Now Playing: National Treasure

The year I turned eleven was an eventful year — toward the end. The beginning was a regular ole year.

I was in sixth grade, and I had Mrs. Campbell, who was the best. Seriously. She was incredible. That year in school was one of my favorites. Mrs. Campbell did a Star Student of the Week program and after a few weeks she would take all the star students from those weeks out to lunch during school!! It was incredibly exciting. I got to go quite a few times with my friends, because my friends and I were essentially the "goody-two-shoe" types. We usually went to McDonald's or Subway, and we made it back in time to play a little bit before lunch recess ended. Those days were so much fun because they were out of the norm. Can you imagine going out to lunch during elementary school? Honestly, those were some of my favorites days in my childhood memories.

Sixth grade was also great because I had a lot of close friends.  We were a big group, never really pairing off.  The majority of us were all in Girl Scouts together as well, so we became very close and spent a lot of time together. The group consisted mainly of Katherine, Kaitlyn, Ivy, Jennifer, Shannon, Noriko, Adrianna, Megan, and me. Katherine, Adrianna, Megan, and I stayed close friends throughout middle and high school, while the others went to different schools so we lost touch. But in sixth grade we were all together, all the time.

I remember the very last recess of sixth grade, in June 2004, which we realized would be our last recess ever because middle schoolers don't have recess — they're much too mature for that. Katherine, Ivy, Kaitlyn, and I took off our shoes ("Is this allowed? Will we get in trouble?" I asked them repeatedly, and even though we all concluded that it was probably against the rules, we did it anyway) and ran around the grassy field barefoot. We laid out on the grass and rolled our bodies down the little hill, laughing and shrieking and making a big ruckus — but we were the big kids on campus so we could do what we wanted! I remember feeling so free and full of joy, like it was our last day on earth and we spent it exactly the way we should have. I have so many fun memories of sixth grade.

In the spring of 2004 Ella Enchanted came out, which I was uberly excited about because I had read the book in fourth grade during reading-circle — all of which I remember clearly because one day I was sent to Time-Out with Mr. Reynolds during recess because I forgot to do the reading for the day (an utterly humiliating moment for me that I was quite upset about). Despite my embarrassment I loved the book, and was delighted to see that Anne Hathaway from The Princess Diaries (another film I adored) would play Ella.

The other big movie for me that year was Shrek 2, because I saw it in a drive-in movie theater! Dad and Jeanmarie took all us kids to the drive-in and we watched it from inside the Suburban, which offered very little visibility but was awesome. That was the first and only time I have been to a drive-in movie theater. I wish there were more around, because they seem to be part of the "good old days" that I never experienced. . . because I wasn't alive in the 50s. It's too bad, really. I would've liked to have lived then.

An actual picture of Shrek 2 at a drive-in!
Thank you, Internet.

In November, Dad took us to see the new movie National Treasure. I thought it was real great until about 4 minutes in when Dad started talking. "No way that could happen." "Oh sure, the ship is right there, where they expected it to be." "He can't just go into the Library of Congress like that." "Oh of course! The board that he's hanging onto pops off, just to complicate things. They didn't even have nails like that back then." "Nicolas Cage has such a muffled voice. You can't understand him."

And so it went through the entire film. By the end I was just sick of both my dad's comments and the movie. Where is the fun in dissecting a movie while you're in the theater and watching it for the first time? Something about talking in movie theaters really bothers me. To this day. JUST ENJOY YOURSELF FOR TWO HOURS, WILL YA?

Riley from National Treasure.
I just love him.

Turns out I have a good 'bounce-back' thing going on because I now thoroughly enjoy both National Treasure films. In fact I own both of them. National Treasure actually got me interested in history. And I've always had a thing for historical fiction. I think it's fun and fascinating. Pretty much, historical fiction is my favorite.

Late November is when the craziness went down. Stay tuned.

And so it goes.

Love, Me