Random interim post before Episode #2 gets posted (When I have time)

 Been trying to delve more into the books, especially the ones that are covered in the series, as much as I can . I just spent time digging in the basement to see what I could get my hands on. Came up with a nice bunch of books, some of which I didn't even realize I had because they had been down there so long. (And when the hell did I get another copy of the baby-sitters club mystery game? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? WHY DONT I REMEMBER GETTING ANOTHER SET? It CAN'T be the same one I had from when I was a kid. That was 25 plus years ago... or something, and a lot of my original memorabilia got lost in upheaval of moves) We'll blame the brain surgery for epilepsy... or the epilepsy itself (that I got diagnosed in in the 7 year interlude.  Crap happens). 

However, I have been at least making use of audible. Elle Fanning has narrated a batch of the beginning of the series, and from what I can tell, a large selection (if not all) of the other books are available on there as well, just not narrated by her. I just got done with Claudia and the Phantom Phone caller. Considering the netflix episode has very little to do with the book itself, there won't be too much of a comparison (much more of a contrast), but I'm still trying to keep on top of things. Now I'm onto the Truth About Stacey (which is somewhat closer to the book, at least in terms of the Baby-Sitters agency.). I have a copy of Kristy's Big Day on the way along with another book (that I randomly found a copy of in the stuff downstairs not realizing I actually had it. Oh, well. I know where I can put it to good use). And I also have the graphic novel at least of Boy-Crazy Stacey that I got the other day at Target.  I can't help myself. I thoroughly enjoy reading the graphic novels and looking at the pictures. (I now know what a Bizzer sign looks like thanks to them... or at least in that form.). 

On a random note I found my autographed copy of Confessions of a Prairie Bitch from Alison Arngrim who played Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. That thoroughly delighted me as well . It doesn't take much.

Now just need the energy and mental stamina to post more often. I missed this thing. I really did... and I do plan on getting Claudia and the Phantom Phone calls, but that takes a lot more in depth thinking involved to actually write about instead of this random post out of nowhere. My poor, tired, overthinking brain (that also can't sleep well). Aim for within the next week. Possibly.  At least get started on writing. 

Episode 1: Kristy's Great Idea

I meant to post this way back, but got sidetracked by work and other things... and at the very beginning I found THIS when I just randomly reached into a box of old books and pulled one out without looking:

OBVIOUSLY I had to read that first before rewatching the episode and have some more notes to pull for comparison. Then life got in the way and I started writing a post...and never finished it, but here I am... RIGHT after rewatching the first episode for the fourth time (or so) .
The episode starts off with Mary Anne and Kristy walking out of SMS and Kristy rambling on about how hot it was and that her teacher was rambling on about the constitution and how it said "all men are created equal" and how great that was. Instead of Kristy shouting "Hooray!" when the bell rang because it was so hot, she stood up and said something along the lines of "If it was so great how come it doesn't say all PEOPLE are created equal?" That is what garners Mr. Redmont assigning her the "decorum" essay and according to Kristy, completing ignoring the boys in the back of the room who are stuffing tissue paper down their pants.  (sounds like she knew what decorum meant.)
Already a LOT more forward in that way than the books.
In the show, Claudia lives on the other side of Kristy's house (unlike the books where she's across the street). We get a sneak preview of Stacey as Claudia and Kristy wave to each other, and Kristy walks towards the house.
Ut-oh. David Michael had an accident (instead of almost having one). But being the good big sister Kristy is, she helps him inside and offers to make him a snack.
Kristy's mother (All hail Alicia Silverstone) comes home with boxes of pizza while Charlie and Sam are playing a video game and David Michael. Kristy immediately knows something is up and is worried her mother got fired. There is no mention of a regular sitter cancelling. Alicia...excuse me... Elizabeth... has clients that are in town for the weekend and are wanting to look at a house the next night and needs someone that can watch David Michael. (Cue Charlie having a date and needing the car) . Kristy has sleepover plans with Mary Anne (whose father is apparently letting them possibly order off of Post-mates) and offers to cancel them , but Elizabeth told her not to worry. 

