Orange Is the New Black: The Memoir

A while back I mentioned that I may or may not have wasted an entire day watching the Orange is the New Black Netflix series. Well, I ended up buying the book that inspired the show. Piper Kerman's Memoir reflects on her year in a women's prison. After watching the show I was obviously intrigued. I've always been terrified of prison, yet completely interested in the dynamics, crime, and the law. Kerman was convicted of a 10-year-old drug charge and sentenced to just over a year in federal prison.

The book can get monotonous at times just because there are so many characters and elements to her story. I loved the way that she spoke about her experiences because she made them relatable while talking about something most of us have never had to experience. Its hard not to admire Piper's ability to cope with her situation and take the good out of the bad. Although she did have time to get ready for her stay in federal prison, I don't think anyone can truly prepare to put on the orange jumpsuit and live in a concrete cube for any extended period of time. I suppose learning to deal was Piper's strong point.

I've always imagined fights and violence among inmates, but Piper's experience shows that bonds among strangers can be made in the most unlikely of places. She created incredible bonds with some of the women she lived with. Between sharing books, to stories, and living space, they formed friendships to cope with their situations.

I was already aware about people becoming "institutionalized" before reading this book. Its when inmates are incarcerated for so long that they get comfortable with their routine and don't know how to deal with it once they are set free. Piper gave me a more personal view on this scenario. One of her fellow inmates had been incarcerated so long that she had no idea what a computer even was. You have to sympathize with someone doing 30 years for a drug charge that they did when they were in their 20s and now are hit with a harsh dose of reality. They have done their time and come out behind the 8 ball, with nothing to help them get on their feet. And because of that, a lot of these people go out and commit a crime just to get back into prison. You ask why they would do that? Sometimes prison is the only way to ensure a bed to sleep and food to eat. Very sad, if you ask me.

All in all, Orange Is the New Black was a solid read. I love the law, crime, and everything that goes with it. Once I finished this one, I went and got Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (author of Gone Girl) and its turning into quite the tale. You all will hear my views on it once I'm finished!

Zona

Its been awhile since I've posted in the blogging world, but I've been busy with traveling, Christmas shopping, and preparing everything that needed to get done before my month of traveling. I'm so happy to finally be home in Chicago for an entire week, despite the cold. It was 77 degrees in Raleigh yesterday… *sigh* I thought I would recap our trip to Phoenix, Arizona for you. 

The reason for the trip was for my brother, Blake's graduation from the Golf Academy of America. If you need advice on golf merchandise or want a lesson, contact Blake! 

Proud of him!

One thing that I recommend people do if they are in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area around Christmas time,  go to GLENDALE GLITTERS. They may not have snow in Arizona, but they have their own winter wonderland in the desert. Check it out!

 They had food venders, carolers, screenings of ELF, a Christmas dance recital, activities for kids, etc. This event was amazing and we were blown away. I've need seen a city do anything like what Glendale, AZ did. 

On Sunday, we did one of my favorite things in the world. BRUNCH. I love breakfast food, bloody marys, and the sun hitting my face. Not to mention the Chicago Bears were on! We had a blast in Old Town Scottsdale. I wish that I could have gotten the chance to shop at Scottsdale's Fashion Square though. Maybe next time.

El Hefe.

We went to Hi-Fi which happened to support the Iowa Hawkeyes… We also dabbled in their bottomless bloody marys and mimosas. It was great! I had the best day with family and friends.

"CUTTY'S BACK!"… What are the odds that hundreds of miles away, we would see Frank? Mike looked at me and asked, "Is that Frank?" I looked, did a double take, and confirmed that it was him. lol.

 Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row was pretty cool. Taps at every table.

On Monday the guys went golfing. Blake said that this course isn't even very nice. Pretty good view to me. 

For our last night we went to Marriott's Top of the Rock. I'm so glad that we did because the view and food was amazing. 

Full Moon!

That wraps up our trip. I love Arizona and would love to go back. I could see living there one day too. Very cool place. 

