I just got back from an amazing weekend on the Oregon coast with some WONDERFUL people! I joined a small group of wonderful gals and took a trip down to Newport, Oregon to stay at a beach house for my friend Tabitha's Bachelorette Party!
We seriously had so much fun and there was so much shenanigans involved! I loved it! It was also great to meet the other people in Tabitha's life and enjoy spending time just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend:
I lost every game of PIT that we played
Breakfast with everyone was definitely a highlight
The Dollar Tree is too good to me
Kyle bought play-dough, so I made a penguin
The view from the backyard
Even in our struggling economy, beach front property is an affordable possibility
I LOVE the beach!
I could play all day at the beach
The Roosevelt House girls representin'
Me and Kyle's matching loot from The Dollar Tree
Giant Chinese man sighted in Oregon!
I figured I should let my pizza know how much I love it
Fake tattoos and glow bracelets make any day better!
ALSO . . .
I think it's safe to say that I officially met my soul-brotha this weekend! I'm pretty sure Kyle and I were separated at birth or something. Let me just say this, when we were together it was nothing but random fun and laughs! We share the same snark-infused sense of humor and the same fun attitude.
This is a video we made at the Tillamook Cheese Factory:
And as a BONUS, one of our outtake videos (we had 3 tries to get it right)
This past Saturday, I got to join in a REALLY fun event! I joined up with people from Seattle's EMERALD CITY IMPROV to participate in a fake Jonas Brother sighting that we staged at Northgate Mall near my house!
As a subscriber to ECI's Facebook page, I got this message:
Announcing Emerald City Improv's next event!
On May 22nd, we're going to be staging a fake sighting of Nick Jonas, the infamous idol of preteen girls. Jonas, sighted while shopping, will quickly be surrounded by camera wielding paparazzi and adoring fans, before he is escorted to his black SUV by his security guards. If we're lucky, he might pause to sign a few autographs. And if we're very lucky, everyone in the immediate vicinity is going to be totally convinced they're in the presence of a real live Jonas Brother. They'll never know that this Jonas Brother is really our very own lookalike. Whatever happens, like always, it's sure to be a lot of fun! See you there!
It was soooo fun making people actually believe one of the Jonas Brothers was there! Out of the crowd of teens (and yes even excited moms) surrounding the fake celeb, I only came across one naysayer. Her response:
That's not a Jonas. That's some random white guy. Psh.
And then she walked away disappointed. But it was still so fun to watch the girls go crazy about getting pics and autographs from the "Extra Bonus Jonas."
We even got some buzz about it in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer!
This past weekend was such a whirlwind! I feel like I should probably make 3 posts tonight—one for each day to try to encapsulate it all. But instead I'll just span it out over the week.
So this past Friday I got to experience some pretty great things! You see, a few years ago, I had the awesome opportunity to travel up the East Coast on a ministry tour of sorts and as part of the trip, we had a band join us on the road. The band was called Three Nails Short and the four guys that joined us were Brian Bandas, Wade Sommers, Kevin Waden, and Wesley Copeland. We got to hang out with the guys and spend some cool hang time . . . and let's just say that after quality time in 15 passenger vans with people, you learn a little more than their favorite colors. But yeah, so we got the chance to get to know these guys.
Fast forward years later, and Brian is in a country music band called Love and Theft. They have toured with Taylor Swift and are currently on tour opening for Tim McGraw. I knew they were coming to Seattle and that I wanted to attend the show at the Key Arena, but I missed the cut-off for the meet and greet sign up and decided that paying $60-$80 to see their short set and fight fangirls to get to say hi to Brian at the merch table, would be a little much. So after talking with my wonderful friends and asking their advice, I decided against it. To my benefit, even though I wasn't able to go to the main show, I WAS able to go to the free live acoustic set they were playing at the Hard Rock Cafe (which JUST opened) downtown!