Cue Elizabeth trying to find a sitter.

This show takes place in present day, so many sitters ...don't answer the phone. (Like me, unless I know the number... I don't answer. Most of the time it's on silent anyway.) Elizabeth is griping about noone answering, and annoyed at one person's hourly rate ("What are you going to do? Breast feed him?") , goes to an online website and is astounded by the rate. (I think it was something like $79.99. What the hell website is THAT?) And in the midst of all of this is when Kristy gets her "Great Idea." and proceeds to start to choke on pizza. Elizabeth starts to give her the heimlich maneuver and a look of wonderment crosses Kristy's face.

The next night is when she tells Mary Anne about her idea for the club at their sleepover. Not by flashlights (though I do believe that comes in a later episode. Kind of a little bizarre Kristy living in the middle of Claudia and Mary Anne's house (instead of Claudia living across the street) and Kristy's house LOOKING like one story ...at least from the front. At least their houses are different and not cookie cutter neighborhood same? (like a lot of the houses in the neighborhood I grew up in). 

Mary Anne has a look of astonishment and worry on her face. This takes place in present day and all the girls have cell phones and other electronics, but Richard still keeps a strict eye on Mary Anne's phone and contacts. (Honestly, I think  a lot of parents do regardless). But Kristy tells her not to worry, and on Monday she throws a note at Claudia in Mr Redmont's class (Claudia is sitting right in front of her.) 

Mr Redmont calls them out but Claudia feigns innocence. Mr REdmont is an ass. First he calls out Kristy's decorum essay which hasn't been turned in yet, and then he mentions how badly Claudia does on tests. What kind of teacher DOES that? That's private. That doesn't need to be announced in class. Claudia manages to hide the note (denying she got one and compares note to a text...because her phone is in her locker). She writes something on her shoe and shows it to Kristy confirming the meet up at her house later that day. 

Yay for getting seeing Mimi!! I love her. I can't help but love her. She greets Mary Anne and Kristy happily and lets them know that "they" were waiting for them upstairs. (Some phrasing might be off, I'm not about to go back and rewatch certain little details all over again). Kristy is confused by the word "They" and they both head upstairs. We get a glimpse of Janine in her room typing on her computer. Kristy and Mary Anne greet her, and Janine just looks over at them, stares, and closes the door without even getting up from her desk. They enter Claudia's room... and there we see Stacey. 

Like the book , Mary Anne is completely awestruck when she hears where Stacey is from . Stacey baby-sat a lot when parents needed a sitter ...even if they had nannies because there were always events .."Like the Tony's????" (Mary Anne). 

Claudia passes around watermelon gummies and twizzlers, both times Stacey (obviously) turns them down, as does Mary Anne (at least for one of them), sending questions across Kristy's face, but she doesn't voice them. 

They sit and organize when they will meet (Have to make room for Claudia's art classes... and let her finish her "menstruation" sculpture) . Claudia has her own landline thanks to Janine's high speed internet. Noone else needed a landline and she got it off of etsy. (yay for at least keeping that in there. It would have been so bizarre otherwise!).  Stacey throws out the times and days when they would meet because convenient and easy to remember, and also mentions she's pretty good at math ("Whoa" from Claudia). 

As Kristy and Mary Anne are leaving, Kristy mentions Stacey's diet, and says that that doesn't set a good example to their clients. Mary Anne pretty much tells her to chill out.  Stacey's "nice."

They're having chinese food for dinner when Elizabeth announces that Watson proposed to her, but she hasn't reached an answer because she wanted to talk about it with them. Kristy flat out tells her "No. I don't feel okay about it. End of discussion", leaving Sam and Charlie just starting at her . (Kristy mentions that she needed to still learn about decorum).  She leaves the table. 

Also before that happens, Watson asks her about the club and asking if it's to "learn" about baby-sitting . Kristy says no... it's a business, and boys can join, too. (VERY foward!) Watson "Seems" very different from the books. At least from the picture I had in my head. He's just very goofy. At least with the Thomases... trying to get on their good side. Asks tough questions but is very nice about it. 

