When The Bodyguard debuted at the movies in November 1992, I remember my mom and I were there as soon as it showed up at our little theater in Bishop, which may have not been opening weekend. We were lucky if that happened but since there was only two screens, there was a lot of competition so we sometimes saw new movies a few weeks later. Just a product of living in a small town but we were used to it.

There was rarely a movie with Kevin Costner that we didn’t see. We were big fans. And this one was even more exciting since Whitney Houston was in it. We loved her music. Who cared if she could act or not – we knew the soundtrack would be great. And it was. We listened to it over and over again, singing along. And we enjoyed the movie, regardless of what critics thought. It was good fun. We continued to watch the movie for years to come and I still watch it if I see that it’s playing on TV.

For Christmas, I always look for a fun event to get my mom for one of her gifts – something we can do together and extend the holiday. To my surprise during my search back in December, I found that there was a touring Broadway show of The Bodyguard at this awesome theater in Hollywood, The Pantages. We’d seen Mama Mia and Dirty Dancing there, and my hubby and I had seen Book of Mormon as well. It’s the most awesome theater. Still standing after all these years with so much history.

The very-talented singer Deborah Cox was playing Whitney’s role in the show so I knew she would be able to sing. I couldn’t buy the tickets fast enough.

The show was finally this past weekend and it was awesome. It not only included all The Bodyguard soundtrack but also a number of Whitney’s other greatest hits. It was an awesome tribute to her and Deborah was so, so good! The theater was packed, as it was the second to last day for the show. It was so great to see so many people there, enjoying the music of one of the greatest singers of our time.

I will always be sad that I never got to see Whitney in concert. One of those bucket list items I wasn’t able to cross off before she passed away. But seeing Deborah sing like she was the late great singer was a close second.  And if I didn’t have so many TV shows, I’d re-watch the movie this week but it’s going to have to wait, just a bit. And, if the tour makes a stop in your city, see it, especially if you’re a fan. You won’t be disappointed.

The older I get the more I love storytelling. I feel like I’m a good storyteller and can weave a tale, especially after a few beers.

The older I get the more nostalgic I am as well. Comes with the territory, I’m sure.

This past weekend I enjoyed two events that included lots of storytelling and were also very nostalgic for me. My mom was in town for Mother’s Day so I treated us with tickets to see Rob Lowe at the Mesa Arts Center on Friday night. He was doing a one-man-show in place of writing another book. We found out when he took the stage that this was his first time trying this format, to see if people enjoyed it. I’d say a sold-out crowd was a clear sign he could go on tour.

Rob was very entertaining, telling stories of his time in Hollywood and lots about his family. The show included fun photos on a large screen to help paint the picture of his stories. It was a lot of fun. His wife was in the audience, supporting him on his maiden voyage. He laughed they’d been married for 26 years, which in Hollywood that’s more like 126 years. After hearing him talk, I am very interested in reading his two books to find out even more. Such a talent and best of all, he’s very thankful for his fans and the long career he’s had. And he’s not stopping. He’s only 53 so there’s still a long road ahead of opportunities for him. I grew up watching his movies and still love seeing them when they show up on my movie channels. And his character in Parks & Rec is still one of my favorites on TV. He mentioned when asked by someone in the audience that that character is the closest to how he is in real life BUT that it’s actually modeled after a close family friend, KENNY G! Who knew! So many fun memories of Rob – I was so glad he chose Mesa for his debut show. That has to be a first for Mesa too!

My hubby and I then saw Kevin Smith on Saturday night. I can’t even count how many times we’ve seen him. We’re big fans. He’s always at San Diego Comic Con every year too, which we did cry some nerd tears that we won’t  be seeing him this year.

He told all his usual stories. I love that he’s as big of a fanboy of the pop culture he talks about as everyone in the audience is. His Star Wars stories are always the best. He told the story of the time at Comic Con when the whole audience up and left before his panel because J.J. Abrams invited them to a Star Wars concert with the San Diego Symphony. We were part of that audience.

