Movies Update

In a few short weeks I have managed to catch up on a lot of the things i wanted to see most. Some of what was on my original list, I've sort of decided against now that I've heard the reviews of critics and friends. This is what's left and what I'm still looking forward to:




More than that though, I'm setting my movie watching eyes on the Sundance Film Festival. In a short week's time, we will be up in Park City seeing some very cool movies. And to make it even cooler, I'll be seeing them with 2 of my best friends from the high school days in VA. I'm so excited that Jen & Whitney get to come and visit. And hopefully we'll see some very cool movies and NOT get snowed on too much. Fingers crossed.

Pursuit of Happyness

I have been looking forward to this movie for a long time, and I finally got to see it. Wednesday movie night returned last night.

First off, this movie is depressing. Gut wrenching depressing. Every single one of us has had days where our bills are due and there is nothing we can do to pay them. Every one of us knows what it's like to be down to our last few dollars. Watching these two go through it for months was just awful. Not in the watching-Schindlers-List way, because obviously it's not that kind of awful. But this represented something that could pretty easily happen to any one of us. That made it hard to watch.

The movie itself wasn't amazing. It was good. It was well put together, well written, and well directed. But the big strength was the acting. I've never seen Will Smith this raw. He was so natural. Having his son play his son was a brilliant choice. They were so connected and already had the father son thing down so beautifully that it read really well on the screen.

I'm placing my bets that Will Smith not only gets nominated for this part, but has a good chance of winning. It's understated, but that's what's so great about it.

Pop Culture Influences

Nick has an assignment for his application to the TMA department at BYU that I found really interesting. He is supposed to list 10 things from music, film, books, TV and the internet that have had the most influence in his life. We started talking about it yesterday & I decided to make my top 10 list too, just for fun. I was surprised by the number of things I came up with. I could have made this list a lot longer. For the sake of all of you, though, I narrowed it down. Feel free to laugh at me. A lot of this probably deserves that reaction.

From a very young age, my OCD personality was pretty obvious. I'm not totally sure where my obsession with this decidedly obnoxious, but insanely popular boy band came from. In my defense, I was only 10 or 11 when I started listening to their music. The following couple of years were filled with trips to the store to spend babysitting money on Tean Beat, buttons, and an infamous night spent "sleeping" in the parking lot of Smiths to get tickets to their concert at the Marriot Center. It was my first concert, and the beginning of my love for live music and fantastic production values. Luckily I gave this band up by 13.


In 1989, at the age of 12, I went to see a new "cartoon" in the movie theater in Layton, UT. (I know this because I still have the tickets stub, and have saved every movie ticket stub since that day. It's a big stack) It was the return of the Disney Animated Feature and I LOVED it. I was hooked from there on, from Beauty & The Beast through the Pixar movies. But I have a soft spot in my heart for this particular movie. When it was recently re-released on DVD we bought it, and I wore the little bracelet that came with it on my wrist all evening, even though it didn't fit very well.


My second musical obsession was much cooler than NKTOB, in the form of the Dave Matthews Band. The pivotal day came when a bunch of us went to see Toad The Wet Sprocket play at William & Mary. Their opening band, a Richmond group called "The Dave Matthews Band". We were all underwhelmed by Toad and thrilled by their opening act. That day led to many many concerts in Southern VA, increasingly more expensive and packed as their popularity grew. I like to see myself as one of those "discoverers" of one of the great bands of our generation. It's an exageration, but I like the idea anyway.


The joy this movie brings me is sort of odd. It's not my favorite movie of all time. It's probably in my top 10, but not #1. It was pretty influential, however. It made me fall in love with my first movie soundtrack, made me realize how much I love witty, fast paced dialogue. It also, in later years, led me to make, or start to make, my own documentary about my friends. I loved the idea of catching random snippets of our everyday life and cutting them together so we could remember them forever. I still love that idea. I'm going to finish it one day.


I have never gotten so utterly sucked in to the world of a book as I have Harry Potter books. I love to read, don't get me wrong, but I seldom get so wrapped up that I can't put something down. I could NOT put these books down. Besides influencing the pop culture of my world, these books bring me hope that there are still some truly original and compelling ideas out there that aren't shocking or scandelous.



I have always loved music, and, as I mentioned before, had loved bands before. This album was one of my first experiences with loving lyrics. SO much of this album truly resonated with me. There are songs on this album that I felt totally defined me when it came out. Jeremy, my music guru little brother, made me a copy of this before it was really out there and I fell in love. I still find Mr. Mayer's music hits me in a place that no other music does. Maybe because we're about the same age. Maybe because the sounds he comes up with are just things that speak to me. Regardless, I love it all. It started my love for "guy with guitar" simplicity, and it's still as strong now, 5 years later, as it was then.


