Stickers for Everyone!

I was a great sticker collector as a kid. I had multiple sticker albums, their whereabouts I wish I knew now. It would be so fun to find them, and to see how much (or how little) stickers have changed between now and then. I don’t remember them that well but I do know that I liked to organize them by fuzzy stickers and shiny stickers. I think I liked the fuzzies better, which is interesting because now I think I prefer shinies. I used to bring my sticker albums to school and would sometimes make trades with friends.

From about aged 10 through age 23, I used stickers occasionally, but definitely not regularly. Then, one day in the fall of 2007 I was in a Target in Austin and saw some Disney Princess stickers and knew I just had to buy them. Thus my love of stickers was reignited. To my delight, I discovered in the early spring of 2010 that the Sandylion sticker company had a factory store in Markham, Ontario a two minute drive (almost directly across the street) from the Seneca campus in Markham where I worked. On the day of my students’ final in April, I went to Seneca early so that I could go to the Sandylion store. Almost three years later I feel in some ways that I have barely made a dent in the stickers I bought that day. Well, that’s not totally true. I bought some Princess Tiana stickers which I used up pretty quickly and a few other Disney stickers but those ones were in sheets. I made the mistake of buying entire rolls of stickers (though to be fair that was what was for sale) and those take a long time to get through.

I’m not surprised I bought so many that day though since I am always on the look out for stickers. The Japanese make awesome stickers, which is not surprising since as I wrote about before, Tokyo has the best stationery store I have ever seen. That store had lots of cool stickers including some of a Japanese version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (which I of course bought.) In retrospect, I should have bought more stickers but it had been less than a month since I had gone to the Sandylion factory store and so I knew I really didn’t need that many more. In June 2011, I went to New York City to hang out primarily with L. and J. The first day I was there though, I spent a really fun day with N. (who was in town for the week) doing lots of things including going to this Japanese stationery/book store and buying stickers. I bought two packs of stickers – one exclusively of panda bears (really cute!) and the other a mixture of animals. Even though I am not a huge animal lover in real life, I love animal stickers. They are so cute! I have some fuzzy green frog ones I bought at the Sandylion store that I really like too.
 

In addition to animal stickers, I also like flower stickers, especially roses. Fruit stickers are really great, especially strawberry stickers. I even stuck one on my laptop. I also have lots of heart stickers which I really enjoy too. Then of course, the most ubiquitous stickers in my current collection (no more albums for me; now they stay on their sheets or rolls until I use them) are Disney Princesses. I have both sheets with only one princess – like Snow White stickers (which will include the dwarves and the prince), Ariel stickers (which always include Flounder but actually, interestingly, never include Prince Eric) – and sheets with all the princesses.  

Prince Eric

What I have come to appreciate over the past five years in which I have continually been buying and using stickers is that stickers are absolutely not just for kids. One time when I was at Central Market in Austin, the cashier’s nametag was all decorated with stickers. I told her I really liked it and she told me that she had had to decorate her nametag cause she didn’t know what else to do with her stickers! So while stickers are definitely liked by adults and kids, I think adults have a harder time finding use for their stickers. I almost exclusively use my stickers to decorate envelopes (and occasionally postcards although I’ll usually only just put one or max two) when I send letters. I like to think that the post people find my envelopes very cheerful. I love decorating envelopes and lots of people I’ve sent sticker covered mail too have told me how much they like them. Just looking through my current sticker collection always makes very cheerful. If you haven’t used stickers in a while, go buy some. I feel confident they will add some cheer to your life too.

Christmas Decoration Ennui

As a little girl I was always so so excited for Christmas. Like most kids, I remember having difficulty falling asleep on Christmas Eve and waking up super early on Christmas morning. I loved going down the stairs to the living room where my mom had laid out all my presents. Over the past maybe 10 even 15 years, I’ve gotten less and less into Christmas. I still like it in a general way – because it’s a break, because I usually go on a holiday somewhere warm (I remember when I was little always finding it so odd that the hotels we’d visit in the Caribbean would have Christmas trees. Warm tropical weather and Christmas trees just did not go together in my mind. All the Christmas carols about winter wonderlands had permanently ingrained in my mind the idea that Christmas trees belong in cold snowy environs), because Christmas lights are very pretty – and particularly I love seeing my aunt and uncle who drive to Toronto from Annapolis just before Christmas every year. My mom also makes the most delicious and amazing linzer torte (using her secret Hungarian recipe) every year. But to be honest, I don’t have any desire to participate in Christmas decorations, trees, etc. 

I actually feel guilty for not liking Christmas more because it is important to my mom, and because in a lot of ways it’s a very nice holiday. But at the same time, I feel no attachment to trees or decorations. Over the month of December, it seemed every store or restaurant I visited in Montreal had put up Christmas decorations. D. and I were eating at Burger de Ville (such good burgers! And vanilla milkshakes! If you’re in Montreal and like those things, go there! And thanks to H. for the recommendation!) recently and as we were putting on our coats to leave, I noticed with surprise that there were Christmas decorations. I remarked on this to D. and he replied along the lines of “what do you expect?/of course they do! It’s almost Christmas!” Not only was D. right, but I had to admit that the decorations were a nice touch. I think I have to accept that I am someone who has zero desire to put up Christmas decorations, yet enjoys admiring them.

To people who love Christmas what I am about to say probably sounds awful, but while I think Christmas trees are very pretty (especially with coloured lights and lots of ornaments) I don’t think I would mind if I didn’t have one. Maybe it’s just that right now I haven’t had to actually face a Christmas without a tree because my parents always get one. Hmmm, maybe I should take back my earlier statement. Maybe I would mind if we didn’t have one. When I eventually have my own house, then I will get a tree but for now, I am content with just occasionally seeing the tree and noting its prettiness without giving it much more thought. 

I’m the same with Halloween. No desire to put up decorations or dress up and I can’t remember the last time I was involved with carving a pumpkin. Although I do still distinctly remember and actually kind of like the smell and feel of pumpkin seeds being pulled out of the pumpkin. It’s not that I don’t like holidays or celebrating – I love Valentine’s Day because I love hearts, the colours pink and red, and heart shaped cookies with pink icing. I also love birthdays! I want to celebrate my own and all my friends’ birthdays every year. So I am into holidays, I’m just not into putting up decorations.

Regardless of my opinions on trees and decorations, I agree that the December holiday season is a wonderful time of year. Whether you are into Christmas decorations or not (or even celebrate Christmas), I hope you have a very happy holiday season!

