Sisterly Conversations on: My Sad Life Outside of School/Work.

That Friday Night Lights...gets ya every time. Although, it is comforting to know that one of the actors from FNL is now one of the new interns on Grey's Anatomy. Strange how V recently told me that now she might start watching Grey's Anat because he is on it. It only took 7 years for me to convince her it is a show worth watching...bandwagon fan!

Gaius Charles "Friday Night Lights"

V.S.

Gaius Charles "Grey's Anatomy"

...If you ask me, he looks a bit more confident in his ability as a high school football star than a doctor.

Other than new actors making an appearance on Grey's, the season premiere was emotional, but expected. I think this season is gonna be pretty deep though! Which is what I like about Grey's: witty humor (usually provided by Drs. Yang and Torres), mixed with drama, passion, depression...everything that makes life worth living, right?! Every time a new season of Grey's starts, I am excited, but I also get a little paranoid that the show is one season closer to ending. Anyone who knows how in love I am with this show knows that I hold a special place in my heart for it. I've been watching this show since I was a senior in high school! I used to have a saying that the "Two G's" were the only consistent things in my life: God and Grey's Anatomy. Luckily one is omnipotent and works miracles, so maybe I can handle it if Grey's ever gets cancelled. Anyways, GREAT show as usual. A little cheesy, but that's what makes it worthwhile. Tune in on Thursdays at 9pm/8pm central, Thursdays on ABC for some real-life medical drama (oh come on all you doctors out there! Like you've never instructed a patient on how amputate their wife's leg under no anesthesia after they fell into a huge sinkhole that opened up in the middle of a city?! Pssh..rookies.)

Continuing on...

This past week was jam-packed with season premieres! Lucky for me, I was able to catch up on Friday night after it was raining so bad that I couldn't make it to the party I was trying to get to because my car started to make scary squealing noises and smoke while driving through flooded streets.

Elementary (10/9pm central, Thursdays, CBS), with bad-ass Charlie's Angel Lucy Liu and this dashing British man, Johnny Lee Miller (well, that doesn't sound British at all), was pretty intriguing. I have to say, I will more than likely keep watching. It is a modern spin on Sherlock Holmes, with Lucy Liu playing Sherlock's "sobriety companion", Watson, who accompanies him 24/7 as he is coming off his drug addiction. Heart-warming, I know. It's pretty similar to all those other mystery-solving shows, so if you're lacking one in your weekly line-up, I recommend adding this one in! Great soundtrack so far, featuring Lucy Liu doing her morning run to a song from one of V's fave bands (listen below). My only warning to you though is that at times it is a bit difficult to understand Sherlock's British accent, but he's a bloke worth looking at ;)

The Mindy Project (9/8pm central, Tuesdays, FOX) Pretty hilarious gal, that Mindy! I never really got into the Office when she was on it, but I have read excerpts from Mindy's autobiography and I knew I would enjoy this show. It's a 30 minute comedy, so you're pretty much guaranteed a few good belly-laughs, and you don't have to invest much time in it. I wouldn't expect any hard-hitting morals to the story or life lessons, though. Mindy has so much Girl Power in this show, which I like. Mindy and I are a lot alike, really! We're both just two young, funny women, trying to find the man of our dreams, kicking butt at being independent, always making people laugh (either with or at us, I haven't figured that one out yet), did I mention trying to find the man of our dreams? Guess we'll both just be hilarious workaholics until that happens!

"I'm a cute, fun Doctor-lady who works with two super hott Doctor-men!! Yeah!!"

And for the commentary I've been waiting to get to (and I'm sure you also may be looking forward to since it will be closer to the end of my T.V. show rant) REVENGE!! I decided I have to post about it before the season premiere tonight (9/8pm central, Sundays on ABC), so that way I could hook you in and make you so intrigued that you have to watch. I will try to keep it very short and sweet though, because not too many words need to be written to promote this show. I started watching it last season on a whim. I needed something different in my life. All I ever watched were comedies. It was time to get serious. Well, Revenge is  seriously one of the best shows out there right now. It has drama, mystery, attractive actors, fighting, Girl Power scenes (there's me and that Girl Power again). Plus, it makes you thank your lucky stars that you aren't filthy rich and don't swim in your own wealth and greed inside a giant palace in the Hamptons...on second thought, I know a lot of people who would love that! But that's why I like to watch it. It's about Emily Thorne, totally interrupting that disgusting world and fighting for TRUTH! JUSTICE! and...the memory of her father who was wrongfully accused of mass murder, imprisoned, and then died in jail! Intense, right?!?! Watch tonight, and if you've never seen Revenge before, just check out this small clip from the Spring season finale. You'll be hooked.

MIND. BLOWN.

