A Post from Panera Bread

Because we'll be moving soon out of our apartment, my roommates and I decided to forgo the Comcast package for this month, meaning I have no internet in my room anymore. Right now I'm sitting in Panera, which is just 2 minutes away from my building, trying to get all the things done online that I need to do before rehearsal at 6:30. I may not have mentioned this, but I'm currently stage managing for a show.

Anyways, it really amazes me that I can just buy a small coffee at Panera and spend hours here if I like, on their WiFi. They even told me they have free refills, which makes me think, why would anyone ever buy a medium or large? It makes no sense to me.

Update on my Mac. I've just downloaded the Sims 3 and it works beautifully, just as the guy at Best Buy promised! Right now I'm creating a love triangle between the Glover family and a Sim called Christopher Steel. (If you have Sims 3 I believe it comes with all of the same people at first) I really like playing with the readymade people because they have their bios and a lot of it is up to chance. Whenever I try to make my own Sims I fall into the trap of spending way too much time making the people, that when I finally begin to play I've spent hours in front of the computer.

Also, I saw The Time Traveler's Wife! I love Rachel McAdams in general, so of course I loved her here. Eric Bana was great as well, and extremely good looking. Why haven't I seen him much until recently? (He also played an Australian guy in Funny People and was hilarious). I enjoyed the movie, but I think that it left out many key plot lines. I'm still reading the book, and already I found that they eliminated many details that would have translated really well on screen. Altogether, the movie was just too short. 1 hour and 45 minutes is nothing in a movie these days.

Last night, I saw 500 Days of Summer, which was utterly perfect. I watched it with my friend at the Coolidge Corner

Theatre, this amazing movie theater that used to be a Church. It was remodeled in the Art Deco style and is really beautiful. (If you're interested, I actually wrote a research paper on the theater for my Art and Architecture in Boston class). If you live in the Boston/Brookline area, be sure to check this theater out. The website is www.coolidge.org This is absolutely my favorite movie theater, and it draws out great crowds. Everyone openly laughs and cries at this place, (though at 500 Days it was mostly laughter. Who knew a movie that purported itself as an anti-romance could be so comedic?) This is definitely a great place for movie lovers. And, as I found out as I was leaving the theater, the food there is really freaking cheap! Popcorn for like 3 bucks. That's a steal in movie world!

Birthday Dinner

Tonight I went with my brother, sister, parents, and paternal grandparents to an Italian restaurant in my hometown. It was a nice place, great food. I ended up eating way more than I should have, starting my meal with tomato bisque, going through a veal entree, and ending with Tiramisu. I won't be surprised if I gained 10 pounds from that one meal! We went out to celebrate my sister's 13th birthday and my 19th. She will be 13 tomorrow, and my birthday is on the 25th of August. I was hoping we would end dinner in time so that I could watch The Time Traveler's Wife, which came out today, but somehow we stayed there for almost 3 hours. 

I am so excited to see the movie. Right now I'm on page 132 of the book. Not only is the book great so far, but I absolutely adore Rachel McAdams. She's such an amazing actress, she's beautiful, and because she's rarely in the tabloids there's no reason to hate on her. My favorite movie of hers is The Family Stone, which is such a warm, feel good movie. I highly recommend watching it if you haven't already. 

In terms of my birthday, I'm a little apprehensive about turning 19. Does this mean it really is my last year as a teenager? I don't want to have to refer to myself as a woman rather than a girl because I'll feel old, which, at 19, is a bit ridiculous. Also, does anyone ever notice that the word man has a positive connotation, whereas using the word woman to describe a teenage girl somehow seems inappropriate? What is it that makes boys want to be called men and girls cringe at being called a woman? Any thoughts?

Diving into the Macbook

I just got my first Macbook, and, to tell you the truth, I felt like I'd sold out. For years I'd been an adamant PC user. I thought that a PC made me look more professional, I didn't want to have to relearn how to do simple functions on a computer, and Macs are expensive. However, after only a few days using this, I've decided that I do like the Mac, after all.

My favorite things about the Mac, so far, are the iCalendar, which helps keep me organized and looks really cool, the iChat, which let me videochat with my friend from California and my friend in Michigan at the same time (haha I know people have been doing this forever, but it was my first time videochatting), and the fact that I don't have to worry about virus scans and adware anymore.

Right now, I'm searching the web for cool downloads for Macs. I found one that I'm considering, called Mojo, which is supposed to let me download music from my friends' libraries. However, I'm worried about illegal downloading in general. At my school, there's a grad student/TA who is being sued for $675,000 for downloading 30 songs! Not to mention, I am a bit superstitious in that I believe that I sometimes believe that Murphy's Law applies only to me. I've always considered myself someone who goes by the rules, partly because I imagine that the one time I break them will be the one time someone, aka me gets caught.

Any opinions on the music downloading issue? I'm actually going to take a philosophy class this fall called the Philosophy of Property, and one of the issues we'll be talking about is intellectual property and illegal music downloads.

Saturday Night

Tonight I am tired. I spent the past two nights out late and it was fun, but, in retrospect, probably not the best idea in the world. It seems like sleep is always the last priority when you're a college student. For me, I always tried to make sure that I slept at least 7 or 8 hours. Unfortunately, that meant that when I slept only 3 or 4 or even 5 or 6 hours I felt exhausted. Some of my friends who get only a few hours of sleep on a normal basis said that they could feel perfectly fine on just a few hours. Is the lack of sleep something you're supposed to adjust to? Or maybe some people just feel more tired than others?