Graceland: Weekend Update- Girls weekend

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Weekend Update- Girls weekend

I can't believe I haven't blogged for a month. Last weekend was very blog worthy. After I moved from Colorado in 1996, my two girlfriends and I would do a girls weekend at least once a year. As they starting having kids, the frequency diminished. The last time I saw them was for my wedding four years ago. It was definitely time to get together again.

Erica planned a great weekend.They are both now back in Colorado. Kat's parents are in Boulder, where we all used to live, and they agreed to let us all crash at their place.

We started the weekend with dinner and a few other girls who are still in the area. This picture is horrible. The waiter was acting like he knew so much about photos, changing settings on my iphone before taking the photo. Uh- flash should have been turned off. Anyway, the gist is a fun dinner with the girls. Erin, Tina, Erica, Kat, me, Margaret

The rest of the weekend was shopping, hanging out, lots of chatting, visiting with our old Bishop and his wife, the FIRO-B (personality test that we've taken every girls weekend since 1998. Erica keeps the results so we can see how we've changed over the years), Apple Jacks (girls weekend staple), and a movie (42) in this amazing theater with reclining leather seats.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of photo taking. This is the only pic we got of the three of us.

I have to take a minute to praise my friends. When I lived in Boulder, I remember thinking how amazing my friends were.

Kat is smart- literally MENSA-smart. While impressive, this isn't my favorite thing about her. What I love is you'd never know how smart she is by talking to her. I told her that once, as a compliment, which she took as one. She has a PhD in neurobiology, but she isn't one of those people whose self-image is based on being a smart girl. (Please don't think this is a sexist comment and I think girls shouldn't be smart. I find men who have to prove how smart they are in every conversation every bit as annoying.) She is just Kat. Fun loving, well rounded, and a very interesting conversationalist. Some of my favorite memories are day long hikes through Rocky Mountain National Park having intense conversations solving the world's (and our) problems. She knows how to get things done, and fast. When my apartment flooded when I was in Utah for Christmas, Kat was there and had the place cleaned out in no time. (Or maybe it did take a long time, I wasn't there there. But no complaints from Kat, she just takes care of what needs to be done. No complaints.) She went the extra mile and, after everything dried out, put it back in its place before I got back. Kat is also DIY queen. I don't think there is an original wall left in her house. The week before I got there, she found a huge boulder buried in her yard, which they promptly dug up and are making into a bubbling fountain for the front yard. She the mother to 3 cutie kids who have a never-ending supply of crafts and homemade treats from Kat. She also recently added raising chickens to her resume.

I consider Erica as the heart of our group. I feel like she's the one who brought us all together. She is extremely talented and smart. When we lived in Boulder she was completing her Master's degree in music. She is a talented cellist and amazing vocalist. I loved all the comp tickets to hear her play in the Boulder Philharmonic. I was always so proud to be her friend. She is also a ton of fun. Lots of great memories laughing with Erica. She always got us to be just a little wacky. Everything was always more fun when Erica was around. She now has 4 kids and is an amazing mother. Erica has a talent for making people feel good about themselves. She is also one of the most prepared people I know. Once she slipped and gashed open her leg while hiking. The ER nurse asked her when her last tetanus shot was. It happened to be the day before. Since it had been a while since her last booster, and since we spent a lot of time hiking, she figured she needed one. This is typical Erica. I don't know that she's ever been unprepared for anything. She also runs marathons.

Erica would sometimes clean my house while I was at work so I would be free to hike or bike with her after work. Kat would sometimes get in on this too. They were both in school and I worked full time. Instead of leaving me out of their fun (they did that sometimes too) they would do my chores so I could have a lot of free time in the evenings. I remember one day coming home and Kat (?) had had enough of my annoyingly disorganized CD collection. My house was clean and music was alphabetized.

I love having these girls in my life, even though we don't see each other very often. I'm so happy that we can get together after 4 years and pick up right where we left off. My life is definitely better because I know them!

(Here's a little love the the girls at dinner too. Erin- everyone loves Erin. If you don't believe me, just meet her. You will love her in about 5 seconds. Tina- she moved to Boulder shortly before I moved away. She is a warm, kind woman. Unwavering faith. Mag- all I can say is NEVER play Set with her. You will lose. Mag is all kinds of fun.)

1 comment:

kat said...: you are too kind. i've just been sitting her - actually all week - thinking, wah. no girls' weekend this weekend. what am i going to be doing? :)

one of my favorite 'chores' that erica and i did was putting together your entertainment center while you were at work. we debated a LONG time if it would be a good surprise, or if you'd be bummed because you didn't get to build it yourself. :) i guess that was BEFORE we really knew you!

you are the greatest! i love that we can just pick up where we left off, which is great since i don't know how to dial a phone!; May 10, 2013 at 3:38 PM

