when i first saw amélie, i thought it was an interesting movie, but i didn't think it was a must see. now that i've had a few days to digest it, the movie is still sticking around in my mind, and i now think it's better than my original feelings about the movie. my initial reservation about the film was that it was too cute. the characters, the situations, all too convenient, all too contrived, staged in order to milk the most out of the "awww" factor. but what's so wrong about a movie that's cute for a change? do movies have to be cynical? do they have to filled with gross comedy, or gory violence, or wall-to-wall sex? amélie's refreshing in that it doesn't do that, and that's what i like about it. the fact that it's a french movie makes even more sense, since it probably takes a foreign touch to add something new to the world of cinema, so dominated by americans and the hollywood system.

amélie is such a hopeless romantic. she goes through all these elaborate steps to help total strangers. it's fun to watch, but it could only really happen in a movie world. in the real world if somebody went through all that trouble, i'd be scared and the police would be involved. she is daring in her recklessness to help others, but when it comes to herself, more precisely her love life and her crush on nino (mathieu kassovitz). there were several times during the movie when i just winced because she couldn't get herself to be brave and reveal herself to nino, to let him know that she's his mystery woman. sometimes i think cowards don't deserve love. or at least one half of the equation must be courageous enough to make that first contact with the other half. two cowards could never fall in love. love is something for the brave.

so i liked the movie. another litmus test as to whether or not a movie is good is whether i'd go see it again, and i'd definitely go see amélie again. if nothing else, then at least to immerse myself in that fantasy world for 2 hours, where good things always happen to good people while bad things befall those who are bad. but not too bad. quirky, funny bad.

i take all my lady friends to to chau sooner or later. sometimes i wonder what the owner of that vietnamese restaurant thinks of me, how every so often i'd bring another young woman to her establishment for either lunch or dinner. i have a lot of good to chau memories.

so the highlight of my day was going to be having lunch with laurie rogers on her day off. after leaving a message on her machine yesterday and not getting any sort of response, i figured maybe it wasn't going to happen. so i went through my friday work motions, and after a meeting i checked my aim to see that laurie had tried to talk to me while i was away. i immediately called her at home to discover that she was ready for lunch. so we made arrangements to meet at dtx and i quickly dashed out of the office to arrive at the designated place (at the corner mall) on time. laurie looked pretty good when she arrived, wearing a large collared sweater, hooped earrings, and her blonde hair down. that's a good look for her! anyway, from there we walked to chinatown.

on our way to the restaurant, laurie told me a piece of good news: she got accepted to this jewelry making school in boston and would be attending the 16 months program starting in january. i can't think of anyone more deserving, and it's always nice to see good things happen to good people, makes me believe that there is at least some justice in life.

originally we planned on going to suishaya for the korean box lunch special, but when we got there it was packed and the manager told us there'd probably be a 15 minute wait. that must be the best and worst feeling if you're the manager. it's a good thing to have people beating on your restaurant's door to eat there, but at the same bad because you don't have enough tables to accommodate everyone, therefore you're losing some business. anyway, that was 15 minutes i couldn't spare, because by then i only had an hour before i had to get back to another meeting at work. so i decided to induct laurie into the very exclusive to chau club. to chau was crowded as well, but not so much that we couldn't get a table.

so we ordered, laurie got some vegetable tofu rice combo, i got the sweet and sour tom yum guy soup with vermicelli noodles. i think this was what amanda had when i came with her tuesday night, and now that i've actually tasted it for myself, i can honestly say that it's pretty good. one of the rare times when i go to a vietnamese restaurant but don't order some sort of pho. one of the things we talked about was tattoos. laurie revealed that if she was to get a tattoo, she would want some sort of cat design, maybe something mayan or egyptian looking.

the whole time we were eating i was very conscious of the time. with 20 minutes left to get back to the office, we paid and left to chau and started heading back to work. laurie wanted to visit the office and see some people so she was coming along with me. i believe this is her first time back at the office since she left about a month ago. we got back 5 minutes late, but my meeting hadn't even started yet, so nobody was the wiser.

the meeting, the conclusion of our project assessment talks from yesterday, ran from 2pm all the way to 5pm. that was my second meeting of the day, the other one being an hour meeting with michael to talk about the code structure. i stayed awake with the help of my 20 oz. bottle of coke and a basket of leftover halloween candy courtesy of rose. there was a couple of times during the meeting when amanda was kicking my feet from the other side of the table, but i pretended not to notice, thereby depriving her the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of me. and in order not to draw attention to myself, i unwrapped my candy underneath the table and put the whole piece into my mouth when i got it unfoiled. unfortunately, when i try to eat candy all stealthily, it ends up attracting more attention than if i was to just eat it normal.

after the meeting, after work, i met up with dan and elias at the kendall square cinema, where we also met up with amanda (elias' gf) and matt (elias' friend). the movie? amélie, the new french movie from jean-pierre jeunet (the co-director of city of lost children). my review of the movie will be up later, but all i'm going to say now is its a very cute movie. mischievous romantic is how entertainment weekly described amélie, played by audrey tautou. i couldn't agree more.