Too long

Yeah, yeah, so I didn't update my blog as quickly as I thought I would.

Sweeney Todd was well done and I liked it. Nikki said that there was one word that was missing that disappointed her. My missing word is "locksmith". "A Little Priest" is one of the most amusing numbers in Sweeney Todd, but the took out one of my favorite parts. On the whole, however, I thought it was very good. The music they cut out is probably much more meaningful on the stage than in a film version because of the nature of the respective mediums.

The movie was bloody, but in a very non-realistic manner. The colors used overall were rather dark and the color of the blood was very intentionally bright red. To me that made the blood less horrific than it would have been if it had looked remotely real.

Burton's production is more tragic than humorous as compared to other productions, but he certainly did not remove humor altogether. There were some parts that made me laugh delightfully. The acting was excellent in some parts and merely good in others, but I like the casting. The film version has some definite casting advantages over the original Broadway cast, specifically with Johanna, Anthony and Toby. They seem much, much, much more age appropriate and sounded better in my opinion, too.

Overall, if the macabre doesn't make your blood curdle and you like a good musical, you might find yourself enjoying Sweeney Todd.

In other news, the job interview I had on Thursday for the promotion went very well. I don't expect to hear back too soon, so nobody should hold their breath. They changed my hours at work to 9-6 Tuesday-Saturday as well, so I am adjusting to more "normal" hours. So far I enjoy getting home from work at a time that makes cooking dinner more feasible!

Quick notes

I saw Sweeney Todd last night. I will share my thoughts on that later, but you shouldn't have to wait too long.

My shift changed at work again, slightly. I found out about it yesterday and chose to start the new shift today rather than waiting until next week. Instead of 10-7 Tue-Sat, I now work 9-6 Tue-Sat. A very slight shift change, but a positive one. I am now really, truly, working a day shift.

In other work news, I still have not heard anything about an interview for the position I applied for, but I am not surprised. I anticipate that they will start that just after the first of the year.

I seem to have done something that my lower back did not like at all, and it is telling me about it almost constantly. Without ever having such a thing, the closest thing I can compare the feeling to is a pinched nerve. It's a very localized pain but in a place that makes walking, standing up, rolling over in bed, etc., rather uncomfortable.

A few snow showers are back on the weather forecast for Tuesday. We'll see.

Attend the tale...

Sweeney Todd is coming out in theaters today. One of my friends from work and I have had many a discussion about whether Tim Burton's rendition of it will do it justice. My argument is that we can't know until we see it. I do know that they have cut out some things (like "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd", so we're never actually told to attend the tale; there's no chorus at all, from what I understand) and shortened others (like "A Little Priest", which happens to be my favorite part of the whole stage production), so they are doing an abridged version. I think that's a shame, but I plan to go see it tonight and am determined to take the movie and judge it for its own triumphs and shortcomings. Do I honestly think I'll like it as well as the stage production? We'll see.

White Christmas?

Yesterday I checked the forecast and it said high in the 40s on Dec 23 with rain and snow showers, a few snow showers for Dec 24, and partly cloudy for Dec 25. This morning it says the same, with one modification. Now they are expecting a few snow showers on Dec 25 as well. Will it snow on Christmas? That would be exciting for me, even if it is just a little bit! Either way I hope the "warmer" weekend weather doesn't melt all of the snow so there is at least some left on the ground.

It had only just begun

This is the parking lot at work just after I got there. Notice the excellent visibility. (It had actually been worse on part of my drive in.) The cars would all have a good 4 inches of snow on them by the time it stopped and the snow on the ground around the cars was deeper still. The worst was behind the cars after they plowed the lot. It was probably about a foot deep there. I took a shovel and removed some of the snow from behind my car to avoid getting stuck. The only real danger I had of getting stuck was trying to get into a parking spot back at home. I had to get out and clear a little path for my tires before I could actually get all the way in. That was fun. The worst is over now, however, and we should only get another inch or two before the next storm on Saturday night. ;)

Tidbits

I found out last night at 10:30 that I had an appointment with my optometrist this afternoon. I scheduled it last year. Next year's appointment is on my calendar at work, so I at least recorded it somewhere in an attempt to learn from this experience. My eyes are healthy, if any of you are wondering ;).

I saw a hitchhiker today. I almost felt bad for not stopping since it was a cold day to be standing outside, but stopping would have been foolish and I wasn't going more than a mile or two down the highway, so it wouldn't have done much good even if he had been harmless and I had stopped. I don't really recall seeing anyone doing that in the past several years (and can't remember any specific instances of it before that, even), so it stuck out in my mind as definitely an unusual sight.

