Predator

Last night, my boyfriend and I managed to wrangle up 12 people who wanted to see a double feature of Predator and Predator 2 at the Egyptian. I’d never seen either of those movies before, but they were on my unwritten list of movies I should probably see at some point.

It was kind of amazing how different the 2 movies are, even with the same premise of an alien hunting down humans with a single-minded focus. I thought that maybe it would be like The Hangover, where the sequel is basically a retread of the original. The first one takes place in the jungle; the Predator is hunting down Arnold Schwarzenegger’s team of commandos. The second one takes place in 1980s Los Angeles, with Danny Glover as the cop who’s trying to figure out what’s going on with this invisible alien terrorizing the city. I haven’t seen any of the other Predator movies, though. I guess I should, now!

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I read the novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo after my mother found it too distasteful to continue reading. Who’d have guessed, but I also found it to be a little too much. I generally don’t like mysteries anyway, so there was little that the book could do to redeem itself. I just couldn’t really get into it at all.

And it turned out, the movie was much the same. It was okay; can any movie by David Fincher really not be? But there’s still just too much researching for it to be very exciting to me, just like in the book. I did think it was interesting that they kept it in Sweden, since there was already a Swedish version of the movie that took place there. I feel like most adaptations would have moved the location to New York or something. So it was good, at least, that they kept it true to the book.

Wicked

On Sunday, I saw Wicked at the Pantages Theater. Wicked is one of my all-time favorite musicals! All the songs are so great, and catchy enough that you’ll be singing them in your head for the next year. This was my 3rd viewing of this amazing musical. All 3 performances have had different actors in the lead roles, but they’ve all been fantastic and have each brought a little something different to their characters. And they’re all amazing singers, of course. This time, however, I had ridiculously good seats. The stage is expansive enough that really, any seat is good, but to be so close to the stage made it a whole new experience.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

I finally finished Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns by Mindy Kaling, only like a month after I finished half of it waiting in line to get it signed by the author. The book is a series of essays/stories about Mindy’s life growing up and now. She wrote a bit about the play she wrote with a friend based on Ben Affleck and Matt Damon when they were writing Good Will Hunting. It’s so crazy because I remember reading about that play years and years ago, and now here she is, acting on The Office and writing a book! I love books like this, humorous autobiographies in essay format. Her writing style is so engaging and funny; it’s having a conversation with your most hilarious friend.

Young Adult

One of my 101 in 1001 goals is to write about all the movies I see. I’m going to amend that to ‘in theaters’ because otherwise that’s really a lot.

I saw Young Adult over the weekend. I like a movie that has such an unlikeable protagonist who does not at all redeem herself by the end, as most movies with such a character would do. Charlize Theron was amazing, as usual, as was Patton Oswalt. I loved that it was framed by the Charlize character writing a young adult book. I’m pretty sure it was inspired by the Sweet Valley series, which Diablo Cody, who wrote this movie, is also writing a movie version of.

Ugh, I don’t write reviews of films very well. Maybe this goal is going to be a little challenging...

Birchbox

For Christmas, my awesome best friend Erin got me a subscription to Birchbox. Birchbox is this thing where you get a box every month filled with deluxe sized samples of beauty products. My package for December included:
1. Ahava Mineral Body Lotion
2. Amika Obliphica Hair Treatment
3. Blinc Eyeliner
4. Kate Spade New York - Twirl fragrance sample
5. Alex and Isabelle Classic Hair Tie
Not bad, right?! I’m really ridiculously excited to see what I get the other months!

Whimsic Alley

I recently heard about a Harry Potter themed store, called Whimsic Alley, located in Los Angeles. I have NO idea how I wasn’t aware of this sooner. While they were in town for Christmas, I took my parents, who are also big Harry Potter fans, to this store located on Wilshire Blvd. The large space was set up to look like a row of stores in Diagon Alley. Each little section sold different things; for instance, there was a store for robes, one for jewelry, one for wands, one for magical supplies. They also had a ton of merchandise from all of the various films. They did a great job of staying in theme with Harry Potter magic. I spent a while browsing every little item they had, and eventually settled on buying a large bag with the Hogwarts crest on it. It was a hard decision between that and a necklace with a snitch charm.

Work Christmas Party

My office held their annual holiday party this week. I wasn’t able to attend last year because I had the flu, so this was the first one I’d ever attended. We went to a really nice restaurant nearby called Buffalo Club. They had a little lounge area and long table set up for us in the back. I couldn’t decide between 2 different items on the menu, and one of my coworkers was having the same trouble with the same items, so we each ordered one and then split it! Before our food arrived, we played a White Elephant gift exchange. I’d never done a gift exchange like that before. It was a great way to handle a work gift giving situation, so that no one has to buy a bunch of gifts, no one is left out, and no one’s gift is perceived as unpopular. I ended up with a pair of AMC Gold Experience passes and a bunch of movie theater candy, which was a pretty perfect gift for me.

Utah!

Over the weekend, my boyfriend and I went to Utah. I’ve been to Utah several times during the summer, but have never been in the winter. I’ve also never really seen snow, like real live snow collected on the ground. It was SO AWESOME. It was all fluffy and white and pretty, and it was everywhere!! IIt was really cold while we were there (to me, at least) but I layered appropriately and never felt overwhelmingly cold.

We stayed at this really cool resort in Park City, the same place where Sundance takes place. While we were there, we went tubing, which was so much fun! I don’t think I could ever be coordinated enough to go skiing or snowboarding or whatever, so this was much more up my alley. All you have to do is sit in a inner-tube and fly down a hill. It was great!!!

I really want to go back someday. Utah was so beautiful in the winter.

Gym

After months of talking about it, I’ve finally joined a gym! A couple of the girls from work and I went in on it and only have to pay a very reasonable fee. Conveniently, one of the gyms is right next door to my work. It’s not one of the fancier gyms in LA, but it’ll do for what I need it for. I only know how to use a few of the machines, but hopefully I’ll be able to figure out the other ones.