(no subject)
Parks and Recreation
This episode wasn't my favorite of the season, but there also wasn't anything I particularly had a problem with; it was just a solid episode!
I think the Tom storyline might've been my favorite??? I'M SO HAPPY WHAT THEY'RE DOING WITH THIS RENT-A-SWAG STORY AND THAT IT HAS A CHANCE TO SUCCEED AND HOW HE'S SO AFRAID OF MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES AS HE DID WITH ENTERTAINMENT 720. Because Entertainment 720 was totally ridiculous, we all knew it was going to fail spectacularly, but… Tom didn't know that, it was his dream, and it failing had to have an impact on him. I just love that. AND THAT TOM/ANN SCENE. Man, the ship has definitely sailed for me on wanting them to be together romantically, but if they had been having scenes like that last season when they were actually dating? I would've been way more on-board. It was wonderful to see Ann encouraging him, regardless. And I loved when he spruced up the place at the end (IT LOOKED REALLY GREAT!!!). AND DJ ROOMBA!!!!!!!!!! ALWAYS A WELCOME ADDITION TO AN EPISODE.
The April/Andy storyline was cute, and I always love them showing why they're the Best Marrieds, and that scene at the end where Burt Macklin turned in his badge had me crying laughing and also warmed my heart. THE PIECE OF PAPER THAT JUST SAID "I was in the FBI" (or whatever, I can't remember exactly now)!!!!!!!! The only thing I did have a small issue with (oops, guess I lied about having no specific problems with this episode???) was April being involved in this Andy storyline instead of the Leslie storyline with the park because… what about April's dog park??? Maybe I'm forgetting something from the last episode, but I was under the impression that April was still going to be involved in the Lot 48 stuff, so I was sad that she had nothing to do with it this week. Although I can't really be too upset since the Andy/April scenes were adorable and wonderful and reminded me of how much I love them because sometimes I forget from time to time.
I guess the Leslie storyline was my least favorite just because I saw it coming that Leslie would be right about Eagleton (although at least she wasn't 100% right and that guy did really want to help out) so I was just kind of waiting for the moment when all would be revealed? But there were some cute moments, and making fun of Eagleton is always fun (the part about the palm tress killed me), and THOSE LESLIE AND BEN BALLOONS, SO CUTE!!!!!!!!
So yeah, overall, not my favorite episode, but still very enjoyable!!!
New Girl
UGH NICK AND JESS ARE KILLING ME RIGHT NOW. Like I feel like I'm just repeating myself every week, but it's just that every episode there's something with them that sends me into an incoherent mess. I JUST LOVE HOW CASUAL AND COMFORTABLE AND DOMESTIC THEY ARE WITH EACH OTHER!!!!!!!!!! I mean, there was this post on Tumblr of them sitting on the bed at the end of this week's episode with "#Married" as the caption, and UGH IT IS TRUE. I am totally into the trope (ok I don't know if this is an actual trope but I'm calling it one) where 2 characters are pretty much already dating but everyone else realizes it before they do, and I totally get that vibe from them right now. I mean, during the Thanksgiving dinner in last week's episode where they're both trying to pretend they didn't see Jess's mom and dad making out??? Something about that scene totally looked like they were dating to me for some reason, just… something about their physicality, idk!!!! ughhh it's just crazy how into these two I am right now.
Anyways, other random things about the last 2 episodes:
-THE CECE/WINSTON INTERACTION IN THE THANKSGIVING EPISODE WAS GREAT AND I WANT MORE. I mean, there wasn't much, but just that exchange of "What are you doing?" / "I'm bored." / "Nice." was SO GREAT and more please.
-It made very little sense to me that Schmidt couldn't kiss Winston considering how many times he's kissed Nick??? Like the second that came up as the final test or whatever, I was like "Oh, Schmidt has this, he should have no problem winning," and then… no. It confused me.
-"Do I regret it? Yes. Would I do it again? Probably." I UNDERSTAND, NICK.
-NICK PROCRASTINATING WRITING HIS ZOMBIE NOVEL. WINSTON READING ALOUD THE ZOMBIE NOVEL. EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE ZOMBIE NOVEL IS HILARIOUS AND I LOVE THAT SOMETHING THAT SEEMED KIND OF LIKE A THROWAWAY JOKE WHEN IT WAS FIRST MENTIONED IS A CONTINUING STORYLINE.
-"To be clear, i have not asked any of you to impregnate me. I want that to be said." (That might not be the exact line but whatever, I was dying during that entire scene. AND JESS'S FACE WHEN NICK TOLD HER HE WOULD LOVE THAT BABY WITH ALL HIS HEART.)
