The Absolute Ultimate! My Top 10 Old Movies

1. Gidget - 1959

This post was inspired by watching Gidget last weekend. It reminded me how great old movies are because they are funny on so many levels. They are funny on the level where they're actually trying to be funny, and then they are funny because they are so old.

Gidget (1959!) is a perfect example of that. Gidget is all about a "tomboy" who wants to learn to surf with the guys. She is the one who says, "It'd be the absolute ultimate!!!" You should probably watch it just for the 1950s swim suits, but if that's not your thing, watch it for the snorkel Gidget wears, as pictured below. There are multiple scenes where she almost drowns in seaweed, all of which are brilliantly executed. And who could forget the song Moondoggy sings to Gidget. That's right. Moondoggy. It's all great.

Gidget and her snorkel

 
2. The Court Jester - 1956

This is one of our family movies - it's one that we all adore and have been watching since we were little. Everyone needs a little Danny Kaye in their life. Plus a young Angela Lansbury! And this movie is legitimately funny and extremely clever, it's not just funny because it's old. I love every second of it.

3. Meet Me in St. Louis - 1944

Judy Garland at her very best. This movie is sing-along-worthy, complete with an adorable love story and great characters. The family in this movie is almost as fantastic and hilarious as my family.

"Wasn't I lucky to be born in my favorite city?"

The Trolley Song

4. Clue - 1985

One of my favorite Halloween movies! It's 1,000 times better than the board game. My friends and I used to watch this all the time in junior high together and we each had a character we were. This movie is ridiculous. If you like movies that make sense, do not watch this.

Wadsworth: But, he was your second husband. Your first husband also disappeared.
Mrs. White: But that was his job. He was an illusionist.
Wadsworth: But he never reappeared!
Mrs. White: He wasn't a very good illusionist.

 Wadsworth: You see? Like the Mounties, we always get our man.
Mr. Green: Mrs. Peacock was a man?

 Wadsworth: I suggest we take the cook's body into the study.
Colonel Mustard: Why?
Wadsworth: I'm the butler, I like to keep the kitchen tidy.

5. What's Up, Doc? - 1972

Speaking of ridiculous movies. I love every second of this one. San Fransisco is the perfect setting for this film. Everyone is falling the whole time, so to have it end with them all sliding down every hill in the city is perfect. Awkward slapstick at its finest.

"It's me, Howard Banister. Your fiance."

6. The Sound of Music - 1965

I don't know what to say about this movie, because it's not like you don't know about it. But I had it put it on here if only for my mom. My mom always would tell us that if she could be another person she would choose the Julie Andrews version of Maria Von Trapp. Check! She basically is her.

My mom always cries at the part where the kids are missing Maria and singing "My Favorite Things," and then Maria comes running down the hill singing. Even if she just walks in for that part and hasn't been watching the movie, she cries. Love you, Mama!

7. The Great Race - 1965

When I finally watched this movie, I realized that half of the things my mom's family says are actually quotes from it. This movie is definitely quotable and I love Natalie Wood.

Below is my favorite scene...two quacioodles under a blanket...but the pie fight scene is imfamous.

8. The Endless Summer - 1966

In search of the perfect wave! The first surfing movie EVER. The Endless Summer documents three hilarious surfers traveling all over the world. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have probably laughed harder in this movie than in any other. The commentary is top-notch. You have to love the part where they get chased by a zebra.

9. The Beatles Help!- 1965

We all knew I couldn't get through this post without talking about the Beatles. Yes, they also act. And they are hilarious.

10. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken - 1966

Wow, another Halloween movie! Don Knotts is pretty great, and this is for sure my favorite of his movies. And honestly, this movie really did used to scare me. Now I just love all of Don Knotts' faces and awkwardness. And I love that they live in Rachel, Kansas and that his girlfriend's name is Alma. The best, of course, is the scene where he is giving his speech at the town picnic.

"Let me clarify this..."

"Atta boy Luther!"

Old movies are the greatest. What are your favorites?

Jumping off cliffs and getting lost in the mountains. You know, the usual.

During the week I like to write lesson plans for The Odyssey, analyze South African literature for evidence of social Darwinist theory, and answer the phone with a cheery "USU Writing Center, this is Hilary." Throw in a free-pie night at Village Inn, maybe some water aerobics with Alexa, African Dance, and the occasional mental breakdown, and that is pretty much my weekday life. I don't sleep a lot.

So when the weekend comes, I just want to on an adventure! I am not the kind of person who is rejuvenated by naps or do-nothing days. Lazy days, though they happen of course, actually really drain me and make me super cranky. So here are my latest weekend adventures!

