my life in my words

And Run

2010-12-31T16:58:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year's Eve!

I hope you all had a fabulous time over the holidays. I know that for me personally, coming home for the holidays can be the most wonderful, but also the most stressful time. Having three families to celeberate the holidays with is sometimes extremely chaotic with all the parties, events, and of course the hang time with friends! And while this vacation isn't over, I wanted to go ahead and share some reflections about this past year and what I'm looking forward to in the next year.

2010

. . . was a year of fully establishing my life in Seattle. This July, I will have lived in Seattle for 3 years! The time has flown by so fast, but it's been entirely worthwhile. This year, I celebrated being at my job for a full year, built stronger friendships with people I want close to me. They encourage and challenge me to be a better human being while accepting me just as I am, which was truly something I was worried about when I first moved to Seatown. Rebuilding your life in another city is a huge undertaking. It forces you to ask yourself who you really are and face that with open arms. I feel like I have done just that this year. My first year living there I was just trying to stay above the surface and make a living. As my second year began there, I took a look at my life and asked myself, "What matters most and who do you want to become when the lights go down?" I am pleased to report that I have never felt more confident and secure about who I am than I have this year. I've learned to navigate rough waters and stand in front of storms with an unwavering faith, neverending love, and a healthy dose of humor.

I did a lot of traveling this year and have learned to truly take hold of my sense of adventure unapologetically. I've built friendships across the country and in my own house that carried me through a year of learning and living.

I could highlight in this post all of my favorite moments, but instead, I'll just link you to one favorite blog post from each month. Feel free to take a look back with me and celebrate the little moments that made 2010 such a big year for me! Also take time out to ask yourself what one thing you learned from each month of this past year.

JANUARY: Exploring Art And Creativity In My Neighborhood

FEBRUARY: Seeing Jack's Mannequin In Seattle

MARCH: Experiencing My First Seder

APRIL: Fun Family Time For Easter

MAY: Learned How To Belly Dance

JUNE: Facing Facts Via Softball

JULY: Parades Are For Friends And Shenanigans

AUGUST: Lessons From The Young And The Young At Heart

SEPTEMBER: Road Trip To Friends, Music, And California

OCTOBER: Trick-Or-Treating As A Narwhal

NOVEMBER: A Birthday Weekend With My Friends And Parachute

DECEMBER: Giving Back With Help Portrait 2010

2011

. . . is sure to be a year of more smiles, storms, dreams coming true, obstacle courses and lots of relationship building. I'm definitely looking FORWARD to it. I read a blog post this morning at timschraeder.com where Tim talked about setting a theme for the year instead of just making resolutions. It challenged me to take a look at this past year and make some decisions about this next year. My theme for this next year is FORWARD. I want this year to be full of moments where I learn to keep going, to not give up, to push past feelings and just do things without holding myself back. To love fully, to start pursuing deeper relationships. To give fully of my time and energy without worry. To push myself to make moments more meaningful and purposeful. To always be moving forward and not letting moments pass me by. My 2011 will be a year of growth, of new risks, more adventures, stronger focus, and more freedom!

. . . And hopefully it won't take me until December of 2011 to successfully write 2011, instead of 2010, as the date this upcoming year. ;)

Santa Baby

2010-12-21T12:37:00.000-08:00

Last night's Elf Party was fabulous! I totally wish I had taken a picture of my costume, but I'm sure they'll surface from other peoples' cameras soon enough, so I'll post one when I can. In the meantime, just imagine me dressed in red velvet santa-suit style pajama pants and a green shirt, with an elf hat that has ears sewed onto them. What I DO have to share today is some of the pictures I took last night. There aren't as many as I had planned to take, since I was busy schmoozing and belting out BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE with my friends.

I think for sure one of the biggest highlights was the cake that Luke brought:

Also, the fact that he was daring enough to put some syrup on his spaghetti:

H. Stubbs won the child's costume contest as Frosty The Snowwoman:

Her little sister, E. Stubbs was DEFINITELY a favorite as well! She was the ghost of Christmas past.

What's even better is that when I got home, I had some treasures waiting for me in the mailbox!

I recently ordered some personal stationary from my favorite Etsy shop: PLAIN JANE'S CARDS. Jane makes such beautiful cards using great fabric patterns. She had posted some updated patterns lately and I found one that was just too "me" to pass up! So I ordered some and then had her personalize them for me so that I could use them as stationary to send notes to friends! Here they are, personalized with my nickname, AMO!

I just adore them! They're perfect for me!

I also got this super creative Christmas card from my mentor & friend, Brian Brooks and his beautiful wife, Hannah:

One of the fun things about it is the silhouette on the back to represent their dog Louie. So so sweet!

All in all, yesterday was pretty amazing! And if you don't believe me, just watch this quick clip of Corbett as Rudolph The Red-Nosed Lounge Singer!

I Can't Stop Partying

2010-12-19T20:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Christmas Party Update Central

I still have one more party before I head home for the holidays, but I figured I'd go ahead and do a weekend party recap!

On Friday, we had the Westside Leadership Party and I got to create a new Christmas game for everyone to play! I think it went very well—getting people to do creative silly stuff is so much fun to watch (and participate in)! The game involved the following supplies:

A roll of toilet paper
5 Red Vines
6 toothpicks
10 marshmallows
3 pieces of gum
5 paper clips
3 rubber bands
and 3 pieces of string/raffia

As part of the game, each group (4 people) had to pick out a hat the name of one Christmas Carol. They then had to use the supplies to create a visual representation of that Christmas Carol. I had little H.Stubs judge to decide which one was the most creative. And the winner was:

RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER!

There is nothing quite so quality as seeing Evan dressed up as Rudolph, complete with red vines shoved up his nose!

Then on Saturday, I went to Heather J's Birthday / White Elephant Gift Exchange Party and it was jam-packed with good times! I got to hang out with friends, talk about New York, make awkward poses while hanging from the pull-up bar in their house, and of course I got some rad gifts! I got chocolates and biscotti—not bad for a White Elephant Gift Exchange! I must admit, though, the real fun times happened when this little guy made his appearance:

That's right, a bonafide fiber-optic peacock!

And then this afternoon, I joined up with some friends for a Gingerbread House Party! A few years back, I got to make a gingerbread house with my friends Cory and Chase and we decided to make a gingerbread crack house. I don't even remember why, but it was hilarious! Here's a pic of us back then trying to make our crack house:

I had so much fun making that one back then that I decided to relive the fun by making another gingerbread crack house at the party! Here's what I started out with:

And here's how it actually turned out . . . after a long fight against frosting and graham crackers. It is quite literally a cracked house ;)

You see, it's perfect! The front looks just like any normal house on the block, and the real business goes on inside and in the back. Kelsey said, in reference to my creation, "It's like a mullet. Business in the front, party in the back!" The top of the house is covered with weed growing on the top and the inside contains "the lab." The back of the house even comes complete with an escape ladder to use when the cops come by to bust the joint!

Here are the other (read: more serious) gingerbread houses that were made by the others:

Erica's Lighthouse

Josh's Tugboat

Kelsey's Gingerbread House

Brian's Gingerbread House

Tomorrow night I have an Elf Party to go to and I'm so excited! Elf is one of the best Christmas movies ever and spending the evening quoting it and eating all of the 4 main elf foods is gonna be rad!

And as promised, I wanted to show you the fun postcard I designed for my community group! I truly love how fun these people are and I'm thankful that they went along with the zany idea to take pictures with the snowflake glasses on!

(click to enlarge)

Warm Winter

2010-12-17T16:30:00.000-08:00

All the holiday parties are in full effect!!

I had my office Holiday Party on Wednesday. I had my Westside Community Group Christmas Party last night. I have a Westside Leadership Christmas Party tonight. I have Heather J.'s Birthday Party (complete with White Elephant Gift Exchange) on Saturday night. And then I have another Gingerbread House Party going on Sunday afternoon. Monday night I have an Elf Party to go to and I'm reserving Tuesday and Wednesday night to get last minute Seattle gifts for the fam and to pack for my trip home on Thursday morning!

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I like to party! I don't mean I like to party in the sense that I like getting trashed and doing ridiculous things that I won't remember the next morning. I mean I like to create memories of quality fun times that I, or anyone else in attendance for that matter, can't help but remember it the next morning.

When I was in High School, I took Tech Theater for a year. After doing Theater the previous year, I decided that I wanted to be a part of actual design work as opposed to just getting out on stage and reciting lines. I was more intrigued by the technical aspects: the writing, the sets, and the costumes. I had such a wonderful experience working as the assistant to the Costume Director and spent most of my free time raiding the prop and costume closet, playing dress up! I can see how it's all carried over into my personal life a lot. I think what makes holiday season parties better is that there are so many of them that you can dress up for each of them with a new level of fun. For instance, here's what I wore to my office Holiday Party:

My co-worker A— kept bowing down and

hailing me as the "Snowflake Queen."

It was so funny!

I got two extra special holiday treats last night at our Community Group Christmas Party: I got an Old Navy gift card from the Irwins (holla what!) and our hostess, KL, made Lil' Smokies just for meeeeeeee!!!! Can I just take a moment to TRY to explain to you how magical Lil' Smokies are? Every great party I ever attended back home served Lil' Smokies as an hors d'oeuvre and they are just SO amazing. KL and I had talked about it a while back and she said, "I'm going to make some for our Christmas party just for you!" It was like Santa had just given me that pony I'd always wanted. Who knew that something so small smothered in barbecue sauce could hold the key to magical hopes and wonders of taste? Well, pretty much anyone who's ever served them knows. ;)

But as an aside, my outfit for that party was this:

When I got to KL's house, I was greeted by these sweet luminaries and lots of hugs from friends in my CG:

We had so much fun hanging out, eating great food, sharing fun memories, and doing our White Elephant Gift Exchange. What's even better is that I got everyone in my Community Group to let me take a picture of them in the snowflake glasses! I'm working to create a postcard & photo collage for each of our CG members and hopefully I'll be able to share it with you guys as well!

The Medallion Calls

2010-12-13T17:03:00.000-08:00

This be the tale of a landlubbin' crew that be innovative
and chock full 'o entrepreneurship.

Grab some hearty rum, scoot over a nearby keg
and sit yer peg leg down as I tell ye the tale of

PIRATE INK

Ye see, it all started in a deep dark pit near

the Island of Social Netwerkin' in the city of Twittargggh . . .

And as a response, yers truly, Peg Leg Shenanigans

has created a shiny new design for Pirate Ink!

So ye be sure to stop on by when the rum's gone an' my

team of scalliwags will put a nice little ink stain on yer bones!

Ye may be wonderin' who some of our high profile clients are, and since yer so curious, you can spot some of them in this here video:

Green

2010-12-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . .

The time for having great hang times with friends at Christmas parties!! I know that the Christmas season is all sorts of jam-packed with one event after another, but I can't really complain. I enjoy getting to reconnect with people in the midst of busy weeks. It challenges me to make conversation and fun times count more because, like me, my friends are busy during this season and the time I get to see them is fewer and far between.

Another great thing about these parties is the delicious food I get to enjoy. Since moving to Seattle, I've gotten to experience a whole other style of cuisine. There are so many things that people make here that I never had in the land of Tex-Mex and Barbecue. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE those things as well and I will definitely enjoy them when I get home for the holidays, but it's interesting to try new foods too!

I'll share one funny thing that happened lately involving holiday parties and food. So, my workplace organizes a holiday party every year and we all sign up to bring delicious treats. Last year, I was one of the last ones to sign up because I couldn't figure out what to make. This year, I wanted to get a jump on things and go ahead and get my name on the list before I was stuck trying to make something difficult—those things usually don't end well. There were two people already signed up on the nearly blank sign-up sheet and I figured I would make a salad, because y'know, they're simple and don't require watching 8 hours of a cooking show. So I rushed to the list and made my mark:

(click image to enlarge)

That's me, first on the salad list, and let me tell you, when I figure out what kind of salad I'm making it will DEFINITELY live up to its description on the list!

The best thing though, is that AFTER I wrote that down, my other co-workers joined the fun! I love that the people I work with

1) Tolerate my shenanigans.

2) Know how to have fun.

3) Are just as mysterious as I am.

4) Make me feel awesome!

Party on, Wayne! Party on, Garth!

Raise Your Glass

2010-12-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

WHAT IS HELP PORTRAIT?

Founded by Celebrity Photographer Jeremy Cowart, Help-Portrait is a community of photographers, coming together across the world to use their photography skills to give back to their local community.

This past Saturday, December 4th, 2010, photographers around the world grabbed their cameras, found people in need and took their picture. When the prints were ready, the photographs got delivered.

And by the way, it's not about seeing our photos. Help Portrait is about GIVING the pictures, not taking them. These portraits are not for our portfolio, website, or for sale. Money isn’t involved here. We simply used the day to give a family something they may have never had before—a portrait together.

I had the opportunity to spend all day Saturday hanging out with amazing photographers of all different levels in an event that was all about giving back to the city of Seattle! I participated in my first Help Portrait event last year and had an AMAZING time! This year's event was extra special. Instead of going to one small site, we were allowed to use the new Creative Live Studio to bring many more people in from different organizations aiding Seattle's homeless & low-income families.

The day was spent building memories for the families that came and all those involved in making the event happen! I got to spend the day assisting an amazing photographer, Mike Folden, who was part of the group I helped with last year for our first Help Portrait event. We also had Emily, one of my friends from Westside, working with us and that made it extra fun! When we weren't taking pictures of clients, we were telling jokes, singing showtunes and Disney songs, talking about photo gear and techniques, and just getting to know each other more.

One of the sweetest moments that I'll never forget was when we were posing a family that included a single mother and her 3 little girls. The girls were all cute as can be and they cooperated so well. As the assistant, it was my job to help pose the family and keep the kids happy so they would smile and look at the camera. The shoot went great and as I was escorting the family back out of the photo booth area to the front desk, I felt this little hand grab mine, and looked down as the youngest daughter was closing her hand around mine. Seeing the sweet smile on her sweet face and knowing that (even though I was only able to be a small part of her life) she trusted me enough to reach up, grab my hand and let me lead her the rest of the way just melted my heart.

