished three days of testing, so they'll be completely burned out). I can't wait until this test is over.

On a more positive note, I had a good weekend, even though I got absolutely no work done. On Saturday Nicole and I went to the opening of the New York Guitar Festival. A bunch of different musical artists recreated Bob Dylan's legendary Royal Albert Hall concert. They played through the setlist from that concert with each artist playing a different song. The last song was "Like a Rolling Stone," which is probably my favorite Dylan song. Then all the bands did an encore together. They did "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," another Dylan song that I absolutely love. There was just so much energy on stage during that performance; it was magical. So it was a good night. Then on Sunday I had brunch with my friends Christin and Marie. It was so good to see them. I got to hang out with Christin afterwards, and I'm very glad we got to catch up. I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people, but I need to try harder because I really am blessed with some wonderful friends.