April in Chicago...

...is far too much like January for my taste. Today started out with sun, turned into a downpour by 3pm, and was snowing by 5pm. It's now almost midnight and still snowing. This is the forecast for tomorrow:



On Sunday, the snow/rain/sleet grossness is not such a huge deal because I can stay in, clean, and watch some TV (assuming our satellite dish doesn't lose its signal due to crappy weather like it did tonight). On Monday, however, I have to figure out what I can wear that doesn't include snow boots but will keep my feet warm and dry, and will be both work- and concert-appropriate, since we're going to see a show tomorrow night (Glasvegas, for the record). I'm not a huge fan of Sunday/Monday night shows, but sometimes you don't have a choice. I hate to keep complaining about the weather, because really, I should know what to expect and complaining doesn't ever solve anything, but it's completely draining.

Jon finally forced me to watch Changeling this weekend. I actually liked it a little more than I thought I would. I was surprised that I'd never heard of the case before. You would think a man that killed as many as 20 young boys would be a larger part of the general consciousness, even so many decades later.

One last movie note: We saw Observe & Report last Wednesday. I meant to write something up about it, but found that when I sat down to do it, I didn't really know what to say. I don't want to discourage people from seeing it, because it's not bad...but I don't want anyone, on my recommendation, going to see it and not liking it because they didn't know what they were in for. I have no problem suggesting films like I Love You, Man, because they hold pretty true to the way they're being advertised and if you like that kind of movie, you won't be disappointed. With O&R, it's entirely possible you won't like it because you wanted something different for your $10.

Confusing? Sorry. Let me put it this way. If The Village hadn't been billed (in my opinion) as a horror film, I may not have been as hugely disappointed in it when I saw it. Going into O&R, I knew what to expect, but most people won't. They'll see Seth Rogen and Anna Farris' names attached and think "lighthearted, goofy mall cop comedy" when that couldn't be further from the truth.

This is the email we all got from Steve at the Movies before going to the screening:

The film is called OBSERVE AND REPORT, starring Seth Rogen and Anna Faris, from writer-director Jody Hill (THE FOOT FIST WAY and HBO's "Eastbound and Down"). Yes, this is the Seth Rogen mall cop movie, but please do not think that this film bares even the slightest resemblance to PAUL BLART. This movie is about as dark as dark comedies get these days. Comparisons have been drawn with TAXI DRIVER and THE KING OF COMEDY. In fact, think of this film as "What if TAXI DRIVER had been a comedy..." There are easily a half-dozen jaw-dropping moments in this movie, and in many ways O&R changes the current landscape of R-rated comedies. It's that messed up...in a good way.

Like I said, it's not bad...at all. In fact, I liked it. But I had an idea of what I was about to see. And if you're looking for a proper review, since I'm too lazy to come up with the words, check out Tankboy's take. I pretty much agree with all of it. Especially the part about Aziz.

One of the only times you will catch me blogging about football.

The Gators won the SEC Championship today...and though I'm probably not as happy as Tim Tebow, I'm pretty damn close.

When it comes to football (professional and college), I am extremely loyal. I love two teams and only two teams: Gators and Dolphins. No one understands my love of the Gators because I went to Florida State, but I can only chalk it up to this loyalty. As sad as it is, I'm emotionally attached to them. Maybe I associate watching them with my childhood, or maybe with how I spent many many weekends (everyone's favorite time of the week, and therefore a happy feeling). Anyway, I cry when they do badly and my heart jumps when they do well. It's a fact of life.

The Dolphins have been sucking for years, and the Gators were a bit, er...off last year, so when they lost to Ole Miss earlier in the season I dismissed their chances of doing anything too fantastic and vowed not to care about football, for fear of depression setting in every Saturday and Sunday. Then Tebow came along with this (over-played, but still sorta inspirational) speech: "You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season and you'll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season, and you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season."

I still thought they had no chance. But I hoped. And since that day, they have kicked ass and done exactly what he said they would do. And I have been happy. Today, I cried the first three quarters of the game, but they pulled it out in the fourth quarter and won. And now they are going to the National Championship game. So while I've never seen the Dolphins make it past the first round of the playoffs (unfortunately, I don't remember watching football at the age of three or whenever they did it last), I will get to see the Gators play in the biggest game of the year for the third time. For that, I am thankful. Small victories, you know? ;)

In other news, it has been snowing all day here. It's also really really cold (which is rare when it's snowing, actually), so I refuse to go outside. I like looking at it from the warmth of my apartment, but having to suit-up and boot-up and brave the wind that numbs my face is not in the cards for today, I'm afraid. The snow is actually collecting on my windowsill, though. I was able to make a snowball and throw it at my boyfriend, all without changing out of the PJs! Again...small victories.

I did leave the apartment once today...to go to the gym...yeah, so I only went to the Bally which is located in the building, but it's something, right? Speaking of Bally, they filed for Chapter 11 this week. Hope that doesn't mean they'll close anytime soon, because I'll probably never work out. Let's face it, it's easy to get lazy in the winter.

This past week went really fast. The only major event was the previously-mentioned holiday work party on Thursday night. It was fun. Good food, good drinks. Pretty basic.

Because it was on a Thursday, I had to bring my clothes to work and get ready at the office. Some of the girls, knowing I needed help with my look, attacked my hair with product and bobby pins, trying to make me pretty. If you know anything about me, you know I never do my hair. I barely brush my hair, so to have it done was odd. It felt weird, but looked decent, I suppose. They actually got it to do what I was trying to get it to do for Halloween (stand up and look poofy in the back). Sometimes I feel like I fail at being a girl.

On another hair-related note, I LOVE Split Ends on The Style Network. It's just a casual watch for me, but as far as reality shows go, it's always really well done. Two hairdressers (usually totally opposite in look and personality from one another) switch salons for a few days. Drama ensues. Beyond fabulous. Think Wife Swap with scissors. Even Jon likes it.