The Power of Not Caring

When I saw yesterday that New Moon had broken the record for largest opening weekend, I was a bit surprised. Okay, more than a bit. I found it quite odd. I won’t say I was shocked but that indicates a more emotional response than the one I actually had. The biggest question that lurked in my head was: had I missed something?

Of course I was aware of New Moon. As an avid pop culture enthusiast, I’d been hearing about it since before Twilight came out last year. I’d read the books, of course, and was as caught up in them as everyone else was, until around the time the first movie came out and then realized I couldn’t muster the energy to be into it all anymore.

But somehow over the last couple of months, I seemed to have forgotten all about this movie. I forgot that it even came out last weekend! How did that happen? I think I figured it out:

* I found myself skipping articles about the movie in Entertainment Weekly, not so much on purpose in an I’m-too-cool-for-school fashion, but in a there’s-a-movie-I-have-no-interest-in-seeing fashion. My skipping them didn’t even register in my brain.

* Of my inner circle of friends, not one of them is interested in those movies/books. Or, if they are, they’re keeping it under wraps, because I can’t remember one person mentioning their intentions of going to the movie. Hell, KPP is a nanny to tweeners, and even she hasn’t mentioned it.

* On the night the movie came out, I was on a road trip with three other girls, during which the movie was never once mentioned.

* I have a DVR, which means I missed all the commercials. I did catch a couple of references to it on The Dish, but that’s about it.

So, what does that mean? Did I manage to find the eight women in America who are not Twi-hards, and those happened to be the people I’ve spent my time with over the last two months? Am I losing my pop culture sensitivity (I was out-Ausiello’ed by one of my road tripping friends on Saturday)? Have I drifted to the fringe of mainstream society? Or is a record-breaking opening weekend really not the big deal it’s being made out to be?

I don’t know the answer, but I do know this: I am very aware of the opening date of Sherlock Holmes, and I know exactly where my ass will be on December 25th: in a movie theatre seat, with a popcorn and large soda, watching Robert Downey Jr in all his accented glory.

PS. This is all I can remember from each of the Twilight books: Twilight- Bella and Edward shack up, a dude tries to kill her. New Moon- they break up, she sulks, she goes to Italy and something almost happens. Eclipse- Uh… there are more vampires, and Bella watches Edward and Jacob kill them. Breaking Dawn- they get married, Bella becomes a vampire, and then a battle does not take place. 2560 pages, for that.

Pumpkins scream in the dead of night

Another successful Halloween! And once again, because people are awesome, there were costume parties over two weekends! So I went to three parties! Hooray!

The Brick House Party- 2nd Edition!

Ereeen and her roommates hosted an amazing party at their row house in DC (it doesn’t take much to make it look haunted, at least on the outside). Their friend and my super-distant cousin Michelle set up a studio on their back porch and the following ensued:

My Star Trek uniform ended up being a huge hassle to put together. Odd, considering how small it is… The pointy boobs were the least of my problems. Still, it was cute and I got some good attention in it. I liked the turtleneck top. I got that in Dubai!

With Doan, the Vulcan. I like this pic because I look like a dork, and she knows it.

With Eddie and Ereeen. I look like an anime character here.

The lovely hostesses of the party: Autumn in the front; Jane, Marianne, Kelli, and Ereeen. I made Ereeen’s tutu and I think that’s my necklace she’s wearing.

KPP and Ereeen.

(Not at a party)

My hallmark costume of the year was DBDB’s Stryper costume. I made everything here except the yellow T-shirt, black undershirt, and shoes. I would be lying if I said the pants fittings weren’t intensely awkward.

Frankly, I think the costume looked better on me:

KPP said the sexiness of this picture is slightly decreased by the pastel pictures of shoes and purses on the wall.

The Barn Dance

For the barn dance, I was a springtime fairy-slash-woodland pixie-slash-nymph.

I’m flying!

Foxy Soxy (using an old costume of mine), KPP, and me

With Breakdancer Brian (complete with his own cardboard dancefloor)

Bing Ding had a cop-out costume (Smarties pinned to his pants)

Beach House Buddies! Heidi and Scott

The Zombie Party

I’m just now realizing that I don’t have any pics of my full zombie costume (which was really just an excuse to go goth a little).

Here, with Ereeen, you can see a fair amount of my costume. Thanks, Dubai! I got the corset, skirt, and belt on my trip! In fact, I actually didn’t sew anything for this costume. I know!

Sade’s white trash zombie costume was fantastic! (Those are my overalls. Yes, I own overalls. I don’t think I’ve worn them once since I moved to DC five years ago.) And do you recognize Tobias? It’s Humungus!

Here are some stats:
* Costumes I wore: 3
* Costumes I made for others or loaned stuff for: 5
* "Scariest" costume: Hands down, the guy fairy at the barn dance.
* Runner-up: the kissing booth guy. The sign for it was right over his crotch. Think Justin Timberlake on SNL.
* 2nd Runner-up: the girl who looked like a guy dressed as a girl.
* Best cop-out costume: Tollestrup's American Gothic/Mr Rogers' sweater.
* Lamest cop-out costume: Sorry, Bing Ding. "Smartypants" is just lame. (I still love you.)
* Fave costumes not made by me ;) : Merry and Sarah, the tourists; and Tim, the dapper old man.

Anyone got any ideas for next year? For the first time since 2005, I don’t already have a costume in mind!

I've let myself be defined by a quiz.

So this morning I randomly took an Interior Personality Quiz, 'cause I felt like it. This was the result:


Hmm... look familiar?

I'm so glad I didn't grow up in an orphanage school...

