Photo Diary | Feeling Like Spring

Hello!

For the past few weeks, I have felt like I’m in a daze. I don’t want to do absolutely anything, and it has been very annoying! However, nothing really compares to the trouble we’ve had with out internet services. I think a big chunk of why I feel so out of it is because our WiFi will stay on for like a minimum 10 minutes each time someone goes to turn it back on; on the good days, it will be really good but those days are very rare anymore.

Thankfully, I have some things to help distract myself from it, like getting into a new TV show. I am happy to share that I am finally done with Rizzoli & Isles! As I was watching the finale though, I cried like a baby! It was like watching the episode “500 Years of Solitude” of The Vampire Diaries, where all of our favorite characters who had died came back, I was a fucking mess! On the good note though, I have been getting into the show Bones now. It has the same dynamic duo but with David Boreanaz as the officer and Emily Deschanel (plus her band of assistants) as Maura Isles! So, the teamwork and crazy banter is still there and at the moment, I am enjoying it!

What surprised me though, that while I am in this fog, I was able to do something I hadn’t done since the start of winter. I was allowed to go outside.

Despite the fact that I love the changing landscape and seeing all of the birds fight for food on my bird feeder, I really miss being outside.

I hate being away from my cats, and it doesn’t really help now that like four of them are not living at my sister’s house! Bear-Bear and Oscar have officially moved on and it really sucks because they are my social kitties, they tend to want to spend time with me the most and since they would rather stay on the block, I’ve been somewhat sad, but I have Grumpy and I think he is perfectly fine with this change because now he doesn’t have to wait in line to be the center of attention to us. We still have Stormy, Nelson, Midge, and Felix too, so it’s not too terrible, although my dad kind of wishes they would all move out but I think he would be sad for me because that’s my connection to the outdoors for now.

We were able to experience some early spring in March. It isn’t too uncommon to have a few good weather days around this time, but it is important to remind yourself that we could still have another big snow coming until the middle of April. So, when we had three days of beautiful weather, my mom put me in my wheelchair and I sat out on the deck for a little while.

For the first two days, I would bring my camera out with me, but I wouldn’t turn it on. It wasn’t because of the lack of cats coming to see me, I just wanted to enjoy being in the moment with them. I needed a change of scenery and being among the cats, trees and noisy birds was a big comfort to me in those early days. The temperature would seesaw between a good 64 degrees to a chilly 57 degrees and I would only allow myself to stay out for like twenty minutes because I felt like my toes were going to fall off because it was so damn cold!

Even though this is a photo diary, I like being able to just unleash whatever I have in my mind. I tried my best to lie and be all cheery but this is what I’m been dealing with, and I know it can stem from the fact it is five years since my papaw’s passing and I could have suppressed feelings about it. So, I feel somewhat better now that I have unleashed my thoughts before allowing you to see the pictures I took on my third day outside. If you are still reading this, thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy the beautiful photos of our cats.

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Do you have any advice for me when it comes to being in a haze? What are your favorite things to do when the weather starts to warm up a bit?

The Goodreads Challenge |Top 20 Books For 2020!

Howdy!

If you are a lover of Goodreads, you probably vote for your favorites of the year in December and when January comes along you make up an estimate of how many books you would like to read that year. I don’t participate in the yearly votes but I do try to create the reading challenge at the beginning of the year; now I usually pick a very low number because I have never had a large selection of books that I actually wanted to read during the course of the year. This year, I feel a change taking place within me. I want to read more, I really do. So, that’s why I am taking the plunge and updating my original goal of 5 books to 20!

I have to say before we continue on with this post, I was inspired to write this after spending a couple of days on Twitter checking out other blogs. Anna from The Bursting Bookshelf does the weekly Top Ten Tuesday challenge and she shared the newest prompt of the week which was “Top Ten Books Added To Your Bookshelf” or something like that. I thought this could be an awesome way to share the rest of the books I bought with that Amazon card in December. So, after reading this post, please go take a look at her blog too!

So, as of right now I have only completed one book and I think this looks promising! I haven’t figured out all of the books I’ll be reading this year, but I can give you the top 15 books for now and maybe I will update you later! I tend to check out the free books a lot during the week so it could grow into a bigger list in the next couple of months, but we’ll see what happens!

