I guess it wouldn't be a proper Holy Week without a nice dose of suffering.
Somehow I ended up with conjunctivitis in not one, but both eyes. Ugh. I have a hard time with eye stuff. I don't wear contacts and the mere thought of eye drops makes me squirm. Luckily, I was offered the option of an ointment, but it still freaks me out. It turned out it wasn't just my eyes. Stuffy nose and ears too, which has also been causing me some lightheaded-ness and not-so-good feelings.
Check out the swell on the one on the right. p.s. I will never apologize for my eyebrows. That's some half-Lebanese goodness right there.
We also woke up to snow two days ago, which was, well, it was fine. Sure, I complained a bit, but at least we didn't have to shovel it!
My husband has been absolutely awesome dealing with poor ol' me. It just so turns out that his 2 days off this week were Tuesday and Wednesday, the two days I felt the most absolutely miserable. He lived out his fantasy of being a SAHD while I woke up with my eyes sealed shut and then stayed quarantined in our room. Because the last thing we want is for anyone else to catch this crap.
My lovely cave. Blurry pic because, well, because I can't freakin' see.
I think if this had to happen, I'm kinda happy it's now. I can focus more clearly on how Jesus suffered so much more than I ever will--and all I can think of is that scene in The Passion of the Christ where a crow starts pecking out his eye after he dies on the cross. (Yuck.) So thank you, Jesus, for your suffering. And thank you, crows, for not pecking out my eyes. (I haven't seen that movie in 10 years, so I hope I didn't make that thing up about the crow. I don't remember mention of it in the Bible.)
I have so many reasons to look forward to Easter, the least of which is my optical issue.
Anyone out there getting excited for the Academy Awards this weekend?
Many years ago, I lived with two roommates who LOVED movies and went and saw them all the time. They decided to host an Oscar Party in our living room, and even though I had only seen like 2 movies that year, it was loads of fun!
The first thing they gave us was a ballot to fill out. It had all the categories on it, and I did my best with it based on their reactions to all the movies they had seen all year.
The second thing they handed us was my favorite--Oscar BINGO cards! All luck, no skill, and it kept the discussion flowing, even for us who hadn't seen most of the movies. We had tons of fun with this! My roomies even had raided the dollar store for some fun prizes.
In an attempt not to re-invent the wheel, here is a printable ballot for this year's show from moviefone.
You can also make your own cards easily at this Bingo Card App site. Super easy to use!!
Or you can just print these blank ones and make everyone write in their own squares (then give it to someone else. Ha!)
Some ideas to include that may or may not be on the pre-made ones above:
Wardrobe malfunction
Someone wearing an animal
Winner mentions their children
Winner thanks their spouse
Too much cleavage
Award accepted on behalf of winner
Man in white suit/tux
Bleep/Profanity
Trouble with envelope
Sunglasses indoors
Do you have any ideas for BINGO or just party ideas in general you would like to add? Leave it in the comments!
I'll be watching it alone this year, but if you want to play BINGO and ballots against me on twitter, let me know! (I'm @windmill_cat, or you can click the twitter button in the sidebar and find me!)
(To be completely honest, I don't even really WATCH movies. I want to, but it just never happens. However, I just love award shows! Especially the fashion.)
The 86th Academy Awards are Sunday, March 2nd at 7pm EST on ABC.
For a person who grew up singing in choirs, sometimes I feel a bit behind when it comes to musical theatre. There are a lot of classic ones from which I know a few that I've never actually seen. Thanks to my love affair with the public library, some of this is being remedied.
Last night, I finally saw Annie Get Your Gun for the first time. I couldn't believe how many songs from it I already knew, considering that I had no idea which musical they were actually from. I actually sang "There's No Business Like Show Business" in a musical revue in high school with the whole choir.
