happiest place on earth...and in hell

so last night nellie and i went to disneyland. we try to limit our 'happiness' to 2 rides each time we go to disneyland. we try to do two different rides so that we will get through them all by the time our season passes expire in february. last night we did a repeat of space mountain, but we did get to two new rides: 'mr. toads wild ride' and 'pinocchio.'

so i dont know what exactly mr. toads wild ride is based on, but its a messed up ride. i thought it was based on the story 'the wind and the willows.' i dont really remember that story that well, but i remember seeing the cartoon when i was younger. all i really remember was that there was a toad and he got himself in to troubles and at the end he somehow escapes from rats or weasels. im not exactly sure. not that it really matters though because the ride is completely ridiculous and makes no sense.

in most of those storybook rides, there are voices or someone sort of narrarating as you go through the ride. there are no voices on mr. toads, so you are left to interpret the story on your own. you start by going in and out of a library. then through some sort of alley where there are weasels on the ceiling. then you weave around and head through the streets of london. you almost get into about 4 car accidents and there are explosives all over the place. at one point there is a bartender selling beer.  later, you find yourself weaving around some fountain and before you know it, some random judge is reaching over his bench and pointing a finger, presumably signaling that you are being sentenced, and your sentence is through the next door. what is through the next door? hell. it gets hot. literally a temperature increase.  there is fire all over. the room is full of a large devil and many small devils that are laughing and screaming all over the place. at least there is a happy ending right around the corner. oh wait, no there's not, when you leave that room, there are fake explosives and then the ride is over (btw, if you want to see it, there is a fair/poor youtube video of it). 

so technically, the ride ends in hell. which is fine by nellie and i. we are comfortable there and are able to laugh at the experience. but what about the children? nellie and i as adults couldnt even understand what was going on. but at least we were able to laugh about it and walk away unscathed and realize its just disney being crazy like they were with the pink elephants in dumbo. but a child? they just sit there silently, wide-eyed staring at all the craziness, soaking it all in. here is what they gather from that. there are scary, cigar smoking weasels in some city called london. stuff blows up for no reason. beer is good. and anytime an old person points a finger at me it means i have to go to the hot room with the scary, red-faced, horned man with all of his scary, pointy tailed rodents. no wonder children hate going to their grandparents house. and its all at the happiest place on earth. (note to reader: this in no way is some sort of blog post about how disneyland should shut down that ride. not at all. im not crying here and pleading for the children. i dont have any, so frankly i dont care about them...thats not entirely true. but im really not that worried about them and their response to this ride. if it were my kids, id let them go on. well, for sure if it was a niece or a nephew id let them go. im the worst uncle.)

we then went on pinocchio.  also traumatizing for children.  but at least in this one there are voices that are somewhat narrating and letting you know whats going on with the story.  which is good because children are turning into donkeys so somebody better be telling these little kids what the heck is going on.  going through hell is bad enough without being told why, but turning into a donkey without knowing the reason is worse.  anyways, the reason i bring up pinocchio is because rottentomatoes.com had it rated as the number 3 animated film of all time - number 1 being 'toy story 2.'  i love the toy story movies.  its amazing that a sequel is supposedly better than the original.  i dont dispute it.  the original is number 4 on the list.  both are just so good though.  they make me happy.  and so do their rides at disneyland. 

so at first i was surprised by pinocchio being so high on the list, but then while going on the ride, i realized that its actually a pretty powerful and amazing story with lots of great themes.  you have the always loyal conscience in jimmy cricket.  never leaves pinocchio's side.  always there and always trying to help him out; temptations from the real world; lying of course; second chances; of course there is the whole traumatizing part about the boys turning into donkeys.  and it is really freaky, but its also very powerful imagery of these boys getting caught up in temptations and then vile habits and addictions to the point where they are no longer able to choose for themselves and they are literally bound and taken captive and into slavery by this lifestyle; pinocchio narrowly escapes because his always faithful conscience barely bails him out; he gets in more trouble, but ultimately saves his father/creator that always loved him and never gave up on him.  

