Re-reading and Re-watching: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Resuming my quest to re-read and re-watch each of the Harry Potter books and movies, years later as a full-grown adult, I have come to the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Now my copy of the fifth book is the Bloombury edition, which was printed and sold in the U.K.  At the time of the book’s release, I was in London as part of the Radio/TV/Film overseas summer course in British Broadcasting co-hosted by my school,...

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Re-reading and Re-watching: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Continuing on to the fourth book in the series, I have been re-reading and re-watching the Harry Potter series, after more than a decade, from a different perspective.  I’m much older and one would hope, wiser.  I also wanted to re-read the series for more details of the much overshadowed Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff houses. I first came across the Harry Potter series right as the Book Four was coming out.  My younger cousin had the...

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Re-reading and Re-watching: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

If you missed my previous posts, I've been re-reading and re-watching the Harry Potter series in order.  Mostly because I wanted to read it again from the perspective of my Pottermore assigned Ravenclaw House, but also because now I'm a full-blown adult with a home mortgage and I was curious to see how the series has held up. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is notable in my opinion for expanding the Harry Potter world to include Harry's...

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Re-reading and Re-watching: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Continuing on my mission to re-read and re-watch all the Harry Potter books and movies, approximately 15 years later since I first started when Book 4 came out, I have to admit that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was always my favorite book prior to Books 6 and 7. It’s not a popular opinion, and I totally understand why most prefer Book Three over Book Two.  The plotting in Book Three is denser, and has more world-building elements. The...

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Re-reading and Re-watching: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

So yeah, I’m a Harry Potter nerd….who isn’t, really?  On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d rate myself as an 8.  I’ve read all the books, watched all the movies, logged onto to the Pottermore site in its second beta testing phase and have gotten sorted into Ravenclaw.  I can’t really rate myself any higher because I haven’t watched A Very Potter musical online, I don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Harry Potter, and I have...

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New Halloween Movie Playlist

It seems to me that Halloween comes second only to Christmas.  Everyone loves Christmas and Halloween.  Both outrank every other holiday.  Both have treats, their own playlists, their own movie marathons, etc.  I originally wanted to run through a list of my favorite Halloween movies, which include popular favorites like Ghostbusters, Young Frankenstein, Sleepy Hollow, Night of the Hunter, and Nightmare Before Christmas, but I...

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Postcards from Milan

Milan likes to have fun.  On the way to see the Duomo of Milan, my parents and I were weaving through the beautiful streets lined with impossibly tall, incredibly old ornate buildings, the kind you'd see in most major cities in Italy, when we came across clearing and saw a modern sculpture of a hand flipping you off, placed right in the middle of the street....

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Venice/ Venezia - 2 Days in Venice

When we, my parents and I, first arrived at the train station in Venice from Florence we saw the beautiful greenish water immediately.  All the canals and all the buildings fronting them, their stone steps entirely immersed in the lapping green waves. Walking alongside canal there are quite a few souvenir stands, filled with captain hats and those elaborate glittering Venetian carnival masks but as I was passing one such stand I saw...

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Under the Tuscan Sun - 2 Days in Florence

I feel that to really experience Florence, one must do while also visiting Rome, at least for the first time.  Florence is really the yin to Rome's yang....

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Roman Holiday - Part Two

Probably surprising no female ever, I actually did some research prior to packing for my trip to Italy. Dreamt of it, fantasized about what perfect little outfits to pack.  See, I wanted to look like I belonged in Italy and decided upon the advice of travel blogs and posts to pack mostly layers and mostly black clothing.  Black is chic and fits in anywhere, right?  Well the truth of it is, you can pretty much wear anything...

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Roman Holiday - 3 Days in Rome

There is much to be said about traveling overseas with your parents once you are in your 30's.  I won't go into too much detail here, as there are probably not enough words to describe all the little moments of stress, laughter, joy, tears, minor fights, being completely lost in Venice and after an exhausting 20+ hours of flights and layovers, harmonizing with your mom to Phil Collins' Land of Confusion in totally deserted airport...

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The Power of Mindfulness

Before we delve deep into the concept of mindfulness, I just want to scale it back a bit and confess something to you all.  Ya'll, online dating is hard.  It totally messes with your mind and any remote amount of self-confidence you may have.  Subjecting yourself on a weekly basis to complete and total strangers for the purposes of romantic involvement is draining and somewhat unhealthy.  ...

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Oh Hai

I'm posting again for the first time in four months, and you know what?  I'm not even going to apologize.  Because life happens and it's not even a glamorous life in which so many amazing, exciting opportunities and adventures are going on, that there is simply no time to blog.  It's because work gets busy, or relationships rise and fall, or your inspiration falls flat, because let's face it, I don't live a life worth blogging...

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Austin Calling

  Man, sorry for the infrequent posts.  I can't seem to find extra time these few weeks to catch up on my blog but I wanted to share some photos from my recent trip to Austin with my friend Christina, back in February.  ...

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......aaaaand I'm back!

Whoaaa, you guys.  I just realized I haven't posted anything for the month of February.  I've been so busy, I just finally took a breath...

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The Height of Luxury – Pizza and Sushi

One day last week I treated myself to lunch at Central Market’s indoor café.  Central Market is an upscale grocery store similar to Whole Foods.  You can get fancy bread, fancy wines, fancy cheese, fancy to-go meals, fancy cooked to order meals and you can sit down for lunch or dinner in there indoor café....

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Nerd Rant # 5 - 4 Reasons Why You Should Care About the new Ant-Man Movie

I don't know if you are a huge comic-book nerd like I am but I'm sure by now most people have a passing knowledge about the Marvel Universe and understand that The Avengers movie and their characters, Iron-Man, Thor, Captain America and Hulk, are part of the same world as the tv show Marvel Agents of Shield and the Guardians of the Galaxy. You have probably seen the trailer for this upcoming Marvel Superhero movie called Ant-Man, and...

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5 New Year's Resolutions That I Promise Aren't Lame

Happy New Year!  Hopefully ya'll spent New Year's with friends and family! Normally I don't do New Year's Resolutions, and if I do they are almost always super easy like say smuggling a hot dog into a movie screening. Yes that was really a resolution of mine for 2012!  Then I lied to my mom, when she called me and said my resolution was to get in shape, which is what I always say and never, ever do. This time around I thought...

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