They're walking down the street when Kristy is discussing officers. She' announces she'll be president and Claudia vice president because they're using her room . ("I'm bossy. Get used to it.). Then she starts contemplating organizing jobs and who gets what and keeping the schedule, etc etc etc. Mary Anne tries to say something, but Kristy keeps talking. Finally Mary Anne has it. "KRISTY! I want to be secretary!" Leaving Kristy absolutely dumbfounded Stacey just looks at Claudia "That's the most I've ever heard her say." (It's also the most Claudia has ever heard her say.) While they're putting together fliers and what not (especially after Janine tells them to advertise via fliers) . We do get a glimpse of someone who will show up in another episode as they're walking down the street. (It was nice to know that my suspicion was confirmed). We also see LOGAN! Already!! Reading books to kids in the library. Mary Anne has an immediate crush and accidentally leaves her fliers on the table, and has to go back and retrieve them.  As they're organzing announcement and what not, Stacey says she'll be treasurer. (She's already said she's good at math.)

The first meeting has them all sitting in Claudia's room staring at the phone. Kristy questions whether the phone even works (Etsy shop line) and then the phone rings causing all of them to jump/ squeel. Stacey apologizes saying she was just testing it out. Mary Anne is nervous and doesn't want to be home late because of her father. Kristy asks what is she supposed to do if a parent is running late?

Then the phone rings for real... and this time it is Watson. Kristy is super annoyed, and Claudia has to mute the phone so that Watson doesn't overhear them speaking. (Kristy completely forgot she had handed Watson a flier) Kristy refuses to sit, Claudia has an art class, and Stacey mentions that she'll be in New York the next day. (Obviously completely annoying Kristy.) Kristy refuses to even ask Mary Anne and Claudia finally jumps in, (Now I remember why I stopped hanging out with you) causing Kristy to shut up. Mary Anne takes the job and Claudia takes the phone back telling Watson . 

This episode doesn't cover everything like the first book. It IS only 30 minutes long (well, not even that.), so that's the only phone call we see at the next meeting. The next day Kristy takes Louie (YAY!!) out for a run ...conveniently over to Watson's neighborhood so she can spy on Mary Anne. We get a glimpse of Karen and Andrew as Karen is telling Mary Anne about the witch next door. Kristy is peering through the hedges at them when BAM. Morbidda Destiny (Excuse me: Mrs. Porter) confronts her.  Louie takes off running, Mary Anne sees Kristy and Kristy leaves feeling extremely guilty, also fearing Louie got hit by a car. As she's walking home she walks in front of a car that has to slam on their breaks. Who peeks out from the backseat? 

Stacey of course. She's not in New York.  Slight glimpse of her parents.

Later that night, Elizabeth and Kristy have a talk about what had happened that day. About Mary Anne seeing Kristy at Watson's ...what happened with Kristy seeing Stacey, and everything.  There is no big "fight." Just a mother and daughter heart to heart talk. I will say, hearing Alicia Silverstone as Elizabeth was a major WTF at first, but she blends in well, and obviously the actress playing Kristy felt comfortable around her. Personality wise, she and this Watson go well together.  Elizabeth tells Kristy that she has to also show Stacey some trust. Don't just assume the worst out of her. (Stacey was with her parents after all.) Kristy agrees, and there's some mention of Watson, and Kristy's still not thrilled about it, but she's seemingly more at ease. 

The last part of the episode has Kristy bringing pizza to the meeting, along with a salad for Stacey. Stacey looks grateful, and Kristy apologizes for how she behaved, and mentions she's willing to step down as president. The three others look at Kristy like she's crazy. As long as Kristy can admit she's only right about 95% of the time (and not 100%) she'll be okay. 

To end on a happy note, the episodes concludes with 2 new clients: Marshall and Papadakis (who live next door to Watson, not across the street like the books)... both of whom got told about them by Watson. Kristy looks annoyed at first, but then grateful. She texts her mom to have her tell Watson thanks... and Elizabeth tells her to tell him herself. Kristy finishes the episode by finishing that decorum essay she never turned in .

The end.

