18th
I’m now watching Sons of Anarchy DVDs around the clock – that is, whenever I can…I watched one episode while I ate cereal and returned some Real Estate related emails. Then I watched another while I worked out on the elliptical later in the day. I’m so hooked on that show! My girlish gaze has turned from the stunning Brad Pitt lookalike, Jax, to Opi. And – damn – last two eps. of first season?! Poor Op.
P.M. I grocery shopped, watched basketball practices for the Special Olympics tournaments at a high school in South Omaha and stopped by favorite local Blockbuster store at 78th and Cass St. (great location and it has the most awesomely sweet and knowledgeable staff) to get another Sons fix…but alas, they are liquidating and closing their doors in a month. I almost cried as my favorite clerk explained that he had received the news just a couple of days ago. I feel for him so much – where will he go? Surely he can land a job as a clerk or store manager just about any where – but the reality is – that probably won’t be a video rental store. With only a few Blockbusters remaining and all Hollywood Videos wiped out a year ago – Omaha is a Netflix and Red Box town…and as ashamed as I am to admit it – in my house we mostly rely on Netflix, Zune and torrents. I never used to feel guilty about that…but someone else is paying the price for my convenience 
19th
It’s great to wake up on a Sunny Saturday with a migraine, allergies so bad I wonder if I swallowed a cat and dusty rag in my sleep and my eyes are really red..so, I instantly start googling “pink eye.” Thank god it looks nothing like that! I believe this is a result of sweeping out the garage and vacuming out my car yesterday. God damnit, why do I bother with these things? Anyway, I soldier through the AM with another Sons of Anarchy episode…first one of season two and something so unspeakably awful happens to someone’s “old lady.” I’ve never hated Henry Rollins so much. Also, this seems to be strike two in getting off to a good start this morning.
After an hours worth of eye drops and allergy treatments, I went downtown to the Bemis Underground, this fantastic gallery and home to an artist’s residency program, where every Saturday I’ll be assisting the Ollie Webb Inc. Art of the Imagination program in conjunction with the Rose Theater with a short-film project. The first class went well. The teacher sang “Froggy Went a Courtin’” and the students story-boarded ideas that would work along w/the song for their film. It was awesome – a teenager who has eppilepsy got us started w/Frog’s back story – he’d be returning from war to marry the mouse. Then, another young man had the idea of the story taking place in the city, rather than the country – which is great, because we’ll be shooting all of this downtown. And lastly, a young man who has Autism, wanted the future of the frog and mouse to be a lot like an early episode of Dr. Who. I can’t wait to see how this all comes together in coming weeks.
P.M.
I took a nap when I got back home because I wanted to feel good enough to go to a dinner party. Dubbed ‘Friendsgiving,’ it has become a Thanksgiving in February tradition that Ryan and I have never missed…until today. The nap made things worse, I think. The headache was back in full force and my eyes felt as if I’d attached little weights to them. Awful. So, after much pouting about missing the party, I made Ryan get us a couple of Calzones and I rented Waiting for Superman through Zune on our XBox. Wow, it lived up to the hype as the best documentary of the year – and then some. I didn’t want to watch anything that would make my swolen eyes tear up…and so, this film about our failing public schools was not a win for me in that regard. Ry and I both got really attached to the children in the film – so much so, that I found myself looking for updates on them after the film. Goodness…So, the Oscars are next week and I’d love to see this film win for best documentary. I mean, as much as I’d love to see Banksy accept an award for Exit Through the Gift Shop (word on the street is his “tags” have been spotted all over L.A. this week) I’d love more for ‘Superman’ to get the attention it needs in order to make the impact I fully believe it has the potential to make on our society.
