Category: my life

I know I’m late in saying so, but I hope everyone had a really happy and restful Labor Day weekend! I spent mine with my brother who was visiting from Scotland, and also shooting a wedding with Kate. I’ll be posting those pictures soon, so stay tuned! In the meantime, and since the official end of summer is drawing near (or was marked by back-to-school for some of you) I thought that I’d recap this summer’s movies as seen through my eyes. While I’m no expert at reviews, these are the movies I had a chance to see this summer and my very brief thoughts on each:

• Iron Man – I’m not a die hard fan of comic book hero movies, but this one was actually really fun and kept my interest.
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – I rate the Indiana Jones movies in the following order, from favorite to least favorite: Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Last Crusade, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and then Temple of Doom. So in my humble opinion, this one wasn’t the best one in the series, but it wasn’t the worst either.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – I only recently went back and read a few books in the Narnia series because I somehow missed reading them as a kid. Is it totally blasphemous to say that I like the movies as much as the books? I know in most cases the book is way better than the movie, but I think I liked the Prince Caspian movie even better than the book…
• What Happens in Vegas – Fairly predictable, but decent and entertaining enough. It’s what I expected from an Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz comedy.
• Wanted – A huge stretch of the imagination, extremely violent/graphic, but who doesn’t love seeing Angelina Jolie kick ass?
• WALL-E– I absolutely positively adored this movie! Pixar totally delivered in what is now my new favorite film from the Pixar line. And the short before the movie, Presto Chango, made me laugh so hard. I think I laughed louder than anyone else in the audience, including the 5-and-under crowd.
• Step Brothers – I feel like it started off pretty funny, but then went downhill after the first half. The majority of the laughs were the moments that were featured in the previews, so by the time I saw them in the movie they weren’t as funny.
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 – I know I am probably just a teeny bit past the age range of the target audience for this movie, but I did enjoy the first one so I went to see this one as well. It was a nice flick to catch with your girls.
• Pineapple Express – Second to WALL-E, this was my favorite movie of the season. The movie was much more violent than I expected, but it was just as funny as I was hoping it would be. There were plenty of great lines and moments from the movie that were not previously spoiled by seeing the trailer over and over. My only disappointment was that they didn’t use the M.I.A. song, “Paper Planes” in the movie as heard in the preview! So far in his career, Seth Rogan is hilarious in every role, and this one was no exception. The interaction between Seth’s character and his (BFFF) dealer is hysterical.

I know, I know…there are a couple of big ones that didn’t make the list. I totally missed the boat every time friends were going out to see Sex and the City, for instance. I was always at a wedding! In any case, it’s on my Netflix!)

So, I haven’t seen Forrest Gump. I know, that’s really weird. It’s not that I didn’t want to see it when it was out, and it’s not that I haven’t wanted to watch it since then, I just haven’t watched it yet! But whenever the movie comes up in conversation, like if someone quotes it and I have to admit that I haven’t seen it, I get the look like I just spontaneously sprouted a second head. Cast Away is another one of those movies. And I swear, I adore Tom Hanks as an actor! I’ve seen several of his other movies. It’s funny because I feel like I watch movies all the time, but I guess I just watch a lot of weird sleeper films (Chris would say I just watch a lot of bad movies). In an effort to catch up on the movies that I somehow missed and am crazy for not having seen them, I’m making a list of these must-see movies. In effort to make the list, I’d love to hear what your must-see movies are!

What movie would make you drop your jaw and do a double-take if you found out that someone hadn’t seen it? Leave me a comment and I’ll let you know if I’ve seen your must-see movie or not! If not, I’ll add it to my list and get to it immediately.

You know how when you were a little kid and you were giddily aniticpating something HUGE like your birthday, the first day of summer, Christmas or another holiday, or whatever just lit you up from the inside out and made you smile so hard it hurt? What about when you were hoping for something with all of your might, but didn’t know exactly when to expect it, like wishing for your parents to get you a puppy or to take you to Disney World? I think the uncertainty of the wait for something without an exact deadline is even harder than anticipating a specific date. And that’s exactly how I felt about this*:

Not only are The Fratellis finally touring in the U.S., but they’re stopping in DC and playing at my favorite venue, the 9:30 Club! I’ve been waiting for this forever, and didn’t know if the day would ever come. And it’s just a huge bonus that they’ll be at 9:30. Yay!

*Okay, to be fair, I get really excited and giddy over a lot of things. But this is at the top of my current list.

In my whole life, I’ve never met or even heard of anyone else with my maiden name, Solo, that wasn’t a relative of mine. Okay, besides Han Solo – I get those jokes all the time. So hearing about the United States Women’s National Soccer Team’s goalie, Hope Solo, raises a few questions.

Has my family hidden something from me? Do I have a secret long-lost relative? Do I have Olympic-calibur athletic potential in my blood despite my uncanny clumsiness and penchant for falling down the stairs? I’m not good at geneology, family trees, lineage and all of that stuff, so I can’t even figure out how we could possibly be related, but with a last name like Solo, we must be right? I’m not actually accusing my family of anything scandalous – they would never hide something like that from me. Although…I did only find out a few years ago that our cat, who I considered “mine” when I was three years old, didn’t run away as I was told. My mom actually gave him to a friend of hers when my baby brother was born (he had severe allergies). My sister spilled the beans on a family road trip. I think that was the only major family secret though (and I think they just forgot over the years that I didn’t know the truth about Alex). But if there is something going on, this cat is out of the bag now, too!