Anyway, I liked the musical, for the most part. UNTIL THE END. I apologize for the spoiler alert (stop reading now if you really care), but talk about the wrong message to send to women! In case you don't remember, Annie purposely loses a shooting contest against her love interest because he's the jealous kind and can't handle her being better than him. Then they live happily ever after. Excuse me? Talk about a step backwards for feminism! Okay okay, this musical was written and performed on both stage and in movie a few decades before the huge second-wave feminism push. But still.
I've also felt this way about the musical Grease. This was actually my favorite musical growing up and was the first show I ever saw on Broadway. But before I grew up a little, it was all just fun catchy songs and throwback fashion to me. (Seriously, I didn't even catch the part about Rizzo's pregnancy scare until I was at least 16.) Then I saw the movie again in college or so, and geez. Hey, let me change everything about myself to conform to this idiot man's standards because he apparently doesn't like who I actually am. Gag.
Hey, girls of 2011, if he doesn't like you for who you are, move on. Fifteen years later, I'm still kicking myself for intentionally throwing a spelling bee in 8th grade when I was in the final five (the word was "ruminate"). That was definitely fueled by hormones, and I know I would have won. That's the only time I ever stooped that low, and I'm glad it was only once. But never would have been better. I'm pretty sure I intimidated guys in high school and college, but they obviously weren't up to muster anyway. I promise there are plenty of guys that will actually like you, achievements and all. So don't compromise.
Alright, that is my inspirational message for the day.
I just finished reading Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin a few weeks ago. I knew it had come out to theaters, and I had read another book by Giffin earlier this year, so I wanted to give it a shot. I had known about this book for a few years now, but the plot had never interested me as I thought it was trampy. If you don't know, the book is about a girl who is involved in an affair with her best friend's fiancé.
The book was actually better than I thought it would be. Giffin's writing style essentially saved it. It made you root for someone you didn't think you would. She also did a really good job describing the complexity of emotions and relationships involved, using flashbacks and minor characters to help draw out the true motivations. Even though I ended up loving the main character, I still put the next installment, told by the best friend Darcy, on hold at the library (I'm next in the queue).
There was one really minor technicality thing that bothered me from the book though. And this is also how you can tell I'm a ridiculously detail-oriented person. The main character Rachel is also the only narrator of the book, and she says how she and Darcy had been childhood friends since marching in their small town's bicentennial parade with store-bought plastic drums. Okay, so in my mind that puts them around 5-6 years old then. The first scene of the book (and movie) is them celebrating Rachel's 30th birthday, which is in the same year as Darcy's. At the very end of the book, she goes through all the stuff they have been through together, and one of those things was September 11. Do you see where I'm going here? If they were 5 in 1976, that would put them at born in 1971. That would put Sep. 11, 2001, in the year of their 30th birthdays, and this book was obviously set after that. After I finished the book, I actually went back to make sure I had read this all correctly and tried to figure out a reason. I fell asleep that night losing a bit of respect for the editor.
As for the movie: it came to our base theater recently, only a few weeks after I had finished the book, making it fresh in my mind. Sometimes it's not a good idea to see the movie right after you read the book because it's, well, too fresh. Every little thing I saw I was comparing to the book. But actually, overall, I think the movie did a decent job showing the complexities of the relationships, although the way Darcy was portrayed (by Kate Hudson) reminded me of one or two people I know and that was just plain scary. The movie also made two of the other decent book characters just plain obnoxious.
One thing I didn't like that the movie did was combine two minor characters from the book into one leading male character (played by the adorable John Krasinski from The Office). The character that got nixed (a female) was actually one of my favorites in the book, but putting a male in that role added an extra possible romantic conflict. The friend I saw the movie with commented that this character was just a bit too prevalent, and I have to agree. Also, my favorite scene in the book was completely toned-down for the movie, even though I think it would've still fit the PG-13 rating to leave it alone.
So, overall, the book was decent, but the movie wasn't. Have you seen or read Something Borrowed? Did you like it?
I haven't done a 101 update in a while, but rest assured that I'm still going strong to accomplish my list.
