Sorry all, it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to post. There are just so many things…I’m swamped.
So quick review: In this game you are the illegitimate daughter if the Earl of Edgewater, something you discover on your mother’s deathbed. You meet your father and he accepts you and wants to make you his legal heir, as your half-brother passed away.
You have an evil stepmother and conniving stepbrother, with a dim fiancé. They are plotting against you.
In the last episode your father and grandmother planned a garden party for you. You learned to dance properly, and was having a great time with Mr. Sinclaire. He asks you to play nine pins with him, but I had run out of enough diamonds to purchase the event. I had to wait until I had earned 30 diamonds.
So was it worth the wait? Let’s see?
So Mr. Sinclaire explains the game to you and we are ready to go:
How well you do depends on how close you paid attention to the rules of playing. I did really well and ended up winning the game!
Yay!!!
Your grandmother interrupts you with the Duke’s entrance. After your grandmother’s big to-do about him I was expecting someone more…favorable. Most of these games give you multiple choices of who you want to be with-but the Duke is a total jerk!!!
He seems to like me a lot-which pleases my grandmother and father-but eeyuck! I don’t want him.
This dude
Miss Parsons and I talk about it after and she asks me to join her for a walk but I decline. One, I have no more diamonds to purchase that option, and two-I do need to do my duty and be a good hostess. I mean how would it look if I walked out on a party given in my honor?
Later Mr. Sinclaire asks me to dance and I blow him away with my prowess, thanks to Miss Parsons and her amazing teaching skills! (And my shoes).
I am definitely liking Mr. Sinclaire the most. I think he is rather fun. 🙂
Afterwards my father surprises me with the fact that he has made me his official legal heir I will be going off to London to have a season, (and hook a man).
Will it be a success? Or a flop? Tune in next time to find out!
This is one of my favorite films from childhood. My dad received it as a Christmas gift from my aunt one year, and that evening we popped it in our VHS player and watched it. I loved it so much that I would want to watch it all the time.
And it still remains a favorite and one I can watch no matter what no matter when.
Ursula Stanhope hails from San Francisco, CA and is traveling throughout Africa. Her fiancé, Lyle Van De Groot (Thomas Haden Church) is a total pompous jerk and has gone looking for her to drag her back to be immediately married. He is guided by two poachers who are looking for their big score.
All of them
The next day when Ursula and Lyle are out, they run into a lion. Lyle takes off; tripping, falling, and knocking himself out. But Ursula doesn’t need to worry, George (Brendan Fraser); a man who was lost in Africa and raised by an ape named Ape, saves her.
He cares for her until they are found by her fiancé and her party. When Lyle and the poachers attack trying to “save” Ursula and capture the famed “White Ape”; George gets injured and finds himself traveling to San Francisco with Ursula. Is San Fran ready for this Ape-Man? Will his home be okay without the King of the Jungle?
Most Romantic Moment: Be Comfortable and Dance With Me
This moment comes in the middle of the film after George and Ursula have been searching for her group with no luck. They are hanging out with a bonfire, getting to know each other better, when the apes start playing music. George invites Ursula to dance with him, but she is afraid to do it that she might look dumb.
George tells her not to worry, and helps her feel comfortable with herself.
George: Sometime George smash into tree. And sometime…[George screams and falls out of treehouse] Sometime George fall out of treehouse. But not feel stupid.
[Ursula laughs]
George: No people here to look stupid for. Just George.
I know this might not seem like a lot, but you have to look at Ursula’s parents. She comes from a super wealthy family and a mother that is obsessed with appearances. She’s been told what to do her whole life, look at how her mom choose her fiancé, and probably has never let go or had anyone try and get her to just relax and have fun. Especially with her super critical mother.
George doesn’t know any of this, but he still tries to help Ursula feel comfortable and just have fun.
it is something that every person in public school in the United States encounters in their lifetime.
It’s true.
For me, I enjoyed prom. I tried to spend as little money as possible on everything and did extremely well. I had a beautiful blue gown, cost $2.50 at a thrift store sale, $8 to get it dry cleaned.
Oh yeah!
