Was that bad? Should I not have done that?

I don't like horror movies.

Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say that I'm not a fan of horror movies.

I'm just not interested in watching people die in horrible or bizarre ways. I admit there's a slight fascination in finding out why those people are being brutally murdered;

• Rampaging, pseudo-immortal psychopaths bent on revenge.

• Ancient spirits pissed that a bunch of snot nosed valley kids are throwing a kegger in their dilapidated mansion.

• Asylum escapees dressed as clowns doing... whatever asylum escapees dressed as clowns do. Which is murdering people, apparently.

The possibilities are endless to be sure. Not that I'd rent one, watch the first 20 minutes (to see the "why") and the last five (to see who made it), but that would probably be the best option for me.

Until I saw the previews for Sorority Row. I don't think I would have any problem watching any of those horrible, stuck up, slutty whores being murdered in any of the myriad of ways horrible, stuck up, slutty whores can be murdered. I have absolutely no sympathy for any of them.

For those not in the know, the movie is about a group of sorority sisters that decide to play a prank on one of their cheating boyfriends by faking the sister's death while she's making out with him. The prank gets as far as the quarry where they're going to bury her, when suddenly (for absolutely no reason if the previews are to be believed) the boyfriend impales his "dead" girlfriend with a tire iron.

They freak out, dump the body, and vow never to speak of it again. That's vow. Not swear, not pledge, not even pinky swear! So you know how serious they are about vowing never to speak of it again.

Suddenly, a hooded figure shows up the night of their graduation, complete with a modified tire iron (oh symbolism, you subtle fiend. have you no shame?), and starts murdering all the sisters.

Oh no, the little Asian girl who takes off her bikini top because a guy looks at her is being hauled away to her doom. Dear me, the drunk is dying an ironic death. Now the consummate leader bitch is daring the killer to, well, kill her. Yeah, reverse psychology. That always works with vindictive vengeance seekers.

Is that bad? Should I feel sorry for these girls? I don't think so. None of them seem to have any inherent value and would only serve to further clog up the world with little murder concealing whorettes.

That may be a bit harsh, but when the characters are painted in such an unsympathetic light, it's really hard to drum up any kind of sympathy for them. Incredible as that may seem.

100 Bananas

I remember that the helicopters were really loud. Which struck me as odd because the old rumor was that they ran silent. The American and Soviet ones that is. Other countries didn't have a reason for anything as excessive as that. With how loud the damn thing was it would take an over-budget superpower locked in a preemptive arms race to silence it.

Anyway, it wouldn't have been so bad had the whole fleet of them not decided to fly so low and directly over my banana plantation; it ruffled them up, but not much else. The question of why they were there didn't really pop into my head until after I'd finished screaming at them. They weren't marked in any way, so I couldn't jump to any conclusions. I also couldn't think of any reason why they would come to this nameless spot of an island. The banana market was already cornered here, thanks to yours truly, so that was out of the question.

Then again, I didn't have access to obnoxiously loud helicopters. Helicopters that happened to be carrying equal parts soldiers and bureaucrats. It was the Soviets. We were their weak last gasp at survival in a quickly evaporating Cold War.

This is me talking now, and this is actually my 100th post. That's just an excerpt from my latest story idea imagined up from the word 'banana.' I started writing it two hours ago and I'm happy with what I've got. Sort of like my posts on here.

I didn't reach 100 quickly, and I'm fine with it having taken this long to do so. I don't put my fingers to the keyboard lightly you could say. It could also be seen as a benefit of procrastination, in that I don't jump in with reckless abandon.

There's been a lot I've wanted to write about on here but I could just never wring out the words I needed to get them on the screen.

Like the massive migration of people to the fairgrounds for the last week of summer vacation, and how I would race the buses on my bike as they went past the huge park next to Eastgate Elementary.

Or what I thought of heaven when I was younger. If they didn't have dodgeball up there then I wouldn't be too terribly interested. Seriously. The perfect happiness and harmony is great, but you can't tell me there wouldn't be others up for a dodgeball tournament.

