Phillypino Weekend

So my mom and I went to my aunt's house in Philly for the long weekend to chill with a bunch of family-my aunt, uncle, counsins, 2 of my sisters and one of my brothers-in-law aka General Dughyut WARNING: do not click on his name, especially if you are at work, for it will bring you to "PersianKittys." Again, I apologize in advance for my moronic brother-in-law who has a hammer for a head.

Getting back to the story, I b(r)ought 2 jugs of fantabulous libations from Rock Bottom Brewery, a seasonal 386 double IPA, for everyone to enjoy. My brother-in-law, who works for ESPN (he supposedly works in the "Business Development" department, which most likely means he's an assistant manager at the ESPNZone in New York) AND is well known in our family for "pinching pennys" or, more simply put, "having a wad which is very very tightly wound," brought ESPN hats for all of us. Notice that I say "brought" instead of "b(r)ought" because though he claims he bought the hats, just like he claims he works for the ESPN Biz. Dev. Dept., I have a feeling he got them for free...or stole them from the ESPNZone store after hours.

Anyway, the weekend can be summed up in 4 words: food, drink, movies, games.

NOTABLES

Food:
1. My aunt's cherry cheesecake
2. My brother-in-law's cappucino carmel brownies (his only redeeming quality is his ability to bake fantastic desserts, which happens to be the only reason we eventually accepted his ass into the family).

Drink:
1. Rock Bottom double IPA
2. My favorite American macrobrew, Yuengling

Movies:
~Quick Rating System: Movie Theater Worthy (MW), Rental Worthy (RW), and DVD Worth Owning (DW)~
1. Battle Royale (MW, RW, DW)
2. West Side Story (seen it before but also MW, RW, DW)
3. Napoleon Dynamite (Awesome...Sweet...Incredible RW, DW and review coming soon!)
4. Ju On (the Japanese original of the Grudge...un"rate"able b/c it's a little too confusing, even with the English subtitles)

Games:
1. Scrabble-I averaged a Scrabble every 4 games and won 2 out of 4 times I played...Webster has nothing on this Spelling G
2. Poker-Got romped by my cousin and my bro-in-law in NL hold'em cash game (I blame my loss to playing under the influence), Finished 3rd out of 5 in a NL holdem minitournament (props to my cousin, Marisa, for winning it all), and my bro-in-law and i got murdered in a NL holdem play money game by my sister who I just taught to play poker for the first time that weekend (I blame this on sheer beginner's luck)...maybe I shouldn't quit my day job, rather maybe I should get a day job.
3. Mah Jong-my sisters and i got our asses served to us by my aunt who plays in a weekly mah jong game with her friends

Overall, I'd have to rate this weekend: aite.

I'm Going to College!

Yesterday in the mail I received my acceptance letter from the Loyola Univeristy Post-Baccalaureate Program. I will be starting my pre-med classes this summer. I'm really looking forward to the 2 years of premed courses, studying for and successfully passing the MCATs, getting into Med School, taking another 4 years of school, then being a resident bitch for another 3 years! Looks like my college education the first time around is FINALLY starting to pay off!!!

Valentine's Gay

Amongst all the prospects, I couldn't decide which lucky lady was going to get the dream date of her life. At the same time, I couldn't bare to break the bad news to each and every girl I was about to turn down. So instead, I chose to avoid the situation by accompanying my mom to a Valentine's Banquet hosted by the Filipino American Association of South DuPage. You may be wondering if I made the right choice. Does a night of old Filipino couples "Line-Dancing" answer your question? Since there was hardly anyone my age, I was left with no choice but to slam down a couple of scotch on the rocks to make the night a little more interesting. However, the alcohol wasn't enough to wash away the boredom so I decided to sit in the lobby and start making phone calls to friends I haven't talked to in forever.

On a happier note, it was very comforting to know that I was not the only one bored at the banquet that night. Shortly after I went out into the lobby, another person came out and sat on the couch opposite from me. His name is Brian. He's 5 & 1/2 years old and collects Yu-Gi-Yo! cards. Once we ran out of things to talk about, we just stared blankly at each other for a good 10 minutes. I've never wanted to shoot myself more than in that moment.

