Challenged.

Are any of you planning to participate in the upcoming A to Z challenge?

 I have been dragging my heels about adding my name to the list.  I have been following the updates to the main page like a zealot.  And still... I have chosen my theme, have an ongoing list mapped out A-Z and am vigorously trying to fill in a subject for each letter.  It is something that is getting ongoing mental pushes on a daily basis.  I am down to the letters O and X.  They stare at me like two redheaded stepsisters that remain dateless for the Big Dance.  I glare back. "I have NOTHING for you," my brain screams.  And until I do I can't commit to The List.  Gah.  She bangs her head into the wall behind her desk.  Check that.  She only thinks about it.  The migraine already hurts enough.

If this is the first you have heard of the A to Z Challenge, it is a daily writing challenge for the month of April.  The sign up is now so that you have plenty of time to prepare.  The idea is that you write on a Themed Subject so that your readers get used to your topic.  (You don't have to write on a theme if you don't want... you can write on anything and everything if you so choose.)   It is every day but Sunday.  You can prepare all of your writing before April so that your time is spent reading and commenting, so that it isn't overwhelming in April.  The intent of the challenge is for you to meet new bloggers who are writing about things that you are interested in reading, and vice versa. 

So, let's flip to another page in the notebook.  Alex Cavanaugh is going to host a challenge on his blog in March, in the guise of Blog Hop, to list your Top Ten Movies of All-Time.

Are you freaking kidding me????  Can't we pick a genre, a decade, something?  Ergo, I have a running list that gets longer by the day.  Each movie that I think to add to the list triggers another movie.

Does anyone remember THE PLASTIC JOY AWARDS????

If you are scratching your head over that shout of frustration... that was an award intended to be fun (and OMG it was... so so fun) regarding fictional crushes.  However, I have this love of YouTube that is unmatched.  I maintain that they have laced it with visual crack cocaine.  Don't know how, but it's there.  And this award got slightly out of control.  I think you were supposed to choose five fictional crushes.  I think I chose 30.  Whatevs.  And it went for 3 days.  Again, it is the JOY of the award.  And no one says you HAVE to do it a certain way.  I mean the rules aren't set in STONE.  No one flogs you or anything if you go outside the boundaries.  A little.  Or a lot.  Moving on...

I think my quandary lies in the fact that I am not really known for following rules very well.  I am already looking for work-arounds with the Top 10 list.  Seriously... if there is a movie series... you should be able to count the entire series as ONE movie, right????  If not, I am thinking of panning them all.  I can't choose one movie out of a series and skip the rest.  Do you feel me?

So, what do YOU think?

So, am I the only person who would have trouble picking 10 All-Time Favorite Movies?  Does this Blog Hop sound like fun to You?  What about the A to Z Challenge... are you participating?  Does it sound like something you want to investigate further?   Do you prefer the idea of writing within the context of a theme or would you rather just fly by the seat of your pants?  Do you feel like you need to have all of your letters covered BEFORE you enter or are you ready to enter NOW?

THE LIST, THE RULES, THE PASSING OF THE TORCH

This is the week in review. On Monday, I rolled out The Plastic Joy Award, which was awarded to me by Linda over at Bar Mitzvahzilla. I feel fairly certain that it is the first and last award that I shall be receiving from her. However, I have enjoyed this award so much more than one person should, and, therefore I thank her from the bottom of my...heart. If you still haven't checked out Linda's blog, you really should take a moment and do so because she is a wonderful writer. She is very funny and I enjoy all of her blogs enormously. I also need to follow through and bestow this honor on to five other people. I will do that at the end of the list. I need to think on it.

