Planning for Friendsgiving



I tend to get ahead of myself when it comes to planning parties. I create lists for all of the imaginary parties I plan to host. I tear out ideas from magazines about centerpieces and place cards that I think would work well for said imaginary parties. I make mailing lists for all of the people who I'd love to see sitting around a table together. I tell you, there is a lot of planning that goes into these imaginary parties that will most likely never happen.

Most of these dinner gatherings end up just morphing into a regular evening of hanging out. People are invited (but not by fun mailed-out invitations), drinks are made (but not in fancy wine glasses), and food is consumed (but not in a three course meal sort of way). Laughter is always involved, so it's never a bad deal.
But Friendsgiving? Friendsgiving has always been the most elusive dinner gathering for me.

I've tried to plan one the past couple of years, but due to all the normal life things that come up between November and December, it has never come to fruition. Has this happened to anyone else? Am I the only one who has failed multiple times to provide a Friendsgiving?

This year Friendsgiving is planned for this Saturday, and I am pretty much super duper excited about it. I feel like I'm jinxing it by talking about it. Food has been planned and discussed and the prepping has begun. My place is tiny, so it will be a cozy (read: packed) evening, but I'm thoroughly excited.

Yay for food! Yay for holidays! Yay for friends!

2012: A Year in Review - In Movies

 

I realize it has been about six months since my last blog post, but that's only because I'm a horrible blogger. I mean, really. Let's just be honest. But, I come to you today with a topic that is quite near and dear to my heart:

 Stupid movies.

As previously mentioned in a couple of blog posts, my friend Sally and I love watching
stupid movies.
Stupidly wonderful movies. 

At the beginning of 2012, Sally and I decided that we would record each and every movie that we watched during the year so we could look back on the anthology of horrible awesomeness.
What will follow in the coming weeks will both amaze and horrify you.

Probably.

You may just be surprised.

Or angry?

Hopefully not angry.

Our Process
We scientifically decided which movies to watch, then prepared ourselves to be amazed.

(Let the record show that in our case "scientifically" meant closing our eyes while being spun around in the aisle of the movie store, and then renting whatever movie we were pointing at when we were done spinning. The movie store people loved us)

Side note: a few TV shows made their way onto this list. Thanks, Netflix!

By now you're probably asking - Emily, couldn't you and your friend have spent your time doing something more productive? 

Possibly. But when you really think about it, most likely not.
Besides, you can't say that we're not dedicated toward a goal.
For the record, we pretty much only watched movies between the hours of 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM, so we had already accomplished all of our goals during the daylight hours.

Disclaimer for my own piece of mind: Sally was working full time and planning a wedding, and I was working 2 jobs during this year, so we didn't just sit around watching movies.

PS - one of the best parts of watching these movies is trying to dissect them afterwards.
Generally, we can't make heads or tails of them, and we end the conversation with shouting "HOW DO THESE MOVIES GET MADE?!"
But then we think about how we just spent money on the movie, so maybe the joke is on us.
You win again, Hollywood!

Stats

We watched 75 things. 

This included 18 TV episodes and 57 movies.

Point System

As with any wonderful goal, we had a point system in place.
We designated extra points for the following items: 

- If the movie started with the word "the"

- If the movie was a prequel or sequel to another movie.

- If Brendan Fraser or Nicolas Cage "acted" in the movie. 

Yes, I put "acted" in quotes.
For obvious reasons.

Also, we love watching movies out of order. Meaning, if given the option, we chose to watch the third installment of a movie over the first even if we had not yet seen the first or second installments.
It's fairly enjoyable.

Since we want to do justice by these (atrocious) movies, we decided it would be best to break this list down into installments. I'll post the full list of what we watched, and then we'll post a breakdown/description/plea for an explanation of each movie/episode in the coming weeks.
Don't try to hide your excitement.

There will most likely be rewards for people who can apply logic to some of these horrible movies. For instance, if anyone can tell me how the Scorpion King movies coincide with each other, please let me know. Because it kind of seems like they made three completely different movies, and then the Committee to Name Movies was like "Wow, this movie doesn't make any sense, but, they shoot arrows in it, so go ahead and name this one Scorpion King 2. Nobody will ever know."
 

