Feeling like pooh...and I don't mean Winnie The...

I called off work today. I virtually never do this, especially when we are behind. But, I got about 3 hours of sleep last night and decided when I was fully awake with a sore throat at 4:30am that there was no freakin' way I was coming in.

The last time I called off I was really, really sick and probably should have gone to the doctor sooner than I did. I've pretty much had a cold now for almost 3 weeks. I went across the street to the conviently located doctor's office. Last time I was there, I went in and got a shot and then got some antibiotics and was back to work the next day. I had to wait a little while because I had no appointment, but still I was good to go pretty quickly.

This time around was different. My local doc's office is now a part of a chain connected with a hospital 30 miles away. Apparently, since they changed over I am no longer in their system so I had to fill all that paperwork out again. Does anyone remember off the top of their head when their last tetnus shot was? As it worked out, they were going to be able to squeeze me in that afternoon so I was able to take the paperwork home to have ready for my return. I made a quick call to my all knowing Mom and then took a nap for about 2 hours.

I got in for my appointment and had the joy of being weighed in the hallway right next to the nurses' station. Lovely. Then I ran back over some of my history for the nurse as she entered my info into the computer. She gave me a few looks for not having had an eye exam since 1985 (although I remembered later I did have one when I came back from college) and having not gotten a mammogram.

All I'm thinking is I'll get the "girls" squished later; I want to get rid of this sore throat NOW...please. She takes my blood pressure, asks a few more questions. We had a debate over whether or not I should list that I've suffered a head injury before. Since I've been knocked unconscious twice, I thought it was relevant but apparently it was not as serious a head injury as they were looking for.

Just as I was about to start going through the cabinets out of boredom, the doctor shows up. He looks at my ears, nose and throat. Asks a few questions, listens to me breathe then says, yep, I have a cold. No shit. He gives me a prescription for Allegra D and the Z pack. Great, thank you. I pay for my visit because there's no way I've met my deductable this early in the year. I got home and wait about an hour for my prescription to get filled.

When I get to the pharmacy at the grocery store, I'm not in their system so once again typing must occur. They get my stuff together and one of the ladies says, "Do you have a deductable to pay for your prescriptions?"

Er, no. Not as far as I know. We have a specfic plan that covers this stuff. She calls the insurance agency to find out why my flippin' Allegra D (which is just a prescription grade anti-snot medicine) is supposed to cost me $125!!!!!!! My Z pack price you may ask? $10. She finishes up the call and tells me that Allegra D is not a drug covered by my plan. THE HELL!??!!! Obviously my doctor didn't think over the counter drugs were working so he went for something a little more hard core and they don't think it's relevant? I opted for the $21.99 over the counter version, which thanks to meth labs everywhere, I had to show ID and sign for. It took me almost 20 min. to get my drugs and of course I hadn't taken anything for a few hours so I wouldn't be mixing my drugs so I felt like my throat was on freakin' fire and my head hurt.

But now I am full of drugs and taking a break from my couch to check emails and vent before going to bed. Work is going to suck tomorrow. Think happy, drainage free thoughts for me!

Side note: Duke beat Maryland!!!! Yeah!!! The Maryland rivalry is almost equal to the Carolina one so to see the Blue Devils come back from being down 12 or so at halftime to win by about the same amount made me happy!

Comments on comments

Today's entry will feature some comments about comments people have left. First though, the picture features my first official piece of art that I purchased this summer. I still really love it and I'm hoping the artist will be back this year so I can get another piece.

To Rossi:

I will come to a Duke game as soon as I could ever get tickets. Perhaps Greg Paulus will give me a ring and I can use his sometime! And, as much as I would love for you to come back here to Peoria, I think my becoming store manager has the same odds as my getting tix to a Duke/Carolina game.

To Thom:

While I did realize you were razzing me, I believe I was in a hormonally unbalanced state of mind hence my statement in defence of my music choices. I do know you run close to the music snob state, doesn't mean you don't have good taste though. Send me some suggestions. Just not Arcade Fire. They just don't do it for me.