Okay, I rolled out a bunch of crushes along with description and (almost always) video footage. I discerned 14 characteristics that kept repeating among my crushes. Actually, Phoenix. over at Res Ipsa Loquitur, is getting an award for picking out one characteristic that I missed. She picked up on it fairly quickly and I included it in the 14. Savvy girl. And Chris. over at A Deliberate Life, caught three! She found one right away (like Phoenix) and two more yesterday. Do I even know my own crush patterns??? So, now we are up to 16 things to look for peeps. If it helps, only two characteristics are physical. The rest are all personality traits. Of course, not every crush has them all, but if you see it at least four times there is a pattern. I have one special case where there are only three of these fellows who share the same trait, but I still see the pattern. If I had more space, I would have had to include another crush with the same quality. So, it's a pattern. If you identify something I missed, I will make you a special button for your observational skills. As I pointed out in an earlier blog, I am looking for one word descriptions or short phrases (like "jerk" or "out of work loser"). Obviously, both of those traits are not correct answers, but you get the idea. I am going to list them all with the date of their footage, so that you can go back and watch any that you are scratching your heads on. Isn't this fun?

Email me your responses at rarichards68@gmail.com. I have kept track of the answers you have sent me thus far. However, if you want to repeat yourself, that is okay by me. I have been known to do that very thing. It's a pattern.

Monday, June 21
1) Larry Paul, played by Robert Downey, Jr, on Ally McBeal
2) Richard Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, on Castle
3) Michael Guerin, played by Brendan Fehr, on Roswell
4) Lloyd Dobler, played by John Cusack, in Say Anything
5) Jack, played by Matthew Fox, on Lost
6) Sawyer, played by Josh Holloway, on Lost
(They were my primary Lost crushes.)

Tuesday, June 22
1) Danny Zuko, played by John Travolta, in Grease
2) Angel, played by David Boreanz, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
3) Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, on 24
4) Logan Echolls, played by Jason Dohring, on Veronica Mars
5) Gerry Kennedy, played by Gerard Butler, in P.S. I Love You
6) Luke Danes, played by Scott Patterson, on The Gilmore Girls
7) Zack Mayo, played by Richard Gere, in An Officer and a Gentleman
8) Hawkeye Pierce, played by Alan Alda, on M*A*S*H

Wednesday, June 23

1) Lucky Spencer, played by Jonathan Jackson, on General Hospital
2) Malcolm Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion, on Firefly and Serenity
3) Hawkeye (Nathaniel Poe), played by Daniel Day Lewis, in The Last of the Mohicans
4) Paul Buckman, played by Paul Reiser, on Mad About You
5) Clark Kent/The Red-Blue Blur, played by Tom Welling, on Smallville
6) Oliver Queen/The Green Arrow, played by Justin Hartley, on Smallville
7) Carlos Ricardo Manoso, aka Ranger, in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
8) Mick St. John, played by Alex O'Loughlin, on Moonlight
9) Dr. Pete Wilder, played by Tim Daly, on Private Practice
10) Alex Wyler, played by Keanu Reeves, in The Lake House

Friday, June 25

1) Johnny Cash, played by Joaquin Phoenix, in Walk the Line
2) Jake Green, played by Skeet Ulrich, on Jericho
3) Frank Sullivan, played by Dennis Quaid, in Frequency
4) Sealy Booth, played by David Boreanz, on Bones
5) Seth Cohen, played by Adam Brody, on The O.C.
6) David Addison, played by Bruce Willis, on Moonlighting
7) Mr. Darcy, played by Matthew Macfayden, in Pride and Prejudice
8) Jason Morgan, played by Steve Burton, on General Hospital
9) Batman/Bruce Wayne, played by Christian Bale, in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight
10) Damon Salvatore, played by Ian Sommerholder, on The Vampire Diaries

Saturday, June 26

1) Ben Covington, played by Scott Speedman, on Felicity
2) Noel Crane, played by Scott Foley, on Felicity
3) Michael Vaughn, played by Michael Vartan, on Alias
4) Tristan, played by Brad Pitt, in Legends of the Fall
5) James Barrie, played by Johnny Depp, in Finding Neverland
6) Adam Rove, played by Christopher Marquette, on Joan of Arcadia
7) Aidan Shaw, played by John Corbett, on Sex and the City
8) Robert McCallister, played by Rob Lowe, on Brothers & Sisters
9) Logan Huntzberger, played by Matt Czuchry, on The Gilmore Girls
10) Sonny Corinthos, played by Maurice Benard, on General Hospital

