Concerning Hobbits

My love of The Lord of The Rings is well known in these parts, but really my love goes beyond that trilogy to all things set in Tolkien's Middle Earth.  I may have mentioned this before, but I cried a ridiculous amount when I first finished reading Return of The King, but that is nothing compared to how much I cried when I finished read the appendices to that book – it was like a close family member had died, and I couldn't be consoled.  After that, I only wanted more and so I braved The Silmarillion.

I mention this because sometimes I feel like I'm not the right person to recommend things to people.  I don't like things; I FUCKING LOVE THINGS. For example, I recommend show "Elementary" to some people, but as I'm already a huge fan of anything Sherlock Holmes, plus a sucker for procedural dramas, and I love both Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller, was there any way I wasn't going to at least like it?  And since I am the perfect audience, I'm not sure if other people will enjoy it like I do.  It's much the same with The Hobbit. I love the universe so much, it would have been very hard to make something that I didn't enjoy.  And I have always trusted Peter Jackson's decisions with these adaptations, so please keep that in mind when reading...

As anyone who has read both The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings knows, much of what happens "off screen" in The Hobbit is retconed during the "The Counsel of Elrond" chapter (which is like a million pages long in Fellowship) and in the appendices of The Lord of The Rings – Ganalf explains where he was for a quarter of the book, Thorin's back story and name are explained, nameless characters and places get proper names, etc.  So, that's what Peter Jackson has done – he's taking the information we find out later and filled in the blanks.  And if anyone was wondering, like I was when I first heard, how this could be 3 movies, well there's your answer.

A final thought before I cut for spoilers:  I initially wanted to see The Hobbit in standard, old school 2D.  Fiancé was skeptical of the HFR, I don't like 3D, and last time we saw a 3D IMAX film (Promethus), I had to run out of the theater violently ill with a migraine.  However, we accidentally bought tickets to the 3D IMAX version (or "IMAX" since it wasn't on a larger screen).  Unlike other 3D movies I've seen, I did not get sick, or even get a headache.  I felt immersed, not hit over the head with in-your-face gags.  Most reviews I've read so far are complaining about the frame rate, NOT the film itself.  And that's a bummer because I think those things should be looked at independently...

Alright, now on to the spoilery review, in list format because it really is just a jumble of thoughts...

Megmas List

Guys, this is my NINTH annual Megmas mix!  Some of you reading this may even have all 9, which is totally amazing that I've a) known you that long, and b) you keep accepting these crazy mixes from me.  But honestly, working on Megmas is one of my favourite parts of the Holiday season.  I love finding old classics, unknown songs, strange covers, and silly songs for everyone.  So, I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed making it! 

Download here: Megmas List – Megmas 2012

1. "Dasher? On!" – Cabin Pressure 
2. Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (Single Version) – Bruce Springsteen
3. All I Need Is Love (feat. The Muppets) – Cee Lo Green
4. Wonderful Christmastime – The Shins      
5. Merry Something to You – Devo   
6. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree – Chicago       
7. Don't Be a Jerk (It's Christmas) – SpongeBob SquarePants
8. Do They Know It's Christmas? –  Barenaked Ladies  
9. "Get Dressed You Merry Gentlemen" –  Cabin Pressure
10. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – August Burns Red
11. XMS PRTY – Shock And Awe 
12. Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight) – Bowling for Soup
13. Santa Claus' Party MIX – The Aquabats!
14. Baby, It's Cold Outside – Zach Braff & Donald Faison  
15. Little Drummer Boy – tobyMac       
16. Xmas Rulez, Voldemort Droolz – Harry and the Potters   
17. All I Want for Christmas – Jimmy Fallon, Mariah Cary, & The Roots
18. Fairytale of New York – Stars   

What has it got in its pocketses, eh Precious?

This is the story of how Boyfriend Fiancé and I got engaged!

When I woke up on Friday, November 30th, I had no idea that I would be engaged by that night.  I had taken the day off work because Boyfriend and I had plans to stay at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove.  But before any of that, I had to brave the storm that was hitting the Bay Area and go to the dentist and the bank, and generally boring things you do when you don't think anything special is going on.

