I’m Loving: my kind of period pieces

Yesterday, I watched the entire first season of Halt and Catch Fire on Netflix:

There are other people in the show, but I am living for Donna (redhead) and Cameron (messy blonde).  They are the most interesting part.  Lee Pace is giving us 1980’s Don Draper and there is another guy with a terrible beard for most of the first season and they are okay.  But Donna, who is the bearded guy’s wife is the best and looks like she is just going to play a “too-good-for-him wife” but then becomes much more interesting.  And Cameron is a coder who is too good for the “will-they-or-won’t-they” relationship she has with faux-Don.  She grows a lot in the first season and eventually become a boss lady, so I am very interested in what happens to her!

I also saw I, Tonya last weekend and I thought it was great.  And haunting.

There is a part in the end when Tonya’s ex-husband says something like, “I am the one who ruined her career.”  And I kept on thinking about the theme of men just ruining women’s lives.  This whole movie had Tonya (who is not a great person, let’s be honest) trying to achieve great things but being constantly pulled back by men doing terrible things.  And her mother being terrible, but that’s a whole other thing.

It reminded me of the end of the first episode of Living Single:

So true, Queen Latifah.  Not that I would want this, I would miss my boo too much!

Top 5: Babysitters Club edition

I got to meet Ann M. Martin last Friday!

It was a snow day at school and I was afraid that this event would also be cancelled.  But I got an email saying it was on and after hemming and hawing and going back and forth and checking the roads I decided that the author of my childhood deserves a snowy drive!  I also remembered my days as a public librarian, having a big author come in and praying that people would show up!

So I got to the library, early for the talk but late for the teacher reception thrown by Carmichaels.  Luckily my friend at Carmichaels let me lurk backstage so that I could get a picture and my books signed!  I bought two of her latest and a copy of the Kristy’s Great Idea thinking that kids love the comic so much that they might want to read the actual book.  Ann M. Martin (never going to just call her Ann!) came back and was so nice!  She saw the copy of Kristy’s Great Idea and asked, “Is this one for you?” and I thought, “What the hell! I should keep it!” so I have a signed copy of Kristy’s Great Idea just for me.  I told her my story about me thinking that Claudia was Puerto Rican when I saw the original cover and she thought it was funny. And then she took a picture with me.  It was a dream come true!

Some things that I learned from the talk:

• First the audience was split between 10 year old girls who love the graphic novel BSC books and all of her books about dogs and thirty-something year old women that read all of her BSC books.  When Ann M. Martin mentioned thinking about writing an adult book about the BSC grown up there was a collective gasp in the audience.
• Ann M. Martin wrote the first four BSC books but they got so popular that she couldn’t keep up with Scholastic’s order and had to hire a team of writers to fill out her outlines for future books.  I don’t know why I was so surprised that she didn’t write 300+ BSC books, that would be crazy!
• Reina Telgemeier made the BSC graphic novels before she got famous with Smile and Sisters.  Now that Telgemeier is busy with her own books, they had to find someone new to do more BSC comics.
• Speaking of famous illustrators, Brian Selznick was the illustrator of Ann M. Martin’s Doll People series!
• Ann M. Martin has a lot of family in Louisville, which is probably why dreamboat Logan Bruno is from there

In honor of this awesome event, I have chosen my top 5 favorite BSC books!

I got hooked on this series thanks to the dope cover of the first book, Kristy’s Great Idea.  Ann M. Martin and I both said that we miss the original cover! In fact let’s get a close up:

Just four girls chilling out WITH THEIR OWN PHONE.  Great poses, Stacey and Claudia have great outfits, Claudia clearly looks like she might be a Latina and not Japanese.  I was intrigued!

Kristy’s Mystery Admirer and Stacey and the Cheerleaders dealt with something I was VERY interested in back in the day.  Crushes.  Crushes, dating, boys, and so on.  I was very disappointed to find out later in life (you know, when I was actually in 8th grade) that boys don’t take you out to restaurants like grown men.  Both of these books, however (especially Kristy’s book) ends with ladies doing what they want which is great.

