Hi everyone! I have mostly stayed home because it’s been cold and because of the threat of bad weather I don’t make a lot of plans during the winter. Still a few really fun things happened so not to worry, it hasn’t been a completely boring month!

Here we go!

First up, this month my sister and I went to our old high school for the band’s “alumni night” at a basketball game. We both played flute in high school and while we didn’t play with the band we did hang out with them for the first half. We laughed at the teenager’s silly sounding problem (apparently someone has been “making scenes” on Twitter), we remembered that the basketball team used to be good (lost to the school that had been the worst in the district while we were in school), and realized just how terrible high school sports are. Still it was nice to see the band director who is actually an alumni of the same college I went to (a few years older than me so we had bumped into each other while at school, small world!) and my freshman year English teacher!

Side note! I could not believe the dance team coach! Basically the coach and a few dancers were standing in front of us and blocking the home team basket area from view. I didn’t really care to watch the game so I wasn’t too annoyed but it was pretty rude. After a bit of time passed the girls (actual students) behind me called down and asked the coach and the dancers to move. The coach’s response? “I’m the coach.” And she said this in a super snobby and condescending tone while she flung the ID around her neck the girls’ general direction. I was shocked for a moment before turning to my sister and saying (not too loudly but not too quietly) “I think the question was ‘can you move?’ not ‘who are you?'” but I don’t think the coach heard over all the noise in the gym.

I had a good laugh when she finally left with her dancers for half time and we saw the routine. The dance was not good at all and I couldn’t help but think that with that kind of display I would be hiding in the back of the crowd, not going around with an attitude. There were only four dancers and of those four only one seemed to have any dance experience. The routine was super simple and not together at all so I would have thought she’d have her team practicing in one of the other smaller gyms rather than have them parading around and being rude to the students.

I went to see the film Hidden Figures early this month with my family. My sister and I wanted to see it since we first saw the trailer and while we did wait a bit to see it, I was surprised there weren’t more people. (Notice how the theater is empty.) More people did come in eventually but it was pretty early so I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Tuesdays is when the theater is packed, because of their “$5 Tuesdays” promotion where all tickets are $5, which is half the price of a regular ticket. This theater has recently had a big remodel with new reclining seats, a bar area, and assigned seating to each movie, so it’s quite a bargain as all their prices have increased dramatically because of it. We went on a Saturday morning but we also like less people around.

This was also before the movie was nominated for a “Best Picture” Oscar, along with various other nominations, so I’m sure more people are seeing it. It was such a good movie and I’ve since picked up the book as I really wanted to know more about the women in this story.

The movie is based on a true story and revolves around three women who work as “computers” for NASA during the space race. They are all African-American dealing with the repercussions of a segregated world struggling to modernize and accept each other as people no matter race or gender. It’s a story that is still so relevant today and extremely inspiring and powerful.

A really amazing event this month was going to meet Veronica Roth! I went to Glencoe, Illinois for a book release event for Roth’s new book Carve the Mark which had been released the previous day. Roth and Sarah Enni did a little talk about writing, a bit about the book, and answered a few questions from the audience. Afterwards about 100 people were able to meet Roth for a personalized book signing and photo opportunity. She was so nice and I can’t believe I was so lucky! My sister when with me so we both were overjoyed at the opportunity to be able to meet her.

And last but not least, I finally saw the film Moana! I didn’t get a cool picture of it at the theater so I took a photo of the jumbo sticker pad I bought from the dollar section at Target ($3 and I’m such a child). Again, we went early on a Saturday morning so as to avoid crowds and since it’s been out for so long there wasn’t a ton of people there although a few other families with actual children were in the theater. It was small so there wasn’t too many people in there and it was a really fun time. The film is nominated for a “Best Animated Picture” Oscar and has several other nominations as well, including “Best Original Song” for Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda is also known as the genius who wrote Hamilton: An American Musical and he could become the youngest person to get an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) as all he’s missing is that Oscar. This year’s ceremony is sure to be an exciting one!

It was a beautiful film, tropical and lush, with an amazing heroine who defies what everyone expects of her to save her people. Moana is such a great character and I wish she had been around when I was younger as I’m sure she would have been one of my favorites. I had major hair envy the whole movie and left the theater singing the beautiful songs in my head. That is, until my dad realized he didn’t have his wallet!

We left my mom and sister at the mall and went back to the theater to look for it. We didn’t see it there and didn’t see it in the car so we actually drove home to find it sitting there, forgotten. We got a good laugh from that adventure and I’m super happy that it wasn’t lost after all. I’m totally going to tease my dad for awhile about forgetting his wallet!

And that’s basically my entire month! It was nice and movie filled, which is kind of surprising as we rarely go to the movies most of the time. Let me know what you’ve been up to this month! I’m super curious!

Thanks for reading!