stephen hawking broke my heart

This past weekend, I finally saw The Theory of Everything, the biography of Jane and Stephen Hawking's marriage. The movie is based on Jane's book (yes, I've added this to my reading list now) Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen. Most people are well aware of Stephen Hawking, his genius, as well as his ALS, but I never before truly consider his personal life, or that of his wife. Hands down, I don't think many people are as strong as Jane, she loved man who was told he had two years to live, and chose to stay. And she loved, cared, supported, even in an increasing hard situation, as two years continued into many more. It was devastating to watch Stephen loose his physical abilities - I cannot even imagine how much strength he has to keep on fighting. At so many points in the movie I was crying like the sap I am, but when Stephen told Jane he was taking his caregiver to America, I was heartbroken. Stephen Hawking broken my heart by choosing Elaine over Jane. I forgave him a bit by the end, when he did continue to include Jane in the important places of his life, and reminded her and us about the life they created together

(photo via NY Times)

fifty shades uncomfortable...

Oh hiya, so my mother (a lovely 70 year old) is now begging me to take her to see Fifty Shades of Grey. She's obsessed, and no she hasn't read the book. The thought of seeing what I can only assume will be at least partially pornographic film with my mother gives me the heebs. I read the book, and only the first one because I was so uncomfortable - the little prude in me was not like oh yeah I need another fix of this - no thank you. My sister, the good sport, bought Mom the book - she gets that on Wednesday. The premise is you cannot see the movie without reading the book. I can only hope that Mom continues her slow completion rate of books - you know so that the movie can be out of the theater when she finishes the novel - but you know this one she'll probably devour.

Please pray that I am not forced to take Mom to the movies to see this one. I'll watch any British period drama she wants - old ladies and the sea? Sign me up. Fifty Shades of Asking Me Questions about  is this what normal girls do, just say no.

(PS - you get a lovely photo of a grey dog because that's far more enjoyable for me)

Anna is better than Elsa

I confess, I only saw Frozen while in route home from the UK. I am beyond late to this party. I love going to the movies, but I don’t make it to the theaters the way I’d like to, so I love the day flight home from Europe because there are so many newer movies that I get to see, that maybe I’d never see. If you’ve been living under a rock, then you don’t know that Frozen was the masterpiece that Disney put out at the end of 2013 – very popular and I think everyone knows the lyrics to Let It Go (the song has been on my Spotify since the Oscars). I think everyone I knew with little girls has had to buy an Elsa dress, and that made me think she’d be the best character in the movie, but no no no, Anna is the best. Alas, I present you why Anna is the best Frozen character.

Anna is the younger sister, who just wants to be friends with her older sister. Now, I do think the parents keeping Elsa locked away was weird, but Anna just wanted her friend.

Elsa flees to the mountains to live in solitude, Anna makes friends with Kristoff, Olaf, Sven, Hans.

Anna sings “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” which is my favorite song from the movie.

Anna saves her sister, she could have kissed the boy, but instead she protects her sister from death. She’s all about the family even after being shafted for years.

Anna is so kind, Elsa kind of comes across as a b-word. And no, that’s not beautiful.

(image via pinterest)

from my bookshelf: this is where i leave you

So, I found out that Tina Fey and Jason Bateman are going to be a movie together which is based off the book, This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper. The movie trailer looks so funny, and the cast list is amazing - Connie Britton, Adam Driver, Jane Fonda and more (honestly, like could I go to dinner with you all?).  I am a firm believer in book before movie, because I’ll never read a book if I know what’s going to happen.  A quick synopsis is the patriarch of a family passes away and a provision of the will is that the whole family sit Shiva for one week in the family house. Adult children are put in childhood bedrooms (some not their own) and the whole family gets a lot of togetherness. I loved the all family dysfunction (all our families are dysfunctional ), but deep down you could see how much the adult children truly still cared about one another.  There are some definite oh my god, did that just happen? I would highly recommend reading this one before you see the movie, because I know everyone will see this movie.

(photo found on Refinery29, originally from EW)

movie memories: center stage

I love movies, going to the theater seeing some epic moving on the big screen, watching at home. When I was in college my friends and I use to have regular movie nights where we’d gather in our pajamas and round up snacks and watch old favorites from someone’s VHS collection (yep, I went to college with a TV with a built in VCR – I was fancy). It was the early 2000s and for some reason movies involving dance were big, for example Save the Last Dance, Center Stage were some we watched on repeat.  I have fond memories of Center Stage, it made me want to be a dancer even though I have little to no experience and figuring that out that dream at 19 was well, far too late in life. This does not stop me from putting on my ipod and hosting my own personal dance recital from time to time in my apartment (downstairs neighbor, sorry about the leaping, but ballerinas leap).

