Sure, that makes sense - let's cram the four best movies of the year within a month!

Today's blog post focuses on something that consumes nearly 50 percent of my off-duty hours - cinema. Especially considering the sweet bonus we get of free movie tickets every Tuesday (thank you Optimum Triple Play!), Kyle and I have been quite the movie goers here lately. And with temperatures barely lingering above freezing most days, watching a film from the comfort of a heated movie theatre sounds like a pretty good idea.

In the last month, we've seen four amazingly-awesome movies: Black Swan, The Fighter, True Grit and The King's Speech (in that order). It was thrilling as a movie-goer to see four excellent, thought-provoking and well directed films back to back. My favorite was Black Swan - partly because of my affinity for Natalie Portman, but also because I absolutely loved the direction. (Thank you Darren Aronofsky)

The Fighter was a close second in my opinion, not only because my liking for action-packed sports movies, but also because of the personal struggles overcome by each character. And of course, the brood of white-trash sisters were simply hillarious.

The Kings Speech and True Grit were also very good... I would probably rank them third and fourth, respectively.

But like all good things, they must come to an end. And you surely must know it's the end when you check the movie listings and the only things flashing back at you are a pathetic Justin Bieber film and yet another scanty flick from Ashton Kutcher. (Though I may reserve seeing "No Strings Attached" for a boring, rainy day when it comes out on Red Box simply because it features Natalie Portman.....)

And while I didn't catch 127 Hours in theatres, I can only cling to the hope that my streak of enjoying quality cinema will be restored when it's finally released on Blu-Ray. (I've completely given up hope on regular DVDs - Blu-Ray is amazing!)

And the winter doldrums continue....

In Georgia, I never knew there was a such thing as the "winter doldrums." Sure, we had a few cold weeks there, but nothing like the biting cold, ice and snow that has outstayed it's welcome in Northern New Jersey for the last six weeks.

Just for kicks, I actually googled "winter doldrums" and was surprised to find a slew of articles about the science behind the condition, and even suggestions for possible treatments. (But then again, I shouldn't be surprised at anything you can find on google; the search engine is a semi-god to me).

A few tidbits from a well-written WebMD article give a nice summary of my life since returning from Georgia for the holidays:

"The gloom caused by Mother Nature each winter in much of the country is biologically felt to some degree by an estimated one in four of us -- usually starting around October and then magically ending by April with spring's thaw. For most people, it manifests as winter doldrums, the "I-can't-wait-for-winter-to-end" feeling that produce mild but manageable sluggishness and food cravings. But about 11 million Americans have a more severe form of winter depression -- seasonal affective disorder, the aptly acronymed SAD that is, typically diagnosed after at least two consecutive years of more intense symptoms.

"While a person with winter doldrums may have difficulty waking up or getting out of bed at times, someone with seasonal affective disorder can't get to work on time," says Michael Terman, PhD, director of the Winter Depression Program at New York Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University Medical Center. "With the doldrums, it's in the norm to gain up to 5 or 6 pounds over the winter, but with full-blown SAD, weight gain can be far more than that."

Well, at least I shouldn't feel alone in my winter angst. We've had a few bright and sunny afternoons lately, though the temperatures still remain cold enough to keep the two feet of snow and ice covering the ground. All I know is, I will appreciate the hell out of Spring when it finally gets here, and I won't take warm weather for granted anymore!