Tuesday 9 April 2013

It's my birthday! And I'll be narcissistic if I want to...

Hey guys! If you follow me on twitter or have generally read anything I've written in the past, ooh, I don't know, MONTH, you'll know that it's my birthday today! I am very very old. It's not even worth talking about, really. (OK, I'm 24 today. Aaaaand, now you want to punch me, don't you?)

Anyway. In honour of my birthday week (Oh hells yes I get a whole week) I'm trying to post everyday this week (by which I basically mean, writing 5 posts the weekend before and scheduling the crap out of those babies- I have other stuff to do, y'know?) so that I can give all of you a liiiittle treat while I, hopefully, get many treats, most of which are cake-related.

I'm already being incredibly narcissistic by assuming that 5 blog posts by me are EXACTLY what you want, so I'm sure you'll bear with me as I go through cultural references to my name. Oh yes, that's right- I've racked my brain to think of all the Lauras in books, films, tv and music, and I'm going to tell you how I feel about the fact that they share my name. I'm sure we're all going to enjoy this as much as I will!
Shuddup, Gosling, we're doing this.

Laura Chase in The Blind Assassin: Laura's kind of like the mysterious, dreamy younger sister to the main character, Iris, but she's also maybe the most interesting character, or at least the one you want to learn more about while you're reading. She also kiiiind of reminds me of Luna Lovegood, so... She can keep my name, yes.

Laura from High Fidelity: How you feel about Laura in High Fidelity (either the book or movie- they're pretty much the same apart from location) probably depends on whether you're a man or a woman- she's either the shrew who needs to tell her boyfriend what to do all the time, or a woman who wants to move on in life, and wants him to grow up and move on with her. I'm sympathetic to both views, but on the whole, I'm ok with this Laura.

Laura Brown from The Hours: This is the Laura I feel most connected to from anything- the kind of woman who would do almost everything for just another half an hour of reading time is a-ok with me. But really, she also has A LOT of the kind of thoughts that are kind of the thing I read books for- to feel like I'm not the only person who thinks things like that. Her name is just a happy coincidence, but I still can't help but love it.

Laura Fairlie from The Woman in White: Oh hey, remember when we (or, you know, some of us) read The Woman in White and Laura was the 'love interest' character and everyone said she sucked and it made me sad because sentences like 'Laura is so lame and boring' make me unhappy for some reason? Yeah, that was horrible. This chick needs to get a new name, like, yesterday.

Laura Jesson in Brief Encounter: I've only seen Brief Encounter once, and it was literally about a month before I started blogging, which makes me kind of sad because OH! How I needed to talk about it at the time. Now I can't remember it that well (I definitely need to watch it again) but I do know that I liked Laura, and just wanted her to be happy, dammit!
Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks: It's a little bit creepy hearing people say (a LOT) 'who killed Laura?' 'Why would they do this to Laura?!' 'It's Laura! She's dead!' and so on. Even though you basically don't see Laura Palmer alive onscreen, her presence is everywhere in the programme, and on the whole... I can't get too upset about her having the same name as me. She seems like she was pretty messed up, but also for good reasons, and oh my GOSH am I going to go on about Twin Peaks again? Ok, I'm stopping now.

Laura by Bat For Lashes: I'm pretty sure I've posted a video of this song before, but if not... THIS SONG IS AMAZING. And not just because it's called Laura, although, let's face it, that doesn't hurt. But seriously... So. Good.
Tell Laura I Love Her by Ricky Valance: My mum used to sing this to me when I was little, and I hated it, for some reason. I still don't think it's an amazing song, but I'm open to the sentiment now! Damn, kids are crazy...

These are basically all the Lauras I can think of, which is weird because it's such a popular name for people my age (there were even two Laura Jones's in my year at school. TWO. That's ridiculous.) but I guess not so much for fictional characters or people who are going to be famous and stuff- of real people, I can only think of Reese Witherspoon, whose actual first name is Laura, Laura Linney, and Laura Ingalls Wilder (and I haven't even read any Little House books) so... I'm pretty sure that all Lauras need to step it up, basically. Yes.

Now...