I got to add two movies to my #74: Watch 10 of IMDB's Top 250 Movies that I've never seen before. I finished out the Toy Story trilogy that I began in December with Toy Story 3, currently #30 on the list. I didn't tear up at the end like my mommy-friends, but I know I came close. However, Toy Story 2 still remains my favorite because I thought the plot was the best of the three. I just really liked that whole thing with the collector and a different take on toys.
The other movie I just watched was The Social Network, #183. (This will probably get knocked off the list eventually, but my rule is that it has to be on the list at the time I see it.) The Oscar-nominated cinematography was almost too dark for home-viewing, and the dialogue was so fast it was almost dizzying. I haven't looked into how factual the movie lines up to reality, but I did realize that I joined Facebook before they hit 1 million users. And it has always bothered me that Mark Zuckerburg is less than a month older than me. Guess we can't all be billionaires.
✔ 44. Floss every day for a month. I started on January 30 to get ready for my dentist appointment a week later. I'm pleased to say that I fooled them and have maintained flossing every night, even though it's a tedious task when all I want to do is go to bed.. However, I didn't even have to buy floss--we have so many samples and leftovers lying around that I've just been going through them. The other times I've flossed I took a break when I went on vacation (still flossed in New Orleans!) and stopped altogether when I ran out of floss. Maybe I'll go stock up some more before that happens.
At the casino with my remaining chips
✔ 95. Gamble at a table game in a casino. We went to Harrah's while in New Orleans so I could cross this one off. Thank God that B was with me--it was so intimidating and there's a lot of unspoken rules that you just have to know that I almost didn't do it. He urged me to try Craps because you get to throw the dice, but I couldn't figure out how the game was played by simply watching. So I played Roulette instead. I should have thought up a systematic way to do it so I wasn't just blindly scrambling around to put down the $10 minimum bet each time. Because I have a good amount of self-control, I lost a total of $46.
I realized when I was pregnant that there's a lot of things on my list I couldn't do. I guess I need to get crackin' on them before I get pregnant again! I think I'll start with #42: making cocktails. :-)
Last week, I decided to try something new. And like most of my off-the-cuff adventures, it was, well, interesting...
See, the thing is I wanted to join a choir here in Pensacola. I've been missing singing in a group a lot lately. I apparently missed the auditions for the classical choir that sings with the symphony, so I thought doing a 180 from that kind of music might be good for me. Therefore, my Tuesday night this past week was spent with a chapter of the Sweet Adelines International. Yes, I delved into all-female barbershop singing, and I walked away a bit confused and slightly scarred.
When I showed up, it was of course all old women (and I mean OLD). There was only one gal remotely close to my age, who brought her 2-year-old and referred to herself as a "barbershop brat." Where are all the people my age? All those people I sang with in college? Can they please join some choirs outside their church already so I stop sticking out like a sore thumb?
Anyway, besides the expected age gap, they first ran a voice placement test on me. They cut my range test off at an E, which is only the top of the staff. In hindsight, I should've read more into that. They tried to get me to sing "Happy Birthday," but I refused because I hate that song and it doesn't show off any of my vocal assets. I chose "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" instead. I sang it in my head-voice soprano, and then they made me sing it down the octave. (Weird? Yes.)
They put me on the voice part called "Lead." I had no idea what this meant. When I actually got the music score in my hand, I was able to see the voice parts. From top to bottom on the staff, there was Tenor, Lead, Baritone, and Bass. Umm, I thought there were only women here? Those are dude voice parts. I guess women's barbershop means pretending to be a man? The Baris and Basses were indeed reading Bass clef (which I have never done). I found it really odd that women's barbershop made no concessions for actually being female. (And I loathed the thought that my high A would be completely worthless here.)
