Classic Movies.

On my 30 Before 30 list, one of my goals is to watch 20 classic movies.

See, I'm one of those people who hasn't seen any movie that's considered a classic. I only saw Forrest Gump and Shawshank Redemption in the past five years. I haven't seen When Harry Met Sally, any of the Godfather movies, or probably any other movie you can think of. Most of the movies I've watched over the years have been comedies, romantic comedies, or kids movies.

So I need your help. In the comments, leave as many suggestions as you like for movies to add to my list. I'm looking for those that are assumed to have been watched by everyone, the ones that you are shocked to hear someone hasn't seen. I'm 'that girl' through and through; I'm used to the surprised faces by now.

Also, to make it fun, share your favorite movie(s) with me, too!

I Like Bullet-Point Lists.

{♥}

• I went to see Lion King 3D last night with one of E's friends from school - his roommate's girlfriend - since the boys didn't care to see it. It was so much fun to re-watch the movie -- we'd both forgotten a lot, except for all the lyrics to all the songs, to which we both shamelessly sang along. It was also really cool that we decided to go together, because we're friends by association. Usually we all just hang out in a group when I go to visit, so it was really great to step out of that setting and actually be friends with E's friends, instead of just being a tag-along because I'm his girlfriend (if that makes any sense at all).

• Tonight I made hot chocolate and decided to add a few dashes of pumpkin pie spice. It's so yummy and a perfect substitute for a pumpkin spice latte when I don't want coffee (or can't afford to buy one every time I want it).

• I'm finally getting around to decorating my room. It was supposed to get done when I finished painting a month ago, but a lot of things kept going wrong. Mostly, none of the wall mounting stickers (3-M and Scotch brands) wanted to stay stuck to my walls. But, I put together the clothesline-like display for my pictures and it looks fab. I can't wait to share some pictures, probably later this week!

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Playing Favorites.

On the list of BEDS topics, the first few are about our favorite things. Since I like common themes and I didn't use any of those topics on those days, I'm going the first five prompts.

Your favorite song
My love of music is far too expansive for me to only pick one favorite, so here are three: Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel; The Middle by Jimmy Eat World; Keep Breathing by Ingrid Michaelson.

Your favorite movie
I'll list my top five, just for kicks -- Ferris Bueller's Day Off; Dirty Dancing; Grease; Anchorman; Centerstage.

Your favorite television program

So You Think You Can Dance?

Your favorite book
It's a tie between the Harry Potter series (if I had to pick a favorite, I'd go with Deathly Hallows) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Your favorite quote
"Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." -- Ferris Bueller

Share some of your favorites in the comments - pick one or answer them all! I'm curious.

holiday week 2010: day 2.

The Music
An absolute MUST to start off my holiday season is the cassette tape of Christmas music my mom recorded from vinyl way back when we were kiddies. I refuse to decorate the tree without it and it gets ample play throughout the season. It's a mix of some pretty unique songs, like Marshmallow World by Darlene Love and Christmas in Killarney by Bing Crosby, but has all the classics as well. Plus, there are a few adorable interruptions that were recorded when we would play it on our toy tape player that also had a microphone. It's really all my brother's fault, because as I can be heard saying on my favorite of the recordings, "you can't record on this one Dan, this is not a blank tape." I was such a bossy older sister.

Aside from that entire cassette, I have plenty of other favorites. My mega Christmas play list has a total of 66 songs on it, but I'll try to pick out just a few to share.

First up is a new favorite: Deck the Rooftop by the Glee Cast. When I first heard this song, I died on the spot because it was amazing. I always love their mash-ups and this one is so well done.



Next up is a recent song that, in my opinion, has already become a classic for our generation - All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey. Any time this comes on the radio, I blast it and sing at the top of my lungs. It's just so damn catchy!



The last one I'm going to put up is Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses. I adore this song and I really have no idea why.



A few other favorites include: Believe by Josh Groban (it always gives me chills); Maroon 5's version of Happy Christmas (War is Over); Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays by NSYNC; Parade of the Wooden Soldiers by The Crystals; and Step into Christmas by Elton John.

The Movies
Much like my mother's Christmas cassette tape, the holiday season doesn't start until I've watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas, the original cartoon version. I like the new live-action version as well, but it doesn't come close to the original. The ending always makes me tear up, when "he, he himself, the Grinch - carved the roast beast."