32 comments:

  1. Hehe, what an amazeballs idea for a birthday post. See, this is why we stalk *cough* um, FOLLOW you so religiously...

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY munchkin, and I hope you have cake and books and loveliness and that your card arrived on time! :)

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    1. OOOH! Laura, by the Scissor Sisters! Catchy and downright infectious...

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    2. I KNEW YOU STALKED MEEEEEEEEE!

      Ahem. Indeed your card did arrive on time! (I think it was yesterday? Can't be sure!) and it was exciting indeed! And everyone was like 'I want to read it!' and I was like 'well... Yeah. But also you won't understand it in any way!' haha

      AND I used to love that song quite a bit. But now I'm a bit meh about it. Maybe because the one by Bat For Lashes is SO much better!

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  2. Happy Birthday! I don't think you're being a narcissist in assuming that what we all want is five posts from you. I can only speak for myself but I actually feel like my birthday has come around too. 5 posts from your awesome self? Yeh, that's pretty darn epic in my opinion.

    WILKIEEEEEE! I agree that Laura Fairlie is slightly lame, BUT she is in one heck of a good book so she is cool by association.

    I will be most disappointed if you do not eat a SHED LOAD of cake and thoroughly enjoy your day.

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!

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    1. Thank youuu! And awwwwww, nawwwwww! That is the nicest. Also I don't even have a post for Thursday, so it might only be 4 in the end. Is that epic enough..?

      That is true. And she's not as bad as bloody Walter! So it's all fiiiiiine. Still kind of wish I was called Marian instead though.

      CAKE! I had one. It was fab. And then there was Wagamamas for dinner. All is well.

      THANK YOU SOME MORE!

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  3. Happy birthday!!! :D I felt old when I turned 24 too. Are you still aware of how old you are all of the time, or have you started forgetting and having to work it out? I always have a pause so I can do some maths in my head before telling people how old I am, haha. 24 was a pretty good year for me, so I hope it is for you too!!

    I'm trying to think of other Lauras... but I can only think of a girl that I went to school with (she was really nice and very clever, so yay?)

    I was talking to one of my coworkers today about how I like Forrest Gump, purely because Forrest calls his boat Jenny, because "there was only one I could think of... The most beautiful name in the whole wide world."... Damn straight! I can't think of many more good Jennys though (and um.. Jenny isn't really amazingly likeable in Forrest Gump), the only other one that I can think of is Jenny in the L word, who is pretty much universally hated. Sigh! Hehe. So you should be happy with your Lauras, especially because one of them is Atwoody (Atwoodian?) :D

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    1. THANK YOU! I called through to my mum yesterday morning and was like "Muuuum, how old am I?" She thought it was frickin' hilarious but I genuinely couldn't remember! I'm 25 (as it turns out), but I'm so used to kind of mentally rounding it up to 26 when someone asks me that I thought I was turning 27 this year. I got really freaked out because time had inexplicably flown really fast... almost like two years had gone by at once. :P

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    2. Heheheheehe, I enjoy this because Ellie is SO excited to find someone else with age confusion :). But also Jenny, yesterday at work, someone was like 'how old are you going to be?' And I was like 'ummm, 2..4?' It was hard thinking work. I'm still about 12 inside!

      Hahaha, yay your nice and clever Laura! I approve of her.

      Awww, there must be other Jennys! (I happen to like Jenny in Forrest Gump though. Possibly just because Forrest loves her SO MUCH, but also, :( child abuse. Not that that makes me LIKE people. But just, like, empathy and stuff.) There are lots of famous people called Jennifer though! JENNIFER LAWRENCE!

      I do love my Atwoodian Laura. And also Laura Brown. They do me proud :)

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    3. Age confusion, yayyy!!! :D My husband gets annoyed at me when I can't remember how old he is, but how am I supposed to when I have no idea how old I am?!

      I think my impression of Jenny in Forrest Gump was formed the first time that I watched it, when I was a bit too young to understand all of the crap that she was going through. So I don't dislike her! I just.. don't like her, because I was a bit dense when I was young, heh. Jennifer Lawrence, yayy! :D

      I'm glad you have good Lauras! Hehe, that's a weird sentence.

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  4. Happy birthday! Also, I salute your many Lauras. But how can you NOT have read any Laura Ingalls Wilder? I mean, I get that she was less a rite of passage growing up for you than she was for me, but STILL.

