Jessica and Manuel at the Movies

Well, we're done seeing all the movies nominated for Best Picture. It feels good to be done, especially when we didn't want to see a few of them to begin with. In this post both Manuel and I will give our opinions on the movies. Here we go in the order we saw them...

Munich
J: I'm tired of Steven Spielberg. All of his movies lately are the same - epic length, gratuitous violence, pro Jew. The length - whatever. If it takes you that long to tell your story, fine, but parts of Munich were slow. It probably would have gotten the same point across if he cut those parts out. The violence - it seems he does it just for shock value. I am by no means a violence prude (Pulp Fiction is my favorite movie) but it seems like he does it because he can. Graphic stuff too. Pro Jew - He's Jewish and I can appreciate that, but does he have to use his films as a platform to preach about it? I know and understand the hardships Jews went through, but really. Who made him the leading authority on Jewishness? The comments he made in regard to Life Is Beautiful totally made me lose respect for him.
Movies that exemplify my point: Munich, Saving Private Ryan (not so much the Jew part) and Shindler's List.
So, overall, it was pretty good. It was a good story and I thought Eric Bana did a good job portraying what it did to him, the things he had to do in the movie. Not, however, my pick for Best Picture...

M: This was an absolutely great film. I actually never once thought it was long and drawn out. It is almost 3 hours and I never felt the need to look at my watch. The movie is a drama but parts of it felt like a really good action movie. How can you go wrong with a movie about assassins with a hit list? I felt that Eric Bana did an awesome job and you really feel for the characters in this story. I dislike Steven Spielberg personally, but I thought he made a great film.

Capote
J: I had no idea what this movie was about, and going into it, I had no idea who Truman Capote was, besides and author. As it turns out, I really liked it. I really got into the relationships formed in the movie and I cared about the characters. I was pleasantly surprised. Not my pick for Best Picture, although I wouldn't be completely devastated if it won.

M: Blegh! I just didn't care about this movie or the characters. I know you were supposed to feel for some of the characters and get emotionally attached but I couldn't care less. I'm sure that Philip Seymour Hoffman did a great job in accurately portraying Truman Capote, but I just saw it as another example of the Academy's love of giving nominations to actors who portray retarded/weird individuals. And even if he had the absolute best performance of the year, I thought the story was still craptacular and didn't deserve to be nominated. I believe that one good performance does not make a whole movie.

Brokeback Mountain
J: I LOVED IT! Loved it loved it loved it!!! Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are both beautiful men who portrayed beautifully two people in love. It's simply a love story, only it's between two men. The scenery was beautiful, the story was beautiful, overall, just a super super super movie that really touched my heart. I cried at the end. I really developed a caring for the characters. And I know everything I have to say is all scattered and jumbled, but this movie really touched me and I can't really put into words how I feel about it. My pick, overwhelmingly, for Best Picture.

M: It kills me to say this, but this was a really really good movie. I figured it would be pretty good based on all the rave it's been getting, but I didn't think I would like a movie about two gay men quite so much. Most of the time, I think ANY love story is quite boring, let alone this one being about two guys. However, the way this movie is done just really makes you feel for the characters and feel their pain and everything they're going through. There are a couple of scenes that could be potentially quite hard to watch for someone who is homophobic, but you just have to get past that and see the movie for how good it is. I did not cry at the end.

Crash
J: It took a second time for me to really appreciate this movie. It's good. The story is good - how everybody's life is linked and how one thing effects so many other people. It's touching, the things that happen to each person, each little life. The working, the heartache, the fear, the prejudices, the life, the death. I really liked it. Not my pick for Best Picture, but I'd be ok if it won.

M: I'm really torn about this movie. The movie has a good story and it's easy to get emotionally attached to the characters, but there were other things I just didn't like. I didn't like how every single person in this movie was just so easily connected storyline wise. It's like you just got a bunch of random people and just had them run into each other in a 36 hour period. You can't have THAT many people having THAT bad of a day, meeting up all at once in a ginormous city. It's just not realistic, which is something a drama like this should be. I know you have to stretch the imagination to believe something like this could happen to make the story work, but it was almost too contrived. It was a good movie and I could even watch it again, but I did find some faults.

Good Night, and Good Luck
J: Just like Capote, I had no idea what this movie was about going into it, nor did I know who Edward R. Murrow was. And, unlike Capote, I was not pleased when it was over. It was boring. It was a history lesson. I paid $7 to go to school for an hour and a half. The lesson was interesting, but I didn't care about the characters. The story was told using real clips from the events of the time, with actors inserted between. If that's all it takes to make an Oscar nominated movie, I can friggin' do that! Nowhere near my pick for Best Picture.

M: I had read about what this movie was about before I saw it so I was mildly intrigued. I think McCarthy-ism is an interesting subject in history so I figured I would be pleased with this movie. Unfortunately, the movie just didn't do it for me. I didn't care about any of the characters and I thought the plotline was actually pretty thin. The subject matter is fairly interesting, but I just thought it was presented poorly.


Jessica liked the movies in this order, from best to least:
Brokeback Mountain
Crash
Capote
Munich
Good Night, and Good Luck

Manuel liked the movies in this order, from best to least:
Brokeback Mountain
Munich
Crash
Capote
Good Night, and Good Luck

My Mind

I had a dream last night. It was too vivid and real to forget. It wasn't a fantasy kinda dream. It just was a flip side of my life. The "It's a Wonderful Life" version where I find out what if this all went the other way. It kinda went down like this.

I dreamt I woke up and just needed to do something just for me. Completely selfish and without regard for all others. I knew how all my other friends let themselves go and be that bad version of themselves and I could tell that it was just my turn to do it in my own way. I called into my boss and got the day off with some well crafted truth twisting. I avoided the rush of my roommates rising from their slumber, so that I could avoid the obvious 20 questions of me not following the typical regimen of the day. I hit a nice lil breakfast spot and got my fill then made the call I hadn't made in 2 months. When I heard her voice it was sweet symphony to my cold-blooded heart. I could feel her hands shaking through the phone as her surprise to my call was tangible. After an emotional 5 minutes of small talk we agreed to meet. I knew my roommates scheduel and that my girl had not seen my new home. An empty house with the girl I love. Sometimes being bad is just oh so irresistable and tempting. I could resist any kind of peer pressure there was throughout my life. My weakness was just this one thing. I could never say no to her. After a drive in the sunny California afternoon we just spent the rest of our time together in this park that had just become "OUR" spot. It wasn't the scenary as much as it was just the company that made the day drift by oh soo smoothly as if we were an episode in a WB drama TV series. I just wished I could record this day and put it in a permanent loop. I could even feel her lips on mine as she kissed me goodbye and...............

5 am Time to wake up. I just got paid, but it's all going to my rent. I swear the first thing I hear in my head is, "I love you boo." But it was just a dream. I am not that bad guy after all. I didn't spend the day doing as I wished without regard for anyone else. All I get to do is say hi to my stuffed bear and wish I was that brazen and spontaneous. That she would actually take my call if I ever made it. Just another weekend at work. Nothing special.....

P.S. Shout out to Cassie. The song is titled "Somos novios (It's Impossible)" by Andrea Bocelli & Christina Aquilera. It is on Andrea Bocelli's album Amore. I have no idea what they are saying, but I know you are a Christina fan too, so figured I'd share in case you hadn't heard this new song she is on. Damn that girl can sing "The itsy bitsy spider" and I'd be all over buying that album. Rabble Rock!

It's My Birthday!

Happy birthday to me! Today I am 28 years old - getting up there... In 2 years I'll be 30, but let's not think about that right now...

I had to go to work tonight. I was scheduled to work the night of the 21st, and about 1030 am on the 21st work called and asked me if I wanted to stay home the night of the 21st and work days on the 22nd. I said heck no, that's my birthday! I told work it was bad enough that I had to be there when it became my birthday. They offered me to be on call - stay home and get $10/hour to be available if it gets busy and they need me. I said what the heck. So I was on call until about 8pm, then work called and asked me to come in. I got there at 830pm and started working at time and a half, because that's what they pay if you get called in. Heck, the equivalent of holiday pay on my birthday - that works!

They were so sweet too. I love the girls I work with. A few minutes after midnight they sang to me and gave me hugs.

And I got to go home at 330am, so working 7 hours isn't too bad. And I'm back on call again, getting paid $10/hour to sit here and write this.

So what are my birthday plans? Manuel has to work today, probably until about 1 or 2pm, so I'll sleep while he's at work. We're going to see Brokeback Mountain at 4pm, then we'll go out for dinner at BJ's after. And that's it. I'm a simple girl. Dinner and a movie with the man I love works for me.

So happy birthday to me!

GNR update

The time is drawing near! Pat Martin on 98 rock said he has heard some new Guns N Roses stuff and it should be very soon before they start playing it on the radio. As I am typing this, I just got word that they will be playing new stuff THIS MONDAY!!! Rejoice! I feel like dancing as much as Axl does in this video!!!!!

Guns N' Roses - Garden Of Eden (With Paper)


Provided by VideoCodes4U.com

Still going...

My escrow is still going that is. Had a few difficulties this week with the house inspection, but they will probably hopefully be ok. The biggest obstacle has been working with the other agent or agents rather. They are just so hard to get a hold of and it makes my job a lot harder when I have to wait for answers and I can't get them right away. They also don't seem very bright. One time I did get a hold of one of the agents on her cell to ask her a question. She replied with, "I can't get that info for you right now because I'm nude right now and it is on the other side of the house." Ummm....eww! What I am going to do with that info? Why tell me that? And if you are about sixty years old, do you think I WANT to know that? If all goes well, we close on the 8th of March so keep all fingers and tose crossed. The only disappointing think is that the day my clients get the keys to their new house, I will be in Disneyland and won't be able to do the honors. Pretty sad that I can't deliver keys for my first transaction, but what can you do?

