Kacey Takes "Roommates 101"

I have always struggled a bit with roommates (or flatmate for other English speakers)… and honestly it’s probably me. I like my space and my independence. Jamie found a solid roommate and hung onto her for as long as she could until they decided to be “grown-ups” and went their separate ways just a few short months ago. Only recently on my adventure to the other side of the world, have I finally found a roommate whom I love living with and can see myself spending the next year with. She’s awesome. But how I have come to a place that, finally at 28, I can deal with having a roommate? Well I can only accredit this to the years of watching television shows (mostly sitcoms) about roommates.

So what exactly have my favorite shows taught me over the years about sharing a living space?

Well let’s review:

Big Bang Theory: It’s important to have pre-arranged agreements and stick to them. Granted Sheldon’s “Roommate Agreement” might be a bit extensive, but there is a need for some rules/agreements right from the beginning.

Friends: It’s important at least one of roommate has a need for order and cleanliness. Some roommates might find this irritating if they are always cleaning, but the fact that Rachel didn’t do much cleaning never really bothered Monica. Monica thrived in getting to be the organized one. In fact, her competitive nature probably wouldn’t have enjoyed having someone else who wanted to control and clean everything. So maybe the real lesson here is the need for balance of personalities.  

Friends Part 2: Roommates should probably have some shared interests. Joey and Chandler bonded over an enjoyment of Bay Watch, comfy chairs and foosball. It was the simple things that kept them together… and all the bro-mance.

HIMYM: Find a roommate that will also want to keep swords on the wall. In other words have similar ideas about décor and be able to share the space equally. Just be careful if the décor ever is used for a battle… someone might get stabbed.

New Girl: There will be some discovered quirkiness in roommates (or a lot)…embrace them anyways…or at least allow it to happen. Let’s face it… Jess, Nick, Schmidt and Winston epitomize quirkiness . But they don’t get hung up on it… it just makes the un-predictableness, predictable.

2 Broke Girls: It’s important that you both agree that a horse in the backyard is a welcomed idea. Or really, any pet needs to be agreed on beforehand. If Max didn’t want Chestnut hanging around, she would have put Caroline out on her ass with no hesitations.

Buffy: Sometimes your roommate really is a demon and it’s not just you. In Buffy’s case her roommate was a straight out of the Hellmouth sort of demon, but occasionally new roommate setups just don’t work. It’s often better to find someone you already know and love.

Once Upon Your Time: Get to know your roommate, they might turn out to be closely related to you. In Mary Margret and Emma’s case it turned out they were mother and daughter which isn’t probably likely to happen, but it is important to know a little about the person you are going to live to avoid major surprises.

Golden Girls: You’re really never too old to have roommates.

Coming Soon: After an adventure to Coachella Sarah bequeaths the 10 Commandments of musical festival going.

Kacey and the Art of Surprise....

This is a long over-due blog… I feel like so much has happen.

Jamie mentioned in her last blog that I was headed to Bali for my two week spring break. PSYCH! I snuck home like a ninja and surprised the crap out of my family. It was awesome! But now I’m back in Abu Dhabi until summer.

The second thing that has been happening just in the past week… I started watching Battlestar Galactica and last night I finished season one. Now thankfully I have Netflix and won’t have to wait for a whole summer to find out what happens…but the surprise ending of the first season, combined with my recent awesome surprise home got me thinking about all the other shocking moments… well in television.

And TA-DA I came up with a blog!

WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS (Granted slightly outdated spoilers…BUT STILL MAJOR SPOILERS)!

Now obviously this is totally my personal list regarding moments that I remember watching television and say “holy &#?%!” … and honestly this day in age with spoilers all over the internet it’s hard to do that (as I have recently discovered with Downtown Abbey because I have NOT watched season 3)…but here some moments from some of my favorite shows.

Friends… Ross’s wedding to Emily. Two things: Monica and Chandler in bed together and then Ross saying Rachel’s name at his wedding. Oops!

Alias… SOOO many WTF moments in this show, but perhaps the one that made me physically react the most because I was on the edge of my seat  was Vaughn starting to tell Sydney who he really was but then BAM! They are hit by a truck…end of season.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer… There are two here. Buffy dying was pretty shocking….but the show was returning so I knew it wasn’t permanent. Probably even more shocking was her mom dying. With all the violence and death on this show… her mom dying from natural causes ended up being the most tragic of all.

Doctor Who… surprises at every turn here and I could say either the separating of Doctor and Companion  or a regeneration is always a bit intense, but since I’ve started watching Doctor Who I always knew those were coming. However so much happened along the way that I didn’t see coming… Few moments I remember going “WHAT!”: River Song meeting the Doctor but he didn’t know who she was (and we didn’t know who River was)… Amy being fake Amy…Amy and Rory being River’s parents… Every time Rory died… and River being the Doctor’s wife. Yes most of those have to do with River. Overall Moffat just keeps me guessing.

