sunday night thoughts

this is one of my favorite times of the week - sunday night.

i used to hate this time - in college, around this time every sunday night, i'd be worried about the homework or papers or studying i'd put off all weekend. i typically dreaded monday mornings for that reason. now, though, i kind of love this time. my sundays are typically very refreshing and relaxing. i could go to bed at any moment (and i probably will pretty soon), and when i wake up in the morning i'll be well-rested - instead of freaking out b/c i have to do some homework before an 8 a.m. class.

i've never appreciated the weekends quite like i do now.

well, the last time i wrote, i had just returned from my survivor audition. as i'm sure you're all on pins and needles waiting to hear an update, i can tell you that i haven't yet heard back from CBS. key word being "yet," because i'm sure they'll call soon... i'm holding out hope.

anyway, today i went to the art museum in chicago. i love anything that's free - and this month, the art museum has free admission every day! i figure the $5 chai tea i bought before we went to the museum sort of cancels out the free museum admission, but whatever. anyway, we decided to take advantage of the free museum, along with about half the city of chicago. i normally dislike crowds, but today i didn't really mind. it's nice to see a bunch of different people all enjoying the same art. it's even cool to see parents with their little kids looking at the exhibits. i kept thinking that it was so cool that these kids were being exposed to different types of art early in life - but it's very possible that the kids were bored and couldn't wait to get past all the boring art and get some hot chocolate or something. maybe i'm too idealistic.

anyway, there was a Yousuf Karsh exhibit at the museum, and it was amazing. i love photography, but i often don't hold photographers in the same esteem as say, painters or sculptors, because it just doesn't seem as difficult. i often think "if i had a more expensive camera, i could take a picture like that" (which i'm sure is a stupid, naive opinion - but it's my opinion). but seeing karsh's photographs up close was so amazing. they were so beautiful. it really is an art. to be able to capture a person's thoughts and vibes and life experiences in one photograph is really incredible. and that's what his photos do. i was actually taken aback by some of the photographs - i would look at them and they would seem so lifelike and real and vibrant, like they were just taken yesterday - and then i would read on the little information plaque that they were actually taken 60 or 70 years ago. it was quite shocking and beautiful. my favorite one is this one of ernest hemingway: http://karsh.org/#/the_work/portraits/ernest_hemingway/.

so this weekend i also started liking a couple of new things - arrested development and david sedaris. and yes, i am writing this in 2009. as a general rule, i like to get into things when they're no longer trendy. i had seen some random episodes of AD, and always thought it was funny, but i never had the commitment to watch the entire show in its entirety. and yes, i was aware that it wasn't even that long. on friday and saturday, i watched the first 5 episodes and i was like, wow this is really good! why have i not ever watched it all the way through before? i typically lack commitment with tv shows, i guess.

i also started reading a david sedaris book today, which is hilarious! i've read short excerpts of his stuff before, and have always found it funny, but again, always lacked the commitment to read a whole book. he's laugh out loud funny, though. literally, i laughed out loud on the train. i can imagine that was annoying and/or weird for the guy sitting directly in front of me.

i don't know why i resist things (books, movies, tv shows) that i know i would probably enjoy if i just dedicated a little bit of time. this is probably representative of bigger emotional/psychological things within me, but i won't get into that. anyway, i think i don't like to be trendy. i like to either be on the early or late end of trends. i do credit myself with being early on several trends - i loved freaks and geeks before the whole judd apatow crowd was famous (actually, i guess i can credit my parents with that one!), i liked 30 rock before most people knew it was even on tv, and one time i got a pair of earrings that ended up in some fashion magazine after i'd had them for a while (actually they were a gift from someone - no matter.)

typically, though, i am not trendy or cool enough to catch onto a trend right before or right as it's becoming cool. some people are very good at being indie or trendy, but i am just not. i think there's a fine line between being actually indie/cool and simply trying to be cool. anybody with a little spare time and a somewhat active imagination can go to myspace, type in a phrase like "thursdays at the movies" and see if it's the name of a band (it probably is. those indie bands all have names that are so simple that you think they must have a deeper meaning), and then buy one of their albums (unless they're so new they don't even have a record deal yet, which means Bonus Indie Points!). anyway, i just don't have the energy to do that. however, there are other people who are just naturally drawn to music, movies, tv shows, or fashion that are kind of under-the-radar, and they like these things because they actually enjoy them - not just so they can say they were the first one to like them (guilty! see above paragraph). these are the true cool people. they are born that way, i assume.

so, since i cannot ever be the latter, and i really do not want to be the former, i have resigned myself to being the person who sometimes likes indie-ish things (although i normally have to give credit to other people for introducing me to such things), but who doesn't feel bad about liking low-brow things like jack black movies and justin timberlake.

i don't mind being incredibly late on trends, though. like 15 years late, in the case of david sedaris. or maybe more than that. when did he become famous? i don't know. in keeping with the spirit of this entry, i will not google it to see if i should be embarassed by my lack of knowledge about a book i just bought. oh well - it's kind of nice to jump on the bandwagon incredibly late, because that way i can be sure something is of a high enough quality to stay around for a while. are people still going to be talking about the secret five years from now? probably not, but we ARE still talking about anna karenina 130 years after it was written, and they're both in oprah's book club, so you see, sometimes it's difficult to judge these things. i like to let things stand the test of time a little bit before deciding whether or not to embrace them. sometimes you just have to wait decades or centuries to see whether or not something's really worth the effort.

in regard to a couple of things, i have jumped on the bandwagon so late that i don't know if you can really even call it "jumping on the bandwagon" anymore. i mean, i'm so late that the bandwagon is already in the next town. (i'm not sure if i'm using this metaphor correctly anymore) - anyway, i recently started watching LOST, which is so great. i totally missed the exciting first season, the equally exciting second season, the lackluster third season (during which many fans stopped watching - but i, the superfan, had not even begun watching yet), the much-better fourth season (during which people who had been fans since the beginning told people to start watching again, because it was getting good again. at this point, i am still living comfortably in my lost-free world). anyway, i was about mmmm 6 years late on the trend, but i don't regret it. sure, i spent a couple of weekends (that are gone forever and that i will never get back - but really, would i want to?) frying my brain watching 12 episodes a day in order to catch up. but i don't mind, because i now have a new favorite tv show. and those people who have been fans since the beginning? do they have anything i don't? less shame, maybe - but that's it.

ahh so anyway...

my clock is ticking toward 10 p.m. which means i need to get to bed soon! i'm pretty excited for the upcoming week, mainly because i am going to see jason mraz in concert on tuesday! it will be my fourth time seeing him, so i think that qualifies me as some sort of modern-day groupie or something. not in a bad way, just in a lover-of-the-music sort of way, i guess. i am hoping, in vain, that he sings his version "a hard rain's a gonna fall." jason mraz + that song = lots of my favorite musical-ly things going on at the same time.

thanks for reading, and again, i apologize for my over-eager use of paranthetical expressions!