Mandy knows best

Lucy Hale is enough to sell this movie to me. But it was really good anyway. A little predictable but that's not surprising for a rom com. The fun thing about this movie is that it really has a real rivalry. And takes place in publishing. Is publishing that big of a deal? There seem to be a lot of movies and TV shows around publishing. But it's about this small, cute, sweet book publisher who merges with a bigger, stiffer, more capitalist book publisher. And then the teams war against each other. So a lot of it is about the work rivalry but it is also about Lucy and Austin Stowell and how they interact together. It's cute. I would totally watch it if I were you.

I think I felt the baby move. It was very trippy. But very cool as well. We also found out recently that it's a girl. I'm having a baby girl. Now that I'm showing and feeling it and can shop for it, it all seems more real. This isn't going to be a long post because there isn't a lot to say. I'm really not doing much but growing a human is enough for me I guess. So we've started shopping. We have a crib, a bassinet and some artwork for the nursery. Also we just have a bunch of cute clothes. Not anything real big although she's going to be born in winter. The next step is a carseat stroller combo. Any suggestions? Basically I want just a bunch of black or grey onsies for her easy clothes and then sweats and leggings to wear over them.

I was told to watch this show by a friend and it did not disappoint. Pam was so realistic and I don't really know much about Tommy Lee but Sebastian was amazing at what he was doing. This really made you feel bad for Pamela Anderson. I was young when she was really famous but she was always just really famous to me. I didn't realize that she got so much shit for being famous in her way. Don't get me wrong, I never thought she was a good actress but I also think we never get to see actual talent from pretty people. For example I can't even think of the show but Amy Adams plays a chubbier girl in like a trailer park or something and it barely looked like her. But pretty people don't play not pretty very often. So they basically just play different versions of themselves all the time. I think that's what happened to Pam. Baywatch was not a show that you watch to find good actors. It's a soap opera with swimsuits. People watched it to see the people running in ...

Work has been really hard lately. Like I've been so exhausted that it's been hard to keep any kind of focus. This is the kind of fear where I think I'm doing something wrong with this pregnancy. But Dan actually pointed out the other day that I've always had issues eating and was already probably malnourished before even getting pregnant. So now I'm playing catch-up while losing all my nutrients to baby. I'm in a battle to keep standing every day it feels like. But today I was doing really good until about 1. So is it working? Or did I just have a good day? It's hard to tell as it hasn't been that long. But I feel like I have to embrace what I'm feeling. My best friend told me that week 17 on her last pregnancy was when she started feeling less first trimester-like. I am 18 weeks as of yesterday. So I think I'm on the mend. You know, for now… I also really think it helps that my boyfriend's sister mentioned that she never really felt better...

Paula Patton and Devin Sawa get stuck in a kind of time loop thing. It's hard to describe without spoiling. Basically this is a suspenseful story about a mom who tries to solve her daughter's murder. It's just a limited series probably based on a book… But I actually don't know if the book thing is true. So Paula Patton plays a reporter who tries to solve crimes on air and while she does that she gets caught up in a crime ring and it does not go well. Devin plays an ex cop who is now a private investigator who also gets caught up in something he doesn't expect. All while Paula's husband, a city prosecutor, tries to keep from getting caught up in said crime ring. This whole story is actually surprising. It had a few moments that really threw me off at first. I had never heard of this show but Netflix told me to watch it so I did and was not disappointed.

New Hampshire was hard. I'm glad I went, because it was great to see Gabby and meet Jellybean. But it was not an easy trip. We had a nice cold bedroom. It was really nice and so dark! But cold. And then a dining room table where we ate most of the time to avoid the dogs. And then in front of the TV is a nice couch but we had to fight the dogs and for me, I had to fight the fans. I don't like fans… I get more irritated the older I get from them too. But I hate them so I hated the couch. I also get very restless sitting on a couch watching tv anyway. But I did not feel like I had a comfortable spot in Gabby's house… And I was very uncomfortable. Not her fault at all, I'm just in a weird phase of the pregnancy. Then there was all the adventuring. The first day we chose to go kayaking. Which I love, but it was a lot of extra work! And we had to drive out to the lake and after driving from Boston the day before, being in the car kind of sucked. We stayed and had pizza too. ...

This is one of those movies that you don't watch for the story line… But you don't really watch it for the stripping either. I watch for the dancing. Channing Tatum is a magical person a unicorn if you will… And he finds other magical people. I watched the first movie in theatres and loved it! But his dancing! This is the first time that I watched the sequel and it's been announced that there will be a third one so I figured it was time. 2 things stood out to me in the second movie. 1) They added some great characters. Donald Glover, Twitch, Jada and yes Amber Heard. They all killed it. Oh Andie MacDowell! See classic actors becoming classic characters. And 2) the story line still doesn't make any sense! Ok so the story line from the first is about this guy who is basically working incredibly hard to make money to do what it takes to make his actual dreams come true. Beautiful. However the rest of the story has him chasing a girl that doesn't want him and won'...