its a pretty remarkable tale.  it all made sense to me and i realized how great of a story it is when i was on the ride.  granted, seeing it so high on the list the day before made me wonder what other people saw in the show and then the ride reminded me of the many powerful themes from the story.  but again, just like 'mr. toads,' im an adult and im thinking and processing the themes of the story and the ride.  im getting a completely different experience than the children.  the children are just sitting wide-eyed thinking that they are going to hell and if they somehow escape that, they will just be turned into a donkey anyways.  such a happy place.  

cheese dome update

since this post seemed to be such a hit amongst readers, i thought id give a quick update on everyone's favorite wedding gift. turns out that we did receive one. nellie's cousin nikki bought us one. she bought it back in july but wasnt able to make it to the wedding so we didnt get it until sometime in september.

so i was thrilled to receive it of course. i have wanted one for quite sometime and since one hasnt been effectively used since 1962, i was excited to put ours to use. it performed beautifully. it helped mold our cheese faster than if we had just left it out on the counter. i left it out all day and when nellie and i got home from work our house stunk like moldy cheese.

nellie: gross. the house stinks. why did you leave the cheese out?

me: what are you talking about?  i left it in the cheese dome.

nellie: right. but you arent supposed to leave it out.

me: so we put it in the cheese dome in the fridge?

nellie:  well, no.  you leave it out, just not all day.

me:  oh.  right.  just during parties and holidays.  

nellie:  exactly.  

such a useful gift.

one other update really quick on the pancake warmer:

we have church at 8 am. i know, its just absurd. i dont know how families with young children pull it off. wait, yes i do. they dont.  they miss the first half of sacrament meeting. nellie and i barely make it there. usually thats because nellie doesnt want to get dressed in the morning and is kicking and screaming when im trying to put her shoes on. (thats not true. shes great at getting dressed. wouldnt that be terrible if it was true though? marriage nightmare #43.  sandwiched right in between your wife getting emotional and breaking down once a month for no reason and her nitpicking you on bathroom etiquette.)

anyways, because of early church, we usually dont have time for breakfast and when we get home we are hungry, but its only 11 am so we are still in sort of a breakfast food mood. so we have been making waffles almost every sunday after church. we have had them for about 4-5 straight sundays.  its a good little tradition.  but do you know how many times nellie has busted out the pancake warmer? thats right - zero.  granted, i know these are waffles and not pancakes, and the warmer does call for pancakes. but i believe the real reason is because nellie forgot that the thing even exists. why? because no rational human being ever thinks to use a pancake warmer. and you know what? nellie is rational.  shes not #43 from above.  

so in theory these items are a great idea, but in reality, you are just hungry and you plop the extra waffles on a plate and you start eating without thinking of anywhere to store the waffles.  why would you?  a plate gets the job done just fine and anything else would be absurd.  unfortunately, you cant make money off the real world. which is why these registry people are so evil.  in the real world you put your extra waffles on a plate.  but you already suckered her into buying 12 plates for her family of 2, so you cant sell her another plate.  so you create the pancake warmer.  they know women will see something and envision themselves using it and buy it, but then get home and never find a purpose for it or forget they own it.  but in the meantime at least it they will have a happy husband who gets to look at the items every day and wonder what sorts of other 'useful in theory' purchases are in store in for him.  

lost angels of anaheim

every once in awhile ill blog about sports for the reading pleasure of no one. i think about sports constantly and follow them religiously. nellie is beginning to realize this. there is always something going on. college football goes from the end of august to january. by then, college basketball is underway with march madness approaching. during that time, the euro soccer leagues are going on and they are usually finishing in april and may and help fill in the gap until baseball season is underway for the rest of the summer.

anyways, im no sports writer or critic. but i am a fan and the angels are on my thoughts, so ill throw in my two cents in case anyone cares. which im sure no one does. but yes, i am an angels fan. and i think a true one at that. ron took us to angels games when we were young because he didnt want to deal with la traffic and crowds at dodger stadium. now that im older, i realize how ridiculous both of those are and i would do the same thing too with my children. in the meantime though, i started following the angels ever since 1986. i wasnt always the best fan. when the nation fell out of baseball, i did too. but i do feel secure claiming my fanhood all the way back to 86, maybe 87.

