Harry Potter at Midnight...

Last Thursday, Mr. RH and I dragged ourselves off the couch (where I would have happily fallen asleep for the night) and into the night to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter.

Though I am probably the last person on the planet to jump on the Harry Potter bandwagon (I only read the series last summer), I loved the books and watched the first half of Deathly Hollows in anticipation.

And honestly?

I think I was too sleepy to really absorb the movie.

I spent much of the movie with my eyes "lightly closed" so I could see... but barely.

I had my eyes closed for The Kiss... and only popped them open when everyone started cheering.

Listen, the story was great and I especially adored the last half-hour of the movie... but to me it seemed like a lot of the stuff leading up to The End... was just filler.

At 3 am when I finally deposited myself into bed, I realized one final thing:

I am too old for midnight movies.

The End.

Bridesmaids: I Laughed, I Cried, I Wet Myself.

First of all, if you haven't seen Bridesmaids yet... you MUST. It was the single best therapy I've had in months.

My friends and I went into the movie expecting The Hangover for girls. I had heard reviewers talk about it this way, I'd heard it referenced this way, so that's what I expected.

So. Wrong.

The movie has plenty of gags in it. Yes, there are poop jokes and crude humor. Cheap thrills. But it wasn't what stuck with me.

It is not an exaggeration to say that it's the first time I've laughed out loud in months. I'm a self-conscious laugher but it couldn't be helped in this movie.

"What kind of a name is Stove? Are you a kitchen appliance?"

"My name is Steve and I'm a man."

Here's the thing - the heart of this movie is not crude humor and poop jokes. Faaaar from it. The movie's really about friends - best friends. People who've seen you at your worst and live to tell about it. People who'd never tag you in hideously unflattering facebook photos, even if they looked really, really good.

So, if you haven't seen it yet.... grab your best girlfriends and GO. I'm sure a man would enjoy it, but only a girlfriend who's also feeling like she'll never get her sh*t together (like me!) will really make the movie worthwhile.

I give this one an A++. You can bet your ass I'll be first in line for the DVD.

Books and Movies

This past weekend, I saw Water for Elephants.

I had read the book a few months back and I have to say... I was kind of lukewarm about it. It's a great story, don't get me wrong. I just wan't into it. For some reason I have a harder time "getting into" stories that are written from the male point of view.

It was good and enjoyable, I just didn't love it.

The movie?

Love.

(Image from here)

I loved the movie. My friend and I were completely spellbound. For the first time in... ever? - I enjoyed the movie more than the book. I know, I know. Crazy.

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Meanwhile, I have been reading the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. It is definitely not my usual frothy Chick Lit book... but in a way it is. Frothy historical fiction, if you will. A love story.
The thing about these books is HOLY COW they are LONG! I have never ever been one to complain about a book being too long (unless it's boring) but man, each of these books is 800 pages. I'm currently on the 4th book (of 6) and have been reading the series exclusively since March 22nd - over a month!

I love them but wow... long. Definitely not for you if you're a slow reader.

I have 2 more Outlander books to go - but I'm planning ahead and I know my bookshelf is way too empty once I finish these couple books.

What else should I be reading? I've had suggestions for Black Heels to Tractor Wheels so that's on my list... but otherwise, I'm fresh out.

Suggestions? Read anything good lately? Or ever? I love old books too - what's your favorite?

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Meanwhile, if you follow me on twitter you might know that I've been undertaking a craaaazy diet to help fix some crazy symptoms I've been having lately. I have zero energy for anything so forgive me if posting is spotty for the immediate future. I'm hoping to feel better soon!

Happy Tuesday!

Let's Talk Eclipse, Finally!

Ladies, how is it possible that I didn't gush on and on about how awesome Eclipse was?

But let's not dwell.

How awesome was Eclipse?

Well.... pretty damn awesome.

First off, anybody who thinks they are too cool for Twilight should just get over themselves right now. By clicking that red X in the upper right corner.

So, as far as I know, nobody particularly comes to the movie for the excellent acting. Surprisingly, I thought this film, out of the three so far, delivered SO much better than the previous three. I honestly just felt like the cast put so much effort into this film!

I felt like the storyline stayed pretty true to the script, although I haven't read the books since November so I can't be positive.

You know what I liked most about this movie though? Honestly?

It was just so hawt! For me, I felt like the tension humming through every scene was just crazy.

