‘Tis the Season

I absolutely love this time of year.  I’m not religious, whether we’re talking Christian or Jewish, but the holiday season always makes me so happy.  It’s all about family, love, charity, happiness, innocence, and gratitude.  Our house has been completely bedecked with candy canes, jingle bells, a huge tree, and the few Hanukkah decorations I’ve been able to find over the years.  It’s only December 5th, but I have thrown myself completely into the season.

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happy trees…

Christmas: things we’re merry about
New Years: what we’re excited about in 2013
Valentines: things you love
St. Patrick’s Day: I feel lucky…
Easter: things that rejuvenate you
May/Memorial Day: cherished memories

TV Quiz

1. Pick five of your favorite TV shows before reading the questions.

1) Castle

2) Gilmore Girls

3) Bones

4) Firefly

5) Burn Notice

1) Who is your favorite character in 5?
Fiona.  Although Madeleine is a close 2nd.

2) Who is your least favorite character in 3?
Daisy.  Looks like she might not be around this season…?

3) What is your favorite episode of number 1?
Just one?  Would you take a list of tops?  I’ll try to keep it short.  Double Down 2×2, When the Bough Breaks 2×5, Nikki Heat 3×11, Cops and Robbers 4×7, Cuffed 4×10, After the Storm 5×1.  See, not long.

4) What is your favorite season of number 4?
Sadly it had only 1 season.  Fucking Fox. 

5) What is your favorite relationship in 2?
Sookie and Jackson.  They are freaking adorable.

6) What is your least favorite relationship in 3?
Sweets and Daisy.  He really needs to dump her and get with this new FBI chick.

7) How long have you watched 5?
Since the 1st episode aired.

8) How did you become interested in 4?
I was a big Buffy/Angel fan, and a family friend had seen Firefly and introduced me.  I was skeptical at first, but it is seriously the best Joss Whedon has ever done and fucking Fox canceled it.

9) Who is your favorite actor in number 1?
If referring to actor as in male, Nathan Fillion.  If referring to actor as general occupation, Stana Katic.  I want to be her best friend.

10) Which show do you prefer more : 1, 2, or 5 ?
I love them all, but Castle wins by a nose.  Especially since they got Caskett together.  (Geez, what a morbid nickname, fandom!)

11) Which show have you seen more episodes of: 1 or 4?
1 has more episodes, so it wins by default.  Stupid Fox.

12) If you could be anyone from 3, who would it be?
Angela.  She’s awesome.

13) How would you kill off your favorite character in 5?
I wouldn’t!  What a horrible question to ask.

14) Would a 3/4 crossover work?
Definitely not, considering that 4 is a sci fi western and Brennan would probably watch it and point all of the scientific inaccuracies.

15) Pair two characters in 4 that would make an unlikely, but strangely ok couple:
Gosh, I don’t know if there are any besides the obvious.

16) Give a random quote from 2.
“But maybe he didn’t mean it as a date.  Maybe he just needs to get out of the house more and since I’m currently one of the women sitting at home thinking ‘If I could only find a man like Aragorn,’ he picked me!”

Shiny, Captain.

I am so excited for Halloween this year, it’s a little ridiculous.  The reason I am so excited is that my roommate and bestie is a nerd like me and we have made a pact to dress like two of the awesome characters from one of the awesomest TV shows ever canceled, Firefly.  I have determined that I will be Kaylee.  A girly top and a mechanic’s jumpsuit, grease smeared on my face, and rather unkempt hair…it’s the perfect costume.

And in honor of my geeky brilliance, here are some of my favorite Kaylee quotes:

“Bye now.  Have good sex.”  (Jaynestown)

Inara: “So, do aliens live among us?”
Kaylee: “Yeah.  One of them’s a doctor.” (The Message)

“Look, they got boy whores!  Isn’t that thoughtful?” (Heart of Gold)

“Don’t pay anybody in advance. And don’t ride in anything with a Capissen 38 engine, they fall right out of the sky.” (Serenity)

“Goin’ on a year now I ain’t had nothin’ twixt my nethers weren’t run on batteries!” (Serenity)

Simon: “My one regret in all of this is never being with you.”
Kaylee: “With me?  You mean to say as in…sex?”
Simon: “I mean to say.”
Kaylee: “Hell with this!  I’m gonna live!”

And because I’m obsessed…

…Rory Gilmore’s reading list.  I consider myself a bookworm, but I have read a shamefully small number of these.

