Exclamation Points and Avoidance Tactics

"I remember, growin' up, at night, my dad would sit in the kitchen with all the lights out, and he'd wait for me to come in. And he'd sit there and drink, and I'd stand in the driveway and I'd look in through the screen door and I could see the light of the cigarette, and then I'd rush up on the porch and try to get by him, and he'd always call me back. And it was like he was always... always angry. Always mad. He'd be sittin' there thinkin' about everything that he wasn't ever gonna have, until... until he'd get me thinkin' like that too. And I'd lay up in my bed, at night, I'd be starin' at the ceiling, and I'd feel like if somethin' didn't happen, if somethin' didn't happen soon, it felt like I was just gonna... like someday, like I was just gonna..."

i decided to try a romcom i somehow missed i the 2000s 'head over heels' and i got 3 and a half minutes in and we're introduced to the lonely MC with bad taste in men as evidenced by her extremely short list of ex boyfriends, including her first boyfriend when she was 11 or something because i guess that's still relevant in her adult life.

so she's resigned herself to never finding love and prefers to ignore men to focus all her energy into her career.

this job is immediately presented as though it's for spinsters with no hope of ever finding a man.

the mc's lesbian bestie (whose first line involves her being scolded for being too sexual in the workplace, but moving on) points out their colleagues as evidence that they're doomed to a romance-less, sexless life if they don't switch up their shared career path. the colleagues are three old women, so-dubbed "the menopause triplets":

these women are presented as if they have no idea what's going on at any given moment. this is 2001, and presumably this is an entry level job requiring low effort and no experience.

then their boss bursts into the room, unceremoniously bumping a large painting into the door jam and walls, announcing that it's a new project for our MC.

our MC is thrilled to see the painting. apparently it's a light in the daily slog at her dreary job for loser women with nothing going on in their lives.

And that job is? Conservator of paintings (specializing in Renaissance) at the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The painting being handled like an old couch on its way to the curb?

The Bacchanal of the Andrians by Titian.

Her lesbian colleague who is presumably also a a highly trained & skilled curator finds it depressing that the MC is so excited about the painting.

yesterday i learned meowth can learn flash. so instead of teaching it to my guy with an open flame on its tail