1.  After You by JoJo Moyes | click here to read my review now!
2.  Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott* | the book review will be up on Friday!
3.  Ride Me Dirty by Vanessa Vale
4. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han* | I am back on the Lara Jean/Peter love train!
5.  Wicked Beat by Olivia Cunning
6. Wonder by R.J. Palacio*
7. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
8. Throne Of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
9. The Husband Hunters by Anne de Courcy
10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
11. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen*
12. Head Over High Heels by Lila Monroe
13. Down The Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison
14. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn*
15. A Court Of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

As you can see, I have a lot of books that I can read in 2020 already! The books with the [*] at the end mean I want to watch the film after finishing it.

I have already completed After You, the second in the Me Before You series. The next five books listed are almost finished, everybody is over 50% of the way done so I’m hoping to get through before I get to Wonder. I would also like to mention that all but one is on my Kindle. I have the physical copy of the second book in the Jenny Han series stuffed into my bookshelf for when I am ready for it!

I don’t know what made me purchase Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice and Little Woman. I feel like it was a mixture of curiosity and wanting to explore the classics a little bit too. There are a couple of other books on this list that were bought by my mom a few years ago, and I’m glad I can read them now! She read both Down The Rabbit Hole and Gone Girl. They were the only ones that I felt were interesting to me! I’m trying to convince her to get Sally Fields memoir so we can buddy read, but so far no good!

If you want to check out on my progress throughout the year or want to see the other books I’ve read in the past, you can add me as a friend on Goodreads! Click the “G” symbol on the sidebar on the right with the rest of my links.

What are you currently reading now? Are you taking part in the Goodreads 2020 challenge? If you are, how many books do you want to read this year?

The Best Movies Of 2019!

Howdy!

For our last post of the week, I will be discussing my favorite movies of 2019!

Since I didn’t do my “Movies I Want To See” series last year, I wasn’t really keeping up with the newer movies but I was okay with it. What I did instead was I basically made a vow to make time in my day (or night) to watch something in my DVR folder or on Netflix. This was probably the smartest thing I did, because I ended up checking out a lot of films in the meantime. I even tried to make this post a little easier because I used Pinterest to keep track of everything I watched throughout the year.

The Hours (2002)

I think this was the most important film I watched at the beginning of the year. It was a story about three women in their different time periods, but it circled around their lives at the time they are reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. So, you have Nicole Kidman starring as Virginia Woolf. The time is 1923, and she is in the process of writing the book but you learn that she has had series of breakdowns and attempted suicide in the past. The next character is Laura, played by Julianne Moore and the year is 1965. She is a mother, who is very unhappy. And finally, there’s Meryl Steep, who is Clarissa and we are back in the present which is 2001. She is a bisexual woman, who tries to keep an eye on her former partner Richard and meets his mother after his death by suicide.

It was a heartbreaking movie that I both loved and hated, because at the time I watched it, I was very depressed and since I have had contemplated suicide in the past, it hit me deeply. After I finished it, I literally got out my notebook and wrote in it about how I was feeling and mostly I was full of anger on my situation in life. I cried and cried, but I let myself cry it out and I’m glad I did that because once I was done, I suddenly felt better about everything. I was no longer sad about my life. If anything, it helped me move on. I don’t know if I kept that entry or not, I think I got rid of it around October.

Descendants 3 (2019)

I was really surprised that not only did I watched this movie, but I loved it! A part of me was conflicted at first because I was watching it to honor Cameron Boyce and the other part I was curious to see what the song was during the promos! After the first song and dance routine was over, I instantly got comfortable on my bed and watched the whole thing in one sitting!

If you have not checked out the films, it is about the descendants of our beloved Disney characters, but there’s a catch as the good characters live in Auradon. They have their magical powers and basically live in a place of luxury, whereas the villains all live on a island that takes away their magical powers and isolates them away. At the time of this film, the original descendants of Maleficent, The Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Jabar, and Cruella Di Vill go back to the island and chose four kids to come to be educated and live with their mentors on Auradon.

I am a sucker when it comes to musicals. Disney musicals use to really get me when I was younger, but I kind of thought I was too old to enjoy them again. It was shocking how quick that thought flew away after I heard “Queen Of Mean” sung by Sleeping Beauty’s daughter Prince Aubrey (Sarah Jeffrey). I’m not going to even hide the fact that after I heard for the first time, I rewind the whole song over so I could learn the lyrics on my closed captions! I learned it within a day or so; the same thing happened with “Night Falls” too!

