2/4/13

Groundhog Day

Wow, you guys. This is kind of embarrassing. I've been totally offline for weeks and I'm super duper sorry. Now it's time for a catch up.

I've been watching a ton of movies lately on my laptop. That's probably what kept me away from my little corner of the internet here, I always got distracted before I could start to type. Yesterday I watched Shaun of the Dead (hilarious, I'm apparently still in love with British humor) and Orgazmo (also funny, but definitely rated NC-17 or something. The whole thing is about porn).

Recently, I've also seen The Men Who Stare at Goats, Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, Red (Bruce Willis is totally a dream boat, I don't care what anyone says), and Django Unchained, but I saw that one in theaters.  There might be a few more but I cant remember.

I love watching movies. It's not only fun, but it really helped me relax after a long period of stressing over school work and midterms. And it's nice when you can appreciate how beautiful the movies themselves are. When I saw Skyfall, I realized for the first time how freaking gorgeous it was. I mean, look at it. LOOK AT IT





There are a lot of shots where I was just in awe, for the first time, of how the camera moved. I know you can't tell from these pictures, but the light in this movie and the way it was used was phe. nom. in. al. Like, seriously guys. You have to see this movie.

Secondly, Saturday, February 2nd was Groundhog Day in America. Our silly little tradition of turning to a small rodent to predict the next two months of weather. Here's the little guy now, Punxsutawney Phil: 


Well, I was there. My family, another family, and one of my friends drove overnight in a rented, fifteen seat van, to be in Punxsutawney for the unveiling of the groundhog.

And it was COLD.

This is how it all went down: We arrive in the town a little bit after three in the morning, electric signs everywhere screaming at us that it was below ten degrees outside. Around 3:30 we park at the Walmart where you can buy tickets for a shuttle bus that will drive you up the hill to Gobbler's Knob, a little clearing where the actual ceremony takes place. Right before 4 a.m., we all take the bus up to get to the bonfire and hopefully warm up a little, only to find that the bonfire was not just small, but sending up a ton of sparks that burnt holes in a few of our coats.

There were these guys dancing around on stage the entire time, along with a huuuuge crowd of people, and then we found the "Family Section" and found a spot closer to the stage.

To cut a long story short, my group and I spent about four hours standing in 4 degree weather. I couldn't feel my toes, and there was much speculation and joking that my friend would probably never speak to me again.

Thanks to an aggravating trip to the porta-potties, I got separated from my group and spent the last hour of the ordeal in the student section, surrounded by people getting drunk off of alcohol they smuggled in. Well, most of them were already drunk and chanting I'm drunk and I wanna see Phil. One guy demanded to warmers in exchange for letting a group pass to get a better spot to see, and that was pretty hilarious

And to top it off, I never even saw the groundhog because I was stuck behind a tree.

Words cannot express....

I truly apologize if this sound whiny. In all honesty, the experience will seem fun in hindsight. Maybe in twenty years I'll look back on that day with fondness and humor. But for now, I look back on that day and just feel like shaking my fist at the sky.

Well, it's been fun catching up. I prooomise to keep on top of this! Love y'all!