That afternoon, when we finally got to Monterey, the storm had settled down, and we spent a few hours walking around the Aquarium.  According to the guides there, we lucked out – the week after Thanksgiving is always slow.  We saw every exhibit, and had a front row spot for the penguin feeding (where the power went out due to the storms)!  And since it was so empty, I later learned that Boyfriend almost proposed at the Aquarium at that window tunnel where the tide falls over you... We had, after all, spent our very first anniversary at the Aquarium and that would have been very fitting.

When we finally checked into our room at Asilomar we were a little shocked.  Back when I booked the room they asked if I wanted a "modern" room or a "rustic" room, and I had assumed "rustic" meant rustic like the inn in Pennsylvania where I stayed for my Cousin's wedding: old but updated, with a fireplace, and a bathtub, and such.  But, no.  This was a cabin that had not been updated since around 1946, with just a bed, a desk, and a bathroom, and with a ceiling so low, I could reach it with my feet when I was laying on bed.  I kept apologizing to Boyfriend for not booking a more romantic room when we first saw it; I apologized even more last after he proposed! 

We decided to go to dinner at once of my favourite restaurants ever: Peppers in Pacific Grove – they have an amazing Mexican jambalaya and blood orange margaritas to die for.  After dinner, Boyfriend suggested that we walk down to Lover's Point, which is only about 3 blocks from Peppers.  We grabbed an umbrella, and as it started to rain we headed down toward the beach.

It was about 9-9:30ish at night, so there wasn't anyone around.  As we walked down the path that leads to the water we spotted a giant black dog on the beach (I think it was a Hellound; my mom later said it was probably Sirius Black) and Boyfriend thought he people below us chatting, so he stopped me halfway up the path.  We could still see across the bay and the lights on the rest of the coast, and it was beautiful.

Then he turned to me and said something like, "Sooo, I have a question..."

Now, don't judge me here, but I still wasn't expecting anything, and it wasn't like he got down on one knee (not really our style).  In hindsight it's all so obvious – even my best friend J convinced me to get a manicure earlier that week – which I almost never do!  But at that moment, I was expecting Boyfriend to say something like "Soooo, if Nic Cage was on a battleship and there was a giant squid attacking, and all he had was his shoes and some floss..." because we always start conversations like that.  But he didn't ask me about Nic Cage or anyone else.

Boyfriend pulled out a ring and I cried and jumped on his face and said "yes, yes, yes!"  And then we had to walk back to the car because though I could see the ring in the moon light, I couldn't really see the ring.  When we got back to the car, he had to drive because I while I was beyond happy, I was also something of an emotional wreck (and too distracted by the ring to drive).

So, it turns out that Boyfriend had been holding the ring in his pocket the whole day, and not even in the box, just in the 5th pocket of his jeans.  Which is hilarious when I thought back to that morning:

As we were leaving, Boyfriend got in the car and his pant's pocket seemed extra bulky.

"Are you bringing your GameBoy on our weekend away," I asked.

"No!  It's my wallet."  And he showed me his wallet.

"Are you sure you don't have anything else in there?  It's really big today."

"Nope, just my wallet," he insisted.

And then I said, "What has it got in its pocketses, eh Precious?" and I start banging on about how Bilbo had The Ring in his pocket the whole time and Gollum had no idea...  And all the while Boyfriend had a ring in his pocket, and I was just as clueless!

I think my love of The Lord of The Rings is pretty well documented, and only I could inadvertently turn my engagement into a reference from The Hobbit.  But hey, that's what makes us so awesome.

I'll Wait Till the Fall Comes

Fall is absolutely my favourite time of year.  There's so much that I love about it: the smell, the colours, the weather, the clothes... Just thinking of Fall gives me both a feeling of nostalgia and the fluttering excitement of things to come.  Which basically translates as: Fall makes me ridiculously happy.

This year, I'm particularly looking forward to the changing of the seasons.  I turned 29 this summer, and so far 29 hasn't been all that awesome.  For the first time in a very long time, I was not looking forward to my birthday, and while it ended up being nice, I just wasn't feeling it. And since then, I've been emotionally exhausted in many ways.  There have been many moments of frustration, where I have put myself out there, made myself available emotionally, only to be hurt.  And other moments of complete loss, both emotionally and physically, and moments of confusion and misdirection.  

