There is Something in my Tea!

On the train – on the train – on the train – and yowza! Somebody put milk into my tea. On Saturdays, I have the privilege of getting to shop in the little train station shop – which happens to close before my normal weekday train. It is a tiny store which has a tough time fitting two people side-by-side and that leads to it having a very limited selection of treats. One of the things that they weren’t able to fit into the confines was lemon juice for the tea. Now – I’m not sure if you have ever seen me make “hot” tea – but a pretty fair amount of sugar goes into the cup to make a sweet sweet concoction – a sweet sweet treat – and normally I love to drop some lemon into the mix to push the azucar back a smidge. Well – today – there was no lemon (at this place – there is never any lemon) and so I decided to try the trick of cutting back on the sugar and then adding some milk (2% in case you were worried about my fat intake). I have to say . . . it is really tasty – and probably about as close as you are going to find me coming to drinking (blech) coffee (which is gross).

It kind of feels like I have a secret in my cup that no one else knows anything at all about (excepting you guys – that is – but we are totally cool – so let’s keep it on the low-low) – and not only just that – but a new taste to add to my repertoire. I can’t wait to get the opportunity at some restaurant – or something – where I am in the mood to get faux-snooty and ask the waiter for some milk for my tea that I will be having with my scone – or whatever – and then finish the whole scene off by daintily picking up the tea cup – pinky finger out (of course) and enjoying what the night has to offer.

Friday Photo [#37] – House-Boat.

New Sheriff in Town (One Week Ago)

Today is Thanksgiving and I am on the train going into the city to do the job. The train is pretty empty – I suppose that most people who were going to be traveling probably already did. It is a nice switch from the mobs that have been packing the commute for the last couple of weeks to get their piece of city holiday spice. Because while pieces of spice are nice . . . packed trains are not.
On the train – there are 3 (three) seaters and 2 (two) seaters. I usually opt for the 3 (three) seaters when the train is empty so that I can fall asleep if the need hits me – which it seems to a bunch these days.
Today there were so many empty seats that I didn’t even think of hopping into a big three and setting my bag – my pillow – next to me. Then Mister Conductor came up – a fill in for the holiday – not my normal conductor who is nice and makes jokes with the passengers – and says “You gotta move that bag in case somebody wants that seat.” Confused – I said “Excuse me?” And he just repeated that I had to move the bag. I looked past him and pointed out that there were 5 (five) rows of empty seats across the aisle and he said to move the bag.
I would totally love for a better ending – but all that happened was that I scootched the bag over, no one sat next to me and I fell asleep about 30 (thirty) minutes into the trip. How’s that for excitement?!

Ant 101

No Country For Old Men – Review

“No Country For Old Men” is a movie that was adapted for the screen and directed by Joel & Ethan Coen from a novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. I hadn’t read the book, but had read McCarthy’s book “The Road”, so going in – I had an idea of how bleak the worlds that he could create can be and was anxiously hoping that the Coens (who are among my favorite film makers – but who have had a couple of missteps in their last outings) would return to the levels of my favorites of their movies (for today – “Barton Fink” seems to be my tops).

My mouth hung open for the first fifteen minutes at how ridiculously well framed and shot it was. It felt like one of those movies where you could pause it on every shot and would end up with a perfect composition. So right off the bat – the visuals pulled me into the movie. The one thing that kept constantly trying to distract me and pull me out of the mood that was being set was the woman sitting next to me – who like a three year old that can’t internalize their reactions to the world kept uttering “Oh my god,” and “Oh no” over and over at every stressful moment. Now – to her credit – it was a very stressful movie that kept me shifting in my chair from the edge to the back right corner and then over to the left middle.

Without ruining anything – I will tell you that the movie is about a man Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who finds a bag full of money in the middle of the desert and the consequences that follow. One of those consequences is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a psychotic killer who is looking for the money while following his own skewed set of rules and morals – which at times he seems almost pained to have to play through to the end. All the while the been-everywhere and seen-everything Sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) trails in the wake of all of the mayhem trying to piece together the puzzle – the likes of which he – actually – has never seen – he hopes in time to save Llewelyn from the mess that he has gotten himself into.

I loved the movie – and can’t stop thinking about different scenes from it. I want to read the book and go back and see it to be able to watch more closely to find some of the nuances that I am sure are in the movie – that I am positive are in the movie. I saw the movie about a week ago – and am still pretty giddy to go and see it again – even though there are parts to it that stick in my head as situations that really freak me out.

My Recommendation is to go out and see the movie. Then – sit through the next showing with a pad and a pen – so that you can take notes. Once you have gone through all of that, get back to me with your synopsis – and we will just treat the whole thing like a book club – for movies – a movie club – I guess.

I mean – seriously – I am curious as to what you think – and how you tick.