How I Spent My Christmas Break

(besides reading; there'll be posts on that later)

• being exceedingly lazy. And luxuriating in every boring minute of it. I ought to write a list of what I didn't do, I'd have more to say.
• watched 2 bad movies: Closer, one of those slow, pretensious movies with fine acting, which make you think "jesus, at least I'm not as miserable as those poor bastards." And The Aviator, which is fine until Katharine Hepburn dumps Howard Hughes, after that it's just two hours (!) of Leonardo DiCaprio going crazy. Not even Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn (swoon) and Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner (double swoon) made up for it.
• watched 3 good movies: Finding Neverland, which made me cry, The Phantom of the Opera, which I enjoyed for all its pure gothic potboiler-ness, notwithstanding the cheesy music and The. Most. Useless. Heroine. Ever. And House of Flying Daggers: swordfights! political intrigue! love triangles! secret identities! Buckles were swashed, mettles were tested, and love, alas, did not triumph.
• bought the Charlotte Gray dvd, the better to watch all the romantic mushy bits. Fabulous acting and killer plot aside, this movie holds the distinction of being the only film I've ever seen where Anglophone actors have convincing French accents. Billy Crudup (in the role of Mr. Sexy Resistance Fighter Man) sounds like a dead ringer for Louis Jourdan.
• realized that no matter how Elinor I may act and think, Marianne, evidently, will always win the day.
• learned to knit. I'll be tossing off socks and sweaters and cell phone cozies before you know it.
• dyed my hair purple (I always wanted purple hair). Mother was not best pleased.
• dyed my clothes pink ( I did not want pink underwear). Godamn red socks.
• bought too many books, again. To wit: Jane and the Man of the Cloth (Jane Austen mystery), Black Wine (feminist sci-fi), All the World's Reward: Folktales Told by Five Scandinavian Storytellers, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times, and Son of Shadows: Book Two of the Sevenwaters Trilogy. But they were mostly used, from the library, so it's okay.
• did not think about Life After Graduation. Which starts May 15.

Happy New Year all.