How I have Peter Pan Syndrome in a Bad Way

Gail Carson Levine, author of one of my favorite books, Ella Enchanted, was hired by disney to write a Disney Fairies book called Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg.  What makes her cool is that the last part of the dedication went something like this, "and to my first boyfriend, Peter Pan".  On the back jacket flap she went on to say she thought Wendy was an idiot for wanting to leave Neverland ( I love this woman).  Well, my dear friend Gail, you got one thing wrong and one thing right.  Peter wasn't your first boyfriend.  He was mine, you home wrecker.  But you are so right about Wendy.  She was an idiot.  Who the crap doesn't want to live forever in eternal youth with a vine clad Jeremy Sumpter? ...I mean Peter.  Really though, how cool is Neverland?  Are pirates and mermaids just not good enough for you Wendy?  Huh?  "Oh, no thanks Peter, I'd rather not spend my days flying around rainbows and sunsets.  It's just not for me."  Idiot.  Look Wendy, I let myself grow up and it's not all its cracked up to be.  It's definitely not rainbows and sunsets.  I can't really blame Tink for trying to off her.

Lets just take a moment to talk about our favorite Peter Pan movies.  Is there a bad one in the bunch?  No!  because nothing connected to Peter Pan is bad.  Nothing.  And there are so many wonderful British actors in them.

1. Good ol' classic Disney- The animated one.  The first intro I had to my flying boy in green tights.  I blame this movie for the Peter obsession.  My father blames this movie for me being able to talk him into dressing up in the green tights and going trick-or-treating with me as Peter and Tink when I was in Kindergarten.  Yeah, I have the best dad ever.

2. Hook:  Did ya'll know that the pirate that gets put in the boo box is Glenn Close in some fantastic pirate costume and makeup?  It's true.  IMDB it if you don't believe me. Best movie trivia ever.  Seriously, IMDB it and read it all.

3. Peter Pan 2003.  Jeremy Sumpter and Rachel Hurd-Wood give each other more chemistry filled looks than than Julia Roberts and Richard Gere did in any rom-com I have ever seen.  PS, my copy of this movie is missing.  Whoever borrowed it, I want it back!

4. Finding Neverland- Johnny and Kate.  Why are we not all best friends?  Oh yeah, it's because you are to busy making me cry!  Maybe it was just because this movie came out in a rough time in my life but I pretty much thought it was the saddest thing I had ever seen.

The common factor in all these movies?  TOO MANY EMOTIONS!  Loving Peter, feeling the jealousy of Tink, desperately wanting a treehouse like the lost boys, and crying when they leave Never Neverland, never to return.  That's the thing about J.M Barrie.  He uses the words in this story very carefully.  Does Neverland represent all the the things we yearn for but will never have?  Or at least those parts of our imagination we wish were true, but never will be?  That is what is so magical about it though.   The untouchable pieces of wishes that escape us, except for in our dreams.   As Tink tells Peter at the end of Hook, "You know that place between sleep and awake?  That place where you still remember dreaming?  That's where I'll always love you...Peter Pan.  That's where I'l be waiting."  Maybe in a way Neverland is real.  Maybe it truly is that place between sleep and awake, that place where anything is possible.  The place where we will all always love Peter Pan, who was so many of our first boyfriends.

In a small way I always thought that Peter Pan was robbed of a happy ending.  Wendy and all the lost boys leave him alone in Neverland.  He is left to look on through the window at what he will never have and never be.  At first, this was why I was so distressed when Kate Winslet's character dies at the end of Finding Neverland.  Is Peter Pan really just a tragedy wearing the disguise of a innocent children's story?  When I started writing this post though, I remembered that after Kate dies, it shows her entering Neverland as though it is her heaven.  She is brought into the realm of eternal childlike happiness.  Where adventure and peace are one in the same.  Where Peter, the symbol of all that is impossibly possible will always be waiting for us to open our windows and let him in.  This might be the real happy ending to Peter Pan.

My home girl Kate!