now that i have established myself, ill vent. we lost again to the red sox. its completely ridiculous. i hate the red sox. as do many angels fans by now. and like many fans, i hate the so called 'red sox nation.' perhaps its just jealousy because the red sox are so well represented in every part of the country. go to an angels game and youll hear just about as many cheers for the red sox as you will the angels. which is frustrating. look, you didnt win a world series for 80-some-odd-years. we all rooted for you to win it back in 2004. you pulled it off and broke 'the curse.' before you were lovable losers (see: chicago cubs), now you are the trendy bandwagon team with obnoxious fans and a payroll similar to that of your new york counterparts. so own it. my team wanted to be the dodgers and take over la so we admitted it and added it to our name. you probably wont admit it, but since you are becoming like your east coast counterparts, we'll just call you the boston red sox of new york, because that is what you have become.

that was ridiculous rambling that didnt really make sense. the frustrating part about the series was that the angels lost the series. boston didnt win it. we were the better team and played poorly. my friend chris gave a rundown of his thoughts on some players on the team. i actually disagree with him on a few of the players. but here's my thoughts:

garret anderson: you were great. an angel legend. thanks for the memories. youre washed up. here's the door.

vlad: i didnt think he had a terrible series. better than past series. he was patient at the plate. didnt have an incredible power series, but did do great at getting on base. of course, i love the guy. he's the equivalent of raul on real madrid. he can do no wrong.

howie kendrick: i used to be high on this guy because i was buying into the hype that he was an amazing young talent and the future of the franchise etc. but i thing im off the bandwagon now. i dont think its possible to have a worse series than howie kendrick. its not just that he did poorly, he looked utterly lost and had zero confidence the entire time. amazing young talent rises to the occassion and lives for their first playoff experience. he's always hurt during the season and no one with a 'bright future' like they say he has, would commit so many errors in the playoffs and swing like theyve never seen a baseball before. he's nothing special. we have been waiting for his 'emmergence' for a couple of years now and if he was truly a star he would have stepped up by now and for sure at least once during the series instead of being a liability the whole time. he's a decent player and thats all. he's not filling any big shoes any time soon, if ever.

starting pitching: chris didnt seem to think we have a number 2 guy, but i think santana was solid this year. he did have a shaky start in the playoffs when he gave up 5 runs in the first inning, but then he shut the red sox out for the next 7 innings. i think he's legit. our rotation isnt bad. one of the best in baseball. our three starters for the playoffs: lackey, santana and saunders i think match up as well or better than any other team out there. it was the poor hitting and defense that did us in. not the starting pitching.

scot shields: yes. there is just one 't' on his name. chris is anti-scot. i like the guy. perhaps he was the losing pitcher in the deciding game 4, and it may seem like he has lost games for us a lot, but he's as good of a set up guy as there is out there. he can throw forever. legend has it that in a college game he threw 260 pitches. for anyone not familiar with baseball, thats ridiculous. 100 pitches is about average for pitchers these days. 130 is a ton. 260 is nearly criminal unless you have a rubber arm. if you watched game 3, were you sweating more when shields was pitching or when k-rod was pitching?

which is my next guy: k-rod. let him go. he wants a ton of money and he's not worth it. if scoscia had ANY confidence in k-rod at all, he would have brought him in to pitch to the red sox in the 9th of game 4. if k-rod was really that lights out and shields wasnt and scoscia knew it, he would have brought k-rod in to ensure the angels get another at bat in the 10th inning. he didnt. he knew that his chances were as good with shields than with k-rod. plus, k-rod is a wuss. he will only pitch one inning a game. just 3 outs. its not like he would come in and pitch the 9th and then the 10th if there was one. so scoscia had to stick with shields. whats more valuable, a guy that will pitch forever if you ask him or someone that will only do 1 inning max? plus, it usually takes him an hour and 3 walks to get those 3 outs. i dont need that. he wants 10 million a year, let the mariners or some desperate team give it to him. i hope we dont.

