“Mother, May I… Have a Nervous Breakdown?”

So, I suddenly realized May was almost over, and I need to post something.

Originally the plan was to write a book review for my May post so that I would have critiqued movies, music, and books and shown that this blog has some kind of coherent theme.

However, I have been quite busy this month, and although I am partly through at least four different books at the moment, I have yet to touch a single one of them recently, let alone actually finish one. And thus, I have no opinions at present regarding books to relate.

I have, however, watched several more movies in theaters: 

• Thor

• Something Borrowed

• Jane Eyre

• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides  

However, I do not intend for this to be another movie critique, so I will be brief.

Thor was neither as bad, nor as good, as it could have been. Over all, I enjoyed it… but it was no Iron Man. And although Chris Hemsworth is an attractive enough man in his own right, he is no Robert Downey Jr. 

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Something Borrowed was awful. It was both disappointing and frustrating. The main three characters grew irritating early on (either due to their personalities or personal choices they made), and the more the story progressed, the lower my opinion of them sunk.  The ultimate coupling at the end felt forced (despite the fact that the audience was supposedly being groomed to accept it), and the one person who was sweet and likable didn’t end up with someone at the end.  If not for John Krasinski in this movie, it would have been an even bigger waste of my time.

Jane Eyre was splendid. Worth waiting for… and I did wait FOREVER… because it was out in select theaters starting March 11, and it took until May 6 for it to finally arrive at my local theater.  I already own five film versions of this Charlotte Brontë tale… and when this comes out on DVD, I will have six.  I'm not obsessed....

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was exactly what I hoped it would be:  redemption for the Pirates franchise. It was better than the second and third films, though not better than the first one.  And I simply adored it. I was hesitant at the beginning because it took me awhile to get into it, but I am such a Pirates fanatic (and a Johnny Depp fan in general) that it did not take me long. I did not even miss Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley.  I was much more intrigued by the missionary and mermaid anyway… not to mention the sparks between gorgeous Penelope Cruz and Depp. 

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On an entirely different note, I do have an update about the adventures of the technology challenged side of myself.

Yes… I finally did it. I got the iPhone. 

I know, right?

Until the last minute, I was standing in the AT&T store telling the sales representative that I didn’t want it. I was trying to be economical, and one of the less flashy smart phones was going to be cheaper payments a month.

Also, I was convinced it would be too difficult for me to figure out. But, the sales associate wooed me, telling me how user friendly it was, and I was hooked by all the features it promised. 

And I have been hooked ever since.  I am now convinced this thing has a life force all of its own. Within hours of purchasing it, I felt strange if it wasn’t near me. I stayed up until eight in the morning figuring it out, getting free apps, creating new ring tones, etc. Within forty-eight hours I couldn’t remember how to operate my old phone. 

Now, for the person who was very emotionally attached to her old phone…who had used the same mobile phone for around four years… this is an amazing step.  For the person who on average waits six months to open the box of a new technological device and even longer to figure out its features… this is an incredible improvement. For the person who was confused by iTunes and had to have help syncing her iPod the first several [hundred] times… this is unheard of progress.

Suddenly, I am even more organized than I thought humanly possible. I have every event in the near future programmed into my mobile calendar. I look at and respond to missed calls and emails in a timely manner. I create memos that range from my current grocery to my daily to-do list. I have been given the best tool mankind can currently provide for cultivating a Type A personality.

However, this divine device comes with a heavy price… powerful introspection.

I am OCD.

The reason why I respond faster to emails?

The notifications.

To missed calls?

The notifications.

To app updates?

The notifications.

That’s right. It’s like having Facebook on 24/7 and constantly getting a new stream of notifications. And the only way to get them to go away is to respond to them.  If you’re OCD like me, they will drive you crazy. 

Right now I have an app update staring at me, and I can’t make it go away because technically the app belongs to my friend. It was on her iPod and she downloaded it to my iTunes library, so when I hooked my new iPhone up to my iTunes Library, it synced her app to my phone.

And I can’t update it to make it go away because it requires her email address and password. However, it’s also a game app… a game app I want to play… so either I must delete the app or live forever with a notification staring at me on my iPhone… until the end of time.

Or, you know, until I get a new phone.

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So, like I was saying… until the end of time.