Movie Reviews

I have seen a LOT of movies recently! I think I've been to the movie theater three times in the past two weeks...crazy stuff. But after seeing all of them I figured I'd write out what I thought of each movie.

Wreck-it Ralph: FANTASTIC MOVIE. I absolutely loved it. It's kind of like Toy Story, but with arcade games instead and it was so well-made. Completely original, great story line...one of those that you leave the theater and just feel wonderful about life. And it was SO funny! The best part about the humor was that it was straightforward enough that kids got it, but there were some one-line zingers that referenced things that adults encountered when they were kids, like older video games. Perfect family movie that everyone can watch. I think I definitely want it on DVD when it comes out.

Les Mis: I was really impressed with how they did this film...everything from the live singing, to how they incorporated scenes from the book that weren't in the original Broadway musical, to the creativity of the camera angles, to how they changed some lyrics/songs and it really added to the movie. My first reaction after the movie was over is that Anne Hathaway is my absolute favorite actress. She was...what's a word that means 'better than phenomenal'? YEAH. SO GOOD. My second reaction was that I hated Russell Crowe as Javert. My dad's seen the movie (he and I are MAJOR Broadway buffs) and he actually didn't mind him, but I just couldn't get past the fact that he really didn't have the vocal chops. He could sing, yes. But was it on the same level as the others? Absolutely not. And you could tell singing wasn't his strong suit because I felt like he didn't act that much. I didn't get any emotion out of his performance...felt like he was concentrating too hard on hitting the right notes to really get into character. But that's just me and my angry rantings because I expected more. :P Sidenote: I'm seeing the stage version of Les Mis this upcoming weekend in Philly and I'll get to have my powerful Javert then, so I'm looking forward to that. :) Other comments about the movie...Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean I adored. I feel like he really carried the movie, both with his singing and the emotion he brought to the screen. He was great. And I cried so much...like three times during the movie. The story is just so amazing..it gets me every time.

The Hobbit: I LOVED THIS MOVIE. I know some critics were disappointed with it as it compared to the original trilogy of the Lord of the Rings, but I thought it was amazing. And yeah, it is different than the first three but that's because it's a totally different story, with completely different characters, and set in a different time period. DER. They did SUCH a phenomenal job with it. Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins was pure brilliance. He BECAME that character and had a flawless performance. And I loved the dwarves...and what was great was they all had their own personality, which I imagine was hard to do since there's so many of them! The filming was extraordinary, and even though some of the CGI was over the top, it was understandable with the sequences they had to film. Great movie, can't wait to see it again and for the others to come out.

Adventure is out there!

David and I went hiking at Hawk Mountain today...it was AWESOME!

I met him at his house around 9:15, we got all bundled up, picked up some McDonald's breakfast, and then we were off! We got to Hawk Mountain around 11:30, picked up our trail maps at the Visitor Center, and then journeyed out into the cold.

I insisted on taking his picture in the Visitor Center...he looks so adorable!

We picked the Red Trail (River of Rocks Trail) and we started our descent down the mountain. It was rated a "moderate" trail so it wasn't too bad, but sections were just clusters of rocks you had to maneuver your way through...and footing was tricky at times. We stopped about every half an hour to sit and take a short five minute break. I had packed snacks so along the way we had cereal bars, turkey and cheese sandwiches,  and M&Ms. YUM. Food tastes so much better when you're hiking through mountains. :P

Food break/consult the map break!

I conquered a fallen tree!

After about two hours, we were both exhausted and the trail was taking us back up the mountain so our glutes were getting QUITE the work out! About every ten minutes David would say, "Oh look! We're close to the end!" and we'd have just a LITTLE more motivation to keep going...to only find out that FALSE. It was a deceived ending.

When we got to the top of the mountain (but not back to our starting point yet), there was an intersection. Looking at the map, it showed that if we took the left path it was like a shortcut to get back to the Visitor Center. So of course we started down that way...WITHOUT READING THE DESCRIPTION IN THE BROCHURE OF THE TRAIL. We kind of accidentally took the hardest trail without knowing it...BUT OH WE KNEW IT SOON ENOUGH.

The trail soon became all boulders, and the only reason we knew which way to go was because of the occasional orange spray paint leading the way. It was slow going, BUT THEN...we realized we were on top of a mini mountain of boulders and the trail went DOWN the boulders! David tossed his walking sticks down to the bottom of the VERY STEEP PILE OF ROCKS, and we scooted and shimmied our way down EXTREMELY CAREFULLY.

