"Can't sing but I've got soul." ~u2

I've been spending more time doing nothing over the past few days and am loving it. I never get bored. I'd love to just do nothing all the time. I've been hanging out with Kim and Matt a lot; the past two nights we've spent hours playing games. I love games (and I'm usually pretty good at them). Over the past two nights I've won Apples to Apples, Would You Rather?, Gin Rummy...Joseph won Urban Myth. Would You Rather? was an awesome Christmas present from my friend Sam, who knows how much I love games. Kim got a karaoke machine for Christmas, so we've been doing that a lot as well. I'm awful at it, but it's so much fun. So far I've performed earachingly bad renditions of I Want You to Want Me, Sweet Home Alabama, Eternal Flame, I Don't Know How to Love Him, Elevation, I'll Be Watching You, I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, and some others that I've already erased from my mind.

I've been reading a lot, too. I read A Hat Full of Sky, which is an amazing sequel to The Wee Free Men (on which I wrote my English seminar paper this semester). I highly recommend Terry Pratchett's Discworld books to everyone. Now I'm reading Dave Eggers' memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. It's very good so far.

I'm off to see Dreamgirls now. I'll report back on it later.

"It's not going to stop, 'til you wise up." ~aimee mann

Merry (belated) Christmas, everyone! I had a lovely holiday. My grandparents stayed with us and my aunt, uncle, and two cousins from NY came down for the day. Some family friends joined us for dessert. We had lots of great food, conversation, and games. I received some wonderful gifts. My grandparents gave me an absolutely beautiful antique diamond and sapphire ring that I love. Some of my other favorite presents were the Little Miss Sunshine DVD, a few fun t-shirts, the Spring Awakening OBCR, and tickets to see The Vertical Hour on Broadway (starring Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy, two of my absolute favorite actors). I was reminded of how fortunate I am. The best part of the day was spending time with everyone, though.

The day after Christmas I woke up and felt awful. I'm glad it didn't hit me until after Christmas. My throat hurt like crazy and my nose wouldn't stop running. I've spent the past couple of days doing nothing but lounging around the house, and I'm feeling better. I've watched some good movies, including The Man in the Moon (Reese Witherspoon is so young) and Mulholland Drive. Mulholland Drive was sooo confusing, but I really enjoyed it. It was almost as confusing as my first viewing of Magnolia, which is saying a lot. Have I written about that here? First of all, let me say that I adore Magnolia. I think it's a fabulous film. The opening quote for this post is from a song that the characters in the film sing, and it's a beautiful moment. There are some amazing performances (including one by Julianne Moore). Anyway, Storytime: My mom and I rented Magnolia from Blockbuster a long time ago, back when VCRs and VHS tapes were in fashion. From the moment it started, we were completely lost. My mom kept asking me what was going on, and I kept shushing her, telling her that it wasn't supposed to make sense and that we weren't supposed to understand it. It gradually began to make sense as we got to know the characters, and I think by the end we both got the gist of it. When I took the tape out of the VCR, though, I noticed that it said "Tape 2." Apparently the movie was so long that it was on 2 VHS tapes, and we had only gotten the second one, so we watched the second half of the movie without realizing that we had missed the first half. We went back to Blockbuster the next day and they apologized and gave us the first tape (along with a free rental). So then I watched the whole thing (in correct order), and it made much more sense. But anyway, it was very confusing at first (and understandably so). And Mulholland Drive was just as confusing. I understand it now, though, after perusing the IMDB boards and running everything through my head a few times. Naomi Watts gives a fabulous performance.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

"Somebody hold me too close, Somebody force me to care, Somebody make me come through, I'll always be there, As frightened as you of being alive. Being alive, being alive." ~stephen sondheim (company)

I went to see the Broadway production of Company last night. The Entertainment Weekly review says, "If you get through 'Being Alive' without crying, you're a hell of a lot stronger than we are." I am slightly stronger than EW; I had tears in my eyes, but I managed to control myself. I was pretty choked up, though. Raul Esparza gave a fabulous performance. The EW review also says of the show, "[John Doyle's] actors-as-orchestra trick doesn't work as well as it did in last year's spectacular Sweeney Todd. (Mental patients carrying tubas are easy to buy; uptight yuppies take some getting used to.)" I agree with that statement. The actors playing all the instruments worked better than I thought it would in this production, but not as well as it did in Sweeney Todd. But overall I loved the show. It would be great to see Raul win the Tony for best actor this year.

After the show I got to spend some time with my friends Nic and Tiff, which I was really glad to be able to do. I only spent about an hour with them and it seemed much shorter than that; time flew by and we had so much to talk about. Nic gave me an awesome Christmas present; she gave me a few bootleg cds and a shooting script of Little Miss Sunshine, my favorite movie ever. I saw it in theaters a few times last June when it first opened in NYC (I can't believe it's still out in theaters in some places). The DVD is the #1 thing on my Christmas list.