last guy: mark texeira. again, chris says we have to get him. so does my nephew and bro-in-law. im not so sold. he's good. great defensive skills. he played really well in the post season. im not saying hes bad, i just dont know what we want from him. we always wanted a BIG bat to help out vlad, and he's not that. he's got a good bat, but be honest. vlad is on par with david ortiz and manny ramirez. at least in his prime. is a vlad/texeira combo nearly as intimidating as the ortiz/manny combo was a few years ago? not remotely. texeira is good, but he wont punish you. which is what manny and ortiz did. if you refused to pitch to manny or were afraid and you walked him, ortiz would punish you because you had to pitch to one of them. if you tried to pitch to manny, then he would punish you. again, texeira is good, but i dont think he's worth breaking the bank. maybe im wrong. i just think that for the money he will want, plus the money k-rod will want, the angels could get a super star that is more intimidating than vlad. thats not their style though. they'll pursue what they have and try and keep texeira.

anyways, those are my ramblings. if you made it this far, you must really love the angels or be my wife because im even getting tired of typing this.

hawaii aloha

the strokes have a b-side called 'hawaii aloha.' its a great song. being a 'b side' its not well known, but its got a great 'hawaii feel' to it. another great song which i just heard the other day is 'gamma ray' by beck. its from his 'modern guilt' album. its got a great surf rock/beach boys feel to it. i love beck. he played the hollywood bowl last week and we really wanted to go, but tickets were ridiculously expensive. when i become rich, im not spending my money on cars or big houses. im spending it on traveling and pit tickets to concerts of all my favorite bands. the 'and' in there means that they are a combined purchase. so ill be seeing beck in the pit in some random venue in tokyo before then heading over to catch radiohead the following weekend in the pit in prague.

anyways, thats the future travel plans. now for recent stuff. im not sure that anyone even cares, but i said there would be a three part series with the marriage stuff so i have to make this post so i can move on with other random stuff. so we did hawaii for the honeymoon. it was fantastic. nellie keeps on saying that she wishes we were still on our honeymoon. im pretty sure thats because she doesnt want to go work in the morning though.

so i tried to keep it a secret from nellie where we were going. i did that because i thought it would be a fun surprise, and so that i could keep annoying people from telling me all the things we had to do in hawaii. the ironic thing is that i did tell a few people and some of them gave me advice on things to do and most all of them were spot on with their recommendations. it was as though they had been there before and done these things and tried them out for us. since i dont really know what to say about the trip, ill just be a hypocrite and the guy i tried to avoid and list some recommendations/thoughts on stuff:

1. tandem surfing in waikiki. i remember my friend jason wallace (wally) telling me when he was in hawaii he did some tandem surfing. so we tried it and we actually got up and rode a wave. it was awesome. we were out there for an hour and only caught 2 waves. that part isnt impressive, but we were totally surfing...on the same board...with nellie on my shoulders...while i was hanging five. i know. only five. not that impressive. but ten is hard.

2. the pineapple room. my friend karl suggested this place. nellie and i loved it. the edamame is fantastic. so good. its in the mall, literally inside the macy's. literally. like head to the third floor of the macy's and its in the men's department between the shoes and the boys section or something random like that. you cant access it from anywhere else besides through the macy's. so strange. i dont know who chose the location, but surely he was fired. i dont know what he was thinking. 'hey look, the macy's is closing down their belts and accessories area, why dont we build our restaurant there. perfect.'

3. kayaking in kauai. eh. not the worst activity we did. certainly not the best. it was river kayaking and then a hike to a waterfall which was only ok and not that impressive. kayaking is fun so if you want to do it, then you should.

4. zip-lining. this was the worst activity we did. terribly overpriced and so lame. i did this in costa rica and it was awesome. they pretty much just give you a harness and a beer and send you on your way. if the line snaps and you fall and die, what do they care? they already got your $30. in costa rica you zip line on about 15 lines with the longest one being 300 yards over a valley. you are 40 feet over the tree line. its amazing. hawaii was 4x that amount and there were only 5 'runs.' but 2 of the lines you did twice and one was 'simulated repelling.' it was horrific. it was your classic example of a wildly overpriced activity completely geared towards sucker american tourists who they know are willing to pay because hey, its our honeymoon. other zip lines there may be better, i dont know. if it has 5 lines and ends at a rope swing waterfall, stay away. its a waste.

speaking of the rope swing, that also enticed me. such a sucker. i had big dreams of riding some zip line and dropping off into some pool near a waterfall. im sure pocohantus was also there now that i think about it. anyways, when we got to this rope swing, there were tons of people there that just trespassed onto the private property and took advantage of the free rope swing. which is what you should do if you go to hawaii.

