{Where she walks, no flowers bloom.}

Today's post will be all over the place. :) I want to do some structured posts soon {such as a continuation of my children's literature "series," which so far, consists of one post}, but I've been a little stressed lately with school assignments and that end of the semester rush. So this post reflects the state of my mind right now. :)

-I worked for at the college child care center for somewhere between 1 and 1.5 months last summer for work study. Long story short, I ended up getting a tax refund check a few days ago. For $8. The lady at the bank laughed at me when I cashed it. Then we had to run to Target. Mom send me to the back to get something for her, where I was inevitably sucked into the books/music/movie section {this happens quite often. I blame it on some sort of bizarre atmospheric condition}. Where I saw a bunch of movies on sale for $3.99, including Becoming Jane and the 1995 version of Persuasion. And guess what? I just happened to have exactly $8 in my wallet. :) Yeah, I bought them.

Becoming Jane is one of those movies I desperately want to love. I've seen it three or four times, and I like parts of it, but overall I'm still a little disappointed. I wrote some about it here. I bought it because of the dances, the scenery and music, Anne Hathaway, and because it's "based" on the life of one of my favorite authors.

Now to Persuasion. I had never seen this adaptation before. The only Persuasion movie I'd seen was the 2007 one (which most Austenites hate...I actually love it). I liked the 1995 one a lot. Is it just me, or does Captain Wentworth remind you vaguely of Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon in '95 S&S? Especially in this picture:

My main problem was with the Anne character's facial expressions. For most of the movie, she looks depressed and on the verge of tears. I've never seen a gloomier looking person. I thought I would never see her smile (but she was pretty when she did!). For the rest of the movie, she had a wide-eyed expression of fear, anxiety, and/or shock. I was concerned for poor Anne Elliot!

I loved seeing so many familiar faces, most notably Sophie Thompson as her sister Mary (also known as Miss Bates from '95 Emma) and Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Croft (surprisingly pleasant! I only knew her as the sour-faced Aunt Petunia from HP).

-Speaking of HP, I can't wait for Friday! I have to help out with something at the child care center that morning, but I am of course stopping by Target on the way home to pick up Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

-Jack, my cat, cracks me up. Right now, he's in a stage that reminds me of a teenager. Whenever I try to pick him up {this is no easy task- he weighs about 20 pounds} and love on him, he squirms and bristles up in embarrassment. But he's just so fuzzy and adorable that I can't resist. :)

Especially when he watches out the windows.

-My birthday is next week. I'm so excited. I don't have classes that day, so I plan on seriously enjoying myself. :)

-I have been listening to the Civil Wars' CD and Eisley's newest CD The Valley nearly nonstop since they were released. The Valley is a little different from Eisley's previous CDs. Much more rock-ish, and less whimsical. A lot of the songs were written during the time one of the members was going through a divorce, so they aren't exactly happy songs, but they are hopeful. And I just love the Civil Wars CD. It's sort of folk with a major country feel (and it's so hard to find clean country). It's amazing! These are two of my favorite songs from the two CDs.

{I learned about both of these bands on Natalie's blog. Along with the Avett Brothers and lots of other awesome music and books. She always has the best recommendations.}

Until next time,