W.W.

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE ENTIRE SERIES OF BREAKING BAD.

Whenever you get through an entire television series, its always bittersweet. And in this case, I feel like I came down off of a Bad high… a Breaking Bad high. I think I mentioned before that this show has captivated so many people, like myself. And why are so many people interested in watching someone cook methamphetamine? Beats me. But, the action and drama surrounding the drug industry is nothing to dismiss.

I found myself quite often in Skylar's shoes. What if I was a mother and a wife? What would I do if I found out my husband had two cell phones? The head games that would come from that... Whoa. And then to find out the truth, that your husband, the father of your children is a meth cook. Yikes! First thought, why? Money. Second thought, why this? Because Walter White is damn good at chemistry, my friends. Third thought, what about the children? This is where I become uneasy. The entire situation was irresponsible and he put his children under a lot of risk and danger. 

Did I mention that Walt White is damn good at chemistry? Ya. The devil on the other side of my shoulder was rooting for him. I think we all want to be great at something in this life and with his cancer, he wanted to feel alive. Wouldn't we all? What if we all lived everyday like it's our last? Not a care in the world, just you and whatever makes you happy. However, I don't think I would have the heart to forget about my family, if doing something without them made me the most happy.

Something that the show does not even come close to touching on into detail is the effects that the drug has on users and their families. These mass quantities of the drug, any drug, are even worse than what Walter White's family went through, IMO. I recently watched a documentary (on Netflix, of course) that addressed methamphetamine, its users, its effects, the cost, etc. One hit of meth can make someone high for up to 12 hours!! That can't be serious. And its very cheap to make, so you can imagine the amount of users it touches. There is also another perspective in the "functional users" group. These people use the drug when working low-income jobs to stay awake. Pretty wild if you ask me.

Season 4's finale blew my mind. I couldn't even comprehend that Walt blew Gus up. WOW! Mr. White  was really a smart guy and that is what made this show awesome. Great movies and action packed shows are great because of the little ingenious things that they leave out until later. I mean, he literally melted part of his face off. Never thought I'd see that on TV. I thought that Mr. White kept pushing and pushing Gus to make him eliminate him for cooking. If it were me, Gus had a great thing going with Walt and Jesse, why would you want to ruin that?

Once Hank put the pieces together that W.W. meant Walter White, he flipped a paranoid switch. I was shocked that Skylar stayed by Walt's side. She hated what he had done. "For better or for worse", I suppose. I couldn't believe Jesse gave a fully detailed account of what Walt and him had done the past year. He didn't even ask for immunity. I mean. c'mon... Hank was housing you at his own residence. Dumb. The scene where Hank and Gomez "arrest" Mr. White had me yelling at the TV. Hank read him his rights, but never told him what he was being arrested for.

As the last eight episodes unraveled, the tension kept building. I think a turning point for me was when Hank was killed. Action packed scene. To me, I felt like there wasn't a threat anymore. The last episodes were for tying up loose ends, smaller players that deserved revenge. I wasn't on the edge of my seat as much, but still wanted to know what would happen to the infamous Heisnenberg aka Walt White. 

The showdown between Jesse and Mr. White was intense. I knew that he could never pull the trigger on Jesse... However, I was surprised Jesse didn't pull it on him. Deep down, the two had a unique bond. And in the end, Mr. White was Heisenberg and did what he liked doing best... Hashing out the chemistry with a final cook.

"Its all in the Chemistry. Thanks to everyone for making Bad so good."

Amazing show. I would recommend it to anyone out there looking for an action and drama filled BAD time. 

Craigslist Joe

I will tell you what, Netflix is such a great tool. Recently, I came upon a few gems because of it. Craigslist Joe, in one word, is inspiring. This documentary illustrates how Joe Gardner relied solely on Craigslist for a month.

As most may know, the site offers free advertising space to buy, sell, giveaway, etc., just about anything you can think of. I actually got my first job out of college off of a job posting on Craigslist. Each ad is broken up into category and location.