Sunday, June 27

1) Dr. Derek Shepherd, played by Patrick Dempsey, on Grey's Anatomy
2) Dr. Alex Karev, played by Justin Chambers, on Grey's Anatomy
3) Dr. Mark Sloane, played by Eric Dane, on Grey's Anatomy
4) Henry DeTamble, played by Eric Bana, in The Time Traveler's Wife
5) Dean Winchester, played by Jensen Ackles, on Supernatural
6) John Bender, played by Judd Nelson, in The Breakfast Club
7) Ren McCormack, played by Kevin Bacon, in Footloose
8) Leopold, Duke of Albany, played by Hugh Jackman, in Kate & Leopold
9) Patrick Jane, played by Simon Baker, on The Mentalist
10) Noah Calhoun, played by Ryan Gosling, in The Notebook


Okay, well I have had some time to think while I was doing all of that typing. Keep in mind that the proper way to do this award is to list five fictional crushes and be done with it. You can insert photos, but no video footage is required. I just twisted this award around to suit me. And you don't have to hand out any prizes or anything like that. You do have to pass it along to five other people. 'Nuff said. These are the people that I will most enjoy reading for various reasons of my own....

Chris over at A Deliberate Life ~ I love this blog. It is always inspirational and makes me think. I really missed her while she was on vacation. She does the Saturday Snark, but that is as close to fluff as she usually goes. I am looking forward to some whimsy from her.

Phoenix at Res Ipsa Loquitur ~ I love this blog and she hasn't been writing. She is fabuloso about commenting and I have discovered that we share similar tastes in everything from fictional men to books/quotes to picking bad husbands the first go-round. I am curious to see what men I forgot. She can pick up my slack:-)

Mitzi at Southern Style ~ I am fairly new to her blog and she to mine. Mitzi's blog always has a genteel feel to me. So, I know that however she does this award (and it won't be the way that I did it), it will somehow be classy. And that will be a feat because she still has to work with that awful picture, but I know that she will pull it off!

Yenta Mary the Food Floozie ~ I am giving her this award simply because she is being pelted by awards of late. Nah, that isn't why I am doing it, though she is being awarded nearly daily. Actually, I am curious to see what she will do with an award that doesn't have anything to do with food or if she will somehow work food into this award. In other words, my curiousity is totally piqued.

Kate at The Cow Jumped Over The Moon ~ I am giving her this award simply because she said she wasn't sure she could think of five fictional crushes. Say what? My mind runneth over and you aren't sure??? So, I am challenging you to do it, and I pass this to you with the certainty that you can do it if you put your mind to it.

THROW A BUCKET OF WATER ON ME...

Okay, this is the last day of crushes. I know that you are going to find this hard to believe, but I decided to list no more than 10 (and wished that I had started out like that) because I had more crushes than I had room at the end. I know that you are scratching your head on that. How can this be? Yes, it is true. I had to painstakingly make a list for these last ten and it hurt. Part of me wanted to cheat with my men from Grey's Anatomy, like I did with my men from Lost, and just use one video that picked them all up. I even found one, but I realized that the problem with that was that it didn't really show which men were my primary crushes and why. In other words, it was a cop-out. However, as I had to hatchet out some of my favorites, it became really tempting.

Tomorrow, I will post a list of all the crushes with the dates of their videos. Again, I am still at 14 traits. I am still flexible with your button or buttons for your sidebar to reflect the accuracy of your ability to track my patterns of crushing. I think that everyone who is going to respond to this will have their emails in by Thursday at midnight, Eastern time. I will post the results on Friday's blog and you can let me know how you want your prize(s).

