Saturday, July 31, 2010

When the Sun Comes Up...

It's summer, which means long hours of sunshine. I actually was nicknamed Sunshine back in junior high, due to my optimistic, constantly cheery personality. As much as I enjoy the sun, especially compared to that never-ending winter we Kansas Citian's experienced, I do have a grievance.

My bedroom is on the top floor in the Northeast corner. As we all know, the sun rises from the East. So when the sun reaches up in the sky, my windows get a somewhat direct hit between 8am and 9:30 am. What does this heat do? It wakes me up.

Ok, yes. Some of you are looking at what I just wrote and would love to be able to sleep until that time. I get it. In my defense, I've been unemployed for too long and I got into this rut of sleeping in (sometimes until noon). It happens. I'm not trying to make you guys feel bad... really! Back to my story...

For some reason, my bedroom seems to be warmer than the rest of the house. So in the summer and the winter, I can get uncomfortable in here, especially when asleep. During both of those seasons, my ceiling fan runs 24/7. There is a week or two in the summer where I have to increase the speed of my fan (and risk flying dust bunnies when doing so).  Last summer, I had to add one of those little space fans for more cool air (but part of that was because the air conditioner was not working properly).

So for the past 3 weeks, even though I've been setting my alarm to get up in the morning, the sun has been gracefully letting me know what time it is. I can't say that it is a pleasant experience, with me ripping off whatever blanket or sheet is on top of me just so I can feel comfortable again.

I was really hoping to sleep in until about 10 this morning. Obviously, since I am up and blogging, I didn't get to do that.  I guess Mother Nature had other plans for me, lol

Friday, July 30, 2010

Vampires!!!

In light of the pop culture boom of the dark creatures of the night, I figured I would give my input on the world of... Vampires!!!

My first real vampire experience (besides Count from Sesame Street and Count Chocula cereal) was the movie Interview with the Vampire. A classic-styled tale of a man named Louis, who tells his story of how he became a vampire while living in New Orleans and in Paris. I was drawn to the darkness of this film and it basically became a prequisite for my ideal image of how vampires are supposed to be: avoids daylight, full of sex appeal, and educated in the fine arts.


Then, I noticed some huge "phenomenon" about two years ago.



I had been used to going to the bookstores for Midnight book release parties, which I did for the last two Harry Potter books. But, one day at Barnes and Noble, I noticed there was one for this book series that were in black covers that featured some red item on the front. I come to find out that this was known as the Twilight Saga. A book series about a girl who falls in love with a vampire when she's in high school. I noticed it was aimed for teens. So I'm like, yeah whatever. I'll skip it.

Enter my sister Wendy.

She and her friends go see the first Twilight movie in theaters. Three weeks later, she's read all four books and seen the movie two more times. Weird... my sister doesn't read like I do. There must be something about these books. Then my cousin Katy is raving over them. Dang! Two blood related family members raving over the series.

I give in. I watch the first movie on DVD when my sister buys it. Okay. The vampires sparkle in daylight? Are you freaking kidding me??? Yea, that was my first impression. It didn't live up to my Interview with the Vampire standards. I just thought it was merely ok. But, being the girl that I am, I decided to give the books a shot (I mean, books are ALWAYS better than the movie counterpart... ALWAYS). So I spent summer 2009 reading the series back-to-back. Ok, I liked the books better.

I did some research on the author, Stephanie Meyer. I found out that she is Mormon. Ok, now I understand the books better. From my personal knowledge of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I can see how the author portrayed the myth of vampires. I do credit her for being a great writer, but the Twilight Series is not my cup of tea. Sorry.

Now, before I started reading the Twilight series, I was watching HBO one night. They were showing the making of this new series called True Blood. It took place in Bon Temps, Louisiana (hey! Louisiana is where Interview is based out of too) and featured real-time like situations where Vampires reveal themselves to humanity.

Okay, this has greatly sparked my interests.

I watch the series premiere.





