The Daily Balance

To appease all of your curious minds, I wanted to take a moment to elaborate on why Dear John was simply terrible. I guess this was a hot topic! I received many emails asking to elaborate on the comment on made in my post, so here I am!

*SPOILER ALERT*

My complaint is not that the movie was sappy, cheesy or corny. I mean, that’s kind of Nicholas Spark’s M.O., no? It’s what I expected - what I was hoping for!

I’m all about crying my eyes out in the name of love! But I’m not OK with feeling like I need Prozac to recover. This wasn’t a love story. It was a misery story that dragged on far too long, not to a dramatic, passionate or lovely conclusion… but a lukewarm moment.

The film started out really well, and I’m not going to blame the actors. I think they were brilliant together and I adored watching them fall head over heels for each other. Now, I didn’t read the book, so I’m not sure if this was in it, but the movie went downhill for me as soon as Savannah broke up with John.

He was away for, what, a year? You mean to tell me true love can’t conquer a YEAR? And yes, yes I know that she thought she was doing the right thing by marrying the dude who was dying. I get that. But you can be there for someone WITHOUT MARRYING THEM. How am I supposed to beleive that John was the “love of her life” when he was so easy to walk away from? And I don’t care that she got all whiny and showed her true emotions at the end. I don’t care what the conditions were. This was a love story. This story, above any other, should have showed us that love conquers all — that is the point these sappy films! That is why we go see them! Why would I want to go watch two people fall in love, just to watch one of them break the other’s heart. I understand that can happen in real life, but not in a sappy MOVIE.

And the fact that he just completely accepted that is bull. The fact that he still loved her and forgave her makes me want to vomit. She totally turned her back on him when he needed her most (he almost died!). And all she did was stomp her feet, shed a few tears and all was forgiven. Where are those “John’s” of the world? Let’s find them and tell them they need to grow a pair.

And the ending! Don’t even get me started on the ending! Are they together? Are they not? I mean yes, they shared a “look” and the movie ended with a friendly hug.  But what does that mean? And yes, you read that right. A self-proclaimed LOVE STORY ended with a HUG. Can it get anymore tepid? Sure, I cried at the sad parts…sure I felt for John, who’s girlfriend had the loyalty of a hermit crab (for the slow ones: they are always switching their shells), but it wasn’t enough. By the way, the fact that this movie made me annoyed with Amanda Seyfried is another crime in of itself!

My main point: how can you love a movie without love? This movie tries to show that love cannot conquer all. What the movie failed to recognize is that love CAN conquer all and it DOES conquer all. But it has to exist in the first place and you have to have the right people to make it work.

Note: this film wasn’t “real” in it’s depressing nature. It wasn’t artistically dark like Closer (great movie!), so I don’t want anyone saying that the movie tried to take a “real” approach, cuz that’s bull. This movie was marketed as  GREAT LOVE STORY. It didn’t deliver. Bottom line.

The ONE redeeming quality was the relationship between John and his father — but I still don’t think that was enough to go see it. But I’ll keep it a surprise in case you want to.

Note: my friend Jenn also gave this film a thumbs-down…just to give you another perspective

If you do want to see an adorable movie, go see Valentine’s Day! It is a feel-good, cute movie – even the Mister liked it!

Did you see Dear John? Did you hate it? Love it? DISCUSS!

In lieu of Valentine’s Day (and because I received many emails asking me), I’m going to share the story of how the Mister and I met. It’s in the ‘About Me‘ section, but I decided to make it easy for you lazy butts out there, and just paste it here.

OUR love story

I’ve always been involved in singing (actually received a scholarship from my college and originally went there as a voice major — I dropped it the first day!) and acting, so it’s no surprise that I was involved in my high school’s show choir. It was February 2001, my sophomore year, at my high school’s show choir festival — an event that invites most area-schools to participate and perform their competition routines.

As a tradition, the school that hosted the festival also held a dance afterwards for all of the participating schools. I always HATED these dances. Let’s just say that the ’show-choir crowd’ wasn’t my typical group of friends. I had my own clique at school (go ahead, judge), separate from show choir. It wasn’t that I didn’t like any of them (some were some of my great friends!), I just hung out with a different crowd at school and on the weekends.

Needless to say, I wasn’t pleased that I was forced to stay at this particular dance. I remember standing against the brick wall counting down the minutes and checking my pager (remember how cool we thought those were?!) every chance I got.

It wasn’t long before a mysterious boy approached. He confidently strutted up to me, looked me right in the eye and said with a smile, “I just wanted to let you know I’m going to marry you someday.” I can’t even remember if he told me his name. It’s Jason, by the way.