I even came close to doing another 'about me' kind of blog entry. Those are always fun to do and paint an amusing and fairly accurate portrait of my eccentricities, idiosyncrasies and what makes me me.

I guess I can always get around to those in time.

Interesting To Somebody

This week is the Benton-Franklin County Fair. It's a pretty big deal around here and it's always the ultimate finish to summer vacation. Not for me though. I've never been interested in it (more about that in another blog to be sure), but I can appreciate other's fascination with it.

Anyway...

Every so often some big name musical acts are booked for the fair. It's not usually a band I'm particularly interested in seeing, but other people are. Even though I'm not interested, my job has afforded me a way to be of service to the various musical acts. I get to clean up after them and their crews.

Need proof? Well why else would I have posted this?

First up we have America and their culinary needs.




















These next two are for Night Ranger and whoever Church is supposed to be. I honestly have no idea.



















Hot means... well I think you get the idea.




















I decided to save the best for last. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Bucky Covington's catering list!




















When I worked Tuesday night we had all of the food for the Beach Boys in the back walk-in. Clint Black was also staying in the hotel with his three tour buses taking up space in the parking lot.

Not many people can claim to clean up after these musical acts (not many people would care or want to, I'm sure), but I feel, in a silly proximal sort of way, somewhat "cool."

I cannot stress how overworked that pair of quotation marks is. I simply cannot.

Kelly went on vacation. Yes, really.

I got a sunburn, there was a crazy storm and I was stuck in airports for hours on end.

All with my best friend, so this was hands down the best vacation ever.

My vacation began on Thursday, but Friday is when my flight was. It arrived in Kansas City around 11:30PM, and I was picked up by KaTrina in Bambi (her Jeep) around 11:45PM. Stepping out into the fresh Missouri night air I was immediately reminded of the thick humidity in the dish pit at work. Except it was calmingly lukewarm instead of obnoxiously sweltering. +1 for Missouri.

We all went to a nice Howard Johnson's Hotel in Kansas City to stay the night, seeing as how we'd be spending as long as we could at Oceans of Fun the next day. It was a lot of fun going to a real water park with all kinds of slides, a lazy river and even a WAVE POOL! That was the best part of the park for me. The sunscreen probably lasted as long as it could, but I still got a sunburn. Poor KaTrina though, she didn't put any on so she got it the worst.

After spending over four hours at the park we all left Kansas City (I keep wanting to type St. Louis for some reason) and went to St. Joe (about 45 minutes from Maryville, our ultimate destination) and had lunch at Chipotlé (huge burritos). It was awesome to see so much in less than one day of being there.

Then we got to Maryville. It's the very definition of a small university town on the verge of experiencing a boom. Kind of like the Tri-Cities was some time ago. Quaint isn't exactly the word here, but it's definitely set at a different speed from a lot of other parts of the country. The campus of Northwestern Missouri State University is beautiful, and it was great touring around it and taking pictures on my last day there.

The movie theater there is made up of giant airplane hangars and they even have a dinner and a movie option that is really cool. While there I went to see Funny People (which was a lot longer than I thought it would be) and G.I. Joe (which was just plain awesome). It also turned out to be my birthday when we went to a Mexican restaurant named La Bonita. I got to wear a giant red sombrero and get my picture taken. By now there should be a picture of a very surprised person balancing an ill-fitting hat on their wall.

KaTrina, I'm tasking you with getting it back should they ever take it down.

That's only a few of the things I got to do while I was there. KaTrina and I went to St. Joe to spend some time together, and that was a lot of fun. I need to remember to buy a rocking chair sometime in the next 50 years. Also, mild storms in the midwest are really cool. I've never seen clouds move so fast, lightning strike so close or rain come down that hard.

The day of our flight (I kidnapped KaTrina (despite the fact that she drove to Kansas City) and brought her back home with me), we left early to take pictures of me around the NWMSU campus in my new NWMSU hat and hang out in Kansas City until our flight. Turns out there isn't much to do there, so we waited in the airport. We did Mad-Libs, Facebook Uno and generally hung out. We did the same thing in Denver too. Spokane not so much. Driving home was the focus of that leg of the trip in spite of my poor direction giving to cab drivers.

