Academy Awards.

My favorite televised event was beautiful.  Some of you may hate on me that this is coming on Thursday night, when the Oscars were on Sunday night, but sometimes I just need time to process.  Especially with a ceremony like this last one was.  "Gravity" swept almost everything, Cate Blanchett definitely wore my favorite dress, and Jennifer Lawrence is still my favorite person.  But this is, overall, going to be much more fluid and put together than it would’ve been if I wrote it on Sunday night.

Ellen was a fantastic host.  It was arguably a slower ceremony than years past, and the constant announcement of "Gravity" winning got old pretty fast, but it was not a bad program by any means.  And when "Let It Go" won? (And Idina Menzel sang it?) Pure joy - because you know I love that song.  I personally loved the selfie, the pizza, and the dancing from Meryl.

I was not happy, however, when "12 Years a Slave" won Best Picture, because I had put Gravity on my ballot.  Okay, I was fine with "12 Years a Slave" winning, but what that win meant was that Nathan beat me on our ballots by half a point.  Half a point.  I’m a competitive person and, between Nathan and I, like to think I’m more knowledgeable about film and award shows (it was part of my thesis, after all).  Nathan has now won both years we’ve had this competition, and the fact that he won by half a point makes it that much harder for me to agree with.  Maybe that’s why it took me four days to post.

I filled out four ballots this year.  Four.  Two for work (one corporate, one local office), and two with Nathan (one for want to win, one for will win - and if I had it my way, Philomena would have Best Picture).  I absolutely love filling out these ballots.  Guessing, predicting, thinking about it all, getting to play out different scenarios… I love it all.

For someone as indecisive as I am, fulfilling every one of my fantasies was fantastic.  But the one thing I love about Oscars and the ballots, what makes it so much more entertaining than sports, is that if you get one wrong, you get to move on.  You don’t know at the end of the third that you’re most likely going to lose, and you can’t get knocked out of the bracket.  You get to just dust yourself off and get right back into the competition.  I, for one, find it exhilarating.  So that’s all my award show weirdness.  I love the Tony’s, but I’m not nearly as dedicated as I am to the Oscar’s.

Until next year…