Thoughts on Book Clubs

When I moved to Montreal at the end of August 2010, I was sad that I wasn't going to get to join A's book club. A. had just joined one when I left and it sounded really good. There were about 6-7 women and they met every 6 weeks to two months at a different person's house to discuss whatever book they had picked. A. has told me some of the books they've read and a lot of them have been books I've either read or have wanted to read. When I eventually do move back to Toronto, if that book club still exists, I am looking forward to joining it.

I have never been in a book club, and I am very curious about them. I wonder how much I would like them? I know I would like them if I could choose who exactly would be in it, but I am more hesitant about being in a book club with strangers. Suppose I don't get along with some of the people in it? Or find them annoying? (My desire to try one out outweighs my hesitation however, and so I will join A's if I am still invited.) I wish so much that 1. all of my favourite people and best friends lived in the same place and 2. that we could be in a book club together :)

I already do kind of have quasi-book clubs going on. For a while (and I guess it still exists but we haven't read a book in a really long time) I was in a celebrity book club with M. and E. We read really bad (but fun to read books) like Tori Spelling's So noTORIous and MommyWood. Then we'd go for Indian food and talk about the books. Hmmm, once I move back to Toronto we definitely need to get that book club back in full swing too. Once I received a letter from N. in which she expressed how much she liked "our informal book club." That made me so happy because I hadn't thought to label it like that but we do have a sort of informal book club going on! Every year I give N. a book for her birthday (which is soon, December 14th and I still haven't chosen which book I am going to give her this year!) and she usually gives me one for mine. I always try to read the book she gave me relatively soon after my birthday and then I love discussing it with her. In January 2006 I read the first of many books I've read by Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood - and to my delight later that spring I found out that N. was a big Murakami fan. I remember very clearly one bright sunny June day in the last June I spent in Berkeley meeting up with N. and going for a walk over all northside, including to the Berkeley Rose Garden, and having a long and wonderful conversation with her about Murakami.

Finally, S. and I really and truly have book ESP! I finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (which is one of my very favourite books) in early June 2007. I told S. about it the next time we talked on the phone, and was going to urge her to read it soon when she told me she had actually read it a few months earlier. The same thing happened this summer when I read Ann Patchett's latest book State of Wonder and wanted S. to read it too so we could discuss, only for her to tell me (again) that she already had earlier in the summer. I know the same thing has happened a few other times too. How cool! The best part is we can then discuss the book right away without having to wait for one of us to read it.

 

Another cool idea is what my friend H.'s sister N. did: she had a virtual book club where she and two friends would meet for bi-monthly gchats about a book they'd all read. That is a very good idea and something I might actually try to get going one day.

When I was in high school, I really liked Oprah's Book Club. In fact, in grade 12 I wrote a whole essay comparing different books from Oprah's Book Club, discussing which themes were present in all, etc. Sometimes when I would tell people I liked Oprah's Book Club picks or read articles about it, there was this underlying current of disdain. Some people (mostly male) dismissed Oprah's Book Club as having only lightweight books or books that only women would like (as opposed to the really serious and important books that men like to read). That kind of thinking still makes me angry! Especially because it couldn't be farther from the truth. I still think Jonathan Franzen is an arrogant and obnoxious person for criticizing Oprah's Book Club when his novel The Corrections was an Oprah pick. For reasons I can't fathom now I actually read The Corrections and for what it's worth, although I read it over 10 years ago, I can't remember a single thing about the book (which is not the case for plenty of other of books I read 10 years ago or longer.) Jonathan Franzen's dismay at being   associated with Oprah's Book Club just struck me as so ridiculous. A. (a different one than above) is a huge Oprah fan and told me about the interview Jonathan Franzen finally did give to Oprah a few years ago when (for whatever reason... Oprah is too nice!) Oprah chose his novel Freedom as a pick in her book club. A. told me that Jonathan Franzen had a good excuse for his behaviour (the excuse unfortunately now escapes me) and he and Oprah got along well. I still hold a grudge though (Oprah: why are you hugging him in the picture below?!?), and have zero desire to ever read Freedom.

 

The bottom line is that I love reading and I love discussing books with other people. And whether I am in a book club or not, I am always going to keep reading books and wanting to discuss them with others.

The best part about fridges? The magnets!

 While I think new modern kitchens are great, I find fridges without magnets so sad. The stainless steel fridges I've seen close up are always big and very nice and exude this clean, sleek look. But I really can't imagine ever having a kitchen with one. (Although check out this website -  it gives tips on how to get around the whole stainless steel no magnets thing.) I am just too attached to my magnets. I don't understand what the company who made the first stainless steel non-magnetic fridges was thinking. Wasn't there anybody there who stood up for magnets? Fridges without them are just too bare.

I'm not sure when my obsession with magnets started but it really is a full-blown obsession (although to be fair it has perhaps cooled a bit over the past year). I have so many magnets! They make kitchens seem cheerful and are also very fun to look at.  I like to buy them when I go on trips and so I have a cool collection from all over the world. I have also searched sites like Etsy and other random sites for magnets and have ordered them off the internet on multiple occasions. In addition to magnets with place names or pictures of the places I've visited and really liked, I also like magnets that mean something. For example, I have this cheesy magnet of a piece sign made out of flowers which I really like. S. gave me one while we were at Berkeley which is a picture of a woman and says "Talk to me..." I love that one! I have another one that says "Hearst College" which is the fictional university Veronica Mars attended. Unsurprisingly, I ordered that one online. From the same site, I ordered a black magnet that says "Louisiana is for Vampires" a shout out to Charlaine Harris and the wonderful vampires of Bon Temps, Louisiana. I also ordered magnets with pictures of Disney Princesses from someone on Etsy; and one of my favourite magnets is of Michelle Obama which I bought at the DC airport.

I have very mixed feelings about my current apt. The bathroom and kitchen are sooo small - like so small that I whenever I open the fridge I hit the pots that are hanging on a pot rack. I have gotten very very used to the sound of clanging pots and pans. My fridge is not too small but it's definitely smaller than all the fridges I've had in any other apt I've ever lived in (except Paris... which makes sense because I do think my apt is quite European. From the moment I found it it reminded me of apts I saw in Paris, except sadly not as nice :( ). All my magnets and pictures and all the things I had on the fridge in my old apt didn't even fit on this one, and what's worse is that because of how cramped the kitchen is D. (and sometimes me but to a much lesser extent) knocks magnets off the fridge and on to the floor. My poor magnets do not like it.

