I always make it a point to watch one or two Disney movies whenever I feel sick. This is a tradition that started when I had the flu my senior year of high school. Plus [most] Disney movies make me want to bawl my eyes out, which is perfect to help clear my sinuses! The Disney films I’m listing aren’t necessarily my all-time top 5 favorites, but the ones I seem to want to watch the most when I feel ill.
1. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is the kind of movie I like to watch when the sky is ridden with rain, but it’s also great to watch when you’re in a sickly state too. It’s a cute, easy going movie, and Pooh Bear is my favorite!
2. Up
When my nose is clogged to the point where I can’t even blow it all out into tissue, watching Up is the perfect solution! Within 10 minutes of the film, I’m already crying my eyes out and for some reason when you cry, your nose runs like it’s no one’s business. Ahh… sweet temporary relief.
3. Mary Poppins
I just want Julie Andrews to be my grandmother and feed me a spoon full of sugar after she gives me my medicine (to help it go down)(obviously), okay? Okay.
4. The Little Mermaid
You know that scene where King Triton and Sebastian are looking at Ariel from a distance near the end of the movie and King Triton tells Sebastian how much he’s going to miss her and proceeds to turn her back into a human? SO MANY TEARS. ALL THE TEARS. I seriously got misty eyed just typing all that. o__o
5. Hercules
This movie is rife with all kinds of mythological inaccuracies, and that kind of stuff usually really bothers me. But I LOVE Hercules! It’s just a feel-good movie, and I think part of it has to do with its soundtrack. “Zero to Hero” will forever be my jam.
What are your favorite comfort films? Lemme know in the comments section!
To find out the origins of 5 Fandom Friday, go here. And check out The Nerdy Girlie and SuperSpaceChick to catch up with the latest prompts!
Hey all! Like I mentioned in my last post, I started a post Mother’s Day sale on my Etsy store Once Upon a Smorgasbord since I wasn’t able to do one in time for the actual holiday itself. Oops.
From now until May 20, use code OOPS10 to get 10% off your purchase 🙂
Here are some of the latest additions to the store:
Padme Amidala necklaceQueen Elinor from Brave necklaceA vintage illustration of a mother and child on a French chandelier crystal pendentMy Little Pony – Coconut Dream necklaceMy Little Pony – Skywishes necklaceHello Kitty necklaceAdventure Time – Jake the Dog necklaceDonald Duck necklaceCinderella & Prince Charming earringsJawa earrings
Why, what’s that on my shirt? It’s a pin of a Stormtrooper wearing Mickey Mouse ears, which I got at Disneyland BEFORE Disney bought Lucas Films. Disney x Star Wars ain’t nothin’ new.
On Tuesday, nerds around the world became up in arms over the George Lucas-selling-his-company-to-Disney-for-$4.05 billion debacle. My Tumblr and Facebook feeds were filled with posts along the lines of “WHY,GEORGE, WHY?” and “I can’t believe he did that” and there was a plethora of Disney/Star Wars mash-up art as well.
For those who are still sad/enraged by this merger, I urge you to CALM THE FUG DOWN.
Disney/Star Wars mash-up art (or just Disney/Stars Wars mash-ups in general) isn’t anything new — in fact, you can already see and buy that kind of stuff at Disneyland and Disney World considering the fact that there are both Star Wars and Indiana Jones attractions at either park. In Tomorrowland, you can buy popcorn inside an R2-D2 unit. Hell, there are even R2-D2 mouse ears and you can make your own light saber. Disney World holds Star Wars Weekend (which is totally unfair! What about Disneyland?!) and there’s also the Jedi Training Academy Show where little kids get to learn how to wield a light saber and face Darth Vader and Stormtroopers.
So when I first heard the news I thought, “Oh, that’s cool” because it just seemed like a natural thing given the facts I have previously mentioned.
I didn’t hear about Episode 7 being put into the works until a bit later (because I didn’t bother clicking any links to read the full story), but when I heard, I started thinking, “NO, DISNEY! DON’T MAKE PEOPLE HATE YOU.” My boyfriend calmed my nerves once he told me that George Lucas was only going to be a creative consultant, because if he’s not in full creative control, then they can always turn down anything he has to say. I told Shanice (my bestest friend who hasn’t seen episodes 1-3) about that and she said, “That’s a bad thing. That can hurt Star Wars!” To which I argued, “No, it’s a GOOD thing. George Lucas is the worst thing that has ever happened to Star Wars.” You know it’s true! Just watch The People vs. George Lucas. Watch the original trilogy and see Han NOT shoot first. Just look at Jar Jar Binks.