Aside from being able to interact with all the amazing families that visited our booth, I also considered myself blessed to have gotten the opportunity to assist Chase Jarvis when he did a shoot at our booth. I also had the chance to chat with Jeremy Cowart a couple of times throughout the day. It was amazing to be surrounded by such amazing creative people as we joined together to give back to the city I love!

Here are some pictures of me & my team from the day!

Just let me know if you ever need someone to ruin
a perfectly good picture for ya

Me, Emily, and Mike hanging out between clients

Me and Emily smiling pretty

Our editors: Matt & Jason [and Lawrence (not pictured) for half the day]

Emily and I take this job VERY SERIOUSLY . . .

A screencap of our group as we sign off from the webcast!

King 5 News was also there to get some footage for their evening broadcast:

The video feed from the day may still be streaming on the Creative Live site. If it is, you can click HERE to see the replay.

What I Know

2010-12-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

There's a lot to be said about quality friendships that exist across the miles, and a lot more to be said when those friendships are held together by celebrated affinities. I've told you all about my friend Jenny on the blog
a a couple of times already.

What that I love and appreciate about Jenny is that even though we don't always agree on everything, we are still able to have a quality friendship. She's big into fashion and Hanson, and I'm not so much. Also, she doesn't share my love for Chad Michael Murray. But we do agree on a TON of other things that really matter. Our shared love for Parachute and graphic design has brought us together to share an amazing experience:

Parachutefan.com

Let me just tell you how hard Jenny works on making this site such an awesome resource for fellow fans. Last night, she pulled an all-nighter to finish up a new design for PFC, and it looks AMAZING! Now, bear in mind that neither Jenny or I get paid for our work with PFC, so you know we're not doing it for the cash moneyz. We truly love and admire this band and where they've been and, more importantly, where they are headed—that is why we do it.

So in general, Jenny will come up with the designs and site layout and I will help with editing text and giving design feedback and the like. Together, we come up with the initiatives and other details on the content of the site, but Jenny is the one who stares at the screen for hours and hours making sure Dreamweaver doesn't freak out. Ask any web designer and they will tell you what a beast Dreamweaver is! She's also the one who handles the majority of the flack from a few hostile fans, and the one who keeps things all nice and neat and organized for PFC. She is a champion and after discussing things back and forth, I am thankful for her ability to listen to my nitpicky corrections and thoughts without disowning me entirely. Thankfully, I'm able to make up for all my nitpicks with some good humor and I often joke that I'm the PFC court jester. ;) But it's the collaboration process that I appreciate more than anything. As a designer, I KNOW how hard it is to let someone else in on your work, but Jenny lets me step in and work with her to make it what it is—one giant site full of awesome!

One of the things I'm most looking forward to this next year is making a trip to the east coast to join Jen for Parachute's CD Release Party!

Be sure to check out PFC by clicking the link above!

In the meantime, here are some screencaps!

--------------------------

DEAR JEN:

If you are reading this, please know that there are not enough words to describe how proud I am of you and how much I (and I'm sure the band) appreciate all your hard work!

Santariffic

2010-12-01T12:15:00.000-08:00

Who's excited for the Christmas season?

Well I sure am! I seriously spent the day after Thanksgiving decorating for Christmas; and I pretty much listen to Christmas songs year-round. Don't get me wrong, I celebrated Thanksgiving with tons of love and thanks and turkey, but there's just something magical about Christmas.

It's comforting knowing that my friends are EQUALLY (if not more) excited about the Christmas season as well. And so, today, I wanted to share with you some words of wisdom from two amazing friends of mine.

David Atkins & Kat Crosby

David was part of MCA and one of my students when I was the Media Director there. I loved having him on my team and I loved hanging out with him all over the ATX. He's funny and he's put up with so much of my shenanigans—for that, he should get a Nobel Peace Prize! What's more, is that he found an equally amazing woman to share love with. Her name is Kat and not only is she one of the cutest, sweetest, and completely lovely women I know, but her genuine love and care for people encourages me so much! It means so much to me to have friends in my life who not only understand me when I'm letting my freak flag fly, but who also know how to join in the fun! They are such a wonderful couple and I look forward to spending more quality time with them when I go home for the holidays.

Speaking of holidays,

here is a step-by-step tutorial courtesy of Kat and David of

"HOW TO TAKE
A PICTURE
WITH SANTA"

well, kids, I hope you learned something today ;)

From A Terrace

2010-11-30T16:35:00.000-08:00

I consider myself lucky to have the friends I do. I look at my life and where I've been and I look at those who I have pushed away, and those who refused to be pushed away. I look at those who have held me in the tough times, and those who have peed their pants from laughing with me so much.

To those who have been such awesome friends that you would willingly cup your hand over my mouth to prevent me from releasing a resonating
laughter in a library—I thank you. Sometimes I forget about my surroundings.

I write all of this down because like you, I have bad days and lose sight of the great things I have in life. I have forgetful days. I have busy days. I have days where I just want to throw my laptop across the room because my alarm is going off at an ungodly hour . . . but of course I don't, because well let's get real—I love my Mac too much. Also, in the same vein of IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE, if I throw my laptop across the room, I'm going to cry for hours.

and if I cry for hours, I'm going to want some chocolate
and if I get some chocolate, I'm going to want some coffee
and if I get some coffee, pretty soon I'll just start crying espresso . . .

You know how it is.

(you do, right?)

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you all about 2 of my friends who are doing some great creative stuff right now.

Chris Hair
I met Chris years ago through another friend and have stayed connected over the years. Right now, he's pursuing his passion in music and has been posting some new songs, as well as some cover songs, on his YouTube account. But, if you'd like to add to your Christmas music collection, you can head over to his Noise Trade page and download his free cover of HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS.

Here is one of his songs, ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER:

Joshua Curtis
I met Joshua during my 1st year as a student in MCA and we have been friends ever since! He is by and far my best guy friend ever! He has always been one of my biggest encouragers and never fails to make me laugh. He is also an amazing photographer! Recently he spent a long time living in Africa, serving the community there alongside some great people in Days of Elisha Ministries. Here is some of his work:

^ i actually own this one and it's hanging up in my room ^

As a side note: If you (or someone you know is) are looking for a great gift for the holiday season, you can buy an 11x14 print of his PHOTOS for $25 each. Simply click on the images below to enlarge and see which one you would like:

And then send him an e-mail at joshuainafrica@gmail.com. In the e-mail, let him know the number listing of the photo you want, along with your mailing address. He'll work out payment with you over e-mail.

I really want to spend this holiday season celebrating others who have meant so much to me, so I think I'll be posting more about fun stories, photos, and projects that my friends and I are working on and just celebrate good times as we head into 2011!!

And just so we're clear, it's gonna take me
all of 2011 to get used to saying, "2011."

Good Life

2010-11-25T17:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!

There are so many things to be thankful for today and I decided that I should write down a list of things I'm thankful for so that if I ever start to whine or complain or think I have a bad handle on life, I can refer back to this post and get over myself. So technically, this post is more for me than you . . . but maybe it'll help you think of some things to be thankful for as well. Bear in mind that this is not a complete listing, it's just as much as I could think of in about 5 minutes before I get dressed to go celebrate the holiday with the Jones clan!

I am thankful for:

being alive
family
friends
my faith in God
chocolate
my job
music in general
pizza
stretchy pants on holidays
my phone
my clothes
having a space heater in the winter
the snow falling this morning
my MacBook Pro
education
peacoats
books
coffee
technology
more chocolate
running water
blankets
jack's mannequin
my ability to laugh in tough situations
ice cream
the way my parents raised me
scarves
the youth at Westside Church
my aunt's broccoli rice and cheese casserole
more coffee
shoes
parachute
my housemates
creativity
my neighborhood
my co-workers
swimming pools
airplanes in the night sky that look like shooting stars
coffee with honey
paramore
the internets
mamo's christmas cookies
the academy for even allowing me to be nominated for this award
24 hour fitness
toilet paper
is chocolate on this list yet?
YOU!!!!!!!!!

White Dress

2010-11-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

As you've probably gathered, the Pacific Northwest is wearing a very hefty sparkly white dress of snow today! My neighborhood have gotten 4-5 inches of snow already. But as I sit at home enjoying the view of it all from my warm living room, I figured I'd share my adventures from my sleepover at work!

The snow had already started falling when I got into work yesterday and the buses had chains on them, and re-routed to suit their snow routes. Part of the trouble of working in Queen Anne, is that when it snows (and it rarely does in Seattle), it becomes incredibly dangerous the buses don't run up the hill. So throughout the morning, the opportunity to stay in the building overnight was presented to me and I decided I would do that instead of risking missing work hours during the high point of our publications cycle. Then, around 11 a.m., the surge protector in my office made a constant beeping noise. Shortly after that, all the computers in my office shut down, along with the electricity in every outlet. We tried to find alternatives to get the computers back up and running, but nothing was working. Shortly after, my boss noticed a smell coming from the area just under my office. It smelled like burning sulfur. We weren't sure exactly where it was coming from, so we checked around and waited to see if the smell would dissipate. Apparently, there was some kind of electrical fire brewing inside the walls close to my office. We had talked to someone and they said it shouldn't be a problem, so my boss and two others stayed overnight with me.

We went out for dinner at a great Indian restaurant called Roti and we rented a movie from Blockbuster so that we could have a fun time waiting out the snow. When we got to the store, we were torn about renting either THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT or PIRATE RADIO. We walked to the counter with Pirate Radio but right at the last moment, one of the other co-workers ran to switch it out with The Kids Are All Right. We decided to spend the evening on the couches in the lobby area so that we could be present if the smell of the electrical fire continued to grow. We made it about 20 minutes into the movie and decided to turn it off because it was just too sexually graphic for our liking, there was too much bad acting, and it just wasn't a worthwhile movie. So we watched THE KITE RUNNER on Netflix instead.

After e-mailing a few people earlier in the day, we got a call later in the evening from an electrician that told us to shut down the power to the building and get out of there. We turned off the movie and moved all of our stuff to the next building over, and just stayed up talking and laughing and having a fun time!

We woke up this morning safe and sound and my boss gave me the day off with pay! So now I'm here at home, relaxing with a hot latte, watching the people walk in the snow, and finishing up watching The Kite Runner (and crying like a baby from the story).

We found out that it was part of the remnants of The Great Pen Fire of October and they got the problem fixed. All in all, my Snowpocalypse Sleepover at work was a lot of fun and it gave me a chance to build stronger relationships with my co-workers. I think we all agreed that we should each keep a change of emergency winter wear handy at the office though . . . just in case.

Here are some of my pics from the snow storm. Enjoy!

"Sorry, we're closed!"

It was crazy watching cars slide down the hill

Don't worry guys, I wore my snowshoes

As I was waiting at the bus stop,
I saw this news crew filming a segment
about a traffic post that a car had
taken out when it skidded off the road

Snow covering the Experience Music Project Building

Back In Your Head

2010-11-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

It snowed today!!

Well, at least for a little bit. It was definitely fun while it lasted.

Heather J. let me borrow her camera to work on a project this morning at Westside and then let me hang onto it until Tuesday. So naturally, I decided to take it out for a little photostroll this afternoon. While I was walking, I found this sweet little house with a little artsy display out in front of it. It was all very vintage and kind of melancholy, but I decided to take advantage of the rare neighborhood art and take some pics. It kind of reminded me of some of the artsy decorations in some yards back home in Austin. I love stumbling across little treasure troves like this! I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do!

this is my neighborhood!

Something To Believe In (My Parachute Concert Experience)

2010-11-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

Rock and roll music has been a major part of my life for many years now and nothing creates that sense of euphoria, to me at least, quite like dancing and singing along as your favorite band plays live. It’s an even better experience when you are surrounded by other people that care about and love that quality music at the same level that you do. There is something wonderful and magical about experiencing a great rock concert and Sunday night’s Parachute concert at the House of Blues in Dallas was exactly that!

My set list autographed by the band

Hailing from Austin, Texas, I moved to Seattle two-and-a-half years ago. My first time to see Parachute in concert was at The Crocodile in Seattle. Once I experienced one of their rockin’ shows, I knew I had to go to another. I joined their street team and promoted them heavily to everyone and anyone that would listen. I realized that as they announced tours, Seattle was not one of their frequented cities. I would follow them on Twitter and hunt down videos on YouTube in hopes of sharing a second-hand experience of this band whose music meant so much to me. After waiting for what seemed like forever, they finally announced that not only were they going to be recording a new album, they were going to be touring in the fall again! Sadly, Seattle wasn’t on the list, so I did what I had to—I hopped a flight to Dallas, Texas to spend my birthday weekend with my best friend, and to go to that concert at The House of Blues.

Will Anderson & Nate McFarland

I had already bought my tickets to the show when they announced they were doing a fan contest where you could win tickets to the show and access to an exclusive meet and greet to hear the studio versions of songs on their unreleased album. My Seattle friends helped me enter the contest, and after waiting anxiously for the results, I found out that I had won! Not only was I going to go to an amazing show, and be able to hear the new songs, but I got to bring two friends along for free! My best friend’s roommate, who is also a fan, joined us and we were all extremely excited as we set out for the show and the Hear It First Listening Party!