So I'm pregnant remember. And I have to tell you, I don't like it. I really do try to remember that it won't be like this forever and the baby will make it all worth it. But I feel so weird all the time and I keep trying to act and be normal. Like I can live my life like normal. Like I can work like normal and go out with my friends when they ask. I have had 3 vacations planned for summer and they might actually kill me at this point. This is miserable. I basically don't even know how to function right now and it's really pissing me off. I know I'm making something out of my own body. And that is really cool and miraculous. But it's also very uncomfortable and totally miserable. I hate everything about it. I'm not feeling the joys at all. Am I doing it wrong or do moms just lie to us and themselves? Am I just doing everything wrong? I know I'm not eating enough but if I feel sick all the time how do I just ignore that? All while just trying to live...

This is a Harlan Coben show. I think this is the third one that I've watched? And awkwardly I think I have this book but haven't read it yet... Oh well. Harlan is a british thriller novel writer. And they are so good at least on TV? I haven't actually read any of his books. But this one is about a mom who before meeting her boyfriend and having a few kids had a totally different life. But as she is about to marry her boyfriend of like 16 years her old life comes out to play. What comes next is a crazy whirlwind of lies and murder. The thing I like about Harlan's stories is that I really can't tell who the villian of the story is. There are so many twists and turns that I can't really figure out how its going to finish. And I was shocked! Which is a good ending to me. I also really like the people in the show too.

Just before I found out I was pregnant I took this 3 week coding bootcamp. Coding is weird becuse it seems really hard. Computers are very hard! But this is basically just learning a new language. So it started and I had kind of learned some basics before, I felt really good at first. But then they asked me to basically just blindly recreate a website that the guy created. I had no idea how to start and I was very frustrated. I actually took an extra week to finish because I got so anxious. I took an entire week to get back to it. But turns out I really did have it down. So a week late I moved on to the second week and then the third week all in the same weekend. I did it all. And yeah my boyfriend knows how to do all of it so I did all of it at his house. Truthfully, he couldn't help. I did it all on my own! And that made me feel so good about myself. The next part of it however is 5 months. And that would have taken me into summer and I was not prepared to do jump into that. I k...

Movie I'm sure the main guy in the show was cool and all but to me Awkwafina is the one who made this show. I love her so much. The story is about a guy who's dad wants ultimate power and when he can't get it he goes a little crazy. He also lost his wife so that would drive people crazy too though. Basically his kids are estranged from him but something happens that brings the whole family together again… And causes Shang Chi to learn their real strength and power. Yep this is a Marvel movie. So really, the story line could use some work… it's not very detailed but I'm sure they will add more later. I can't even really remember if there is anyone other than Wong to tie us to Marvel. Really, it's a good movie but I can’t really find that much to talk about with it. It's a typical Marvel movie.

So about a year ago my best friend decided that for her 30th birthday she wanted to go to Vegas. At the time the plan was a little different but obviously as life went on the plan adjusted to what was actually going on in her life. So we ended up going a few weeks earlier because of school and her newly 21 year old sister came with. So it was Alix (Birthday friend,) Gracie (little sister,) Chala (basically platonic life partner of Alix,) Lish (my soul sister,) and me (the pregnant weakling.) This was one of those girls trips that only happen in the movies. We had all the plans, Magic Mike, fully nude strip club, dancing all night, spending all day at a light buzz only to go over board at night to then go home and sleep and go to the pool all day. The dream right! So Thursday night we got to the hotel and got all dolled up and got ready for Magic Mike. That was a show, no details because it's too good to explain but Alix went up on stage and Gracie got to slow dance with one of them...

Seems like this is based in real life. It's about a free spirited girl who is too real to hold down a job. So with some luck, she finds a way to create her own job. She uses this fancy thing called the internet to sell things that other people would think would never sell. Used clothes. Yeah Vintage. Now vintage stores have been around forever I'm sure. But they are often for cheaper people who are looking for clothes they can afford over that one of a kind piece that was lost to history. But if you have the eye and the luck, there are amazing things to find. So this is the story about a girl who has that eye and is able to turn it into a successful business really is my dream. That is why I try so many random things these days. If I keep finding side hustles one of them is bound to take off? I have to tell you, I didn't like this show. I would not be friends with this girl. But I love the thought of being able to be yourself and turn it into money.

So everyone that I talk to on a normal basis knows but I don't really know how to announce to others. But this is where I tell all my secrets. So I guess it's time. I'm pregnant. Yep just over 12 weeks according to how big baby is. No I don’t know what I'm having. And really, I'm not in a hurry to find out. Even just thinking about becoming a parent has me thinking a lot of different thoughts. Things like how do I raise my kid strong and independent and able to think for themselves when they literally don't know how to think at first. I am going to be the one dressing them for the first year at least, I'm going to be the one buying food and they can't tell me what they like yet. Now obviously when they get older they can start telling me those kind of things but we are always very much a product of our surroundings and when does that start? I truly think that my ex never developed a full personality because his mom's was the only one that could fit i...

