Letters from Heather

Watched Serenity last night, thought it was pretty impressive for a movie created after a canceled TV series. The blend of Chinese and old western-styled cowboy stuff really blended together in a way I've not seen before in the genre. The plot was darker than I expected, though because it didn't directly involve any of the main characters (or the movie-exclusive ones for that matter), I'm not sure it got as gritty or deep as you'd like them to go with the story. Sure, some personal history is exposed, and sure there's some personality/decision conflict, but there's not the kind of deep introspection or revelations I expected from the series. The spaceship, "Serenity" the Firefly class shuttle, is fabulous mix of creepy, metal, and "home". There's elements of the Aliens universe here, mixed with some of my faintest memories of Andromeda (no ship A.I. though, thank God.), the Normandy of Mass Effect, and, of course, Halo's many diversified modes of space travel and Forerunner architecture. Having a little cabin area for the crew to sit together around a table though, that really brought it all back to the days of pirates and train chasing. So all in all, this was worth seeing and I am glad I took the time last night to see it before returning it to the library.

This morning I read too many MINI Cooper recalls and complaints, which totally freaks me out. Apparently there's a high probability of my transmission going out upwards of 70,000 miles. I think I put a good chunk over the last couple years in the Honda, and that thing was well above 100,000 when I sold it–without any transmission problems. I think all it needed was something with the brakes to be replaced by an authorized Honda dealership. Regardless, even though the Cooper does so many things my Honda never did, I'm beginning to worry if it's eventually going to stop doing all the things my Honda never had a problem with.

I should have brought coffee to work, or just a bottle of fresh water. Drinking out of a used bottle generally freaks me out, I think I heard somewhere that if you reuse a bottle the plastic becomes toxic. Though, more likely there's like freakish bacteria growing inside the water that's been left over the weekend. Oh, and I forgot to mention the strange conversation that took place last night at the library. Dad walked down the street with me to return it, and I have a strange "hold" item on my account, a music CD I'd returned last Monday. I recognized the woman working there that night (strangely, the security guard was gone already), and I told her she had taken care of me last week and that I returned two CDs to her, one with a broken case, and the problem. She responded, "Well, there's more than one African American working here you know."

Not that she'd "know" I'm dating someone who is half "African American". When she checked up on my account she discovered that she was, in fact, the "African American" that checked out my new music and accidentally checked out this missing CD that is currently on my account. The whole ordeal really irritated me, and I hope she felt as guilty as she tried to make me feel in saying that I was so ignorant to the nuances in other races that there was no way that I could know for certain that she was herself. The entire time I've gone to the library, by the way, I've never learned any of the librarian's names. They've never been friendly with me unless there's other adults around, and they've never placed their ID tags in a place that I can see them. I guess I should have asked her upfront what her name was, but I was afraid that after her harsh judgment that asking wouldn't help my case (or me take out stuff from the library).

I'm almost, just nearly, contemplating writing an email or letter to the head of the Chicago Public Library with a complaint. But I guess we're all human, and some of us forget that.

Went to Old Orchard last night to purchase a hoodie I'd tried on last weekend, but wasn't sure I liked. As luck would have it, the store decided to send back all their unsold "clearance" hoodies (including the one I went to buy) to headquarters. I tried to look for other clothing at Macy's, but I just wasn't as inspired anymore. As I was leaving near the food entrance, I noticed Barnes and Noble and remembered that I still have a fifteen-dollar gift card to use there. Most of this time I was on the phone complaining about my own bad luck, other people in the mall who were close to running into me, and other junk, and it continued as I couldn't find anything to buy or read at Barnes and Noble. I bought a pumpkin spice latte, something I wish I'd ordered this morning instead of the regular coffee latte from Corner Bakery, and stopped at Corner Bakery to eat a chicken panini sandwich.

I've been so good for the last two months about splurge spending, especially on food, but at this point (as in, right now), I'm afraid I've been a little reckless. I'm trying to save up my money carefully so that I can pay off the car after the three-year lease ends in one lump sum. I'm also trying to save for anything else I might want to do in the future. It's too bad this isn't some incredibly deep discussion of strange childhood family dynamics (saw a trio of sisters babysitting their youngest member eating all by themselves at Corner Bakery, they were all under thirteen). Or sharing a moment of loneliness with an oblivious stranger (saw a girl waiting for a ride outside Barnes and Noble while I ate my dinner all alone at Corner Bakery). Even though those are the things I wanted to expand upon, I'm not sure they can be examined beyond face value. I went to DSW and lost myself looking at boots for over an hour. I couldn't find any that fit my feet without piercing the soles with pain and heels that put me off balance. I'd like to buy some fancy, feminine shoes, but I'm afraid they're never the right style to fit my personality or my body.

I ended up buying a pair of socks that don't fit, that I've already opened, and I'll probably waste more time trying to return them to the store tomorrow night. After that, Saturday, is a going-away party for my cousin in Schaumburg. It's also a costume party, but my family is being rather anti-Halloween this year, so I haven't bought even a prop to improvise with. Hopefully my godmother isn't too put off by my family's stubbornness to remain ordinary and boring, and un-festive. As much as we care about seeing Michael go, I'm afraid we're going to hurt her/their family's feelings.

Also, just read about Jordyn's mishap in her blog. I can't believe that actually happened to her. The whole thing, no matter how rational it's written, seems like it's out of a book and completely unreal...but it is. How can people be so cruel?

I've never run around so much in search of my own print outs. The local printer junks up the color and quality of prints, so I sent my work to "D", which apparently, is down as of this morning. Then I sent my prints to the "evaluation" printer down the hall, which this morning has become a regular Xerox copier, sans any kind of receiving documents computer server type business (or color, of course). So now I've sent my work to a third printer, but I expect something to go terribly wrong before I can retrieve the prints. What a ridiculous morning, and I cannot believe how close to Halloween it is already.