Once we were actually on the forest floor, it was kinda cool to realize what we had accomplished but I'm not sure if I'm going to voluntarily hike that trail again. :P

When we looked at the map again, we saw the description of the trail: "The rocky, difficult Escarpment Trail follows the ridge edge and consists of large boulders that require rock scrambling to traverse."

ROCK SCRAMBLING INDEED.

It was a great day though. We spent a total of three hours hiking...we went completely down the mountain and then back up again! Looking down and seeing how far we had gone was really cool. We had an awesome adventure together. :)

Top of the mountain! David took this after we finished the hike...I dunno if you can see, but behind me there's the tree, and then to the right of the tree there's these two random white specks. Those are huge piles of white rock, AND WE HIKED AROUND THEM. So that's how far we went down and then came back up. :)

"SANTA'S NOT REAL"

Driving home from Bucs yesterday (which was FANTASTIC! Not the drive home...the camp on Sunday :P) mom was telling me stories about one of the kids in her 1st grade class who just blurts whatever thought comes to his mind. This past week, the principal came and was reading a story about Santa and this boy raised his hand and said, "Santa's not real." The principal ignored the comment and just kept reading.

Later in the day though, mom went to pick her class up from library and heard one of her little African-American girls yelling at the boy: "Santa Claus IS real! You can't be telling me he ain't!" Mom pulled her aside and had this brilliant conversation with her.

Mom: Have you ever seen the Polar Express?
Girl: No...but I've heard of it.
Mom: Well, in the story there's this Christmas bell that rings, but only people who believe are able to hear the bell. You believe in Santa Claus, right?
Girl: *nods her head vigorously*
Mom: Well (insert little boy's name here) doesn't. And it works the same way as the bell in the movie, because he doesn't believe, Santa doesn't visit his house. So he doesn't know Santa.
Girl: *eyes get huge*
Mom: In class we've talked a lot about understanding how people have different families and respecting them. His family doesn't believe in Santa Claus, but we can't yell at him for that. He doesn't understand Santa Claus because he doesn't think he's real. Does that make sense?
Girl: *nods head*

ISN'T THAT GENIUS??? My mom is such an awesome teacher!

Drum Corps Update

Hellooooooooooooooooooo blog.

Yes, I have abandoned you as of late...but not due to any failure on your part. My life has just been awesomely busy.

SO. A drum corps update is in order!

I did NOT make the Bluecoats...but the audition camp weekend was a PHENOMENAL experience! David picked me up Friday morning around 11 in his parent's van, quick pit stop at McDonald's (I think David and I single-handedly keep McDonald's and Olive Garden in business), and then we were off to Reading to pick up Connor. I know Connor through Millersville's marching band...he plays tuba and is Jolene's (sweetest girl in the mello section who marched Bucs with David way back when) boyfriend. After loading his tuba and everything else in the van we were off to Cracker Barrel to pick up Jane...never met Jane before that weekend, she knew Connor through Reading Buccaneers and was also a tuba player. Now we had TWO tubas in the back of the van, along with a mellophone and a trumpet...and all our suitcases jammed into whatever space remained. :P

Then began the six hour drive to Canton, Ohio...David took the first hour, and I did all the rest of the driving. We got there around 7:30ish and it was SNOWING. AND FREEZING COLD. None of us had packed winter jackets either...we just had our sweatshirts. :P We moved all our stuff inside to the gym, then went right back out to the cold and started unloading the instruments from the Bluecoats trucks. Once that was done and more people had showed up, David and a bunch of his buddies from last season decided to go out for ribs and me, Connor, and Jane tagged along. It was awesome cause I had already met a bunch of David's friends at Allentown or when I visited him in Indianapolis, so it was crazy fun sitting at a table talking and laughing with all of them.

Getting back, Jane and I decided to shower so we wouldn't have to in the morning...and that was when I learned that in drum corps it's one big shower and everyone's just naked and doesn't care. It was actually funny cause it didn't phase me at all but there were other girls who came in, saw some of us just standing around naked, turned around and walked out. :P

Slept on an air mattress on the gym floor next to David, and the next morning the craziness began. Quick change, quick move everything out of the gym and into the hallway, quick breakfast, quick register, then meeting! Everything's really efficient in drum corps...it kinda has to be. After the meeting we went right into brass ensemble and the rest of the day was a mixture of full brass ensemble, sectionals, your audition, and visual work.

