I promised more blogging...and haven't been back since.
I promised more blogging...and haven't been back since.
My first blog was written in April, 2007 without much consistency. And as you can see it has been over a year since I last posted anything. Well, a lot has happened in the last year since that post. The most significant and difficult was the passing of my mother. I have always heard that it is very difficult for a woman when she loses her mother. THAT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT!
My mother was 16 years old when she married my father (he was 17) and she had 3 children by the time she was 21. She was a stay at home mom and one of the greatest influences in my life. Her love and encouragement through the years has helped in shaping me into the woman that I am today. Since her passing, I have been doing a lot of soul searching, inner reflection, realizing the many ways I am like my mother, both good and bad. Yes, we can learn both from our mothers. But the greatest thing I learned from my mother was her ability to love me for who I was. She encouraged me in my hopes and dreams, prayed for me and knew when it was time to let go and allow me to live on my own, trusting that God would have His watchful eye on me.
I love you mom, you were the best!
It has been over a year since I have blogged! I am not good at keeping things up.
!!!SPOILER WARNING!!!
Yes, I know, the movie has been out for three weeks. I am just now getting around to writing my review because I wanted to see the movie a second time before reviewing it. I am a huge Harry Potter nerd, so of course I went to the midnight premiere. While I do believe the movies can stand on their own two feet, this review is a book vs. movie, totally fan-girl review.
Some things I liked:
The bridge scene was very well done. The uber fangirl in me wants to say that the death eaters should not have been black streaks because the muggles don't see them in the books. I thought this scene was visually appealing, and having the black streaks I think added a more frightening feeling, so I loved it. I thought it was great!
Note: for all the crazy fans out there. The bridge used for this scene is The Millennium Bridge in London. This bridge was built in 1999. The book takes place in 1996. Call that a “goof” if you want to, but really, the movies don't have a specific time line, they are set in modern day.
The Unbreakable Vow scene was perfect. Almost exactly as I had imagined it while reading the book. I have always loved Helena Bonham-Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange.
The Pensieve Memories are something I have always enjoyed. I think they are done almost perfectly. The memories are a silvery string which is taken from the memory-holder's temple. The only thing I didn't love, but I can live with, is that in the book Harry and Dumbledore are invisible in the memory, like they are walking around with the memory. In the movie, they are just watching from above. This is fine, I think it works, it just is not exactly like the book. :p
The Diagon Alley/Knockturn Alley scene worked well. The viewer gets the feel that things are not right with Diagon Alley being all in shambles. We also got to see the trio follow Malfoy and his mother to Knockturn Alley and be all suspicious.
The cave scene was well done. The inferi were great! I can't think of anything I would want to be done differently for this scene.
We didn't get to see Dumbledore's funeral. I am okay with that though. That scene in the book was definitely emotional, but I don't think it was necessary for the movie. I thought the raising lighted wands to the sky and blotting out the Dark Mark was cool.
Some things I didn't like:
I felt like there was too much humor in this film. The book is darker and you really feel like evil is starting to take over. The movie was a little too light-hearted for my taste. I can understand why the filmmakers did this, but still, fangirl wants more evil!
I have always thought there isn't enough Neville Longbottom. I was sad that they skipped over the visit to his parents in St. Mungo's in Order of the Phoenix. I feel like you just can't help but love Neville. He becomes a hero in his own right and it saddens me that movie viewers do not get to witness this.
We didn't learn enough about Tom Riddle or the Gaunts. There is way more back story on Tom Riddle and his family in the books. I think that the back story is important because it ties in with the horcruxes and makes them all the more meaningful.
Sectumsempra spell!! I was so excited for this scene to be in the movie! In the books, we really feel like the Potions book is evil and we are curious about the Sectumsempra spell. Then Harry uses it on Malfoy and Malfoy is just ripped to shreds! Okay, maybe my imagination is more intense but I think they could have ripped Malfoy's shirt and given him more cuts, maybe some on his face? I was glad they included this spell but in my opinion, it wasn't intense enough.
The horcruxes were explained, but didn't feel evil enough. To me, the logic of what the horcruxes are adds to the intensity of Voldemort's evilness. In the movie, Dumbledore says that horcruxes can be anything, just ordinary objects. Yes, they are ordinary objects, but each horcrux has meaning to Tom Riddle, which is why he chooses them and the meaning is what helps Harry figure out what they all are.