That being said, there has also been a lot of joy in my life, and many adventures thus far in my 29th year (which I will hopefully get around to posting about in the near future).  But I'm pushing forward.  I'm eager for the next phase of my life to start, to move on from this constant feeling of transition. 

And for some reason, I feel like Fall will help me on my way.


Photo taken by endlessmeg
Fall 2010, Cupertino, CA

Tuesday Tunes: The Offspring

The first band I ever fell in love with was The Offspring – I mean that I didn't just like them, I loved them. 

I was in 8th grade in 1997 when their album Ixnay on the Hombre came out.  I, of course, had heard "Smash" and "Self Esteem" on the radio (on the long gone KOME), but Ixnay was my gateway drug, so to speak – it introduced me to The Offspring's back catalog, and due to the amazing amount of punk compilations at the time, it introduced me to Epitaph bands, then to Fat Wreck Chords bands, and then to Nitro bands (the Offspring's own label) where I discovered the second band I became absolutely devoted to: AFI.

The Offspring gave me a taste of something, and I wanted more.  Because of this band I discovered 70s punk, and hardcore bands, and local ska-punk bands (it was the late 90s, remember).  I went to shows, loads and loads of shows.  I saw bands at big venues in The City, and small shows in people's garages, local YMCAs, and memorably, The Fishbowl, which was inside of a Le Boulanger.

Anyway, my tastes have evolved somewhat over the past 15 years, and I haven't listened to much of their new albums past Americana, but there is still a very special place in my heart for The Offspring.  So, when I learned I could get discounted tickets to their show next Tuesday, I jumped at the opportunity.  And my Jr. High self has been giving me high-fives all day.

Wanna join me and be nostalgic?  Get your tickets here!  I'll be the one acting old, standing in the back.

Also, check out their new album Days Go By that is mostly pretty solid (and complete with a reference to one of my favourite films, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb!)

Adventures in SoCal

Boyfriend and I journeyed down to SoCal the weekend before his birthday to visit his Grandma and to check out the new Cars Land at Disneyland. 

The trip didn't go 100% as planned.  We were meant to go straight to his Grandma's house, but half way there, we had to change our plans and head to his Uncle's instead.  Then due to an unforeseen freeway problem, our normal 6ish hour drive turned into a 10+ hour drive.  But don't worry, Dear Readers, there is a silver lining here – while we were stuck in traffic it hit 115° outside!  So, if we had to be stuck somewhere better it be in a car with AC!

We were a bit wrecked from the drive, but we made it to Disney the next morning and found out that it was a black out day for SoCal residents and that the park was crazy empty.  In fact, we saw a lot of the same people in line and there were wide open spaces for us to walk, which was especially good since the heat did not let up and it got to 106° while we were there.  Aside from Splash Mountain, the longest line we had to wait in was for Cars Land (and then we FastPassed it the second time).  It was Finn McAwesome and a perfect place to play Yellow Car while waiting in line.

Two things to note from our awesome Cars Land pic above:
1. I didn't realize I was standing so sassy.
2. I'm wearing my Snitchwiches shirt and Boyfriend is wearing his "You're a Timelord Harry" shirt.  Clearly we are at the wrong theme park. 

Tuesday Tunes: Japandroids

Guys, I cannot stop listening to this band. 

This is one of those weird cases where I've known about Japandroids for ages, and in fact, they'd been recommend to me over and over.  I had heard them a few times, and there was no real reason that I didn't listen to them, except that I didn't.  That sometimes happens.

Then Celebration Rock came out and, seriously, I have been listening to almost nothing else (except books on tape in the car because of reasons).  "The House that Heaven Built" is the single, and it's so damn good that I feared that it would be the best songs that the rest of the album couldn't live up to it (I'm looking at you, Walk the Moon).  But I needn't have worried – the album starts of with "The Nights of Wine and Roses" and never lets up.  In fact, the only song that didn't blow me away was a cover of "For the Love and Ivy" originally by The Gun Club.