This year will be my 6th year attending Sundance, and while it's not a specific film that has influenced me, the whole festival has had a great impact on me. It's fascinating to see the films in their early stages, before studios have gotten to them. It's really fascinating to experience film in a more up close and personal kind of way. And it's SO much fun to see things before the rest of the world sees them. It's like knowing a great secret that no one else knows. It makes me giggle to even think about it, honestly.


I sort of hate to admit to this one, but it's true. Soon after my divorce, my friend Eve suggested I venture onto this site to cheer myself up a bit. I didn't really see how it would cheer me up at all. It seemed desperate and stupid. But it turned out she was right. It was a fabulous ego boost. I met a lot of weird people, true. But I also met a few really great people, who definitely changed my life in their own ways. I needed that 6 months of dating a bunch of people to help me realize I had options, and make me happy with the choice I ended up making.


One day, just after I lost my job, Melissa & I were wandering around the Gateway and we went in to Sur La Table. The sales girl was really doing her job that day. She sold me a cupcake tree and this book. It has been my thing ever since. I had no idea how much fun cupcakes would be. We've had them for opening nights, birthdays, and even our wedding. Every recipe imaginable can be adapted using this brilliant book. None of that baking from scratch crap for me. You can do so much with a cake mix!



When I made my way into the blogging world for the first time, Chris introduced me to this fabulous web site that would track all of my favorite blogs for me and tell me when there were new postings. I'm sure that made those that track their blog traffic a lot happier, as now I don't have to repeatedly open a blog to see if there is something new. It saves me a lot of time, too. It's ridiculously slow at recognizing new posts sometimes, but generally it makes my blog reading a little more streamlined, and I love that.

Dreamgirls

Dreamgirls isn't open in Utah County yet. I'm not sure why. It's a little irksome, because it's one of the big movies we were excited about seeing, and I was sure that by the 2nd week of it being open it would be in Provo. Not so.

Last night we decided it had just been too long and Ben, Melissa, Nick & I made the trek to Salt Lake to see it. I just have to say, I really really liked it. I don't know that I agree with all of the other reviews, though.

#1- Jennifer Hudson has an AMAZING voice. Aretha Franklin amazing. I was totally blown away by her singing. And for a girl who has never acted before, she pulled this part off nicely. But let me just say now, if she wins an Oscar for this movie (or any of the other awards for which she is nominated) it will be for her singing, not her acting. She's fine. Even good. But she's not mind blowing. She's first time good. She's playing her own type. She's playing angry. Not as impressive as some other people have been this year, if you ask me.

My main argument, she is completely incapable of cleanly lip syncing to herself. I'm sure it's because she's one of those people that never sings a song the same twice, but it was HIGHLY distracting. That's part of making a movie like this. REHEARSE IT. Figure it out. It just looks bad when you don't look like you're really singing. And no, it was not the editor. Everyone else did just fine.

#2- On that note, Beyonce's performance is highly underrated. I thought she did a lovely job. She has an amazing voice, and, as a seasoned lip syncer from many a music video, made me believe she was singing right there on set. She played Deana with the sweetness and the lack of diva that was appropriate, and while it would have been easy to maintain her Beyonce isms in a movie about someone just like her, she didn't. Everything from her voice to her posture was in character, and I appreciated that.

#3- The supporting cast was awesome. It is for sure a musical, in the sense that people break into song at weird times. It has some truly cheesey moments. But overall, it's a well put together film and definitely accomplishes what it was made to do. . . bring a great musical to the big screen without losing it's heart.

A side note. . . I'm a little embarassed to say that I told off a couple of loud teenagers about a half hour before the movie ended. They were giggling and running around, and I had had enough. I thumped up the stairs to their seats and asked them to shut up. They were snotty in return, but at least they shut up. Why do people go to movies, especially movies like that, to talk? Seriously, go to Dennys if you want to giggle and flirt.

Goomba Ben

We played some pinochle with Melissa and Nick last night, and we were all feeling a little bit silly. This is what happens to my husband when he plays cards and drinks too much caffeine. . . or not enough caffeine.



Ever played a Super Mario Brothers game? Remember the mushroom guys called Goombas? The first one is a healthy goomba, the second a goomba that Mario has jumped on and squished. His mushroom head is courtesy of my lumbar support pillow. What a great toy.

Yes, pinochle brings out the best in all of us. . .

Resolutionizing

OK, I have finally come up with my list of resolutions for the year. No one is great at New Years resolutions, and I am one of the worst. I may be eating my words on a lot of these by the last day of 2007, but this is how I'm starting out. I'll reevaluate later.


