Movie Madness...the end

I have become a very, very bad blogger as of late. I just can’t seem to get into it. I feel I’ve entered into a bit of a rut in the blogging world. It’s been 4-years now since I started this blog and my adventure to NYC and, honestly, it feels less like an adventure today and more like my real life. I’m happy about that, but as a result, the blog seems a bit mundane as of late. So, bear with me while I figure out where to take this thing going forward.

So, lets recap my month of Movie Madness real quick so I can put that to bed. The weekend of the Oscars, I put it in high gear to see as many movies as possible before the show. I came no where near close to completing my full list, but at least I saw the 10 that were nominated for Best Picture, plus many others. That Friday night, I rented Inglorious Basterds and enjoyed it very much. On Saturday, I did the AMC Best Picture Showcase and saw 5 more movies. I finished up on Sunday with “Up in the Air”, which I found depressing, but I did really like it.

This is the order how I personally liked the Best Picture nominees, from best to worst:

1) The Blind Side (I loved this movie dearly, but acknowledge that it wasn’t really Best Picture quality. In a year with 5 nominees, it would not have made the cut)

2) An Education – Pleasantly surprised by this one. Loved Carey Mulligan and can’t wait to see more from her.

3) Hurt Locker – Pleased it ran away with the most awards. The crowd at City Winery, where I watched the show, went NUTS when Kathryn Bigelow won for Directing.

4) Inglorious Basterds

5) Up in the Air

6) Precious

7) Up -- May have liked it better had it not been the first movie of the marathon…I was still sleepy!

8) Avatar – I’m not much of a fan of anything fantasy, so it didn’t stand much of a chance with me.

9) A Serious Man – Sorry, didn’t get it. Hated the ending.

10) District 9 (ugh…hated it)

I think I would have added “Crazy Heart” to the list and taken off one of those last 2. I felt that this years list for Best Picture was not great and it was kind of a shame that this had to be the year they decided to have 10 nominees. It seemed like they really had to push to come up with 10. But, I was very pleased that “Hurt Locker” came through in the final minutes to take the Best Picture award from “Avatar”. I am not a crazed “Avatar” fan like many seem to be. I was thrilled to see Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges win their awards and loved that “Crazy Heart” also won for best song.

I watched the show at City Winery with 4 of my girlfriends… Lucy, Kim, Mindy, and Joy. It was a really fun place to watch and it only cost $6, which included a glass of wine. So, it was basically a free event! It liked watching with my friends and 100’s of others. I think I would try to go back there another year!

Snowicane 2010

A hurricane hit NYC this week in the form of a snow blizzard.  Is it bad that I think it is so cool that I live in a place where hurricanes strike?  It was the 4th worst snow storm in NYC history.  I have never seen it snow so hard in my life...especially for so long.  It was pouring down and the flakes were huge at times!  After it was all over, I took this picture outside of my apartment:

There is a BMW buried below all that snow!

Movie Madness Continues!

Today, I continued my quest to see as many Oscar nominated movies as possible before the big awards show!  Lucy and I went to see all the nominated Short Films at a theatre in the West Village.  I did this last year and loved it.  They were maybe even better this year.  It's amazing how they can fit a whole story into a fraction of the length of a normal movie.  Last year, I had a clear favorite and it did end up being the Oscar winner.  This year, I'm not so sure.  I also realized this weekend, that in addition to the 5 movies I'll see next Saturday at AMC's Best Picture showcase, I have 14 other movies I'd like to see before the Oscars.  I've got some major movie watching to do...plus the Olympics are on all week.  Not sure I'll make it!

This past Friday night, I got to see Mindy in a play in Brooklyn Heights. Her New York City debut!! Yea, Mindy! The play was good and Mindy did great. She even had a director come up to her afterwards and ask for her headshot and resume. Hopefully, she'll have another gig soon. Mindy's friend, Allison, went with me and afterwards we went to dessert in Brooklyn Heights. Since we're not super familiar with Brooklyn, I did some research and found a place called "The Chocolate Room". It was such a cute little place and the desserts were to-die-for!

Looking Back : MLK Day Weekend, etc...

Yeah, we're still "Looking Back" here at Suz in New York.  I just can't seem to get into blogging this year!  So, I'm just going spew at you all the stuff I've been meaning to blog for the past 6 weeks but haven't gotten around to and be done with it!

MLK Day weekend was a great 3-day weekend in the city.  I really should spend more of my long weekends here, but I seem to be addicted to leaving town anytime I have an extra day!  It was nice to just stay here for once and I stayed quite busy.  I went to Kids Club on Saturday and afterwards met Mindy for brunch at Popover Cafe.  It was only my second time to eat there which is crazy because it is so close to my apartment.  The atmosphere isn't the greatest, but the food is really yummy, especially the popovers!

On Sunday, I met Shera for brunch at Penelope, which is my favorite brunch spot.  So cute and good food, too!

After Sunday brunch, I met Rosella and Christina to see "Wishful Drinking", Carrie Fisher's Broadway show.  She is crazy and the show was really funny.  We enjoyed it and were glad we finally got around to seeing it - it was the very last day of the show!

Carrie Fisher in Wishful Drinking

MLK Monday was the day we went to The View and I continued to stalk John Stossel.  Luckily, I don't think he noticed me sitting in the audience.  I don't watch The View and was disappointed that John Stossel was the guest that day, but it was still a lot of fun. 

Waiting for the show to start with Christina and Rosella

Look at all those lights!

The ladies

Pants on the Ground was the definite highlight

of the show.  He was hilarious!!

There he is!  The one and only, John Stossel.

Enjoying the show!

Later on MLK day, I met Joy for dinner at a new Taco Bar on the UES.  It was really yummy and I'd like to go back and try some of their other tacos.  After dinner, we went to the movies to see "It's Complicated".  I actually liked the movie better than I thought that I would.

