Nudey

Update I guess.

Christmas and the works was lovely. As always, I dreaded the family gatherings but they were just fine. The best part was my completely reinstated love for my cousin when she brought up how it's impossible to tell what you actually like verses what you FEEL you should like based on the kind of person you want to be. Yes. EXACTly! Plus the food.

After Christmas, my mother and I were going to go shopping, which clearly didn't sound fun at all. Instead, we didn't and it was a beautiful, lazy day. However, on the 27th I conceded that shopping could no longer be avoided. But it went pretty well. I didn't really get angry at all and mostly neither did my mother. Then we had pizza and wings. My mom makes excellent wings, although this time she put tomato paste in them which, I believe, was a bit of a mistake. But they were okay.

Then she took us to see Sherlock Holmes, which was FANTASTIC in my opinion. Although I was a bit amused because the main scene in the previews in which Rachel McAdams, in a corset, kicks Downey Jr.'s ass was not actually in the film. Buuuut I thought Jude Law and RDJ had GREAT chemistry!!! Plus... he's SO attractive (both, although I'm specifically referring to Robert Downey)!!! SOOOO much charisma!!! I just think, and I've said it a trillion times, that Robert Downey Jr. is THE actor. Truly. Also, I'm really glad this movie didn't come out that year that The Prestige and The Illusionist came out because I think it would have seriously hindered this movie's brilliance... although that isn't to say that it's exactly like those movies. If you see it, I think you'll understand what I mean.

After the movie, my mom slipped and fell on black ice. She was fine but pissed at me (?) so instead of discussing the film, we had to be silent for the trip home, presumably in mourning over the fact that water freezes (sorry for the poorly masked bitterness).

Then Claire, Claire, Sarah, Natalya and I went to Atlantic City. It was fun, although we learned that Atlantic City is a much more depressing place that we imagined. LOTS of scary homeless people. LOTS of dazed elderlies. We walked into the poker room, which was not glamourous but more like a bingo room with 50-year-old grungy, red-eyed men, and said men STARED at us in such a blatant way that I (we, I assume) had a very bodily need to escape. I realize that we were the only young girls there, but as a group we weren't looking too great at ALL. PLUS it was about 1pm. I just mean to say that you could expect it a little at night when you're dolled up and people are drunk, but this felt like we were walking into 24/7, fluorescent lighting, gang bang hell. We fled back to the outlet stores until evening.

Our room was pretty nice and we got some Chinese food. Then we went back down to the slot machines. Gotta say, playing slot machines is WAAAAY more boring that you would think. It's just pulling a lever over and over again as you watch your money go. And you HAVE to start with $5 in the machine, even though the machine I played only charged a nickel per pull. So essentially I was stuck pulling a machine 100 times. Plus, I won a few cents here and there so... I really pulled it about 170 times. BOOOORING. I was over it as soon as my $5 was up. Actually, to be more precise, I was clearly over it after $1 was up. I can't be positive but I think this was approximately our final money count:

Blythe: -$5

Natalya: -$5

Claire S: +$3

Claire C: +$18

Sarah: -$45 (wah wah)

This is another one of those times in which I feel like I could have almost predicted this outcome based on the level of inherent luck I believe each of us to have, just like how I feel when I watch celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? In my case, as I've said before, I think I have FAIR luck but not GREAT luck. I didn't win, but I didn't get sucked in and I learned a lesson about the non-fun of gambling. Nothing to complain about.

Anyway, then we went back to our room and chatted for hours, which was glorious and really the reason for going at all, in my opinion. The other notable detail of the trip for me was that I scored a pair of nudey torso salt and pepper shakers. $1 for the set, which I think was a steal.

I think I'll end on a strong, nudey note. (I love the word "nudey," although definitely more in speech than in print. Whisper it to yourself. Doesn't it feel good?)

Although actually just one more thing. I just watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which was REALLY great. Another brilliant RDJ performance. Plus, it makes me reconsider Michelle Monaghan (Made of Honor) as... someone worth considering. Plus, you can't turn down that title. And I do love to watch Val Kilmer, although I also listened to the commentary right afterwards (to be honest, I've listened to MOST of the commentary but paused to write this) and I would for SURE not want to be friends with Val Kilmer. Although Downey was lovely.

And so HOT!!