They, like I, dream about a gorgeous kitchen with huge windows letting in lots of light, a double sink with a window behind it so I can always look outside while doing the dishes, an island in the middle which I could use alternatively as extra counter space while cooking or as an extra table while eating, a double stove so I could be baking two different things at the same time, a breakfast nook right by the window with a table and comfortable chairs, and a big glorious fridge covered with magnets. One day...

Yeah I know you warned me but this is too important

One evening in Cheney Hall, my dorm first year at Berkeley, in the early spring of 2003, S. and I ended up in these two guys - E. and F. - on our floor's room playing that game UNO. Anyway, E. was playing The Strokes' album Is This It. Other than "Last Nite" I hadn't heard any Strokes songs and hadn't been that interested in the band. That all changed that fateful night. The music was so good! E. kindly agreed to burn me a copy of the cd and for the next 7 months, I listened to that cd non-stop. I remember so distinctly walking across campus to class one day in April 2003 listening to Is This It on my discman (oh yeah!) and realizing how happy I was. It was a great feeling and one I realized I had really really missed feeling my entire last year of high school. It was a gorgeous day - really sunny and Berkeley's campus was super green - and the Strokes were awesome and I was so glad I was done with UTS and happily living my life on the other side of the continent.

In September 2003, L. and I started hanging out all the time. So naturally I asked her if she wanted to go see The Strokes with me when they came to San Francisco in October. Despite not really knowing their music that well, she agreed.We went along with 3 other girls (including S.) on October 21, 2003. The show was at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (really just this big room more than an auditorium) and Regina Spektor and then Kings of Leon were the opening acts (which is funny because L & I became huge Kings of Leon fans 2 years later but that night we just wanted them to finish so the Strokes would come on). That was the best show I had ever attended at that point in my life and definitely still among the top 3 best shows I've ever been to (the other two being Broken Social Scene in DC in November 2006 and Kings of Leon in Paris in June 2007). Usually I would be shy at shows and just kind of stand there (I still usually do that now... :) ) but that show was different. We were really packed in, we were close to the front and to the Strokes, we were all dancing and singing along to the songs we knew - it was so fun!! It also solidified L and I's friendship because after that show we became even closer.

For the next week both L and I listened to Is This It on repeat and then on October 28th the Strokes' second album (which they played most of the songs on at the show) Room on Fire came out. Room on Fire will always always always be my favourite Strokes album and one of my favourite albums in general. I played it constantly and could still probably tell you every word on it, despite not listening to it much recently. If I were to be stranded on a desert island and could only take 5 albums, it would be on the list. If I could only take one, I'd probably take it just because I know I don't get sick of it and because even 9 years later, I still think it's really great.

That album was also the soundtrack to a particularly intense period of my life. I was 19, almost 20, and finally felt like I knew and understood something about life and intense romantic feelings (super cheesy but true!). The title of this blog post comes from the third song on Room on Fire Automatic Stop. I always felt, even at the time, like B., right from the start, warned me things didn't have the same meaning for him but that I couldn't help feeling those things anyway because to me, all these new and exciting feelings, just felt too important. And even 9 years later, that time in my life is still important to me and I still think that line applies really well. 

In my last semester at Berkeley in spring 2006, the Strokes' 3rd album - First Impressions of Earth - came out. I used to listen to it (now on my ipod) every day as I walked from my apt to North Gate and then across campus to my Portuguese class. I liked it but it didn't have anywhere near the same appeal or instant obsession to it as Is This It or Room on Fire had. L. and I went to see them again in San Francisco in March 2006 but I remember more about walking to BART and then walking home to my apt once we got back to Berkeley in the rain more than I remember the actual show... And so while I still considered the Strokes one of my favourite bands by summer 2006, I had stopped actively listening to them. 

In late 2009, Julian Casablancas released a solo album. There was an article about him in the NY Times at the time, which I read with interest and even forwarded to L., but for some reason which is beyond me I didn't even think to buy his cd. I think if it had been a Strokes cd I would have definitely bought it but even though Julian Casablancas was - and always will be - my favourite Stroke, I just wasn't that interested in buying it. That all changed in the summer of 2010, though, when M. gave me a bunch of music, his solo album included. I loved it - especially the first three songs which I listened to over and over. I instantly felt remorse that I hadn't supported Julian enough in the fall and I remember spending one summer evening in my living room reading article after article about him (and getting more and more intrigued) as the light faded outside. 

In March 2011, the Strokes released their first album in 5 years. I like it a lot. I didn't listen to it anywhere near as much as I listened to any of their other albums but it definitely had that distinctive Strokes sound which I had missed the last 5 years. I listened to it a lot at first but I don't often listen to it now and I rarely listen to the whole thing through (I like the first 5 songs way better than the last 5) but the worst part is that L. (although her little brother bought her the cd, how sweet!) didn't really like it that much. That was the worst part because it made it clear that the period in our lives when the Strokes was both of our favourite band was really and truly over.

Sometimes it seems sad my obsession with them is over but what's sadder in a way is that L. and I don't have that obsession together anymore. It makes sense though because I don't get as intense about bands in the way I did when I was 19 and 20. I think that's just part of growing up. And while L. and I may not be discussing and/or listening to the Strokes non-stop anymore, we're a) discussing other things and b) will always have that time in our lives to be happy about.

Before I end, just for fun, here is a list of my top 6 (I couldn't pick just 5) favourite Strokes songs (in no particular order and this was so hard, I pretty much like every song on Is This It and Room on Fire) 1. Reptilia 2. What Ever Happened? 3.  The End Has No End 4. Is This It 5.  Hard to Explain and 6. Automatic Stop
Happy Listening!!

My days as a Young & the Restless Fangirl

From about when I was 9 all through the rest of elementary school and into middle school, I loved watching the soap opera the Young and the Restless (or Y&R as it's known to fans :) ). My babysitter, A., liked it and we used to watch it together when she babysat me. I became hooked and pretty soon I was a very devoted fan. Thinking back, A. was probably a little freaked out by how intense I became about the show. It wasn't even a question of whether I wanted to watch it when she babysat me. Of course we were going to watch it and then discuss it for a long time afterwards!! Y&R aired (and probably still does?) Monday - Friday from 4:30-5:30 pm on Global. It also aired from 12:30-1:30 pm on CBS although these ones were one day behind the episodes airing on Global. The Bold and the Beautiful - created by the same people as Y&R - aired on CBS right after and I would sometimes watch that show too. My mom wasn't happy about me watching Y&R at first and told me I wasn't allowed but after I kept sneaking it (and would watch it when A. babysat) she relented and let me watch it as often as I wanted. 