I remember how excited we were, as we were being escorted down the street, behind the convention center, by a group of Stormtroopers, only to then realize we would miss our annual Kevin Smith-tradition. It was one of those rock and hard place situations. We knew in our heart of hearts, even as devastated as Kevin would be to see an empty room, he would want to be with us at the Star Wars concert and would understand why we all had to go. And he did but he’s still scarred by it. So scarred that he convinced J.J. Abrams to put him in the Force Awakens movie as a Stormtrooper. I think that was a fair trade.

And talk about the ultimate fan of fans. Multiple people asked Kevin to sign things and he doesn’t skip a beat. One guy even had him sign his arm, over a Dogma tattoo, and he was going to have the signature tattooed as well. That right there is dedication. He did tell him to think long and hard before he made the pen permanent.

I’m always amazed by how many people I mention Kevin Smith to that don’t know him. And my reaction always is  “You’re missing out! You need to watch this, this and this” and a rattle off all my favorite movies.

I’m really glad he came to town this year, especially since we won’t see him in San Diego, sniff, sniff. As Rob Lowe said, he’ll keep showing up, if we keep showing up. And I will for sure continue to support both these talents for as long as they’re continuing to entertain us.

For as long as I can remember, my friends and family have called me “The Cruise Director”. Just like Julie McCoy from the Love Boat, I’m the ultimate planner, the “do-er”, the go-to person to find the best places to eat, drink and be merry with heavy emphasis on the first two. Ha!

Anyway, along with my other ramblings on here, I’m going to start sharing my latest faves and probably some old ones too. And a sprinkle of pop culture for good measure won’t hurt either.

To kick things off, the fam and I went to a great St. Patty’s Day event at Hangar 9 . This bar and grill is right on our corner. We laughingly call it our Chandler Cheers. We don’t go there enough for them to know our names and yell out “ROOSH” as we walk in but we do frequent it. Great (and affordable) food and quite a few rotating beer taps, which is a must for me since I’m a craft beer snob. They had an awesome celebration for the day o’ green which was kid-friendly too with games. Syd enjoyed trying to beat her dad at corn hole and I enjoyed my Irish ale and corned beef and cabbage. I’ve never been a huge fan of that traditional meal but it was really good. Green beads were flowing from the Bud Light girls. I had to smuggle Syd some. It was a great Friday night.

A couple weeks back after I got a new job (Yes! I beat the odds and got a new gig in record time after being laid off!) we went out to celebrate on a Friday night at a restaurant recommendation I found on the Living Chandler Facebook Group. (Awesome page, BTW, if you’re interested in joining). Stone and Vine Urban Italian was delish! So good! I always know it’s a good Italian place if they 1) have Italian beer…check! Peroni and Morreti and 2) have tiramisu…check! We’ll definitely be back for more foodie awesomeness.

Just this week for lunch on Taco Tuesday, I checked out an old favorite that has a new home – Guedo’s Taco Shop. They’d been a Chandler staple for years and then moved out of their longtime location due to new development in the downtown area. The owner always said they’d be back after a much-deserved break and sure enough, they popped up in a shopping center we frequent because of the drive-thru Dairy Queen. Can’t live without that. This place happens to be right up the street from my new office. So I rallied some of the troops on my team and went out for lunch. It was just as good as I remembered. Great tacos and salsa bar. Super-affordable. Can’t wait to go back with the fam!

And after you’re stuffed and happy from all this great food, relax on the couch and binge watch Marvel’s Iron Fist on Netflix. Don’t believe any of the critic crap. It’s good. It’s no Jessica Jones or Daredevil but I still really enjoyed it, especially if you’re into either the comic or martial arts or both. You’ll dig it. Lots of good badies in it too. Don’t you think a lot of the time the villains are even more fun then the white knights? This one has a lot of people you love to hate and twists that you don’t expect. Give it a go.

That’s a wrap for now. Peace, love and good food to y’all!

I watch a lot of TV and movies. Probably more than the average person but I can’t get enough. Maybe I missed my calling as a critic of some sort but I also have a hard time finding anything really bad in most that I watch. I once penned myself “The Kind Critic” in another short-lived blog of mine. I just love to be entertained and who am I to judge someone’s work and pick it apart anyway. So yeah, couldn’t have been a critic. So this is as close as I get to sharing my thoughts about what I dig from a Hollywood perspective and hope it will help you become a TV and movie junkie like yours truly.