I haven’t posted anything on the blog for a while, and I’m getting sick of seeing that “road to nowhere” pic when I go to check out my blog roll (because apparently I can’t be bothered to set up a Google Reader). So I’m gonna write about an awesome thing I read.

So I just finished Jane Eyre. I know, right? I can’t believe I haven’t read it before. It’s one of those books that every girl is supposed to read before she dies. Well, I have to say, I loved it! It’s at times very funny, thought-provoking, and always thoroughly engrossing.

My favorite passage in the whole book happens right after Jane has discovered the truth about Mr. Rochester’s lunatic wife in the attic. I guess a spoiler alert could have gone there, but come on. The book is 160 years old; you should know the basic plot.

(Tangent: My roommates and I have been referring to our neighbors as “the Rochesters” for like two years, when we started noticing random moaning/whining noises coming from the house. I thought maybe they just had a crazy grandma with them, but eventually- well after the nickname was coined- we found out they actually have a teenage handicapped son. Who would have thought?)

Anyway, back to the book. So Jane and Mr. Rochester can’t get married, ‘cause he’s already married, and she knows she’s gotta get the H outta there. He is trying to convince her to stay with him, and maybe marry him in another country that doesn’t already know about his marriage, and da-dada-da-da… Anyway, she says (in her head) the following:

“Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth—so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane—quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.”

I don’t even know where to start; there’s so much awesomeness to discuss! Now, Jane isn’t a character that I see myself in, or who I would necessarily want to be like. But I want to be like her in this respect! I like to think I’d stick by my guns in every circumstance, in every trying situation, but holy cow!- it’d be hard to in this case. It’s so easy for me to forget myself in charged situations like this one. And I admit, there have been times where I haven’t stuck to my guns, so this is definitely something I need to internalize.

Luckily, it all works out for Jane, and likely wouldn't have if she hadn't kept to her principles. So the next time you find yourself unable to marry your true love because he's shackled with a crazy wife that he keeps in the attic, do what Jane did and escape before dawn and somehow end up on the doorstep of the cousins you didn't know you had! I know I will!

How do I feel by the end of the day

Dubai can be a quirky place, especially with all the construction. To that end, in my last Dubai blog entry, I highlight some of the oddities I encountered.


The road to nowhere...
Isn't Dubai a magical wonderland of construction sites? Google Maps is laughingly out-of-date, and so is T-Roy's GPS. (PS That's the Palm in the background.)


The iPod building, in Abu Dhabi. Doesn't it look like an iPod in a docking station?


One of Dubai's projects hit by the recession


Please, do not distrub.


Uh yeah, that ladder is really not secure in any way. Not sure what these guys are trying to accomplish. (PS This is one of the as-yet-unfinished Metro stations, which I think look like a Pixar underwater sea creature, but I still can't put my finger on which one.)


It took me days to figure out why the floors of bathroom stalls were always wet. They have spray hose bidets in them!


It almost looks like the bench is alive, and feral.

It’s getting very near the end

This is the second-to-last blog entry I intend on posting about Dubai. You can soon move on to your regularly-scheduled blog-stalking!

These are just pictures that I liked. This blog entry is intended to highlight my mad photography skillz:


At Souk Madinat Jumeirah


Looking up the Burj Al-Arab atrium...


So sparkly! (The dude with blurry legs was actually trying to get out of my picture, which in turn made him more apparent. Oh well.)


I love macro mode.


At Dubai Mall.


This is still a sucky picture, but the best one of the Burj Dubai I took. Hey, you try taking a picture of the tallest building in the world!


I found this carpet very tempting.

Spending Someone's Hard-Earned Pay: Shopping in Dubai

I came across a lot of odd things whilst shopping in Dubai. Here are some of them:


1993 called, they want their shoes back.


Who needs a clothesline? Keep it classy, Karama!


The famous skull belt: I tried to bargain for this twice, but failed. They would never agree to a price lower than a Hot Topic clearance price. And if I can't get it for cheaper than a Hot Topic, then what's the point, right?


At the same store with the skull belt, T-Roy tried on these snazzy and not-at-all-shoddily-made shoes. I like that they changed the election year.


A $10,000 cell phone, and it doesn't even have Shazam.


Ski Dubai, rising magestically above Mall of the Emirates.


At THE One: If I walked into this living room in someone's house, I think I'd just turn around and walk out.


This is at S*uce, the store with the gutra-inspired clothing. I just loved the wallpaper and the gold hangers, not to mention the cool paper lanterns. It kind of reminded me of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.


Okay, I have two beefs with this ad campaign: 1) The phrase is a bit cliché, don't you think? I mean, hasn't it been used, ad nauseum, for the last 40 years? 2) Nothing in the display case actually features diamonds, or even rhinestones. Not even in the picture of Liz Taylor. Very odd...


Does this salesman in the Gold Souk look like:
A. A lurker
B. A pedophile
C. Manos
D. That Guy
Further proof that moustaches are gross.


I loved the juxtaposition of the traditional Emirati kandoora and "business time"-wear.


I would have bought this shirt for Rob-n-Shauna had it come in the right size. I am now volunteering to make this little outfit for Dennis!

The Grand Mosque Revisited

So, one of the first things I did on my trip to the UAE was go to the big mosque in Abu Dhabi (called the Sheikh Zayed Mosque). Unfortunately, I was still figuring out the intricacies of T-Roy's computer and ended up not posting as many photos of the mosque as I felt was warranted. So here they are!


This mosque is the largest in the UAE and the 6th largest in the world. It can accomodate 40,000 worshippers. It opened in 2007, so it's also pretty dang new.






That's actually me in the picture (in my abayya).




This mosque boasts both the world's largest carpet...


...and the world's largest and most expensive chandelier.