-NICK'S IDEA OF WHAT BEING LIKE HEMINGWAY IS.
-I'm not 100% sure yet how I feel about the focus on Jess and Cece being worried about having kids, and I can't even put into words exactly why, but one thing I did love about that storyline was HEY IT'S A CECE STORYLINE THAT'S ABOUT HER. Like I know it started off about Jess being worried, but then it went into examining Cece's plans for her future and her relationship with Robbie AND THAT PART DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH JUST BEING JESS'S BEST FRIEND OR HER RELATIONSHIP WITH SCHMIDT. And that is definitely something I am a fan of!!!
-"No, but in a contest. […] In a competition. […] You don't get it." DRUNK NICK, ALWAYS THE BEST.
Yeah, anyways, I love this show. I don't think these past 2 episodes were my absolute favorites of the season (the Eggs one in particular felt kind of unresolved at the end in a weird way? I can't really put my finger on it, though), but overall I did love them quite a bit, and this is still one of my favorite shows currently airing.
I'm too tired and lazy to go through each episode individually, but random things about these episodes:
-We got to hear the letter! Or, part of it. I'm assuming that Darcy did tell Lizzie about the Gigi stuff but asked her not to share it. It was nothing unexpected, but it was still fun to hear what it is in the canon of this universe that Wickham did. I saw some secondhand complaints that what Wickham did wasn't bad enough and that Lizzie didn't tell or even hint about the Gigi stuff, and I… couldn't disagree more? First off, although we don't know where Wickham went to school, it's likely that 4 years of tuition would be at least $100,000, which is a LOT to go through in one year. And yeah, Darcy can probably afford that, but it's not so much about it hurting Darcy financially as it's a slap in the face of the memory of his father. And secondly, I AM SO HAPPY WE HEARD NOTHING ABOUT GIGI. I would have been disappointed if Lizzie DID share something about Gigi. It just… wouldn't seem right, and Lizzie doesn't even KNOW Gigi, I just really can't see her talking about whatever happened between Gigi and Wickham to a bunch of strangers. At least the other stuff she said from the letter was presenting Darcy's side of the story; sharing that was at least a step up considering all the viewers have seen so far is Wickham's side, but they don't have any idea about Gigi. idk, I'm kind of rambling at this point, but I was totally and completely happy with this choice. My only complaint really was that Lizzie kept stressing that it was hypothetical and it was Darcy's side and not necessarily true and all that, because… she seemed more clearly to believe him in the immediate aftermath of the letter, but now it feels like she's backtracking a little, and assuming Darcy did tell her about Gigi (which I can only imagine he must have; it would be a serious deviation if he kept that from her), I can't imagine why she would still be hesitant to be on Darcy's side, at least when it comes to Wickham (I can understand her still being pissed about Jane/Bing).
-I also saw some secondhand complaints that the past few episodes have been boring or filler and that the series wasted showing Darcy so soon or something, which… what? idk, maybe it's just people who started watching right when Darcy showed up, so they marathoned it all in just a few hours or days or whatever and now that it's just 2 episodes of just a few min each a week, it's hard to get used to the pace? I mean, sure the Darcy episodes were particularly exciting, but I definitely adored seeing Caroline again and getting to watch Lizzie and Charlotte call her out, and LIZZIE AND JANE AND LYDIA ALL BACK TOGETHER AGAIN YAYYYYYYY (don't get me wrong, I do adore Charlotte and Lizzie's friendship and have loved all their stuff together, but I missed the sisters all being together too!!!), and, I mean, it's not that different from in the book from what I remember. Well, in many ways of course it's vastly different, but there is a bit of a lull between the letter and Pemberley. There has to be. We can't go straight from the letter to Pemberley because Lizzie needs to let it sink in and examine her feelings and her prejudices and get used to the idea that maybe Darcy isn't all bad because she sees him in his element. (Of course, all that being said, definitely eagerly awaiting Pemberley. IT HAS TO BE COMING UP SOON.)
-LIZZIE CONTINUING TO ADDRESS DARCY AS IF HE'S WATCHING AHHHHHH. I CAN'T GET OVER THIS. I do hope we get confirmation at some point (preferably sooner rather than later) if he's still watching the videos.
-HOW ABOUT LIZZIE CALLING DARCY'S LETTER "ILLUMINATING"????????? DYING.
Anyways, still pretty obsessed with this and eagerly awaiting the next episode!!!