photo courtesy of EndorExpress.netphoto courtesy of Disney Parks Blog
Despite the fact that they’ve had more than a few flops (The Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy and the plethora of Air Bud movies), Disney are great story tellers. I have no doubt in my mind that they’re going to respect the Star Wars franchise and the people that will be working on Episode 7 are going to be folks who grew up with Han Solo and Chewie, so they definitely won’t bastardize the franchise. And weren’t many skeptical about Disney buying Marvel in 2010? Has anything gone wrong with that merger? No? Yeah, I thought not.
photo courtesy of James Hancephoto courtesy of Disney/Pixar
Lucas is also donating all the money he got from Disney to educational programs, which makes him better than a lot of people (looking at you, government). So you can’t hate him completely.
Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers pointed out something pretty interesting in his last video — Lucas has an effects studio called Industrial Light & Magic and in the 80s a computer graphics department was made and then sold to Steve Jobs for $5 million. That computer graphics department was Pixar and Disney bought them for $7 billion in 2006. Pretty sweet deal, right? I’d say the only bad thing to come out of that is Cars, but Cars Land at California Adventure looks pretty damn awesome. So I withhold judgement until I get to experience it in 14 days.
So people, PLEASE STOP COMPLAINING AND LET DISNEY DO ITS MAGIC. When Episode 7 comes out, THEN start complaining. Or start cheering. Whatever floats your Jabba barge.
“My name is Dug. I have just met you and I love you!”
Jen’s been talking about going to Fentons Creamery FOR MONTHS. We (Jen, Shanice, and myself) finally went on Tuesday and it was absolutely glorious! Weeks before we went, I found out that there’s one in Vacaville via my cousin-in-law’s check-in on Facebook! It’s probably the same distance from Stockton to Oakland (where the original one is located), but we figured it’d be easier to find parking in Vacaville and it’d be less crowded — we were right.
photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar
I brought my little Dug with me to document our outing because, as you all may know, Fentons was featured in Up. 🙂
photo courtesy of Jenny Volcaer
Each of us ordered burgers, which were awesome because they weren’t greasy at all! But who cares about that, right? It’s Fentons Creamery, so it’s all about the ice cream!!!
Their sundaes are ridiculously enormous. I remember the first time I went to the one in Oakland, I was in awe of how beautifully put together they are. And they’re sooo photogenic! But more importantly, they are delectable. Jen didn’t see them in the display case we passed by as we were getting seated, so when she asked how big they were I said, “As big as one of my boobs.” Which are pretty big. o,O
We shared the sundae of the month “Chocolate for Boys Strawberry for Girls!” — it’s supposed to celebrate the Boys & Girls Clubs, and consisted of chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, a piece of brownie, strawberry cheesecake ice cream, strawberry sauce, whipped cream, chocolate chips, and topped off with a cherry. Nevermind the fact that it’s a bit sexist (chocolate for boys? Puh-lease), it was SO FREAKIN’ DELICIOUS DELECTABLE!
Sadly, we didn’t demolish the whole thing. There was a bit of chocolate left, but we fought valiantly.
In late April my sister randomly texted me asking if Tim and I would be able to make a last-minute trip to Disneyland on May 15, 16, 21, or 22. We were good to go on the 21st, but why those particular dates? In honor of Fantasmic!‘s 20th anniversary (I was 6 when it premiered… o,0), Disneyland held four special performances for Annual Passholders. AND I HAVE ONE, SO I COULD GO! <– it’s my first one, it’s rather exciting. Plus the 21st was mine and Tim’s 6-month anniversary, so I was all excited about that and the fact that we could get buttons. Except for some reason I was under the impression that it was 7 months, so that’s what we wrote on our buttons. My bad.
We left on Sunday afternoon and arrived at the park a little after 6 and met up with my sister, her boyfriend Ryan, my cousin Brian, and his girlfriend Jolene at Small World. What I forgot to take pictures of were all the goths roaming around the park (it was goth day!). It was kind of weird. Anyway, after Small World we headed to California Adventure since they have booze and pretzels filled with cream cheese! No wonder why the Karl Strauss beer station is Ryan’s favorite attraction at California Adventure. 🙂
Karl Strauss is one of San Diego’s local brewing companies.Those should say 6 months… oops.
For breakfast, we ate at Tangaroa Terrace at the Disneyland Hotel. The prices weren’t too shabby and we got to order our food on touchscreen menus — so Jetsons!
It’s Rex!!!Tim’s french toast was really tasty. I got some sort of breakfast wrap that was loaded with eggs.Rex explores the artifacts sitting outside of Indiana Jones.