I showed up early and about 10-15 minutes after I showed up, the guys showed up and I went up to Brian and got to give him a big hug and we just got to reconnect for a bit before their sound-check. He also introduced me to the band and I got to hang out with some other fans while they were sound-checking. The entire evening was so great! It felt so awesome to see Brian up on stage playing his heart out doing what he loves to do! From watching all the interviews and music videos, I am completely in awe of how things have developed for him and I couldn't be more excited! To see how he has been able to maintain balance and his down-to-earth personality is very refreshing, especially when you become a big-time band and start getting floods of fangirls and fame.
It was such an honor to have the opportunity to catch up with Brian and to meet the band. I look forward to seeing them play again in Seattle! And if they ever come to your city, you should DEFINITELY check them out! These guys are amazing!
(L to R: Stephen Barker Liles, Me, Brian Bandas, Eric Gunderson)
My video footage from the evening:
BONUS: Brian's intro to their music video to DON'T WAKE ME
Idealists are introspective and cooperative. Idealists seek meaning and significance and are concerned with finding their own unique identity. Their greatest strength is diplomatic intelligence. They excel at clarifying, unifying, individualizing, and inspiring.
I am an Idealist.
I acknowledge and embrace it! I just took a Keirsey Temperament test and it confirmed what I've known for a long while now: I am an Idealist.
I find this really funny because a few years back, I took a personality test and one of my teachers made the comment, "Are those really your answers? Those are unreasonable. You must be some kind of idealist." Indeed, I am. I knew it back then, and I know it now. It's truth.
Idealists are abstract in speech and cooperative in pursing their goals. Their best developed intelligence role is either mentoring (Counselors and Teachers) or advocacy (Healers and Champions).
As the identity-seeking temperament, Idealists long for meaningful communication and relationships. They search for profound truths hidden beneath the surface, often expressing themselves in metaphor. Focused on the future, they are enthusiastic about possibilities, and they continually strive for self-renewal.
Sometimes my idealism is to my strength, sometimes to my detriment. I think the greatest thing about it is that even when it is to my detriment, my stubbornness and the "fight" in me doesn't allow me to just stay there. I move forward.
As I look at things I've studied, things I've written, and just the general things I focus on in life, I could not agree more with the following assessment:
Interests: Idealists tend to study the humanities. They seek careers facilitating the personal growth of others, whether through education, counseling, or other pursuits that promote the happiness and fulfillment of individuals and society.
Orientation: The lives of Idealists are guided by their devotion to their personal ethics. They are altruistic, taking satisfaction in the well-being of others. They believe in the basic goodness of the world and of the people in it. They take a holistic view toward suffering and misfortune, regarding them as part of a larger, unknowable truth, a mystical cause-and-effect. With an eye toward the future, they view life as a journey toward a deeper spiritual knowledge.
Self-image: The Idealists' self-esteem is rooted in empathetic action; their self-respect in their benevolence; and their self-confidence in their personal authenticity.
Values: Their general demeanor is enthusiastic. They seek deeper self-knowledge and want to be understood for who they are behind the social roles they are forced to play. They aspire to wisdom that transcends ego and the bounds of the material world.
Social roles: Idealists seek mutuality in their personal relationships. Romantically, they want a soulmate with whom they can share a deep spiritual connection. As parents, they encourage their children to form harmonious relationships and engage in imaginative play. In their professional and social lives, Idealists strive to be catalysts of positive change.
Idealists focus not on what is but on what could be. They see the world as rich with possibilities for deeper understanding.
Idealists believe that conflict raises barriers between people, preventing society from reaching its full potential. Idealists seek harmony in personal and professional relationships, working toward solutions that respect the needs of all parties involved.
Today Yuko put this little note on my shelf in the fridge, along with some Emergen-C to help with my cold. Thankfully, I'm on the mend. A lot of it is because of Yuko's generous donations of Emergen-C and Throat Coat/Ginseng Teas. I love my co-workers!
I just bought my ticket to go see SOMETHING CORPORATE play in Los Angeles on their summer tour!!!
