They'll call it chance, or luck, or call it Fate

I always start writing these entries about my weekend on Sunday night, get too tired to finish them and end up posting them on Monday. orz

I relaxed on Friday night by watching the movie Antique, a Korean version of Antique Bakery. It was a fun movie with a surprisingly serious story underneath. I recommend it. Of course, my favorite part was Kim Jae Wook playing the cute and sexy gay pastry chef. (I've liked Kim Jae Wook since I saw him in Coffee Prince.) The movie also made me really fucking want some cake.

I didn't do much during the day on Saturday. I would normally have had a Japanese lesson at the local culture center, but we had a break from lessons this week. I was going to try and go to the Mando Matsuri that was being held in my town instead, but it was raining too much. It's not quite as much fun to go to a matsuri in the rain. In the early evening, I met Joe and we got Mexican food in Ikebukuro. I don't usually crave Mexican, but it'd been so long since I'd last had it that I really wanted some. I had chicken quesadillas, which were good, but could've used more cheese. Food aside, I used this date to try and figure out my feelings about Joe and confirm a few things that I noticed the last time we went out together. He can be fun to talk with and banter back and forth, but I think there's just something that doesn't quite click with me. Occasional comments that don't quite sit well (generally just typical guy stuff; feeling the need to assert his masculinity, which implies that he's actually insecure in his masculinity, etc.). He also seems to enjoy jokingly commenting on the extent of my geekiness. I get the impression that he's only a video game geek, while I have a broader range of geeky interests. Dude, I get how geeky I am. There's no need to point it out every time you learn something new about how much of a geek I actually am. I did enjoy the fact that he paid for everything from dinner to ice cream to coffee and drinks last night. I also appreciated the fact that he's trying to show interest in music I like, like downloading GazettE's new album on iTunes to listen to it. I don't know though. Maybe I'm being overly picky like I tend to be with guys, I feel like there's something that's not quite there for me...which means that it's going to be up to me to tell him that the next time I see him. Always a fun task. I wouldn't mind continuing to be friends with him, but I don't think I want a relationship with him.

Yesterday, I met up with Leslie and Anna. We did a quick trip to the Pokemon Center. I didn't end up buying anything for myself, but I bought some stuff that Zury wanted (that she's going to pay me back for). Then, we went to Harajuku. We browsed a ton a places all over Takeshita Dori and the nearby area. I bought a kind of asymmetrical long black skirt at Closet Child and some new fishnets. I also had some delicious naan and chicken curry for lunch. Anna left slightly earlier than Leslie and I did. Leslie and I then stopped at a cafe on Takeshita Dori and had some iced tea (mine was honey and ginger, hers was milk tea) and cake. I was finally able to eat the cake I'd been wanting since Friday. We tried to do a little more shopping after that, but didn't end up buying anything else. It was fun to be able to go shopping again in Harajuku though!

My lessons are almost back to normal now that midterms are over. I looked back at my LJ entries and realized that I hadn't really mentioned midterms much (though I certainly did on Twitter). Midterms at my base school finished last week. I created the listening midterm, read it aloud to the students during the exam, and graded 300+ copies of it. It was a lot of work, but I learned a thing or two about grading and creating midterms that should hopefully make it easier for me next time.

I saw Deathly Hallows (Part 2) last night, with DJ. All I have to say is OMG. It wasn't perfect (none of the movies are ever perfect enough for me), but I think it was the best out of all the Harry Potter movies. ( Spoilers. ) When the movie ended, DJ and I just hugged each other, in the realization that the culmination of our childhood had "ended" for the second time. That's not completely true though because in the hearts of the fans, Harry Potter will never be over. After all, there's still Pottermore!

Forgot to mention that I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides last week with DJ. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't quite the same for me.

( Spoilery thoughts. )

All in all, it was a good adventure movie, but I couldn't quite bring myself to love it.

I'm a bit depressed that almost all of my girls are going to be at Colossalcon without me this weekend. I keep seeing tidbits about their plans online and wishing that I could go with them, but I can't go because I have to be a good big sister and attend my brother's high school graduation this weekend. It wouldn't bother me quite as much, but this would've been my last chance to see some of them before I go to Japan, like Cat and probably Alie. And Cat finished her Celty cosplay, so Emilia, Cat and I would be able to do awesome DRRR!! cosplay together. Oh, well. I'm trying not to dwell on it and I do have other plans coming up this weekend that I wouldn't be able to do if I'd gone to Colossal.