Alex Hargrave & Johnny Stubblefield

As Parachute’s tour manager, Chris Jones, led us into the Cambridge Room, Johnny, Kit, Nate, Alex, and Will were there waiting for us and they welcomed us to the party! To say I was excited might be the biggest understatement of the year. After getting to say hello and hug the guys, they quickly led us all over to some couches along the wall (set up had run late and cut short our time by a little bit) and let us listen to a couple of the tracks off of the new album. The songs were amazing! First, we got to hear “Something To Believe In” (a track noted as Jeremiah on the set list). The gospel tracks laced into the song were astounding and added a strong layer of fullness to the crisp recording. Then we got to listen to “White Dress” (a song they referred to as Bumpin’ Jam on the set list). I suggested to Will that they should definitely add “bumpin’ jam” into parenthesis after the song title because it was so true to the nature of the song. It was one of those songs that make you want to drum on the steering wheel as you cruise down the highway and bob your head to the beat causing passersby to stare, wishing they were having as much fun as you are. Having heard the live recording of it on YouTube, I had already regarded it as a song made of gold, but after listening to the studio recording, I’m more apt to consider it a Scrooge McDuck-sized vault of musical gold! The lyrical depth and overall arrangement of both songs made it clear that these guys were pushing their music and style to a new level of excellence. The fact that Kit and Johnny were dancing around in the background made it an extra special experience.

Kit French

After the listening party, we waited anxiously for the show to start. The moment Parachute took the stage, the night of fun had come full circle. We all cheered loudly as Nate, Alex, Johnny, and Kit stepped on the stage to lay down the intro to White Dress. Already brimming with excitement, the energy in the crowd was intensified as Will joined the band front and center to lead us all in the truly “bumpin’ jam.”

The performance was packed with fun and excitement thanks to a solid set of both old and new songs. We clapped and sang along to songs featured on their first album, Losing Sleep, and danced as we listened intently to the newer ones like the deceptively catchy upbeat chorus, “She’s in love with someone else” in the song What I Know. As Will took a moment to introduce the song Square One with the insight that it was written as a result to being “played” in a relationship, a united groan of understanding was echoed by the majority of guys in the crowd. It was clear that everyone in the crowd could relate on some level to the songs blasting from the speakers. From the sweetly refreshing acoustic version of All That I Am, to the punchy vocals on the funk-infused Halfway, to the fist-pumping powerhouse of a song, Under Control, the band’s stellar stage presence and showmanship propelled the show to an amped-up out-of-this-world level. From talking to fellow fans (both old and new) in the crowd afterward, I think it’s safe to say that the entire experience left a positive, indelible impression of what a quality rock show is all about.

Our Listening Party group:
Johnny, Chad, Will, Katie, Me, Diane, Kit, Kelley, Nate, Alex

Here are more photos from the show taken by my friend Chad, who graciously relieved me of camera duty so that I could enjoy the show with no distractions!

It truly was a night I'll never forget!

I can't wait until they release dates
for more touring in the beginning of 2011
and I for SURE cannot wait for the new album to drop!

Close To You: A Birthday Post!

2010-11-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

On the day that you were born,
the angels got together
and decided to create a dream come true . . .

Not too shabby, eh?!? ;p

I decided that since my parents were pretty much the major part of this day being a thing, I'd call them up and ask them to share one of their first memories of the day of my birth. So without further adieu, the story of me:

From mom:

You were born in the afternoon and you were two weeks early. I was so surprised when I realized I was going into labor that I just packed a bag real quick and jumped in the cab wearing my pajamas and my hair rollers. It was like a Carol Burnett moment! And I gave birth to you in my pajamas and hair rollers too! You weighed 6 pounds. And we gave you your name—we had it picked out and it's the one I really wanted to give you. I wanted a little girl so bad and I got what I wanted! I was very happy to have you. You had jaundice, so I had to keep taking you back to the hospital for check-ups. I told the doctors that I'd keep bringing you back, as long as I could bring you home! I wouldn't trade you for anything in the world. You were very smart, very cute, very everything we ever wanted.

From dad:

The day before you were born, I was out in Stuttgart, which is almost 2 and a half hours away from Nuremberg Hospital. I worked that morning on the 2nd and then I went home to get some sleep. When I finally got home, my sergeant called me and told me to call him back. When I did, he said, "Hey boy, somebody called and said your wife is going to have your baby! You need to come home right now!" I was half asleep, but I went home, got packed as fast as I could through the snow, and drove to Nuremburg. I was so tired, I stopped all along the way at three different Gast Hauses to get some espresso to make it to you! I finally got to the hospital and asked if the baby had already been born, and they said no, and I was so relieved! After you were born, I was so excited to see my baby girl! You had a tremendous amount of beautiful black hair. You were so beautiful, my Mandy Pandy.

They also shared some other milestones with me and some of their thoughts of who I was as I was growing up. It really made me appreciate the way they navigated through my shenanigans. I have truly lived a blessed life full of ups and downs and I am looking forward to another year of wonderful milestones and memories!

Today's wonderful birthday wouldn't have been as awesome without hearing their stories, and without the love I got from ALL of my friends! Here are some other great moments from my special day:

A sweet note from one of our work volunteers, Gale

A fruit tray that Gale got me—she knows I'm doing the game on diet, so she brought me fruit with Greek Yogurt! Then she and my boss sat down and told me all of their favorite things about me and what they appreciated about me. :)

Then I went over to Alisa's house and she treated me to pizza from my favorite pizza joint, Pagliacci Pizza! She also baked me a cake and invited some people to come over and join us for a nice evening before my big trip—PERRRRFECT!

My friend Maggie brought over this creative snack tray for me!

This is the AMAZING cake that Alisa baked for me! It was yellow cake with chocolate frosting—my fave!! I had told her daughter that I was turning 4, so they got me a 4 candle to blow out. ;p

All my cards and my birthday balloon from the evening!

And I finished the night, coming home to
this sweet birthday message from my housemates!

Today, I truly felt celebrated! I'm looking forward to many more years of celebrating!

I've Never Seen A Witch

2010-10-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

Me & T— ready for some trick-or-treating

A few weeks ago, one of my youth group girls asked me to go trick-or-treating with her, and I agreed because she's so fun to hang with and I haven't been trick-or-treating in forever (naturally). I had so much fun trick-or-treating with T— tonight! She went as a pirate and I went as a narwhal. We got so much loot! One lady even said, "Oh I have something SPECIAL for the big kids!" and she gave each of us a huge bag of M&Ms!

I loved being a narwhal this year too. It was extra fun because most of the adults were like, "Are you a unicorn?" and a bunch of the kids were like, "OH MY GOSH I LOVE YOUR COSTUME!!! I LOVE NARWHALS!!!"* I got a LOT of compliments and many confused glances from people walking up and down Market Street. I'm glad I got to get out and have fun this year—I felt like I was a kid again "oohing" and "aahing" at the fun pumpkins and decorations.

Here are some pics from the evening:

A legit Cake Wreck!
I think the pumpkin got sick of all the kids enjoying
the sweetness and wanted to try some himself.

A super cute family trick-or-treating on Market Street

A sweet pup ready for Halloween . . . ps: it's a boy!

Raise your hand if you're having fun . . .

One giant bag of M&Ms coming right up

My loot from the evening!

And as a special treat, here is a fun video of my friend, Heather J. dressed as a kitty making me laugh. She thought I was taking a picture, but I was filming!

*caps lock & exclamation points totally part of the deal.

Stadium Arcadium

2010-10-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

Last night I had dinner with the Irwins, but before we sat down at the table, we were watching the World Series. The fact that at first I didn't know which team was Texas and which one was San Francisco tells you just a little bit about my knowledge of sports. It wasn't until one of the Texas players turned around and I saw the big TEXAS across his (ugly, might I add) jersey that I realized who was who. That said, it made me think back to the time this summer when I played softball. I mean, we're not major league YET . . . okay, or at all. But it was genuinely fun—not because I knew what was going on, because most of the time I didn't—but because it allowed me to spend time outdoors having fun with friends. Today I finally got around to editing my softball photos.

And looking back on all the fun I had, I'd like to dedicate today's post to

TOP TEN REASONS WHY
I WILL NEVER PLAY IN THE WORLD SERIES:

10. Odds are more likely that I'd get my cleat stuck in the toilet while changing before the game.

9. I don't even own my own mitt. Legit.

8. Converse shoes don't really have great traction for running bases.

7. They say "batter up" and I ask what flavor they're offering.

6. Baseball pants don't come in electric blue.

5. They don't allow you to wear beaded necklaces in the big leagues.

4. When catching a ball: "I got it! I got it! . . . SQUIRREL!"

3. My idea of a pop-fly involves Thanksgiving and some old jeans.

2. They chant "Be the ball," and I curl up in a ball and scream "DON'T HIT ME!"

1. I actually confessed to someone this season that I thought that Ken Griffey Jr. played baseball with Babe Ruth and was a baseball legend.

. . . so yeah, all of these—plus the fact that I don't want to, have never trained for the position, and a ton of other factors. Oh well, at least I know I'm prime for a short-term softball league! And really folks, that's all I need! :)

~~GO RANGERS!!~~

~~GO GIANTS!!~~

GO WHOEVER IS GONNA WIN!!

Stones Under Rushing Water

2010-10-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

Life has been a whirlwind this past 2 weeks! The great news is that I'm doing really well on the Game On Diet with my friends. My favorite thing is trash talking the competition—sooo fun!

Well here's a quick rundown on some things that have been going on lately:

Thanks to the Game On Diet, I've traded in my pizza for salads and smoothies.

I've also traded in my potato chips for these:

And boy are they tasty! No but really, I've always liked cucumbers and carrots and stuff like that, so it's not that big of a stretch* but the hard part is resisting the other things I love . . . like pizza . . . and chocolate . . . and cupcakes!

The seasons have changed in the city and I'm loving the fall here in the city. Even with the rain, it's been really nice. I've had to layer up a little more to stay warm at work, but they're working on fixing the heater in my office, so that's a plus!

One of my favorite parts of the Game On Diet is getting together each week to watch The Biggest Loser and Glee! I get to do my weigh-in and then watch as others work toward a better health as well. Then I get to forget about any pounds I may have gained ;) by watching Glee! Yesterday on Biggest Loser, we kept rewinding the DVR because at one point, Jillian grabbed one of the other girls by the butt and made the funniest faces. And THEN, Deb saw a cockroach crawl across the floor when they were at the table doing the elimination round! We still don't know HOW she saw it, but we rewound the DVR and sure enough, it was there!

This morning when I came in to work, I got a special treat in my mailbox: NEW MUSIC to listen to! This is an album from a local Seattle band, THE HEAD AND THE HEART. I spent some time this morning listening to it and I loved the mellow sound. I really appreciate that it incorporates so many different layers and instruments—ones that you don't typically hear on a mainstream candy-coated album. It was a sweet treat for the indie folk parts of my heart. My favorite song off the album is Cats and Dogs.

In other great news: I have been whining and complaining (mostly to myself) about not getting to see the HBO mini-series BOARDWALK EMPIRE . . . which is a creation of Terence Winter, who made The Sopranos. But not only does it have great writing, it's backed by Scorcese, and it stars Steve Buscemi. Yes, that Steve Buscemi! And, as if that wasn't enough, the story takes place in one of my favorite eras—The Roaring 20s! Gangsters, flapper gowns, bright lights, drama to the max! But now . . .

I'm more than excited to start watching it—I don't even care if the season already started! The only thing is I have to wait until I'm done with the Game On Diet game, because it comes on at 10 and I have to be in bed asleep by 10 so I get my sleep points . . . and as much as I love TV, I'll turn it down for some butt-kickin' points!

Welp, that's pretty much it! My past few days in a nutshell. And oh what a refining process that nutshell is going through. ;)

In other news, I leave for Dallas next week for my Birthday Weekend!!! YAY!

* See what I did there? ;)

We Didn't Start The Fire

2010-10-21T17:53:00.001-07:00

As a young girl, I was lucky enough to learn the fine art of using a hot glue gun to decorate knick knacks with fake jewels. My hot glue gun skills were rivaled only by my ability to weild a bottle of puffy paint. For the longest time, I was sure my hot glue gun skills would lay waste and never come in handy. Today, that all changed.

It's getting a bit colder here and though I tried my best to brave the elements, I resorted to turning on the heater in my office. About 10 minutes later, our IT guy came into my office and asked, "What is that smell?!" I took in a whiff and said, "Hmm. It smells like hot glue gun. That's weird."

So after moving my desk and searching all over my office for the origin of the smell, we discovered that a pen had fallen into the heating grate and was melting onto the panels. I think it's safe to say we were mildly worried. After turning off the heater, thus preventing more toxins burning in the air, we aired out the office and retrieved the melted pen. We then decided that until we get it fixed I should either use one of the office space heaters or invest in a triple-layer Snuggie. After hearing that temperatures are going to be dropping significantly next week, I'm contemplating moving my office to Hawaii. ;p

I've also taken the liberty to change my office name from PUBLICATIONS OFFICE to THE FIRESIDE LOUNGE. I think I'll redecorate with jewels outlined in puffy paint. And of course, I'll apply the jewels with a hot glue gun.

The moral of the story: There's never a dull moment in my office. Also, only you (and a combo of tweezers, tongs, and scissors) can prevent office fires

Angels We Have Heard On High

2010-10-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight is a BIG night! Every Tuesday night, I meet up with my friends, Cindy B., Deb, Cindy J., Heather, and Clanci to watch Glee and Biggest Loser. Well tonight, we're shaking things up!

We are starting a friendly competition between us! We're going to be challenging each other to do the GAME ON DIET in teams and believe me, the trash talking has already begun in full force. When we were first working through the logistics, I learned that one of the other teams had a name and my team didn't. Well that just wouldn't do, so my teammates threw around some names and asked me to help pick one. From the list, I chose the most clever and fun one! After picking out the name, they asked me to design a logo of sorts for us to use to promote our team. Well ladies and gentlemen here it is—the logo for our team (the winning team), VICTORIOUS SECRET!

That's right folks! We're the angels ready to mangle the other teams! We each have our personal fitness goals and there is a strong system of accountability built into the diet, so it's also a great way for us to stay connected and build stronger friendships too! I've already been doing some prep work to get my body to ease into the changes a little smoother and I'm super excited about doing this with my friends. I'm really looking forward to what will come from it all!

Run Forward

2010-10-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last night I got to go to my FIRST EVER professional soccer match! It was so much fun, and not just because we won, but because I was surrounded by wonderful people! The fans in the stadium were outrageous and fun but the company of the friends who invited me—the Reddys—really made the night exciting! I got to have quality conversations and learn a lot about a sport I'd never really taken the time to pay attention to. Although I must admit, I'm not a bonafide soccer buff, I feel like I don't have to be clueless in the crowd anymore.

Here are some photos from the evening:

GO SOUNDERS!

Single Ladies

2010-10-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts. It's about to get a little ranty up in here.

One thing that I've bragged about for the past few years is that while a lot of my friends got the "Why aren't you married with kids yet?" talk from their parents, my parents had been silent on the issue. THAT was truly something I appreciated. Until a couple of weeks ago, when I got a call in which I had to explain to one of my parents that there were actually some pretty valid reasons why I'm not married yet.

Can I just take a moment to say, as a young (yes I still consider 28 to be young) single woman, how refreshing it is not to feel any pressure to be in a relationship with someone just because it's what is expected by society? I just cannot express to you so much how freeing it's been to not have anyone in my life questioning my life choices when it comes to finding the man I want to marry. I've been able to browse all by myself, on my own terms, and develop my own shopping list when it comes to finding the guy I want to devote some quality time to? It is entirely liberating.

But then I got the call. Then I had to explain that first and foremost, the reason I'm not in a relationship is not because I don't WANT to be, but because the only people that have asked me out are 40 year-old creepy guys on the bus, who are not my type. And yes, I do have a type; and NO, my type is not the knight-in-shining armor, riding in on a white horse delivering cards, candy, and flowers covered in diamonds. But being a young, independent woman, I know who I am and what I like, and I know what I'm willing to work for in the guy department.

Getting that call did not make me want to go out and find someone around the corner to get married do, but it did make me wonder why it mattered to anyone that I am still young and single. The thing that I always come back to is: "Who said that I have to be married with kids at 28? or 29 for that matter? Who says I have to have kids right out of the gate after I get married? Who says I have to have 5 kids of my own before I can feel fulfilled as a woman? Who?" Oh, I know who (and I'm not saying it's my parents, because up until now, they had not joined that chorus). Those questions that are always on my mind kind of came to a head during that conversation. I think it was interesting for my parents to hear my point of view on the matter—that I don't answer to those who think it's my job as a woman to settle for "the next available someone that I can have kids with." I take relationships and marriage a little more serious than that.

If you were to take an outside look at my friendships, you could gather that I spend a lot of time and energy pouring into those relationships. And those are just my basic friendships. Throw intimacy and a deeper, honest friendship in the mix and I'm not just going to treat it like it's a kitten in a box on the side of the road. If I think it has value, which I do, I'm going to go into it full force with 10x the attention, care, concern, and devotion that I would a basic friendship. So (in my opinion) for people in society to think that someone who is in their younger years and not romantically attached to someone (thus giving them some semblance of "mattering" to the world around them), are somehow 'less than' or 'missing the mark,' is absolutely absurd.

I understand that there sare some people that are married who feel like everyone else around them should be married: We could do married people stuff together! We could talk about our husbands together! We could have kids at the same time and they can have playdates together and then we can talk about how my son will marry your daughter and we'll plan their whole lives for them!!! What could be more fun?

I'll tell you what could be more fun. It would be more fun if married people would let time work its magic, like it did with them. It would be more fun if married people would let love progress under its personal circumstances, like it did with them. It would be SO much fun if married people would pray for my future, and that I would make wise choices. It would be SO much fun if married people would remember the pressures they felt when walking into relationships that led them to their mates, and help me work through those when the time comes.

I believe there is power in a woman who is confident in who she is even if she not furiously planning her wedding with the person she has just moved beyond being "just friends" with. And I worry for young women who only see their worth in being attached to a man. Am I against dating someone right now, Not.At.All. In fact, I have even ventured into online dating sites because I realize that I am at a point where I'm comfortable enough with who I am that I'm open to dating. But I have to say that even if I don't find someone this weekend to go on a date with me, I'm okay. I still have plenty of life in me, and there is still PLENTY of time for me to share it with the person I'm going to marry. And I will—in due time—to someone who adds just what I need to my life, and who I'm willing to build a life together with.

But until that time, I'm not rushing into things. I believe that love is a powerful thing and I'm not afraid to learn along the way, but I'm also not just going to pass my heart out like it's a SWAG item at a convention. It will be worked for, fought for, looked after, and cared for. I'm not afraid of love, or marriage, or kids, but I AM wary of rushing past the sweet moments that will bring fullness of life in my relationships.

What's This?

2010-10-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

K— is ready for Halloween!

It's getting closer to that magic hour . . . Halloween. My housemates and I have already decorated our house for Halloween and we're planning our Halloween party and a trip to a haunted corn maze.

I keep jumping the gun and suggesting we decorate for both Halloween and Christmas. Ka— suggested putting snowflakes on the windows, to which K— adamantly vetoed. I suggested we all take a trip down to California and chop down a redwood tree to decorate as our Christmas tree. K— seems to think we wouldn't make it out of the park, but only because she isn't aware of my childhood klepto skills. Jk. I won't steal a tree . . . unless it's one of those Reese's chocolate trees . . . okay but maybe I wouldn't steal those either.

One thing that I have set as a goal for this month is to learn the Thriller dance. K— is mandating that I perform it for the house on October 30th. Wish me luck guys!

Strip Me

2010-10-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

Take what you want
Steal my pride
Build me up
Or cut me down to size
Shut me out
But I’ll just scream
I'm only one voice in a million
But you ain't taking that from me
Oh oh no you ain't taking that from me

I dont need a microphone
To say what I been thinking
My heart is like a loudspeaker
Thats always on eleven
And if you strip me,
Strip it all away

If you strip me,
What would you find
If you strip me,
Strip it all away
I’m still the same

- STRIP ME by Natasha Bedingfield

Over the course of the week, I've gotten to see two interesting documentaries. Usually I'm wary of documentaries, but the two that I saw recently did a pretty decent job and reached me on every level. After watching both of them, I walked away, not with a flight of fancy enthusiasm to conquer the world, but with a bigger quest for knowledge, research, and understanding—much of which I've already begun to incorporate into my own life.

WAITING FOR SUPERMAN

I will admit, this one was heavy-handed in its one-sided cause, but it also provided me with enough facts and resources to dig deeper to understand the underbelly of the American education system. The movie highly promotes charter schools as the premiere form of education for students and it shows a lot of pros about them, while heaping on the disdain for public schools. After seeing the film, I'm not FULLY convinced that charter schools are the complete answer, but their techniques and some other practical solutions provided in the film do shed some hope for the future of education that can be used on an at-home level. It also digs deeper into what circumstances are halting success in public schools across America. It was a hard pill for me to swallow at first, because I came from GREAT public schools and each of my teachers genuinely cared about my personal success in the realm of a quality education and positive social growth, but I could see where some of the data provided was valid. The truth I walked away with is that as a community, much can be done to help push education forward—through community involvement, individual awareness of the issue at hand, and by parents understanding that they DO have options and can make daily decisions to propel their child's academic level, there is hope for the future of America.

Here is a clip from the movie:

FREAKONOMICS

This movie was definitely one that left me with my world turned on its side. There was a lot of information and intrigue to question various angles of basic life assumptions that I had never thought to question. It's broken down into four parts, each with their own focus. While these segments were not long enough to really provide a thorough conclusion about their individual topics, it provided enough information for me to process the data and come to my own conclusions about each topic, which I appreciated.

This was the first 3 minutes of the film. This part wasn't really what intrigued me, as much as it was the segment about all the tips and tricks that parents buy into to be "successful" parents who raise their kids to be "the best of the best." The segment on observations of the decrease in crime rates also got me to think about things from a different angle.

I'm not saying necessarily that you should RUSH out to the theaters to see these documentaries because they will BLOW YOUR MIND, but they are worth the watch on Netflix. They bring awareness and provoke thought. I feel that if we would spend more time thinking about such things and how we can challenge our own viewpoint of the things that are taught to us (and which we sometimes take at face value), as opposed to thinking about surface issues or how to get the next big awesome thing that will seemingly enhance our lives, then we'll be doing our communities and our own families a great service.

A Place Near The City

2010-09-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to scanning some of my recent photos from my Diana Mini! I'm definitely seeing some improvement, as well as more areas to grow in. That said, I really love these recent shots. Enjoy!

Washington Park Arboretum Visitor Center

with a double exposure overlap of red berries

Bug eaten leaves with a double exposure

overlap of a card from Plain Jane's Cards

Elliot Bay Bookstore, Capitol Hill, Seattle

Alley near Pike Place Market, Seattle

Elliot Bay Bookstore, Capitol Hill, Seattle

Fire hydrant near my house

Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle

Red leaves near Washington Park, Arboretum, Seattle

with an overlap of the Arboretum Visitor Center overhang

Washington Park Arboretum Visitor Center overhang

Pink Champagne

2010-09-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got to witness one of the coolest things EVER . . .

No silly, not this fish!

Well, I mean, I did see that too.
But you just never know what you'll see at the market. ;)

Sunday afternoon, I headed over to Pike Place Market and got some fresh fruit and food, and of course, some of my favorite Mac 'N' Cheese from Beechers! (Deliciousssss)

But truthfully, all the great stuff happened after the market and I made my way over to Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center. That was the site for the Puget Sound 3-Day Walk for the Cure Closing Ceremony. I got to watch as the green field was covered with people dressed in different shades of pink, all united to help fight breast cancer. Having lost a relative to breast cancer, and knowing what a serious disease it is, I felt a sense of pride and hope as I watched my friend Alisa walk into the stadium with her team, The Dancing Sheep, having completed the 3-Day walk. I'm lucky to have friends with such big hearts that do phenomenal things that bring joy and peace to my heart.

Alisa with one of the crew members who
had helped her along the walk

The crowd gathered and everyone in the stadium took time to congratulate all the walkers and to honor those who have died from breast cancer. We also rejoiced in celebration for those who were breast cancer survivors! It was a great time, and I walked away with so much love, peace, and hope for the future of women who are battling such a vicious disease.

Afterward, I got to hear Alisa share stories from her time on the walk, and it made me wish that I was good at giving massages . . . because she totally deserved one! The flowers I had picked up for her at the market all of a sudden seemed so puny compared to what I really felt she, and ALL the women there, deserved for their sacrifice. They are truly champions!

Ease On Down The Road

2010-09-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

Today I got to go on a Photo Stroll with some of the Seattle Flickrites! We met up at the Washington Park Arboretum and went around taking pics of things that caught our attention. I brought my digital camera, my Diana Mini, and my droid phone for picture taking. I just picked up my Diana Mini photos and will try to scan some on Monday to share. In the meantime, here are some of my favorites from my digital camera. Enjoy!

A Tent City spotted on the bus route to the gardens

My star ring on a branch

Greeted by bright red leaves on the
way home from the photo stroll

Red berries

I brought one of Plain Jane's cards with me
to use as a prop for some of the photos

Lilly pads in a pond

Another shot in the woods with a Plain Jane's card

On the brink of fall in Seattle

Working the angles

Sitting under a tree with a good book

There's bears in these here parts . . .

The runt

Trees of reflection

Writing letters in the park

High up in the trees

More reflecting time

Light Outside

2010-09-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

I was once asked an ethical question along these lines while at a cookout with a group of new friends:

WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE
A THOUSAND DOLLARS TO SPEND ON YOURSELF OR TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS AND
GIVE IT TO A STRANGER.

My answer was easy: Give it to a stranger. I got a lot of cynical looks and even more cynical comments, but my answer is still the same. I would rather give money to a stranger than spend an extra thousand on myself. In complete honesty, even if I had the extra thousand dollars, I wouldn't spend it all on myself. I'd share it with others.

One of the things I love to do is give. Give time. Give energy. Give gifts. Give laughs. Give back to causes that I believe in. Recently, one of my friends signed up to participate in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk For The Cure, and it was such an honor to be able to give money to support her—even if it wasn't a TON of money—the giving made me happy!

Today I had the opportunity to give again, to Light The Night, which helps raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I've known many people whose lives have been affected by friends and family memberswho have died from some form of cancer. One of my favorite music artists, Andrew McMahon, was diagnosed with cancer 5 years ago and beat it! Because of it, he's organized the DEAR JACK FOUNDATION.

Via the Dear Jack Foundation Website:

In an effort to initiate change and provide a voice for the generations of young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer, Andrew founded the Dear Jack Foundation in July of 2006.

Our mission is to be a leader in raising awareness and supporting organizations and charities with the greatest need and highest potential for impact on young adult cancer patients. We specifically aim to find treatments as well as expand on quality of life initiatives, such as counseling for young adult patients and their families. This age group of 15 to 35 year old patients is in desperate need of research. Cancer is the number one disease killer of young adults and studies continually show that the survival rate has not improved as steadily as that of other age groups.

Amongst the past recipients of Dear Jack funding are: the UCLA stem cell transplant program (a program on the cutting edge of cures through transplantation), The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation.

In fact, if you have the FUSE channel on your TV, you can watch the documentary about Andrew's battle with cancer called DEAR JACK. It airs on Saturday around midnight. Also, you can buy it in the iTunes store or through the Jack's Mannequin website. A portion of the proceeds go to the Dear Jack Foundation. I bought it on iTunes when it came out and I still watch it a lot.

But like I said, today I got to give to them. Whether you are naturally a giver or not, I really encourage you to find something—a cause you're passionate about—and give back. It doesn't have to be much at all. A little bit really does go a long way.

Love Is The Movement

2010-09-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get some really interesting things in my formspring. That's the little box to the top right that says "You Ask, I'll Answer," and it allows you to ask or tell me anything anonymously. Well, today I got this in my inbox:

It's an interesting thing for me to think that someone I don't know would consider me as a source to go to about a movement. I mean, it could genuinely be spam mail, but the email address seemed legit, so I decided to do my best to answer it.

MY RESPONSE:

I'm really not quite sure what movement you're talking about . . . but okie dokie?

If you're referring to my movement of loving and caring about people, your first task is to make it a point to say hello to people you pass by on the street.

