Here there everywhere

I have several things to report. First, I finally heard from the Peace Corps last week. I haven’t heard from them in months, and then I got a call from one of their medical staff. They were finally reviewing my medical kit and got to the part where I said that I used to have a shellfish allergy. For whatever reason, they didn’t like the fact that I once had a rash from eating lobster when I was, oh, four years old. I have been armed with an Epi-pen for the last five years and have eaten shrimp, crabs, mussels, clams, lobster – you name it, I’ve probably eaten it. (Well, maybe not abalone – but I saw how Mel reacted to that and I think it’s safer if I stay away.)

So I worked to get them a personal statement that said that I could go out into the big, wide scary world and eat lobster.

Then they called back. And sent a letter. And guess what? They terminated my medical evaluation. I am taking a certain medication on a weekly basis that they don’t support overseas (which I already knew). What they didn’t tell me three or four months ago (when I originally submitted my medical paperwork) was that they will not even perform the medical evaluation until I have been off the medicine for at least 60 days. So they sent me this letter that says they’ve terminated my application, but I’m welcome to appeal their decision within 60 days. Within those 60 days, I must also go off the medication and have my doctor write an official note detailing my condition.

The real problem with this is that it doesn’t fit into my plan. And you know how much I love to plan. I was supposed to find out where I would be sent sometime this summer so that when Anthony bids for his next assignment in September/October, he can bid on places nearby. Now it looks as though we’ll be going into his bidding process blind.

There is also the problem that being off this medication for 60+ days does not guarantee that I will be invited to become a volunteer for the Peace Corps either. My application may be terminated for other reasons. The letter I received indicated that any appeal made by me would be reviewed by a special panel and that panel’s decision about my application would be final. As in no more appeals.

So there was that to ruin my day.

But I am still trying. We’ll see where the appeal process gets me before I really start to despair.

Other things to report… Anthony and I finally took a little road trip out to Annapolis. We heard about this nice little dog beach (Quiet Waters) and thought Grace might enjoy the Chesapeake. No such luck.

Our dog continues to loathe the water. She looked at us like we were INSANE when we tried to get her to jump in the water with the other dogs. I guess we won’t make the mistake of taking her there again.

So we spent the majority of the day walking around downtown Annapolis. It was a nice, quiet Sunday, probably because it was overcast. Anthony bought himself some clothes and new sneakers so I started to look like the disgruntled boyfriend following his girlfriend obediently throughout the shopping mall. It was kind of amusing (especially when he had to use those tiny nylons to try on the sneakers – I have pictures!). My prize for the day was homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream and the purchase of some cat grass in the hopes that we can help Pookie to not eat all the plants in the house.

Speaking of the cat, we have spent the last several days following his vomit trail around the house. Usually there is a hairball or several leaves stuck in it so we have a pretty good idea why he’s puking, but there have also been a few times where it looks like partially digested cat food. Pookie just started on a new prescription diet a few weeks ago (for the crystals in his urine) and he now seems to disagree with the vet’s choice of sustenance. (If you care, the dog doesn’t seem to like it too much either. Not that that has stopped her from downing whatever is in Pookie’s bowl when Anthony and I aren’t looking, but she did get a hold of the prescription cat food once and left a puke trail from the kitchen all the way across the living room and then onto the bed – yes, ON the bed.)

And the last thing that I have for popular consumption is my opinion of the latest installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Anthony and I re-watched Dead Man’s Chest over the past week or so in preparation and then went to see At World’s End last night. If you have not seen it and are planning on seeing it, I wouldn’t read any further because I’m about to spoil some of the plot points.

I thought this installment was the weakest of the three. Like every trilogy known to man, nothing beats the original. And these movies progressively got worse. The motivational speech Keira Knightley’s character, Elizabeth Swann, gave to the pirate hordes was ridiculous, at best. This tool is so overused in film today; more importantly, it is used badly. Not every movie needs the hero delivering an awe-inspiring speech. Especially if either a) the screenwriter doesn’t know how to script one properly, and b) the actor cannot deliver one properly. Knightley’s speech was totally inappropriate and disappointing. Anthony and I got a good laugh over it.

But that doesn’t even hold a candle to the ridiculous marriage ceremony. The value of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies had been the quick-witted dialogue and the humanity of the characters. There were parts of this movie that came off as desperate attempts to hold the movie together, rather than to tell a story or move the characters forward. The marriage scene was strained, at best. This movie could have been much, much better.

I’m not sure I enjoyed the hallucinations of Captain Jack Sparrow either. It made sense to have him be a little out of it when he was in Davy Jones’ Locker, but to have him continue in that ridiculous setup long after he escaped was vaguely irritating to me.

In the end, too, I’m not sure that this movie needed all the adult elements that were added to it. The first movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, was delightful because it was so well-written, so fresh, so humorous. By the third movie, there are some truly adult scenes, such as the opening with all the people being hung and the one near the end where Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom are clearly just finishing up their honeymoon. I don’t think the movie needed these scenes to be good, especially considering the fact that this should be a family movie (the whole trilogy is rated PG-13, but the third movie seems so much darker).

Finally, I’m not sure I understand the importance of the opening scene at all. If someone out there fully understood why the singing of the pirate song made all the rest of the movie happen, I would be glad to be educated.