a year in movies

I am up at 2 am on Christmas day (actually I guess it's the day after Christmas) watching the series finale of Gilmore Girls. To keep from crying my eyes out at the thought of the end of another great show, I was browsing my favorite website, imdb.com and found that they listed the movies in 2007 by their release date. So I went back to January of 2007 and wrote down the movies I've seen in the theaters this year. And what a year it's been, movie speaking of course, not counting the marriage and stuff.

Freedom Writers
Pan's Labryinth
Stomp the Yard
Catch and Release
Because I Said So
Ghost Rider
Music and Lyrics
The Astronaut Farmer
Zodiac
The Host
300
The Namesake
Reign Over Me
Shooter
TMNT
The Lookout
Blades of Glory
Fracture
Hot Fuzz
Spider Man 3
Lucky You
Waitress
28 Weeks Later
Shrek the 3rd
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Knocked Up
Ocean's 13
Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer
A Mighty Heart
Live Free or Die Hard
Transformers
License to Wed
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Talk to Me
The Simpson's Movie
No Reservations
Bourne Ultimatum
Becoming Jane
Stardust
Superbad
Death at a Funeral
The Nanny Diaries
3:10 to Yuma
Across the Universe
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Kingdom
The Darjeeling Limited
King of California
We Own The Night
Michael Clayton
Lars and the Real Girl
Gone Baby Gone
Dan in Real Life
American Gangster
Martian Child
No Country for Old Men
Enchanted
August Rush
I Am Legend
Juno
National Treasure
Charlie Wilson's War

A grand total of SIXTY-TWO MOVIES. I'm not sure how good your math is, but that comes out to more than one movie in the theaters a week. Let me tell you our secret. Nick and I are big fans of the "double feature". We see two for the price of one. On our honeymoon we were feeling ambitious and we saw 6 movies in 2 days. We pulled off 2 triple features in 2 days because we are amazing and ridiculous.

Let's recap the movies:

Way Exceeded Expectations:
Juno - best movie of the year. Of my life.
3:10 to Yuma - Russell Crowe is back baby.
The Darjeeling Limited - my new favorite Wes Anderson film. I never get tired of the slow-motion endings.
Stardust - very imaginative and cute.
Pan's Labryinth - again, imaginative and also captivating.
No Country for Old Men - didn't want to see it, but it was uh-mazing. Just read any critic in the country to hear how good it is.
Gone Baby Gone - I love any movie that leads you to talk about it all the way home.
The Namesake - Endearing, powerful. I read the book and it is excellent.
The Host - Korean movie. So scary and funny. Love it.

Of course there are many more but let's move onto the bad movies because they are more fun to discuss.

Thought It Would Be Good But Sucked It Up Bigtime:
August Rush - I thought since I bawled through the preview everytime I saw it I would enjoy the movie. No go.
Martian Child - I wanted to slap that weird kid.
Dan in Real Life - Ugh! I hate movies where the kids act like little shits and totally get away with it and the parents end up apologizing to the kids.
Catch and Release - Just plain stupid.
Because I Said So - Because I said it was annoying as hell. Diane Keaton is only good in small doses.

Movies I Knew Would Suck and Did Indeed Suck but Had To See Because It Was Nick's Turn:
Ghost Rider - Comes to mind anytime anyone says the words "bad movie". So bad. Just bad.
Transformers - Too much metal clashing, hurt my ears, couldn't care less about anything in the movie.
The Astronaut Farmer - I don't even know what to say.

Special Mention:
Charlie Wilson's War
A Mighty Heart
Stomp the Yard
Waitress
Zodiac
Reign Over Me
Harry Potter (my true love)

On Thursday I am planning for the ultimate: 4 movies in one day. On deck are Juno (again), The Great Debators, 27 Dresses and P.S. I Love You. I know that 27 dresses and P.S. may be silly, but I think it's a great way to end the year of movies.

What are your favorite and most hated movies of the year?

weekend recap

How bout this weather eh? Is this enough to negate the global warming nonsense? The ice is so early this year, I'm just hoping the weather won't be this sucky until spring.

