Movin On Up...

...to the east side (well, sorta).

Well I am coming back after my unplanned blogger leave of absence over the past few weeks. No worries cousin J, I am alive! I have just been so busy that I haven't taken the time to write, but have no fear I am back. I currently am in the process of moving into an apartment that is in fact to the east of where I was living before. I am so excited about this move, it is a much more convienant location and a cute little studio apartment. Once I get everything settled and my internet up and running I will post some pictures of my space.

The past few weeks have brought some exciting things into my life, mainly being that my two day a week job has now become three days a week. May not seem like much but it has certainly been nice to keep busy, plus the extra $moola doesn't hurt! I am really enjoying this job and starting to feel very comfortable in understanding what I am doing, which gives me a little more independent work to do.

I also went to Carmel and the beach a few weekends ago and had a great time with Cousin C and family. Carmel was such a cool, quaint little beach town that was fun to explore. I will be posting pictures of that trip and tell you more as well, soon.

Sadly, soon I will no longer "officially" be a Texan as I am getting my CA driver's license and having my car registered here. I must say it is kinda sad to loose that part of my identity, but life must go on. I am actually surprised that I am sad about this because I have always been slighly indifferent about having that identity. Don't get me wrong I LOVE TEXAS, but I am not as hard core a fan as most. I guess as many say "You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out of the girl!"

Movie Review: I Am Legend in the IMAX

Another one of the tickets I won was to see I Am Legend at the IMAX theater. When the movie was released back in Dec. I was slightly neutral about whether or not I wanted to see it, but when you get free tickets why not? The big plus for this movie is that Will Smith was the main character, and in fact the only human in many of the scenes. The premise behind the movie makes you think, but I didn't realize how violent it would be. The whole idea is that you are the last human on Earth when you discover that in fact you are not really the last one. It was amazing to see the scenes of a completely baren NYC. The scientific ideas in it were interesting as well. While this movie was on a special showing at the IMAX, it was not in 3D, which was probably a good thing. I normally enjoy a scary movie, but I wasn't thrilled by this one. I must be going soft! It was just too violent scary.

Theater Review: Cabaret

Note: I posted the previous post using Word and the pictures didn't work, so if you don't see any know I am working on it and if you do, then good!

Now on to the review… I have had a streak of good luck in the past two weeks winning tickets to both the theater and to the movies. Thanks to the TicketClub that is through the local newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, I got to enjoy some really great shows. First the theater; where I saw a production of the Broadway musical Cabaret. It was held at The 24^th Street Theater here in Sacramento and they did a lovely job. The theater is a small community theater that is located right in the middle of a cute neighborhood, obviously off of 24^th Street. The cast did a fine job, especially the lead characters of the Master of Ceremonies/Emcee, Clifford Bradshaw, and Sally Bowles. The other "smaller" roles did well also, however there were a few numbers that I noticed one or two cast members looking fairly lost. The tickets I was given were front row so I had a perfect view. It is one of those musicals that even though it is kind of racy in subject matter; it looks like it would be lots of fun to be in. The setting is a "burlesque" club in 1930's Berlin as the Nazi party is coming to power. It really has a lot to offer in the form of entertainment, fun, love, political issues. I am so glad I won these tickets.

Snow, Skiing, and Sickness!?

Well I have been putting off writing a new post for the simple reason of feeling somewhat uninspired. I do however have a lot to catch you up with. I will begin with back in Feb. when I took a trip to Tahoe with some fam. and had a marvelous time. The pictures I have posted are just some scenery shots that I managed to get out in between bouts of nausea. Yes, I spent most of the weekend sick and in bed, but the parts that I was able to stomach were great. I managed to make it skiing the first day that I was there which was an adventure. Being my first time I took a little lesson in the morning and then was able to hit the slopes by myself later that afternoon. Of course when I say "hit the slopes" feel free to take that with a literal translation because most of my trip down the mountain was sliding down on my back (Luckily there are no pictures to record that sight)!! I did well in the lesson but after lunch I lost some of my confidence and found myself making crash stops a few times. It was all in the name of fun though and I would go back in a heartbeat. The second day however was not so much fun. That is when I woke up sick and, not to sound gross, needing to stay near the bathroom. The day we came home I woke feeling better but as the day progressed and we started to make our descent down the mountain the previous days nausea came rushing back. That is the day that I managed to take pictures, but I am not very thrilled with most of them. I discovered first hand how difficult it is to capture the nice pristine snowy images that are everywhere, with this being the first time in my life to every actually experience snow. Check out the one with the car that is buried in snow. I found it fairly amusing!

 

This is the Truckee River I believe, don't hold me to that though.