We split into sectionals and learned our parts. The Lead part? Yeah, it's just the freakin' melody. And it was pretty far down in my range, a lot of the notes sitting beneath the staff in traditional Alto range. I was starting to come down with a cold, but either way my voice hated singing in this range. Looking at the Tenor part, it seemed like more of a Soprano 2 (my usual part), and I found it odd they didn't put me there. This one woman (a "snowbird" who comes down to FL for the winter and hangs out with the chapter here during that time) explained to me that there was only one tenor in this entire group (about 20 singers). And that to do that part, you can't have any vibrato at all. Well, that explains it. (They tested my vibrato in the voice placement, and um, it didn't go so hot.)
The snowbird-lady also explained to me the over-arching goal of barbershop harmony is to create overtones, in much the way a piano can. Great idea, and one day I hope to hear it, but on Tuesday night I just plain didn't. Actually, all I could really think of the whole time I was there was this scene from The Music Man.
As I learned Tuesday, this really is all you need to know to sing barbershop.
But for me, I think I'll stick with classical singing.
I know I've said on here a dozen times that I'm not a movie person. But I do have the few movies that I like, and most of them are animated. Which is totally AWESOME come Christmas season! I love watching the movies that the networks are running. And last night, without even scheduling it in, my favorite one was playing . . . How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
How can you NOT like this movie? (No, I'm not talking about the live-action remake with Jim Carrey. I've never seen it, and the makeup job freaks me out anyway.) It teaches little kids that Christmas isn't about the "stuff," and that nobody can steal it!
A friend of mine has an adorable daughter, and when she posted a picture of her on Facebook holding a ball with her blond hair and a sad look in her pretty blue eyes, I immediately thought of the lovable Cindy Lou Who, ("who was no more than two"). Well, my friend ran with it, and said daughter became Cindy Lou Who this Halloween. Wires in her hair and a homemade pink dress. So stinkin' cute.
There are only two movies I can quote out of the blue: one is Mean Girls, and the other is this one. I sat there watching it tonight and quoted nearly every line. Even I was impressed with myself, even though I know the whole thing is only 26 minutes long.
I also know every last word of the wonderful "You're a Mean One" song, and I've used a few lines of it in general conversation. (My favorite being, "I wouldn't touch you with a 39-and-a-half foot pole.") My favorite cover of the song was a rock version done by a band called Hip Heavy Lip. I discovered it back in high school from a holiday music sampler the local rock station released. I was hoping to find it on YouTube to share it with y'all, but it's not there. After scouring the internets for half an hour, I've decided that this band is defunct but you can listen to a clip of the song on iTunes and pay for the download if you wish.
✔ 63. Watch a movie from the year I was born (1984)
I know I've mentioned this before, but my latest Friday ritual is to peruse the movies at the library. I'll point you to all the otherposts about me "not being a movie person" to see why I go the free route instead of wasting my money on movies. But that is also why I added so many movie tasks to my 101 list. I have some serious catching up to do here.
Case in point: finding a movie from the year I was born. I'd already seen Ghostbusters, The Karate Kid, Amadeus, and whichever John Hughes teen flick was released that year. In hindsight, I should've picked Footloose, since I'm pretty sure I've never seen it. But Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was there at my fingertips and it had the correct copyright date on the DVD case. Maybe it was fate, maybe it was just convenience, but at age 26 years, 5 months, and 20 days, I decided to watch my very first Indiana Jones movie.
I know, I know. Isn't that the worst one? How could I start my Indiana Jones-ing in the middle? And how could I have gone my whole life without seeing Harrison Ford ride in a mine cart when I even have extended family that named their dog Indy after this character? (Sorry, family!) Well, rest assured that I have indeed seen the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Disney World. That's an acceptable consolation, right?
And after handing over two hours of my life watching this movie, I'd much rather have the 30-minute stunt show. This movie obviously didn't win any awards for cultural sensitivities or women's empowerment. Or plot. But according to the description on the box, it "brings non-stop thrills and excitement." I will give it that. Maybe I haven't watched enough action movies, or maybe they've changed over my lifetime, but this was seriously the most constant action I've seen in a movie. Also, watching a movie from 26 years ago shows just how far technology has come. There were shots that I couldn't help but laughing at because it was just so obviously green-screened.
