Beasts of the Southern Wild

Yesterday, Adam and I planned to spend our night combing through the aisles at Wegmans (my grocery store mecca) and finally getting the ingrediants for a few recipes I have been wanting to try. We got all the way to Ithaca, the nearest grocery store and a 20 minute drive from the house, and realized we forgot the credit card. If we lived in civilization, we could have just ran home and grabbed it- but we don't. le sigh. Since we were already in the city, we decided to grab coffee and see a movie.

We decided on Beasts on the Southern Wild, have you seen it?

The movies is narrated by a little girl named Hushpuppy. She lives in a mythical area of the Bayou, called the bathtub, that is under constant threat of being flooded. The bathtub's inhabitants have a pseudo-nationalism that is intensified by their love of booze. They have more holidays than anywhere in the world, and celebrate life (and beer) at funerals. Their children learn to catch cat fish with their hands, and are taught to take care of anyone smaller and weaker than themselves.

Hushpuppy's innocence is a stark contrast to the realities of her life. She accepts, and celebrates, her life totally and sees the world outside of the bathtub as something to fear. As in all coming of age stories, she begins to question what her father has presented to her as fact. A series of tragic events forces her to form her own view of the world around her, and her place in it.

The movie did a great job of keeping a light, and at most times fun, undertone while navigating the viewer through an intense plot. The whimsical and mystical aspects of the movie didn't entirely come together for me, but it was mostly done well.

Overall, it was a good movie. Not exactly a romantic comedy, but not as much of a downer as I thought it might be after reading a few reviews. Go see it so I have someone to help me put the pieces together :)

my weekend view

This is what I will be looking at all weekend:

Our friend John is visiting, and I can't wait to show him around Ithaca in the summer time. He has only ever been here in the winter, and it is so much more beautiful when things are alive. We're planning to check out a few new bars, do a mini wine tour, and enjoy the lake. I promise to remember I have a blog and finally take some pictures :)

What are you doing this weekend? Enjoy it, whatever it is!

Right now...

I start classes in two weeks. Something about being an online student is infinitely less exciting than being on a campus. I seriously considered buying a new pair of pajamas for the first day of school.

I graduated with my B.A. in English this Spring, and I am going on to get my Masters in Speech and Language Pathology. Before I get to my Masters, I have to take a ton of pre-req courses. I decided to take them online because my life is so up in the air right now. Adam just graduated with his M.S., and we plan to move wherever he finds a job, and I mean wherever. He has applied all over the country, and were happy to try out anything. I can barely schedule a doctors appointment without wondering if we will even be in the state, so online classes seemed like the best idea.

I'm starting to realize, though, that everything I loved about school is missing in online courses. Obviously, I miss having a social life. I'm miss getting coffee between classes, running into friends on campus, and going back to my apartment to watch bad T.V. with my best friend. I guess I have been mourning college lately, or maybe just missing my friends and the life I made there.

This is one of the moments in life where everything changes, and everything is unknown. Sometimes I am bursting with excitement at the idea that any day I could find out we are moving across the country, but more often I am feeling lonely and stuck. I know that these feeling come with the territory of being a recent graduate, and I know that one day (hopefully soon) I'll feel in control of my life again. Until then I'll try to enjoy free food, a lake house, my wonderful boyfriend, and having virtually no responsibilities. Okay, things are not so bad :)

Oh, this little guy helps too:

Mufasa all snuggled up

a cartoon mirage

This sculpture in New Zealand makes my head spin. It is a metal structure that looks like a two dimensional piece of paper from far away. The artist is Neil Dawson, and the sculpture is titled 'Horizons'. It is four stories high, and over 100 feet long.

When you finally got to the cartoon mirage, you would see that its a three dimensional structure. 

Could you imagine standing at the bottom of this hill and looking up to see that?! I'm amazed. It looks like it was just drawn on the earth from some huge pencil in the sky.

via NPR

a grammar rule

This morning I had a very involved conversation with my best friend about the verbs lay and lie. This is one of those grammar rules that I learn every year, but it never seems to stick. So, I looked it up, for the hundredth time; I was still shocked to see the answer.

via

I lie on the bed.

Yesterday, I lay down after work. (what?)

I have, in the past, lain down. 

via

I lay the book down on the desk.

Yesterday, I laid the book down.

I have, in the past, laid a book down.  