Friday morning, I turned 26 years old. I'm sure everyone feels this way, but birthdays are becoming less special. I'm not to the point where I dread the day, although it's strange to know I am looking down the barrel of thirty in the near future. Yikes. So I decided this year to take a little trip for my birthday and leave the husband at home. I drove to Lawrence, Kansas to see Soni and James. The drive wasn't bad, considering I was watching Season 1 of Brothers and Sisters, a birthday gift from Nick. Don't worry everyone, I drove safely and remained very alert on the trip.

When I got there, Soni had compiled a "Benay Box" (aren't best friends amazing?) She included a bottle of wine, a KU mug, a Yiddish magnet poetry set, candy, all kids of fun stuff. It was so cute. Friday night we had dinner at an Italian restaurant on an adorable street in Lawrence, which is such a cool town. After dinner we saw Lars and the Real Girl which was very sweet and funny and sad and weird. Everything I love in a movie. Saturday we went to the KU basketball game which was very fun. Basketball is one of the most boring events to watch on television, but in real life it's pretty fun. The rest of the day and night was spent trying to stay warm. It got freaking cold outside and the roads froze. So our big plans to go out and party were thwarted. Soni and I watched several movies and several Martha Stewart Wedding segments from the DVD set I gave her as an early Christmas gift.

Sunday we slept late and I started panicking about the weather (actually Nick started panicking and it transferred over to me). After some very frustrating events with my debit card NOT WORKING AND NOT HAVING ANY CASH FOR THE TRIP HOME WHILE DRIVING IN ICE AND SNOW, it wasn't a bad drive home. I managed to pay the 8 dollar toll in nickels and drove 20 miles an hour the last 30 miles of the trip. It is good to be home.

Last night was the longest night ever. We woke up every 30 minutes to thunder, trees cracking, a transformer blowing up. Finally I gave up at 5 am and just got up and watched the news. OKC schools are closed today so luckily I won't have to make the trip to the south side.

Stay warm and cozy today!

well this is just sad...

Here’s what’s pitiful about ME (Benay). I am a procrastinator in the worst way. By that I mean, the worst kind of procrastinator. Take thank you notes for instance: They are the thorn in every new bride’s side. I understand the need for them and I was overwhelmed with gratitude towards everyone who came to the wedding and who gave us such thoughtful gifts. But it’s the multi-step process that drives me insane. The picking of the actual cards, the address locating, the writing for each individual gift, the stamp placement and the actual placing the cards in the mailbox.

Ugh.

I was actually excited to order our Thank You notes. We took the standard trend photo (see above) where we hold two big posters that say Thank You and had them printed on postcards. They turned out adorable. The DAY we received the blank postcards I wrote out 60 of them in one night, addressed them, stamped them…and they sat on my dresser for 2.5 weeks. WHAT?! The hard part was done! All of the work was finished, only the easy part remained and I still could not be bothered to TAKE THEM OUT TO THE MAILBOX. I need help.

This brings me to the purpose of this post. I have started several drafts for the long awaited update of the blog, I’ve even finished some, but I can’t even be bothered to hit publish on the computer. I think subconsciously I’ve been waiting for the wedding pictures to come back before posting again so I could show them off and I’m still planning on doing that, but enough is enough! So be looking for another post with pictures before the end of the year. Well maybe.

I guess SOMEBODY has to update this thing...

Even if no one is reading it.

Tonight Benay and I are meeting with our photographer to go over must-have shots and what-not. I have to tell ya, our photographer is probably what I am most excited about as far as the wedding planning goes.

She is amazing. Her photos are really cool. None of those lame "lineup" poses that always look like class pictures from elementary school where someone is blinking, someone is not looking at the camera, and someone else looks drunk.

Almost all of her photos are candid. They capture the real mood of the wedding. You can tell from her other work that those people were actually having a good time. When I look back at my wedding pictures in 50 years I want to remember what a good time I and everyone else had. To me, that is what having your wedding photographed is all about. Not just imortalizing what everyone wore that day.