My BFF, sitting next to me, kept whispering, "We know how it's going to end. It's going to be FINE." And then something would happen and we'd be squee-ing and clutching the arm rests and generally acting a fool.

(In our defense, the women next to us were HAMMERED and smelled like pot and were annoying us... so we were just adjusting to our environment. By acting like fools.)

S0, by now, please tell me you've all seen Eclipse.

Do you think it's the best one so far??

I do!

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On an unrelated note, I'm talking about Goody Spin Pins over on Chic Critique. Easiest hair bun ever!

Happy Monday!!

The Last Song

Last night, instead of sitting on my bum and watching LOST like I usually do on Tuesday nights, I was out with my BFF seeing the new Miley Cyrus movie The Last Song.

I am a big fan of Nicholas Sparks' books and I have the book to this movie... unfortunately, I was confused and hadn't read it before the movie. Oops. I was thinking of Dear John instead - which I have read. Oh well.

Moving on.

As a quick recap, The Last Song is about a bratty teenager who is forced to live with her dad for the summer, and in the process falls in love and blah blah blah.

Everyone had warned me that they weren't huge fans of Miley's and therefore I might be disappointed in her acting - but I honestly thought she was pretty good. I thought it was believable.

One of the last things I said before we went into the theater was that the guy playing her love interest wasn't very cute. Liam Hemsworth. Yeah, I don't know what I was smoking. Holy hotness. Feel free to Google Image that.

Either way.... I give this movie 2 thumbs up.

Because if both me and the 8-year-old Miley fan behind me were crying (along with everyone else in the theater).... I call that a win.

Have you seen any good movies lately? I feel like I haven't been to a theater since... well, New Moon!

My Goodness!

Ok, is it me or was this past weekend non-existent? Seriously!

How is it Monday already?

I slept barely at all on Saturday night and overslept this morning (till 8 o'clock! Which is basically the latest I ever sleep, except when I was in college and my roommates attempted to sleep train me).

On Saturday night, I saw the movie When in Rome with Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel.
Predictable cheesy romantic comedy, but it was cute. I'd see it again.

Plus all of the scenes in Rome made me want to hop on a plane. Definitely making me regret the fact that I didn't go abroad during my sophomore year of college when several of my friends did. DUMB!

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I tried on this dress at Target yesterday and wanted to love it because it's such a fun print.
(Why yes, I was too exhausted to take off my turtleneck and jeans... so I just put the dress right over the top. Lazy much?)

Unfortunately the fabric is... stiff. I felt like I was wearing wrapping paper because it crinkled too much. For only $20 though, I'm still considering it.

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And now it's 9:30 and I still haven't picked up groceries or showered.

But I did write a very thorough review on L'Oreal Lash Boosting Products over at Chic Critique.

Go read it and tell me what you're thinking.

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FYI, the job I was supposed to hear about by Friday? Still haven't heard. No clue.

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How was your weekend? Did you catch up on sleep for me?

Not Quite Christmas Yet

So lately I've been feeling that I'm not fully into the Christmas spirit. And yesterday I figured out why: it's because I haven't watched It's a Wonderful Life yet this year.

It's a Wonderful Life is not only the best Christmas movie ever but it's also probably my favorite movie - period. Last year, after I discovered some of my college friends hadn't seen it, I forced them to sit down with me and watch it - which was a tough task considering it's just over 2 hours long.

For those of you who don't know the story (do such people even exist?!), it follows a down-on-his-luck George Bailey as his family bank begins to suffer a bit of a financial crisis caused by another employee. George assumes that his mistakes have caused the bank to fail... and when he returns home all he can see is that his children are in hand-me-down clothes and that his home needs repairs. As he leaves the house that night, he thinks that he has failed everyone - and wishes he had never been born.

As he heads to the bridge on the edge of town, his guardian angel realizes he must act quick to save George. So when he gets to the bridge, the angel jumps into the water - knowing George will not be able to fight the impulse to save him (instead of killing himself).

For the next few hours, the angel helps George to see what life would be like if he had never been born - and the world as he knows it is very cruel indeed. He begins to see that his life has touched so many others.

And then a bunch of feel-good moments happen and I can't tell you the rest. Because I insist that if you haven't seen it - you need to. It plays on Christmas Eve on NBC and I insist you watch it if you've never seen it. It's a long movie, but it's well worth the time invested.

