The Center Seat

It's the day after Thanksgiving, and I'm SO NOT in line at the stores. I intend to spend this entire day in my pj's, feasting on leftovers. So there.

Completed Tasks

#44: Get all new gifts put away and house in order. With a LOT of help from Mr. Nayana.

Tasks in Progress

#15: Watch all AFI 100 movies. I saw Platoon! Now at 45/100.
#16: Get 200 Facebook fans. No movement here.
#17: Watch all Academy Award Best Picture winners. I saw Platoon! So now I've seen 43/82.
#19: Watch all Coen brothers movies. I posted the list on Wednesday; I'm at 8/15.
#22: Stay caught up on Google Reader for a month. Still going! This task will be completed on December 11.
#23: See all feature films directed by Hayao Miyazaki. I'm planning to post this list next Wednesday. I'm about halfway done.
#24: Pay off all credit cards. Nothing to report here.
#25: Pay off car loan. Or here.
#47: Finish name changes. Does the electric company really have to have my legal name on file?
#64: Eat at ten new restaurants. No new restaurants this week. Still at 1/10.
#65: Learn sign language. Had to skip my ASL class this week; hope I didn't miss too much.
#71: Complete our wedding registry. No real progress, but I did convert much of it into a Target "List", so family has a nice Christmas list to work from. (Am I the only one that usually draws a blank when someone asks what you want for Christmas?)
#77: Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series) from beginning to end. We're through Season One! See yesterday's post.
#82: Get caught up at work. I expect to be done with this by this time next week. Yay!
#85: Structure my work time into a set schedule, and stick to it for a month. Still going! I should be done with this goal December 9. I'll probably stick to it after the month is up, as it makes my job MUCH easier, and gives me time for blogging.

There you have it! Have a fantastic weekend.

Each Friday, I'm going to try to update you all on my progress on my Day Zero list. Hopefully that will get me motivated to work on the thing! As Mr. Nayana mentioned last week, I've already gotten a few things knocked off the list (though not as many as he gave me credit for).

I've been married for a little over two months to this great guy; we'll call him Mr. Nayana. I know I've mentioned him a few times over the past couple years, but this will serve as his official introduction.

Mr. Nayana was working late the other night, so I took the opportunity to curl up with Zoe the Putty Tat, a bottle of Door Peninsula American Riesling (a holdover from my kickass bachelorette party), and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.

I realized something weird today. Out of the 172 posts I've written (yeah.), I've only featured two musicals. And I really love musicals. I can only think of one musical I didn't enjoy--From Justin to Kelly--and nobody enjoyed that one. I don't even think Justin and Kelly enjoyed that one.

So I'm going to be talking more about musicals I love, starting with Fiddler on the Roof. My parents brought me up on this one; I think I probably saw it for the first time in third or fourth grade, and then I think we came close to wearing out the VHS. My parents would close their eyes reverently when Isaac Stern would get going on his solo during the title credits, we'd all sing along with all the songs. And as part of his extraordinary parenting philosophy, Dad would spout Fiddler wisdom at really random times ("why, you ask? I'll tell you. I don't know"). It went well with his Rolling Stones wisdom ("you can't always get what you want") and his Pink Floyd wisdom ("if you can't eat your meat...")

Anywho.

For me, Fiddler is one of those classic movies, like The Princess Bride and The Wizard of Oz, that never fail to entertain and thrill me, even if I think I know the whole thing by heart. Of course it's got its classic moments: the parents singing "Sunrise, Sunset" at the wedding; the freakishly awesome bottle dancers (does anyone know if those bottles were somehow affixed to those hats? Mr. N and I had a bit of a disagreement about that); and my favorite part, the drunken inter-cultural dancing at the tavern.

What really sets Fiddler on the Roof apart, though, is its lush versatility. In one cinematic breath, it showcases the mundane life of a Russian turn-of-the-century peasant, and then knocks you over the head with huge issues like revolution and bigotry. This movie goes in a heartbeat from light comedic banter, to poignant longing for a simpler time, to plain awe at what makes life beautiful.

Most of all, I love to watch Tevye as he navigates the precarious tight space between his long-held beliefs and his love for his daughters. It mirrors what I've figured out in the past few years: just because you've believed something as long as you can remember, don't be surprised when you learn it's worthless in the face of real life.
...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

I've had quite the struggle lately between the movie-lover me and the relationship me. It's not that Mr. Nayana actively keeps me from going to the movies per se... it's just that it hasn't occurred to me to get my ass to the theater when I could just hang with my best bud at home. Does that make any sense?

Anyway, this whole "I never go to the movies anymore" thing came to a head this week. More on that tomorrow. But Mr. Nayana, in his infinite sweetness, saw that I was upset and promptly decided to take me on a date. We saw (500) Days of Summer, which I had been itching for since I first read about it months ago.

First of all, it's definitely not your standard romantic comedy (which, honestly, was a huge part of its appeal for me). Secondly, it stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, both of whom I looooove.

The coolest thing about this movie is that it doesn't give us the normal crap we get about love from your standard commercial film:

Step 1. You meet someone of the opposite sex whom you immediately despise.
Step 2. Your quirky best friend helps you realize you actually are in love with aforementioned despised person.
Step 3. An unfortunate misunderstanding will drive the two of you apart.
Step 4. It all comes right in the end (thanks again to your quirky best friend).

This, as we should all know, is complete shit. And (500) Days of Summer--blessedly--doesn't do that. We are taken on a journey through a realistic relationship... the highs, the lows, the initial blush, the later disillusionment. And guess what? They don't like each other exactly the same amount! Sound familiar?

This movie was a beautiful, refreshing look at the real stuff we go through when we make the rash decision to allow another human being to become intimately close to us. It's not always pretty, but it's real life, not fantasy. And as for me, I'd much rather my film (or music, or art) reflect the life I actually lead.
...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

So, yeah. I haven't blogged in about a million years. (Five months is about a million years in bloggy time, isn't it?)

I think that may have a lot to do with the fact that my life has changed dramatically in the last year... but I do miss y'all. So I'm going to give The Center Seat a face lift and we're going to get going with a second wind. Hopefully this week, but I make no hard and fast promises.

Biggest change: remember Nuevo Man? We have to change his handle, I think. On September 7 he asked me to marry him.... so maybe "Mr. Nayana", a la "Mrs. Fletch"?