Breakfast is better before 3:00PM

Today I was having breakfast (at 2:30PM because I ambitiously like to try to have breakfast before 3:00PM) with two of my best friends. The three of us are all having exceptionally early mid-life crises (ages 28, 30, and 31). Or possibly it's just the general confusion and indecisiveness that marks our generation (and for which this blog is named).

They are both lawyers thinking about drastic career changes and I never really embarked on a career. I am actually kind of proud of resisting law school myself since it seems everyone I know thinks I ought to be a lawyer. I went to college straight after high school but I told my mother (also a lawyer and also one of my best friends) that the only reason I was going was to meet a man. She was livid at the time but now that I'm back in school she seems quite keen on the idea that school is a good place to meet men. Of course, that means I'll have to start dating guys 6-10 years younger than me, but that's fine by me.

I spent two years at WWU and still couldn't decide what I wanted to do (among the things I considered - Psychology, Philosophy and Theater), so I quit. I went back about 6 years later and now I'm going to be graduating in a couple months (with an English degree). I still have no idea what I want to do though. It's frustrating trying to think of a career option that will make me enough money to pay back my student loans and yet not make me want to hurl myself out of the nearest window.

So, today the girls and I were talking about what to do with the rest of our lives and coming up with all sorts of wild ideas like me going to rabbinical school, or the three of us quitting our jobs and working our way across the country by waitressing at every Denny's, or producing a film travel log of our efforts to track down a Pogues show in Dublin (and possibly marketing t-shirts that say "I got puked on by Shane MacGowan" since there must be a market for them), or working as baristas, or starting a band. I guess we really might die with our options open, but as long as we can still get together for ridiculously late breakfasts and laugh about it I'm okay with that.

State of the...Oscar race

I know that the state of the union address was last night and that not two weeks ago I was talking about state of the union speculation right here on this very blog, but I didn't watch it, didn't listen to it, and didn't read it. I think that a person who pays even a small amount of attention to the world around them knows what the state of the union is. Moreover the president knows that people know what the state of the union is, so the speech, it's just spin. I know that I spend a fair amount of time talking about both politics and spin here so it would be safe to assume I'd be chomping at the bit to write about the state of the union address, but right now I'm preoccupied by Leonardo Dicaprio's chances of finally winning an Oscar this year.

I am aware that Martin Scorsese, also nominated this year, has been snubbed by The Academy for a lot longer than Dicaprio has but I kind of don't care about him. It's true I haven't seen Raging Bull, or Mean Streets, or Goodfellas, but that's because I saw The Age of Innocence and it was the most boring movie ever so I decided not to see anymore Scorsese movies. I have faltered in that resolution a few times over the years. I saw The Color of Money and actually really liked it but I didn't realize until much later that it was a Scorsese. I wavered again with Casino, which didn't do much to change my mind about Scorsese. Then came Gangs of New York, which was also remarkably dull, and The Aviator, which was okay but not good enough to make me think the man deserved an Oscar. Honestly, the only reason I saw those last two was because of Dicaprio.

Now, before you get all up on your high horse and claim that the only reason I like Dicaprio is because he's a cute boy, hear me out. Leonardo Dicaprio's first major film role was Tobias Wolf in This Boy's Life alongside Ellen Barkin and Robert Deniro and he was amazing. As the title of the film ought to indicate (to anyone with one or two brain cells left) Dicaprio was the star of that movie (the lead actor). However, it was Deniro that was nominated (as Best Actor) for that movie, for playing an angry, abusive asshole (a shocking departure from type for him to be sure). The next year Dicaprio was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for What's Eating Gilbert Grape (which he was also amazing in) but lost to Tommy Lee Jones (from The Fugitive???Seriously???). At first I thought it was just the Academy's well known age bias but that same year, 10 year old, Anna Paquin won an Oscar.

Practically every time I see a film he's in I'm blown away by the emotion he's able to capture and convey. He's absolutely, with out a doubt, one of the best actors working in Hollywood and he's consistently been better than most everyone out there since he was 16 years old. He's been in films with acting legends and he not only holds his own, he makes them look almost like amateurs. It's ridiculous that he hasn't won an Oscar yet. Absolutely ridiculous.

I do, also, think that Scorsese deserves an Oscar for The Departed and if he doesn't win then I'll jump on the Scorsese's been robbed bandwagon, but for right now, I just can't get over the fact this is only the second time Dicaprio's even been nominated (as a lead).

Politics - It's a small world after all

I find myself in a bizarre position. I was listening to NPR and people were calling in to discuss the state of the union. Normally I would be right there with these people calling the president an idiot and saying his policies exhibit an astounding lack of rational thought, but the policy in question happens to be one that I don't entirely disagree with - sending more troops into Iraq.

I was vociferous 5 years ago about my opinion that the administration should concentrate on the problems we have right here "at home" and not go off and start wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but now, those wars are a reality. Of course I still think there are a lot of domestic issues that need to be addressed but the problems in Iraq and Afghanistan are not going away. It's important to understand that we live in the world not just the US. I don't think it would even be possible to barricade ourselves up in this country, not let anyone in or out, and never worry about what is happening in the rest of the world, but even if we could would that really be what we want.

I applied for my first passport a couple days ago and I want to see the world. Of course, I'm only going to Europe. A new friend of mine told me recently that he wants to visit every country in the world and I had to admit that there are some fears I haven't conquered yet; there are some countries I'd be afraid to visit. Another new friend is in one of those countires right now. He's in Israel. A lot of the places I'd be afraid to go to aren't places I've ever considered visiting to begin with (like Darfur for example), but Israel is somewhere that I've always wanted to go.

One of my aunts lived in Israel, briefly, on a kibbutz. I was only in 4th grade when she married my uncle and I didn't know much about Israel or what a kibbutz even was, but when she told me about living there I wanted to go. In junior high geography and history classes we learned that Israel had been barren desert but the people who settled there turned it into an oasis. If it sounds like I'd romanticized Israel a little that's because I had. At least before I found out that Israel had been at war almost constantly for its entire history. Granted Israel's history only goes back about 60 years and if you add up all the years that the US has been at war in its history it probably adds up to 60 or more, but constant wartime makes Israel a little scary to me.

So, to my friend in Israel, I envy you and I hope you are safe.

And to everyone else, of course there are a lot of problems here and the administration's domestic policy is practically non-existent and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have already cost way to much (both in money and in lives lost), but they aren't just going away and we started the problems. You can't piss on someones floor and expect them to clean up the mess unless you're a dog. Moreover, I want to see the world and I want to see it in peace time. Someday I'd like to visit Baghdad.