Chaplin (1992)

This one was probably the best I had seen in a long time! I am familiar with the story of actor Charlie Chaplin, but I was not expecting to enjoy seeing Robert Downey Jr. playing him. I was so worried that I would be picturing Tony Stark the whole time, but thankfully I didn’t. He completely took over the man and his iconic role as the “Tramp” to the point where you thought you were seeing the real Mr. Chaplin on your television screen!

The film is all about Charlie Chaplin’s life, starting while he is exiled in Switzerland after being accused of being a communist. He is met with his biographer to discuss what he wants to put in his book. So, we are taken through some things from his young life with his older half brother Sidney and their mother, who had psychotic breakdowns to what led him to create his own production studio and finally the point he meets his wife and love of his life: Oona O’Neil.

It was such a good film! I wasn’t able to watch it in one sitting like I wanted, but it never really left me, I was haunted by the previous scenes so I kept telling myself to go back and once it was over, I was really bummed but wanted to recommend it to anyone who would listen honestly!

For Sama (2019)

I don’t know what drew me to watch this documentary but I did, and I’m happy that happened because it was hauntingly beautiful!

PBS was airing this on “Frontline” one night and I just felt complied to check it out. It made my heart ache for everyone in Syria. It made me think of a friend I had that lived/lives there, and the reason why I said “lived” is because it’s been around four years since I have heard from her. She use to tweet about her father dying and she was having to move with her family, and it just didn’t seem real until I watched this and I began to think of her again and wonder where she was or did she make it out alive?

This film was recorded in a range of two or three years. The title “For Sama” is in dedication to the filmmaker’s daughter Sama, who was born at the height of the civil war in Syria. Sama’s mother is Waad Al-Kaeb, she married a doctor that treated people who were hurt prior and during the bombings in Aleppo. The whole film is in Arabic but English subtitles are provided at the bottom of the screen. You could hear and feel every emotion like pride for their home, worry that they wouldn’t make it, horror to seeing everyday people, children included with various injuries from the aftermath of the bombings and the love in the tone of her voice. It does get pretty graphic but it was real. When you hear about bombings on the news on TV, I feel like for most people (myself included) can switch off their minds to how a bomb that dropped to the ground, on top of homes, that the innocent escaped in time. You will see children die and be born within five minutes of each other.

Detroit (2017)

It was so surprising that it took me two years to finally watch this film. I remember the day I was going through the new movie trailers on YouTube and then coming across this one. I am a lover of real life situations being played out on film. I would rather spend the rest of my days watching them because then I would never forget about our history as human beings. Not everyone has the best intentions for others, much less themselves and I think it is the perfect way to describe the situation of this movie.

Detroit is a story of a time where there was a lot of violence towards the African-Americans and the police department of the 1960’s; there is injustice among the community and everything has hit a breaking point. You are introduced to a group of people who are staying at a hotel and somebody starts shooting at the police as a joke, and since tensions are already high and everybody feels threatened, things get very out of control and the consequences were awful. They could have been better, hell, even prevented as nobody should have been killed in a way these people were and then you realize that even though the times have changed, history has a way of repeating itself over and over again.

I am finally done with this post, but if you’d like to see what else I watched in 2019, you should go check out my Pinterest board. I hope you have enjoyed this post and have a great weekend!

4 Favorite Female Stand-Up Comics

Howdy!

Since my absence on here, I’ve been finding interesting ways to keep myself entertained, mostly using Netflix to watch various movies and TV shows from all over the world–well actually, that’s a lie. They either based in Australia, England or the US!

For this post, I’m talking about comedy. I’m actually very picky and I’ve found out that in recent years that in every “funny” movie trailer that appears on YouTube, is most likely boring as crap! Bridesmaids was so boring. So because of this, I’m pretty hesitant when it comes to anything in the comedy genre. Now honestly, I think stand-up comics are different; instead of receiving a script for a role, everything is based on their real life. Of course, not everything that the person is saying is completely true, but if they can pull off the joke well enough, the audience won’t really care!

Unfortunately, whenever I go to watch a new (or old) comic special on TV or heck, even on YouTube, I’m actually cautious because of the fact that you have that underling feeling of not knowing is going to come out of that person’s mouth. I’m not highly sensitive to certain words or phrases, but I am concerned whenever a person is up on stage, mocking somebody with a disability of some sort. Luckily, it is very rare for this to happen, but there are a few people I do stay away from because I’ve heard them say something like that in the past.

