Ah, vacation. Doing nothing but eating, cleaning, organizing, exercising, and relaxing. At the moment I'm in a fun little prank call battle with some kid studying German who somehow got my number and thinks its a sporting good time to let the phone ring once and hang up every five minutes. I've called back and babbled on in English (which he doesn't seem to understand) or done the same call and hang up thing whenever I've felt the timing is appropriate. Now I'm just going to ignore him. I've had my fun. I've also grown a certain apprecation for people who screw around in other people's lives to give their own some meaning.
Although it's annoying every once in a while, it also seems to give my life a little fake celebrity. I mean, that Anita/Tom/Joe person writes a new comment every other day just to say he/she hates me! Can you imagine that? He thinks that it's worth his time to declare his hatred for a guy writing a journal back to friends and family in America. Granted, I pick up the occasional well-appreciated new reader now and then, but the core group are the ones I left behind. And ATJ thinks that's worth hating. I think a character study is in order. Who wants to write a short story?
Speaking of character studies, another of the DVDs the family brought with them to Bulgaria (Along with the immortal classic Too Young to Die? mentioned earlier) was About a Boy. It's probably now one of my favorite chick flicks (if it could be called that) and Hugh Grant at his best. Wasn't really expecting to laugh out loud, I just wanted something to keep me occupied during dinner. Turned out to be darn good times, with a great ending that flowed right along with the rest of the movie's philosophy. It's not an all-time favorite, but it will defintely be worth watching if I or someone I'm with ever feels an inexplicable urge to watch a romantic comedy of some sort.
***
The prank caller just sent me a message calling himself Martin. I know a Martin, but he isn't the type to do something this stupid. He wants to know if I "watch 2 Fast 2 Furious" and what I "think for this movie." That's a common mistake among even my best students--the for/about mix-up. They're both za in Bulgarian and depending on how cruel I feel when grading papers, I'll knock a student for mixing them up.
I'm not altogether sure about what I think for 2 Fast 2 Furious. For a movie that contains no more than 10 different words in its dialgue and still gets by with a PG-13, it gets along pretty well. Crummy ending, and I'd like to see someone hold a gun to Paul Walker and tell him to act well, just to see what would happen, but I can't say I was ever bored. Really nice cars too. Can't knock a movie with a couple of Mustangs. I'm going to tell Martin I liked it. I'm sure he'll appreciate that.
So yeah, I have to send a message to Martin. If you enjoyed today's random, meaningless babble (and I know you did Tom/Anita/Joe!), come again tomorrow for more vacation-induced ramblings.
Posted by Rob at April 5, 2004 07:22 PMrelax, i'm reading your blog :-)