It's all in interpretation...

I have a confession.  They say the first step to overcoming addiction is to admit you have a problem, right?  Well, I have a problem.  Are you ready???  Are you sure??? Ok, I am slightly obsessed with ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars. Whew!  It feels good to have that out in the open!  And I when I say slightly, I mean it's like a teenage girls obsession to Twilight (although, I must admit, I did rather enjoy those movies and books).  This is definitely more of an addiction, fed every week by another episode, more questions left unanswered, and my facebook newsfeed with links to articles only to get my blood pumping again.

I'm so frustrated by something though, and it's bothering me.  Many people in the world today don't realize that when it comes to a TV series, or a movie for that matter, you only see what the producers/writers/directors/etc want you to see and in lieu of that, you believe what they want you to believe.  It's for that reason that they can continue to do their jobs and do it successfully.

Here's my biggest example.  In PLL, you have 4 high school girls trying to cope with the death of their bff while this outside force tortures them, gets them in trouble with the law, frames them, and exposes all of their (and their family and other relationship's) secrets; this force is known as "-A."  You come to find out that "-A" is in fact a friend of one of the girls, but was an enemy of the dead friend.  Then you learn that the boyfriend of one of the girls teams up with "A" and is plotting against the girls.  At one point, the executive producer of PLL, Marlene King, said this boyfriend, Toby, is "the most honest person in Rosewood."  So when he is revealed as a part of the "A-team," adorned in his black hoodie and gloves, every immediately jumped to his defense.  "He's gotta be a double agent, right?  You said yourself that he's the most honest person in Rosewood."  Marlene's response?  Something along the lines of, "not everything is as it seems."  An later episode reveals his "A-team" status to his girlfriend, she finds him dead in the forest, she is sent into a downward spiral (because even though he betrayed her, she still loved him), she is sent to the nuthouse, and she gets out but has joined up with the A-team.  She then realizes that Toby is really alive and it was a setup to make her thing he was dead so that she would fall apart and "A" could put her back together in her/his way.  She breaks the news to her friends and now they have 2 inside men, as Toby confesses he was only in on it to protect her.  Here's where perception comes in.

In this article on Wetpaint.com, they state that Toby is alive, but can he be trusted?  I say yes.  One because
Toby is my favorite boy-toy in the series and two because I may have a baby celebrity crush on him.  But also because its all in the perception.  Remember, Marlene said that he's the most honest person, but then said it's not always as it seems.  She WANTS you to think that he's dishonest, but she doesn't want to lie to the viewers by saying it directly.  She's saying he seems honest, but not everything is how it seems, so in your mind you think ok...so he's dishonest.  None of the producers or writers said that he's not honest, YOU did, you took their words and connected that one yourself.  If you think he's dishonest then the show takes you where the they want it to go.  Ie. "he's dead, so whose the next love interest," "that's so sad, how could he do that to her," "seriously '-A' killed someone just to get the girl to fall into their trap," etc.  With this way of thinking, they can throw all these twists and turns into the show that you weren't expecting, ie bringing random boys into the mix only to have them last 1 episode and use it against the girls, making us think that literally EVERYONE we thought could be trusted can't be and doubt everyone on the show, or he's dead, she's in on the whole thing now, what's next? Because the sky is now caving in and everything I believe in is a lie.  However, if you (like me) never believed for a second that he's really dishonest and never fell into Marlene's trap, you always thought "there's hope for Toby and Spoby," "he's a real man and doing what he has to to protect his girl, even if that means working from the inside out," and/or "omg, he died to protect her and her friends."  I wasn't fooled into thinking that he was really dead, no matter how hard they tried to make me believe it and I wasn't shocked to see him walk through the door and back into Spencer's arms.

Now this isn't to say that I wasn't hurt when Toby was revealed on the "A-team" because at that time, his motives weren't stated and you had to infer what you want.  Although I was positive he was an inside man, the facts were that noone knew it, and at some point someone was going to find out and get hurt.  And they did, boy did they ever.  And that hurt too, again not because I believed the bad stuff, but because you could see and feel the pain that was being portrayed by everyone and that was so real.

So, do I feel like he can be trusted?  Yes, because I don't fall into the traps that everyone sets.  Producers have to keep their numbers up in order to keep their show running.  If they were to come out and say "he's completely honest, he's working to protect them" everyone would know what's happening and would lose interest.  Nothing would be a surprise, everything would be predictable, and the show would lose its ratings.

So people, before you are so naive to fall into a trap like this, think about the words that are being used and ask yourself, does what they said really equal what I think they said?  Chances are, especially if its a producer of a tv series, it doesn't mean the same thing, it's just what you PERCEIVED them to be saying.

P.S.-Don't forget that in interviews, producers and writers don't HAVE to be honest and tell the whole truth.  Yes, its immoral to lie to everyone, but it's not a crime punishable by a jury.  They can fudge the truth, omit parts of the truth, and tell white lies if they so desire.  This is why I HATE interviews, twitter questions, etc with producers and writers; they make generic statements and try to throw you off "the truth" or send you in the direction they want you to go.  You never know what you can believe.  So, don't always take what these people say in an interview to heart, it may not be the way it really is.

Tulle Light Draping

Yesterday, I spent the greater part of the morning and evening working on wedding things...updating my "still need" supply list, searching for supplies online to find the best deal, and working on my tulle light draping.

