A few days off


I spotted actress Karen Allen with her son at Butternut Mountain on Wednesday when I went skiing in Mass. It was her freckles and smile that gave her away. Her hair was in braids, her ski boots had a fur trim around the tops, and she looked great. I smiled but didn't say hello, I didn't want to bother her. You can probably catch her movie Scrooged on TV this week.

Please Drive Safely
My mother's Ford Explorer was rear-ended on our ski trip while we were at a traffic light. Luckily no one was hurt, but the 82-year-old woman who hit us was really shook up. Our rear bumper barely had a scrath, but look at her poor car:

It's Christmas Time in the City
Now Playing: Silver Bells (by Stevie Wonder)
It has finally snowed here in New York City!

My friend and I were just saying that it didn't feel very Christmasy and we blamed it on the lack of snow, but yay, now it's here.

Here is a photo of my snowy balcony (fire escape) that I took when I woke up this morning and then froze my face and other parts of my body off on my walk to the subway. It was 12 degrees out!




My First Christmas in my Apartment


This is my very first Christmas tree on my own. Granted it's tiny and lacks all my Hallmark Gone With The Wind and Star Wars ornaments but there is a bigger tree waiting for me in Connecticut at my mother's home with all that. In the meantime the planted tree and my decorated mantle make my little apartment very cozy and holidayish.

PS: wow I just got a bomb dropped on me... and yet I manage to sing the song "you dropped a bomb on me" repeatedly in my head.

Rush Limbaugh? Don't get me started...
Urghh like I needed another reason not to like him:

"Feminism is just a way for ugly women to get into the mainstream of America."
-- Rush Limbaugh

According to Dictionary.com the definition of fem?i?nism is: Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.

By the traditional definition I would hope that everyone would be a feminist. Limbaugh like most, confuse feminism with extremist women's groups. Either way feminism does not equal ungly women, lol.

The Aviator

I just went to another advanced screening, this time to Scorsese's new film The Aviator.

It's about the oil man, film director, famous aviator, and Texan billionare, Howard Hughes, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. I love Scorsese's work and this film was as meticulous and beautifully shot as his other classics and a lot lighter than Raging Bull and with less blood. However, there is a rather bloody scene, just wanted to warn you.

At times the film reminded me of Citizen Kane. Both films feature brilliant creative men who go crazy while building their empires. Instead of whispering "rosebud," Aviator ends with a close up of the lead actor repeatedly muttering "the way of the future," with an eerie similarity.

The flight scenes are very beautiful but there are lots of them. Pilots and old Hollywood film buffs should really enjoy this film since it pays tribute to both.

Leo does such a good job as Hughes that it was painful watching the once lively playboy gradually dissent into madness and become a recluse with twitches and OCD.

I wanted to see this film as soon as I had heard about it, because I'm a huge Katharine Hepburn fan and have read about her relationship with Howard Hughes in her biography. It was interesting seeing Cate Blanchett playing Ms. Hepburn. She had the voice and laugh down pat, but her first scene on camera takes place on a golf course and it seemed like Blanchett was all over the place and just doing an impression of Kate and not really being her. However, as the film progressed so did Cate's portrayal of the Hollywood legend.

Despite what the film shows, Kate did not meet Spencer right after being with Hughes, but a few years later in 1942 when filming Woman of the Year. It would have helped if they but more dates and locations at the bottom. They started doing this at first but stopped midway, so it was hard to tell how long they were together and when exactly World War II started in the film.

I was surprised they didn't include that even after they broke up, Hughes still gave Hepburn the script The Philadelphia Story Especially since the 1940 movie helped re-launch Hepburn's career and let her escape the label "box office poison," which Hepburn in the film declares she is being called. It would have provided more closure.

Gwen Stefani in her brief appearance looked amazingly like Jean Harlow. Although, I wasn't really impressed by Kate Beckinsale playing Eva Garder, for me she was just there. Meanwhile, Jude Law appears in the film too (seriously how many movies did this guy do this year? he's everywhere) he plays the swashbuckling playboy Errol Flynn. Alan Alda and Alec Baldwin also stars.

Scorsese, the film, Cate Blanchett and DiCaprio have already been nominated for Golden Globes.

The picture releases in NYC and LA on Dec. 17 and Christmas weekend through out the country. Beware, buy food and pee first, because the film is almost 3 hours long but definitely a must see. Check out the official website HERE. Also check out the New York Post review, which gave the new film 3 stars.

Just One Of those Days
I hate those days when you think you are looking pretty good, you have a new outfit on and you're smiling, feeling pretty confident. In my case, I'm sort of strutting out of the subway. Then you trip on the uneven pavement because you were too busy looking up at the sky and fall to the ground. Not one of the business commuters around me in Times Square even stopped to take notice of me and there went the good mood.

My knee is scraped and I scuffed my boots. At my main office's entrance on the 16th floor I quickly look at my reflection in the glass doors and I mentally think "That's what I look like? Shoot, I thought my hair was doing something better and I swear that shirt looked better in the dressing room, ah f*$# it."

The opposite days are of course better. You know, the days when you think you look like crap and everyone around you keeps saying how good you look or that your skirt is amazing, yada yada. LOL those days are rare but precious and so far it's not one of those days.

Continued...later that afternoon...

OK it is soo not one of those days! It got even better when I came back from grabbing some fries from the dollar menu at McDonalds (you gotta love the $ menu). When I returned to my desk to eat the yummy fries, I couldn't remove my white knee-length bubble coat. The zipper was snagged on the lining again and it would not budge. The snag was right below my neck so I couldn't really look at where it was caught or how to fix it. So I had to sort of crawl out of the massive thing and of course that is when the cute guy from work walks by and says "Good afternoon Tara." At least I assumed it was his voice from what I could hear from within my coat cave. I felt like an earthworm crawling out of that thing. lol