To answer your questions, I certainly feel like I've made many lasting, solid friendships through BetterMost and Brokeback common ground. One of my favorite aspects of the BetterMost situation is the networks of friends developed all over the world. I love knowing that we have friends far and wide. And, clearly I'm here essentially every day.
I keep coming back to BetterMost because it's the routine place to continue to build these friendships and to keep in touch with people.
Buffy - I thught you;d been around for much much longer than that - its amazing how people just fit into this little clan like a glove and we feel like we've all been together for years.Kelda, I feel that way too. :)
Kelda, I feel that way too. :)
I checked my profile and apparently I registered here February 21. Must have been around the time I came out of my BBM induced coma :D
Brokeback got me good.
And proud to have been one of the first viewers, on that snowy and chilly New York morning of Dec. 9. 2005.
Luigi
In under three years, I've been to 12 states, and the UK. Before BBM, I was a homebody. I've done stuff I've never done before. Gone on hay rides, ridden horses, danced the Virginia Reel and learned to two-step. Met friends all around the world.
I've exchaged phone numbers, addresses, emails, presents, ornaments, and done so much.
I went from being the oldest child in my family, to being "adopted" and am now the "baby" of 5 "Brokie Brothers" (ShakesTheGround, SouthEndMD, RobInPuyallup & LoneLeeB3). These 4 guys have no idea how much that means to me.
;D
This Brokie adventure has had many benefits to me, and that's why I keep coming back, and will always.
Have there been "bumps" in the road? Sure. But the positives waaaaaaaaaay outweigh the negatives.
You're the busiest, baddest Brokie I know, Chuck. Bless your heart. ;)
...next week we'll eat dinner at the new restaurant in Brooklyn that was his pet project.Oooh, I am so looking forward to that report, John and Meryl!!
You can hardly do better than to be a member of the Church of Understanding, Love, and Tolerance.I never thought about it that way, but I love this!
Though it's quiescent at the moment, never fear, the PT shall be completed. Let this be a call to action, fellow thespians!I'm ready, and I'll be glad to corral LauraGigs to play Ennis again!
I haven't yet traveled overseas to visit Brokies, but I've met some from far-flung places, like Mikaela (Norway), Reanna (India), Rayn (South Korea), Fabienne belbbmfan (Belgium), Anke Pipedream (Germany) and Sheyne (Australia).wow that is so impressive!
See you for the Four Effin' Years anniversary next December! 8)You bet, friend!!
Jack and Ennis are never far from my thoughts.
Today is my Third BBM Anniversary.
Never far from my vision, either, literally. I still have the framed small printout of the autographed movie poster hanging right in front of me over my desk here at the office, and now my home is graced by a recreation of the Dozy Embrace with a pair of cowboy action figures, one with dark hair, dressed in blue with a black hat, one with blond hair, dressed in tan with a white hat. :)
Today is my Third BBM Anniversary.
Luigi, I didn't realize you were in NYC then. Too bad I didn't know you yet! ;D
I was Meryl. Detailed that story in one of my original threads, as I happened to be in NYC on those days (to this day I still wonder whether I actually decided to go to NYC for seeing BBM, and I live in Italy... and I believe that was really the major inspiration for this short trip).
Indeed
How fortunate we all are, to have made this journey.
fyi, hbo is showing bbm right now - the day after Jake's bday......hmmm
Really? BBM on HBO? Is this for the first time??!
Ahhhhhhhh - the memories! I'm so glad too!
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j125/yaadpyar/TheGang-1.jpg)
Beautiful pic of Beautiful Brokies, only one of whom I've met. You other three are on my "So want to meet you someday" list.
What's on the teapot?
I feel like some of you have gone through college with me in a way, and that really means a lot to me.
Court! :)
I feel like we have too. Three effin years! I'm so proud of you, and I'm sure a water conference in Peru will be extremely sobering. Did I mention I'm so proud of you?
Love,
Elle
I love knowing that I can still come back and people still remember me and welcome me back as if no time has passed. I feel like some of you have gone through college with me in a way, and that really means a lot to me.
Lovely posts everyone. I love hearing about people's experiences like this.
It's difficult for me to tell what impact BBM has had on me. In August 2005 I went 300 miles away from home to my first year of college, where I didn't know a single person. It took me a few months to sort of get used to college life and find some real friends. I saw BBM when I was home for Christmas break of that first year. I have, of course, changed quite a bit in the past three years, but I honestly couldn't tell you how much of that was BBM and how much was just going through college and all the experiences that come with it. I know that I would be different if it I had never seen this movie, I just don't know exactly how.
To answer the question in the title of this thread, I am doing extremely well. I am going to Peru at the end of January to attend a "young adult" conference about water issues as sort of a fact-finding mission for the organization that is sending me. My brother, who lives in Louisiana (so I don't get to see him much), is also going. I'm also getting ready to graduate in May, which obviously means that more significant changes are coming soon. This past semester was really difficult and kept me very busy so I haven't been around here much lately, but I love knowing that I can still come back and people still remember me and welcome me back as if no time has passed. I feel like some of you have gone through college with me in a way, and that really means a lot to me.
Thanks for pointing me to this thread, Meryl. I watched BBM again on Christmas Eve, exactly 3 years to the day from my first, life-changing viewing. And I laughed through so much of it, 'cause every line, every scene reminded me of some cartoon or quip or scene that we had made into our own. The thread on IMdB (can't remember the name) that made everything so funny!
And I was amazed too that the movie was so impeccable upon viewing so much later. Every word, every shot, every minute tight and meaningful, exposing each character more deeply and forwarding the story powerfully and effortlessly.
In the scene where Ennis is running off to another fishing trip with Jack, and Alma's sitting smoking at the kitchen table, wrestling with her feelings...the look in her eyes after he runs out the door having almost forgotten his creel case, is so powerful, so telling, such a quiet and pviotal moment.
BBM changed my life, but I could also say I saw it at a moment where I wanted my life to change. There was change in the air, looming on the horizon, and BBM pointed the way for me to see that the change required was in the silent internal spaces in my soul.
I'm not Ennis, and I'm definitely not Jack, but I could see my own limitations in each, and knew I did not want to stay stuck by those limitations, that I didn't want to end up either figuratively dead or stuck in a dead-end place. BBM helped me see how much I wanted to embrace life on my own terms.
And the re-viewing recently was a complete affirmation of all of that. I am not the same, I am not living the same life, and I know BBM showed me the cracks in the foundation of a life I had built but couldn't sustain.
I knew something had fundamentally shifted inside of me, and over the past 3 years, I have embraced that original pull to change and given it room to grow inside of me. It's still in process, no doubt, but now I can watch the movie, and appreciate the story and it's powerful sorrow without feeling that I'm condemned to living my life the same way.
Thanks so much to each one for the wonderful friendship that I found here. Certainly some craziness and some drama, but mostly wonderful friendship!
Shuggy, it's so great to see you! :-*Thanks!
That's a wonderful story about how BBM changed your lives. Are you going to keep us in the dark about how you got that signed picture of Tab Hunter?Not at all. You get them online here: http://www.tabhunter.com/autographs.htm (http://www.tabhunter.com/autographs.htm). I put the ""5th anniversary" message in the slot for our names. As soon as I pushed "Send" I thought, "Oh heck, it'll just be a computerised printout of what I sent, superimposed on a rubber-stamped photo" and even more so when the "sent" email came back almost immediately, but no, it was written in felt pen, and when he appeared in this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXNP48HicRQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXNP48HicRQ) the signature (at 40" in) was the same.