Quarter-life...and GO!

Well here we are then. Right now, as I begin this post, it's about five minutes before I turn 25. I'm sitting here drinking a glass of Black Swan Shiraz Cabernet, wishing I could be hiding under my duvet for the duration of my birthday, maybe have a bit of a cry, watch Bridget Jones (which always cheers me up), possibly have a curry and pass out long before I think too much about what it means to be another year older.

It's not that I'm one of those people that think I'm so old at 25. Oh in front of others I like to whinge on about it, like I'm an old lady, for a laugh, but deep down I know I'm still young. What I'm quite upset about is that I don't feel I've accomplished much and I feel 25 is an age where I should have something about my life figured out. At least I should be moved out of my parents house by now well in my defense I'll be moved out on Saturday and off to adventures of poverty in D.C. (And for the record, living with my parents has been divine. They're 2 of my closest friends actually. They look after me and ignore me when I'm on a dramatic tailspin. They built me a very nice room in my own little apartment attached to our house. And it would all be very nice and perfect if only I could move this house and my entire family with me to a big city. Heaven right there.)

Another upset...I'm about to launch myself off into a huge city with no money, no savings and the scariest part....I have absolutely no idea about the theatre in D.C. Is it good? Easily accessible to people who want to be involved but need to have a 9-5 job in order to pay the bills? I haven't a clue. I, for once, have no connections and haven't heard anything about how the theatre community operates down there. Terrifying I tell you.

For the month of August I'll also have no immediate access to cable or the Internet. I've already decided to suss out a nice coffee shop with Internet just so I can blog...oh and search for a job. Yeah I'll be needing that to support my expensive wine habit. Now that I'm 25 I shall feel free to graduate to slightly more sophisticated brands than my usual two-buck-chuck red wine. Hello Rosemount!....wait...can I afford that?...ummmm, no, definitely not. I'll just stick with Yellowtail, Little Black Dress and Black Swan. Yeah me. I can feel the excitement of adulthood now.

Things that I feel need to be worked on in my 25th year:

1. GRAD SCHOOl for acting. I miss school terribly. There is nothing I love more than sitting with people who are possessed with the same passion and discussing the intricacies of the art form. Beautiful. And it needs to be in England. I miss it terribly and every time I visit, I feel just a bit more sad because I know that I'll never love a city more than I love London or feel as comfortable in any foreign country as much as I do mingling with the British. Does that make sense? No?....blame the wine...

2. French. I took 7 years of it. Can I speak a lick of it? Not really...well I am able to mumble a bit. I can read it a bit better than speaking it. I do feel like quite an idiot not knowing another language. And French has always been the one I've loved. I can watch French films for hours just listening to them speak.

3. Physical activity. I want to be one of those people that just loves exercise, honest I do. But since middle school, and the evil gym teachers that came with it, I've always had a mental block against most physical activity. Whenever I run I always expect someone to pop out at me and yell "faster, faster! there's no walking in gym!" I want to be a master at yoga and know a little bit of martial arts (since I was about 14 I've been a bit obsessed with both...blame it on my Buffy the Vampire Slayer obsession. Buffy did martial arts, Sarah did yoga.)

4. Jesus...this really could go on...let's just end this with boys. I'd like to have a relationship with a guy that's lasted longer than the one I have with my gay best friend. He's lovely but it is sad when you've been engaged to him on Facebook because you really don't want to display your relationship status. Ah well...

Yeah 25! And I've had one friend already text me well wishes...and my sister came running into my room, frightening me, in order to say Happy Birthday at midnight. Quite a nice start I'd say.

xxLindsay

p.s. AND I got my first birthday gift from one of my brothers this weekend, the first two seasons of "The IT Crowd", which I ADORE. (I'd like to be friends with Moss, please and thank you.)

Rant to Myself

Who gets up at 6:30 in the morning in order to get shit done, downs several cups of coffee, then takes an allergy pill because she pet the cats knowing full well they make her itchy all over and finally passes out at 10:30 AM (!) for 2 hours due to the odd combination of caffeine and an allergy pill?? Oh, that idiot would be me.

I think my body is rebelling against me moving. I need to pack stuff up today to bring it to D.C. tomorrow for Part 1 of the move.

Unfortunately for me, "Fanboys" just arrived from Netflix, it's lunch time, and now that I've awoken from my unusually drugged nap I feel a little drunk from it. Packing will not happen just this moment. Give me 3 hours and a severe guilt trip and then I'll be ready to go.

Rant done.

"This film should be called 'The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola'."

Okay, I just needed to blog about this. Get ready for it...I have, for the first time ever, ventured into the work of Jean-Luc Godard...hell, I've jumped right into French New Wave Cinema...and let me tell you....WTF?

