Episode 3: Forced Family (Film Festival) Fun Time

She's Not From Here

We saw a good selection of movies at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and film buff/Megan's sister Erin was in town to join us! We'll discuss the films we liked and didn't like, Erin will give us the dirt on Megan's most embarrassing childhood moments, and we'll talk about maintaining long-distance adult sibling relationships. This episode's Wish You Were Here recommendations are both cute and practical.

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 3 of She’s Not From Here! A podcast about finding your place and where you belong. This week we have some (forced) family fun time, do some streetwalking in Salt Lake City, discuss our Sunny D’s (aka our Sundance Delights), and Wish You Were Here.

Part 1: (Forced) Family Fun Time

In this episode we welcome SNFH’s first guest, Erin, Megan’s older sister and all around bad-ass lady. (Note: I wouldn’t technically classify Alyssa as a guest, this writer sees her more as a special recurring role similar to Heather Locklear in Melrose Place). Megan and Erin shared a room (not a groom) growing up and for some crazy reason Megan called Erin “Mimmie” but only in the dark. Which leads everyone to wonder, does everyone’s name change in the dark, Megan? I guess Alyssa can explain that one in a special She’s Not From Here After Dark episode.

We hear about the first time Erin and Megan met which was located in a hospital of all places. Of course this was not without drama, as Erin dramatically fell in grand style on the icy stairs as she made her way to the car. We ponder the “what could have beens” if 7-year-old Erin had also been rushed to the hospital where she met the EMT of her dreams only to have her new baby sister steal her boyfriend. Alas, we’ll never find out how that romantic comedy ends.

At this point we delve deep into the Hillier family secrets involving baseball, Indiana University, color coding (I know, it sounds super risqué to me too). Fun fact: apparently Katherine’s teacher learned grammar through ad-libs no wait, mad-libs, which may explain a few things…

Finally, we get the answers the entire internet (and the 10 people who run it including Al Gore and Mark Zuckerberg) would like to know: Megan’s deepest darkest secrets… dun, dun, dunnnnn. Let’s just say they involve crying with a blankie and peeing in a cooler – somewhat of a trend for Megan. Megan then goes rogue a la Sarah Palin and goes tit for tat exploring some of Erin’s seedy past. You’ll have to listen to get to these gems. Let’s just say they involve gypsies and Renaissance Fairs.

Lessons learned: even with distance, Megan and Erin still manage to keep in touch through ongoing text messages and the occasional phone call, interspersed with letters, carrier pigeons and sending tears to each other in jars.

Part 2: Streetwalking in Salt Lake City, Sundance Edition

I don’t know why Megan’s laughing at me – new segment title or Katherine’s ongoing thoughts? Or Both?

In this reoccurring segment, we will discuss the various shenanigans and experiences of living in Salt Lake City or the “mild west.” Today, we discuss our thoughts and experiences of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Oh, and we make dreams come true. So top that Robert Redford!

Did Sundance live up to Erin’s super high expectations? How did she get to Utah? Did she run here a la Forest Gump? Did Megan and Katherine spot any celebrities or were they the ones who were spotted? These are only a few questions which we answer. Spoiler alert: Erin was very impressed with the breadth of the festival and the quality of what she’s seen. And don’t get us started on the glory that is the Sundance audience. Audience participation, commentary, and enthusiasm cannot be over emphasized. Only here will you find people moaning, opening up about their romantic entanglements in high school, and drinking history to a movie theater full of strangers.

The internet will be quite jealous to hear that we did meet Tom Cavanagh of “Ed”, “Scrubs” and “The Flash” fame. Takeaway, he’s a nice man. Movies discussed include: The Fundamentals of Caring (Paul Rudd! Swoon, Selena Gomez aka Megan’s lady), Wiener-Dog (meh), Welcome to the Dollhouse, The Eagle Huntress (amazing!) (bad-ass ladies!) (so beautiful I want to go to Mongolia right now), Brahman Naman (basically an Indian version of American Pie), and First Girl I Loved (so good!).

Also, check out the all-inclusive improv group Erin acts in, The Round About Playback Troupe. If you live in central Indiana, you can see them perform this weekend, March 18th and 19th! They were also just featured on CBS 4.

Wish You Were Here

As usual, we discuss things we recommend and wish were here right along with us.

Katherine – Blue Apron – a food delivery service that provides all of the ingredients, tips and recipes to cook 3 meals each week. It’s great for people like Katherine, who aren’t great cooks but want to try new things and travel a lot so they don’t have a fully stocked kitchen at all times.

Erin – The Flash – a TV show which also happens to be one of Erin’s nerd-doms. It’s a well-written, fun, CW-show primed to give you an hour of fun! The first season is available on Netflix.

Megan – One sibling visits – awwwww (queue the Full House theme). Whenever Megan and Alyssa journey back to Indiana, it’s very difficult to spend quality time with any one person. Visits with just one sibling gives more time for that one-on-one interaction. It’s also way less stressful to entertain one sibling rather than the whole fam.

That’s all she wrote. Thanks Erin for joining us and thanks for listening to She’s Not From Here!

This Episode's Music

• "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla" by various artists (School House Rock)
• "Get Low" Cover by Dan Henig
• "Sisters" by Irving Berlin
• "Silent Movies" by Madisen Ward And The Mama Bear

Keywords

finding your place, streetwalking in Salt Lake City, Sundance Delights, Wish You Were Here, She’s not from here after dark, Mimmie, Princess Amazing, Princess Sarsaparilla Amazing, babies stealing boyfriends, color coding, ad-libs, mad-libs, School House Rock, Al Gore, Mark Zuckerberg, Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, carwash, Sarah Palin, gypsies, Renaissance Fairs, peeing in a cooler, soul stealing, dentist, tooth related humor, Netflix, Twitter, dreams do come true, Park City, Ned Stark, The Fundamentals of Caring, Paul Rudd, Selena Gomez, Wiener Dog, Welcome to the Dollhouse, The Eagle Huntress, Brahman Naman, First Girl I Loved.