Japandroids will be in at the Fillmore in November, and I'll be there and I'll yell like hell to the heavens!

Legendary Games of Awesome

 























 

My friends Jenny and Cristin host the most awesome events.  This weekend we participated in the 1st annual Legendary Games of Awesome!  And not only did they plan out a whole afternoon's worth of events, they got everyone team shirts and sweat bands!  They even had sliced oranges for half time!

The games opened with beer roulette to choose team captains.  One beer per team was shaken up, and who ever got the one that exploded got to be team captain.  This sounded a lot more awesome in theory; in reality, only 1 person got a really explody beer.

Games included: Synchronized Sipping, a beer-pong type game, a ring toss (which no one could successfully do), and something that involved getting an Oreo into your mouth without using your hands...

The trophies were dinosaurs.  And they were awesome.

In first place we had The Pickled Livers, who got the amazing golden dinosaur trophies.

Second place went to Team Dino-Might, who actually only had 3 participating members.  The other 3 were fashionably late to the event, but arrived in time for photos.

Third place went to the other 3 person team, Don't Let the Planes Crash, whose first names all started with the letter P and who did amazing airplane arms during Synchronized Sipping!
   

In the end my team, The Drunken Giraffes, came in dead last.  But for the record I'd like to point out that while everyone else was drinking Pabst, I was drinking wine.  Also for the record, we cheated proudly – and still lost.
But it's ok – we only came for the dancing.

Desaparacidos

Have you ever loved an album so much, but knew you would never ever get to see any of those songs live?  This can't be that strange of an occurrence, especially if you are a fan of bands that broke up decades ago (like my sister, Bear, the Zeppelin superfan).  But since I tend to like smaller, more accessible bands, and since I live outside of SF, I've always been very lucky in this respect.

Boyfriend's favourite album of all time is In the Areoplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, and by the time he really started to listen to it, they had already broke up. So, when Jeff Mangum (the singer/songwriter) was touring this past spring, he was so excited.  And were blown away – he played 90% of the album live!  A dream come true for Boyfriend, who thought he would never ever hear his favourite songs live.

Tonight, we're going to see Desaparacidos and The Velvet Teen, which will be a giant musical blast from my past.  They're touring for the first time in 10 years, and goddamn and I excited.

Desaparcidos is best known for being fronted by Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes fame.  They formed in 2001, released Read Music/Speak Spanish in 2002, and then disbanded.  And in those 10 years, I have listed to their one album over, and over, and over.  For me, there's just something about it that album that I can't get enough of.

I've seen Bright Eyes live twice, and nearly back to back – once during the I'm Wide Awake it's Morning tour, and once right after for the Digital Ash in a Digital Urn tour.  And based on those performances, I imagined that Desaparacidos would be just as amazing, louder to be sure, but amazing.

And tonight, I finally get to find out.



photo from desaparecidosband.com

Vicious & Wreck: Road Trip (Part 1)

Ten years ago, on 8 July 2002, I set out for a study abroad program that took place at University College Dublin in Ireland.  That experience in itself is a whole other story, but it was on that trip that I met one of my best friends, Vicious.

Dublin, Ireland – Summer 2002 – Vicious (20), Wreck (19)

The Vicious & I got our nicknames when she lived across the hall from me at UCD and one night, she and I and about 6 others in our building got very, very drunk and thought we were in a band.  While we were there we spent most of our time drinking, swearing at each other whilst playing Thirteens, harassing the French bartender at our favourite pub, listening to the Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels soundtrack, and laying on the floor reading Trainspotting out loud to each other in Scottish accents (of varying accuracy).  We also apparently went to class once in a while, because both of us actually passed our courses.

When we returned state-side, despite not living across the hall from each other any more, and despite periods of large distances, various boyfriends, schools, and other crazy life stuff, she and I stayed in touch, unlike almost everyone else in our program.  And no matter how much time passed between hangouts and adventures, we've stayed close all this time – and even more so in the past few years once we were both back in the Bay Area on a permanent basis.