The website where I found my answer gave a great anecdote that might help you remember. It Said:

I love Eric Clapton, and his song Lay Down Sally can actually help you remember the difference between lay and lie... To say “lay down Sally” would imply that someone should grab Sally and lay her down. If he wanted Sally to rest in his arms on her own, the correct line would be 'lie down Sally.'

Do you think it sounds weird, or am I just really out of touch with my grammar rules? Will you ever listen to that song in the same way? :)

Safety Not Guaranteed

via

Last night Adam and I went out for dinner and drinks and decided to catch a movie before heading home. I saw a preview for Safety Not Guaranteed a few weeks ago when I went to see Moonrise Kingdom (which was amazing) and put it on my list of movies to see. I'm glad I did, because it was awesome. 

Basically, the story goes like this: a magazine writer takes two interns, one of which is played by Aubrey Plaza from Parks and Rec, on a work trip to do a story on a wanted ad and the man behind it. The ad is looking for a time travel partner who knows how to use a gun (even when the 'heat gets hot'), is serious about the rules of time travel, and accepts the fact that their safety is not guaranteed. He has only traveled back in time once before. Aubrey Plaza's character replies to the ad, convinces him she is serious about the mission, and eventually she really is.  

via

The story was pretty predictable, but left a huge smile on my face. Everyone in the theater was laughing out loud, and I couldn't stop squeezing Adam's arm. I love Aubrey Plaza's stone face and dry humor. She always seems to play the same character, but she does it well. I would definitely recommend it, especially for a date night.

Next on my list of movies to see: Beast of the Southern Wild. 

 Has anyone seen it? Was it amazing?

India: before we left

I recently got back from a month long trip to India. It was one of the most exciting, confusing, beautiful, and terrifying months of my life. I would love to have a written account of the trip to look back on, and share with anyone who is interested, so I thought I would post it here. There is so much that I want to remember, so I am breaking it up into different posts; I'll start from the beginning...

John and me in front of the Red Fort in New Delhi

My friend John and I bought our tickets in a moment of half thought out excitement, and I ran around my basement apartment screaming 'I'm going to India!' I was excited to leave the country, for the very first time, and I felt like I was about to really experience life. I was graduating college and thought exploring a country completely foreign to me was a great way to thrust myself into the real world. I floated on my excitement for the next few weeks and jumped at any chance to bring up my impending trip in daily conversation. I googled pictures of the Taj Mahal and watched Eat Pray Love more times than I am willing to admit.

At first, the idea of planning our trip sounded like fun. I bought a moleskin journal, made a cup of coffee, and sat at my computer. I had no clue where to begin. I didn't know how to get a visa, what immunizations I needed, or which malaria medication was right for me. India is not exactly a common vacation spot, and planning tips were hard to come by. I applied for my passport about a month and a half before leaving, finally got my visa two weeks before the flight, and barely made the recommended time before traveling to get immunizations and begin anti-malaria meds. I spent hours reasearching how to accomplish all of these things, and spent even more time ignoring the fact that they needed to be done. It was a spectacularly stressful process.

I realized pretty quickly that India is a huge country, and that we needed to narrow down our search. The best advice I received when planning my trip was to plan as though it was my first trip to India, not my only trip. It is impossible to see everything in a month. My friend and I made lists of the sights we could not leave the country without seeing, and we planned around that. We decided to start in New Delhi, fly to Mumbai, check out some amazing caves on our back to New Delhi, head up to the Himalayan mountains, and stop at the Ganges river before flying out. We booked about half of our hotels and flights, and decided to wait until we were there to do the rest. Flexibility, as we would find out, is key to enjoying India. Rickshaws will break down, roads will be closed, people will give you the wrong directions instead of saying they don't know, and there is nothing you can do about it.

The weeks leading up to the trip were scary. I tried to digest as much information about India as possible, and tried to prepare myself for what I was about to do and see- which as I know now is impossible. I boarded the flight thinking I had a rough idea of how the month would go; I was wrong.

 In case anyone is planning a trip: Use Travisa India to get a visa, do not confuse this with Travisa Outsourcing which accomplishes the same thing at about double the rate. Go to a travel doctor, your general doctor will not have all the vaccines you need and travel doctors can give amazing health and safety tips. I highly recommend Malarone as an anti-malaria med. The others I learned about made you sensitive to the sun (which is not ideal in India) or caused hallucinations and depression (which is not ideal ever).