Kyle was in this weekend, which means it would have been amazing if we had stayed in the house. We did not, however. Now, among my boy's many charms is his utter detestation of the snow. Not to mention he has no natural defense against it at all. I would not have been surprised if we hibernated this weekend for although we had sunny, clear days, the temperature peaked at about 30.
But no, we braved the cold! On Saturday, we saw Black Swan, which was fantastic. Haunting is a great word for it. They mean it when they call it a psychological thriller. Amazing, truly amazing. Everyone was really great in it, but Natalie Portman gave a truly thrilling performance. She also did all her own dancing except for the long shots that required her to be en pointe for an extended period (it takes years of training to be able to stay en pointe for long lengths of time and though she trained for a year, I'm glad she didn't risk breaking her feet). Even hours later, we were still talking about it. It sticks with you. Wow. Just wow.
After the movie, we grabbed dinner at The Melting Pot, which I always like. Kyle, who is not a fan of cheese, braved a cheese course and liked it. The chocolate course is always amazing and we shared an outstanding bottle of wine. He is dedicated to his pursuit to get me to like reds. Afterwards, we caught another movie, this time True Grit. Completely different and truly fantastic. I like westerns since they have a lot of what I like in movies. We already knew Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges could act and Josh Brolin was unsurprisingly captivating for his few minutes on screen. But hands down the movie was owned by Hailee Steinfeld. What a debut. I think it's tragic the way it was shut out of the Golden Globes, but this girl has some future ahead of her.
We came home and watched Social Network, which we both missed in theaters. It was good, I certainly enjoyed it and it was interesting. Justin Timberlake was really good - he's got some chops and I'm glad to see him getting bigger roles. However...I don't understand why everyone thought it was so groundbreaking. Maybe it's because it's the topic that was fascinating - we all use facebook, even if we hate it, and seeing how it started, and how young they were, is really interesting. Maybe it's just because we saw two really phenomenal movies earlier, but it didn't wow me. I'd watch it again and I enjoyed it, but eh.
Sunday we ventured into the city and saw Avenue Q. Everyone knows I'm a Broadway fan, but Kyle is not the biggest musical guy. I thought swearing puppets might be a good intro and, thankfully, he really seemed to enjoy it. I was disappointed that the understudy for Kate/Lucy the Slut had such a weak voice. Kate has some great songs and, more importantly, an important vocal line in the harmonies, so the performance was missing something without a strong vocal. Maybe the girl got called in at the last minute - it was the matinee. But the show was fun, regardless. We followed with the thing Kyle had been truly looking forward to - dinner at Brasserie Les Halles, Anthony Bourdain's restaurant before he became a chef at large. The menu hadn't changed since he was there and it was to die for. We had clams for a starter, then I had scallops in a champagne sauce while Kyle had steak tartar. Spectacular. The food tasted so good, I couldn't even describe it. For desert Kyle had profiteroles, which were new to him, and I had the most amazing creme brule I have ever tasted. The sugar was so thick, I had to take a good whack at it to crack it. The bourdeoux was had was eh and definitely did nothing for the scallops, but the port we had with dinner (and shared with our neighbors on both sides) was divine. Truly a fantastic dining experience. I really want to go there for breakfast...
As if the weekend couldn't get any better, Kyle gave me the most beautiful earrings for my birthday. Simple, elegant and classy, they will be added to the staples of my jewelry collection. The man has excellent taste (though no surprise there). And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. His parents gave me a really lovely charm bracelet, which came with a puppy print (Indy), a horse (I ride), J heart K, a garnet (my birthstone) and a mortarboard (for school). Not only is it beautiful and utterly versatile, it clearly took some thought and time to put together, which I appreciate even more.
So, a week before my birthday and I'm already feeling utterly spoiled. I have 2 lab reports and a final this week - but at least I'm going into it with a smile.
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