Two weekends ago...

Alicia and I went canoeing. It was a little comical seeing as the water at first dam is like 8 inches deep. But I greatly enjoyed it.

 Then the excitement really began with the arrival of my dear Mallory and Kaitlin! Life is so much better with them around! That night we celebrated Ryan's birthday at Jessica and Bill's house. Ryan is a goldfish. He is 3 years old! What an impressive little guy.

Ryan's birthday two years ago...I looked better this year.

Anyway, we love you Ryan! Thanks for giving us a reason to celebrate every September! You have the best fish mother in all the world.

Finishing the night with fhazookies and a crammed-into-one-room sleepover was just fate.

In the morning, Mal, Kaitlin, Lauren and I headed to the farmers' market. Give me every single sample of every single thing! Love it.

We had lunch at one of my very favorite places...Logan's Heroes...watched Crazy, Stupid, Love....fed the ducks at first dam....and had dinner at Fredrico's. What a stellar Saturday! I love you people!

feeding ducks at first dam

Fredrico's...dont' worry about it

After church on Sunday, Lauren, Haley, Aubree and I went on an epic adventure to Bloomington Lake to go cliff jumping! What a beautiful drive through the canyon and through Bear Lake!  I live in the prettiest place!

enjoying the drive!

  When we finally got to Bloomington, after an hour of chasing sheep down a dirt road, we were pretty excited!

 

  We had to hike in our swim suits, barefoot, to get to where we were jumping. We were dropping things along the way like refugees. Our clothes, towels, cameras, were basically scattered all over the mountains.

 
I was still really excited when we got to the top, until Lauren jumped in. When her head finally surfaced out of the water she couldn't talk. Haley and I were yelling to her, "Are you okay? Lauren? Talk to us!" and she couldn't. That scared the crap out of me. So then Haley and I stood up there for probably half an hour, shaking in the wind.

But once I finally jumped I was ready to do it again! Even though those two jumps were the two coldest moments of my life.

Let's talk about other cold water I've been in.

The Pacific Ocean in February.

                             Bear Lake in May.

                                             Lake Tahoe. Doesn't matter what time of the year.


Those are bath tubs compared to this. Lauren and I decided we would rather swim back to our clothes instead of hike....I have never moved more slowly in the water. It was seriously like my blood was frozen. Luckily we lived to tell this tale!

trying to recover afterwards

On the way home...we killed a duck. Aubree really tried not to, but the duck just stood there. And when we turned around it was a pile of feathers. This has taken me some time to get over. RIP Waddles.

Now for this weekend's adventure...

After being cute roommates and actually cooking together...

Kim, Neil, Cody and I went on a hike on Crimson Trail. It was sooo beautiful!

We were having a great time, all was well, until the very last part of the hike.

The boys took the "path less traveled" and Kim and I decided to stay on the path. Is it fair that the people who stay on the path should be the ones to get lost? No, but that is what happened. You guys know that I get lost probably 10x more than the average human, but this was seriously lost.

We swam across a river, walked probably 2 miles around the campground, and ended up walking on the road like we were going to hitchhike or just walk home. The good news is that I got a pet caterpillar along the way who kept us company during the journey.

We decided we needed to go back to the campground instead of walking home, because we figured the boys were probably wandering around looking for us and it was about to get dark. We were sitting in the dirt in the campground and Kim said we should say a prayer. I am glad I have roommates who think of these things, because honestly, I probably wouldn't have. Right after that, Kim said, "Let's just go knock on that trailer door and ask where the start of Crimson Trail is." The lady who answered the door turned out to be the person in charge of the campground. We asked told her what we were looking for and she said, "I just gave that car a ticket," and seemed annoyed at us at first. But once she figured out we were lost and had been wandering in the wilderness for forty years, she was so nice. She drove us to Neil's car and offered us dinner. There was a note on the car asking us to stay put, so she told us to just come back to the trailer if we got too cold. What a nice person!

We sat at the car for another half an hour, and I was yelling the boys' names continuously. Finally we saw them running down the mountain! We were saved. They were glad that we weren't lying unconscious somewhere, but very confused about how we could get THAT lost. That is a confusion I face daily. I basically get lost in my own apartment. Luckily we were all able to laugh about it on the way home.

This week is Homecoming Week which makes me happy! The chalk dance was a pretty good party for a Monday night!

In other news, we got our family pictures back and I think my family is pretty adorable.