Y&R took place in the fictional Genoa City, Wisconsin. Things I remember about the show: whenever any of the characters went on vacation they'd always go to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands; all the main families on the show owned cosmetics companies and lived in huge mansions; and it was very common for the same man to have been married (or to have been engaged or have an affair with) a mother and her daughter and for the same woman to have been married (or to have been engaged or have an affair with) a father and a son. I've been googling a lot of the main characters - Victor Newman, Nikki Newman, Jack Abbott, Sharon Newman - and they all look exactly the same as they did when I stopped watching the show in the 90s! People in soap opera land seem to never age. Soap operas exist in their own alternate universe where time works differently - a character would have a baby and then within a few months the child would be 5. Then the character wouldn't be on the show for about 2 years only to come back as a teenager or even in their 20s. It makes sense, of course, because 5 year olds can't be involved in love triangles and power struggles and all the other things that go on on these shows but it was always a bit disconcerting to see the mom and dad look the same but to now have way older kids (who soon enough they'd be sharing romantic partners with). Nothing was ever permanent in Genoa City - marriages never lasted (although the remarriage rate is very high there!), people would die but then have faked their death and come back to life a few years later - and this (all these things really) could seem good or bad depending on the type of person you are or even just your mood that day.

I can't remember how long I consistently watched Y & R for but I think my heyday was probably from about 1994-1996. As you likely know, I have always loved writing letters and cards. Naturally, this extended to soap stars. This was back before the internet (or at least before the internet became something most people had in their homes/at least had regular access to) and so I must have gotten the address from the TV (they probably posted it at the end). I can't think how else I would have gotten it (unless it was Soap Opera Digest?) Anyway, you could just write to Y & R stars care of CBS headquarters in Los Angeles. I can't remember if I addressed the letters to the character's name or the actor's name but it's more likely it was the character's name as the only way I would have gotten the actor's name would have been from Soap Opera Digest. I have no idea what I wrote to them and desperately wish I had copies of the letters I sent. I probably just gushed about how cool they were and how much I loved the show.

Cricket is so pretty! And she is a Legal Aid Lawyer!

My two favourite characters/actors were Christine (nickname Cricket) Blair who was sooooo pretty and a lawyer. I loved her. And Brad Carlton. I don't remember that much about Brad except that he was the Vice President of something at Newman Enterprises (Victor Newman's company) and was soooo dreamy. Happily, I received signed pictures from both Cricket and Brad!! (or Lauralee Bell and Don Diamont - the actor's names.) Lauralee even signed hers (and I still remember this almost 20 years later!) "To Sara Lytton (well actually my real name but for the purposes of this blog I'll stick with that :) ) - love" and then her signature. Brad Carlton also signed a picture and sent it to me and it is identical to the picture below except it was addressed to me! (See pictures above & below - the Lauralee Bell one is currently for sale for $24.99 as a collectible on Amazon!) In addition to them, I wrote to and received signed pictures from so many other Y&R stars. I decorated the bulletin board I had in my bedroom with all the signed pictures I received. It was so fun!! I obviously eventually took those pictures down but I wonder so much if they're still in a box somewhere in my house. I hope so so I can find them one day (and maybe sell them on Amazon haha).

This is the exact picture Brad sent me!

Victor Newman aka Eric Braeden

In July 2006 my dad and I went to Berlin. We took one of those boat cruises that go up and down the river and let you see different sights. We love and always go on boat cruises (if they are available) in new cities. Anyway, two things still stick really clearly from that ride: 1. the guy selling us the tickets knew we didn't speak German yet still sold us tickets and neglected to tell us the entire tour would be in German and that there wouldn't be those headphones available that offer the commentary in other languages; and 2. Victor Newman (aka Eric Braeden - the actor's name, aka the most powerful man in Genoa City and the founder of Newman Enterprises) was on the boat too! I was so excited! I had read somewhere that he was German and there he was in Germany, with 3 other people, chatting away in German. It was really surreal. I had never seen Victor outside of Genoa City (except maybe he went on vacation to St. Thomas? I can't remember) but anyway, it was just so weird to be on a boat ride in Berlin with Victor Newman. My dad wanted me to ask him for his autograph but I was too shy. I didn't even sneak a photo. But I haven't forgotten what he looked like (identical to on TV... :) )

I don't think I ever made a conscious decision not to watch Y&R anymore, it was just more of a slow fade out as I often wasn't home between 4:30-5:30 (and was never home unless I was sick) between 12:30-1:30. I haven't been tempted to watch it again but I could see myself watching an episode again if the opportunity presented itself. I am just glad that Y&R is still going strong. Over the past few years, All My Children, Guiding Light, As the World Turns, One Life to Live were all cancelled. I didn't watch any of them but I still think it's sad they're over. Now the only original soaps left are Y&R, Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, and General Hospital.

Last September, I read an article in the New York Times Magazine about soap operas by a writer named Rebecca Traister. (Read it! It's really good!) She discussed how in their early days, soap operas provided all sorts of opportunities for women (to be creators, writers, and actors on these shows) that other TV shows and Hollywood didn't provide. Because so many soap opera writers were women, Traister asserts, they created dynamic female characters: "women generated the action; they didn't just respond to it." Traister also explains that "Instead of playing girlfriends and mothers to male heroes, soap women were the planets around which an array of husbands, lovers, and colleagues mooned." While Traister argues that the remaining soaps have changed somewhat and now have a lot of storylines focused on younger characters (many of them male), the gender equal nature of soap operas' history is something I didn't know about before and am glad I know about now.

This post on Y&R has made me miss the show a bit. I think ultimately the reason I liked it so much was for a theme that continually comes up on this blog and in my life: I love stories about people (especially their personal lives) and soap operas provide lots of that. I definitely feel that watching Y&R as a kid opened my eyes to the exciting and dramatic things that were possible in the world.