#1-- Stop with the Coke. By January 31st I will be down to one Coke a week, no more than 20 oz. I know myself well enough to know that I'll stick with this one a lot better if I allow myself 1 a week. Not enough to do the damage to my waistline and my blood sugar that I'm doing now, but enough that I feel like I can have a treat occasionally. The only time I've been mildly successful at reducing my Coke intake for an extended period, this was how I did it.



#2-- Drink 3 liters of water every day. This is pretty easy for me when I'm at work. I can remind myself to keep emptying my cup. But the weekends are killers. I have to find a fix for that. It's the first step toward healthiness.

#3-- Take my blasted vitamins. EVERY day. It's amazing how often I forget.



#4-- Lose 15 lbs by April 30th. I'm not going to be ridiculous and say I'm going to go to the gym every day. I know I'm not going to do that. But I need to get rid of the excess squishy stuff on my belly, and I'll try any number of things to do that. My first goal is going to be the 15 by April, then maybe another 15 by August, if I get to my April goal.



#5-- Get the house organized. It shouldn't be that tough to get two people's stuff organized into a 3 bedroom house. Shouldn't be, but it is. But it's gotta happen if I'm going to maintain my sanity.


And that is all for now. I'll check back on these again in April and see if I did any of them.

Movie Weekend

This weekend was crazy busy. We took a trip out to Vernal to visit Ben's sister and her family, but also managed to secure some tickets to Sundance films and catch up on our movie watching. I managed to see 3 movies. 2 of them were very intense, really well made movies, and one was just silly. This is what I thought, for what it's worth:


Children of Men was one of the most high stress movies I'd seen in a long time. It was beautifully acted. Beautifully directed and shot. And beautifully, if not grittily art directed. The thing I loved most about this film was that they took us to the future, but it was a world we still recognized. It was as if London had turned into Isreal or Baghdad. It was the same city, destroyed by terrorists and let go by it's inhabitants. They just didn't have the energy to try to make things better. It was a far cry from the bright and shiny, though also scary, world of Minority Report and movies like that. But it did a brilliant job of convincing you that we were just a few decades away from ALL living like that.



Babel was also intense, but in different ways. Again, I really liked the acting, and the direction, and the art direction. I tend to be a sucker for films that have several stories that connect to one another, and I really enjoyed the slightly non-linear way the film went together. It was only apparent at the end of the movie where the stories intersected, and I really liked that. One of the story lines felt, in Ben's words, like a bit of an after school special. It was a little bit indulgent. But overall, I was pulled in and really did care about the characters, despite only seeing a third of a film about each of them.


For Your Consideration was disappointing. Obviously, and ironically, this isn't going to be nominated for any Oscars. But I was hoping for a return to the Christopher Guest team's style that I love. I feel this troupe is getting a bit stale, though. It just wasn't funny. It could have made a funny half hour, at most, but not a 2 hour film. I wish we could see another Waiting For Guffman out of this group. This was not it.

ARGH!! SNOOOOWWWW!!!

I tried to upload these yesterday and apparently blogger hated me as much as the weather did. These are the joys of working at the point of the mountain. I wasn't sure I would make it home in one piece, but it turned out it was barely snowing past Pleasant Grove.

This is the view from my office at noon:


This is at 3:45 pm (note where the plow has gone through behind the line of cars):


It's still snowing a little this morning, and it's supposed to snow through the afternoon. Plus, now it's cold, so it's icy too. Anyone have a house in California I can buy at a good price? I'm done with winter.

R.I.P. 2006

I am forever a copy cat, and since I liked what Jen did, I decided to copy her. Hopefully she doesn't mind. I am still formulating New Years resolutions. . . I'll get to it soon.

YEAR-END SURVEY LIKE NO OTHER

1. Where did you ring in 2006?
My house with friends and Korianne's Chocolate fountain.

2. What was your status by Valentine's Day?
Dating Ben. He got me socks for Valentine's day, which I think will be our tradition. It doesn't sound romantic, but it kind of was.

3. Were you in school (anytime this year)?
Nope. It's been a very long time since school. . .

4. How did you earn your keep?
At Nu Skin until March, and then I lived off severance until June. . . At XanGo since then, as the resident librarian ("Marketing Archivist")

5. Did you have to go to the hospital?
We went to visit Barta after her surgery, but I think that's it. I didn't go for myself.

6. Did you encounter the police?
Nope. I'm ridiculously lucky on that account. I'm sure my luck will run out soon, commuting to Lehi every day.

7. Where did you go on vacation?
San Diego to meet Ben's sister & see where he grew up, Park City for our Honeymoon, and Tuscon to help Ben's parents paint and move.