Last night I got a couple of free passes from Entertainment Weekly (the only magazine I still subscribe to) to see a sneak peak of Big Little Lies, the new HBO show that debuts Sunday, February 19. It’s based on Liane Moriarty’s awesome book, which I proudly finished a couple weeks ago, just in time for the show! That was a feat in itself – I’ve been so bad about reading and actually finishing books for too many years to count now. My Kindle is a virtual unfinished graveyard where half-read books go to die, plus I have stacks and stacks of paperbacks that I need to read too. Maybe it has something to do with all the TV and movies I watch….nah. 🙂 Anyway, I digress.

I was super-excited to get to see the first episode early and take my bestie with me. It’s always fun to see TV shows on the big movie screen and free makes it even better. David E. Kelley, the genius behind Ally McBeal, is the producer.  If anyone can come up with a hit TV show, and having HBO backing it, it’s this man. And it was exactly as I had hoped and painted a great picture of the book. It’s got comedy, drama, romance, murder – all the elements of another hit show for HBO.

The all-star cast is great too with some of my favorites including Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley. It’s a limited series with only seven episodes. But at least it will really be seven weeks versus what I typically do with any new Netflix series and binge watch it all over one weekend. I’ll be able to savor this show a little bit more. I can’t wait to re-watch the first episode on Sunday AND introduce my hubby to it. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.

Being laid off stinks. There are no pros, not really. I just have the constant stress of needing to find a job and my weeks and days feel endless. I’ve been keeping my chin up and all the usual cliches that my friends and family have tried to cheer me up with but I’ve hit the wall of sadness now.

Aside from that daily pity party I throw for me, myself and I, I have grown accustomed to my daily dose of Dawson. That’s right – Pop TV plays not one, not two, BUT THREE episodes daily of Dawson’s Creek. So while I’m combing career sites, looking for my next big break, I leave Dawson and crew on the TV to keep me company. Then, if that’s not enough, 90210 reruns come on right after, for another three, count ’em three, episodes! Pop TV really does know how to appeal to us nearly-40 crowd. So every day I hum along to that annoying Paula Cole theme song, which then turned into another equally annoying theme song in later seasons. And then, I do the Jason Priestley fist bump during the opening credits of 90210. It’s all super-nostalgic and the older I get, the more crazy nostalgic I have become.

Dawson originally was on TV during college and a bit after. I remember getting my hubby hooked on its silliness. We still laugh how not-realistic their dialog is, for kids in high school and then college. It’s part of the fun though to laugh along at their clever dialog. You’d think Shonda Rhimes studied every episode since her shows now have similar scripting but the difference is that the ages of her peeps can really be saying the lines they utter, regardless of how not-true-to-life they are. Still funny and highly-entertaining.

90210 was junior high and high school for me. I used to run to my rotary, yes, rotary, phone to call my best friend during the commercials. There was no “pausing” as DVRs allow so we could talk as long as we wanted – we had to be strategic and talk quickly, get the high points out, and then run back to the TV to watch the next sequence. We’d then have a longer call after the show, breaking it down scene by scene and giggling all the way. Man, those were the days. Homework seemed like a drag at the time but it beats looking for a job, let me tell you. Nevertheless, I do hope my days of watching Dawson’s Creek and 90210 mini-marathons are almost over. As much as I love reliving those episodes, I do also have them all on DVD. It’s time for the job gods to shine down on me. Sorry, Pop TV. I know you appreciated my ratings but Mama needs a new pair of shoes.

I have a really hard time deciding what my favorite TV show is since I watch so many great ones. People ask me all the time and I can never give them a straight answer.  I end up trying to rattle off all the shows I watch, which is a long, long list and then they look at me like I really am a TV junkie. Because, let’s face it, I am. I do know though without a doubt that The Walking Dead is on my top five list.

I’ve never been a huge horror fan. I used to be braver when I was younger and hit all the haunted houses during Halloween and watched most horror flicks. The older I’ve gotten, the more skittish of horror happenings I’ve become. So a show like this you wouldn’t think would be a favorite. It’s so much more than a show about zombies though. Don’t get me wrong, the zombies are awesome – they are beyond believable. But it’s the personal stories and the struggle of this group of people fighting to survive in this new world that keeps me coming back for more.

