Perhaps inspired by watching the Smallville series finale last week after not having watched the show since 2003, I caught up on a few other season/series finales today. The Office, which I stopped watching regularly about a year ago, was kind of charming. NCIS was not very interesting case-wise but aww, I will never not love these characters (I also watched the "Baltimore" episode, which yay, flashbacks!).

I watched the latest episode of House, and I kept watching the whole way through like a masochist even though it was one of the most painful House-watching experiences I've had, oh my god D: House, House, Jesus fucking Christ. This is what happens when you don't follow the show for a half a season (I haven't watched since he and Cuddy broke up) -- you miss the regularly scheduled downward spiral and end up catching up with him at rock bottom when he spends HALF AN EPISODE trying to OPERATE ON HIS OWN LEG OW OW OW. God, HL, break my heart some more. I mean, the acting was fantastic and the scene was heartbreaking but ultimately the entire House-plot of this episode felt like emotional and physical torture-porn.

I can't say I cared about the Taub plot at all. I was excited to see Thirteen -- I'd had no idea she'd come back -- and though her plotline was pretty depressing TOO -- this episode basically kept cutting between two horribly dark, depressing plots -- I liked having her around again, and lol'd at her and Chase actually getting in a FIST FIGHT, and the last few minutes of her and Chase talking were probably my favorite in the episode. Of course, unless I'm getting this wrong, Chase was about to commiserate with her about living with the guilt of having MURDERED someone -- which, in his case was not even euthanasia -- but hey, details.

And THEN I watched the Brothers & Sisters series finale. I haven't watched the show since mid-season 4 and didn't even know it had been canceled, but when I read that the series finale aired I had to watch. Aw, Walkers. I do love that family. The whole Sarah-has-a-different-dad plot made my eyes pop out at first, and Beau Bridges, whom I mostly remember as being really annoying on SG-1, was not a fun casting choice for me, but as the episode went on I liked him more and more, and he became less Beau-y and more Jeff-y in my mind.

I don't know much about the Kitty/Seth relationship, but uh, I've been rewatching some baby!Joe Flanigan on Sisters having a relationship with an older woman clips recently, so I am totally down with the age-difference thing (and in fact may have been trying to figure out how exactly that would work in Bandom, because I want it to. So much.)

Justin looks a lot more gray-haired than I remembered. Tommy being back was very :/ whatever, but I'm happy the Walkers were happy, I guess. And Uncle Saul and Jonathan getting engaged was sweet, and Luke was kind of adorable with the kids, and KEVIN. KEVIN AND SCOTTY. I was so happy seeing them onscreen again :D I might just go back and rewatch some of their scenes from throughout the season, though I understand it included some breakup and pain so maybe not. But wedding planner!Kevin is adorable, as are the both of them, and the entire first scene with the multiple phone conversations was very classic Walker family and gave me warm and fuzzy feelings.

(Okay, and are there really no Jon Walker/B&S crossovers at all? Because Jon would be an awesome distant cousin to all the kids who always has the crackiest time when visiting his cousins in California, no really, guys, don't ask, just... don't.)

In continuation of my vague squee at Grey's Anatomy yesterday, if you want to see what I was excited about -- mainly smart, well-written, wonderfully acted (&Sandra Oh;) scenes about abortion -- I am posting the relevant scenes under the cut. Spoilers for the season 7 finally, obviously.

Necessary background info: Cristina Yang is a motherfucking awesome surgeon and she is strong-minded and passionate and ambitious and very flawed and as I mentioned, awesome. Owen Hunt, fellow (and more senior) surgeon, has (UNFORTUNATELY) been her husband since the beginning of this season. He is a very well-meaning guy and I, uh, hate him. That part's less relevant.







Sooo... I think that's all about TV. Well, I also watched this week's Glee and like Jane Lynch a lot. and that's really it. Which means I can move on to movies:

Yesterday I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Um, that's basically all I have to say about that, actually. I was disappointed. I loved the first movie, enjoyed the two sequels, and this movie was meh enough that I actually nodded off near the end, and I don't think I was that tired. The music and stunts were cool -- I think Pirates is one of the only movies that still have those kind of old classic action-adventure kinds of stunts that are perfectly choreographed and inventive and just plain cool, with costumes and settings and music that just sweeps you in for those few moments. But then the plot happened, or "plot", idek what that was to be honest. One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that the 3D is entirely pointless and I hate that they are making me pay 10 extra shekels for movies these days ugh :/

On Thursday evening I went to my boss's wedding. It was fun and sweet and I danced like I have not danced since Club Vivid. Some of my coworkers got utterly sloshed but I did not drink more than appropriate for driving, which I slightly regret. I'm not a huge fan of alcohol, which is also why I don't like spending actual money on it, but there was a free bar and good company and had I planned it otherwise it would have been an opportunity to drink some more. But whatever, I had fun. For those of you who are maybe interested in how these kinds of Israeli weddings go, here is how it went:

PS -- "these kinds of" weddings mean, in this case, most Israeli weddings I have been to; by no means a reflection of all Israeli society etc.

