Quote of the Day/Beard Lust

From Wikiquote:

"One can acquire everything in solitude - except character." -Stendhal

Well, great. I've been spending nearly all of my time in solitude for the past 4 months - going on 5. Even when I was in NYC I was alone most of the time. And there's not really an end to this solitude in sight. So, I suppose I'm shaping up to be a character-less little lady who is desirable in every other way? I might take that.

I have an assignment tomorrow! Some purpose! I spent an afternoon grading some French exams for a friend of my mom. $50 bucks for grading tests for a few hours? Yes, please. Side note: our educational system is in dire straits. Or maybe my mom's friend just is not a very good French teacher. But after a semester of French II, some of these students could not correctly identify what sort of tourist attractive Notre Dame is. Some of them actually thought that it was a popular shopping mall. Oy. Well I'm 'doing some filing' for this French teacher - a task that sounds suspisciously vague to me. In my experience, work like this is either extremely simply or unduly complicated.

I got the strangest phone call this evening. It sounded like it could have either been a really good recording or a very lively young man. He assured me that it wasn't a sales call, and that it would only take thiry seconds of my time. He asked if I had gone to a movie theater in the past year, and I said I thought that I had. He asked if I had seen any movies of the "Enchanted", "Bolt", "Wall-E" ilk. I said that I had, not understanding where he was going with all of this. He then went on to say that a movie was coming out soon that didn't have much money to spend on advertising - but that the production company (or whoever) was so sure that me and my family would like it that they would pay me back if I didn't.

I promptly hung up. I have, in my life, adminitered about a bajillion prank calls. As a result, I don't believe a one word that anyone has to say when it is coming from an unknown/unrecognized phone number. Turns out it's a scam - I just googled it. There is no such Velveteen Rabitt movie coming out.

Do people actually fall for these scams? I probably will someday. When I'm all old and out of touch. But not today, John (if that is your real name!) or some phony marketing service! Take your silly, over-emotive voice elsewhere!

"Once" is on. I'm going watch it - in my solitude, thank you very much- and maybe fall asleep. I may not gain character, but I'll gain an earful of pretty love songs. And some quality Glen Hansard time. He's very attractive in a bug-eyed, super tall, bearded way. Which, conviently, is just my type.