think about seizing the day

exciting morning. woken by mother at 8:30: "will you please get dressed and drive your father and your uncle down to union station?" and but i'm scared of driving and it's early, please don't make me do something more taxing than watching Shrek for the fifteenth time ... didn't seem like an adequate response.

so up i got, fed the dog, and drank cold water, my substitute for coffee (nearly 21 coffee-free years and i'm doing fine. my plan is to avoid coffee and cigarettes my whole life & look like i'm going to outlive everyone. then, suddenly, i'll be felled by a blow no one could see coming: the combined influence of + diet coke and - exercise). i found my way back from the center of the city through dc morning traffic, which, despite my nearly 21 years, is something i've actually never done by myself before.

i feel very grown up and responsible now. not either of two brothers but i got to save the family today. i! the princess. and the princess celebrated by reheating pizza and watching newsies. she even teared up a bit at the end, you know, when the crowd of kids join the strike and then teddy roosevelt comes out and you think cowboy's moving on to sante fe but at the very end he comes back. that's a movie.

another movie, a more real one, i caught on tv yesterday: the laramie project. i'd missed it til now, and it's really good. it's moving without being sentimental and it sure gets its message across, whatever that message is. on a related upbeat note, toronto legalized gay marriage today. canada's become more like scandinavia every minute.
and last night liz and i watched the immortal frida. i'm surprised julie taymor didn't get an oscar nomination for that. i'm surprising the critics uniformly weren't impressed, at least with the way it looks. i do agree, it should have been in spanish with english subtitles. and it should have been more about frida as an artist and less about frida as a part of a tempestuous relationship with diego rivera. the movie's politics did spark an interesting conversation about communism though, and this morning led me to ask my father, "in brief, please, why did stalin want trotsky dead?"