Endtapes

How bad is this movie
poster? I could have
Photoshopped that
Myself

The BREAKING DAWN review.  Notice how I didn't get a "here's what I want to see" post up? (But I always do reviews!  Wanna read 'em?  Super Nerd Twilight Reviews: Twilight | New Moon | Eclipse)

Why, you ask? Was anyone else sitting in Starbucks and slammed the book shut on  page 138?  I was.  After my 10 minute break of being annoyed, I promptly found Page 367 and counted down those 229 pages and NEVER reread them again.  And let's not forget page 360.  There may have been an actual fit on the subway platform.  (It was possibly accompanied by laughter from a third party)  Scars, I tell you, scars.  But I think that's because of the actual event because how can Jacob imprinting on Renesemee NOT be odd?

There were really only several, and you KNOW they had to be in there: the wedding, the feathers, the birth and the imprint.  They didn't mess it up!  

So without further ado, my random comments on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1:

• The beginning was too fast.  And Bella's wedding shoes were UGLY. 
• Ashley Greene's twitter habits ruined the character of Alice for me. (Like her Tweet about PanAm.  Really?  That's a great show!  She has to ruin that too?)  And the wig.  Fail.  Alice's wig was the best in the first movie
• The Wedding: I loved it.  The play back and forth during the vows.   I did not love her wedding dress.  Or Edward's speech the the night before about how he killed murderers in the 1920s.



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• Charlie.  I love Charlie.  He's consistently the best part of EVERY MOVIE. His speech and the facial expressions during the wedding are priceless.  "And I know things.  Because I'm a Cop."
• NO ONE, especially not Bella, is going to wear that pretty linen dress on the on the 26 hour journey from Seattle to Rio. And then look that good when they go into that square to dance.  I PROMISE.



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• LOVED the Freak Out scene with Bella getting ready in the bathroom.  It was fun, light good ol' fashion fun.  
• I WANTED MORE FEATHERS!  However, the destruction was pretty great.
• Next time you see the movie, count how many times Edward sparkles on a tropical island.  Are there suppose to be that many clouds on a tropical island?
•  I loved how they played chess.  
• Billy/Sue/Charlie love triangle.  Poor Charlie!  Can't he just get the girl?  
• Carslile's wig.  As Letters to Twilight said "He Drew the Short Straw".  (Link to the BEST TWILIGHT BLOG EVER)
• Edward's line, possibly the best in the movie: "Because you've given me no choice!"
• One of Jasper's two lines, and the force at which he delivers it, in reference to the Renesmee's status as a baby or a demon "Possibly."
  
• I really enjoyed Jasper & Emmett's reaction to when Bella got to drink the blood.  
• Seth Clearwater was adorable!
• They made fun of how DUMB the name Renesmee is in the movie!!!
• Skin and bones Bella.  So Summit CAN invest in special effects.
• They pulled off the birth scene!  Kristen acted!  The removal of the baby was right!  Jacob pummeling Rosalie = #Winning.
• I love how at the end of the fight when Edward says  "It's OVER!"  I would have thought it could have faded to black b/c Edward realized what Jacob was going to eventually be doing with Renesmee later on in life (eeewww.......).  But it kept trucking along.
• The end was PERFECT.  The slow draw, seeing Bella's veins turn to stone her vampire transformation....THE EYES.  I WANT THE NEXT ONE
• I'm not done!  I loved the credits!  The awesome music.  The red, black and white names.
• The Volturi ending!!  The dude on the right is clearly "Dude, Aro.  Really?  What could you still possibly want?"

Clearly, the spirit of the review shows that I really, really enjoyed this movie.  I LOVED the actual acting.  And now we have to wait a year for Part 2.  Which I think I enjoyed more, actually may even get around to writing a "Here's what I want" post.

*Since I couldn't find the still of where she opens her eyes, here's a countdown*

Grey Street

Tuesday, August 23 will here by be declared as the day I was saved from punk pop for teenagers.  AKA the day I sucked it up and purchased kind of pricy tickets to enjoy 9 solid hours of Dave Matthews Band live.   Hurricane Irene felt differently about that, but before I caught the last bus home to leave the storm to take the city, I fit in an OAR set as well as 3 DMB Songs (Don't Drink the Water, Stay or Leave and Grey Street) and realized I'd been listening to CRAP for 3 years.  Where had jam bands and non-eye liner wearing bands been on my iPod (other than the Silversun Pickups, because I already knew their rock awesomeness).  Where had the subdued relatively dressed, content with life, fun loving adults been at my concerts?  I had found the place.

