The Princess Diaries

Ya know Julie Andrews? Perfect and beautiful, right? Guys, I know. 
I KNOW! 
And when I saw The Princess Diaries I first noticed Anne Hathaway, who's gone on to become a household name. I've seen most of her movies and watched grow up on-screen since then. I think even still, I mostly love her much because of that bushy hair in this movie!  

My own bushy hair

Really, I loved that movie so much that when I heard a sequel was coming I was absolutely delighted! Only, here's the thing: I was deployed to Oahu, Hawaii when it was released, and that happened to be the very week that my mom and her friend (of the moment) came to visit me. Without mentioning the movie, I offered to send them on a nice luau date. Nobody wants their daughter on a Hawaiian date night, so I got to watch The Princess Diaries 2 on opening night! I felt like Heather Matarazzo (who played 'the best friend', Lily, in the first one, and who was really important to the story) kinda deserved more screen time, but it was very responsible of them to make her a good student, so it is what it is. The movie was still amazing and every bit as good as the first one, which is rare for a sequel. The highlight of the whole thing for me was watching Julie Andrews sing. It wasn't a big, juicy song but it just felt like a big, warm, Mary Poppins hug!

Which is what every movie should aspire to. 

Even the scary ones. 

That was a joke. 

Milli Vanilli

I actually have kind of a story about Milli Vanilli. As you probably all know by now, I grew up in a very hot climate, in the desert of southern California. I don't remember the heat really bothering me too badly as a kid, but I went back for a visit when I was 17 or 18 and it literally felt like I was being baked. I honestly felt like I was becominging cooked meat. We had moved to the Oregon coast and didn't need air conditioning in our car there, so my mom had bought a car without A/C and we never missed it... until we drove it to California. Even with all four windows down all the way it was intolerable. It was just like being blasted with hot air and it was no fun for me. 

Rewind a bit to 1990. One time we left a few of our tapes in the car over the weekend. That was a terrible idea. The tape part was okay, the part that actually has music on it (kids, you'll want to google that). But the plastic cassette part was, at one point, obviously liquid. Milli Vanilli was ruined! Now who were we supposed to blame it on? Nobody knew! So we took two tapes apart and combined them so that the Achy Break Heart tape, or whatever actually played Milli Vanilli. It was pretty smart. Later, as a teenager I found the same tape at a thrift store for a quarter or something. My friend Michelle and I blasted it in her Camaro with the T tops off. So much fun!

Thanks, Michelle. You're a blast!

The Rosie O'Donnell Show

In the 90s, I had a favorite TV show, which came on after school, so I had to rush home to catch it every day.  I was completely hooked on The Rosie O'Donnell Show and I never missed it if I could help it. I loved the opening theme song (which had a different line at the end each day), I loved all the guests that she had on and I loved her Koosh Ball shooter!  I even loved her complete obsession with Tom Cruise, even though it was way too much and I've never even liked Tom Cruise.  I loved it because I can DEFINITELY relate to being 'too much' when it comes to fangirling.  'Too much' is like my natural state. 

When I was a senior in high school (1999 this was), my drama club went on a field trip to New York to watch plays on Broadway.  While I was there I started my coffee cup collection, and I came home with close to a dozen souvenir mugs.  It's strange, but somehow I've ended up with around 100 coffee cups (I would've guessed 50 but I just counted them and... WOW.) but the only one left from that trip is my Rosie Show mug.

Here it is!

The reason that show occurs to me now is because my favorite episode ever was the one where Kerri Strug, who basically won the Olympics that year, came on.  My sister and I were watching the Olympics the night Kerri Strug won our country the gold by totally nailing her second vault... after she'd BROKEN HER ANKLE on the first try.  I watched the medal ceremony bawling that night.  I watched Kerri Strug on Rosie bawling later on.  I watched her on a lot of shows and interviews and documentaries, bawling every time.  And now that there's YouTube, I watch that vault over and over again and cry every time.  It's what ridiculous old ladies do, right? Seriously though, I cry over everything.  I really do.  And every time I think of the Olympics, Rosie O'Donnell, gymnastics or anyone named Kerri, Carrie or Cary I push back an urge to tear up.  Because that is easily the best feel-good story I've ever heard, and I watched it unfold in real time.  Then the heroine went on my favorite show and talked about it.  That was a good year.