An adventurous day

Today it is high 60's and sunny, and by Thursday it will be in the 80's. You'd never know we had such a storm over the last 3 days. But we got over 12 inches of rain, which is huge for LA.

We got so wet yesterday. Friends got us tickets to the Rose Parade - normally, a huge score. But this was not the year to do it. It wasn't just the rain, although that was awful - you couldn't use an umbrella in the grandstand seats so we were absolutely getting pounded.

Anyway, we started the day fine (we got to eat breakfast at Fuller with our friends who got us the tickets). But then we went over to the stands. I had on a water-resistant jacket and J had a poncho. Also I made a skirt out of a hefty cinch sack which I cinched around my waist (everyone was totally impressed with my ingenuity). But when the wind would kick up and the rain start pouring, as happened several times, there was no way of avoiding a complete drenching. By the time my jacket and gloves had soaked through, and my garbage-sack hat wasn't staying on (they said I looked like the Hefty nun), I was about done. I stayed to cheer on USC then we left. Well we got down to the street and were standing under the umbrella and it was actually quite pleasant. We weren't getting nearly as wet, and we could see the floats a lot better from closer up. So we hung out there for a while longer. I felt terrible for all the people who'd slept out overnight - and people did it. Crazy! You could tell who they were - when we arrived, they looked dazed (as we always did after being up all night - I tell you, it's hard to enjoy the parade in that fog), or they were completely under tarps. There were all these long rows of human-shaped tarp bundles. It was funny.

Anyway, we decided to walk to the train station that was a bit further away because we literally couldn't cross the street to get to the closer one. We walked there in a downpour and what do you know? The trains weren't running! What a shock! (they had already been running late when we rode up at 6 in the morning) So we sat around there about 1/2 hour, then they bused us to the stop that was working, which happened to be our stop. But it was like 150 people packed onto a bus and it's all humid and we're all pissed off and tired...it was no fun. We got to our stop, and J and I walked home, and by this point we gave up any semblance of trying to stay dry. We even put our umbrellas down (they were turning inside out anyway). I've never been so wet. I was walking in puddles inside my shoes - all sloppy and squishy.

When we got home I got in the hot shower but I couldn't stand being wet any more so I got right out, bundled up, drank hot chocolate and watched the rest of the parade on TV. Finally, things began to feel comfortable again.

We did wind up going out later to the movies and dinner, which was nice, although our movie sold out, so we had to kill 4 hours until the next showing. All in all, a rather unfortunate day! But we do have our adventures.

We saw Brokeback Mountain. J loved it - one of his favorite films this year (and he's the smart one about movies, so pay attention) - that one and The Constant Gardener. Mine are the latter and King Kong (which J also loved, but it's just in kind of a different category of movie). And probably Walk the Line. What a great movie year. Can't wait to see Munich, Syriana, Matchpoint, and The New World. J also really wants to see Capote but I could wait for DVD on that one.

Anyway, Brokeback was very good - very long, but a great love story. Interesting to see with an audience, particularly because these people didn't seem the type to like it. And they laughed at some inappropriate places. But maybe the filmmakers wouldn't have minded - at least they were engaged. It was a gorgeous movie - really cinematic. J was saying how many films - take, for example, Crash, which is on a lot of top 10 lists - are all about the script, and you could really read it and get close to the same experience. But not this film - there was very little dialogue, it was about what you saw. The acting, the vistas, the body language, the settings. Very beautiful. And of course all about repression, which all of Ang Lee's films are about (whether it's English sisters, a Chinese swordsman, the Hulk, or a gay cowboy, his heroes are always people fighting what they want).

So I recommend it, with reservations. I couldn't recommend it to anyone in my family, although I would to most people at Fuller. It's just too gay for most people I know. I think. I don't know. Maybe people aren't bothered by that. I just think they'd be so turned off by the physical contact between the men that the rest of the film wouldn't make an impression. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe my own homophobia is coming into this. Although normally I am not bothered. Who knows?