Let's Daaaance! A Footloose Review.

I will admit that when I first heard that my beloved Footloose was being remade, I just about had a conniption fit. What was wrong with Hollywood? Surely, with all the wannabe writers, producers, directors, etc. there couldn’t be a shortage of new, fresh ideas. It seemed that everything coming out was some sort of remake, and not very good remakes at that.

Right then and there I made a vow. As God was my witness, I was not going to see that movie, no matter how many degrees of Kevin Bacon gave their blessing. Well, that vow lasted all of about a week after the movie opened. But it wasn’t my fault! My movie-going partner was dying to see it, and since it was the only movie out worth a damn at the time, I begrudgingly gave in.

There is no harsher critic than a movie-goer that is deeply loyal to the original. This movie was in for the fight of its life.

To its credit, Footloose 2.0 stays pretty true to the original storyline, characterizations, and themes of the original. Big city boy comes to small town, ruffles a few feathers, falls for the girl he’s not supposed to fall for, invokes a revolution, and alls well that ends well.

One element that I did enjoy that wasn’t present in the original was the relationship between Ren and his uncle. It was good to see that Ren had someone in his corner with a level head despite the small town mentality, provided a nice foil for Dennis Quaid’s character, even though not a major character.

Speaking of Dennis Quaid, I thought his character was too easily sympathized with. The character of Reverend Shaw was supposed to be the enemy. He was the authority figure responsible for the town’s ban on dancing. Lithgow’s Reverend Shaw was full of hell, fire, and brimstone and easily vilified. Quaid’s Shaw was not. It could very well be because it’s just Dennis Quaid, and how could anyone hate Dennis Quaid? Or because the audience was given the ability to sympathize with the character and understand that the actions of the character were based out of personal tragedy.

The dance scenes were alright. If memory serves, it seems that they cut Willard’s learning to dance scene short, and also the final prom scene. They both just seemed so much shorter than the original, and those were my two favorite parts.

A few other things:
• Is it me or could Julienne Hough pass for a Jennifer Anniston mini-me?
• And that the actor that was cast for Willard could pass for Chris Penn as well?
• Loved that the director kept the yellow bug, with its nonfunctioning passenger door.
• There were, at times, that the movie felt “hoochified” to give it the sex appeal that seems to sell so well these days
• Was not a fan of Blake Shelton’s version of Footloose, but loved the Jane Dear Girls version that Fandango gave me free from iTunes.

Final verdict? It was as well done as a remake could be done. And I freely admit that I was wrong for thinking that it would be horrible. Does it measure up to the original? Of course not. C’mon it’s Kevin Bacon. KEVIN BACON. But it definitely holds its own, and it will probably be an addition to the DVD collection.

If you saw it, what did you think?

A Mile High and a Mile Long

**Apologies in advanced for my long-windedness**

A couple of weeks ago, Hubs and I got to visit Denver. He was going for a conference, and I just happened to tag along since I had never been. I was really looking forward to this trip. A few days off work, an airplane ride, and a hotel stay. Good times ahead.

When I arrived to my gate, I was surprised to see that Hartsfield had installed little walls of outlets, 2 on each side, between every other row of seats at each gate, which is nice, but very hard to come by unless you get to the gate really early, which I did. I was all settled in with my electronics plugged in, happy in my little social media stalking world, when hunger struck. D'oh. The drawback to traveling alone. If you get up, you give up your seat. In the end, the stomach always wins, and I went off in search of sustenance and caffeine. Luckily there was Dunkin' Donuts near the gate that could provide both. Getting food at the airport is always an adventure. For example:

Me: My biscuit was supposed to have cheese (I know, not very Paleo, but I was on vacation dammit).
Server: (Blank stare)- Okay.
Me: I don’t think it’s on there.
Server: You ordered cheese? (Sheesh, I thought I was speaking English, maybe I should have been speaking “text”.)
Me: Um, yes.

Fortunately, I was able to watch her add the cheese and only the cheese.

The actual flight itself was fine; I slept through most of it. Take-off was interesting with all the swaying back and forth in the wind and rain. And I think this was my first flight ever that had a female captain. Girl Power!

I made it to the hotel and got my key from the front desk and had really bad “der” moment. Although, not entirely my fault. I guess I don’t stay in fancy hotels enough, and by fancy I mean the Sheraton. My ass is usually relegated to a Holiday Inn Express. Apparently, nowadays at these fancy hotels, you have to swipe your room key to get to any floor, instead of just the fancy penthouse suites. Ms. Front-Desk-I’m-Only-Working-Here-Until-The-Wedding-With-My-Rock-Of-Gibraltar-Sized-Ring forgot to inform me of this teeny, but oh so important fact. When I got into the elevator, I pressed the button, and off I went. But then I stopped on a floor that was not my own. It wouldn’t have been such a huge deal except for the fact that the doors did not open. Not so good. Leave it to me to get the defective elevator. Talk about an extinction burst. If that 17 button wasn’t broken before, it was now. Luckily, I kept my wits about me and pressed the open door button. I stepped out into the hallway and pressed the up arrow hoping to get a different elevator. No luck, same elevator. Okay, let’s try this again. 17. Doors close. Up, up, up, wait you missed my floor. Again. 19. This time, I finally saw the little room key swiper. Let me give it whirl. I am such a genius.

I was able to meet one of my sorority sisters for dinner at a brewery called Wynkoop where I got to taste my first bison burger ever. It was fantabulous. After dinner, before dropping me off back at the hotel, she drove me around a little bit pointing out different things that I might like to see. She specifically pointed out the capitol building. Remember this. This is the impetus that would lead me on a walking tour of downtown Denver that I am pretty sure that I didn’t want to have.