Overall: I'm pretty satisified with how they did this. I wish we could have seen more, but they can only fit in so much in the time slot, so we got what was essential to the story. We don't learn about Stacey's diabetes until later, but there are hints to it, and as anyone who has read the books , they see them bright and clear. Anyone who hasn't? Well, not immediately visible. Charlie and Sam are just in the background. We don't get to see much of them. We see a little bit more of David Michael at least. Karen and Andrew (well, especially Karen) will show up in later episodes. Unlike the beginning books, Watson apparently sees them every weekend instead of every other weekend. Their mom doesn't break a bone this time, because it did have to get shortened.  Yay for the glimpses of Mrs. Porter/Morbidda Destiny, Janine, Louie and Mimi. The humans will have larger parts. The episodes follow the books fairly closely in timeline order. At least the first few. (the latter half are a bit more mixed up but it works regardless). 

Random note: The credits are in the Baby-sitters handwriting. I will have to rewatch further episodes but the beginning ones I think are in THAT girl's handwriting from the books, and the closing credits start off with Kristy's and then move to Stacey's. 

Hopefully it won't take another 2 1/2 months to get to Claudia and the Phantom phone calls. 

BSC Netflix Summary

I seriously tried to post about this earlier, but I was having so many issues with the post and it having all kinds of html gibberish, that I finally just deleted it and figured I'd write another one. (Noone had seen it at least?)
Possibly spoilers ahead if you haven't watched it yet.
So, Friday morning I immediately started watching the show in its entirety on netflix (not that I hadn't downloaded netflix onto my phone that night at work and watched the first episode already or something...)
Like many people that I correspond with, I was anticipating this with sheer glee, and it seemed to fulfill all of our wishes . i Plan on going into detailed summaries when I get a chance on each of the episodes (Plan to are the key words) but for now, a breakdown of what I loved about it, and what I wish could have happened.
It follows the books pretty damn closesly. Now, a lot did have to be left out and changed to keep up with the 30 minute time frame (actually more around 27 minutes), but for the most part , it does keep close to the books.
A couple of main differences were some of the time frames. They go to Sea City over spring break, Mimi has her stroke during the school year, Kristy's mom's wedding wasn't rushed, but it did feel about the same time of the year (exactly when wasn't given... that I remember.) The camp they go to is NOT Camp Mohawk, but camp moosehead. They're not CITs , they're just campers. (Which, trust me, from working at camp for five summers, I was wondering how the hell they had 13 year olds as CITs and some counselors as young as 14.) But, yay for Kristy doing archery!! (My one "Thing" athletically wise I was actually good at. Taught it my last summer which was in Pennsylvania.) I wish they had shown camp songs, that was my other "thing," but ... alas.
Logan was introduced smack off in the first episode. (Mary Anne freaking out in the trailer when she sees him.) No... from what I can tell there is no Cam Geary reference.
No Jenny Prezzioso . At least not yet. That sitting charge in the 4th episode does get sick with a 104 degree temp and has to get taken to the hospital, but she is a transgender child named Bailey. (Oh, the horror I'm sure some people are saying.)
Dawn is Hispanic, but she is vegan and you can see her protest side come out in the camp episodes.
There are gay characters, fairly subtle. The Johanssen's... one is an art teacher, and that threw me off, but there is a female Dr. Johanssen who is an endocrinologist. Dawn's father himself is gay (which she said her parents always kind of knew but swept it under the rug... which unfortunately I know can be fairly common... or try to straight.) They're friends now, though.
From what I can tell during my rewatch, Mrs Porter (Morbidda Destiny) is Dawn's Great Aunt. And yes, she's entirely a "witch." In the modern day sense. I'll have to rewatch it to see what exactly she said and put it down.
There is a landline and everything, but everything else is updated. They have a notebook that is on the computer, smart phones, etc. They still have the meetings in Claudia's room and answer that lovely phone, and sure enough, have Kid Kits that are introduced in The Truth About Stacey.
Some of my Favorite things:
Louie! The Doggie! My heart!! Happiness!!!
Janine is spot on in my opinion from the books. Her door closes on command. 
I honestly thought "wtf" when I heard Alicia Silverstone was going to be Elizabeth. I can't get her portrayal as Cher in Clueless out of my head . However, she owned it. She grew on me. As did the other parents. I seem to remember less of Stacey's though, but her mother seemed at least supportive and her dad was "there."
Mimi ... she's perfect. That's all. Her story of being in an internment camp during WWII is just heart wrenching.  THat was shown during Claudia and Mean Janine.
I wish we could have seen a bit more of Jessi and Mallory, but I did like their portrayal. I know at least the Jessi from the TV show could dance (hell, she's been on stage in last I saw), but we barely saw anything. Movie Jessi just had her "dancing" down the sidewalk and the brain song. Sure, I don't remember seeing much of this Jessi's dancing, but it was sure enough ballet. I did like the characters portrayal with what they had. (But where were Mallory's glasses?)
Those are some likes (trust me for the most part I did like it).
Now for things I wished could have been different:
I wish we could have gotten to know some of the sitting charges a bit better. Charlotte and Stacey's relationship, more of Jamie, more of the Pikes, etc. Now at least we did get to see a lot of David Michael and Karen... but need more Andrew! Papadakis was mentioned, but not seen. Marshall's mentioned...not seen. (Parents shown in a meeting... not the kids.).
A lot did have to get left out. Phantom Phone caller only really mentioned. The sitters themselves didn't get them, they were on paranoia about getting a phone call. Speaking of which ... Alan Gray? WHERE WAS HE? (We did get Trevor Sandbourne!!!)
I think maybe if the episodes had been an hour long, a lot more could have been squeezed in .
From what I saw, there is a strong chance for a second season, and I hope so. A lot of articles are posting positive reviews... at least from what I've seen. I've also seen a couple of youtube reviews before the show was released (i hate that they were able to see it). One is an avid fan and read them growing up, and another a guy in his 20s who never read the books. BOTH gave it high marks.
So when I get a chance, I plan on doing an analysis/review of the episodes... one by one.
In the meantime: Here are those reviews