If you're referring to my movement of sharing art, then your first task is to take 30 minutes out of your day to draw something that makes you smile. Then go to your local library and slip it in a random book.

If you're referring to my movement in a literal sense, your first task is to put your right foot in. your second is to take your right foot out. Then you must put your right foot in and shake it all about.

In any event, I applaud you for your desire to have strong core values. I think they're very essential in making life full. So whichever movement you'd like to join me in, feel free!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Again, I'm not sure what they are referring to, but I hope it helped.

In other news, I'm got sick on Saturday night, but I'm on the mend. I'm drinking tea and eating soup like it's my job.

PS: If you have any questions or statements you'd like to share anonymously, please feel free. :D

Dress For The Weather

2010-09-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

Halloween is just around the corner and I've already been
browsing the racks for some ideas!

Truth be told, I'm hoping to stumble across a narwhal costume, because COME ON, it's a narwhal costume! Alas, I have yet to find it. So, I've been looking at some other options. So far, these are my faves:

AMANDA BANANA

AMO THE HOT DOG

There's actually a Spirit Halloween store that opened up close to the house, and I went to take a look there today. Here are some of the ones I liked:

SALLY from The Nightmare Before Christmas

A CLOWN

THE MONA LISA

RAINBOW BRITE

One of my housemates says I should let you guys decide. I'm definitely up for suggestions . . .

History Maker

2010-09-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

As a writer, this has become home to me:

It is my "happy place" where worlds exists in language and imagination. In writing, there is a sense of justice—that someone's story will be told. Sometimes it's mine. Sometimes it's yours. Sometimes the story belongs to a stranger.

When I was in high school, my least favorite subjects were Math and Science. My two favorite were English and History. So it seems rather fitting that one of the scripts I've been working on lately is a piece I call THE SHADOWS OF CHERNOBYL. It should also come as no surprise to you that it centers around the actual event—Chernobyl is not some figurative code in this case.

As I work on projects, I spend time researching before I even think of storyboarding and typing out long scenes. I watch videos, read books, read articles, study pictures, and so on. I find that the video research of this particular project comes in small waves, because every time I watch them or see pictures, I am consumed with their stories and in large chunks it's completely overwhelming. I watch and hear all the things that the victims of that tragedy never knew. The time they sacrificed, the price they paid with their lives all because of a sad string of events driven by pride, miscommunication, and fear.

I see pictures like this:

And I cry. I feel their pain. I try my best to grab onto just a small fraction of what they may have experienced. And then the uncertainty, confusion and panic that I imagine they experienced finds its way onto a typed scene in a screenwriting program. Whether it will see the light of day or not, who
knows . . . but it helps me. It challenges me to think outside of the frantic rom-coms and cheap scares that flood the box-offices and it pushes me to fight to write their story. Write their hearts. Honor their lives.

And I hope that one day when this story is read, the hopeful happy ending will convey my heart for those who lived in another time, under more dire circumstances, and that others will take notice.

Sugarcane

2010-09-12T08:02:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I got to spend some quality time at a new coffee shop about 2 blocks from my house. I was there pretty much the whole day doing graphic design work and getting things ready for out first day of youth meetings for the fall semester.

As I was working, one of the baristas happened to notice the designs on the screen. When I went up a few minutes later to order another latte, he asked me what I was working on. I explained my different projects to him, and he said that he really liked my work and that if I ever wanted to display some of it on the walls of the caffe, I could. After blushing and thanking him, I went back to my table, coffee in hand and contemplated the offer.

I've never actually thought about hanging any of my art up in a caffe, but maybe I should do it. I started thinking of my past projects and how they were so individualized that they wouldn't really be fit to display as a set. So I resolved that I would steadily work on a set that WOULD be fit to display in a caffe. I'm thinking of doing a set that features some of my photos and have each print contain some song lyrics I've written that pose questions or statements concerning love and the quality of life. I'm not sure when I'll have them completed, but I'll probably start working on them tonight while I watch the VMAs!

I'm really curious to see how this project turns out!

Sing It Out

2010-09-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

I was thinking this morning that is was about time for a music update. Mainly because I have a few other blog posts in line that need some editing, thus can't be posted yet. But also because I've recently added to my iTunes and I thought it'd be fun to share (since I haven't done so since the beginning of August)!

One of my best friends sent me an email earlier today and said this reminded him of me. I love my friends, and I LOVE this song! It is seriously so beautiful and visual stunning that it brought tears to my eyes and warm fuzzies to my heart. It also made me miss him a lot. :)

DANCING SHOES by Green River Ordinance

This is a new one I found and took a chance on. I listened to the short sweet 30 second clip (thanks for being lame about that, iTunes), but upon hearing the full song, it has found a home on my playlist! It's so catchy and clever.

UH OH by The Scenic

One of my friends recently went to a Switchfoot show and after the show, Jon Foreman did an acoustic performance outside of the venue. She found an audio recording of it and shared it with me and I love it! It makes me super excited about the next album!

SHE SAYS (THE BLACK EYED BLUES) by Switchfoot

I absolutely love Tegan and Sara with all my little indie / emo heart! This is one of their newly released singles. It's off of their new album, Sainthood (which is just wonderful) and this song has been on repeat a lot on my iTunes!

ON DIRECTING by Tegan and Sara

And last but not least, another sweet sweet love song by Camera Can't Lie called Last Dance. It's got a great hook and it's such a beautiful song! I just never get sick of listening to it! My favorite lyric from it is: "And if we're consumed by counting each hour, what's left of today?"

LAST DANCE by Camera Can't Lie

It's In Your Blood

2010-09-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

I think if I was a Care Bear, I would choose to be Playful Heart Monkey. And just FYI, I totally count the Care Bear Cousins in the generality of "Care Bears," so Playful Heart TOTALLY counts!

Like Playful Heart Monkey, the world is my playground!
Take today for instance.
You see this bear?

Yeah. This one.
Well, today, this bear was my accomplice.

Every Wednesday, I attend a staff meeting at work. We usually go over all the basics: Buildings and Grounds, Publications, Computers, Office, and Appreciations. Appreciations is a new category we recently added to our meetings. It gives us an opportunity to share a short, sweet appreciation of someone on staff for something great we've noticed.

Today, a small number of other staff members and myself arrived to the meeting early and we were sharing some fun banter. Generally my co-worker H— sits in the same seat for staff meetings, but today I dared him to sit in a different spot just for fun and to shake things up a bit. After he moved, we laughed and then we all noticed the little bear you see above. It was just randomly sitting there, chillaxin' on the couch. So I schemed with my other co-worker, S— to coerce H— into "appreciating" the bear when it came time for the Appreciations category in the meeting.

The meeting was fun and light, and so when it came time for Appreciations, I looked over at H— and gave him the raised eyebrows hinting look. He looked at me, eyes wide, and then I motioned with my eyes toward the bear and he looked at it, looked back at me, and broke into a bright-eyed chuckle. Well after that, it was all over for me, I LOST it and started laughing and snorting. I just kept imagining what he would have said about the bear—how quietly it was sitting, how attentive it was, how even though it was blue it was seemingly happy. We dismissed shortly after that, and even though the bear never got its due appreciation, we laughed all the way out the door!

I LOVE staff meetings and I LOVE that I work with people who know how to have fun!

On Directing

2010-09-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

For all those times people told me I should be a comedienne, there is finally some form of justification—though it's not something I'm currently pursuing ;)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Your personality type: "Groundbreaking Thinker"

Creative, resourceful and intellectually quick. Good at a broad range of things. Enjoy debating issues and may be into 'one-up-manship'. They get very excited about new ideas and projects, but may neglect the more routine aspects of life. Generally outspoken and assertive. They enjoy people and are stimulating company. Excellent ability to understand concepts and apply logic to find solutions.

Careers that could fit you include:

Entrepreneurs, lawyers, psychologists, photographers, consultants, sales represenatives, actors, engineers, scientists, inventors, marketers, computer programmers, comedians, computer analysts, credit investigators, journalists, psychiatrists, public relations, designers, writers, artists, musicians, politicians.

(via 41q.com)

And there you have it. I actually think this is pretty accurate. I admit it's REALLY hard for me to suppress the urge to "one-up" people a lot, but it's also a giant pet peeve of mine, so though it's accurate on the results it's definitely something I fight a lot to cut back on.

Beverly Hills

2010-09-06T17:25:00.000-07:00

Hey! Remember that time
I went to Los Angeles for a concert??

Me toooo!!

And I've finally recouped and edited the photos to share with you all!

I absolutely love to travel! There's something fresh and adventurous and unknowing about it. Sometimes I embark on adventures and they're silly. Like late night excursions in unsafe neighborhoods. So, over the years, I've learned to run things by a couple of people who ask me questions that will help me map out some safe boundaries for my wild excursions, you know, so I don't get into some crazy unwarranted bad endings. So I planned a bunch of things out, and set out on my trip to Los Angeles to see the last show on the Something Corporate 2010 Reunion tour!!!

The ride down took about a day-and-a-half and I slept through most of it. One of the most interesting things to do on the bus is to listen and watch. I got to watch a bus of strangers bond over the ride down. I also got to hear a story about a woman who had just gotten out of prison after 9 and a half years. She shared about life inside bars and how hard it was her to adjust to the current world after spending so much time separated from it. It always brings perspective to my life to listen to stories that others are willing share. After time spent thinking, writing, and sleeping, I finally made it safe and sound to LA.

When I first got there, I hopped on the subway and headed to Hollywood Boulevard, so I could get close to the meet-up location and to get some much needed coffee.

I spent the morning walking down the Walk of Fame and checking out some of the local shops that were open.

Adam and Amanda S., friends of mine who attended Metroplex MC, came to see me at Starbucks and we got to just sit and talk and reflect on our lives and how happy we are to be where we are. We shared memories of MC life and stories about things going on in our lives currently. It was so refreshing to be able to hang out with them!

And as an added bonus, they treated me to lunch at In-N-Out!! It was SOOO delicious!! While we were at In-N-Out, Lisa K. met up with us and we talked about California and Seattle for a bit and then just talked about all sorts of random things.

After Adam and Amanda left, Lisa and I walked back up to Hollywood Boulevard and had a long, honest talk about some important things we were both dealing with. It didn't go quite the way I would have liked it to, but sometimes even in talking with friends, you just have to speak your peace and hope for the best. A little while later, we were joined by Jana and Barry B. and little baby Rowan!

We spent the afternoon walking around the Grove talking about a bunch of random things and then had dinner at Johnny Rockets (Thanks to Lisa for buying me dinner!!) where I realized that my recent cravings for chicken nuggets/strips is kind of getting out of control. Ha! They're definitely a comfort food. After dinner, Jana and Barry graciously offered me a ride to the venue so we could spend more time together—which I am incredibly thankful for!

The funny thing is, when we pulled up to the Club Nokia area at LA Live, we noticed red carpets and such and I had NO idea what they were there for. Well you know, turns out it was for The Emmys, which were happening the next day! Duh! And I didn't even take any pictures—what was I thinking???? :/

Once I was in the venue, I got to make friends with a woman who sat in the VIP section, as well as the security guard in that section. Because of that, I was able to sit in the VIP section for FREEEEEE!!! And THAT was awesome!! I was about 3 rows away from where Andrew McMahon's (the lead singer of Something Corporate) parents were sitting and I got to watch them sing along and dance to the music!

The security guard kindly let me move around the VIP area to get different angles for pictures. For the first song (which you can see in the video below) there was a light blinding me in that area that I hadn't noticed until I started recording. But then just after I finished recording and was headed back to my original area, he said I couldn't film. He said he wouldn't take my camera away, but I should probably just stick with taking photos. After moving back to my seat, I had SUCH a great view and I LOVED singing and dancing with all the fans around me! The set was SO good and they even played an extra long set because it was their last show. Andrew was full of energy and made the experience so fun with his wild piano stomping and sweet stories behind the songs.

Toward the end of the set, we were all treated to a beautiful rendition of the longest Something Corporate song, KONSTANTINE. It was beautiful and Andrew's voice was amazing. I even teared up a few times because of the beautiful sounds coming from the piano.

One of my favorite things about going to live music shows is that it encourages and inspires me to continue writing—to express myself creatively through words. After the show, I went to the nearby Starbucks and sat down to write. There were so many thoughts and emotions that needed processing after my trip down and I was glad I got to just get them all out of my head and onto paper.

All in all, it was a GREAT trip for me and I'm entirely grateful that I did it! It fed my adventurous side and indulged my love for travel, all while giving me some MUCH NEEDED time to catch up with old friends!

To Lisa, Barry, Jana, Adam and Amanda:
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR FRIENDSHIP!

Winner

2010-09-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

I know I've been MIA for a bit, but I'm just trying to recoup from the trip to LA and get life back on a seemingly "normal" schedule. That said, I took time over the weekend to decide on a winner for the Caption Contest Giveaway!!

The captions you guys supplied were HILARIOUS!

Here are all the submissions:

Look, if I've told you once, I've told you a DOZEN TIME! When I'm on the set, I only wear SWEETHEART NECKLINES! Get it, sweetheart? Jesus H. Christ on a cracker, it's like I'm working with trained monkeys... POORLY TRAINED MONKEYS!

"Uhh there is a fee for taking MY picture...!"

"You got a problem?!? These are my ruffles, go get your own!"

"Its your birthday, wear the ruffles if you want to."

And a couple that were texted to me, but don't count because they weren't actually comments ON the blog post:

"For the 10th time, I don't want a towel. I want to stay and swim!"

"Why do I have to get out?"

And the WINNER is:

"You got a problem?!?
These are my ruffles,
go get your own!"

[submitted by Alisa]

That one was my favorite and I thought the most fitting! Plus, she gave me a GREAT idea for a new card to send out to friends and family!! Woot!! Don't worry, there will be more chances for you to win stuff here! Thanks for participating!!

Holiday From Real

2010-08-26T23:44:00.001-07:00

After a fun day of learning great insight from Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel at Catalyst One Day, I am headed off on a great adventure!

