fun times in northwest Texas

This past weekend, B and I made a quick trip (via airplane) to Lubbock, TX, for his cousin's wedding.  B was a groomsman, and I had the honor of reading a passage from Corinthians (you know the one).

We knew it was gonna be hot there, but supposedly less humid than here.  Yeah, it was over 100° each day, but it wasn't terrible!  Apparently Lubbock is a college town that's home to Texas Tech University.  The rehearsal dinner was actually AT the stadium.  It was quite the site!

This is the facade of the stadium, and houses the indoor part.

And this was our view from the rehearsal dinner!

If you look closely, you'll see a few people down on the field.  The bride and groom and some others went down there and got their picture on the 50-yard-line!

The town of Lubbock had such a college vibe to it that of course it reminded me of my own college town--Athens, GA.  It made me miss it so much!  I haven't been back there in a few years.  Texas Tech's colors are also the same as UGA's, and the bride used them for the wedding.  I even saw a store called The Red & Black, which is the name of my college's campus newspaper.

One thing about college towns that most people love is the food.  And Lubbock did not disappoint.  Of course there was the old college-town-staple, Jimmy John's, but then there was this:

Yes, a fast food chicken fingers joint!

 We were only in town for 48 hours, but I ate here twice.  I just needed a quick snack and you could buy them by the finger!
Oh, and I have to mention the masterpiece created by the awesome waffle-maker at our hotel.

Excuse me while I mess with Texas.  Delicious!

Also, some of my readers will appreciate this next picture.  The groom was in the Marines, and his dad is a Marine retiree, so here's the groom's cake:

Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to hit up the Buddy Holly center (yes, he's from Lubbock!).  But at least the wedding ceremony was at a cute little chapel.

All in all, B and I had a great, albeit brief, visit to the Lone Star State!

when minor events trigger strong musical memories

Do you ever have a minor life event that prompts you to remember a song lyric? And then whenever you are reminded of that event, the lyric keeps coming back until you just have to sing the whole song? Okay, maybe that's just me.

My minor life event: bra shopping.  I kid you not.  A few weeks ago when my parents were in town, my mom and I went to the outlets over in Alabama.  The Maidenform outlet had all of their bras for $9.99.  I've never actually bought a Maidenform bra because they're mostly carried in department stores which refuse to carry my weird size.  But the outlet had them!  I bought two, and they are awesome.

Then, for the next week or so, every time I put one of my new bras on, a lyric from a song I hadn't heard in about 10 years got stuck in my head.  The lyric?  "It's wilting the quilting of my Maidenform."

The song is called "It's Raining on Prom Night," and you're probably more familiar with it if you've seen the stage version of Grease.  In the movie, it's not very prominent.  I think it just plays in the background when they're in the diner.  However, it is on the movie soundtrack, as done by Cindy Bullens.


I had originally wanted to share a pop/punk cover of it by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes that I had on some mix tape in high school, but I listened to it again and realized that they changed some of the words which altered the meaning of the song into something much more disgusting.  Now that I've piqued your interest on that, here's a link to it.  But don't say I didn't warn you.

something borrowed: book and movie review

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?