Books, Thai food, and a movie...

It's been an eventful Wednesday for me (compared to my usually quite boring mid-weekdays when I have nothing to do...). I say eventful because I did more than one thing today. Actually I did a lot of things which was nice. I went to the library to take back four books and ended coming back with at least eight. I answered my phone TWICE which is a miracle since I usually forget to take it out of my coat pocket or leave it in another room (accidently of course) where I can't hear it.

Oh yeah - after I went to the library I decided it would be a great idea to just go straight to the grocery store to pick up essentials (apple juice, Whole Grain Goldfish, and chocolate soy milk) instead of walking the block back to my apartment and then walking the approximately three blocks to the grocery store unburdened of my huge bag of library books. My apartment is not technically on the route from the library to the grocery store - it is about half a block extra (so I would have walked a total of one extra block). You can see the illogical math here seeing as I had a large reusable grocery bag full of books. I had planned to use the bag on groceries. Oops... I ended up buying yet another reusable grocery bag because I feel insanely guilty now when I use the plastic grocery bags. China's way ahead of us and actually has a minimum thickness requirement for plastic bags and forces customers to pay extra if they do not bring in reusable bags! (I love NPR). Now the books would not have been so bad if I hadn't gotten all the heavy stuff at the store - two things of soy milk, a half gallon of apple juice, some frozen stuff, and one of the huge containers of Goldfish (the one that looks like an over-sized milk carton). My arms feel much stronger now, having made this trip to the library and the grocery store.

I just realized that I described above a trip to the library and the grocery store as eventful! I find that sad. I did go up to Evanston tonight though to have dinner with my former roommate and dear friend. We had Thai which I haven't eaten in a long time which was quite wonderful. Mmmmm curry with potatoes, peas, and tofu..... It was just really nice to see her and catch up on our exciting lives. Yes, my trip to the library and grocery store did come up...

After dinner we went to see the movie Juno which was an excellent idea. As you may remember from a former post, I love this movie. What was even nicer than just going to see the movie, though, was that we arrived about half an hour early so we had a good 20 minutes to just sit in the theater and talk. I like moments like that - it makes the movie going experience more social and personal. I often go to movies by myself because sitting in front of a movie or TV with other people does not seem incredibly social for me. However, I had a lot of fun watching Juno with Erica. Afterwards she said "I love this soundtrack!" Luckily I had already brought her a copy of it since I bought it last week.

Then we decided that this is one of our favorite movies. We have very similar taste in movies. I have decided I have three favorite movies. This is a big deal for me because when someone asked me what my favorite movie was freshman year of college, I had no idea. I finally settled on Amelie because it is one of the few movies I can watch over and over again and still love it. The other to favorites are actually both from the last 12 months - Waitress and Juno. I realized tonight that there is one major similarity between all three of these movies - they have strong female protagonists who demonstrate independence and fortitude in a society I can actually relate to! I've been having a lot of dreams about high school lately, mostly nightmares about not having really graduated or having the city bus route change completely. I think it is because of the high school depicted in Juno. We didn't have sports and I wasn't pregnant, but I could certainly relate to Juno's experience in many ways. I could go on and on about why I love these movies but this post is too long already.

So that was my day - it was exciting. It may not seem like it from reading the above but for me, it was a nice change of pace. Next week I have a stage management gig with a mime company which will probably be even more exciting than going to the grocery store but I still have a couple days to wait before that big adventure starts...

And yes, I'm still exuberant about Obama's wins yesterday - we're finally ahead in the total delegate counter, whether you include superdelegates or not! Yipee!

"This is one doodle that can't be undid, home-skillet."

***I wrote this post over a week ago but got caught up in the election stuff. I know this makes two long posts in one day but I figured I haven't posted since Wednesday so what's the harm. Click on the title above for a great trailer for the movie Juno, which is hopefully still playing in a theater near you!***


Now that my mother has proclaimed that I should be a movie critic, I am very nervous about writing about Juno, an amazing independent movie that is nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Until last week when the nominations were announced, I had never heard of this movie before. A new friend who is a grad student at DePaul asked a bunch of friends from the retreat I went on last week if we wanted to go see one of the Oscar nominated movies. Juno was the suggested movie so I went to watch the trailer. I fell in love with the movie just from those few minutes of the preview. Luckily I was not disappointed after seeing the actual movie yesterday.