The rescheduled dates were the ONLY weekend I could go in September, AND the new island they were playing on was 10 minutes from my house.  They were set up for greatness.  So on Friday, I came home, ate, and headed out to the bus to head to Randalls Island.  Got there in time to find a great spot, enjoy the brisk 60 degree weather, and enjoyed some Dave Matthews.  There were two songs that pushed me over the edge for buying these tickets: Crash and American Baby.  On Friday, I was happily surprised 3 songs in by CRASH!  Then got Gray Street, Every Day and Tripping Billies (there was dancing during this one, that's for sure).  Full Set List.

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I missed Saturday due to previous plans (Northwestern at Army)!  As a Purple Wildcat from Kansas State, it was REALLY weird going to a game and and lots of purple people tail gating that have no idea what the Walbash is.  And they have a Willie the Wildcat too.  However, I'm 100% confident our Buff Willy with the big head is MUCH better.  Other than the fact that he breaks one key mascot rule: You should be covered at all points of your body at all times.

While I did miss killer set list night (IE Two Step, Stay or Leave, So Much to Say, Stay) I did get to enjoy some Yeuingling and a KSU Shut Out when I got home from the game at the local shady bar.

SUNDAY involved the start to a really bad Chiefs game, but as soon as halftime ended, I headed back to Randall's.  It was REALLY funny, because you could tell everyone going at that time had 1:00 NFL games doing to the gear they were wearing.  I covered up the Chiefs shirt with a Kansas State hoodie.  It made me feel better about the situation.  But, like magical clock work, I walked in and got Dave's acoustic set.  Then Trombone Shortie - who is AWESOME (again, where has real music been the past few years?!).  And, as you see to the left it was BEAUTIFUL.  I got to enjoy Josh Ritter as well.  So then, like any normal 27 year old, I had an ice cream cone for dinner and randomly found one of my old co-workers and we enjoyed a third night of Dave.  I didn't know many of the songs, but he REDEEMED all worries I had about skipping night 2 when he played American Baby.   The Encore was also fantastic.  Setlist. 

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Concert-aholics Disclamer: Hi - my name is ksuJennyP and I'm about 15 years late to the DMB Party.  But I've arrived.  And now I have a new goal in life (I have many - no fear, I make some that I can actually achieve) , and that's convince my sister and brother in law to go to Denver or Seattle with me and see Dave perform Two Step at Red Rocks or the Gorge.  

Because how do you not DIG this song live?!

#41

I knew last Thursday morning, when I had to get up early to go to work early, and I accidentally caught the 8:15 early train, my vacation to see my college roommate was going to be awesome.  I also realized that this was the first time we'd get to spend more than 2 consecutive days together with no wedding involved since we live together in the Fall of 2004 (Holy Snap, that's a long time).

Highlights of the vacation in somewhat order:

- LM's grown-up house and being greeted by her bubbly two year old giggling, and football being on the television (who warmed up to me within minutes without even tempting her with food - LM says it's rare!)

- Crafting and sports.  It's so awesome I'm writing it again, because there was that much of it.  Crafting and sports.  US Open, at least 5 complete college football games and the KC Chiefs.

- Crafting and Alias.  After the Chiefs decided to roll over and die, we switched our crafting focus to include Season 2 and Season 5 of Alias.

- The Rocky Mountains.  One would have thought I saw them when I went to KSU/Colorado game in 2005.  No, it was foggy.  They start in Montana.  We took a boat ride to the Gate of the Mountains.

-We stopped to get a beverage and she walked straight to the Belgian Raspberry Beer w/o saying anything.  AKA my beverage of choice.  Super win.  Then, I was really ecstatic for 3 seconds, b/c I also thought we we could get Rainer beer - aka Charlie's beer of choice -- b/c we were close to Washington State.  That didn't last long as the sales rep said no but went on for 5 minutes sharing the specials.  LM had the berry beer and I was standing infront a six pack with Killer Whales art work.  We managed to survive his specials spiel. 

