Movie Review: Vantage Point

Nick and I just returned from a late night movie, Vantage Point, that opened this weekend.

It was crowded and we sat in decent seats, a bit close for my general liking, but I thought to myself, "As long as there isn't any home videos or car chasing scenes, I should be alright." The shaky cameras and fast action tend to mess with my head.

Vantage Point has the longest car chase scene in cinematic history. And Forest Whitaker's role in this movie primarily features him taking home video footage with his camcorder. Nice.

No Advil on hand either. Drat.

Nick gave it a rating, "Entertaining, but by no means great."

The plot grows from 8 or so different perspectives who experience one act of terrorism. What Nick found so annoying is that the audience grew unsettled when the storyline kept repeating itself to reveal more details of the plot. Anytime another character's story began to tell a different angle of the story, the audience started moaning like it had one collective belly ache. Dude, the movie is called VANTAGE POINT.

As Nick mechanically munched his way through a large over-buttered popcorn bag and I slurped the Sprite and darted my eyes away from the screen every 10 minutes to avoid a massive headache, Dennis Quaid [WARNING: SPOILER IN THE NEXT FEW WORDS] comes up huge in the end, of course.

Another wonderfully overpriced Hollywood blockbuster.

Factora-Borchers and Borchers give this 2 thumbs pointing sideways. It scores a B- for originality, overall guessing game, and relevance to current events and political climate. Recommendation: worth a ticket at the discount movie theater or DVD rental in 9 months.

Eat, Pray, Love (Not necessarily in that order)

This past weekend, one of my best friends from childhood, Tricia, came to stay with us during the long weekend.  Taking the infamous Fung Wah Bus (it's a bus company that takes you from NYC to Boston for $15), Tricia and I enjoyed a nice long weekend of long talks, buying books at Barnes and Noble, and drinking fine wine.

My latest book is the memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love," by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I am on the 6th page and have already decided that I need to write a memoir of my own, complete with my own journeys and travels.  "Eat, Pray, Love" is a book that takes you to India, Indonesia, and Italy to explore the true meaning of self, life, and God.  I already highly recommend it.  The first six pages are riveting.

Speaking of books, Nick is still nose deep in his theological studies.  February is almost over and almost mid point for this semester.

Where does the time go?

Cheers

It's Valentine's Day and Nick and I are going to celebrate all of our friends, family, and each other today.  Toast to all.

Observing

I didn't change the blog colors to grey because of the solemn season of Lent we are observing. I changed it because I get restless when there isn't change after a while.

That makes Nick nervous, like, for our life in general.

Just for the Record

We were rooting for the Giants.

To say we're ecstatic would be an understatement.

If you ask me, the city jinxed itself when it said we'd have the victory parade on Super Tuesday.

I mean, SERIOUSLY? We're prioritizing tissue paper floats and Tom Brady glimpses over our constitutional right to vote?

Serves Boston right.

Updates

The city after a snow storm.

Me and Kristie

Nick and I out with my co-workers/support system
(left to right, Dan, Nick, me, Leanne, Alexis)

Random Update:
I got my nose pierced with my friend, Kristie, while we were in Cincinnati over Christmas break. That's a picture of us above that was taken right after we had them done. If you look closely, you can see a small red swollen spot on our noses. Yep, that's because a gargantuan sized needle went through our nostrils about 3 minutes previously. Shh - don't tell my parents.

City Updates:

• The city is crazy for the Superbowl which starts in 6 hours.
• The city is crazy for SuperTuesday which starts in 48 hours.
• The city is crazy because if the Patriots win the Superbowl, they'll have a parade on SuperTuesday.

Other Updates:

• I finally got my Massachusetts drivers license.
• Last night we found a Filipino restaurant! SCORE!
• We saw the movie Juno this weekend and give it two very big thumbs up for its one liners.
• We potentially have found a parish that we'd like to belong to: St. Cecilia which is an energetic and booming community in downtown Boston.
• Nick's 2nd semester classes are going well is schedule is a little less stressful with one less class.
• My job is consuming my life and have made a decision to at least begin job hunting for next fall.
• My brother and sister-in-law just found out they're having another boy! That's four kids total! 1 girl and 3 boys. God love 'em.
• Nick and Kelly Hartings just had their baby girl, Emma Jeane, on Friday morn - CONGRATS!
• I'm playing with the idea of applying to a masters program at Simmons College. It's a masters in Gender and Cultural Studies. I figure while I'm surrounded with academics why not jump in, too, you know? Not to mention, this is my area of specialization.

And there you have it - a small glimpse into our lives for the week. Don't forget that February is when I celebrate my birthday month. * Along with the start of Lent, Mardi Gras, Presiden's Day, and Valentine's Day, February holds one of the most treasured days of all time: my bday.





*Ask Nick, I am not exaggerating this statement.

Hunter Mountain

Hunter Mountain

Nick and Vanessa

(Tom, I'm sorry there are no pictures of you and I watching Lethal Weapon IV)

Last weekend, Nick and I spent a gorgeous weekend with our friends, Tom and Vanessa, at a condo located at the base of a beautiful Hunter Mountain. A skiing mountain was the perfect backdrop for a restful weekend with friends. A lot of talking, laughter, good food, lots of alcohol, and nature's restorative energy embraced our time in New York.

Tom and Vanessa live in New Jersey and this was the perfect midway point for all of us. Nick and I were Hunter-bound by Friday evening and got stuck in city traffic. The elevation messed with our heads a bit, but that didn't stop us from getting there, ready to relax.

The no-skiiing rule was put into effect rather quickly as Nick retold his skiiing stories of when he ventured this sport two years ago with his brother Keith. If you're surprised that Nick is not a good skiier, that means you haven't heard his skiiing stories. When a skiier has no ability to shift to the left, this poses signficant navigation problems. This happened to be Nick's problem. As he tells it, his fear of runing over the children at the bottom of the hill forced him to "slide like it's second base."

Ineffective theory for skiers.

I hardly have room to talk. To prove my ultimate badass coolness, I joined the Ski Club in highschool. In retrospect, why in the world would I join the Ski Club when I have never skiied before? To make a 6 week story short, just know that falling off the ski lift, almost having my legs amputated from frost bite, and crying while face down in the snow is not my idea of a good time.

I also tried cross country skiiing about 6 years ago. Yeahhhh, that didn't turn out so well either. That adventure resulted in me taking OFF my skis and WALKING the rest of the journey with my friends cajoling me the entire way home.

Regardless of our inept skiiing skills, we had a tremendously wonderful time at Hunter Mountain. We owe a million thanks to Tom and Vanessa for their generosity, friendship, and warmth. When's our next visit?