6. shipwreck beach at the hayatt resort. this place is great for a few reasons. 1. the beach is actually great. actual waves and no rip current that will kill you immediately (like so many other beaches advertise). 2. there is a great rock to jump off of. supposedly its the same rock that harrison ford and anne heche (or their stunt doubles) jumped off of in the movie '6 days and 7 nights.' (go to 1:30 in the preview and you can see it.) nellie and i didnt need stunt doubles. it was a great time. although there is no documented evidence of nellie actually jumping off the rock, so who knows if she actually did. the other great part are the pools at the hyatt. all the big resorts are right next to public beaches and their pools are right next to the ocean. they have no idea actually is a guest and who isnt so you can just walk onto the property and swim in their pools and hang out in their hot tubs. which was excellent and highly recommended.

7. the helicopter ride. i actually do recommend this. i say actually not because it is expensive, but because it made me incredibly sick. nellie too. it took us awhile to recover. afterwards we drove to the nearest mini-mart and got a sprite and saltine crackers and sat huddled over on a dirty bench staring at the ground for awhile until we recovered...which was many hours later. we were with 2 german guys that didnt get sick at all so im sure most dont. it just hit us pretty bad, yet i still recommend it.

anyways, those are the ramblings. there is plenty more i could say. we did tons of activities (nodding my head and hi-fiving my bros right now). no literally we did a bunch of great outdoor activities and ate out plenty. if you are ever going let me know. ive got tons of great advice im happy to give, i just dont care what you have to say/recommend.

ghost town

i just wanted to really quick give a plug for this movie. not that i have a large audience for this blog, but i didnt know how else to really give a plug for it. i was planning on seeing it, but then my friend zach saw it and raved about it, so we went last night. its great. so here a few reasons why you should go this weekend:

1. it probably wont be in theaters next weekend. sadly, its a great movie that, like other quality movies, isnt making much money. it came out last weekend, critics loved it, but somehow 'tyler perry's the family that preys together' and other cinema vomit makes more money. its well thought out and has quality, but maybe not big named actors in it, so it doesnt do as well as lame movies with crap plots and junk actors. bummer.

2. the actors are really actually great though.

a. ricky gervais. if you havnt seen him then you have to go. he is the inspiration behind 'the office.' it started in england and he created it. so what you see on nbc every thursday is a knock off of his creation and brilliance, so dont give steve carrell too much credit (although he does do a good job and has done well at making the character his own), he's just trying to be what ricky gervais was/created. if you look in the credits of the office youll see that he produced it.

b. greg kinnear. who doesnt love this guy?

c. tia leoni. also fantastic. she's great. she's a 40 year old that is totally hot but seems like a normal woman and not a celebrity (can i say that now that im married? i dont really know if i can make comments like that anymore. i guess ill find out tonight... love you nellie).

3. the movie perfectly captures the comedy that ricky gervais created and/or perfected. so entertaining. nellie had never seen him before and she and i were both laughing hard at so many parts. he's created a really funny character.

4. its just a flat out good movie. good story. not too predictable. youll be happy you went and wont be upset you spent $11.50 getting in. look, its a weekend, youre probably going to the movies anyways, just go to it. all the other junk will be there for you next weekend.

5. the previews we saw were fantastic. the new bond movie looks amazing. 'australia' looks really, really good. something else. and that other one too. they both looked good at the time even though i dont remember what they were.

that one day we got married

so i need to finish these posts about big summer events.  im sure everyone already knows, but nellie and i did get married on august 9th.  it was a great day.  its true that the sealing is the best part of the day.  by far.  not wanting to go into it or discuss it on a blog, ill just give some thoughts from other stuff that happened.  