So I'm behind on basically all TV right now except for Parks and New Girl because I have been in a crazy reading mood. In the past 12 days, I've somehow read 16 books???? I don't know how this is possible what with work, and even with having Thanksgiving off, I spent most of that day with family and not reading. I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON, IT'S CRAZY. My original goal for the year was 50 books, and I got to that back in like August so I upped it to 75, but after getting there last week and still being in the mood to read all the time, I decided I might as well just try for 100. I mean, I'm at 82 for the year right now, so that's 18 books in a little less than 5 weeks, which sounds like a lot, but… at this rate I will be getting there by mid-December at the latest, with plenty of time to spare.
Anyways, I wanted to talk about some of the stuff I've been reading (mostly just the stuff I've enjoyed, I don't feel the need to talk about the mediocre to bad stuff, although luckily there hasn't been too much of that), but then I became completely consumed with this YA contemporary romance, The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay, so much so that I stayed up until 2 AM on Tuesday to finish it and I can't stop thinking about it and it's destroyed me and I need people to know about this book!!! I'll talk a little about some of the other stuff I'm reading next time I post, but I don't think I can get my brain to focus on anything else for long enough at the moment to form coherent thoughts on anything else right now. So please read my flailing under the cut about this book and then read it and talk to me about it!!!!
The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay
I have a hard time even knowing how to talk about this book, because it's like… you know that line from Emma, "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more"? THAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW. IT HAS CONSUMED ME AND I NEED OTHER PEOPLE TO READ IT AND LOVE IT WITH ME BUT I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO BEGIN WITH IT. I tried typing up a post on Wednesday night about my feelings and I spent like 3 hours and came up with nothing because I just… couldn't put my feelings into anything coherent!!! But I'm going to try because I need people to know about this book.
It's difficult to type up a synopsis that actually does the book justice because the basic plot doesn't sound particularly special. Basically, Nastya was a piano prodigy whose dreams and life were shattered by a random act of violence when she was 15. Flash-forward 2 years (which is where the book begins), and she is in a new town, moving away from her parents and brother and in with her 30-year old aunt, still struggling with what happened to her. Oh, and she has chosen not to speak a word to anyone for over a year. Then there's Josh, who has lost basically everyone he has ever loved, and so now he avoids interacting with pretty much anyone. And of course they become intrigued by each other and start spending time around each other for various reasons (most of which are not of their own volition) and they develop a bond and it goes from there, and this all sounds cliche and melodramatic and this is why I just can't do this book justice, because it's not cliche and melodramatic. It's definitely heartfelt and emotional, but it feels sincere and genuine rather than being over-the-top? And the tragedies the both have experienced definitely warrant the more serious parts of the book.
And, I mean, the book is actually rather humorous! It's definitely not something I would consider light or classify in the humor section of the bookstore, but it is not all doom and gloom. Nastya and Josh have great senses of humor, and there are loads of great lines and moments of happiness and joy. And when it starts off, it's pretty… I don't want to say average, but it's just like… yeah, this is decent, but what's so special about it? But the author really does something amazing with the pacing and the development, I'm not sure how, but everything just builds and builds in intensity, and by the end, well, I suddenly found that I had become a complete mess over this book.
And just… ugh!!!! I'm afraid of hyping this too much, I don't want to raise expectations so high that the book can't live up to them, and it's not perfect, I can think of some flaws, and if you're not into books that focus primarily about the gradual development of a relationship of 2 teenagers or if you don't like YA or whatever then I don't know that I'd advise it, and sometimes I'm not even entirely sure what it is about it I love or that makes it so special, it doesn't start off particularly remarkable, but it's just this slow, beautiful build, and, as I said, I ended up staying up until 2 AM to read it because I just couldn't physically stop myself and it has legitimately just taken me over.
The development of Nastya and Josh's friendship and relationship is just so perfectly handled, I can't even. The book is longer than most contemporary YA books I've read, and the extra pages are definitely well-used. I think it really benefited from spending that much more time on developing them. Josh keeps everyone at an arm's length, and obviously Nastya not speaking to anyone makes it more difficult to develop a friendship at first. They start off a bit antagonistic (and ships where they start off hating each other and slowly get to know each other and become friends and then fall in love is one of my favorite tropes, if done well; I hate the "I hate your guts but not-so-secretly am super hot for you and want to jump your bones" thing that often goes on, but thankfully this is not even close to that) just because Josh isn't looking to gain any friends, and they keep getting kind of thrown together due to Drew, who is Josh's best (and only) friend, who sets his sights on Nastya pretty much the second she shows up. BUT THERE IS NO LOVE TRIANGLE, DON'T WORRY. Drew sleeps around a lot, and so when he sees Nastya, he thinks she's attractive and flirts with her, but she has no interest in him beyond friendship, and he realizes that pretty early on, and he never has actual feelings for her beyond friendship, either. So basically Drew is a wonderful character who I greatly enjoyed and there is no love triangle. But anyways, he causes Nastya and Josh to spend more time around each other, and eventually they start spending time just the 2 of them together, and a friendship slowly forms.