Joe uses the site to find meals, shelter, entertainment, transportation, exercise, and friendship. 

The things we see in the media these days makes me wonder, but Joe's documentary made me feel like there is still good, even great... among the evil. He restored my views on humanity as a whole. Not that my views were entirely bad to begin with, of course.

It was amazing how people were opening up their homes to a complete stranger. I think it helped that he had a camera man with him, but still. I couldn't believe all of the stuff that people post on Craigslist either. Joe was able to road trip across the United States and BACK by finding people who just wanted companionship on a long drive. He was able to seek out free meal postings or "work for food" ads. He even tried a free breakdancing class in Chicago. Got a free haircut. Helped out at a homeless kitchen. Etc., etc.

 For all you PR majors out there, if you are having some type of fundraiser (I know because we did a lot of these at UNI), throw an ad up on Craigslist because it will be seen by someone. Who knows what could happen. It obviously won't be your main strategy, but it could draw in a few people that wouldn't have heard of it otherwise. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising, as we all know.

One man that he encountered was of Iraqi descent. He recalled growing up in poverty and experiencing starvation, but stood proud of his family's perseverance in accomplishing their American Dream. This family opened their arms up to Joe when he needed a place to stay for the night. I was left with an interesting thought after this leg of Joe's journey. This Iraqi man and his family receive negative comments because of 9/11. "Go back to where you came from." The thing is, they weren't part of it and if they were to go back to Iraq, they would be told the same thing. Why? Because they are Americans. Most importantly, they are people. We are all humans and need to help each other out every once in a while.

Always remember that the little things, the little acts of kindness go a long way. Craigslist Joe was a great example of how even in a time of economic hardship, kindness and helping out go a long way. Worth an hour or so of your time.

Carolina Blue

This weekend was my first experience at a University of North Carolina Tarheels football game. Believe me, I walked into this knowing that they are awful. However, some very special little girls were in town and I was invited to go with them! I've wanted to tailgate for a while now, but have yet to follow through for one reason or another.

BTW. For it being homecoming, I was very disappointed in the half-time performance. No formations, no great tunes, nothing. They announced that one of their songs was from the "Snakes on a Plane" soundtrack... Are you serious? Out of all the themes and songs to choose from, you landed upon this one?

She is such a character!

Handstands on campus!

^ Some of the Minooka Wrestling Family.

Great extended weekend. If you couldn't tell by my lack of a post yesterday, I definitely "Sunday-Funday'd."

The New Girl

I've come to another one of those moments in my life where I ask, "Why am I JUST starting to watch The New Girl?" Have you heard of it? Watched it before? Tune in each week, faithfully? I've seen commercials for the show before and kept thinking that I need to start watching, but I'm the type that always needs to start things from the beginning. Luckily, some awesome individual came up with the whole Netflix idea and I was able to start from the pilot. 

Corky, hilarious, and beautiful describes the main character, Jess perfectly. Zooey Deschanel plays Jess and she is fabulous at it. You can't help but love her corkiness, while being completely gorgeous in her brown curled locks. Jess was cheated on by her less than impressive boyfriend of six years, leaving her homeless and alone. Thankfully for modern technology, she found a place to crash… with three male roommates. They are a little skeptical, but welcome her with open arms. The series captures their experiences living together, while dealing with normal issues and conflicts that normal 20-somethings encounter. Some of these situations are too funny. You know you have landed on something good when you actually lol laugh out loud during an episode. The way the four characters bounce pure wit off of each other is hysterical.

Such a cute and hilarious series. The New Girl is in its third season on FOX, every Tuesday at 9/8c.

Gone Girl

Many people have raved to me about this book.  I finally got to read it this week. It was nice flight reading material. It took a little time to get into the story, but once it starts going…it does not stop. Holy page turner. This book truly blew my mind.

