Hello Again!!

Well, well, well. It's been a long time again, hasn't it? Wow! Sorry, folks. A lot has happened since last time, and a lot is happening right now.

Since last post, I've handed in lots of papers and completed several tests. Yay me.

I've gotten to ride my horse for the first time since last fall. Huzzah!!! He wanted to run and run and run! And then when I got off him and slid to the ground I could barely walk for several days, LOL. But it was grand! I can't wait to go riding again! I love it when he runs; he has such an easy gait. It's unfortunate I look like a rather large lumpy bag of potatoes on his back -- my balance isn't so good. But I'm working on it, really, I am. I shan't rest until I ride as well as Russell Crowe! Well, OK, I shan't rest until I ride half as well. Or perhaps a quarter as well. Or...

And...drum roll please...I FINALLY GOT TO SEE GLADIATOR! It was awesome, just as I knew it would be. It was very sad and not nearly as gory as I expected. What was up with the R rating? It could have been a solid PG-13, but not R. But what do I know about movie ratings?! LOL!

Anyway...I said it was very sad. It was, but strangely enough, at the end, I did not cry; I was happy that poor Maximus had finally gone to Elysium to be with Selene and Marcus again. That was what he wanted; in essence, he lived to die. Sounds strange, but it makes sense in context.

The part where I did cry was when Selene and Marcus died, and Maximus found them, buried them, and slept next to their graves. That poor, poor man. No one should have to see what he saw.

Mr C did a great job with that scene; his face just contorted beyond recognition and he cried, I mean really cried. Awwww!! Poor baby. I just wanted to hold him and say "Shh, it's OK, it's OK...they're in Elysium...they're safe now..." Oh dear, I'm making myself maudlin! ;)

Anyway, the only part where I said "Ewwww!" was when I was watching the deleted scenes and somebody passed a plate of fried locusts under the camera. That was disgusting.

They included a special feature, "The Making of Gladiator" (or something like that) on the second disc. Oh my gosh, Russell Crowe should really do more comedy -- he is so unbelievably funny! And the great part is, he's not even really trying to entertain anybody, he's just being himself!

There was one clip where he was waiting in the "arena" for somebody to yell "action!" and the tigers were milling around in there near him. He turned to the camera, put on this great American accent, and played the part of a tour guide. He said something like (and I'm majorly paraphrasing here), "Well, hi, folks, here we are in Malta, and I'll be your tour guide today. What you see behind me is what we call here in Malta a tabby cat..." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I laughed SO HARD. My sides were hurting and I was just about ready to cry with laughter. You'd have to see it to know how funny it was. Right before that, when they were talking about how difficult and scary the tigers were, he just glances up and gives the camera this look, this I'm-just-pretending-to-be-terrified-but-actually-I'm-half-serious LOOK. When he really does turn serious, he says that the lions and tigers were "pretty special" and that he had a lot of respect and admiration for them. He liked working with them. Yay -- we have another thing in common! I love big cats.

Well, I'm sitting here with my live Internet Australian talk radio station playing...a hobby of mine. I like to hear what's going on with the footy games (not that I have any idea what it all means) or what the temperature is in Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney...not to mention it really helps me with the accents. The weather guy just said "Canberra" but it didn't sound like Canberra. It sounded like "Kanbrra." LOL!! As you can tell, it doesn't take much to entertain me. ;)

Well, I've gotta go -- my oldies are sitting there eating pizza and salad without me, and I'm hungwy...*pouty lip*. There! Finally an update. I promise I'll do more soon, hopefully soon after finals are over. Can't wait for that! Everybody asks me brightly, "So are you ready for the semester to end?" I look them straight in the eye and say, deadpan, "I was ready a month ago!"