The Potions book feels more evil in the book. In the book, you really side with Hermoine wanting Harry to get rid of the book. While reading HBP I thought maybe the book used to be Voldemort's or something. Then you find out who the Half Blood Prince is and I think the evil feel of the Potions book plus finding out who it belonged to makes you hate Snape that much more. I was always on the fence about whether I thought Professor Snape was good or evil. By the end of this book, I hated Snape so much!
In the movie Luna Lovegood finds Harry under the invisibility cloak because of Nargles. In the book, Tonks finds Harry. Harry being found by one of The Order makes you really get a sense that things are not right at Hogwarts. Luna finding Harry just adds some humor.
Harry and Ginny kiss. I wish they would have done it just like the book. Harry runs up to Ginny, grabs her and kisses her in front of everyone in the common room. The movie made it seem like they were hiding their love.
I have always thought they started the Hermoine/Ron attraction too early and strong in the movies. They made Hermoine too jealous, and I think it will detract from their big scene in Deathly Hollows.
Burrow Attack. WTF? Okay, I don't even know what to say about this. Were they trying to give the viewer a sense of evil, a sense that the Death Eaters mean business? If so, they could have done that in many other ways. Now where are they going to have the wedding in Deathly Hollows? I guess they will just use magic to fix the Burrow...
Final battle, Harry doing nothing. This is my biggest complaint about the movie! In the movie, Harry makes the decision to do nothing when Snape kills Dumbledore. This is so wrong! If we want to look at just the movies themselves, then we know that Harry loves and respects Dumbledore so much. We also know that Harry has a mind of his own and will disobey Dumbledore when he feels he needs to. So! Harry just watching and doing nothing I feel changes Harry's character as a man. The real Harry would have jumped up there, screamed, fought back!
The movie did emphasize Dumbledore pleading with Harry to do exactly as he says. So
perhaps Harry does nothing because Dumbledore told him not to, so Harry is just following orders. That is a silly reason!
OR, maybe they had Harry do nothing, because if Harry had fought back just then he would have had to be killed or captured by the Death Eaters and that just wouldn't have fit with the story.
Whatever the silly reason for doing this, they really should have done it just like the book. In the book Harry is under his invisibility cloak because Dumbledore has him bring it in order to get Harry in and out of the castle. When they get near the castle, Dumbledore immobilizes Harry. Harry is stuck on his broom, under the cloak, unable to do anything. HE HAS NO CHOICE! This is the true Harry. He was under a spell which he couldn't break so he had no way of doing anything. I love how Harry falls to the ground the second Dumbledore dies, because it really makes the reader understand that Dumbledore is dead. Any spell cast by a wizard is undone upon that wizard's death.
The ending. Harry talking with Hermoine and Ron. I do not like this scene. Harry is supposed to have a little conversation with Ginny. Their conversation shows how much Harry loves Ginny, but it also shows how strong Ginny is that she understands what Harry must do and accepts it. Again, Harry and Ginny are supposed to have this awesome, long awaited relationship. The movies make you not really care about that relationship. After his conversation with Ginny he talks to Ron and Hermoine who pledge to help Harry in his upcoming trek.
All in all, the movie is fine. Of course I will buy it and watch it time and again, because I am a major Harry Potter fangirl. I do believe that the movies are fine on their own and enjoyable. Like I said before, this is my view of the book-to-movie conversion.
I have thought of so many things to Vox about lately, but just haven't felt like it. Bleh.
Anyway... Check out my husband's podcast! :)
and if you want to read my thoughts in 140 characters or less... you can follow me on Twitter.
Why do you think teenagers are involved in more car crashes than any other age group?
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Because they are irresponsible and goof around when they have friends in the car with them.
Silly teenagers.
I have been cooking and baking for most of my life, my mom always cooked and I usually helped. So I learned the basics of cooking when I was young. When Jon and I got engaged we started cooking together, we went out and bought a cookbook and made dinner together about twice a week. That was in November of 2005, so I have been a "serious" home-cook for about 3 and a half years. I now make dinner at home almost every night (not mac 'n cheese... real stuff!) I love to cook and bake. I have made many mistakes in the kitchen and many errors that turned out to be better than the original recipe.
