2013-05-23T07:20:43-04:00 Sara Hennessey http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/author/index.php?author=sara-hennessey Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Sara Hennessey Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1404045 2012-04-05T10:08:00-04:00 2012-06-05T05:12:01-04:00

Sara Hennessey http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-hennessey/
But sometimes when my self-appointed high-pressure lifestyle gets to be too much... it's really fun to distract myself on cool interior design websites.

Listen, I am no decorator; I have a shower curtain over my window and a beanbag chair with an X-marks-the-spot slab of duck tape from 2001.

But I like to fantasize about a life with stainless steal appliances and tasteful driftwood wall decor. I want people to describe my place as "rustic, yet modern." Not "OK," and, "is that a shower curtain over your window?"

Imagine I had a white couch and didn't immediately spill grape pop on it? (Sigh.)

Sometimes when the dishes are piling up and the cat is asleep on a pile of laundry, I like to go on ApartmentTherapy.com and pretend I have my life together, like the people who are featured on the site. The 20-something graphic designer in New York, the fashion magazine editor in San Francisco, the gay power couple in the tree house ranch! These fantastic people who produce clutter-free zones are like royalty to me, born into creatively superior lifestyles.

Framed artwork, industrial light fixtures, and urban goblets -- I have no right to be looking at this stuff! I need to get my nose down to the grindstone and pull my socks up. I need to put in years of elbow grease, and put the pedal to the metal, and all the other phrases I was raised with that have lost all meaning, before I even deserve to look upon an urban goblet.

I need a good meal at a decent price until my "nest egg" not only exists, but would also impress my parents!

Jeeze I'm tired.

Thirty years ago, would my parents blow entire pay cheques on a pricey used treasure chest? No way! And who's kidding whom? Today's treasure chest is simply a storage place for crap, not rubies. People don't possess actual treasure -- people possess video game magazines and really cool Silverchair CDs.

Great authors of a yonder year literally worked in mud by day and wrote their great works tirelessly with a pigeon feather quill and a dirty candle forged of hog by night! They didn't leaf through Ikea catalogs eating a frozen Snickers bar, wondering why no one "likes" their lazy status updates. These days when I compose a tweet, I often struggle, get mildly depressed and momentarily consider becoming a recluse, until I remember, oh yeah, I can totally just tweet that cats are pretty amazing, and I am safe for another day. I should be shot.

I'd honestly like to think I would get some substantial drive and painstaking work done if my home décor was updated. I can picture me now, collapsed upon my ironic electric blue chaise lounge, fashionably exhausted from accomplishing so much that day. Yeah, that's the ticket: sweet, sweet materialistic denial. But until the day comes where I am successful enough to afford nice things, I will be sitting on this busted beanbag chair, biting my pen, and imagining myself with a gravy-stain-free life.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.974073 2011-09-21T13:22:33-04:00 2011-11-21T05:12:02-05:00

Sara Hennessey http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-hennessey/ 50/50 -- A movie about cancer. Touching, funny, sexually attractive?

Joseph Gordon Levitt plays a young man with 50/50 odds of surviving cancer. He is comforted by his pal Seth Rogan, and his 25-year-old therapist Katie, played by Twilight's Anna Kendrick. WHAT? More like 50/50: the odds of us believing she is a legitimate doctor!

No therapist should ever be born in the '80s, let alone be a sexy babe that also played a supporting role in the Twilight saga. I seriously trust no one that was born in the same decade as myself. I know the truth, we are all impostors who had crushes on J.T.T. and ate far too much Lickamade as children. A therapist born in the '80s? (Or god forbid, the '90s!) Pah! What life experience and knowledge of hardships can this former La Senza employee truly offer a man with a 50/50 chance of surviving cancer? Comforting and wise words such as, 'Super lame tumor, dude' or 'just tweet about it' would flow a little too easily from her mouth. A therapist's name shouldn't be 'Katie' either. It should be Dr. Glockenspiel. Or at least Susan. A REAL therapist should look like Kathy Bates or the dad from Family Ties... NOT Kristen Stewart's high school chemistry partner.

Am I supposed to believe that a young attractive man with a tumor is 'by chance' paired up with a young 25-year-old doctor who's character's name is 'Katie'? Of course you feel better when she's around, 3rd Rock from the Sun's Joseph Gordon Levitt, look at her cute shoes and her 25-year-old cleavage! You two don't look like doctor/patient. You look like boyfriend/girlfriend. And what are you doing in a therapist's office? Shouldn't you be at a funky brunch restaurant, or Ikea, or bowling ironically? I suppose the real purpose of this relationship in the movie is to remind us, society, that we need to keep cancer sexy. What's the point in getting sick if there's no chance in say, making out in the rain dramatically, or revealing to your 'girl next door' therapist, that she is a mega boner machine. And if she 'S's your D' it may in fact increase your odds of beating cancer.

Listen, I haven't seen this movie yet. And I know it's not a sex romp. But I think the idea of having a pretty cheerleader be the doctor of a young attractive cancer patient is like casting Megan Fox to play Robin William's role in Good Will Hunting. Huh, Megan Fox? Are you an old man professor, with nothing to give but knowledge and heart? Give me a break and grow a beard, you hot mess.

Of course, Anna Kendrick's character does come across as confident and grounded in the previews I've seen. But hey, you would be too if you graduated university at 14. And that's exactly what she would of had to do for me to be on board for this casting choice. I guess Doogie Howser and 'Katie', the 50/50 therapist are just brilliant phenoms and we should all be inspired. But in that dark theatre, with tears streaming down my face due to the touching moments, I will remain, not fully convinced.
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