A Heart's a Heavy Burden

Today is such a busy day! Steve and I managed to sleep in until almost 11, the comfy bed, snuggles, and thunderstorms all night soothing us into comfort that we were both incredibly reluctant to leave. But leave we must, because as I said, so many things.

First on the agenda was food, coffee, and writing up the entry for yesterday. I confirmed the time of Pokémon Go for Larvitar as well. Shower was had and clothes were donned, entries were posted and off to Mall of America - which is really the only way to do it, what with the MANY pokestops, lures, people and Pokémon. Why waste your time anywhere else??

Holy crap it was INSANE there today! The parking ramps was already crazy full with a huge line, but I beelined for the roof, because I didn’t ant to waste any more time than we had already, and there was like basically no one there. It is really muggy out today, very VERY humid. Once inside, it was quickly discovered today was the regional yo-yo competition, which is always entertaining but SO. NERVEWRACKING. Steve says I make the best audience because I am so animated while watching - I gasp and cheer and hide my face and have running commentary. Yo-yo is actually a really impressive hobby. We spent a good deal of time on the 4th floor catching so many Larvitar and other Pokémon before heading to the 3rd floor, where we spent most of our time. The mall was filthy with Larvitar. I got a really good shiny as my second catch of the day, and I never did find one better. I found a better regular Larvitar as well, though I didn’t have as many terrible ones as Steve did. In the end I evolved three and buffed up 2. Then we walked around doing a couple raids, which didn’t show up until after the event was over. As usual, when the first Kyogre raid started, my phone borked out and we had to move everywhere. Steve didn’t catch his first one. Once I got into a raid, I did, and it was pretty good. Then we went to another one, and I got another good one, and Steve got a SHINY Kyogre. So jealous!!! They’re purple! I love purple! AND it had good stats. So lucky. On our way out I spotted Pa and Carrie, Parkway coworkers of mine, who were also playing Pokémon Go. We stopped and chatted with them for a few minutes before heading out.

Next up was my brother Jack’s graduation party at my dad’s house. We made the 40-minute drive out there, feeling kind of bad that we wouldn’t be able to stay long because I had to be home before 8 to tutor. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Jack had several friends over and there were people there for Dad and Tammy to hang out with too. They made sure to have rice for my tacos and Jack’s cake was pretty good too. Jack’s friends were decently funny, and apparently the running joke of his childhood was that he always talked about having so many siblings, and his friends were over often enough, and yet they NEVER saw any of them. So Jack was excited to show me off as one of the “fabled mysterious siblings”. To be fair, Jack is much younger than the rest of us. Bethany, at 26, is his closest sibling and still almost 9 years his senior.

After hanging out eating, and watching his slideshow that Dad made, we had to head out all too soon. The children were loudly playing Smash bros downstairs, and Jack seemed a little bummed we had to go so soon but took it in stride. I told him that since he’s going to a college nearby y house that he HAS to come by and hang out. I’m so easy to hang out with; we barely even have to talk lol. Just play games quietly and have fun.

I took a daiquiri to go (it was delicious) and Steve and I listen to Name of the Wind on the way back (we also listened to it on the way to dad’s, and I may or may not have gotten tearful right before we got there. It’s a POWERFUL book). I was in the best mood. My lesson with Shinpei was pretty good, he was distracted at first but eventually got into it, and we had fun. After that I went downstairs and we chilled until it was time to go to Minneapolis.

Oh yeah, we had also bought tickets to the midnight showing of Howl’s Moving Castle. I think the Uptown theatre might do this every year or every few years, but they show Ghibli movies as midnight showings, subtitled, one weekend a month. Howl’s is my favorite, along with Spirited Away and Nausicaa (Only Yesterday is a strong contender too). Steve couldn’t even remember the last time he saw it, and I’m a HUGE sap for this movie. It is so romantic and tender in my heart. Like, the themes really get to me, and I wondered if the type of person I am makes me view the movie a certain way. Ugh, just so good. After the movie I talked at length about the various depths and details I feel, and he said I have a “really strong headcanon.” Lol.

Before the movie, we were both so tired, and the Uptown is on Hennepin ave, one of the most happening streets in Minneapolis. Loud people everywhere. Huge crowds everywhere. We were both super tired but happy during the movie, and were (stupidly) surprised to see that the activity had not died down, or even so much as slowed down one bit when we left the movie. It was 2:30am! How are you people still active??? It was like I knew the dichotomy of being an old tired person placed against my own alcohol-fueled energy going out to party... but still!

You think we went home and went to sleep, but you’d be wrong. Father’s Day is tomorrow and I promised a dessert. The dessert I decided to make is no-bake, but it requires 8 hours of refrigeration. So to Cub we went for a couple of ingredients I needed. I made a simple but amazing-looking chocolate pie thing. Vegan, of course. That meant us finally flopping into bed at 4am. Oh my god.

That movie was amazing. Very, very funny. The "cheap" scares all got me - the ones that make you jump. For some reason the scariest part for me was when they were all celebrating and Dana was getting beat up by the zombie in the background D: I felt so bad for her! Under the cut I have listed the best quotes and one-liners. SO. GOOD.
( FAVORITE QUOTES OMG )


EDIT
Mordecai is TOTALLY this guy from South Park:

"Do you SEE! TELL ME, do you see?"

Which I guess makes me love him more/find him funnier. "Would you like to see my... cotton panties?"

Oh man. Just saw an AMAZING movie by the title of "The Raid: Redemption." It's Indonesian and the subtitles appear a little lazy at times (lack of punctuation and such things as use of the word "Cos" for "'cause"), but the choreography, gore, and martial arts are freakin' fantastic. And believe me, I've seen plenty of foreign action films.

It has basically no story but immediately reminded me of "Quarantine" as it is set in an apartment building. It doesn't need a story - as one critic called it - it's a "brutal ballet". It's just watching bros be awesome at killing each other, in sometimes quite beautiful sequences of martial arts action, with a few parts that make you giggle as the movie remembers not to take itself too seriously. There is SOME story, but it kind of makes it cooler to know only the gist of what's going on, because everything outside this complex means nothing, tbh. It's intense, suspenseful, and totally made my night.

A+, definitely worth my $5.

Quite possibly the best movie of all time.

No no, seriously.

It was made SO. WELL. I was completely dead after watching it. My heart was its punching bag, its love slave, its biggest fan. I didn't even like the series that  much, and 1.11 was pretty good, but OMG 2.22 was nearly perfect. SO CLOSE TO PERFECT. My brain is so full and overflowing and I just wanted to cry and cry and cry.

I honestly think it goes in my top 5 movies, maybe even top 3. It's THAT good.

Holy crap.

Bwahhh. Another work week.

Last Friday I was an HOUR late to work. Yep. I'm sleeping, doo doo doo, and then my phone starts ringing, when I looked at it I was mega confused that the time said 12:37am. "Whadda fuuuuuck why does it say 12:37? It's supposed to be 11:20." So I answer, doing my best voice of I-was-not-just-asleep. It was Eddie. All he said was, "Leah?!" and I told him I'd be there in 15. Sucks that they waited so long to call me, but at least I live only 4 miles away. Then I spent over an hour poring through the MARs, writing and then typing up all the errors and put it in the nurse's box. She decided to come up with a new system of checks and accountability for signing and correctly filling out the MARs, so I decided to catch everyone up. I filled in all the missing holes and documented everything and typed up who was supposed to sign for them so she can get them to sign below me. Today I found a note in my box thanking me for doing it (and saying she tried to document the holes but mine was way better and more organized) and asking me to keep tabs on the MAR a couple times a week. Which actually means I'm going to be doing it every night in order to keep up with everything. That and legally a hole should only go unsigned for 24 hours. And stupid Henry accounted for ONE THIRD of the errors all by himself. There are at least 15 people who can sign the MAR, and the idiot accounts for the biggest chunk of non-signatures. I hope he gets fired soon. He bugs the crap out of me.

( And now a break for kitty cuteness and cheer! )

I'm feeling MUCH better today. Steve and I wasted most of the weekend sleeping, but we were also productive in some ways too. We got our grocery shopping done for the week and I made a ton of bento stuff and will make more tomorrow. We finally saw Inception, too. It was very, very good. Who doesn't love Leonardo DiCaprio + Ellen Page?! Omg. And the storyline was the right amount of complex too. I'm glad we got to catch it while it was still in theaters.

