Shaddup Already!
2006-04-29
Hoot and only-one-in-the-world-itis
I went to see Hoot today. As expected, it was changed ginormously from the book.They give out more passes than seats, so they recommend getting there early to insure getting in. Well, I'm early for everything anyway, so I ended up being the first one of my group there. I saw my student and her mom walk by, so I called them over and let them scoot into line with me. Then the teacher I invited showed up. All four of us sat together.
I ended up sitting right next to my student, C. We took a pact not to shout out the major discrepencies between the movie and the book, but it was difficult. From time to time, we would look at each other in disbelief. The kinds of things they left out were really important.
Hey, I can understand movies based on books have to have some changes, but the stuff they were changing was critical. As soon as the movie was over, C and I just erupted into our complaints. Her mom and T (the other teacher) were trying to justify the changes and telling us to lighten up. I finally looked at C's mom and said "I don't want you to think that I don't appreciate the tickets just because I'm complaining about this."
She said she was glad I was there because she hasn't read the book yet and, this way, C had someone to talk about the changes with.
We decided to go to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. What's wrong with that? Nothing! It was great, as usual. T asked C if she would be recommending that people see the movie now that she knows how much was changed. I loved C's answer, she said, "I'd tell them to see it so we can complain about it together." :o)
It was really nice to spend the day with a student, her mom and another teacher. Sometimes I wish I lived in a smaller town where you could do more stuff outside of school with students. It's so much fun to see them without the stress of school hanging over them.
Now on to my bitch session.
I was driving home and I went to turn on to my street, only to realize it was completely blocked by a moving van.
I live on a cul-de-sac, so this is a problem. I've drawn a little picture for you so you can put the story into perspective:
So the moving van was literally blocking the street completely. I sat there for a moment trying to decide what to do. Then I leaned on my horn. Two men came running out of the house followed by blond-woman, who is apparently moving into this house. I figure that one of them will move the truck because they all made eye contact with me.
Nope, the men go in the back of the van, pull out more shit and run back in the house. Blond woman shrugs her shoulders and goes in the house. I'm optimistic that she has realized that this is a shitty first impression to make on your neighbors and she will request that these men move the van.
Meanwhile I'm sitting in the car, toying with the idea of driving through her lawn. I would do this, but there is a high curb and I don't have my Jeep anymore. I didn't want to wreck my car.
The two men run back out of the house, followed by blond woman. Now I'm certain that they are going to move the vam. But nope, they go in the van to get more shit out.
I roll down my window and say, "I need to get to my house, can they move the van a few feet so I can get around it?"
She responds that the van can't back up into the driveway all the way because the incline is too steep. Then she gets this martyrish attitude and says to the moving men, "Can you just move the truck? Make sure you strap my shit down as I don't want it all falling out. I'm not going to deal with this shit all day."
I do believe it is illegal to block the roadway entirely and I was very close to calling the police just so I could get home. She kept telling the men places they could move the truck to, all this with martyrdom in her voice. They finally get it moved and I say thank you as nicely as I can. The woman just responds with "You're welcome." She had the attitude that she was doing me some huge favor by moving the illegally parked moving van. Even an insincere apology would have been better than that.
As I drove by, I saw the people who live across the street from her just standing out in their driveway, shaking their heads. They lost a good number of limbs on their oak tree because the moving van was too tall. Somehow, I'm sure that this will be my fault or the neighbor's fault because they had the nerve to grow a 50+ year old oak tree, well before any of us lived anywhere near here. It certainly can't be blond woman's fault because she is the only one in the world who really matters.
