Cait referred to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as being “emotionally obliterating.” Sitting in the theatre in the half-dark with tears running down my cheeks, I completely agreed. I wish I could describe all the things I was feeling. Kate Winslet’s character was so many people I’ve known – she works at Barnes & Noble, and in so many ways was an amalgamation of many of the girls I worked with there – stunningly individualistic, ravishingly beautiful, so insecure of who they were and who they wanted to be, trying to make themselves more interesting or more wonderful by being deliberately different. But what got me more than anything was Jim Carrey’s character’s struggle against the erasure he had requested. As his memories are erased, he begs the technicians (from the inside of his head, on the other side of sleep) to stop, to let him keep just this one tender memory, let him keep this one piece of her – and of course they don’t, so inside his head he and Clementine (Winslet) race through his older memories, trying to find a place to hide her, just a bit of her. And I found myself wondering if people from my past would erase me, if they had the opportunity. And I recognized myself in Joel (Carrey)’s unwillingness to lose the memories of the person he was so very ready to be rid of. The movie was so, so good.
And my night was good too. Work was slow (surprise), and after mutting through $60,000.00, they sent me home around 4:15. Took a quick shower, then met Shawn at Borders for a little while. He got me my wonderful Marshmallow bunny, and we collected random free things from the “educator” table. What I really want to know is how anyone’s going to use the Ra album in their classroom? Hmm, it went home with me instead. Yay for free stuff. Dinner at Miko, where the waitress was fun and complimented me on my Hello Kitty necklace, then we went to the movie. Wonderful. Stopped by my place to grab movies and such afterwards, and it was so pretty and foggy in the park that we decided to walk from there. It was terribly romantic and pretty and I felt like I was running away from home. Oh, and my sandal broke a couple of blocks from Shawn’s, so I had to limp a little bit. We watched Adaptation, which I have somehow owned for almost a year but have never actually watched. I really liked it – it was awkwardly beautiful, and I really want to read The Orchid Thief, though I realize it will probably bear little resemblence to the film.
Right now I’m hanging out on the couch while Shawn is playing video games and we’re listening to one of his random cd finds from yesterday. I finished A World of My Own yesterday and am now almost done with Douglas Coupland’s Souvenirs of Canada. Did you know Coupland also has a book called God Hates Japan? I had no idea. He’s got a new novel coming out in the winter, as well as a second volume of Souvenis of Canada. Should be pretty freaking great. I suppose I should really finish all the books I’m still reading, but instead I’m going to start Paris to the Moon and/or Why I Write. Tonight is dinner for Sam’s birthday at The Great Impasta (which is not in Maine, contrary to Shawn’s current link), then tomorrow we’re dyeing Easter eggs and making cookies at my place with Sarah and Hannah. Should be a nice weekend.