Ever have 9 hours with nothing to do and no where to go? I found myself in this situation Saturday. To pass the time and stay entertained, I had my own personal movie marathon. I chose four rom-coms, and settled in with low expectations.

The first movie I watched was The Backup Plan with Jennifer Lopez. I almost couldn't make it through the opening credits, they were so boring. I generally don't give these types of movies very much lee-way before I decide not to waste my time. However, after the first 15 minutes or so, it actually got a little funny. I think I even laughed out loud once. And by laughing out loud, I of course mean audibly chuckled. Let's not exaggerate. I remember the turning point was when I discovered that Jennifer Lopez's occupation was pet shop owner. And her two-legged dog was present throughout the movie. That dog was so adorable.

The plot revolved around a single woman who had in-vitro and met the man of her dreams on the very same day. I'd describe the rest, but I'm sure you can figure it out. There were no special twists, it pretty much was exactly as you expect it to be.

Since that movie wasn't a total disappointment, I started up the next one. Friends with Benefits with Justin Timberlake. My movie choices were a bit limited. I wanted to watch something that I wouldn't want to see with Christopher. And the two of us rarely watch romantic comedies. We like more of the satire or slap-stick comedy. Of course I didn't want to see an action movie, because we definitely watch those together. I don't watch horror at all. And I generally can't stand dramas, unless they are suspense thrillers. That left romantic comedies. In retrospect, I should have looked at the "World Cinema" category, because there may have been a good French film to watch. But, I didn't think of that at the time.

Anyway, this movie centered around a couple of friends. The plot, again, was predictable with no twists to speak of. I suspended reality as best I could. But, occasionally, Justin's poor acting made me think... gosh, why did they cast him for this again? They made pot-shots at romantic comedies in the movie itself. I suppose they were trying to be clever. But, it just seemed to make the movie feel less and less original as the minutes ticked by. The only good scenes were with Justin's family. His sister was played by Jenna Elfman, and she did a great job.

Second movie down, two more in the line-up. The third one was He's Just Not That Into You. I expected this one to be the funniest. After all, it had a superstar cast, and was shot a bit like a series of short stories. Alas, the descent into Boringsville just continued at lightening speed. This movie was set around a handful of characters, all at various stages of relationships. Each person had to work out their own relationship delusions and find their own path to happiness. I will say that the actors each did a good job of playing their role. I never once thought, oh man, if only so-and-so wasn't cast. Or, why did they choose so-and-so? Unfortunately, that was not enough to help this movie. Not even close. I think this was a book first. I'm guessing the book is better. At least, I hope it is for its sake.

Saving the worst for last, I managed to then sit through Confessions of a Shopaholic. I'm really not even sure why I tried. I guess I was already at the bottom of the barrel, so I figured I'd try to see what else I could scrape up while I was down there. Not funny at all. Terrible acting. And the writing was even worse. The chemistry between the lead actress and the lead actor was non-existent. Please save yourself an hour and a half and just trust me. It's not worth putting in your Netflix queue at number 62.

Still under my 9-hour wait, I just napped for the last hour or so, because my movie choices had only gotten worse and worse. I was not to be trusted to choose another at that point.

In good movie news, last weekend Christopher and I went to see Immortals, which we both liked. Lots of special effects, battles, and gory drama. If you're into that kind of thing, I recommend it.

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My birthday happened over a month ago now. And, if you read this blog, you were probably there for part of the day. Unless you're a cyberstalker. In which case, you wouldn't have been invited. Maybe next year. It was an amazing day all around. I decided to do a birthday crawl and invited my friends and family to stuff that I felt like doing all day long.

It started out with manis and pedis. Then lunch at the Salad Stop. After that, we hit up Starbucks and drove to the aquarium. There were too many people to be able to efficiently move through the aquarium as a group, but we tried! Then, there was a break for a little while until dinner, coffee, and cake at the Global Peace Factory.

We'be been very social lately. Much more social than normal, and that's a good thing because we are seeing our friends more than quarterly. We still like our homebody time. And last night we decided to watch Jonah Hex, which had been in our Netflix queue. We popped some popcorn and turned out the lights, movie-theater style.

The movie was much better than I anticipated. I knew absolutely nothing about the comic or the story, in general. But the action sequences were good, and the main characters were believable in their roles. I really liked the make-up on Jonah Hex, because he had a whole in his mouth where you could see his teeth, and I think whoever the makeup artists were did a really good job.

I also liked Megan Fox as the independent hooker. I don't know her from anything else as I have not seen Transformers. And, her character was one-dimensional. Nevertheless, she complimented the guy who played Jonah Hex well.

This past weekend, we both had an appt with the optometrist. I decided a while back that I wanted to switch back to contacts. I haven't worn contacts as my primary form of vision correction in many years. I've had back-up contacts that are an old prescription since 2004 (Yes, I know. You don't have to tell me about the dangers of keeping contacts around past their life span.). And, I wore them when going to places where I wanted to see, but couldn't wear glasses (like the pool). But I'm ready to switch back and wear contacts daily only using my glasses at the end of the day when my eyes are tired. Plus, my prescription didn't change at all since last year, so my glasses don't need any replacing. Anyway, the next time you see me, you'll see my whole face instead of my face with glasses. Get excited.

And speaking of birthdays, I had no idea how many people I know have fall birthdays! You'd think that it wouldn't be surprising since it was the same last year. But, it definitely feels like the majority of the people I know are having birthday-related celebrations. Hopefully they are enjoying their birthdays as much as I did mine!

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