This one is actually Donner Lake, which is where the infamous Donner party was stranded. I'm not going through the history lesson again.


I took a picture similar to this on my trip to Tahoe in the fall just without the snow of course. It was the same pier on Lake Tahoe and everything though.


Here's the car! The snow was gross and dirty but I couldn't resist taking this picture. Wouldn't you hate to know that was your car?!

As usual I posted more pictures on my Flickr page.

Movie Review: Juno

So, I have wanted to see Juno since before it got noticed. Then it became this quiet masterpiece and got nominated for all these awards and has done really well. I finally made it and am in love with it! I absolutely adored this movie. The writing was so clever and witty. Every detail was taken care of. I saw an interview with the writer and some of the cast on Oprah, and the writer Diablo Cody actually had a hamburger phone as a teen (you will understand when you see it, and you must go see it). It was that kind of detail that showed in watching this movie. Ellen Page did a magnificent job of portraying this character; the entire cast was perfect in fact. I haven't been this excited about a movie in a while and I am just head over heels for this one! Is it noticeable?! There is not a single thing that I think could have enhanced this movie to make it better. I thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack as well. Nicely done, Juno!

BTW, I am writing this post using Microsoft Word 2007 and posting from there, so we'll see how this turns out.

Week of Celebration

I guess this is a bit of continuation from my previous post. This week is somewhat of a week of celebration I guess. Fat Tuesday followed by Ash Wednesday started off the season of Lent. Is it called a season? Anyways, I usually choose to give something up for the days of Lent. This year it snuck up on me and I didn't actually decide on something until today. I have decided to give up chips and salsa, mainly because I finished my supply this afternoon. Some of you may think that this is not really a big deal; however you may not understand my addiction. Hi, my name is Michelle, and I am a chips and salsa-a-holic! So this will be a serious challenge for me. Hopefully I will be more successful at this than I have been with my New Year's resolution. You may recall I am working on better dental hygiene. I have been a little better, but not flossing/rinsing everyday as my intentions were.

Chinese New Year started today (as well as Korean and Vietnamese New Year). I have always been fascinated by this for some odd reason. This year starts the Year of the Rat. I was born in the Year of the Cock. They say the year you were born in says something about your personality. I read that Cock's are eccentric and selfish, among other things I don't recall. I don't think I would describe myself as selfish. Sometimes I do think I am a little weird so I guess that could interpret as eccentric. We went and ate Chinese food last night in celebration. I'm not really sure that they really celebrate a so called "New Year's Eve" but that's what we decided to make it. Actually we thought it started yesterday so when it didn't we called it the eve celebration. Maybe I'll pretend I was waiting to start my resolution for the Chinese New Year! Ha!Ha!

Happy Day To You!

Well several big days have come (and gone) since I last posted, so I would like to say happy day for Groundhog Day, Super Bowl, and Super Tuesday! I realize that considering these days "big days" is strictly matter of opinion but why not celebrate anyways, right!

I found it interesting that on Sat. when I was searching online for the Groundhog results it took me FOREVER. Ok maybe forever is a bit of an exaggeration, but it took too long in my opinion. I feel like this day no longer holds the lure that it once did. Or maybe it never did and I just thought so because I was younger or maybe I am just too lazy to get up that early to hear the outcome. In any case once I finally found out that the Groundhog did indeed see his/her(?) shadow I was disappointed because I am always ready for warmer weather.

Super Bowl Sun. turned out to be interesting though. I attended a Super Bowl Party that afternoon to take in the game (Ok really to take in the commercials). I did watch some of the game, mainly the end when NY took over. If I had to pick a team I say I was rooting for NY simply because of the underdog status. Not a big football fanatic, which I have been told is sinful being from the state of TX. I took a great little Black Bean Salad/Dip that is worth mentioning. I found the recipe on the Food Network website, which I always enjoy, and it turned out to be a hit. I doubled the recipe because I thought I would need to and it made ALOT. I have been snacking on the leftovers for a couple days now. It went really well in my Taco salad that I made with ground turkey, rice, and butter lettuce. Check it out; I am giving my thumbs up for this one! I also enjoyed the halftime performance with Tom Petty. The commercials however, didn't impress.

Finally, today is Super Tues. so, GO CANDIDATES! I am trying to cast a more informed vote this year by trying to get to know all the candidates and their views. I am by far not a political advocate so I shall not get into my very limited and poorly informed opinion, but I will say I really am feeling the importance of this year. I have to embarrassingly admit that in previous elections I have voted purely on the "vibe" I got from watching the candidates. I am on a mission though, to become more educated this year.

I now bid you Happy Day, whatever it may be! :)