"When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around"*

So things have been rather busy with my life, and I haven't had a regular post in a while, so I am going to try to sum things up in a "Seven Things" post.

1. I have been to see a number of films in the theater lately: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Gary Oldman!!), Death at a Funeral (Matthew Macfadyen, Keely Hawes, Rupert Graves AND Peter Dinklage!!!), and This is England (sooo disturbing and yet oddly reminiscent of my first years in Boston). I hadn't been to the movies since the beginning of March and it has been nice seeing things on the big screen. The problem is that I now want to see Harry Potter AGAIN. That is the difficulty with having Netflix and being addicted to movies. You can just rent things and watch them over and over. Now I have to wait, or spend $10 to see the film again.

1a. There was a great article on Boston.com about how Netflix (the company) works. (The location of the warehouse is top secret!)

2. I went to Nantucket weekend before last to visit my friend Je Glide. It was a beautiful weekend, and I got really tan and swam in the ocean a number of times, at one point, not intentionally.
We had a big storm on Friday night, and on Saturday morning, the sky was clear, but the water was very choppy. As I don't have a very good stomach for sailing (or most other motion activities, despite the fact that I LOVE them) and had left my Dramamine at home, I thought it best to sit outside on the deck in the fresh air rather than run the risk of getting sick in the cabin. What I didn't consider is that a smallish ferry going through choppy seas is kind of like being on the Andrea Gail in The Perfect Storm.
I was trying to take some comfort in my circumstances by imagining myself in a better situation, first as a pirate and then as a member of Jacques Cousteau's team. It worked for about 15 minutes. I, and my fellow outdoor travelers, were drenched by several rogue waves, which came across the starboard bow of the boat and nailed those of us on the port side. I arrived on Nantucket, feeling queasy, freezing cold and sopping wet. It took the rest of the day to warm up. But I had a stellar rest of the weekend.

3. This video from the Miss Teen USA pageant makes me want to cringe. It makes me want to go find that girl and just shake her. Yeah honey, you look great in a bikini, but where is the gray matter between your ears??? Can you find that on a map? URGH.

4. This Saturday was I had a small group of friends over to watch Hitchcock movies. Yet again, I have people over, and the weather is warmer than it has been in weeks!! It is too eerie a coincidence. Everyone seemed to have a nice time and enjoyed the films. I hope to do it again next month. Maybe the next theme will be pirate movies. ARRRR!

5. First thing on saw on the internet when I got to work was that the US Attorney General had resigned. While I do not care for the Attorney General nor do I think that he was doing his job properly, I feel bad for him. His is a real "rags to riches, living the American Dream" story, and I always hate to see those stories end in scandal and humiliation. Perhaps it is unrealistic to expect otherwise in this day and age.

6. One of the really great byproducts of The Police reunion tour this summer is that the radio stations are playing a lot more of their songs. And not just "Every Breathe You Take", either. It makes for better listening on the drive in to work.

7. This morning, there was a car accident in the Cambridgebound lane at the BU bridge, just before the rotary. It looked like some fancy red sports car drove into the traffic light! The car had done a 180 and the state police were there directing traffic. It looked like the driver had already been taken away (I hope that he is okay... yes, it had to have been a "he" in that car), and about five or six police officers/tow truck people were looking under the hood of the car... presumably at the engine?? I am not 100% on that because I was trying not to get in an accident of my own as I was running late to work. But there was something very "guy"ish about the whole thing.

7a. I was running late to work this morning because I had overslept which was compensation for being up at 4:30am with a bad dream. Since the beginning of the summer, the quality of my dreams has changed. They are no longer fantastically "out there" dreams that you know are just dreams, but, instead, are too close to reality for me to actively differentiate that they are dreams while I am dreaming them. Case in point: this morning, I awoke scared that someone had broken into my home. And not like a Freddy Krueger type either. I can deal with Freddy; the real people from my dream on the other hand are terrifying. I feel like Gael Garcia Bernal's character in The Science of Sleep.

*This is a song by The Police, who I got to see in concert earlier this month. Yay!

Tunes

I have been listening this morning to microclips of songs by The Dead Milkmen on iTunes, debating whether or not I need to buy some of my old favorite songs like "Instant Club Hit (You'll Dance to Anything)," "Bitchin' Camaro," and "Stuart". I have all of these songs on tapes. From the 1980s. I also have my original tape of "Doolittle" by The Pixies. I eventually bought that on cd though.

Well, 1991 to be exact, when this sophomore boy who was on the yearbook staff with me (I was a senior) and I totally bonded over Pearl Jam and Nirvana, and he turned me on to The Dead Milkmen. I would drive my best friend (a huge Cure fan) and him home after yearbook (they both lived on the way,) and we would all be singing in the station wagon about burrow owls, thoughts like butterflies, lithium and fascination street.

I could have done without high school, but not without the music.

I almost HAD it.

So last night, in my on-going struggle with the geography of Somerville, Mass, I had a major breakthrough. Now my problem with Somerville is two fold.
First: I know only one way how to get most places in Somerville, and it either involves Mass Ave. or Prospect St. or both.
Secondly: Somerville is divided by Cambridge in several spots, and it took me FOREVER to understand Cambridge. I was a strictly south side of the river gal for a very long time.

I was driving my friend ManaMana home after we had gone to visit a friend, and we were going from Kendall Square to Davis Square. On the trip, I realized that we were going through Inman into Union continuing into Porter by taking Hampshire which turned into Beacon, and then I recognized my old friends Cooking Jim and Jimmy Jax's old neighborhoods. And we hadn't even approached them from Mass Ave. WHO KNEW?

And who knew that either of of those guys lived so close to Davis?? I even revealed to ManaMana that I only knew how to get to Jimmy Jax's house because the streets had something to do with Val Kilmer roles: Willow to Morrison. And it turns out that ManaMana's new place is right in that same neighborhood. Small world.

On my way driving home, I did have a moment of panic. I couldn't remember exactly how to get home from where Jimmy used to live so I ended up on Highland Ave and ended up on Rt 28. I always think that is going to dump me on the west side of Lechmere Station, but is really is the east side. I ended up taking Mem Drive home from there.

The best part of this adventure, other than finally starting to get a strong mental picture of how all of these squares are related to each other outside of Mass Ave is that I didn't even need to call Punk Rock Mom to get home. I am sure she appreciated THAT.

Aye there's the rub

Well, I finished the final installment of Harry Potter, saw The Police in concert, and my sister is married and off on her honeymoon. So all of my big things for the summer are over and done with.

WOO HOO.

So now I want my restful summer to begin. But the summer is nearly over, and the students will be back again before we know it. I don't really mind it that much. I would prefer the weather to be a bit cooler. I just don't need it to start getting dark again any time soon.

I need to start making a list of films that I want to see. So many good ones are out. I am thinking that I might go see Stardust this weekend, to give Neil a little box office boost.