My friends, I had a great day and it wiped me out!
First class upgrade, gate checked bag, how could I wrong! But…3 hours of sleep, long day decorating a tree and now…I am wiped out!
Therefore. Friends, it is with heavy lids that I bid you a fond farewell, parting is such sorrow, until we meet upon the morrow…
Today, Papa, Lala, EJS, MGS and I went to see Annie and we all liked it!
The movie stars Jamie Fox as Will Stacks, the multi billionaire running for mayor who, after saving Annie, played by Quvenzhané Wallis, from getting hit by a car, invites her to stay with him because it will look good politically. Quvenzhané Wallis is a very cute and talented little girl.
There is a pretty good supporting cast, Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan, Rose Byrne as Grace, Mr Stacks assistant and unspoken love interest, both ways, just in case you didn’t know, but this is a Disney movie after all! Bobby Carnivale plays Guy, the weasely PR guy.
The movie opens in a classroom and there is a red headed girl giving a presentation to the class, who ends with a song and dance and guess what her name was… yup, you guessed it, Annie. It was a cute play on the story and then we meet the ‘real’ Annie.
The movie is definitely an updated version of the original that was released in 1982. There were some songs that were the same, well, were in the movie..’The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow’ and ‘It’s a Hard Knock Life’ were two of them, then they took some of the songs and updated them and then added a few.
As it is a musical, you know they launched into a song and dance number every chance they got and some were great, some weren’t and I must admit, the last song and dance number was kind of lame. Even though Quvenzhané was great and I love Jamie Fox, lame.
All in all, I thought it was a good movie, some very funny scenes and made me nostalgic to watch the original, which happened to be on TV tonight! It was fun for all ages, go and take the kids!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1823664/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Yesterday was travel day and I was coming to Boston for the weekend, as my sister calls it, my northeast connection while I am on the road, it always feels like coming home.
So…as it was a travel day, it was a long one, but I was ready to get back and see my family, especially EJS and MGS and let me tell you, it was AWESOME when I did!!!
I got out of the taxi, got my things and headed up the path, up the steps and knocked on the door. What happened next, I could not have planned and it any better! I so wish I had had a camera to record it!
I could see the girls in the window looking at the candles on the menorah, I thought they would have seen me, but they hadn’t, so I knocked on the door and when they opened it, their faces lit up and in unison they screamed “AUNTIE!!!!!” and then it was attack of the little people and it was wonderful!!!
I walked in, each girl took a bag and then I got individual hugs, told “I love you” whispered in my ear, then telling me about the presents they got…so much excitement.
I will be reliving that moment over and over and over, it was so amazing!!!
AUNTIE!!!
Tonight was the team holiday party for the project I am on.
We went to Pinstripes, http://pinstripes.com/, an upscale place for food, fun, bowling and bocce! When I saw the indoor bocce fields/lanes/pitch/whatever, I thought about my favorite family in Wisconsin, JS, his wife, TS and their girls M&M, love that family!
We had a nice dinner and after dinner, Santa showed up to give us presents! The team members who had family events, babies, weddings got a little something extra, for the rest of us, we got Starbucks coffee mugs and slipper socks, a can koozie and some candy, how nice is that! [sorry, I forgot to take a picture and it’s already packed].
After dinner, we all headed to the bowling area, put on our shoes, check out my socks! and divided into teams on 4 lanes and bowl we did! There was a prize for the highest individual score and one for the lowest individual score, want to guess who won for lowest personal score? The prize: An elf on the shelf and a Kenny G CD of Christmas Favorites! Score!
We had a good time, some good laughs and then it was time to get to the hotel and pack and talk to you.
Happy second night of Chanukah!
How much do you love holiday movies?
Do you start watching them around Thanksgiving? Sooner? All year long?
