The Mummy Returns
Ok, so I went to this REALLY cool theater, REALLY far away on Saturday to see the Mummy2. It’s in the near-infamous Ybor City (pronounced “Ee-bore”). They have a theater in the new shopping center which includes a 21+ only subsection. ID is checked, no one under 21 is admitted. The concession stand sells odd items like sushi and salads. Of course, it wouldn’t be Ybor (famous by the way for it’s nightclubs, dancing, and you guessed it, drunken splendor) if they also didn’t have a COMPLETE bar. Anything you want from beer on draft to mixed drinks, wines, etc. Oh yeah, it was cool. When you get into the actual theater itself, you discover the very cool leather seats. They’re HUGE and look/feel like Lazyboys!
If you’re wondering why I’m ranting on about the theater and not so much the movie, well…it’s because it just wasn’t that good. I liked the first MUCH better. This one wasn’t really so much bad as it was lacking in any sense of plot, story, character development, or purpose. It just bombarded you with one frantic {not-always-well-done} CGI scene after another. You don’t have time to get bored, but you do get to a point where you realize the movie’s almost over and there was nothing to it. I have to quote this review since I think it’s a perfect summary for what I thought as well…
More is more in this relentlessly bombastic sequel to the 1999 blockbuster. “Returns” basically recycles all the main selling points of the original, minus any vestigial attempts at humor or pacing. Brendan Fraser returns as our erstwhile hero, this time married to his main squeeze from the first film (Rachel Weisz) and with a precocious tyke in tow. Fraser’s character is almost totally blanded-out this time though, with precious little of the campy klutziness that brightened the first movie. There’s little for him to do, in fact, but to merely bounce from one spectacular (and spectacularly artificial) computer generated effect to the next. The movie’s sole objective seems to be Maximum Overkill, and it consistently achieves it. The film rams one busy, frantic sequence after another, not leaving us a moment to breath or time for anything to sink in – but that’s ok because there really isn’t anything to sink in…as is, it’s at least as fatiguing as it is entertaining.
Yup. Oh, and for people like my sister who wanted to see it just for the (her words!) “god-like body” of the Rock – don’t bother. He’s in the film all of about 8 minutes. (and only the first three minutes of the film is it actually him…the rest at the very end of the movie, is a bad CGI half-man/half-scorpion critter). Eh….not so happy with it.
On the other hand…the theater! Well…that was cool…! Hrm? Oh, you heard me say all that already? Yeah, but it was really cool and…hu? Yeah, alright, I’ll move on…
In short, it was nice to have a reason to actually get up, get dressed (something I haven’t done much of lately), and get outside. There was a big group of us there and between the lengthy travel time, the wait at the theater (got there early), and the movie time itself, *whew* it was a full day for me.
Feathers, Feathers Everywhere
So….my mom knew how much I was suffering on my sister’s hard, hard bed. It’s just a FIRM mattress (no box spring) on a solid wood frame. It was hard. It was uncomfortable. It was making me toss and turn all night. She calls me on my cell at 10am or so Sunday morning (I was of course, asleep) to tell me she’s coming over to give me the feather pillow. I, at this point, have no clue what’s she’s talking about. Apparently, the day before, she went over to Burdines and charged a feather pillow-top mattress thingy. You just put it on top of your bed. It makes it softer because it’s feather and down filled chambers. It was nice and while it’s still not the softest bed ever, it’s at least usable now. I just feel like crap about it. She just paid the damned charge off, then charged my $200 sunglasses (see the webcam pics) and now charged the $100 feather top as well. That’s a lot of money for her to be spending like this. She is not a wealthy woman. She isn’t even a “comfortable” woman financially. They pretty much live off her husband’s salary with hers as a little extra. Put it this way, she makes like $10K a year less then I do on average. That’s not much. I mean, I’m certainly not complaining – it’s nice to be able to sleep again – but, it’s just too much for her and it’s making my sister jealous (for as much as she tries to pass it off just a joke). I just don’t want tension because of me, you know?