Without further ado, I present to you:

Things Sally and Emily Watched: 2012 Edition

 

Below

The Legend of Sorrow Creek

Decadent Evil

Wicker Man: Nicolas Cage points!

Wrong Turn 2: Sequel points!

The Grudge

Scorpion King 3: Sequel/Prequel points!

Boogeyman 2: Sequel points!

White Noise

White Noise 2:Sequel points!

Lake Placid 3: Sequel points!

The Grudge 2: Sequel points!

20 Bucks: Brendan Fraser points!
The Scorpion King: Prequel/Sequel points!

Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus

The Lady in Black

Love at First Kill

Last House On The Left

The Morgue

The New Daughter

A Walk to Remember

Twilight 4 Part 1: It's just so ridiculous.

Journey to the Center of the Earth: Brendan Fraser points!

The Air I Breathe

Lake Dead

The Presence

Quarantine 2: Sequel points!

Wrong Turn

The Mummy: Brendan Fraser points!

The Mummy 3: Brendan Fraser points! Sequel points!

The Cell 2: Sequel points!

The Betrayed

Dr. Quinn - Season 3, episode "Money Problems"

I Escaped a Cult (TV Show)

What Lies Beneath (Confession: I legitimately like this movie)

Insidious

Child's Play

Pet Sematary

Dr. Quinn - Season 3, episode "Thanksgiving"

America's Next Top Model - Cycle 16, Season Finale

Vampires

Season of the Witch: Nicolas Cage points!

The Good Son: Truth be told, we kind of didn't hate this one. 

The Hangover

The Exorcist

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

The Mummy 2: Brendan Fraser points! Sequel points!

National Treasure: Nicolas Cage points!

Red Riding Hood

April Fools Day

Troll 2

Face Off: Nicolas Cage points! (Between Travolta and Cage I think I understood about 10 words in the entire movie)

Orphan

Keeping Up With the Kardashians - Season 1

Triangle

Dream House

Ghost Ship

Dr. Quinn - Season 3, Episode "Ladies Night"

Dr. Quinn - Season 3, Episode "Customer Come Here"

Dreamcatcher

Gothika

The Strangers

Dr. Quinn - Season 3, Episode "The End of the World"

Dr. Quinn - Season 3, Episode, "Pikes Peak"

Dr. Quinn - Season 3, Episode, "Cooper vs. Quinn" - a very special double episode

Dr. Quinn - Season 3, Episode, "What is Love"

Joy Ride

Christmas Vacation

Paranormal Activity 4: Sequel points!

Twilight 4 Part 2

If you read all of that you deserve a reward. Maybe I'll send you a copy of one of these movies.
You won't be disappointed. 

DPP: Day 12

 

Day 12 (aka 12/12/12):

 

As I've previously mentioned on this blog, my friend Sally and I love watching stupid movies. We love it even more if the stupid movies have Brendan Fraser in them.

(Seriously, how does he keep getting movie roles?)

We love it even EVEN more if we can eat Ben and Jerry's while watching a stupid movie in which Brendan Fraser is "acting."

 

So, it's not stretch to say that we were kind of excited when the stars aligned last night, and all of those marvelous occurrences took place.

 



 

Lsat night was the first time we watched it with subtitles. Why we have never done this before is beyond me. We learned who characters were, (did you know that the random dude who acompanies them on the trip was the warden?).

Maybe I should open this up for discussion.
Why did the mummy (Imhotep) take the eyes of the guy who had horrible vision? If we use logic (probably our first mistake), wouldn't he have wanted to take the eyes of, oh, say someone who doesn't need glasses? Like, anyone else in the cast?
Why was Imhotep terrified of the cat in the hotel room? Didn't Egyptians love cats?

Did Imhotep fall think Evie was Anak-sun-amun simply because she was the first woman he saw upon being brought back to life? Or was it because she read from the Book of the Dead?
Didn't the ancient Egyptians use scrolls?

 

What questions do you all have.
Let's hash this out.

 

DPP: Days 5, 6, and 7

Here is another catch-up post. 

Day 5: 

My mom and I have always loved having December birthdays. It's an entire month of pretty lights and celebrations. How could it be better? Since December is all kinds of insane, typically birthdays are celebrated on days that aren't actually your birthday simply because there is a concert/party/event taking place on the actual birthday. 

