Philly and a wee bit o' DW

Dave seemed very disappointed that I didn't call it Philly at any point before, during or after my trip, so that was for him. Philadelphia was totally fun. It was pretty hot there, but I wore a light floaty skirt, which was at times made bad by the nice breeze. I saw all manner of historical stuff, such as the Liberty Bell (twice, which I will explain in a minute), Independence Hall, The Carpenter's Hall, Ben Franklin's grave. I also went to the National Constitution Center and took pictures of the outside of The U.S. Mint and Betsy Ross' House. I wound up going to the Liberty Bell twice because I went and took a pictures of it and then I was talking to Rachel and she was all sad that I didn't take a pictures of me wearing Dave's hat(Mom gave me her birthday present for Dave so I could take it to him) in front of the Liberty Bell, like we had discussed. So I went back, because I live to please. I stood around for like 15 minutes waiting for the people to thin out, which they did because it was closing in like 10 minutes. So I got the picture. It is awesome. The lady who took it for me was like, do you want one without the hat too? I was like, I have no dignity left, but yes. And now I have pictures of Dave wearing the hat, too. I saw a first draft of the Declaration of Independence that Jefferson sent to Franklin for proofreading. A man after my own heart. I attempted to eavesdrop on some French people looking at that too. Only one of them spoke English and she was translating the sign and the Declaration for the rest of them. I took a picture of them outside, which I would totally post because I am ridiculous. Even the building I had to go to for the work thing was impressive. It was the Curtis Center and the lobby was giant and marble and had a huge fountain that somehow also had grass in parts of it. It was awesome and I wanted to take a picture, but I didn't want to look nerdy. I got to Disney World mere minutes before Dave and Rachel and the peeps, so that was good timing. We went to Spoodles for dinner and then Rachel and I bought a weird hat with candles on the top that light up, so people have to wear that hat on their birthday. Dave is up first. :)

Absolutely guaranteed to raise your energy level!

I almost forgot. I saw The Dark Knight last night. It was really good, although depressing. But it's not like I expected it to be cheery. There were some really cool moments where I was like, dude, that is badass. I actually did turn to Shannon and say that at one point, although probably not when regular people would have thought that. This movie is the first time the Joker has ever been remotely scary. And dude, is he ever. He has a moment with a pencil that is the coolest gross thing that's been done with a writing utensil since Wesley Snipes and that pen in Demolition Man. Except where Wesley Snipes' moment was stupid and funny, this one is totally creepy and effective. Anyway, it's a good movie.

And a movie that is pretty much the complete opposite of everything from The Dark Knight is Mamma Mia. Stylistically, thematically, cinematographically (I think I just made that word up. It's rather awkward. Try saying it out loud.). The costumes are bright and interesting and the setting is gorgeous. You should know, though, that Pierce Brosnan is not a singer. The casting people really should have switched Pierce Brosnan with Colin Firth as far as characters go. Pierce Brosnan is seriously the worst singer in the film. The best seems to be Amanda Seyfried, whose hair I now covet. They even managed to make Meryl Streep look soft and pretty. Plotwise, Mamma Mia is the opposite of The Dark Knight. It's very light on plot, where The Dark Knight has almost too much plot. There is much more to accomplish in many more storylines. Mamma Mia just has to shoehorn in as many ABBA songs as possible. Some of them are really terribly done, but others are pretty decent. It was almost fun and definitely light. If that's what you're into, then go for it.

Aack.

