Archives for June 2009

The Bachelorette: Episode 6

June 22, 2009 by Amy 3 Comments

*Spoilers*

So the foot-fetish-er leaves. I would agree with him that it wasn’t the foot fetish. I think it was apparent in his goodbye footage. He was too concentrated on Wes and not enough of Jillian. Jillian likes when the guys are openly obsessive over her and besides her feet, I don’t think Tanner fell in that category.

As for Jake, I think it spilled in his footage as well. He did everything he could do. And Jake did. He was perfectly perfect. And obviously that’s not what Jillian wants. She ate it up when Reid couldn’t quit talking about his fondue neurosis. She obviously wants a real guy…and who doesn’t?

As for the ones left.

Kiptyn – I’m telling you people unless Kiptyn has one screwed up family, he’s going to win this thing.

Jesse – He’s a close second. She really likes Jesse and seems really comfortable with him.

Reid – I really like Reid. For the record, I think he made a mistake of not wearing the glasses. I would have told him to keep the glasses on. But I think he’s super funny and real. But he really is neurotic and not sure how that will pan out long-term with Jillian.

Michael – Michael is a wreck waiting to happen. I don’t see him winning this at all. But I see that Jillian has a great time with him and he obviously is falling all over her which she is loving. If she picks him, it’d be like DeAnna picking Jesse.

Wes – Jerk. Gah, I can’t believe Tanner didn’t tell Jillian it was him before he left. He had nothing to lose at that point except a good fight on the Men Tell All episode.

Just watched the previews:

So glad Jake is going back…Mr. Perfect is doing the right thing.

I’m really really scared is Kiptyn who loses it in the fantasy suite

I think Ed comes back and proposes

The Time Traveler’s Wife

June 22, 2009 by Amy 3 Comments

I know I’m a little late on this one. I mean, the movie is coming out in August.

When I remember this novel, I’ll remember that it read like a commentary (a great one). I’ll remember the dual first-person point of view. I’ll remember the short sentences. The wit. The humor. The beauty. I’ll remember Clare’s innocent-yet-not-love for Henry. I’ll remember Henry’s frustration and yet determination to deal with the life he was given. Their lust for each other. I’ll remember the mystery. The game of it all. The science of it all. The innocence and wonder of Alba. Just the smartness of the idea and plot. The way it made you think about love and time.

I’ll remember it was a good book until the end. I really, really feel like we were jipped out of that last scene. So many times we only saw glimpses of Henry’s life and yet kept reading to find out we were given them later. For example, Clare’s 18th birthday. Such a big part of the story and yet we didn’t get it until almost the end. And Henry told us about that last scene they would have together and I was so sure we’d get to see and was so disappointed when we didn’t. It’s like watching The Notebook and never seeing them die together.

I’ll go and see the movie just because I think Rachel McAdams will be a perfect Clare and Eric Bana should do Henry justice but really? Unless they fix that last scene, I don’t know if I’ll have a good feeling walking away.

The Proposal

June 22, 2009 by Amy 4 Comments

I remember months ago being in the theater and seeing previews for The Proposal (Let me just throw in here we saw the preview for New Moon!). Always a Sandra Bullock fan (well, almost always), I knew it was going to be a must-see. Throw in some Ryan Reynolds and well, it’s no surprise I jumped at Jill’s invitation to go Saturday night on opening weekend.

I was expecting cute. And a little funny. Maybe You’ve Got Mail kind of funny. Something to make you smile once in a while. But ya’ll. This movie was SO FUNNY. I know it looked like I’d been crying for the past two hours when I walked out of the theater. And I guess I had because I laughed so hard so many times I was crying. And clapping. It was that kind of funny.

Sandra tends to play characters that are a little clumsy. She’s good at the physical comedy. In the movie she was supposed to be playing uber successful, snotty, domineering Book Editor in Chief (?). In one scene, she has to get up from a kneeling position with 4″ heels and Sandra made it funny. And maybe not quite how that character would have done it but it was still funny. So, yeah, I’m not sure if she hangs on to the character 100% the whole time but then again, her character does make a bit of transformation and her clumsy and off-the-wall antics are the only thing that make you like her outside of her general attitude.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ryan Reynolds in anything except for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. But let me tell you, the guy is FUNNY. He delivered his sarcastic lines to perfection. Loved the line with the dog in the bathroom and also “Hence, the boat.” With the romance? Eh, not sure he’s a Richard Gere but he sure is pretty to look at and did I mention funny?

Betty White completed this movie and made it fabulous. Everyone know the caliber of actress she is. In this movie, she played a quirky but heartfelt 90 year old grandmother of Ryan’s character. And man, was she great. And funny of course.

This movie is a definite must-see. It’s going down as one of my favorite romantic comedies ever. And for those that haven’t seen the preview, here ya go. And the best part? That’s not all the funny parts.

Even better? Here are some outtakes!

