So, hey guys! This is our house and neighborhood and stuff!
Heeeeere's our cute little 'hood.
Dining room table! With breakfast!
This is our living room/dining room. (You can see the corner of the table over there.) We keep blankets on the couch, because our apartment is buttsa cold. Flannery claimed the little purple towel as a bed, so we put it on the windowsill. It's her new favorite hangout, that windowsill.
More living/dining room. The art-wall is the wall to the right if you're sitting on the couch. Daniel is a good model. He's holding the inflatable moose head, who many of you know as John the Baptist. We haven't put him up yet, but he currently chills in the living room.
Kitchen. So grown-up looking. (keyword: "looking")
Floor bed in our little attic bedroom, complete with sleepy, happy cat. (She adjusted super quick to her new home, because she's a professional cat.)
My OFFICE. SO PROFESSIONAL.
Other side of my office (to orient yourself, the window in both pictures is the same window), with a little picture of Scully to remind me to be awesome (I am making my Scully Face. I need round glasses to really get it down) and a framed bunch of photobooth pictures of me 'n' Danielle, also to remind me to be awesome (not Daniel, but Danielle. My two loves have pretty much the same name. haha.)
Yep. That's our life now. We miss the States (our families, our friends, BFF brand cat food, Netflix, Obama, etc.) but we're settling in pretty well. Friday night, we went out with our friend Gina to a really great Chinese restaurant in Gloucester Green--if you come visit, we'll take you there!--and talked about books and writing and philosophy. It was a nice break from my hermetic week of writing and insomnia. Then we saw Lincoln yesterday with one of D's work peeps, his wife, and their friend. Everyone really liked it (actually, I don't know about Miriam's opinion. I didn't reveal my feelings about it until D and I were walking home because I didn't want to try to explain my opinion out in the cold while I was hungry), but I felt a little meh about it. Tommy Lee Jones and Daniel Day Lewis (and JAMES SPADER) were amazing, but it's basically a movie about a bunch of old white dudes doing politics. I'm kind of tired of "Hooray! Old white people talking a lot!" movies. I do appreciate Lewis' very human depiction of Lincoln. A less skilled actor could have easily fallen into the Saint Lincoln, Savior of Humanity trap. Lewis did an A+ job of lending some ambiguity to his personality. Also: all the storytelling Lincoln/Lewis does? The best! But I am a sucker for Story Time--in books, movies, real life, anytime all the time forever. I'll forgive most things if you give me some story time.
Aside: I have pretty high hopes for Argo. I wonder if I'll like it more than Lincoln, and I wonder if I'll be able to articulate why? Maybe it has to do with Fact vs. Truth (y'all have read The Things They Carried, right? If you haven't, you need to). I left Lincoln feeling a little like I'd been "America Is Great, Lincoln Was The Best" propaganda'd. Everyone already loves Abraham Lincoln and the 13th Amendment. Did we need a movie about it? Argo seems more...useful. Not that I think all movies need to have a lofty purpose (I also want to see Django real bad), but I think historical films/biopics run the risk of seeming like propaganda, or preachy, and I prefer when they are revelatory. But I guess I like history, so maybe a lot of people DID find Lincoln to be accessible and revelatory? Guess that's what makes it my opinion! LOL. Yep. For whatever it's worth, that's my review of Lincoln: great acting, sort of okay movie. But Daniel super loved it! So, obviously lots of room for diversity of opinion.
I wish I had more money to go see movies. I really enjoy movies. I less enjoy how much they cost. I'd like, some year, to watch the Oscars and have seen more than two of the nominated movies. Will I even be watching the Oscars this year? Can they be streamed online? I don't have a TV, and even if I did, are they aired here?
Oh, if you want a trippy experience, go see a movie about American history in a full theater in the UK. It feels weird. Did Brits who saw The King's Speech in theaters in the US feel that same thing? Like: why do all these people give a poop about a long-dead leader of my country? It's kind of cool, but really surreal.
Okay, after that unexpected rant about a movie I felt lukewarm about, I'm gonna let y'all go! Hope you liked our little house tour. It's nice, getting some art up on the walls. And my desk is the best! But we really miss you guys. It's only been a week and a half, but I was already missing the PacNW while I was on the plane.