Remember to turn off my music player. It's the last day to ogle my friends. Let's enjoy it.

1) Dr. Derek Shepherd, played by Patrick Dempsey, was the first doctor on Grey's Anatomy to steal my heart. Of course, he was the first to break it, too. And then put it back together. Love hurts sometimes. When Derek moved to Seattle he was still married (he sorta forgot to mention that) and was in some emotional pain (an excuse, but not a good one) and was really a train wreck. The thing was that he appeared all put together and emotionally healthy. Looks can be deceiving. Anyway, it became this emotional roller coaster when his wife, Addison, showed up because he had to own up and face himself. He did what he thought was the right thing (reconciling), but it wasn't, because his heart wasn't in it, and it was a lie. So, he and Addison got a divorce and then he got to find out who he really was. And so did we. And it was love...




2) Dr. Alex Karev, played by Justin Chambers, is a tough cookie, doesn't let people in, isn't an easy guy to like, let alone love. Alex Karev is an onion. It is an ordeal loving him. You have to constantly peel layers. Just when you think you are making progress, guess what you get? More layers. The guy is determined not to be hurt. Very few people make it past that outer core. He let Izzie in just a little and she left him for Denny. He let Rebecca in and she left. He thought about letting Addison in and she left. Denny died, Rebecca came back, went crazy, then Izzy finally let him in, got cancer, went crazy, and left. People leave. Right now, he is tangled up with Lexie, but that spells disaster, because her heart is with Mark Sloane, whether she will admit it or not. I can see the door slamming. I feel a tear coming on. Oh yeah, it's love...




3) Dr. Mark Sloane, aka McSteamy, played by Eric Dane, spent his first year (at least) at Seattle Grace (on Grey's Anatomy) mostly pissing people off. He slept with anything female that moved and they were more than willing (and happy) until he moved on, which he always did. It created an "unhappy" working environment. There was one really hilarious scene when Dr. Miranda Bailey called all of the nurses together and told them to knock it off. They knew he was a whore and they should get over it. She defended him by calling him a whore. Hilarious. Well, it all turned around when he actually started dating "Little Grey." Once he and Lexie got into a relationship everything changed. It was love...




4) Henry DeTamble, played by Eric Bana, is a character from the book The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I haven't actually seen the movie, so that makes showing the youtube footage a bit odd, I know. I wanted to see the film, but never got round to it. I think I was afraid it would disappoint. The book was very fresh and it was so good. It was one of those books that I cried my way through. For me, that is the highest of accolades. As the title suggests, Henry time traveled. He had no control over it, though he was pulled toward the people that he loved. That meant that he often time traveled to see his wife when she was only a child. She knew him all her life, but it always meant she was waiting. Of course, the same could be said for him. He was always waiting to whisked away without warning. Just thinking about this book is making me cry all over again. It was love...




5) Dean Winchester, played by Jensen Ackles, is a hunter on the show Supernatural with his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki). They don't hunt wild game or go fishing. It isn't one of those kind of shows. They hunt demons and other supernatural bad stuff. It's a family occupation. Their mother was killed by a demon and their dad became a hunter. Dean in the earlier seasons was a bit more light hearted. He smiled, joked, and flirted occasionally. However, he is all about the job. because if he and Sam mess up people die. In fact, Sam did die and Dean traded his soul for Sam's life. That meant that Dean literally went to hell for Sam. You don't make that deal lightly. An angel, Castiel, pulled Dean out, but a person isn't the same after spending what feels like an eternity in hell. On top of that, Lucifer has been set free from hell and Dean is the only person who can save the world from the Apocalypse. In this video, Dean and Sam, along with two other hunters, Jo and her mom, are in a town where they know Lucifer will be. They have a weapon that they hope will kill him. Jo saves Dean's life when he gets taken down by the (invisible) hell hounds, but she is mortally injured in the process. The explosion at the end is Jo and her mom blowing the building (with themselves and the hellhounds inside) so that Dean and Sam can finish the mission. It was love...