And before anything romantic happens, they pretty much become best friends? WHICH IS ANOTHER THING I REALLY LOVE IN MY SHIPS. This relationship hit SO many of the things I tend to adore in ships, like they're a bit codependent, which I probably shouldn't enjoy as much as I do, but whatever, I like when my ships rely on one another more than they do anyone else and it's a bit them against the world??? And they're also very domestic at points, before anything romantic even forms, which I also love (a bit like Nick and Jess on New Girl right now, which as you may know is also killing me these days). Josh is really into woodworking and making furniture in his garage, and Nastya sits and watches, and eventually she starts helping him do stuff like sanding, and he makes her dinner because she often forgets to make real food for herself, and a;lksfj it's wonderful.
And they're both very damaged individuals, but the book really does make a point of saying that they can't ~save each other. This isn't a book where just their relationship alone makes them healthy, happy, well-adjusted people. Nastya has to deal with some things on her own (trying to avoid getting into spoilery specifics), and they still haven't completely recovered from their issues by the end, but… there's hope and there are second chances and it's beautiful. And they definitely do help each other heal, but the book completely acknowledges that just having each other isn't a magical cure that makes everything suddenly better.
ugh, i just. I don't know if any of this makes sense or if I've described this well or accurately, but basically it's just the story of these two damaged individuals who find a home in each other and start to heal and it's utterly beautiful. I mean, just: "I know at that moment what he’s given me and it’s not a chair. It’s an invitation, a welcome, the knowledge that I am accepted here. He hasn’t given me a place to sit. He’s given me a place to belong." UGHHHH LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE. I can't talk about this book coherently or in a way that I think will make other people want to read it, so read the reviews on GoodReads which are almost all really intelligent and spot-on (ignore the quotes from the book, or don't expect too much from them, because out of context a lot of them lose a lot of their impact) and then read the book (I can provide links if necessary!!!) and then come talk to me about it if you love it, and if you read it and don't love it then don't tell me because, fair waning, I am not a rational person about this book and I won't be able to handle it.
And now I'm just going to flail about various specific spoilery things I adored under a spoiler cut because I need to do that right now: [Spoilers!]
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I STILL DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START EVEN THOUGH I AM PRETTY MUCH JUST FLAILING TO MYSELF AT THIS POINT BUT.
HE CALLS HER SUNSHINE, AND IT STARTS OFF SARCASTIC AND TO PISS HER OFF AND IT ENDS UP BEING JUST HIS NAME FOR HER AND SHE SPEAKS FOR THE FIRST TIME TO DREW TO ANGRILY TELL HIM NOT TO CALL HER THAT BECAUSE ONLY JOSH GETS TO CALL HER THAT.
I guess that's a place where I can start: How and when Nastya starts choosing to talk to people. It was really interesting because the book I had read right before this one was Speechless by Hannah Harrington, which also is a book about a girl who decides to stop speaking to anyone, and it was a total coincidence that I read these two right in a row, I actually didn't have any idea that part of the plot of this book was that Nastya chooses not to speak to anyone, but it was really interesting for me to compare the reasons why they choose not to speak and then the situations that cause them to start speaking and who they choose to first speak to and all that. And I loved Speechless quite a bit, too (not nearly as much as this book, but there are few books I have loved this much tbh) so it's not a comparison in a negative way, but it's just interesting to me how in Speechless, the first person she chooses to speak to is not her love interest, and she chooses a really important moment to finally speak up, and at that point she's speaking to everyone, it's not a gradual thing where she still isn't speaking to certain people for awhile. But here, Nastya starts speaking to Josh before anyone else, and then she gradually starts talking to Drew later on, and then to everyone else much, much later, and it's not about anything important when she first speaks to Josh; the first thing she says is a completely mundane question about saws. AND I DIED AT THAT, IT WAS THE GREATEST. I do love how they form a sort of connection when she still isn't speaking, but I feel like the book really picked up when she started talking to Josh in his garage. AND HE MAKES HER A CHAIR. SO SHE'LL HAVE A PLACE TO SIT. AFTER HOWEVER MANY DAYS AND WEEKS OF TELLING HER TO GET OUT OR WHATEVER. HE MAKES HER A CHAIR SO SHE'LL FEEL LIKE SHE BELONGS AND HE CARVES A SUN ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SEAT AND SAYS IT HAS HER NAME ON IT.
