2.23.2011

Hhh-hhh-hhhuhhh

At work, as soon as I hear the distinctive bell tone that precedes the phone line being opened, I've trained myself to chime in with 'Hi, This is..." or 'Hello, may I please speak with..." It is practically involuntary. However, hearing the bell tone only proceeds the line being put through, whether it hooks me up to a ringing phone, an answering machine, or a busy signal.

Sometimes, I start saying 'hi' or 'hello' before I realize am not actually talking to a human being and I instinctively cut myself off before I'm finished with the first syllable. So I just go 'hhh' or hhheh.' Try it yourself. Take a deep breath and start to say 'Hello' but cut yourself off to see what it sounds like. It makes me laugh every time without fail because it sounds so bizarre. Laughing quietly to myself probably earns me even more weird points to anyone who is observing me, but I really don't care.

2.20.2011

Ice Skating: not for the awkward

Rexburg has a new ice rink. When I drove past it the other day, I thought it may be fun to go to some time with my roommates or FHE group. Ice skating, as an abstract idea, seems like very idyllic and wholesome wintry fun, like building snowmen in scarves and mittens.



However, I then remembered how horribly I ice skate. I have no balance, and have the coordination skills of a lanky 9 year old at best. I remembered an incident at our local Ice-O-Plex in California (always the best birthday location ever, by the way. Thanks mom!) I was in junior high, and remember feeling like my feet were strapped into tiny slippery death machines. I had to grip the wall desperately even though I was 14. On my third awkward solitary lap of the rink, a bratty little girl that couldn't have been more than seven was zipping by in a rhinestone encrusted ice dancer outfit. As she passed me, she said something over her shoulder along the lines of, "You're not so good at this, are you?" and then flew off at record speed in her stupid aqua green getup. It crushed my pride.

I don't think I'll be going to the Rexburg ice rink anytime soon.

2.16.2011

The wind is blowing so hard in Rexburg right now.

It is making a creepy constant whistling noise and I don't like it. And there's thunder. Weather.com informs me that it is blowing at up to 37 mph, which the Beaufort Wind Scale classifies as 'Moderate or near gale.' GALE FORCE WINDS, people. Our power went out for a half hour.

I feel like my entire apartment building is about to break free and take off a-la The Wizard of Oz.

Mark my words. When I graduate I am going to live somewhere warm and sunny and non-gale-force-wind-ish.

That is all.

2.13.2011

"You transfix me, quite."

Jane Eyre is one of my (many) very favorite books. Pretty much everything by the Bronte sisters is fantastic, but I especially like Jane Eyre because *SPOILER* 1) although the protagonist has a horrible childhood and faces huge dilemmas and sacrifices her temporary happiness in order to stick to her morals, she 2) gets a happy ending anyways. Awwwww....

So basically, I'm already obsessed with this movie and I haven't even seen it yet. I'm worried that I'm building it up in my head so much that it won't be able to live up to my expectations.



But I mean, can you blame me?

Loves:
- How creepy it is (it's a creepy book, if you think about it).
- Dame Judy Dench playing Ms. Fairfax (I mean, come on. If she's in it, it's got to be good.)
- I counted at least 3 direct quotes from the book in the trailer, which is a good indication that the filmmakers know their stuff.
- The depiction of her childhood. Poor Jane.
- OMG BERTHA! & the scary door behind the scary tapestry at 1:31. YIKES.
- I'm about to show my geekery in a very graphic way here. I love that the actress who plays Mrs. Reed (one of my least favorite characters in the book, besides Brocklehurst) also played one of my favorite Jane Austen characters in this version of Persuasion.

Worries:
- UH, its rated PG-13 for a' Nude image'?!?
- the visible age difference between Jane and Rochester (even though I know, technically, it is true to the book, it still slightly skeeves me out).
- Child Jane is bucktoothed. I have low tolerance for buckteeth.
- The trailer focuses a little too much on the eerie aspects of the story, and seems to downplay what the novel essentially is - a love story. It's a love story that happens to occur in the autobiography of an independent feminist, but still - it's a love story.

The real question is: Will it be able to live up to the amazing 2006 BBC adaptation miniseires? Only time will tell.