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Okay, so I've now watched the wedding episode of Party of Five. And I have to say it's held up really well. It's still devastating. A lot of pivotal things happen in this episode. Bailey and Sarah get back together, Julia and Justin get drunk on champagne and lose their virginity to each other, and of course Kirsten leaves. I've really got to give it up for Matthew Fox in this episode. He really conveys so well how torn Charlie is and how torn up he is by the prospect of Kirsten's actually leaving him. And the scene when he expects Bailey to lay into him for ruining his life and for being a complete dumbass but Bailey says that he's going to hear that from everyone else so Bailey's going to be on his side? That scene kills me. Of course, it's not nearly as awesome on the DVD as it was during the series because they've replaced Shawn Colvin's "Monopoly," otherwise known as the saddest song of all time, with some generic song. But still. Solid episode, definitely one of the show's best ever. I think I've said that before -- this episode, along with the Thanksgiving episode of season one and the intervention episode of I guess season three -- these are the standouts. Frankly, this show lost me in the final years. Nobody needed to see Claudia growing boobs or having sex, a custody battle between Charlie and Bailey over Owen, Charlie having a baby with Daphne the stripper, or least of all the once beautiful Paula Devicq apparently practically starving herself to death. Anyway. I'm excited to watch the commentary. This was a nice weekend in spite of the fact that the weather was ass. On Friday night, I went to Whole Foods and spent too much money just like I do every time I shop there. Then I just read Anthony Rapp's new book for a few hours and passed out. My boyfriend came up Saturday morning, and we headed to an early matinee of Brokeback Mountain, which he hadn't seen yet. I loved it just as much the second time around. Then we went to Starbucks and to lunch and played a couple of games of Scrabble. For once, I beat him two games in a row and even reached my all-time high of 385 points. I made chicken curry in the crock pot and we watched A Very Long Engagement, which was lovely even though it put me to sleep as anything on the television does that I watch past 10:00 at night. This morning I went to the CPA/financial planner's office to open my Roth IRA. I stupidly assumed this would be as simple as signing some forms and shaking his hand. No. As I sat there gripping my skinny white chocolate mocha in nervousness that I stopped and bought on the way there because I grossly overestimated the morning traffic and was thirty minutes early, he sat across the desk from me explaining things like Mutual Funds blah blah blah Diversification blah blah blah Class A blah Class B blah Class C blah You're Young blah can be Aggressive blah blah .... Blah. What would you like to do? I just blinked and said, ".....Uh. Roth IRA?" He said, "Mm hmm, but you have to decide on this and that and Fund this and Blah this," and I started to sweat and finally just decided to pick four different funds that have different levels of Value or Equity or whatever the HELL and spread my money out 25% in each and I have to tell you I have no idea what I did. Basically, the fact that this man does my dad's investments and taxes and has for years and years is really all that is allowing me to do this. Otherwise I'd probably assume he was leading me down the wrong path and trying to steal all of my money, because that's just the kind of faith in humanity that I have. But I figure if my dad trusts him then I can, too. Phew. I feel good about starting it even though I don't understand it. That probably sounds crazy. I guess there's no guarantee that any of this money will still be there in thirty years, but let's just hope so, I guess. I'm still going to be dumping money into a normal savings account (which I will up to a CD because it has better rates) every month so I will have actual money saved that I can put my actual hands on. I'm going to have to tighten the belt a little bit and see how this all shakes out. Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice -- it was dynamite of you -- and I do not say it was confusing to discourage anyone from doing it. (Many of you expressed to me that you want to open an IRA but are too flummoxed to even know how to begin.) I cannot even do Scrabble math in my head without developing very bad brain cramps. I think this stuff is probably confusing for everyone who doesn't have any kind of a financial background, and that is why someone else is paid to figure it out. Just find someone you know or who is trusted by someone you know and go from there. This expert will show you graphs and charts and give you lots of paperwork with very tiny print, and you can just say, "Um" and "Okay" a lot like I did -- even though I sincerely did not comprehend very much of what was coming out of his mouth -- and pretty soon it will all be over and money will be drafted out of your checking account every month and hopefully decades from now as a result you will not be in the poorhouse. I do not think she would mind if I pointed out that Stacey said in her e-mail about this: But I'd just decide what sort of account you want and get it opened for now, and then decide how to invest the money in it later on. Otherwise it's crazy overwhelming and you'll just want to hide under a blanket and cry. (And by "you" I mean "me.") And I said HA! Because that's exactly how I was feeling -- like hiding under a blanket and crying. I actually felt like that a little during the appointment. But I survived! And it's over! And if I can do it, you can, too. I think Fiona Apple is very pretty. Never in my life will I understand how a woman can delude herself into believing that hair extensions are a good idea. I like her in lighter lipstick like this, but I think her eyebrows are a bit too thin. Lately I am very eyebrow conscious as I've decided I want to grow mine out a bit because they are just too damn high maintenance and I terrify myself every time I look in the mirror. It is terrifying. I don't know if I'm going to be able to resist grooming them because this in-between phase is going to blind someone who looks at me soon, I just know it. Sometimes he looks so much like my cousin that it is astonishing. Please put your tongue back in your mouth and don't even think about beating Felicity Huffman. I love her hair and the way she always seems to be emitting this blissed-out serenity lately. Surely it's from Mildred Rose and not from Heath. Even though this dress is SUPER eighties, I still think she looks great. I watched her again in Under the Tuscan Sun recently, and she is just awesome in everything. She was so cute rocking out in the kitchen last night on Grey's Anatomy. I'm glad the writers FINALLY gave her a fun, playful scene with Burke. Ronald Miller, now and forever. I read some article recently about how horrible Can't Buy Me Love is and oh, isn't Patrick Dempsey so lucky to have escaped that fate now that he's on a hit show? And I'm like, what? The only bad thing about that movie is that Ronald actually allows Cindy Mancini to hop on the back of his riding lawnmower and put on his cowboy hat after treating him like poop. I mean, he was no saint himself, but my God, he was an angel sent down from heaven compared to her and her superficial, Bobby-loving, stupid thousand-dollar ugly cowgirl suede outfit from her mom's closet-stealing self. Where is Cindy Mancini now? Where? That's right, nowhere. Who has ever actually seen this movie who doesn't one hundred percent love it and who hasn't known all along that Patrick Dempsey was destined for greatness? Who? Nobody I care to meet, that's who.
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