All right kids, I have been putting off writing a post on the half-blood prince that was just born because well, I might just be hipster enough to think, "Hey, this is so trendy right now, must not think it's cool!" But alas, it is cool.  My home girl Kate just reproduced with a prince!  For crying out loud, it doesn't get much cooler than that!  In one try Kate accomplished more than the six wives of Henry the eighth combined.  And did you see how great she looks after just popping out a baby?  There is a reason I want to be her best friend.  She can't do anything without making it look classy.  I like her so much I almost hate her.  What am I saying!  I could never hate you Kate!  Please come to my birthday party!

On to the little tyke-  George Alexander Louis.  I have always wanted to name my son Alexander.  Kate totally stole that one from me.  To quote the very deep and important movie, The Princess Diaries, "This is the kid who won the genetic lottery!"  Georgie, can I call you Georgie?  'cause I'm gonna call you Georgie, if there is one piece of advise I can give you about being royal it would be to watch the very deep and important movie, The Princess Diaries.  So many life lessons on how to be a successful royal.

Princess Mia lesson #1. Know who your friends are.  Don't trust Erik Von Detten.  He only wants you for your status.

Princess Mia lesson #2. It's okay to cry.  As a boy and a brit, you've got two strikes against you when it comes to crying.  If you need a lesson on how to do it right, watch Channing Tatum in The Vow.

Princess Mia lesson #3.  Julie Andrews should be everyones grandma.  I know you have Camilla and Queen Elizabeth II, and Carole Middleton, but if you can swing Julie Andrews as well, your life will be even better.  I know, I know, you didn't think that was possible.  But Julie Andrews makes impossible things happen.  Just watch Mary Poppins.

Princess Mia lesson #4.  Don't think about "Me".  And when I say me, I mean YOU!  As a freaking prince, let's be honest, you are going to have a pretty awesome life.  But despite what the media is going to say, it's not about you!  To quote Uncle Ben, "With great power come great responsibility."  Uncle Ben was right Georgie.  You have a great responsibility to make your rule as a prince not about you, but about how you can make other people's lives a little more awesome.   If you need an example, ask your dad about his mum.  I think she will give you some inspiration.  And Kid President.

Ha!  I bet you didn't know The Princess Diaries was so deep and important, right?  Well, it is.   And now after thinking about Erik Von Detten I want to watch Brink, another deep and important movie.  Who has a copy of Brink I can borrow?

British To Do List- Part 1: Time traveling good times

Tada! (jazz hands) Welcome to the resurrection of the blog!  The past year or so I turned my life upside down and decided to go to school and change careers.  Totally practical, right?  Anywhoo,  somewhere along the way my love of writing got pushed aside while I was getting life together. Now that that mess is over and done with, I realized that I  was missing something in my life.  A deep ache in my soul.  But what was it?   MY BLOG!!  Oh yeah!  I remember!  That thing where I got to write about my crazy love of all things across the pond.  What have I been doing that is more important than scribbling about the brits?  Nothing!  That's what!  So here I am, once again.  Home sweet home.  And without further ado.....

While I was in school, a dear friend announced to me that she was planing a trip to England and would be there for two weeks.  She then very innocently, but with an air of skepticism asked me if she should actually be there for two weeks because "what is there really to do there?"  What is there to do in England, you ask?  What is there to do?  I will tell you exactly what there is to do my fine feathered friend.

British To Do list: Part 1  TIME TRAVEL!

The following are places in England will take you back to some of the heyday good ol' times across the pond.

1.  Stonehenge- A henge of stone.

To borrow from Madeleine L'engle, It was a dark and stormy night. Or rather a dark and stormy day.  A few friends and I took the the train to Bath (see below paragraph) and from there a bus out to yonder Salisbury where the rolling green hills only slightly outnumber the sheep.  The drama of the gathering storm heightened the atmosphere of myth and magic surrounding the mystery that is Stonehenge.  As our trek led us to truly the middle of Nowhere, England, the sudden appearance of the massive circle of stones was more majestic than I could have ever expected.   My crass american self was thinking "How and why the crap does this exist?"  While my educated but nerdy british self couldn't get over the fact that I was not only was I experiencing my camelot fantasy's but also the feeling that I was romantically and  tragically living my final moments as Tess and my Angel was around here somewhere.  As my long hair was blown about under my hooded jacket, I truly felt like an Arthurian/Tragic Hardy character.  Merlin was bound to appear behind one of the hunks of rock at any moment and present me with excalibur.  How badly did I want to be Morgana?  Stonehenge is a must for any traveler, Even if you aren't obsessed with Arthurian legend.  Or upsetting british authors.  It's da bomb.