A new favorite is A Christmas Story, which I only saw in its entirety for the first time last month. Now that I've finally seen it all the way through, I realized that I actually had seen most of it and that it is amazing.

I generally love most Christmas movies. Love Actually is such a sweet, romantic movie and it makes my heart swell every time. I cry my face off every time I watch The Polar Express, even before it gets to the super weepy parts. My mom and I watch White Christmas together because it was her favorite movie as a kid, and I have to keep myself from rolling my eyes when she starts singing along when they sing Sisters. My favorite Santa Clause is the original, and the same goes for Home Alone. Also, I love the Home Alone "theme song" - it reminds me of all things Christmas whenever I hear it.



And, considering I'm a dance geek, I always need to watch this version of The Nutcracker featuring the New York City Ballet. Yes, it has Macaulay Culkin in it and that just makes it more amazing. Sadly, I cannot find a single clip of it on Youtube other than this trailer, which barely contains any dancing. I love each and every piece of music from The Nutcracker and the dancing is absolutely phenomenal.

What are you favorite Christmas songs and movies?

belated long weekend recap.

Is it really Wednesday already? Yikes. I really got knocked on my ass by a cold I woke up with on Sunday until right now. Anyway, here's my belated recap of my long weekend, because it was just too fun to not talk about.

My Thanksgiving was calm and casual. I woke up early to watch the Macy’s Parade on TV (the beginning of my demise, I’m sure, considering I got only five hours of sleep) while perusing the Black Friday ads and drinking tea to settle my stomach. We headed over to my aunt and grandparents’ two-family house in North Jersey and had a relaxing afternoon of chatting, looking at old family photographs, drinking wine, and of course, eating. There were too many biscuits and the typical myriad of desserts from our favorite bakery, which meant lots of yummy leftovers to take home.

The cousins with Grandma & Grandpa on Thanksgiving.

On Friday I had plans with Lynds for a food coma recovery day, which entailed salads from Quiznos for lunch and lying around in sweats. After catching up on family drama – and boy, was there plenty – we settled in with my aunt to watch A Christmas Story. This movie was chosen specifically because my dad and aunt both love and quote it, but Lynds and I had yet to see the entire thing.

For about the past four years, we swore to watch it on Christmas Eve when it’s played for twenty-four hours on TBS, but we never got around to it. It was wonderful to finally watch it from start to finish, and we joked that we no longer had any more life goals because this was the ultimate accomplishment. I guess we just peaked at ages nineteen and twenty-three.

Saturday was Natalie and her fiancé, Kyle’s engagement party, which I arrived at much later than intended. But, the party was still a blast. I got to catch up not only with Danielle and her boyfriend, but also a few people from our college crew I hadn’t seen in a while and the couple’s hometown friends. We talked about our careers as a slideshow of college pictures played in the background, occasionally causing us to pause, laugh, and reminisce. And, most exciting of all, Danielle and I were asked to be bridesmaids! I almost cried and honestly, I haven't stopped gushing about it since. I'm going to drive my family mad.

The gaggle of "kids" - the couple, their siblings and friends - posing before the cake was cut.

During the cake-cutting, there were jokes about how this was really a baby shower (to which Kyle responded, not for ten more years), criticisms of Natalie’s cake-cutting abilities, and a short-lived icing war between Nat and her brother. We then retreated to the basement for intense games of Foosball and more chatting. I ended up talking to Nat’s brother and ultimately giving him my number (mostly because he asked in a way in which I couldn’t really say no, but also because a small part of me wanted to), so we’ll see what happens with that.

I had grand plans to figure out my life on Sunday – I was going to settle in and make meal plans and daily schedules for myself, but then I woke up and found out that the three days’ worth of sleeping and eating poorly had caught up with me. I was completely out-of-service from Sunday through Tuesday, only feeling better towards Tuesday night as I tuned in to watch the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

My love of fresh starts will most likely cause me to spend most of today making up lists, completing some easier chores, and getting on track. Seeing how much damage I did to myself this weekend by having to cater to my anxiety (especially how out of it I felt at Saturday's party) served as the final impetus to really start making changes now. 2011 is going to be my year.

halloweekend.

Oh, Monday. I'm sad to see you after such a fun holiday weekend. But! I'm glad it's the start of a new month and time to start preparing for yet another holiday. Before I go all gung-ho about Thanksgiving, though, let's recap my weekend.