No word on my upcoming listing yet. The owners are in Hawaii this week so hopefully I will hear something this upcoming week so I can know something. Will keep you all updated...

Funny Pic

Star Wars fans should appreciate this...

The other night at work...

We work with anesthesiologists all the time at work - epidurals, c-sections, etc. Just like anything in life, some of them are nice, some are not. I have a story to tell about what happened the other night, but in order to appreciate it even more, let me give you a background story involving me and the same anesthesiologist...
I had a Spanish speaking patient who wanted an epidural. As Dr. G was putting it in, he makes small talk with me and says, "I should really have my wife teach me Spanish." I say, "What does your wife do that she knows Spanish?" He says, "She's Mexican," with this tone like I'm supposed to know that. He goes on to say, "She's a nurse." I ask what kind of nurse. He says, "She works in the ICU. You know, real nursing," implying that what I do is not real nursing. For once in my life, I was speecless.So now you know my foundation with this guy, and there is example #1 that he's a jerk.
So the other night I got a patient who was really uncomfortable. I got her an epidural right away. He was ok during the epidural. Not nice, never nice, but tolerable. No jerky comments. So my patient gets comfortable and watches TV and sleeps while she labors.I went on break about 1am. My patient started to get uncomfortable, so the nurse covering for me called Dr. G to give her an extra dose of medicine. Here is their conversation:
"Dr. G, this is A, I'm covering for Jessica's patient in room # while she's on break. She's really uncomfortable. Could you come give her a bolus?"
"A, that patient is a fat pig. I don't really care."
WHAT?!?!?! He came and gave the extra does of medicine, but to make a comment like that?! That was TOTALLY unprofessional. A wrote him up for it. I come back from break, and of course A tells me this. We talk about what a jerk he is.
Later in the night, the epidural bag runs empty, so I call Dr. G to come hang a new one. See, I'm not allowed to do anything with the epidural except shut it off after the patient delivers. He's a little cranky that he has to get out of his nice warm bed to do such a mundane task, and I don't really expect anything else from him but to be cranky about it. Really though, I can understand. But here's the kicker - IT'S HIS JOB.
So he comes, hangs a new bag, and goes back to bed.Well, here's where it gets interesting...
About 20 minutes later, the epidural pump alarms "air in line." I call him:
"Dr. G, it's Jessica. The pump in room # is alarming air in line."
"Fuck." And he slams the phone down. Nice... VERY professional. I write him up for that too. Well, about 20 minutes after he comes to fix the pump, it starts alarming again... GREAT. It is alarming "distal occlusion," which means something is wrong with the tubing between the pump and the patient. At least I'm smart enough to look at the tubing first, to make sure it's not kinked, because can you even imagine if I caled him again and all it was was the patient laying on the tubing wrong? Oh my goodness... So I check the tubing and there's no kinks. The pump is still alarming, so I got back to the nurse's station. I tell the charge nurse that I have to call him again. I tell her that after his last few jerky comments, I'm really quite afraid to call. I ask her to call him for me, as it is part of the charge nurse's job to protect her nurses. She won't call him for me though, so I pick up the phone and dial.
"Sorry Dr. G, it's Jessica again. The pump is alarming distal occlusion. I checked the tubing for kinks but it's still alarming."
"You nurses don't know how to do a gad damn thing with those pumps, do you?"
"As far as I know, we're not allowed to do anything with those pumps."
"That's bullshit. Yes you are. It's your fucking nurse managers that won't give you an inservice. Fine. I'll come down the hall for the 25th fucking time."
And he slams the phone down in my ear. AGAIN.Well, needless to say, I'm LIVID. So angry, in fact, that I'm working REAL hard not to cry.And you know what I did? Wrote him up for that too.
1) I did not deserve to be spoken to in that way. It's not my fault that the pump was alarming - I didn't make it mess up.
2) It's not right that a nurse should be afraid to call a doctor to do patient care. It is my job to advocate for my patient. Intimidation by a doctor gets in the way of and affects patient care.
3) That's harrassment. The doctor-nurse relationship is seen as a superior (doctor) subordinate (nurse) relationship, and for a "superior" to speak to a "subordinate" like that, well, it doesn't fly.
4) His outburst was completely and totally unprofessional.
Granted, I wouldn't like to be called to get up and down like a jack-in-the-box, but that's part of being the in-house anesthesiologist. IT'S HIS JOB. If he doesn't like the hours, become a dermatologist, or a podiatrist, or something else that doesn't have middle of the night hours.I'll never know what comes of this, but you can bet I made sure the proper higher-ups will see the report.It's just sad that we're treated like crap too often. And people wonder why we're unhappy at our jobs and there's a shortage of nurses...