I'm about to board a Greyhound bus to spend a day in Los Angeles hanging out with awesome friends, eating some yummy In-N-Out, and rocking out at the final show on Something Corporate's 2010 Reunion Tour at Club Nokia!

I probably won't update the blog until I get back on Monday, but I wanted to share this today:

I love adventure and I love being spontaneous and impulsive. Just as much as I love those things, I love that I have people in my life that inspire and encourage me to "go for it" and do fun, daring, adventurous things! I mean, this trip in and of itself may not seem like a big deal . . . but all the encouragement and love I've received in regards to the trip as the details have unfolded has ben so refreshing!

I know that not many people my age would travel on a bus for 2 days just to go see a band. I've definitely gotten the "you are so weird," and "girl you are insane" comments. Maybe I am, but my desire to embrace adventure and to experience life to its fullness drives me to board this bus with a huge smile and a full heart. Many say that I will grow out of this "wild impulsive phase," but deep down inside, I hope I never do!

_____

"Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!"

- Auntie Mame

Forever Young

2010-08-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

portrait of a young artist

Yesterday was Vanessa's first day of Kindergarten! I still don't have any pictures of her from yesterday or today, but I got to listen to her on the phone last night go into great detail about her class, her new friends, what she wore, and how excited she was to have a princess backpack.

Her favorite thing to do in class is draw pictures. I asked her what she drew and she said, "The park and the sunshine and the grass and me and mommy and daddy and Annabelle. And the sky. . . and . . . other stuff I can't remember." I said I was proud of her and I encouraged her, "Listen babe, no matter what anyone says, you draw whatever is in your imagination, okay?" She excitedly replied, "Okay!" It's fun being an aunt and watching this little girl grow up knowing she can take on the world!

It's so crazy to grasp the fact that she's already in Kindergarten. I rest easier knowing she LOVES school and loves making friends. She told me about some of her classmates and why she likes them and how she is happy to have "more new" friends. It's comforting to know that just as much as she is into more solitude-centric arts, she is also a wild child with lots of love to share with others.

One exciting thing I'm working towards and saving up for is to pay for an airline ticket for one of my family members and Vanessa to fly up to Seattle to visit next summer! She's growing so much and I would love for her to experience the "world outside," even as a little girl. I live for the moments where I can share my world with her. One of my favorite things I share with her is a little phrase I taught her when she was younger. I would scoop her up in my arms, hold her close and say, "Look, I'm holding you like a baby!" And every time I see her and spend time with her, it warms my heart to see her smile and exclaim, "Aunt Manda, hold me like a baby!" And I do, and we share a close, warm moment together and time seems to stop altogether. I know it won't last long, but I hope she grows up knowing she can come to me at any point in her life and I will hold her "like a baby."

I can't wait to see what this little miss grows up to be!

Easter, 2010

Forward Motion

2010-08-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

The youth room is coming along . . . slowly but surely! I can't wait to add all the little decorative stuff! I'll still be doing more painting tonight and over the weekend, but luckily, I'll have some help from Heather J. (The Jedi Paint Master)!

American Honey

2010-08-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

She grew up on the side of the road
Where the church bells ring and strong love grows
She grew up good, she grew up slow
Like American honey
Steady as a preacher, free as a weed
Couldn't wait to get going
but wasn't quite ready to leave
So innocent pure and sweet American honey

Having an abundance of friends with children, I get to learn a lot about different parenting techniques and I get to spend time with their kids, watching their imaginations run wild. This past weekend, I had an incredibly unique experience.

The Children's Ministry Coordinator at my church has a daughter who is 10 years old. I call her daughter H.Stubbs. Well, for the past few weeks now, H.Stubbs has been asking me to come over for a sleepover. Her mother, being an amazing and daring parent, threw out some dates for me to come over and have a sleepover with H.Stubbs and her little sister, E.Stubbs. At first I thought, "Well that's kind of out of the norm. I mean, I'm 28 and I'm going to a sleepover, but I actually think it could be really fun! I haven't had a sleepover in years . . . unless you count friends coming in to town and staying the night. Which, I guess does count. This is gonna be SO cool!" Fast forward a couple of weeks and the sleepover date finally arrived. When I got to their house, her mom told me:

"She's been telling everyone that her best friend is coming over to spend the night. But the funny part, is that she never even mentioned that you weren't 10 years old. And they've already made it clear to me that you're here to see them, not to hang out with me."

We both laughed, and I felt complete awe and wonder at how (1) she called me her best friend, and (2) friendship knew no age limits to her. It was a great feeling. We had a blast too! We swam in their big pool in the backyard as we pretended to be mermaids, Olympic swimmers, and pirates! We spent most of our time in the pool, and I gave them dolphin rides around the pool and showed them how to do the "Wayne's World Fish Face." After swim time, we headed in to the guest bedroom that their parents set up for us. I got a huge bed for myself, H.Stubbs had a large mattress on the ground, and E.Stubbs got to sleep on the couch. We watched Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and laughed so much at all the shenanigans in that movie. I told them I needed to get a ratbird of my own. ;)

After the movie was over, their mom came in and told us it was time for bed. The girls talked her into letting us watch 2 episodes of the Power Puff girls before we called it a night, and so we did. After that, we turned off the TV and had a full-on pillow fight! During our pillow fight, one of the girls said, "Oh no, I think I hear someone coming!" And I said, "Quick!! Get in bed!!" The other sister said, "If she comes in, let's just pretend to be asleep, okay? So you have to pretend to snore!" So we did, and it turned out to be nothing. We continued the pillow fight, and from time to time one of the girls would hear something so we'd jump back in the beds. We finally decided to head to our beds (for real this time) at midnight and E.Stubbs exclaimed, "This is the latest I've EVER stayed up in my WHOLE life!" We congratulated her and then turned in for the evening.

At 8 a.m. Sunday morning, the Smashmouth song, ALL STAR blasted through my laptop speakers to wake me up . . . yes, I actually DO need that kind of motivation to get going in the morning. ;) They woke up as well, and immediately pounced on me singing along and tickling me. Their mom came in a while after to let us know that she and her husband were going to head in to church, as I had told them I would take the girls in with me later so everyone could sleep in a bit. She brought them their clothes and made me a cup of coffee. Then they left, and our morning fun began! We all got dressed for church, had breakfast, and put on makeup. My favorite part was reassuring the girls that they didn't HAVE to put on a ton of makeup to look beautiful because they were already naturally beautiful. We still had fun with lip gloss and blush before we realized it was time to head out ourselves.

On the drive in to church, I played a mix CD I had made for myself and it included the song, AMERICAN HONEY, and after that song played, the girls both requested that I put it on repeat. We drove the entire way to the church (about 30 mins.) blasting that song with the windows down, belting out the words (as best as they knew) at the top of our lungs! I kept looking over at H.Stubbs and thinking, "I hope you never lose sight of the sweet innocence you have now. You are an amazing example for others!"

I got to talk to her grandmother before the service and she really encouraged me to treasure those moments and reminded me that even though my sleepover with the girls might seem preposterous to the world around us, it means THE WORLD to those girls and they will hang on to those memories and those little life lessons for years to come—they needed it as much as I did.

After the church service, we had an all-church BBQ. I ate and connected with friends and then decided I needed to head to Home Depot to pick up the primer so that I could start getting the new youth room painted. H.Stubbs knew I was going and begged me to let her come with me and to help paint. After getting her parent's permission, she made the trip to and fro with me and helped me tape and prime. Throughout the day she kept saying that she needed to find a way to spend more time with me. It was truly one of the sweetest experiences ever—and not just because of her compliment—I was lucky enough to be encouraged by her imagination and her innocence that didn't see me as the full-grown adult that the world tells me I should be. For a day, I got to remember the sweeter things in life, and enjoy spending time with one of the most wonderful friends! And she even made me a super sweet thank you note!

She Paints Me Blue

2010-08-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

If anyone would have tried to convince me that rooms have minds of their own, I would say it was rubbish and they need to get their head checked. But after spending the majority of the day painting the new youth room at Westside, I may have to agree with them.

Yesterday H.Stubbs and I started priming the walls of the youth room and oh man it was wild. From trying to keep the tarps from getting snagged on furniture, to paint tape falling out of windows, to accidentally backing into painted walls, laughs were in full effect. We finally got done taping around 5:00 and got a little bit of the priming done by 6:00 when I took her home for dinner.

After dinner, I headed back to Westside to try to finish up. I didn't realize that in the time I had been gone, the room was taking time to scheme a plan to make sure I didn't finish painting it. As I started where I'd left off, some of the tape began peeling in various places (I'm guessing from the heat) so I had to go to those spots and press the tape down firmly. Then, as I was dragging the tarp to a new section down the wall, the bucket of Killz ran into something (I'm still not sure what) and the bucket tipped, causing a bunch of the Killz to fall onto the tarp. At first I was panicked—"How in the world am I going to get all of this cleaned up? And now how am I going to have enough primer to finish the job?!?" So then I did what anyone would do. I made the tarp my new paint tray and used all the primer I could before moving on to the rest of the bucket.

As I continued priming, I noticed there were drips on the previous paint that I hadn't noticed before that must have been from a milk challenge or something from the previous youth group era. The primer did not like the drips and kept leaving the lines on the wall so I had to go over those ares with more primer. Finally 10:30 p.m. rolled around and I called it a night. Despite a few minor setbacks, I'm really glad this painting is underway and I'm even more excited to see the end result!

This week, my evenings will mostly be spent in that room trying to get the paint job finished. I'm hoping that somewhere along the way, the room and I will see eye to eye and it will accept that its getting a new coat of paint!

Bless This Mess

2010-08-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

Alrighty I think it's been a while since I updated so now's as good a time as any, right? Right.

Here are a few highlights from my week:

I got to watch my friend Maggie get baptized in Haller Lake.
Maggie has been in my small group this past semester and it was
SO great to get to share such a big moment with her.

Generally, my office is where plants come to die,
but the beautiful flowers that Alisa . . . uh I mean,
Matthew Fox sent me are still blooming beautifully!
They're pretty magical and they still bring a smile to my face.

I got to have a Friday picnic with my co-workers and we ended up
making a Four Square court out of duct tape in our little driveway
and it was so much fun!

I bought a new book and a fun gift for Vanessa.
I ALSO completely filled up her NYC Book Bag that I bought her
during my trip to NYC. Basically,
I bought a NYC Sesame Street messenger bag that lights up
and I'm filling it with tons of good books for her to read!

I finally paid off that pesky parking ticket.
I've definitely learned that those parking enforcement people MEAN it
when they say NO PARKING after 6 p.m.
Even if it's only 10 minutes after.
Dear Seattle Municipal Court: Enjoy the free snark.

I saw this guy dancing on the side of the road today and it was SPECTACULAR!

And in closing, these 4 songs have pretty much been on repeat all week:

A WAY WITH WORDS by Action Item

AMERICAN HONEY by Lady Antebellum

TELL ME I'M A WRECK by Every Avenue

ONE DAY by Matisyahu (Featuring Akon)

Well that's pretty much my week so far! Now I'm off to a sleepover!

Don't forget about the photo caption contest HERE!

Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Caption Contest Giveaway)

2010-08-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, my dad sent me this photo in a text message and said:

DO YOU REMEMBER THIS PICTURE?

WHY DO YOU LOOK SO UPSET?

And I was like,

"Hahaha! I do remember it
but I don't know why I was so upset."

But seriously. I don't know why I was upset.

Maybe it was because:

- I saw someone else with my same bathing suit

- My brother/sister did something to get on my nerves again

- It was part of being a little girl who throws fits

- I crapped myself in public again

- I was born with a pre-packaged amount of attitude and it JUST now decided to show itself

Really who knows. I sat for a few minutes trying to think of a fun little caption for this photo, but I couldn't think of a good one. I mean, I know it's out there, I just don't know what it is.

Maybe you could help me?

Maybe if you help me I'll give you a nice reward?

Okay here's the deal. You caption the photo by leaving a comment on this post only, and at the end of the month, I will pick my favorite and send the winner a $10 Starbucks gift card, a little love note from me via snail mail, and a special cool gift that reminds me of you from my trip to LA. Sound like a plan Stan?

Really what do you have to loose? You have the rest of the month to put your thinking cap on. Your caption won't offend me—seeing myself in that bathing suit has already accomplished that. So caption away!

Kids In Love

2010-08-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

When I first started attending Westside Church, I met a guy named Will O'Neill. He was really funny and super tall—that was my first impression. Over the 2 years I've been here, I've gotten to hang out with Will during small groups and during softball season (he was on our team). He was one of my greatest encouragers on the team. A little while after I'd been going to Westside, I got to meet his girlfriend, Erin. I remember thinking she was equally tall and was completely stunning! Her sweet personality was such a comfort and when she joined our small group, I got to know her more. It was always nice to see her bright smile when she showed up and hear her stories and gain a new perspective on interpreting the Bible.

Yesterday, I was blessed to have the opportunity to join them at their wedding and watch two amazing people exchange vows and celebrate the start of a new life together! The wedding was so uniquely tailored to them (as I feel all weddings should be) and had a very classy, almost Jane Austen feel to it. Will and Erin being the outdoorsy type that they are even made their getaway on a tandem bike! It was awesome!

Here are my pictures from their special day:

Taking the ferry to Vashon Island for the wedding

I got a ride to the wedding from Dan & Alisa
and we had fun on the ferry ride

The Siers kids were excited to watch the ceremony

The Groom & Groomsmen

The bridesmaids each had unique parasols

Welcoming the elegant bride

The giving away of the bride

An upfront view of her gorgeous dress

Sharing stories

The exchanging of the vows

You may now kiss the bride

Jay praying for the new married couple

Mr. & Mrs. William O'Neill

Dancing away into a new adventure

Fresh baked dessert served as the wedding cake

Tasty cheeses & figs with blue cheese,
walnuts and prosciutto for appetizers

The gift for the attendees
was unique wine glasses

Will, me, & Erin

The getaway vehicle

And you know it's never a party
without a little whip cream on your nose

I Want Candy

2010-08-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

my thank you cards from the kids at VBS

Well, VBS week has come and gone and I had SUCH a fun time hanging out with all the little kiddos! It was really cool to see how things that happened to me daily would help me enhance the lesson for the next day. Yesterday's was especially funny.

