Carrying the Banner

About a week ago, the Newsies broadway show was in town.  I have been waiting for this for years, because well, I was OBSESSED with the movie when I was a kid.  I'm not exaggerating when I say I watched it several times a week (maybe daily) over summer break for at least a few years.  I could probably still quote most of it by heart even though I have no idea when I last watched the movie. So, you can imagine my expectations were high for the show.  And while I was watching it, I just felt very conflicted.  Apologies in advance for my crazed ramblings here.  I obviously care a little too much about this particular topic.

As a standalone show (not comparing it to the movie), I think it was pretty fantastic.  The performers were super talented, and the dancing was insane.

When I compare it to the movie, I just felt disappointed.  As with any book-to-movie type transition, they made changes.  Some of them I liked, some I didn't like but understood, and some were just unnecessary.

For example, in the movie, Jack falls in love with David's sister.  She's basically in 3 scenes.As a boy-crazy elementary kid, I didn't understand why he liked her because she barely said or did anything, but that's beside the point.  The reporter in the movie is a middle-aged guy who helps the newsies.  In the musical, they combined these parts.  So Jack's 17.  The girl is working as a reporter, so I assume she's older than that?  And the whole dynamic is different.  And then she's randomly Joe Pulitzer's daughter?  I understand why they made this change, because they wanted the love story to be more central to the plot, but I hated it.  The actress was great, and I actually loved her songs and chemistry with Jack, but I didn't like the way it changed the plot dynamic. And I hate hate hated how it made Pulitzer less of an enemy by the end.  No, Jack would never have gone to work for the paper directly.

But can anyone explain to me why they changed SO MANY of the song lyrics?  And Medda's songs were completely different!  Where's High Times, Hard Times when you need it?  Santa Fe was the first song (and then showed up several more times), which started things off on a slow note.  And the "full" version of it was a lot different than the movie version (which is fabulous, even if Christian Bale is embarrassed about this role).  Besides, if musical Jack is an artist, shouldn't he love living in New York?  Musical Jack wasn't even in the diner for King of New York!  And don't even get me started on the missing Spot Conlon quote "I object... on the ground of Brooklyn!"

And I never really thought about it, but the Newsies rally all the other child laborers in the city, and then Jack makes the deal with Pulitzer, but what happens to all the other kids?  Do they get better treatment??

Anyway, I have a lot of feelings about this particular topic, but I should probably stop ranting now.  This isn't a Broadway review blog!


Scarf: Gap
Cardigan: Gap
Belt: NY&Co
Dress: Loft Maternity
Boots: Madden

Neglected Basic Black Sweater

I didn't realize this sweater was neglected until I wore it, and then I noticed I hadn't worn it in forever.  It's just a basic black v-neck sweater, so you'd think it would be a staple item, but apparently not.  I wore it in February, but prior to that, it had been over a year!  Granted, some of those months were summer, but still.  That's kind of crazy.  Anyway, I wanted to wear this skirt, and it was freezing out, so I layered on the leggings/sweater/scarf/boots combo to make it work.  Of course, this was like 2 weeks ago, and then this past week was basically summer (seriously, I had to turn the AC on in my car), so I'm at that awkward part of the year where being behind on blogging outfits actually matters.

So here's a Saturday post, to catch up a bit.  If you need me, I'll probably be outside enjoying the weather, or inside doing some kind of baby preparations.

Sweater & Scarf: Gap
Skirt & Leggings: Old Navy
Boots: Madden

Things Kids Say

How about a funny story for Thursday.  Yesterday, one of my co-workers had his kids at the office.  His son is 5, and was hilarious when he learned that there's a baby in my tummy.  He kind of moved around to the side and was checking my belly out.  And then he slowly said "I like... your... tummy."  And I said "thanks, I like it too!" and then I just laughed about it for the rest of the day.  I don't know how you elementary school teachers get anything done with kids saying silly stuff all the time!     

And here's a fun little outtake.  John was taking these pictures, and after a few, I realized that I still had my winter scarf on, which wasn't part of the outfit!  But he just kept snapping away as I noticed my mistake!  And then he told me that I had a weird strand of hair sticking out the side of my head.

Cardigan: Gap(similar)
Scarf: Gap
Top: JCF  (exact)
Jeans: H&M Mama (exact)
Boots; Madden (exact)

Victorious

After working from home on Thursday and Friday, due to the foot of snow we got, I was ready for the weekend!  I did a little shopping on Saturday, and then met up in the afternoon with a friend/co-worker who is in town for the weekend.  John and I met up with his parents for dinner, and then they came over to play Settlers of Catan.  That makes the third Saturday in a row that we have played this game.  I am either a brilliant strategist, or just extremely lucky, because we played 2 games and I won both of them.  Let's go ahead and assume I'm brilliant.

Scarf & Sweater: Gap
Jeans: Old Navy
Boots: BareTraps via DSW

Grammar Police

We've established that I'm sort of a nerd sometimes, and there are certain grammatical errors that just drive me crazy.  I will refrain from turning this into a blog where I only rant about grammar, but sometimes I just have to say something.  Please bear with me while I preach for a minute (or just skip to the end where I tell you where I bought my clothes).

"I's" is never correct.    

I've seen this all over the place, so if you are a recent offender, do not take it personally.  For example, if I was talking about the house that my husband and I own, it would NOT be correct to say "John and I's house."  Ever.  Like EVER!  (See, I can channel Taylor Swift when I'm grammar ranting).  

I think this is a problem because little kids tend to say "Me" all the time when they should say I.  Like "Me and Susie are going to play outside!" and our parents all drilled into us "Susie and I!"  This does not mean that every time you say "someone and" it should be "I".  

I remember my dad teaching me to take the "Susie and" part out of the sentence, and then I would know the appropriate option to use.  "Me is going to play outside" or "I am going to play outside"?  It's pretty obvious there.  

I pretty frequently hear people say things like "Do you want to have dinner with Susie and I?" and I cringe every time.  Again, would you say "Do you want to have dinner with I?"  Of course not.  

Compound possessives get even more confusing for people, especially when "I" is one of the subjects.  If the 2 subjects each have their own item, they each get their own apostrophe (John's and Andi's birthdays).  If the 2 subjects are sharing one item, they can share the apostrophe (John and Andi's house).  I like this example - think of the apostrophe as a hair dryer.  

Once you change one of the subjects into a personal pronoun, the other subject needs to have the apostrophe, or the sentence can get confusing.  If I say "John and my house is painted brown" it kind of sounds like John is painted brown and my house is painted brown.  I have to say "John's and my house" and then everything is right in the world.  

I think this is one reason coupled up people just say "we" and "our" all the time.  It might be annoying, but can we all agree it is less annoying than "I's"?  

Now please don't point out all of my grammatical errors.  I've probably got quotations on the wrong side of punctuation all over this post.

Since this was pretty random, I'm linking up with Shanna!

Scarf, Black Sweater, Jeans: Gap    

Cardigan: Urban Outfitters

Boots: Wanted via Piperlime