Lost….lord we don’t have time for that.

Battlestar Galactica… Okay I’m only one season in, but the end of that first season when Boomer shoots the Old Man was a total heart stopper.

Torchwood… when everybody dies. First Toshiko and Owen die… at the end of season 2… than Ianto dies in mini-series “Children of Earth” which is possibly one of the most intense and most shocking mini-series ever. Jack sacrifices his own grandson to save the world... just... too much.

Grey's Anatomy… so the finale where Meredith realizes their unknown crash victim was George was honestly when I stopped watching. That was such an edge of the seat season ending and I had to spend the whole summer wondering if he died (or Izzy). The next season just couldn’t live up to it. (However, Sarah has informed me about later happenings as she is a dedicated fan and I hear the finale with the gunman tops all other season finales.)

Fringe… again another JJ Abrams creation full of crazy-ass shit. But it all really kicked off when I realized that Olivia had managed to cross over to another universe at the end of season 1 and Leonard Nimoy was waiting for her in the alternative universe. Crazy.

Sherlock the miniseries…I didn’t know much about Sherlock Holmes before this miniseries and the Robert Downey Jr. movie versions, but I knew enough to know that Sherlock falls and “dies” in the “Reichenbach Fall” (but doesn’t really die). However, the whole finale of the second season and all the twists and turns about Moriarty setting Sherlock up just blew me away…and I still found the end utterly shocking.

I wasn’t alive for it actually happening… but honorable mention goes to M*A*S*H and the announcement of the death of Col. Blake because story goes that not even the cast new it was coming. It still gives me shivers and brings me to tears just thinking about it.

Okay that’s enough for now… there might be more later because the surprises just continue, especially as I continue to watch new shows. But I don’t want to give too much away!

Coming Soon: Sarah composes an impassioned essay about the importance of pencil safety.

Jamie Advises: You are that guy, just embrace it

I read a small little blurb recently in an article where Mark-Paul Gosselaar expressed some minor irritation at still being called/referred to as Zack Morris. The little blurb, and I’m sure it was just an off-handed comment, had a quote from Gosselaar basically saying he didn’t understand the continued fascination with Saved by the Bell because it was kind of a ridiculous show with bad writing. Well, duh. I think I’d take it as a compliment if I were him because he transcended the cliche-ness that was SBTB to give us one of the most memorable characters of our formative years. And let’s face it, you weren’t really sure who I was talking about until I got to the Zack Morris part of that first sentence. Don’t get me wrong, I love his new show Franklin & Bash, but (because?) it’s kind of like Zack Morris grew up and became a lawyer named... Franklin? No, wait, he’s Bash and Breckin Meyer is Franklin. I think. It’s a little irrelevant, because when I watch I pretty much just think of them as Zack Morris & Breckin Meyer (who will never be referred to by a character he plays’ name because “Breckin Meyer” is one of the most fun names to say out loud. Say it right now. See??).
I know that Zack is not a real person (even if he did play along on Jimmy Fallon that one time), but there is a lot of pop culture knowledge rolling around in my brain and it’s just easier to refer to him that way. But I want Zack, er, I mean Mark, to know that he’s not alone. Here are some more people that my brain will refuse to acknowledge as anyone other than their most memorable roles:

Ferris Bueller - Matthew Broderick is an immensely talented actor of both stage and screen. And he’s married to Carrie Bradshaw, I mean, Sarah Jessica Parker. But all of that means nothing because John Hughes wrote a little movie in the 80s called Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Broderick was cast in the title role for the film, and subsequently the rest of his life. Most of this list comes from TV, which makes a little sense, as you watch them week after week playing the same character. That makes Ferris all the more impressive of a role and a performance.

Mr. Spock - Does anyone not? Even Mr. Nimoy has accepted his fate after a rebellion in his younger days.

Dawson Leary - And really, let’s just drop the last name. James Van Der Beek is always referred to by us as Dawson. I think he understands that and mocks it a little while playing an alternative version of himself on Don’t Trust the B* in Apartments 23. At least from what I understand, I’ve only watched parts of a couple episodes. [Creek related side note: we do refer to Joshua Jackson as Pacey, which I think confuses our dad a little when we’re watching Fringe. Next time maybe he should try a character whose name doesn’t start with P.]

Urkel - Not even being pretty hot can keep us from referring to Jaleel White as Urkel. When Charles Barkley got in trouble (DUI) and it involved drinking wine coolers with White, all I could think was Charles Barkley was drinking wine coolers with Steve Urkel. As if Sir Charles drinking wine coolers wasn’t ridiculous enough, it was with Urkel. Oh boys.

