And my best friend is Elizabeth Bennet?

The first term of school is almost over, life is crazy busy, two weeks ago I turned in my application to work in Washington and what do I have to talk to you about? A recent discovery about my friend's personality. Yeah, it's just that exciting.
So the particular friend that I am thinking of is headstrong, smart, kind, frank, independent, loves her family and friends, loves the outdoors, loves reading, isn't afraid to tell a guy what she thinks..... Sound like anyone from classic English literature? Anyone?
Bingo -- Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice (and if we're talking film adaptions, as I believe I've mentioned before, the 1995 version starring Colin Firth is the ONLY way to go).
And speaking of Colin Firth, Pride and Prejudice is most certainly not a single-character based story. I would have been content to just make snide remarks about my friend's general need for her very own Mr. Darcy, but it just so conveniently happens that there is a certain guy at school who is, oh I dunno, tall dark and handsome? Smart? A little bit of a jerk sometimes? Yeah, and it gets better: my certain friend and this certain guy didn't exactly hit it off from the beginning. They were completely content to barely tolerate each other for quite awhile. (Ringing any bells for you yet?) Oh, but now? My friend thinks maybe she doesn't hate him any more. I'm not saying she likes him (yet :P), she just doesn't dislike him...... :D
Anyways, teasing my friend totally makes my day. Love you lots, honey pie!


Oh, P.S. This friend may or may not by the time you read this have written a blog post about this same topic at sweetcheeks48.blogspot.com

Hmmm...Hmmm...What to post about?

Well, when in doubt post about your favorite music, right?

So I don't usually listen to pop music and I definitely am not into the teeny-bopper television shows that are on channels like Disney and Nick (because they are, for lack of a better word or any tact, STUPID) but flipping through channels the other day I discovered a band (technically I discovered a tv show, but it holds no interest for me besides the songs) that has some surprisingly good music. Yeah, it's mostly (okay, maybe all) sugary feel-good pop but they're pretty darn talented and the one good thing about a band that comes from a Nick tv show is that you know their music will at least be clean.

Anyways, it's a group of four guys (I have no idea how old they are, but probably no older than 19 or 20) called Big Time Rush. I'm not saying, "Go listen to them all day and buy their album and love them forever," I'm just going to post a couple of my favorite songs by them because at the moment I am lacking a better post topic. The first one is called "Stuck" and the second one is "Halfway There". My other favorite is called "Counting on You" (featuring Jordin Sparks), but I figured posting two is enough and then if you really like them for some reason you can go check out other songs on your own.

Thanks for reading! :D

I think this one has the lyrics, but I give no guarantee that they are correct.

Sorry, the only one I could find for this was the actual music video.


Okay, I thought I would just end the post there but I feel weird just posting pop music (it's very un-me) so I will now post a country song in order to get my mojo back. Here is one of my all-time favorites, Lady Antebellum's "Our Kind of Love".

My new favorite movie/musical

So this weekend, while staying with my aunt and uncle, I watched The Phantom of the Opera (the one with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum) for the first time. All I can say is that I love, love, LOVE it. I would definitely not recommend it for young audiences because it deals with some...suggestive topics but the story, the music, the cast *cough cough Gerard Butler cough cough* : it all makes for one AMAZING film (and I would give up a limb if I could go see it live on Broadway).
One of my favorite scenes is towards the end where Christine, traumatized because she's the object of the Phantom's creepy, obsessive love, goes to visit her father's grave. The song she sings in the cemetery ("Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again") is BEAUTIFUL and the "Angel of Music" reprise right after that she sings with the Phantom (thinking he's her father's spirit?) sends chills up and down my spine (or maybe that was just the sofa's built in spine-chilling mechanism...hmmm...)
I do wonder, though, what the next step in the Phantom's plan was, because if Christine's boyfriend hadn't shown up she would have gone into the crypt and realized he wasn't her dearly departed daddy. What would he say? "Ummm....SURPRISE! I'm not your dad, but how do you feel about coming to live under the opera house with me for fooorrreeeevvveeer? You, me, and that creepy lifelike doll/replica of  you that I keep right by my bed could be one big, happy family!" Hehe maybe he should stick to "Christine *wheeze wheeze* I am not your father *wheeze wheeze*." :D
The movie nearly made me bawl my eyes out, though, because the Phantom's story made me so sad! I can't imagine watching anyone treat a little boy like that, that one little scene in the movie made me feel physically sick :( And he was so sad... Christine made him really happy, he was just bonkers because of the abuse he suffered as a child and didn't know how to handle the happiness...
Okay, I'll stop now and just post a couple videos. Thanks for reading!

Here's that song I love:

And here is the ridiculously sad almost-final scene:

P.S. -- Mmm-hmm, yeah. And he's Scottish too.

All boys are weird, but some are weirder than others

I found this incredibly  profound
statement on Google Images.
My life now has meaning.

Once upon a time there was a girl who had some awesome friends--and some slightly less awesome possums, but that's another story. This girl, unfortunately, went to school with a lot of teenage boys. "What could be so unfortunate," you say, "about going to school with a lot of teenage boys? I thought you liked boys, ReallyShawn."
To this I answer, "Nay, I like MEN. And since there are no MEN at my school, only teenage boys, it is indeed unfortunate." And to this you say, "Why are you talking so strangely, ReallyShawn?" and for that I have no answer. 
Moving on...

Ooh, and here it is
with a picture!

So in order to make snide remarks about these unfortunate teenage boys, the girl (that's me...in case you hadn't figured it out yet, I'm the girl...) and her awesome friends made up a nickname for each boy. That is, only the boys who mattered... Some of these nicknames were really random, like "Bud", "Presley" or "Gem". Others, like "Ella" or "Handsome Devils numbers 1 and 2" had to do with inside jokes dating back to at least the beginning of 10th grade. And finally, there were the nicknames that had to do with the unfortunate ones themselves--names like "Old man shoes" or "Stinky" that related specifically to their odd senses of style or the amount of cologne they bathed in (yeah, someone really needs to teach them the 'mist and walk through' technique).


And then writing in this odd, past tense-ish style became too difficult for the girl, and she decided to just tell you the rest of the story in a slightly more normal fashion...


So we give nicknames to any guys that we need to talk about without them, or the eighth grade girls that worship them, knowing about it. It's not that we particularly care if they know that we don't think they're quite all that and a bag of chips, it's just that everything's more fun in code. It makes us feel dangerous. *cue Mission Impossible theme*


One of our favorite things to do is go stink-eye hunting. Do you know what a stink-eye is? If not, you have lived a very sad life until now. The stink-eye, not to be confused with the smoldering love-look, is the perfect blend of glare and eye-roll, and is best delivered pointedly and with a subtle snort of disgust. 

It is our strong belief that it is precisely because we don't worship the ground that certain boys walk on, unlike...others, that we are so good at getting stink-eyes. It's the most fun to pass someone when they are having a conversation with one of their friends and they (1) stop, (2) give you a fantastic stink-eye as you walk by, and then (3) go right back to their conversation like it was totally normal to optically send death wishes your way.


Well, I'm done rambling (for now). Thanks, as always, for reading and THANK YOU, my dear Kaylla, for the shout-out on your blog.  It made me feel special.


And no, I don't actually have any possums.