I sent a picture to my future-mother-in-law, as it was hard to explain to her over the phone.  She loves it, but is getting down on herself because of the distance between us and not being able to help me with a project that is a lot of work.  Honestly, its not the much work...it's actually super easy, it just takes time, LOTS of time!

What A Beautiful Day

Its nearly 70* outside.

My parent's 33rd wedding anniversary.

Friday.

What could possible be better?

Well, actually...I can think of one thing...

It's beautiful outside.  After being coped up in the house all winter, I think we are finally hitting some weather that is going to stick around for a while.  That means a number of wonderful things.
First of all, I get to open all the windows in the house and let the fresh air in.  I get to take the four legged furry babies for walks without my fingers turning puple before we reach the end of the driveway; we can take them to the dog park, the lake, and let them hang out the window as we cruise.
It means that we are that much closer to our August wedding (however, I don't have near enough done for it, so I'm ok if its holds off a little longer!)  I can't wait, more than anything, to marry my prince and live happily ever after.  I can almost breath it in with all the fresh warm air and feel it in the light breeze!
It means that its almost time to start up the next guard season...whether or not I'm ready for that, I still haven't decided.  I love my kids (by that I mean the kids I coach) and love coaching them, but some days...haha!  Just kidding, it can definitely get stressful, but I love every minute of it, I miss them every day during the off season.  Us instructors start working on the show and season ideas next week!!!! :)
It means camping, fishing, going to the lake, jetskiing, and all of the fun outdoor stuff you can't do in December!
And it means finishing our basement, reseeding our backyard, painting some rooms in the house, and gardening.  And you can't do any of this with 2 puppies running around, leaning on walls, chewing on wood and drywall, so nice weather means putting them outside where they can run and play, while we can work on home improvement projects and wedding crafts!  And that, my friends, is a wonderful thing!

However, you know that "one thing" I mentioned...it's that fact that we currently have NO grass in our backyard.  Absolutely none, when we moved here in October there wasn't any and noone could remember a time when there was any.  That has just got to change.  I'm sure you can imagine a snowy backyard...what happens when the snow melts?  It's super muddy, with puddles of mud water standing everywhere.  What happens when the dogs go out and play?  What happens to my nicely mopped floor every time they come it?  It's getting old, FAST!  So, our first project this spring is getting grass to grow, I don't care how, we're just making it happen!  So, for that reason, this nice weather might drive me crazy until the snow and mud is all gone!

But let's not dwell on the negative things.  It's such a beautiful day!  :)

Transposing...Great Way To Use An Afternoon!

If you've never spent time transposing music, its exhausting!  I'm not talking put it all in a computer program and a few minutes later have it done.  No, I'm talking sitting down with the original music and a sheets of staffs and doing it all by hand and brain!  I just spent 3 hours transposing 1 song for my wedding, hopefully I don't have to transpose any more songs!

If you don't know what transposing music is...it's when you take music written for one instrument and changing into the music for a different instrument.  In an ideal world, music would all be generic, piano music would look like tuba music, and trumpet music like a violin's, but that just isn't the way it works!

We picked Train's Marry Me for the bridal entrance.  I'm just not really into all the super slow traditional bridal entrance pieces...I mean, I don't want to be snoozing in the back when my future hubby all smiles waiting at the alter!  But I did want something somewhat slow and something that can have a trumpet part.  My best friend since 4th grade is an amazing trumpeter and I wanted him to play my processional.  The hard part is that I couldn't find a trumpet song that I absolutely loved!  Then one day Marry Me was playing on the radio and my better half was singing and it hit me!  That was the song I wanted to walk in to.  But, I scouraged the internet and publishing companies and couldn't find it for the trumpet.  So, I finally caved and bought the score (music) written for vocal with a piano accompaniment.  Then I spent this whole afternoon learning how to transpose music, with a little help from my good friend google!  After lots of mistakes, confusion, and white out, and starting over numerous times, its finally done!  Now, I just need to ship it off to Mr. Trumpeteer and hope that everythings ok (or at least that its only minor problems and he can fix it!)

Hopefully I don't have to go through this again, but from the looks of it, my recessional song choice is going to be the same way, so I'll save that for another day at home!  It's time to get supper on the table and hit up the grocery store!

If you're ever in the need of 1 project that will frustrate you, confuse you, and take up lots of hours, let me know, I've got just the thing...

Dreaming of Flags

The other night, I was about to doze off when the fight song for the high school that I coach at started playing in my mind.  It was so random, out of nowhere, I haven't even heard the song since October!  I finally got to sleep, and then I was dreaming of the song and next thing I know, I wake up in the morning with the whole song choreographed within 5 minutes!

In the past, the group has never had a choreographed routine, and last year, there was just too many other things I needed to do with the group to get them at competition level, the fight song just got pushed to the back burner!  Well, this year, they have a routine!  So, I have my lessons plans started for June!  Yay for working ahead!

Now, just because I say that the routine is done, doesn't mean its anything special...the song is in the format of:
A
B
Repeat B
B at a waltz/swing feel
Repeat B
C

So, you can imagine that their routine is a lot of repeats!  But that will make it easy to learn and perform over and over, from season start to finish!

My girls at 2012 NSBA in October:

Many of my kids are in Florida right now on their spring break band trip, and I can't wait for them to get back so we can start working on auditions and the fall season!