Father’s Day Weekend Recap

June 22, 2009 by Amy 3 Comments

This weekend ended up being quite busy.

Early Friday evening we had a quiet night here. We had dinner and made a run to Wal-Mart. We took the kids to IL’s about 7 for them to spend the night. I headed to our church for the youth girls’ sleepover. I didn’t plan to stay all night but stayed until 12:30. We did a picture scavenger hunt around town and it turned out to be a blast. A few highlights included the kids teaching a stranger how to do the Ice Cream Dance, singing the National Anthem in front of a store, creating a pyramid in front of Starbucks, chasing down a teenage boy and claiming he was Zac Efron and getting his autograph and cramming 7 girls into a phone booth in a very busy location. I was never so happy to be old and the one taking the picture.

We came back to play a few games and then all tried to learn Miley Cyrus’ Hoedown Throwdown which was a HUGE FAIL. Even the girls that have danced for years didn’t seem to catch on quickly. I tried not to feel so old with girls that were born about the same time I started high school. The girls all played hide and seek in the dark around the church and then I was off when they started a movie.

Saturday morning I woke up and cleaned in preparation for middle/high school friends Michelle and Carmen to come eat lunch and visit. We went to a local restaurant and really had a great time catching up. It’s always so strange to me how you can go YEARS without seeing your best friends and pick up right where you left off.

Jake and Jill showed up right as Carmen and Michelle were leaving. They spent the evening with us in the pool. We had some pizza delivered and of course great conversation. Jill and I ended the evening by going to watch The Proposal. More on that in another post.

Sunday afternoon we spent Sunday dinner at Buca di Beppo’s with my dad and family. Great food as always. Yesterday we spent the afternoon in the pool before spending a nice evening at Scott’s sister’s.

To top the weekend off, I finished reading The Time Traveler’s Wife. Also saving that for another post.

Overall, a really busy but really good weekend.

Non-novel: Thoughts

June 18, 2009 by Amy 1 Comment

I feel silly writing about a book that to me is not even a book. I’ve sent it to a few people with a few disclaimers:

I know it’s bad writing. Being able to get 55K words on paper and writing are two different things. My goal was to get the story on paper and hopefully reach 50K words. I did both of those. Quality writing was never really part of the deal although at times I did try. Other times I simply got words on paper.
I didn’t re-read the beginning of the book as I was writing so there are a lot of continuity errors. A few people have different names later in the book. Their past changes. It’s all a little sketchy at times.
I don’t want to give what happens away, but sometimes I don’t agree with what the characters say and/or do. I know that sounds weird as I wrote it but at times the characters did what they wanted to do and I couldn’t do much about it. Man, I know I sound crazy but it’s true.

I thought I would feel very accomplished at the end. But the past 18 hours or so I’ve really just felt not-enough. There aren’t enough words to actually publish it, the writing stinks, no one will like it. And really, I just feel like this is a beginning. It’s sort of like a piece of clay could be formed into a cube and yet, to turn it into a house would require the actual work. Right now, I just have a clay cube, something that a lot of people could do. Few could and will actually work to turn it into a masterpiece. But as a friend said, no matter what, you wrote a novel. Good or bad, there are characters and a story and now it’s on paper.

Just a few facts:

I started this end of October/beginning of November. It’s all Melissa’s fault. It took 7-8 months to complete.
Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series gave me hope that I could do it. Something about writing in first-person did the trick.
First draft is 55K words, 99 pages printed in single-space.
I still have no idea what I’d name it.
It’s a romance. I’m clueless on specific genres after that. I say it’s a romance but it’s more about the journey a girl takes fighting through her past to love someone in her present.
I listened to Clair de Lune a lot in the beginning while writing. Other than that, I wrote in silence because I could think better.
I saw a guy at Disney that made me smile because he reminded me so much of my lead male character. I was tempted to stop and take a picture of him.
I still don’t know what the lead character looks like. I never described her.
Scott helped me a lot at the beginning of the book. I remember one night we talked for hours about it. After that, we’ve barely talked about it. He says he may or may not read it. He hates to read.
I’ve sent it to 4 or 5 people to read. I hope they are honest but not brutal in their reviews.
I did my best brainstorming just before I fell asleep. I can’t count the number of times I rolled over and typed something in my notes on my iPhone. Actually, I probably could since I still have them all.

And I thought I’d share some pictures…evidence of my writing.

Notes everywhere

Timelines and more timelines

Drawings

Edited pages. Melissa did edit a few chapters for me. (ty, lis!)

So that’s it. Kind of my brain dump of my non-novel.

Non-novel: it is finished

June 17, 2009 by Amy 4 Comments

Or at least the first draft. I hope I make it to the second.

Posted via email from Amy’s posterous

Little Miss SC Pageant 2009

June 15, 2009 by Amy 5 Comments

I’ll go ahead and end the suspense and say that Lexi didn’t place in the competition Saturday. But that isn’t to say we didn’t have a great weekend.

