Just a quick note since I haven't had the chance to write in a while and I'm not sure when the next chance will be. Our closing, which was supposed to occur on the 24th, got pushed off till today (the 27th). Apparently, they hadn't gotten their Certificate of Owner Occupancy from the city of Evanston yet (the slip of paper confirming that the city considers our place up to code and habitable). Anyway, I was only scheduled to work one day this week, and I'll give you one guess which day that was. And of course I already had 3 meetings scheduled for this morning so I had to come into work anyway (by the way, I only have time to write this because my last meeting got out 15 minutes early and I'm waiting for my next one). We had our inspection last night and, in theory anyway, we will be having our closing in just over 3 hours from now (even though I still don't have a final settlement statement from the title company yet). Overall, to this point the process has gone fairly smoothly. I will say, though, that it just seems like there ought to be a better way to go about this. So much gets left off to the last minute and then if every domino doesn't fall just the right way it causes everything else to come to a screeching halt. Oh well, I guess that's why people only go through this a few times in their life (hopefully).
I did get a chance to take a break from packing and dealing with all of this and got out to see a couple movies yesterday. I decided to see No Country for Old Men and Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem. Without getting into too many specifics I'll just say seeing those two back-to-back does not make for a good double-feature. It's a bit strange to go from seeing a slow-paced, taut drama with lots of interesting dialogue and three dimensional characters to seeing a cookie-cutter action/sci-fi with dialogue that has been directly lifted from other (better) films and characters that essetially exist to act as minnows thrown into the Alien/Predator shark tank. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy stupid sci-fi/action as much as the next guy (if not more), but it's a rough transition.
Overall I think No Country for Old Men slots in as my 2nd favorite film of the year so far (just after Gone, Baby, Gone and just ahead of American Gangster), although I have yet to see both Atonement and Juno and I hear they are both excellent. There are a lot of people that are really bothered by the abruptness of the ending, but I have to say that it really didn't bother me. Maybe it was because I had already heard complaints about it beforehand, but to me I thought everything wrapped up as well as it good have and they had made the point they were trying to make. I read Ebert's review of the movie last night and I think one sentence he said about the film was perfect: "Many of the scenes in "No Country for Old Men" are so flawlessly constructed that you want them to simply continue, and yet they create an emotional suction drawing you to the next scene." I have a lot more to say about this film, but it's nearly impossible to do so without talking about specifics. If and when you see it, I'll be happy to sit down and chat with you about it.
OK, time to run to my 11:00 meeting. Hopefully all goes smoothly with the close and I will give an update as soon as I can.
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3 comments:
Just think, only 10 years from now and you can start paying off the principle!
Well, are you homeowners yet??
... Hey, unrelated, and--I know, I know--why don't I get my own blog...(see, I tried that and it was too much work! Maybe we need a multi-poster blog forum thingy. I could host.)
Anyway, I was just reading about robots('cause who doesn't like to read about robots?) and a couple paragraphs in I learned this surprising (or not so surprising) fact: Apparently, the U.S. Department of Defense is working on building robots they can send in to battle instead of humans.
I feel we must discuss. Doesn't that seem like it's just completely redrawing the playing field, war-as-problem-resolution-wise? Not that we wouldn't all like to avoid bloodshed, but I feel like the only way war makes sense (if you can say that) is that both sides feel strongly enough about something they are willing to lay down lives for it. The stakes are even. Now suddenly one side's got robots, while the other side must continue to lay down lives? Just, no. Plus: Terminator/War of the Machines, Star Wars (the one with the clones), I Robot.... yadda yadda yadda... human carnage, death of humanity, etc.
Or maybe trying to apply logic to something as random, horrible, and injust as war is pointless anyway.
(John, sorry for taking over your post.)
2001 is coming. A little late, but it is coming.
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