1. Arrival at the event hall, in this case in a beautiful even hall on the oceanfront in Jaffa. At the front desk you get your table number and slip your check into a nicely decorated ballot box. There are envelopes and pens for people who didn't bring any in advance. There's no real system in deciding how much money to bring -- it depends on how well and where you know the couple from, but these days anything less than 250 shekels per person is considered extremely rude. Our office decided to each bring 300, but guys, my wallet, it was so sad afterwards D: D: D:. There is no such thing as giving an actual gift that is not money. It's just not done. There's not even a term in Hebrew for wedding-gift-registration or whatever it is they do in the US on TV. There is just $$$.

2. Gathering, open bar, nice calm music on the rooftop deck overlooking the ocean, really nice and pretty. Say hi to the bride and groom, get assaulted by wedding photographers, mingle.

3. The ceremony, aka "the chuppah", about an hour/hour-and-a-half after the event began. The chuppah, which you have likely encountered in real life or on TV, is a square canopy under which the wedding ceremony takes place. For some reason all the photos I saw online are of stationary chuppahs, but most of the chuppahs I've seen in real life were held up by friends/family of the bride and groom, just a nice designed cloth attached to four wooden poles held up by four (likely male) friends.

The ceremony wasn't long at all. They had a reform rabbi, which actually means they're not legally married -- they'll have to either get married in a civil ceremony abroad, or get married in another ceremony conducted by an orthodox rabbi here. The ceremony itself was super short -- the rabbi, the couple, their immediate families and the wedding photographers (of course) stood under the chuppah. The rabbi blessed over the wine and instructed each of them to drink a sip, and then they exchanged rings (witnessed to be worth at least 1 shekel each, promised the rabbi) and said the lines -- you are consecrated to me with this ring in the laws of Moses and Israel, consecrated. They both said it to one another instead of just the man to the woman, which was my final clue to it being a reform ceremony and not orthodox.

And then they were married, basically! It's weird how that goes, bang-you're-married, so suddenly. The rabbi then waved around the ketubah, the marriage deed, whose phrasing they'd chosen themselves, and shortly explained what it said (no buying of the bride! yay). He read-sang seven blessings, which took 2-3 minutes, and the groom let the bride drink from the wine (which her mother had previously let her drink from).

And then the groom stepped on the glass and successfully broke it and the crowd erupted into cheers and mazal tovs and music and happiness, it really is a fun, awesome moment :D And then there were like ten minutes of people going up to hug the couple, which looks really tedious but mostly for those trying to push their way in, I assume the couple were fine with it :-)

4. Food! So then we went down to the hall itself and there was a delicious buffet, oh my god, so many salads and meat and drinks. So, uh. We ate. I have no idea what the bride and groom were doing at this time, I think they were just circulating.

5. Dancing! Sometimes there'll be toasts, but this wedding didn't have any. The couple's friends made a short video for them, recording a song, so they screened that, and another friend of their's went up to sing to songs, but after that it just slid straight into dancing. No slow or jazzy dances, no live bands, no couples dances, just a DJ who plays club music for your friends and family and coworkers for three or four hours in a row. There's a lot of club music from the past 15 years and a lot of mizrachi music, which is a hugely popular genre here, not only but also for weddings (and sounds pretty much like this). There were many drinks on the dance floor, and lots of guys jumping around in circles, and lots of dancing in circles around the bride and groom and clapping hands (uh, not in a folk dancing sort of way, I'm not sure how to explain it well), and the bosses were all very joyful and enthusiastic, lol.

There were also girls passing around glow in the dark bracelets and flashy toy necklaces and whistles and shakers and, at one point, a girl walking around with a basket of flip-flops, handing them out to anyone who wanted to dance in something a little more comfortable.

There were also waitresses walking around with dessert platters. None of them dairy -- these events are usually non-dairy, to accommodate people who keep kosher -- but they were seriously excellent.

And then I went home! The end. To conclude, things we don't have in weddings here (or at least not in any I've ever been to) include:

1. A cake
2. A bouquet
3. A religious temple/church of any kind
4. The rice thing
5. Dairy food
6. Suits and ties for guys, lolol. The groom and his family actually wore suits and ties, which was surprising enough. I don't think I saw ties on anyone else though. The guys from my office wore a clean pair of pants, basically, and plaid shirts. (The NICE PLAID okay?)
7. Um... more "obvious" things, I am sure, that I am not thinking of at the moment.

I have another wedding on Thursday, my cousin's, which should be pretty different, I think. I shall see.

And oh, one last thing about the wedding -- one of my coworkers, an Israeli French (sweet married-with-kids-)dude, was looking really sharp in a white pressed shirt and nice black slacks. When I mentioned this, the girl next to me murmured, "You should see the pictures of him online". So I did. Why hello there.