Alanna's other favorite shows that she didn't have time to talk about before the Revenge premiere started:

Modern Family (8/7pm central, Weds, ABC)

Up All Night (8:30/7:30 central, Thurs, NBC)

Watch these too!

Sisterly Conversations on: my love for Friday Night Lights

i had two possible topics that i was going to write about for this entry, but then i got some inspiration from the previous entry about fall television. now, i'm a pretty terrible judge of what is and isn't going to be good television while a show is in its infancy. one of the shows i'm currently keeping tabs on is The Mob Doctor on FOX. it's basically what it sounds like: a show about a female cardiologist/surgeon at a prestigious hospital in chicago who moonlights as a doctor for the mob in order to pay off her younger brother's debt. i know what you're probably thinking: "of course you're a terrible judge of tv shows! that show sounds bad based on the premise alone!" and it kind of is. but the only reason i'm watching it is because of the actor who plays dr. devlin's main squeeze, fellow doctor brett robinson: zach gilford. now you may know zach from ABC's short lived medical drama about doctors practicing in a clinic in the south american jungle, Off The Map (also cancelled. also watched by me........i told you i was bad), but you SHOULD instead know him as Matt Saracen, one of the main characters in NBC/DirectTv's cancelled-before-its-time drama "Friday Night Lights".

now i will admit: i did not watch friday night lights at all during its original five year run. it was only after it was cancelled that i decided to give it a shot. i had heard all good things about it and found season 1 on dvd at half price books for cheap. and let me tell you.........best investment i've ever made.

most FNL haters probably have avoided the show because "it's about football". and it is. but i am here to tell you that it is about so much more than that. it's about family and friendship and love and life in a way that is so authentic and totally believable. i mean, no one gets shot in a shooting rampage or gets their leg amputated or gets hit by a bus or has hallucinations involving their dead lover or gets in a car accident and spends the next episode having an out of body experience and singing to themselves about it (*cough cough* grey's anatomy *cough*). everything is so much more subtle and simpler than that.

a lot of the actors/actresses aren't really that mind-blowingly awesome in other stuff i've seen them in. i mean, no one is dying to hand Taylor Kitsch an Oscar for his role in Battleship, but when he sat in the Panthers' film room watching the hit that paralyzed his best friend over and over again and inevitably having a mini breakdown, i totally believed it. and i cried a little bit along with him.

i guess that's what impresses me so much about FNL: the number of times i've gotten choked up or shed actual tears while watching. sadly, it's a pretty underrated show so there aren't many youtube clips available, but i was able to find three that i'm pretty obsessed with and have decided to share them with you. 

oh and surprise: they all star zach gilford.

coach taylor giving matt some tough love in season 2 after he gets drunk at a strip club and his grandma gets rushed to the emergency room while he's out shirking his responsibilities.

this is kind of spoiler-y so don't watch or keep reading if you don't want to know. this entire episode (season 4's "The Son") where matt's dad dies in Iraq had me pretty emotional the whole time. this final scene (the blood on the handle at the end!!), the one where matt breaks down at the dinner table and tells the taylor family "i hate him. i don't like hating people." and the scene where he breaks into the funeral home drunk and demands to see his father's body and his subsequent reaction were the highlights and probably the best pieces of television i've ever seen. those can be seen here, set to one of my favorite pieces of music.

anyways, there's a lot more i wish i could say about FNL, and so many more incredible moments involving all the characters, but it's hard to put the greatness into words. instead, i'll just let this video do the talking for me.

also, i wish tami taylor was my second mom.

Sisterly Conversations on: My Week with Chandler & Brit Brit

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!! No, not that most wonderful time. I'm referring to the other wonderful time of the year...the Fall return of all my favorite T.V. shows! Now, I've purged my DVR of all our old summer Olympics recordings, although it will be a bummer not to re-watch Tom Daley and his fantastic... dives (that really is what I was going to say)....You can check out our earlier Olympics posts for more on that. 

SO...the DVR is cleared and ready to let the Fall T.V. shows take over! After each week of the start of all my favorite shows, as well as some shows that I will be checking out for the first time, I will let you all know what I think. Which stars are trying to make it big again? Are some of these shows worth watching or not? (See last season's disaster show "Whitney" if you want to know about a show that was NOT worth watching. *Cough cough* annoying *cough*).


This week consisted of two of my favorite things: therapy and BRITNEY SPEARS.


NBC's Go On (Tuesdays at 9/8 PM) stars the always hilarious and sarcastic (me? a fan of sarcasm?) Matthew Perry. Now my friend, Cristina, also known as Xtina to those of you who know and love her, recently got me to sit down with her and watch at least 8ish episodes of Friends from the very beginning. In the past, I was never able to get into the show. But, I am telling you, that Chandler Bing is HILARIOUS. Ok, I know I am stating a fact that everyone has probably been aware of since the 90s, but his undeniable wit is sooo attractive and has allowed me to look past his vests and parachute pants from his Friends years. 

Needless to say, so far so good with Go On, as he seems to be carrying on the sarcasm, biting jokes, and dark humor. The show has some good substance and lessons to it: Matthew Perry plays Ryan King, a sportscaster who recently lost his wife when she died in a car accident due to texting and driving (a nicely planted PSA from the celeb: DO NOT TEXT AND DRIVE... In order to return to work, Ryan must attend 10, yes 10, sessions of grief group therapy. That is a lot  of sessions in the therapy world...unless you're a Freudian. Then 10 sessions is pretty much the Cliff's Notes version of therapy (sorry, psychology nerd coming out). Ryan thinks he's too cool for school and just wants to breeze through the sessions and not participate, get to know anyone, or let out any of his emotions surrounding his wife's death. He comes to the sessions and tries to shake things up, much to the dismay of the therapy group leader (who, by the way, isn't even a licensed professional! Ethical dilemma...Yow-za!). Anyways, there are many hilarious, yet touching moments in the first two episodes. This show portrays the main character as having a tough shell, covering up his pain with humor, but in reality he cares about getting to know and helping his fellow group members. It's funny but quite touching...I even got a little choked up at a couple parts and I. Never. Cry. Check out this short clip from one of my favorite scenes so far! Like, I said, Ryan comes in trying to shake things up and because of his contradictory approach to do something different in group therapy and judge who has the most depressing story (kind of an actual therapy technique in real life) the group members love him! 

I'm excited about "scary" Anne...because she is scary. And funny.

Now, prepare yourselves...prepare yourselves to witness an obsession. When I was in middle school, I recorded the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, on VHS, so that I could watch Britney Spears' rocked out rendition of Oops! I Did it Again. Oh, and watch it I did - over, and over, and OVER. I have never been very well coordinated when it comes to choreography, but I was determined to learn this dance. After I figured out that I would never be able to do it because the camera cut away during key steps of the routine and it was too difficult to rewind and pause the video tape, I then became determined to get abs like Britney Spears. See below video for life inspiration:

Needless to say, 10+ years later I am still working on getting that six pack, but hey, I may actually have a better body than Britney does now (post birthing 2 children and having a psychotic break). Who cares...she is still a goddess. But this time, in the first two episodes of the X Factor, I want to be Britney's best friend not because of her body and killer dancing abilities, but because she is a badass who doesn't take nothin' from no one!  You see, V and I have this look that we give people when we are annoyed or not amused that we like to call "The Straight Face." It comes from this commonly used emoticon   :|  or another form of "The Straight Face" emoticon -_- . Of course, the nation has also adopted another popular version of "The Straight Face" from another one of my heroes, McKayla Maroney:

Really McKayla's is more of a pucker, but either way not impressed/unamused.

Throughout the X Factor, Britney gives her facial rendition of complete and utter lack of amusement and disgust through what will now be called the "Britney Face" (take note, V). Britney makes this face when she pretty much wants a contestant to get their sorry self off her stage (no, not the X Factor Stage, her stage). She even gave the "Britney Face" to a male contestant who helped her sing a duet on her very first album! Cold as ice that Britney. Britney likes to change it up a little with her signature face, so take your pick of how you would like for her to look at you if she ever heard you sing. Hey, at least she would be acknowledging your presence on this Earth. What more could a person want!?

Britney: Not Impressed.

Britney: Not Impressed mixed with confused (see, I told you she likes to change it up!)

I will always and forever be a fan of Brit, even when she makes some of the biggest screw-ups of all time. And what is even better, I am becoming more and more of a Demi Lovato fan. Now, as if you haven't already judged me enough for obsessing over Britney Spears, you can continue to judge me harder for loving little Demi. She, like Britney, has also made some mistakes in her short, Disney-star turned wild-child life. Perhaps it's the therapist in me having a heart for the likes of Britney and Demi. Demi's got it all, eating disorder, rehab and hospital stay, plus she was bullied a lot when she was young(er). What I saw on the X Factor  was that Britney and Demi have emotions. Britney seemed genuinely upset after her former duet partner shared about his struggle in coming out, and Demi broke into tears and later hugged a contestant when she talked about being bullied herself and sang quite an emotional version of "Who You Are."...Man, I would LOVE to do a group session with Britz and Demz (maybe I could write them and we could create our own version of Go On...I'll keep you posted.)

Stay tuned for reviews of next week's shows: NBC's  Revolution (Mon. 10/9pm) & Up All Night (Thurs.8:30/7:30pm) ! 

Sisterly Conversations on: The Secret Language

Hello out there! I know it's been a while since I've blogged. I've been out living life (aka: going to school and work) and have also been stuck in a mild depression after that last blog entry. Jeez, Alanna, way to be inspiring and also really, really depressing at the same time. I'd have to agree with most of the sentiments of that last entry. I don't want this to turn into a deep and depressing rumination on life, so we'll just leave it at that. I will admit that I, too, do some of my pondering of life's darkest mysteries in the car. Or the shower. In those moments as I'm silently cursing my creepy neighbor because he used up all of the hot water, and I'm left with a pissy little stream trickling out of the shower head, I think about what I would say to people if I had the chance to relive certain situations. I think about what my life would be like if I did some things differently. But mostly I ponder what my life would be like if it was a movie. Shut up, you do it too. I've decided that my final scene would end with me totally content with life, driving off into the sunset on a nice, breezy fall day. This is the that song would play me out as I drive off and the credits roll. 

Clearly, I've done a lot of shower time.

Anyways, moving on to the subject of this blog entry. I was listening to Pandora a little while ago and I thought "Hey! It's a Thursday. I like to be a little crazy. I'm going to make a Miley Cyrus Pandora station." Come on. Don't judge. You know you like the anticipation and anxiety that comes along with hoping the song that comes on next is Party in the USA. And there's a good chance that it will be. Because MyCy Pandora plays. a. lot. of. Miley. Cyrus.

I mean who knew she had that much music?! Not me. Otherwise I would've never made the damn thing. Anyways, at one point, one of the songs that came on was "Should've Said No" by Taylor Swift. 

Now, this song holds a special place in mine and Alanna's heart. We often like to make up words to songs or sing them in strange voices (her rendition of "Boyfriend" by the Biebs in a country accent is particularly fetching). On one such occasion, Alanna came up with some alternative lyrics to "Should've Said No." In this particular version, Taylor's man-friend said yes (which....isn't that the point of the song? He DID say yes......). Anyways, her alternative version was "should've said yes, then....." and because nothing rhymes with "yes" the word "sexed" seemed apropos. So, I was going to write on her wall "should've said yes, then.......sexed" but then I realized that without some background story, people were going to read it and think we were freaks.

Which is when I realized: WE ARE. We have this weird little language that I'm pretty sure I'll regret decoding for you, but which I am going to do anyways, below:

"i'm scared (seth cohen voice)": used to tell the other person that you are, in fact, frightened. the (seth cohen voice) denotation could be added if you were texting the other person. otherwise, it's just said in the seth cohen voice. example: 

me: the lights just went out at my apartment complex. i'm scared.  

source material: only the greatest show ever. i'm actually really devastated because i can't find the video on the youtube uploader to embed it, but just click on the link below and fast forward to 1:05. or watch all 4 seasons of The OC and maybe it will pop up somewhere. i won't tell you which episode. either way, you won't be sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIALKOiJuDs

"(insert verb here) on the Barry Gibb Talk Show": this one is relatively new to the language. it's basically an alternative way to say you're doing whatever the verb is. example:

1. alanna: i'm at a bar and i'm flirting it up on the Barry Gibb Talk Show with Johnny Johnson.

2. me: i'm going out to party it up on the Barry Gibb Talk Show with my work friends!

source material: i mean really? you don't know this already? shameful. well here it is if you've been living under a rock, or have bad taste in humor and have never seen it before.

"hiliary clinton/hilz clinton/hiliary": used in place of the word "funny". example:

1. me: you should read my newest entry in the Sister Blog!

alanna: it's hiliary?

2. alanna: The Hangover was Hilz Clinton!

source material: alanna and i went to what can only be described as a pep rally in Robstown when Hillary Clinton was running for president and some lady, in true Corpus fashion, had a sign that said something about Texans for "Hiliary". Yes, Hiliary. needless to say, it sounds like "hilarious". because it is. 

oh here's a photo of me and my friend Jordan from that day for good measure.

"rude boy/calling you rude boy/rutabaga/rudyard kipling": all various euphemisms for the word "rude". example:

1. me: i finished watching The Bodyguard without you.

alanna: rude boy!!

2. alanna: i'm going to Harry Potter world.

me: rutabaga bush!

source material: i don't know. anything that has the word rude in it? any word that looks like it could have the word rude in it?

"like such as the Iraq": perhaps the most difficult to define, much like the video from whence it came. usually used to cut someone off before they can start listing things. example:

alanna: when are you coming to visit me?

me: i don't know. i have a lot to do this weekend, like....

alanna: like such as the Iraq?

source material: it needs no explanation.

anyways, there are many more complexities to the sister language that I don't feel like explaining. it's probably for the best. i mean i doubt we have any friends left after they read this. hey, but we have each other right?! and you....if you think you can master the language.