No but seriously guys, this is a huge deal for me! One thing I've noticed is that while Seattle definitely has a live music culture worth appreciating, it's not NEARLY as amazing as the live music scene in Austin and the surrounding cities. When my favorite bands have announced tour dates, they've always been in the Austin, Dallas, or Houston area—which would be EASY PEASY to attend if I still lived in Austin. But I live here, and I love here, and I want here . . . but I also want bands that I like here. The stigma of supporting local businesses carries over to the music scene here as well and I love it, don't get me wrong, I do. It's just that most of the local bands here have a sound I don't really care for. I grew up on punk rock/alt. rock/ hard rock/ piano pop rock music and it is what inhabits my iTunes the most. So when my favorite bands go on tour, they mostly stick to the east coast and the southern states, which have a larger appreciation and draw for them. The fact that Seattle is neatly tucked away in the upper corner of the west coast doesn't help either.
Something Corporate played at Bamboozle this year and I couldn't go. I couldn't take the time off and I couldn't afford it. But luckily, this new tour opened up a tour date I COULD make! Ideally I would've liked to attend the show in Dallas so I could go with my friend Kelley and her roomie Diane, but it looks like I'm going to have to settle for 2nd best . . . and in this instance, it's okay!
So come August I will be making a trip down to Los Angeles (most likely via Greyhound) to be able to see Something Corporate reunited, playing awesome rock goodness!!! And I will be there, ready to rock out and jump and dance and lose my voice singing along!!!
Excited doesn't EVEN begin to cover it!
With that, I leave you with two of my favorite SoCo songs*:
*cause really, who can choose JUST one?? Yeah, I dunno either!
This past weekend was so jam-packed with FUN!! I had such an amazing time at the Women's Retreat and it was so cool to see the comedy sketches I had written actually come across as funny to the ladies in attendance. It gave me a little more confidence in my ability to write comedy at a basic level.
After a refreshing time with inspiring women, I got to spend another bonus evening with some other spectacular women who joined together to celebrate my friend Heather, who is getting married next weekend!!!!
Heather is such a great friend and is so full of awesome and fun you almost wonder if it's possible to be that amazing and still be down-to-earth . . . but let me assure you, it's possible . . . and Heather J. excels at it.
It was fun to go to a bachelorette party that was so uniquely catered to the personality of the person we were celebrating. You see, Heather is a dancer. She's tons of fun and she likes to get down while she's having fun . . . or is it the other way around?? ;p
For her party, we went to a belly dancing studio and learned some dance moves and got to all dance together and just spend time laughing and enjoying each others' company. We got to wash Heather's feet, massage her hands with extravagant lotion, fan her, and someone even gave her a back massage.
As part of all the fun, we got to dress up in all these scarves and jingly belts. Our favorite thing was moving around to make the coins on the jingly belts jingle! Our teacher was very patient and a lot of fun. She didn't even seem to mind that I had 2 left feet and on occasion almost ran over her because I forgot to turn and go the other way. ;p
The party was very "Heatherish" and thus full of spontaneity and jokes. She was never at a loss for fun poses when the cameras came out.
Our teacher even did a dance for Heather called 200 Blessings On Your Wedding Day (or something like that) and got to give Heather a great big hug and some kind words to encourage her as she gets ready to embark on a new adventure!
They also gave her a bowl of rice and told her to swirl her finger around in it. As she did, words written on slips of paper would be found in the rice. Words like: Love, Honor, Blessing, Trust, Patience, and a bunch of other sweet and tender blessings for her marriage.
After the dance lesson, we got to hang out in the studio and eat and open gifts. It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs. Me and Heather were trying to orchestrate a photo where it looked like I was flying and she would try to lift the fabric up and jump out of the picture just in time to make it seem it was floating down. It didn't work because the camera took a while to focus and couldn't capture the shot. So I started jumping up and down and then Heather tried to be funny and gently kick my butt, and it led to one of my absolute favorite pictures ever. Cause it pretty much sums up the both of us perfectly. Love it! :D
Then afterwards, she invited everyone out for Karaoke! And since I'm a sucker for karaoke and fun with Heather, and the fact that I don't drink (thus making me the perfect designated driver), I couldn't resist and joined the fun!
