J is for Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow

        As I racked my brains for anything for today’s letter J challenge, my slightly perverted brain continually zoomed at warp speed straight back to Captain Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp in all his glory.  At this late stage in the game, why fight it?  Even though I am not normally attracted to guys with long hair and heavy makeup, there is something sexually appealing about Johnny Depp made up that way.  When you compare him in some of his other roles as Willie Wonka or the Mad Hatter, you just don’t get the same effect.  It is the whole devil may care attitude of Captain Jack Sparrow that completes the package.

     The more I think about it, what kind of fool was Elizabeth Swan? I get the fact that she is panting after Will Turner played by Orlando Bloom from the beginning, but in my opinion it gives her absolutely no excuse to be completely stupid and ignore opportunity when it is presented.    At the beginning of the first movie, he saves her life and literally tears her dress off.   Then she is stranded on a deserted island with this hot pirate with cases of rum and what does she do??  She gets piss drunk with him until he passes out and then burns the rum!! Who would do that??     One thing should have led to another in a natural progression to the hot and steamy sex scene we could all imagine and envision.

      Although I don’t really like the taste of rum, it certainly would have made Captain Jack Sparrow a little more likely to do me.   Can anyone explain to me WHY she failed to take advantage of the situation?  I am just saying. She played it all wrong.  Still, it was and is a Disney movie which are typically sadly lacking in steamy sex scenes leaving the imagination to contemplate what might have been or could have been.   She disgusted me further in the second movie when she finally decided to lock lips with the man.   What is her reaction to a passionate kiss from Johnny Depp?   She chains him to the ship and leaves him to be swallowed by a giant octopus!!  

       He managed to bring rock star magnetism to the Caribbean that left Disney worried about the impact Johnny Depp would have on their family oriented audiences.   They should have realized that Johnny Depp’s sex appeal would fill movie theatres and sell DVD’s at warp speed.  It is certainly why I am a huge fan of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.  Sure the story line is good, but you really have to wonder if it would have been as successful if there had been no Johnny Depp and no Captain Jack Sparrow.  Somehow, I think not until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

E is for Extraterrestrial

    
       Ever since I was a little girl I have been fascinated with outer space, stars, moons, planets, extraterrestrials, and other galaxies.  The idea that there may be life out there is plausible in my mind. It is completely doable. Why not?  For one I can’t imagine this gorgeous universe out there and the inhabitants of planet Earth being the only beings in it.  That seems a stretch to me.

        I loved exploring books about aliens and their worlds when I was a kid, looking at the awe inspiring photos of what is in our own galactic neighborhood, and even love the movies that explore other worlds and the possibility of life out there.  My mind is certainly open to the possibility.  Even though I personally will never venture outside the atmosphere of Earth doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in my book.  I don’t have to see it to believe it is so.   Perhaps that is why I find it so entertaining and utterly fascinating.

        


     

        Hollywood has certainly reaped the rewards from that shred of belief and fascination with their awe inspiring creations of “Star Wars”, “E.T.”, and most recently “Avatar” and “Transformers”.  Even Disney got into the action with “Chicken Little” and “Wall E”.  All of these movies were successful for their mind boggling effects and the way they pushed the barriers by presenting the possibility.  The mere idea of outer space, aliens, and extraterrestrials has opened all sorts of amazing possibilities for creativity with the sky virtually having no limit.

          President John Kennedy was instrumental in pushing for space exploration and research into the final frontier.  A mere 6 years following his death his dreams were realized when Apollo 11 landed the first manned space craft on the moon.  It is a pity he didn’t live to see it.  Scientists will continue to probe for answers and all that glitters in Hollywood will continue to whet our appetites for extraterrestrials with movies filled amazing effects until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

My Favorite Movies- BFF 171

     I love all kinds of movies often for very different reasons.  To ask me to name one favorite is like trying to pinpoint which star is the brightest in the sky.  I simply can’t. Obviously I love to laugh, and have a wicked sense of humor, so some of my choices are because of that simple fact.  I tend to like history, so some of my choices lean toward things that have really happened in the past.  Last but not least, I tend to like thrilling fantastical things so some of my choices come about because of that.  Some movies I love because they are romantic, some move me, and some fascinate me.  Needless to say, I have a huge movie collection and each and every title is in my collection because I loved it for one reason or another.  Since I can’t make up my mind on one, I am going to list some of my current favorites.