With Hubs busy most of the day with the conference meetings, I was on my own for entertainment. On this particular day, Hubs had a meeting that was in a different hotel, so I decided that I would walk him to the hotel and then go exploring.

Okay, so I will preface this by saying that when my friend was driving me around, I had no clue where I was in relation to my hotel. So, when I decided to go exploring it was very last minute and very spontaneous, as in, I did not consult Google. I figured, hey it’s a capitol building, I’m pretty sure that I can pick it out of the skyline and head towards it. Well, that might have worked had I actually picked out the right landmark. So to save myself the humiliation of actually typing out what happened, I will let Google Maps illustrate.

So, this is the route that I could have taken had I wanted to be there in, oh, five minutes:

This is the route that I actually took because I was walking towards the wrong building and too stubborn to look at the visitor guide maps:

On the bright side, I got to peruse the 16th street mall and since it was such a great day weather wise, I didn’t mind being outside, and I got some exercise. At the end of the day, I got the picture of the mile marker. Of course, that didn’t stop Hubs from the obligatory pat on the head when I relayed yet another story of my lack of directional intuition.

On an even brighter note, I discovered a great little place to eat that is not here in Georgia. I had actually planned to go down to the hotel coffee shop for lunch and pick up something there, but as I found out, it is a coffee shop in the true sense in that once the muffins run out, they’re out. Now I was in a pickle. And then I happened to look outside and see that right across the street was the 16th street food court and the first thing closest to me? Noodles and Company. What the hell? Definitely can’t go wrong with a name like that. So, I hopped on over, and it was like stepping into heaven. A place dedicated to serving all things noodles. The best part? Their signature dish is macaroni and cheese. Oh. My. Gravy. It’s almost a good thing that there isn’t one here in Ga. I would be HUGE and poor from eating there every day. Which is what I did. Mac and cheese the first day and beef stroganoff (pictured) the second day.

After the conference was over, we stayed our final night with friends who live in a nearby town. I cooked a big family meal, as a thank you for letting us crash and carting us around. And let me tell you, there is nothing more out of your comfort zone than cooking in someone else’s kitchen. Our last morning there, they took us to a place that is known for their awesome brunch and also featured on one of my favorite tv shows, Man vs. Food.

We made it out of there just in time, a foot of snow was dumped on the city the day after we left. All in all, a great city. I thoroughly enjoyed my first time out there and hope to get back there soon. Although, my skin wasn’t so thrilled with the extreme dry air. I am still trying to recuperate from the snake skin that I developed out there.

He Is...

Happy Anniversary to my Hubs. Today is our wedding anniversary and our together anniversary as well. After being together for the better part of a decade, we didn't think that introducing a new anniversary date would work out too well. Lucky number 13 would pull through again for us(me) and allow our wedding day to fall on our anniversary. In honor of this special occasion, I dedicate this post to him and why I am lucky to call him my Hubs.

He is the calm to my storm. He may be the ginger in this relationship, but I am definitely the one with the fiery temper. One statement taken the wrong way can usually lead to cacophony of slammed cupboard doors as I stomp around the kitchen cleaning, and a pout that can last for the better part of an afternoon/evening. It's become a running joke, that whenever he wants me to clean, all he has to do is piss me off, and the house will be spotless. Side note, I can't clean anything now without being asked what I'm mad about and is it his fault. Fortunately, 11 years has provided him with some insight as to how to deal with my rages. He can deal with me calmly and effectively without aggravating the beast even more. I'm sure he is ready to put a fence around me with a Beware of Irate Wife sign and go hunker down in the underground bunker.

He is the eldest to my youngest. If any of you have read anything about child psychology and birth order, then you would know that eldests and youngests is one of the better matched pairs. Partners who are the eldest naturally tend to take the lead and like to be the "boss" while youngests are used to having things done for them and are willing to follow. I think you can see why these types of people would make good matches. We are a textbook example, especially when we travel. Hubs is on the ball researching EVERYTHING. If I tell him what I want to do and when I want to do it, he's on the internet for hours with how we're going to get there, how long it's going to take to get there, etc etc. You get the idea. Hell, he even figured out the subway system in Prague. And while I am perfectly capable of doing this myself, if he's willing to do it, why would I deny him? But to be clear, he's not some chest-banging caveman that drags me by my hair expecting me to follow blindly. He's very perfectly willing to let me be in the driver's seat when I want or to consider any alternatives that I point out. But he's so good at what he does; I think I'll just continue to let him drive.

He is the comedy to my drama. He makes me laugh. Plain and simple. He makes me laugh when I don't want to laugh and that's usually when I need to the most. When I am particularly feeling low, a well timed, off-colored joke from him is all it takes to clear the gray and get me smiling again.

He is the love to my hate. Hate is a strong word, but I'm working with a theme here. Hubs and I are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. We do have our disagreements. Sometimes those disagreements are loud. Sometimes those disagreements can be silent....for a few days. But what he has never failed to do was say I love you to me, and then make me say it back. This has got to be, hands down, one of the most important and hardest things that I have learned from him. You always say it back because you never know what can happen. Oh, how I resisted though. The last thing I wanted to do was tell him, "I love you", when what I really wanted to do was hurl the nearest frying pan at his head (see that temper?), so usually he had to settle for a grunted, "you too", in response. It's still a work in progress, but I've managed to go from grunting to saying the whole damn phrase with as much civility as possible, AND, without gritting my teeth. Progress, people, progress. That's what's important.