Yep, I am HOOKED!

My Sunday nights were dedicated to the show. I fell in love with the realism of the show. Organizations were rallying against the vampires much like how there are groups rallying against the gays (The Fellowship of the Sun is sooo the vampire equivilant of the Westboro Baptist Church--- watch it, you'll see). The vampires didn't sparkle! They couldn't even go out in daylight without burning or killing themselves! They had a very organized government system and were trying to live normal lives as best as they could. And, oh.... the SEX SEX SEX. Totally about the hot kinky sex!



Between seasons one and two, I read all the published books that the series was based on. Saw some minor differences but I was extremely proud of Alan Ball and his team for doing some of the best accurate portrayals of book to film/tv out there! This is my idea of how vampires should be! Ok, I'm biased on that answer... I have missed out on some of the greater vampire films to compare, lol.

In conclusion: Interview with the Vampire- my beginning impression of the idealistic vampire. Twilight Saga- cutesy but I'm too old to enjoy it (yea, I said it... twentysomething is too old for Twilight). True Blood- epic, blissful, my ultimate vampire love!

1997- The Year Boy Bands Corrupted Me

Ok, so a couple nights ago here in Kansas City, thousands of screaming, hormonal pre teens and teenage girls flocked to the Sprint Center. It was all for a 16 year old boy named Justin Beiber. As I decided to completely avoid that area of the city for the night, I was painfully reminded of a very similar time in my life pining over a group of guys.... the Backstreet Boys.



See, when I was 6 or 7, my cousin Niki was all into New Kids on the Block. She had her room covered in posters, had their sleeping bag, the works. It made me wonder how a group of guys that sing songs would engulf my cousin's mind to the point of innocent love. So my mom bought me their cassette tape (remember those?) so I could find out what the big deal was. This was at the end of their popularity on the radio, so I didn't really get into them.

Lets go foward to 1997. I was starting the 8th grade and, in tradition of teenage awkwardness, trying to figure out myself as an individual. I was a big fan of No Doubt at the time and my sister was all about Hanson (I got MMM Bop stuck in your head, didn't I???). So when I hear this song "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)," I was in love. Brian, Nick, AJ, Howie, and Kevin were my boys. And I was doomed...



I received the Backstreet Boys cd for my 14th birthday that year. I spent countless hours in my room listening to that cd, while decorating my closet doors and bedroom door with pictures from all those teeny-bopper magazines. I just *knew* that I was going to marry Brian someday (and yes, I did marry a guy named Brian, even though he turned out nothing like my celebrity crush). And, when Christmas came around, I added a calander and concert tickets for January 1998.

That concert was my first real concert experience of my life (I did see Hanson in the parking lot of Ward Parkway mall the year before... haha). I remember wearing Gap Earth perfume (which for a while became my traditional scent for concert going). Mom bought me a t-shirt and a dog tag with the band's name on it. Britney Spears was the opening act, which at the time she only had her first single (Hit me baby one more time)! When my boys finally appeared onstage, I was holding back tears out of shear excitement. I wasn't one of those constantly screaming girls (thank God) but I was definately elated to be in their prescense!

Summer 1998 was when my love for the Backstreet Boys came to it's peak. I grew up loving the video for Thriller, so when I was at a friends house watching the making of the music video for "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," I could not stop smiling. It was Halloween-chic and I couldn't get enough of it! For the longest time, I considered it my favorite song/video of all time. That has since change, since NOBODY can trump the awesomeness that is "Thriller."



It's been 13 years since my Backstreet journey started. To this day, I own all of their cds, seen them in concert 4 times (missed their show at the Midland last month), and have a few random items that represent them. Every now and then, I'll throw in one of their cds to have nostalgic moments. My music collection has definately broadened (to an extreme) since then, but they will always have a special place in my heart.

So for all my friends that are making fun of Beiber-fever, do not forget. That was us over a decade ago. But we had a lot more variety back then....