My audition went REALLY well for me...best it could have, I think, which makes me happy. I also got a lot of compliments on my marching and rehearsal etiquette, so I was feeling really good about making the corps. So on Sunday, when I was told I didn't make it I was BUMMED. The guy told me that I was JUST below the cut-off line for music...everything else was great and the staff had noticed me, but because I didn't get a certain number on music...yeah. BUT. The interesting thing is that they raised the music qualification score from last year, so pretty much if I had auditioned last year I would have made it. Which makes me feel good about my progress and what I accomplished in 5 months on the mellophone.

When I got home, I kept practicing and the next weekend I went to Reading Buccaneers. Even though they're DCA and not DCI, they have a fantastic reputation, I've always wanted to march there, and I knew I'd get a great experience to help me for my audition at Bluecoats next year. That camp was SO much fun...I love it there.

WELL. Then I got an email from the staff at Blue Stars (another DCI group...usually gets around 10th place, not as prestigious as Bluecoats but still good) saying the director at Bluecoats recommended me to them and they want me to march with them. DILEMMA DILEMMA DILEMMA. For a couple days I was seriously thinking about which group to march...Bucs or Blue Stars. Eventually it came down to money and realizing the only way I could march Blue Stars was if I got a sponsorship that completely covered the $3000 cost of tour fees, and that wasn't very realistic. So I'm sticking with Bucs. :)

Even though I didn't make Bluecoats, I'm really proud that I put myself out there after only 5 months, and that I wasn't one of the worst players...I could keep up with everyone and it was awesome. I'm SO excited to march with the Reading Buccaneers this summer and I can't wait to re-audition at Bluecoats next year and blow them away. :)

Who needs the gym?

...when you've got your own do-it-yourself dorm workout!

Last night, my roommate Jordan wanted to go to the gym around 8...only to realize that on Fridays the gym closes at 7. It was at this point that I recommend we do our own workout series in our dorm room. :)

After dinner, me, Jordan, and Paul were chilling in our room...and I say OUR as in it's Paul's room too...he's pretty much our third roommate. He even slept in my bed Thursday night, leaving me to make a nest of blankets on the floor...oh good times. ANYWHO. So we were all in the room and ready to go for this workout session! At which point Paul hopped up on the bed and went on his laptop...leaving the working out to me and Jordan.

We started with these leg exercises I do everyday (mostly when she's not in the room cause some of them look pretty silly) and then moved on to ab workouts that incorporated the ten pound weights Paul had brought over from his room. We eventually abandoned the ten pound weights and just used heavy books instead...this is where the hysterical laughing started. We had been giggling at each other pretty much the entire time cause some of the stuff we were doing looked ridiculous but when it got to the weights, her and I really struggled so we looked absolutely ridiculous.

Then we moved onto planking...which of course included moaning and wailing that our abs hurt. We attempted a combination of front plank, side plank right, front plank, side plank left, front plank...but most of the side planks I just ended up collapsing on Jordan and then we laughed our heads off. At one point, our RA knocked on our door and told us to stop shrieking...oops. :P

Oh! We were listening to Maroon 5's "Misery" for one of the planks and the timing was PERFECT (we had a stopwatch and did intervals of 30 seconds) because it got to the line, "There ain't nobody who can comfort me!" and then the "Oh YEAH!" right after that was right after we collapsed from holding the position...could the timing be any better?

We ended the night with the traditional sit-ups, and Paul joined us at this point...Jordan and I had to use all our might to hold his feet down, it was a little funny. :P And then Jordan led stretching! That was a nice cool-down...though poor Paul, every time Jordan said "touch your toes" he made this sad face because he in fact cannot touch his toes. BUT HE'LL GET THERE! Have faith, Paul!

Once we finished working out, it was homework time, and then movie time! We watched this movie called "Spirited Away"...an Anime movie for kids. It actually wasn't terrible. Just a little bizarre. :P

Overall, a fantastic night. :)

Gay marriage for the WIN!

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6846855/gay-men-will-marry-your-girlfriends

Please watch. It's hysterical. :)