I could go on and on, but for the sake of brevity, I will cut myself off here. All in all, my hubs is a rockstar. He is a supergenius, gentle souled, not hard-to-look at rockstar. Does he have his faults, sure. Who doesn't? Do I wish that he wouldn't turn every room of the house into his personal hamper? Of course. Do I wish that he would learn to put dirty dishes into the sink and not on the counter catty corner to the sink? You betcha. But at the end of the day, they are faults that I am willing to live with, because to live without them, would be to live without him, and I just don't believe that I would want to or could do that. Hopefully, he feels the same way about me and mine. Or else he's in for a long 50+ years.

Okay, the cliches are done. Promise.

So, here's to my Hubs.
Happy Anniversary!
I love you so very much!

Onward Paleo!

I have to admit. Eating paleo for a majority of the time isn't that bad. You just have to plan. I think I have stumbled onto a few things that I will keep in the rotation.

Breakfast:

A sweet potato frittata with veggies. This is so versatile. You just change up the veggies, or even add meat, when you feel like a change. I started with asparagus/onions/garlic/mushrooms. This week, peas and mushrooms. I had this in my previous post about paleo eating, but it's served me well for the last couple of weeks.

Snack:

Fruit and nuts. Again, versatile enough to where you can switch up the fruit and nuts when you get bored. Before I leave for work, I pour in coconut milk. A sweet little treat mid-morning. Would probably work well as a dessert too. To give credit where it's due, I totally stole the idea from the website LeanMachineNYC.

Lunch:

Sweet potato chowder with chicken, corn, and mushrooms. Boil the sweet potatoes, throw into a crockpot with two cans of coconut milk and blend until smooth. Throw in the chicken, mushrooms, onion, garlic, corn, and any spices you want, and let her rip on low for 6-8 hours. It was sooo good! It had a taste of coconut soup that you can get from Thai restaurants, but so much heartier with everything else thrown in. A great fall soup. And can I just say that the new immersion hand blender that I just got is now one of my favorite kitchen tools.

All in all, for about a week and half worth of food, took me about 2 hours total from prep to closing the lid on the crockpot. Not bad.

I haven't been as great about preparing dinner as sometimes, I honestly just don't have an appetite for dinner so I will munch on some nuts or veggies. My attempt at zucchini spaghetti last week was a disaster because I'm not talented enough to "julienne" with just a knife. I have now bought myself a julienne peeler and will be attempting again to make the zucchinis my bitches later this week.

Apologies for the crappy photo quality. The lighting in my kitchen isn't great.

Stay tuned to see what I come up with next week! I think I like doing these posts better than the weekend in review collages. Let's face it, I'm a boring old suburbanite that has no weekend life outside of sitting on my behind catching up on the dvr, and food is just much more fun.

On the Cusp

Finally, it is October. Do you ever have those months that you can never seem to get out of? For me, getting out of the month of August has always been just tortuous. As a native Georgian, by the time August rolls around, I am so freakin' tired of the triple digit temps and extreme humidity. I am ready for summer to be done and fall to roll in with the pretty colors, the fall festivals, and being able to go outside and not be drenched in sweat two seconds out. Summers are just slow and getting out of August usually marks that whatever I am waiting for to happen will happen so much faster.

This year, life bucked tradition, and August was upstaged by September. As busy as hubs and I were during this month, it is amazing how September seemed to never end! And I know exactly why. Hubs and I are on the cusp of finally being able to figure out the rest of our lives. Okay, well maybe not the rest of our lives, but at least for the foreseeable future. What can I say, I have a flair for the dramatics.

I shall explain.

Hubs is currently in the final stages of his PhD in finance. He has been working towards this for about 5 years. And for those 5 years, we've been forced to dance to the tune of "if this happens, then we'll do this" because we literally had no idea what would happen when it would be time for him to finish. Would it be a bad job market, and he would have to stay for another year? Would we have to move to another continent altogether? Would we be able to stay here with our families and friends close by? The possibilities were endless, and it made planning for ANYTHING impossible.

And because we enjoy having a roof over our heads, and we also really enjoy that pesky habit of eating even more, I've kept myself chained to my alarm clock and cubicle in an endless cycle of Office Space meets Groundhogs' Day. As a result, we've had to put starting a family on hold. His program is so demanding, and that makes his schedule, while flexible, so unstable, that it would have seemed as though I were a single-working mother, and I just plain didn't want to do that. When I have children, I want to be able to devote my full energy and attention on him/her/them with the option of being able to do anything else I want to when I so choose. I won't lie. I don't need to juggle a job and a family to feel fulfilled. I couldn't juggle in gym class at school, not going to attempt it now at the expense of my children. I am probably a disappointment to the women's lib movement, but hey, it's all about choice, right? Fortunately, we will be in a position for us to have this choice that a lot of families don't have. But I digress. Now that we are finally so close to figuring out what our next move is going to be, we can start to plan more concretely for when this baby thing can happen. Thank jeebus, too. With all the pregnancies and newborn babies that I am surrounded with, I was starting to channel Marisa Tomei, in My Cousin Vinny, stomping her foot on the wooden porch trying to explain to Joe Pesci that her biological clock is not just ticking, but pounding.

So hopefully, we should know fo' sho' where we are going by February. If everything works out like we hope it will work out, we might even know by November. For now, we will sit and wait for the phone calls for interviews to come. At least the if-then game has settled down a little bit, and we've had a chance to focus on some specific areas. What was now a chance to move between 50 states and two continents, has now been whittled down to about 20 states and this continent. We will fly out to Denver later this month for the first round of interviews.

