Violence of the Lambs

So I went and saw the midnight movie at the Tivoli tonight... they were showing The Princess Bride, which is a great movie - and it was something different to do, so I went.

Well, there were 2 previews before the movie... the first was for Labyrinth (yes, the 80's movie where David Bowie plays the goblin king and Jennifer Connelly looks about 12). The second was for Black Sheep.... which is apparently a new movie, although I've never seen anything about it before tonight. The previews for it were soooo hysterically terrible that I think I might just be compelled to watch it... there's just something highly entertaining (and yet simultaneously horrid) about a movie where the main premise is based on a flock of angry, flesh-eating sheep... (and yes, the title of this post is actually the tagline they're using for the movie).

Here is the riveting synopsis (taken from hollywood.com):

Terrified of sheep and dosed up on therapy, Henry Oldfield returns to his family''s farm to sell out to his older brother Angus, unaware that something baaaad is going on: Angus'' reckless genetic engineering program. When a pair of inept environmental activists release a mutant lamb from Angus'' laboratory onto the farm, thousands of sheep are turned into bloodthirsty predators. Along with farmhand Tucker and the ''green''-minded young woman, Experience, Henry finds himself stranded deep on the farm as his worst nightmare comes to life. Battling their way to safety the intrepid trio discover there''s worse to come: one bite from an infected sheep seems to have alarming effect on those bitten. With Angus acting suspiciously sheepish, a delegation of international investors gathering at the homestead and a ravenous flock descending from the hills, Henry must find the farmer within to wrest control of the farm from his monstrous brother, defeat an ovine invasion and save New Zealand''s greener pastures.

It's strange the way things hit you sometimes... out of nowhere, memories you had completely forgotten about resurface so vividly that it seems like they happened only yesterday... and you wonder how the choices you made then have brought you to where you are today...

...and how things might have ended up had you chosen something else.

It's been a while...

I haven't posted in a while... not because I haven't had things to post about. I really don't know why I haven't posted - just busy I guess.

The most notable thing that's happened in the past couple months is that Matt and I got engaged! Since then, things have been a little crazy and very overwhelming. We met with the priest out at Sacred Heart and have a wedding date - April 19, 2008. My dad was quick to point out that's the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing... but oh well. It's also my uncle's birthday, so he's going around telling everyone that we're throwing him a big party for his birthday next year. I don't really mind though - to be honest, I kind of figured he wouldn't let me hear the end of it if I scheduled my wedding on his birthday. That's just how it worked out though. We've been looking at a lot of potential reception halls in the past couple weeks, and I think we should be making a decision here within the next week or so.

I'm going to Chicago in a little over a week, which should be a good time. I hope it stays warm because I really don't want to freeze while I'm up there. I've kind of gotten used to the 70 degree temperatures down here.

I start my next class next week - Managerial Economics - which I'm not looking forward to AT ALL. I actually wanted to try to switch to an online class, but I would have had to completely redo my tuition aid application at work, and that thing was a pain in the ass to do in the first place. So, I'm stuck with actually going to class for the next 9 weeks. I did sign up for my summer class online though - I kind of liked the way my last online class worked out, and it was nice not to have to drive to campus once a week (and no group projects is always a plus).

Anyway, that's about all that's going on right now. Busy busy busy, as usual.

So I got rid of my Christmas tree this weekend. Matt helped me drag it outside, and we tied it to the top of his car. Once we had it up there though, we realized that we couldn't open the doors to get into the car (we had tied the rope through the windows and effectively tied the doors shut). So we ended up climbing in through the windows and then had to cut the rope when we got to the drop off place in order to get out of the car.

Sometimes, we're just SO intelligent...

Anyway, I'm leaving for Cancun on Wednesday morning, and I haven't really packed at all. The next 2 days are going to be rather busy getting stuff together - and I have some other things that need to be done before I leave. Hopefully the trip should be a good time though!

Getting Back to Normal

Things have been good lately... I don't know if it's because Matt's back from Texas, Pat's back from Chicago, or that I haven't been to work since Tuesday - probably a combination of those three and several other things, but I'm feeling a bit more like myself these days, and have been, for the most part, in a good mood, which is a nice change.

Paige and Erin's party last night was fun - good food, good friends... just an overall good time. Today was a pretty lazy day though... I didn't get up until 11am, which is the latest I've slept in a really long time. I think I left my apartment around 3:30pm or so - had to run a couple errands before heading out to my parents' house for dinner. I hadn't planned on staying out there that long, but I hadn't heard anything about anything going on tonight, and a couple phone calls proved to be useless, so I ended up hanging out at my parents' house - making some homemade rolls, helping my mom wrap some presents, and watching A Christmas Carol. I didn't leave there until a little after 11pm, and then had to stop at the grocery store to buy more baking supplies on my way home.

Unfortunately (wel, maybe not unfortunately because I really don't mind baking), I still have quite a bit of baking left to do - I'm bringing rolls to both my grandma's house tomorrow night for dinner on Christmas Eve, and then to Matt's house on Christmas day for his entire family (and his family likes bread a lot, so I'm bringing them a double batch). SO - tomorrow I will be baking like a fiend... especially since I decided to be really ambitious and bought stuff to make chocolate chip cookies too.

That being said, I should probably get to bed so I can get up early and get started on all of that...

What will it take for me to just be happy?

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, by Marianne Williamson