Movies & TV of 2013

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I don't want to live in a hole anymore, and I'm going to do something about it.

January 2013

• Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson
• Mr. Brooks - Bruce A. Evans
• The Truman Show - Peter Weir
• Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino
• Lawless - John Hillcoat
• Four Brothers - John Singleton
• Cloud Atlas - The Wachowskis

• How I Met Your Mother - Season 7

I look at you, and... I can see you. I see you. I don't know. I just think you're great.

February 2013

• The Giant Mechanical Man - Lee Kirk
• Dumb and Dumber - Peter Farrelley 
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
• Warrior - Gavin O'Connor
   

• Downton Abbey - Series 3

  

A great man once said, everything is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power.

March 2013

• Jack the Giant Slayer - Bryan Singer
• Frankenstein - Kevin Connor 
• Titan AE - Don Bluth 
• Enchanted - Kevin Lima 
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas - Patrick Gilmore
• Water for Elephants - Francis Lawrence 
• Grave of the Fireflies - Isao Takahata
  

• House of Cards - Season 1 

A heart's a heavy burden.

April 2013

• Howl's Moving Castle - Hayao Miyazaki 
• The Silence of the Lambs - Jonathan Demme 
• Joe Dirt - Dennie Gordon
• Safety Not Guaranteed  - Colin Trevorrow
• Life of Pi - Ang Lee
• Hachi: A Dog's Tale - Lasse Hallstrom
  

• Call the Midwife - Series 1
• The Cafe - Series 1
• Switched at Birth - Season 1.5
• Archer - Season 1
• Fringe - Season 1

 I saw the opportunity.

May 2013

• The Imposter - Bart Layton
• The Invisible War - Kirby Dick
• Iron Man 3 - Shane Black
• Star Trek - JJ Abrams
• Les Miserables - Tom Hooper
  

• Fringe - Season 2, 3
• Call the Midwife - Series 2
• Coupling - Series 1

All of us, in our time, are visited by the melty man.

June 2013

• Oz the Great and Powerful - Sam Raimi
• Man of Steel - Zack Snyder
• The Rainmaker - Francis Ford Coppola
  

• Fringe - Season 4
• Coupling - Series 2, 3, 4
• Top of the Lake - Series 

When we got adopted by a bald guy, I thought this would be more like Annie.

July 2013

• Mulan - Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook 
• Date Night - Shawn Levy
• Despicable Me - Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
• 13 Going on 30 - Gary Winick
• The Talented Mr. Ripley - Anthony Minghella 
• Turbo - David Soren

No, I like you very much. Just as you are.

August 2013

• Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Rupert Wyatt
• Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog - Joss Whedon
• First Position - Bess Kargman
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Alfonso Cuaron
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Mike Newell
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - David Yates
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - David Yates
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - David Yates
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - David Yates
• The Devil's Carnival - Darren Lynn Bousman
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Joel Cohen
• Bridget Jones's Diary - Sharon Maguire
• Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father - Kurt Kuenne
  

• Orange is the New Black - Season 1
• New Girl - Season 1
• Once Upon a Time - Season 1
• Emma - BBC Mini-series

I've always been considered an asshole for about as long as I can remember. 

September 2013

• Side by Side - Christopher Kenneally
• The Royal Tenenbaums - Wes Anderson
• Oblivion - Joseph Kosinski
• The Place Beyond the Pines - Derek Cianfrance
• Miss Representation - Jennifer Siebel Newsom & Kimberlee Acquaro
• Steal a Pencil for Me - Michèle Ohayon
• The World's End - Edgar Wright
  

• Fringe - Season 5
• New Girl - Season 2

I almost just lost control and hit you. 

October 2013

• A Place at the Table - Kristi Jacobson, Lori Silverbush
• Daywatch - Timur Bekmambetov
• Serving Life - Lisa R. Cohen
  

• Scott and Bailey - Series 1
• Bomb Girls - Season 1, 2
• The Cafe - Series 2
• Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 - Season 1, 2
• Bletchley Circle - Series 1 
• Switched at Birth - Season 2 

Still alive!