Sunday night’s Season 7 premiere was probably the best episode the show has ever aired. That’s just my humble opinion. It also could have been the adrenaline rush of waiting since April to see who of all the beloved characters faced their bitter demise with the help of Negan and Lucille. And then to find out that it wasn’t just one but two main characters was brutal. I cried like I lost a couple of loved ones in a surprise car accident or plane crash. My husband and daughter kept laughing at how emotional I was. But I’ve lived with these characters for a long time and it was terrible to see them meet their end in such a gory, gory way.

Through all the tears though, I appreciated the craziness that is Negan. He is quite possibly the most evil villain, ever, to appear on TV. Zero remorse. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan is portraying the character exactly as everyone had hoped.

I don’t read the comic books but my husband does. He’s been telling me about this heinous character for years and that he would eventually show up. When we’d heard he would finally be on the show, we were giddy with excitement. Or at least I was – my husband doesn’t get giddy. He was still looking forward to seeing him finally appear and the chaos he would ensue.

As I sat bawling my eyes out and then watched The Talking Dead right after the episode to reminisce with the cast of the show, I thought back to the first season and my very first encounter with the show.

It was July 2010 and my husband and I were at our third Comic Con in San Diego. The conference progressively has gotten more and more crazy crowded as the years have gone on, making it virtually impossible to see much more than one room’s programs a day, especially if you want to get into the big hall, Hall H. You just sit, stay and watch the whole day’s schedule because if you leave, someone else is dying to take your seat.

In 2010, we could still jump rooms and see lots of different panels, both TV and movies. We were big Lost fans and one of the characters, Jin, played by Daniel Dae Kim, was in a new re-boot of Hawaii 5-O. We were excited to see it. Both my husband and I had seen the original series when we were kids so it was very nostalgic it was coming back. And to have one of our favorite Lost actors in it was a big plus. We camped out in the small room to see the panel and after hearing the actors and seeing the clips they brought with them to tease the upcoming new show, we were satisfied and ready to move on to our next destination that day. A bunch of people were staying in the room though and others were pushing their way in to find any possible empty seats. I went to get up and the guy next to me said, “Are you really leaving?” I told him yes and that we were on our way to the movie room, Hall H, for whatever the rest of the day had on the schedule. I don’t remember. I just know it was something we wanted to see. He shook his head and said there was a great new zombie show panel coming up based on a popular comic book.

“Zombies?” I questioned.

“Yes, it’s great! You should stay!” I thanked him for the information and we left anyway.

We got home after the long weekend and I started seeing commercials about a month later for this new show on AMC called The Walking Dead. I figured it had to be the show the guy was talking about. But on AMC? It couldn’t be any good – it wasn’t HBO or Showtime. Although the network did birth both Breaking Bad and Mad Men so it was worth a shot. But zombies? Really? I was intrigued enough though to watch and I’ve never regretted my decision since the show premiered on Halloween night 2010. I do regret that I didn’t stick around that day for their first ever Comic Con panel. And to think I was there for Hawaii 5-O which turned out to suck. Sorry if you’re reading this and you’re a fan but it just wasn’t great. I had to cut it from my TV list after a few episodes. The Walking Dead however has kept my attention for seven seasons and I can hardly wait for every Sunday to roll around.

Here’s to Glenn and Abraham! Thank you for being such great actors – so great in fact that I felt like you were part of my life and that I was attending your funerals. You will be missed but revenge is a dish best served cold. Rick and family are coming for you, Negan, no matter how long it takes.

I have a confession to make. I’ve been a lazy ass once again and have not kept my promise to myself and others. It’s been many, many moons since I’ve posted on my blog. But, I was recently inspired to get back into the swing of things and write again. Thanks to my girl Nikki for the motivation!

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, it’s time to get down to the business at hand – Halloween! It’s the most glorious holiday.  Yes, I said it – even better than Thanksgiving or Christmas. Don’t get me wrong – I love turkey dinner and presents but Halloween is a night to be someone you’re not. To be creative and eat lots of candy. And pumpkins! Everything pumpkin. It’s really the kick off of the fall season with so many awesome events and great sweet treats. And the decorations! For a shopaholic like me, it’s the perfect time to stock up on even more spooky treasures. And I Halloween-ize everything that’s standing. Our yard and house are the best on the street, to the point where people take photos with our yard decorations. That’s just how fun it is.