Let the games end begin.

Walk Like An Egyptian, Eat Like A Caveman

It is no secret that I love all the foods that are totally bad for me. It is also no secret that I am not the most active of humans. Obviously, these two non-secrets do not provide for a healthy existence. Last week, a blog in my local paper discussed if it was plausible for families with young children to convert to a completely vegan diet. In one of the comments, someone mentioned "Paleo eating" or in other words, eating like the cavemen. Meats, fruits, veggies. No dairy or grains. I was intrigued. And then I was terrified. Could I really give up the two greatest food loves of my life? Luckily, I was able to find a couple of sites that avoided the preachiness that sometimes comes along with advocating certain diets, and they assured me that you don't have to be 100% paleo if you don't want to. The key is really to try and get away from any sort of processed foods and back to basics. I have made a goal to be at least 75% paleo.

My first attempt was a fritatta that would provide me breakfast and maybe a couple of dinners. Ingredients: eggs, shredded sweet potatoes, asparagus, garlic, and red onion.

Sautee all the veggies until tender:

 

Combine eggs with veggies, pop into the oven and ta-da:

 

 

Not only was it super easy, it turned out pretty tasty, too. I still have some food items to get rid of before I can get serious with the paleo meal planning, but next week, I attempt zucchini spaghetti. Stay tuned!

This Weekend in Collage

NYC Invasion 2011

I thought I would spare you the play-by-play of every minute of our trip. So, in the spirit of David Letterman, I present to you:

Top 10 Moments from NYC Invasion 2011

10. First class seats/Delta SkyClub- Thanks to hubs’s silver medallion status and my hoarding of skymiles, we were able to travel first class and get into the Delta SkyClub. It’s always nice to have people treat like you’re someone important, and being able to cut in front of the little people stuck in coach.

 

 



9. Jimmy’s Corner- A dive bar in the middle of Times Square. In the middle of Times Square and serving $3 drafts. The owner is a former boxing trainer, so there are lots of memorabilia to look and awe at. His wife really got on Ryan’s good side when she carded him and then exclaimed “really?!” when she saw how old he was.

8. Central Park- This was my first time actually roaming through the park itself. It’s hard to believe such a beautiful green space exists in the smack dab middle of the city. Of course it wouldn’t be NYC if there weren’t a strike/protest going on at the Boat House Restaurant. We made our way to Cleopatra’s Needle, a 5000 year old obelisk where you can still see the hieroglyphics.

 

7. Bella Vita Pizza- Ryan found this little joint the last time he was in the city, and judging by the line that we encountered the first night we tried to get in, this place would not disappoint. The service is kind of slow, but all so worth it. Some of the best pizza I have ever had. We also tried their fried zucchini, which was yummy, too. I mean, really, how can you go wrong with fried vegetables?

6. Mom and Pop Eats- I love that the city is made up of non-chain places to eat at. I didn’t understand the unbelievable crowds that were at places like Crapplebees, places that you can go anywhere, anytime. Hello! You’re in the one of the best cities for food, and you’re eating there?! WTF is wrong with you? Although the decision was quite difficult at times, we found some really great places to eat with some really good deals. One place in particular that we really liked had $1 sliders and $3 cheesy fries.

5. MacBar- I saw this place featured on an episode of Food(ography), and it was like the mothership was calling me home; a restaurant with nothing but mac and cheese on the menu. After some schlepping in the rain, a couple of subway stops, and more schlepping in the rain, we arrived at what I now refer to as heaven. It literally took me 15 minutes to figure out what I wanted, which was everything. It would have been perfection if they had a sampler so that wishy-washy out-of-towners (ME) could get a taste of everything. In the end, I finally decided on the “Lobsta Mac”, and it was like a cheesy party in my mouth. Yeah, I finished the entire serving. I was on vacation dammit!

 

 

 

4. Awesome hotel room- We stayed at this place called Yotel in the middle of Hell’s Kitchen. It’s brand new and very boutique-y. I told the hubs that he should have been wearing a pair of skinny jeans to fit in. You check-in on a kiosk, the rooms are bare minimum, but still very comfy, and there is a free coffee/espresso/cappuccino/hot chocolate machine on every floor. The roof-top bar is pretty awesome at night when the weather is good.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Having a hubs who is not directionally challenged- I am not ashamed to say that I have no sense of direction whatsoever. You can’t tell me east or west, you have to tell me left or right and give me landmarks. Not my hubs. If it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have ventured more than 5 blocks past the hotel. I love that he takes the initiative to figure out where we’re going, how we’re going to get there, and that he can figure out just about any subway system in the world. We are definitely a testament to birth order relationship matches with him being the oldest and me the youngest.

2. All You Can Eat/Drink Brunch- The food highlight of this trip. OMG, for $35 per person it is all you can eat and drink for 2 hours. The food is served tapas style, so you can order two plates per person at a time, and everything we had was ah-may-zing. This was truly a gluttonous moment for hubs and me. We made up for it by a 4 mile walk up to, through, and back from Central Park.

1. Roger Federer- Ah, the reason for our jaunt to the Big Apple. Hubs surprised me with tickets to the U.S. Open to see my favorite player. We were so lucky that we got to watch him at all. The impending arrival of Hurricane Lee did not provide much comfort that we would be able to get in Roger’s match before it started pouring on us. It seemed that everything was working against us: the men’s day match had gone long, and then the women’s night match went all 3 sets with a couple of tie-breaks to add to the match time. Finally at about midnight, Roger took center court, and my butter was melted. Good fortune was finally on our side and kept the rain at bay and allowed Roger to dominate and finish his opponent in straight sets.

To sum up: I had a fantabulous time eating my way through the city, as you could probably tell by half my favorite moments being food related. Also, a HUGE thank you to the hubs for orchestrating it all.

It was great NYC, hopefully, I'll see you next year!

Where is the Love?

**Note: usually on Mondays I would post a weekend in collage, but I have been editing this silly post for darn near a week, and I'm sick of looking at it. So, I needed to post it before I drove myself crazy.**

There is nothing quite like people-watching at the arrivals lobby at the airport. I love seeing people waiting with anticipation and excitement as they wait for their loved ones to come up the escalator, and the utter joy that crosses their face as they finally connect after their time apart.

Last Sunday, I got to be one of those eager beavers as I was down at the airport waiting to pick up hubs. He had been out of the country at a conference for about a week hobnobbing with some bigwigs in his field. It had been a long week of silence with only being able to exchange a few emails. Time changes, internet outages, and bogus fees all prevented actual live conversation, and if you know my hubs, then you know that the silence was deafening. And, lord, do I love my dogs, but they just weren’t cutting it as a hubs substitute. I truly believe they only tolerated me because I was the only one left to feed them. But I digress.

When I arrived at the airport, I realized that I would have ample time to witness these happy reunions as Delta Tracker had failed to inform me that hubs’s plane would be landing later than scheduled. Like a whole hour later. So, I settled in and watched as wave after wave of passengers came up the escalators. There were hugs, there were kisses, and there were some tears, but overall, there was just happiness. I. was. luurrving. it. (Sidenote: Let me just clarify that while I love the love, what I don't love is the out of control PDA). And then it all came crashing down.

There were a couple of kids standing next to me waiting for their dad. To say they were excited would be an understatement. They were jumping up and down and nearly bowled him over when he appeared. When they finally let him come up for some air, the adult female (which I can only assume was his wife) barely glanced at him before turning and walking towards baggage claim. Way harsh. I shivered from the icy cold wind that had blown through. Now, I don’t want to judge, ‘cause I don’t know what was in her head. And it could very well be that she was just distracted with the logistics of keeping her sanity while trying to navigate baggage claim with two excited children and getting home. But sheesh, not even managing a hug or a smile? It reminded me of those couples that I wrote about earlier that I spy on see at restaurants just sitting there not smiling, not talking, looking everywhere else but their companion. It’s just so sad to see. Where is the love? You are married to this person, for Pete's sake.

I don’t proclaim to be a marriage expert after only 3 years and 10 months of marriage, but I can safely guess that being in a marriage where spouses act as if it’s a chore to be married; is not fun. Doesn't it take more energy to hold on to all the negativity than not? Why not use that energy for more fun purposes, like adult-rated fun purposes? (Sorry, parentals and parentals-in-law). Talk about getting some aggression and stress out. If you did that, then you probably wouldn't treat your spouse as an after-thought. Just sayin’.

Shortly after my awe at the happy airport arrivals reunions had been thoroughly sqaushed like a bug on a windshield, hubs made his appearance. Was I going to throw caution to the wind and become one of those PDA exhibitionists that I gag at in an attempt to make up for the lack of love that I had just witnessed? Heck, no! I may love the hubs, but I'm not about to maul him in front of complete strangers! But, I will say that hubs definitely wasn't disappointed.

So, what about you, people of the interwebz? What's your favorite people-watching moment at the airport?

This Weekend in Collage

This Weekend in Collage by kimberlina13

A Note and Some Shameless Begging

As you can see, I have made some changes to the previous post. Apparently, I ended up having a lot more to say on both of the topics that allowed them to stand alone on their own. So, they have been separated into two.

Now, for the shameless begging part. I would really love for you readers to leave me comments. I already know what I think, I want to know what you think. There is always room for improvement, and I need for you guys to tell me where it should happen. Help me, help you. I want you to keep reading and invite others to read, and you won't if it's sucky. Also, feel free to "follow" me as well. I've got one, and I'd like to see her have some company.

Thank you, that is all.

Superheroes Need Help Too

This is my brother. The one on the right. The one on the left is also my brother, but not the one I am referring to today.

 
This is my brother running, swimming, and bike riding an insane amount of miles, unfortunately, I was unable to steal locate a suitable swimming pic.

I'm talking crazy insane triple digit mileage. He logs more miles in one training session than I do in my WEEKLY commute. Crazy bastard. But, he's doing it for a really good reason. He's going to compete in the Ford Ironman Arizona this November with his Team in Training IronTeam. For those of you who haven't heard of Team in Training, it is an organization that trains athletes for an endurance sporting event while the athletes, in turn, raise money that goes to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for cancer research. My brother, Kevin, has set a personal goal to raise $6,600, and he has raised about 40% of this total.

I know that we are all financially strapped these days with the economy being what it is, but if you could spare anything, I would love it if you would consider donating to this great cause. I imagine right about now, "girl, you must be outside your mind" is running through your head, plus a couple of curses. However, even though you may have never met my brother, you've more than likely met me, and I like to think that I'm pretty awesome, and that makes him awesome by association. Seriously, though, he is an awesome big brother and person, and I would love to see him succeed in this endeavor that he has poured his heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into for well over a year. I am so proud of what he has already accomplished, to do this would be just amazing. Here is his fundraising page. Just remember, as you consider making a contribution, TAX-DEDUCTIBLE.

