Home Improvement

I painted this weekend: pretty much all weekend. Friday after work I went to Lowe's, bought my paint and came home and watched The Broadway Melody.

On Saturday, I started painting at around 1:00p and finished the dining room around 5:00p. I was gonna watch another movie, but I ended up just bumming around until I met my friends at Applebee's (I fucking hate this place, but my friends don't care) in Diamond Bar (I live in Pasadena, but my friends don't care.) Actually, the drive wasn't bad at all and all I did at the restaurant was drink, so what does it matter how white-trash the joint is?

On Sunday, I was supposed to go coffee-table-shopping with Deborah to buy my parents a new one so that they could give me theirs (it matches the end tables in my living room). I didn't really want to go table-shopping, but it had to be done, or I wasn't getting my parents'.
Not so. Mom called and said she doesn't want a new coffee table and the one she has is in the way anyway, and can Debs just bring it by my house. Um... yeah. You're going to give it to me and deliver it and I don't have to do anything?? Sweet.

The doorway needed two coats because of the nature of the paint, so after the first one, I took a break and watched Before Sunset, which is SO GOOD. If you saw/liked Before Sunrise, you will love this sequel. You probably already know that it's a Decline of the American Empire/Barbarian Invasions thing, with a sequel happening with the same actors after many years (15 in the Denys Arcand case and 9 in this case.) And like Barbarian Invasions, Before Sunset is a very different film from it's predecessor, and wonderfully so. Before Sunrise was a hopeful, energetic, magical, coupling that wasn't the least bit based in reality and cashed in on a seat-of-the-pants mentality and earnestness that twentysomethings often have. I liked the movie when I watched it a couple days ago, and instinctively knew that if I had seen it in high school, I would have connected with it a lot better. The characters are idealistic and wonderful, but they seem to be in denial (they're not really, they're just young.) But Before Sunset is able to bring these two characters back together and they can discuss politics and love and their dreams with new attitudes and eyes: they are the discussions of people who are older and wiser and more tuned-in to reality on a lot of levels. I absolutely loved it. I feel like Before Sunrise was about a certain period in my life that I remember only semi-fondly, but Before Sunset is about my life as it is now, and it is no easy feat to make a movie like that. I promptly moved Before Sunset onto my top twenty-five list for 2004.

Still haven't seen Head On. I keep meaning to see it; this is it's second weekend in release. I just can't get my ass in gear to go to the cinema.

The dining room looks stellar. The paint is eggshell and it looks wonderful, and the color is just perfect. I hung the ($40) painting I bought at HomoGoods HomeGoods last week and it looks great on the new wall. I'm still kind of undecided on the doorway area. The paint is a satin finish (they couldn't give me the flat in the dark red color I wanted) and I'm not sure I like it; I know I don't like it as much as the eggshell. The color looks great, but I didn't paint the doors at all and so they kind of pop. Hmmm.