Tomorrow my cousin Tami is going in for a c-section, so that she can have her new baby! I'm going to help babysit Hayden tomorrow while she's in the hospital. I should be able to see the new baby this weekend. :)

Then, on Sunday, I get to go visit meepalicious! I'm going to fly into Boston and then we're going to meet up and I get to spend the week with her in Cape Cod. I'm so excited to see her again! A little later this week I'll have to start packing. It sounds like we're going to try to have cosplay shenanigans and take dolly pictures, so I must pack accordingly.

I guess I never updated to say that I was back at school. I've been back from spring break for about a week now (though it feels like it's been longer than that). This past week has been pretty mellow, since the schoolwork hasn't started to pile up yet. 

My free time has basically amounted to a whole lot of me watching stuff. I got my Adam Lambert concert DVD in the mail on Tuesday, so I of course had to watch it that night. It was awesome and nostalgic because the footage was from the Indy concert that I went to back at the beginning of the school year. On Thursday night, Greta, Zury, and I went to go see Tangled (for free) at the IMU. I hadn't seen it before and thought it was super cute! The animation was also so gorgeous. I love the bit with the floating lanterns. The rest of the time in-between was spent watching more Buffy. We're halfway through season 4 right now and I'm very much enjoying it. Spike is quickly working his way to being my favorite character. The goal right now is to finish watching season 4 by the end of this week because Netflix is taking Buffy off of instant view at the end of the month.

Today is a very lazy day. There's nothing much going on and most of my roomies are at work for most of the day. I don't have any homework that I immediately need to work on (though if I had any sort of motivation I'd start memorizing my speech for Japanese on Wednesday, all 500 characters of it). Think I'm just going to try and get some reading done.

Yesterday, I met up withimmelmanturn downtown. She had obtained free passes to an advanced screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. On my way to meet up with her I walked past the Art Institute and, much to my delight, there were a group of cosplayers from the new Alice in Wonderland movie doing a photoshoot there. I wish I'd actually gone and gotten a closer look at them. Then I found immelmanturn and we got sushi for dinner. We then went to the movie screening. I really enjoyed the movie. It was fun, cute, and quirky. I had also only read the first volume of the comic, so I wasn't picking everything apart and comparing it to the books. I think it made for a more enjoyable viewing experience. Wallace was definitely my favorite part of the movie. I also liked the movie's soundtrack a lot. I should see about downloading it. I was also amused at the single preview they showed before the movie, which looked like it was going to be some creepy horror movie. It was then revealed to be a trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's newest film. A couple people in the audience booed and the entire audience burst into laughter at the trailer. I love being in movie theaters full of geeks.

I finally saw Toy Story 3 yesterday. It was very good, but bittersweet. I think it really hit me because I'm in college and have realized that I'm not a child anymore. Pixar chose the perfect time for the full emotional impact of this movie. All of the children who originally saw Toy Story in theaters are now around college age. If I didn't love Pixar so much, I'd hate them for how emotional their movies can make me.

After watching So You Think You Can Dance last night, DJ and I picked up Kala. We then met up with Jessie and her friend Josh at a bar they had gone to. It was kind of a dive, but we had fun chatting and having a few drinks nonetheless. Jessie and Josh got me a Jagerbomb, cause I'd never had one before. It was okay, but not fantastic. It was also karaoke night, but I wasn't in the mood for singing in front of people.

Today was busier than I expected it to be. I started my morning off by going over to visit our neighbors. They're a slightly older, retired couple. They wanted me to try and translate something for them. They have a Japanese flag from WWII and it's covered in writing (and dried blood from the war...). As best as I could make out, the flag was for some officer in the army, wishing him good luck. I couldn't get much more out of it than that because the flag was completely covered with handwritten kanji (which is automatically harder to read). There were a lot of characters and combinations that I didn't know and my kanji dictionary on my DS was only so helpful. I did find it to be interesting though. I just wish that I could have understood more of it.

