I was eager to see the movie that beat out Pan’s Labyrinth for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards. Beki and I took a trip down to Santa Fe that included a screening of Live of Others. While I think Pan was the more deserving film, Lives of Others is a fantastic piece of work. I was disappointed by the overly long denouement, but that’s forgivable. I was most impressed by the pacing of the film. As Beki said, there were no “makeover moments” in which a character suddenly makes a change.
Prior to seeing the movie we went to The Plaza to get tamales, sit in the grass, and read/nap. Being the anniversary of the war, The Plaza was full of folks protesting the war in their own quiet ways. There were hippies with t-shirts and funny looking dogs. There were witty signs addressing the president around the monument in the center of the park. I saw an upper-middle class teenager dressed to the nines in Abercrombie and a popped collar with his light jacket open to reveal a white t-shirt with a handwritten message to the president about getting out of Iraq. There were bougie hippies (a class that’s extremely well represented in Santa Fe) talking about their love of Amy Goodman. There was also a mediocre clown doing juggling tricks for children. It was the warmest day of the year and the sun was in full force. We sat a blanket and read for two hours before getting some dinner before the film. A very pleasant afternoon.
The static electricity is so intense here that I dread shutting the car door and touching my ipod. The cat has it particularly bad. She's white and incredibly fluffy (which causes me to hate her every time I want to wear a black suit jacket). She has been known to try and lick the metal legs of the chair. There's an audible pop. At night, on the wool blanket, in the dark, she comes to you and demand to be pet. You can see the electricity when you run your hand down her back or rub her ear. It's pretty; like stirring up phosphorescence in the Gulf.
Another weekend alone. I took Beki to the airport this morning. She's going to visit UF. It snowed all of Tuesday and Wednesday, so the roads were pretty bad from here to I-25. When we got down the hill and onto 285 headed toward Santa Fe we hit a valley of fog and mud and snow and ice. They don't use salt here (something about the ph of the soil), so they use mud instead. It is disgusting. Driving through the valley of fog was completely surreal. We slowly climbed out of it and the expansive New Mexican landscape revealed itself. The mountains are all dusted with snow. I don't know if I'll get over the views that I'm continuously assaulted by.
This afternoon I took Owen for a walk in the gorge. We got a good eight inches of snow, so the gorge was completely white. Owen dove through the snow with enough enthusiasm that I was willing to deal with wet feet and join him. Actually, I didn't have much choice because there isn't much of a path anymore. We did the Acid Canyon trail and took a side trail that led down into the interior canyon. It was awesome. We got right down the frozen stream. The canyon is only about ten yards wide down there. It really feels like you're in deep in the wilderness. It was just a step away from The Deer Hunter.
I start work on Tuesday, so this is my last weekend to eat junk food and play Nintendo. Come Tuesday I'll start triathlon training and I won't have much time for the Wii. Here's to flashing screens, ice cream, and wearing nothing but underwear until noon.
Filed under: Bank, Cooking, Excercise, Horse-Play, People Watching, Weather, Work
I got a job today. I will be the executive assistant to the CFO for Los Alamos National Bank. The pay is OK and the benefits are really nice. Now I can start paying rent!
One of the best parts of working for the bank is that you get a free membership to the YMCA, the gym across the street from my apartment, and the aquatic center down the street. I've decided that this means that I should train for a triathlon.
I just returned from Smith's (the supermarket across the street) where I was treated to the wonderful sights of last minute Valentine's Day shopping. The carts were filled with alcohol and hunks of meat. The flower section had no fewer than six guys crowding the sole female employee. Each had a look of panic and confusion on his face as they handled boxes of bad chocolate and gazed at half-dead flowers. For my part, I had a dozen roses delivered and I'm cooking what I hope will be a delicious meal of salmon and shrimp steamed in a nice, vaguely Asian, broth.
Beki got home little early today and we went out to play in the snow. We put on black gloves so that we could catch and see individual snowflakes. They're small, but really amazing when you see one all on its own. We then had an epic snowball fight. Tonight Beki will make homemade chocolate truffles. We experimented last weekend and they came out pretty well. I look forward to gaining a few pounds over the next 24 hours.