My Movie Reviews

Quiet Earth. B-. Another SciFi recommended by Netflix, although this one was actually interesting and enjoyable. A guy wakes up and everyone is gone. Made in New Zealand, it claims to be one of the top ten movies in the US in the year it came out (sometime in the 1970s). After it was over, we agreed that it was good, but the ending was a little confusing, so we watched the ending again with the directors comments. Lame. Apparently the whole movie was supposed to have an anti-nuclear message and the director takes credit for his movie making New Zealand nuclear free. So.... pretend you don't know that and enjoy the movie.
Sunshine. C-. Netflix. That's it. We are not trusting Netflix's rating of sci-fi movies again. The sun is dying so a crew is going with a nuclear missle to "re-start" it. I kept hoping aliens would show up or at least something would happen to draw me in. A lot of things almost happened, but when they did, it did not make much sense.
Warm Bodies. B. Red Box. I was surprised by this movie. I'm a fan of a good zombie flick, but when I heard about the plot, it seemed a bit too much. It turned out to be very entertaining. I'd rate it pretty high on the must see zombie film list and very high on the cheesy teenage romance film list.
Wolverine. B. I'm a fan of the X-Men movies. I'm also a fan of Hugh Jackman. It was hard to go wrong going in with those two biases. The fighting sequences were too long, but that was expected. If you've like the X-Men movies, you should like this one too.
The East. B. I forget how much I love the indie flicks at the Broadway. This also had an environmentalist-based plot, but was written well and I liked how it ended. A women goes under cover in an environmental terrorist group. It goes with the obvious plot of her having sympathies for members of the group and trying to balance that with her personal beliefs. Worth seeing.
World War Z. B. I was in the middle of the book and didn't want to see the movie until I finish, but I couldn't help it and saw it opening weekend. Not a big deal as they are very different. This is a different kind of zombie movie. While most are horror flicks, this was more of a suspense movie. They cut out the gratutious gore associated with most zombie movies and gave it more of a plot. Fun for zombie fans and non-zombie fans.
Silent Running. D. Netflix. I have no idea why this is rated so well on Netflix. Sci-fi movie made in the sixties with blatant environmental message. Forests have died on the earth so they are growing them in a space station orbiting Saturn. Earth decides to abandon the project and for some reason that means they have to blow up the forests. One man understands the impact of losing all our forests so he kills everyone. My description made it seem way better than it is. At one point, he programs his robot helpers to play cards and you watch them play cards for about 10 minutes. Skip this one!

My Book Reviews

The Rent Collector. B. I loved this book while I was reading it. Then the author's comments on the back disappointed me. It was fiction! I was so inspired by the "true" story of this woman living at the dump in Cambodia and learning to read. The whole way through I thought it was true. I was mad when it wasn't. Although toward the end, it started getitng a little unbelievable. It was based on real people which bothers me wondering how much is true and how much is fiction. I still recommend the book, but know what you're getting into.
Divergent. B+. Fun, quick read. YA fiction. Your basic strong female in post-apocolypic world fighting to make change. Even though the story's been told over and over, this one was very engaging. I can't wait to read the next in the series!
World War Z. B+. For staters, this is very different from the movie. It's 10 years after we won the zombie war. The book is a series of interviews with survivors. I was hesitant about the way it was written and that I wouldn't stay involved without a central character. However, the book created a very real world. So much so that when I was getting off the freeway one morning and saw some homeless people waking up under a bridge, for just second, I thought they were zombies. I also wanted to bring it up in conversation. Like when someone was talking about North Korea, I wanted to say, "Did you hear how they handled the Zombie Apocalypse?' It was a fun book. I've never read a zombie book before and I may never again, but I'm glad I read this one. It also was welcome to read a book that isn't a strong female character overcoming incredible odds. I'm seriously weary of that plot line.
Waiting to be Heard. B+. I've followed the Amanda Knox case for several years. I thought, since I knew most details of the case, this might be boring. I was surprised at how engaging and well written it was. She is a quirky girl and, while the complete lack of physical evidence makes me sure she is innocent, I can see why people think she is hiding something. The book was haunting to think the someone who doesn't understand a culture coupled with a corrupt prosecutor could put an innocent person in jail for years.
Girl Gone. C-. Maybe it was called Gone Girl. I don't remember. Book club book. I've never gotten into mysteries. This one took a while to get into, then I couldn't put it down, then it ended and I wished I never picked it up. Ridiculous ending.
The Kitchen House. B-. I have no idea how to rate this book. It was slow to start. Once things started to happen (murder), I found myself sucked in and not wanting to put it down; however, once I did put it down, I didn't look forward to picking it up again. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's similar to a bunch of other books I've read. I'm just getting weary of the genre and need to mix it up a little. Overall, an interesting read. The story of a young white girl who is indentured when her family dies on the boat from Ireland to America. Her relationship with her new family (the slaves whom she is sent to live and work with) and how her life is different from them because of the color of her skin.
The Happiness Project. D. I'm reviewing the book, but I'm not going to finish it. I knew this wasn't my favorite genre, but it was the book club pick this month so I thought I'd give it a chance. I didn't see the point of reading someone's goals. I sometimes feel like these "self-help" books are an excuse for people to feel like they are doing something to be happier, when really they are an excuse to avoid working on yourself by living through someone else's experience. Instead of reading the book, how about spend that time working on your own "happiness project". As I read, I kept thinking it should have been a workbook for readers to complete their own project while reading hers. I'll be interested to hear how others in book club liked it.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Weekend Update- Girls weekend

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