To Matt:

I salute your receiving efforts. Wanna come back to Peoria for a few days? I think we have something like 250 boxes piled up right now. I am not kidding. I want to hunt down our buyers and deposit about 40 boxes of kids bargain on their doorsteps.

To Jackie:

Scroll back several entries and you can see the names of the folks in Once. Although, once you do, they still won't be familiar since they were musicians and not actors.

To Laura and Teresa and everyone else:

I sort of forgot what recent comments you may have left so I'll just say thanks for reading--oh, and Laura, thanks for going to There Might Be Blood with me. Always great to hang out with you.

On a final side note, if you get the chance and you like foreign films, go rent Black Book. It tells the story of a woman who worked with The Resistance in Holland during the end of WW2. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

There Will Be Blood

I've got another film to add to my list of "best of's" for 2007. Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is a dark and compelling epic. Telling the story of an oil man and his rise to power and what it costs him, the film gives us the chance to once again watch Daniel Day-Lewis prove why he is one of the best actors ever. The opening 15 or so minutes is done without dialogue, but the camera gives us plenty to watch, as does Day-Lewis.

The film is shot beautifully and no detail is left in question. But accuracy doesn't come at the price of storytelling. Daniel Plainview has built his oil drilling company thanks to his drive. He is a distant man to most and doesn't always play fair when it comes to making land deals in order to drill, but he is smart and has to compete against far bigger oil companies. Due to an accident early in the film, Daniel takes responsibility for a young boy that he raises as his own. H.W. is essentially the only person who seems to touch Daniel's heart in any way. Day-Lewis slides through moments of being cold and reserved with strangers to subtle, but still visible, moments of warmth with his son with effortless grace. As is usual for him, he completely becomes the man he is playing. It should be noted that Dillion Freasier, who plays H.W., does a great job interacting with Day-Lewis.

Daniel's main troubles come in the form of Eli Sunday, played by Paul Dano. Dano was the older brother in Little Miss Sunshine. As Eli, he is a young preacher who wants to use the profits from the oil on his family's land to build a church. He wants to expand his congregation. He is the sort of fire and brimstone preacher who lays hands on people to cure them, etc. When Daniel snubs him after he pretty much tells Daniel he is going to do a blessing on the first drill put up, a rivalry is born. Daniel doesn't take to anyone telling him what to do, especially not someone he sees as a fraud.

All sorts of things happen to keep this duel going on over the decades. Neither man comes out of their desire for oil and the power and money it brings without suffering. Both men are corrupted, but neither is completely lost. Or at least, they are not without their moments of humanity.

The film is beautiful to look at and the score is astounding. Jonny Greenwood, who is lead guitarist (among other things) for Radiohead, composed the soundtrack. There was one song that sounded very much like something from Radiohead's universe circa 1910. The music helped create much of the tension and dark, manic feelings throughout the film. I was particularly impressed with what lead up to and included the portion of the movie represented by the photo above. The supporting cast is strong. I was really excited to see Ciaran Hinds, who is one of my favorite actors. Also, Kevin O'Connor does a lot with his small part helping to reveal much about Daniel through their interaction.

I'm still undecided in my opinion of the ending. On one hand, it seemed to fit. Or at least, the final line fit to me. But, there was a moment before the final scene when I really couldn't see where the film was going and the final moment teetered on being over done and possibly unintentionally funny. None the less, I strongly recommend seeing this movie. It was somewhat of a departure for Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love), but still fits in his collection. He doesn't stray away from the darker side of human behaviour, and he always seems to find small shafts of light inside that darkness. Impressive for himself and Daniel Day-Lewis as well.

Now, I just need to see Michael Clayton and I think for the first time in a while I will have seen all Best Picture nominees. Still have to see Cloverfield too.

Definition of stupid: management at the bookstore

Today, one of the managers calls back to receiving and asks if I have the store mail back there. I explained that I took the store mail, which included our paychecks and W2 tax information, and put it in the locked cashroom after it arrived yesterday.