OH GOD AND HOW SHE PRETTY MUCH MOVES IN WITH HIM????? SHE STARTS SLEEPING THERE EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE NOT SLEEPING TOGETHER AND HE MAKES HER DINNER AND SHE HELPS HIM SAND. SO DOMESTIC. SO PERFECT. AND HOW HE DRIVES 2 HOURS FOR THEIR FIRST DATE BECAUSE HE WANTS TO HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH HER.
Oh, and this kind of goes with the codepency I was talking about, but another thing i love is when, like… the guy is a little bit more into the girl than she is into him? Not in a creepy Nice Guy kind of way, and I guess that's not the best way to put it, but more like he gets to that point sooner or realizes his feelings earlier. And actually I think these two develop feelings at about the same pace or at the same time, but he's definitely ready sooner to go there with her or declare his feelings, and ughhhh yes favorite.
OH GOD AND WHEN SHE'S TEASING HIM ABOUT "DISTRACTINGLY PRETTY" AND HE SAYS TO LAY OFF AND HE WAS STUPID TO SAY THAT AND SHE GETS UPSET BECAUSE THAT MEANT SOMETHING TO HER, AND THEN HE GOES ON THAT SPIEL ABOUT HOW PRETTY SHE IS AND HE WAS JUST EMBARRASSED ABOUT HAVING LET THAT SLIP AND THAT'S WHY HE TRIED TO TAKE IT AWAY AND GAHHHHHH. I CAN'T DO IT JUSTICE. BUT. PERFECT.
AND THE ENDING!!!!!!!!! GOD I WAS TERRIFIED THAT THE BOOK WOULD END WITH JOSH LEAVING HER AT HER HOME SO SHE COULD HEAL HERSELF OR SAVE HERSELF AND WE WOULD END THERE NEVER KNOWING IF THEY SAW EACH OTHER AGAIN. BUT NO!!!!! SHE DOES HEAL HERSELF AND SAVE HERSELF BUT THEN SHE GETS TO COME BACK AND AHHHHHHHHHH. SEEING JOSH IS HER HOMECOMING. GOD HOW THEY'RE EACH OTHER'S SAFE PLACES, THEIR HOME. WHEN SHE STARTS REFERRING TO GOING BACK TO JOSH'S HOUSE AS "GOING HOME." UGH. AND WHEN EVERYONE'S TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO CALL HER, EXCEPT JOSH, BECAUSE HE'S ALWAYS KNOWN. GODDDD. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DEAL WITH THIS.
I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW I CAN'T BE COHERENT I'M STILL A MESS IT'S BEEN SEVERAL DAYS BUT LIKE I JUST CAN'T GET OVER THIS BOOK. Like, usually it's the case that if I've been reading a bunch of good books, I'll be in the mood to read more, and if I've been reading mediocre to bad books, I'll start losing motivation to be reading as much, but then there are the times when I read a book that impacts me so hard, that I love so much, that I just know that whatever I read next cannot even begin to hope to compare, and I don't want to read anything else because it just wouldn't be fair to that next book. And that's where I am right now. I WANT TO REREAD THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW WHICH IS RIDIC BECAUSE. I JUST READ IT. BUT GOD, I WANT TO LIVE IN THIS BOOK FOREVER. Part of me regretted staying up until 2 AM to finish it just because that meant on Wednesday that the book was done, I wasn't reading it anymore, and I still wanted to be in the middle of that story, but it was probably for the best that I did just because I can only imagine how much more difficult it would've been to get through the day knowing there was more of this book to get through. I would not have been able to focus on anything else.
Work has been utterly exhausting and irritating, but I will give you a break from me complaining about it until my next post because I'm tired and have already babbled on enough here! Also my Nook spontaneously broke (like there's a strip on the right side of a screen that's just like… a blur? I can't even describe it, I'll turn it on and it'll be dark and then fade and be completely blurred and you can't read anything under it) and it's definitely not convenient since all I want to do at the moment is read. I was tempted to just buy a new one for myself but I guess I'm asking for a new one for Christmas. I suppose I can last a month without it and just read stuff on my computer. But ughhhh annoyed. And now for some reason both my parents keep trying to convince me that I want an iPad instead of a Nook, and I'm like "What? No! I just want an ereader! I won't use an iPad!!!" and they're like "Are you sure???" If I didn't know my parents I would think they had already gotten me one for Christmas as a surprise, but that's not what this is, they're just really big Apple fans. Which I am, too! But I don't need an iPad so it seems silly to pay more for something that suits my purposes less.