Friday we headed up there late afternoon. I realized on the way down that I booked the hotel in the wrong city. Go me! I was lucky to take the last room in the second hotel they recommended. The kids were beyond excited about the hotel. Lexi declared it “the best day ever”. We were soon off to the pool party at a hotel just a few blocks over. It was held in Hartsville, SC and let’s just say the highlight of the town seemed to be The Walgreens and The Sonic. I do have the say the downtown area was very quaint and nice. So no complaints there.

The kids had a fantastic time at the pool party. Both of them were having a great time jumping in and swimming. The pool was full of little ones so it was a little bit of controlled chaos. They also served little cups of ice cream and gave out bubbles. Lexi once again declared it “the best day ever”.

We stayed for the scheduled hour and then went to The Walgreens and picked up some snacks and a curling iron. I’ve never been able to get Lexi’s hair to curl but hadn’t tried since she cut it. We were all happy to see it was going to work. Lexi practiced her poses (that she came up with on her own) in the hotel room and we all went to bed excited for the pageant.

I, however, got a fever and could not sleep. I seriously think I laid in bed for three hours without sleeping a wink. It was hard getting up the next morning. But the kids were excited. We went downstairs and ate waffles and I think Lexi might have declared it “the best day ever” again.

But sometime mid-morning Lexi decided she was no longer excited about the pageant. She was scared, she didn’t want to do it and she hated the outfits I had brought her to wear to the rehearsals. That’s when I started to worry a bit.

We made it to rehearsals with her hair and makeup done. Her hair was cute but not like some of the girls who had updo’s by professionals that morning. We practiced on stage and Lexi barely made it out from behind my leg. She was nervous to say the least. She told me on the way back to the dressing room she was scared of all those people. I can’t blame her really. I knew we were a little out of our league when I saw some of the girls practice. These girls were trained to be in pageants. Hands out, leg kicked out and a plethora of kisses and waves and I was just hoping Lexi wouldn’t hide behind my leg.

Lexi seemed excited though after getting her dress on. Several of the girls commented on her dress and she heard one of them say she wished she had her dress. I think that gave a little bit of confidence to her. She was excited waiting backstage and kept asking when it was her turn. She didn’t seem scared at all.

We had three X marks to stand on, the 2nd at the end of a red carpet with lights. At the first, she did great and smiled, waved and I think blew a kiss. But on the way to the red carpet I could feel I was having to drag her a bit and looked down to find she was walking on her heels! Lexi don’t walk like that! She walked the rest of the red carpet and I honestly don’t remember what she did. I think she may have waved and I got her to do a quick turn. I do remember she hid behind my leg a bit before I started pulling her to the last mark. There I think she just looked at the crowd and then walked off stage a little bit before the announcer said her name.

Walking off stage, I knew it wasn’t enough to have won. I was just glad to have it over with though. She didn’ t cry and she didn’t make me hold her. Definitely wasn’t worse case. And she really did look gorgeous. I kind of hoped she may have placed something just because she was so cute.

We were shuffled on stage two more times and the awards were given out. Each girl got a participation trophy but Lexi didn’t get anything else. They gave out Sweetheart awards and photo awards but we didn’t even enter those competitions. I felt really bad when Lexi kept asking where her crown was. But really, those crown were simply bought by money that the parents raised. Minimum $250. The photo awards were $150 just to enter. I’m sorry, but first we know that Lexi is not one to take pictures and second, I’m just not spending that much after spending hundreds just to get her in the pageant. Do you know how many toys I could buy Lexi instead? Yeah, the $20 I bought her afterwards made her more happy.

I have to admit it was hard not to place. I knew Lexi was one of the prettiest girls out there and if you think it’s just about beauty, you’d be dead wrong. The prettiest ones didn’t win. The girls that won are the ones that were trained. They knew where to go, how to stand and they LOVED being in front of the crowd. It was all about confidence and personality. Not to say Lexi doesn’t have it. She just didn’t have it on stage. And we’re totally ok with that. Neither Scott nor I nor Lexi for that matter want to do another pageant. We’re not sore losers, we just know it’s not her thing. And that’s ok. She’ll be our dramatic, funny, beautiful Lexi just for us.

Here are pictures. Unfortunately the pageant doesn’t let you take any while the pageant is going on so we just have a few from before and after.

Busy Weekend

June 12, 2009 by Amy 1 Comment

Today and tomorrow I think will be nothing less than insane.

Scott is on his way home from the missions trip as we speak.

Our pool liner is going in.

I’m listening in on a training call for work.

I need to drive up to work after the call to hand off the pager.

This afternoon we leave for Lexi’s pageant that is about 2 hours away.

I’m not packed yet.

Tonight is the ice cream and pool party at the hotel.

Tomorrow at 12 we have to be at the pageant to register.

1:30 the pageant begins.

I don’t want to wish the time away but I also would like my brain to slow down.