opinions on nothings

So. I really don't like winter. I think it's depressing and cold. I mean, it's great for Christmas because Christmas wouldn't be Christmas if it was warm (although seriously. This year?), but I'm just not a fan. I hate being cold and I don't really like winter clothes. You just can't be as creative, I find. Granted, summer clothes can lend itself to the scank factor, but there's alot you can do with them because you don't have to worry so much about keeping your body warm.
This Christmas holiday has been a time for me to catch up on some much needed movie watching. I'm not talking about getting ready for the oscars or going through the golden globe nominees (although this is on my list too), I'm talking about the movies that most people who have an interest in film as more than entertainment have seen, but I haven't. The Godfather. A Woody Allen film. Kill Bill. Schindler's List. American History X. And the list is no where near done. I realized while in California that I have many many classic movies to see if I'm at all serious about film or film studies (which I am). On the Waterfront. The other 2 Godfather movies. Casablanca. Citizen Kane. Pulp Fiction... So much movie watching -- so little time!!
In terms of contemporary films, I will hopefully be seeing some this week that include "the Queen", "Babel", and "Pan's Labyrinth". I've heard good things about all of them so I'm very excited. Also on my must see list is "Children of Men" -- said to be one of the best movies of 2006.
Alright. I think I have babbled enough. Goodness -- I wish there was something interesting to post.

The word of the day today: pooh-pooh

pooh-pooh (poo-poo) verb tr., intr.

To express contempt for; to make light of; to dismiss.

[Reduplicative of pooh (sound made by blowing something away with lips),
an exclamation of disdain or disbelief.]

"'Nothing of this sort ever happened,' says Sabya while pooh-poohing the rumour."
-Mandvi Sharma; Manish-Sabya Feud is Just a Rumour; The Times of India

Oh how I love this word.

Barbie and Ken -- together forever

So I might or might not have spent most of today watching Battlestar Galactica. Four episodes to be exact. Almost done season one -- I started watching it last week. Fun little show, that one.
Other than that the past few days have been spent sleeping, shopping for Christmas, and writing. mmmm. A great way to spend the holidays. Oh yes, and I played with Barbies for a while yesterday. Not joking either. We're giving our old Barbie house to my neice for Christmas so Trish and I spent yesterday afternoon going through all our old Barbie stuff. Man, we had a ton of Barbie stuff! Of course I made sure to find cool outfits for them and dress up both Barbie and Ken. I'm sorry -- but in my reality they are a couple and they are still going strong. I don't care what anyone says.

I'm just a normal Canadian now

I wish there was something new to post. But I'm home and everything's normal. I made the mainstage play for next year -- Antigone by Sophocles. I'll be playing the leader of the Chorus. Which, according my director, means that I sing lots and speak lots. I had hoped for Antigone... I'm not going to lie.. but this will probably be good for me since I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in work next sem.
I'm also made it into the Minstrel this past sem. -- The Minstrel is Redeemer's Creative Arts Magazine.. two of my poems got in. Good news.
I have a wine and cheese party this sat. mmmm.... wine. I made it all semester without drinking alcohol (it's part of our contract), so I'm looking forward to the party.... ;)