Twitterazzi

Let's talk about Twitter. Let's talk about my fascination with celebrities. Let's talk about Twitter and my fascination with celebrities. I think you can see where I am going with this. At first, I just didn't get Twitter. I had Facebook. I had MySpace. Hell, I even had Friendster. Why did I need to add to the nightmare, especially with a character limit. Limit myself? Quel nightmare. Then I came across Clever Girl Goes Blog and her post showing Bravo Network's Andy Cohen responding to her tweet. Color me jealous. This was better than getting an autograph. This was acknowledgement and actual response, practically BFF. And so, my quest began. Rachael, Giada, Mario, Adam Richman, Anthony, Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, just to name a few, all added to my following list in the course of 10 minutes. I even started formulating strategies to optimize my chances of getting a response. For example, food questions for the foodies/chefs.

Weeks went by, and I was low on hope. Nobody was biting. Then I hit paydirt. Movie studios announce that Dirty Dancing was being remade, and the general public reaction was not good, ugly even. I knew. Knew. KNEW. that if I brought this up to one of my celebrities that I would get an answer. So, I threw it out to the universe, specifically, Bethany Joy Galeotti, television actress/director and general creative genius extraordinaire. Ya'll don't know how badly I had to squash my inner need for instant gratification in waiting for a reply. The hours passed, and I grew more despondent. Almost 24 hours later, and I had given up hope. Damn, what was it gonna take?! Then, while checking my Twitter feed, I see this:

What?! Why didn't I get an email notification?! Why isn't it showing up on my profile?! PANIC! Of course, just my luck, the one time I get a reply, my username is mucked up. So it's like I don't get credit, cause it doesn't show up anywhere on my page. Now, I am racking my brain. I want the world to know that I have been acknowledged, dammit! Der. Retweet. Hyperventilation prevented. Not ideal, but I'll take what I can get. I don't even care that she disagreed with me. She talked to me. Total BFFs.
And so, my quest continues. Some may think that it's non-sensical, as evidenced by hubs's reaction to my news that I got Haley from One Tree Hill to talk to me, "why would you even ask her that or even care about her opinion?" Silly hubs. Go back to your statistical software and academic journals.

Some final thoughts on Twitter:
Waste of time? Perhaps.
Crazy/obsessive/stupid? Some would think so.
Worth it to be online BFF with a celebrity? Abso-freakin-lutely.

It's the little things in life, people.

This Weekend in Collage

This Weekend in Collage by kimberlina13

Just Not Feelin' It

A few months ago, hubs got me started on a weight lifting regimen that totally kicks my butt. Throw in a bi-weekly dance class, and I am starting to see some results.


I have to do this because I was not blessed with a magic metabolism that allows me to eat anything I want and not see any of the effects.  I also realize that my love for these foods will probably never allow me to ever be high school skinny again, and I am okay with that. I do, however, have to make sure that I am active enough to counterbalance that love. So every Tuesday and Saturday, I faithfully work my way through squats, bench presses, overhead presses, dead lifts, and rows. Increasing the weight each session to get the maximum benefit possible. Sundays and Wednesdays are dedicated to satisfying my inner ballerina and stretching out the effects from Saturday and Tuesday.

But there are days where I just seem to hit a wall and really struggle to get through the routine or down to class. Those days, I am just not feelin' it.  Where the thought of being out in the 90+ degree garage, racking and unracking weights, and punishing my body or getting dressed and driving 20 minutes to the studio cannot compete with the call of the couch and my U-verse remote. But the guilt sets in, and I pull my tush off the couch,  only to have a terrible session or class. I can't complete sets, increasing the weight by even 5 lbs feels like adding 50, and hell, even the ipod is giving me trouble with its "random" song selection or I can't bend as far as I did the previous class or that whole balance thing is just off.


The part that really bites though is that every time this happens, I know it's all mental. Obviously, my body can handle it, but my head just won't cooperate. C'mon head! Don't you know that nothing comes between me and pasta and cheese?!


Usually, hubs is there to suffer with encourage me as we take turns when it's a lifting day, but our schedules as of late have not allowed for it, which I suspect is a major contributing factor. No accountability= high temptation to be lazy. There's no motivation like your incredibly in shape spouse asking if you're sure that you want to skip.

I'd like to think that these days are just my subconscious's way of telling me to take a day off, but lately it seems more like the devil on my shoulder telling me to skip.  Either way it would be really nice to just be able to tell it to please be quiet so that I can get through my workout/class well so that I can enjoy my carbs and fat.

This Weekend in Collage

This Weekend in Collage by kimberlina13

Guilty Pleasures

Get your mind out of the gutter. Instead of a this weekend in collage, because all that would be included is a picture of a couch, I decided to let you have a peek into the madness that is me.  My top 10 guilty pleasures. Some of them you may already know about, and some not. The ones that not very many know about, I am literally opening myself up to ridicule. So don't judge, you know you have yours too.

And now I present, my top 10 guilty pleasures, in no particular order.

10. One Tree Hill

When I was in high school, it was okay to admit and freely discuss the ongoing drama between Dawson/Joey/Pacey. Now, at 30 years old, the same old love triangle, leading ridiculously-impossibly-easy lives formula still manages to suck me in.

9. Cheese

I adore cheese. I base all my meal choices on the amount of cheese that covers accompanies the dish. At one point, there was no such thing as too much cheese to me, and technically, there still isn't. However, my body has provided limitations that I must begrudgingly accept. But I will say that I have met my match only once in the form of Papa John's 1lb of cheese pizza.