Cars Land has yet to open, but when you stand up by the benches at the Blue Sky Cellar you can get a really good view of it. Like most, I’m not the biggest Cars fan, but I’m really excited to explore this new area when it finally opens. It looks sick. And all the concept art and scale models of Radiator Springs looks SO AMAZING.
My sister discovered the “miniature” effect on our camera. Pretty neat.Cars Land concept art from the Blue Sky Cellar.Model for Luigi’s Flying Tires.Imagineer’s desk I would assume.It’s a Small World via miniature effect.
My sister and I waited in line to take a picture with Merida from Brave. We were the only adults there that weren’t accompanied by a child. Haha! The picture didn’t turn out well though, sooo I shall not be posting it here. At the end of the meet & greet you get to shoot a bow and arrow! I think I drew back to far, because the arrow bounced on the side and came back. The cast member said, “You’re trying to kill us all!” o,0
The bears from Brave!I found Natalie Portman!
Tim and I took a long break before we headed back to the park. Since the Fantasmic! performance was a special event, the park closed at 1 am and New Orleans Square, Adventureland, and Frontierland were all open. There were also special food items on the menu at different restaurants, including a bacon/macaroni & cheese hot dog. Who comes up with this stuff? I was feeling a bit too sickly to eat the special foods, but I was able to enjoy popcorn shrimp and a dessert skewer the next day (though the food is special towards the performance, they start serving them at 4, so those who can’t go can still get a taste).
These fancy lanterns were scattered around the Rivers of America.Berry Brownie Skewer! OMG, I wish I had milk to help me tame this beast.I didn’t get to try this, but according to my sister it wasn’t that tasty. Too bad. It’s the most epic cupcake I’ve ever seen!Maleficent is without a doubt the best Disney villain. She’s a fairy that turns into a dragon. ‘Nuff said.The grand finale!
At the end of the night, some Disney characters lined up by the train station to say hello to guests. As Tim and I walked hung out around the hub in front of the castle and Main Street, the speakers boomed the Fantasmic! theme over and over and over. It was fun the first three times, but then I thought, “They must be doing this to drive us crazy and get us out of the park.”
I have soooo many more pictures to share! So keep a look out tomorrow for Darth Vader, little padawans, a techno looking rabbit hole, and much more. 🙂
My poor little Rory is currently in a world of pain — he got his junk snipped off yesterday. In order to keep him from trying to lick his phantom sack, he has to wear the Cone of Shame! I feel really bad for my baby, he’s going to be rockin’ this thing for 2 weeks. Ahh! I was told that I could put him in a baby onsie since it’ll keep him from licking it. Anywho, after the surgery, my aunt and I went to Petsmart to buy him new food. She stayed inside the car with Rory, but when I got out he was yelping so loudly that people walking nearby looked to see where the commotion was coming from. Oh, and he totally peed on her too. He’s never peed on anyone before! I’m hoping it was just because he was startled and in pain.
Needless to say, with the condition he’s in, I’m in full-blown mommy mode. *serious face*
I used to like Valentine’s Day… y’know, in elementary school where we’d take an hour off towards the end of the day and have a party with punch, cookies, and pass out Valentines to all the classmates. When that stopped happening and I realized that Valentine’s Day is really just a holiday for couples to express their love for one another (don’t even try to tell me that it’s not just for romantic love, but all kinds of love, because that is bull), I became quite bitter. None of the boys ever had a crush on me in school, therefore I never received any Valentine grams during 6th period (except for that time my mom sent me one and signed it as Jon Bon Jovi :(), and my track record with dating damn near doesn’t exist.
But alas, this year was not the same! I actually got to do disgustingly cute things because I haz a man now! Tim and I agree that it’s still a silly holiday, but since this year was our first one together we decided to go ahead and celebrate. Before we left for San Francisco, we exchanged presents. I made Tim a mixtape, which I will blog about this weekend because I forgot to take pictures of it and it’s too rad to not blog about (I’m super proud of it, okay?), a picture frame, and an Ellie badge from Up. Tim got me a couple of boxes of Godiva chocolates and some super awesome Minnie Mouse headphones!!! He also wrote me a sweet letter that made me cry because I’m weird like that.
My Valentine’s Day swag.I was super excited when I saw that Tim was wearing a purple tie — it totally matched the Ellie badge I got for him!
We kicked off our festivities at Dynamo Donuts (I’ve blogged about them before here). Their customer service is always awesome, but yesterday was outstanding! The guy who helped us complimented our snazzy outfits and let us sample some beer flavored ice cream that a nearby ice cream shop made (it was from the last batch and a customer from earlier that day brought them a scoop). And he was super helpful in telling us about certain donuts they had available for the day, and even suggested I don’t get the powdered gluten free one since it would mess up my outfit. Dynamo Donuts never ceases to amaze me. Seriously. I can’t get over them. Dude with the bowtie, you’re awesome!