Well, HELLO (to your friends)

It has been YEARS since I have posted on this site, but with the release tomorrow of the netflix show, I know I can't be the only one from the Baby-sitters club fandom that can't be EXTREMELY excited to see it.
As such, I've been thinking I need to start posting again. At least temporarily. How much I'll be able to is unclear because my work schedule... thankfully I'm still working even with all the crap going on. St Louis city and county (where I live in and work) is mandating masks be worn starting tomorrow at 7am. It shall be... interesting.
However, I get off of at work at 6am, and will OBVIOUSLY be zooming home so I can watch the netflix show.
 When I heard the news about the show about a year ago, I wasn't sure what to think  It's been so long since there was anything recorded. We had the tv show back in early 90s, and the movie that came out in 1995 (my first movie I EVER saw by myself. Major times). The series technically ended with Graduation Day in 2000 (which I randomly bought at a bookstore at the age of 16, having NO idea it was the last one). However, since then, there have been graphic novels, the prequel (which I was interviewed by the Washington Post TEN years ago, and posted about it on here.), rereleases with new covers and some updates, and Elle Fanning is reading some of the books on audible... among other things.

I've been keeping up with Ann M. Martin on facebook and actually am following the Mary Anne of the show on there as well, and she's posting a lot of articles and such about the show, which I am avidly reading and posting on my page as well.

So, as a preview...
Here's the full length trailer that came out on June 22nd. (Camp is back... but Moosehead?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vivBx21jYC0
Brief glimpse of Jessi and Mallory along with Alica Silverstone as Kristy's mom, and I believe those might be the Barrett's

and the recent video posted by Mary Anne:
https://youtu.be/vivBx21jYC0

In it, you see more other characters. Charlotte, Kishi's, Mr. Spier, brief glimpses of Kristy's brothers. I'm still looking on IMDb for who plays all those characters and what they were in before, but there's still a lot of missing characters on the page. Charlotte and the Barrett's are on there, though. Mr. Spier (from what I've seen is a fairly well known person)... is not. Yay for archery! It was my "thing" that I could do fairly well while working at camp.