Mary Anne was my least favorite character (which means I’m a monster) but I loved the book when she got a makeover and all of her friends were jealous witches.  I mean, people are not perfect and friends can be terrible, especially in middle school!  Mary Anne stands up for herself and her mom haircut!

I was always into the Super Specials too.  My favorite is the one when they do a school play.  The only injustice is that Jessi (a BORN PERFORMER) doesn’t get to play Peter Pan and has to be the crocodile.  She does not take that well.  I should have remembered this book and the idea that there are no small parts when I was given the role of “stage manager” during my senior play.  That meant actual stage manager by the way, that is not a part.

Also, while you are waiting for Ann M. Martin’s adult BSC novel, read this hilarious article from a while back on the Hairpin!

wknd: one dot days

Thanks to some well placed snow days, I am in the midst of a four day weekend.  And while I miss my library, especially the preschool kids who come on Mondays, I have been enjoying some time at home.  I feel like Carmela Soprano, puttering around and constantly wiping down counters.

So my house has never been cleaner, and I have been able to spend large chunks of the day reading.

Nah, not those classy books!  More like a pile of Nora Roberts that are not shown above.

I tried to keep moving around with Just Dance on the Wii and the Tone it up girls but honestly your Fit Bit doesn’t get a lot of use on snow days.  I have to remind myself that I will be running around the library soon enough, and enjoy the snowy, romance novel filled nights when I can get them!

This is not to say that I didn’t get out at all.  I got to go to the movies (more on that later) and have a pizza party with girlfriends.  But the core of this weekend was “ChillFest.”  I have to admit that I am ready to bust out, but word is there will be another snow day tomorrow! At this rate I am running out of Noras!  (Just kidding)

 

I’m loving: Carmela and Catastrophe

I have to admit that I have been so stressed out lately!  Nothing crazy, just the days are too short and I am not getting everything done that I want to get done.  So I was extra excited to get into this week’s “I’m loving” because it is forcing me to pay more attention to the less stressful things in life!

So, I have been loving Carmela’s outfits in my annual re-watch of The Sopranos:

Three gold chains, always.  Chain belts!  Animal print pants!  Windbreakers!  I’m just saying, these are some style goals!

I have been watching a quick episode of Catastrophe on Amazon prime the last few days.  Each season only has six episodes so they go by fast and they are so funny that I laugh out loud to the point that I am worried that I am disturbing my neighbor.

So…yeah…it looks like in the bleakness of winter my favorite things are watching tv!  Not very surprising!

wknd: Speed movies and football fandom

 

I spent most of my weekend in sweet anticipation for my beloved Buffalo Bills’ first post season game in 17 years!  They lost.  But that is okay.  It was fun actually caring about a sports game, and eating Buffalo Chicken Nachos!

On Saturday, T and I had one of those perfect, wandering days.  A day when you get lots of things done before 4 PM and you are in your pajamas before 6! A highlight was going to the Speed Cinema to watch the documentary Dolores. I highly recommend it!  What I didn’t know is that Dolores Huerta actually made an appearance at the Friday show!!  I can’t believe I missed that! I might have been too star struck though on the day of.

Dolores Huerta is in her late 80s and still working hard for civil rights in the US.  Her passion and drive is inspiring and reminded me of a book that I started this weekend:

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life talks about how having a purpose and meaningful work is an important element of longevity.  I haven’t finished it, but I do feel lucky that my job is something that I love, something that I want to do, something that helps other people and something that I am good at!  I am on my want to becoming an Ikigai master!  😉

Other things:

• Fun dinner with girlfriends at Tikka House!  Their Aloo Gobi was really great!
• Finishing season one of The Sopranos, this is my third time though and I still love it.
• Seth Meyers’ Golden Globes monologue and Oprah’s speech are worth many re-watches!