8. What did you purchase that was over $500?
A car for Ben, a buffet for our kitchen, and a new entertainment center.

9. Did you know anybody who got married?
ME! But also several other people. . . Dallas, Brandon, Aaron, etc. . .

10. Did you know anybody who passed away?
For the first time in several years, I can answer no to this question. Thank goodness.

11. Have you run into anybody that you graduated from high school with?
Not this year, no. I will be soon, though!

12. Did you move anywhere?
Nope. Still in my townhouse in Springville. Ben moved in with me, though.

13. What sporting events did you go to?
Ethan's soccer game, Helaina & Isabella's soccer games. . . I really think that's it.

UPDATE: Of course! I went to Nathan & Jeremy's hockey games as well! DUH!

14. What concerts did you go to?
Several at the conference center. And a Reggae concert outside our hotel room on our honeymoon. I know, that's a tragic list. I'll do better this year.

15. Are you registered to vote?
Don't even get me started on the guy at the DMV. . .

16. If so, did you do your patriotic duty on November 7?
No. I'm a bad person.

17. Where do you live now?
Springville, UT

18. Describe your birthday this year.
We went to a concert at the Conference Center that was supposed to be patriotic. Turns out it was a Christmas concert they were recording for the troops overseas. That is officially the only time I've heard Christmas music performed on my birthday. Then we had cake and ice cream at my parent's house.

19. What's one thing you thought you would never do, but did in 2006?
Got laid off. I know I said I wanted to leave Nu Skin, but the way it happened was a surprise. Didn't see it coming.

20. What's one thing you regretted this year?
Not saving more of my severance money for a rainy day.

21. Any new additions to your family?
Just Ben. No new grand kids or other marriages this year.

22. What was your best month?
June and July were both pretty good. Got a new job and got married. Both very good things.

23. What from pop culture will you remember 2006 by?
Grey's Anatomy (because we started watching it the beginning of 2006), Ugly Betty, Heroes, great new Christmas CDs, celebrity scandal, Little Miss Sunshine, blogging, You Tube, etc. . .

24. How would you rate this year on a scale from 1 (crappy) to 10 (excellent)?
9. It started out a little shaky, but it turned out nicely in the end.

I've Misplaced My Sunglasses

I'm pretty peeved. I don't even remember the last time I had them. With all the holiday craziness and lack of routine I don't even know how to retrace my steps to them. They aren't in any of the obvious places, nor are they in of the less obvious places I've checked.

I really hope I didn't lose them. They were expensive, and though I've had them for 3 years, I loved them. I babied them. & they were still really good sunglasses.

Pout.

Update: I found them. They were in the pocket of my Grimace coat I wore ice skating and then put away in the winter box. Of COURSE they were.

New Years gathering

We spent this past weekend cleaning up the house from the insanity of the holidays. It seemed that no matter what I did over the last few weeks, it was very difficult to walk through any part of our house without dodging boxes or piles of stuff. It was wearing on me. so we spent the better part of 3 days cleaning, organizing, and throwing away.

We did a little after Christmas shopping and managed to acquire some great stuff from Pier One to make the living room look New Years festive rather than Christmas festive. The jars are going to be an ever changing thing, I think. I'll fill them with various things for different seasons. I love the stuff we got for New Years:



In the end, this is what the living room looks like:



We had a little New Years gathering and for once, it was actually little. Just 5 of us and some pinochle. It was the first time we'd stayed up until 2am playing cards in a very long time.



Then last night we did a reading of Melissa's new play "The Church of St. Pinky at Katy, TX". For treats, I made a new cupcake. Nick had been aching for some molten chocolate cake, so I made just that, in cupcake form. These are the results:



They were insanely easy. They had a cinnamon cream sauce, and a gooey chocolate center. Heavenly.

Apparently all New Years diet resolutions were still on hold last night.

Christmas Photos

I finally got around to uploading some of the photos of Christmas day. Turns out there was a smudge on mom's camera lens that I didn't notice while I was using it. . . Oops. So they all have a sort of ethereal glow to them. But you'll get the idea.



Jeremy decided that stockings were just as good worn on the feet as they were to fill with treats.



Nat & Jason and Mom & Dad opening their presents. Natalie got the Josh Groban CD & mom got the Happiest Millionaire DVD.



Grandma got PJs for the boys



And made them Quillows (quilts that fold up into pillows). Ethan was pretty happy with both of them. Carter tried to be.




The remainder of the day was spent playing with trains, blowing bubbles on the table, and playing a little Smash Brothers. Carter feels very strongly about Smash Brothers. He'll GETCHOO!!

What isn't pictured is the puzzle-palooza that was going on in the dining room. I think it was 3 puzzles in one weekend. Good times.

And better than that, I didn't get out of my pajamas all day on Christmas day. Now THAT is a good Christmas.