I’m basically the Griswold of Halloween. (My hubby is really the true Griswold since Christmas is his obsession.) It started at an early age and almost 39 years later it’s only amplified with time. I learned from the best, my mom. She has always been the ultimate holiday-decorator and costume-maker. That’s where I fall down. Since leaving home for college back in 1996, I haven’t really made a costume since. I became a store-bought kind of gal. For years my mom would spend all her waking hours making my costumes. The one that she would likely say was the toughest and where she wanted to throw in the towel was the year I wanted to be Tweety Bird. I think I was in preschool and I never missed a chance to watch The Looney Tunes. So she got to work on creating my fluffy yellow costume, complete with aqua blue eyes. It was head to toe awesome but I do recall at some point in the process, when she was giving her sewing machine the finger, that she asked my dad to just take me somewhere, away from the house, as she held back Niagara Falls-level tears. The costume came out great and you would have never known it gave her so much trouble.

Another year I was a much simpler bunch of purple grapes. A purple leotard, purple tights, purple make-up and purple balloons made for a much easier costume.  And I even won for my grade that year at the costume contest. I won most year’s BTW – that’s how excellent my costumes where and it was all because of my mom’s handy-work.

Another memorable costume was 8th grade’s choice – the Statue of Liberty. I have always been a huge fan of Lady Liberty. We dyed a bed sheet light green, made a crown and a tablet, got some sandals, and painted my hair and face green. I was sort of Hulk/Jolly Green Giant green for a few days afterwards. That color really sticks, especially back in the early 90s.

I was also a mouse in a wedge of cheese one year. The wedge of cheese (complete with holes in it) was  made out of cardboard and spray-painted yellow. The mouse was easy – ears and a tail, along with a nose and whiskers.

Our neighbors always loved to see what we’d come up with each year, as I went door-to-door, trick or treating. Lots of great memories made.

In the last few years, I’ve continued to dress up but gotten lazier and lazier about my costume choices. I’m definitely more focused on making sure Syd has something good now. I haven’t even figured out what this year’s get-up will be. But I will – I always do and won’t just wear a Halloween-themed shirt. That’s for my hubby. 🙂

I’ve always loved Vegas but not really for the gambling since I typically only play slots.

When I was first legal to gamble, I’d go all out with Blackjack, thinking I could be like the kids from 21 but I was no MIT student.  I was lucky to break even so I’ve mostly stuck with slots since then.

I really love Vegas for the shows and concerts (I’m a certified Cirque du Soleil Junkie), the restaurants (since now there’s way more than the average buffet and all the celebrity chefs have invaded), the shopping (duh, shopaholic) and the bars and clubs (I heart beer and sometimes think I’m Chelsea Handler and can handle vodka only to quickly realize I need to leave that rocket fuel to the professionals).

I’ve had many epic trips to Vegas. Long before The Hangover movie was even a thought, I was living La Vida Loca. Zach, Bradley and Ed have got nothing on me and my friends. From my bachelorette party where I ended up passed out in the stairwell of the Luxor (after being tucked into bed hours before at yes, that hotel, and  yes, I drunkenly sleep walked and yes, I did have my PJs on, thank Sweet Baby Jesus, and yes, I’m sure the camera guys in the hotel got a real kick out my drunk-ass shenanigans but sadly, I bet I wasn’t the first one to stairwell sleep) to the time my best friend and I convinced a couple of Russians we met at a club that we worked for the FBI because she had a P.I. license that looked close enough, it’s safe to say we’ve made plenty of great Sin City memories.

The most memorable though has to be the first time I went to Vegas after turning 21. My best friend and I waited to go over Memorial Day weekend, so we had plenty of time to make the most of a long weekend.

I had gone to AAA for hotel reservations. Yes, I’m that old – most of the online sites like Travelocity and Expedia were barely around so I was still very old school. AAA was always my go-to for travel so I was convinced they could help me this time around too.  I asked for a hotel near all the new casinos on The Strip and something more affordable.  Vegas wasn’t on sale back then like it is now so it was tough to find cheap rooms, unless you wanted to stay at Motel 6, which was not an option.  I was on an ASU college student budget but I wasn’t so broke that I would sleep with bed bugs.