I taught a lesson on sharing and part of the pre-set lesson plan instructed me to eat candy in front of the kids. The whole point of it was to talk to them about how it's not as fun to keep things to ourself, but it's fun to share the love of God and fun to share with others in general. Well, I was prompted to eat candy during the entire thing in front of the kids and then at the end, pass out share some candy with them. It was great to see their faces light up when they realized they got to enjoy a piece of candy too. This was really fun for the first class, and then kinda okay for the second class, but by the time the 5th group came through, I was nursing a stomach ache. I mean, it was only bite-size chocolates, but they were still too much! When I was talking toward the end of the day to my assistant, Taylor, she mentioned that my breath smelled like chocolate!

I was determined to eat a healthy lunch and dinner, and I did. I also pulled double duty on my teeth brushing routine. The funny part is that I have a dentist appointment this Monday!

My time helping with VBS was a LOT of fun and I totally recommend it to everyone who has a VBS at their church! As much time and energy as you give, you will be rewarded by the love the kids give back through their smiles, stories, and hugs!

Reach For The Sky

2010-08-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

You know that moment when you get a gift from someone that comes at just the right time, and it's so beautiful that you just fall in love with it, and you wonder what you ever did to deserve such an amazing support system of friends??

Yeah, me too!

Monday I blogged about my incredibly bad day and how much that entire situation sucked. Tuesday blew Monday out of the water!

I got this little message on my Facebook wall on Tuesday:

I sent her the address and I knew she was up to something, but I wasn't sure what it was. After helping out at VBS during the morning, I headed in to work and a little while later, I got a call from the downstairs office saying I had a delivery. I went downstairs and was INCREDIBLY surprised with . . .

STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS!!

From Matthew Fox.

Just kidding. They're not from Matthew!
I know, I know, you TOTALLY thought they were ;)

They were from Alisa, which, in my humble opinion, is EVEN BETTER! I first got to know Alisa last fall when I started going to her small group. Through our small group meetings I got to know her more and once LOST came back on for the final season, I would go over to her house every week to watch it with her and her husband and a small group of friends. It was SO great to be part of another fun group of Losties. Over time I got to hang out with Alisa more, and every time I'm around her, she is a breath of fresh air. Her sweet, honest, and gracious personality is truly a comfort to me. She inspires me so much in her relationship with the Lord and in her relationships with others. I really am INCREDIBLY honored to know her and to get to spend time with her.

When I got the flowers, I laughed so hard because she did something incredibly thoughtful, but she did it in a super funny creative way! It was especially fun explaining to all my co-workers who Matthew Fox is! And I'm sure they thought I was nuts, the way I was blabbing on and on and on about how ridiculously good looking he is, and what a great actor he is, and about the funny comments I would make about marrying him when we would watch LOST. As I carried the flowers up to my office, I couldn't help but get emotional once again and start to tear up with tears of joy over the love and comfort and care that I felt from one simple gift from Alisa. It made my heart so happy and made my life feel so much fuller to know that I wasn't just carrying flowers up to my office, I was carrying a friendship with an amazing woman and all the encouragement, grace, and honor that is contained in Alisa's heart.

And now the flowers sit on my desk and I look at them and smile and feel the warm fuzzies all over again and count myself blessed to have such amazing friends!

Looking Anxious

2010-08-02T21:20:00.000-07:00

I'd like to pretend that I'm not sitting here wiping away tears of frustration via this slice of pumpkin pie, but that would make me

1. A liar.
2. Delusional.
3. A little less human.

So here I sit, typing out my day's events so that I can just leave this here, walk away and hope for a brighter tomorrow.

On my drive in this morning, the car I've been borrowing lost one of it's windshield wiper blades. It was misting heavily and covering the windshield so I put the wipers on and about 3 minutes in, just as I was about to turn them off, the wiper broke.

Amazingly, the other wiper was coming down at the time and pushed the broken wiper down into the crevice between the hood and the windshield. I pulled over and brought the wiper into the car with me as I continued on to VBS, since I was almost there and the mist wasn't so entirely debilitating—just annoying. It was extremely hard to focus on the morning's events with thoughts racing through my mind . . .

What if I can't get it fixed?

I don't know a THING about cars!

What if it starts raining really hard?

Where are all my mechanic relatives when I need them????

Thankfully, my friend Scott was at Westside and was able to come out and offer me some helpful hints and places where I could get it fixed. Well I went to the shop only to find out that they couldn't order the part for me—it had to come from either the dealership or the junkyard.

So as I headed back to the office, I called the dealership. They would have to have it special ordered and it wouldn't get here until Wednesday. So tonight I'm compiling a list of junk yards I can call tomorrow to see if I can get a cheaper price than the one given to me by the dealership.

After I got to work, I tackled a lot of the projects I had to work on, but all that was running through my mind was the car. And making sure to move the car every 2 hours so I wouldn't get a parking ticket. Now I've seen these signs every day. They're allllll over the area where I work, so I had figured that I only needed to keep moving it until a certain time because the sign says 2 hour parking from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. What I failed to notice was that it also said that there was NO parking in the area AFTER 6 p.m. unless you had a special permit. So when I left work, I was greeted by a sweet love note from Parking Enforcement.

I sat in the car and cried for a good 15 minutes wondering how these people sleep at night. I was stressed out, I had so much on my mind, and I was completely frustrated at the course of events in this one full day. I followed up Cry Fest 2010 by calling a friend, who comforted me and prayed for me and consoled me enough to convince me that I didn't need the ground to swallow me up whole.

And now I sit here, my pumpkin pie slice half-eaten, ready to call it a day, trim my sails and face another day.

Mississippi

2010-08-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

I was sorting through my iTunes the other day and looking back on all the old music I have stored on there and I got a bit nostalgic. The nostalgia hit over a very unlikely song. It wasn't Vitamin C's Graduation song, it wasn't Green Day's Time of Your Life, it was a Paula Cole song. More specifically, it was MISSISSIPPI by Paula Cole. I was listening to it and I was immediately transported back to High School.

[Here, have a listen]

Not exactly a song that triggers the word "High School," eh? Yeah I didn't think so at first. But there's a story behind it, and THAT story is all about High School.

I know I joke about it, but I really did enjoy my time in the Color Guard at my school. It was a great group and we had so much fun! There was an off-season core of Color Guard called Winter Guard that was basically Color Guard without the marching band and football field. It was generally held in a gym and you got to be more creative and incorporate more fluid dance motions.

One year for our Winter Guard competition, my director encouraged us to compete in the short program in smaller groups. So my friend Jennifer, who we all called Jen (Dot) E, got together and decided to create a routine to Paula Cole's MISSISSIPPI. To us it was an piece that two completely emo kids could appreciate and loaned itself to our obscure version of Winter Guard as an art. One of my favorite things in working with Jen.E was that both of us were dedicated to a "no-holds-barred" routine. I mean, c'mon, as if the lyrics weren't edgy enough—we tried new flag throws, hit some crisp moves, and flowed through it as we added our own little sexually suggestive flair. Yes folks, we had hormones just like everyone else our age. But the fun was in creating the moves and combining our brains to make them big, proud, and full of force. It was during that song, doing those moves, that we felt free to be us.

We didn't win an award, and I'm sure the judges were mildly confused about our message, but it was one of those moments I look back on and I'm like, "THAT'S WHAT IT WAS ABOUT." There was freedom to dream, to challenge ourselves, and to walk out onto that floor and for a moment get lost in the art.

It's about time for my 10-year High School reunion, but I'm not going to be able to make it. It comes right at a time for one of our big project deadlines and too close to my Christmas vacation that it wouldn't be very wise to pay for the extra plane ticket (those suckers aren't cheap). But as I've been debating it and weighing the pros and cons, and figuring out what the wisest decision is, it has made me more grateful for the people who have taken a part in shaping who I am. Jen.E was a part, Jennifer A. was a part. Jessica, Lilly, Monica, Chris, Elaine, Amber, Toni & Andres, and all of my other High School friends were a part. Over the past few years, I've gotten out of touch with a lot of them, but thanks to social networking have been able to reconnect.

The thing I love most is knowing that the moments we shared were so special and meaningful that just a song, or just a phrase, or just an image can pop in my mind and I can remember specific events and how happy we were to be friends. I am so entirely grateful for the friends I've made in my life and I look forward to making more!

Pride and Joy

2010-07-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

At my job, we have a meeting every morning where we all gather in the main office and say one good thing that happened the day before or that morning. We also have volunteers that join us. For the past couple of weeks, I've had one of the volunteers working with me in my office. It's been hilarious and we've exchanged banter about our hometowns—she's from New Mexico, I'm from Texas. In fact, she calls me "Texas." It's quite humorous actually. Yesterday I wore my UT shirt to work.

She kept making jokes about the hideousness of the shirt and it was so funny seeing her make faces when she saw the shirt. Well today in our morning meeting, she said that after seeing my shirt yesterday, she decided to "fix" the shirt and wear it in my honor:

It was hilarious! I wasn't completely offended, but it definitely fueled my feisty fun side! So in further creative retaliation, here's what I'm doing:

I printed out 2 pages worth of these suckers and right now I'm coloring them and I'm going to put her name in the center of each of them and stick them up in random places where I know she'll be. I'm also going to decorate her mailbox in the office with some fun UT paraphernalia. I've also downloaded the UT Fight Song and Deep In The Heart Of Texas to play really loud from my computer speakers every time she walks into my office.

The funny thing is, there's another volunteer here from Texas who has agreed to team up with me in the shenanigans and at first she asked, "What is the symbol for New Mexico?" and I was like, "I dunno. I never knew they had one." Then we both cracked up because we realized neither of us really gave enough thought about New Mexico to know more than the fact that it was a state. But man oh man, these office shenanigans are gonna be hilarious!

Under The Sea

2010-07-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

While I was on vacation, I got to meet up with Jenny from Parachutefan.com and we got to spend some time hanging out at the Baltimore Aquarium! These are some of the pictures that I posted on my Facebook album, but a lot of them are only here. I hope you enjoy them!

BONUS PLUS!
One of the workers at the aquarium had us fake feed the Archer Fish. You hold up what looks like food to them, and they shoot a stream of water from their mouth to 'hunt down' their food. Here's a video of Jenny interacting with the Archer Fish. We had SO much fun!

Just Watch The Fireworks

2010-07-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

So I'm almost completely done editing the HUNDREDS of photos I took on my vacation! There's one collection I'm not going to upload to Facebook, simply because they don't really have a home there. I'd get like 1,000 pity comments like "oooh" and "ahhh" and "nice fireworks" and like 2,000 Likes simply because there really is no response to fireworks pictures that aren't just awkward. So I'm just gonna leave them here for people to come back and look at and hopefully be taken back to their own Fourth of July memories.

Maybe it involved a picnic.

Maybe it involved sitting on a blanket with someone special.

Maybe someone you know fell asleep during the fireworks show.

Maybe you set off your own and someone got severely hurt and had to be rushed to the ER and you had to try to keep calm as your mom got in the nurse's face and demanded you be treated immediately only to go home diagnosed with minor burns from a bottle rocket, which made the car ride home extremely awkward and then you had to work for the next month doing odd jobs to help cover the hospital bill cause you swore to everyone it was so bad you were going to die . . .

Whatever your memory, here's to remembering the wonder of fireworks:

Against The Grain

2010-07-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this here because I'm pretty sure I may be held responsible
for your CPR awareness at some point . . .

I have become more and more aware of the fact that crazy funny weird things happen to me often. For instance, I walked outside earlier to move the vehicle I'm borrowing out of the 2 hour parking spot I was in (which is what happens when you work in Lower Queen Anne) so that I wouldn't get a ticket from Parking Enforcement.* And as I walked outside, the telephone company service man that had just gotten out of his vehicle, said HELLO to me to get my attention and then asked where the main office was. It was a strong HELLO and it caught me off guard just as I was swallowing a chip. Because I was startled, I proceeded to choke on the chip. So I yelped a HELLO back to the guy as he rushed over to make sure I was okay. I kept coughing as I gave him instructions on how to get to the main office, since I was coming out of a back door. Thankfully I was okay, but I gotta be honest, my initial reaction was NOT to grab my throat to let the guy know there was a problem like the well-known poster suggests. I'm pretty sure he got the hint though. ;)

Moral of the story: Those CPR classes I took didn't come in handy after all. I'm just too forgetful for them to be effective for me. If you see me coughing and staring up in the air, that's MY universal sign for choking.

*They are my arch-nemesis in the driving world.

Waiting For Superman

2010-07-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

I think about where I am now in my life and the quality education I received that propelled me to it. I feel that from elementary schools to colleges and technical schools, the quality is just declining. I know it sounds a bit out of place, coming from someone who never actually attended college—but I've heard real stories about real students at real schools. The fact of the matter is that our society as a whole is encroaching upon a full-blown standard of entitlement. Children expect to have the newest technology and hottest fashion gear. They are turning to expensive gadgets and botox and YouTube fame to define themselves. Young adults expect the working world to hire them based on their "cool factor" as opposed to legitimate knowledge and experience. Having worked at a school where academics were touted as being valued, meanwhile a quality education for them to even be able to write complete paragraphs was absent, caused me to challenge myself as an educator. And older adults expect those younger than them to stop advancing and growing. They want to continue to be respected as being wiser and more-experienced, meanwhile refusing to learn new ways of doing things.

I know it will sound silly to you that I say this (or maybe it won't), but I think about the education system often. Mainly because I think of my niece every day. She is currently growing up in an area of the city where education is not valued as much as a quick dollar is. Most children who attend Vanessa's school, will not graduate. The streets, the culture, and the apathy invading her neighborhood will give her a slim-to-none chance to graduate high school much less pursue a successful career. And if those factors weren't enough, the logistics of the school systems are the big kicker. Schools are financed in part by the taxes of the area the school is in, which means that lower income areas (which hers is), pay less in taxes, so their schools get less money. That means less resources and underfunded staff, which results in a devil-may-care attitude school-wide. I do, however, have hope for her and for the kids in her school to push past the stigmas of society and the cycle of living in a low-income area, to actually succeed. I know it's possible.