It’s been probably 10 years since I’ve watched Center Stage, but my memory serves as this: Girl wants to be ballerina, girl’s parents want her to go to college, but she gets into a very prestigious ballet academy in New York. The dad from the OC is a jerk, who runs the ballet company that the academy is associated with, who tries to crush girl’s dream. Girl makes friends, has a roommate who’s a b*tch, but also an eating disorder making roommate hangry. Girl meets guy who she puts in friend category, girl meets ballerino star – who thinks she's

cute enough to sleep with, but not date. Girl gets big part in jerk ballerino’s workshop for the final performance before finding out what ballet company wants her. Ballerino has a vision and its ballet for the rock and roll generation – we all dance to Jamiroquai and everyone’s dreams come true.

Honestly, I think my favorite part of that movie was some of the great/terrible music. I sadly really love the song, Friends Forever by the Thunderbugs. It’s cheesy goodness that only a movie can give you.

(photo via all posters)

vacation, all I ever wanted

Before the Thanksgiving holiday week, I took a staycation day and enjoyed a very relaxing New York City day. My major goal of taking a local vacation day (not my norm, most of the time I head somewhere even if it's just a weekend adventure) was to make sure I didn't spend the day doing anything at home like cleaning, laundry, television watching, etc. I wanted to make sure I made the most of my day away from work.  I started my day at Flywheel taking a late morning class, one of the truest luxuries, of not working, not battling a class full other worker bees. I really enjoyed going to workout during when I'd normally start checking emails at work. 

ode to the weekend

Oh weekend, you are never quite long enough for me. I really think most of us would say weekends should be a little longer- like start at noon on Fridays, or end at noon on Monday. I’ll never get enough weekend in. This one was pretty packed which was nice for a first weekend back on my home turf after four weekends out of town. I like escaping to other places, but I really don’t like being gone from my home that long, or away from my real life all the time. Alas, though I think I am local bound for the next few months which makes me smile.

I started my weekend with a lunchtime treat on Friday, going to the Drybar for a blowout. I had purchased a Gilt certificate for this, that I never had a special occasion to use it on – so with a week to go before expiration, I was like well summer and Fridays are a good enough reason to have a great hair day.  If you’ve never experienced the Drybar, it is one of my favorite little treats- you get your hair washed, and blown into perfection while sipping a drink (the mimosa was skipped this time due to it being in the middle of the work day) and watching some awesomely girlie movie. I followed this up by having my photo taken for the company email system- hey if the whole company has to see my smiling face they might as well get to enjoy my good hair day all the time.

Friday night kicked off with a quick office happy hour, followed by dinner and drinks with a few friends. Saturday was a bit of cleaning, and taking a long walk – which feels so good after so many weeks of being idle. I am not quite up for running yet so getting in some mileage the old fashioned way. Saturday evening was more of the same of Friday, but included a thirtieth birthday outing for one of my friends (the third birthday, of last week’s birthday trifecta). Definitely was great to see a lot of my friends after being gone for so many weeks.  Sunday, I wrapped up the weekend with a gym class, another long walk, a trip to the cinema to see “The World’s End” (super funny), and dinner. 

Now that it’s Monday, I could use another couple hours away, and a masseuse for my quads – my legs are tired!

Hope you had a great weekend.

the perks...

Movies that do the book justice – it’s not often I feel that way. I read the book, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” probably 6 years ago. I was living in Brookline, MA at the time and I remember wishing I was old enough to have grown up at the end of the 1980s/ very early 1990s like my older sister, since I remembered being a little elementary school kid. I finally got around to watching the movie this past weekend, remembering some of the difficult subject matter of the book and wondering how well the movie would address that. I thought it was tasteful, and really showed how the protagonist Charlie found himself in the process of navigating through his first year of high school. And I found Emma Watson extraordinarily believable as someone other than Hermione Granger ( as a Potter-lover, that was truly a feat to shout about). Definitely a movie that will make you cry, this gets my approval as a must see, even if you loved the book.

(photo from pinterest)