You know, it's really rather amazing how a movie can affect one. I just saw A Beautiful Mind, and I enjoyed it rather thoroughly. It was well presented - if it did have a few poor pieces of camerawork - personally, I don't care for panoramic camera-circling shots, though I appreciate the relative complexity of the shot and can understand the intent behind their use. The problem with the evening was that - well, I suppose I must start at the beginning. Today is the birthday of a friend of mine, and I have sort of been semi-planning today all week. It started when I began thinking I want to get off campus - indeed, out of Longview (for I have vowed to myself not to drink in Longview) - this Saturday (today).
My current attention - one might even venture the word "obsession" - with alcohol does cause me some concern. I'm unsure whether I want it because I'm addicted, or because of the psychological factor (I have only drunk in the context of vacation and, most often, good friends' companionship), or simply because I like it and can't have it but *could*. But back to the present issue.
I was hoping to go with Alan and someone else (some other friend, who could provide transportation) to a TGIFriday's in Tyler. This could kill a number of birds with one stone: it would get Alan and me out of Longview so I (and he, newly 21) could drink; it would get me to a TGIFriday's, where I am told they serve a whiskey steak. I've been looking forward to trying whiskey steak since I first tasted whiskey last summer.
Things started to become difficult Friday night. Earlier that day, I'd queried some friends about a ride to the mall, or bookstore - someplace I could buy Alan's birthday present. I found one, and the other friend I asked showed some interest in going out Saturday night. However, later in the day when Bob showed up to take me to the mall, the birthday friend decided that he needed to go, too. Of course, this rather negated my own purpose (to go without him) and I was left to find some other way. Fortunately, as I was on my way to dinner that evening I came across the friends I know from Dungeons and Dragons, who were about to head out to the bookstore to investigate the Star Wars RPG. At first, I thought they were headed to dinner first (I asked, "Are you going to dinner?" but apparently they thought I'd asked "Have you been to dinner?") and so the scenario seemed ideal - I was headed out a bit late, and all my usual companions had already eaten [so I had thought I was going to eat dinner alone]. Dinner was a relatively small issue, though, and I rather wanted to pick up Alan's present, so I went along. I was quite pleased that I'd managed to do so without Alan's suspicions aroused. In addition, it was good to hang out with some of the 1B guys outside of D&D. Oh - and I also borrowed from one of them a copy of Real Genius - an 80's movie I remembered having really enjoyed back somewhere off in the 80's when it was new and I was more easily entertained - and, I suppose, less altogether cynical and disillusioned with society and "life" in general.
Today, I woke up rather pleased and in a wonderful mood. I spoke some with my father (who called, as he does [nearly] every Saturday), I checked my mail box to find the surplus from my student account waiting in check form (which I can now mail home for deposit into my savings account - where it will earn some interest), and verified that Charlie would go to TGIFriday's tonight. After watching Real Genius, which I enjoyed perhaps more than I could have as the elementary-school aged child I was when I last saw it, I went to play Dungeons and Dragons. It was a rather good session, and besides I had a night out to look forward to - a whiskey steak and perhaps (probably) some rum and tropical juice.
To summarize some, I didn't eat out tonight (it is a good thing I had a small something at the cafeteria to curb my hunger beforehand), nor did I drink anything. I did, however, see A Beautiful Mind instead, and I enjoyed the movie.
The trouble was that it is a movie that makes you think about memory, and I pondered deliberately forgetting Zelda. I was determined, however, to keep my thoughts to myself, and so to reroute my thoughts I began talking about the strangeness of the movie and how it toyed with one's concept of reality. Perhaps what happened next was because of some subconscious masochistic guile on my part, or perhaps the conversation meandered that way on accident. We began discussing The Sixth Sense, and Zelda was again foremost in my mind, as one of the very few people I know who was aware of the "catch" from the beginning of the movie. And so I again considered destroying her memory. Bah.
All in all not a good evening.