8. The Prince & Me

What, you've never heard of that movie? That's okay, I'm pretty sure hubs wishes he'd never heard of this movie either. How could anyone not like it? It's like Kate's and Wills's  own story come to life...before it happened. Only he wasn't a playboy prince coming to the U.S. in hopes of living out his own live version of Girls Gone Wild, and she didn't have dreams of joining Doctors Without Borders. Okay, maybe not so much, but really, what girl doesn't have dreams of giving up her life's ambitions to become a princess?

7. Bridezillas

Stressed out brides treating their loved ones like crap and in general behaving badly for the world to witness. What isn't there to love about this show? It's like rubber-necking at a car wreck. It may be bad form, but you just can't help yourself.

6. Pasta

If I could exist on pasta and cheese, I so totally would. I'm pretty sure I was Italian in a previous life. I haven't met a pasta that I didn't like. I had one request when the hubs came back from Italy. Fresh pasta. And it was guuuuud.

5. Watching movies on tv when I already own it.

Now, this one drives the hubs absolutely bat-sh*t crazy. Why on earth would I want to watch the tv edited version filled with commercials when I own it? Simple, less effort to watch on tv and deal with curses voiced over and commercial than to trudge upstairs, locate said dvd, and play it. Also, to indulge my ADD tendencies, watching on tv allows me to also switch between several other channels.

4. Jersey Sheets

Just because I don't live in a dorm anymore doesn't mean I can't love them still. Screw the 1200 count Egyptian whatever and satin silk blend that would make anyone go slip sliding right over the edge of the bed. I'll stick with the sheets that feels like that old worn t-shirt with holes everywhere and that you would live in 24/7, and probably have at some point in your life.

 

3. Celebrity gossip

Give me the dirt. I do feel a little twinge when I think of the quote, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people." And I also sometimes feel bad about supporting rags that promote the rabid paparazzi. But then, I see that Ryan Reynolds, via the somewhat reputable celeb gossip news site on People, is totally available, and I feel much better about myself cause I now know that I truly have a shot with my top 5 #1 place holder.

2. Tweet-stalking

I totally joined twitter only to beg get celebrities to talk to me.

1. Laziness

I have no problem letting an entire weekend go by on the couch, only getting up to use the facilities and to go back to bed. I also have no problem sitting on the couch after work forgoing all household chores and any planned physical activity.

Honorable mention: Mayonnaise, specifically Chic-fil-A Mayo.
Creamy, yummy goodness.  I will put this on anything and everything. I dare not put a pic of my stockpile on here.

So there you have it. Are you thoroughly afraid of me, now? I know I am.

Obsessive Much?

A funny thing happened at work on Friday. A call came through from an applicant wanting to check on some documents that had been faxed. Noticing his full name had come up on the caller id screen, I went ahead and looked up the application and proceeded to provide an update of what had been received.

"Wait, how did you know who I was, I haven't given you my name.."

After convincing him that we were not, in fact, practiced in the voo doo arts, I told him what he needed to know and sent him on his merry way. And it got me thinking about how technologically we are all connected today and how we all seem to have the need to be connected by technology.

And then I saw this article.

And I cringed, because I am, too, guilty of obsessively checking my smartphone/iPad during lulls in activity. Waiting for dance class to start, waiting for hubs to come back from the bathroom while out to dinner, waiting for friends to show up, and shh, while sitting in traffic or at a red light.  Like the article states, I too, like seeing personal emails from friends that have taken time out of their own busy schedules to say hey or getting a notification from facebook that someone has commented or liked my status. It's the new endorphin.

Then I got to thinking about how I see this everywhere.  I am, by nature, an observant, er nosy person. I am always people watching and seeing what's going on around me. When out to dinner, I will always comment to hubs about the couples that just sit there, not talking, not engaged. Literally, 30 minutes could go by and the couples that I have honed in on will not have said a word to each other. It seems now that not only are people not talking to each other, they're not talking to each other because they have their faces buried in their phones.
I, personally, just don't understand, why anyone would prefer the company of their phone over their date, friend, companion, etc.  Why go out at all? But enough of my soapbox ramblings. 


So, my internetlings, be honest. How many of you are also guilty of this new obsession?

My Weekend in Collage

My Weekend in Collage by Kimberlina13 featuring pointed shoes

My Weekend Collage

My Weekend Collage by Kimberlina13 featuring a scoop neck tank

Making Small Talk Out of Nothing At All.

Sometimes I wish that meeting new people was as simple as it was back in elementary school. You walked up to someone, asked if they wanted to be friends, and boom, BFFs. Why must adulthood always complicate the simplest of things? We've all found ourselves in the same situation at one point or another in our lifetime; stuck in a social setting where you barely know anyone and are forced to make small talk in the hopes of finding something in common so that you don't appear to be as socially awkward as you feel. For some, this is a piece of cake, they thrive off of it. Me? Not so much. Small talk and I just don't get along. I always feel that it's a waste of time because, half of the time, you don't really care to hear that answer to some mundane, common question that you've asked just to not have to sit in silence. And this is never more apparent to me than at parties where the only person I know is the person that invited me. Chances are, I'm never going to see you again in my life, so not only am I not going to go digging into your soul, I'd highly doubt that there would be anyone willing the bare their soul.