The travel agent came back to me with a great rate at a Days Inn in “Downtown” as she said, near “all the action.” I’d stayed at plenty of Days Inn and other hotel/motels in that category so it worked for me. We didn’t plan on being in the room much anyway so it would work great. And I hadn’t bothered to look at the location because she told me it was where I’d wanted to be, “near all the action.”

We decided to fly because Southwest was really cheap or rather cheaper back then. And we knew we’d just take taxis while we were there to get around.

When our first taxi from the airport dropped us at the hotel, we knew our travel agent had made a mistake. We were way up north on the Strip, off of Fremont Street.  There  was a lot of “action” alright, especially at the police station that was right next door to the Days Inn. We were greeted as we got out of the taxi with a couple of policemen arresting some guys and cuffing them against the wall, just adjacent to the hotel lobby. It was awesome – Welcome to Vegas.  We were at least safe since we had a 24/7 alarm system in the form of a police station as our neighbor. That same scene of people being arrested continued for the whole weekend.  I don’t think there was ever a time that we walked by that wall to our room and didn’t  see people getting arrested.

We also realized that taxis were very expensive. I don’t remember how much we paid from the airport to the hotel but it was a lot, especially by our ballers-on-a-budget standards. So we were resourceful – we figured there had to be other forms of transportation, like the bus, so we didn’t waste all our spending money on taxis.

We walked to the 7-Eleven on the corner and went to the counter, asking the clerk about the bus. He said the city bus picked up right outside the door, on Las Vegas Boulevard and would run all up and down The Strip all day and night AND best yet, it was only $2. SOLD!

The bus pulled up and we hopped on. And we rode and we rode and we rode some more, for what I think was at least an hour, since it felt like it stopped every few feet.  But it’s about the journey not the destination! We kept our humor, and people-watched because man, the bus is the best place for that. At one point a clown from Circus Circus boarded and we got some awesome balloon hats made for us, something along the lines of our lower intestines. We looked ridiculous but we were having fun.

We finally made it down to the newer hotels, like New York New York. It was fabulous. I fell in love. The lights, the sounds, the everything. It was all great. We rolled around to all the hotels in that area, up and down the Strip, and shopped, ate and drank. And rinsed and repeated.

Hours later we made it back to our hotel to get ready to go out that night. The MGM had recently opened up Studio 54. That was a serious bucket list item for us. A club that was a replica of the original legendary joint was something we had to experience.

We got our club gear on and these new shoes that I had bought special for the trip – I knew it would be a risky move to wear new ones since rule of thumb always states don’t wear new shoes ESPECIALLY when you’re going to be walking a lot. But fuck it – I was in Vegas and was going to do what I wanted and suffer the consequences.

We hopped on the bus and as we made it down to an area we could walk from, my best friend realized she left her ID back in the room. I couldn’t believe it – we literally had been on the bus for over an hour and we knew there was no way we’d get in the club without it.

We jumped off the bus and started to hoof it back, hoping a bus would be headed North at some point. My dogs a.k.a. my feet, were already barking but I pushed through the pain. Cars whizzed by us yelling out awesome comments like “WHORES!” – we weren’t exactly in the best part of town, and near areas where hookers did walk the street so made sense, I suppose, but either way, super-lovely.

We finally made it back to the room and my best friend found her ID. We ran down to the corner to pick up the bus, again, and made our way back down south on the Strip one more time. By now it was getting late but fortunately Vegas only really gets rolling the later it gets.

I think we made it to Studio 54 after midnight and we just about closed the place down. At some point I couldn’t even feel my feet anymore. I was fairly certain I was going to have to have  them amputated at the end of the weekend but I didn’t  care. The club was the best I’d ever been to. It was exactly like all the photos and videos I’d seen of the original. Awesome, awesome.

We left the club and figured we deserved a cab back to the hotel. We devoured an early breakfast at the good ol’ El Cortez which was right across the street from our hotel.

I then soaked in the bathtub for a bit, hoping that my feet would turn back to normal color. Then I slept like the dead. At one point, my best friend really thought I had passed on because I literally never moved a muscle. I was more tired than I think I had been in a long time. Sin City takes it out of you but man, is it worth it.