November 2013

• Flight - Robert Zemeckis
• Thor: The Dark World - Alan Taylor, James Gunn
• Side Effects - Steven Soderbergh
• Gravity - Alfonso Cuaron 
• Secret Window - David Koepp
• Epic - Chris Wedge
• The Croods - Kirk De Micco, Chris Sanders
• The Great Gatsby - Baz Luhrmann
• The Sound of Music - Robert Wise 
• Now You See Me - Louis Leterrier
  

• 30 Rock - Season 7 

It may be an allergy thing. 

December 2013

• 12 Years a Slave - Steve McQueen
• The Polar Express - Robert Zemeckis
• Much Ado About Nothing - Joss Whedon
• Blackfish - Gabriela Cowperthwaite 
• Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Larry Roemer
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Chuck Jones, Ben Washam 
• We're the Millers - Rawson Marshall Thurber 
• Tangled - Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
• The Princess and the Frog - Ron Clements, John Musker

• American Horror Story - Season 1, 2
• Derek - Season 1 
• Moone Boy - Season 1 
• Black Books - Series 1, 2 

2014 Wishings

Every year. Every year I make some half-ass, lamely thought up, New Year's Resolutions. This year...is no different but instead of being resolute in my convictions I'm going to go for simple wishing, hoping, praying that something sticks.

So, in no particular order, my 2014 Wishings.

• Be more organized. Ever year I buy an organizer and use it...whenever I remember I have it. I usually go into the store and get completely crazy in the office supply aisle. Then I convince myself that if only I had a better/prettier/more functional planner I would be a more organized person. I have already bought mine for the 2014 year and as usual have written in my birthday. But hopefully this year there will also be dinner dates, fun parties, and deadlines scrawled routinely in the super cute pages.

Via: IHeart Organizing.

• Cook more - eat healthier. As I mentioned in another post, I am trying to eat healthier and get fit. Up to this point, I'm doing pretty terribly as cooking requires peeling things, rinsing things, and then standing over pots and pans, all of which I am even less likely to do when it's only me at home. But with the Noom app I am more aware of the types of food I'm eating and well, one step at a time I suppose.

Via

• Save more. Luckily we have enough money to pay our bills on time and still buy some food and gas. However, we really need a rainy day fund. We have to get use to squirreling some money away for when we really need it. Budget, budget, budget.

This is actually the bank we use for our change. 

• Read more. This year I didn't read nearly as much as I wanted to. I'll have to pay my library fees and start renting books again.

• Replace my wardrobe. Because I don't have a real dress code for work I usually end up wearing lame, ugly, hobo things. But as it's not really proper for me to wear junior clothes I'm trying to get rid of the 12 pairs of Converse I own and replace them with more age appropriate and work appropriate things. 

You can buy the skirt at: Unique Vintage

• Learn to sew. There are so many things I could make instead of buy, both for my clothing and in my home, if only I knew how to sew! YouTube, Craftsy, and Instructables are going to be my teachers this year. 

Via

• Take more pictures.

• Scrapbook/Journal more memories.

My new lifelong friend.

2013: In Hindsight

• John and I got together.
• I changed jobs. 
• I got to touch and swim with Beluga whales.

• I went to Roswell, New Mexico and took pictures with aliens.

• Went to SXSW. 
• I went rock climbing again and loved it!
• Ate some fancy quail and dessert.
• Went to Fort Worth and Dallas. 
• Visited the Fort Worth zoo. 
• Moved to a house!
• Saw The Sound of Music on the big screen.
• Starting interning at this wonderful organization. 

• Got my first ever hand-made present. 

• Picked up a new hobby. 

All in all 2013 was a really great year. One of the best I can ever remember having. I feel like I'm finally comfortable with the person I am. This year I met some really cool people. I went to new places and did new things.

As far as my love life goes - I've never been happier. John is great and I think we're pretty great together.

Though I sometimes feel bored or stuck in my life, I have to remind myself that I'm just impatient. I am doing new things and I am trying to create a happy life for myself; it just takes some time.