it was really hot.  we took photos throughout the afternoon and we were just dying.  they photos turned out great.  we had a great photographer.  her name is rachel.  her blog is rachelthurston@blogspot.com.  one advice that we got from people was to make sure you have a good photographer.  maybe cut costs in some areas, but if there is one area you are going to spend money then do it on a photographer.  and i totally agree.  im not really an artistic guy nor do i really claim to have an 'artistic eye' or anything, so i cant really explain why, but you can just tell when some people have a true artistic ability compared to someone that just bought an expensive camera and now calls him/herself a photographer.  plus, like people told me, the photos are really the only tangible thing you keep for a long time that remind you of the wedding day.  besides the pancake warmer.

thank you katie clifford for reading my blog and for buying us a very useful pancake warmer. nellie has been wanting one for a long time.  you have also ensured yourself a lifetime of worthless gifts.  gifts that dont even sound like they have a purpose and in reality really dont.  supposedly someone bought us the cheese dome. our registry indicated that it was bought, but we never actually got it.  someone probably wised up after buying it and didnt want a lifetime of lame gifts so they didnt give it to us.  or some friend performed a random act of kindness and and bought it and just threw it away so that it could clutter up a dumpster instead of our kitchen.

speaking of clutter, i realized another problem with registering.  cups.  whoever makes these registery things hates men and has never been married.  they are bitter and just leading women astray so that they will unknowingly make man's life miserable because somewhere, some man made that woman's life miserable.  im actually not sure what happened, but do you know how many cups these registries recommend women register for?  12.  12!  who needs 12 cups.  do you know many cups newleyweds need?  2.  and they can even be styrofoam if necessary. instead we have 12 small drinking glasses.  12 larger drinking glasses.  12 mugs.  12 goblets.  and only 4 (thankfully) nice wine glasses.  giving us a nice total of 52 cups/glasses. 52!  when will we ever need 52 glasses?  when we are hosting our party for 50 people?  right.  as though we will be using real cups and not plastic ones.  its the same thing with plates.  we have tons.  i realize someday we might have a family and someday we also might host dinner guests.  in the meantime, or today, we have a crowded kitchen with plenty of items to collect dust.  when i was unloading all of the cups i kept on asking nellie why we had so many.  'i dont know,' she replied, 'thats how many it says to register for.'  fantastic.  love the obedience.  hate the instructor.  

im digressing from the wedding day and focusing on all the gifts.  we did get a lot, so thanks to everyone.  nellie said that it was like christmas.  and it really was with all the gifts.  only it was child's worst christmas nightmare.  even nellie, as excited as she was at the beginning, couldnt keep the excitement throughout.  i mean, how excited can you possibly be over boxes and boxes of dishware?  

back to the wedding.  we had lunch.  we took photos.  we helped set up for the reception and then we had the reception. the house looked great.  i hear the food was great.  we talked to people for about an hour.  then we did cake.  then we danced.  the first dance was obligatory and totally awkward.  then there was a regular dance.  dj dave did a great job.  it was actually really fun.  'obk' was amazing to get the dance going.  'freestyler' was just outstanding.  that was a dance party favorite that originated from a dance 'party' we had at byu where there was just 7 of us and we created a little dance to that song and its lived on ever since.  then nellie threw her bouquet, i grabbed her upper thigh, we went to the car and drove off into the sunset.  not quite like that, but close enough.  

it was a very memorable day.  i think one of the best parts was the interaction between mine and nellie's family.  nellie has an awesome family. mine is a little bit better.  many on both sides have commented on how enjoyable it was being with and hanging out with the other family.  which was really cool.  im not surprised they got along well, but it was nice to hear they all got along so well and wished they could hang out again.  sad part is that they probably never will.  which is perhaps why the wedding day is so great.  because it will never happen again. its just a one time event.  im sure our families got along well, but couple that with the warm august night, good times and knowing that it wont ever happen again, and it becomes a little more nostalgic, a little bit sweeter and sits a little better in the memory.  so thanks to all that came and gave gifts and made it a wonderful day.  it really was one for the books.  or the blog.  

batman and the bar

so, its been awhile since i last posted. some rather large life events have happened in the past two months that have kept me from having much time to write.  this will be the first in a three part series to get everyone caught up on what has happened. 