Hide and Seek: a "Scary" Review

It took me and my mom four days to finish watching Hide and Seek, not because it was scary but because, well...it all started this past Friday when my mom and I went to go watch "Hide and Seek" at the Century Theater in Evanston (near NU). Right as the movie begins, two "thugs" roll up and sit directly behind us. Through the first 5 minutes, they are obviously not paying attention because they were constantly talking to one another. One of their cellphones rings and he of course has to answer the phone. After a 3 minute conversation about nothing urgent (oh, you better believe I was listening), their friend enters and runs up the stairs to where they are sitting. As soon as he sits down, one of them asks if the others "want to smoke a square outside." So two of them run down the stairs and out the theater. This all takes place within the first 15 minutes of the movie.

The whole time, my mom is indiscreetly elbowing me and looking back at them. And while the 2 are gone, the remaining guy gets a call presumably from his friends and he goes running down the stairs out the theater. My mom turns towards me and whispers, "I hope they don't come back." But 20 minutes later, the 3 of them come running back up the stairs to their seats but this time with bags of food in hand. They start tearing open food and candy rappers without trying to conceal any noise. At this point, I can't even concentrate on the movie because I am pissed that these dudes aren't really paying attention to the movie and are being disruptive as hell while ruining the experience for the others around them. The boiling point came when two of these d-bags lit up cigs right in the theater. For those that don't know me, I really hate smoke, especially in no-smoking areas... like frickin movie theaters! So my mom and I left the movie after the first 45 minutes of the movie. The best part is the story has just begun...

So we go out to talk to the manager, I explain what happened and ask to get our money back and so one of the low level functionaries goes to get our money. Then the manager gets two Evanaston cops to scope out these punks. As we wait for our money, I'm thinking to myself that we better get it soon before those dudes get kicked out. I didn't want those guys to come out and see that we reported them. And of course, the 3 of them come out one by one, walking slowly by me and my mom staring us down hardcore. At that moment, my mom's facial expression indicates she has pissed and/or crapped in her pants. So I turn towards the manager and ask, "Um, yeah...can we get a cop to walk us to our car?" So my mom and I walk down the block as a squad car slowly escorts us to our car. I am just glad that those dudes didn't try to start ish with us. Because you KNOW I'd have to lay some bustas down and let my gat explode...

Then Saturday night, we tried to use our free passes from the other night to go see Hide and Seek at the other Century Theater in Lincoln Park. However, my dumb ass looked at the wrong movie theater times. Turns out it wasn't even showing there! So instead, we rented a couple of movies, The Forgotten (my mom's choice) and Napoleon Dynamite (my choice). Napoleon Dynamite was absolutely hysterical to me. But that movie review is for future post. The Forgotten is not worthy of a post (mediocre delivery of a great idea).

So today, we finished watching the movie...finally. Now for those that plan on watching the movie, you may not want to read the following. The movie starts out pretty heavy and keeps you interested until the plot twist. I found that part to be pretty disappointing and more importantly, not realistic in a fictional sense. When you find out Robert DeNiro is Charlie, the director tries to pull this 6th Sense type of realization scene that just doesn't work very well. My 2 main gripes are that 1. after any suicide death, the coroner/medical examiner must verify that it was in fact a suicide. he/she would have discovered that his wife died of asphyxiation and that the slitting of the wrist was a staged suicide. so basically, DeNiro's character would have been in jail before the movie could have even begun. 2. There were several times when DeNiro would get upset with Dakota Fanning for not telling him who Charlie was. However, its just very difficult to believe that she would go along with DeNiro's double personality and wouldn't have told her dad (or anyone else) at some point throughout the movie that he was Charlie. So on a scale of AITE (AITE=worst and AAAAIIIITE=the best), I give it an AAITE. As for individual performances, Robert DeNiro: I sometimes question his choice in movie roles but he does his best with the role he is given here. Dakota Fanning: I am suprised at how amazing of an actress she is at such a young age. A strong performance. However, in my opinion, her performance was better in I am Sam. Elisabeth Shue: Only a supporting role in this one, but who really cares? Why still so hot since Adventures in Babysitting...OMG!!!