New Moon

SO…. On November 19th, 2009, I was offered a chance to have a free movie and a dinner with my uncle, aunt, and sisters.  Of course, the main purpose of this outing was to see the midnight showing of New Moon.  It was mainly for my sister Reba and aunt who are DIE HARD fans of the Twilight Saga.

Let me preface the rest of this blog post by saying:

1. I will do just about anything for free food
2. I am NOT a fan of the Twilight series (YES, I read the first book and thought it was not so great)
3. I am NOT a fan of romantic movies in general… esp if the romance part of the movie is cheesy and unrealistically fast paced.

Now, with that said… I had an AMAZING dinner at this noodles place in Oak Park (I forgot what it was called), had dessert at Ben and Jerry’s,  and then I  reluctantly waited in the movie theater for about 2 hours to watched the movie.  The crazed “Team Jacob” and “Team Edward” fans (this includes my sister and aunt both wearing shirts that say this) came into the theater with great excitement and tween squealing.  Throughout the wait, I was just wishing I had a book to read.

I saw the first movie, and I was squirming in my seat and making many faces and noises of disgust (which annoyed my sister).  So as this movie began, I came at it with a critical eye and a huge bias that it would suck like the first one.  I have to say that after watching the movie, that it wasn’t terrible (it wasn’t amaizng either).  It was slow in the beginning, picked up a bit, and Taylor Lautner looked hot nice. :)  The theatre went CRAZY when Lautner appeared shirtless, which happened several times in the movie, and someone around me yelled “He’s 17 you petefiles”  I just HAD to laugh out loud, cause he really did look good, and it was kind of hard to beleive he was only 17- plus it’s a bit gross!

ANYWHOOO…from what I heard from my sister, it was pretty true to the book, which was not the case for the first movie, so I’m glad it did that.  The ending was MIGHTY cheesy, and I LAUGHED OUT LOUD when I saw Bella’s face after Edward asked her a question…

For the most part, it was a decent movie.  I don’t think I would have gone to see it if someone didn’t offer the ticket to me.  The movie did make me gag, and I don’t plan on buying the DVD.  I know this “review” isn’t spectacular, and I’m sure I upset MANY Twilight fans… but this is how I felt :)  I think it’s pretty good for a person who usually doesn’t watch movies like this :D

The Fray- September 13, 2009

So a few friends of mine and I went to go see The Fray earlier this month!  I have tried many a times to cover this band.. and failed!  But I must say, they are just amazing live!  I have my reasons to love them… some personal… others just musical.  They are amazing, so CHECK THEM OUT if you haven’t seen them live.

After the concert, my friends Rincey, Leena and I did a bit of a stake out to meet them.  We were unsuccessful, but we got pretty close to meeting them.  You can read about our adventure on Rincey’s blog, cause I can’t even put it into words weeks later :-)  It’s a long post, but DEF worth the read :-)

Ok, I’m off to write some music… or attempt to. Here’s to hoping for some success!

I Just Want You….

I’m LOVING this song!  Check it out and the artist AJ Rafael! Great stuff…

I too have a youtube page, and I haven’t updated in a while… I should get on that.  Check it out if you want to browse around… I’ll update it at some point… http://www.youtube.com/BriMat415

Video of Reba singing the national anthem – Photobucket – Video and Image Hosting

So, I was going through some old stuff, and I found this. It’s my lil sister (who isn’t little anymore), Reba, who sang the national anthem at a basketball game her senior year (a year ago or so)Hope you guys like it. I think she did a GREAT job! I’m so proud of her and her modesty as a singer. She is so good, but she is so humble about it. I am amazed at her maturity in general. Hope you guys enjoy it!

more about “Video of Reba singing the national an…“, posted with vodpod

The Fray

I’m moving to Denver… (for The Fray)

Below is the video and comment about the song “You Found Me” by the Fray. Isaac, the lead singer for the band is a Christian and write so authentically about his struggle!

www.youtube.com/watch
(They won’t let me put it on here, but watch it.. it’s amazing!)

“You Found Me is a tough song for me. Its about the disappointment, the heart ache, the let down that comes with life. Sometimes you’re let down, sometimes you’re the one who lets someone else down. It gets hard to know who you can trust, who you can count on. This song came out of a tough time, and I’m still right in the thick of it. There’s some difficult circumstances my family and friends have been going through over the past year or so and can be overwhelming. It wears on me. It demands so much of my faith to keep believing, keep hoping in the unseen. Sometimes the tunnel has a light at the end, but usually they just look black as night. This song is about that feeling, and the hope that I still have, buried deep in my chest.”
From – Isaac  (AKA: Briana’s soon to be husband… in her dreams)

The world is turning… and I have to run with it!

Workout 2008 has begun once again.
I pretty good this summer, but once August hit, it was so hard to stay motivated to work out. But, I figured if I blog about my workout regiment and my goals, then there is more of a chance of me actually doing the workouts as well as get the results. Really its a win/win cause I lose weight and ya’ll get to see read about it.

I’m doing the 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels. I did it over the summer and lost 14lbs.. but I have a ways to go. Ideally loosing 30-40lbs would put me in the "healthy" mark. Anything beyond that might make me look a little sick. I started it yesterday, and it went really well. I was huffing, puffing, and sweating like a pig (do pigs really sweat?)I just realized how out of shape I am.  But I work up this morning feeling so FABULOUS… I’m so going to feel this way EVERYDAY… I promised myself that!

Presidential Elections
So, I’m not political junky like some people I know, but I am ALL about knowing the facts before I vote in November. Whether you are a Republican, Democrat, or just indifferent, voting is a responsibility. It seems that, esp in the Indian community, young eligible voters are not getting educated about the issues and the effects those issues might have on our nation. Being indifferent does NOT cause revival for our community or our nation if we don’t take a stand. We talk about revival, change, and God’s kingdom work being done… but if it needs to affect our community, we need to take action. So voting is one of them… DO IT PEOPLE!!! Register to vote and start making the revival happen for our nation.