       The award for favorite comedy goes to “The Hangover” and “The Hangover 2”.  Both movies describe a wild and raunchy bachelor party that has run amok.  In the first installment we meet the “Wolf Pack” for the first time.  Each of the actors is hysterically funny in their own right.  Of the four, Phil is my favorite. Not only is he played by the ruggedly hot Bradley Cooper, he is ultra cool.  Four guys take off to Las Vegas to raise hell.  The morning after they realize they have lost the groom and can not remember a thing.  They spend the entire movie trying to retrace their steps in the hopes of finding their lost friend.  The second installment focuses on another bachelor party in Bangkok, Thailand.  Once again they lose someone, but this time it is the bride’s brother. They get in some worse scraps in the second installment.  Where the first movie was hilarious, the second is shocking and funny!  Both movies draw you into the men’s predicament, keep you engrossed, and kept me laughing throughout.

       
       The award for favorite drama with historical flair is “The King’s Speech” starring Colin Firth.  Even if I wasn’t a British Royalty buff, I would be into this movie. Colin Firth brilliantly plays King George VI. The story line follows the struggles of the king as he is suddenly forced onto the British throne after his brother’s abdication.  To do his job well and be a proper king in a world that is dominated by radio, he must find a way to overcome a lifelong speech impediment and lead his nation through the war.  His wife finds a speech therapist, played brilliantly by Geoffrey Rush, in the classifieds and takes her husband to him in hopes he will help him overcome his affliction.  Not only does the therapist help the King overcome, he becomes a close, dear friend and advisor.  It is an amazing true story and I love it!

  

        The award for all time favorite classic goes to “Gone with the Wind”.   I love this epic movie with it’s larger than life characters of Scarlet O’Hara and Rhett Butler played by Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.  I love that it takes me back to a long ago era before the civil war when men were gentlemen and the women wore hoop skirts and were the belles of the ball.  Considering the movie was produced in 1939, the effects are phenomenal and timeless.


        

      Finally, last but not least I love all the Harry Potter movies for their ability to transport me to the world that J.K. Rowlings describes in such minute detail.  I love the magic, Hogwarts, and the fact that the movies follow the books story closely.  I could go on and on about even more movies if given the chance, but will leave it at these chosen few until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.    

My Favorite Things- BFF 147

    

      When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I am feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel so bad!! Sing along if you know it!! I can’t imagine too many people around who don’t recognize this song, or the classic movie “The Sound of Music” from which it comes.

What makes me happy?? What are my favorite things?? I had to really think about this so I could compile a good list. So here it goes in no particular order…

1. I love cats! Petting a soft contented feline who is sashaying around my hand vibrating with happiness as I caress it would have to rank right up there as one of my favorite things. I love their big bushy tails and have often wondered how they purr! When I was little I used to wish our cats would purr for me. They rarely did. Perhaps it was my tendency to chase them, tackle them like a linebacker, and squash them that put them off. Happily my three cats today: Pansy, Snuggle Puss, and Rosie have the good sense to purr every time I look at them, let alone pet them.

2. I love my dogs because they love me. My favorite thing about my dogs Jolly, Puppy Love, and Tia is that wherever I am they are close by. When I go to sleep at night they snuggle up at my side keeping me toasty warm. The only time they leave my side is when my husband comes home. Then they fight to all snuggle up to him.

3. I love waking up in the morning to discover the world covered with a fresh blanket of the white stuff. Before it has been touched by footprints and the cars have turned it into blackened slush, I love how the snow turns the world into a wintry world of white. It is so magical!

4. I love sitting in the dark and gazing at my lighted Christmas tree in the silence.

5. I love eating cotton candy!! Cotton candy is definitely one of my favorite things!

6. I love watching movies!! Movies that thrill, make me laugh, make me cry, and make me smile!! I am not too thrilled with the kind that scare the be Je$u$ out of me though. I tend to avoid the ones that would give me nightmares. I love feel good movies, movies with amazing effects, or movies that excite me.

