Why #WeWantWidow is the Wrong Direction

Alright y'all. Strap in. I'm gonna get REAL pop culture on you for a moment.

First of all, I need to disclaim myself- I'm probably the nerdiest girl you've ever met. No. I'm serious.
Please see my

Harry Potter shelves

 and

Living room wall - approximately 12 feet end to end

and

6 cubbies worth of spots on our bookshelf

Not to mention the shelves and shelves of Star Wars, Star Trek, fantasy and sci-fi movies and tv shoes, and the scores of fantasy, sci-fi, and comic books we have.

But I digress.

Anyway, here's the deal. I don't want a Black Widow movie. And before you freak out and call me a traitor to my own gender and my "people," hear me out. 

Black Widow is an awesome character. But she was never intended to be a standalone "focus" character. She's a support character, and a damn good one if I do say so myself. Natasha is a sneaky kick-a spy whose moral compass doesn't exactly point north- not that it's a bad thing, but sometimes you think she's Hydra, when (SPOILERS!) she's actually secretly infiltrated Hydra as per Nick Fury's instructions. (This is according to the Earth's Mightiest Heroes arc, which I'm personally most familiar with.) Regardless, when you read the comics and watch the incredibly fabulous tv series of this arc, you love her, and then you hate her, and then you love her again. This... kind of doesn't work in mainstream cinema. (Sorry Game of Thrones. You're not mainstream cinema, regardless of how much we love you.) And while I love her and love seeing the multi-faceted layers of her character, we just don't get that much about her even in the comics, because they've chosen not to focus on her. That's fine.

Because the comics don't have much about her, IF there WAS a movie made about her, it would be... a lot of made up stuff. Not that making up stuff is a bad thing, but why spend a bunch of time making up a story for a character we sort of already know, rather than using a bunch of pre-existing source material, to, I dunno, INTRODUCE A NEW FEMALE CHARACTER?

Like really. I just don't get it. Why have the feminist nerd masses chosen to focus on the only female character we have and demand a movie for her? Why not just add to it? [And yes. I know they're making a Captain Marvel movie. I'm getting there.] Personally I'm sitting here thinking, 'I want as many kick-a female role models as possible.' 

Don't get me wrong, Widow is a great character. But honestly I feel like her getting her own movie would just be Marvel Studios catering to the feminerds and making a "hush movie." Is that really what we want? To be so annoying that we get a movie made (likely half-ass) just to shut us up? Um. Let me go ahead and tell you. No. Just, no. If we get a female superhero (which, we are) I want her film to be amazing, well cast, well written, well acted, well directed, and just all around a solid movie, given the proper time to develop (which... is happening).

Irritations about "Captain" Marvel aside (she's ACTUALLY a Colonel, and calling her "Captain" reeeeeeeally gets on my nerves- but we don't need to talk about that), I'm really stoked for her movie. Carol Danvers is one of my favorite characters in all of Marvel, and I'm happy that she's going to bring us into a new era of Marvel hero movies. I'm pretty anxiously awaiting the announcement of her casting, though this is who I'm gunning for, personally.

She's just too cool. And too perfect for the role.

In addition to Carol, there are SEVERAL female characters I'd love to see have standalone movies.

To name a few off the top of my head, Wasp (who we might get if Evangeline Lily's Ant-Man character pans out the way we hope... pretty please Marvel???), a Scarlet Witch/Vision duo movie (because let's face it, The Vision is my favorite character in the whole of the universe, even though they kind of botched his origin story in Age of Ultron; and that pairing is probably my favorite [SPOILERS!] romance ever), Mockingbird, or White Tiger (ohhhh I want the next Spider-Man with a new cast to have all of my dear favorite Ultimate Characters as teenagers).

So, while I probably wouldn't say no to a Widow movie, this might be the wrong place to focus your energies, ladies. Widow probably honestly has a LOT of the screen time for the current (and past) Avengers, considering how many of the movies she's been in (Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain American 2, Age of Ultron). Yes, I know, "everyone" else got standalone movies, but guess who else hasn't? (And isn't, as far as they've announced). Hawkeye. Falcon. Vision. War Machine. Scarlet Witch. [Oh, but all of them except Scarlet Witch are dudes. So they don't matter, right??] And let's see... Age of Ultron is Hawkeye's second movie, and he left the team, so he's done. This is Falcon's second movie. This is Vision's first. This is War Machine's second movie. (I'm sorry. Freaking Terence Howard doesn't count, and we never saw him as War Machine anyway.) If we're going off of Col Rhodes, third. And Scarlet Witch's first. So um... Widow being in four movies is unfair? She plays a HUGE part in Cap 2. Over those 4 movies we learn a LOT about her. So, quite frankly, her getting her own movie would be a lot of... stuff we've already seen.

I'm not saying what we've seen is bad, but if we want the MCU to be truly sustainable, we need new characters, with new stories, to draw in new fans, and keep the 'mildly interested' people (like my parents) coming to see MCU films. Because, unfortunately, the 'mildly interested' people make up a huge chunk of ticket sales, and if they lose interest, no more tickets, and no more films. If you want more bad-a ladies, look no further than the Lady Sif in Thor/Thor 2/Agents of SHIELD, the upcoming Ant-Man movie, and the Black Panther movie.

