#70 - rise & shine, america...& get naked!

on monday morning before work, i woke up early to watch the previous night's second season premiere of amc's breaking bad, which is, if not my favorite currently-running show, is definitely in my top three. i might even go as far as to say that it's better than that other, advertising-themed amc show.

the quick lowdown plotwise: bryan cranston plays walt, a former high school chemistry teacher who has been diagnosed with cancer & decides he needs to make a ton of money for his family as quick as possible, so he partners up with one of his former students & starts cooking & selling crystal meth. he totally won an emmy award for best actor in a drama for the first season.

the first season started with quite possibly the craziest pilot episode ever and after seven episodes, ended with walt & his partner, jesse pinkman, selling a bunch of blue-colored crystal meth to tuco, a loco drug dealer from juarez. after tuco tests out the meth himself, he loves it & tells them that they will bring him the same amount every week in exchange for $70K...& then he proceeds to beat one of his two associates to death with his bare hands as walt & jesse stand there in shock. then his other associate grabs the beaten associate's limp body & drags him into the truck before he & tuco drive away & the season ends.

[EEK SPOILERS!!!] the second season opened with a black & white scene of walt's backyard. after a few establishing shots of the empty yard, the camera sets on the pool & an eyeball floats onto the screen. sirens start to blare in the background as the eyeball floats through the pool & gets sucked into the drain. as the camera pans to the bottom of the pool, we see a bright pink bear floating beneath the water. as the camera follows it, we see that it is missing an eyeball & one whole side of it is charred. sirens continue to blare in the distance & screen goes to the title sequence. wha!!!???

the next scene is the last one from the first season--the drug deal with tuco. as the episode continues, we see walt try to force sex on his pregnant wife, jesse freaked out that tuco is going to kill them any day now, walt deciding they should make ricin to kill tuco before he kills them, walt's brother-in-law (a DEA agent) trying to bond with him by sending him a phone pic of a dead guy from a crime scene (& it just happens to be tuco's other associate). walt figures that they're next, tells jesse to flee town & starts to panic himself.

the episode ends with walt sitting on the edge of the bathtub & on the edge of tears while his wife takes a bubble bath. just as he is about to break down & reveal to her everything that's happening with him, jesse calls walt's cell phone & then pulls up in front of walt's house in his car. walt runs out to the car, leans on the window & asks jesse "what the hell are you doing here?" tuco pops up in the back seat with a gun in his hand & urges walt to get in. walt has no choice, so he does....& they drive away, ending the episode. it's quality television. i want it to be next week right now!

#70 - rise & shine, america...& get naked!

snack: bear naked all natural fruit & nut granola
drink: naked orange mango motion juice smoothie

i did a little snacking that monday morning with a bag of bear naked all natural fruit & nut granola. i picked the bag up about a month ago. by that, i mean that someone in my building received it as a sample, tore open the box to see what it was & left it there on the floor below our mailboxes, still inside its packaging. i picked it up off the ground & relocated it to my kitchen cupboard until this monday, when i again relocated the contents, this time to my mouth whilst watching breaking bad. on the back of the package, it urges me to "try with milk, yogurt or just bear naked." it was early in the morning & i had no milk or yogurt & totally read it wrong. turns out i could've kept my clothes on whilst eating my granola after all.

other than a fleeting love affair with mueslix back in the 90s, i've never been the biggest fan of granola-based things. occasionally, i'll buy some yogurt with one of those packets of granola on top, but other than that, nada. too dry. this bear naked fruit & nut granola, with its raisins & cranberries, isn't as dry as some granolas i've had though, but i probably should have heeded their advice & mixed it in with something liquidy.

as it was, i at least had the naked orange mango motion juice smoothie to drink along with it. on the label of this drink, it lets me know that they "understand [my] need to get naked." never in my life have my food & drink combined their efforts so skillfully in an attempt to get me to take my clothes off.

i don't usually buy these smoothie drinks since they're so damn expensive, but i went for it with this one. it's definitely tasty stuff & by the time breaking bad was over, i had some solid energy coursing through me from the granola & smoothie consumption, which just goes to prove that you don't need crystal meth to get your day going. john & carol tate of massillon, oh...i'm totally looking in your direction.