My shoes? Beautiful silver heels, extremely comfortable, and free-with the purchase of a bracelet for $8 (Kohl’s cash buy something $8-10, get something $8-10 free).
I like it.
Make-up? Free, my sister did it.
Yep!
Hair? Only $16 as I knew a hairstylist.
Limo? Free, my friend’s date father owned a limousine rental.
Sweet!
Dinner? Free, my friend had coupon that covered everything.
Awesome!
The most expensive thing? $25 tickets. So a total of $59.50, not bad.
But we don’t want to just hear about my experience. Oh no, this is a book review post:
Prom & Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg
**Contains Spoilers**
Yes, if we go through prom, why not the Austen characters? (Or at least Pride & Prejudice Austen characters.)
In Eulberg’s book Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Caroline, Mr. Darcy, Charlotte, Mr. Collins, and Mr. Bingley all get an opportunity to go to prom.
Why not?
This book came out when I was a young adult and I just happened on to it accidentally, started reading and LOVED it! In fact I think it is one of the best modern adaptions.
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bennet is a scholarship student at the elite prep school, Longbourn. She was recruited for her musical talent, as she is an accomplished piano player.
Sadly, piano playing is the only nice thing about being there at the school. Everyone treats her horribly as they want her to “know her place.” They dump drinks on her, call her names, give her the wrong room when she asks for directions, etc.
She does have two friends in the school, one is a fellow scholarship student, Charlotte, and the other is the incredibly nice Jane.
So Lizzie has just returned from Hoboken, New Jersey to the school from winter break. While she is thinking about the spring concert and her studies; every other girl at Longbourn and every boy at Pemberley (school for boys) have only one thing on the brain: prom.
To not have a date would be the biggest faux pas; so all are prepping and conniving to have the best date.
While Jane is excited for prom, she is also thrilled that Charles Bingley will be returning from England where he spent the previous semester. Before he left the two had been heading toward something, and spent the whole summer emailing and writing; so Jane is eager to see if they will become more.
At the welcome back dance Lizzie is pleased to meet Charles as he is extremely nice and appears to be perfect for her friend Jane. Unfortunately, his twin sister Caroline is a real jerk.
Charles also brought his best friend Will Darcy, who is attractive and seems like a good guy, that is until he finds out Elizabeth is a scholarship student and just takes off, major diss.
What a jerk
Later she overhears him saying how he spent a year in London to try and get away from those kinds of people.
Ugh
Elizabeth tries to leave, but is stopped by Colin Williams (Mr. Collins) the only other person nice to her and the most boring person she has ever met.
Blah, blah
Oh, Mr. Collins:
While her way at school is paid, she still needs money to fund everything else and works at the local coffee shop as a barista. She runs into Darcy there, but the fate is sealed. She is not going to like him for anything.
Charles invites Jane and Lizzie to come with him, Caroline, and Darcy as they are headed to Vermont to ski. Lizzie agrees to support Jane although she has no clue about skiing. She decides to just wait inside playing the steinway (piano), doing homework, and sipping hot tea.
The next day everyone heads out to the slopes while Lizzie decides to head to the bookstore to pick up a book for school. Darcy offers her a ride, but Lizzie doesn’t want help. She finally agrees and the two talk on the drive. Darcy doesn’t get why she is being so snobby and down about school, while Lizzie lets everything out about how people are treating her.
That night things go a bit sour as Charles is taking Jane out and Lizzie is to be stuck at the house with her two favorite people, Caroline and Darcy.
Those guys
Darcy isn’t so bad, but Elizabeth Lizzie has to be there while Caroline tries to impress him. She starts with commenting on his email writing, then doing yoga moves, etc. The conversation moves to involve only Lizzie and Darcy, but Caroline doesn’t like that.
They all return to school, and in Lizzie’s case work, and things are back to normal. However, Lizzie meets George “Wick” Wickham who is handsome, charming, and hates Longbourn and Pemberley as much as she does. Wick tells her that Darcy and he became very good friends, but when Darcy’s father was paying too close attention to him Darcy got jealous and had him kicked out.
