"I'm wondering, what is in the bag?" - Data

On 7/27/07 I am having a birthday party at Elizabeth's house. I originally planned to go home to Utah for the end of July, but my parents are going out of town over my birthday and are sending Meridith down here...so I'd be more home alone there than here, hahaha.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to have a party because none of my Utahn friends would come, but it's my favorite party of the year so I couldn't just forgo it because of minimal attendance.
After five years of having a luau theme, I decided to go with the theme of Old Hollywood. :) I have two large bins full of cheezy luau decorations and favors, so this new theme presented an opportunity to gather all new things. After finding new decorations, writing up menus, and discussing it with the girls at work I am now VERY excited.

I don't take my themes too seriously. I mean, come on, I serve Hawaiian Haystacks, hahaha, and I've never dressed up for a luau, though I've had a few friends in grass skirts. But every time I tell someone that my theme is Old Hollywood they immediately start deciding what to wear. My friend Mel even went out and bought a $60 dress. I don't have the funds for a new dress (lets be honest, I don't have the funds for a new anything) so I figured I'd wear my Prom dress-for-all-occasions.

My junior year of high school I went to Prom with my brother Clarke and his friend Chris and Chris's little sister. I went dress shopping with my Mom and we found this purple dress that was a bit too big for me, but was the closest thing (dang short skinny chick store.) My Prom dress-for-all-occasions soon became my Prom/Homecoming/Preference/Bridesmaid/Halloween costume dress.

The last time I wore it was Halloween of 2004, I think. But because I'm wearing it for my party in 3 weeks I decided to try it on this week. IT DOESN'T FIT. Ack!

Susannah: "Ok, so I'm standing outside in my Prom dress and it won't zip up."
Elizabeth: "Haha, why are you outside?"
Susannah: "So I can hear you and it doesn't sound like 'lkcopadlskm adkalicaiod recalak mdlcnek fjcndcklmdl ckmdo'; anyway, it won't zip up! It stops at the chest! My chest is too big for my dress!"
Elizabeth: "When you're pregnant your ribcage spreads."
Susannah: "Well apparently my ribs are spreading a few years too early, because it's not zipping up!"




Oh heavens, I am dumb. I just checked the size tag on the dress and after reading that it is in fact my size I noticed some stitching my mother had originally done to take the chest in a bit. DUH! I can let out the stitches and it will zip up. Crisis averted.









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When I moved down here I only had a handful of DVDs, and for some reason that was the one thing I really wanted: my own full video library. (Because apparently that whole my own car, entire house to myself, moving away thing wasn't enough ...?)
And now that my (very own) TV and (very own) DVD player are in my bedroom I keep most of my movie collection right here with me. And because I apparently can't do anything in silence, I play through my collection quite often. I now have:
Mission Impossible
Mission Impossible II
LotR: Fellowship of the Ring
LotR: Two Towers
LotR: Return of the King
X-Men II
Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith
UHF
Sneakers
The Addams Family
Addams Family Values
Spaceballs
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
TMNT II: Secret of the Ooze
Mystery Men
The Saint
Grease II
13 Going on 30
Galaxy Quest
The Matrix
Beetlejuice
Zoolander
The Cable Guy
Back To The Future
Back To The Future Part II
Back To The Future Part III
Mr & Mrs Smith
Coneheads
Shaun of the Dead
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Life Or Something Like It
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters II
Taxi
Labyrinth
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider II - The Cradle of Life
Rat Race
Hot Shots
Hot Shots part Deux
Bringin' Down The House
Notting Hill
About a Boy
Breakfast at Tiffanys
Sliding Doors
Moulin Rouge
Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure
Minority Report
Matchstick Men
The Office: Season One
West Side Story
Frequency
The Goonies
Sleepless in Seattle
Trapped in Paradise
Love Potion #9
The Truth About Cats & Dogs
Entrapment
The Fifth Element
SNL: The Best of Mike Myers
Perry Mason: Season One, Volume Two
Sabrina
Welcome to Mooseport
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar
Legally Blonde
Superstar
Spice Girls
Mean Girls
Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!
Clueless
Pride & Prejudice
Freaky Friday
Finding Nemo
Flushed Away
Casper
Flipper
The Little Rascals
Leave it to Beaver
The Muppets Take Manhatten
Muppets from Space
Jumanji
Yours, Mine, & Ours
The Babysitters Club
Ella Enchanted
The Singles Ward
Sons of Provo
and a dozen others that aren't right in front of me.



Now that my DVD collection has surpassed 100 titles, I've decided to make a conscious effort to not buy more, haha. But to instead watch what each DVD has to offer. Specifically the commentary track. How much do I love that?! Oh heavens, quite a bit. And in my quest to listen to them all I am learning what makes a good commentary track, and more often what makes horrible commentary.


BEST
The Goonies has a fun little gem of a commentary track: video! The main cast and the director are speaking and every once in a while the movie scales down into the right hand of the screen and you get to watch the cast, now 16 years older than their movie counterparts, talk about it. There are a few downsides to it, mostly Corey Feldman (Mouth), he laughs right into the microphone a lot, says stupid things, interrupts others, and claps often. Oh, another downside to it is that Sean Astin leaves about an hour into it! Dude, priorities! ;) But Jeff Cohen (Chunk) is darling, so it makes up for Corey, I guess.





Martha Plimpton - Stef; Jeff Cohen - Chunk; and Josh Brolin - Brand of The Goonies


WORST
Mystery Men is one of my favorite movies and with such an awesome cast (Ben Stiller, Geoffrey Rush, William H Macy, Paul Reubens, Greg Kinnear, Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo) I was expecting a great commentary. Unfortunately it is just the director quietly rambling on. If you listen to it and count how many times he says "ultimately" and the total is under 80 I will give you $10. He throws it in sentences where it doesn't even make sense!