too many things going on. not enough time to write. not enough desire to take the time to sit down and write.
friday we went to “the devil wears prada.” it was good; it’s about a young woman, played by anne hathaway, who goes to work for the head of a huge fashion magazine, like Vogue. meryl streep is the evil boss, and she was perfect. do you know about the other film she’s in right now, “prairie home companion,” based on the radio show? in that one, she’s sweet and chatty and ditzy and delightful, and “devil WP” is the perfect contrast.
i do have to say that during the first par of DWP, i felt edgy. i spent too many years of my life temping in both new york and LA, and i had a few experiences with bosses who expected me to know who people were and how to get ahold of them. one asshole in particular, a guy who was a bigwig at some trendy production company, was australian and had an accent so thick that it was difficult to figure out what he was saying. he normally had at least two assistants, and i was the second assistant, and he’d yell at me from his office, which was kind of far from the little space i sat in, GRACE, GET ME SLKJS;LDKJ SDJFKLD; ON THE PHONE,” and it was impossible to understand the name, and of course i didn’t have any idea of how to look it up.
i’ve been trying to remember other specific examples of the terrors of temping, but i think i’ve blocked a lot of it out. actually, i remember plenty of people being quite nice, the problem usually was the deathly dullness of the jobs. one time when i was temping in DC – oh yeah, i lived there for a brief time, too – i worked for a guy named morgan death. it was funny because he was this rotund, red-faced fellow, perfectly nice, and on my last day he took me out to lunch. my most vivid memory of that temp experience was trying to merge onto the frightful freeway after working all day.
i’m glad i don’t do any of that anymore.
anyway, both movies are quite good. i do think it’s funny that anne hathaway seems to have made a niche for herself as the girl who is frumpy and gets a makeover so she’s glamorous. this is how she started, in “the princess diaries,” which was a cute movie. then, she was effective as a gawky teen who transforms into the lovely princess, but this time it seemed a little bit forced. maybe it’s just that it’s hard to hide her really good looks. also, when she was transformed, did they just give her all those designer clothes? that seemed kind of unlikely, but i suppose that’s what happened.
the other thing that didn’t seem plausible is that anne and her hangdog boyfriend lived in soho, i think, or somewhere in lower manhattan, and their apartment seemed quite large. how, exactly, did they afford it? not realistic.
the best line of the movie was when the other assistant explained to anne her diet strategy (and it worked, cauze she’d lost weight) “i eat nothing at all, and then, when i’m about to pass out, i eat one cheese cube.”
eat nothing. the only sure way to lose weight.
people have been recommending that i eat no or very few carbs. this, of course, makes me want NOTHING BUT CARBS.
because my mind makes me crazy.
saturday…well, on saturday i was in a band. yep. i’ll have to tell you about that when i’m better-rested. how did i get myself into a band all of a sudden? playing the keyboard. i started taking piano lessons when i was in first grade and continued all through high school. classical music, that’s all they ever gave me, except for an occasional “maple leaf rag” or once, something slightly modern, i can’t recall the name or the composer but i remember how the beginning chords sound.
anyway, i kept taking piano lessons in college, still playing classical music because it never occured to me to want to play anything different.
and then i didn’t play much anymore, until a couple of years ago, MFH and mom and i started playing songs together; i played the keyboard, kevin played one of his (many) guitars, and mom played the flute. it was kind of fun, but mom and kevin were really excited about it whereas i mostly did it because they enjoyed it. i never practiced enough to be really good.
and then we haven’t played at all, and then kevin got in a band, and suddenly they have no keyboard player.
weird, very weird.
randy keeps telling me i can be just like laurie partridge in “the partridge family” show; she didn’t play the piano, but just looked cute and pretended to pound out the notes.
hmm, maybe i can do that too. good idea.
more later.
ok then,
nearing the end of july grace.
p.s. did you notice how i didn’t even allude to wedding plans AT ALL? this morning i felt tired and decided i don’t care about the plans so much. i did go to bed-bath-n-beyond and wandered around for a little while, but couldn’t find one single thing that i wanted to add to the registry, so i’m holding at 42 items.