it's the end of the world as we know it...
apropos of nothing - i've lost 10 pounds. i now weigh about what i did in high school (124lbs). i think i've either picked up a worm of some sort from my patients or i've just been working so much, i haven't had time to eat. still, it's odd. the weight has just kind of dropped off of me. i'm not complaining, i'm always pleased when i randomly lose weight...

i just read nevil shute's book 'on the beach'. i was supposed to read it my freshman year of high school, so i'm roughly 15 years late on that. i can't remember how i passed the test in freshman english without actually reading the book - i was never one for cliff notes. passed it i did, though. maybe i skimmed the book - but honestly, it didn't even seem vaguely familiar on this reading. it was a good book, if a bit subdued. i liked how it dealt with the subject of the apocalypse so deftly and with so little melodrama. on the other hand, it might have been a little too low-key - in some ways, it lacked emotional punch.

in the theme of end of the world, the husband and i saw 'i am legend' tonight. i'm not sure what prompted me to choose it. perhaps the lack of the other remotely interesting movie-going fare - even in the independent movie scene (which is sorely lacking here in kvegas). some advice: save your money. it really wasn't worth the $7. the first 2/3rds of the movie was actually rather worthy - tense, clausterphobic, interesting. the scenes of empty, desolate, shelled out New York were arresting and spooky - if you could ignore the laughably bad - and i mean out loud laughing - CGI effects. i mean - christ - with all the money that was poured into this movie, you think they could have at least had scary monsters. these CGI fakes were so transparent and ephemeral as to be amusing. not frightening in the slightest. i was surprised at how good will smith's acting was - i've always kind of seen him as the fresh prince of bel-air. ultimately though, he couldn't hold up the slapdashed ending. really - the ending seemed so phony and so out of nowhere that i have to wonder if it wasn't tacked on after bad test audience reaction to the real ending - as depicted in matheson's novella (which, despite having a fascinating premise, sucked).

so...tomorrow heralds a day of christmas shopping, cleaning, and preparing for the holidays away from home. i wonder when my nuclear family (brothers, girlfriends) and i will start celebrating here at home and stop driving to florida. seems like a long way off - but it's getting harder every year to get away 650 miles for a week...

what else, what else? i can't believe i'm saying this - given my constant awareness of my mortality/the brevity and weight of life/etc - but i want the next 4.5 months to FLY by me. and i mean fly. i want to wake up and find out that it's may 6th - and i'm graduating vet school the next day. i am so ready to be a doctor, to be working, to be out of school for a while and doing something different. it seems a ways off to me now but only because i so urgently want it to be over so that i can move on with the next phase of my life. but i know - in my heart of hearts - it will be here all too soon. isn't that how life works? days last forever yet pass like a sigh...