6) John Bender, played by Judd Nelson, was the bad boy in The Breakfast Club. He acted rough, talked tough, and made it clear that he didn't care what anyone thought. At least, at first. When the group took their "field trip" into the school and they were all going to get caught, John Bender took the fall for them all. What kind of "bad guy" does that? The truth be told, The Breakfast Club was my coming of age movie. It was the movie that I saw in high school that allowed me to actually see things the way that they really are. I loved all of those characters, because they walked in looking at themselves, and everyone else one way, and walked out seeing each other a totally different way. I actually had crushes on all of them just for having the courage to be real and honest and true. It was love...




7) Ren McCormack, played by Kevin Bacon, brought dancing and chaos to a small town in Footloose. My friend, Shelle, saw the movie before I did and she said, "I knew that I was going to love it before the movie started. As soon as the parade of shoes started across the screen, I was hooked." Yep. That is how high schoolers think. I know I am showing my age, but that movie came out the summer before my junior year of high school and I loved it. Ren was gorgeous (obviously) but he was more than that. He believed in music, dancing, the right to read, that censorship is wrong and was strong enough to stand up and say so in a town that didn't want to hear it. That took guts, particularly when you're the new kid. I admired the crap out him. It was love...




8) Leopold, Duke of Albany, played by Hugh Jackman, accidentally time travels to present day New York in Kate & Leopold. I am a sucker for all movies Hugh Jackman and all things time travel, so this was a no brainer. Naturally, he didn't fit in well. It wasn't just the technology that set him apart, but manners and the way people treat people. I suppose that there are jackasses in all time periods, but there are gentlemen and then there are "gentlemen." And Leopold was the latter. *sigh* He does all of those things that women love, not because he knows that we expect it, and will get mad if we don't get it, but because he thinks it is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, I think he may be the only man on my list who actually embraces this trait. However, he is also smart, funny, charming, honorable, loyal, and all around good person. It was love...




9) Patrick Jane, played by Simon Baker, is wary of all things psychic because he pretended to be one for his entire life. However, he is wicked observant and uses his powers for good on The Mentalist. Patrick is charming, funny, cunning, sly (is that the same as cunning?), deeply hurt, cares more about others than he would like to admit, wary of attachments, and extremely handsome. Right from the start I knew it was love...

You can click here to watch the video.


10) Noah Calhoun, played by Ryan Gosling, is another one of my favorite books come to life on the big screen. I read The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks, shortly after he wrote it and I cried through the last half of the book. It is very difficult to read and cry at the same time. I saw the movie many years later. I know that they tinkered with the ending to give it some flair, but they didn't alter the integrity of the story, so I can live with that. What also helped me was that there was enough distance between when I read the book and when I saw the film that my "vision" of what the characters looked like wasn't fresh anymore. So, it was love...

You have to click here to watch the clip.


I know that you are going to find this hard to believe, but I was left holding the bag on several crushes that didn't make the list. One of the most significant, was the book The Outsiders. For those of you who have followed my blog for a while, you are aware that this book made an enormous impression on me. I gave a Sunrise Sermon on The Outsiders. (I just found the sermon intact. It was worse than I remembered.) Part of the problem was the youtube footage and the other part was I couldn't define my crush. I liked them all. Another biggie was Duncan MacCloud from the Highlander TV series. And Gary Hobson from Early Edition, played by Kyle Chandler. I even had the footage from youtube, but not the space. Oh well, they won't be included on the final list, but you will know that it was a tough call.

I KNOW THERE IS A PATTERN HERE SOMEWHERE

I have had a couple of you send me your guesses about my patterns in the comments. I was thrilled that you are actually putting on your thinking caps and looking for them. However, I would prefer that you send them to me in email. If I could figure out how to put my email addy in my sidebar, I would do that. Since I am not that techy, it is rarichards68@gmail.com and I will try to remember to include it in each post. I have it in all of the HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY posts. By the way, that will go off the same as always, in case you were worried. I will be setting my crushes aside and focusing on you and your blogs. Also, I promise that this will wrap up no later than Sunday. One week. If I can't finish this in one week... well, God help us all.