I have thought about doing a post about my favorite male comics as well, but since my list on the women’s side is so short, I thought it would be easier on me to talk about them first.

Iliza Shlesinger 

I was introduced to Iliza in the same way as another person on this list. I love watching To Tell The Truth on NBC. I am usually more wrong than right, but I still enjoy watching it every Sunday! Anyways, I vaguely remember the episode that featured Iliza, I think she had short hair, and I just thought she was hilarious! I do remember her mimicking a sheep while asking a panelist a question and I thought it was weird but thought it was funny on how normal she would go into it and resume like she never said it at all!

I have successfully watched all FOUR Netflix specials, now that sentence wouldn’t sound so bad, if I didn’t mention that I watched four and a half of them in one month! She’s a fast talker whenever she gets on a certain subject, and as far as her topics, she tends to discuss feminism, friends, and sex. Iliza has a new special called Elder Millennial and she talks about being newly engaged (although now she is married) and the fact that she’s an older millennial. I think this one was my absolute favorite because I hardly had a chance to catch my breath before she would say something else that would hurt me so good.

Tiffany Haddish

I first heard about Tiffany in 2014, when we had the channel Epix in our package. They were advertising Jenny McCarthy’s comedy special called Dirty, Sexy, Funny and I guess I was really interested in it because I decided to watch it the night it came on, and I literally thought the whole thing was hilarious! Tiffany’s section was my favorite, although she was very dirty. Despite the fact that I am mostly afraid of awful disability comments, another one that I don’t like are sexual jokes. So the fact that I liked her enough to overlook that part has always floored me!

After a few years went by, I didn’t really hear much about her until she was in the movie Girls Trip and I remember seeing the trailer for that and thinking that this could be a good one. I also thought that about a similar girl-nights-out film Rough Night too and I didn’t enjoy that at all! Tiffany was really the star of this film but honestly her character wasn’t so out there (even though it was close!) the other actresses, Jada Pickett Smith. Queen Latifah, and Regina Hall were still prominent throughout the film. I thought it was a great comedy!

Ali Wong

To be honest, I hadn’t heard of Ali Wong before I watched her Hard Knock Wife back in June. I literally watched it probably a week before Nolan was born, and I’m not going to lie I was tempted to tell Blondie to watch it, but thankfully a couple of weeks later she finally watched it or caught some of it on YouTube. I recently watched her first special Baby Cobra at the end of July, but I didn’t like it as much as the other one, as she discussed a lot about becoming a mother to a baby, the downside of that and labor and delivery. The story of meeting her friend, who also had a baby, was the funniest thing ever!

After watching her specials, I don’t see anything about her but I know she’s a mother of two so she could be staying at home, not wanting to do any shows at the moment. She mentioned in her first one that she was a writer on the show, Fresh Off The Boat but I don’t watch it and unless she features on it, I don’t want to see it.

Nikki Glaser

I found Nikki through To Tell The Truth like Iliza, unfortunately they were on separate episodes which sucked because I think they’re kind of similar. Iliza’s more animated, whereas Nikki is somewhat laid back, but Nikki is also like Tiffany too, as she tends to talk about sex quite a bit. Nikki is just a unique individual!

What gets me is that I’ve only seen one thing she was in, and it’s a Netflix special called The Line Up where it’s like probably 20 minutes of like seven people up on stage, telling jokes. I loved her episode, but she was like three out of seven people that I literally enjoyed. While I was working on this post, I was actually listening to her stand up show “Perfect” on Spotify. I love being able to do that, although I would like to see certain things like facial expressions. If you’ve never done that before, the most important thing to keep in mind is everything is uncensored, and that’s much better than suffering through Comedy Central and the commercials and beeps!

Oh, and she’ll be a contestant on Dancing With The Stars, she’s paired up with Gleb Savchenko and I’m definitely excited about it. It should be very interesting to say the least!

Honestly, I’ve never been interested in comics that everybody likes, and I don’t really know why, and this goes for both sexes too! I have watched Amy Schumer before, but I feel like she can be a hit or miss sometimes. I have even tried watching her films but sometimes I hardly think they’re funny and it really sucks! I don’t even watch Saturday Night Live either, because I don’t like Tina Fey or Melissa McCarthy (except when she was on Mike & Molly) and again, I don’t know why it happens.

Who are your favorite stand-up comediennes? What made you like them so much? I’m always wanting to discover other female comics, so if you have any suggestions leave them below!

