Moot Point

I just reread my OC post for the week and I realized that not only is it kind of repetitive, but it also, at the end, falls apart into “I’m sad because it’s cold out.”

No wonder no one commented.

(My blues were cured…by Ikea. More later.)

I was really hoping for some Marissa lesbian action, but it doesn’t really look like that’s going to happen. I think the whole Marissa-lesbian thing is a tease, because she’s not actually gay, she just wants to piss off her mother. Mischa Barton’s not the best actress or anything but you could totally see lightbulbs going off in Marissa’s head when Alex was like “My parents signed the emancipation papers because I was dating a girl.”
Way to make it obvious, O.C.

I have a feeling the whole thing is just going to be a big tease, because clearly Marissa is just using Alex and Alex is way smarter than DJ and will therefore figure it out way faster.

Notice how Zach is totally turning into Seth-lite? Having him agree on everything and be, like, Seth’s sidekick makes him even less interesting.

And Sandy? Is boring when he’s grieving for the fictitious death of his ex-love of his life or whatever. I get that they’re trying to SHOW US SANDY’S PAST, but I’d much rather see Sandy sticking it to the MAN and giving the kids lovable advice.

Also, are they going to make Kirsten a drunk? (With the close-up? Of the wine glass?) I hope they don’t make Kirsten a drunk. They already have a drunk.

Uh, yeah, I don’t know. I got nothin’. This week was really “setting up for major plotlines that will really be awesome in following weeks.” Hopefully.

I don’t know. January’s my least favourite month. It’s just so cold and grey and I just want to mope. I guess it’s kind of a SAD thing (Seasonal Affective Disorder). But I’m really wary of that sort of naming. I don’t have an illness. I’m just kind of down because I have so much schoolwork and I don’t know how I’m going to keep up with it and argh.

The tension was obviously there before, at least in terms of the music and cinematography. I find this relationship way more believable than her relationship with DJ, because Alex is the kind of person Marissa would actually want to spend time with, ie not an ostensibly Hispanic robot.

I’m sure the young man in question is actually Hispanic, but he is the least Hispanic-looking Hispanic man since Charlton Heston played a Mexican in Touch of Evil.

So there are apparently 53 Starbuckses within a five-mile radius of my house. Forty-one within two miles.
(Actually, I don’t see the Indigo where one just opened a couple months ago on the list. Maybe 42?)

Alex’s house, by contrast, had 40 within 5 miles, but only 6 within two.

Via kottke.org. Everyone on his site seemed mildly shocked by the numbers, but I was surprised there weren’t more.

1. Be starving after a long day at work and only having a (delicious) muffin for lunch.
2. Remember that avocado in your fridge and decide to make a home version of the Green Room avocado and brie sandwich (aka the best thing ever to happen to sandwiches).
3. Rush through grocery store at closing time on way home from work buying the items your kitchen is lacking to make the whole sandwich: bread, brie, tomatoes.
4. Take groceries home.
5. Cut avocado in half.
6. Realize that avocado is over a week old, and avocados, apparently, don’t last that long.
7. Realize it’s time for plan B.
8. Make 2 slices toast. Put slices of brie on one slice. Put sliced tomatoes on top. Spread other slice with minced garlic and margarine in a crude approximation of garlic butter, as you know all to well that cheese and tomatoes are pretty plain on their own.
9. Throw whole thing in microwave for like, 10 seconds, to slightly melt the cheese and make the whole thing warm. (As your toast cooled off already.)
10. Cut in half.
11. Eat.
12. Marvel at own genius.
13. Realize you are still hungry.
14. Go back to kitchen.
15. While 2 more toasts are toasting, thinly slice some apple. (I used Braeburn, but I imagine something sourer would work as well). Save the extra for dessert.
16. When toast comes out, butter both slices (with margarine, which you still refer to in your head as buttering), then put brie on one side, raspberry jam on the other, and the apple slices in the middle.
17. Cut in half diagonally.
18. Marvel at own genius. Again.

Brie is the best thing ever invented.