so i took the bar last month. it was the last three days of july.  i took it out in ontario.  it was pretty crazy.  unfortunately, there were no classic moments where someone stands up in the middle of the test and throws their laptop on the floor and then runs out crying leaving everyone looking around awkwardly until everyone hears a gunshot from the parking lot. but the bar is intense.  in ontario, there are about 5000+ people taking the bar and everyone is in one giant room frantically typing away for 3 hours at a time, 6 total hours a day.  its a little intimidating and rather daunting.  

while there were no suicides, there was an earthquake.  that was fun.  we took the bar at the convention center which is fairly near the airport.  when the building started to rumble, i at first just thought it was a large plane flying overhead.  it wasnt until it really started to roll that i realized it was an earthquake.  most other people realized it too and all 5000 went under their tables.  some brought their laptops with them under the table. not to protect their laptop, but so that they could continue typing while under the table.  only a small handful didnt duck under the table, but once the rolling stopped, everyone in unison bounced up back to the table and immediately began typing away frantically trying to pick back up where they were and worried that we had all just lost a precious 30 seconds that we so desperately needed.  unless you are the girl next to me that finished about 20 min early every day.

so the interesting thing about the bar, and the somewhat intimidating thing is that you are in a room of about 5000 people and you just dont know anyone's story.  around half are from non-accredited law schools, which is great because the percentage of those people that pass is really low, so the more of them the merrier.  but take the girl next to me for example:  who finishes early?  i immediately assumed when she finished early that she has no idea what she is doing and therefore probably failed.  but the guy in front of me also finished early which made me question him too until i found out the last day that 1. he is a byu law grad (good school), 2. he has a pending offer at a large law firm in orange county (omelveny and myers - huge firm), 3. he is going to get a masters in law at florida next year.  he chose florida because they are the number 2 program in the nation and they gave him a full ride scholarship, but he did get into nyu, the number 1 program.  how do i know all of this?  because he volunteered it all to me and everyone around us.  so the guy is a complete tool.  but sadly a smart one.  so just finishing early doesnt mean youre an idiot and probably going to fail.  it may however mean you are annoying.  

batman also came out this summer.  if you havnt seen it then please quit reading this and go see it.  i saw it opening weekend.  it was really one of the only breaks i had during bar study.  and one of the only things i had to look forward to all summer.  

so i dont know if this is a spoiler alert, probably though, so dont keep reading if you havnt seen it.  but again, if you havnt seen it, quit reading in general and go see it.  seriously, your life will be much better by seeing that movie than by reading this blog.  but i have a friend that is really into the comic books and he was telling a mutual friend of ours about how in the comic books, the joker never dies.  batman can never actually kill him.  other vililans come and go, but the joker is always around.  which is sort of ironic and a bummer about the movie.  the joker doesnt die in the film, but the actor actually did in real life.  which is a shame since heath ledger was so incredible and if the movies are following the comic books, he would of kept on reappearing in the films.  and who wouldnt love that?  

ok, so why these two events in the same post?  because they are both similar events in that both are as bad or as good as everyone told me or as i expected.  i saw the first 10 minutes of batman months ago and have been waiting in anticipation ever since.  i was very much looking forward to seeing it.  friends of mine saw it opening night and raved about how good it was.  everyone said the joker was amazing and that the movie was phenomenal.  the cool thing about it was that no matter how much hype it got, it was going to live up to it because it was that good.  it couldnt be overhyped.  few things are that good in life.  

conversely, i had been thinking about the bar for 3 years and really thinking about it for a year and it had been occupying and controlling my mind for the 2-3 months proceeding it.  again, the bar was as bad and as intense as everyone said.  people told me for 3 years that bar study is horrific and just gnarly and so draining and just a terrible experience.   but no matter how much people said about it and tried to warn me, they couldnt quite do it, because it was one of those things that couldnt be overwarned (?).  you can tell people that they are going to lose sleep and study for 14 hours a day and be all out miserable for the 2 weeks before the bar, and while those people will probably believe you, they really wont get how bad it really is until they are lying there in some cheap comfort suites hotel room on the monday night before the bar starts, completely awake, wishing they could sleep but they cant because they are just dreading and fearing the unknown that is california bar exam.  so fun. 

stay tuned for the next part in our series:  did we really just get married?  it still kind of feels like we are just dating.