Heart Beet donut.Matchy-matchy. This was pure coincidence.
After we ate our delicious donuts, we went downtown because I wanted to look at the Disney Store. The upper floor has a little kids table in front of a screen that plays musical scenes from different Disney movies, and we saw that there were crayons and coloring pages ready to be colored. We sat there for a good 30 minutes. One of the cast members even came by and told us we were doing a good job. Haha! 🙂
After I finished coloring my princess page, I helped Tim finish coloring his Winnie the Pooh page.
After coloring and oogling at the adorable huggable stuffed Disney characters, I suggested that we go to the Ferry Building since Tim told me he’s never been there. When we got there, we saw a gaggle of pillow clad people. I kind of forgot that SF has this annual pillow fight every Valentine’s Day. It looked kind of boring to me, to be honest. I was talking to my boss about it after my shift (yes, I work now!) and she said that maybe the point of the pillow fight is to let out aggression. And then I said maybe it’s for single people who really hate Valentine’s Day. o,0
The annual Valentine’s Day pillow fight in SF looked kind of uneventful.
We were going to try and find a place to eat dinner around Embarcadero, but the place I wanted to eat at was closed! Tim suggested we eat at Sanraku, a Japanese restaurant that my family and I really like, but it was a 23 minute walk away. Since it was in the area where we parked our car, the trek there was worth it. By this time, it was effin’ cold and windy and I cursed at myself for wearing a skirt, but I knew that sweet sesame chicken and miso soup were in my near-future. I often craved Sanraku’s sesame chicken when I was in high school. I had eaten there a few times with my aunts from the area. To this day, I still think it’s the greatest sesame chicken I’ve ever eaten. Dammit, I’m making myself hungry!
After dinner, we made quick little shopping trips to Rasputin and Nordstrom. And for dessert we got strawberry cream puffs from Beard Papa (which is their GREATEST FLAVOR EVER) and orange cream soda.b
Needless to say, my first Valentine’s Day was A M A Z I N G!!!!! 😀
Yesterday I went back to SPD for the first time in a month! Something always came up, so Jen and I would have to cancel our shifts — sickness, vacation, major holidays, etc. Who knew so many holidays fell on Mondays too? We ended up working on the “Lost Books” project; it’s where we’re given a list of books in each section and we take out the ones that aren’t supposed to be there. It’s rare that you actually find any misplaced books, but I ended up spending 4 hours reorganizing tons of shelves!
Afterwards, Jen wanted to take some pictures on her fancy Pentax camera with the new filter she bought, so I took my little Rex out for a shoot. And yes, sometimes I do carry a toy in my purse. I used to do it more frequently as I liked using toys to document the places I go. I’m trying to get back into the habit, no matter how odd it may be.
I got these really cute vinyl Disney toys by Funko over the weekend when I went to Sacramento, and I told Jen about it — so she asked if we could go to Sac so she could buy Buzz Lightyear. Despite the fact that there was a Disney Store across the bridge in San Francisco, she said she didn’t want to go there (SF rush hour… eww). So off to Sac we went!
This Hamm piggy bank matched my outfit. 😀
I didn’t think I’d be indulging in my inner child sooooo much yesterday. When I got dressed in the morning, I knew I wanted to wear jeans and a tee, but somehow ended up looking like a put together 8-year-old. I bought my shirt at the gift store outside of the Toy Story ride when I went to the Disney’s California Adventure. When Toy Story 3 came out last year, I was soooo excited that there was going to be a little unicorn! When I saw the shirt with Buttercup on it, I knew I had to have it.
Jen and I now have BFF toys! She said, “It’s perfect how my favorite is Buzz and yours is Woody: you complain a lot and I’m annoying!” It’s kind of true too. x__X
I’ve been trying to calm down on purchasing toys since most of the ones I end up buying become clutter, and I’ve been doing pretty well… until I went to Disneyland last week. AH!
Disney came out with this adorable line of plushies called Pook-a-Looz about 2 years ago that kind of resemble Uglydolls. I bought Minnie Mouse last year at the Disney Store, and when I went to Disneyland they were on sale for 40% off. At first I was like, “Oh cool!” and quickly dismissed purchasing one, but then I saw Sulley from Monsters Inc.! I couldn’t pass him up, plus he made for an amazing pillow on the 7 hour car ride back home. 🙂
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