I don’t remember the agenda for the next day but I know it would have been similar to Day 1, other that I hobbled around on my sore feet, leaving those heinous new ones behind. I literally threw them out at the hotel (I likely made the maid’s day but oh, if she only knew what she was in for!) and I bought new more comfortable ones on the trip for the second night out.

We did also make it to breakfast on our last morning before heading home to a legendary spot, The Peppermill Restaurant & Fireside Lounge. It really is something. I see it show up on Best Of lists all the time. But fun fact: we once tried to go there, after going for many trips before, only to find that the front door was chained up and a letter from the health department was on it. I did have a suspiciously grayish sausage one trip that left me feeling not so hot on the road trip home BUT could have been the ridiculous amounts of alcohol I consumed the night before too. One can never tell.

I heart Sin City and will continue to frequent it. I just celebrated my 38th birthday and couldn’t have been happier with my decision to have it as my birthday destination. My hubby wants to burn it down, just like Ed did in The Hangover, but that’s just because he grew up there. I on the other hand was only ever a visitor, even as a young girl with my parents, seeing Barbara Mandrell in concert and this new and super-talented magician that everyone raved about named David Copperfield.  I thank Vegas for more memories than should be allowed for a chick that’s still on the youngish side of her life. Here’s to many more ahead!

I likely have seen Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves no less than 1,000 times and that’s no exaggeration. I was obsessed with it when I was younger.  The sound track hooked me, I loved Kevin Costner but I also couldn’t wait to repeat the lines of one of the best bad guys that I feel Hollywood ever produced – Alan Rickman. Who could forget the line he spat out, proclaiming that “he would cut his [Robin Hood’s] heart out with a spoon” when he found him. He was funny and hateful all in the same breath. He was the villain you loved to hate.

I remember seeing him for the first time in Die Hard. Hearing his character, Hans Gruber, say Bruce Willis’s character’s name “McClane” in that thick accent over and over again was music to my ears.  I knew he was talented then and I followed him every step of the way in his career since, even when he got a chance to play characters that weren’t as villainous but more hilarious, like Metatron in Kevin Smith’s movie, Dogma. He could even pull off a western with the likes of Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under.

Then the Harry Potter books came to life on the big screen and the news broke that Rickman would play Professor Severus Snape. I couldn’t imagine another actor that would have played that character better.  He brought out his vial attitude and meanness like no one else, making it believable and what I pictured while reading the books. And then years later in the series, he showcased the tender and tortured emotions of a broken man, bringing tears to my eyes.

To say he’ll be missed is an understatement.  He was truly one of the greats and I’ll continue to cherish his movies and the wonderful characters he played. Thank you, Alan, for entertaining us all for years. Hollywood and the world over lost a legend but your memory will live on for generations to come.

I’ve seen Pump Up the Volume so many times that I can recite it word for word and sing along with the entire soundtrack. I had the movie poster hanging in my room. I revered Christian Slater.

I binge-watched all of his movies after falling hard for him in that one. And I would drag my mom or friends to see any new ones at the theater for years later.

I’ve followed his career closely since those early days and he sadly didn’t have a lot of great movies or TV shows after his teen heart throb days but I still watched them all.  I didn’t care.  Anytime I saw his name show up in my Entertainment Weekly I would check out whatever it was. I had a history with this guy.  He was one of my first celeb crushes (the very first was Tom Selleck – who wouldn’t love those Magnum P.I. eyebrows in the opening credits, I mean come on – hot pocket!).

Now, years later, a little show on USA Network called Mr. Robot made a big splash with critics and fans like me with Christian as one of the main characters. He finally got a winner again.

And tonight he was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for the show. I squealed and clapped at the TV, making my daughter shake her head and scold me for being so loud and my husband laugh.

The show is so great and he’s beyond deserving for the award. If you’re looking for a show to get caught up in, watch this one.  It’s like nothing else on TV – completely different. You too will then see why Christian needed a second chance with his career. He’s so talented and his character in this show is a perfect role for him. Congrats Mr. Slater! I knew Mr. Robot would be your Cinderella story.  Thank you for hanging in there for more than “four decades of entertainment” as he said in his acceptance speech. I’ll be anxiously awaiting Mr. Robot Season 2 and whatever awesome new projects this award will now gift you.