We're supposed to get 5-10 inches of snow tomorrow afternoon. Up to an inch or more per hour, they say. It's supposed to be bad while I am at work, not heavy until after I have to be at work and is scheduled stop or at least lighten up a lot before it's time for me to go home. Leaving work will be, um, fun? Makes me tempted to bring my snow boots for the car extraction process and pack my snow shovel in the trunk. I'm definitely bringing my lunch since I really don't like driving in whiteout conditions. We do get to wear jeans, however, so that's some small consolation.

Doh!

If life teaches us anything, it should teach us to laugh at ourselves. With antics like mine, how can I resist such a lesson?

I spent almost an hour on Sunday morning on the phone with my mom (and my dad for a bit, but he had to leave for church so didn't stay on long). The consequences of that were rushing out the door in an attempt to get myself to church as close to on time as possible. Little did I know what my morning would be like.

Exit apartment. Door is locked. Walk to car. On the way to the car, grab keys out of the...wait! Why aren't my keys in my purse! Not again!

I locked my keys in my apartment a few weeks ago on a cold snowy morning. It was a Friday during business hours, so someone from the leasing office let me in for free. There is a charge after hours and on weekends for such services. One would think that I had learned from the previous experience. Then again, my history says that such things repeat themselves in a short period of time. I had never locked myself out of my living quarters before (I have had someone else lock me out when I was in the shower in a dorm, but that was inadvertent and was quickly rectified). I have locked my keys in my car twice. Both times were within a month of each other. Now the same with my keys and my apartment? *Sigh*

I checked and double checked my purse. Not there. There is a three inch plush Eeyore on them, so it's pretty obvious if they are there or not. I checked my pocket - no keys.

So I sent a text message to my roommate who was at church so she would know and perhaps take pity on me and come home after church to let me in. (No such luck. Knowing full well that I was locked out she opted to go to lunch with someone and didn't get home until well after 2:00.) I called one of my friends who goes to church at 11:30 to see if I could tag along, but I got no answer.

Fortunately for me, someone was doing laundry in the laundry room right next door to my apartment and opened the door. It didn't shut all the way, so I was able to go in and have a warm place to sit.

I read my Bible for a bit. Then I moved on to an old magazine and read a few articles. Then at 12:30 I tried to contact people again since church should be out and maybe someone could either come rescue me or find my roommate and see if she was coming home or not. Nobody answered still. Around 1:00 I decided to check to see if my roommate had come home, but she hadn't. I am not even entirely sure why, but I put my hands in my pockets and realized that my keys were in my coat pocket. I had checked the right one but not the left one. I had my keys with me all along and only assumed that because I had locked myself out once that not immediately finding my keys meant that I did it again. Doh! I let myself into my apartment and for penance worked on cleaning my room.

I think it's time to start carrying around a second set of keys again like I started to after locking my keys in the car twice.

Lights

I have always loved Christmas lights, but tonight as I was driving home, I was struck by the Christmas lights strung on houses with snow covered roofs. One house had a large lighted wreath complimented by two foot icicles. After living where it snows, Christmas decorations will never be the same. I love Christmas lights even more now, set against a backdrop of glistening white snow. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

What more was there to do?

Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only worthless ones.
"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge between Me and My vineyard.
"What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?"

I missed church this morning. I was up in plenty of time, but did not have the opportunity to get ready since my roommate was having a slow start and was in the bathroom until it was too late for me to get ready and make it to church even close to on time. I instead spent some time reading my Bible. Some of my favorite "Christmas" passages are in Isaiah, so I started reading there. This passage is Isaiah 5:1-4. It is a parable that I understand full well. What has God not done for us? Sometimes it is just too easy to be a mediocre grape at best. Is it because God has not given us what we need to be high quality fruit? Not at all. He has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness. Even so, I cannot imagine that I am doing the best I can, but I know that when the fruit of my life is a little bit squishy and bruised, it doesn't have to be that way. More importantly, I cannot blame God for my own failures. God is good and gives us everything we need to thrive in Him if we choose to accept His care and nourishment. We become "worthless" fruit through our neglect, not His. I sometimes forget how to abide in the Vine and get caught up what we generally think of as life, and that's when I miss out on the abundant life given to me by my Savior and start going through life as relatively unimpressive fruit. I don't want to be a mushy grape, so I must abide and take advantage of the gracious gifts of God.