Mikey/Rudy/Samwise - Not many people can pull off multiple iconic characters, but Sean Astin not just anyone. He is one football playing goonie of a hobbit. Like my father, I kind of wanted to shout “Rudy, Rudy..” when Sam was running up that hill to get rid of the ring. I once attended a Democratic fundraiser and glanced over to see that he was a couple people over from me. When relaying the story to others later, I had to change the character name depending on who I was talking to as each character has its own audience. Regardless of who it was, they needed a little more information than “Sean Astin” to know who I was talking about.

Josh Lyman - It might be because Bradley Whitford tends to play characters that are either sleazy (see Billy Madison or Adventures in Babysitting) or a variation on Josh Lyman. And we don’t want to dwell on the sleazy. But I think he should embrace the fact that all West Wing fans will forever call him Josh Lyman, because all West Wing fangirls were a little bit in love with Josh Lyman. We are a nerdy bunch.

Buffy - A few things on this. First off, Sarah Michelle Gellar is a fantastic actress. I thought that pre-Buffy when she was on All My Children as Erica Kane’s horrible daughter Kendall Hart. She was so good on that. I’ll give you a minute to judge me for that sentence. Not only that, but she wasn’t the first person to play Buffy. But SMG’s Buffy is iconic. And because of that, she’s always going to be Buffy. Better to be remembered as a badass vampire slayer than the live action version of Daphne from Scooby Doo. Those movies are terrible.

Uncle Jesse - Sorry John Stamos, I’d like to say the cast of Full House, but it’s kind of just you. And maybe a little bit Aunt Becky. I mean, if Bob Saget’s comedy wasn’t so dirty I’m sure we’d call him Danny. And if the Olsen twins weren’t, well, the Olsen twins, maybe we’d call them Michelle. Or maybe if there had just been one of them? I guess we’ll never know. We do know that Dave Coulier can’t be referred to as Joey. Partly because he hasn’t really done enough post-Full House for us to say hey, it’s Joey. But mostly because if you say hey, it’s Joey, we expect to see Matt Le Blanc. Speaking of which...

The cast of Friends - Sorry guys, 10 years is a long time to be one of the most popular shows on television. No matter if you drop off the face of the planet or become A-listers, you will always be Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe & Joey.

Honorable mentions (they need a few more roles so that we can see them and go, hey, it’s [insert character name here]):
Sheldon (Jim Parsons), Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Captain Jack (John Barrowman), Abby Scuito (Pauley Perrette)

Coming Soon: Recently we had to pull out the intervention banner for Sarah’s Dawson Creek, um, problem. She didn’t take it well and has left the country.

The Glossary Part 4 (Jamie)

Last night Meryl & I were watching True Blood (we’re only on season 4) and there is a scene where Tara is getting her girlfriend to leave town because vampires are always trying to kill her and Meryl says, I think she just pulled a Harry Potter there (leaving Ginny behind to protect her kind of thing) and I nodded... and then I said, I think she just White Fang’d her. Which reminded me that I needed to get this next glossary entry up. Here are some more things to know if you ever listen to Kacey & I talk:

Maureen – Source: @maureenjohnson. We talk about Maureen a lot. You might think that she’s someone we actually know, one of our friends. And we like to think that she’s our friend, but we don’t actually know her. Maureen Johnson is a hilarious YA author who keeps up one of the best twitter accounts in the brief history of twitter. Seriously, if you’re on twitter and you aren’t following Maureen, you aren’t using twitter properly. How else will you be placed in a jar to learn about the hamsters and the Monday Dragon and the 4 Questions and all the various things she gets on her soapbox to discuss. We will also make references to Wil (Wheaton) and John & Hank (Green). Now you know that we don’t actually know these people.

Pretty much anything from Wayne’s World - My favorite is: “it sucks while its cuts... well it certainly does suck” although “if you’re going to spew, spew into this” probably has more real world applications. But I think it’s important to point out that sometimes we just say these things, even if they don’t seem to apply. All it takes is one word sometimes to set us off into a pop culture spiral and we can pull out almost as many lines from this movie as Clueless. And that is saying something.

We’re Gonna Win! – Source: A League of Their Own. Tom Hanks’ character, Jimmy Dugan, has a moment of clarity while Evelyn’s annoying little kid is taunting the team with “you’re gonna lose, you’re gonna lose.” This is generally noted at a turning point when watching or playing a game, with the same manic energy as Jimmy.

No Crying in Baseball – Source: A League of Their Own - Sometimes there is crying in baseball (we love Joey Cora so we have to say that). And generally whenever we watch this movie, we cry (I mean, come on it’s got baseball and sisters and Tom Hanks, of course we cry). But that doesn’t meant that we don’t often find a way to work this line into conversations. Also, you never know when someone is going to throw out a “there’s Marla Hooch, what a hitter” just because.