I wanted to do more songs, but the wait time was ridiculous—this place was crowded!!! So I ended up doing a Spice Girls number (WANNABE) and took advantage of the fact that the crowd was swarming with boozed out ladies! It was a LOT of fun! Don't believe me?
See for yourself:
(please bear in mind that I am singing while still battling a cold)
It was definitely the cherry on top to a wonderful weekend with the girls!
I, for one, am about to embark on an adventure known as a Women of Westside retreat! That's right, a fun weekend spent with amazing women who encourage me and push me to greatness! Did I mention that I got the chance to write the skits for this year AND I get to ham it up on the drama team?? My 7th grade Theater Arts teacher would be so proud!
So yeah, I'm embarking on a wonderful weekend away (okay okay, so maybe it's only 2 days long, throw me a bone!) and I'm not going to be online much. I'm going to try to spend as much time just being surrounded by these inspiring women as I can. I'll probably still tweet (which will update my Facebook as well) sporadically, but I won't be checking comments and surfing the web until I get home or unless one of the other girls wants to show me something online. Other than that, none of the interweebz for me! Just a whole lot of fun and refreshing!
Then, on Saturday, after the retreat is over, I'm going to do something new and fun to celebrate one of my friends. My friend Heather is having her bachelorette party Saturday night and we are going to be attending Belly Dancing lessons as part of the party! Crazy, eh? I'll try not to break anything or get too outta control with my ever-loving latin hips. ;p
And after the belly dancing has commenced, we're going to go to Sea-Tac for Karaoke!!! Guys, do you know how much i LOVE Karaoke??? Do you need a reminder??
No really, I'm a SUCKER for Karaoke!
This weekend is gonna be SO FREAKIN' AMAZING!!!!! :D
Do you ever have those moments where you legitimately feel cheated? Like someone is actually sitting in an office wondering how exactly they can 'hose' you and get a good laugh out of it? I wonder if there's an award for such cruel tomfoolery. If so, I'd like to nominate the people at GlaxoSmithKline, the distributors of Contac Cold & Flu.
(don't let the simple packaging fool you, they're sneaky snakes.)
So last night I started developing a little bit of a cold. Standing out in the cold for an extra 30 mins waiting to get into a concert I had won free tickets to didn't help . . .
. . . it did however, present an opportunity for a good laugh. Saw this guy standing in line and it took EVERYTHING in me not to just pants the guy. I mean seriously, if that's not an open invitation for a good pantsing, I don't know what is!
. . . Anyway, back to the story. So my housemate Amanda and I had to leave early cause I was feeling dizzy, feverish, and just plain sick. :( Needless to say, once I got home, I was ready to call it a night. I put my head to my pillow and I was out cold (pun kind of intended)! This morning after my dentist appointment, I decided to stop by the store and get some hot soup and meds to help me get over this thing pronto. The cheapest option was the Contac Cold/Flu meds (and it wasn't entirely cheap either, but I can't justify spending upwards of 25 bucks on OTC meds). So I bought the cold/flu medicine and got home, opened the box to take the pills and voila, I realized that someone forgot to include 2 more doses of the meds!
You see that? There's totally room for 2 more! Now I'm not a pharmacist, so I may be in the wrong, but unless the pills are the type that don't play well together, they shouldn't have so much space separating them. Then again, if they don't play well together, then the packaging logic does make sense. However, it doesn't change the fact that I opened it and thought,
"Awww. Two doses were voted off the island!! I bet it was that freakin' smoke monster—what a jerk!"
Look guys, I don't want to say I warned ya, but I'm warning you . . .
The apocalypse is coming. So, be ready, k.