Mary and her husband Matt are both really cool. They will both be there the day of the wedding taking pictures of us getting ready all the way through the reception. It is really like getting two photographers for the price of one. We met with them for some bridal portraits a few weeks ago and they turned out awesome. http://www.tomorrowsmemoriesphotography.net/

Nay and I are also going to be burning 100 CDs for wedding favors. I don't even know what is going to be on them. I am hoping she will limit herself to only 1 Justin Timberlake song, but I doubt that she will be able to. Don't say I didn't warn you.

meet the fossey's

Meet Nick. The look he has in the picture is the look he gives me often which says, "You're bugging me."

Nick's favorite hobbies include watching football, participating in 6-7 fantasy football leagues every year, playing college and pro football games on xbox and (thankfully) watching movies with me.

Nick recently started working at an insurance agency and is enjoying it so far (at least that's what he tells me). Today his coworkers threw us the nicest lunch/shower. We went to Macaroni Grill and then back to their office for cake and to open presents. It was incredibly nice, especially considering he's worked there about 7 weeks!

Meet Nay (me). This picture was taken on our second trip to New York City in April of 2006. We were killing time before seeing Wicked and went to Grand Central Station. Actually first we went to the New York Public Library, and I swear we were there for 45 minutes and never found the books. We found an exhibit about some old letters written to...someone, from someone. And of course we found the gift shop, which was fantastic. I know the picture is kind of far away but surprisingly I didn't have any other pictures of just me on the computer.

I've actually been struggling to think of what my hobbies are because for the last year my hobby has been The Wedding. Luckily, I love weddings. I made my super-detailed wedding planning book a few months before I was officially engaged. Nick calls it mania, I call it an interest. From the time I was a little girl I've always loved weddings. I used to save my allowance and buy an issue of Brides Magazine. Now that I write it out like that, maybe it is a little weird. Moving on...

Nick and I met in October of 2003 when a friend from college (Dave) invited me to go see Jerry Seinfeld's stand up show with some of his friends. Nick says that he thought I was "cool" but "weird", whatever the hell that means. Later he changed it from "weird" to he was "intrigued by me." He liked that I drank beer out of a can, but I guess that I was weird because I was there with Dave? I have no idea. I thought he was cute and very smart and quick-witted, all qualities I find very attractive. I also knew he had a girlfriend who lived far away so I didn't think too much about him after that night. But as the rest of my senior year went on, we started hanging out more and more. He met me one night at 2am at a Waffle House and we went to several movies. Eventually he bucked up the courage and asked me out for April 21st, 2004. We went mini-golfing and braved a tornado. Pretty soon, we were together all the time and even when he moved to Joplin (3 hours away) for work, one of us made the drive every weekend.

And now I'm going to be his wife. Even though it's been a very natural progression into marriage, there are times when I just freak out on the inside and think, "I'm marrying Nick Fossey? But I barely know him! 5 years ago I didn't know he existed!".

Should I be worried about these thoughts?

let's see how this goes

I (Benay) love to read blogs. My friend Kara has an amazing blog that I read at least 3 times every week. I also stalk a few people I don't know because I love their blogs. I also love famous blogs like dooce. One of my favorites is this girl's blog of her critique of the baby-sitter's club, a series favorite of mine as a child.

But blogging is difficult for most people. It's the pressure to be entertaining and witty and update often that turns people off blogging, I think. I'm the proud owner of 2 dead blogs, the infamous xanga and the lesser known livejournal. I blog occasionally on my myspace page, but very rarely.

So why the sudden urge to start this commitment now? I'm not entirely sure. I'm getting married in 26 days and I feel very sentimental most of the time and want to document EVERYTHING. I'm saving receipts, cutting out the shower announcement from the church bulletin, printing out emails from friends regarding the wedding. It's getting ridiculous. But this is such an important time. I want to look back on it and remember every detail, right?

I hope that this blog gains readers and they are as entertained with my anecdotes as I have been with various blogs in cyberspace. Enjoy.