¡Sarah!

The water main at work burst tonight, sending water raining down on the hallway that leads to the theatres where we keep our less popular movies. It was a little bit stressful but the guests were pretty good about it and there were seven managers working when it happened so it could easily have been a lot worse. (Although it could've also been better, because seriously it was raining inside for like forty minutes. And then when it did get fixed, we lost all of our water and had to close the washrooms for half an hour. And then all the lights went off in the opposite hallway?? At no point did I really have any idea what was going on.) But my goodness did it make for a very strange evening! I was going to write a big post about it but then on the way home I told everything to my mom and now I've lost my desire to tell it again, haha. Although I will say that I especially loved that when my co-workers realized what was going on (I was trapped in box office and thus missed most of the chaos), they made it their first priority to save our Narnia standee. Good thing, I guess, because the thing is huge and is now doing a pretty respectable job of blocking off that hallway.

Anyway, my favourite part of all this came after our ceiling had been dripping water for a good twenty minutes. I was walking along the part of concession where one of my co-workers had just turned on the tap so he could wash a couple dishes. "What the heck!" he cried. "There's barely any water pressure!" haha dude, no kidding. Have you looked behind you recently? xD

Oh my god, have I been submitting quotes to Not Always Right in my sleep or something? Because I have definitely had experiences very similar to this one, minus the bit of awesomeness at the end. :P

I shouldn't be complaining; the worst guest experience I've had in recent days was not actually all that bad. I walked into concession and a woman asked me if a till I happened to pause beside for a second was open. I told her that the only tills currently open were the ones at the very end, and she huffily replied, "Well, someone should have told me that!" I just love how the fact that nobody was standing at that till and everybody was over at the other tills wasn't enough to clue her in.

brb working fewer days next week because I seriously need to start enjoying the summer! What are some awesome (and free? because srsly. so broke.) summertime things I should do? :D

From cleolinda's most recent entry on Eclipse:

I would argue with Owen Gleiberman that the movie series is not a return to the male gaze; it is a very strong assertion of the female gaze. Look, you saw New Moon, and if you didn't, I'll catch you up: Bella spends 80% of the movie in three layers of shirt and a parka, while the camera lovingly watches Edward jaaaaames deaaaaan across the parking lot in indie-rock slo-mo, and Jacob administers shirtless first aid with the finesse of a Chippendale. In Eclipse, the Jacob fan service is so prevalent that a character actually asks, "Doesn't he own a shirt?" ... The not-sex scene ... focuses almost entirely on the unbuttoning of Edward's shirt. These are movies that understand that their primary audience does not need or want to see Bella's goods, and they know exactly what their audience is there to see--they're there to see the same things Bella wants to see. That's the female gaze in action.

And if it makes male viewers uncomfortable or disdainful: we, as women, have been living with the male gaze as the cinematic default since pretty much forever. ... Guys, you having to sit there and watch the camera ogle these two guys is what life at the movies is like for us.

So fascinating!! And yet another reason for me to roll my eyes at the guys who come to box office whining about how their girlfriends are dragging them to "chick flicks." Whatever, dude, suck it up. One thing I love about my co-workers is that some of them are guys who will openly admit to liking Twilight, although one of those guys apparently isn't such a fan of Eclipse. When I asked how he'd liked the movie, he told me he laughed through the whole thing. Why? "Because it was like watching two seagulls fighting over a grape."

Oh, Twilight ... xD

So my dad sometimes goes on this local TV show where a host and several guests (usually people in the media) sit around talking about issues in the news. Having noticed that women are only invited onto the show about 10% of the time, and the only non-white guest is invited on maybe once a year, my dad developed a habit of looking around at the others just before filming begins and announcing, "Well, I'm glad we're representing the full diversity of the community - from middle-aged white male to middle-aged white male." So he thinks it's his fault that they recently hired a second host, who is younger than middle-aged (although he's still white and male) ... and of course my dad hates him. haha! Apparently this new host comes from the Stephen Colbert school of interviewers, twisting your words around in a desperate attempt to make it sound like you're arguing in favour of something horrible. Keep trying, Dad! ^^;

I realize that lately I haven't been posting at all about what's actually going on in my life, lol. Yesterday my manager asked me how many shifts I want in the upcoming weeks and I had to remind him that I'm leaving in eight days! (Those of you who remember the fiasco surrounding my JLPT weekend may come to the conclusion that this is kind of in-character for him, haha. I really like him when he's not making a mess of my schedule!) I'm nervous of course, and still kind of panicked about getting everything done before I go, but I've also started getting really excited. :) I've just returned from one last doctor's appointment, I'm done all my shots and oral vaccines, I guess now I mainly just have to finish packing and finish writing our itinerary for the first week. I got my volunteer placement a little while ago - I'm going to be working in a daycare that's run by SOS Children's Villages, which is actually a child sponsorship organization! (You might have seen their TV commercials starring Mike Holmes.) So that should be interesting, and hopefully enjoyable. I always wish I could hang out with kids more often so I guess here's my chance! :) the_wykydtron told me last night that she thinks I'm going to return home speaking little kid Spanish, lol! Maybe! xD

Anyway, I'm off to bombard my volunteer coordinator with some more annoying questions. xD

~ Soooooo my MJ class got cancelled. I am seriously unimpressed. :| How did that combat trauma in Euripides class not get cancelled but these two rather more mainstream ones did? I guess people who are interested in mainstream things are not always the same people who take university classes just for funsies, but geeze. How frustrating for me.