You see, the other day, our work email was flooded with about 15 emails (between Inbox & Junk Mail folders) containing coding and I'm pretty sure it was a subliminal message. This was the email I sent to our IT guy:
Good morning ———,
In an attempts to keep you extremely baffled yet completely busy and entertained, I thought I would forward this to you. We have about 7 emails like this in the publications inbox and they all contain jumbled codes seen below. It wouldn't normally bother me, except for the fact that I have NO clue what they are from or what is going on. The only other time I've seen an email like this was during a movie about the apocalypse. I don't think this is fortelling the end of the world, but I thought I'd let you know that we got these. Also, consider this your "I told you so," if in fact, the world ends today.
Thanks!
Amanda
Today he came up and checked and said that he was confused by some of the hosted coding. He wondered why anyone would send an email that was completely random like that with no understandable purpose. I told him they were probably geniuses, and that I can attest to the level of genius involved, since I've successfully sent a quarter of a billion random emails to unsuspecting recipients posing as a prince from South Africa in need of money. He didn't seem to believe my credibility, but decided he would confer with the email server technicians. But for the record, I'm pretty sure they're going to plead innocent—no one REALLY wants to admit they played a role in the apocalypse.
Also today, the IT guy and I were having a conversation with other co-workers who were experiencing some strange things going on at their house. They had an influx of fleas, bugs that sounded like locusts, and currently rats. The IT guy and I decided that those incidences seemed too suspicious to be happenstance and noted the biblical allusions—you know, those miserable plagues. So, we came to the conclusion that we would keep an eye out for swirling gray clouds (which isn't so far off here in SeaTown) and do all we can to prepare for the apocalypse.
That said, I'd advise you alert your neighbors if your water turns to blood or you notice an influx of cows on their side (not from cow-tipping).
Look guys, I know it's a doomsday topic, but really—you gotta be prepared! This is so much bigger than Y2K and the Grammys. It's the apocalypse for crying out loud! I fully intend to utilize the money I have saved in my Swiss Bank Account from my Prince From South Africa scam to buy out all the Twizzlers and Dr. Pepper that will aide me until the end of the world. I advise you to do the same.
I totally had one of those "mmmhmmm . . . aha!" moments yesterday. I found myself re-watching YouTube videos of Jack's Mannequin shows, in anticipation of the new album that's supposedly coming out sometime this fall.
I watched this vid . . .
. . . and then I thought—OMG! I've watched ONE too many of these cause I totally do Andrew's hand thing when I sing songs out loud!
What hand thing, you ask?
This one:
photo credit: ashley nicole
photo credit: anna tovar
True story. I do that now. Oh Andrew, you have invaded my psyche . . . I'm kind of excited about it, but also kind of weirded out. Anyway, just thought you should know. If you see me do it, just turn your head to side either in confusion or wonder. One of the two. ;p
I am a mexican chick, born in Germany, raised in Austin, TX, and now currently living in Seattle, WA. I'm funny, weird, and just plain quirky, but then again, there's a lot of us out there. :) My favorite color is baby blue, I love pop culture trivia, chocolate, decorating, designing stuff and singing off key in public ♥ Among other things, I love family, friends, COFFEE, finding the humor in the silliest things, laughing, talking about old memories & making new ones ♥ I do NOT like cigarette smoke, wearing skirts, anything outdoorsy, the 80's, very loud people in elevators, rapists, certain shades of pink ♥ I am a daddy's girl all the way! ♥ I'm comfortable with being me ♥ I love making a difference in peoples' lives, helping, loving, teaching and watching them get to know Jesus ♥ I love my neice and hope to have kids of my own someday. ♥ I love God and I love living my life for Him and learning along the way!
I lost every game of PIT that we played 
Breakfast with everyone was definitely a highlight
The Dollar Tree is too good to me
Kyle bought play-dough, so I made a penguin
The view from the backyard
Even in our struggling economy,
I LOVE the beach!
I could play all day at the beach
The Roosevelt House girls representin'
Me and Kyle's matching loot from The Dollar Tree
Giant Chinese man sighted in Oregon!
Fake tattoos and glow bracelets make any day better!