- Getting to entertain her 2 year old.  It. was. so much. fun.  And her dogs!  I love dogs!

-Nightly Blizzard runs (it's a lie.  They don't have everything in New York.)


-My first full trip with Delta Silver Medallion Status.  I'm quite the travel freak, and FINALLY achieved this status, which I'd been trying to for a while.  Perks: getting on the plane before everyone else does, being able to get the seats at the front, getting upgraded to First Class (My 6AM flight out of Great Falls....WIN!)


-The Missouri River.  And all of it's Great Falls Dams.  There are quite a few.  And the roller coaster car ride to Dam #2 via the pot holey road.  We took one dip a little fast and her husband in the back seat went airborne.

-Seeing LM's cake magic in person.

And then I remember how blessed I am that I ended up on Boyd 2 in the Fall of 2003, b/c even though our partners in crime (JCF and SEW) weren't there, we've got something really special in our friendship that I'm thankful for everyday.  Even though we're spread across 3 time zones and 4 states.

And how many people can craft and watch football for 3 days straight?!  Serious question.

Funny the way it is

Although I claim I'm a Kansan in New York City, it's kind of a far fetched idea (and claim I'm from Texas when I'm around anyone who is actually from Kansas). But, truth is, I did the majority of my growing up years in Virginia. The natural disaster that freaks me out the least in life is in fact the mighty hurricane.

On a side note, from yesterday's natural occurrence, I am not equipped to deal with earthquakes. They freak me out. I didn't feel yesterdays earthquake, but seconds after I read about it on Twitter, I wondered how I would protect myself four stories up in a building. Will standing in a doorway at that point protect me? Or should I dive under my desk?

I can, however, fend for myself when it comes to preparing for tornados. But most especially hurricanes, because I lived through one. In 1999, Hurricane Floyd hit Hampton Roads. We got out of school for a few days, my mom still had to go to work (she is a nurse), and we camped out in the living room after the power went out. My sister and I sat in the family room and watched it blow through our back yard. The highlight of watching the wind blow was when the dead tree that we'd had for a few years blew apart. Then, after the storm was over, my dad pulled out the handy grill and made SpagettiOs. (Solid memory of KP, MP & I)

Which brings me to

today. You know how when you prepare for something it doesn't happen, but when you don't it will inevitably come to pass? With the oncoming threat of Hurricane Irene, I chose to head to the store today to make my emergency preparedness kit (before everyone else decided they needed to). Lots of water, food, candles, and I even found a first aid kit before I threw it up in my closet.

So, I am now prepared for what is probably going to be a storm with just a lot of rain and wind. But this is all in high hopes that this storm will chose to take the most eastern path possible because I am prepared.

My goal here was to try and trick Mother Nature. I super splurged this weekend to enjoy 9 hours of one of the best jam bands around. It is a festival, so in addition to the 9+ hours from one awesome jam band, there are other bands like OAR, The Head and The Heart, Josh Ridder, Dispatch and The Roots. However, this festival is taking place on an island and the only way there is via ferry. Not to mention it is in a field so there is an erected stage. Sunday is really the only day in question, but that's still a 3 hour Dave Matthews set which does have the potential of songs like Crash, Two Step, American Baby, and so on.

We shall see what happens, but in either case, I am prepared. And I have my SpagettiOs should I have to recreate my post-1999 hurricane experience.

At any pace, safety first for those in the path!

Room @ the end of the world

So, my flight south leaves at 6:15 tomorrow morning. And I haven't been able to motivate myself to pack. Why not you ask? HOW ON EARTH do you pack for this? There is one key word: air conditioner. They have plenty of it in Texas. Unlike New York City. They also have Bluebell Ice Cream. And plenty of things that make me want to abandon the east coast for the midwest/south. Then again, look at those highs.

Other things of note this evening. LOOK at this travel schedule. By September 12, I'll have spent awesome amounts of time in every time zone. (whoop whoop for my first significant trip to the Mountain Time Zone that doesn't involve Kansas on either end of the trip!). PS. Look at the delicious amount of Delta Sky Miles.