Plus, if you can watch it without crying at the end you're a better person than I am!

Have you seen It's a Wonderful Life?? Do you love it as much as I do?

And go on - tell me your favorite Christmas movie. And don't be offended if I roll my eyes if you tell me your favorite is Christmas Vacation.

Lazy Morning

After all the excitement of the Biggest Loser Finale last night.... I was way too wound up to sleep. There was just too much excitement! I didn't go to bed until well after midnight.

So of course I tossed and turned and then woke up at 5:30 AM. I wish I was kidding.

Because I don't have to be anywhere until this afternoon (and because I have a fridge that I believe is in the process of stopping working and needs a repairman this morning)...

I will be sitting in front of the TV watching this:

Potentially followed by this:

And potentially followed by 3 loads of laundry, some vacuuming, and unloading the dishwasher.

Hm. This lazy morning isn't sounding so fun anymore.

NewMoonNewMoonNewMoon

Ladies and... more ladies (seriously, any boy reading this blog should have his head checked), I have finally gotten my butt in gear for an official New Moon Review.

The reason it's taken me this long to put my thoughts down is because I really didn't know how to organize my thoughts.... so I think I am just going to state my "Yay's" and "Nay's". (I realize that I probably shouldn't have apostrophes in Yay and Nay but they look weird otherwise, so let's go with it, shall we?)

Me with the BFFs

I'll start with the negatives so we can end on a positive note.

The Nay's

• The one-liners. If you haven't read New Moon the book, it's a slow read. In fact, when I convinced one of my BFFs to read the series, she tried to quit during New Moon. It's a slow and painful read. That being said, I think this new (male) director was trying to turn what is basically a teenage romance into some male-centric slapstick flick. I did not wait in line for 1.5 hours to watch The Hangover, or some such boy movie. Thankyouverymuch.
• Jasper's hair. Or maybe it was just Jasper in general. Either way, his hair was weirdly poufed and his expressions were much more genuine-looking in Twilight. He's downright freakish-looking in this movie.

(Photo Source)

• Not enough time with the Volturi. I think that they did a great job with the Italy stuff... I enjoyed every single second. But I would have liked a bit more description and explanation of who the different characters were. Also, in the book is described the Volturi as ancient and fragile looking, which I didn't really see in the short scenes they were in. More Volturi, please!

(Photo Source)

• Edward, I missed you. In short, there wasn't enough romance between Edward and Bella - but that's how it appears in the books so I guess I can't complain. I'll just start my countdown to Eclipse.
• The bright, sunny tone. To me, this movie seemed particularly bright. After the weirdly-dark cinematography on Twilight, I was almost squinting into the brightness of New Moon (that, and the fact that it was past my bedtime...). New Moon the book was particularly dark and bleak, especially in the beginning, so the brightness of the movie was a bit... odd. Mostly, it was just a big difference from Twilight... but I guess that's what happens when you put in a new director (or was it a producer? whatever).
  

I think that's about all the negatives I saw... obviously I liked the movie.

The Yay's

• Taylor Lautner. I've said it once and I'll say it again - his acting was phenominal. I was blown away by the depth of his character and just his excellent acting. He seemed like an actor who had been in dozens and dozens of films. His emotion was absolutely perfect. And the romance between he and Bella? WOW. I didn't think I'd ever be interested in that plotline, but in the end I was begining to wish the movie had taken it a bit further. I was hooked by his romance and if I hadn't googled him and found out he was born in freakin 1992 then I'd be all over that.

(Photo Source)

• The Vampire Makeup. All of the Cullens looked MUCH more natural in this movie - much less chalky and weird. I still think a couple of them could be improved (Carlisle!), but overall they were much more natural looking.
• Taylor Lautner's Abs. God bless his fitness coach. He is de-licious. And jailbait.

(Photo Source)

• The Acting. Kristen Stewart acted SO much better in this movie - she actually brought a lot of interest to Bella, in my opinion. Go Kristen! I've already covered Taylor, but he brought.it. Definitely an award winning performance on his part.
• Bella and Edward reuniting in Italy. When he said "Heaven?" - I thought I was going to burst into tears. It was seriously the perfect moment. Loved it.
• The special effects and the digital effects were much better in New Moon than in Twilight. They were just more professional and you could tell New Moon had a bigger budget. Excellent.
• Kristen Stewart was SO PRETTY. I was not a huge fan of her Twilight performance so I was expecting to be disappointed by her in New Moon, but she definitely improved. The first scene she was on camera I was trying to figure out how they had changed her to make her so pretty... whatever they did, it worked!
  