C-razy – Source: The Big Bang Theory, specifically Miss Amy Farrah-Fowler. The key here is now Amy says it. Cuh-razy. Whenever we text each other and use the word crazy, it’s assumed that it is being said the way that Amy would say it. It also implies that what we are referring to is really not that crazy, and we’re kind of mocking the lack of craziness.

Woo Girls – Source: How I Met Your Mother. Even if you don’t know this reference, you totally know what a Woo Girl is. You’ve mocked their tight, low-cut outfits at the baseball game (which they spend in the beer garden, not watching the game) or rolled your eyes at them standing in line for a club shrieking with their friends (you were not in line for the club, you were passing by). But what we learned on How I Met Your Mother is that they should be pitied. They don’t have anything else going on in their lives and so they act out in these ridiculous ways and say “woooooo” a lot because they are really sad inside. Generally Kacey & I (who can be quite judgmental) just share a look, shake our heads, and say “Woo Girl” when we see them. But it’s okay Woo Girls, we all have those moments.

We’re Like this (with appropriate hand gesture) – Source: Friends, that crazy hand gesture that helps demonstrate that Chandler & Joey’s brains are in sync. Obvious Kacey & I are often on the same page and so to demonstrate that we usually make a similar hand waving gesture. It also works over a text, all we need to say is “we’re like this” and the gesture is implied. We do this a lot. Frequency wise it’s up there with Dear Tiny Baby Jesus & 90% & NO TIME. Since it’s a Friends reference it is also often used with Sarah.


Books read: 33 (Rocking some more Song of Fire & Ice, I could be on 33 for a while...)

Coming Soon: Sarah writes a proposal for a Dawson’s Creek spinoff - The New Creek, with a slate of fresh young stars, including Suri Cruise as Pacey & Joey’s kid. In the pilot we discover that she might not really be Pacey’s daughter as Joey spent some time doing research for a book on a religious cult and no one knows what all she did to get inside the group.

Glossary Part 2- (by Kacey)

I suck… here I had all these ambitions to write more blogs this summer… but alas I only wrote 1 entry in July making my summer grand total 4. You’d think I’d have some excuse like I’ve been really busy… but… um …no…unless it’s possible to be busy being lazy.

I mean I do stuff… lots of job searching still…helped plan an 80th surprise party of my Grandpa…spent some time at the beach… read a few books (well like 3)… did some berry picking… watched some baseball. But I can do better… I know it. (I’ve got some stuff in the works actually… so stick around for that...and the glossary will continue as well)

So as Jamie’s last entry noted we’ve started a glossary of phrases. If you spend more than an hour with us you’re probably going to hear us say something from the glossary… especially if we’re together. So here is the second part… in no particular order.

Glossary Part 2:

“Go on, get out of here, get” Source: The New Girl, via Schmidt. Also knowing as “White Fanging.” Schmidt wants to break up Cece and decides the best method is to yell at her like what happens in White Fang…. I guess. I’ve actually never read White Fang, but now I know that what to do when I want someone to leave and don’t want them to feel bad about leaving.

“Pivot!” Source: Friends. Ross is trying to move a couch and yells this it hopes of getting the couch up the stairs. This phrase is best used whenever moving something, predominantly when trying to fit furniture through small spaces.

“Moo Point” Source: Friends. Yes another Friends reference. This is a Joey phrase he says instead of say “moot point.” However in his defense he does follow it up with sound logic explaining that it’s like a cow’s opinion; it doesn’t matter. I particularly like to use this around mom as she knows the reference and it always makes her giggle (she loves Joey).

“Pants! Pants! Pants!” Source: How I Met Your Mother. Barney wants so bad for Marshall to tell the pants story and he eventually starts chanting “pants”. Ultimately the story proves to be only half as funny as Barney has built it up to be. The chant is really only invoked when “pants” are somehow part of a conversation and one suddenly feels the need to insert the reference or confuse people.

“You all want a victory!?” Source: Remember the Titans. Classic sports movie. Referenced whenever one wants to win a game, particularly when on a team and the team needs pumping up.

“Totes Cray-Cray.” Source: Kind of Unknown because I think it’s a thing young people say, but we started using it because of Lydia who is featured on the Lizzie Bennett Diaries and she says it regularly. (She also not has her own Vlog- so funny). It’s commonly used it a mocking tone, as we are not teenage girls and sound rather ridiculous saying it.

“Rrrreally Fun” Source: That 70’s Show. Kelso says this. Hyde then reminds him that last time Kelso said this they had to get his stomach pumped…so of course Hyde is game. Kelso then rides a canoe down a hill. The best time to use this is coming up when a really fun idea… obviously.

Coming Soon: Sarah discusses the Olympic opening ceremonies and draws parallels to Danny Boyle's movies. (My favorite part is where she discusses Trainspotting and the Queen parachuting with James Bond)