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
So…all that excitement and general distraction from my woes made Sunday all the worse. Woke up, looked around, and was just miserable. My friend Rand called to see how I was doing and of course, it wasn’t well. I ended up driving over to his place (which is a massive 30 miles away now!) just to tag-along on his errands. I just couldn’t bear hanging out at the house all day. It was just too much. Ended up doing nothing too terribly exciting – hit BestBuy, Borders Books, and a few more stores – but it was the idea that I was at least out and doing something…anything…
His mom (the sweetheart) invited me to stay for dinner, made me eat at least a little something, then sat down and talked to me for like an hour. I cried, she supported, and all-in-all, it was really nice of her. She of course offered their spare room if I ever needed to “get away” for a weekend or so. Just to change pace if I need it. (she was trying to convince me to stay over there last night actually – laying out pajamas and everything – but I really just wanted to get home)
Watched the final minutes of hockey – damn Kings won - and collapsed in bed. After crying and talking with his mom and then Rand himself (who is also best friends with my Love for those of you who don’t know that), I was more then spent.
Jobs & Classifieds
Ugh. Have I mentioned how much I hate trying to find a job? Because, I really do. I hate the whole process. Spent ALL DAY today re-typing my resume (recreating it) on my sister’s computer. Problem is, it is trapped on mine. I have no internet or modem, so I can’t email it off, my Love has the CDR drive so I can’t burn it off, and my floppy drive took a nose dive so I can’t even save it to disk! Grrr…needless to say, it’s really hard to recreate a document that you spent hours on the first time around. After searching through the ads (and coming up with several decent sounding ones assuming I don’t mind driving 30 or more miles one-way away), recreating my resume, setting up a hotmail account to send it to my Love (who’s going to fax it out for me tomorrow), and waiting all of forever for anything to happen on the damned dial-up connection (why oh why is there no broadband service up here??) I’m going to brave it again to get this entry uploaded. Still haven’t gone out to the store yet to get any food (I haven’t had any since I got here a week ago now), still haven’t gotten the last box out of my backseat, still haven’t figured out what’s rolling around really loud and annoying in my trunk (and afraid to look). Needless to say, I’m feeling really shitty and didn’t even get dressed today let alone get to my mom’s to take a shower. Isn’t that what bathrobes were invented for? Hell, I even forgot until just now that I had washed my towels at lunchtime and never put them in the dyer. I hate this lack of life. I have nothing to do, no goals, and pretty much, no ambition to get anything done. It’s just all FAR too much work.
Feedback
Still can’t believe people read this thing. Guess it’s pretty cool. Thanks for the comments (they’re the only ones I get since I have no email) and keep ‘em coming. Let me see if I can remember the things that I wanted to comment back on…
DVD’s: Well, I did get the dvd player (and my 11 or so personal dvd’s). Problem is, it’s sitting on my dresser gathering dust since he got the 27’ stereo tv. I took my old 19 inch MONO tv just to have something. Problem is, the dvd hooks up a/v jacks only and since it’s a mono tv with a coax only, I can’t actually use it. *pouts* My sister’s tv in the living room IS stero, but she records and watches things every night. Doesn’t leave much time for me to haul it out there, hook it up, and watch something.
Disney: I like the Little Mermaid. (it’s actually one of my 11 or so dvd’s!). My friend has a PS2 and since it’s a dvd-rom drive, it can also play movies. Doesn’t really count as ‘spending time’ since it wasn’t MY dvd! :)
Internet connection: There is NO SUCH THING as “broadband” up here. No dsl, no adsl, no cable modem, no ISDN, NOTHING. Believe me, had Roadrunner been available here, I wouldn’t be offline. I would have simply transferred my service to her house. The ONLY choice is SLOW dial-up connections that never get better connects then 31k or so. (she has a 56k modem, but I’ve literally never seen her connect faster then 31.2k) It’s horrid and slow, and all-around evil. Makes me miserable.
Cell phone: Ok, I love it, but damn! I use it FAR too much. I just know I’m going to get the bill and it’s going to be a million dollars or so from overage on day minutes. People use it to reach me all the time and now I’m panicked that in a matter of two weeks, I’m already over. *eep* It’s great – so long as people start calling me AFTER 8pm or on WEEKENDS when I have unlimited calling! :)
--buzz—
Well, my towels just buzzed in the dryer. Need to check on them. Need to publish this entry, so I’m going to go do that. Hope all are well. Hope I get a reply on these resumes I’m sending out…need something to go my way because damn, this is getting so far over my head I don’t know what to do. (can you say I’m a month behind on all my bills with all the final bills coming in also and me with literally ZERO bucks?) Oh yeah, “screwed” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Miss you all.
-m
~ flowers bloom near Memory and Dream
at 5/7/2001 09:59:14 PM ~
~
