Movies good, reading bad
In the space of a week earlier this month, I saw three movies with subtitles ... in a row. Pan's Labyrinth, in Spanish with subtitles. Letters from Iwo Jima, in Japanese with subtitles. Babel, in at least four different languages with subtitles. Now, I really liked all the movies (except Babel, really. I saw what they were trying to do, but it was just too long and too damn tragic.), and I'm a fan of reading in general, but a girl can only take so much. To remedy the situation, I watched Smokin' Aces. Lots of explosions, no subtitles.

Adventures in Teen Journalism or Kristin is gonna be so jealous*
The week after the subtitle marathon, I interviewed seven different stars in person in a week. This was unusual, and frankly, a bit tiring. Phone interviews involve less tromping about. Who did I meet? Well, most of them are very popular with the fourth-grade set, but if you read my blog, I doubt you've heard of them. Three of them are in the singing group that had a concert down the street from Kristin and Justin's wedding reception. (Remember all the munchkins in pink leopard print?) One of them is the daughter of the man who sang Achy, Breaky Heart. Another is a female rapper who does a cover of "She's Like the Wind." Yes, the Patrick Swazey song. OK, you've heard of the other one, her name starts with Hilary and ends with Duff.

But the real crowd pleaser for everyone who went to high school in the '90s is JC from NSync. He actually came by our office, and I spent twenty minutes with him one-on-one. I was never an NSync fan, but I actually got a little flustered. I blame this on a combination of things. 1. He was much handsomer than I expected. (But he totally wore that sweater that matched his eyes on purpose.) 2. This was the first time I had to ask silly teen questions to someone I believe is older than me, and this made them feel sillier. 3. I kept thinking of this video of an NSync concert Kristin used to watch when she lived across the hall. In said video, I remember seeing JC lick the floor or the camera (or a glass floor with a camera under it? something like that). I kept thinking of this and kind of wanting to laugh.

*Kristin, I believe you would only be more jealous if I actually got to interview Justin (Timberlake, not your husband).

Shopping is a very dangerous thing
I caved and went to Anthropologie to buy the dress. They only had two left, but thankfully one was in my size. It took a lot of self-restraint not try on a lot of other things I knew I'd fall in love with. Much like a small child or a raccoon gets distracted by shiny objects, I get distracted by sales racks. (Focus, Anne, focus. You don't need that yellow sweater, you need a dress.) Somehow I managed to make it out of the store with just the dress, and it is now hanging in my closet. Unfortunately, I went bra shopping at Macy's after that, and bra shopping usually makes me feel rather homicidal. It helped that there were a trio of British girls in the next dressing room over trying on girdles or similarly evil foundation garments. It's hard to maintain a murderous rage when you hear a girl who sounds just like Lily Allen say, "Can you imagine trying to go at it in this thing? You'd have to go change in the other room first!" and then cackling.

A very merry un-birthday, to me
On my birthday, I ordered pizza and watched Ugly Betty. The real celebration took place on Saturday. I went to the Barneys Warehouse Sale in the city. It was sort of a mad house with people throwing things all over and trying stuff on over their clothes. I didn't plan on buying anything, but then I found this adorable Marc Jacobs skirt that fit. Over my jeans. And was still incredibly flattering. Did I mention that it was $100 off? Yeah, that's hanging in my closet now, too. Then I went to dinner at a tasty Mexican restaurant, which was followed by drinking too much with friends at a cozy Irish pub. It was a good birthday. There wasn't even a snow storm!