 

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (TBR)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (TBR)
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas p�re
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (TBR)
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (TBR)
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (TBR)
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (TBR)
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (TBR)
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry (TBR)
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (Lpr)
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (TBR)
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (TBR)
The Iliad by Homer
I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres (TBR)
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (TBR)
Inferno by Dante
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront�
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Love Story by Erich Segal

Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (TBR)
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (TBR)
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (TBR)
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson (TBR)
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (TBR)
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien (TBR)
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (TBR)
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Hotels of Europe
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (TBR)
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (TBR)
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (TBR)
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath (TBR)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (TBR)
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bront� (TBR)
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

 

There’s quite a few of these that I will never struggle through.  Dickens, Rand, Hemingway, and Shakespeare might be some of the most celebrated writers ever, but you couldn’t pay me to slog my way through them.  Highlighted books are the ones that are one my short list.

Gilmore Girls Movie List

I found this list of movies mentioned in Gilmore Girls.  On my quest to become a Gilmore girl, I’m working on watching as many of them as I can.

Breaking Away 6.1
16 Candles 6.6
2000 Year old man 2.15
2001 1.15
3 Days 2.12
8 mile 6.12
9 1/2 weeks 1.7
AI 2.3
Alive 4.11
All About Eve 2.19
All the President’s Men 6.18, 7.17
American Gigolo 6.18
American in Paris
Amistad 4.19
An Affair to Remember 1.17, 4.6, 6.13, 7.2
Animal House 1.5
Annie Hall 2.21, 3.5
Apocaplypse Now 5.2
Arthur 2.19
Attica 2.15, 5.5
Autumn in New York 2.15
Babe 2.12, 2.19
Babe II 2.19
Bambi 2.12
Banger Sisters 3.4
Basic Instinct 2.22
Batman 7.19
Battlestar Galactica, 7.2
Beautiful Mind 7.16
Ben Hur 2.10, 3.5
Benji 4.5
Bewitched 6.2
Billy Jack 2.4, 3.19
Blades of Glory 7.19 (I actually don’t want to see this — I’m not a fan of Will Ferrell’s slapstick comedies)
Blood on the Highway 5.5
Blue Crush 3.5
Blue Lagoon
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Bonnie & Clyde 4.5
Boogie Nights 1.7
Breakfast at Tiffany’s 7.2
Breakfast Club, The 6.16
Breaking Away
Bride of Chucky 7.9
Bridge On The River Kwai, 7.2
Brigadoon 2.22
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia 6.5
Bringing up Baby 2.9
Brokeback Mountain 6.16
Bugsy Malone 6.17
Bull Durham 2.12, 5.1
Bye Bye Birdie 2.15
Byron, 7.20
Cabaret 1.18
Cabin Boy 2.19
California Suite 7.3
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin 2.4
Casablanca 4.5, 7.4, 7.10
Champ, The 1.17
Charlemagne: Holy Barbarian
Charlie’s Angel’s Full Throttle
Chico & the Man 6.18
Chinatown 2.4, 4.5
Cinderella 2.6
Citizen Kane 4.6
Cocktail 2.19
Cocoon 2.9
Coming Home 2.7
Cool Hand Luke 5.5
Courtship of Eddie’s Father, The 3.3
Crimes & Misdemeanos 2.19
Crossroads 3.19
Crucible, The 1.7
Damned, The 2.2
Dances with Wolves 2.12, 5.5, 7.4
Dangerous Liasons 7.5
Das Boot 7.20
Dead Calm 7.20
Dean Martin Roast Don Rickles
Deerhunters, The 1.4
Delovely 6.7
Desperately Seeking Susan 2.19
Detective, The 2.19
Dick Tracy 1.21
Dig 6.10
Diner 2.17, 4.5
Dirty Dancing 7.16
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood 2.7, 3.1
Dog Day Afternoon 6.6
Dollhouse,The
Dr. Dolittle 2.10
Driving Miss Daisy 2.17, 7.4
Duece Bigalow 6.4
Dumbo 2.12
Easter Parade
Ed Wood
Edward Scissorhands
Electric Boogaloo 2.12
Endless Love 2.6
Endless Summer 4.16
Enter the Dragon 7.2
Erin Brockovich 3.5
Everest 1.13
Exorcist, The 7.2
Fair Pentitent, The 1.7
Fame 3.19
Farenheit 9.11 7.2
Fast & the Furious, The 1, 2 & 3 7.1
Fatal Attraction 2.14
Fatso 4.12
Ferris Bueller’s Day off
Fiddler on the Roof 1.15, 2.11
Final Destination 1, 2 & 3 6.17
Flashdance
Fletch, 2.19
Fly, The 1.6
Footloose 6.18
For Keeps
Forty-Year-Old Virgin
Freaky Firday 2.7,3.1
Fried Green Tomatoes 1.9
From Here to Eternity 2.13, 7.2
Funny Face 7.4
Funny Girl
G.I. Jane 1.17
Gaslight 1.18, 4.20
Ghost

