Becoming Jane: Almost the epitome of my kind of movie

Ok, maybe it IS the epitome of my kind of movie. I’ve recently realized just how much I like Masterpiece Theatre and Thomas Hardy and such. I mean, I knew I loved them before.. Maybe what I mean to say is that I didn’t realize how much I needed them.

Let me start over.

I really love period pieces. Especially victorian-era stuff, like Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy. And what I really like is how immensely fucked-up their stories can be. Jane Austen always ends her books with weddings and happily-ever-afters, while Thomas Hardy is a little more of a realist (pessimist? ). Their works satisfy that girly need in me to read something trashy and romantic, but then they give it that grit to bring it back to home. Life’s not happiness and sunshine. Life is fucked up. And I love it. I love how raw it is.

This seems to not follow though that I like Jane Austen so much, since she always wrote happy endings. You would be right… I used to actually think less of her novels because I thought it was a cop out that everything went so swimmingly in the end.

That was until I saw Becoming Jane. It gave me this new insight into her life, whether or not it may be true. There is a lot of speculation in the movie and a lot of controversy surrounding her life–most of the information we have is gleaned from letters she wrote to her sister, most of which were destroyed after Jane died.

That being said, here’s the trailer for the movie:

I know, it looks like some dumb romance movie. Sure, it is for the most part. But she doesn’t get him in the end. I won’t give away why not, just suffice it to say, it has to be the most incredibly sad movie I have ever seen. I had to pause the movie so I could get up and blow my nose (more than once).

This movie gets at something that I never connected to Austen’s happy endings: she didn’t have one. She didn’t get married to her true love (she never married at all), and she didn’t live happily ever after. She died young (for our standards), and a spinster. But she wrote about love and happiness being the end result of struggle and sadness. She lived vicariously through her work. And I respect that immensely. And maybe that’s because it makes her otherwise happy endings into something that isn’t happy at all.

That is why I love Jane Austen now. What a woman she was!

Spaghetti Night, 2/21/08

Thought I would post some pictures from spaghetti night. That’s all really.

Here’s Sean choppin some peppers for the sauce (wearing his apron :p):

And here’s Bobo, trying to not fuck up the pour of Sean’s beer:

And I’m standin there watching Sean cook…

And here are my awesome new green shoes, but Sean doesn’t like the void on my instep…
This is the spice cake that I threw together for dessert for last week’s spaghetti night:

Candid shot of Bobo, with Sean framing her a little
Sean posing for me:
Yes, this is my boyfriend and I love him very much:
This is apparently the sad face that I make all the time:
kinda self explanatory
Sean got all up in my grill to take these next two:

And here’s Sean about the drain the pasta:
My bowl of “spaghetti”:
Close up of NOOODLESSSSS:

The end!

Don’t know what the plans are for the weekend, but I’ve gotta skeedaddle now, cause Sean’s meetin me at my place to go eat din din at Ho Foods (I told you I eat there a lot). Then some errands and then I’ll be at home, watching tv probably.

I may finish stripping the paint off my dining chairs tomorrow morning. If I do, I’ll be sure to post some pictures about it.

bye bye now!

an update and some pictures

Let’s see… where to begin…

I guess it would be sorta interesting to talk about all the fun stuff I did last weekend!

Nothing too remarkable about last week’s spaghetti night (yummy spaghetti is a given), except for the fact that Bobo brought Sean his christmas present (yes, February, I know).

And I got my picture taken, apparently (thanks, Bobo!):

Sean and I both took last friday off and we ended up going thrift store shopping in Burlington for most of the day. We also managed to find time to hit up H&R Block to get Sean’s taxes done (EXCITING!). I ended up getting a scarf and a coupla other things (what else besides the scarf is eluding me at the moment.. ), and Sean got an awesome t shirt:

however, my camera (old camera!!) sucked some shit, so the picture sucks. It says “Do Unto Others [ostrich] Then Split!”. It’s very cute. And very Sean somehow.

K so then we went to din din at Tower Indian Restaurant in Morrisville and had a yummy and satisfying Indian Thali. (no pics, sorry).

Saturday we ended up going to brunch at Whole Foods, then decided to go to Best Buy where I decided to splurge and get the camera I’ve been drooling over the past year. (Fujifilm FinePix Z, 7 megapixels). While I waited for the salesperson to get me the thing, Sean played Guitar Hero. Thought I would mention that, because I think it’s cute, and that’s how he do.

After that, we decided to make a trip to the state fairgrounds for the flea market, just for funsies. We ended up finding a really old credenza (from 1951) that Sean haggled for $75. He is now in the process of gathering parts and the manual so he can fix it and bring it back to workable condition. I should get a picture of it. I’m not a huge technophile or geek like he is, but even I think it’s a damn pretty thing.

[Oh yay! I just received an email from NetFlix telling me I'll be getting Becoming Jane in the mail tomorrow!]

After getting the credenza back to his place, Sean brought me home and we went our separate ways for the rest of the weekend. I girded my loins for my sister’s visit on the morrow.

She came bright and early (ish) and we went to lunch at Whole Foods (I know, I eat there a lot):

Her camera is the older (and fuschia-ier) version of mine. Notice her tattoo! She just got it like a week or two ago–it’s a capricorn symbol sign thingy.

Then we went to the mall and we actually sat on a bench and people-watched for a little while. I made lots of snide comments, she laughed. It was all good.

Then I think she got pooped, cause when we got back to my place she laid down on the couch and fell asleep. I made dinner while she slept (black beans and rice mmmm).

This is me enjoying the food:

I know, I look funny.

Then we sorta sat around for the rest of the night. At one point, Squeaky was sitting on her head, but I didn’t get a good shot of it, cause she kept moving. This was the best I could get:

Not much goin on since then. She was only here one night (I miss her already!I missed her before she left! I missed her before she even came!!!–ok maybe not).

At some point this week while I was going to my car at lunchtime, I noticed how pretty the sky was:

So blue! That’s the parking lot at work, and I think this was on Monday.

Well that’s all for now! I’ll try to take some pictures tonight at spaghetti. Or not.

First Post! Laurinverse comes to WordPress!

Well, I spent most of the year over at Vox. But when I decided to create a couple of other blogpages, WordPress came out the frontrunner in my mind. Other blogpages, you ask? Well, I created Veganity and Veganity: Recipes. (Check them out if you’d like to go deeper than just the laurinverse.)

That’ll have to do for the “HEY I’M HERE NOW” post. Come back soon for something new. Most likely pictures from the past week will be posted.