7. I love zooming around the neighborhood with my husband and kids on the golf cart!

8. I love to play games with my kids! I love card games, board games, and LEGO games, so count me in!!

9. I love the beauty of the sea and watching the tide lap in and out on the sand.

10. Last but certainly not least, I love to laugh!! It sure as hell beats crying. Laughing is one of my favorite things.

     I am sure I have more favorite things and the list could go on forever to infinity and beyond. Still here is a list, and that is all that is required, just a few of my favorite things! Just a note, loving G0d is a given like breathing so I didn’t include it on the “list”. That is all I have until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

Take Me To the Movies!!: Titanic

      The last movie that I paid money to see more than once, and subsequently bought the video as soon as it reached the stores was James Cameron’s epic romance and disaster flick “The Titanic”.  I have always been a little fascinated with the disastrous sinking of the Titanic and I was excited to see how well Hollywood would reenact the event.  The movie was well worth the wait and didn’t disappoint!

      Titanic was released to critical acclaim and rave reviews December 19, 1997.  Not surprising,  it was the first motion picture to reach one billion dollars in sales, and held the esteem of being the highest grossing film for twelve years.  Kind of makes the $200 million they invested in production well worth it!!  The fictional love story of Rose and Jack written by James Cameron is what drew me in.  I love how the movie connects the past with the present, involves treasure hunting, romance, history, and terror!!  In the movie Rose and Jack come from completely different worlds.  Jack is the classic starving artist who won his passage with a lucky hand of cards, and Rose is a rich first class debutante desperate to escape the loveless prearranged nuptials that awaits her on her arrival in America.  

         Jack and Rose first meet aboard Titanic when Rose is determined to escape her obligations by jumping overboard.  Jack convinces her to give life another chance and their friendship evolves to lust and love.  Rose realizes that life with Jack is a heck of a lot more fun whether spitting for distance to dancing below decks.  One of my favorite scenes is where Rose says to the gathered men at the below decks party “So, you think your big tough men?  Try this!“ and proceeds to stand on her tiptoes!  A lady watching exclaims “Je$u$, Mary, and Joseph!!“  mirrors my sentiments exactly!!!  To prove that she isn’t just another stuck up princess, Rose pays Jack to draw her in the nude wearing only a huge heart shaped diamond.  The whole posing in the nude scene gets the stars of the movie hot and bothered and they run below decks and do the wild thing in a car being stored for the voyage.

         The excitement is dialed up to full steam ahead as soon as Titanic hits the iceberg.  The passengers go from oblivious merrymaking to unequivocal terror as the realization hits that the ship is sinking and there are not enough lifeboats to go around.  Jack and Rose race for the top decks to board a life boat only to discover the lifeboats are almost all gone.  Rose finds that she can’t leave Jack behind and chooses to stay on board.  In the end they go down with the ship together and cling to the wreckage until Rose is finally rescued by one of the life boats that chose to come back.  Unfortunately, it was to late for Jack.

       Even though “Titanic” recounts one of the most terrible disasters in maritime history, it also brings authenticity  and life to the people who sailed on her and lost their lives so long ago stoking my love of romance, drama, and extraordinary special effects.    The story is engaging and effectively links the event from long ago with the present.    Instead of relinquishing the valuable diamond to treasure hunter Brock Lovett, Rose returns it to the sea.  The movie ends with Rose  presumably dying and  returning to Jack who awaits her on the Titanic where their love was born.
    
     When it comes to “Titanic”, my heart will go on and it will continue to be a favorite for its captivating story and it‘s edge of the seat excitement!! Makes you want to scream “I’m the king of the world!!”   Until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

The Wizard of Oz: Under the Microscope

     Like everyone else, I grew up watching the Wizard of Oz on television eagerly looking forward to every single airing.  When it came out on videocassette I made sure to snatch up a copy.  It is a movie that’s legend will live on forever freezing Judy Garland in time as the one and only “Dorothy.    I have to admit that when I was a little kid there were parts of that movie that really scared the be Je$u$ out of me and held the magical mystical power to leave me mesmerized.

       It took me forever to realize that Dorothy actually hit her head and dreamed this whole little adventure!  Even when she woke up at the end with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry surrounding her bed I didn’t catch on.  It blows my mind now to realize just how dense I was.  Talk about head up the a$$ syndrome taking its toll.  Ahh, innocence!!!  Kids today aren’t so easily fooled and have more marbles rolling around upstairs than I ever could have hoped to have at that age.  


       In my impressionable youth I never once contemplated that the witch was eliminated by Dorothy throwing water on her head.  Today it was raining  while I waited for the school bus with my son and I got to thinking….that witch must have never had a bath if water was lethal to her.  Think how that woman must have reeked!!  I mean seriously, her skin was green!!  What powerful leverage to convince kids to take a bath!! You don’t wash, your skin will turn green like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz!!  There was a reason why everyone started dancing and singing “Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is Dead!!”  Not only was she meaner than snot, but she had to reek too.  I will have to give her credit, that witchy screechy laugh of hers is stereotypically nails on the chalkboard fabulous.