Okay, okay, I owe an apology or two… So I know I said I was going to update when I was out in NJ although I failed to do so :( Also, I have been slacking since I got back from NJ on October 28, 2008. Here is a re-cap of my adventures out East. Much love!
So my job in NJ lasted from 6/30-10/17, almost 4 months that they at least guaranteed me. In the end, I put my notice in a smidge early so I could get back home.
1) I missed Seattle like crazy
2) Worried about finding a job too late for 4th quarter if I didn’t get back until late Nov or Dec…not to mention I didn’t want to drive home in the winter
3) My sister Brina was having knee surgery for the 2nd time and could use some help
4) I also wanted to be able to vote in time, I wasn’t registered in NJ
The job definitely taught me new skills in my field and I thought this would be one of the major reasons why I moved across the country. Boy, was I sure wrong! This experience ended up being more about me learning about myself , closing old chapters in my life and really recognizing how easy it is to take things you value for granted at times. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything else!
Learning to function around the abrasiveness of people in NJ was difficult. I am accustomed to smiling and saying “Hi”, “How are you doing?”, “Have a nice day!” to workers at the cash register, for example. Often I wasn’t acknowledged or they would look at me like I belonged in a Looney bin! In one of my rants to my friend Darren, his response couldn’t have shed better light on the subject:
“sounds like your getting a nice little dose of east coast. we americans are so silly when we think that all americans are alike... we are vastly different, i have learned that in my travels around the country. our television and media lead us to believe we are all the same and function as one... but have you stopped to think that the difference from seattle to new york is about the same or longer than the distance from london to moscow?”
Wow. Good point! This definitely helped me endure everything a little better. I still kept on doing what I was doing with strangers. I made sure to put myself out there as much as I could. I made some friends Lauren and Ed while hiking on a Sunday evening. We met up for some more hikes, BBQ's and they even babysat Simba when I was on my two trips back to Seattle! I was very fortunate and they are great people!
Let’s see, I learned the hard way when I was out there regarding public transportation. I was taking the bus to work in Wayne, NJ. Now, I lived in Hoboken, NJ … so I would have to go into NYC at the Port Authority in order to transfer out to Wayne 20+mi to work. On my way home the first night, it took me 4 hours to get home since I stood on the wrong side of the street to catch my bus. After another bus transfer, I ended up in a town called Paterson which by far is the scariest place I have been! Not really a good idea to wait for a train there. Once on the train that I had missed 45 minutes before…I got to Hoboken. I could then walk a mile home or wait for yet ANOTHER bus or take a cab. Getting home at 9pm definitely wasn’t my cup of tea, and Simba was really upset of course. Poor puppy!
So I ended up renting a car for a few weeks since I was tired of commuting at least 1.5 hrs in the morning and 2.5 hours in the evening, depending on traffic. Renting the car became pretty expensive even with company discount and my underage driving fee waived… so in August I came out to Seattle for my Cousin Michelle’s bachelorette party. On the way back to NJ instead of flying, I drove back with my good friend Jil from Sunday, August 24th – Wednesday, August 27th in my Passat. What an amazing adventure that was! The longest time both of us sleeping at the exact same time was 4 hours. We saw everything from Yellowstone National Park, Wildfires outside Cody, Wyoming…Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug in Wall, SD…the Sears tower in Chicago and the joys of feeling like you were on a rollercoaster across Pennsylvania/New Jersey in order to get back in time for work that Thursday. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.
You can enjoy the rest at – Jil 'n Jessi's Jersey Trail
I will be typing up our hand written Journal from our road trip here Trip Blog. You can see how much humor we found in the tiniest things...
Jil was able to stay until after Labor Day. All of my sightseeing of the area was done while she was visiting. She is from Seattle as well and actually used to work in the same building that I worked at in NJ! VERY small world :-) Jil misses the city so this was fun for her to show me around. And I got to play around more with my new Canon 40D camera.
