I had a crazy 35 hour roundtrip to Sacramento/Davis this week. Left Monday around 2 pm and got back Wednesday at 1am. It was nuts. I got up, went to my morning class, Chris picked me up for lunch at In-N-Out, got back to campus, did my presentation, and left for Sacramento. We took a UCSB vehicle (minivan) up and there was the 4 of us and Melissa's dog. We had to drop Carly off because Melissa didn't have anyone to take care of her here in SB. Stopped at her mom's in Oakland, had dinner her mom nicely made for us, and headed to Sacramento. We got in at the hotel around 10pm. I fell asleep around 12:30am, woke up at 7:15am. Met everyone at 8:20 for breakfast in the restaurant in the hotel. Their CC machine went down, so it made us a little late getting to BLM, but we all ended up paying in cash, and headed straight to the BLM office. We went through security around 9:40, set-up, did our presentation, did some Q&A, packed up, and headed to Davis for our second presentation at around 11:20 (only know times because we had to sign in and out). We arrived at a deli in Davis around 12pm. Ate REALLY quickly and walked the half block to the meeting place. Arrived like 10 minutes before the meeting started at 12:30 and sat through a 4 hour presentations/meeting. Left that at around 5pm, had dinner with the guy who invited us to the Delta Tributaries Mercury Council meeting, and left Davis around 6:30pm, got home at 1am. I figured out we sat for about 25 of the 35 hours. It was ridiculous. My lower back was KILLING me the entire day (I haven't popped so many Tylenol in years) and even today my butt and lower back still hurt. Even though it was a whirl of a trip, it went well (both presentations). One lady wasn't so happy with our presentation at the DTMC meeting, but we already figured that since she sent a critical e-mail during our breakfast in the morning. She was also the one we were most concerned about. Other than that, it went well, and I have a few more contacts for job hunting, which is good. If one of these contacts pans out to help me obtain a job, the trip and all the hassle will be WELL worth it. I'm just glad it went all okay (other than the CC issue at the hotel). Now the next and last thing for the trip is reimbursement forms, which should be fun...I did come down with a small cold this morning. I probably have just been fighting it and the crazy trip just exasperated it. I only have a sore throat and runny/stuffy nose so it's not too bad. I hope I can just rest the week away and it'll go away and not get any worse.
I have 2 weeks of classes left. TWO WEEKS. I only have a total of 4 classes left to attend (3 next week and 1 the following). My last assignment is my policy paper, which I need to work on, and the accompanying presentation. We also supposedly have to critique and rewrite or something a climate change adaptation plan for a city or locale for my marine class, but I think us 2nd years are all going with the "denial" and hope he'll make it extra credit or something. It's all very sketchy since he hasn't sent out anything formal on it. We'll see.
Job hunting has been a little slow. With these new contacts, I need to get back onto it. I look every once in a while, but it's still hard to make it a priority when you're still trying to finish with school. The past week was one of my most stressful weeks for the quarter with a paper and presentation due, traveling to Davis/Sacramento, and the problem with the rabbits (which is still being sorted out...). Hopefully I can get back on track with the job hunting.
Well, other than that...Movie updates! I watched 2 movies today (the first time in weeks I've been able to rent movies). I have a few backlogs, though, with Green Hornet and Thor. It's been a very "Natalie Porman" movies recently...
Green Hornet (Seth Rogen, Jay Chou) - It wasn't as bad as you'd think, but it was also nothing great as expected. So it was entertaining, but not something I'd readily suggest someone to watch unless you were curious about it and wanted to watch it already. The Black Beauty car was interesting and some of the gadgets too. I watched the Mythbusters episode that involved Green Hornet myths before I watched the movie, so it was pretty interesting to get to watch the actual movie and after knowing what was and wasn't actually plausible. Grade: C
Thor (Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman) - It was as good as people were saying it was, but it's definitely no Iron Man (1st film). Hemsworth does a good job, but Portman's role is kind of weird. Paltrow in Iron Man plays a pretty large role in the film and Portman's is more of a side note (almost the Beauty & the Beast thing -- taming the big, bad man to be gentle). The story is more about Thor's family and everything. It was interesting how it tied more into Iron Man 2 also. They are definitely ramping up for The Avengers movie. It'll be interesting to see how Captain America moves that along. At any rate, it's an enjoyable film. Some minor cheesy one-liners and the story is pretty decent. If you're interested, I'd recommend to go see it. Grade: B
The Other Woman (Natalie Portman, Scott Cohen) - It's actually based on a book called "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" by Ayelet Waldman and it's also an older film (released in 2009). It just showed up on RedBox so I rented it. It's kind of interesting seeing her in so many films in such a short span of time because you can really see she is a versatile actress. This film is a drama and is about Portman's character and the lives she's entered into. Cohen cheated on his wife with Portman and so then Cohen and Portman get married because she finds out she's pregnant. They end up losing the baby at 3 days old. The plot revolves around Portman and Cohen trying to cope with the loss, but the center of the movie is Cohen's son and Portman's stepson (Lisa Kudrow is the mother) and how he centers in all their worlds and helps and unhelps them get through the baby's loss and Kudrow's hatred for Portman and everything. I cried through about half the film as Portman struggles with the loss and guilt and some other issues. She did a great acting job and you could see when she was doing better and when she was struggling. The plot and acting wasn't as fine as Rabbit Hole, but it was a decent enough drama. I like it, but I don't know if I'd really recommend it. Based on the topic, I'd recommend Rabbit Hole much more over The Other Woman (title reference I believe is to the lost baby that was a daughter named Isabel, but it could also be to Kudrow's character, but I kind of doubt it). Grade: B
No Strings Attached (Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher) - It was a cute rom-com that was utterly predictable from start to finish (more predictable than a typical rom-com). It had some funny moments, but (as most rom-coms end up as) it was kind of "heavy" at the end as they go through the denial, apart, etc stages. I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite rom-coms, but it was nice to see Portman in a different role too. Kutcher was okay. I don't particularly like him and he doesn't really "match" Portman well, but the story was okay. I have seen better and worse rom-coms, though, so it's somewhere in "eh" rom-coms where it's not horrible, but not particularly great either (The Proposal, The Holiday, and the Prince & Me rank as some of my top favorite rom-coms). Grade: B-
Next on the agenda is PotC 4 comes out this Saturday, Bridesmaids (which I hear is very funny), True Grit, and Just Go With It (Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler -- the preview actually looked funny). I might watch Blue Valentine, but..I don't know. We'll see.
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