Tuesday, October 26, 2010

You Inspire Me: Showtimes and Dog Tags


Anna from Showtimes and Dog Tags is my inspiration for this week. Anna loves movies and she loves to bowl! And, in my opinion, can pull off being a brunette or a blonde. I wish I had that talent! Head over to her blog to check out all of her stories!

Her movie recommendation is actually one of my favorite movies, When Harry Met Sally. I was so excited when me and Danny were having a lazy day and had time to watch the movie. To my surprise...it was missing out of my collection! My bubble burst and I had to wait for someone to swap with me!


I remember the first time I saw this movie: psychology class, senior year of high school. I loved it. I just had to own it. So, as you can imagine...I'm pretty upset that I lost it/someone stole it from our collection!

If you haven't seen this movie, you need to. Right now. The story follows Harry and Sally from the time they meet just before sharing a cross-country drive, through twelve years of chance encounters. The film raises the question "Can men and women ever just be friends?"

My answer to the question is, if you had a friend of the opposite sex before you met your partner, then yes. However, I would think it was a little strange if Danny spent his free time with a girl best friend, who wasn't dating/married. Also, I have plenty of guy friends. But they are married to my girl friends. So! I think overall, my answer is no. Which seems like an awful answer. But I'm being honest! Where do you stand on this?

And, of course, there's that famous Restaurant Scene!



Anna's book recommendation was Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Anna gave the book a lot of praise, so I was really excited when it came in the mail! (Have I mentioned lately that I love swap.com?)


The book was not very long, so I knew it would be a quick read. The book is like being inside someones brain and knowing all of their thoughts. It was a fast, easy read...but I almost felt like this would be a book assigned in school and I would have to do an essay on symbolism (that would be based mostly on a Wikipedia article, but hey...use the sources and you're good to go!)

Speak is about a high school freshman who goes to a summer party and calls the cops. Her friends drop her, she doesn't talk, she's failing all of her classes, and she talks to Maya Angelou in the janitor closet at school. But why? You pick up on "hints" when she refers Andy Evans as IT or Andy Beast. But being in her head and hearing the truth from her is the turning point in the book.

I liked it, I do wish it ended a little different though. While she is a social outcast throughout the whole book, she is suddenly a hero...and has friends again. I feel like in real-life high school is not that simple...even if you do "speak."

The book has been made into a movie. I'm curious...I kinda want to see it!

Her favorite food recommendation was gnocchi paesano. Anna said that paesano sauce is a light tomato sauce with garlic and oil with fresh tomatoes and fresh mozzerella cheese on top. Um, delish! Only thing is..the one and only time I had gnocchi I didn't like it. So this was an adventure for us! I had a hard time finding a recipe, so I improvise; packaged gnocchi and I made a tomato sauce with lots of garlic, onion, and peas (paesano reminds me of peas...)


I'm still not a fan of gnocchi. It's a texture thing. Danny said "I feel like I'm eating mushy potatoes." Well babe...you are!

Thanks so much for the recommendations! Great book and even better movie!

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