Overall, I'm a huge fan of the books so of course I liked the movie. It's fun to see something that I enjoyed reading come to life on the big screen.

That being said, New Moon was the worst of the books, so I'm hoping that the movies continue to improve from here.

I'll give New Moon, the movie, a grade of: B.

Not the best, but defintiely not the worst movie I've ever seen.

Now, there are 219 days until Eclipse... how am I going to pass the time until then?

(Oh yeah, by going and seeing New Moon over and over until it's out of theaters).

So what did you think of New Moon??

Wow Wow

Too exhausted for a full writeup about New Moon.

But Omg. Taylor Lautner, aka Jacob the Werewolf.

You are 17, and you are jailbait... but I kinda of want to lick you. Or bite you. Preferably on the arms or shoulders.

TMI? That is all.

#TwilightPosse

My real-life BFFs and I are obsessing about Twilight. 3 of the 4 of us read the books. We sometimes insert Twilight phrases into our conversations.

Basically, we are 23-year-old (actually, I guess I'm the only one who's 23 - they're all 22) high-schoolers. And we're OK with it.

It was decided this past weekend that we need t-shirts to wear to Thursday night's premiere. But after perusing the $30 t-shirts at Hot Topic (I didn't go in, some of my friends did), we decided it was time to DIY.

And since I'm probably the craftiest of the group... off I went.

Goal: super-cheap t-shirts.

Answer: Haynes Men's V-Necks, 5 pack, under $10.

So we have decided that there will be 2 Team Edward and 2 Team Jacob t-shirts... not that any of us are really Team Jacob.... but we need the balance, plus it'll be a cute picture.

This is the Team Edward tee. We're using the crest on the right on the front of the tee and putting "Cullen" on the back like a baseball tee. I used permanent market on the collar to make it blue (classy, I know - but it works!).

This is the Team Jacob tee - with the wolf boys' tattoo, upside down. I didn't notice when I was taking the picture.

The question is - should I use iron-on transfers or should I just put the symbol underneath the tee and trace it on there myself - either with permanent marker or paint? Hmm... I can't decide. Transfers would definitely be faster!

The only downside to all this excitement on Thursday at midnight.... is that my dad is having surgery that day. It's a routine surgery and shouldn't be anything too big to worry about - but still.... I'm going to be at the hospital all day and then I have to bring him home and run out to the movie.

So I should post tomorrow and Thursday, but if I don't - just know that I'm busy busy busy...

So who else is excited about New Moon?! Anybody besides Megan and PinkSass? (Oh yes Megan, I did just insert you into the #TwilightPosse - hahahahahahaha!)

Any Twilight haters out there? I'm not really sure we have much in common but feel free to tell me why you're too cool for teenage vampires and werewolves... so I can laugh at you (kidding!).

Happy Tuesday!

Sunshine Cleaning

Last night, my dad and I watched Sunshine Cleaning.
Have you heard of it?

We had seen a preview for it months ago and it looked hilarious. I believe it had the same director as Little Miss Sunshine, which is pretty much hilarious.

So how was it??

Um, not hilarious. In fact, the movie is actually a drama centered around 2 sisters who open a crime scene cleanup business.

The movie was awkward at times, but it felt very cathartic to me. It was a sweet story and I loved the main characters - they were flawed and fabulous.

If you rent this DVD, make sure you watch the bonus feature of the women who the story is loosely based on... not gonna lie, they made me cry.

Wow, I guess this post is actually as lame as yesterday's post... sorry about that.

Why don't you tell me if you've seen any good movies lately... or what your favorite movie ever is? Especially if it's unique or if I probably haven't seen it... my netflix needs your recommendations!

Have a Happy Thursday!

Hey Dane Cook, Think You Could Drop the F-Word and Come Up With Something Really Original?

This weekend, I saw this movie. My Best Friend's Girl.

This is the trailer.

Seems cute.

The movie - not so great. Dane Cook said the f-word about a billion times. He referred to oral sex about another million times. I think almost everyone in the theatre was uncomfortable. It was just... bad. It redeemed itself (sort-of) in the end... but it just wasn't great.

It was awkward. Ick. So, if I could give you some advice this week... don't go see this movie.

love,