So really it was a great year. It felt short! Time is flying by and I don't want to miss a second of it. 

Things I Don't Understand

I don't claim to be a genius but I like to think that I know a thing or two. But sometimes fads pop up that I completely do NOT understand.

Right now, this is my current WTF list.


1. The obsession with the movie Mean Girls. 

I saw the movie. Once. I didn't like it. It wasn't particularly bad but I didn't think it was good. It's a movie about Lindsey Lohan (before her crazy days) in a new high school trying to fit it. She makes "friends" with girls who are nice to her but then mean when she falls for one of girl's exes. The end. Not only is it stupid it wasn't even particularly stupid in a funny way. I don't know if girls are like "Oh, it happened on Mean Girls this is so like my life! I totally want to be a Plastic but they hate me because they can't let go of their loser ex-boyfriend baggage."

I hope that the people who do actually like this movie do so because they think it's funny and they don't like it simply for ideas on how to make other girl's lives miserable.

2. Back button sweaters, blouses, cardigans, etc. 

This sweater is totally adorable. I would buy it and wear it...backwards so that the buttons would actually face frontwards which is how it should be in the first place.

As usual when it comes to fashion I am at a loss for how this became popular. I think the entire trend makes you look stupid. "Oh that poor girl has her sweater on backwards, someone should tell her."

Is it supposed to confuse people? Are we supposed to do a double take and say "Is her head on backwards?! Oh no, it's just her shirt."

If you get this reference, I love you. 

3. Elf on the shelf. 

I see this guy on Pinterest all the time. I don't know what he is, where he's from, who he is, or when he became popular but I just find him super creepy and I don't even care enough to Google what it is he's supposed to be.


4. People who buy expensive wrapping paper. 

The Container Store

This cute polka dot wrapping paper is 9.99$. Are you kidding me?! I love polka dots. I have TONS of polka dot things but 9.99 for paper that someone is going to unwrap in seconds and throw out? You must be super rich because that is crazy talk. Here I am trying to find GIFTS FOR 10$ and you're spending it on the crap you're going to wrap it in?


So, yeah...if someone could explain these things to me...that would be great.

My 25th Birthday

Well this birthday turned out a lot better than the last few.

As I already mentioned Lauren, her BF, John, and I celebrated my birthday on Sunday by going to Kathy Griffin.

I worked all week looking forward to my birthday on Black Friday.

So yes, that means I worked Thanksgiving but even then I got two Thanksgiving dinners! (But no apple pie) After work John and I went to one of his friend's house. They sang Happy Birthday to me at midnight which was pretty weird....but totally awesome!!!




The next day John and I went to my mum's to eat burgers at BurgerFi and go Target shopping. On her side of town there weren't that many shoppers. But when we came back to our side of town, John decided he wanted to look for a jacket, so we went to the mall and it was CRAZY. Like crazy people who would just rush past you and leave things on the floor and reverse out of their parking spot without looking back.

The line to Old Navy wrapped around twice! It was ridiculous. So we NOPEd right on out of there.

We came home, ate some soup and rented Now You See Me, which we both thought was A.MAZE.ING.

Then John rang up a friend of his to see what was up. They were at a bar right down our street so we jumped in the car and drove a minute.

We drank and John and his friend played pool while I talked to John's friend's girlfriend. The drinks were cheap but only until 11 so after that we ended up downtown at the Basement.

Neither John nor I had ever been there. It was pretty cool. They have separate rooms so those who want to dance can get their jiggy thing on while those who want to chill out and play pool and watch Community with the subtitles on - can do that too.


I tried a Kamikaze for the first time ever...and it was GROSS. Ha. Never again.

Via

I had some drinks, was feeling pretty good but whenever I got something I didn't like I passed it on to John.

So....even though it was my birthday he was the one who ended up looking like this the next morning.

So it was a pretty fun birthday. And then John made it even better by MAKING me a gift.


He's the best.

I was talking about the owl but John's pretty cool too.