How I Became a Chick-Flick Connoisseur

Warning to all readers! This is a horribly written post. There are all kinds of digressions, and insertions of information not really relavent to what I'm trying to say. That's my life.

My youngest sister, Laura, she flatters me. She calls my occasional little blog essays "columns," and she's been asking for a new one lateley - nearly everytime I speak to her, which is nearly every day. "Is there a new column yet?" she says. I told her that I need some kind of inspiration - I don't just randomly sit down and start writing. Anyway, I think I have something that will satisfy her for a few days. This is the story of how I became a chick-flick connoisseur.


It all began in the "nappy-appy", as Laura and I like to call it. When Israel and I found out that I was pregnant with Quincy, we moved out of our awesome condo on a hill with a view of the Great Salt Lake, and into the cheapest apartment we could rent - we were terrified of how we were going to make it financially. I had been earning more than half of our income, and we knew that I would quit my job once the baby came. Now that I think of it, that first baby really was a leap of faith - we really didn't know how we would survive. Anyway - the nappy appy. It was a little 2 bedroom place. One living room wall was cinder-block painted white, the other three sides were dark panel fake wood. The carpet was a rough, glorified indoor-outdoor type of thing. Because the washer and dryer were in the kitchen, there was no room for a table...anywhere. We ate on the futon and used the coffee table as dinner table. The afternoon that we moved into that apartment I just sat down and cried. The worst part of the nappy appy - spiders. Big, brown, fast ones. I'm sure they were probably one of those poison kinds - brown recluse or something, but I never tried that hard to find out because I didn't want to know. It seems like I had to take care of at least one of those everyday. I hated it.



We moved into this apartment in August, and Quincy came in November. She was the most high-strung baby. She would not sleep unless I was holding her, so as you can imagine I spent alot of time rocking her in the recliner. Laura was in Jr. High at the time, and the nappy appy was just a few blocks from her home - so every day after school she came up to spend the afternoon. She was my salvation that year. I was this new mom, with a baby that didn't sleep at night, and wouldn't be put down during the day. I was trying to finish my degree - taking classes online and stressed about them. I had the worst apartment ever. I was trying to adjust to being a stay at home mom - and found it difficult. I was always so glad when school got out and I knew I would see Laura. She had alot of faith in me back then. I helped her with her math, and back then she believed that I was good at it - not so much anymore. Same with English - she doesn't know how someone with a degree in English could not know the difference between a pronoun, adverb, preposition, etc. Come on - the only grown ups who know that stuff are the ones who have to teach it.....right??? At least she still thinks I can write. Anyway, we'd work on her school stuff, feed Quincy ice cream and red vines, sometimes take a drive to our favourite conveniance store - VIP, for a bevy, and then spend the rest of the afternoon watching movies. It started with Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. How we adored Vivi, I think we have watched that together at least 20 times. The phenomenon just expanded from there - if there's a boring afternoon, then there's sure to be a movie - and I have lots of boring afternoons. We specialize in southern chick-flicks, and sometimes our conversations are made up entirely of quoted movie lines. I miss Laura. She's got a car and a job now, so she's not dropping by after school anymore. Theres also the little fact that she lives a thousand miles away. When I visit we always try to schedule at least one movie afternoon - but she's right, I rarely sit through the whole thing now - these kiddos of mine, they make that hard.



I love you Laura - those were good days!