More great observations: I know you weren't just getting off the train on Sunday afternoon, checking Twitter for the USWNT score because the game was almost over waiting for the inevitable loss tweet, then burst into a solid run in 95 degrees for three blocks dodging people to get to a bar to watch the women WIN in PKs (and today too!! I do know my Red All Over Jersey is making it into my backpack when I finally pack)

And finally, Harry Potter does come out this weekend. I'm realized as I was marathoning through it (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, (1/2 way through 6), and 7P1 finished, btw), I saw the first one in Rockwall, Texas. I'm seeing the last on in Rockwall, Texas. I haven't lived in Rockwall, Texas in 8 years. How awesome is that. Alas, I leave you with pure awesomeness (I just spent 10 minutes looking for the Ginny Weasley picture. where is it?!) Neville will have to do. Have you seen him in a suit?! Do yourself a favor and google it.

I feel like dancin'

Let's take a moment to fangirl, shall we? If you've been reading my blog, you know I'm OBSESSED with Outlander. So being my Twitterific self, I was catching up yesterday morning on the train when Diana tweeted she'd be doing free booksigning the next day. What'd I do naturally? Read her blog when I got to work, figured out it was in Times Square, invited my co-worker to go with me, tweeted about it and continued my day.

Then, when I woke up this morning, I found out that she TWEETED ME BACK!

So after work we headed over, stood in a epic line, got pushed around a little by dedicated women with their romance novels, finally made it in, then no line at Diana's table. I got Outlander (duh) and Voyager (the one where Claire goes back!) signed.

I'm not sure if you all recollect, but I've also met my other author I have a particularly giant soft spot for, Stephanie Meyer (Thanks for letting me steal your blog post again, Laura!).

Favorite authors. Met and met. Win! Now, I just have to meet Taylor Hanson.

How to assess your seater

As many of you know, I call New York City my current home. One of the benefits of New York City is ditching your car for the subway. All those rumors you hear about seats on the New York City Subway are TRUE. You steal seats out from under people, pull out your book and NEVER look up because if you make contact with an older person you're going to have to give that seat up (Or I will, because I'm nice. But many people here aren't nice, so.....)

Often times you come across seats on the subway that are are between two people. Sometimes, people feel the need to take up more than one seat or 1 1/2 seats. That's not the big problem. What is a problem is when a third person doesn't know the size of their own behind and choses to sit between you and that person who is overflowing over their seat two seats away. And sticky, sweaty New York summers make this situation EVEN MORE FUN.

So I ask you this, delightful blog readers, should you ever come to NYC, know the size of your seater. Know where your butt can fit. Because if you try to smush yourself between me and the other individual, its not fun. Or worth sitting for any of us. And you'll get that deadly New Yorker stare.

Hasa Diga Eebowai

Earlier this year, a friend had sent an email to be about the new broadway musical by the South Park guys. Confession: I don't like South Park. So I put it in my "I should see...." list in February. I didn't pay much attention to it until my sister and mom came to visit on Wednesday, and we were wondering what to do. I suggested Broadway, and "Maybe we can get Book of Mormon tickets from TKTS." Ha. We show up and the guy standing there to answer questions about plays responded "Ha. That's sold out until August." We ended up at How To Succeed in Business. And thus begin a quest. To win the Book of Mormon lottery. Follow me on Twitter? I counted my failures.

So, I did in fact lose 10 times before Friday. And an 11th time on Friday. My cousin was in town, so she, her husband and friend met my friend and I infront of the theater. They were kind enough to throw their names in the crowd of about 250 people waiting for the lottery of exactly 22 tickets. I did not win. My cousin-in-law did! He was kind enough to give my work friend and I the tickets.

And it was AWESOME. It was so funny. And wrong. And smart. Which, I only realized after that I saw it the Friday before the Tonys. Where it is widely believed that it will win pretty much everything it's nominated for. Watching the show, I did wonder what they could actually sing on national television. While there are so many great, great moments, I think Spooky

Mormon Hell Dream may be my favorite on-stage performance (key phrase: "I can't

believe Jesus called me a dick!"). The one that gets is Hello. Close second in best performance - Joseph Smith American Profit.

Point of post: If you're planning a trip to New York City, you should book your trip around when you can buy tickets to the book of mormon. Coincidentally, it's in the same theater as Spring Awakening. Pure awesomeness clearly frequently happens at the Eugene O'Neill theater.

Boston

I did not fulfill a life goal this weekend - even though I could have. As I saw Augustana two times earlier in the week in New York (!!!!), I felt that I'd leave the goal of seeing Augustana sing Boston in Boston for another time (And I knew I could catch it on YouTube. So can you!)