She has checked the cashroom, she's checked the uber's office, and she has checked the locked drawer up front where we keep our paychecks. Of course, the drawer is locked so that it isn't easy to get into and so not just anyone could get their hands on these things.

After much looking, it was discovered that the closing manager from the night before had handed out checks to employees so they obviously were found by someone and taken out of the cashroom. A call was made to the closing manager. Eventually this person called back.

Seems the manager decided to assign the task of stapling w2's to the paychecks to one of the employees. The employee didn't finish so they just left the w2's and the checks shoved in a random drawer at our information/customer service desk. You know, the information desk that is out in the middle of the store that anyone could walk into and fiddle around (especially when a certain evil employee is the main info person and is no where to be found). Brilliant!! The employee didn't bother to give the checks back to the manager and the manager didn't bother to check and see where the checks were. Damn. We're good.

It's just this sort of attention to detail and concern for security that is strong in our store. Oh, did I mention our music dept. has reached a high theft classification and warranted a visit from the regional loss prevention manager. I'm not sure what color this threat level would classify as, but I would like to suggest burnt sienna.

Definition of a Good Day

Duke wins. Carolina loses. My cold starts to go away. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

A Desperate Plea

Stop bending over in my general vicinity.

Seriously, I am tired of looking at the asses of the masses as it were.

It doesn't matter if I'm in the grocery store, at Target, or walking through the bookstore...someone is bending over at the waist shoving their booty right in my general direction. Sadly, most of these people really should not be offering up their junk to God or whomever may be passing by at the time.

Now that I think about it, even if you had a great butt I'm not sure I want to be introduced to it while you are leaning over to pick up some Dijon mustard.

What happened to squishing down at the knees in some sort of polite fashion? Has this gone the way of the bow in society?

Of course, depending on what you are wearing, squishing may then provide me with an equally horrific view---butt crack/thong exposure. What makes people think everyone really wants to see their underwear via lowcut jeans I don't know? I think a lot of these same people think "Get 'er done" is a viable use of satire.

WATCH IT:
Bug--I recently rented this movie starring Ashley Judd and it tripped me out. It reminded me of Safe (Julianne Moore). It's a weird love story about two really damaged people who find each other. It's hard to explain without giving too much away. I will say it was adapted from a play by the playwright himself, which is always a good thing. Also, the male lead is played by the lead from the play and that is evident in how he just completely "is" this person. I was really surprised by how cool and provocative the film was...even with the presence of Harry Connick, Jr.

READ IT:
Pretending You Care: The Retail Handbook--
I sooooo should have written this book. I laugh at every page because I recognize everything this guy is talking about. Even though it is technically a humor book, it should be required reading for everyone so they treat retail folks better. Should also be used to alert workers to exactly what awaits them in the retail sector.

Sitting in the Dark

James McAvoy. Let's just pause to enjoy shall we?

Okay, so I went and saw both Atonement and Sweeney Todd in the last few days.

Sweeney Todd would have been great if there was less singing. Yes, I did know it was a musical, but some more dialogue would have been nice. I enjoyed the whole look and feel of the movie. Johnny Depp does a respectable job with his singing, as does pretty much everyone in the film. There's just too damn much of it. A highlight was a song that I think is called "Have A Little Priest." Or something like that. It comes up when Sweeney and his partner in crime are discussing what could be done with the dead bodies Sweeney will be producing. It's decided that they will be ground up and used as the meat in Mrs. Lovett's pies. Yum. It's a very funny song with a great bit about being unable to tell if a poet is dead. HA! Thankfully, no dance numbers.

Atonement, on the other hand, was lovely. Well, heartbreaking-ly lovely, but lovely all the same. It definitely has all the qualifications for an Oscar Best Picture nom.

