Two plus two is ten

( Squishiness. ♥♥♥ )

On the work front, things have improved IMMENSELY. They're still insane, of course, but that's par for the course. No, the incredible thing is that they did something I never thought they'd do: they fired my nemesis.

I've written about her a few times -- she was the assistant of one of the partners, and was absolutely impossible to work with. Impossible. She treated the paralegals like they were monkeys, refused to communicate essential information to us, berated us when something wasn't done according to her exact specifications (see: refused to communicate essential information to us *eyeroll*), actively tried to undermine projects we were working on so that she would look good in comparison...the list goes on. She was awful and almost none of us could work with her, but she seemed to have immunity because she was a partner's assistant.

Apparently, that wasn't quite enough. Heh. I know I should feel a little guilty for exulting so much over another person being fired, but...damn, you guys, it's like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders now that she's gone. I was the only paralegal left who could sort of work with her (she'd burned the other two enough that they point-blank refused), and she was making my life miserable. Maybe I'll be able to stick this place out a little longer yet.

And on a book/movie note: I just finished Water for Elephants today and LOVED it, I'm halfway through Into the Wild now and find it fascinating, and I've been on a total geek-umentary fix when it comes to movies -- The King of Kong (EXCELLENT!), Monster Camp (hilarious and kind of sad), and Darkon (AWESOME). I think I'm going to have to write a more in-depth post about the latter two, actually, because...documentaries about LARP-ing? Are way more entertaining and compelling than the subject matter would have you believe. This stuff is golden.

The problem with weekends is that by the time they arrive, I'm usually so worn out by the rest of the week that all I want to do is hang out in my pajamas, drink coffee, and read until three in the afternoon, at which point I grudgingly get ready and spend the rest of my day...hanging out in my jeans, drinking coffee, and reading.

I live such an exciting life.

Anyway, Friday night was In Bruges, which I loved. LOVED. I'm going to try to be more on the ball about posting reviews (I have a folder of half-finished ones on my desktop -- way to be on task, self), but suffice to say, the movie really isn't what the previews imply. It's not an action-fest, and it's not really a black comedy -- it's a dark, sad movie with some wickedly funny sections, and it definitely brings something new to the "British gangster" genre. So much love for In Bruges.

Of course, the actual filmgoing experience left something to be desired, but that's because people are obnoxious.

See, they oversold on seats. I'm not sure how they managed to do this, since we all bought tickets in advance, and they kept insisting at the door that they didn't oversell, but that was very clearly what happened. I arrived early, but almost didn't make it in -- they let the people in front of me in, and then stopped the rest of us so they could get things inside the theater figured out. Which was fine and all, because I was there by myself and knew that if a single seat opened up -- almost a guarantee, once they get everyone to scootch in towards the middle -- I would be able to get it since I was next in line.

Then this stupid hipster couple pushed in front of me, ignored my protests, and did their very best to be horrible, conniving little seat-stealers. However. One of the volunteers asked for single folks, I flailed like the dickens ("me! me! PICK ME!") and was promptly led to a seat. The line-cutting hipsters? Got split up. She got a seat, he didn't, and she ended up leaving in disgust when no one was willing to give up their hard-earned seat so they could sit together.

HA! That's what you get for being rude and cutting in line!  And being a hipster!

After that, everything went more smoothly, except for the two older women next to me who felt compelled to discuss every fucking aspect of the movie while it was onscreen. Why do people do this? Seriously, WHY? "Oh, he's going into the cathedral now." For crying out loud, WE KNOW! IT'S ONSCREEN RIGHT NOW! And every time something violent happened -- and this is a movie about gangsters, mind, so no matter how genre-bendy it gets, you know violent things are going to happen at some point -- they commented on it.

Every. Fucking. Time.

Ladies: "Oh, how horrible." "Well, I don't see why he had to do that." "Oh my, this is just awful."

Me: *quiet, seething rage*

I...don't understand this. I mean, I really don't. You deliberately go to a movie with gangsters in it...and then complain about the violence? The hell? I don't know. My best guess is that they didn't read anything about it ahead of time, and thought it was about, I don't know, sightseeing. In Bruges. Or something.

To conclude: Ralph Fiennes is hot, Colin Farrell is a surprisingly good actor, Brendan Gleeson just needs to be given a leading role already, because...damn, and line cutters will always get what's coming to them.  :P