Jurassic World

Well, we did it, we saw Jurassic World! After a year (but what felt like an eternity) of waiting we finally sat down in front of the massive IMAX screen and threw on our 3D glasses. In my manic obsessive ways I hit the refresh button for weeks trying to claim early tickets. When they finally became available I punched in my credit card info faster than you could say 'I love Jurassic Park.'

I was headstrong about getting there an hour early, I wanted to beat the other JP fanatics to the best seats in the house. We arrived about five minutes later than I wanted, which of course sent me into a frenzy as I watched people make their way into the theater. That being said, I am very lucky to have someone like the squeeze, he doesn't question my obsession or think I'm crazy, instead he happily modeled his JP t-shirt and filled my purse with snacks for the three hours we'd be glued to our seats.

When we arrived the theater was already 1/4 full, I thank my crazy JP instincts in wanting to get there so early. Before we knew it the place completely filled up, but not before we managed to score perfect seats in the middle row. There were people sporting JP t-shirts left and right, it was super exciting being surrounded by other JP fans!

The movie was everything I'd hoped it would be, I laughed, I cried, I cried again. There were so many references to the original movie that you couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. They played original music, (spoiler alert ahead) the original T-Rex showed up, familiar beige and red Jeeps, and even the main building with the fossil decor and symbolic banner made an appearance!

It was almost too much for me to handle. Almost.

Do I miss the days of realistic puppets and animatronics? Of course. To this day I still think Jurassic Park is one of the best and most realistic science fiction movies I have ever seen. That being said, the CGI was way better than I had nervously anticipated! It was a great 'sequel' to the original, and I think that's all anyone could ask for.

Who wants to go see it again?!

DQ

This picture has two of my favorite things in it, can you guess?? Ice-cream and Jurassic Park, of course. We had a pretty eventful Sunday, and I binged pretty hard on food. Limiting oneself to cottage cheese and tiny cucumbers during the week is great and all, but I still gotta live. 

We made it out to Elevation Burger and I was in cheesy/saucy/spicy/savory heaven with a side of fries. Afterwards we headed to our local Dairy Queen, it was pleasantly not busy, surprising for a sunny Sunday. I wolfed down one of DQ's new flavors, brownie cookie dough. If there is a place in the sky where one goes after ingesting copious amounts of sugar then I was definitely headed there. Totally worth it. Did I mention that the DQ cups were Jurassic World themed?? Only 18 more days!

We scooted ourselves to the big Cinemagic in Westbrook after and caught the 6:50pm showing of Mad Max: Fury Road. I heard good things about this movie, and I can happily say it definitely lived up to the expectations. Grunge, lots of explosion, a bald Charlize Theron, and a little feminism mixed with comic-book like effects. Although I'm still not sure why it's named after Max (I know there are older originals of the movie so maybe that has something to do with it), considering the main characters were for the most part gun-wielding women who drove post-apocalyptic rigs.

Speaking of remakes, the new Poltergeist is out, I'm pretty sure that's next on our list. After that will be none other than Jurassic World. I will probably be unreachable on premier night because I will be standing outside the movie theater the second it opens.

Graduation

The USM Class of 2015 is graduating today, congrats guys! Since the Art Department is relatively small, most of us had classes together up until the very end. Many of us graduated last year, the rest of the art crew are snagging their degrees today. My dad and grandparents waited patiently and gleefully, for what seemed like an eternity, for me to run up and grab my degree. 

I had taken a couple years off from college, not necessarily to 'find myself' but more or less to take a break. You go to school for 12 years in a row, and then are expected to throw yourself into college for another four, seems crazy not to take a little break. In reality, my break was only supposed to be one semester... which turned in to two years. I don't regret it though, after two years I was genuinely excited to go back. Plus, had I not taken my little leave of absence I would have graduated prior to meeting the Squeeze!

My family was always on my case about going back to school, my grandmother especially. Every time I would visit it was "school this... school that." I think it brought a lot of relief to everyone when graduation came around. To honor our artistic achievements, a bunch of fellow soon-to-be-graduates and myself got together and painted our caps. Obviously this was the theme I went with, I thought it was pretty clever *insert grin here*.

You're next, Squeeze!

Friday Nights

These days I can't stay awake past 9pm. Forget going out on the weekends, I'm in my sweatpants the moment I step foot in the door. I know, we're in our 20's and we should be going out and enjoying our youth, frankly when it's cold out I don't want to do anything that involves me leaving the building. So last night I opted for some homemade vegetable soup and threw Jurassic Park into the PlayStation. Dinner by candlelight with my favorite movie?? Heck yes.

We do exciting things, don't get me wrong. The squeeze has traveled to more places than I can recall him telling me, and I've crashed a motorcycle. So you see, we're adventurous when the time comes. These days the weekends are reserved for boring things like laundry and dusting. I know, we're totally out of control.

Woman Inherits the Earth...

“God creates dinosaurs, God kills dinosaurs, God creates man, man kills God, man brings back dinosaurs. Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the earth” 

If that isn't a great quote, then I don't know what is. I was at a bar in Austin when I discovered this staring back at me inside the women's bathroom. The excitement was instant and before I knew it I had whipped out my pink lipstick and attempted to finish the quote. I was a few cocktails in so the negative impact of smearing my lipstick on a public bathroom door hadn't occurred to me, I was just thrilled with the coincidence of being at the right place at the right time to see my favorite movie quote from my favorite movie.

If you weren't already aware... Jurassic World comes to theaters on June 12 this summer...