Hot young acting cast--check

Story about separated lovers--check

Period piece--check

War--check

Ending to make you cry--check

Dude with bit of skull popping off while talking--check

See, it has it all. Keira Knightly and James McAvoy do really well in this flick. There is plenty of subtle acting moments and McAvoy can get teary eyed with the best of them. I thought Joe Wright and his cinematographer gave the movie an interesting visual language with some really creative shots. The single shot moving through the beach where soldiers had gathered in hopes of being picked up and returned home lasted at least 5 minutes, probably more, and was very impressive. I also enjoyed seeing a scene from the younger sister's perspective and then seeing the scene as it really happened.

So, I guess this is my list of favorite films for 2007:

Once

Juno

Atonement

No Country For Old Men

No End In Sight (documentary about the Iraq war)

Lars and The Real Girl

Zodiac

The Simpsons Movie

Sunshine

Into The Wild

Superbad

Woot's also going to

Waitress

HP5

Eastern Promises

Bourne Ultimatum

On a side note, these picks, along with my fave lists for music and tv, reflect only what I've seen or heard. I know that there are other options out there, but I don't get to check out everything so this is just the best of what I enjoyed.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Again, my spacing for this puppy seems to be acting up. Sorry if it all gets squooshed together.

Best, Faves, Whatever

Just a bit of catching up to do:

FAVE CD'S OF 2007

1) Radiohead-In Rainbows
I love this band more than words can describe. In Rainbows gives you everything that is perfect and wonderful about Radiohead. Amazing singing and songwriting and it just sounds like they are having a fun time playing these songs. Even the tunes with a darker edge to them are so full of warmth and humanity that you can't help falling in love with them. I really believe that this may end up being the album of the decade when all is said and done.

2) Arctic Monkeys--Favorite Worst Nightmare
Would have been number one if Radiohead hadn't released theirs. While retaining everything that made their debut so great, Arctic Monkeys have moved forward in both their songwriting and their musicianship...although you probably shouldn't tell them that since they seem to still enjoy their "we're just a bunch of lads playing tunes" personae.

3) Nine Inch Nails--Year Zero
The beginning of the end as told by Trent Reznor. Perfect for the Bush era we are trapped inside.

4) Three Way Tie between:
Idlewild--Make Another World
Interpol--Our Love To Admire
Once original soundtrack

Interpol really impressed me with this new cd; they sound more relaxed and it helps them seem warmer as well. The songs on Once technically came out earlier than this cd, but cut me some slack. The emotion behind the melodies continues to draw me in. Idlewild just rock.

5) Black Rebel Motorcycle Club--Baby 81
A great return to the rock.

6) PJ Harvey--White Chalk
A perfect piece of timeless music taken from the ether circa pre-Victorian England via a fever dream.

7) LCD Soundsystem--Sound Of Silver
Dance dammitt.

8) The Hives--Black and White Album
Dance with Swedes, dammitt.

random mention of single that I'm surprised I like:
Death Cab For Cutie's "I Will Follow You Into The Dark." It's from an album that came out a couple of years ago, but the lone decent station I get to come in back in receiving plays this one a lot. A really well written song about committing to someone to the point of offering to go with them into the dark if "heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied, illuminate the 'no' on their vacancy signs..." Simple and beautiful without being too precious.

FAVES ON TV:
I won't do like last year and run though subcategories. And, since most of what I liked last year came back this season, I'll just quickly mention some new cool shows.

1) Pushing Daisies
2) Chuck
3) Top Gear--this has been running in Britain for a few years now, but just recently began appearing on BBC America. I can't believe I get so much enjoyment from a CAR show of all things!! The three hosts are a riot and it is fun to watch famous Brits attempt to get a good time on the track in the "Famous Celebrity in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment. Plus, they played soccer with cars in one episode.

Whoosh. Next time it's favorite movies. I'm waiting till I see Sweeney Todd tomorrow and Atonement on Sunday. Tra la till then!

Back in Black

Hello all---I have returned to the land of the internet. Of course, my first night back I have a splitting headache so no real blog today. I'm going to take a nap before going to bed. You heard me. I'll try and have something up tomorrow.