Since you have begun to float me some of your guesses, it has forced me to actually write down my patterns. So far, I have found 14. Many of my crushes have more than one of those attributes. Some have only one. Hope that helps. You can let me know how you want your awards. If you want the individual ones or a single award indicating how many of the patterns you found. I am so flexible it is scary.

Don't forget to turn off the music at the bottom of the page.

1) Lucky Spencer, played by Jonathan Jackson, is indeed the son of the infamous Luke and Laura Spencer, who graced the cover of Time Magazine (at least I think it was Time, maybe it was Newsweek). Whatever, it was a BIG DEAL. The Spencers rolled back into Part Charles when Lucky was ten or so, but it was in 1996 (when this clip was taken) that Cupid pulled back that bow and shot his arrow. For those of you who know the story; it hurt quite a bit, but it definitely was love...




2) Malcolm Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion, was in another wonderful Joss Whedon television series, Firefly. It lasted all of one season. There was a huge fan outcry. Unfortunately, it was not enough for the network to revive the series. However, the storyline wrapped with the blockbuster movie Serenity. This particular clip is taken from Firefly. It was love...




3) Hawkeye (Nathaniel Poe), played by Daniel Day Lewis, in The Last of the Mohicans was another case of instant crush. It didn't help that I was reading books by Lucia St. Clair Robson at the time on various native american tribes. She is a librarian and writes very detailed accounts of how the tribes lived. I could very well understand how these two way of lives were not coming together. Furthermore, I was siding with the indians (at least most of them). It wasn't even remotely a black and white situation. If not for the women, Hawkeye and his brother and father would have stayed out of it. Wherever you go, just stay alive. I will find you. It was love...



4) Paul Buckman, played by Paul Reiser, on Mad About You, made me laugh for so many years. He and Jamie (Helen Hunt) had marital woes, but they laughed a lot. Of course they did, it was a sitcom. It was supposed to be funny. However, they often showed the underbelly of married life, which isn't all that funny, and worked their way through it. I really was mad about him because it was love...




5) Clark Kent, played by Tom Welling, is a long-standing crush. My obsession with Smallville is not a well kept secret. In fact, as I was mentally writing this particular post in bed, I realized I'd rambled on for about 20 minutes. Eeeks. I guess what I love about Smallville is that the writers got to fill in the backstory. Everyone knows Superman and (probably) loves him. This guy isn't Superman. He's Clark Kent. Superman doesn't exist yet. It will make you think twice about Superman in the future. People always think of him as Superman wearing the disguise of Clark Kent. He's actually Clark Kent wearing the disguise of Superman.
6) Oliver Queen, played by Justin Hartley, is now in residence is Smallville. He is one of the members of what is becoming The Justice League. Other members come and go. If you aren't up to date on your comics, Oliver Queen is Green Arrow. While Clark Kent has yet to fully embrace his other identity, Oliver is just the opposite. He challenges Clark's thinking about what his responsibility is with this gift that he has and how he will use it. Oliver provides the balance (in a good way) for Clark, at least most of the time. You can call me twisted, but I don't care. In both of these cases, it was love...


7) Carlos Ricardo Manoso, AKA Ranger, can be found in the Stephanie Plum series written by Janet Evanovich. They are numbered to keep you on track. I can't say that I fell in love with him in her first book, ONE FOR THE MONEY. I think that it was in THREE TO GET DEADLY that my crush really began to heat up. Fortunately, I found some of my Stephanie Plum books and felt like sorting through them to get you some juicy Ranger references. Here is what Stephanie Plum has to say about Ranger:

"Ranger had been my mentor when I'd started in the business and was one very badass bounty hunter. In this case, bad meaning ultracool. He'd been one of those army guys who went around disguised as the night, eating tree bark and beetles, scaring the bejeezus out of emerging third-world insurgents. He was a civilian now, of sorts, sometimes working for Vinnie as an apprehension agent. He supposedly lived in the 'hood among his Cuban relatives, and he knew things I'd never, ever know."