leaving and loving hollywood

I am sitting in LAX completely overwhelmed that it's all over. I didn't cry a lot. Mostly this morning when I had to say goodbye to Sarah and my roommates. And of course now as I am typing this. Great. Nothing like crying in public. These last couple of days have been AMAZING. I could have easily have made this semester into a yearlong thing. I feel like I've just started to get to know people and now I have to leave them. And let's be honest – some of them I will never see again. I have learned so much and grown so much as a person and discovered so much about myself.
So I should go back to the Price is Right. 21 of us decided to brave the early hours and went in line for the Price is Right at 4:00 in the morning on Tuesday. What followed was a very long process of actually getting seats in the audience. The gates opened to the CBS lot at 6:00AM at which time we got a Order of Arrival pass.. I was number 66. We were told to come back at 7:30, so we left and I went home and took a shower. We all met up again at 7:30 where we got another ticket. This ticket gave us a spot in the line that gets actual tickets. We were told to come back at 10:30. So we walked around the grove until then. When we got back, we then sat on benches until we got our nametag (the cool Price is Right nametag!!) and had to fill out some info about ourselves. Then we waited in line some more (by this point it's around 1:30) until finally they called us up in groups to be interviewed. The interview is to see what kind of personalities they have in the audience and they pick the people that go on the show based on your interview. The guy interviewing us knew that we were all from a school, so he asked where we were from and what's our major. Except for me. When he gets to me he asks “what do you do?” This threw me off guard. A bit earlier we had been talking about our hobbies.. and so the first thing that comes to my head is: “I sit in my room and collect pop cans” -- oh my gosh – how pathetic!! :) He told me that that was kind of sad and I agreed with him. Then I told him that I study school as well, but thought that that sounded like I study the subject of school and so I told him that I don't do that generally, but specifically... and he told me that he'd take my word for it. That, my friends, apparently gets you on the Price is Right as a contestant. We sat in our seats and the show started and it was soooo exciting! The stage is a lot smaller than I ever thought it would be.... it's so tiny!! Bob Barker is Bob Barker.. so awesome. So yeah, the show is totally intense. We had a big group.... so we were pretty hopeful that someone would get picked, but the show kept going and no one did..... so it gets to the last contestant to be called down. And Bob cues the announcer dude.. and he's like.. “Stephanie El...gersma.. come on down!!!!” OH MY GOSH!!!! I totally freaked out. Even writing this I'm inwardly freaking out. Such a rush I'm telling you. So I race on down to contestant's row.. and I am shaking and I don't know what to do. So crazy. And immediately they are showing us the thing that we're bidding on and I didn't know where to look or know what the heck it was because I only saw the girl hitting the tennis balls and didn't really see the machine that was throwing them. And then Bob is turning to me and saying “Stephanie, what do you bid?” Oh my GOSH. So I guessed “1000 dollars”. I was wrong – it was 825. But that's okay because it was TOTALLY FUN. And I got a vacuum cleaner and two watches!!!! Yippee!! January 25 people.
And now I'm here in the airport and we're going to board in 15 minutes. Tuesday we had our premiere screenings of our films. My film went so well. It was the last one to show... which people told me means that it's the profs' favourite pick. And I got a lot of compliments on it..... I mean, I just wrote it, the whole crew did all the work, but it was very gratifying to watch it with people who had never seen it before and know that they are laughing and enjoying something that came out of my brain – with the help of the Big Man Upstairs of course. Everyone looked so beautiful and it was truly a fun evening. Then Wednesday we had our final banquet – the last hurrah where we're all together. We had it at Callendar's, which is apparently a pretty well known restaurant in the US. It was really good food.... so good that I definitely couldn't finish it. But what else is new. :) It was a good evening, in which we got our certificates and could say a little something to the group. Course when I got up there I had no clue what to say.... so I floundered around a little. It was so weird to be thinking that this was the last time we'd all be together. I got emotional when saying goodbye to my friend Bekah because she was leaving the next morning.. but for everyone else it seemed so surreal. Then yesterday I spent the day packing and cleaning. I also hung out with my friend Geoff... he drove me up this mountain and onto this private road and showed me the most spectacular view of Los Angeles. It was such a fitting way to end my semester here. It was stunning – lights sparkling as far as you can see. I took some pictures but they don't do them any sort of justice.
And now it's back to reality. I hate reality at this moment.

Stephanie El..gersma.... C'MON DOWN!!!

Ok so people might want to be watching the Price is Right on January 25, 2007. Cause again, you might just see a familiar face down in contestant's row!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!! I, Stephanie, from Canada, was a freaking contestant on the Price is Right!!!!!!! I don't have a lot of time right now to ramble on about the whole experience, but I will say that I was the last contestant chosen, and I did not win anything except a consolation prize because I overbid on a tennis ball machine. Sad day. But the experience was sooo amazing!!!!!! SOOOO AWESOME! Bob Barker asked me, ""Stephanie, what is your bid?" ----- oh my gosh!!!!! And he's retiring too so it was one of his last shows. So incredible. But I have a million and a half things to do today so I will write more about it later. Yes.

I put ketchup on my ketchup

I can not freaking believe that I'm living out my last couple of days here... it's completely surreal to think that my semester at LAFSC is almost done. I finished my internship on friday -- they were really sweet.. they got me a FIND t-shirt, and a LA film festival lunchbox and hat. So cool. I gave them my resume so who knows... maybe I'll be back. I'm planning on it anyway -- I want to work the LA Film Festival in June because I think that's what I want to do with my life... maybe. Still not sure yet.
Today we handed in our final films.... feels good to be done. I'm working on burning DVD's... but other than that -- it's done. Hallelujah! Tonight Scott Derrickson (sp?) is coming to talk to us... he's the director of "the Exorcism of Emily Rose" .. so that's really cool. We watched the movie last night in order to prepare to meet him -- oh my gosh I was SO FREAKED OUT. If any of you know me, you know I don't do scary films. Well, I really don't do scary demon films. I had my eyes closed and ears plugged through most of the movie. And I was still scared to go to bed! But it will be interesting to hear what he has to say tonight.
On friday I saw Imogen Heap in CONCERT!!!!! It was such an amazing concert --- I've really only been to really good concerts so far in my lifetime. I also broke my opener act slump. So far at concerts, I've really not cared for the openers all that much. But Immi's openers were sooo great. The first one was Levi Weaver, who reminded me of my friend Joel. He's a Christian, but his lyrics were not explicitly Christian. Which is great. The other opener was this bear of a guy called Kid Beyond. He was fan-flipping-tastic... probably the best beat-boxer that I've ever heard in my life. Really cool stuff. And then of course there was Imogen!!! We were in the standing area at the very front ... she was like 5 feet away from me!!!!!! And her concert was just FUN. Rock-out, kick-butt FUN. She is so quirky and fun and flipping talented and she just rocks it out up there... it's such a great time!
Tomorrow -- the PRICE IS RIGHT!!! We are meeting at 4 in the morning in order to make sure we get seats... it's going to be insane. Especially since I have hardly gotten any sleep the past couple of nights. CRAZY. But it's the PRICE IS RIGHT! Bob Barker is retiring!!!! waaaahhh... 4 in the morning....
Coffee. Thank goodness for Coffee.
On Sunday we ate at Steven Speilburg's mom's restaurant. That was cool. I also said goodbye to Ecclesia.. a church that has become my home in such a short period of time.. it was really rough to leave them. Sucky.