OK, so I'm leaving home for 11 days in about 24 hours. I have mucho packing to do and need to fit eleven days worth of clothes and toiletries into two checked bags, or, preferably one. We shall see. I wish I had a little bit more notice, but I think the bonus trip at the beginning of my vacation will be fun. I do like that once I deliver the proposal I have one completely empty carry-on size suitcase. The proposals are numberous bound books and fill that suitcase and you have to keep it with you, since that's the whole point of sending a person instead of sending it UPS. I do love UPS though. Anyway, then I have an extra suitcase to fill with crap. When I took one to Chicago, I couldn't even lift the carry-on over my head to put it in the compartment. Some dude totally helped me, which was very nice. I guess I should start working my arms out as hard as I work my legs. Also, I bought the cutest skirt yesterday at Gap. I just hope Rachel doesn't already have it. :-P And Jennie is being kind enough to drive me to the airport tomorrow so I don't have make my boss do it or leave my car in expensive airport parking for that long. That would suck. So yay, Jennie and yay, cute skirts.

Awesomeness squared

So, even though my car is ostensibly fixed, I was still somewhat wary about driving it to Birmingham on Friday. There's always the chance that something could go awry, or that it's not even really fixed at all. I've been trying not to freak, still. This morning I woke up with the worst migraine I've had in a while. So I called work and took and Imitrex and laid down to wait for it to take effect so I could go to work. It helped and then I called work to tell them I was on my way and they asked me if I would go to Philadelphia on Thursday to deliver a proposal. I was like, well, I'm supposed to be in Orlando on Saturday, so I don't know. They offered to fly me from Philadelphia to Orlando instead of back to Nashville on Saturday. And the price of tickets was really the onl reason I wasn't going to fly, because a round trip would have been about $400. I was considering flying to Birmingham and back to Nashville, but now I can fly to Orlando free for me and only pay to fly myself back to Nashville from Orlando. Score!! God dropped some awesome on me today. Also, I get to go to Philadelphia and see some historical stuff! The only hitch is that now I have to have all my work and personal stuff ready for me to be gone for a week by Thursday morning instead of by Friday afternoon. So I'm going to be a little busy. And I think I'm going to a movie later and then also tomorrow. I make judicious use of my time. ;)

Woo

My car is not dead. It is, in fact, fixed! Apparently the original owner had an alam system so no one would steal his spiffy grey Sentra with tinted windows. It was either haphazardly put in or removed, for there were some wires cut all funky and some were just twisted back together. Apparently after seven years of holding together, they started slipping. Anyway, it's fixed now and for a not entirely astronomical price. Eh. Banner day for Benzes! Score for Dave being cancer-free!

Noooooo

I think my car is trying to make me cry and give me migraines. I have been having serious migraine problems for the past few weeks. Urgh. And yesterday my car wouldn't even let me go to lunch because it was really hot. And it still wouldn't start at 5 when it was time to go home. This morning I had a doctor's appointment and when I tried to leave the doctor's office at all of 9:30, my car wouldn't start. So I had to get someone from work to come get me. It's just very frustrating and I do not want to sink more money into that piece of crap. On the bright side, I had the best blood draw ever this morning. I seriously barely felt it. That lady was awesome, so I told her so and she laughed. But it was really good and you know what I mean, because who hasn't had a bad blood draw? Where they jostle it around like it's their first time and what not. I need to go eat breakfast.

True Confessions, Part Deux

I've been struggling with something personal for the past couple weeks and I don't really want to discuss it, but let's just say I need prayers for my state of mind. And no, it's not about what I'm about to bring up. Earlier I was reading an article about lies parents tell their kids, which was entertaining enough, although I've never heard of parents threatening to call the police if their kids won't go to bed. But anyway, I saw a link to this article, about a woman who fears she is passing her eating disorder on to her daughter. You guys, that totally made me cry. I do not have a daughter, obviously, but I had an eating disorder.

I was discussing it with a friend the other day and she says she likes to think of what we did when we were in college as 'competitive starvation' rather than anorexia. Which is kind of funny, but also true. We fed off each other as far as our neuroses about food, as well as our state of mind. I was fairly thin in high school and then in college, I got even thinner. I bought my first two-piece bathing suit when I was 18 and it was a child's size ten (or maybe it was twelve-I am old and forgetful, but either way, that's bad). I lived on pretty much nothing but those popsicles that are just kool-aid in a plastic sleeve that you have to freeze for a summer. It was probably the only time in my life until now that I was not dehydrated.

And in that article they say girls with 'cold' mothers are more likely to have eating disorders. Hello, I got all my 'mom' hugs from other peoples' mothers. I don't actually want to blame this on my mother, not entirely anyway. I was old enough when I started to be in control of my actions and aware of the reasoning behind them. My mother does have a strange preoccupation with weight, though. Not just hers or mine, but pretty much everyone's weight. I don't think I have that. I used to be able to guess people's weight within 5 pounds one way or the other, though. I only ever did that with guys-I'm not that stupid.

I'm not even going to get into how I went from one extreme to the other, but I'm working on that. I just really would never want to pass on my neuroses about my own person to any child I might have. I was talking to someone the other day about it and they were like, well, did you get counseling? Umm...no. I don't think it was ever even discussed with my doctor or parents or anything. It was just something I decided to stop doing, like when I decided to stop taking all the narcotics my neurologist offered. If you think I'm exaggerating or that I wasn't really, trust me, I have some pictures somewhere. I had a friend who was 9 inches taller than me and was double my weight. I bought half my clothes in the children's department (they were cheaper and I really like colors). It was just that it got easier to be that way in college because people weren't always in my face handing me food and asking me if I'd eaten. But that was then, and this is me being smarter. Although, in case you were wondering, if you are already hungry when you eat lunch, a banana and carrots will not suffice. I was running short on food and time yesterday and, dude, was I starving later. Anyway, I don't think I've ever really discussed this, except some with Rachel, so of course I would decide that perfect place to tell people would be the internet. Genius. Anyway, eating disorders are bad and not talking about things that hurt you and what motivated you to do them is also bad. Let's face it, I've done a lot of stupid things, it was just that no one noticed because Dave and Mark were so busy being the squeaky wheels. And I never wanted to talk about them because it's embarrassing. Whatever, I was stupid and got scary thin and now I'm not. I'm trying to be at peace, but it's hard. Salam.

Where is the innocence we can't reclaim?

I have had the title song from Children of Eden in my head for days now. I texted Mark and told him because he was, you know, in it. I was not, and it was ten years ago that I saw it. And I only saw it twice. Once when the school went and another time at night because Mark was in it and I like Mark. I just want you to understand how veery random it is that this song is stuck in my brain. Soooo...I don't know so many of the words. Really just a couple of phrases. Anyway, other things I've forgotten include seeing a movie last week. I saw Get Smart on Thursday. It was ok. It was not as bad as I've read. I like that Steve Carell didn't try to mimic Don Adams' Maxwell because that most likely would have just made fans of the show angry. So if you want to watch something inoffensive and moderately bland, go nuts. Also, I almost labelled this post dorktastic, but I realized that to be truthful, I would have to label all my posts that way. ;)

I am so mature...

Last week, Shannon and I were going to dinner and we were chatting about something in the car when we saw a sign that made both of us start giggling at the same time because we are twelve. I went back the next day to take a picture and it had been changed. I was very sad. It said, "Our "package" will stimulate your heart and soul." And the quotation marks are not mine, they were on the sign like that, and in red, too. The color of harlots. In case you were wondering, it was at the Unitarian Universalist church. Apparently those heathens sex you up if you go there.

Whatever happened to innocuous Superfudge and Ramona and Laura Ingalls Wilder?

So, I've been reading this weekly column on Jezebel where the journalist re-reads a YA book from her youth and reviews it. It's been really interesting and I have not even read or even heard of all the books they've done. But I have come to the realization that, if ever I have a daughter, I am so reading any book that is a YA or adult book before she gets to touch it. Because tons of those books have some sexual content, like people getting raped or masturbating or something (i.e. Julie of the Wolves, anything by VC Andrews, The Clan of the Cave Bear). Some of the worst ones seem to be ones I've not read, but I remember reading Judy Blume's YA books and they were always informative. When I was like 12, I found The Prince of Tides on my mom's bookshelf in her closet and I read it without her even realizing it. It was...disturbing. But anyway, I know my mom did not even look at the books I was reading once I was past like 8 or 9. Thusly, I managed to learn some things. I don't think that was necessarily bad, but I do know that had my parents read what I was reading, I would not have been allowed to read some of it. That is scary to me now, when it would have thrilled me then. But I'll always have Anne of Green Gables.

Apparently all businesses are being affected by the high cost of gas, including brothels. Also, do you really think prostitution is the world's oldest profession? I think maybe farming came first. Or possibly even something else. I don't know...my head hurts and I want to remove my jaw before I unwittingly grind all my teeth straight up into my cheekbones. Blurgh™.

In light of recent events, I give you this PSA

This is informative, if disturbing. And in case you don't really want to read it, here is the link to the list of the best sunscreens. I found it rather surprising. Also, this Wikipedia article suggests that many people do not use the correct amount of sunblock. And, really, your skin is no place to be skimpy.

True Confession

I fear I have become something of a movie snob. Apparently I only love awful good bad movies and movies that are truly good now. You would not believe the look I gave my father when I saw him watching Wild Hogs, or when he told me he and my mom rented Fool's Gold, or that they watched RV. I was horrified. Those movies all looked disastrous. And got terrible reviews. But that is neither here nor there. Who am I to judge what someone else finds entertaining? Not everything that entertains me is acceptable to others. So anyway, if you tell me you saw a movie whose very existence I question, I will try to hold my tongue (and my face, since often it is my expressions more than anything that give me away). And in turn, I expect you to laugh at me when I tell you this: I want to see Mamma Mia. The first time I saw a trailer for it, I was like, what? Are they serious? Then I saw another, and another. The idea started to grow on me. I don't have any particular affinity for ABBA, despite having Dancing Queen as my ringtone for a while. I generally can't stand Meryl Streep. I do love Amanda Seyfried in everything she's in and who doesn't like Colin Firth or Stellan Skarsgard? I saw this video of Amanda Seyfried singing Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight), with clips from the film interposed and suddenly, I had a full-blown desire to see this film. She's not a bad singer, and I like the song, despite never having heard it before. So there we are.

Sybil, is that you?

I've recently realised that my family sees me very differently from everyone else in my life. In my family, I am known for... not letting people get away with things. Or being unfair or mean. Outside of my family, I never confront anyone. None of my friends would even think of encouraging me to confront someone about something they were doing to me, because they know it would never happen. My family, however, thinks I can be a little...harshly honest. I'm trying to be more honest with everyone, because lies don't really help in the long run, but the only time I confront people outside the family is if they are hurting one of my people. Then, all bets are off. The other day, Shannon was on the phone and told me her boyfriend said she was stupid and handed me the phone and I yelled at him. I think I scared him. She thought it was really funny. She said she just wanted to see what would happen(meaning he did not actually say she was stupid-I totally apologised to him.). I've never been able to stand up for myself outside of the family, but I will stand up for others. I also will stand up for people in my family, since they are totally people I love. It's just weird that my family thinks I am mean or something, and no one else would ever think of nominating me to confront someone who needs a reality check.

Stupid anecdote alert-don't read this paragraph if you don't care about me doing something stupid. Actually, one time in high school, this girl was lying to my face(yelling, no less) and that made me very angry (I do NOT like being lied to), so I yelled back and she stood up, so I stood up. It didn't even occur to me that she was a lot bigger than me; I had justice on my side. Literally, because a second later, our teacher came over and yelled at her for yelling at me. That's what good comes of generally being quiet and not much trouble. ;) A friend of mine sat right next to me and he was like, dude, did you almost get into a physical altercation with someone much larger and angrier than you? I remember that right after that, when I realised what had almost happened, I got scared and kind of shaky. I was like, oh crap. That was a poor decision.