Okay, so the best thing about watching The OC this week wasn’t so much something that happened on the show as something that happened while watching the show.
There’s this guy, who lives one house over from me, who is from the OC. Newport Beach. Plays water polo, etc. I don’t know him really at all, but I know who he is, like you do.
So, I’m sitting in the common room watching by myself, and OC-guy comes in. Ryan is talking to Jody and dude’s all like “Who’s that?” And I said, “Oh, that’s Seth’s new girlfriend’s ex.”
He said, “Man, there are so many plots on this show.”
Then he called someone on his cellphone and left.
It was awesome.

Anyway, this was on okay O.C.

Ryan was way harsh with Marissa, over the whole Drunk!Lindsay thing. But at the same time, it was kind of all true. But poor Marissa needs support because her life is so hard. Maybe more people should yell at her? Since support is just turning her into more of a train wreck.
Also, what’s the deal with the whole SHOWING THE DANGERS OF UNDERAGE DRINKING thing that is going on. Seth was all falling over himself a couple weeks ago, and now Ryan was all “Lindsay could have drowned!” (Question: Why leave a drunk girl who’s just expressed the desire to go swimming ALONE ON THE BEACH? Can’t blame Marissa for that.)
In conclusion, Ryan is dumb.

I felt like Seth was justified in everything he said to Alex. She does walk all over him and she does have to be all high and mighty and better than everyone.
Plus THEY HAVE NO CHEMISTRY and clearly, Seth is way too neurotic to be with someone who’s, you know, not into being compared to The Banger Sisters.
Alex (real Alex who is still SLEEPING but I want to go get PIZZA, but he took care of me when I was drunk and FELL DOWN IN THE STREET last night so I will let him sleep) liked The Banger Sisters line. He would.

Summer and Zach? With the milkshake? Awww. Do you know how hard it is to make something like that actually cute and not pukey cute? Apparently not very for Rachel Bilson!

The grownups were pretty blah this week. Except the whole giant Julie Cooper. That was awesome. Also, the part where she was all “The lives and loves of the rich, dysfunctional Newport Beach elite has the potential to become a national phenomenon!” was funny.

So, this guy who lives in my house and really thinks the OC is dumb, which, I told him, is the whole point, came in to eat his dinner toward the end of the show.
When Alex and Marissa were all alone in the apartment, I was all “Oooh ooh.” Because I had heard the rumours.
“Is this supposed to be sexual tension?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, “It’s hard to identify because neither of them are very good actresses, but you can tell from the music and cinematography.”

From the Big Yellow Taxi files: I never knew how great it was to be able to walk places freely and without pain.

Now that I can’t, I realize how often I like, stand up to get things and stuff.

For instance: the getting of hot chocolate, to most efficiently deliver the sugar I need to answer the phone cheerfully and not yell at women who call and insist they ordered something from someone named Bailey yesterday (which they didn’t because there is no one at our company named Bailey) and insists that it was my company even though it obviously wasn’t, involves three separate instances of getting up from my desk. One to start boiling the water and combine the hot chocolate powder with the milk (so it dissolves better, duh) and then one to actually add the hot water to the hot chocolate, then a further walk to the kitchen to either make more hot chocolate (usually the case) or to either put my glass in the sink or wash it.

Now, because I live in res still, laundry is like the most complicated process ever. It shouldn’t be, because we have laundry machines in the basement. But it involves walking all over the damn place (I have to put money on my laundry card in a WHOLE OTHER BUILDING THAT IS ACROSS THE STREET FROM THIS BUILDING), and then standing a lot and even carrying things, not to mention lots of stairs. I shouldn’t have to do this, MY FOOT HURTS.

“I shouldn’t have to do this, MY FoOT HURTS,” is kind of my motto for the week. That and, “I have a MINOR INJURY that INCONVENIENCES ME and causes me to WALK SOMEWHAT MORE SLOWLY. BE NICE TO ME.”

Seriously, I know that it’s not affecting my gait that much, but it’s affecting my gait that much–I just sort of walk slower and favour my right foot–but I feel like it’s really conspicuous and everyone is staring, staring at my useless, loafer-covered foot.

Meanwhile, I look mostly fine, so I keep wondering why people keep brushing by the girl with the limp and, like, not stopping and giving my candy and telling me I’m pretty every five feet.

From the “At least I have the internet” file: New Arcade Fire song. Is pretty good.

At least The OC is on tomorrow.