There is the Hallmark Channel, famous for their holiday movies, even Lifetime Movie Network, Netflix has them all year long and there are times, admittedly, even in the summer, I am feeling the need for some holiday cheer and will put on a holiday movie and feel a chill in the air and the proverbial holiday spirit, lifts my spirits right up!
Unfortunately, most of these movies are horrible and have a very similar theme…broken hearts, boy meeting girl, girl or boy already involved with someone but there is always someone better…someone gets hit on the head and ends up in an alternate universe and when they come back to their original self realizing what they really want and end up where they were supposed to be. Maybe it’s a Groundhog Day type of movie, repeating the same day over and over until they get it right.
My sister and I are addicted to these things, no matter how bad they are, written, acted or whatever the case may be, we still love them, she DVRs them and sometimes, watch them over and over and sometimes…once is enough and delete. We like to sneak in a holiday movie in here and there, EJS and GES will watch with us sometimes, but most of the time, GES and I sneak in some time and even stay up late watching them.
I’d write you a list, but I don’t think I have enough time or space!
Guess what we’re doing right now as I write to you?
That sounds like a book or movie! I love it!
As promised, here are pictures from my weekend in Colorado. I hope you enjoy them!
Friday night in Golden, CO.
All culminating with the lighting of the tree! Such a pretty night and sight!
Day one on Breckenridge:
My view at lunch, what was yours?
The sun is starting to set, beautiful.
My view while I waited for Ski Patrol [sitting on my personality]
Ok, could some of my skier friends tell me how I can avoid bruising from my boots? See the lump on my left leg? If I forget to wrap my right ankle, the beads rub and make blisters, ouch!
Day two at Breckenridge:
How gorgeous is this sky?
My view at lunch:
I hope you enjoyed seeing there as much as I did being there! Who’s coming with me next?
That’s something I heard someone once say when they fell on their bum on a muddy hill during a mud run and I fell in love with the phrase!
I am going to tell you about my weekend tomorrow, since I did a bunch of awesome stuff and there were other things I talked about and you know I love telling you a really long story about my weekend all at once. So there…
Today I went for my first ski run of the season and it was FANTASTIC!!! But that is not what I want to talk about. It was fantastic until I fell the last time. I fell a few times, moguls are not my friends and that’s alright, I didn’t even care for them when I skied regularly and I was actually pretty good, all before I moved to Georgia, not much skiing there…
So, this last run, Gold Rush, I was heading down and it was a bit slippery and a little steep. Let’s just say there were a bunch of other people having the problem…one woman slid by on her snowboard and said “I know how you feel”. Let me tell you why she said this…I hit a few moguls and then fell. I got up, headed down, slid and fell. After four falls, I slid without one of my skis and then when I tried to get up, slid some more, I finally sat down and grabbed my one ski, which was under my bum, I decided I was not getting up. I pulled out my phone, opened the Epic Mix app, [My ski pass is the Epic Local] and called Non-Emergency Ski Patrol. It did not help that I was not sure what run I was on…but I tried to tell them, I was close, believe me, I will be paying attention to the runs I am on tomorrow and going forward!
It was very nice that so many people stopped to see if I was alright, one guy even slid me my lone ski. There was a kid who asked if I was alright as he swooshed by me! As I was sitting there waiting for Ski Patrol, the view was beautiful, the sun was starting to set, but it was still very light out. A very nice woman, Lacey, a coach for one of the local ski teams, stopped to help me.
She offered to help me and help me she did! She stood in front of me so I could stand, helped me get my skies on, then gave me advice on getting down the hill. I had told her that I thought it would be my last run of the day and she said you never say it’s your last run, you’ll jinx it! Guess what…she was right! So, per Lacey, I will now say, “I’m going to do two more runs, but not run the last one” whatever it takes, right?
I got to the bottom and I was done, I headed to the car and to the hotel. What an adventure!
Today I did something at work I never thought would happen.