Charles is having a party and invites all kinds of people. Jane and Lizzie are going of course, and because Jane is going, her sister Lydia squeezes her way in. Jane’s father recently lost his job and that has downgraded her status at the school. It doesn’t help that Lydia is all kids of crazy and embarrassing and can’t stop about prom or boys.
If only she followed this advice.
Wick was supposed to come to the party but changed his mind, leaving Lizzie sad and upset as she wanted to spend the time with him. However, Darcy pays quite a bit attention to her and even asks her to dance.
The night ends even worse with nonstop attention from Colin, Lydia doing a bad dance/rockette/cheerleader routine, and her coat getting stolen. Could things get worse?
The next day things get even worse, as Colin asks her to prom and doesn’t want to take no for an answer. He then insults her and says that she will have no one else ask her poverty-stricken patootie (I added that).
When Elizabeth gets home, she is surprised with a new coat. Life seem to be brightening up, but then the dark cloud comes back as Charles just breaks off contact with Jane as “things came up.”
Two weeks pass and no Charles. He just drops off the face of the earth and poor Jane is heartbroken.
Noooo!
To add to that, it turns out that Wick didn’t consider he and Lizzie a couple, but has been dating a wealthy Longbourn girl who’s family has great connections. What a jerk!
But strangely enough, who should come every day to the coffee shop? Mr Darcy. And not only does he see her every day bit he leaves a big tip.
One day as she was walking, she runs into him and his cousin Fitzpatrick, and discovers that he broke up his friend’s relationship as the girl wasn’t right. Lizzie hooks on that it must be Jane and Charles. She is furious!
She tells Darcy her hours and hopes that he will avoid her. It is the opposite as Darcy seens to come more than ever.
And out of nowhere he drops the bomb:
And he asks her to prom. Elizabeth Lizzie’s reaction?
She is furious with him for Jane, Charles, Wick, Longbourn, everything!
She goes to write an email to her New Jersey friends, but finds one from Darcy instead! His letter contains the following:
He’s had scholarship kids in the past try and get things from him-money, connections, social status, etc.-so now he avoids them. He’s sorry to have been so rude to Elizabeth, but that has became his instant reaction.
He wasn’t the one who really pushed Jane and Charles apart, although he didn’t try and have them be together either.
The guy and girl he was talking about? It was Colin who wanted to ask Lizzie out again and Darcy thought it was a bad idea.
He had Wick kicked out of school because of two reasons:
He got Darcy’s young sister, Georgiana drunk to try to get her to have sex with him.
He broke into their house and stole a bunch of things.
Elizabeth realizes that she thought Darcy was the prejudiced and prideful one, but it turns out that she was as well. Because he was rich she thought the worse of him, and because he hurt her pride she was willing to believe anything horrible that was said of him.
They both are.
Things get weirder as it turns out that Wick and Lydia are “together”.
I guess his rich girlfriend didn’t work out.
Lizzie sees this and is horrified as she now knows that Wick is a sexual predator, looking for young, freshmen girls. She goes to Jane and lets everything out. She is just as shocked when she hears it all.
They keep a tight leash on Lydia and argue whether or not to reveal what happened to Darcy’s sister to keep Lydia away from Wickham. They decide to wait as it isn’t their story to tell.
They are both pleasantly surprised when Charles comes with a bouquet and begs Jane’s forgiveness. And as she is so sweet and adorable, she forgives him.
Midterms end and Lizzie heads home for break, but she gets an even better surprise. Her piano teacher, Mrs. Gardiner, gives her two tickets to see her favorite pianist, Claudia Reynolds.
When Lizzie and her mother go to the concert they are thrilled with the amazing music, and Elizabeth is floored when she discovers that Claudia Reynolds is Darcy’s mother.
She meets Darcy in his own setting and sees all pretense gone. She also meets his adorable sister and sees how cute their little family is.
The have a great time and even make plans for Darcy and Georgiana to visit her in New Jersey. Their fun trip is cut short when Lydia goes missing with Wick and Lizzie and Darcy set out to find her.