Friday. On Thursday night, my bestest, Natalie, called to let me know she’d be in the area to support her friend who was in a local production of The Crucible, and that Danielle (our other bestest) was also (shockingly!) free. It doesn’t happen often that we’re all available at the same time, so I immediately said yes.

The play was really fantastic – Nat’s friend played John Proctor and was amazing – and the small assembly room we were in was low-lit and decorated in a Halloween-ish fashion. Of course, the best part was that I got to play catch up with my girls and see Nat’s engagement ring in person.

Saturday. I ended up sleeping in late by accident, so I spent the afternoon setting out the pieces of my costume and cleaning my room. After dinner I got down to baking, starting with Halloween-themed brownies and following up with cinnamon apples. Unfortunately, the apples didn’t turn out right because I didn’t add enough brown sugar, so I’ll have to try the recipe again next week sometime. The brownies, however, were delicious as always and were quickly consumed.

I guess I was in a movie-watching mood, because not only did I catch Beetlejuice on TV but I watched Zombieland on Netflix Instant Watch with my mom and brother. Beetlejuice is my favorite Halloween movie – my favorite part is the dinner scene when they all start dancing. We watched Zombieland on a whim and it was fantastic. It was so funny and well-done, and being the girly girl that I am, I loved the little romantic storyline. At the end when he finally got to brush a girl’s hair behind her ear (and kiss her, of course), I swooned a little bit.

Sunday. As I posted yesterday, I dressed up as Katy Perry to answer the door and hand out candy. With the exception of one small group of teens, the entirety of our trick-or-treaters were here in the afternoon, before dinnertime. I was surprised people weren’t out later, but I guess it was easier to go out in daylight.

Some of the better costumes included a girl dressed as Blossom (of the Powerpuff Girls, of course) and a teenage boy dressed in my high school’s uniform. I was taken off-guard because I didn’t see the costumes before I handed the candy out, but then I recognized the sweater immediately and realized he was in full uniform. It was great!

We ended up with a lot of extra candy because my mom thought we’d have tons more trick-or-treaters. It’s totally past an acceptable amount of leftovers, which means we’ll be eating it for weeks (or we’ll eat it all really fast and get sick and fat). I lounged around for the remainder of the evening and watched The Walking Dead mainly because there was nothing else on. It was pretty good – I’m not a zombie fan in particular, but I enjoyed it. I don’t watch anything else on Sunday nights, so I may tune in regularly.

Now I'm pretty much just recovering from sugar overload and trying to figure out how I'm going to stop myself from binging on chocolate for the next week. This isn't going to be pretty.

social butterfly

What a week.

After resting for Monday and Tuesday (I can barely remember what I even did on Tuesday), I spent the following four days hanging out with friends.

Wednesday I went back to work and then headed over to Danielle's house for pizza and a movie. We watched 27 Dresses which was absolutely adorable. Loved it. I was so glad to see and talk to Danielle, because I had a lot on my mind about The Boy. She's our mutual friend and has been giving us both a lot of advice about this whole thing. It was just so nice to talk everything out and, in the process, figure out some things that had been on my mind.

Thursday was Roomie Reunion day, so Katie (my freshmen year roommate) and Melissa (my sophomore/junior year roommate) came over. We went to Friday's for lunch where I filled them in about The Boy and they gave me some stellar advice based on their own relationships. I actually learned so much from them because I was there for the beginnings of both of their current relationships. The most important thing I gleaned is that, in the early stages, changing your mind is pretty typical. That definitely happened to me, so knowing it had happened to my friends, I made sure to stick it out and realize what I wanted. Good thing I did.

We then roamed the mall, where Katie found a gorgeous shawl for the office. I picked up some earrings for myself and as a gift for Danielle, and got some goodies over at Yankee Candle. Yankee Candle is becoming a tradition with the three of us, and consists of us going into the store and smelling all the candles, deciding whether or not they truly smell like they're supposed to. We learned something new on Thursday - to get the best scent, you smell the inside of the lid on the jar candles instead of the candle itself. Now we know the true secret of becoming Candle Connoisseurs.