2. Bath- Austenland

Yesterday I watched the newest BBC version of Mansfeld park, the one with the chick from Doctor Who (Oh, so many posting possibilities about the Doctor!)  It wasn't my favorite Austin interpretation, but as it ended I couldn't help but smile.  And why did I have the goofy smile on my face you ask?  Good question.  The answer is:  because I had the incredibly cheesy but completely  honest thought--Maybe love does exist.  Fanny and Edmund found it.  And she had a lot of crap going against her.  But she still found someone who loves her, despite her imperfections.  This is what my old friend Jane A. keeps telling me over and over again in her stories.  Do I believe her?  I think I do.  The problem is, I tend to forget, which is why I am glad she reminds me.  And, after that mile long intro into why Bath is the coolest, I will get to the point.  Bath has everything a Jane Austin enthusiast could ask for.  One of Jane's houses, the Jane Austin Center (costumes, books, and awesome Austin experts to talk to), the Roman Baths, and the Royal Crescent.  Even cooler though than the shops and museums though is as you walk the streets, you will feel just like Anne Eliot or Cathy Morland.  Maybe I have an overactive imagination, what am I saying, of course I have an overactive imagination.  Did you read the paragraph about stonehenge?  What I am getting at is that Jane Austin helps me, helps us, return to a time when life was different from ours now.  Where politeness ruled.  Men stood when you entered a room.  Hats and capes where cool.  I wouldn't mind returning to a time when good old fashioned manners ran rampant.  Especially now when anyone can hide behind the anonymity of internet and be a big huge jerkface, Austinland reminds us not only that it's cool to be a nice person, but that maybe there are people out there who do love us.  Despite our imperfections.  In short, go to bath.  And read an Austin novel stat.


3.  The Globe- I was Shakespeared

As Danny Kay once said, "The theatre, the theatre, what happened to the theatre?"  10 points to whoever can name that movie.  I will tell you what happened to the theatre!  It burned down!  The original Globe did anyway.  Then it was torn down.  But all that matters now is that the Globe theatre was rebuilt and is happily housed in the middle of London.  It looks exactly like the original Globe where Shakespeare himself put on many of his famous plays.  Also, just like the original Globe, It doesn't cost a whole heck of a lot to go see a play there...if you want to stand through the whole play just like they did back in the days of the bard.  Which is what I did and I loved it!  I was just like the dirty peasants in the Elizabethan era that handed over a shilling to stand and watch a boy pretending to be a woman.  I imagine it wasn't much different than Vegas.  The time slipped away quickly as the storytelling took you back almost 500 years to the rocking renaissance.  Yeah, Shakes wasn't known for the shortness of his plays, but standing for 3 hours or so wasn't that bad.  And I will tell you the secret that makes it not so bad.   You can stand smack in the front and lean on the stage when you need a rest (bonus: you are so close to the actors you can see right up there noses) or stand by a pillar and lean against that.  You can also pay more and get a covered seat, but where's the fun in that!  Oh yeah, the Globe also has an open roof, which can be problematic when you are standing under said open roof and the heavens decide to dump rain on you for two hours while you are watching Geoffrey from Fresh Prince of Bel Air acting out Coriolanus.  True story.  Geoffrey made it worth it.  And honestly the rain made it a more dramatic production.  Just be sure to bring a poncho.

So, my friend, I was in England for months and still didn't get to do everything I wanted to do.  I like it that way though.  I will always have a reason to go back.  Stay tuned for part 2 of the to do list.

Running Full Speed Into Platform 9 and 3/4

So, I started school about a month ago and my life has sort of exploded.  Hence the stupid amount of time since my last post.  My deepest apologies.  To make up for it, I get really nerdy in this post.  Enjoy. And please share your fondest HP memories with me!

Summer, 2006:

I had just gotten familiar enough with London and the tube that I felt comfortable enough to venture out on my own.  And after studying the tube map long enough I figured out that I could go to Kings Cross station.  Wait, WHAT!  Kings Cross station!  The very gate way into the world of magic!  The home of platform 9 & 3/4!  The exact spot where the Hogwarts Express makes Berth!  No freaking way.