Yay for Sea City, Trevor Sandbourne, camp, and that stylish phone, among other things.

Hanging up my hat (officially), for now.

Five years ago (this month actually), after reading all the blogs that I had come across on the internet about the BSC, I wanted to start my own. So I did.

I posted fairly regularly the first 2-3 years, at least averaging a couple of posts a month. However, between moving, school, and just flat running out of ideas to post about, my blog suffered. Even after I was interviewed for the Washington Post (which was AWESOME! Highlight of my blogging "career"),  I wasn't able to keep up with the blogging.

So, I've decided, that at least for now, I'm officially hanging up my blogging hat on this blog. That does NOT mean that I won't come back to this every now and then. I might even get around to actually finishing the 30 days of BSC.

But wait!

I am not disappearing off the Blogosphere for good. After watching endless videos of Nostalgia Critic and Nostalgia Chick over the past few days has made me want to start blogging again. However, not just about the BSC. I want to expand my horizons.

So, I have started a new blog. We'll see if I actually keep it up. I figure if I just start posting enough, I might actually gain some followers. If not, I'll just post for my own entertainment.

So please, if you're interested, join me at: notanothernostalgiablog.blogspot.com . Right now, just an introduction is up, but I do plan on starting to post. Soon. Maybe tonight.

So for now, farewell. Thank you to my readers that have popped up over the past 5 years. I hope to see you, soon!

Having a very BSC Super Special Like Summer... Claudia style

I've said it several times, and I'll say it again. I suck at updating.
Anyway, long story short, at the end of April, there was a Hailpocalypse that hit St. Louis and the surrounding areas, including where I live 25 minutes east of the city. I lived in a basement apartment, and the hail broke open the door to the basement area, and flooded the entire space with a foot of hail. Except for the two apartments that were down there, ironically, those doors held. However, the apartments did get flooded with at least six inches of water. (Thus subermging my laptop which by some miracle it survived).
So I had to get out, and moved in with my father and stepmother temporarily.

So, I didn't have enough money for a new apartment, and I was looking for a job anyway, so I started filling out job applications. And I landed one.

I'm now working at a Girl Scout Camp in northern Minnesota smack dab in the middle of the Chippewa National Forest.

What's my position?

The arts and crafts "specialist". Pays more a week than a regualar counselor, however, when there's no scheduled craft time, and there's not a lot of preparation that needs to be done, i find myself tagging along with one of the groups to make myself appear like I'm doing something. We do get 2 hours off each day, and a day off every 2 weeks, and a night off at some point.

It's really pretty here. We have a lot of turnover, so we're constantly getting new girls, and there's a specialized program that they sign up for. THis week there's S'mores,which consisted of making s'mores...or something. THey were the youngest ones, and they left yesterday. There are program and camp aides which are older girls (middle schoolish) that help around camp with different areas (crafts, swimming, food, etc), or interact more one on one with the girls. There are the night owls, which is our largest group (11 of them). They're allowed to stay up until 2am and sleep in until about 10am or so. There's a lot of nighttime activities that take place for them at night. They're upper elementary school ages. The last group we have this week consists of a whopping 2 campers. Trail Mix. Last night they went on a campout, that consisted of a 3 hour hike, camping, and eating over a fire along with other such things that I don't know about because I wasn't there. They're coming back this morning. They're late elementary as well.

The rest of the groups leave tomorrow, and we have another session starting tomorrow evening (we do get a few hours off in between sessions after clean up is done, and that usually takes about an hour or two). There's going to be about 52 people this weekend (Not quite as bad as two weeks ago when there was nearly 100). I'm stll not sure what exactly is taking place, or whether I"m going to have to move again. Starting on Sunday and going through Tuesday, we're going to have a whopping 9 girls total, and then we have the fourth of July off.

So far I've had one night, one day (last Wednesday during the week where we had 11 girls), and last weekend off. Last Wednesday consisted of driving over to Bimidji and going to goodwill, and various other stores including Wal-Mart.
Last Saturday night we went to Paul Bunyan days and to the Paul Bunyan dance in Akeley. Apparently they're kind of obsessed with Paul Bunyan up here.