Darcy goes through everywhere that Wick would want to stay at and finds the two utterly wasted in a trashed hotel room. He uses his father’s money and influence to remove Wick and settle the bill.
The rest of the break is uneventful and quiet, with no calls from Darcy. It seems that now that she wants him, nothing is heard from him. Don’t you just hate that? When they return to school Charles has a big dinner party for their friends, but Darcy doesn’t sit with Elizabeth Lizzie or talk to her, no matter how hard she tries to get his attention.
Soon Lizzie’s recital comes up and she rocks (figuratively). Afterwards Darcy asks her out, telling her he was waiting as he didn’t want to break her concentration.
Aw!
However, they will not be going to prom but be going out to enjoy their night together.
I loved this book.
Even though they didn’t follow the book exactly I thought Eulberg was able to capture the life of the characters and bring across what Jane wanted.
The only thing I din’t like was Darcy didn’t take her to prom. Come on, you guys could have just dressed casual or not spent a lot of money. I mean seriously.
Totally!
But there is something that really surprised me. I spotted this in the acknowledgements:
“I’d especially like to thank Stephanie Meyer for being so enthusiastic for my writer life and having that conversation about Pride and Prejudice that led me to the idea for this book.
Stephanie Meyer?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Stephanie Meyer who wrote Twilight?
The horror!
I can’t believe I have to thank her for something good!
Well that aside, it is a fantastic book and I recommend it for any Austen fan.
I had heard his songs before on the radio, but when I first became a fan of his and obsessed with his music was after:
Not only does Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler) gush over him:
But he has the best bit part:
This got me interested in listening to him more..and more is exactly what I did.
And one of my favorites (beside Rebel Yell), is the song Dancing With Myself. The song was written by Billy Idol and Tony James for their group, Generation X, after they visited a Tokyo Dance Club and witnessed people preferring to dance with their images in the mirror, rather than with each other. It didn’t do very well and the band later broke up.
In 1981, Billy Idol, as a solo artist, made a few changes and rereleased it. It quickly grew popular and remains one of his most loved songs to date.
I think the reason the song does so well is first the music as it makes you want to dance
And secondly the personal connection. Most people don’t feel like they dance very well.
And it isn’t fun when you are rejected because of your lack of talents in that area.
And there is something so freeing about dancing by yourself. You know no one will judge you, you are free to do whatever dance move you want, to whatever song you want.
Well there’s nothing to lose
And there’s nothing to prove
It just makes you feel great!
I’m great
Like this song.
Plus you gotta love this ’80s music video. Oh Billy, only you could pull off an outfit like that and bleach blonde hair.
On the floor of Tokyo
Or down in London town to go, go
With the record selection
And the mirror’s reflection
I’m dancing with myselfWhen there’s no-one else in sight
In the crowded lonely night
Well I wait so long
For my love vibration
And I’m dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
Well there’s nothing to lose
And there’s nothing to prove
I’ll be dancing with myself
If I looked all over the world
And there’s every type of girl
But your empty eyes
Seem to pass me by
Leave me dancing with myself
So let’s sink another drink
‘Cause it’ll give me time to think
If I had the chance
I’d ask the world to dance
And I’ll be dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
Well there’s nothing to lose
And there’s nothing to prove
I’ll be dancing with myself
If I looked all over the world
And there’s every type of girl
But your empty eyes
Seem to pass me by
Leave me dancing with myself
So let’s sink another drink
‘Cause it’ll give me time to think
If I had the chance
I’d ask the world to dance
And I’ll be dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
If I had the chance
I’d ask the world to dance
If I had the chance
I’d ask the world to dance
If I had the chance
I’d ask the world to dance
[Scat]
Dancing with myself
Dancing with myself
Dancing with myself
Dancing with myself
If I looked all over the world
And there’s every type of girl
But your empty eyes
Seem to pass me by
Leave me dancing with myself
So let’s sink another drink
‘Cause it’ll give me time to think
If I had the chance
I’d ask the world to dance
And I’ll be dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
If I had the chance
I’d ask the world to dance
If I had the chance
I’d ask the world to dance
If I had the chance
I’d ask the world to dance
janeaustenrunsmylife 