These ladies are the King's Guard of Wakanda. And they KICK ASS. I'm really looking forward to seeing them in live action!!

We need to play the long game here folks. And a Black Widow movie is not long game.

#ERT_2015

So, in case you either don't know me (which is more likely) or you've been living under a rock (code: not on Facebook... not a bad thing), I figured I needed a post to talk about our EPIC ROAD TRIP this summer!
It all started last July, when a friend and I had the crazy idea to go on a big crazy road trip all over the Pacific Northwest and Canada. Well first it was just British Columba, and then I thought, heck, we're going this far, why don't we just make this a loop instead! So #ERT2015 was born.

I know that shape like the back of my hand. At this point I should probably get it tattooed on me somewhere. It's like a friend to me. We'll be gone for two weeks, and I'm super excited about it! It's going to be truly epic. Here are some of the beautiful places we get to go! (Hint: it's basically heaven, consisting of large mountains, beautiful lakes, and huge waterfalls.)

Ahhhh it's all just so beautiful and exciting. Can't wait!!! 

The Arrival of The Jackelope

OH MY GOSH IT'S HERE!! I'M SO EXCITED!

Brady chillaxin, relaxin all cool.

I even recorded a fun tour!

 The trailer currently smells horribly of an old person's house, but we've left a few of the windows open to air it out, and we're planning on spending the whole weekend cleaning and doing some starter reno. We have an appointment with the "RV Doctor" to come take a look at the wheels and bearings (we probably need new tires), and get the tail lights/brake lights/turn signals working (they weren't on the drive home... whoops). Next on the docket is a locksmith to open and rekey the three separate locks that we don't have keys for, and get the battery all charged. We're HOPING to take our first trip next weekend down to Hanksville to hang out and do a few canyons and see how she handles on the road before we drag her down there "permanently." The very next weekend (the first weekend of April) I'm already back in the thick of it, and renovation becomes "something we buy in Sandy and take down to Hanksville in the car and do reno at Duke's! (The RV park where we "live.") So it probably won't get painted (at least exterior) until it heads back up home to Sandy for the "middle" summer. (River season.) Regardless, I'm super excited and every time I see it sitting outside I get all giddy, like a little kid at Christmas. 

Here's even a sneak peak of the fabrics I've picked for the upholstery and the curtains (which, the current ones are absolutely hideous)! I feel like I managed to keep things relatively un-girly, while still keeping the retro feel in that super adorable curtain fabric. I am SUPER excited!!! (Can you tell?)

And, because I can't resist, FLOORING. OMG I'm so thrilled about this, it's ridiculous.

EEEEEEP!!

The Jackelope

So... we're buying a camper! WHOOOEEEE! It's something I've been wanting to do for a while (remember #14 on 30 Before 30?), and Brady and I had pretty casually discussed it a few times, but we'd never really gotten serious about it. However, this spring and fall I'm going to be in Hanksville most of the time, and as much fun as living in a tent 5 months out of the year sounds... I thought maybe I'd consider alternatives. One night just for funsies I looked on KSL to see how much the pop-up trailers generally run, and was a little disappointed to see that most of them were out of our price range. So then I decided to look at "actual" campers, and found a few for $500-800. I thought, 'we could manage that.' Then I brought it up to my friend Nate, whose response was, "I have one of those." And he sent me this picture.

Let me tell you what, my eyes about bugged out of my head. As we chatted about it for a bit, he said, "I've been thinking about offloading it." It took me a second to realize what he meant, and then I tried to gently prod him into admitting he'd like to sell it... (to me, obviously). He sent me a few more pictures, 

 and my want need for "the Jackelope" intensified... just LOOK at those adorable green appliances!!! Obviously it needs a little love, which is why he was interested in getting rid of it. Apparently he's had it for a couple of years and never got around to doing anything with it (meanwhile I'm mentally screaming "LET ME LOVE IT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE"). He told me he had to think about it, and I grudgingly agreed to let him think it over. I talked to Brady about it and he was totally on board (assuming he wouldn't charge us an exorbitant amount to take it off his hands)!

Eventually about a week later, I brought it up again (Nate and I talk quite a bit, so it wasn't like we hadn't had any contact between those two interactions) and he agreed to sell it to us for a measly sum that I won't even mention except to say it's EXTREMELY reasonable. Now all I can do is obsessively comb through Pinterest for fun ideas and jump on the camper renovation blog bandwagon. So here I'll post the rest of the pictures he sent me, and when we actually go pick it up in a couple of weeks I'll take some pictures of my own, and save you the sounds of me "squeeing" on video. ;)

We'll call this one Sadie's bed! ;)

Little bunk above the main bed... aka where I keep all my fun gear!!

 Some SERIOUS lovin' is needed, and I am SO excited to give it!!!!!