The fam

Parents of mine

Aggie shout-out

 Basically I am just loving life! There are always more adventures ahead!

September Shenanigans

September is off to a killer start. The first day of the month was spent on a rainy day walk with two of my favorite people, Lauren and McKenna.

We walked all the way to The Bluebird to have banana splits in the ice cream parlor, and had many adventures along the way. I have no time for people who aren't hilarious. Lauren and McKenna definitely pass.

Sunday, I walked to the temple with some folks in my ward, and that seemed to take up the whole day. I love the Logan temple and get kind of sentimental over the fact that my parents got married there. Good times.

Labor day was lake day!! I accidentally slept until 11:30 and woke up from a text from my dear Lauren: "Bear Lake at noon! You in?" I never say no to lakes. So I rolled out of bed and into my swim suit and we were off. It was a great day of swimming, lying on the beach, raspberry shakes, swing sets, trampoline dream, and sunshine. It made me forget that it's not summer anymore, which is always a plus.

During the week I finally started clinicals at Logan High! I love being back in the classroom working with students. I have been paired with two really amazing teachers which I am really grateful for. This is a good time for me to decide what kind of teacher I want to be. We are supposed to walk around and talk to the kids when they are doing group work and stuff like that, and I've noticed that most of the student teachers go to the "good" kids they know won't give them a hard time. I had to decide then and there that I was actually going to be the teacher I had imagined myself to be. So that's been my goal this week - to talk to the kids who look isolated, the ones who are still learning English, the ones who would obviously be anywhere but school. It is more work, but this is going to be just that - my JOB. So here I go!

Another highlight of the week was karaoke night at Pizza Pie! All six of the roomies, plus my little sis, were in attendance. It's always a good time! This is us dancing on chairs. I love Logan!

Friday, Abigail and I had to drive down to L-town for our family pictures. I was so upset about missing the football game, but there was all this drama finding a day when we could all be there and making sure we took them before mom's birthday so I was stuck. But it wasn't all bad! We actually had a lot of fun having a pictures taken in this cute little field. Rachel and I kept doing things we thought were hilarious until our photographer split us up and said we couldn't stand by each other anymore. After we finally had a few normal pictures, we picked up some pizza and camped out in the living room to watch the game. I was so proud of my Aggies!

I drove back to Logan late that night and laughed at the miles and miles miles of Utes stuck in traffic. I slept for a few hours, then it was time for Peach Days!

Usually I only go to Peach Days in the dark, so the parade thing was new for me. It was pretty small town and adorable. We looked at all the booths, ate good food, and had some good quality "your team" moments.

But the fun was not over! My roommates, some boys, and I went to a food fight party in Wellsville. Yep, that happened. The greatest part, I thought, was going down the slip and slides before the actually food fight started. It was so tall, it was like Splash Mountain for poor people. It was so much fun, especially when we went 8 people at the same time. Love love love it.

I was so anxious right before the food fight started, because they put all the food on a tarp in the middle and made everyone stand on either side of it ready to run at it. It was like the Hunger Games. After they yelled FOOD FIGHT and everyone ran to the middle, I only lasted like 1 minute. As soon as someone poured mustard on my head I started gagging and could not stop. You guys know how I have a gagging problem. I just had to step to the side so as not to throw up. Everyone else did a great job.

Fun fact: I came out without my shoes. I honestly do not know what happened to them.

We were basically crying on the way home because my car smelled so bad but we were too cold to open the windows. Pretty much we all got in the shower together when we got home.

We finished off the night with a fire at second dam. I'm gonna miss these summer nights outside! I don't have a picture of that because it was dark.

Today as been interesting. I am now teaching relief society and I really like it! After church Aimee, Kim and I watched My Sister's Keeper and cried and cried. Like, sobbed. I have been a mess because of it all day. Aimee's grandparents were kind enough to feed us dinner, but I was still all puffy-eyed and head-achey the whole time we were there.

Tonight we all dyed pieces of our hair purple or pink, which I have been wanting to do for a couple of years! Pictures to come.

I seriously am having a great life.

It's the College Life for Me!

So... I had the best summer of my life. Probably of anyone's life. Let's recap.