Friday was absolutely amazing, I must say - I went to see The Boy. We grabbed lunch at Panera, I met his family, and basically we upped our comfort level with each other. It was wonderful, but at the same time it's causing me to miss him a lot more. He's going to the city for research for about two months, and he'll only be home on the weekends. I'm either planning on visiting him in the city sometime, or driving down to his house when he's home one weekend. Still, it's probably going to be only once or twice over the next two months, which is definitely not enough. Boo.

Yesterday I actually got to sleep in. Thursday and Friday's plans were earlier in the day, and luckily yesterday's plans were for dinner and movie with Danielle and Natalie. We went to Applebees where I ordered that salad with the shrimp and avocado - I kept seeing commercials for it and was craving it. Then it was time for Sex and the City. It was fabulous! Even though I don't regularly watch the show, I have seen a few episodes and sorta know the characters. I thought the atmosphere of the theater was great too - everyone was watching it as if they were on their living room sofas watching the TV show. You could hear chatter, but nobody minded. Of course, the best part was when Carrie opens the doors to her walk-in closet; all the women in the theater gasped, ouu'd and ahh'd. It was great. I love movies that solicit a lot of audience response.

So I finally have a day to hang out and do nothing. Although.. I've already started trying to make more plans. What can I say? I'm in a very social mood lately. I think it's because I was so cut off from my friends, who were all on vacation earlier in the month. Anyway, today's plans would either be dance stuff with Ash and Cort, TV with Lynds, or a movie with Emily, so they would all be very laid back.

Alright, time for some sleep. While I'm catching some Z's and having a relaxing Sunday, tell me about your week/weekend! Did you see SATC? What'd you think?

Just popping in

My original plan was to write a blog last night about the joys of my workplace. I clearly never got around to it, and I'm too tired to write it now. But no worries, dear readers (yes, both of you). I will let you in on the behind-the-scenes action of the company that organizes the translation of Japanese engineering articles into English and then (yes, there's more!) publishes them.. just not today. It's obvious that you're on the edge of your seats.

Until then, I'll tide you over with a list. I love lists, by the way. My mother raised me to appreciate them (as well as coupon clipping and bargain-hunting, like buying the dress for your eighth grade dance for $20 at the late Bradlee's). So I present to you...

The List of All the Awesome Movies Out that I Want to See. Preferably in the Theater.

• 27 Dresses. Weddings + Katharine Heigl+ James Marsden + romantic comedy plotline + FREAKING WEDDINGS = Cait Movie*
• Cloverfield. This is the complete opposite of what I classify as my favorite type of movie, but I have to stop being a wimp.. or at least try. It looks genuinely frightening without begin gory, yet not believable enough that I would actually be afraid to ever set foot in any city ever again.
• The Bucket List. Adorable. Two old men who do all this awesome stuff before they die. And bond over it when they would have nothing else in common. Yes, please.
• Mad Money. This was a last-minute addition to the list, because I keep forgetting about it. Anything that shows me that Katie Holmes isn't a robot is pretty okay in my book. Plus, it has Queen Latifa, who I adore. This isn't a must-see, but I figured I'd stick it here in "the list."
• Juno. Yes, still. I never see the really good movies right away, and by now I'm pretty sure everyone I know has seen it. I am dying to see it. I've heard nothing but amazing and wonderful things about it.
• How She Move. It's dance. And hip hop, at that. I'll disregard that I'll be extremely out of place in the theater, but it's a must-see on my list.
• Meet the Spartans. I almost forgot about this one. I keep seeing commercials that I find hilarious, but never remember to add it to my mental list of movies to see. I know spoof films are getting old, but this one looks decent. Maybe I'll wait until it goes to DVD.
• P.S., I Love You. See notes on Juno. Except I don't know how many of my friends have seen it.
• Definitely, Maybe. It has Ryan Reynolds, who I find incredibly attractive and funny. I'm seeing it.
• Step Up 2 the Streets. Clever title, Step Up creators. Again, a dance movie. It's a default.

*Cait Movie: A term used by my friends, usually my roommates, when they have seen/witnessed something that they know I would love. Because my tastes are basically this - I love anything cutesy, romantic, funny, dance-related, high-energy, and/or completely and utterly cheesy. Some examples would be Legally Blonde: The Musical and High School Musical.

There you have it, my beautiful movie list. If only I had the money to actually spend on seeing all of these.

Enough parenthetical additions (I think). It's time for bed.