Movies I Want To See In 2018! | July-December

Hello!

Well, I’m back for round two! If you have yet to read the first post, you can click here. I have got to find a better way to do this because between the fact that I am not exactly picky whenever I go through the list of movies or I chose to put every single trailer into this post, can be very stressful at times! However, with that being said, I still enjoy writing the posts every six months. It’s fun, but stressful too!

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation – Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez (July 13)

I was kind of conflicted whether or not I wanted to include this, because sadly I have yet to watch the second movie. I still want to see this, it looks like it’s going to be really funny from the trailer.

Shock and Awe – Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, James Marsden (July 13)

I’m still a bit confused about this one. It looks likes it’s full of politics and I’m a little unsure about that part, plus the fact that it reminds me of the movie The Post with Tom Hanks and Glenn Close, as it deals with journalism too. So we’ll see what happens!

Christopher Robin – Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Jim Cummings (Aug 3)

Everybody is excited for the live animated of Dumbo and The Lion King, but I am so pumped for this instead! I grew up on Winnie the Pooh and I hope to get my little nephew on the Pooh train too! I kind of like this outlook though, it still has that familiar adventure element but makes it appear fun to both kids and adults too.

The Darkest Minds – Amandla Stenberg, Mandy Moore, Patrick Gibson (Aug 3)

I don’t know why I exactly put this on here. I did watch the trailer and liked it, but a part of me is still unsure about it though. It does look cool and action worthy!

Mile 22 – Mark Wahlberg, John Malkovich, Lauren Cohan (Aug 3)

Speaking of action, from the moment this trailer started, I’m not going to lie, I was a little hooked! This just looks great, even if Mark Wahlberg is in it. I like him, but not as much as everybody else does.

Crazy Rich Asians – Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan (Aug 15)

This looks absolutely hilarious! I am happy to see a movie that is about Asians, and it doesn’t have any martial arts in it. They’re not stereotyping Asians in that area, instead this looks exciting in a different way. Apparently this is based off of a book with the same name, so I may check that out beforehand.

The Wife – Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater (Aug 17)

I saw this trailer a couple months ago, and I was really curious about it, even though it seems to deal with some feminist themes. I am really excited about it, even though everytime I see Jonathan Pryce in a movie or TV show, I can’t stop picturing him on Game of Thrones. Ugh!

Peppermint – Jennifer Garner, John Ortiz, Juan Pablo Raba (Sept 7)

I am iffy about this one. I will say, I am happy as clowns to see Jennifer Garner back in this bad ass type of role, but it just seems too much like Law Abiding Citizen for me. Now knowing that comparison, it probably won’t keep me away from it! Oh, if you’d like to know what the song is in the background, it’s “Exhumed” by Zola Jesus!

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms – Kiera Knightley, Mackenzie Foy, Helen Mirren (Nov 2)

I saw this trailer back in May I think? I kind of wish they’d release it closer to Christmas since that’s when people like to see The Nutcracker in general, but I am very interested in this though. This seems so cool! It’s also nice to see Mackenzie Foy on screen again!

Nobody’s Fool – Tiffany Haddish, Tika Sumpter, Whoopi Goldberg (Nov 2)

I literally saw this trailer probably three days ago, and I was laughing through the whole thing! I think Tiffany Haddish is freaking hilarious, a little dirty but I just love her! This just looks like a fun movie to watch on a casual night in.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Johnny Depp, Jude Law (Nov 16)

Yes, this has to be on my list. I’m really hoping that HBO will get the rights to it so they can just have a full on J.K. Rowling weekend. I have all 8 Harry Potter movies and the first Fantastic Beasts on my DVR! I just need this now! Thank god I’m patient.

Bumblebee – Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Dec 21)

I’m in the middle of The Last Knight right now, so I’m kind of hoping the reason why we’re getting this movie is because Optimus Prime killed Bumblebee. I’ve heard that’s a possibly, so in case it is, please don’t spoil it for me. I am still excited to see Bumblebee get his own movie though!

Mary Poppins Returns – Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw (Dec 25)

This is another one that has me very excited! I know a LOT of people are not looking forward to this reboot, but I am! I love Emily Blunt so I’m kind of curious on what she’ll bring to the table because let’s face it, nobody can touch Julie Andrews but since a lot of people have never heard Emily sing out loud, I think they’ll be in for a big surprise.

What are you mostly looking forward to coming out in these last several months?