I want people to understand something - I'm growing up. I'm not the same girl that I was a few years ago, the girl a few of you might have met "back in the day". I'm Shenandoah, yes, but I'm not the same Shenandoah. I've grown up, inside, outside, upside down. I make decisions on my own now. I choose where I go, what I do, where I'll be in the future, and who I love. If I change, it's because that's how I want to change, not because of what someone might think.

I'm choosing my own path. I'm doing what I want to do. And I am in love with who I want to be in love with. If you don't appreciate that, then get the fuck out of here. I don't want you anywhere near me. If you can't respect me as a person, if you can't respect who I am in love with, then piss the fuck off. I don't need to be around people that are going to hold me back or try to get in the way of my relationship or just flat-out not respect my decisions.

By the way, everyone's getting cut. If you want to come back after this post, you can respond to the friends only 2.0 post I'll be making, and I'll decide whether or not I want you around.

Thanks, have a fucking fantastic day.

267. Eight Men Out: For some reason, I've always been oddly fascinated with the 1919 Chicago "Black Sox" scandal, where eight players of the Chicago White Sox were paid to throw the World Series. I found this film to be wonderfully done, with magnificent performances, especially from John Cusack, as one of the players, George "Bucky" Wallace, who refuses to be a part of the fix, but finds himself lumped in with the guilty party nonetheless.

268. Mirrors: A decently creepy film, starring Kiefer Sutherland as a night security guard watching over a burned out department store who quickly comes to realize that the place is haunted, with vicious ghosts trapped in the department store's massive mirrors. Things get worse when he realizes they aren't limited to just the store's mirrors. It's nice to see Sutherland in something other than "24", although I had to chuckle everytime he yelled out "Dammit!" I half expected him to follow it with "Chloe, we're running out of time!"

266. The Goonies: This was showing this weekend at the Uptown theatre as a midnight show, but I wussed out and stayed home and watched the DVD. That said, I love, love, love this movie. This has to be one of my all time favorite movies from my childhood. It's so wonderfully layered with great dialogue and little moments that are easy to miss the first time (like Chunk's priceless double take when he sees a body getting moved when they're all in the abandoned restaurant.) An absolute classic adventure that for me just gets more entertaining every time I see it.

265. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard: This was definately a hit and miss comedy, with some bits that were quite funny, and some that fell deadly flat. It doesn't help that this film was completely predictable from beginning to end. Still, the cast gives it their all, headed by the always great Jeremy Piven, along with Ving Rhames and Ed Helms. At the end though, it just didn't really feel like anything particularly special or all that great.

264. Brothers: I've had this thought, in the back of my head, that someone should cast Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal as brothers, because they always seemed similar to me in some ways, but also different, much like real brothers. Clearly, I was not alone in this line of thought. "Brothers" tells the story of Sam and Tommy Cahill. One brother, Sam, is a Marine getting ready to deploy again to Afghanistan. Tommy is just getting released from prison, trying to get his life back together. The dynamic between Jake and Tobey reminded me so much of me and my brother, who was a Marine and served in Iraq, it was crazy. Sam is married to Grace, wonderfully played by Natalie Portman, and has two wonderful little daughters. Soon enough, Sam ships out and is back in Afghanistan again. However, his helicopter is shot down and him and another soldier are taken prisoner. However, his is assumed to have died in the Helicopter crash and his family is notified as such. Tommy, almost without even thinking about it, starts to help out Grace and the Kids, finishing remodling the kitchen and finds himself almost taking Sam's place, something that under other circumstances Sam may have even wanted. Then comes word that Sam is still alive when he's rescued, but he returns home a changed man, refusing to talk about what happened in Afghanistan, keeping it bottled up until he becomes a ticking time bomb and with jealousy about Tommy and Grace adding to it, it's only a matter of time before he blows. I found this to be an incredible and powerful drama, with incredible performances by Maguire, Portman and Gyllenhaal, with great supporting turns by Mare Winningham and Sam Shepard as Tommy and Sam's parents.

Last night, I dreamt I was driving home from...somewhere...when I was flagged onto this brand new highway that MNDOT was wanting people to test out. And the thing is there was a camera attached to like this remote controlled helicopter thing that was hovering over the exit area. The camera was calling out directions to me, like "Look happy! Now, look sad! Now scared! More scared!"

I soon passed the robotic traffic fashion photographer and was driving along the new road, wondering where it went when I saw in the field next to me there was a huge tornado, probably an F3 at least, all dark and ominous. At first, I just watch it because I'm a good ways away from it when it suddenly changes course and winds up right in front of me. I quickly pull my car over jump out and roll down into the ditch, crouch down, hug the ground and kiss my ass goodbye. As I wait for the tornado to pass me by, I think about how it's no where near as windy as I thought it would be. I suddenly think I shouldn't have left my car door open...oh well too late now. After a few moments, I get up and walk back up to the highway. My car is gone, and I actually uttered Helen Hunt's line from Twister, "Where's my car?"

I check my pockets and find my cell phone and keys, but my wallet is missing. I realize it must have fallen out of my pocket in the car.

And then I woke up...

263. Misery: This is one of the first horror thrillers that I saw that really managed to scare me. I fondly remember watching this with my Aunt Peg (we're both big Stephen King fans) in the basement of my Dad's house and both of us just totally losing it throughout this movie from how intense it was, especially during the infamous hobbling scene. The film doesn't quite have the same impact on repeat viewings as it did that first time, but I still find it to be a very well put together thriller and definately better than average. Kathy Bates steals the show as Annie Wilkes, a lonely woman who lives on her Colorado farm all by herself. She manages to rescue her favorite author, Paul Sheldon from a horrific car wreck and takes him to her home to nurse him back to health. Things take a turn for the worse when she discovers in the latest of his series of romance novels that he has killed off her beloved heroine, Misery Chastain. From here, it becomes crystal clear that this woman is batshit insane when she decides to hold Paul prisioner and demands that he write a new Misery book, resurrecting her. Meanwhile, back in town, the local sheriff is starting to put the pieces together trying to figure out where Paul is. I have to say I love, love, love this movie and it's one of my favorite adaptations of Stephen King's works (and if I may be so bold, I think it improves on it too). I love that Rob Reiner, a director known more for his comedic films, directed this intense little thriller, and did it so well, with wonderful assistance from William Goldman with a dynamite script, and Barry Sonnenfeld, so came up with some very impressive camerawork as the Director of Photography.

262. Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds: Okay, I really like the first Feast. It had did a really nice job subverting the cliches of the monster movie genre and would lead you to think one thing was going to happen, but throw you a curve ball instead. The second movie, not so much. In fact, it was just gross, gross, and grosser. Monster autopsy, monster bodily fluids, a monster fucking a cat, a grandmother getting slimed with a million gallons of monster vomit and then slowly melting throughout the rest of the movie...I could go on, but suffice to say, this is the first movie to succeed in actually making me feel nauseous. There was only one scene that was so outrageous, it would almost justify the rental. Luckily, the scene is on Youtube, so you don't have to. Basically, a guy goes to rescue a crying baby from the monsters with unexpected results.



There. I just saved you an hour and a half of your life. You're Welcome.