welcome to elaney!

We used to have a fun, really quirky time with Reader Isa back in the day.  There was a lot of singing in cars and dressing up in costume.  There was a lot of giggling doing our homework together and a lot of decorating stuff with paint pens.  None of that sounds that different from your typical perky 16 year olds perhaps; and truthfully, it’s a bit challenging to articulate in a blog post what growing up with Reader Isa was really like.

Reader Isa is different than other people, and her influence has had a tremendous impact on me.  She’s taught me so much about being comfortable in my own skin, being creative, and mostly, what abundant faith really looks like.  I am forever grateful for her, but that’s enough sweet talk for now.

SO!  Yesterday, we did a total throwback to our giggly, high school selves and were extras on a TV show set.  As in, we applied, took a day off of work / got a babysitter (respectively), and arrived promptly at our stated “call time.”  It. Was. A. Blast.  Why?

1)  It’s so interesting.  You know all that stuff they say about craft services and director’s yelling at people and filming the same thing over and over…it’s true!  And it was so cool to see it in person.

2)  You meet some characters.  People that are “career” extras are an interesting bunch.  And Reader Isa talked to every single one of them.

3)  The days really are long.  We had about a 14 hour day yesterday, and they don’t play around.  You are expected to be somewhere at a certain time with your makeup done, your hair curled, and specific attire on (along with 3 other options of what to wear).

4)  They film things over and over and over.  It’s no lie.  They film scenes 12 times and then move the camera and film them again another 12 times.  Then move the camera again, etc.

And finally 5)  It was just fun to hang out and be random with Reader Isa all day!  We totally recommend being an extra one day, but definitely do it with a friend.  Because you definitely spend most of your time just sitting there.

It’s been a long time since we’ve written about our favorite guilty pleasure, and we’d say this season of The Bachelorette is okay.  There’s too much stuff about kids, too much stuff about Charlotte, and too much swapping of hot tub scenes for playground scenes (although we were pretty entertained by Emily’s one sassy friend in the “friend interview” scene.  Kinda made us think Emily was cooler).  So far, we like some Arie and think Chris is a little immature (yikes! sorry to bring up the age thing) but quite a looker.  And we like John the new darkhorse!  However, it’s not the winners that keep it interesting.  It’s the oddballs.

The rose for our favorite show quote goes to: 

“You know who we haven’t talked about is Alejandro.” – Chris Harrison to Emily

And the rose for our favorite commentary quote:

“Everyone I know needs to watch Ryan on the Bachelorette before deciding to go to UGA.”  - ekcolley, on Ryan from Augusta

We’d love to hear some of yours!

We’ve all got them.  Our favorite of all time continues to be, “I hate my horse” (pulled from the original twitter feed.  If anyone knows who said this, please introduce us.)  Although, ”We don’t have a BOB at our beach house” was recently overheard and not too bad.

We at elaney have a huge whitegirlproblem, and it is that this season of The Bachelorette is horrible.  HOW?  How is it possible?  We’ve watched this show since we didn’t understand it with Aaron Burge, since Bob Guiney was kind of gross and weird, since Trista Sutter had a wedding ceremony with pink sand, since Jake told Vienna “As a matter of fact, I flew last weekend.”  We teetered with excitement when Michelle Money woke up with the random black eye.  Brad and Emily even made us believe in love again (for the night.  It actually made us briefly create a match.com profile).  We can handle sappy.  We can handle overuse of words like “here for the right reasons.”  We can handle the absurd.  But one thing we cannot handle is boring.  And Ashley Hebert is boring, boring, boring.

Really, we feel bad for her.  It doesn’t really seem like any of the guys are that into her, and plus she wore a midriff on a date last week.  But we can’t put our finger on it.  Let’s hear it ladies…why is this season so bad??

And she took our advice in the After the Rose ceremony and toned down that cake mix colored hair (don’t worry Emily – we suffered from the same faux pas in college.  See fbook photos circa 1-10).  Kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I cried when she won.  OH!  And HOW could we forget from Brad Womack Round 1 that he has a twin brother named Chad??  It says so little but it says so much.  And no, maybe they won’t make it.  But maybe they will!!  What did you think, ladies??

In other news, Ashley H (who we all affectionately know as “Ash” in a deep Southern accent) is the next Bachelorette (tattoo count: 1).  At least she’s not dumb, but wow there will be a lot of squealing.  Lots of pink bubble gum and cotton candy.  Here’s to hoping she tones it down a bit.  More fun facts about Ash!

Yes, it’s that time again!!  Time for a man who has tried to find an AMAZING woman for ALL THE RIGHT REASONS to find love for the next six weeks before one ends up with a black eye and a late night 911 call and a short stint on one of ABC’s other reality shows.  It’s down to Chantal and Emily and we are happy to say that we’ve been able to guard our innocent ears all season and have not uncovered any spoilers.  So don’t ruin this for me!  Is he gonna go Jake P style and pick the wildcard Vienna like character (Chantal) or is he going to go Trista style and just pick the hottest (Emily).  Here is to hoping he picks Emily.  We don’t care if she’s over dyed and spray tanned.  She’s totally won us over.  Who’s it gonna be?

1.  emum might be wrong about tattoos
2.  It’s better to be on the aggressive side than the shy side.
3.  Smart gets you no where.
4.  When in doubt, make out.
5.  Say things like, “I’m so afraid, will you protect me?” whenever you have the chance.  Can be a light rain – level of danger not relevant.
6.  If things get tense, start crying.
7.  Coming across like a total nutjob is not a huge deal; if anything, it can be seen as attractive.
8.  It’s okay to say “I love you” after two dates when your boyfriend is dating other women.
9.  You probably should be threatened by the trashy single mom hitting on your boyfriend.
10.  Don’t try to play hard to get unless you tell him that you are playing hard to get so that he’s not confused.

Readers – love to hear your lessons as well!

Babies are all around this week.  Reader g-love brought a new elaney reader into the world, Reader Polly, and Reader Carly announced that she was expecting too!  While we are happy for these moms in their late twenties, we are a little concerned about how the stars of MTV’s Teen Mom are all over the tabloids circa Jessica and Nick 2005.  Um, excuse us?  Let’s take the fact that they are famous for being UNWED TEENAGE MOTHERS out of the equation, we’ve seen their show and it’s not even good.  At least go with Jamie Lynn Spears if you’re gonna stoop.  Look, you wanna put the Real Housewives on your tabloid, okay, we’ll give you the reality thing.  But Amber and Catelynn from TM…um, no thank you.  Don’t want to get on a soap box here, but come on…is this really the message we want to send?

and…our little Baby Polly.  We at elaney love you so much!!