In April, this email arrived: I'm wondering if you bitches were free the days around July 2 to go on a trip.  I'm thinking maybe a weekend in Los Angeles? Or Las Vegas? Or somewhere new like Ukiah?  Portland?  Boise?  Klamath Falls?

I will be... the big three-oh.

So awful it cannot be comprehended fully.  

In other words, I wanna run away for my birthday, and I'd like you grrrls to be my accomplices (or kidnapped whores, your choice).

LOVE
[Vicious]

ps- Texarkana?  Montreal?  Orlando?  Milwauake? How do you spell that?  Carmel by the Sea?  Mendicino?  Reno?  The place where dreams go to die?

I immediaty wrote back with: EFF YES. I am totally in.

We hadn't traveled together in nearly 10 years, but I knew that wasn't going to make a difference.  I started working on a very specific road-trip mix for the occasion.  This was going to be epic.

Based on that first email Vicious sent, there was a lot of talk about where we could realistically drive to in the approximately 72 hours we had blocked off for this trip (leaving after work Friday afternoon and being back for work Tuesday morning).  We went a little google maps crazy and may have forgotten that we'd need to calculate in sleeping – at one point, I think we were talking about making it to Canada and back... But ultimately, we decided to drive Hwy 1 towards the Lost Coast, and see where we end up.

That Friday afternoon we loaded up my car, Kingsley, with way too much for a three day trip (since we had no idea where we would end up, we each brought about 4 pairs of shoes, swimsuits, a dress, jackets, shorts, jeans, and of course, a towel), and headed for our first and only real planned stop on our trip: Mill Valley.

Vicious and I had decided to spend the first night in the Bay Area's back yard for a couple of reasons:

• We didn't know how late we would be leaving or what the traffic would be like, and it would give us a fresh start in the morning.  
• We knew we would be able to eat there – she's a vegan and I'm gluten free! – and we ended up finding a Thai place that catered to both of our dietary needs.  
• We tentatively planned to start our adventures in Muir Woods the next morning, complete with references to Vertigo and 12 Monkeys.

So, that night we settled into our motel room over an Indian restaurant and giggled ourselves crazy late into the night.  It was just like old times, minus the booze and plus Avengers snap-bracelets.

DAY 1

It was quickly apparent that Muir Woods was not going to happen on the Saturday before 4th of July.  We were directed to the overflow parking where we were going to have to wait for a coach to bring us to the park.  As we scarfed down some nut bars, we were ushered into a queue of hikers, tourists, and families.  Now, Vicious and I are very good a queuing (owing, we think, to time spent in the UK and Disneyland), but as we looked around us, we realized that this was dumb. We had driving to do, the coast to see, and Muir Woods is so close, we could get to that later.  So, we hopped back in Kingsley and headed towards Stinson Beach.

I am a nerd, and I don't care.

On July 14th, I attended Pink Prom IV: May the Fourth Be With You.  This is the 4th annual party thrown by my friends to benefit the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and WomenCARE.

As I have the past 3 years, I had a wonderful time and danced the night away. There were amazing Star Wars themed decorations, souvenir pint glasses, and puns everywhere – my favourite: Admiral Snackbar!  Plus, there a photo booth that would be placing us among the stars.

If you didn't think it could get nerdier than a Star Wars themed event, you're wrong.  When I saw this photo of me and Boyfriend, I couldn't help myself... I had to make one small adjustment.

The Twelfth Doctor and his companion, Meggie Stardust!

Photo by Jon Sawyer Photography 
edit by me :)

Dear Readers, I'm not dead.

I'm trying to work on getting better at updating this more regularly again. But, don't worry, Dear Readers, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, instead I have been super busy and having tons of fun.  And as I learned last year during Awesome August, sometimes it isn't worth it to stop and blog when you are enjoying the moment so much.  And, hey, I am awesome at recap posts ;)

So, as I work on getting this back up to speed, you can be jealous of the amazing view I had this past weekend during my (unfortunately) short trip to Tahoe.

March Photo a Day: Days 1 – 10

Yeah, so I'm slacking on posting again, but I'm keeping up with my photos!  Just think of this as an award for your patience – a whole bunch of pictures at once :)

Day 1: Up
I caught this shot when I was leaving the market.  I've always love skywriters, and these seemed like a great way to kick off a new month of photos! (it's too bad none of the rest have lived up first one so far!)