Ghostbusters, The 2.13
GI Jane 4.4
Gigi 5.1
Girl, Interrupted 2.22
Glitter 2.8, 3.19 (actually, do I want to see this one?  Is it one of those things that I should see to say I wasted my time watching?)
Godfather, The
Gone with the Wind 1.9
Good Morning Vietnam 4.11
Good Night & Good Luck 6.14
Good Ship Lollipop 1.6
Goonies, The 1.2
Gray Gardens 4.5
Grease 1.18, 2.4
Great Santini 1.2
Grinch Who Stole Christmas
Hairspray 3.6
Hamlet 7.15
Hannibal Lector Movies 1.18
Hardbodies 4.5
Harold & Maude 2.12
Harvey 2.14
Heathers, The 7.11
Heidi 4.2
High Noon 3.4
His Girl Friday 4.5, 6.5, 7.17
Hitch 7.17
Hoosiers 3.15
Hudson Hawk 2.12
Ice Castles 1.7
Inconvenient Truth, An 7.8
Inherit the wind 2.15
Into the Woods 3.15
Invasion of the Bodysnatchers 6.16
Ironweed 7.8
Ishtar 1.17
It Happened One Night 4.5
James Bond Movies 7.1
Jarhead 7.1
Jerk, The 2.12
Joe vs. the Volcano 7.10
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat 7.16
Julia 2.13
Karate Kid 7.2
Ken Burns Boring Sod Documentary that I couldn’t find 7.7
Kill Bill 4.5
Kiss My Grits 5.10 ?
Kujo 4.5
La boheme 7.10
Lady & the Tramp 1.15
Lake House, The 7.2, 7.17
Last Tango in Paris 5.5
Legend of Bagger Vance, The 2.2
Les Miserables 3.15
Little House on the Prairie 4.5
Little Man Tate 6.17
Little Rascals, The 1.15
Lord of the Rings 2.15
Love in the Afternoon 3.15
Love Story 1.16
M. Night Shyamalan movies
Mad About Ballroom 6.4
Magnolia 1.7
Marathon Man 3.4
March of the Penguins, The 6.2, 6.21, 6.14
Mary Poppins 6.16, 6.22
Mask, The 1.12, 6.9
Master & Commander 5.3
Matrix, The 1.21, 4.2
Midnight Express 1.9, 2.4
Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.10
Milton, John 7.20
Misery 6.21
Mission Impossible 1.15
Moment by Moment 2.6
Mommie Dearest 1.1, 4.3
Money Pit, The 2.18, 3.20
Monster 4.15
Moose Murders 3.6
Mr. & Mrs. Bridge 4.5
Mr. Baseball 7.2
Music Man, The 1.14
Mystic Pizza 2.9
National Velvet 4.5
Nell 3.1
Network 6.16
Norma Rae 6.6, 7.8
Not Without my Daughter 2.1
Officer & a Gentleman 5.5
Old Yeller 1.17
Open Water 7.20
Othello 2.19
Out of Africa 1.18
Paper Moon
Parent Trap, The 4.20
Passion of the Christ
Philadelphia Story
Pleasantville 7.6
Poseidon Adventure, The 4.5
Postman, The 2.12
Power of Myth, The
Primary Colors 6.9
Princess Bride, The 2.19
Producers 3.6
Psycho 3.5, 6.17
Purple Rain 2.11, 6.22, 7.7
Pursuit of Happyness, The 7.17
Rainman 2.7, 3.5
Rent 7.10
Reversal of Fortune 3.1
Richard III 7.15
Riding the Bus with my Sister 6.4
Risky Business 2.16, 6.4
River Wild The 2.19
Rocky Horror Picture Show The
Room with a View 5.2
Rosemary’s Baby 1.1, 2.12
Sabrina 2.13
Saint Elmo’s Fire 5.9
Sandra Oh 7.2
Saturday Night Fever 2.3
Saw II 6.16
Schindler’s List 1.2, 6.16
Seven(th?) Samurai 2.19
Shaft 1.7
Shakespeare in Love 6.22
Shallow Hal, 7.2
Shane 3.2
Shanghai Express 7.2
Shoah 3.5. 5.4
Showgirls 4.5
Silent Movie 2.15
Silkwood 2.11
Singing in the Rain
Sixteen Candles 1.9
Sleeping Beauty 1.7
Snakes on a Plane 7.4
Snow Dogs 2.19
Sophie’s Choice 2.19
Sound of Music, The 2.6,7.3
Space Odyssey 7.9
Speed, 7.2
Star Wars 6.2
Sting, The 2.19
Streetcar Named Desire, A 1.14
Taboo Broadway Show 6.13
Taxi Driver 4.10
Terms of Endearment 2.19
Them 2.3
This is Spinal Tap 3.19
Thomas Crown Affaird, The 2.10
Titanic 7.20
Treasure of the Sierra Madre 4.5
Turning Point 6.22
Untouchables, The 2.18
Urban Cowboy 2.19
Valley of the Dolls 4.10
View from the Top 7.2
Waiting for Godot 2.18
Waiting for Guthman 6.10?
Wall Street 4.4
Way We Were, The 1.7
Welcome to the Dollhouse 6.5
West Side Story 1.1, 3.4
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane 2.19
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1.17
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory 1.7, 5.9
Wizard of Oz 6.11 The & a bunch of other episodes like 1.10, 2.9, 6.8
Working Girl 6.5
Xanadu 5.12
Yearling, The 2.19
Young Frankenstein 2.13
You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown 1.15