Overall, the movie was decent, which is sort of a compliment coming from me. I wouldn't mind following up with Raiders of the Lost Ark (it could help fulfill #74), as long as it doesn't have all the nasty creepy crawly critters that took up a good half of this movie. Yuck.
I love the public library. The one here really isn't even close to the best I've seen, but their movie section is easily accessible and has some good titles. I've started to pick up a new movie each time I go in there. Yep, a one-week rental for FREE? Awesome!
This week I decided upon my first-ever Quentin Tarantino film.* I can't say that the Gilmore Girls episode where Rory goes to a Tarantino-themed party had nothing to do with it. The back of the DVD case called Pulp Fiction "wildly entertaining and exhilarating," along with claiming that it "both thrills and amuses." Let us all remember that I am NOT a movie person, so I wasn't quite buying all those assertions. *While writing this, I found out that Tarantino did the Kill Bill films (again, I'm NOT a movie person, can't you tell by now?), and I've seen more than half of one of them (the second one perhaps?), but nothing in its entirety until this one. So I think this still counts as my first.
B has seen the movie before, so I asked him if I wasn't gonna like it. He told me I had to "watch and see," when in all honesty he knew I wasn't gonna like it. I hate violent movies (which probably has a lot to do with me NOT BEING A MOVIE PERSON). I also could tell what was gonna happen 5 minutes before it did in each scene. The only thing that caught me off-guard was that cameo by Kathy Griffin -- which I indeed questioned, saying "Wait, is that Kathy Griffin? Whaaa?" I read the credits at the end, and my premonition was confirmed.
With still an hour left to go, I asked B if we could just turn it off. And he told me no. The only scene I actually liked in the whole movie was the John Travolta character dancing the twist with the gal with the hideous hair (actually, now that I think about it, all the girls in this film had hideous hair). I also realized a bit later that the John Travolta guy was in the bathroom during important parts in each story. So thanks for the motif de bain, Tarantino!
The good thing is that I just looked it up and this movie is on the IMDB 250 list (very very close to the top), which means I can use it to help fulfill #74 on my 101 list! 2 down, 8 to go. Maybe I can eventually find one where no one gets their head blown off.
I won this movie about five years ago from some dorm thing in college. Technically, I won Madea's Family Reunion, but a girl asked me to trade. Crash had just won the Oscar for Best Picture, and I had never heard of this Madea business, so fine with me.
No, this is not the only movie that I own that I've never seen. I somehow win movies or people give me some that I have no interest in. (I think Flashdance is still in the shrink-wrapped plastic, and I have no idea where it came from.) I am pretty much a strictly comedies and animation movie-wathcer. I don't watch movies to feel smarter, or to cry, or to be scared. Which is why I don't really watch movies.
But I let B pick a movie to watch on Friday night in our Navy Lodge room, and this is what he chose out of the few I threw in our entertainment tote bag. It was alright, I guess. If there's any moral to the story, I guess it's to get your priorities straight and to learn to communicate with people of all backgrounds, and maybe to stay away from the mean streets of L.A.
I really thought there was gonna be a lot more deaths, and I even said at one point, "I have a hunch that a bunch of people are gonna die in the next ten minutes." But I was wrong, so I'll give the movie some credit for not being a total downer. However, I'll probably never watch it again and will be promptly returning to my "sunshine and rainbows" romantic comedies.
I can officially put a giant check mark by one of the activities on my 101 in 1001 list!
✔ 87. Go to a Rocky Horror Picture Show showing at midnight.
Well, technically it started at 11:30pm, but close enough for me! Last night, I met up for a drink with three slightly adventurous ladies, including Elizabeth from The Young Retiree (the only one to bring a camera), and then we headed over to see this twice-monthly spectacle at the Naro in Ghent, as done by Fishnet Inc.
First of all, let me say after three years of living here, I didn't realize there were so many freaks and weirdos in Norfolk! I felt like I was back home in Atlanta . . . The "usual" crowd definitely was out in full force and full fishnets. To top it off, it was apparently "Luau Night," complete with various patrons/genders in grass skirts and coconut bras.
