Ah... memorial day

Forgive me fathers, for I have sinned. It has been several days since my last posting. I have been very remiss in my blog-duties, I know. But not having internet access at home does put a crimp in my blogabilities.

So, here is a posting in an effort to catch up.

Friday night I did nothing, save have a shitty piano lesson. Sometimes I have good lessons, where my teacher and I laugh a lot and I have these ever-so-brief insights into greatness. I use the term 'greatness' loosely here. I mainly mean that she will notice something about the way I play and come up with an eloquently descriptive way to fix it. Like "cb, you are much to stiff here. You need to sweep your wrists more, like... waves. Play as if you were playing ocean waves. Its all very zen in a way, and when I get it, its a blast. I quite honestly get giddy when I have these tiny breakthroughs.

Friday was decidedly NOT one of those lessons.

Saturday started as a good day. Early to rise, I got laundry, cleaning and bill-reviewing out of the way. Then I had my traditional smoked salmon bagel and coffee at my favorite free wi-fi cafe and downloaded a lot of music from iTunes. Then it was off to play 3 hours of volleyball- and let me tell you, I actually played WELL on Saturday. Last weekend I sucked ass and actually left early because I was playing so horridly. However, this Saturday I was serving hard, setting well, passing decently and crushing the living shit out of the ball when I hit. It was awesome. I even had one incredible dig where a guy drilled the ball, I actually got there and down enough to pass it beautifully to my teammate, who then set me, and I crushed it and we won the point. Ah........

Then it was convertible top down driving to Lexington to visit my friend Kev. We then merged with a couple that he knows, and we all went to the Eagle in Charlotte. This is where the weekend started turning on me.

The Eagle was kind of a bust. Not many hot guys, and the most action I got was a verbal sparring match with a rather twinkish boy from Michigan who was decked out in his favorite Detroilet Pistons jersey. He was cute, and had caught my eye earlier, and I DO so love the verbal sparring thing. But seeing as how he had a partner and the sparring was less David and Maddie from "Moonlighting" and more Bill Maher and anyone right wing, it was not that much of a sexual turnon for me.

Sunday was not a good day for me. After spending the night at Kevs (platonically), I woke up rather early and then drove home (top down of course). The drive was pleasant enough, but also gave me time to think and reflect on my single life. Never a good thing when one has been desperately single for 4 years in an area that has a severe dirth of elegible men. I had brief moments of clarity when I realized that I would probably be alone for the rest of my life, and that the rest of my life started 4 years ago. Kind of depressing actually.

And because I drove home early enough, I had all of Sunday afternoon to contemplate this. None of my friends were around and I didn't have any procrastination opportunities and nobody to play outside with. What I would have given for just one frined to throw a frisbee with. But no.

And so the depression-and-self-pity spiral continued downward.

To cap off Sunday, I thought I'd watch a couple films: Nanny McPhee and The Dying Gaul. I watched them in that order which was a mistake.

Nanny McPhee is a darling movie; Yes its sort of Mary Poppinsish, but with a really dark twist. And man do i love me some Emma Thompson. She is a goddess and I love her work immensely. And her accent. And...

SPOILER ALERT - do not read any further if you plan on seeing this movie and don't want to know a certain detail

And she starts off so ugly in the film that she's almost unrecognizable. But as the children transform from ill behaved little beasties into nice children, she transforms too. Every time the children learn one of her 'lessons', she loses a bit of ugly (a mole here, a wart there). By the end, she is her radiant, beautiful self and I swear I cried in several spots because of this little heart-tugging plot device.

So, at the end of the Nanny movie, I am a bit of a mess. I've cried a bit which is most likely reflective of my current mental state and I feel that it has been somewhat cathartic. I'm actually feeling less dumpy. Then I pop in The Dying Gaul.

Oh my God, this movie is seriously fucked up. Its brilliant and a definite must see, but so dark. So cruel. I can't even begin to go into it here. After it was through I just turned off my electronics and went to bed. Enough for one day.

And that brings me to my Memorial Day off. I am updating my blog, I've read K-dog's blog, I've checked movie times and plan on seeing X-men III, I've had my coffee and bagel at my favorite wi-fi spot, and I plan on starting the third movement of my musical composition.

I wanted to hit the reset button and make today sort of a do-over... but I can't get that damn Dying Gaul movie out of my mind. Or the statue for that matter. Perhaps its fitting, seeing as how the statue represents a memorial to a valiant, yet vanquished, foe.

Those crafty Greeks sure knew how to honor the fallen- not only their own, but their enemies as well.