Not to say that these are all movies I should see…I mean, Deuce Bigalow?  But I am kind of ashamed of all these classics that I haven’t seen.  The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Check.  Philadelpha Story, not checked?  I can’t regret Rocky Horror (I’m thinking of dressing up as Magenta for Halloween this year), but how can I not have seen a classic Katharine Hepburn flick like that?

Is it October yet?

We’re halfway through August, which means that fall [might] be just around the corner.  Summer has its perks and everything, but have been dreaming of the day when this excruciating Texas heat ends and I wake up to cool, crisp weather and the beautiful fall colors.  Fall has always been my favorite season.  It’s full of so many wonderful things: the start of the holiday season, hot apple cider, cozy outfits.  Although it’s early, here are the ten things I’m most looking forward to about autumn (in no particular order):

1. Boots, gloves, scarves, hats

2. Cozy nights around the fire with cups of hot cocoa

3. My birthday!

4. Halloween

5. Warm apple pie

6. Taking a walk without sweating

7. APHA World Championship Show

8. My parents coming to visit

9. Pumpkin everything

10. Thanksgiving (the kick-off to The Most Wonderful Time of the Year)

Quotable TV Shows: Gilmore Girls

They just don’t make TV like they used to.  The vast majority of my must-watch shows these days consist of crime dramas.  Which I love, don’t get me wrong, but I haven’t found a feel-good show that I love to watch just because it makes me happy.  At least not since Gilmore Girls went off the air.  I watch reruns like an addict and occasionally go on coffee and junk food binges a la Lorelai and Rory because they make it look so awesome.  Here are some of my favorite things ever said on the show.

1.1, “Pilot”
Rory: You look happy.
Lorelai: Yeah.
Rory: Did you do something slutty?
Lorelai: I’m not that happy.

1.9, “Rory’s Dance”
Emily: Since when do you not like avocado?
Lorelai: Since the day I said, “Gross, what is this?” and you said, “Avocado.”
1.21, “Love, Daisies, and Troubadours”
Lorelai: Luke, we sleep around here.  Okay, we like it.  It makes us pretty, and keeps us from killing our crazy friends!

2.17, “Dead Uncles and Vegetables”
Taylor: Late again, are we?
Lorelai: Yes, I hope I’m not pregnant.
2.22, “I Can’t Get Started”
Oy with the poodles already.

3.7, “They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?”
Lorelai: Stanley bailed.
Rory: No! Why?
Lorelai: Apparently Miss Patty showed his wife a picture of me and she thinks I look like Elizabeth Taylor, which makes her Debbie Reynolds, and Stanley Eddie Fisher.
Rory: That’s crazy.
Lorelai: Especially if you’ve seen Stanley.  He’s no Eddie Fisher, trust me.  Fisher Stevens, maybe.
Rory: Can you talk to her?
Lorelai: Apparently only at my own risk.
Emily: Well, at least she thought you looked like Elizabeth Taylor, that was nice.
Lorelai: I have no partner.
Rory: You’ll find another one.
Emily: Elizabeth Taylor always did.

3.22, “Those Are Strings, Pinocchio”
Taylor: People, do I have to detail the problems these deer cause?
Luke: No, but you will.
Taylor: Lyme disease, auto accidents, plane accidents.
Luke: We have flying deer?
Miss Patty: Oh, that’s scary.
Babette: Yeah, those ones you can snuff.

4.20, “Luke Can See Her Face”
Lorelai: I can’t stop drinking the coffee!  I stop drinking the coffee, I stop doing the standing and the walking and the words-putting-into-sentence-doing.