Internet Commentators & the Wild World Wide Web

I love the internet (no surprise there) and read several websites on a regular basis. I am not, however, a commentator on any of those sites. I remember this annoying guy I knew in grad school - he was arrogant and condescending and he hated all vegetables and never ate them (who hates all vegetables?!?) - lecturing me once on internet commentators (not sure how we got on the topic) and how so much of what is important on the internet takes places in the comments section. He said the whole point of posting something on the internet was so that someone could respond in the comments and spark this whole dialogue. I disagree(d) because often I discuss articles and posts I have read on the internet in real life with other people, thus having a dialogue in person; and because the comments sections on so many websites can be horrible, mean and nasty places.

Salon is in theory a cool website. I don't visit it anywhere near as often as I used to though, and I think a large part of that is because of the comments section. I am very surprised that Salon does not hire comments sections moderators to better control the environment in the comments. People call each other horrible names all the time and insult the writers on the site (especially female writers) on a regular basis. Overall, I find the site has a lot of misogynist and racist commentators and I can't believe the site doesn't do something about that. I think the Globe and Mail is also one of the worst, which I find off. The G and M, Canada's national newspaper as it calls itself, can be really smug and kind of annoying. I still go to its site (almost) every day because they do have pretty good news, most of the time. What completely baffles me though, is the amount of hatred and fighting that goes in the comments sections for most articles. The commentators can be so consistently cruel that it saddens me to think these are the people who read the G and M. Moreover, as with Salon, there are so many misogynists writing in the comments who consistently blame feminists and often radical feminists for all problems ever. It's really sad to read. I'm sure the majority of those commentators wouldn't ever call people (let alone complete strangers) the types of names and insults they repeatedly write in the comments sections, hiding behind their computer screens. 

When I first started reading Jezebel in 2009, I briefly entertained the thought of commentating on it. I didn't have time (or probably more accurately didn't want to make time) to be one of those commentators who would comment all the time on almost every post but the articles on the site interested me and I wanted to occasionally be able, if I felt like it, to write a comment. I decided against creating a Jezebel account, however, because you had to do a trial run. I can't remember the details anymore but you were allowed to comment a few times and if the editors of the site (and maybe other commentators I can't remember?) thought your comments were good enough you were allowed in. But if they weren't you weren't. Maybe it was really easy to get let in, I don't know... But I do remember being turned off by that because even though I thought it was very smart of Jezebel to have a whole list of commentating instructions including saying they wanted people who could write in full sentences with no spelling or grammatical errors, I just didn't feel like getting judged on my comments and possibly even turned away. I agreed with their desire to have a comment section where people valued intelligent comments, but I also just didn't want the pressure of having to write good comments to be let in in the first place.

All that said, I used to really enjoy reading the comments on Jezebel because it was a place where people wrote thoughtful, intelligent comments and when they disagreed with each other, mostly did so in a civil manner. Even though I loved the mix of celebrity gossip and serious feminist issues being discussed, I stopped reading the site once it switched over to its new format sometime in early 2011. The new interface was very user unfriendly and a lot of the best commentators left. I also found that around the time of the changeover the commentators were getting more and more annoying. A lot of the comments were so self-righteous, smug and judgmental and the disagreements started to get more and more uncivil with people saying sometimes fairly mean and cutting things to each other. I remember that some commentators would jump to conclusions about others so fast, and it started to get kind of sad to read. For a good example of what I mean, check out the comments section on this post.

I find the whole idea of people fighting in the comments sections of various websites very weird. Is it really worth it to fight (mostly) anonymously with someone you've never met over the internet? Don't you have better things to do with your time? I don't like fights in real life (who does?) but know they are sometimes necessary to work out issues, etc. Fights with strangers online seem always unnecessary to me though, and yet they happen on a fairly regular basis. A guy I knew at Berkeley, M., told me his favourite way to talk with someone about difficult issues in their friendship/ relationship/etc was through gchat (to be honest he told me this in 2006 and he really said through "AIM" but I'd like to think that by now, if he still favours chatting, he's switched to gchat) because it was a conversation happening in real time but by writing instead of speaking you were able to think a bit more about what you wanted to say. Although I prefer to talk things out face to face, his reasoning makes a lot of sense to me. Fighting with strangers in the comments sections of websites, however, doesn't.

The Hairpin is by far the best place on the internet for commentators. The (mostly female) commentators on there (and there are a lot of regulars!) almost all seem like cool, interesting people and everyone is always civil and kind to each other. There are the odd disagreements but they never descend into the pathetic fights present all over the rest of the internet. One of my favourite things to read on the Hairpin is the Friday Open Thread. Every Friday afternoon, one of the editors puts up the Friday Open Thread post in which commentators have free reign to write about whatever they want. It's amazing! I have always been interested in other people's lives - their interests, friendships, love lifes, stories, general likes and dislikes, etc. etc. - and this post provides me with windows into other people's lives every week (and in a relatively non-creepy way as they are choosing to post these things online). It's so much fun to read! In some ways I think it would be really cool to be a commentator on the Hairpin (to delurk as people say when they finally make a commentating account) but the thing is, I love lurking. I know I'd prefer the Friday Open Thread as a reader than as a contributor. I love just reading/observing the comments without actually being a part of the conversations. And, I also just don't want to make the time. I just hope The Hairpin will never go the way of Jezebel and that I can keep reading all the various insightful comments week in week out.

The Importance of Grocery Stores

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with grocery shopping. On the one hand, I love food and so buying food is all about deciding what you are going to eat for the week and that is very fun. I also like seeing all the variety and options and comparing different brands, etc. etc. On the other hand, grocery shopping can be so stressful. I am so impatient and waiting in line (especially when you are convinced every other line is moving way faster than yours and why did you have to go and get in the slowest line in the store?!!?) can be brutal. Sometimes grocery stores can be so crowded (especially on Sunday afternoons/evenings which is why I try to avoid them at those times) that just navigating through the aisles is stressful. Since moving to Montreal, I have become adept at going to grocery stores at less busy times (it helps that my schedule is flexible too!) such as on weekday mornings or actually weekend mornings, as especially before 9 am, grocery stores are very uncrowded.

