15 Day Challenge: Day 4

Linking up again with Sar over at Life of Love again. I know I'm late guys! I just spent the whole day chillaxing with Shauna on the 4th that I completely forgot!

                                        

So Day 4: What's your favorite childhood memory?

I have a lot of good ones (which is definitely a good thing, not everyone can say the same). If I had to pick only one...I'm not sure what I'd do. hmmmm....

Ok. So I've thought some more and stopped doing a free write and my favorite childhood memory would have to be the hours and hours I spent by my sitter's pool in the summer. My best friend at the time, Lizzy, and I would invent stories about mermaids and pirates that we would make up throughout the whole day and it was just so relaxing and carefree and creative. Pools now just seem so empty.

On that note, Summertime's the best and I definitely love it here in the PNW. I should definitely be doing more water related things!

15 Day Challenge: Day 3

Linking up again with Sar over at Life of Love for her 15 Day Challenge.

Day 3: Tell about an article of clothing that you're deeply attached to.

So when I lived at home, every couple of years my mom would make us purge half of our closet for goodwill. If I had been left to my own devices, I probably would have like 70 tee shirts that I could write about because I wore them at some vacation I went on with family, etc.

But since I wasn't and I've moved a lot in the last few years, I've severed a lot of my attachment with clothes.

However, I still have two I can talk about! Aren't you excited! 

The first is a really really cheesy, not at all attractive, shirt I bought from Hot Topic. it's made like a prison shirt and it has Sirius Black's name and his wizarding prison number stamped on it and Azkaban on the back. I wore it to all the HP movies after that and to my trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter like two years ago.

The second one is more sentimental. My grandfather passed a few years ago and every few months or so my Gramma has a giant give-away of stuff in her house that she no longer needs (She disguises these as white elephant Christmas parties were she provides all the presents and no one wants to participate because most of it is junk). Anyway, my brother picked up this robe that belonged to my grandfather and was the one thing everyone was kind of jealous of. Apparently Grandpa Pete bought a lot of these mickey mouse robes so that when one got too frayed to use anymore he didn't have to worry about finding another one. 

Long story short, my bro passed it on to me because he knew I'd appreciate it sentimentally whereas he'd use it for a cape or something and ruin it. 

So there you go! 

Hope you're all enjoying this challenge as much as I am!

15 Day Challenge for Day 2

Day 2: Write a [few] six-word memoir[s]

Oh em gee, I did three! These were difficult to arrive at. Six-word sentences rule the day. (you see what I did there?)

Born a Bruin, always a Bruin.


Striving for flexibility, not for breakability.


Innate caution can't stop my leaping.

15 Day Challenge: Day 1

Hi world! So, in case you haven't noticed, I've kinda maybe stopped posting. Don't worry guys, I'm still reading and singing up here in the awesome Pacific Northwest. I just got tired of writing about it. To rejuvenate myself a little, I'm going to link up with Sar over at Life of Love for her 15 Day Challenge.

Hopefully I'll continue with the book reviews and musicals from there!


(also I changed my blog name! what!)

Day 1: List 15 fun facts about yourself!

1.  I moved from Los Angeles to Seattle on a whim. I knew I needed to get out of L.A. and the only thing stopping me from throwing a dart at a map was my friends random comment of "I can totally see you in Seattle".

2. My short term (like 10-15 week) memory is stellar. After that, if I don't use it it gets locked in some filing cabinet in my head and I have yet to find the master key.

3. I love swimming but I am terrified of flying insects. Unfortunately, most bodies of water have this super crazy habit of attracting bees and mosquitos and June Bugs, etc.

4. I went to Space Camp when I was 11. It was awesome. We built rockets. Sorry, I'm fun.

5. I pronounce psuedo as "suede - o" and brusque like "brush" with a k instead of an h. Apparently, I learned to read faster than I learned to talk.

6. In all of Aaron Sorkin's TV shows, there is a character I would happily marry if they were real. He gives me hope that a guy for me is out there (Here's to you, Dan Rydell, Joshua Lyman, Danny Tripp, and Jim Harper). On the flip side, I don't really identify with any of his female characters.

7. When I first read Pride and Prejudice (and it was totally because Meg Ryan raved about it in You've Got Mail) I stayed up all night reading and then when I finished, I immediately opened it up to start it over again.

8. While I did the same in number 7 with Jane Eyre, After the third re-read I realized that Mr. Rochester was really messed up and the book was never the same for me again.

9. I hate the telephone. I love communicating with people, but there's something about talking through a telephone that is so disconnecting (in my opinion, much more than in text or chats).

10. I've wanted to be (in this order) a detective, President, a librarian, a lawyer, a teacher, Chief of Staff to the President, a detective , and a teacher. Who'd a thunk that I love my job as a Data Analyst.

11. My favorite movie is Megamind.

12. I don't know how to drive. I have a sense that if I learn, I'm going to accidently kill someone, and since I don't think I'd be able to handle that I decided not to learn.

13. I'm in a band called A.K.A with my cousins, Angela and Kelly. We've never performed anything, but staying up that one night writing songs was fun and we never officially disbanded.

14. My favorite Harry Potter was the third one. The introduction of Sirius Black and Reamus Lupin sparked so many imagination branches that I was entertained for many a road trip.

