DAMN YOU TRAILERS!

There are many movies that I don't want to see. Most of them involve names like Lohan or Alba.

However, damnit all to hell, if the promo monkeys haven't made me want to see the sequel to a movie I thought was utter crap. The Fantastic Four was one of my favorite comics as a kid and as much as I adored Ioan Gruffudd as Horatio Hornblower, he ain't no Mr. Fantastic. I didn't mind Chris Evans as the Flame and Michael Chiklis as the Thing was inspired casting. However, Jessica Alba all but destroyed any positive associations I might have had for Sue Storm. Jeez is she awful.
AND YET.
And yet...
Those darned trailers make the Rise of the Silver Surfer look so intriguing.
I suppose I'll have to wait and read the reviews and see if the movie is as abominable as the first.
Though to be honest, I'll probably see it anyway.
Sigh.

Things I Wonder on Sunday Mornings

-What would make someone open and drink a bottle of beer in the bathroom of a bookstore?
-Why would someone use said bathroom to take a pregnancy test?
-How difficult is it for women to located the toilet?
-Is anyone really in such a rush that they need to shave in a public bathroom?
-Why would someone need to look at EVERY SINGLE BOOK on a shelf and then think that they shouldn't even bother to put them back?
-Does anyone really think about the fact that someone else will have to clean up the garbage they leave lying around on the floor, or is there a resurgence in the belief in the garbage fairy?
-How did I end up being said garbage fairy?

Positive Thinking

With this whole bullshit surrounding the book/dvd/Oprah phenom "The Secret" everyone is talking about the power of attraction aka, if you make a wish and believe in it, it will come true.
This is obviously a bunch of hooey, though one cannot deny that maybe your outlook is improved by this thinking positive and maybe you just reinterpret the outcome of your life.
All in all, I don't buy into this.

HOWEVER.

There are very few things in this world that really turn me into the praying sort. Illness and all that sort of bad horrible stuff that we hope never befalls our loved ones. But the real question is what are the happy things in life we'd pray for: money? love? success? Or is that all cliched?
I for one have finally found something to pray and dare I say hope for.
For almost 20 years my family has lived in the desolate wastelands of Los Angeles. While the rest of our tiny extended family resided in New York, my immediate family struggled to make connections in a city that from the get-go seemed hostile and unwelcoming. We suffered through major traumas without any local support, all the time dreaming of moving back to New York, the city of our origins. Sure in our minds we had inflated New York to a city of miracles, a place where everything will be good and fine and safe. In reality, no place could be a panacea but we hoped nonetheless.
Yesterday I got call from my mother. Through a variety of serendipitous occurrences, there is a chance that she could get a job - a good job at that - back in New York and this will enable her to move. This job would not start for another year, but even so the two of us became giddy with the possibility. My mother would no longer be alone and I would get to see her more than 2 or 3 times a year. All my siblings on the East Coast would once again have a parent near by, though those on the West Coast would have to adjust.
For the first time in recent memory I am asking the Universe for some payback on all the shit that has transpired in my life for the past 15 years or so. I don't believe in karma, but if what goes around comes around, my family is surely do for some good fortune.
So for what it's worth, I'm thinking positively and praying to whatever higher being might exist that even if just for my mom who has gotten the fuzzy end of the lollipop more times that I can count, please let this happen.

(And that please comes with sugar on top)

Won't You Be My Neighbor

For the first time in recent memory I am living in a neighborhood.
In NY the Upper West Side was a neighborhood, but since Manhattan is really just a collection of streets making one organism, there's very little small town about it.
In LA, there was nothing remotely like a neighborhood where I was living. But there is nothing homey about LA regardless of where you are, so my little street was nothing out of the ordinary.
Recently I moved to an area outside of Boston and everyday I am struck by how much I enjoy just walking around. While I loved walking in NY it was because there was always something to look at, something to watch, someone to see. It was active.
Now, when I walk around my new digs, there is no pressure that I might miss something. The streets are lined with verdant trees now that Spring has hit. Some of the home owners have planted flowerbeds and here and there are splashes of color to break up the green and brown. Just 2 blocks West and you're on a main street, but on my little block it's nothing but Victorian-esque houses in purples, blues, and yellows.
It has not stopped raining for the past five days. As I walked to work early this morning, I was hit by the fresh smell of earth and clean pavement. Even during the slight breaks in the weather, the trees would rain down on me the heavy droplets that clung to their leaves. The streets were deserted and slick and it was bliss.
On my way home later this afternoon, the drizzle didn't stop a group of young boys from riding around on their bikes or playing basketball in the middle of the street. The occasional car would slow down and give them time to move the net.
It struck me that there is something Rockwellian about all this. I still don't know my neighbors and I'm not sure that I really want to. They will be the same sort of people I've lived next door to in other cities and while there's nothing wrong with that, I'm enjoying living in this bubble. Perhaps it will break this little spell and for right now - just right now - I'd like to be a bit enchanted, thank you very much.