*The ball of my foot. Heh. Heh. I said ball.

So I somehow managed to injure myself in the act of making chili and guacamole this weekend.
I woke up on Sunday with a dull ache on the bottom of my foot, like it was bruised.
So I made the brilliant move of walking to and from the concert as well as going to the concert and standing on my injured foot for several hours in the club concert theatre where the show was held.
It was totally worth it because, Neko Case.

But today when I woke up my foot was 150% worse. I have been actually limping around all day.
I don’t know if you realized, but it is kind of* cold out.

I haven’t eaten dinner. I managed of all my weekend’s feasting, to have left over one avocado and some cilantro.

Oh my god, someone in my house is singing that “I need you like water, like breath, like raaain” song. But just the chorus. Over and over and over. Who are these people?

I need food. And I can’t put weight on my left food. Who wants to bring me soup and pat me on the head? Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?

*Read: astoundlingly..

This was kind of a crappy episode. The scene where Summer was like “Hey Zach, let’s take it to the next step” and he was all “Mom will be so excited!” was pretty awesome, but then it went downhill from there. Summer strikes out with Zach’s smart family because she’s shallow and doesn’t know about news? Boring angle.
Also, the Ryan and Lindsay thing: I hate to say it, is kind of boring already. I mean, they like each other, yeah, but NOTHING IS HAPPENING TO THEM. They’ve been doing this awkward “We like each other, but it’s not that easy” dance since the beginning of school. Furthermore, what was up with that shirt at the beginning? With the boobs?
Speaking of which, Ryan doesn’t seem to have told Lindsay about Teresa yet. Boy is she going to be surprised when that whole baby thing comes back to haunt him.
DJ breaks up with Marissa? Because she’s using him to piss off her mom? Big shocker. If Julie hadn’t basically told him that she was just using him to piss her off, it might have at least proved that he could form thoughts. Yeah, I won’t miss him.
And okay, can I just say Seth and Alex really HAVE NO CHEMISTRY. I don’t usually complain about couples on shows having no chemistry but I keep waiting to see it and I keep not seeing it. That line where Seth was all “When I’m around her I feel like I have to prove I’m good enough to be around her” was pretty good.
And the party? At the end? With everyone on the show gathered to share warm feelings and tie up loose ends? And Sandy sings a song (not embarrassingly, but not that well, and I would love to praise Sandy for just about anything)? And the whole rest of the cast all sways in time with their arms over each others’ shoulders, showing how happy they are? Weak, The OC. Weak.

I have Alex’s TCard, his last Harpers (with his address sticker still on it) and some shoes that turned out to be too tight for him.

I could totally steal his identity.

Not that I would.

I don’t really believe in resolutions, so I more have “things I want to do more or less of this year, but I’m not really making a big deal of them.”

One of the things that fall into the more category is seeing live music. The reasons for this are twofold: one, I feel bad, because a lot of my music is not so much legally bought and purchasing tickets to concerts allows me to support artists I like, and two, I enjoy it.
So, how happy was I when I learned that my current new favourite Neko Case is coming this month? And then, even happier to learn that my old favourites Tegan and Sara are coming next month? Well, reader, I’m sure you can guess.

One of the things that fall into the less category: eating out. I tend to work until, like, 6 or 6:30 in the evening. Which means I don’t get home until 7, which is when the meal hall closes. And I generally wind up spending all my money on Yonge Street’s tempting Asian Fusion takeout. So I’m trying to do groceries more, even cook a bit. Whole Foods is open later. Even if it’s expensive. And pretentious. At least they have good produce.

In other news, I’m starting my new birth control pills today. They’re the same active ingredients as my old ones, only with more. I’m doing this because the one I’m on hasn’t really been doing its job (in terms of regulating my cycle, not in terms of controlling birth). Anyway, I’m trepidatious because when I went on the Pill a year ago, I kind of lost it. I was nauseous for like two weeks. I cried during Notting Hill. I cried during commercials. I got insanely depressed studying the Decalogue in my film class.

However, this is just a stronger dose of the same stuff, I’m in a much better place with my life, and I’m studying the crime film right now. So we should be okay.
But if my blog starts to sound like bad goth poetry, know, it’s the hormones.