I decided that I immediately needed to see as much of his ouevre as I could, at least roles where he was not playing serial killers. He was in a a silly movie with Kirstie Alley called Summer School, which happens to be a guilty pleasure of mine. I think that movie is hilarious, but it is possible that I am the only one, as it is not out on DVD or if it is, Netflix does not carry it.
I rented Stealing Home instead. I hadn't seen it before, and I didn't really remember hearing much about it when it was out, so I basically had no idea what was going on, though I could guess by the cover art that it was probably, you know, wistful in some way.
(Like a dumbass, I didn't cancel my Netflix membership during the play, so I've been sitting on this movie and two others since January, which means I could have purchased them all by now, but I am choosing not to think about that.)
Anyway, as I was feeling wistful myself this evening, I watched it.
I can't remember the last time I saw a movie with this much heart that didn't cloy your eyes out of your sockets or give you a sugar rush of some kind. It is a beautiful little movie and, I think, much more layered and complicated that it was probably ever given credit for. It's about love, certainly, family love and boy-girl love and love that can't be quite so neatly categorized, and it's about coming home again even though you never really can, and it's a little about chasing the past, trying to relive it, and a little about trying to outrun it.
A lot of the film takes place at a beach house when Mark Harmon's character is a teenager, and I spent summers at the beach as a teenager, and I still remember how I felt then, what my expectations were about my life, and how naive and idealistic I was, and how things never turn out the way you expect, and sometimes it's better and sometimes it's worse, and sometimes it just looks worse when it actually is better, and eventually you wind up exactly where you're supposed to be at some given moment and everything makes sense for a second or two.
I don't know. I've had some wine, I've had a lot of time to myself lately, there is no doubt that I may be romanticizing all of this. It struck a chord with me, is all I'm saying.
The only thing I would change is the horrendously distracting David Foster score. Even if you don't know who that is, you really do, he also did St. Elmo's Fire and this was very derivative, and, you know, bad. But the movie is still very much worth seeing.
I am making an effort to get out of the house at least once a day. Today I ran all kinds of errands, to the post office to mail off something I sold on half.com, to the eye doctor to exchange a couple of boxes of contact lenses because they accidentally ordered the wrong prescription, to the grocery store for milk, light bulbs, ketchup-flavored potato chips, and two pseudo-half-gallons of Edy's Grand Light French Silk because they were on sale for $1.88.
(Oh yes, you heard me, ketchup-flavored potato chips. A Pennsylvania chip company called Herr's makes them, and they are like manna from heaven. If you live on the east coast, look around for them. Do not buy Snyder's brand, as they are crap. The Herr's brand uses Heinz ketchup seasonings. This is key. Snyder's probably uses Hunt's, and we all know how crappy that ketchup is.)
And yesterday and last week, I also went for a walk along the George Washington Parkway, which runs from Mount Vernon, south of Alexandria, all the way up the Potomac river into Maryland until it hits the beltway. It's a gorgeous stretch of road and the southern part of it has a walking/biking trail that runs alongside the parkway. Since the weather has been too beautiful, I've been driving down and parking at one of the picnic sites, then walking the trails for an hour or so.
Which will definitely come in handy, considering the amount of ice cream in my freezer and the amount of free time I have in which to eat it.
I did find my perfect job yesterday, my very very perfect job, I want this job so bad I could cry. It's an assistant director of legal services for an assocation of attorneys who work in a particular field (meaning, it is at the "National Association of Blank and Blank Attorneys"). It would be a lot of legal research, writing, and editing, which I love, a relaxed non-profit atmosphere, which would be a nice change, and the money really good for non-profit and just about what I was making before anyway.
So I e-mailed in my resume and cover letter last night and I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I can't help it, this job is so perfect for me. It is the first one I've found that I've been excited about at all. I feel like all I have to do is get them to let me come in for an interview, as I know I can convince them in person that this is MY JOB.
Because really, I don't know what I'm going to do if I don't get out of here pretty soon.