Anyway, apparently I have two personalities. Deal with it, Benzes. See? I can't stop myself. ;) I just think it's weird that my family thinks I am someone else. Someone with opinions and the backbone to back them up. Really I hate it when anyone is mad at me, but I guess with family, you're just like, right but they have to get over it eventually because they love me. We all got that speech often enough (we love you, but we don't love the things you do or how you're acting, et cetera).

Post 200!

My car is not dead! It's not even expensive because it was a bad starter that they put in all of 6 weeks ago, so they fixed it for free. You can't see me, but I'm doing a little dance in my chair at work right now. It's the 'my car is fixed for free' dance! I am such a dork, but I feel way better and I am excited about seeing Grandma and the AL Benzes tomorrow. It'll be rockin'. I just have to keep worrying and praying for Dave and several other family members and also the whole stolen identity thing I have going on. Pray for me about that and I will explain later to those of you I haven't already told. Maybe I'll give you step-by-step instructions on what to do after your identity is stolen. That would be a fun read...

I fail at life

Yesterday, everyone at work left at 4:30, except for me because apparently I picked Tuesday to be dedicated. I just wanted to finish what I was working on. When I did try to leave, my car wouldn't start. Awesome. I just got a new starter and alternator a month ago. Why wouldn't some more stuff break? I called Shannon and she was driving past on her way back from Glasgow anyway, so she said she would pick me up. A few minutes later I tried it again and despite the fact that when I tried to start about 35 times earlier, it decided to start. Whatever, I figured while I had it on, I would just drive it straight to the car place and leave it there. I did and they are going to look at it this afternoon and I am trying not to freak out. This is a really boring story, but Shannon picked me up in her psychedelic work van. It's really weird because the whole thing is painted blue with white clouds and there are pictures of people's eyes and people doing cool stuff without glasses. The back is my favorite part because there is a picture of the doctor and his head appears to be floating in midair due to the clouds. It's kind of trippy. Also, I am going to try to remember to go down Nashville Road and take a picture of something that cracked me up before it gets taken down.

If you need a distraction, look no further

Watch this all the way to the end where it gets even more ridiculous than you would think a Japanese game-show version of human Tetris might. If you have never watched any human Tetris before, marvel at the wonders. Why do you think the water is yellow?

Falling Slowly

Today we had our patriotic service at church. It makes me cry every single year. It's always good, but it makes me a little sad because the congregation only gets to sing like two of the songs. And I like the Star-Spangled Banner and all, but it's always one of the ones the congregation gets to sing on and that song is hard for me to sing, because I'm more of a mezzo-soprano than a real soprano. We never get to sing when the choir sings the songs for each branch of the Armed Forces. My dad was like, you can sing anytime you want. Like, yeah Dad, I want to be the only person in the balcony singing. People would totally notice. Anyway, it was a good service, as ever.

Yesterday, Shannon was dog-sitting for a friend of hers, so we took Kazoo and a seven week old pit mix puppy with us to her Dad's(we went swimming). The puppy was adorable-he was still little enough that he didn't quite know how to get his limbs to do what he wanted, and he would get surprised all the time and just sit down and look confused. But there was another pit mix dog she was sitting for, but we didn't take her with us because she is about 6 months old and could be left alone for a few hours. Shannon didn't want to spend the night at the friend's house, so we brought both puppies to our house last night and my poor cats were so disturbed. The big puppy is about as tall as she's going to get and she decided it would be good to chase Fuzzy Tail around. The poor cats just kept retreating to under the table and staring intently at all the dogs. We did take all three dogs for a walk to try to tire them out. The tiny one had apparently never been on a leash and he was so confused by it that he just kept sitting down and staring at it. So I took it off him and he kept up with us. He was so tired by the time we got back that he was out like a light. Anyway, it was a nice day, even if the dogs went a little nuts.