I "lied" and purposely did not volunteer myself as a first-timer ("virgin" as they say) for seeing this show, even though I was. I really did not feel any need to bend over, grab my ankles, and get whacked in the bum with a frat-paddle in front of a bunch of corseted screwballs. Nor did I feel it necessary to have a giant red "V" marked on my forehead. For those of you about to call me out for being an "old stick in the mud," I did indeed stand up and do the Time Warp dance. So back off.
As for the actual show itself . . . umm yikes?! According to Wikipedia, this is a "1975 British musical horror comedy/rock opera film that parodies science fiction and B-movie horror films." That is quite a tiresome list of genres for 100 minutes of film! The one and only time I have seen the movie was about ten years ago when it was playing on loop during Halloween week on VH1. This movie apparently has not been very memorable to me after all of the living I've done since then, and I'm still not certain if it has a cohesive plot. (However, I don't think that really matters to its cult followers.)
At this live showing, the movie was playing on a large screen, and in front of that the live players were acting the same stuff out like an under-funded high school drama group. Then to top it off, there were the "aisle guys" who were standing around and shouting out innuendo-laden comments the entire time. They were mostly in unison (many times with other seated audience members), but I could only make about half of it out. And you couldn't hear the sound on the movie hardly at all, so it was just kinda overwhelming. I couldn't decide what to actually pay attention to -- I felt exhausted by the sensory overload. (Luckily, this theatre does not allow the audience to bring props or throw stuff, so I didn't have to worry about being pelted by rice in the middle of my conundrum.) I did however hear more swear words in the course of two hours than I've heard in the last 8 years combined.
My friend who could stomach my Chicken Tikka Masala apparently could not stomach this cross-dressed absurdity for too long. She hardly made it 20 minutes before walking out, but all she really missed was audience members (not including myself) running a few laps around the theater in their underwear. Oh, and Susan Sarandon making the biggest mistake of her career.
Yes, that's a dude, but he oddly reminds me of
my [female] high school principal.
Today I had the opportunity to help a friend who is in film school at Regent by being an extra in her newest project. I believe it's a pilot episode for a TV show. I'm usually a singer (although not much of a soloist) and have done a very small bit of acting, but lately I've started to feel the acting bug. And as they say in 'the theat-ah', "There are no small parts, only small actors," so I'll take any gigs that I fit into my not-so-surprisingly empty schedule.
If there's one thing I've learned about being an extra, it's that most of the time you have NO IDEA what is actually going on in the scene. I couldn't hear the actors talking, and I hadn't read the screenplay so I didn't know the plot either. Nor did I really even care. All I could really tell is that this project was slightly comedic and there would be bowling alley scenes (since that's where we were). The only sounds I could really hear above the din of falling pins were "Speed!" (said after by the sound person I think?) and that lovely clicking noise of the clapboard. Also, sometimes the extras just have to make up some dialogue to pretend like you're talking in the background. We had a few "How 'bout the weather today? I want to order a hot dog. Now where is my 8 pound ball?" conversations.
After we shot and re-shot and re-shot the scene where I walked by and picked out my ball off the shelf, all I really cared about was whether we were "pretend bowling" (for noise reasons) or I could actually throw my ball at some pins. But we did eventually get to bowl . . . a lot. I bowled five games with a complete stranger, a retired Air Force man who looked remarkably like my father. My new BFF extra/father figure and I ended up discussing everything from our history in glee clubs to his recent lap-band surgery (ew) to our experiences at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Beyond the reminder that there certainly isn't such a thing as a 'free' lunch, probably the most important lesson I learned from this experience is that rented shoes actually hurt like hell after about four hours of relatively non-stop bowling. And for those of you keeping score at home, my best game was a perfect . . . 100. Ouch.
Those five games pretty much tuckered me out, but all told, it was a great way to spend a Friday. And that's a wrap.