Mr. Nick Dunne is married to Ms. Amy Elliot Dunne. Amy is perfect, as described in her parents' children's book series, Amazing Amy. Nick and Amy are both writers too. They lived in New York City, but some hardships have sent them back to the good ole midwest. While living in Missouri, Amy goes missing... 

And who do the police believe was involved? The husband, of course.

When did Amy go missing? On their fifth anniversary. Nice timing, right? The media plays a large role in the investigation and sways the public in so many directions. Amy prepared her traditional "treasure hunt" for Nick's anniversary present. Each clue is an inside joke between the two of them, leading Nick to the next location where he will eventually find his present. These clues help unravel his wife's whereabouts and what might have happened to her.

I'm not going to elaborate or give anything away because thats what makes this book so good. However, I will say that its amazing how certain people's minds work. Intelligence can be used for good and evil. The story is separated into three sections and at each one, a switch is flipped and everything that you thought before is now thrown out the door. 

I will say that I was a little disappointed in the ending. I expected justice. And I will leave it at that. 

Enjoy!

To everyone that recommended this book to me, Thank you! Great read. 

Waiting to Be Heard

Although I have not been following Amanda Knox's story or trial from the beginning, I remember hearing about her on the news and her traumatic life events. I went into reading this book with an open mind. I also took into account that this was written by her, so there is going to be some sort of bias. As I continued to read, I realized that this was her experience and aside from it all, the facts are the facts.

If there is one thing I missed out on, it was studying abroad. Out of everything I did in college, that it one thing I regret. Amanda, however, was able to do that with the blessing of her family. All in all, she was a normal girl. Most of how she portrayed her life as a college student, I could relate to. I think any American could.

In November 2007, Amanda's room mate in Perugia, Italy was murdered. The way Amanda depicts her account seems reasonable. Whats amazing to me is how naive she was to confess (even under pressure and physical harm, even sleep deprevation) and point the finger at someone else. Maybe since I'm more aware of the law and how it works, I find this mind boggling. You never, by any means, confess to something you did not do. Because even if the truth comes out, you are not a credible witness. At that point, I would have asked for an attorney just so I wouldn't have to speak anymore. The police of Perugia pressured her and pressured her to make her "cooperate" with them and tell them what she knew... and then it got real and they started putting words in her mouth. All the while, she is a naive, foreigner wanting to help the police catch the person that murdered her room mate and friend.

I'm not sure where the red flags were finally seen, but in my opinion, plain common sense was not used on her part. The police put her in jail "for her safety." Give me a break. No witness is put in jail, unless they are a suspect. Amanda was put in jail and then she was charged. Red flag. Red flag. Red flag. Where is my attorney?

In this case, the police were out to get her. I tried to be optimistic, but there is no way an impartial juror or judge could convict someone based on a coerced confession (homeless, alcoholic man) and fabricated (not obtained by international protocol) evidence.

I thought this memoir was a great read. It gave me a real insight into the injustice justice system in Italy. It seems their media is taken as fact even more than in America. Except their media is apparently, used in the court room too. Very sad, truly. Justice is not making anyone pay for a crime, its about making the correct people pay for their crime. All after given the opportunity to prove that they are not guilty, in front of a jury of their unbiased peers. Seems fair. Unless  the media digs up skeletons in your closet, twists them into lies, and lays them out for the whole world to see. Not to mention, the jury that decides your fate. Oh and did I mention, the investigators and forensic scientists would forget about any international regulations and rules for obtaining evidence in your case, to make sure that it wasn't contaminated? Not very fair to me.

We all know that she is exonerated in the end, but I had to take a step back and remember that this isn't just a story... This was a real American girl, just like me. I can't imagine my family sticking by me through the emotional and financial burden. I would love to hear the other side of things too.

So, if you are looking to find out more about her story, pick up Waiting to Be Heard: Amanda Knox.

