The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2

In a word - fantastic. I realize I'm biased, I read all the books (there's no shame here) and I own the first (2 for 1 - Sisterhood & A Cinderella Story). I loved the books, I loved the first movie, and I was SO excited to see this one.

Stephanie and I went to this new, super fancy movie theater in Rosemont. We had lunch there and I had a soft serve icecream. It was all 14 year old little girls in the theater. We sat in front of four - on purpose. They had a preview for High School Musical 3 and I am telling you - if I had any idea those movies took themselves as seriously as this preview did, I would have seen them all by now. We were *crying* .. laughing. And the girls behind us were gasping.

So for those of you who aren't aware there are four Sisterhood books - the movie really grabs all the stories from the last book which makes sense, it's like sophomore year of college so the story lines are a little more mature - but I'm pretty sure it's still PG-13.

Also - my Mom thinks I AM Amber Tamblyn (started from her days as Joan of Joan of Arcadia, a show I still don't know why they cancelled) so I always pay extra special attention to Tibby. By far we thought she was the best. We both laughed - out loud, a lot and she provided most of it. And of course cried. You have to cry.


I would see the first one - because you just need to know about some of the guys and how it started but I would really recommend this for all my girlfriends - to go with their girlfriends. And make sure you sit in front of some pre-teens. It only enhances the experience.

Too much baseball ...

I know what some of you are thinking, so I guess I should really say - too much *bad* baseball. Steve and I went to three games in the last three days. Mariners/White Sox - Monday, Red/Cubs - Tuesday, Mariners/White Sox - Wednesday. Steve actually had a double-header and went to the Red/Cubs last night too with his Dad. A real trooper. Let's just say I'm sick of stadium food.

The Mariners. I'm not sure even where to begin. Oh wait, yes I am. Thanks Bill Bavasi. You're telling me we don't have anyone in the minors better then these guys? That's pretty f-ing sad.

And now let's come to the many differences between Sox and Cubs fans. While I like the Cubs, because I happen to love a certain Cubs fan, I could do without Wrigley Field go-ers. Sure it's fun to take people who have never been. Nothing has changed in eons. My first experience was amazing. You can drink a lot of bad beer. You can actually never follow along with who is up unless you know them (and when you used to only watch the AL, you're in trouble). You can never seen a replay. And if you go at all on a regular basis, you will actually start to realize it really is just one big keg party. And NO one watches the game. Perhaps because of the above referenced observations?




Sox fans - watch the game, albeit they do have the Cubs paranoia thing that's old. The ball is hit in Wrigley and everyone let's out an "aaaaahhhhhh" gasp, because NO one is watching to see it's a very obvious foul ball. They CLAP and cheer on their own batters as they strike out and head back to the dugout. I appreciate fans who watch the game. I think there are a lot of die-hard, funny, lovely, tall Cubs fans out there - I just don't sit next to or around any of them at Wrigley. If you've seen Super Troopers - you'll understand me when I say Farva was sitting in front of me at the game Tuesday night. ("Never s#$% a s#$%@er") Best character in the movie, not funny in person. Farva was talking to his friend (loudly) the entire game and did not once look at the field. Because of where Steve and his Dad's seats are, with this guy talking to his friend, he was directly in my line of site. So I'm not even sure you can say I saw the game. After the 7th inning stretch, when everyone says "let's get some runs," Farva yelled, "let's get some legs" to Ron Santo. Not cool. Not funny. But yet loud enough for everyone to hear it.



The next day (Wednesday) it was beautiful. I can't remember a better August in Chicago, ever. I was so excited to leave work early and we got SHELLED. And maybe I'm ridiculous to not be able to enjoy a nice day at a ballpark but it's humiliating getting beat down like that. No one is even trying. The only nice thing was seeing Griffey hit 609 because I love no one more in baseball then Ken Griffey, Jr.

I know a lot of people have given up on baseball already in Seattle but it's in FULL SWING in Chicago so I have a constant reminder that we have no baseball team. And with Kyle Orton starting for the Bears, no one is quite as excited as I am for the NFL. And I AM excited for the Cubs. This is a GREAT team and they should win. I really hope they do. And I really hope the die-hard Cubs fans like Steve and his Dad can go to those games, and not the idiots I've been running in to.

And one more thing. A little note to the sideline reporters out there who read this blog. Your *job* is to interview players on the sidelines. Your *job* is to get them to open up about all aspects of their game, their take, and the teams progress. That's *it*. This new trend of accosting a player and saying, first off, "talk about your defense/play/teammates/_____" is maddening. NOOOOO. And they're starting to do this in the press conferences (I realize no one but my husband watches the post-game after watching the entire actual baseball game, but, he does, and I like spending time with him). Lou is getting angry. You can't just keep telling him to talk about this and that. Do your job.

An Evening with ...

"Just an evening??"

... Joe Purdy, Meiko, Jay Nash and Chris Seefried at Schuba's last night was just what you should be doing on a random Tuesday. I really went to see Joe Purdy. I love his music, his vibe, and everything about his songs. I was also hoping Steve might like him as well so I convinced him to go because I said I thought he may have a "country influence." Who knows. I think I owe him a Skynyrd concert now. We have a lot of things in common. Music is not one of them.


Joe Purdy was of course wonderful, Jay Nash surprised me by being better than I thought. The only song I knew was "Sweet Talking Liar" which I really like but he put on a nice set. There is no band, everyone (especially Chris Seefried) plays back-up for each other on certain songs so it's all acoustic. Jay Nash isn't hard to look at either, ladies.

But Meiko blew me away. You know how sometimes you hear an Indie girl on a CD (I won't name names) and they sound great and then you see them live and you're like - what happened? And they still sound good live, but it's different? Well, that's not Meiko. If anything she commands more attention when she's on stage because you can't help but be sucked into every song. That voice is out of control. The other thing, the creepier thing is the fact she has the personality of my best friend Andrea. Even Steve noticed. Same humor, same mannerisms, same bad jokes (even though they're funny, because of the delivery). I mean same EXACT humor. How does that happen?? She was even wearing a scarf. Maybe it's an LA thing. I think she said "da Bears, oh God, that's embarrassing I said that" and we were really convinced. She comments on her own jokes. Andrea is the only other person I know that does that. Maybe I should send her a Farley shirt too.

"Boys with Girlfriends" and "Piano Song" stand out but "Under My Bed" was great after she gave the back-up story. Meiko is lovely. They all are lovely. And it was fun having them all in the crowd as the others were performing. You can tell they are enjoying this tour.