2002-02-19
Joined a gym, posted at 12:12 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Back to school, and what a day it's been.The day started out inconspicuously enough. But that ended quickly when, at the end of first period, my principal walked into the room. Yes, I had an unannounced observation today. Oy.
My principal has never seen me teach yet. He's not well-liked, although I still don't have much of an opinion of him either way. He doesn't smile. That's about all I really care to notice about him - the only thing that hasn't been told to me secondhand.
I think it went okay. I had a good lesson today. I'm not sure if I had specific enough objectives on the board, but otherwise it was okay.
The weekend was short, but went well.
On Friday, I went out with Josh, Michelle, Kristen, Jeremy, and Teri to the Cross Street Market (a cool indoor fish market with beer and wine) and then to a swank bar called the RopeWalk. It was cool.
My big moment for the night was at the RopeWalk. I had a blackened tuna sandwich, sort of ending my six years of vegetarianism. I say "sort of" because it was only mediocre, I didn't much like the texture, and I'm not sure if I'm going to go back to fish. I feel like not being a vegetarian would be a loss of some part of my identity, and really think it should be worth it to do it. Nothing about that tuna sandwich made it worth it.
On Saturday, Teri and I went to see Monster's Ball. Terrific, terrific movie. It was everything that In the Bedroom could have been - a moving drama about real people reacting to abnormally large amounts of loss. The movie was so superior to In the Bedroom that I was left wondering if the real reason that that particular film was so overpraised as compared to Monster's Ball was because the former was about upper-class white people, while the latter was about an uneducated redneck and a black woman living in poverty. Makes you wonder.
It was a great film. I haven't seen everything that's been out yet in order to make my 2001 Best of List (despite also seeing the clever Ghost World over the weekend, I have still missed such notable releases as Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Black Hawk Down), but it will definitely be there - probably in the top five. So far, the list would include such films as Memento, The Royal Tenenbaums, A Beautiful Mind, Ali, Ocean's 11, Lord of the Rings, Vanilla Sky, , and others on the bubble, like Moulin Rouge, and crazy/beautiful.
Anyhow, back to Monster's Ball. See this movie! It's about two characters who find solace in each other after suffering violent and harrowing loss. It's about characters so real you feel like you can them. It's about desperation and ache. It's such a damn good movie.
The one flaw I saw was the central sex scene, which I just don't think was done very well. But otherwise, this is one of the best films of 2001. Halle Berry is phenomenal. If Sissy Spacek wins the Oscar, I'm going to throw something at my TV.
On Sunday, Jeremy, Michelle, Teri, and I ate at the Paper Moon, and then we headed over to Rocky Run for a beer and some trivia. It was another good night.
Yesterday, I did something out of the ordinary. I joined a gym. I wasn't planning on it; I was hoping just to head into Bally and buy a single workout. But I got suckered into it a bit, but it was the kind of suckering that made me feel like I had gotten a good deal. Jeremy later made fun of me for how much I paid ($100 down, $48/month), but I think it'll be worth it even though it is more than Gold's was last year. I had really good workouts on Sunday and this morning. I got up at 4:55am, was out the door at 5:25am, and got to Bally at 5:35am. It was hopping, which is weird since it opens at 5:30 every day. I had a great workout, and feel better about myself already.
I'm exhausted, though - it's 12:30, and I've been up for eight hours or so. That's a lot. Time to sign off.