my roommates and i ventured out a couple of afternoons ago to see the movie "down with love," partly because we were all feeling quite lethargic and had spent the past three hours watching bad cable reruns, but mostly because of our not-so-secret undying passion for ewan mcgregor.

(yes, even conner.)

(no, conner is not gay. just.. appreciative of musical and theatrical talent. so there.)

because you can only salivate over ewan in moulin rouge so many times, we decided it was time to venture out to the theaters. besides, i've been pretty fond of renée zellweger since her "bridget jones" days. and "down with love" was definitely cute. if you're only going to see one movie this summer, make it the matrix: reloaded. two, probably the matrix: reloaded and x2. but if you're going to see five or six or maybe twelve movies this summer, "down with love" comes highly recommended.

the clothes were absolutely fantastic. ewan surely made my little heart beat faster. and i learned quite a valuable lesson from the movie's plot.

the heroine of "down with love" is barbara novak, a bestselling author with a bestselling book which instructs women to forget about love in order to succeed in the workplace. chapter eight of her book, "up with chocolate," chronicles how to replace the need for love with chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate.

partly inspired by the movie and partly inspired by the horrific atkins diet my diet-nazi dad has everyone trying, i've decided this bit of wisdom can definitely apply to me. i won't replace love with chocolate, i'll replace the chocolate in my life, (and oh, there is a lot,) with something far better.

shopping. lots and lots of shopping.

and i highly recommend this to anyone else on any kind of low/no-carbohydrate, low/no-sugar diet like the atkins diet. craving a candy bar? buy a purse. craving a croissant? buy two purses.

if only all the world could be so simple.