In celebration of the holiday season, my roommate Alexis and I have been watching Christmas movies, baking cookies, wrapping presents, decorating the apartment, and partaking in all things merry. We have not one but THREE mini-trees, only one of which is real, of varying sizes. There is a giant stack of presents under the biggest of the three, Alexis's piles overwhelming the tiny stack I've put together for my family. Included in my bundle is the wrapped DVD of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (that I first watched) I bought myself.
I love the holidays (even if LA weather prevents it from feeling like them). I love the festiveness, the lights, the joy, the giving, the cookies, etc. But I hate the shopping and the consumerism of it. HATE the shopping. I'm not a people person. At all. I get incredibly frustrated, antsy, and generally feel like a caged unicorn when I'm in crowds. Black Friday sees me curled up in a ball, shaking back and forth and clutching my head, mumbling incoherent words. I just can't do it. The people that walk in a horizontal line, blocking anyone from passing them, creating a congested pack of hungry shopdogs... I want to run, Red Rover style, and break through them. I can only do tiny spurts of shopping at a time during this season. Get one thing today, another few things tomorrow. Which goes against my I just want to get it all done now, countering attitude. It's very stressful.
So, in honor of Christmas, Alexis and I decided to watch Elf. I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest Will Ferrell fan. In fact, I kind of hate him. I'd only seen this movie once (in college, at a holiday dorm function) and wasn't that impressed. I don't know if I was in a bad mood, had preconceived notions that I would hate it, or have just changed in the past few years, because this time, I watched it and found it hilarious. But so we're watching it, and the scene where Buddy (Will) meets Zooey Deschanel's character comes on (love her).
And Alexis makes the observation that I act a lot like this character (told you, I'm narcissistic and strive to be like Zooey)... and since I have a love for Z, I was amused (and excited) that this observation had been made. It's like when I told my mom she reminds me of Sally Field (both in looks and actions, on screen and off), who I then found out was her idol. She was so tickled (my grandparents love this phrase) that I'd made that comparison, and now I Sally to inspire her when she second guesses herself and her decisions.
"Mom, Sally Field says she's not the marrying type either, remember? That she's happier now, living with her mom and kids?"
"You're right. She's my idol."
My reaction was similar squeeish when I was compared to one of my indie/hipster/twee idols (c'mon, she's married to Ben Gibbard!). The deadpan, you're-an-idiot-get-away-from-me attitude and snarky comments. The judging. The pretentiousness. (I understand these aren't necessarily good traits, but they're buffers, protectors, walls hiding insecurities that push those unworthy away). I've actually been called a pretentious bitch, intimidating, and hard to get to know before. Which always comes as a surprise to me, because I feel like I wear my emotions on my sleeves. Guess not.
Sarcasm is just more fun.
Send your own ElfYourself eCards
I LOVE Zooey!
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