SMDA takes on T.O.P

This weekend South Metro Dance Academy attended Talent On Parade dance competition at the Minneapolis Convention Center. We did awesome and I could not be more proud of the girls and boy! Our studio ended up bringing home top honors including winning our categories and age groups several times. We earned our trip to Nationals, which we will be attending in St. Louis in July! Great job to all the SMDA dancers! The following photos are some images that I took at our dress rehearsal earlier in the week and well as at Talent On Parade. 

 

Hunger Games Review.

I was super excited and pumped to attend the mid-night premier of the Hunger Games! However, over all I have decided that I am not one for midnight premiers. Frankly, I was just annoyed by every single person in the movie theater. Annoying 16-year-olds doing cartwheels doing the aisles, singing Happy Birthday, and over all just being obnoxious. Yes, I was also wondering when did I become so cynical, old, and crabby? In my self-defense I had put in 14 hour day previous to this movie so I was a little worn out. 

Anyway, about the movie- I regret to inform that I was surprisingly disappointed by the movie. Perhaps I had built it up too much in my head, perhaps it was my crabby-ness from the day, or perhaps it just sucked, in any event I wasn’t that big of a fan. :/  The books are so near and dear to me that it was going to take a flawless movie to beat the images and story that I had created in my own mind. And let’s face it; books are almost ALWAYS better than any dumb movie. Who wants a bunch of Hollywood people depicting your imagination for you? Not me.

My first issue with the movie was simply that this book is too detailed and too much inside of Katniss’ mind for a movie to depict. Although the author, Suzanne Collins, helped write the movie script I still think they could have done a better job with that. The characters were not very developed as they were in the book. In the book we are able to meet and understand Katniss’ love for Rue, in the movie she has about ten minutes of screen time before being killed off.

The movie reminded me of The Blair Witch Project, the way the camera would shake around. I had one friend who had to leave the movie within thirty minutes because of motion sickness. I also found it very uncomfortable to watch.

Another complaint about the movie is it’s pace. In the book the actual games make up a majority of the book- however, in the movie that part seemed too fast and did not depict the games in a sense of terror that it was.

I also wish that they had shown more of a Gale aspect. Not to play up a love triangle so that people have God forbid “teams” i.e.; Team Peeta and Team Gale, this isn’t Twilight please let’s not do it. But nonetheless it is a love triangle and the movie did not give Gale much of a chance. In her novels Suzanne writes about how much Katniss is thinking back to Gale and struggling with the choice between the two men. Gale hardly had screen time in this movie. Perhaps I am partial to Gale because I loved his character but as a friend of mine suggested they could have at least shown some flashbacks to show how much she thought about him as she did in the book.

Like I said, these are just a few of my complaints about the movie. It very well could have been my crabby-ness to look at this movie in such a negative light. Or it may have just been that the books are amazing and I didn’t like when they took away my imagination for what the characters look like, talk like, act like. Either way, I decided I will give the movie another chance and go and see it sometime when there aren’t 16-year-olds running around.

For now though, the odds were definitely not in this movie’s favor.  

photo credit

Driving Thoughts.

I didn’t sleep much this night. Kathleen and I went to bed around three and my roommates woke me up around 6:30 because they were anxious to get back on the road and headed home. Kathleen woke up when we did because she wanted to say goodbye and give a good hug because we aren’t sure when we will cross paths again. I absolutely hated leaving her.I was an emotional wreck for the next three hours of driving. Kelli and Hallie slept in the back while Ashley took co-pilot and listened, as I was an endless spout of words. 

It is hard for me to explain so I do not know why I try but it feels better to try to get the words out. The bond and relationship that I share with Kathleen is one that I will never take for granted nor will I forget about. I have such a hard time leaving that person because of the history we have and the way we are. 

I said it again and again in my New Zealand blog but the relationship you are able to build and share with someone that you barely know just from travelling with them is incredible. In some aspects I feel closer to Kathleen than I do to people that I have been friends with and known for years. It still to this day amazes me how quickly that bond was formed and how strong it was and still is. 

She picked me up during my lowest days and was there during my best. The time that we shared in New Zealand is a once in a lifetime experience that could never be replicated and I would never ask for it to be. I only got to really spend four months with Kathleen but she understood me better than some of my friends back home and was able to bring out a person in me that I loved. Someone who was so strong and fearless and happy. And the person she was and is, is truly inspiring. She has the ability to turn any cloudy day into a sunny one and turn any dull moment into a fun one. She gives you a promise that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. I will never forget the time we were sitting at Bean's flat after the break up and I was sad and emotional, Kathleen went over to the computer and turned on 'Lean on Me' and gave me a hug. It was little moments like these that made such an impact on my life even if they seem like small silly moments to others. 

