Northern Migration

I was talking to Ames last night and we were discussing my brother Mike, who's not taking any classes this semester. I asked her what he was up to, since he finally finished Dave's wedding present (a small collapsible table for picnics, isn't he creative?). Apparently Mike is fixing up the old Huntsville house, changing out wallpaper, repainting, etc. Apparently, there are going to be a whole lot of people coming to Huntsville in the spring. A Verizon company is coming down and will offer 13,000 new jobs (or something like that, Ames was a little fuzzy on the details). So Dad wants the house on the market by this spring/summer. As in 6-9 months. Does everybody have a shocked look on their face? Well, maybe not, some of you have never been to my house before. But I was shocked. This is the only home I remember. We moved when I was like 2, but otherwise, this is my home, the only one I've ever known. Which means this may be my last Christmas in Huntsville. *Sniff* Don't get me wrong, it will be fun having Christmas in Cooperstown with actual snow and everything. I just didn't expect this so soon. Mom always says they'll be moving up to Coop in like a year and a half, but according to Ames, Mom is in denial.

So I guess we should assume this'll be the last Christmas. Which means we'll go full out of course. All the traditional stuff, plus the Christmas Eve coffee we haven't had in a few years, due to various health problems. Whitney, consider this your invitation. I'm sure your whole family is invited, but I don't know if everyone can come because of Matthew. How will we see each other in the future, Whit?! We'll have to plan visits. And you need to get a job farther north than Alabama. That will be a big help. :)

GG is back!

Yay! Gilmore Girls premiered tonight! Frankly, I was a bit dissapointed in the episode. By the way, if you don't watch Gilmore Girls, just skip this post, it's going to be a rant.

I'm a little pissed that Lorelai even slept with Christopher, but I can understand that she made a mistake when she felt really hurt and alone. However, previews seem to imply that she and Christopher will attempt to date, and she doesn't seem sad at all that she broke up with Luke. She seems pissed at him. Which is utterly ridiculous from my point of view. Luke has waited for her through a couple boyfriends, Sukie has even commented on this, so Lorelai knows. Yes, he put off the wedding and didn't set another date, but she really didn't say much. The viewers knew how upset she was, but she mostly was silently seething or sad. She only talked to Luke about it once that I can remember (Valentine's Day ep) before the ultimatum. Yes, there was some definate body language and Luke should have been able to detect some of her depressed tones of voice and hesitant answers to questions involving April and the wedding. But she never really said anything, which must have made the ultimatum seem out of nowhere for him. And he was still trying to figure out the whole April thing. Didn't he recently get bitched out for letting Lorelai take care of her? That's gotta be one of the first things he thought of. And frankly, Lorelai, the ultimate commitment phobic is pissed because Luke didn't make a major life decision in like 10 seconds? Ultimatums are crappy in general, and usually in books or movies, the character gets some time to think over the decision, at least a day or so.

And in general, the lack of emotions bothered me in this episode. Maybe because the creators are no longer with the show? Lorelai doesn't seem upset at all about breaking off an engagement with Luke, the only guy she has ever really loved. She said she was barely holding it together, but she acted woodenly and righteous, as if he had been wronging her for a long time and she finally wasn't gonna take that crap anymore. And that's just not how I saw their relationship. Also, Rory just thought it was hilarious when Kirk crashed into the diner. It was, but shouldn't she have worried, at least for a second, about the ruined diner? The diner is a staple of the town, and now it's destroyed. Shouldn't she at least be upset for Luke? I was. But it didn't seem to faze her at all. The other witty banter and emotional stuff for this episode was good, I just thought those two major things were odd. What do my fellow GG watchers think?

In totally unrelated news, I've heard there are several pics from my brother's wedding on their website: web.mac.com/ssaless. I've only seen a few of the pics, but Sara, the new wife, looks gorgeous. Yeah, there's another Sara Marnell now, even if she does spell her first name the wrong way (i.e. without an h).

Oh, and Veronica Mars and Lost start next week! Yay! Whit, I expect you to watch VM while it's on the air, which you've never had a chance to do before. Then we can discuss the episodes add nauseum. :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

So sorry I haven't updated, but I've been a busy little bee. Not in the creepy way, like when Joaquin Phoenix screams that in Gladiator, just constantly busy. I've been spending a lot of time looking for / reading papers for my research, since I need to get all of my research done in the next month or two. This is in addition to teaching 3 labs a week and taking a Marine Fish class that apparently assigns a bajillion chapters of reading every week. And yes, bajillion is a number. It's larger than a jillion, but smaller than trajillion of course.

In addition, I've had back problems for the last month. My back started hurting the 2nd or 3rd week of August, but I couldn't get a physical therapy appt. until Sept. 6, after Dave's wedding (which was a blast! hopefully I'll get to post some pics this weekend). Turns out that in addition to my old disc problem and sculiosis, I have alignment issues. Turns out my right hip is a little farther in front than my left hip. This puts stress on my SI joint which somehow connects my leg to my pelvis bone. So, you're lower ab and back muscles are supposed to support that area, but those muscles are weak. I've never had strong ab muscles, and Erica my PT says that I probably never got my lower back muscles strong again after surgery, since I wasn't training for soccer anymore. So I have lots of exercises to do and 2 physical therapy sessions a week. Some of the exercises are from pilates (leg circles, tabletop and another one but I forget the name.

Whew. So that's what I've been up to. Also, I've discovered some fun stuff on the PBS channels, since my roommates don't want cable and there's jack shit on until new shows start. The Mystery! series is great, and I caught a weird film version of Richard III that takes place in like a virtual Britain in the 1930s (virtual b/c the king still very much rules the land and the WWII uniforms change as evil Richard takes over- they go from British tan to Nazi black). It was interesting. Ian Holm played a sinister and creepy Richard, and he addresses the camera for his soliloquies which is creepy b/c you really don't want to make eye contact with the guy.