It's All About Me

Because I have new followers of my blog that don't know me and more joining every day, I thought I'd do a little Alicia 101. Me in a nutshell, if you will. (Simon would probably call me self-indulgent, but whatever.)

My name is Alicia (pronounced uh-LEE-shuh).
I'm 30 years old.
I live in Washington state.
I married my soul mate.
I have two awesome kids.
I suffer from migraines. A lot.
I'm writing a novel (as seen on Teaser Tuesdays).
I love movies and all pop culture.
I have the best friends in the world.
I love junk food.
I have a ginormous vomit phobia.
I secretly dream of fame.
My favorite colors are red, black and white.
I was once obsessed with Twilight but the worldwide craze killed it for me.
When I was little I wanted to grow up and be a writer.
I have a cat that despises my very existence.
I can't say no. To anything.
I belong to this church.
I love to sleep. Like, looooove it.
I have suffered from anxiety my entire life.
I laugh like a truck driver.
I am literally (not joking) addicted to gum.
I dream of being skinny again.
I am a hardcore hopeless romantic.
I am all over the place when it comes to my blog.
I hate vulgarity.
I hate things that are fake (including people).
I am in love with my iPhone.
I'm still trying to find my place in this world.

Hope that fills you in. Hope you like what you read. Hope you'll decide to stick around.

Making Me Smile Today...

*My kids outside practicing their dribbling skills together.

*Macy repeatedly saying her stomach still felt "oozy" after getting sick.

*Sahara BBQ pizza on it's way to my doorstep

*Payson demonstrating the Flippity Flip--the ONLY way to serve a tether ball.

*Hearing Payson say "Flippity Flip."

*Falling in love with my husband all over again when he asked Macy on a date this weekend.

*Going on a long walk this morning and talking with a close friend.

*New followers on my blog (welcome!!) that I have never met.

*American Idol tonight

Teaser Tuesday

I just searched back through my blog to see what I last "teased" and was shocked to see I haven't done a teaser since AUGUST!! What the crap?! That's crazy! But then I starting thinking about it, and realized it shouldn't have shocked me because a) up until recently I hadn't been writing at all since August and b) I was barely even blogging there for a while. But still...I say I'm long overdue for a teaser, don't you? Here ya go.

We stood, facing each other, staring into eyes that were barely perceptible in the dark. No less than a million thoughts and questions flooded my mind, and I had not one thing to say. The shock of his revelation had stopped the flow of tears, but I did not move to wipe the residual moisture from my cheeks. I couldn’t even feel that they were wet anymore.

Finally I shook my head. “I don’t understand. Why? Why are you doing this?"

© A. Leppert

Just Peachy

Yesterday Macy and I were in the toy section at Walmart picking out a birthday gift for a friend. We were in the doll aisle, scanning for something good to get, when suddenly I glanced down and saw this:





I literally gasped. "Peaches & Cream!!!" I cried. Macy looked at me like I was crazy, but I had already picked it up and was admiring it in all it's NIB glory.

You see, Peaches & Cream Barbie was the last Barbie I received before moving from little girl into way-too-cool-for-Barbies. It was also the Barbie I decided to hang onto, and still have to this day! Yup, here she is:







Obviously, 25 year old P&C has seen better days. But oh, how I remember loving that doll. Wrapping and re-wrapping her peach colored wrap that was inexplicably long enough to go around her at least four times, admiring how her sparkly, spaghetti-strap dress fit perfectly over her mom hips (back before they updated Barbie and gave her hot little 18 year old hips that are perfect for ultra-low rise jeans and boy cut underwear), turning her back and forth slightly so the skirt of her dress would swish, swish, swish. Oh, those were the days.

Seeing her sitting there on the shelf at Walmart was like getting in a time machine. It was such an unexpected surprise, and I enjoyed waxing nostalgic for a few minutes. However, nothing makes you feel old like finding out the Barbie you used to play with is being re-released as "vintage."

Valentine's Day

This was the perfect movie to see on my Valentine's date with my husband. I know what you're thinking: duh. But I say this because the movie is so 100% about Valentine's Day, I can't say I would have liked it as much if I saw it, say, next weekend. It would somehow seem irrelevant. But maybe that's just me.

Either way, I did see it last weekend, and I did enjoy it. While it wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, it was definitely worth seeing, even if only for the all-star cast. There are no less than 20 top billed actors and one can't help feeling a little star-struck as scene after scene revealed yet another celebrity. I kept thinking "they had to have shown them all by now," and then another one that I had forgotten about would suddenly appear.

With so many stars, the movie obviously has multiple, interweaving story lines, in the vein of He's Just Not That Into You. You know, the kind where you have to keep notes throughout to remember how each person is connected. Some roles were bigger than others, with Ashton Kutcher (in a refreshingly subdued, heartfelt role) and Jennifer Garner taking the most screen time. Others (Kathy Bates?) made me wonder why they agreed to sign on for all of four lines.

In case it's not glaringly obvious, the theme of the movie is love, love and more love, examined from every angle possible. Teenage love, love that ends in heartbreak, love that began as friendship, love that endured the test of time, motherly love, new love, unconditional love, and of course, (because this is the 21st century) same-sex love.

Like Garry Marshall's other films (Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Princess Diaries), the best way to describe Valentine's Day is to picture a woman sighing at the end and dabbing at her mascara-streaked eyes with kleenex. He is also one of "those" movie-makers that recycles actors, something I can't decide if I like or find annoying. It's like playing Where's Waldo every time you watch one of his films, wondering where his sister will pop up, and who Hector Elizondo will play this time. (Adam Sandler would be proud.)

The movie is comical (I use that word when I'm trying to say there were a few chuckles throughout, but that the theater was spared from hearing my boisterous, let-it-all-out guffaw) and entertaining, but overall is sweet and has some great messages about fidelity, teenage sex and the true meaning of love. Oh, and the two Taylors add some great humor as a high school couple who understand love about as much as...well, a high school couple.

All in all, worth the watch, definitely, preferably with your significant other, but a gal pal would suffice. As a warning, there are MANY sexual references and scenes containing sexual content, but no actual love scenes (that I can think of!).

Movie Queen Rating: PG (pretty good)

New Name, New Look, New Blog, Same Old Me

Yup, still me. Movie Queen, Alicia, whatever you wanna call me. I just got a whole bloggy makeover. Don't you love it??!! It was time. I needed a change in a big way. So I hired my website-creator-genius-friend to do what I couldn't and you are looking at the finished product, aka masterpiece. Isn't she amazing?!

Goodbye two blogs. Goodbye Movie Queen. Goodbye Corners of My Mind. Hello new blog! Don't worry, the queen is still alive in me, somewhere. I will still review movies when I actually get to see them, but I'll do it here, on one blog. (Speaking of which, stay tuned for my Valentine's Day review--the movie, not the holiday.) And I will still do This Week In Hollywood when I'm feeling spunky. And I will still do Teaser Tuesdays, or whatever day of the week it happens to be, every now and then, because--teaser coming--I've gotta whole lotta new stuff I've written!

So, I don't know about you, but I am way excited. And...who knows? This may actually get me blogging again on a regular basis!

P.S. Don't hate me when your Readers start filling up with waaaay old posts of mine. Just hit delete, delete, delete. It's all part of the combining-two-blogs-into-one process. Lots of republishing.

The Best Part

The Best Part Of....

*Olive Garden...not feeling guilty for ordering the pasta, because it's all pasta

*going to the movies...every single thing. The movie, the previews, the huge dark room, the big screen, the amazing sound system...I could go on and on.

*living in the Tri-Cities...It's the perfect size...not podunk, and not big-city either.

*spending time with Macy...having actual adult-like conversations and learning how her mind works

*spending time with Payson...listening to the hilarious stuff that comes out of his mouth and being the recipient of his cuddles.

*spending time with Bill...one-upping each other's funny comments

*being on the phone with Amy...hanging up and knowing the phone will ring again in 5, 4, 3, 2...

*being married...knowing he is legally obligated to love me no matter what

*having something broken...buying a new one

*going to the grocery store...knowing I have at least a few days before I have to do it again.

*making dinner...feeling like I'm actually doing my job as a mom and that my kids are actually getting vegetables.

*spring...my birfday

*getting dressed...wait, we're supposed to get dressed?!

*crafting...working with my hands and having something I love when I'm done

*eating at a Mexican restaurant...shocking everyone around me when I eat the entire burrito.

*a pedicure...it's a toss up between being pampered, getting massaged, and having pretty toes that will last a long time.

*having cable...DVR.

*girls night out...realizing I am SO not the only one dealing with (insert issue here).

*having kids that love McDonalds...I am a hero for being lazy and not cooking dinner. Everybody wins.

*shopping at Target with kids...makes shopping at Target without my kids all the more sweeter.

*Costco...when my kids ask if we can go there for lunch, and by lunch they mean wandering from sample table to sample table.

*blogging during the day...blowing two hours and having nothing to show for it.

*Walmart...self check-out. I get a bizarre thrill every time the scanner reads a bar code.

*a cinnamon roll...frosting and bread? How can you go wrong?

*a reeses peanut butter cup...eating ten and feeling like I've gotten a meal because, you know, it has peanut butter.

*my whole year...my birfday

*having a cat...I can't believe how long I just sat here trying to think of an answer for this.

*only having two kids...one for each hand.

*naps...seriously? Taking a break mid-day to crawl into a warm, comfortable place and shut down and relax and turn everything off for a while and rejuvenate yourself and wake up feeling like a new person for the second half of the day? I don't understand the question.

*gum...minty breath. I have serious, serious issues with people's breath. Do they not realize, or do they just not care???

*iPhones...see iPhone user manual.

*reading friends' blogs...stealing blog post ideas. Thanks Rach!

The Post I SHOULD Have Done Yesterday

Thank you for a husband who loves me unconditionally and is my biggest supporter in everything I do.

Thank you for a sister who thinks exactly like I do and who is always on my side.

Thank you for a little boy who randomly comes and wiggles his way against my side and lays his head on my shoulder.

Thank you for a little girl who comes home from school and promptly sits down to do her homework without being asked.

Thank you for a cat who is finally starting to act like he likes us.

Thank you for friends who can cure whatever ails me with Red Robin, Guitar Hero, and lots and lots of laughter...every time.

And thank you, from the bottom of my swollen heart, to the angel whose name I don't know, who performed the kindest act of service I have received in a long time. I wish I knew who you were so I could thank you properly, but hopefully you are reading this and you'll know just how much your selfless act meant to me.

Thank you.

And The Nominees Are...

I figured out why I hardly ever blog anymore. Well, there's multiple reasons, one being that I worry no one cares what I have to say, but another big factor is that it seems to take me F-O-R-E-V-E-R to write a post. By the time I upload my pictures off my camera, make them small enough to put on my blog, put them on my blog, and sit and think of clever, witty things to say, I've blown an entire morning. Lately my time is sacred and I am just unwilling to spend all morning on the computer. (My phone, now that's a different story altogether.)

Anyway, I've heard people say that they get bored with blogs that don't have a lot of pictures. So I put off blogging because I don't have any good pictures and even if I did it takes too long to put them on my computer. But then I realized...I'm not a photographer. I'm a writer. Therefore, I am officially giving myself permission to blog without excessive use of pictures. Of course I'll still put pictures on when I have good ones or something noteworthy to talk about that has accompanying pictures, but otherwise, nope. I've come to terms with it, you need to too. I'm a writer, so I will write, and if I have any talent whatsoever, my writing should be able to hold its own, picture-less.

Speaking of writing, I'm working on my book after a dry-spell. (You may also know it as "writer's block.") But I've been given great advice and I'm going to plug ahead, even though (heaven forbid) I'm not 100% thrilled with the last little bit that I've written. But good heck, if I'm ever gonna get this thing done I am just going to have to WRITE and quit worrying about perfection.

On a side note, they announced the Oscar nominees today. I thought I'd announce them on my blog by (aha) writing a little story. See if you can figure out the nominated movies and actors.

A serious man named George Clooney who lived in District 9 was fed up with being single. He decided to create an avatar of a young woman for a companion, whom he named Sandra Bullock. She was precious. George and Sandra were happy together for a while, until one day they were driving in George's car and two guys named Morgan Freeman and Colin Firth hit George's car with their Hummer, right in the blind side, throwing Sandra out of the car and up in the air. "Inglorious Basterds!" he yelled. (Hey, don't judge me, it's the name of the movie.) "You need an education in driving!!" George ran over to Sandra, who had landed in a locker room. Sandra, being an avatar, wasn't hurt thank goodness, but she had done some serious damage when she fell. As George inspected the hurt locker, Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren walked up. "What happened here?!" they exclaimed. "Jeff Bridges just told us about an accident, so we came!" Then Gabourey Sidibe walked up and asked if anyone had seen Jeremy Renner because she had heard that he, too, was a huge N'Sync fan. They all laughed at her and headed off to Carey Mulligan's house for a little pre-Oscar bash. The End.

Only a month 'til the Oscars baby!