So, at lunch on the day before my Mom's birthday, my Dad and I went to the house and ate a quick lunch and wished my mother a happy early birthday. We ate and chatted, and then my mother sent us back to work with hot coffee. Hooray! 

Day 6:

Even though I don't send out "real" Christmas cards (you know, the whole "so and so is up to this, this person did that, and I'm working on this!"), I still think it's fun to send snail mail, so why not send out mail at Christmas time? Ps - having Home Alone playing in the background is a wonderful idea if you're going to send out cards. 

Day 7:

On Friday evening, three hilarious ladies joined me for a night of cupcakes, Christmas-light-looking, and being silly. There will be a post on the evening to follow. But, in the meantime, here is a picture of two of the girls running through the tree lined entryway to the Devon building. 

I'm a Sucker for a Theme Party

Anyone who has spent more than one hour with me knows that I love theme parties.

I mean, what's not to love? You get to dress up, bake food, eat food, and hang out with awesome people with a theme.

It's just the best.

My friends and I have had some incredible parties, if I do say so myself.

Michael Jackson Day, Harry Potter Day, 80's Night, Waiting For Guffman Night, 90's Night, Back to School, Mardi Gras, Oscar parties, Zelda Day, 30 Rock Day, and Ron Swanson Night just to name a few.

Jo and I used to host X-Files Marathons, but unfortunately those took place before the day I got a digital camera. But, the names speak for themselves: X-Mas Files (at Christmas), HeX-Files (at Halloween), ThanX-Files (at Thanksgiving), MeX-Files (for Cinco de Mayo), Eggs-Files (at Easter). I feel like there were more, but my memory is already fading.

I am currently dying to have a Mad Men night. Who doesn't want to dress up like Joan and have a bunch of Don Drapers walking around?

So, who's coming to Mad Men night?

Time Travel Tuesday - Let's JO Back In Time! (See what I did there?)

This is the first in what I hope to be a weekly segment on this blog.

As you can see by the title, Tuesdays will be dedicated to traveling in time. Maybe we will discuss the past. Or maybe we will contemplate what the future holds. Or maybe it will just be a bunch of random memories bunched together.

To kick off Time Travel Tuesdays, I'd like to introduce you to my bestest friend foreverest, Joanna, aka: DJ Jazzy Jo.

Jo is fun. Can you tell? (pictured with our friend Matt. In a bathtub. Fully clothed. For a house warming party)

And now for the time travel!

Jo and I met at church when we were 12, started going to the same high school when we were 15, and somewhere around age 17 we became bff's.

Obviously, we bonded over really important things like the awesomeness that is 80's pop music, the incredible legacy of The X-Files, the deliciousness of Amigo's, and our love of never making normal faces, as displayed below.

Jo and I have done many things over the last decade. We've been to two U2 concerts (2!). We've hosted multiple X-Files marathons (X-Mas Files! ThanX-Files! SeXual Tension Files!) We've gone through dozens of bags of Peanut Butter M&M's. We've been known to dance to TLC in the kitchen. Don't worry, we've also done really serious things, like watch The Real World, Wife Swap, and Being Bobby Brown (too soon?).

One time in high school, Jo dressed up as Michael Jackson. She also named her first car Jackson (RIP, Jackson. You were the coolest 1994 Ford Escort that I've ever had the privilege of riding in).

Jo lives in Lincoln, and I live all the way in Oklahoma City, so unfortunately our coolness is separated by a very un-cool state (sorry, Kansas) and 7 very long driving hours.

One time I told her that she should marry her boyfriend, because he bought her season 1 of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman on DVD. (Side note: They did get married. They probably got married because he is awesome, and together they are the coolest couple in the world, but I like to think that Dr. Quinn and I played a role in their union).

I hope you've had as much fun during this brief re-cap of our friendship as I have. If you live in Lincoln, or even if you don't, you should be friends with Jo. She's always up for a party!

PS - you should listen to Jo discuss Russian literature and her possible Native American heritage here.

PPS - I realize that this post only focuses on the ridiculous things that Jo and I have done/love. That is mainly because this is a quick blog post and not a long chat. We aren't really this shallow. I don't think, anyhow.

PPPS - This picture: