posts from 2004.06

Remember that Ithaca Times interview I mentioned the other day? Well, today I picked up a copy. 2nd page- there I am. Not too bad a picture, if you ignore the mild strabismus.

Last night, Beth and I went to see Super Size Me. The line for Fahrenheit 9/11 was still ginormous, but we got to cut through it, which was kinda fun.

Super Size Me was definitely a more fun movie than Fahrenheit 9/11 (which is as it should be), and in some ways I actually liked it more. I think it’s pretty scary just how much his diet affected him over the course of only a month- and I can’t help but be reminded of the summer after my senior year of highschool wherein I ate at McDonald’s every day – Supersized (Peter can attest to this). Somehow, I only managed to gain 10 pounds that summer, but then again my metabolism was still high. I never did lose those pounds, btw…..

It definitely reminded me how much my so-called diet has gone to hell in the past month (though nearly none of that is from fast food, I do eat out too much). Luckily for me, Ithaca is the hippy city- I can find lots of healthy stuff (like vegan cuisine) in many of the normal restaurants.

I left the movie having an urge to eat healthier (which will probably last a whole week, but we’ll see….) and work out more (which will probably last longer, if last night is any example- Beth and I played DDR for several hours).

New goal: play DDR at least ½ hour each day.

We’ll see.

Last night, Beth and I decided we wanted to go see Fahrenheit 9/11. I knew it would be popular, especially since this is Ithaca, but I didn’t realize just how popoular it would be (espeically several days after its release):

We got on line at about 1850 for the 1915 show, not quite prepared for just how many people would be there. The theater only seats 160 people, and there were definitely way more than that trying to get tickets. While we were waiting, I got interviewed for the Ithaca Times (possibly partly because of the shirt I was wearing)- “Do you think a movie can influence the upcoming election?” “If this many people come to see it each time, yeah.”, and some guy came by and gave us free samples of Yerba Maté, which was really good.

The line around us had some really interesting conversations going on- I love this town. While I was busy grumping about how the larger, more commercial theater in town was too wimpy to carry this movie, which would obviously make them a fortune, the people behind us were openly discussing all sorts of wonderful conspiracy theories that would put even mine to shame. Apparently, I have some practicing to do.

When the obvious became official and we learned that the 1915 show had sold out, we decided to stay in line and buy tickets for the next show, which was at 2140. This time, we decided to buy a ticket for Chris, so that we could all come back and see the show later. It had been raining earlier in the day, but luckily for Beth and I it had stopped while we were on line prior to this point. About now is the time it started raining again.

When we all came back for the actual movie, we had to wait in line yet again, even though we arrived about a half hour early. By the time we got into the theater, most of the seats had already been taken so we ended up grabbing a few seats in the fourth row.

As for the actual movie…. it rocked. I personally liked it much more than Bowling for Columbine. After seeing this movie, I really can’t understand how anyone can seriously believe that anything that’s come out of the Bush administration has been good for the average citizen in our country (or any country, for that matter). Of course, I felt like this before, too, but it’s always nice having ones opinions affirmed by people much more articulate than oneself.

We need to get Bush out of office in ‘04. It doesn’t so much matter who, as it does that it is someone who disagrees with Bush and feels this whole war was uncalled for. Someone who has some respect for personal freedoms (e.g. someone who will work hard to make sure the Patriot Act is repealed) would be nice, too. Sure, it may not be wise at this point to just pull out of Iraq, but I don’t trust Bush not to invade other countries if he stays in office. Of course, I don’t trust him to be able to tie his shoes without assistance, but anyway…..

Alright, I finally got the pictures up, so here’s a brief summary of the weekend (as it’s late and I want to go to sleep at some point).

Friday Night we went to the rehearsal dinner. Chris got confused and thought it was at the Marriot, but it turns out it was in Chester, at Andrew’s (the groom’s) house. Luckily, we found out before it was too late. Unluckily, it rained pretty hard the whole night. Of course, that led to a classic Elsa Moment™, when she accidentally sat in a puddle of water.

Saturday was the day of the actual wedding, so Chris started it by wrapping his present, which actually came out looking pretty decent, even if he is a guy ;) It typical Teri-fashion, I wrote a binary message for Sue in my card (which is separate from the binary message I sent along with her gift [which is apparently the first gift she got in the mail]). My message follows:

01001100 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110011 01110000 01100101 01110010 00101110

Don’t feel too obliged to translate it. I mostly am posting it here so that Sue can easily paste it into the translator I gave her a URL for :)

I finally got to try out that whole dress concept… Not bad for ~$6.50! Chris said, and I quote, “It looks really steampunk.” XD Kinda the look I was trying to go for, though I didn’t think I quite pulled it off (20 fewer pounds would have helped, there, but who really gives a damn, right?) I’m still taking that, and the other comments I recieved (e.g. “It’s Teri-style!”) as compliments, of course :)

The actual ceremony was nice. As nice as any event occurring in a church could ever be, definitely. It actually almost got me weepy. Almost. (“I always cry at weddings.” “And I always laugh at funerals.”)

The reception came in two parts: the first being the outdoors-mingling bit, and the second being the indoors-eating-speeching bit. There was an open bar, and I drank several Shirley Temples, which amused my companions somewhat, and served as a cunning ruse to make others not “in the know” think I was actually drinking.

When we went inside, we (being the Rutgers crowd) were clearly seated at the “kid’s” table. We had extremely melty candles. Dinner sounded like it should have been huge, being 6 full courses, but see for yourself:

Warm tart of Main lobster with leeks, chanterelles and saffron sauce
Champagne Taittinger “Brut” NV
***
Salad of organic baby lettuces with a black truffle vinaigrette
***
Sea bass with peashoots, sunchokes, chanterelles and Maine crabmeat
1998 Clos Floridene, Graves
***
Filet Mignon with confit carrots, roasted shallots and pommes puree
1999 Cháteau Plaisance, Saint Emilion, Grand Cru
***
Elderflower soup with assorted berries, green apples and lychee sorbet
***
Wedding cake

Each portion seemed to go too quickly, especially the Sea bass and the Filet Mignon, which I was especially fond of (I would have loved to trade a few of my other courses for more of that, mmm!). Some of the food was a bit intimidating, but I’m chalking that up to my cretiny prolosity and disdain of mushrooms in general. The wedding cake was really good too, unfortunately I could only have about half of it before I started haivng an allergic reaction to it (add hazlenuts to my list of random food allergies, apparently….). Don’t worry- it wasn’t serious- just a tight throat, but no trouble breathing or anything.

After the reception, us “Rutgers-people” (along with Chris’ brothers) got together at a bar to wind down. Chris scared the flying fudge out of Elsa, and a good time was had by all.

Sunday Chris’ parents had a barbecue, and Chris harrassed his dog. Then we went up to Montclair to hang out with Peter and Bobby, finally play some Four Swords, and grab some eats.

Then Chris and I came back to Ithaca, and I stayed up past 4 AM putting stuff away/chatting with Beth/troubleshooting network issues/blogging.

The End. (I have to wake up in 3.5 hours -.-;; )