"He wore his black hair slicked back into a ponytail, dressed in black and khaki, had a washboard belly, castiron biceps and the reflexes of a rattler."

"... the only time Ranger wouldn't look out of place would be standing in a lineup between Rambo and Batman."

"Ricardo Carlos Manoso. Master of the two-syllable sentence. Superhero at large."

"I picked my way around pots and examined my door. The two Yale locks were intact, the bolt was thrown, the chain was attached. My conclusion was that Ranger had knocked the pots over when he slid under the doorjamb."

"No one knew where Ranger lived. I had Norma run a check on him once at the DMV and his address turned out to be an empty lot."

"Ranger. No point in asking how he'd gotten in when the windows and doors were closed and locked. Ranger had ways."

And there you have it. I need a fan. It was definitely love...


8. Mick St. John, played by Alex O'Loughlin, played the sexy vampire detective in Moonlight. Given all of the vampire interest, I was shocked that it lasted only one season. There was so much talent, good storytelling, it wasn't a Buffy/Angel rehash, yet had merit all of its own. It was short-lived, but it was love...




9)Dr. Pete Wilder, played by Tim Daly, hit a homerun with me right away. Addison hadn't even officially moved to LA and Private Practice; this was from the episodes stuck into Grey's Anatomy's as a teaser. Boy, did it ever! Turns out that he's the doctor who thinks outside the box. He is into non-traditional medicine and things like acupuncture. That doesn't mean that he isn't a surgeon or jump through those hoops. It only means that he sees a bigger picture. As soon as I saw his bigger picture, he had me hook, line, and sinker. You did notice that he was gorgeous, right? It was love...




10) Alex Wyler, played by Keanu Reeves, started a "long distance" relationship with Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) in the movie The Lake House. She moved out of the lake house and he moved in. She left a letter in the mail box and he got it. The glitch was that she left it in 2006 and he got it in 2004. And, thus, began a love affair by mail that transcends the experience. One of my favorite scenes of the movie was when they spent the day together on a walking tour. He left her a letter with specific destinations that they would walk together that day. Granted, he was doing it in 2004, and she in 2006. At the end of the walk, he had spray painted on a brick building "Thank you for taking this walk with me today" or something like that. Other people had graffiti painted over it in places and around it, etc. However, you could still see it. When someone defaces a building for you, then you know it was love...

You have to click here to watch the video.

IT WAS LOVE...

I've actually been super-excited about this award for a while now. When you find out what it is, it will confirm every suspicion you have ever had that I am a total dork and complete loser. The weird thing is that I can totally live with that. The reason that I have been sitting on it is that I have been trying to figure out how to manipulate the award and play it my way. I know... the nerve of some people. Finally, I just decided to break all of the rules and do it how I wanted. It was the only way I was going to have any fun with it at all. It's my blog and I'll lie if I want to. Actually, I will tell you the actual rules of the award and then I will do it the way I want. So, there you have it.

The first rule is to thank the person who gave you the award. That person is Linda Pressman over at Bar Mitzvahzilla. Linda, I cannot thank you enough for this award. But, I must say this on behalf of my blog readers: What in God's name were you thinking when you gave me this award???? Don't you read this blog? That said, I think this is fantastic. What is this award? Well, get a load of this picture. It is bizarre and gives some insight into where this is going. It is the Plastic Joy Award. A twisted person decided on the photographic representation for this award, but the award itself is fictional crushes. Let that sink in.....