Case in point: For the Fourth of July, hubs and I were invited to one of my coworker's house for a party. After much internal struggle of wanting to be lazy, I sucked it up and we went.  It was like walking into the proverbial lion's den. I, literally, knew nobody there except for my coworker. After making sure that I wasn't breaking out in hives, my hostess introduced me to the guests that were already there: her parents and a couple who were occupied with chasing after their little ones. Sidebar: I guess being 30 minutes late wasn't "fashionable" enough. So, I saddled up with the 'rents. Weather, sports, and occupations were all taken care of in less than three minutes. And then silence. Awkward silence, as I desperately racked my brain to draw something from the past three minutes to expound on. Lucky for me, I married a man who could make conversation with a rock, and he quickly jump started the conversation. Whew, crisis sweats averted. I got even luckier when the party progressed and was just about split between those with children and those without, and since everyone knew just about everyone else, I was able to let them take the lead and throw my .02 when I had something to say.

I also find it highly interesting that because I am not a good small-talker, I have surrounded myself with people who flourish with it. And it's no mystery that if you're good at the small talk, then you're pretty good conversationalist in general. Whether it be the Hubs or my friends, I am more than willing to let them take the lead in conversations and start with the small talk to get the flow towards more meaningful conversation. So, if you're a good small-talker- wanna be friends?

Seattle's Best

The last time I was in this city was, gulp, 22 years ago for a wedding of my mom's cousin, and it seems that wedded bliss would bring us back. An old high school friend of my mom's son was getting married, and my mom graciously decided to take me along. 

The plan was for my parents to pick me up and then from my dad's office downtown, my mom and I would hop on Marta for the rest of the trip. They arrived bright and early at my house by 7am, and due to the amazing lack of traffic, made it downtown to the office in 16 minutes flat. Unprecedented. So, unprecedented that I texted Ryan with the news of this amazing feat. I'm sure he was rolling his eyes all the way in Paris. Yes, he was in Paris, again. Without me. Again. But I digress.

We made it down to the airport with no trouble, but this was not to last. The line at security was longer than I am used to, but moving smoothly. Once past the ID and boarding pass checker person, I made, MADE, sure that we would not be in a line with the body scanners. Not that I mind the body scanners, they just take longer to get through. Anywho, so my mom gets through the metal detector just fine and just as I am about to walk through, I get the evil eye and redirected to the body scanner. D'oh! As soon as I get through the body scanner and the all clear, I see another evil eye, and this time, the evil eye was accompanied by blue latex gloves. Pat down. Double d'oh. Not horrible, but I did feel like shouting out 'Stranger, Danger' a couple of times. Finally, after a weird fingerprint swipe, I was allowed to move along. 

Luckily, since we were departing from the A gates, we walked to the terminal and got settled in. I purchased my obligatory Starbucks and magazine purchases that is my airport ritual. And then it was time to board. Thankfully, we got on early enough to be able to put my mom's carry-on in the overhead bin that was right over us. So, I'm sitting there watching people get on, and the person that actually ends up behind me is someone that works in my office building. I had actually had a meeting with her earlier in the week. Small world. Finally, take-off. I have mentioned that I LOVE to fly? Take off and landings are my absolute favorite parts. I noticed that we would have to go through some cloud cover and anticipated a rougher take off than usual. Call me a freak, but I even enjoy a little bit of turbulence. Apparently, this was rougher than normal as the captain had to ask that the flight crew remain seated. This is what we had just cleared after the announcement.

Can I just say that the weather was probably one of my favorite things about the city? It's almost July and the high for our stay was 68. Sunny, breezy and no humidity. LOVE IT!

After checking into the hotel and changing for the night's activities, my mom's cousin took us down to the marketplace. On the way there she asked if we were hungry. Well, der. Look who she's asking. She then asked the golden question: Do you like macaroni and cheese? A woman after my own heart. So she guided us into Beecher's Handmade Cheese, where I got sample fresh curds, and she bought me a serving of their mac and cheese. My butter literally melted when I tasted what could only be described as heaven. 

I'll spare the details of what my mom and cousin got from the market for the faint of stomach, but if anyone has ever been to dim sum with my family, then you get the picture. We then walked around the marketplace, saw the flying fish people, and the flowers, omg, the flowers. They were absolutely gorgeous. Bright, colorful, and the best part, CHEAP. There was nothing over $25, but would have been 100+ here. We also saw the first ever Starbucks, which, of course, was beyond crowded.

We finished out our night with a dance recital that my mom's cousin's daughters were dancing in.

We got an early start the next morning, making our first stop at Starbucks. Then they took us to the University of Washington to take look-see, since I mentioned that if the school happened to be on the job market, Ryan would be interested in interviewing with them.

School of Business

School of Art

After the university, we stopped for lunch at, what else, a seafood place. Unfortunately, I forgot my asian-ness for a bit and didn't take a picture of my meal, but it was great. We then continued our tourist trek and went out to the Space Needle. We actually spent more time in line than at the top. I'm not a huge fan of heights, but can usually handle them pretty well. I did get a little weak kneed looking over the edge a couple of times.

After the Space Needle, we headed out to the cemetery to pay respects to my mom's Aunt and Uncle, and after that my cousins asked if we wanted to go see Bruce Lee's grave. Bruce Lee is buried in Seattle? Who knew. On the way to that cemetery, we stopped at this hillside park with an amazing view.

And finally, the reason for why we were in Seattle in the first place. Wedding! I heart wedding

And because this post is already taken too long to write and too long to read. I will end this very succinctly. Don't ever get in a security line at the airport where the person at the machine is "in-training". 

A great trip with great weather and great people! Thanks mom for taking me along!