Anyway, I had an incredible time. KaTrina is here until the 20th so I'll still get to see her and hang out before she goes back, but it was really nice being her guest these last few days.

It wasn't until I was taking my shower this morning that I realized the entire time I was there I didn't worry once about my troubles back home. That's what a vacation is supposed to be about right? If so, this one succeeded and was awesome.

What's your favorite decade for movies?

I'm just sitting here eating some strawberry ice cream (with real strawberry chunks just how I like it), and watching Ghost Busters on AMC. It's been on that channel a lot lately and this is the first time I've caught it from the beginning. I remember wearing out our old, recorded from HBO VHS copy when I was younger. I understood a respectable part of the humor, what with being under 10, but I would mostly watch it for all of the ghost and the wicked awesome proton packs and uniforms.

I was Egon for Halloween a few times even. Had a home made costume thanks to my mom and eventually a toy proton pack. Needless to say I was the envy of a lot of kids come those 31st's of October.

It's something about that movie though that just screams the 1980's. A lot of movies from that decade do that though; Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Aliens, Big Trouble in Little China, and Back to the Future just to name a few. The fact they happen to be some of my favorite movies notwithstanding of course. Is the 80's my favorite decade for movies though? I honestly don't know. I have just as many movies from the 90's and 00's (however that's pronounced) that I love just as much.

The 90's gave me Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Matrix, and Men In Black, again, just to name a few. I have so many memories of going to the movies with my friends or by myself to see all of the awesome movies that were so totally freaking awesome that I absolutely had to go see them as soon as possible. So, I could make the argument that the 90's is my favorite decade for movies, but I haven't even gotten to this decade.

Meanwhile the 00's had the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean, most of the Harry Potter movies, The Dark Knight (not just because of The Joker, mind), the Bourne trilogy and a whole hell of a lot more. When I finally got my driver's license and a truck in '03 I could finally go to late night movies and the super awesome Midnight Premiere (the allure of which has since come and gone as evidenced by a previous entry) whenever I felt like it.

Whenever I watch one of my favorite movies I always get a certain feeling or 'vibe' from it. Memories picked up from different times I've watched them, noticing things I haven't before and understanding jokes I didn't understand previously (if it's been a really long time since I saw it last). With this decade quickly coming to an end, I'm very excited to see what's coming when we can start saying Twenty-_____ instead of Two-Thousand-_____

Seeing as how the title is a question, it would only make sense for answers to follow. Do any of you out there have a favorite 'decade'?

As a side note, I left out the 70's simply because I hadn't been born yet. You needn't do the same.

I'm not old enough for this

I miss the days when I would go see Independence Day at the Metro Four with my Dad.

I'd be in my room looking out the window at a clear night sky when he would pop his head in and ask, "Hey Kelly, you want to go see Independence Day tonight?" Before I could even say 'Yes' I'd already have my shoes on and be walking out of my room. I know it's cliché, but it's true that the little inconsequential things matter, and are usually what we remember most fondly.

I remember having to walk home from the mall one day after going to see it. Thankfully I was with Jared, my best friend at the time, and we had a lot of fun on our long, often misguided way back home. I really miss walking to his house practically every day during the summer. I miss all those things I did with Jared, but they wouldn't be memories if they couldn't be missed. I think that's a worthwhile trade.

For years there were pink and blue smudges on the windows of my truck that faded away one by one. One day when I was leaving for work I looked where the last pink smudge had been for months and it was gone. It took me a second to realize why it seemed so off for my rear window to be smudge free. It's not that I had forgotten why it was there, but it had become so routine to look at that one spot and smile that it didn't quite register that it was gone.

The smudges were from KaTrina and her friends writing on my windows with those special markers. They also filled up my truck with balloons and other stuff. I wasn't exactly surprised seeing as how I gave my consent, but it made me happy that KaTrina followed through with her "threat." Seeing plain glass where the last pink smudge had been for so long cemented that memory in my mind.