Well there may have been a few wtf moments, but overall...I really kind of liked a lot of aspects from this particular film, "Masculin Feminin". I mean, I don't entirely get the whole jarring sound bites he plays at random times, even over conversations the characters are having, or the silence moments, or the voice speaking over the black screen with messages...like he was trying to be super deep but it didn't really translate well...BUT...I loved how the camera stayed on certain actors, even when others were speaking to them. It gave you a chance to see the reaction of the actor to the words directed at them. In the extras on the DVD I learned that a lot of those particular moments where something the director did because he was really into making scenes as natural as possible. A lot of the time he'd focus the camera on the actor and using an ear piece that the actor had he would ask them really personal questions that the actors were suppose to respond to as themselves...not as their character. He then took those clips and found a way to blend the character he wanted with the actor's responses.

I love that.

Next will venture onto "Pierrot Le Fou" as suggested by Lea Maria. We shall see how that goes...

Post Script: I just love French movies. And this one was a great peek into French culture/society in the '60s. If you are into French films too then I'd highly recommend the following: L'Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) and it's sequel Les Poupees Russes (The Russian Dolls)...and of course can't leave out Amelie...fabulous. Any suggestions? Send them my way ;)

Have a fabulous night, I'm taking my glass of wine to bed with the book Julie & Julia by Julie Powell...because having loads in common with the main character always makes me feel better about myself.

xx Lindsay

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." -Emerson

Ohhhh changes are a-foot at the moment my friend. I haven't had much time to sit down and blog, though there is much I want to write about. Hopefully some time will clear up in the near future...probably because I'll be in a new city, with no job and not much to do.

I'm moving off to D.C. Quite excited about it. Jumping straight in without looking, of course. That's my usual M.O. Will be living with my old college roommate and having quite a few fun adventures round the city. I will, of course, be documenting all of it...just to keep my 2.5 readers enlightened on my going-ons.

I've already done quite a bit of traveling this month. Bit tired now actually, from it all. Just in the month of July I've been to Pittsburgh, Philly, and Ohio. Before the month is through I'll have been to Ohio again and finally D.C. And I'll be turning 25 next week as well....though let's not talk about that shall we? I plan on cuddling up to a nice Shiraz and crying underneath my bed for a bit that day while the quarter-life crisis is unleashed in me. So that'll be fun. May get my first tattoo just to show up the occasion with a nice memory. Though if I do, it'll be a nice, small, hidden one, cause I'm still into the whole acting thing. (I've been warned, numerous times, against any visible body modification by one of my London friends. Does this mean England may be more strict about that when it comes to choosing their actors for things? Will I have to get rid of my tragus piercing? Never!)

Ahh well. Shall not be thinking much about any of that just yet. Another of my stress tactics is to avoid thinking about anything that may stress me out...I know, I know...I am such an adult, aren't I?

And now I shall leave you with a quote from "Angel's Game" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I would love to sit down with him over a nice meal, maybe a glass of wine, for a nice chat about the creative being....cause I'm a nerd like that.

Enjoy.

"Every work of art is aggressive, Isabella. And every artist's life is a small war or a large one, beginning with oneself and one's limitations. To achieve anything you must first have ambition and then talent, knowledge, and finally opportunity."

Sometimes I Read.

So sometimes I do get around to reading the massive collection of books that I've obtained from working in bookstores for five years (somewhere in the ballpark of 250-260...ish). Sometimes. And it always sucks just a little to realize I've had, in my possesion, a really awesome book that's just been sitting around collecting dust.

This is not one of those books. Not one of those books in my collection I mean, it's borrowed actually (what can I say, I have a book obsession) and it is an awesome book. You should read it. Really.

As a bookseller, you'd think I'd be better at promoting books to people. I'm not. So don't go and think this will be some crazy, insightful, inspiring review or anything, cause you will be greatly disappointed.

If you haven't read Carlos Ruiz Zafon's other book, Shadow of the Wind, you should get on that one as well. Both books are a kind of Gothic fiction, I'd say, akin to maybe a Wilkie Collins novel. Great mystery, dark twists, lots of depth when it comes to characterization, and just generally a really, freaking good story line. Angel's Game is the prequel to Shadow of the Wind but I don't think it's necessary to read them in that order. Both have the dark story lines, both take place in Barcelona, and both have a book-lover theme entwined into the story line. Does that make sense? Well you don't have to be well read to get the story, anyways. I'm really wishing they had published more of his novels in English.

Well, seriously, go read this, come back, tell me what you think. Cause I need somebody to go all booknerd with me on this one.

Sometimes I am that cool.

Post Script-I will most definitely need to post up some quotes from this book soon. He has some awesome points on creativity that I need to share. And this would be a fantastic book from my bro in Philly. That right there says a lot about the quality of this book cause he hates fiction and will not read it voluntarily most of the time. He's all about needing to "learn something" when he reads. Pfff. Well The Angel's Game has a whole discussion in it about what makes a religion and why people believe in certain faiths. It's cool and sometimes beyond me. I like that occasionally. See, I'm kinda learning something. A bit of a step up from my usual Shopaholics style reading material. ;)

Stress Eater Perhaps?

This is what happens when I have a dinner break at my part-time job. And my part-time job makes me want to throw books at people's heads. Hello stress-eater, party of one.(Yancey's Fancy Champagne Cheddar cheese, french baguette, and Milky Way Midnight)