    May you have cake at every turn this week. Heck, make it a month and go for broke.

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    1. Thank youuu!

      Re: Laura Ingalls Wilder- I KNOW! I feel like I've always known that Little House on the Prairie existed, but like... I've never felt the need to read it or something. *shrug*

      A month of cake? OH HELLS YES! Sadly the birthday cake I had was SO good that there's only a little bit left now :( But I'm sure I can find other cakes...

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  5. tl;dr but happy born day to ya!

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    1. I just had to look up what tl;dr meant, but OMG! WHUT?!

      Thankles for the birthday wishes though ;)

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    2. Hahaha... not meant to be rude - but hey, you did learn a new internet thingy. Consider it my born day gift you (I'm sure there's some logic in there somewhere)!

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    3. Ahhh, silver lining :) hehehe

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  6. Happy Birthday!

    I only know the Ray Peterson Tell Laura I Love Her. Seeing as my maiden name is Vallance (two l's not one), I'd have paid attention to Ricky's name if I'd heard it. :) But the song's truly awful.

    Hope your day is filled with cake, butterflies and unicorns. Maybe a pony, too.

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    1. Thank you!

      I looked up Tell Laura I Love Her on Wikipedia cause I have NO idea about it, and apparently Ricky Valance's version is the one that got to number 1 in the UK, so I assumed that was the one I'd heard! It's not a great song, right? But I still don't know why I was so not into it when I was little!

      ALL THESE THINGS LITERALLY FACTORED INTO MY DAY! Except for the pony. Still don't have one of those.

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  7. Another HAPPY BIRTHDAY! And look at all those Lauras

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    1. Why, THANK YOUUUUU! :)

      All those Lauras really stretched the boundaries of all the famous Lauras ever though. Which is kind of sad.

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  8. Happy Birthday again! That's a lot of Laura's... if I tried to find Rebekah's I think I'd be stuck. There's pretty much just the Daphne du Maurier one, and it's not spelled the same :-(

    Also, I want pictures of all your presents! Not cos I've been a little bit twitter stalking you or anything, but they sound awesome! Especially Animal Vegetable Miracle... *shifty eyes*

    :-D

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    1. Thank you some more! This is a good point... I reckon I could think of a few Rebeccas, but not very many Rebekahs... I don't know if this is good or bad, you know? Cause YAY uniqueness, but BOO no name pride!

      Hehehehehe, creeeeeeepy... I am definitely going to do a bit of a present brag though, cause that's just the kind of girl I am. Will probably be on Sunday? Unless I get my act together and then I'll do it for Thursday... (This is unlikely. Just sayin.)

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  9. Happy Birthday, Laura! I'm impressed with how many Laura's you were able to come up with! I could only think of Laura Wilder - and how have you NEVER ever ever read Little House in the Big Woods?! Do I need to send you a copy?? :) Oh and Laura Prepon (That 70s Show).

    Anyway! Wishing you a week of lots of cake and presents!

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    1. Thank youuuu! And yeah, I just really haven't read any Little House books! (I didn't even know there were any others apart from Little House on the Prairie, tbh).

      Caaaaaake! I believe I have had some every day this week. That can't be good...

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  10. Happiest of birthday wishes!!!!! & you are so hilarious. Seriously. I laugh out loud every time I read your posts. Hope the cake was lovely (and that you saved me some). :)

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    1. Thank you! And also THANK YOU! OMG my genuine mission in LIFE is to make people laugh, so YES! I got another one ;) The cake was sooooo good, and there is actually a tiny bit left! (like, one slice) Come and seeeee me and you can have it!

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  11. Happy Happy Birthday Laura! I know I'm a day late reading this, but I hope your birthday was super awesome and that this week is the MOST awesome! *HUGS*

    And wow look at all those Lauras! I don't think I can even think of that many Sarahs...

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    1. Thank youuuu sweet one :) I have had to work two full days this week, it isn't even funny. But I'm just gonna read alllll weekend and everything will be alright.

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  12. Happy Birthday! April birthday girls are, in fact, the best. I know this because mine is in 16 days...not that I am counting or anything. :)

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    1. Hehehehe, you count away! It's the only thing to do!

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  13. Hell yes for birthday weeks! Happy 24th to you!

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