January also included Christina's birthday dinner at Il Vagabondo, an Italian restaurant on the UES.  Not only was the food delicious, the restaurant is so cool!  It is located on the bottom floor of a brownstone...so quaint.  They also have a bocce ball court inside.  So fun!  We played a round after dinner and it was a blast.  I'd love to show you pics, but this was during the time I was without camera and Christina hasn't shared hers yet!

My book club met to discuss "The Little Stranger".  I liked this book for the most part.  It got a bit slow in the middle, but the beginning and end were good.  We met at Barrio Chino...awesome Mexican food on the LES.

Not Black & White

I was just looking at the pictures I posted of the blizzard last week and was confused why they were all in black & white. I knew I hadn't made them that way. Turns out they aren't black & white at all, that's just what it looked like outside on a gloomy snowy day. Weird!

I Can't Believe this was Going On Yesterday

And just a half a block from my apartment!  Yes, there were many cross country skiers enjoying Central Park yesterday.  It was the result of the big blizzard of 2010.  My office even closed down for the day and although I could have easily gotten to work, I enjoyed the extra day at home.  I mostly stayed in, but did get out for a long walk in Central Park to enjoy the beauty of the blizzard and I ran a few errands while I was out.

I have never seen the Reservoir looking quite like this

Who doesn't love a good Pinetum??

I do!!  Especially on a snowy day!

Who says NYC is all buildings and concrete??

Not me!

Who says there's no nature in NYC?

I don't!

Entering the Great Lawn...the perfect spot for

snowball fights and snowman building

How cute is this snowlady reminiscent of

the Statue of Liberty?

Check out the tree in the very middle of this

pic.  Notice the top is broken off...limbs

are around the base of the tree?  This happened

as I stood there.  I heard the loudest pop and

then it all came tumbling down.  The snow was

too heavy for the branches.  I was scared to

walk under any trees after that.

How cute is this Central Park restroom??

I have never seen this done before!  I

LOVED these little snow guys someone

created on the trees...so cute!!

I like to imagine Jerry Seinfeld sitting behind one

of these windows, drinking a cup of hot coffee

and enjoying his gorgeous Central Park views

(this really is his apartment building)

I love pretty doors.  Especially ones

with snowy trees on either side.

The view of the brownstones across the street from me

Movie Madness!

I am so excited for the Oscars this year. I feel like I'm back to my old self during this season. Something about living in New York kind of took away some of my Oscar love the past few years. I guess because there's so much else going on to occupy my time and getting to movies is harder and way more expensive. But, this year, I'm back in full force! Out of the ten Best Picture Nominees, I have seen only 2...Precious and Blind Side. I am probably going to save the majority of the others for the AMC Best Picture Showcase. They are doing it over two Saturdays this year since there are so many movies! Lucy and I did it last year and loved it, so we're going back. Until then, I'm trying to see a bunch of the other movies that are nominated in other categories. Friday night, Lucy and I did a double-header and saw two great movies:

The Last Station : best actress nominee Helen Mirren, supporting actor nominee Christopher Plummer. I was worried at the beginning of this movie as it didn't immediately draw me in and it took a while before I really got into it. I liked, didn't love this movie. This is Lucy's favorite kind of movie, so she did pretty much love it. The acting was very good and the scenery is beautiful. It was an interesting story, but we both felt that they didn't develop the story well enough. If you aren't super familiar with Tolstoy, you don't completely get it...that's how we felt at least. I do not expect there to be any winners from this movie.

Crazy Heart : best actor nominee Jeff Bridges, supporting actress nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal, Original Song nominee. I really liked, almost loved this movie. It told a good story and the acting was great. I loved the music! I would expect Jeff to win and the song to win. I'd love to see Maggie win, but think Mo'Nique may beat her for Precious.

There are still a ton more movies I want to see and I've even got a spreadsheet all put together to keep track of it all! I'm fully back into it this year!

Other things I did this weekend:

-- Saturday lunch with Sarah. She was in town for work last week and staying with her friends who live on my block so she came by and we grabbed lunch. It was fun to see her back in NYC!

-- I spent a few hours on Saturday afternoon helping Kim rearrange her new apartment. She just moved into an incredible 2-bedroom apartment in the West Village. It has so much character and is huge and in a great location. Plus, she got a heck of a deal (think Monica's deal on Friends). It's $200 less/month than my itty-bitty studio. Crazy!!!

-- I babysat on Saturday night again. I don't know how I lucked into such an easy job! The kids are so sweet and easy! I seriously think they have great parents. Not only are the kids great, their house is SO organized and they have so much cool stuff for the kids to do and the kitchen is full of used cookbooks and its stocked with food. The mom clearly does some real cooking. I love their place!

-- I spent the bulk of Sunday afternoon at leader training for Small Group leaders. The longer I hold this position, the more I realize what a responsibility it is. The administrative/organizational stuff is easy and is what I love to do. But, I'm also responsible for making sure our group is staying on track with the vision of the church as a whole. This is the part that's hard. Our group has been together for so long...we pride ourselves on that, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's such a good thing. We are a bit resistant to some changes the church is beginning to implement in the group structure and the goal of the groups is to grow them and multiply and we're not very good at that because we don't want to split up. We're also supposed to be neighborhood based groups, and only about 1/2 our group lives in the neighborhood where we're meeting. So, I've got some serious praying to do and have got to start initiating some discussions with the girls about these things. Yuck.

-- I totally skipped the Super Bowl on Sunday night. I just didn't care. I kind of would have liked to see Carrie Underwood's performance, but I didn't even tune in for that. I just went to church like normal. Hope the rest of y'all enjoyed the game or commercials or half-time show or whatever it is that compels you to tune in!