Kings Cross was calling my name.  I could see my name scrawled in green ink on parchment telling me that I was suddenly 11 years old again and harboring latent magical powers.  At night I dreamed of owls.  I had to go.  

So I did.

During the tube ride to Kings Cross I was so excited I looked like I was hopped up on Fizzing Whizbees and Acid Pops.  When I arrived, it was nothing like I expected it to, but still just a cool as I had hoped.  My friends and I searched around for platforms nine and ten.  "There it is!"  came a yell and we made a dash to the arched brick wall that held the sign "Platform 9 3/4".  Sigh.  I had made it.  I had fulfilled my destiny.  I knew what I had to do.  I shot forth with a burst of speed...

Summer 1999:

Middle school that year was going to be painful.  I was not looking forward to my ninth grade year because middle just stinks, stinks bad, like a sweaty seventh grader who'd just eaten a bean burrito.  But there I was.  No escape.

About a week into the school year, early August, I came home and threw my backpack on the floor and shouted "No me gusta la tarea!"  It was my second year of spanish and all I remembered how to say over the summer was "I hate homework!"  I was in fine pouting form.  I sauntered into the kitchen to graze and upon the counter I spied a book.  It had been thrown there without a second glance from my brother.  It turns out his bff had given him some new book called "Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone"  I liked books, so I picked it up.  The cover was an art deco kind of weird.  I turned it open and began to read.  The first few pages were stranger than the girly looking kid riding a broom on the cover.  I had to keep going.  I had never read anything that had clamped onto my imagination like that.  Before I had finished the first twenty pages I knew that the way I would look at stories would be forever changed.  Maybe this year wouldn't be so unbearable after all.  I began referring to my math teacher as Snape and my history teacher became Binns.

As the years passed and I waited for books four through seven to come out I made some of the most fantastic memories a person could make.  To quote Jo from the 90's version of the Little Women film "Late at night my mind would come alive with voices and stories and friends as dear to me as any in the real world. I gave myself up to it, longing for transformation"  Ron, Harry, and Hermione grew up with me.  As they began to make hard life decisions, I was beginning to make hard life decisions.  As they were learning about the darkness and light of the world, I was was too.  As they were starting to believe that they could fight the war and save the world, I was starting to believe that I could win my fight on self doubt and save myself.  

(Almost) Summer 2012:  

I there hasn't been a single year since 1999 that I haven't read a Harry Potter book.  I remember the first time read them and the last time I read them.  I remember all the times in between.   Every time I read the first book I remember running full speed into platform 9 and 3/4.  The real one.  I try to forget the fact that I ate brick.  But I will never forget the times I spent with HP.


This is a picture of the real Platform 9 and 3/4 at the King Cross in London.  I love that some worker sawed a trolly in half and stuck it in the wall.  Whoever you are I give 10 points to Gryffindor and a plethora of hugs and kisses for making my nerdy fantasies real.

My BFF: The BBC

Ah, the BBC.  What can I say really?  I love your pretty landscapes, your period costumes, your misunderstood british humor.  You have sucked away many hours of my life and I look forward to many hours of suckage in the future.  Thine only fault?  That us poor chaps in the colonies have wait to many a day to view your splendor before you make it across the pond.  Downton 3 won't make it here till 2013.  Is this a passive aggressive move towards us, Brits?  Hum?  Because if it is, I personally apologize for all that unpleasantness back in the 1700's.  If you decide to forgive us and let us watch your TV on the same days as they are on there, we would be ever so thankful.  So, without further ado: the List.

Top Ten BBC TV Shows:

 10. Berkley Square- I always find stories about nannies fascinating.  I’m not sure if I’m jealous of the rich people or the nannies.  Seriously.  It’s a conundrum. 

9. Foresyte Saga – So disturbing I couldn’t stop watching.  And it has the guy from Horatio Hornblower. 

8. Fawlty Towers- An oldie but a goodie.  I was first introduced to this in one of my film classes in college.  Thank you Mr. Samuelsen. Besides anything with John Cleese is a win. 