Sorry, I am not going to tell you what I did, it’s a little embarrassing and I know I have shared a lot of my embarrassing things with you, but this time I’m not. I know I’m not sharing and that probably makes no sense at the moment, but I’m just so…
All I can say is I hope it never happens again and I can redeem myself. It was a bump in the road, my manager was worried, I was embarrassed, I apologized and we moved on.
Just send me some good vibes and we will move past this.
Tomrorrow is a new day!
Good night!
Have you ever been in so many meetings you wondered…
“How can I get any work done if I’m in all these meetings?
Don’t get me wrong, the meetings are important; working with the client, fact gathering, spreadsheets, whatever it takes to have a successful project, although sometimes it feels like you’re in a meeting to talk about more meetings and planning a meeting for the next meeting, they all serve a purpose.It just feels like you never have time to get anything done because you are always in a meeting.
Ever been there?
Today, the family continued a fine tradition started when my sister and I were kids, we went to see The Nutcracker Ballet.
When we were kids, we got one big family gift for Chanukah and went to see The Nutcracker on Christmas Eve, performed by the New York City Ballet Company at Rockafeller Center. We did this for years and years and years, we would get dressed up and go to a matinee at the City Company and then go out to dinner, it was usually my parents, sister and grandmother [mom’s mom, who lived in NYC].
It has been along time since I have been to a production of The Nutcracker and it brought back so many memories. Now, you know how when you do something over and over and it becomes a tradition and the way you saw it first is how you always remember it and it is a good and happy memory and when you see it again and it’s different, you’re like…huh…
Let me preface by saying, this was a wonderful performance! The dancers were fantastic, the choreography was beautiful, the sets, the orchestra, everything, it could not have been better and to see the enraptured look on both EJS and MGS during the performance and MGS twirling her little heart out after the curtain closed, almost to the car, made it all worth it and I could not imagine a better picture, being there with not only my nieces and brother-in-law, but with my dad and sister, just like when we were kids, I was transported back in time all at once as if in a dream.
I have been to see The Nutcracker once on stage in Atlanta, I took my grandmother when she was visiting and once at an IMAX 3D. Both were different and I was not crazy about them, despite being a wonderful performance, but good memories because of the company and story. Something important to point out, the version that we grew up with was the George Balanchine version, each Ballet Company chooses to do their own choreograpy, what we love…Balanchine.
For those of you “not in the know’, here is a link to the entire production by The New York City Ballet Company filmed in 1993, and in the role of the Nutcracker Prince was Macaulay Culkin, who was 13 at the time, and of course we were in attendance that year, he was quite good in the role. Now, just so you are aware, there happens to be some narration during the performance in the video [I found it odd when I first heard it]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ5Se2ErinU
Act I takes place at a party and Act II takes place in The Land of Sweets. We love the entire ballet, but everyone has their favorite parts and I am going to tell you about ours and I will tell you where they are in the video link. In Act I, I love the when Clara and Herr Drosselmeier’s nephew part company at the part [23:05], when The Nutcracker becomes a boy [46:00].
There are so many to love and dad, GES and I love the entire production, but here you go. We all LOVE when the tree grows [32:52] in Act I, then in the Land of Sweets, my mom adored Coffee, from Arabia, her ultimate favorite part was at the very end, what she does with her feet, amazing! Mine is Tea [52:18], so funny and charming always makes me laugh and GES is Candy Canes [53:24] when he hula hoop skipping, you’ll know when you see it, I must admit, I love that too! We love Mother Ginger, always played by a man dressed as a woman, and her polchinelles [57:00] with her tamborine and hand mirror. My dad’s favorite is The Pas de Deux, with the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier, but the bestest part of it is towards the end, when he pulls her, on point, on a block across the stage [1:09]
I hope some day you get to experience this in person, but if you don’t, please enjoy the link, I know I am in heaven sitting here listening to the music while I talk to you! Happy of happies!
http://www.nycballet.com/Season-Tickets/Nutcracker-Additional/Synopsis.aspx
Peaches Prattlings 