5.17, “Pulp Friction”
Lorelai: Cluelessness is the mother of invention.

Home

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it’s all right.  – Maya Angelou, Conversations with Maya Angelou

I’ve been in California since Friday for one of my semi-annual trips home.  It’s been a great, exhausting trip.  We’ve been all the way from San Diego to San Francisco with a few stops in between.  I’ve gotten to do some quintessential California things that I like to do every time I come home: touching my toes in the Pacific Ocean, eating Chinese food, driving across the Golden Gate Bridge…it makes me happy to come back and do all these silly and completely nostalgic things.

It also makes me feel really weird to come back to my childhood home.  Sometimes I feel like I’ve done so much and traveled so far to places I never felt I would or could, and yet every time I come here I’m startled by how much space I take up in the bathroom.  I expect to look in the mirror and see my 12-year old self looking back, rather than the almost-23-year-old that is actually standing there.  It’s the most bizarre feeling.

As much as I’ve enjoyed being in California again (nothing smells like that ocean), I’m also excited to be heading back to my other home.  Fort Worth is calling with horses, a new job, and my sweet puppy who I always miss like crazy.

Summer Reading

Source: Tumblr

I’ve been an avid reader all my life.  I was quiet growing up and usually preferred to be in my room with a book (typically about horses) than spending time with peers I may or may not have liked.  That’s not to say I’ve gobbled up tons of enriching literature (I only wish I was Rory Gilmore), but the number of books that have fallen into my hands over the years is immeasurable.  Once I got to college, I read for pleasure far less; I suppose that it was too much mental energy to invest in a new world like that when I was already spent on trying to understand all those textbooks.  Instead, I watched way too much mindless TV.  Now that I’m a full-fledged “adult,” I’ve been trying to get back to books.  I was incredibly proud of myself for getting engrossed and finishing The Dovekeepers, which my mom had recommended to be months before I started reading it.  It was fabulous, and I immediately picked up another book that had been sitting on my shelf, unread, for almost a year.  Since this summer is all about keeping myself happy, I’ve made it a goal to read some new books I’ve been intending to tackle, and revisit some old favorites.

1. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.  I picked up a hardcover copy of this book for nothing on the bargain shelf at Barnes & Noble I don’t even know how long ago.  Kingsolver is possibly my favorite author ever, but this big novel was intimidating to me as I was running around exhausted from a job I hated and trying to find my real-world footing after graduating college.  I’ve finally started it.  I’m taking my time, reading a few pages in the morning with my coffee, a few pages a night before I go to bed, and maybe a little more on my days off when I feel ready to engage in it.

2. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns)? by Mindy Kaling.  I have the electronic version of this book on my Kindle, which goes with me everywhere so I always have something to read when life gets slow unexpectedly.  It’s the perfect book to pick up for a few minutes when one of my clients is running a little late, or I’m sitting at the doctor’s office waiting my turn.

3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  I’m certain I’ve read Jane Eyre before at some point in my life, but I cannot remember my experience of reading it.  I can tell you the significant plot points, but literally have no recollection of sitting down with the book.  Since I have it, it’s on my list to read this summer so that when everyone I know talks about how amazing it is, I can honestly and actively contribute to the conversation.

4. Frozen Heat by Richard Castle.  So, in college when I wasn’t reading much for myself, all I did read was very light chick lit and crime novels.  I became addicted.  I’ve been a fan of the show Castle since it started, and when I first saw Heat Wave in Borders a couple years ago, I bought it for my mom as a jokey Christmas gift.  Little did I know then, the books are actually really entertaining, and pretty well written.  All of the Nikki Heat books are published as if Richard Castle were really a best-selling author (I wish I knew who actually writes them!), and there are so many references to things that happen in the show.  Anyway, the fourth installment comes out September 11th, which I’m still going to count as summer because it’s the kind of thing that I’ll spend all night reading.

5. Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver.  I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve read this book.  As I said earlier, Barbara Kingsolver is probably my favorite author, largely due to this book.  I first read it during my junior year of high school (not for class) and loved it.  My senior year, it was assigned reading.  I think I was the only person in class who actually read it since it was after AP testing and everyone was more concerned about life after graduation than reading another book.  Since, I’ve read it at least once a year, often around the same time as a big change or rough patch in my life.  No matter how many times I read it, I always find a new part that speaks to what I’m going through at that time.  The title of this blog actually comes from a quote in this book: “What keeps you going isn’t some fine destination but just the road you’re on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, ‘What life can I live that will let me breathe in & out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?'”  I cannot recommend this book enough, especially to young women who feel they’re on a journey of self-discovery.