        When I was a little kid I was terrified of the flying monkeys.  Do you remember that scene where the witch is in the window looking out and a million monkeys are flying by??  That segment used to freak me out.  The monkeys then proceed to swoop down and start tearing the scarecrow to smithereens.  Maybe the kids of today wouldn’t be horrified by a scarecrow head laying on the ground screaming with all his straw all around him, but I was!!!  

        There is one point that really gets me  and I just realized it.  Glenda, the good witch of the North knew all along  that all Dorothy had to do was tap her heels and repeat “There is no place like home” three times and she would be right back to good ole black and white Kansas.  I realize that the movie would have been a lot shorter if she would have shared that with the class in the beginning, but how infuriating for Dorothy!!  If I would have been Dorothy, I may have had to wipe that simpering smile off her face by kicking her butt clear back to Munchkin Land with my magical ruby slippers, especially after having the $hit scared out of me by the flying monkeys and that smelly old green witch melting before my eyes! Just saying!  

     The story was written to reveal a moral and highlight what Dorothy had learned from her adventures which is sadly lacking in today’s movies.  “The “Wizard of Oz” will always be a timeless example of the progress the production of motion pictures had made in those early years.  It was 1939’s technological breakthrough that wowed the world only comparable to the present day effects of “Avatar”!  Even though decades have passed, the fanciful timelessness of the story continues to captivate audiences of all ages to this day.  Until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

What I Love Best!- BFF 126

      The girls over at Blogging for Fun have challenged me to write about what I love.  Since I make a pretty constant practice of proclaiming my undying love for my husband and kids, I thought I would focus on some other stuff I love instead.
  

      I love music!  I love anything with a beat, and anything with a message that stirs my heart.  When I was growing up I got into my head that I wanted to learn to play the piano, so I taught myself how to read music to play…well.  I used to love and sit and play every single song in a songbook. The harder the piece the better.   I also love anything with a beat that rocks or has a message that rocks my soul.  I love to sing along at the top of my lungs while bopping to the beat.  I also discovered a new passion playing the drums on the game Rock Band for Wii.  

        I love to crochet!!  The harder the stitches, the more challenge, the more fun it is! That was something else I made up my mind I wanted to learn how to do. My mom bought me a book when I was young and I sat down and taught myself.  There is nothing better than working on a project while watching a movie on a cold winter evening. 

        I love movies!!! I love to laugh, so I love comedies.  The funnier, the better!! I have a vast collection of movies that continue to grow.  If I love it, or it touches me, I have got to have it!!!

         I love to read.  My favorite series by far is the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling. 
 I love the whole magical world of Hogwarts.  I love the movies!  I love the movie “Gone With the Wind”, the book of the same title, and the sequel.  I love anything written by Danielle Steel, Debbie Macomber, and Nora Roberts.  I have a whole slew of favorite authors, but those are the top ones that come to mind.

          I am a big kid, and I love games.  What began as a favorite past time with my mom and dad continues to this day with my own kids.  I love to play cards, Lego games, and board games.

         I love to cook!  I love to make a recipe my own!!  I have a collection of favorite recipes that I have perfected .  The only downside of this love, is that I hate doing dishes.  Got to take the good with the bad with that one.


         I love to write.  I love to work on my website from the posts to the design to the music that brings it to life.   I love the whole creative process.  

         Although I love my dogs,  I have loved cats since birth.  I am fascinated with their big long bushy tails and love to entice them into singing a few bars for me.   I love their “make me like you!” attitude which is so much like my own.


    

      I am one of those nut jobs that love winter and the beauty of snow.  I would rather freeze my a$$ off than roast to death.  I love Christmas and the magic of a Christmas snow.

      Last but certainly not least, I love to laugh!  Just like the old dude in Mary Poppins, I would be dancing on the ceiling if it were possible literally laughing my a$$ off at the tiniest things until tears are streaming down my face and I am literally choking on myself.  I love being silly, and it seems I get sillier with age.  Mooning is definitely not out of the question.  I love to proclaim that I am a few sandwiches short of a picnic or loony as a tune, because that is exactly what I am and proud of it.  I tend to live life having more fun than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest just because life is to short not to.  Until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a truckers wife.