Sarah Palin
I can say that the snipit of the interview I saw on Nightline was interesting. She didn’t answer some of the questions and answered others… and she definitely has a fire under her butt about the issues.  I wish I saw the whole interview… i’m sure it’s on youtube somewhere.  She did; however, rock the "Obama will win no matter what" thought that the American voters had. Every since she has been on the Republican ticket, Obama has been leading in the national polls by about a point, while many political analysts thought he would be leading by double digits by now. I guess they didn’t think of the Palin Effect

I still don’t know who to vote for. I know a lot about both of the candidates and their VPs, but there needs to be a lot of prayer and wisdom that needs to go to my pick. I guess it’s one of those things you have to do when being an adult, huh?

Closing Remarks
This was long, and I am going to blog more often so please feel free to comment (it makes me feel loved) and read along through this journey of life.

Live for your Love.. Jesus
Bri <3

It’s been a while…apparently =-)

I was told by a few (more like one.. you know who you are :-P) that I haven’t blogged in a while… so I figured I do that. Note, it’s only been a week!

So… after my amazing trip to Louisiana, I came back to the city to work. I worked Wednesday and Thursday for a good chunk of the day. On Friday, my and Lauren, my roommate from last year, went to Atlanta, GA for the ACPA Next Generation Conference in conjunction with the organizations annual conference. It was pretty sweet. The hotel we were staying at was INSANE! I have pictures, but I’m just too lazy to post them… maybe later. The whole premise of the conference was “You are the Next Generation in the Student Affairs profession.” It was interesting and there was a lot that I learned about… a lot. Perhaps what I learned from the conference can be its own blog in itself.I got back on Monday and I have been behind on all my work… so I have been stressed, but leaning on God through everything right now! I had a paper due on Tuesday, a test on Thursday, and I have been working on two paper/projects for two other classes. I am pretty much caught up… but those projects are going to be the death of me! (Not literally)

On top of that, the first dance practice for Jerry’s wedding was on Wednesday night. It was GREAT! For the ChiTown Dance, me Brian, Neil, and Michelle are dancing in it. I am pretty stoked about it, but it is crunch time (we just started, I know) it is only 37 days until the wedding… AHH! We got the Hindi dance down… it is going to be pretty cute! And.. well.. I’m not going to ruin the cool stuff we are doing so… YAY FOR DANCING!!!

Two really cool things happened though… Nate’s Photography Challenge pictures were up today. Not all pictures were up but one of Reny’s picture and mine were liked by Nate along with others. That’s kind of cool, cause I think he’s got a good eye. It is sad that I was not the favorite pick, but my twin Rincey (with the help of Biji) won the challenge, and my bff Leena T was a close second. Both pictures were AWESOME! I’ll have to try to open up my eyes more when taking shots.

Second cool thing that happened today was: Boyce Avenue’s CD on iTunes came out today!!! When I found out about this, courtesy of Nisha Mathai, it just made my day! Check these guys out… they are REMARKABLE! I promise you that their music is worth EVERY penny!

I will leave you all with some Boyce Avenue:  This is one of their original songs… SO GOOD!

Don’t be shy.. leave comments!!!
Catch ya’ll on the flipside!

Vaca!!!

That’s right…. I’m on VACATION… (that’s right, I take vacations…sometimes… ok not in a while)…with the family.  It’s not that it’s a bad thing that I’m on vacation with them.  I just haven’t been on a vacation with them in a long while.  I have a TON to say about the vaca, but I’m still enjoying it and i’ll update everyone about it later…

However, I do want to rant about the weather in Chicago!  SERIOUSLY?!?  It’s MARCH, right?!  The END of March?!?  Why has it been snowing?  Don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE snow; however, I’m kind of over it and want the sun back with some warm weather mixed in.

Before I went on the much needed vacation, I decided to shovel the snow.  But I didn’t only do it for my house, no no, I did it for the Appachen who lives next door, and for the family that we are house sitting for when they are off to India.  That is THREE (3) houses, front and backyards!  Usually Reny, my youngest sister, tags along and helps out, but she had to pack for the trip and I was all alone in this endeavor.  It was still lightly snowing, but it eventually ended when I was done with the three houses.  I was so tired from shoveling the snow that I just passed out afterward.

The next morning, at around 3:30am, I woke up to get the car ready for our trip to Louisiana.  I got a good chunk of our lungage by the kitchen door and I was ready to go out and put it all in the car.  I opened the door and…. IT’S STILL SNOWING! I mean SERIOUSLY!?!? It was a good inch of snow on the ground.  I was so annoyed with the weather.  I managed to shovel a path to our garage, very angerly, and loaded the car up.

My dad said, “God didn’t give us a white Christmas, so He gave us a white Easter.”  It was adorable the way he said it, so it made my mood a bit better.

This comes to my last point of this entry:  HAPPY EASTER! We are RESCUED Ya’ll.. let’s REJOICE! (*doing happy dance*) It’s just been an INSANE passion week for me.  Even though I wasn’t at church cause of school, I was just so blessed this season.  I totally look at the cross and the idea of the cross so differently.  The things Jesus had to go through so that I can live is no joke guys.  Our sins come with such a GREAT cost… and I’m so glad I have a best friend like Jesus to have my back the way He does.  So AMEN!

Right now, my little cousin, Joel, is waking up from his nap.  He’s been sleeping right next to me this whole time… ahh… the stories I have about this little kid…  Time to go entertain him.

Ciao,
Briana

PS:  Jason Mraz has been on my playlist for a while now… don’t know that is going to change :-D