Wherever I have lived I've always had a favourite grocery store. It's so important to have one! The ideal is to have a good grocery store within easy walking (or I suppose driving) distance so that you can just drop in when you need something instead of having to go far outside your area.
On my street in Paris - the oft talked about (on this blog at least) rue des Batignolles - there was a chain grocery store called Franprix and 2 fruit shops, located almost directly across the street from each other. The Franprix was okay - Franprix and Monoprix are the two main chains in Paris and they are everywhere. There was a big Monoprix about a 10 minute walk from my apt but the Franprix had most things I needed so I usually went there. The best thing about Franprix (and grocery stores in France in general) are that they sell delicious French wine for as cheap as a few euros a bottle. It beats the LCBO/SAQ/liquor stores in North America any day. Grocery stores in France will always have a special place in my heart as when I was 15 and spent three months on exchange in Beaupreau I used to get Wednesday afternoons off from school. Almost every single Wednesday, I'd spend the afternoon taking a long walk across Beaupreau way out to the other side/outskirts of the town to this huge grocery store called Super U. I would rarely buy anything there. I'd just wander the aisles and feel happy.

Now leaving the Beaupreau of 1999 and going back to the Paris of 2007 and the fruit shops. So I'm not sure how or why I chose the one of the two that I did (it was smaller actually) but I'm so glad I did because I fully became friends with the men who worked there. The owner was this older man from North Africa (I hate when people don't give specifics... I know that North Africa is not a country but I embarrassingly can't remember if he came from Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia) and three younger men worked there too. You weren't allowed to just pick/touch the fruit you wanted yourself, you had to tell whichever person happened to be available and serving you and he would get it for you, put it in bags and then weigh it and tell you how much it cost. I used to go there multiple times a week and loved it. The store had really great produce and the people who worked there were all nice and friendly. When I came back to Paris and again lived on rue des Batignolles in the summer of 2008 the owner and I were happy to see each other again.



Austin was strange (in more ways than one) because it was the only place I've lived where I always drove to the grocery store. I would occasionally go to Whole Foods but it was about a 15 minute drive from my place and not that convenient and kind of expensive. So instead, I did the majority of my grocery shopping at a store called Central Market - about a 5 minute (or less) drive from my apt. It was very similar to Whole Foods, very big and had delicious pre-made foods and homemade (store made I guess) granola. I loved Central Market - the quality of food was very high - but somehow when I think about it I think about the saying "Everything's bigger in Texas." Maybe it was because I had my car there so I knew getting all the groceries home wouldn't be a problem but I remember always using a cart there instead of just baskets like I do/have done everywhere else. I must have always been buying a lot of food. Even though carrying groceries home can be a big pain in the ass, I still prefer being able to walk to the grocery store than having to drive.



This post would not be complete without mention of Berkeley Bowl (annoyingly called "the Bowl" by some people), a big grocery store in Berkeley near the apt I lived in second year. Since I left Berkeley in 2006, a new Berkeley Bowl has opened up in another part of Berkeley closer to the freeway. Apparently that has made some dent in the amount of people who shop at the original Berkeley Bowl, which is a good thing because I have never seen a grocery store get as crowded as that one. Going there on Saturdays and Sundays was just a bad idea (yet I still often did it... I don't know why.) The parking lot would be absolutely jammed, the aisles would be clogged and the line ups to check out would stretch for miles. In retrospect, I am not sure why it was that crowded. Yes it was undeniably a good grocery store and carried good products - especially lots of varieties of cheese and good produce. But, I've been to lots of other grocery stores that are just as good and do not have the same aura around them that Berkeley Bowl had. My favourite Berkeley Bowl memories come from my last year in Berkeley when I lived over on Hilgard. On Saturdays, I would walk (a long-ish walk) from my apt to Berkeley Bowl, and without fail S. (who is so generous and such a good friend!!) would pick me up in her little red car and drive me home with all my groceries. I loved our conversations, and I was very grateful for S. always giving me rides.

Another reason why I don't get the Berkeley Bowl aura is that in the other places I've lived since Berkeley I have always found grocery stores that are just as good - like Central Market, and here in Montreal, this store called PA. When deciding to move last spring, one of my qualifications was that I needed to stay near PA. Happily, I live about a 3 minute walk from it now. It's not that big - but it packs so much in. It has amazing cheese, yogurt and produce sections (and the produce is so cheap!) and a decent selection of everything else. My favourite times to go to PA are early in the morning, but I have learned not to go too early as all these employees (for a small grocery store they have so many!) are still putting out the produce between 8 (when it opens) until past 9; and when walking home from having dinner at Figaro as it is usually not that crowded after 9/9:30 pm (it stays open until 11 pm every day). They are also really nice there - I love Liberté maple yogurt (I was so glad to discover it because the thing I miss the most about living in the US, other than my friends of course :) is Brown Cow yogurt. Throughout my time at Berkeley and in Austin, I ate Brown Cow Vanilla or Maple flavoured cream top yogurt every day. I still always make sure I eat some whenever I go back to the States, even if just for a weekend. I thought I'd never find another yogurt I liked as much, let alone a maple flavoured one, but alas I did!) and always buy it at PA but for about 2 weeks I wasn't seeing any. One night I was there and I asked one of the employees. She got the manager, who is this really nice other woman, who said she'd look into it for me and sure enough the next time I was at PA (a few days later) the maple was back on the shelf and has been since.





Finally to close, I love grocery stores in Toronto too! Out on Yonge Street near my house there are multiple little fruit stores that always have great deals on raspberries. Given that I just wrote a fairly long blog post about grocery stores, I obviously fall clearly on the love (with hate at the other end) side of the spectrum.

Paris Syndrome

Back in the fall, D. told me about Paris Syndrome – first written about in the French journal of psychiatry, Nervure, in 2004. It primarily affects Japanese tourists to Paris (on average about 20 – out of the 6 million Japanese who visit Paris annually (that seems so high!)). I had never heard of it before but was immediately fascinated, given that I love Paris and also loved Japan when I visited there. The syndrome manifests itself, according to Wikipedia, through "a number of psychiatric symptoms such as as acute delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution (delusional belief of being a victim of prejudice, aggression, hostility to others), a derealization, a depersonalization, anxiety, and also psychosomatic manifestations such as dizziness, tachycardia, sweating, etc.." Wikipedia also explains that there are 4 main triggers: 1. Language barrier (most Japanese apparently don't speak French) 2. Cultural differences (Japanese society is supposedly much more polite than French society and Japanese don't pick up on certain cultural cues/behaviour) 3. Idealized image of Paris and 4. Jet Lag/Exhaustion/trying to cram too much into everyday. Apparently the syndrome affects Japanese tourists because of the special connection between Japan and Paris. As I remember from when I visited Japan in May-June 2010, French influence is everywhere there. The Tokyo Tower openly says it copied the Eiffel Tower and there is even a crepe stand at the bottom. When French - or mostly Parisian - culture is present all over your own country, the anticipation of visiting Paris must be very great.



