Singing, oh, the Hazards of Love

So, I am no longer among that elite group of people that can say, "I don't have a sexually transmitted disease." I went in yesterday to be poked and prodded and to have a slice of cells taken out of me. It turns out, I have HPV, which is unfortunate, but on the bright side, apparently 85% of women my age have it as well. The other bad news is that there were indeed abnormal cells, so a biopsy was taken. I won't find out the results of that until August 4th.

Today is Chris and my anniversary. It's been 3 years since we started dating. We share the date with 4 of Chris' family/friends' birthdays. And, we will spend most of today driving to Joliet. But, we went to Olive Garden last night since I found out they now have risotto on the menu (they're the first place around here to have that item, sadly). I was pretty excited, but the risotto turned out to be...meh. It was still a lovely dinner and we had some tiramisu, which was very good. Plus, it's nice to know that the risotto I make is better than a restaurant's. I opened my present from Chris yesterday, which was Jeeves & Wooster on DVD. Neither of us has ever seen it, but we're both fans of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.

Doctors and Douchebags

About a month ago, I made an appointment with a gynecologist. A few days after, a nurse called to inform me that the results of my pap smear were abnormal and that I would have to come back to have a colposcopy done. I had to do some internet research to find out what this test is, and the first phrase to come up in my search was cervical cancer. So, I freaked out for a little while, then felt better after I was assured that this sort of thing happens somewhat often and that usually everything is fine. I go in for the test tomorrow morning, but I'm not sure when I'll be given the results. So, as I'm yet to find out if I have cancer or not, I've decided (and made a deal with Chris) that if I do have the disease, I get to shave my head. I've always had an itch to do this, but Chris doesn't want me to. Now's my chance! In fact, maybe I'm rooting for the cancer right now (it comes with the added benefit of immunity from judgment--if it turns out that I look atrocious bald, no one can acknowledge it without then feeling like an asshole). We'll see...

I've been training for a triathlon that will occur on August 29th. The training began well, but I'm quickly losing motivation these days.

I recently got around to seeing the film Gone Baby Gone and walked away with mixed feelings. It was an interesting story and was very well-acted. I thought Ben Affleck did a good job directing it (except for the reveal near the end, which I thought was overdone). The dialogue could've been much better, but from what I've read, most of it was lifted directly from Dennis Lehane's novel. It was frustrating for me to watch, though, because almost every character is an utterly terrible person. So many characters make so many bad choices and justify them so self-righteously and with such hypocrisy, that I spent half of my viewing yelling at the screen. Many of the reviews praise the film for its moral ambiguity. To me, there's nothing ambiguous about it--Casey Affleck's character makes the right decision (in the end, not in the house during the shoot-out) and everyone else is in the wrong. The truth is the right thing and such means as the police used in no way justified the end they sought. Also, on a particular side-note, if you truly care about the well-being of a child, you should protect them, even if it hurts you--don't force the police to pry her out of your hands, it's incredibly selfish and harmful to the child. Okay, so maybe I didn't really like the film that much.