This is NOT the part that he takes my hand and takes me off into the sunset — PUUUHHLLLEAAAAZZE! I was 15! I awkwardly laughed, said “thanks” and found somewhere else to stand. But this boy was determined, and right before the dance ended he came up and asked me for my AIM screen name — remember, that was THE way to communicate back then! I hesitated, but then quickly scrawled my alter-ego on a crumpled piece of paper.

We became fast friends. I actually really liked him! I even went to a show he was performing in at his high-school (a neighboring suburb). I remember being SO nervous to talk to him after the show — I swear, I spent like 2 hours trying to decide what to wear! Anyway, he soon asked if I would be his ‘girlfriend.’

I turned him down ;(

Come on, people! The story isn’t THAT perfect, and I’m glad because I like our version better. I actually had also been talking to a guy who went to my school, and I decided to date him instead. I was a sophomore in high school– why would I date someone 20 minutes away when I could date someone who lived down the street?! Well, as you could have probably guessed, the relationship didn’t last. He was what you would call a ‘bad’ decision, verbally and physically abusive — but I finally got the nerve to end it (much later than I would have liked…but, I digress)

After that, I was finally FREE! The last thing I wanted was another boyfriend. So I dated lots of people and made some more stupid decisions. All I cared about was having fun. I had always wanted to be ‘in love,’ but I felt like it wasn’t in the cards for me. I couldn’t even decide about who I would go out with that Friday, let alone see myself in a serious relationship.

It was my winter break of my senior year — Jason tells me he’s in town on college break (he’s was a year ahead of me in school).

“Do I want to meet up?” he asks. “Sure,” I reply, why not?!

We decide to meet at the clock in the center of my favorite mall (so cliche, i know!).

I see him coming towards me -My mind starts RACING — were his eyes always this blue?!– HE IS GORGEOUS! -

“relax, Shannon, relax — BE COOL” I mutter to myself.

After about 15 minutes of trying to decide what to do (still a problem of ours!), we conclude that coffee would be a good idea. I’m sure I was trying to impress him — all college kids drink coffee, right? that’s a safe choice!! (note: Jason HATES coffee).

Anyway, we took our seats (and turtle treats!– a yummy caramel/chocolate coffee treat at Caribou) and lost track of time. We were there for hours. Talking for hours…about nothing…about everything… We finally made it back to my house. He met my parents and we decided to make cookies.

—TIME OUT— I know, I know…this really sounds perfect, doesn’t it? Well, it was. But let me just say that things like this NEVER happened to me. EVER. I mean, not even enough where I could fool myself into believing it. I won’t lie; guys have always thought I was pretty. I have never had any trouble with the amount of guys who were interested. I have some crazy stories of being courted, flirted with, etc. But no guy EVER made everything seem so effortless. So right. So “butterflies-in-your-stomach-holy-sh*t-look-at-those-blue-eyes!” perfect. No, that didn’t happen to me. I was the girl who could never find the guy who stopped worshipping me long enough to make me laugh. I was the girl who was lucky to be put a pedestal, but not lucky enough to make a ‘real’ connection with anyone. I know it sounds whiny– but it was very lonely. –TIME IN—

We finished our cookies and went downstairs to the basement to watch a movie. Now, here is a part where the story gets fuzzy. He insists we were watching “Dude, Where’s my Car?”, but I always think it was “Road Trip.” Obviously, I was focusing on things other than the movie. Those blue eyes? Kind of distracting… They’re piercing, I tell you!

I squirmed the first hour. Why isn’t he kissing me, why isn’t he kissing me? I thought. kiss me. kiss me. kiss me. kiss me. It became my little mantra, because of course if I thought it, it MUST come true! And then, FINALLY he leaned in (you know, the lean in I’m talking about) and kissed me.

Perfection. Done. Game over. I was in love. From then on, I knew he’d be my everything.

We were married 3 1/2 years later and have been married for 3 1/2 years (as of January 2010).

Anyone who knows us understands everything that is: Shannon and Jason, or “fish and beatle” (our nicknames). While we’re MADLY (is any other way really worth it?!) in love, we’ll be the first to admit that it can sometimes take some work. Let’s just say, we’re BOTH not the easiest people to argue with. But we’re working on it. The way we see it, we want to experience everything this crazy life has to offer alongside our best friend, confidant, lover and partner-in-crime. We count our blessings every day to have found each other at such a young age and look forward to spending our entire lives together.

CUE: awwwwwww!

Young love:

Here’s to your “Happily Ever After.”

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I cannot wait to share everything the Mister and I have been up to! But it will have to wait — right now I’m do busy being “in the moment” – you should be too!!

Love to you all.

What are you doing today to show loved ones how much they matter?