I grew up in an apartment near the Rundberg area of Austin. Most called it "The Burg." The Rundberg area (and East Austin) had been known by the city as a high-crime sector with a high-dropout-rate when I was younger. Growing up, our apartment complex looked great on the inside. It had some semblance of a backyard (which was actually just a high-fenced porch) for each apartment and there was a pool for the kids in the apartment—although most of the time we were at the pool, we were admiring all the tattoos that the neighborhood kids were giving each other with burnt needles and ink. Most of my evenings were spent on our back porch with my brother and his friends who would experiment with drugs and pyromania. Our neighbors were dealers, porn distributors, and working girls. Most people will ask me why I don't like guns, and the truth is, "right and wrong gun shots sound the same." Our neighborhood was constantly patrolled by cop cars and it wasn't out of the ordinary to have neighbor kids come over because their parents weren't home—my sibs and I grew up latch-key kids ourselves. I'm not saying that if that happens, kids will be messed up—the rest of the story gets better.

We were lucky enough to be able to use an alternate address to get into the zones of better schools. I got to attend some really great schools. When I was a kid I went to Brentwood Elementary and I was given a QUALITY education. My teachers taught me to treasure music, arts, and the written word. I fought to have my recess time be spent completely in the library learning about the Underground Railroad, and the Titanic, and the Holocaust. I loved every minute of class time because I was learning, I was imagining more and more things, I was able to approach my teachers if I had a question and I knew they'd be ready to answer with a gracious tone. I LOVED being a Brentwood Bulldog!

When it came time to decide on what middle school to go to, I was given the option. I could either go to Burnet Middle School or Lamar Middle School. I had been to Burnet Middle School before for one of my brother's basketball games and knew that it was going to be one of my options in the future. It was shortly after the time that the Yogurt Shop murders happened. During his game, I took a walk around the school area and I remember seeing the memorial headstone structure for one of the victims in the courtyard. All I could think was, "Why would I want to go here?" So I didn't. When it came time to choose, I chose to go to Lamar Middle School. While I was there, I participated in Pep Squad and took classes in Theater, Video Production, and Choir. These classes are a pretty major part of my education and who I am today.

The school that Lamar "fed" into was McCallum High School. I was once again given a choice by my mom to pick which school I wanted to go to—McCallum, or Lanier (which we lived 5 blocks away from). Again, when I was younger, Lanier did not have a good rep. It was known as a school for less fortunate students. Kids I knew that attended Lanier spent the majority of their time in gangs and working the streets to get extra money for food for their families. I chose to go to McCallum—partially because I'd known people who had gone there, also because both my parents had graduated from there, and because it was the Fine Arts Academy in the AISD system and I wanted to be a part of that (and I was)! I got to participate in Theater, Tech Theater, Songwriting, Colorguard, and Winterguard. I got to travel with our band to Disney World and Hawaii to march at Epcot, and to New York City to play Carnegie Hall. I got to experience the world on an entirely different level.

I realize that no matter what school you send your kids to (whether you homeschool or not), the effectiveness depends on your student's resilience to the peer environment, their desire to learn, parent interaction, and the quality of education they are receiving. Most reading this have seen To Sir With Love, Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, or at the very least, Take The Lead, so you KNOW it's possible for the "less fortunate" kids to have teachers in their life who DO make a difference. But after watching the trailer for the documentary Waiting For Superman and hearing stories from friends who are teachers, it leaves me distraught about our current education system but also renews the hope in me that a brighter future for kids is possible.

As I hear stories of Vanessa growing up, I can't help but want the best for her. I realize that having her live through my same experiences may not be the best thing for her, but the opportunity for her to challenge her mind and to grow in her talents is. As a supporter of quality education and as a believer that there are still ways that we can get involved in joining with local schools to improve a child's educational experience, I would encourage you to go see this movie. I rarely watch documentaries, but this is one I could not avoid if someone held me at gunpoint . . . okay well maybe that's a bit extreme, but I'm definitely going to see it!

For more information on Waiting For Superman and the Take Action campaign and how you can help locally, check out: http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/

We Were Made For Each Other / You Can Breathe (Vacation Recap)

2010-07-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

A friend accepts us as we are yet helps us to be what we should.
- Anonymous

I would have never guessed how much my life would change when I made friends with this seemingly shy girl from Baltimore ten years ago. But after getting to spend 5 days together sharing laughs, memories, and new adventures as if we'd never skipped a beat, I consider myself one of the luckiest people on the planet. She has, in a pretty major way, helped me become the person I am today. She shoots straight with me and isn't afraid to speak the truth in love to me while still being my biggest fan (next to my parents). She isn't afraid to be silly and she has an attitude just as fiesty as mine! Being around her was a breath of fresh air as she encouraged me so much and just reminded me what it means to have a best friend.

The hardest part about the vacation was saying goodbye. The best part was deciding to make my trip back to the east coast for the 4th of July weekend an annual event! I've been blessed enough to weather the toughest storms and soar above them with a soul sister always at my beck and phone call/text message/email and I look forward to more worthwhile adventures with my bestie!

Here are some pics to conclude the trip journal:

Anytime I'm given anything with whip cream or frosting,
it's pretty much just gonna end up on my face.
Sarah's dad knows this, hence his "oh this is normal" pose.

Other things that are pretty normal:
Sarah joining in the fun!

When we were in NYC, Sarah bought us best friend keychains
(the Big Apple & the License Plate)
We're equal parts cheesy and awesome! ;)

I bought us best friend "Fun Socks!"

A best friend never lets their friends forget to eat Chick-Fil-A

While we were there, Adam and Stacey White
(I was on staff at MCA when Stacey was a student)
joined us for lunch at CFA and it was SO great
to catch up and share some laughs.

Bonus Plus!
I got Sarah's dad to let me take a pic of him
modeling a bra in the middle of Wal-Mart!
Who could refuse me such an honor? ;)

When I left for the trip initially, I started reading this book,
SUMMER AT TIFFANY, about two best friends who spend a summer together living in NYC and working at Tiffany's. It was great to continue the story after having just spent some refreshing quality time with my best friend ever on the planet!

Sparks Fly (Vacation Recap)

2010-07-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

We are the fearless duckbill platypus twins!

Okay I realize I only have 2 more days of vacation left to recap, and since I'm almost done with editing all the photos, it's about time to get wit' it. So the 4th of July was pretty awesome! It was a Sunday so I got to go to church with Sarah at Central Christian and hear Pastor Ron Surratt speak. I also got to see Ronnie, who Sarah and I had also gone to Master's Commission with! It was so good to reconnect with him and hear about all the awesome things going on in his life. It's funny that when I was in MCA I wasn't really appreciative of Ronnie's blunt honesty, but now I completely appreciate it.

Sarah, Ronnie, and me

After service, Sarah dropped me off at the Inner Harbor so I could meet up with Jenny. Jenny is a new friend of mine who is a fellow fan of Parachute (one of my FAVORITE bands) that I got to know through social networking. She runs PARACHUTEFAN.COM and I help her out as a site staff member with editing, helping with creative ideas, and general marketing ideas—although it should be known, she does THE MAJORITY of the work! I'm just honored to be part of it all!

parachutefan.com home page

I had mentioned before to Jenny on Twitter that I would be taking a trip to the east coast and we thought it'd be a great idea to meet up and talk about Parachutefan.com stuff for a while. Originally the plan was to meet for a couple of hours and just go over projects, but we ended up hanging out for about 9 hours down at the harbor. We had a blast walking around and talking Parachute & site stuff as well as stuff about ourselves. As you can see from the pictures below, we hit it off and had such a fun day!

I'm not a police man, I'm a princess!
A ballerina princess, that is ;)

Jenny the masterpiece

My friend Kelley won one of the CDs from a giveaway on Parachutefan.com—she won a copy of Parachute's album which included a drawing and an autograph from the lead singer, Will Anderson! I love Kelley's willingness to give what was rightfully hers and I am such a happy camper because of it!

We even got to beat the heat and go to the aquarium together! After checking out all the animals and cracking jokes in the shark section, we grabbed a seat outside and listened as a live band played cover songs outside the Hard Rock Cafe. We both agreed that we wished it was Parachute playing though.

After the show was over, we grabbed some dinner at Chipotle and talked and talked for even longer about the band, and how we as fans were so grateful for a down-to-earth group of guys that were dedicated to providing honest and quality music. As we were finishing, we couldn't help but notice a crowd flocking to one side of the harbor and then we heard the fireworks going off. So we stuck around and sat to watch the fireworks as they went off on both sides of the harbor—it was a perfect evening and such a fun opportunity to meet a great new friend!

The only regret I had was not charging my phone, which caused mucho confusion and worry for Sarah who couldn't get a hold of me—my phone was dead. When I finally got to her house she gave me a giant hug and told me how worried she was because she didn't know where I was and how every worse case scenario was going through her mind that evening. I felt so small—hurting your best friend and causing them to worry is never fun. I realized that night that there was in fact, a downside to my "go with the flow" spontaneity. But then we spent some time holding each other, and she kept saying how glad she was that I was safe. Even in the midst of my mistake, I was assured that I was truly loved by people that matter. We got to talk about our afternoon and then we called it a night.

American Daydreams

2010-07-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

As I look back through the recent offerings that Hollywood has released in theaters, I find myself wondering, "Can't they come up with something more original?" I am aware that due to the economy and other fears and facets of the movie-making industry that the safe bet is to ride the 3-D wave while it's here and to put out as many secure sequels as possible. I get it. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. In fact, with the exception of Toy Story 3 (which I saw in 2D first), the 3D movies I've seen advertised just haven't seemed to be worthwhile endeavors for me. But all in all, I was in search of something new, something original, something creative that was able to stand on its own without so many extra gimmicks and bells and whistles—and I think INCEPTION did that.

Last night I decided to go to the midnight showing of Inception. Mostly because I was entirely anxious to see it, having read plot lines and script reviews online. Also for the sheer fun of going to a midnight showing! So I drank some coffee to stay awake before I headed out, stuffed my Twizzlers into my bag and headed out the door to experience Inception on the IMAX screen.

I must admit that part of the fun of going to the movies is the things you overhear in line and in the theater. Last night, as I was waiting in line, there were 3 guys on my right hand side talking about their girlfriends and how they don't really like them. One of the guys even said his girlfriend's name was "Anna 'Bail on James' Murphy," which made me turn my head and chuckle quietly. The two guys on my left side were MUCH funner anyway. One of the guys had missed a call earlier that day and was trying to guess who it was. "It's a 406 area code. I wonder if it's ______. Or maybe it's _____. Actually I bet it's ______ cause he said he'd be in _____" So I put my eavesdroppery to good use and looked up the area code on my phone.

"What's the area code?"

"Oh, it's 406."

"Ah. Okay. That's Montana."

"Montana! I knew it!"

After that, the guys both turned to me and began asking me what I was looking forward to in the movie. We all shared our relief that it wasn't in 3D and laughed so hard at different movie jokes from other failed 3D flicks.

We eventually were let into the theater and got to experience the summer blockbuster hit of ingenious proportions. It was so action packed and I fell completely in sync with the characters. I was so engulfed in what was happening to the team on the screen, holding my breath and freaking out at tense scenes. At one point, I turned my head and (no lie) every single person in my row was on the edge of their seats looking up, wondering what was going to happen next. With every twist and turn of the movie, I found myself trying to guess what would happen next, how things were all intertwined, who was good, who was bad, who was going to live, and who was going to die. There were so many things I loved about the movie. The imagination that went into each scene and the score that backed it up kept my hopes up that the movie-making industry might actually be returning to a state of originality and pure character driven masterpieces. I'm still holding out hope.

The actors in the movie did such an amazing job portraying each of their characters and had so much great chemistry that the dialogue and expressions conveyed totally added to the entire package as well. It was refreshing to me that others could see Ellen Page in her true versatile acting form, as opposed to the stereotypical role of JUNO that most identify her with. Joseph Gordon-Levitt completely blew me away in his role and the entire supporting cast was just perfect! And it doesn't really need to be said, but I'll say it anyway—Leonardo DiCaprio DID not disappoint! The intensity he brings to each character is wonderful and after seeing him in this movie, it's just a reassurance that he hasn't lost his touch.

The action scenes were intense but not overdone. I think my favorite part about it was that Christopher Nolan didn't feel that he NEEDED the movie to be made in 3D. It was complex, intriguing, and just a fun film to watch without extra bells and whistles. If I were to describe it, I would say it was a combination of The Dark Knight and The Prestige. Others have also mentioned that it exceeds the greatness of Memento—which is saying a lot.

I read this review earlier and it resonated with me:

He did not raise the bar. He took the bar and put it somewhere no one would ever, in their wildest dreams, think of finding it. . . .

Nolan’s exploration of the mysteries of the dream world is entrenched in truthful scientific research while offering a humanistic and philosophical take on how the dream is moved and how it can confuse or rearrange our individual realities. He also juggled multiple story lines, all supposedly progressing at different rates through time, without being the least bit confusing. . . .

But I think this Tumblr user pretty much hit the nail on the head when he said:

I will be INCREDIBLY surprised if the cast and crew of Inception doesn't sweep every upcoming award show they're nominated for! I highly recommend you go see this movie. It was worth every dollar I spent on it.

Even after the movie was over, the movie was not over. I got home, went straight to bed and (no lie) had an "Inception-style" dream. Leo DiCaprio was even in it and it was like I was still IN the movie. I felt like I woke up at least 20 times through the night, even though it was probably only 3—when my 1st alarm went off, when my 2nd alarm went off, and when my body finally woke up. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to fall right back asleep to see what would happen next.

Movie Trailer for Inception: