Been sick with a cold the last couple of days - must have been all those multiple runs hauling all that drink and food and ice into the building during the freezing rain. The good thing is that the VOA East Asia & Pacific Division Holiday Party was a success! It all fell down upon me to organize as I expected and as always.. I am so grateful to the Tibetan Chief and the Thai Service for really, truly coming through. I think people were well fed - actually it was beastly - as I put the pad thai down and folks were literally tearing apart the foil, ripping into it like recent escapees from some re-education camp in Mongolia. Like animals. The Man of course was a peacock and did not lift a finger except to re-configure the tables to suit his needs after we had sweated to set them up. Of course he wanted a buffet to please the higher ups and was chagrined that much of the Asian food was gone by the time they showed. Exactly for whom is this party for anyways? I was too bushed and coming down with the flu to eat or have a good time.
So Friday I was truly ill and called in. Caught this strange movie on TV with Kathleen Turner and Tommy Lee Jones called House of Cards. Muy Bizarro. It had all these obscure Italian and Israeli sounding producers so I figure it was released straight to video or the foreign market. Turner plays this architect whose archeologicist husband fell off a Incan ruin and died and the young daughter witnessess it and develops latent autism when they return to the States. She keeps on climbing up high places and doesn't talk but screeches when things are out of place. Child psychologist Jones, who has a gift, tries to crack the young girl. Mama Turner (think the actress was heavily drinking at this point - v. slurry and bloated) thinks the child is a genius because she builds this amazing house of cards. She's afraid that if her child loses this autism she will lose her uncanny design skills and is in total denial and fights the system even though the kid climbs all the way up a 150 foot crane at one of her projects and scares every body and widowed architect mama almost loses custody. Architect mama has this computer program that tries to figure out scans of photos of her kid's house of cards (v. Tron) and she determines from her analysis of her house of cards that the kid just wants to build a spiral to the moon because thats where the Mexican man told her thats where her dad went. Meanwhile the kid fools Dr. Jones in one scene when she is in the observation booth playing with paint and he has to step away due to some emergency in the autistic children's center. He comes back and he can't find her - she has all painted a camoflouge on herself like a gecko or chameleon and is standing by the window, hidden with the foliage. That was pretty cool. Mama Turner meanwhile builds a huge spiral in the back yard thinking that it is the key to bringing back her daughter. But she falls asleep, negligent (I mean, she should be looking after her autistic child), and the daughter escapes from the house and freaks out while climbing on the spiral in the full moon. Then it is morning and Dr. T.L. Jones finds the kid wandering in a field and brings her to the spiral which he didn't know about. The kid goes back on the spiral and then breaks out of her autism and hugs and finally talks to Mama Turner. Everyone is happy and Dr. Jones doesn't even get pissed off that Mama Trner was more of an expert. Then Mama Turner asks Dr. T.L. Jones if he wants to have breakfast beacause she sure hasn't had any yet. And maybe the widow will hook up with the eccentric doctor and they will all live happily ever after. They don't show that but one can only conjecture.
I also saw Uma Turman and Nicole Kidman on Ellen and The View respectively and they were both radiant. I only seems to watch TV when I'm sick...
Also yesterday when I was home sick it was good I was here because Daniel's G4 arrived and since his English is limited he didn't know how to set it up nor how to get the internet connected. I was able to help him. I wish I could buy a G4. He sill doesn't have a job and is living off my rent and whatever Sugar Daddy gives him. He's also fallen back on his really druggy, circuit queen ways. Today for the holidays I gave him a book called I Need A Job - Now What Do I Do About It? It seemed very easy to understand and had lots of pictures. I don't think he appreciated the reality check.
I've got most of my presents wrapped, now I just have to get them over to Smithers. The horrible thing about having a cold is that I can't risk exposing her - last time she was in the hospital with pneumonia for three months! Dad arrived from Korea today.
I saw Somethings Gotta Give today in Georgetown. It was completely predictable but I think Diane Keaton is swell. Also she has really cool taste in art and photography. I think I bothered every one in the theater because I was hacking the whole time.
Comments