I think it's super sad and scary that even 20 people a year feel like that in Paris. That's awful. And I hate to think that Paris is probably ruined for them forever. I doubt any of them ever go back... And I wonder what they feel like in Japan when they see images of the Eiffel Tower or walk by yet another patisserie? Will those kinds of things just always make them sad? It must be really hard. The main positive I can think of in all this is that hopefully the majority of those 6 million annual Japanese visitors to Paris really like the city.



I think it's very telling that this syndrome afflicts people visiting Paris. A. once told me, with such conviction, that he believes you can only hate someone you can also love. In some ways I think his belief is apt for Paris. Something that can make you feel so high also has the ability to make you feel so low. Paris has the (well-deserved in my opinion) reputation as being the city of cities, the city which tops all other cities - it provokes such deep emotions; and it's when deep emotions abound that things like love and hate and high and low and feeling amazing and feeling delusional come into the picture.

Sometimes I feel cliched about saying Paris is my favourite city because it seems to be so many people’s favourite city. But then I remind myself of the ending to Ernest Hemingway's memoir about Paris A Moveable Feast where he writes: “There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it..." I especially love that last line. I also like how it acknowledges that each person who lives (or really visits) there has a different perspective and that this is good (except for people who experience Paris Syndrome). I love the scene in the second to last ever episode of Sex and the City when Carrie is on the balcony of her hotel in Paris and sees the Eiffel Tower and is so so happy. That is what visiting Paris should be like for everyone. (And while Paris in some ways didn't live up to Carrie's expectations, I think if she had just gone there for a vacation as opposed to saying she was going to move there permanently, she would have liked it much more.)



In closing, I'm not sure this post really said too much except that I'm fascinated by Paris Syndrome, while sympathetic to those who suffer from it. I feel like I both get it on an abstract level and am glad I've never experienced it on a personal level. I get it that a place you've wanted to visit for so long that turns out to be not at all what you imagine could cause you to have all these psychological problems. But I also don't get it in that to me, I feel like Carrie every time I see the Eiffel Tower, even after seeing it many many times. I also feel that in a lot of ways Paris lives up to its stereotypes - especially the images of it in Japan. When I visited Japan, I recognized aspects of French culture there in a positive way, and not in an over the top way at all. There are crepes stands and patisseries all over Paris, so I think having them in Tokyo is somewhat realistic and is definitely not romanticizing Paris. I don't know. It's impossible to know why some things affect certain people in certain ways. Maybe if it hadn't been Paris something else would have caused sufferers from Paris Syndrome to experience the same type of symptoms? I wish someone (I'd love to myself one day if I could find someone to interview, but finding someone seems super hard/bordering on impossible) would interview a Paris Syndrome sufferer and ask them about everything from their thoughts about Paris pre-going there to their first symptoms to why they think Paris affected them in this way to what their feelings are about Paris now...Until then, I hope the number of sufferers went down this year, and continues to decline every year.

Exposed Brick

Last December, M. was in Montreal for a conference and she, H. and I had dinner one cold Saturday night at Figaro. Somehow we got to talking about exposed brick, and H. suggested it would be a good topic for a blog post. I agreed, wrote it down on my list of future blog topics when I got home, and am now writing it, deciding it would be good post this month since I feel like I've been noticing exposed brick everywhere recently.

In a way, my first exposure to exposed brick came in my house in Toronto because the wall of the whole back/TV room of our house is brick. It's not so much exposed, however, as original as it's just the actual old exterior wall of the house (complete with a window and a glass single frame door) which the previous owners of the house decided to keep when adding on the back room. The brick is dark and rough and while I love the backroom of my house, the brick is not at all like the more chic red or rusty coloured exposed brick that seems popular these days. I prefer that popular style but I would take the brick wall in my house over whitewashed exposed brick. I like white walls in houses but if you're going to have bricks, I think they should be their real colour and not white.

My first exposure to exposed brick (the kind we don't have in my house) came at Cloyne, this co-op L. and N. lived at our second year of Berkeley. Cloyne was on Ridge Road, on Berkeley's northside, and the biggest co-op (could house 150 people) out of this whole network of co-ops where students lived. Cloyne was known for its parties. Maybe twice a semester, it had big parties - where you had to pay to get in, there were hundreds of people, and long long lines for beer. It also had this other type of party that was maybe only once a semester called a room to room. In these parties, whoever wanted to participate would "open" their room at a designated time and serve drinks according to a theme. Cloyne had three wings - east, central and west, and each wing would be "open" at different times during the night. After all the rooms were closed, people just hung out anywhere in the house. Room to rooms were invitation only (so the people who lived at Cloyne and whoever they invited) and weren't open to the general public like the big parties. My favourite type of party at Cloyne was the Special Dinner (which was again only people who lived there plus their guests) where everyone got dressed up and drank champagne and ate good food and the dining room was lit only with candles. (In May of our second year there was also a Special Brunch, which was the same idea except it happened in the daytime, under bright sunlight, and I had to limit myself to two small glasses of champagne because I was meeting up with some people to study right after it.) Cloyne seemed so much nicer at Special Dinner - everyone was having fun and being nice to each other and I would sense a real feeling of community that I never felt at any of the other parties or any other times I was there.




At one of the room to rooms during our second year (my invitation courtesy, as always, of L.), L. and I ended up in a corner bedroom on the third floor of the west wing whose theme was tropical and who were serving drinks made with malibu rum. Corner rooms are always the best, but this one was particularly nice because one whole wall had exposed brick. If I remember correctly, only corner rooms had exposed brick at Cloyne. Despite going over to Cloyne fairly often I think that was the only room with exposed brick I saw as none of my friends' rooms had it. But I do remember that there was this aura about exposed brick at Cloyne and how those rooms were considered to be better than most of the other rooms in the house that didn't have exposed brick.

I think exposed brick looks best in the living room or the kitchen of a home (although I have to admit it did look good in Cloyne and those were bedrooms) because those rooms tend to be bigger, and because more people gather in them and it's nice to show off the brick. Like I said at the top, I've been noticing exposed brick all over these past few months. I was at Figaro the other day and for the first time really noticed how the walls in their open kitchen are exposed brick. It adds a really nice touch. This cafe near my apt here in Montreal called Entre le cafe et la plume (it opened last summer, after I had written those posts on cafes or I likely would have mentioned it there) is a great cafe (see picture below). It is very small - just one fairly small room but it's so nice. The bathrooms are so clean and bright and the whole main wall of the cafe is an exposed brick wall. Even though I don't drink coffee (and therefore can't order that there), find their chai latte nowhere near sweet enough, and find their tea way overpriced, I still go to that cafe on a somewhat regular basis just so I can enjoy the brick wall (which contributes so much to the overall ambiance).