The other day, I was lying in bed when Sasha jumped up to come and sniff my face, startling me. That in turn startled her and she ran out of my room. I went to go after her but I heard a very familiar sound coming from Shawn's room. I looked in and it was a home movie of Donald's last day of his paper route. What really caught my eye was the beige, ring tailed, round eared cat I hadn't seen for years sniffing at Donald much like Sasha does to me.

Mazy talked a lot more though.

One of the first few thoughts that ran through my head after seeing her was that she's in heaven right now just waiting for her family to show up. I loved that cat. When I say she talked, oh did she ever talk. Easiest cat to ever have a conversation with. She had a past that we could only guess at, but that didn't matter anymore because she was a part of our family.

I remember being there when we had her put down vividly. I stroked her fur. I scratched behind her ear. She was so quiet.

My Dad built her a nice little box that we lined with fabric. Courtney and I both gave her her two favorite things to play with; a rubber band and one of those clear water bottle caps, one by each paw. When I move out and get a cat, I'm hoping it'll have the same affinity for them.

I've always looked forward, wondering what will become of my life as I and those around me grow older. There's always a bit of sadness that comes with thinking about the future, because we need to trade in the past in order to get there. What I've talked about in this blog is all in the past, and while I'd like to go back and visit those happier times (I would give anything for that to be so), there are always going to be more.

More memories to make and some day think back on with fondness, wishing to revisit them just once more.

Now, I didn't just pour out my heart and soul and cry over my cat for nothing. I want comments. KaTrina and my Mom are exempt from this request because they don't need to be requested. I know you're reading this and it really does mean a lot to me when I get more than 2 or 3 comments per painstakingly written entry. I'm running out of ways to get them. Making a video of me dancing to Aqua or Eiffel 65 songs is on the list somewhere and I'd rather not get that far thank you very much.

I'll even throw in this Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory spoof for good measure:

WW: "The strawberries taste like strawberries. The schnozberries taste like schnozberries."
VS: "Schnozberry? Whoever heard of a schnozberry?"
WW: :sigh: "Alright, y'know what? Just-Just go. There is a line between spoiled brat and ungrateful little- and well, you crossed it. You have been nothing but nasty this entire time and frankly I've had enough of it. Just leave... No, you don't get a song! Leave!"

Okay, that's enough

Tuesday night I went to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I got to the theater an hour early, found the parking lot nearly full, and began to wish I could exchange my ticket.

Every theater (maybe one or two weren't) was already about 75-90% full, and I was lucky enough to find one of the emptier ones, and even luckier to sit alone (read: empty seat on my left, aisle on my right). I also had the foresight to bring along my DS Lite so I wouldn't be bored out of my mind or tempted to start calling/texting people who were smart enough to be in bed. I was a little worried that people might talk during the movie, but thankfully that didn't happen.

Anyway, the movie was pretty damn good. It was edited together like Order of the Phoenix, but a hell of a lot smoother and with more sincere acting. A lot was left out, and that's understandable, because expecting everything to be covered is silly. I felt the movie did a good job picking out some of the really important parts and doing them justice on screen. As with all the movies after Chamber of Secrets, some things were changed and/or merged together (finding Harry on the train for instance), and some things that weren't in the book at all were tossed in for... no reason? Yeah, that sounds right.

The movie isn't exactly what this post is about though. More like movies in general. Midnight premieres in particular. In short, the 'magic' of going to them has worn off for me. It's not so much me growing old (yes, I can see that comment coming a mile away :P), as it is me growing up. I mean, it's great to go and be around people that are just as excited as I am to be one of the first to see an awesome new movie (forgetting we live on the west coast for just a moment), but the headache that comes along with it has finally gotten too much to bear.

I stayed until the end of the credits and even after that, when I went outside people were still pouring out of the parking lot. I didn't get home until around 3:30, and the movie is only 2 hours and 37 minutes long. I'm happy that what is potentially my last midnight premiere was Harry Potter though, and one of the better Harry Potter movies to boot.

From now on I'll just risk going to the early morning showings instead. The risk being that parents and their noisy kids might be there. I guess I'll find out next time.