7.  Bleak House- I love hours of depressing TV.  It makes the happy ending unexpected. 

6. Merlin- Yes, the special effects look like a low budget Disney channel original movie, but I love me some Aurthurian legend mixed with teen angst.  Score.   

5. Sherlock-  The Moriarty in this version was way creepier than the bland ginger from the Robert Downy Jr. version.  Blah. 

4. Larkrise to Candleford- Honestly, I like this one because papa Timmons reminds me a heck of a lot of my papa. It's sort of uncanny.  If they would only bring Fisher back.  Sigh.  

3. Robin Hood-  My favorite battle cry came from my least favorite character of the show, “Today is a good day to die!”  My sister and I like to yell it at each other from across crowded rooms while charging.”  Thank you Little John.  And the fact that Richard Armitage is one of the main characters should have been enough to validate it’s place at number three. 

2. Downton Abby- Is there anyone out there who doesn’t like Downton Abby?  Seriously, if you’re out there make your presents known because I am doubting our existence. 

1. Doctor Who-  Was it ever really a question that this would be number one?  Last week when my cousin came over to see my sister in her wedding dress my mom made a comment about how my sister gets a special smile on her face when she is in her dress.  My cousin promptly responded with “that’s the look I get on my face when I watch Doctor Who.”  Wedding dress happiness=Doctor Who happiness.  Bless you cousin Jaclyn.  Bless you.  

Top Ten BBC Movies:

10. 39 Stepps- I was not expecting the ending.  I can respect that. 

9. Wives and Daughters- I can also respect a story about bratty step-sisters and a wicked step mother.  Disney got to me.

8. The Way We Live Now.  I like seeing Cillian Murphy in a movie when he’s not killing someone.  It’s refreshing.

7. Persuasion- It’s all about the Captain.

6.  Northanger Abby- Short, sweet, and to the point. Sort of the opposite of Breaking Dawn.  

5. Emma- It’s all just so pretty. 

4.Little Dorrit-  See above comment on Bleak House.  Dickens does it again. 

3. Sense and Sensibility- it may be blasphemous to say, but I like it better than the Emma Thompson 

version.  Sue me. 

2. Cranford-  Greatest collection of actresses ever.  I have never wanted to be an old lady so bad.  I know if Judy Dench just got to know me we would be BFF's.  

1. North and South- once again, two words: Richard Armitage.  ‘Nuff said.  

Now that my views have been forced upon thee, what say ye?  (Ha ha.  I made rhyme.)  But seriously, what did I miss?

The Time I Literally almost ran into Orlando Bloom

Warning: Written very quickly, may contain grammar mistakes.  Please forgive me, Martha.

One of the perks of living in Kensington, a.k.a  the swanky part of London, is that swanky people live there, including my favorite elf and yours, Orlando B.  Throughout my summer in London my flat-mates, as we like to call them in the motherland, would bang open the front door and re-enact thier dramatic encounter with the hunky pirate.  One girl twitched with adrenaline as she described her impromptu football (a.k.a. soccer to the un-schooled yank) game in Hyde Park with the star.

Another group jumped up and down as they told our enraptured group how they skillfully blended in with a fruit stand as they watched Orly eat his lunch at an unsuspecting cafe.  I admit it.  I was jealous.  Second only to J.K. Rowling herself, Orlando was the person I wanted to see most during my adventure in the Great Britain.  After all, it happened to the other girls in my flat, why not me?  Dang it! Why not ME!!  The weeks went by, however, and my Orlando was no where to be seen.  I had given up.  It was a pipe dream.

As my time in London was quickly coming to an end, I began to plan my backpacking trip through the rest of Europe.  I was crazy excited to see the rest of the continent, but also weirdly nervous to leave the city that I had grown to feel safe in.  The continent was foreign in every way possible and as the day came that I had to jump on the Chunnel to Paris, I was so scared I wanted to barf.  I had even called my parents the night before and had a breakdown.  My father calmly reassured me as I bawled like a toddler who had been left at a gas station.