Then, I came back home and made cookies. Afterwords, I spent the afternoon with DJ, which involved things such as trying to watch 9 (but only getting halfway through because the DVD was scratched) and going to Bath & Body Works.. After we had dinner, we went over to Alex's house for a couple of hours. It was a fun time because, even though I don't know Alex very well, her house is always very welcoming.

I'm excited for this weekend! I get to go visit my girls in Bloomington! This makes me happy because I so miss geeking out with them. It's Greta's birthday tomorrow and Alie's birthday next week, so we plan on partying. I believe there are plans to have a cosplay dinner. I should get ready for bed because I'm meeting up with Payne early tomorrow. She's driving both of us down to IU. :D

So, Thursday night was Beauty and the Beast. It was lovely! I had seen a well-done local production of it before, but the professional production took it to another level (as it should have). I thought Belle, the Beast, and Gaston's actors were all very good. I think the coolest part was the Beast's transformation sequence, near the end. They had his actor hoisted up on wires and spun him all around, while these cool lights flashed. Then, by the end of the sequence, the Beast's mask had been pulled off and he turned into the Prince. And of course, he and Belle lived happily ever after~.

This afternoon we all went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. I really enjoyed it. It was a nice re-imagining of the original story and the visuals were stunning. This is quite stereotypical for me, but my favorite part was Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. He maintained a nice level of insanity. I also really enjoyed all the inclusions of the Jabberwocky, since I've enjoyed the poem even since my 6th grade English teacher made us memorize it. I do think the movie could have been even better though, possibly if it was not a joint venture between Disney and Tim Burton. I feel that Tim Burton needed to hold back a bit on his usual weirdness because of the Disney label on the movie. Oh, well. It was still quite good though.
 
We also went to anime club tonight, as we normally do. Tonight, we started watching Sengoku Basara. Oh my god. The Sengoku Jidai just got fuck awesome. This show is completely historically unrealistic (aside from the fact that it contains fictional versions of real Japanese historical figures) and I don't even care. It's gar levels are through the roof and they fight with manly spirit. Therefore the battles have large amounts of gay. There is also random gratuitous, but not completely unintelligible Engrish. And Oda Nobunaga. The motto of this series should be "Sengoku Basara: Uniting Japan through GAR and GAY".

Went and saw The Princess and the Frog last night because it's playing at the IMU this weekend. It's a super cute movie! I think it's the best Disney movie that there's been in a while (excluding Pixar movies). The last time I liked a Disney movie this much was when I saw Lilo and Stitch. I liked Tiana's character a lot. I feel like she's a more realistic Disney heroine because she wasn't born a princess and had to go through a lot of hard work to get her happy ending. I also liked that Naveen had a personality, unlike half of the past Disney princes. So, overall this movie made me glee~.

Now, I get to use the rest of my weekend to finish my Gender Studies midterm. Yay. This thing frustrates me so much. And it's not even just the length of it that frustrates me. There's been so much confusion about the first essay question that our professor has had to send us no less than three different e-mails explaining it. Professor, should that not tell you that it's a shitty question?

On Sunday, everyone in the house went to see Avatar in 3D. I was left with mixed feelings.

( My thoughts on Avatar, cut for spoilers. )

Sunday night we ended up having a cosplay prep party at the house. immelmanturn came by and stayed the night, while Ohayocon costume making went on. We watched Star Trek (2009), Star Trek: The Voyage Home (aka the one with the whales), and Land Before Time. One of these things is not like the other. It was a fun time though. Kristi got a start on her Al armor. Yes, Al from Fullmetal Alchemist. She's making the armor out of Wonderflex. If this thing gets finished in time, it's going to be pretty awesome. I am getting super excited for the con and our huge FMA cosplay group.

My friends and I went to the midnight showing of The Dark Knight last night/this morning. It was a great movie! And I don't even consider myself to be a fan of superhero movies. This was just really good. Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was so freaky and awesome. A+. He had me sitting on the edge of my seat whenever he was on screen, wondering what crazy as fuck thing he was going to do next. It just makes me even sadder that he's gone now.
 
Have plans to go out for delicious sushi with Meghan tonight. Yay!