This year, I'm thankful that Thanksgiving is over. My imposing "sister" has been safely packed off to her home without too much stress. My tactic in dealing with her was to welcome her to be here but not to cater to her every whim, so if I was planning on watching a TV show or playing a game with my family or helping my grandparents with their computer I went forth and did so and found that not up-ending my life on her behalf made it a good deal easier to deal with her over-intrusion into my life. Upon her arrival I discovered that her boyfriend had insisted on being the gentleman and bringing her down and that she would have just as gladly taken a bus. I can't very well blame her for that and was again reminded that her boyfriend, a very decent if rough around the edges sort, has a much better basic grasp of manners in the presence of my family than she seems to, so I was able to embrace his presence a bit more - that and he was great to me when I was living in Boston, so I feel like a jerk for being so bent out of shape about him coming. He thanked my mother profusely for dinner, watched whatever TV show we were watching without complaint, and proclaimed himself to be homicidal ("I'd kill somebody to get another piece of this!") over the dessert my mom prepares every year - and so won our love because my "sister" did none of the above. Another year passes without confrontation, so I've got until next year to work through my feelings about this situation again.
On a slightly more bookish note, I went to see The Mist this past weekend, yet another film adaptation of Stephen King's abundant body of work. Usually I pass on horror-type movies. I'm ridiculously squeamish and can't stand horror movies' portrayal of people being unreasonably stupid. Alas, I had read the story and enjoyed its depiction of how people react in the face of the unknown and the knowledge of their imminent deaths as a result of said unknown, and I couldn't help but be curious about how it would look on the big screen. Needless to stay, the film version took a perfectly decent story and screwed it up. Yes, the element of putting a group of people in a room with only their imminent deaths and big, scary creatures from the unknown to think about remained intact. The human part was actually rather well-executed. The people start out working toward a solution and end by fighting to the death with each other in a way somewhat reminiscent of The Lord of the Flies. Marcia Gay Harden turns in a great performance as Mrs. Carmody, an insane evangelical Christian sort, who is really, really loathesome and far scarier than gigantic spiders and creatures with distressing-looking tentacles as, I think, Stephen King intended.
Nonetheless, I left the movie feeling disappointed. Despite the success of the human part of the story the horror part was just well...horrible. Full in the knowledge that something is waiting outside to kill them, the characters don't rush to their destination, no, they lollygag and ogle the ominous otherworldly mist until the promised gigantic bug/tentacled creature/monstrous spider attacks them leaving just about everyone paralyzed in fear until the body count can mount sufficiently at which point some blessed soul will finally have the presence of mind to bash the evil creature with a big stick giving the few remaining survivors time to get away. Run, people! What's wrong with you? Even that aside, my biggest bone to pick, by far, was definitely the artsy, ironic and depressing ending which is a rather considerable departure from the original story not to mention being painful to watch. Even had I not read the story, this ending would have driven me to an intense dislike of this movie. Having read it, the ending becomes that much more unbearable for its unwarranted change from the written work.
Finally, in news that should make me happy but really doesn't - the last document that will enable me to become a temp for a major local hospital which is one of the few truly good places to work in my area of residence arrived in today's mail. Yes, I'm happy that I can say that I've got a job again and that I will have income and feel productive again instead of laying about fiddling with my computer and mooching off my parents, but gosh I'm bummed that I'll be spending the happy holiday season learning everything there is to know about working in healthcare administration which is rather a lot. I fear that my brain has atrophied over these last few months of unemployment, and it's just going to be a little much to take. Not to mention I won't have nearly as much time to fiddle around with my computer. And read. And write. And buy Christmas gifts. And enjoy happiness.
Okay, so maybe I'm just scared of doing something new. And maybe I feel a little bit like you do when you've gone on a nice and enjoyable vacation only to find it's ended a few days short of when you expected to as a result of unpleasant circumstances. I'm 23, I've been working in some respect for about 7 years...is it really too early to retire?
Congrats on the job. It may seem overwhelming now, but you'll get into the swing of it!
ReplyDeleteGrr, about "The Mist". That's one of my favorite SK stories, and I'm mad that they screwed it up (although I suspected they would).
And sounds like you should get rid of your friend and keep her boyfriend in the family. :p ha