Exposed brick can make a room feel really inviting and comfortable and provide a charming backdrop for cooking and conversations. It is definitely something that would be an added bonus in any future houses or apts in which I may live.

Movie Mania: from the theatre to your bed

Last December, D. and I went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in IMAX just so D. could see the first six minutes of the new Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises. A few nights before that at 10 pm., D. had gone to the same IMAX theatre at the Scotiabank movie theatre in downtown Montreal to watch just the first six minutes, and then get up and leave. He told me there were people dressed up as Batman, people dressed up as the Joker, and someone dressed as Robin - all for six minutes. D. is so into the director Christopher Nolan that seeing the first six minutes of the Dark Knight Rises was worth seeing twice. (Unsurprisingly, D. obviously went to the midnight show of Batman when it opened last week, and then we saw it on Friday night, and then he saw it again with his brothers on Sunday. That's 3 times in 3 days.)



I like that kind of devotion. I like people who love directors and certain movies so much they have to see the first six minutes, or they have to go to the midnight showing the day (or rather the night before) it opens. I like people who dress up as Batman (or as pirates which L. told me she and her friends did in a movie theatre in Dallas when Pirates of the Caribbean came out 9 years ago). I like people like N. who could always be counted on to see the Harry Potter movies at the midnight showing, and who saw Serenity at midnight too. We crossed paths in front of a movie theatre on Shattuck in Berkeley in March 2006 when N. was lining up to get in to the theatre on the opening night of V for Vendetta. I was super embarrassed that I was leaving the theatre at this point, having just seen Failure to Launch. (For the record: I have a weakness for Matthew McConaughey which is why I saw that movie, but I am the first to admit that it was a bad movie. I also saw Ghosts of Girlfriends Past in theatres for the same reason, and had the same disappointed reaction.)

I love going to the movies, and I wish I could go more. I always love winter vacation because, especially in high school and during university, I would go see so many movies. But I don't have the same passion for the movies that I have for other things, like books for example. And some people, like my brother, think my taste in movies is appallingly bad. I do like seeing cheesy movies, that's true. But I think it ties in to how for me, movies are mostly just fun and entertainment, whereas reading for me is about more than that. As an example of my relationship with movies, the last movie I can remember being really really excited for - to the extent that I went to see it on opening night with A., E. and L. way back in June 2002 - was the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and that was because I had loved the book so much!! Sadly it wasn't even that good.

Every once in a while, however, I'll find a movie that I love. Most recently those movies have been Whip It which Drew Barrymore directed and which is so good. It did really badly in theatres and I don't know why because it's so good! I wish Drew Barrymore would direct another movie but I worry she won't because Whip It made so little money. If you haven't seen it, you should rent it. I saw it in theatres, and then I watched it twice in a row on a plane ride. I watched it once, contemplated watching a different movie for about half a second, and then pressed the screen to re-watch Whip It. The other most recent movie I loved so much was The Lives of Others. This is another movie that if you haven't seen it, you must. I first saw it in Paris in March 2007. It moved me so much that I happily went to see it again with N. 2 months later when he was visiting Paris and staying with me for 6 days. Both times I was seeing a German movie with French subtitles and was curious to see if I'd find the movie any different if I watched it with English subtitles. S. and I rented it once and I actually think I preferred the French subtitles. Maybe just because I felt like some of the English translations seemed different than what I remembered reading in French. That movie was especially intriguing to me because I am fascinated by the history of the Eastern bloc, and much of the movie is set in 1984, the year I was born.



Another movie related thing I like is seeing two movies in one day. I've done it at home a few times - gone to see a movie in the afternoon with a friend, and then another movie that night with my parents. Sometimes it's just good to make it a movie day and watch more than one. On a June Friday in Paris, I had the day off from work and decided to go see one movie which started at 10 am and another that started at 3 pm both alone. I went to more movies alone those first six months of 2007 that I lived in Paris than I ever had before or ever have since. In fact, I'm not sure I've been to a movie alone since I came back from Paris. But I can think of 5 right now that I saw alone, and there were likely a few more thrown in there too. Paris in general is one of the best cities for movie going in the world. (Another great city for movies, unsurprisingly, is LA. S. and I especially like the Arclight Cinema in Hollywood.) There are hundreds of movie theatres there (see picture below), and they show a wide variety of French, European and Hollywood movies. Plus, movies start as early as 9 am there while in Toronto, I feel like the earliest movies start is 11:30 am. They should start earlier!



This post has really been about going to the movies but I have to just quickly say that renting movies is pretty great too. S. and D. are tied for my favourite people to watch rented movies with (and it's not just because I've watched the most movies with one or the other of them.) While there is definitely something special and fun about going to the movies and watching a movie on the big screen, there is something equally special about watching a movie at home on my laptop from the comfort of my bed. Since we graduated Berkeley and stopped living in the same place, S. and I have spent many subsequent visits in Salt Lake City, LA, Moab, and Mont Tremblant lying on comfortable beds or couches watching movie after movie (there's always so many to watch and we never can choose just one!). Our movie watching marathons started in November 2007 when I visited S. in Salt Lake City. I missed her so much, didn't like Austin, and didn't want to go back there early Monday morning. On Sunday we woke up to lots of rain. I needed to watch The Battle of Algiers for a class I was taking and S. said she'd watch it again. I had rented it and brought it with me before leaving but given the terrible weather, we thought it'd be fun to rent some other movies too. So we braved the rain, drove to Blockbuster, rented 13 Going on 30 and Center Stage and bought some chocolate at the drug store next door. We then spent the whole day on her bed next to the window with the rain incessantly falling outside but us warm and cozy inside watching 3 movies in a row and eating lots of chocolate. I could have stayed like that for at least a week :)



To close, watching movies is always fun, whether at home or in theatres. I also like that you can go to a movie in different countries and cities all around the world and the experience is usually going to be pretty similar. So yeah for movies, and let's hope I find a new one to love so much I want to see it in theatres and/or on planes multiple times soon!