I know, the picture is scary. Let's move past that. The rules dictate that you are supposed to share five fictional crushes. Say what? This is where my head exploded. Five???? My problem with this is that any good book series, TV series, possibly a movie... there was very likely a crush in there somewhere. Not always, but seriously. If I am watching a TV series every week for years, there is a crush involved. If there is a book series that I buy as soon as it comes out, there is a crush there. If I am crying like a baby, at any time, during a movie: crush. I fell in love at some point. Of course it wasn't with the actor because I don't know that guy. It was with the character. In fact, if I read a book and the actor "kills" my character in a movie that really ticks me off. So there.

I have come across this award before AND I have read about other people's crushes before. The thing that I discovered with all of those reads is that if I didn't watch your show, read your book, see your movie, I don't know what you're talking about. I am not "getting it." I know I hit you guys with youtube footage all of the time. I try to be choosy. In fact, I am trying to be choosier. I know that it is not all that interesting to watch something you're not into. So, I have been uber-selective about my footage even if I haven't been able to narrow my playing field. Yeah, I have lots of crushes. In fact, way too many for this post.

So, we are going to make this fun. I am taking a page from Chris's playbook and I'm not even going to try and put them all in one post. I will post a couple at the end of every blog. And, to make it fun, there will be prizes ~ of sorts. I don't really have anything of value (remember my bankruptcy?) but I made awards like this one:



I have discovered that I have PaTtErNs with my crushes. Who knew? Some are fairly obvious. Others are better hidden. When you figure one out, email me. If you are right, you will get one of my awesome awards for your sidebar. So cool, right?

Anyway, I will try to include youtube footage that actually gives you a sense of the character. Meaning dialogue. Sometimes that is hard to come by (believe me) and sometimes you can actually get it with footage set to music if it is well done. However, I will always shoot for the former. In the cases of my book crushes, well you just get the words. They stand alone.

After posting my crushes, I am supposed to pick five people to pass the award on to and notify them of this honor. Okay. Those are the rules.

Remember to turn off the sound at the bottom of the page.

In no particular order, we shall take a look at some of my noteworthy crushes:

1) Larry Paul, played by Robert Downey, Jr., joined the cast of Ally McBeal back in 1990something. I don't research this stuff. I lived it. There is this part of me that wants to write on and on and on about how electric, dynamic, amazing, etc. this duo was. However, I did find actual dialogue on youtube of them, so you can see it for yourself. It was love...




2) Richard Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, is CASTLE. He's a mystery writer who works with the police, specifically Detective Kate Beckett, to help them (her) solve cases. She is the inspiration for his newest series of novels and his heroine, Nikki Heat, is based on her, which she says drives her crazy. It's smart, funny, and gorgeous. I meant he's smart, funny, and gorgeous. It was love...



3) Michael Guerin, played by Brendan Fehr, and his relationship with Maria DeLuca (Majandra Delfino) was not the primary romance/storyline running on the TV series Roswell. However, it was the only engaging one. You are going to watch this youtube footage and think this boy is too young for me! Of course he is. He is my high school crush. And he's older than he looks (snark). It was love...




4) Lloyd Dobler, played by John Cusack, in Say Anything rocked my world. I honestly couldn't believe that youtube didn't have better footage than the movie trailer. However, the trailer is pretty good. "I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen." Crushing. Who didn't fall in love with him the moment he stood outside her window holding his boom box over his head? Peter Gabriel's singing In Your Eyes and it was love...



5) Sometimes we get sucked in to a show for a myriad of reasons; I admit that a handful of handsome men can be one of them. However, it isn't enough to make me commit to it. Especially not for years! It takes good writing to keep me around. Now, if you can mix those two things together, you have dynamite. However, I didn't think you wanted to watch a bunch of videos because of one show, so shake out your umbrellas, because I feel a storm rolling in. It was love...




Well, that is it for today. There will be more tomorrow. I need a cool drink. Oh, and I haven't decided who to pass this award on to yet. I am still feeling a bit lightheaded. I will get back to you on that....