Escrow is a good word...

For the first time, not including the 2 referals I have sent out that have closed, I am in escrow. This time though, it is with my own buyers. I met these people about 5 months ago and it has been a long but enjoyable process finding the perfect house for this couple. They finally decided on one this Saturday, we made an offer on Monday, and by yesterday, our offer was accepted. So as of today, escrow is being opened on a house and I am the agent doing the work. I LOVE IT!!! All the paperwork is a little overwhelming the first time, but I am surviving and if all goes well, it will be well worth it. We are scheduled to close March 8th so think good thoughts between now and then.

No news yet on the listing I got. Because of some family issues, I still have not been able to sign paperwork with them. I am excited, anxious, nervous all in one, but I don't want to push TOO much and make them get mad. I really want to get the listing on paper and on the board at work so I can get my own friggin' desk at work. I am tired of spreading out on the community desk and then having to pick everything up at the end of the day. Once these people sign and paperwork gets going, a desk to call my own will finally be mine! Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes ok here....

Fear Factor

I had a patient last night who was Armenian and had only been in the US for 5 months. She spoke very little English. I took her into a room and told her what the plan was, and she said to me, "I am sorry. I am very nervous. I have much fear factor." HA! HA! HA! To tell me she was afraid, she said "fear factor." How cute is that?!

Unhatched chickens and unexpected eggs

The old saying goes, never count your chickens before they hatch. Never is that more apparent than in real estate. Until escrow is closed, you can consider it an unhatched egg. I have another example of this happening in the past week. There was a lady that I have been working with who was referred to me by my aunt. The lady wanted to buy a house or condo here in town once her condo in southern Cal sold. We have talked a lot over the past few months and I got a basic idea of what she wanted and where. I couldn' wait for her condo to sell because she said we would start looking once it sold. We,, it finally sold this week and she emailed me to tell me that and....... that she wanted to take a break from looking for anything and that she would keep me in mind whenever she started to look again. It just disappoints me because I actually thought I was pretty close to the point whee we would start looking for something. Then this happens and it sounds pretty dead for now. What scares me even more is that this is what my former friend said to me to right before she turned around and bought something through someone else. Did this happen? I don't want to ask for fear of offending the person if she really does just want to chill for now. I guess we will just have to wait and see...

But sometimes eggs come along that you didn't even expect. To make a long story short, I now have a listing! Yes, the parents of a good friend of mine called and told me they wanted to list their house. I went over, presented my material, and they want to list with me. Paperwork has not been signed because they have been really busy so it is still just a verbal agreement (scary), but they have started prepping their house for the sale. If all goes as expected, there will be a sign in front of their house in about 3 weeks or so with MY name on it. This is great, but technically until it sells, it is an unhatched egg. Wish me luck...

Oscar Nominations

Every year Manuel and I make it a point to see all the movies nominated for Best Picture. This year the 5 films are:

Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Crash
Good Night and Good Luck
Munich

What follows is my opinion/thoughts on the nominated films...

Brokeback Mountain - I really haven't heard a bad thing about this movie. Fran told me it was just a good love story. I'm actually looking forward to seeing it. And yes, I will take Manuel and yes, he will be one of the only straight men in the theater!

Capote - I'm not even sure who Truman Capote is/was. Hell, I obviously don't even know if he is alive or dead! Seriously though, I know he was an author, but beyond that, I don't know, nor do I care. I am not at all interested in seeing this movie.

Crash - We Netflicked this movie a while ago. Manuel fell asleep (not because it was terribly boring, but because he was terribly tired.) I thought it was ok. It wasn't fantastic. In fact, I was surprised that it was nominated for Best Picture. Usually I can watch a movie and have an idea that maybe it's an Oscar caliber film, and I got no such feeling while watching Crash.

Good Night and Good Luck - Just like Capote, no interest. And, just like Truman Capote, I'm not really sure who Edward R. Murrow is/was. Again, alive or dead? Did I even spell his name correctly?

Munich - I detest Steven Spielberg. I think he is self-righteous with a holier than thou attitude. Research what he said about Life Is Beautiful, and you will understand where my hatred comes from. Anyway, as much as I dislike him, I generally like his movies, so I'm curious what Munich has in store (besides being the usual, epic length preachy story.)

Usually Manuel and I do pretty well in guessing the 5 nominees. This year, not so much. In fact, I had no clue what to expect for Best Picture besides Brokeback Mountain. Manuel said he had it narrowed down to 10 movies.

So as we see them, I'll keep you updated. Manuel and I love the Oscars, so this is a very exciting time for us!