15. Sometimes, I like the movie better than the book.

Blog Award thingy

Shauna, from The Awesomes was mean and nominated me for a Blog Award so here it goes :)

So, here's the rules:
1. I post 7 random facts about me.
2. Thank the person who nominated you in your post (check)
3. Put the Liebster blog button in your post. (check)
4. Nominate your 5 favorite bloggers with less than 200 GFC followers.
5. Let them know that you nominated them

Random Facts:

1. I dislike jay-walking intensely. Not because it's illegal (like most people think) but because if I get hit, it'll totally be my fault and I don't want some driver to have to live with that. Conversely, if someone does hit me I want to be able to haunt them guilt-free. :)  However if it's night and I'm in a scary place then jay-walking trumps  standing on a street corner looking like a victim. Always

2.  I bleed  blue and gold. My parents met at UCLA and still work there today, I went there, and my brother now goes there. UCLA for life. 

3. I stayed up all night to finish Pride and Prejudice and as soon as it was done I picked it up and read it again. I did the same thing for the Kiera Knightly version of the movie (sorry the soundtrack to that was so amazeballs!)  

4. I haven't updated my blog since March. I don't deserve an award! 

5. I went to a leadership conference in middle school where I realized I never ever want to lead people (still end up doing it a lot anyway)

6. I like the organic nature of the team coming together

7. I'm weird about what foods I like. There is no consistency about why I don't like certain things. I like flavor (except for things like cilantro). I'm weird about texture (but like sushi which is a shit ton of different textures combined). Will sometimes try new things and will sometimes hate you for making me try something i'm unfamiliar with. It's weird. I stopped trying to figure it out.

I'll include the nominations in the comments because I have to go look for blogs I follow that won't kill me/intensely ridicule me. :) 

Except for Shauna's other blog, Our Emerald City which is seriously awesomesauce you guys. It makes me super jealous and almost inspires me to do things.

Thanks Shauna!!!!! This was super-duper fun. 

March 4th, 2012 - The Magicians

The Magicians by Lev Grossman is one of my favorite books!  I've recommended it to any adult who loved Harry Potter and after  five or so people promised to read it after they finished such and such and so and so and then never picked it up, I put it on the book list.

It took 7 months, but it was finally chosen!

 A warning before you run to the store and go get it right now. It's the adult version of Harry Potter. And I don't mean it just has curse words and sex scenes combined with magic (which it does). It also has a quarter-life crisis outlook on life. So if you think that hard work and talent will help everyone achieve all of their ambitions, then this book will probably piss  you off.

If you recently graduated and have put in the time, got decent grades, and consider yourself smart and hardworking, but have been trying to find any job for half a year - let alone one you can stand - then this book is for you.

Being a magician in Grossman's world is hard work. It's for Type-A personalities who obsess heavily over details and memorization and will do the same thing over and over again until it's right.

Unfortunately, those character traits rarely let one achieve happiness. Especially if the world doesn't resolve itself into a neat little bow once you've succeeded. Like real life.*

The book is about Quentin's Coldwater discovering his magical traits at 17, his life at Brakebills (a college for magicians,) and his search for Fillory. Coincidentally, Fillory is a magical world created by Christopher Plover in the 1930s. It sounds a lot like Narnia, but it's a separate and real series.

So if my warning didn't put you off, the go run to the store and get it right now! Also there's a sequel!

It inspired 3 hours worth of discussion in my book club by the way, so I'm not the only one who liked it and wanted to talk about it.

 *I know it sounds like I'm depressed. I'm not. I've just watched a majority of my friends struggle to get some of the same opportunities that I just fall into. While I definitely do what I can to make thing work and deserve it, most of my success I blame on luck.

February 26th, 2012 - Beauty and the Beast

I know. It's been awhile.

I'd say "I'll be better," but I probably won't. On the plus side, I have at least 6 things to write about for this spurt so I won't just leave you hanging with just one drop of my amazeballs rhetoric.

So to the post at hand.  I wasn't going to see Disney's musical production of Beauty and the Beast, despite the fact that it is my favorite Disney movie growing up.

For one, it was at the Paramount and if I went with my usual theatre crew I probably would've gotten seats I hated.  I had also bought the Original Broadway Cast recording back when I was still in high school because I heard "Home" and fell in love. The problem was, the reason you sympathize/fall in love with the Beast in the movie is because you get really good shots of his eyes. And eyes being the window to the soul and all, you see he's not really a big whiney jerkface.

In the OBC version, he sounds like a big whiney jerkface. And Belle sounds much more stubborn and hard-headed then I remembered. So I actually lost a little respect for the movie because of the recording.

Of course I still wanted to be Belle, but my prince changed  into Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty because he gets up and kills the dragon instead of sits around and whines about not being able to read (big turn off.)

Of course Aurora would've been able to kill the dragon herself, if she hadn't been asleep. Don't worry guys, I'm still a feminist at heart.

So there was lots of hesitation about going to see this show and then on the last day of its short run I wasn't doing anything and decided to splurge on myself. I got a seat in the Loge for the first time ever and took myself out.

Luckily, the show didn't erode my love for the story anymore than it already had been. It did feel a little flat but it was a touring production at the Paramount and was geared heavily towards kids.

The set, of course, was beautiful and the transformation scene appropriately mysterious, but I don't think I'd see it again if it came back in town.

If you take away one thing from this though, it's to go listen to a version of "Home." It's so good!