When I Pretend

    I pretend that bus trips to other cities are not exhausting.  They are.  I'm heading back to DC for the day today.  I leave in three hours, and the prospect exhausts me.  At first, it was a fun adventure.  I had a list of reasons that a four-and-a-half-hour bus ride could be fun.  It was a chance to catch up on reading, listen to music, watch Hulu on my phone, and take a nap.  Often, all four.  But now, the luster has worn off. 
     I'm sure part of it is the quick turn around.  That always makes it even more grueling, when you're on the bus longer than you're in the city you're busing to.  Today's trip is just about even--nine hours total busing time, ten hours in the city.  Except that a lot of that in the city time will be late at night and probably spent just waiting for the bus.
     It is a pain.  All those people who make comments about it being so are right.  But when it was going the other way--from DC to NYC--it was worth it.  And really, it's still worth it.  I want to go because I want to be in DC for the thing I'm going to DC for.  But the luster of the bus ride has worn off. 
     Also, I have no idea what was going on in Mulholand Drive.  I can say I was totally there for the ride David Lynch was taking us on, but I would be pretending.  I think large portions of it were dreams or hallucinations, and frankly I don't have the patience for such story telling.  I can tolerate dream sequences when they are clearly dream sequences and they're in comedies.  But when they're the first hour of a film and there has been no real break from the supposed reality of the film, you've tricked me as a viewer and I don't trust you as a story teller anymore.  Give me Amanda Bynes trying to play soccer in a pink ball gown, and I'm on board with your dream sequence.  Crazy amnesia lesbians in the middle of a murder mystery plot?  Nope.  I've stopped caring.
     I'm going to go out on a limb her and declare I did not like Mulholland Drive.  I imagine some people will be here soon to take away my MFA, but I stand by the statement.  I'm sure film studies experts will say I'm just too stupid to understand it, and that's fine.  The fact that I didn't understand it isn't really why I didn't like it.  First of all, it wasn't very funny.  Secondly, the lead female character was a stupid woman for the first half.  I hate that.  Also, at the heart of it, it was a love story.  Ugh.  I just couldn't care about these people.  I couldn't even pretend to care.