We sleep in bunk beds. Currently I'm in a room with one other person, and in the program center there are two bunk beds per room (PC has 40 beds, Loon Ridge has 16, and Porkies has 32. THere are also places to pitch tents).

It's definitely different being here. I was never one for summer camp really. The closest I ever got was fifth grade camp, and by the end of the week I was dying to go home. I hated girl scout camp, which was "Here we are in platform tents (Or A Frames), with our troop and cooking outside". It wasn't ANYTHING like this... although that is an option for some troops.

Tonight is the last night of the Night Owl's big art project. We're making Papier Mache Owls. Totally something Claudia would do. I really wasn't sure how they're going to turn out, but the balloons that have popped, the papier mache form has held... so we did something right. Tonight they're going to be painted and there are owl faces that we have that can be attached.


Anyway, that's the big news from Camp Shingobee Timbers. I get paid tomorrow, wahoo! I"m hoping on one of the days or weekends off we go to Grand Rapids, MN, the birthplace of Judy Garland......

Day 11: Favorite Sitting Charge

Okay, took a few days off...or forgot to post...whatever. At least it wasn't three months.

As an OT shoutout kind of thing: If any of you are fans of the TV Show "The Voice" a guy I've known for over 20 years (off and on) was on tonight. He didn't get picked, but man the judges seemed to be kicking their own asses pretty good about it, so that made up for it (a little bit.). Unfortunately, I didn't get home from my night class in time to see the entire thing. I drove home as quickly as i could, ran into the living room, turned on the tv, and there he was.

Dammit.

Apparently people thought he was kind of douchey. Whatever...he's mega confident. You shoulda seen him in middle school. I think most of us thought he was nuts. He'd go around singing all the freaking time.

But, hell, we all have our quirks. I remember one time during our freshman year of high school, during solo ensemble contest, we were hanging out together with another friend just passing time, ...and I think dancing? Or something.

So, that makes the second person I know who made it on a reality show, but didn't quite make it. (Another friend of mine that I know from doing a couple of shows with down in Texas was on America's Next Top Model, Cycle 14. She got eliminated at the very end before the actual competition began. Aimee Beyers.)

So, here's a shoutout, using a picture of us from the third grade music program 19 years ago. Cameron Novack, aka Novackaine.

In case anyone can't figure it out. He's in the black sweatshirt, and yellow guide hat thing behind me.

Anywho,back to the 30 day challenge.

Favorite Sitting Charge: Charlotte Johanssen

Why? Not entirely 100% sure. I loved her relationship with Stacey, and it made me wish even more that I had a little sister. I did have a Stacey/Char type bond with a girl that was a few years younger than me when I was in elementary school. Except that she wasn't really that shy, and wasn't in an extreme need of friends, and I wasn't all cool and sophisticated like Stacey...but whatever. That was kind of a rough age for me, and looking back on it now, I really appreciated her friendship. It's kinda nice when someone looks up to you and thinks you're kind of awesome when your peers and/or yourself don't.

Anyway, I went on to middle school, and she moved (I think to Seattle I heard) halfway through that next year. A couple of years ago when I was randomly looking up old names on the internet of people I had known once in a blue yonder, I stumbled upon a wedding page for her and her then fiance. There's like no one else...a in the country ...or anywhere... with her name. (well, with maiden name.)

She's not on facebook, (at least not publically) though I'm not sure if I would ever contact her if she ever got on. 1. Because it was so long ago, I'm not sure that she'd even remember me, and

2. My 11 year old self somehow never picked up on the fact that she was a Jehovah's Witness and that was why she never celebrated her birthday or other holidays. What little i do know of them, I know that many don't really converse with people that aren't JW..... However, I'd like her to know that as silly as our friendship might seem now, it really did mean a lot to me.

And now I've rambled COMPLETELY OT.

But those are just a couple of reasons that Charlotte is my favorite kid. Sweet, shy, made me wish I had a little sister (though I did pick up lots of surrogates.), and hello childhood flashback.