thoughts after midnight

today was my last day with MAC and Nordstrom. If I had left altogether when I left Chicago I think I would've been more sad about it. I've spent most of my adult life working for this company. Unfortunately my experiences here in Atlanta with MAC and Nordstrom really soured it for me.
So, I was quite pleased to punch out for the last time tonight.
I have tomorrow off to relax and maybe get some holiday shopping done - an activity I don't particularly enjoy.
Thursday I start working for Shu Uemura at Saks. I am excited about it. It is a fantastic product, but more importantly, I will be working in a more harmonious environment and getting paid much more for it. Less stress means much more to me than ever.

I've been in Atlanta 6 months now and I'm really making some great new friends here. Yvonne, her friend Stefan, Kyle, Brian and I went to see Brokeback Mountain last night. I arrived first to find a lengthy line which I had to wait thru to hear that the movie was sold out. I quickly called Yvonne and Kyle to see if I should get tickets for the ten o'clock. Once everyone arrived after circling for parking, we went to Apres Diem and had dinner and drinks and chatted for a while until it was time for the movie. Yvonne's journalistic skills seemed to rub-off on all of us as we interviewed Stefan about his life.

The movie didn't get quite a grasp on me emotionally as I expected it to. I certainly enjoyed the eye-candy and was saddened by the story, but I'm not sure I ever fully believed in their love for each other. Their inability to love each other openly, for all the reasons, made me mad more than anything. Will we ever have a queer film that ends with the characters in love and happy? Or is that just cheesy film-making? Adam and Steve despite all it's ridiculous humour and slap-stick antics, told a sweet love story. The love scenes were often uncomfortable, akward and absurd, as they so often really are. If I were able to play back some of the intimate moments I have had in my life, I would be embarrassed - especially if others were watching. Which is why I loved so much of Adam and Steve. Also, I can only love anything that has Parker Posey.

Brokeback relied on few words shared. And I've been in that same sort of place as well. I guess something just didn't ring true for me. Or maybe i just respond better to humour. I still liked it, but wasn't blown away. Heath Ledger was excellent.