Tonight I'm going back to see The Pursuit of Happyness. Fingers crossed that I actually get to see the end this time.

"No big differences these days, just the same old walkaways. And someday I'm gonna stay, but not today..." ~counting crows

My grandparents are here! It took my brother and I 40 minutes to drive to Newark Airport last night, and then we drove around the airport for an hour and a half. The flight was late and there isn't anywhere that you can park without paying, so we literally just kept driving in circles for an hour and a half, waiting for my grandparents. At least we had good music with us. And we got them home without any problems.

Heather, you inspired me to think about my family members and how different we all are. So here we go on my grandparents: I love my grandparents. They're southern; my mom's anscestors have lived in the South since before the Civil War. My grandmother has this story about her relatives landing in Virginia among the first settlers and then eventually walking to Georgia with their 22 slaves. I think my southern family history has made me fascinated with the South; I love studying it and trying to understand it.

My Grandad is, without a doubt, the funniest person I have ever met. He's hilarious. He also has very old-fashioned, southern ideas. He's racist and homophobic and doesn't intend to change his ideas anytime soon. Last night he yelled at my brother for wearing his hat inside the house and at my mom for allowing him to do so. A couple of years ago I walked in the NYC AIDS Walk and he did not approve because he believes that only gay people get AIDS and they deserve it. I hate having to type that, but it's what he thinks. He is extremely blunt; he has no qualms about saying exactly what he thinks. I'm terrified to go out in public with him lest he say something offensive, which is always very likely to happen. My mom always tries to convince him to open his mind a little, but he argues that there's no point in trying to make him change his ideas this late in life. He never calls me Claire when he's talking to me. He calls me Clarice or Clarissa. My parents intentionally named my brother (Brett) and me with one-syllable names that can't be shortened. My mom's name is Elizabeth, and she tried to go by that through the first twenty-something years of her life. She hated how other people kept giving her nicknames, though. Different people called her things like Liz and Beth, and her parents didn't even stick to Elizabeth (they alternated between Libbie and Betsey). Her twin brother is named Robert (he now goes by Bob), so throughout their childhood (until they were old enough to rebel) they were Bobby and Betsey. Now my mom just goes by Betsey (although my grandparents call her Libbie). Anyway, the point of that long digression was that my mom wanted my brother and I to each have one possible name because of the frustration that she experienced. And my grandfather managed to get around that by elongating each of our names. Brett becomes Brettsky or Brettster and I become Clarice or Clarissa. Which I love. Despite Grandad's prejudices and faults, he is hilarious. He is constantly making me laugh. And he is very loving towards his family. And I love him very much, despite all his faults. He always ensures interesting conversation.

My grandmother just might be my favorite person in the world. She is more open-minded than her husband. She is tolerant and accepting and easy-going and selfless. She loves movies and musicals as much as I do, and she always sends me her many magazines after she finishes reading them. She also clips out specific articles that she knows I'll like. She is absolutely wonderful and I love her to death.

I have to go now, my grandfather is complaining that I'm not joining them for lunch. So I'm off. Here's my grandparents after falling asleep on our couch:

"Oh, what a beautiful thing when you sing. Hear all them bells ringing out in the street. Blue sky cracking and it makes me believe. Oh, hear all them bells ringing out in the street. Hammer strikes the metal and it makes me believe." ~ryan adams

I'm home! I drove home on Tuesday, and it only took me 4 hours and 15 minutes. That's a record for me. I deserved a good drive; it took me 8 hours coming home for Thanksgiving.

Last night I had a great time with my best friends from home, Kim and Elizabeth. We went to Friday's for dinner and ate way too much. Here's Betsy and I with our massive drinks:

Then we went to see The Pursuit of Happyness. The first hour and forty five minutes of the movie were great. Then the projector broke. We sat there for 20 minutes while they tried to fix it (to no avail). I was mad. We got free movie vouchers, but I hate having movies interrupted, and I want to know how it ends. Everyone else was laughing while they were trying to fix it because the lights kept flickering and there were these really weird noises and the people sitting in front of us were saying it was the time machine from the movie that was really working. I was not amused. I'm a movie nerd. I hate when people talk during a movie. I hate having to stop a movie. I like achieving complete suspension of reality. So now I'm going back on Saturday to see it again.

J.K. Rowling revealed the title of the 7th Harry Potter book; it's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I can't wait for it to come out.

Tonight my brother and I have to go pick up our grandparents from Newark Airport; that'll be fun. I'm sure traffic will be a nightmare. But I'm excited to see them. I love my grandparents so much.
On a final note, here's me and Josie, my baby (who is less than thrilled about her reindeer ears):