I have a cousin who is an audiologist, and she'd be really proud of me, because I wore ear plugs at BOTH shows.

Moral of the story - these kids should show up more often. The last time I saw them live was the last time their CD came out. And I now own two t-shirts with their band name on them, placing them the ONLY band in that elite category for this music fanatic.

Under the cover of darkness

Easter weekend weather where I live:


Easter weekend weather where I'm headed:


What's at the Dallas airport where I have a layover:

A few of these people will be at the destination point:

One can only hope that glorious amounts of card games are one of the few things that comes out of this weekend. Win.

Steal Your Heart

One of the best ways to start off the weekend is to get an email that looks like this:

Why? Let me list you the reasons:

1) Look at those bands! Clearly I've purchased tickets to them before.

2) Note the date and venue: Same date time and venue (They're touring TOGETHER!)

3) It's telling me tickets are going on sale. I've had tickets for two weeks.

4) I've been waiting on an Augustana tour for three years.

5) Have you been to Irving Plaza? It's tiny. And two stories. I love it.

This tour may be the best combo since Muse and Silversun Pickups.

Happy Friday!

Seasons

Relishing in my own Sunday morning....which is my favorite part of the week...while on a New York Times reading break with my coffee, I found this on Facebook. How could this not make your morning better?

Not to mention, with all the Delta miles I'll be accumulating in the next month, the next time I read my New York Times, it will probably be on a park bench in the delightful spring weather overlooking the Hudson River.

Possum Kingdom

I got tagged by LM to do this. How it works is that I tell 10 things about myself that people may or may not know. Then I pass the award onto 7 other bloggers whom I want to participate.

My 10 things:
1. I used to refuse to wear dresses. I hated them, and would never to wear them. Then I moved to New York City and experienced 100 degree days and discovered the magical cotton sun dress.

2. During the fall and winter, the bar on Saturdays and Sundays is my second home. Would you have said this to the college me, I'd of said you were crazy, the new NYC me sees it as the only place to see every college football, college basketball and pro game I ever want to see.

3. I don't watch movies in my spare time. Which is contradictory considering that if I find a great TV show on DVD, I'll watch for hours. Case in point: Alias and Skins.

4. I am horrible with numbers. Don't trust me with them, and if you'd like me to remember some numbers for you, you'd better have a pen and paper I can write them down on.

5. Concerts are my absolute most favorite thing to do in this entire world. I classify everything I see into three categories 1) The type of band I will see every time they come because I love them that much (Hanson, Muse, All Time Low, etc) 2) The band that's good and they have that song on the radio you can't stop singing and you may as well go b/c what else are you doing that evening? Or they havent toured in a while and they're pretty good 3) I'm in NYC and it's free.

6. Every book I ready is judged against Outlander. I'm aware this is a horrible fixed point, but, in my standards, it's the best.

7. I still buy CDs. Like the hard discs. When something I want to listen to comes out, I head to Best Buy to get the $7 special and have a beautiful stack right next to my books. I also still really listening to the radio...if it's the right station.

8. I like to travel. It's my goal to eventually travel enough that Delta upgrades me. At least once.

9. I love roller coasters.

10. I never actually intended to move to New York City...it kind of just happend.

And I was the last one tagged to do this. LM, SEW and JCF, post date tag. Voila!

The Way We Get By

One of the perks of living in NYC is you get quite a few visitors who are just coming to check out the city, so I've gotten to hang out with my cousins visiting NYC way more than I ever did when I was little, because we've always lived so far away from family. So when my cousin Kyle's boyfriends family visited, I was invited to spend an afternoon with them in the city. We went on my signature tour, and ended up at my favorite pizza place in the village. K1 had the brilliant idea of creating a family blog as we span across six states. So I created it because I'm the resident blogger of the Parkers.

So head on over to the Parker Family DL and read my latest post, looking at the challenging game of hop scotch that is NYC after a big winter snow.

And today is an awesome day for a Wildcat. It's the one of two guaranteed days a year my Cats have the potential to beat KU in basketball. We've been made well aware that we're not good at it (our 41 losses out of the last 43 games says it all), but as a true Wildcat fan, I have faith! We can do it. GO CATS!