Star-Crossed Lovers Syndrome

I know it's been a while since I posted. Here's what I've been struggling with: I know I need to lose weight and lower my cholesterol. But I've been afraid of going to the gym and risking the strange thing my heart does when I exercise. So I've been trying to watch what I eat. Which explains why I'm so proud of myself after hanging out at the Minnesota State Fair last night. I proudly ate: an entire basket of deep fried cheese curds by myself, a pronto pup, and a fudge puppie (a Belgian waffle on a stick, covered in fudge and whipped cream). Yup - my cholesterol must've raised about 50 points last night. But we saw Lifehouse and the Goo Goo Dolls in concert with my friend, Suzanne and her son, Vincent, and that was awesome. The sweetest part of the night: when the bass started in and reverberated in our chests, and Will asked me if it would hurt my heart. How I love that kid.

So I watched an interesting movie today: Crazy Beautiful starring Kirsten Dunst. If y'all are fans of hers and would like to see a stellar performance (or if you need convincing that she is a great actress), watch this movie. She was amazing.

This movie made me in the mood for an obscure 1986 film called, Fire with Fire, starring Craig Scheffer and Virginia Madsen. I used to rent this movie all the time when I was younger. It's about a boy from a prison honor camp who is always sweaty and shiny and a beautiful girl from "the Immaculate Heart School for the Terminally Virgin...nuns, chastity belts...girls in love with God." (good quote from the movie). So this prison camp is inexplicably located withing walking distance from the private girls' school, and trouble ensues. Of course, Virginia Madsen's character and Craig Scheffer's character fall madly in love and try to run away together. I always thought it was terribly romantic. But now as an adult, I think, "Are you two crazy?! How are you supposed to live?!"
Okay, so the romance has kind of left for me in this film, but it's fun watching a sweaty and shiny (did I say that already?) Craig Scheffer romance the now Academy Award-Nominated actress (see the movie Sideways) and try to get her to run away with him.

Well, RobbieMax and Will are going camping tomorrow. They've been preparing for days. They're heading up the North Shore along Lake Superior and staying in the tent up North. They leave tomorrow morning, and will be getting back on Tuesday. I'll miss my guys, but I know that they will be having fun. Plus, Will promised me he'd find me a Lake Superior Agate. (I used to collect them as a kid, being a lot of my relatives live in Duluth, Minnesota.) So I'll be on my own here at home. The US Open tennis tournament starts on Monday, so I'll at least have something to watch.

Well, it's late. I need to finish watching Fire with Fire before I go to bed. And I'll try not to be all grossed out by Craig Scheffer's sweaty and shiny body.

I Wasn't on the Bridge

Hello all-
I was going to post about my new razor tonight, but that will have to wait for a future post.

Like many people, I've been glued to the Internet and the news on TV since the 35W Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed yesterday evening. Lucky for me, I live in the southern suburbs, and do not take that bridge. (But that didn't stop relatives and friends from calling last night to check that we were okay. Yes, we are loved.) And no one I know was on the bridge when it collapsed. And I am SO thankful for that.

But that doesn't keep me from feeling as if I knew the people who were on the bridge. I am still in shock that a disaster of this magnitude could have happened in my hometown. I can't believe that the images I'm seeing on TV and the Internet are so close to the building where I work that I have seen it in many shots of the bridge. It's surreal.

I honestly don't know what else to say tonight except this: please pray for the injured and the families of the injured, deceased, missing, and all of us affected by this tragedy, whether we knew someone involved or not. We can use your prayers.

Julia