Currently

Home Slice Pizza on South Congress - Austin, Texas

Looking forward to: The Nutcracker Ballet on Saturday!  I saw a local commercial for the ballet a couple of weeks ago and immediately felt warm and giddy inside thinking back to when I was younger and would go to ballets and plays with Meme and Papa, particularly around Christmastime.  Sometimes I get so starved for comfort and familiarity up here without being surrounded by family like I'm used to, and seeing the commercial and experiencing the feelings it evoked within me, I knew I needed to do this.  I decided to approach Jason with the idea, and he said he was up for it.  We decided to invite our friends Corey and Helen along, so it'll be a lovely little double-date affair.  I'm definitely anxious for Saturday evening.  We're going to dinner at El Alma beforehand and then to The Long Center for the performance.

Eating: better.  I'm trying to get serious about my eating habits once again.  I know, the holidays aren't the best time for diet modifications. This is always such a struggle for me.  I don't necessarily over-eat; I just love food so much.  I was raised in a family that enjoys food - every aspect of it - the buying, the preparing, the cooking, the eating, the leftovers, etc.  Don't get me wrong - it's a wonderful, potentially beneficial habit to appreciate and love food.  I've just been trying to make sure I incorporate lots of veggies and more fruit into my diet, and I'm attempting to be more aware of when certain produce are in season.  I bought some winter squash, red pears and pomegranates a few days ago, and I'm limiting my sugar intake.  Little by little I'll get there.

Listening to: a variety of different music.  With it being Christmastime, I'm of course indulging myself in A Very She & Him Christmas, Christmas With Coniff, Vince Guaraldi, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, The Carpenters and many more.  I'll probably upload of playlist post of all my Christmas music in the next few days.  We watched an episode of Parenthood a couple of nights ago and had a beautiful cover of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" by James Blake.  I've been listening to that on repeat this evening.  That tends to happen to me; I'll hear a song that absolutely stops me in my tracks and irrevocably haunts me for weeks on end.  It's a fabulous curse if you ask me.

Watching: some amazing movies that have relentlessly resonated with me since I watched them.  In my opinion, a film is perfect when it forces you to use your mind and it grabs ahold of your heart and wrings it out like a soaking wet dishcloth.  I absolutely love to feel any and every emotion while I'm watching a movie.  I want to feel it swim through my bloodstream, dig through my bones and crawl across my skin.  I've seen two movies recently that managed to do this to me.

The first was Take This Waltz starring Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen, directed by Sarah Polley.  It's about a young married woman who is seemingly happy and content with her husband of about five-six years, but their relationship has plateaued and lacks the passion she desires.  Enter tall, dark, handsome artist who just so happens to move in across the street.  She falls for him, but struggles with her feelings for him because she doesn't want to hurt her husband.  I really enjoyed the story because it's painfully realistic, and the ending sort of catches you off guard and leaves you unsettled, yet satisfied all at once.

The second was We Need To Talk About Kevin starring Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller and John C. Reilly.  This one involves a super heavy story that switches back and forth in time, revolving around a mother analyzing her past display of abilities and decisions as a parent to her now teenage son, Kevin, who has been disturbed, if you will, since birth.  The dark, deeply thrilling film is visually appealing and artistically shot with red and white color motif from beginning to end.  Needless to say, I was captivated the entire two hours.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far, and, once again, many thanks to Danielle for inspiring these "Currently" posts.