I also got up to a total of 59 'S' ranks in Ouendan 2, which means I have only 17 more A's to turn into 'S''s! I'm not a hundo on if I can actually achieve that, but of the 4 difficulties, I have the lowest difficulty completed, and the hardest difficulty with ONE LEFT. The other two I just need to suck it up on. It's kinda like when you play Guitar Hero or Rock band and know how to play it on Expert but are playing on an easier difficulty and the notes don't match up as well. It can be quite frustrating. Sidenote: I have completed the game, a long time ago, I just want to perfect it as much as possible because I'm really good at it and find it so fun. Playing a game like this to death does not get old. Its predecessor, Elite Beat Agents, is American and quite cheesy and the controls are a bit wonky (the scoring system is atrocious at times which is odd because it was released AFTER Ouendan 1), but it's a GREAT game and sells at GameStop for between $3 and $7. I still need the original Ouendan, but it's about $50 + shipping from Japan, so I'm holding off for a bit.

Also, my family pics came back. If you're curious as to what my mom's side looks like - that is, me (22), my mom (42), my stepdad (40), my sister (18), and my (half)brother (12), as well as my sister's baby (7mos.), check em out!

( Bright and sunny! )

I was supposed to get my hair done the day before the pictures were taken, but my hair lady cancelled because her baby had a doctor appointment, and then THIS week all the roads to her town were closed (flooding and construction) and aren't apparently scheduled to reopen until the end of the month! My hair is a catastrophe. HATE IT. I went to see how much it would cost to get done where Steve and his mom get theirs done, and it would be $28 for the cut and $40-50 for the dye. WTF NO WAY. Jenny does AMAZING and the cut AND color costs me $40, INCLUDING tip. jfc.

I was getting ready to leave for work when I came across my double feature of 28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later. I stuck it in my bag for Isaac, my work partner, because he loves watching scary movies in his downtime. Probably because it's hard to fall asleep to a scary movie.

Just being in proximity to the movie made me ultra paranoid. When  I got in my car I saw shadows and thought someone was running up to my car. Turns out it was just a truck coming down the street. And when I got to work I thought the same thing, but it was just a resident coming out for a smoke. It is SCARY. I couldn't sleep for days after that movie. I kept thining someone would break in my windows and come get me.

I don't watch scary movies that often just because of the above reason. I am a huge baby for movies. Let me remind you that while I LOVE Jurassic Park, I have nightmares about velociraptors every few months, and I haven't seen that movie in years. 28 Days Later terrified me to my very SOUL. I think it's the scariest movie I have ever seen (but I know it's incredibly personal and probably lots of people didn't find it as scary). I thought it was really well done. It put it into me just how scary it would be to have nowhere to go, that your very scent is what made it easy for the infected to find you. Nowhere was safe. Talk about PTSD-inducing, being in that situation.

28 Weeks Later, however, I thought was a little overdone in the gore, and I thought the catalyst for disaster was incredibly stupid and unrealistic, which made me mad for the duration of the movie. Other than that I bet it actually was pretty good. I was too busy glaring with my arms crossed and stuck on the catalyst to enjoy it.

But other movies that are supposed to be realisticish, like Quarantine, annoyed me and weren't scary at all. No person in real life would act as stupid as the characters in that movie did, especially professionals like army men and cops. Any movie that has a REALLY STUPID way to get everything in motion ie what makes the Peace start falling apart and Havoc takes over, ruins the entire movie for me. For some reason The Ring was scary the first time I saw it, but then lost its charm. The Grudge was really scary because of the intensity of the jump-inducing effects. I actually was mad that the American version had an American actress and a real story. The original is better.

The Chaser, a Korean thriller, was very well-done and could really happen. It is about escorts disappearing and trying to get to the bottom of it. It jumped between the murderer and main character escort, the pimp-like guy trying to solve the mystery, and the investigators. It was really good. One thing I really like about foreign movies is not having to tie everything up into a pretty little package with a happy ending.

Like I Am Legend, why the fuck change the ending to the original story? I hope anyone who's seen that movie also saw the cut-out alternate ending. SO. MUCH. BETTER. and makes a hell of a lot more sense. Of course, the book is a million times better just as most books are.

Hostel was also a terrifying movie, because again, it really could happen. I was very afraid of that movie for awhile too, but when I heard the sequel was pretty much just gore porn, I decided not to see it. I don't need gore to be afraid. As for the original, I thought it pretty well done and well thought-out, but I'm not sure if I have the stomach to see it again.

Overall, I'm not actually much of a thriller buff. I don't need to see scary movies, and I once-in-awhile get the urge to scare myself, but I need a safety net rpesent so I don't die, too.