I made friends out there through my roommate, Bob. He was renting out his 2nd bedroom to his 2bed/2bath apartment. Everyone was around my age, so it made everything easy! The room ended up being $1200 a month + utilities + TV/cable/internet. Not cheap but the experience was cool. Hoboken is actually where Frank Sinatra grew up! It’s a cute “city?” that is 1 square mile. Lots of great food up on Washington Street and directly across the Hudson River from New York City. Take Lincoln Tunnel with your car and pop out near Times Square or hop on the Subway on the south side of town through Holland Tunnel to come out where the World Trade Center used to stand. I severely miss the best Indian Food I’ve had in my life…or Grimaldi’s brick oven pizza with big slices of fresh mozzarella. Mmmm.. One thing I will NOT miss is my parking tickets. I swear they picked on because of an out of state license plate. They really just need to do a better job of painting yellow lines where you’re not allowed to park. I eventually gave up and rented a parking spot at the laundry mat on my block. Oh and Simba won’t miss not having any grass to go potty on. Even the dog park/run was all dirt and pebbles. Two paws down!!
On my original post that I was moving... here were some goals of mine...
*Pay off all my debt - save & invest...be a minimalist while I am there.
-Well, I didn't come out as ahead as I would have liked, but I made work what I could and did get SOME stuff paid down although there were many expenses that I DIDN'T plan on...but you live and learn! :)
* Focus solely on work while also keeping my current fitness goals...1/2 marathon and more triathlons. Might even try to make the FULL marathon in NYC in November for a charity :) Ahh, that would be wonderful!
-Well I definitely worked! Although my workout regemine fell through the cracks unfortunately. I do have my first 1/2 marathon scheduled for June 27th, 2009 on my 25th birthday, check it out here: Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon
*I won't have my car so I will being using public transit or bike often.
- Please see above...LOL
*Buy a new camera and rent a car to explore many places on the East coast! I am soooo excited! Keep checking back here for updates!
- Yup! I got a new Canon 40D, it worked out perfectly for my drive to and from NJ, little road trips, adventures and my cousin's wedding.
*Coincidentally, my sister Amanda, her husband Servet and my 6 year old niece Safi live 13 miles from my work. They will help with my transition for the first 2-4 weeks. I get to see my niece start 1st grade. I can't wait <3
And...after all is said and done, I hope to buy my first house when I get back for me 'n Simba. As well as get that mini Australian Shepard we've been day dreamin' about...hehehe :) Can't wait to get my kitties back from my best friend's mom, Jean, who has been wonderful to watch them for me since last Fall!
- I am not in a position to buy a house YET but the time will come eventually. I will be moving into my own 1bedroom apartment on 2/1/09 in Woodinville. My best friend Kelly's family has been VERY gracious to let me stay with them on the interim.
Here are some additional photos from Pennsylvania and the Jersey Shore. I'll post another blog about my drive home from NJ. Thanks for reading and I'll answer any questions/comments :)
Today, January 25th, is Robert Burns' birthday. He was a Scottish poet and is considered to be the "national poet" of Scotland. Every year his birthday is celebrated with a Burns' Supper. A local brewery hosted a Burns' Supper tonight, so we went. Neither my husband nor I are Scottish (he actually has a tiny bit of Scot in him) but we love cultural experiences, so we went. The evening started with a scotch whiskey tasting. I sat in for that portion but didn't drink any, I don't like it. My husband, however, loves scotch so he partook. It was very interesting to learn all about it though.
Dinner was a traditional meal of Haggis, Neeps & Tatties and Cock-a-Leekie Soup.
Haggis is the insides of some animal, I think sheep, and I think it is the heart, liver, lungs and intestines. It is mixed with oats and onions. It actually doesn't taste too bad. It tastes like dark meat, very gamey. I don't think I could eat a lot of it, but the few bites I had weren't that bad.
Neeps are mashed up rutabagas and tatties are mashed potatoes. The dish is called "neeps and tatties" even though the two are not mixed together.
Cock-a-Leekie Soup is a chicken broth soup with chunks of chicken and leeks in it, then flavored with salt, pepper, butter and prunes. It was very yummy.
Dessert was an apple cinamon bread pudding. I don't normally like soggy cake-like desserts, but this bread pudding was not as soggy as other ones I have had, I liked it.
We also had a bagpipe performance by The Elliott Bay Pipe Band. That was fun, and very loud. I can understand why bagpipes would be annoying to some people. But I think when played well, in unison and with drums it is enjoyable.
I forgot to bring my camera :( The owner of the brewery was walking around taking photos the whole time, so hopefully we will get to see them at some point.