~ Went to the doctor today and got a list of shots that I need to get before my trip! Typhoid, tetanus, hepatitis, and, if our plans change to include places outside Lima, malaria as well! hahaha oh my goodness, how exciting. (Originally we were definitely going to visit places other than Lima, but now Machu Picchu has been closed indefinitely due to flooding. My life right now is full of disappointments, apparently.)

~ Off to work again ... Two more shifts until my weekend! Which has become even more of a weekend, now that I don't have any classes~~~ ;_; ;_;

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I get to go to work!

DON'T BE TOO JEALOUS NOW!!

My next day off isn't until the 28th. :(

I was going to ramble on a bit but I don't feel like it now, lol. Happy Christmas Eve to those who celebrate it, and an awesome Thursday to those who don't. :)

Random edit: One of my co-workers asked me today if I had a "music device" (haha, cute), because she wanted to listen to music on her break. I just find this amusing because I dunno, I feel like I listen to the most random assortment of music without caring what anyone else thinks about it, and so I wonder if she'd even be able to find anything in my collection she'd want to listen to. xD

WHY YES I DO THINK I AM MORE UNIQUE THAN I AM

WHAT OF IT

So I totally forgot to change the excerpt on my NaNo profile before I went to work today, and by the time I got home it was too late! xD hahaha, oh well. But huge congratulations to everyone who won!! I know I've said this to several of you already but I'm just so proud of you guys that I feel the need to say it again, lol! I'm already looking forward to the next crazy novelling season. :)

In other news, tomorrow is my sixth of six straight days at work. I'm not too happy that I ended up working six days in a row the week before the JLPT, especially when I booked time off specifically for studying purposes. I'm really getting sick of how understaffed we constantly seem to be, it's ridiculous. At least tomorrow I have the option of leaving early. :/ Fingers crossed I can somehow wrangle my way out of my Friday shift, although I don't really see it happening, so maybe you should save your finger crossing for the hope that I somehow manage to pass the test!! x)

ahaha, won't you guys be so glad when it's December seventh and I can finally stop talking about this?? YES!!!

I've done this before but I'm doing it again!

1. Pick fifteen movies you know/like/love. (I'm only doing eleven because I'm having issues thinking of movies I didn't use before!)
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie. (lol, I never do this. Everyone can guess!!)
5. No Googling/using IMDb search functions.

( guess guess guess )

Edit: ( answers answers answers )

SPEAKING OF MOVIES, the theatre I work at is currently in the middle of its BUSIEST WEEKEND IN FIVE YEARS. Today alone we sold SIX THOUSAND TICKETS, when on an average Saturday we usually hover around four thousand.

SIX THOUSAND TICKETS.

brb passing out from exhaustion. If it doesn't slow down tomorrow, I don't even. Thanks, SMeyer. DDDD:

(Meanwhile, our New Moon-less partner theatre downtown sold like five hundred. HAHAHAHAHA wut)

So I definitely spent twelve hours at my workplace today (minus a quick trip to the mall to finally pick up some holiday cards for the exchange!): eight hours working (omg so. busy.) and four hours watching Gone With the Wind on the big screen! The movie started at eleven in the morning and, to be honest, I am really surprised that I was able to force myself out of bed in time to watch it. I was actually on the verge of sleeping in and skipping it before I realized that if Sarah of 2008 found out that I missed a chance to see GWtW in a theatre, she would never speak to me again! ( random rambles about GWtW )

Thus ends day one of Sarah's Week of Star-Crossed Lovers. xD

Uuuugh my sleeping habits are sooooooo gross right now. I had to FORCE myself out of bed at one in the afternoon today. I hate this. D:

But in other news, I just watched this unsubtitled Morning Musume interview and understood quite a large chunk of it, so yay! :) (And yay for Aichan talking about Disney Sea. xD )

Answers to yesterday's book meme:

1) The Elephant Vanishes, Haruki Murakami, and I'm kinda surprised no one guessed this just because I was under the impression that Murakami's so hot right now. I don't love his writing but I like it well enough; mainly I keep this book around because I find collections of short stories somehow really inspiring and motivating. x)

2) The Odyssey, Homer. I thought this would be slightly less obvious than if I had gone with The Iliad but perhaps I am incorrect in that assumption.

3) Full Frontal Feminism, Jessica Valenti, although the_wykydtron is correct, I ignored the fact that there's an introduction.

4) Notre-Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo. Guys, what's the point at which you recognized this one? I'm curious. xD

lol, one non-fiction and then three translated fiction. Actually I think most of the books I own these days are non-fiction, and a lot of those are language textbooks ... I don't think this meme would work very well with those. :|

In other news, it's Friday night and I hope This Is It sells out tonight because it still hasn't yet!! Meanwhile we have nine showings a day of A Christmas Carol, what is this madness.