Juno follows the surprise pregnancy of the title character, who at 16 by no means wants to be having a baby. After deciding not to have an abortion (in one of my favorite scenes), her friend suggests that she look in the PennySaver for adoptive parents who are "desperately seeking spawn," in the words of Juno's best friend Leah.

I suppose this movie could easily be classified as a "coming of age" story yet I think that classification implies something contrary to the message I got out of the movie. Coming of age implies that a character goes through a process of maturity that leads into the next phase of life, such as teenage to adulthood. However, Juno is searching to discover her place in the phase she is supposed to be in as a teenager. Being pregnant complicates the difficult social trials every teenage girl deals with in high school. It is almost as though she is backtracking to the stage of life in which she belongs. In a great scene between Juno and her father, her father asks where she's been. Juno replies "I've just been out dealing with things way beyond my maturity level." The fact that she can recognize this is proof of her high level of maturity for a 16 year old, in an ironic sort of way. It is fascinating to watch a young woman who is acting more like an adult - taking pregnancy tests, acting above the other specimen at her school, etc - become more like the teenager she should be.

It has been a long time since I have seen a movie that is so purely pro-woman with amazingly strong female characters. Most movies tend towards traditional gender roles with subtle inferences of sexism (if you're wondering what I mean, go back to last year's posts about X-Men 3 and Batman Begins). Juno, on the other hand, is empowering (enough so that I want to go see it again soon). The funny thing is, nothing about the gender dynamics seemed artificial, proving that women can dominate a movie without it either becoming a chick-flick or seem like it is trying too hard! I hope other filmmakers pay attention and start making more women heroes! In addition, the male characters show a spectrum of strengths and flaws, just as the women do. We need balance in movies instead of taking sides with one gender or the other.

For example, Jennifer Garner's character, the wife in the adopting couple, seems unlikable at first until we are shown the flip side of the relationship. I don't want to give away too much but if you see this, pay attention to who sympathies change towards Jason Bateman's character (the husband in the adopting couple) throughout the movie. I was pleasantly surprised by my own reactions in the end. Juno's father, on the other hand, is like the wise old owl and loving father, played brilliantly by J.K. Simmons. Just so you know, all the performances were brilliant so I won't go through each of them here. Watch out for Ellen Page who played Juno, though! She was amazing and brought things to the character I'm sure no one else could have pulled off.

I really liked this movie, can you tell? The last issue I want to mention is fertility and adoption. I took a class in college called "Feminism and Fertility" in the Religion department. Since that class I have developed very strong feelings about infertility treatments and adoption. Juno shows us the struggle and journey of the individuals involved in adoption - the adoptive parents, the birth parents, the friends and family of the birth parents, etc. A lot of people don't think about the pain couples go through when they are not able to conceive on their own. Most people know that adoptions take months or years to go through the system but I've found even myself thinking of that time as mere "annoyance. Society has a "normal way" that children are brought into this world and become parts of families. Even though adoption is much more accepted in modern society than it was in the beginning of the last century, it is often seen as a "last resort." It is often assumed that only people who are "defective" in terms of reproduction adopt and therefore the couple can be stigmatized amongst others, especially in non-American cultures. In this film, however, we are shown the emotional journeys of both the adopting parents and the willing birth mother (and father and grandparents). Adoption takes just as much patience, hard work, and LOVE as being pregnant yourself and having a baby. I think this movie is a strong reminder to those of who may forget this from time to time. I have even more respect for my aunt and uncle who adopted two children and for all others who take the emotional risk to help children who need families.


Juno tackles these issues and more, highlighting both the humor and sadness found in all of the characters' lives. From the stress of high school dances to the pain in the delivery room, this movie shows what is real in life and what truly matters.