I’m participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge, where I post every day in the month of April (except Sundays) and each day is a letter.

My theme for the month is a series of posts about the things that shaped me.

High Fidelity

I started my A-Z Challenge with a quote from High Fidelity, so of course I had to bring it up again.

Once again, I watched the movie before I read the book, and when I read it I was pleasantly surprised at how closely they stayed to the film — entire scenes, word for word, lifted straight out of the book.

That film introduced me to Nick Hornby, and I quickly became a fan (About a Boy is another excellent novel, and the adaption with Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult is totally acceptable).

But, I watched High Fidelity because I am a John Cusack completist and will watch him in pretty much anything. Grosse Pointe Blank, Say Anything…, Serendipity, Con Air, Identity, Runaway Jury, etc., etc. I’m just a big ol’ fan.

High Fidelity is in a class by itself however. It was a touchstone during college; friends and I would quote entire scenes to each other because we would watch and rewatch on repeat. And when I lived in Chicago for a while, I got super excited whenever I found a location. Like the Biograph Theater:

“John Dillinger was killed behind that theater in a hale of FBI gunfire. And do you know who tipped them off? His fucking girlfriend. All he wanted to do was go to the movies.”

Why yes, I did quote this line when I found it. Out loud. To myself.

I have a couple of movies that I know so well and I’ve seen so often, I can play them in my head, word for word. Some people don’t understand that, like they don’t understand rereading a novel you’ve read 18 bazillion times before. Why waste your time?

It just makes me happy, again and again. So why not?

(Also — the TV series High Fidelity? Garbage. Just. Nope.)

Audrey Hepburn

Speaking of being a completist — I know I’ve said this more than once already, but I love Audrey.

It doesn’t matter what kind of movie she’s in, what character she’s playing, she lights up the screen every single time.

(This post is starting to get a bit disgusting in all the love I’m trying to express. Don’t mind me.)

I’ve also read several biographies about her, and reading about her childhood living through — and almost not surviving — the Dutch famine during WWII when the Germans occupied the Netherlands… it’s a whole new level of respect and understanding. She was the epitome of “gamine,” and that was partly because she suffered from disordered eating the rest of her life.

Audrey is beautiful in everything she ever acted in, from Roman Holiday to Always. She had the biggest smile, and an even bigger heart — her final years were spent primarily working as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. Because she received aid in her childhood, she wanted to pass that kindness on to all the starving children of the world.

How can you not love her?

Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village

Way back when, my first job was working in food service at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. (No I did not dress up.)

It didn’t seem like much, bussing tables, serving food, making old-fashioned ice cream treats. Barely one step up from fast food worker. Just the right kind of simple job for a sixteen-year-old — nothing too taxing, and lots of time-wasting opportunities.

But applying for and getting a job there, may have been the most important event at that point in my young life.

I met best friends there that I still have to this day, spending hours together goofing off in the employee dining room. It’s even where I learned the most Michigan-y of activities — euchre. (The best, most fun card game of all time. ALL. TIME.)

I even chose what college I went to because of HFM and the people there. I honestly believe that I would not be where I am today, living this particular life, if I had decided to go work at a McDonald’s or a Forever 21 instead.

And for that I am grateful. Even if I did have to spend way too many Saturday afternoons staring at the ass-end of the Wienermobile, serving hot dogs to tourists.

Worth it.

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