a few of my favorite things

...these, if not helped make up who i am.. at least, influenced me and/or reflect part of my personality..

almost famous... I love Penny Lane, I can totally relate, she's trying to find herself and love and she's such a tremendous character, independent, brave and a bit wild, but still vulnerable and scared to let go and be who she is on her own.. "I always tell the girls to never take it seriously.. if you never take it seriously you never get hurt, if you never get hurt you always have fun.. and if you ever get lonely you just go to the record store and visit your friends.." and some amazing music! lets go to Morocco

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind... such a cool movie, i love the way it's filmed, such great cinematography, and what an original idea.. what if we could erase painful memories or people who've hurt us.. should we.. and watching a relationship backwards.. seeing it go from the messy, complicated hard place it's become, to the middle extreme happy place, to where it all started and what attracted them to each other in the beginning.. always makes me secretly fear i'm losing that crazy girl i used to be... and want to dye my hair some crazy color, lol

lost in translation.. a lot of people found this movie slow and/or boring.. i LOVED it.. such a different movie, but it captures such real moments, and life can be slow.. it's not all scripted and action packed.. and the loneliness you can feel coming from Scarlett's character, I think a lot of people can relate to the isolating feeling you can get when you first get married.. you are becoming a different person, and trying to combine who you were, and who you are trying to become with another persons past and present.. it can be a hard time.. plus, it's filmed so beautifully.. and the way she connects on such a level with someone she's never met before, and her poise and self assurance.. anyway.. it's an odd little movie.. but i adore it..
(i just realized all those movies are rated R, lol.. in my defense.. I have a clearplay)

Books...
Eat Pray Love by Melissa Gilbert.. how amazing would it be to have the time, money and resources to just immerse yourself in other cultures and figure out who you are.. I love that she goes to 3 different places, and she does, she eats, she prays, and in the end.. she loves.. i love how much of herself she puts into it.. the honesty in which she describes some of the hardest times in her lives, and how she found her way out.. i admire her courage, for to ignore the people of the world asking her if it wasn't selfish to take this time for herself, and to do what she needed to do for her.. how many of us are willing to do that? I totally recommend those out there who are still searching for their path, before you make the major decisions in your life, take the time to look inside yourself and explore the options around you.. my one biggest regret of my single days is not taking the time to do a semester abroad, i always thought, it's too expensive, it's too irresponsible.. but looking back, it would have added such a small amount to my student loans and added such a life experience.. it really would've been priceless.. so that's my recommendation to those out there searching for what to do next.. let me live vicariously through you.. ;)

Love Languages/Men are from Mars/Leadership and Self Deception/Proper Care.. Husbands/Procrastinator's Handbook.. okay, it's no secret.. i love these 'self-improvement' books, i mean, i do have a degree in psychology, lol.. i think that there are some great ones out there, which offer great insights to how and why we do the things we do, and how to change our thinking about how and why other people do what they do. I believe that we should always be working towards bettering ourselves, none of us is perfect, we can all use some help. I find myself going back to the ones that have really helped me over and over again as i need more help, or forget to do what i had learned..


The Screwtape Letters.. what a profound, insightful and still entertaining look into how Satan and his minions must see us. It is so clever, and I was captivated while reading. So much of it was so obvious that it could easily be missed. I think this should be a must read, and the audio book is read by John Lithgow, how can you beat that? :) It's hard to believe that C.S. Lewis was an atheist at one time.. but then i guess he would have a good point of view from the other side, and how Satan's tricks can work.

anyway.. thanks for listening.. of course there are many other movies and books which i love.. maybe i'll talk about some of them later.. but these were especially important to me