May 31, 2021

Flew home from Austin this morning. Man, I've been in a bad mood all day. Too many days of drinking in a row. Too much travel. Too much fear of being out of control, that I won't be able to get back on the horse and feel well again. Maybe I should take up meditation, even if it's just like ten minutes a day. I'm trying to be proactive - exercise, cooking, chores, answering emails promptly, setting my schedule and not procrastinating. I'm not teaching any classes right now so I should have more than enough time for everything. So much traveling over the past month has sapped my stamina, though. In large part because I've been traveling without actually taking any time off. I've been working remotely, and I still have homework, plus I've been pushing myself creatively. I'm in a dark head space, wondering if I'm ever going to feel good again. 

I suspect I will feel good again, but being mentally solid isn't something I take for granted. I love my mind. Using it feels like wielding a massive club -- I can bash through anything -- but sometimes the club swings around and takes me out instead. It's hard to recover from. 

Mlog Time! 

THE HUSTLE

2019

Directed by: Chris Addison

Written by: Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning, Dale Launer, Jac Schaeffer

Watched: 3/29/21

Josephine is a seasoned con artist with millions of dollars who runs into Penny, a less-seasoned less suave grifter. Josephine wants to get Penny off her territory, so she tries to get rid of her. Penny keeps hanging on. Josephine agrees to train her, and they run a successful con together. When Josephine doesn’t pay Penny her cut, Penny walks out (Josephine hopes) forever. But Penny is resilient and doesn’t want to leave the rich Mediterranean town. So the two make a bet, whoever can con $500,000 from a young internet tycoon first gets to stay in the city. Penny pretends to be blind and need the cash for a medical procedure, and then Josephine slots in pretending to be the psychologist who can help Penny. The two duke it out before realizing that the boy himself is a con artist. In the end, the three team up to all con together. 

Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson are great in this. One of my favorite scenes was the one where Josephine (Hathaway) is training Penny (Wilson). Josephine, wearing ridiculously posh clothes, jumps over this column like a gazelle. Both women are funny in big but opposite ways. The movie reminded me a little bit of The Heat, but the stakes and the chemistry don’t end up hitting Bullock/McCarthy levels, unfortunately. It was enjoyable and entertaining and sometimes made me laugh. 

Rating: ★★★

 

May 30, 2021

My husband and I did a lot yesterday. We slept in and then walked to a donut food truck, walked to breakfast tacos and Allen's Boots -- which had been recommended to us as "Allen's Boats" because of autocorrect. It makes me really want Cowboy Boats to take off as a concept. We road the bus to a brewery, then we saw live music at another brewery, then we went and watched the bats, then we went to Rainey Street, which was packed with people. I saw four bachelorette parties. No one was wearing masks. COVID was being disregarded complete. I felt like I was stress testing my vaccine. Hopefully everyone else was vaccinated as well (but of course it's very unlikely all of them were). 

At the bar we posted up in at the end, we met a couple who had moved to Austin from LA within the last year. I feel like... that must mean that Austin is overrun with Angelinos, right? The couple said they loved it here, and when I asked about how it was career-wise they said very tough. It seems impossible to find a job, they said. 

I was thinking about how one of the things I like about LA is that people are career focused. Obviously that can be taken to an extreme, and it probably is in LA. But working in Colorado, I noticed that everyone goes home right at 5pm. That they seem to live for nights and weekends, for their recreation time. If I were from a career-obsessed place like LA, I might move to Colorado for that reason. But I still think it's appealing that people are trying hard in their work, that they're ambitious, that they want to advance. My feelings on that could change, of course. And then who knows where I'll end up. 

May 29, 2021

In Austin, Texas! My husband and I got in at 1pm yesterday and had to kill two hours. We took a bus from the airport towards our Airbnb, and then we posted up in the lobby of a Hyatt. It was great. Good tables. Fine internet. Nobody looking at us funny for sitting there with our suitcases. Then I had the idea to walk the 0.8 miles to our place. 

Holy hell is Austin hot. And humid. And the sidewalks aren't very good. We made it, but not before I regretted the idea. We could have taken a five minute rideshare. 

Was worried about that thing when traveling where you're (I'm) all irregular and you (I) get constipated and only think about wanting to poop for a couple of days. Happy to say, I took care of it this morning. Hoping that's the end of that worry. 

Last night we went out to BBQ -- delicious, -- and then it started thunderstorming so hard there was a flash flood warning. Instead of figuring out which bars to go to and how to get there, we ordered some cocktails to go and then watched a movie in our place while it rained and thundered and lighteninged outside. 

Mlog time!

Actually, we're going to head out so I will do this later.