13 Nights of Halloween

ABC Family hosts 13 Nights of Halloween each year. They compile a line-up for 13 nights of movies leading up to all hallow's eve. I try to tune in each night to get in the spirit, but sometimes I have other flicks in mind. So, I decided to create my own list... These are movies that I love to watch during this Fall season, drinking some apple cider, carving jack-o-lanterns, and putting together my costume. Some are for everyone and some aren't for kids. These are movies that I watched growing up and still watch to this day during all hallow's eve.

I usually try to pick a couple of these up each year if I see them in the $5.00 bin or on sale, to have my own marathon of spooky films. If you don't own them, I urge you to rent them from Apple or some other online service because I guarantee that video stores will have empty shelves. 

Saturday, October 19th

BEETLEJUICE

Is it bad that whenever I see someone wearing black and white thick stripes, all I can think about is Beetlejuice? Learn about the life of the recently deceased and their struggle with the living. 

Whatever you do, do not say his name 3 times!

Sunday, October 20th

SCREAM TRILOGY

This journey with Sydney Prescott is one of my favorite trilogies (now with a 4th) of all time. As the series moves forward, the story of her mother continues to unravel to the truth. Unfortunately, with a ton of casualties. I think one of my favorite parts is the trilogy within the trilogy. Sydney deals with her story being told through the horror flick, Stab...which turns into its own trilogy. Who doesn't love a little blood and guts during Halloween?

Monday, October 21st

HALLOWEENTOWN

The Disney Channel has always put out awesome original movies. I loved this one growing up. The Disney Movie Club actually has a dual dvd with Halloweentown and Halloweentown II. Great purchase. 

Tuesday, October 22nd

THE RING

7 days... Who wasn't scared by this movie? I think Samara is easily one of the creepiest things I have ever seen. Nightmares for weeks, when it first came out. 

Wednesday, October 23rd

DOUBLE DOUBLE TOIL & TROUBLE

When I went to my grandparents' house, this is the movie I would rent. I think all girls love Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Very cute and spooky movie for kids. 

Thursday, October 24th

THE CRAFT

Talk about scary. These four witches find their powers, but some use them for evil. This movie still terrifies me at times. 

Friday, October 25th

CASPER

The friendly ghost... Casper gives ghosts a good name with his caring and lovable personality.

Saturday, October 26th

THIRTEEN GHOSTS

First time I ever watched Thirteen Ghosts was after going to a haunted house, with a bunch of friends in 8th grade. The hole concept of 13 ghosts is intriguing. It reminds me of the 7 deadly sins, in a way. Prepare to be introduced to the life of a ghost hunter.

Sunday, October 27th

FRANKENWEENIE

Tim Burton always delivers... Mike got Frankenweenie for me and I'm so glad he did. I never saw it in theaters, but its so cute. Its all in black and white, with odd looking characters. Imagine bringing back to life your very own frankenstein... in dog form.

Monday, October 28th

SLEEPY HOLLOW

I've ways been drawn to this movie. Johnny Depp plays a great role.  Christina Ricci seems to love playing in scary movies.

Tuesday, October 29th

THE PUPPET MASTER

My dad introduced me to The Puppet Master at a young age. Watching it now, I wonder what he was thinking because these "puppets" are ruthless. Super scary little things. This flick is not to be confused with a children's movie. Very disturbing material.

Wednesday, October 30th

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

This is the first Tim Burton movie I ever saw and it is a classic, in my book. It has just the right amount of scary, creative, and cute. 

Thursday, October 31st

HOCUS POCUS

One of the all time greats, Hocus Pocus. I was obsessed with this movie growing up. I didn't have it on DVD, so I would make sure that I knew all the dates it would be on during the month of October. Very cute movie about the Salem Sanderson Sisters and one boy's brave (yet naive) light of a the black flame candle. "Its all just a little Hocus Pocus!"

These are my 13 Nights of Halloween. However, if you are looking to add some more for a marathon, check out The Skeleton Key, Saw (series), The Addams Family (Values), Ernest: Scared Stupid, and Tales from the Crypt. All great choices. Enjoy your spook-talcular nights!