Day 2: Fruit
I had so many ideas for this and there was fruit around all day, but in the end I nearly forgot to take a picture at all and ended up taking a quick shot of an orange my manager had given me.  It was tasty even if the photo was boring.

Day 3: My Neighbourhood
Another last min/late photo.  I live up in the hills and don't have a typical neighbourhood.  We do have a little block of stores at the bottom of the hill, though.  When I was little they had a pizza place and a movie rental shop where I rented Troop Beverly Hills 800 times – fun fact!

Day 4: Bedside
I don't have a bedside locker or table or anything because my bed fits right between the door into the room and the closet door. I do, however, have a set of drawers filled with accessories and other miscellaneous items, and stacked with the some of the books that I've read since I moved in Nov 2010.  I read a lot.

Day 5: A Smile
This pic was taken by Boyfriend back when we used to work together and had these crazy 7am shifts.  I love this pic of me.  This is a post-yawn smile and eye rub.  I may or may not be about to pound a sugar free Redbull as well.

Day 6: 5pm
My boring but accurate picture of my water bottle and a gluten free bar, for the very exciting task of hydrating and snacking before Bikram.

Day 7: Something I Wore
This was harder than I thought it would be, but only because every other time I've done style photos, Boyfriend always takes them and I wanted to do this myself.  So, here is part of the houndstooth dress and sweater from H&M and my vintage boots that used to belong to my aunt.

Day 8: Window
At my Mom's house there are these amazingly old stained glass windows.  It's just too bad that I waited until dark to take a picture of them, but believe me, they are so pretty!

Day 9: Red
I had actually planned on paining my nails with my favourite colour "Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ" but I ran out of time.  As I was searching for something both interesting and red to take a picture of, my eyes fell on my Harry Potter box set that my wonderful sister, Bear, got me for Christmas a few years ago.  It's all the British editions, so Year 1 is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. 

Day 10: Loud
This is the opening title to one of my all time favourite movies: Velvet Goldmine.  It's a play on the liner notes to David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (which also happens to be one of my favourite albums), that says "To be played at Maximum Volume."

Feb Photo a Day: Days 26 – 29

Day 26: Night
You know those awesome/awful nights when you have no place to go, but your hair looks fantastic?  Yep, that was this night.  Thank god instagram was invented, or I would have no one to share my good hair days with!

Day 27: Something I Ate
I'm not gonna lie, popcorn (more specifically kettle corn) is my weakness (but to be fair, I only have the one).  Last year, I even gave up popcorn of all varieties for Lent! But, to me, an appropriate meal would be popcorn and a glass of wine.

Day 28: Money
I have all these random piles of euro coins in different drawers and boxes and pouches around my room from various visits to Ireland (mostly, tho other countries as well, I'm sure).  Stumbling across these collections a) gives me Travel Lust, and b) reminds me of all those nights in the apartments at UCD drinking with my flatmates and playing cards for 2 cent coins.

Day 29: Something I'm Listening to
Sum 41 is totally a guilty pleasure band of mine.  Actually, I take that back.  There is nothing guilty about the pleasure I get from Sum 41.  They are the Less Than Jake of the pop-punk world (and if you get what I mean by that, we are probably already best friends) and produce some damn fine music.  This came on shuffle in my car on the way home from work and you bet your ass I rocked out.

And Feb is done!!

Stay tuned for March and hopefully some other proper updates soon.

Feb Photo a Day: Days 20 – 25

Day 20: Handwriting
I have horrible handwriting.  More specifically, I feel like I have schizophrenic handwriting.  It will start out nice at the top of a page, but half way down it's as if someone else has taken over.  It's horrible – this is a short story draft and I can hardly read it!

Day 21: A Favourite Photo of Me
In college, as a gift to my boyfriend at the time, I worked with one of my photographer friends to create a series of pinup shots for the boyfriend's birthday.  This is one of my favourite of the set and one my favourite pictures of me ever.  It's the little things like the chipped nail polish that make it stand out to me.

