Almost time to leave.

I can’t believe I have just one more day left in Florida.

I didn’t even make it to the beach while I was down here. That’s mostly because I’ve watched myself gain weight since mid November (especially since I‘ve been down here), and I don’t like going to the beach unless I’m in shape. That doesn’t mean I haven’t taken advantage of and appreciated the weather; I played baseball quite a bit while I was here. But I don’t know how I’m going to deal with the cold again.

This break was kind of like a bridge between school and the real world, and I feel like now that I’m going back I’m officially entering life. It’s a bit overwhelming. In some ways it will be nice not having class, but in other ways I kind of miss it already.

I’m worried about money and about finding a real job, among other things.

Justin came over last night; he went back up to Pennsylvania today. Nathan and I stayed up until 4 in the morning talking and reminiscing and stuff. We’ve also been trying to record Lily’s Eyes on Mixcraft over the past couple days--Nathan borrowed his friend‘s mic. I couldn’t identify for you two bigger perfectionists, vocally. We each must have recorded our part 50+ times and we’re still grossly unsatisfied. I guess that’s a good thing.

Tonight and tomorrow I’ll be doing a lot of packing. It’s kind of weird not knowing when I’ll be back again.

Benjamin Button

Last night I saw Benjamin Button. Emma warned me against it last week, but Nathan, Danielle, and Justin still wanted to see it, so I disregarded her warning (for the sake of complacency).

It wasn’t as God-awful as she made it out to be, but I had some issues with it as well. For one, I don’t like movies that use an elderly or deceased person’s diary as a vehicle for the story. Getting into a movie’s premise via narrated flashbacks is a filmmaker’s shortcut--a cheap way of making unconnected fragments fit together without any creativity. The movie attempted to make this new by having it serve as a sort of revelation to the daughter about her real father, but that just made me cringe--especially in light of how unresolved that portion of the movie was.

To the extent that I could overlook that pet peeve, it struck me in a weird way. I enjoyed it, but never got emotional over it. I thought Brad Pitt was really good- interesting premise (interesting is one of those words that carries no weight of its own, but I’ll use it here anyways), but when you think about it the movie sort of lacked emotional depth. I didn’t like Daisy’s character at all--she was kind of a bitch--and I didn’t buy that they ever really loved each other.

I was most interested with the aging and anti-aging effects they used and how well they worked. There was one line about never being able to get back lost time that resonated with me, which I hated myself for, as it is perhaps the most widely dispersed and trite snippet of wisdom.

There are so many movies out, or coming out that I want to see. The Wrestler and Gran Torino both look awesome.