I...went cliff jumping in Hawaii, flew over the ocean in a tiny airplane, swam with sea turtles, saw a fautasi race, watched fireworks over the ocean from under a palm tree, spent a lot of time snorkeling, jumped into an ocean trench, rowed a canoe at the Polynesian Cultural Center, read books to the most beautiful children in the world in their safe house, slid down waterfalls, hiked in a rainforest to Robert Louis Stevenson's grave, threw coconuts into an ocean blowhole, taught a year 13 English class at Pesega and worked with kids I will never forget, watched fire knife dancing, kissed someone in a cave pool...and under a waterfall...and in the ocean, took a ferry to another island, got interviewed in the airport and ended up on a Samoan tv show, saw an eel, watched the sunrise at the beach in Jacksonville, climbed a lighthouse, ate delicious Cuban food, saw a leopard sting ray from the fishing pier, listened to musicians on the boardwalk, spent a ridiculous amount of time watching the Olympics, hiked all over Bryce Canyon, slept under the stars, hung out with my favorite cousins, made henna, spent the weekend in Narnia (Kaitlin's cabin), celebrated my 21st birthday at the lake, played the ukulele, read good books, explored Springville, went rock climbing, had some sleepovers, petted a llama, camel, and tortoise, cried in the airport when Rachel came home from Taiwan, bought Justin Bieber tickets, did basically everything there is to do in Salt Lake City, and truly forgave someone. And I know there is a lot more that I will think of later!

I was excited to move back to Logan, but after my whirwind summer, the first couple of days were a little hard. Being back in school made me feel like everything that happened to me this summer was just a dream. In Samoa, I was constantly thinking about others and how I could help them, and when you're in school you have to think about yourself. And I honestly hate it! So I was feeling a little displaced the first few days of schools. I just want to live on an island and never wear shoes.

But...I love college. I always have and there's no reason to wish I were somewhere else. I have settled in and am remembering how much I love Utah State. So here's how the first week has been.

My apartment: I moved back into the same complex, but on the other side of it, and it feels like a totally different place. We always knew the "six" side was better, and it is. I love the first week of school when it's warm and everyone's doors are open and in and out of each other's apartments. My bedroom has a door that leads outside, which is new. But I really like it. I even sleep with the door open, so occasionally people pop in and wake me up. It's good times. Our apartment has brand new carpet, new couches, and a new fridge that's better than everyone else. We also have two bathrooms which is a huge win I wasn't even expecting. I live with Alexa, Alicia, Kim, Aimee and Colette and I love them all. Every apartment I lived in has had a different vibe, and I'm liking the one we have. I am the farthest along in school of the roommates, and probably the busiest, but it's nice because there's always someone around to play with when I'm not busy.

My classes: I am starting practicum/ clinicals this semester which has been overwhelming. Especially because we meet at 7:30 am. I may die. I've been assigned the 9th graders at Logan High, which I think will be a good fit. It's definitely going to be a lot of work, and I know I'm going to miss my Samoan students every time the kids whine at me, but it's fine. I'm also taking a Teaching Literature class, a stupid teaching with technology class online, and a South African Lit class which I'm actually really excited about. And...Abbie and I are taking African Dance!!!!!! I have taken many random p.e. classes in my day and I think this is gonna be my favorite! I love the live drums. They feed my soul.

My job: I am supervising in the writing center this semester and it's going to be great. This week I mostly shredded paper, but it's going to get better. I am already thinking of ways I can be the "fun" supervisor, so tutors, get ready for a lot of pizza during night shifts.

The other stuff: I love Utah State because there is something fun going on every night. Monday night was fhe and the concert by the tsc fountains. Fhe was more fun than expected, since it was just game night, but I forgot how much fun Apples to apples can be when 30 people are playing at once and at least a few of them have dirty minds. Alexa, Alicia and I went to the concert and sat with our feet in the fountain and had a life chat. They are great.

Tuesday night was African Dance and outdoor movie night on old main. I love outdoor movies even if I hate the movie. If that makes sense.

Wednesday I helped out Alternative Breaks at Day on the Quad. I loved seeing some people from the trip last year and running into a lot of other friends who were walking around the booths. It was Africa hot out there but we had a good time. I tried to give blood immediately afterward which didn't go so well. My blood clotted so they couldn't even use the blood that did come out. That has never happened to me before and they told me it was because I was dehydrated. I was bummed because I really did want to save some lives! Next time. That night Abbie and I met up with the fam for the Brigham City temple open house. It was beautiful and I loved seeing my sisters.

Thursday was game day! It feels good to be singing the Scotsman again.

Friday night was 80s night! So..about three minutes after I met my roommate Alexa she said, "I love ugly clothes. So if you think my clothes are ugly, it's okay, you can tell me, because that's why I like them." We didn't even have to go to DI to get 80s outfits because we all raided Alexa's closet. She also did out hair. She is the best!

I love being an Aggie.