I just watched Once, which was good. It's really cute and you should totally watch it. It's a musical, but yet not, because the songs are worked in naturally, unlike regular musicals. It's a sweet movie, and it's even cooler since the leads(who are really musicians and not actors) got together in real life. The best scene in the whole movie, for me, came about 15 minutes in. I just read a review of it where the reviewer says, "Instead, they fall into a sort of "musician's love," I don't know what else to call it, in which something like romantic affection turns into, and is created from, a week of artistic collaboration between the two. Sort of like Music and Lyrics only not soulless, this is an exploration of the truism that making collaborative art means that you kind of have to fall in love just a little bit with your collaborators." It isn't really a love story, in that romantic love kind of way. But it is a very sweet story with pretty songs.

You cannot break the rules!

OK, so I think I failed to mention this, but The Strangers reminded me of Vacancy in that after a while of being tortured/chased by the villains, the male of the couple disappears for several minutes. So you spend a good chunk of the movie just watching the lady be scared and being uncertain as to what happened to the man. Also, there is very little gore in The Strangers, if that's not your thing. Funny Games is similar as far as the gore, but it was far creepier than either of those movies. I did watch it while it was still light out, and I still had to pause it a few times to take the dog out and sit in the sun for a minute or read some websites. It just got very intense and disturbing. The time I paused to look at the Internet, I left it paused for more than five minutes, so my player reverted back to cable and a second later there was this commercial for Psych with the two leads singing Ebony and Ivory and wearing various strange black and white get-ups. It was totally the funniest thing to me right then. If I saw it any other time, I would be like, meh, but right then I needed something light and that sufficed. Something else very unusual about Funny Games is that all of the action occurs off-screen. Every single thing that happens is not seen. Heard and inferred by what you see after it happens, but never seen until one hour and thirty-nine minutes into the film(and even that is not something that actually happens). It's really an interesting device. What is definitely a less interesting device is the breaking of the fourth wall. The main villain breaks the fourth wall several times and it really lessens the impact of the scenes in which it happens. Anyway, I thought it was creepier than The Strangers, but you might not.

Movies that are mostly acceptable...

Tonight I went to see The Strangers with Christina. It was...so-so. There were a few truly scary moments, surrounded by a lot of not particularly scary stuff. If ever you wanted to see about 45 minutes of Liv Tyler running around looking scared and occasionally crying in lighting of questionable value, this is the movie for you. At least she's pretty and has fantastic skin(I love actresses like Liv Tyler, Julianne Moore, Mary Louise Parker who have really pale skin and flaunt it. It took me years to come to terms with mine, but I still don't really flaunt it because I don't like to blind people. Also, mine isn't fantastic like theirs.). Scott Speedman is starting to look old, which makes me feel old. And at the beginning, the narrator claims it is based on true events, but after a bit of research, I discovered this is pretty much a blatant lie. It ends with a cheap scare. I think it is rather telling that I found myself composing this blog post during the movie. Never a good sign. It made me want to see the movie it is mostly a rip-off of: Funny Games (the original or the shot-for-shot English remake by the original German director). So I rented it and will watch it tomorrow. Possibly during the daylight hours since it is supposed to be very creepy. I am occasionally a big chicken.

A couple weeks ago I watched Sunshine, which was not bad. Kind of slow, and things got strange in about the last 25 minutes. Up til then, nothing very wrong. It really turned in to some sort of sci-fi action thriller there at the end. It was completely out of tune with the rest of the film. Weird.

I just saw The Other Boleyn Girl. I haven't read Philippa Gregory's book, so I didn't know her take, although we all know the basic story. It was...rather slow and not entirely engaging, but very pretty. Mostly it just made me want to watch Elizabeth.

In addition to renting the English language version of Funny Games, I also picked up Once. Which is supposed to be really good and have a real-life fairy tale happy ending and I meant to see it before now. I will let you know if you should see it. Okay, I actually just do these movie posts so Rachel can know what I think she would like, or she can tell me what she thought of ones she's seen. I guess I could just e-mail her...