Merry Christmas

St. Peter's - New Brunswick this morning

Being that this is my first Christmas alone... ever, haha, I went to the 11am mass at the church less than a block away from my apartment.  I wanted to be around a familiar community and surprisingly, Christmas mass didn't turn out to be the way I remembered it.  It was like a ghost town and those who attended weren't lively.  I felt like they were just checking off a box of a list of numerous things to do today.  It was a little saddening, so I left right before communion.  I didn't want to meet anyone new or shake anyone's hand because of the dampened mood.  It reminded me of how I felt when I was in my 'tweens, I always wondered why there were so many unhappy people around during the holidays. Aside from my relatives, whom I love to death, sometimes I just wanted to be alone and curl up into a book or watch the movies I wanted to watch during my "winter vacation."  Well, Don... haha, you got what you always wanted.

And I'm not gonna lie, it is lonesome, yet in my solidarity I am stress free.  There's so much time at the tip of my fingers, I don't want to waste it on sleeping or doing nothing.  I have to maximize this time to see something new, go somewhere, work out, read something, write something, etc.  Upon returning to my apartment, I popped in some leftover lasagna in the microwave, then searched through Netflix for a movie that was going to get me into a livelier mood, not necessarily the Christmas spirit.  I found Tropa de Elite 2 – O Inimigo Agora é Outro (sold to Americans as "Elite Squad: The Enemy Within"), a Brazilian film from 2010 that received high ratings.  It didn't disappoint and what I found out later was that it's a sequel, a backstory Americans wouldn't know existed unless they dug deeper on the Internet . Furthermore, it reminded me of why I love foreign films more than American films- because they're original!  The film's grittiness and storytelling quality also reminded me of Cidade de Deus ("City of God"), a 2002 Brazilian film that also highlighted the drugs & violence in Rio de Janeiro.  Researching further, it turns out that Bráulio Mantovani wrote the screenplays for both films... bravo, he's an excellent writer and a talent I aspire to be like.  My final note on Elite Squad- Wagner Moura is an outstanding actor!  He plays the lead- a divorced no-nonsense militant type that is passionate about his work & struggles with his purpose in life and what the actual fruits to come from his labor are...

I'm undecided on what to do at this point- I may workout in an hour or so, but will definitely start reading.  I have a lot of books to choose from on my shelves...  Talk to you soon.