Nevertheless, I packed my bags with shaking hands and began the journey to the train station.  My breathing quickened, my heart rate spiked, my stomach was in knots.  What was I thinking?  I couldn't jettison myself to a place that was full of American hating, snail eating, nude-sun bathing europeans!  I was no longer aware that my feet were still placing themselves in front of one another.  I was going to hyperventilate any moment and pass out cold on the stone street.  Just as this very thing was about to occur I looked up as tried to focus my eyes on something other than the ground.  There was a friendly looking group of men walking towards me on the side walk.

Because I was watching them and not my friend, who was walking in front of me, I didn't see her make a sudden about-face.  In the process of hitting the breaks, I brushed the group of guys who were now passing on my left.  I looked into my friends face to see why she had stopped. We were running late, which didn't do anything for my already frayed nerves.  She looked like she was doing an impersonation of an anime character who'd just seen her crush enter the room.  She clenched her teeth and breathed "Turn around"

I turned around.

And there he was. The Orlando Bloom.

I could have touched him.  He looked like he had just stepped off the set of one of the 'Pirates' films with his perfect amount of facial hair and bewildered look.  Gosh, I loved him.  And was about to say so when my friend, whose brain was still performing basic functions yanked me back into reality.  We were going to miss the train if we didn't haul 'A' to the tube stop.  I started walking again, this time with a dumb smile on my face and not a care in the world.

I was cured!  And Orlando Bloom was my prescription.  The paralyzing fear of navigating the unknown was no longer griping me.  As Bilbo Baggins once said "I'm quite ready for another adventure."  I was Bilbo Baggins, ready to step off into the Grey Havens, or at least something as equally uncharted.

I like to think that the Heavens smiled on me that day.  And if I ever happen to literally almost run into Orlando Bloom again I would thank him for helping a very scared little girl have the nerve to take the biggest leap of her life.

The 3 P's

Lemme' 'splain:

The birth of this blog came about because a good friend once said to me "Hey Erika, you should start a blog on Britan."  and I said "Ok."  so here we are.  

Now that that's out of the way:

1st Post:  The 3 P's of London.  

If I am writing a blog on all things British, it should be obvious that I love England like a fat kid loves cake.  So, for the first post I am going to write about the 3 P's of London, or three things I love about London that start with the letter 'P'.

1st P- Public Transportation-  Ah, my Oyster Card.  The one card to rule them all.  The Oyster card is the magical pass to the wonder that is the London Tube.  I miss riding the Tube almost more than anything in England.  I must admit, that at first I was frightened of you, Tube.  The dire warnings to "Mind the Gap" or else was a bit intimidating.  The endless possibilities of where you could take me where overwhelming.  What if I got on the wrong train and ended up on the street where I'd meet my fate with Jack the Ripper.  But after mastering your color coded maps, I understood.  You gave me freedom! You gave me giant advertisements!  You gave me strange people to sit next to!  

2nd P- Parks.  Having lived in Kensington, Hyde park/Kensington Garden is my favorite place in London.  My flat was across the street from the park and many magical things happened there.  I can honestly say nothing is more peaceful than gazing across the Serpentine at sunset.  I spent many a evenings siting with my good friend, the Peter Pan statue, writing and people watching.  There is a tree in the park that has old fairy carvings.  The atmosphere in Kensington is enough to make you believe fairies could really live there.  No wonder that is the place where JM Barrie would sit and write Peter Pan.  I wouldn't doubt if Kensington was a secret gateway to Neverland.  

3rd P- Performances.  The West freakin' End!  Yeah, so what?  I'm kind of a theatre geek.  I'll save my thoughts on specific shows I saw for another post on another day, but in general, The West End was the birthplace of many of my loves.  Phantom, Les Mis, anything with Ramin Karimloo. Oh, Ramin.  (If you don't know who Ramin Karimloo is, you won't regret spending some google time on him.  The man's got talent coming out of his butt.)

To Sum up:  While I was only there for a summer, London is constantly calling me home.  

Future post to include:  Doctor Who, 2012 London Olympics, My girl crush on Kate Middleton, the time I literally almost ran into Orlando Bloom, My BFF-the BBC, Running full speed into platform 9 and 3/4.

Picture:  My humble flat in Kensington.  I lived on the bottom floor.  Check out Ramin Karimloo's official website at the bottom of the post (I know Ramin is not exactly British, Canadian is close, but he is married to a Brit and has dwelt there for some time now.)

raminofficial.com