Day 22: Where I Work
So, ironically, I had called out sick this day and couldn't take a pic of where I work.  But the next day, I took this somewhat lame picture of the words in the lobby of my building.  I planned to do something cooler, since I work someplace pretty cool, but oh well.

 

Day 23: My Shoes
Another lame picture.  I am on a roll with these bad ones after having so many good ones... Ah well.  This was at the Regency Ballroom in SF and we were waiting to see Sleigh Bells.  Regardless, I love these boots.

Day 24: Inside my Bathroom Cabinet
The final super lame picture of this set.  I don't really have a bathroom cabinet and I spend so much of my time getting ready at places other than my house, that I keep everything in two bags that I bring with me everywhere.  For the record, I use about 25% of these products on a daily basis.

Day 25: Green
This is one of my favourite jackets ever.  I bought it in Dublin, Ireland about 8 years ago and it is the warmest jacket that I have.  It had been missing for quite a while, tho I recently relocated it in my sister's closet.  And now we are reunited, happy, and warm!

Feb Photo a Day: Days 13 –19

Day 13: Blue
I had dinner with my friend Michael on Monday, and despite the fact that there was blue all around, I couldn't find anything interesting to me.  Then, at the end of the night, I spotted this on Michael's backpack from an Apple Store iMovie camp we did a few years back.

Day 14: Heart [take 1 & 2]
Valentines Day has never been that big of a deal to me, but Boyfriend always finds a way to surprise me regardless. I've had this necklace laying around for a while and haven't worn it much recently, so I thought I'd dust it off for the occasion.  Then, at the end of the day, I realized I had inadvertently been wearing a heart patterned bra!

Day 15: Phone
I took some liberties on this prompt, using my old ASL skills from college.  This is me, post-bikrim yoga class. Like what you see?  Gimme a call!

Day 16: Something New
After years of avoiding it and playing bass (both in real life and in Rock Band) because it has less strings, I've finally started to learn to play guitar.  Granted, I can really only play T.Rex's "20th Century Boy" along with a guide, but it's a start!

Day 17: Time
You don't know "Jungle Love?" That shit is the mad notes. Written by God herself and sent down to the greatest band in the world: The mother-fucking Time.

Day 18: Drink
My friend hosted a Speak Easy part last night, complete with a tub filled with 1920s era drinks.  The party was a blast and I finally got to wear a bunch of my great-great-aunt's jewelry and her fur coat!

Day 19: Something I hate to do
And now I'm sick. I hate getting sick.  So, I'm just chilling in bed, drinking broth, and watching Bones.

Feb Photo a Day: Days 8 – 12

Day 8: Sun
I had nearly forgotten to take a sun picture, and since it's still technically winter (despite what the California climate wants me to believe), the sun was fast setting as I was leaving for the day.  Luckily, as I walked out of the office, I caught this great shot through the window, capturing my reflection at the same time.  I'm oddly stoked on how this turned out.

Day 9: Front Door
I had dinner with an ex-student turned dear friend and she has this amazing door in her home as a decoration.  However, she once told me it's origin story and it was, at one time, the front door to a home.  I think it's stunning.

Day 10: Self Portrait
This pic is really no change from half of the things I post on instagram (I might be slightly narcissistic from time to time).  I did attempt to do something different and more creative, but in the end, I was out to dinner with friends and this was all I could manage.

Day 11: Makes Me Happy
My cousin Evan came into town for work, and he ended up staying with us on Saturday night – I hadn't seen him since his wedding last April and Boyfriend had never even met him!  What I didn't know was that my sister Bear was also going to be there for the night. As cliché as it sounds, I adore my family and I have so much fun with them.  Also, look how short I am compared to them (we are all barefoot or wearing flats)!

Day 12: Inside my Closet
My closet is rather insane.  The floor has laundry baskets that are overflowing with boots and door has hooks packed with scarves.  And due to the fact that I have slight OCD, I have spent way too much time colour-coordinating my sweaters and arranging my dresses and skirt by season (or, since we don't really have "seasons" in the traditional sense, by warm or cold weather dresses).  I might have a shopping problem...