This is one of those Netflix series with 1 season just to tell a quick story. I guess it could go on to another season, but I feel like this story has been told so we'll see. But this show has Andie Macdowell playing an artistic hippy person which is very believable… And her real life daughter is the star of the show. For real but I don't know anything else she's been in. I loved her though, she was so real and believable and told a story that for sure has happened for 1000s of women. It really shows the real life of someone doing whatever it takes to take care of her daughter. It shows the struggle of trying so hard and yet still failing. Here's the thing, to me failing is important. The truth of life is that trying something scary will most often lead to some kind of fail. And that's ok, good even. I admire people who can keep going through adversity. What's the statistic, it often takes 5 times to leave an abusive relationship? That doesn't make it impos...

We call it a book club just because the first time we met up there was another get together at the restaurant and they said they were a book club so it sounded fun. So what we actually do is read/write in the Untamed journal. This journal is hard. It's very triggering. It makes me want to burn down the patriarchy on every page. See even though I was raised by religious parents and teachers but those same people taught me how to vote and dress and act. So the questions in this journal are what were you taught makes you a good daughter, friend, mother, person etc. And to me they are all basically the same thing. From a young age I learn to cook, clean and take care of others. I started babysitting my siblings at 10 and I was supposed to make sure they doing everything that they were supposed to. It was not successful as I always felt like I was not someone who should be focusing on that. I knew I wasn't supposed to be the one to take care of children as I was a child myself. And...

Podcast This was the perfect podcast because I've totally heard other podcasts about this but I've always wanted to watch a movie or TV show about this exact story. See, I've never seen the orignial movie as I didn't grow up watching scary movies and now it seems weird to watch something that old... But I saw this podcast and thought this is perfect, finally I can hear the whole story. This podcast is about the making of the Exorcist. The movie was based off of an news article about a true story of a "real life exorcism." In real life, the story was about a 12 year old boy but the movie was about a 12 year old girl, probably to make it easier to take advantage of her and have some weird sex scenes. So basically someone hired this up and coming director who had just won and oscar for his first movie. Then when they decided to go ahead with the movie they couldn't find anyone to play a few key roles. And after filming started there were even more weird thi...

Yeah I quit writing again. I have been dating someone since September and with that it's been hard to juggle work, friends, side hustles, family and attempting a new relationship. And then Christmas came and it all got harder, then New Years came and it was even worse. New Years day was terrible. I had to do like 4 jobs myself and teach 4 people how to do the job at the same time. It was so busy too. I was exhausted but also very upset because I knew that I would not get any credit for what I had done. And then the real fun began. On January 4 I started the anxiety med Lexapro and it was fine the first couple of hours... And then the next day I got so dizzy and nauseous and felt like I couldn't even move. And stayed like that for 4 days and then started my period. So add bleeding and cramping to those feelings. And then 3 days later I got COVID... So basically I was sick for 11 days. That was a great start to the year. And then I had to work for 4 days and then go to Puerto Ric...

Guys! Not only was it completely beautiful there but I had such a good time. Who knew right? So first of all. It was a long flight. We had to fly out to NYC and wait a couple hours and then fly down to Puerto Rico. So we left Salt Lake at 9 am our time and landed and 11pm PR time. Long day! And everything was closed because of their COVID curfew. So we got these nasty premade sandwiches from CVS. They were terrible... And we went to bed. The next morning we woke up starving and still couldn't find food... So eventually we found a hotdog stand on the beach and order that and Pina Colada's... So not a lot of food but something. Then we sat on the beach for a little bit soaking up the sun but I got tired and a little cold so we went back up to the condo and opened all the windows and took a nap. Just what we needed! Then we woke up and went to get lunch at this little beach lounge but the power was out so they couldn't make food! But we walked down the other side of the stre...

I kind of forgot about this movie after the noise of Scarlett's legal battle with Disney. See I'm on ScarJo's side… So I didn't want to watch unless Scarlett gets paid but I don’t like going to movie theaters but I always meant to. Then I failed and never did. So eventually I forgot about it all. However it's still a big movie so when people around me started talking about Shang-Chi I decided it was time to watch them both. I really appreciate the fact that Scarlett is over 10 years older than her "sister" who is 3 years younger in the movie… Also none of the people playing Russian spies are Russian… But I guess that's part of the spy aspect… Anyway, it was a weird movie. It was typical for Marvel these days as they have a lot of surface level humor and action but the story line has many plot-holes. See it's not the writer's or producers fault. The truth is that comic books have been around for a long time and a lot of these storylines go on f...