Something that her mom told me that I don’t think I will forget, “You guys were meant to find each other because you needed each other. You helped each other to get through that journey” I think back to my time abroad and think about how hurt I was by some of the events that took place, but then I think about if none of that hurt would have happened I wouldn’t have found such a truly great lifetime friend. Leaving her for the second time was almost harder than leaving her the first time. When I get back to Minneapolis it feels like a part of me is still missing because I have not necessarily found that same connection that I had with her, that special, once in a lifetime friendship. Something that pulled me through my darkest days and weakest moments but didn’t leave my side after those dark days were gone but instead continually made each day brighter. I will forever cherish the friendship with Kathy and I cannot wait until we are able to see each other again. She is truly the epitome of what a good friend should be and as the Little Rascals taught us,

 “You only meet your once in a lifetime friends, once in a lifetime.” 

Nashville.

As sad as I was to say goodbye to PCB and Florida in general 

today I was happier than ever to be on my way to NASHVILLE to see KATHY!!! --

My best friend from New Zealand. 

This visit had been loooong over due and I simply could not wait to see her!

 We got on the road a little bit ahead of schedule and left Florida around ten am; 

I took pilot position while Hallie took co-pilot with the other two in the backseat. 

It was again a beautiful day, which made the drive nice. 

We were making good timing until the boarder of Alabama/Tennessee where we hit a horrible storm. 

It suddenly started down pouring so bad that I almost pulled over because I couldn’t see the road. 

After about twenty minutes it had somewhat passed us and we were able to get back on track. 

We finally got into Nashville and reached Kathleen’s house around 7p.m.

 As soon as we pulled up to her house she ran out of the house, 

I ran from the car, and we ran and just hugged each other. 

I immediately started crying because I had missed this girl so damn much. 

The funny thing is we were both dressed almost the exact same as when we had left each other so we kept commenting how “you are exactly how I left ‘cha” 

Robin and Willy Diehl were amazing hosts! 

They had prepared an awesome meal; steak, potatoes, bread, salad and a delicious dessert for us 

along with wine for the entire evening. They gave us more than we could have asked for 

and I am so extremely grateful for their kind hospitality. 

The whole evening Kathleen and I just sat and talked and talked reminisced and caught up. 

Pretty sure every one is sick of our New Zealand stories by now but we didn’t care.

 I was just so happy to finally meet her parents in person, see her house, and meet her beloved 

Golden Retriever, Riley. Her friends Sarah and Hunter also came over so that we could finally 

meet in person and just to chat and entertain for a while. 

My roommates all went to bed somewhat early which was fine by me 

because all I really wanted to do was be selfish and keep Kathleen to myself so that we could catch up and be like old times again. 

Her and I sat up and talked about everything under the sun,

 read through her old NZ blog and

 watched our favorite movie Garden State just as we did often nights in Dunedin.

 It was one of the best feelings to have her back in my life, even if it was for just a really short time. 

The entire night when it was just she and I sitting up, I got a familiar knot in my stomach that I can only remember getting two other times. 

Once when I left Jake for New Zealand and the other when I left New Zealand for home.

 It was a feeling of dread, because I knew that in a few short hours these moments of complete happiness would soon be over and I would be ripped away from something that I care about so much.

:(

Last Night in PCB

Our last and final day in PCB : (  

 it feels like we just got here and I definitely do not want to leave yet. 

Again, the weather is amazing- mid to upper 80s hardly any clouds in the skies. 

We went down to Club La Vela beach for the day where MTV apparently was filming. 

There was also a Luke Bryan concert going on but none of us really paid much attention to that. 

The ocean was brutal today, waves were gigantic making bathroom breaks difficult. 

Also, the tide was very high and the beach was super crowded. 

We found a bunch of U of M kids that we knew and hung out with them for a bit and 

also wandered from a group of Alabama people we had met and also our friends from Texas. 

Around 4 or so we headed to Subway before going home to get ready for the night. 

We were meeting back up with our group of Texas friends to go out for the night.

 Like I said earlier they were the sweetest people I am so happy that we met 

and took the time to get to know them! Such southern gems.