Monthly Archives: December 2013

3 Movies In 4 Days (or I’m Grateful For Free Screenings)

Posted on December 3, 2013 | Comments Off on 3 Movies In 4 Days (or I’m Grateful For Free Screenings)

Since I had a couple of days off for Thanksgiving from work, I wanted to make sure that I kept my days busy. And since there are a lot of movies coming out that I want to see, I watched my email for screening notifications from SAG Foundation and the SAG-AFTRA Film Society.

And I lucked out! I found a screening and Q&A for “American Hustle” on Saturday and a screening of “The Wolf Of Wall Street” on Sunday. So my weekend was pretty planned out before going to San Diego for Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving in the past, some of us go to a movie after dinner. It doesn’t happen every year, but it’s always fun when it does (the first time we did it we went to see “Jackass The Movie” after dinner, which was a pretty weird choice). This year, my cousin Stephie and her husband Clay wanted to go see “Hunger Games: Catching Fire”. Even though I had already seen it, I was more than happy to go again!

The best part about watching with my cousin and her husband was that neither of them have read the Hunger Games books. They didn’t know the plot of the movie or what to expect. I, on the other hand, re-read the book in preparation for the movie. So whenever something crazy happened on screening, it was fun to see my cousin’s reaction. We’ve already made tentative plans to see the next 2 movies together after Thanksgiving the years that those movies come out (the last book is being turned into 2 movies).

The screening for “American Hustle” was ok. I didn’t really enjoy the movie (the plot wasn’t very interesting for me). And the Q&A was cool because Bradley Cooper was sitting about 20 feet away from me! But the Q&A seemed a bit short.

But I loved the screening for “The Wolf Of Wall Street”. The movie was almost 3 hours long, but it flew by! The movie was very exciting and the fact that it’s based on a true story made it even better. I’m going to get the book it was based on soon so I can read it. I highly recommend seeing this movie.

I know I’m incredibly lucky that I have the opportunity to see free screenings through my union. I wouldn’t see nearly as many movies if I had to pay for each one (when I saw “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” in IMAX it was almost $20!). And with the SAG Award nominations coming out soon, I know there will be more screenings as well as screeners being sent to me for me to view before voting.

Overall, it’s a pretty good movie season right now and hopefully you all can go out and enjoy a couple of them!

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Thanksgiving (or I Am The One Who Gave The Kids Face Paint)

Posted on December 2, 2013 | Comments Off on Thanksgiving (or I Am The One Who Gave The Kids Face Paint)

As I mentioned before, Thanksgiving was going to be a little weird for me. I was the only person from my immediate family there, and I was staying at a hotel alone (which I don’t really like anyway).

The morning of Thanksgiving was pretty low-key. I hung out in my hotel room and watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I usually watch clips of it on YouTube after Thanksgiving, but this was the first time I watched the entire thing on TV. That was actually pretty cool (nobody else in my family really cares about the parade so I’m not used to being able to watch it live).

My family met over at my Aunt Nancy’s house at about 2pm. I drove over by myself and as soon as I got there, I gave my cousin’s son, Dalton, the present I brought over for him and his sister Annabelle. For the past few years, I have drawn a mustache on Dalton at Thanksgiving. The first year, I accidentally used a permanent marker (I just used the marker that Dalton handed to me). Last year, I used mascara. This year, I brought face paint! And as soon as I handed Dalton the face paint, he asked me to draw his mustache on.

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And as soon as I was done, Dalton was off to paint Annabelle’s face. I was chatting with a bunch of my relatives while he was painting her face, and I burst out laughing when I saw Annabelle.

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She asked to be the Wicked Witch from “Wizard Of Oz” and I think that Dalton did a very good job of doing that!

Also at Thanksgiving, I got to hang out a bit more with Hudson, my cousin’s youngest son. This trip was my first time getting to meet him in person, and I might not get to see him again until next Thanksgiving, so I tried to get as much time with him as possible. I especially loved his outfit.

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Before dinner was served, my mom called me and we got to FaceTime for a bit. I passed my phone around to everyone so they could all say hello. Even though I was still missing my parents, it made me feel a bit better that I got to see them even if it was only over the phone (seriously, isn’t technology the best sometimes!).

Dinner was ok. Thanksgiving foods are necessarily my favorites. I like the sweet potatoes so I had two servings of that. But I’m not the biggest turkey fan. But the desserts are always good. This year we had pumpkin pie and my Aunt Nancy also made my mom’s chocolate decadence cake. I’m sure I went way over my calories for the day, but it’s one meal so I wasn’t too worried about it.

Overall, even though the day was a bit weird for me, it was a very good Thanksgiving. I’m so lucky that I got to spend the day with 4 generations of my family (and we all pretty much get along)! And hopefully next Thanksgiving we will have more members of the family able to celebrate with us.

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