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...

Awesome August : Day 21

Have you ever had one of those dreams that is so realistic and awful that even then you wake up, you feel weird for the rest of the morning?  Especially if that dream involves someone you love and someone you have to interact with.  That was me today... So, to counteract the yucky feeling, I ended up doing things that I love.

The Queen and I went to a morning showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 since she hadn't seen it yet.  The theater was surprisingly packed for a Sunday morning nearly over 2 months after the release.  And since I hadn't seen it since the midnight premier (which was fun but very loud), I was able to pick up lines of dialogue that I missed the first time (since we were all laughing or cheering or crying), like this one:

I've always loved the way the films have portrayed Seamus.  I thought that he was kinda shafted after about book 5 and he was always a fun character.  This scene just proves it.  But I digress...

Then I ended the night by seeing Cowboys & Aliens with Boyfriend and his dad.  I feel like that whole movie is the set up for a joke like, "James Bond and Han Solo walk into a saloon..."  But I actually enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.  I should probably mention that leading up to the film's release, every time I saw the trailer in a theater I looked around to make sure I wasn't hallucinating and that the film really existed.

All in all the movies and the company cured me of my bad dreams. :)

Awesome August : Day 6

Today I went to see Captain America with my Dad, my Stepmom, Bear, and Boyfriend.  It's crazy, but I swear I haven't been to the cinema with my Dad since we saw Blues Brothers 2000!  My Dad is always amusing when we are out and about: today, when getting the movie tickets, he told the guy he needed tickets for "four adults that act like children."

I really enjoyed Captain America.  I loved the aesthetic of the film – it was visually beautiful and it wasn't too campy or overly patriotic. And I loved the references to all of the other films leading up to The Avengers (especially the quick glimpse of my new crush, Loki, after the credits).

If the film had a fault, however, it was not enough Stanley Tucci.  Of course, I generally think that one cannot have too much Stanley Tucci... And this is probably just me, but I felt like half of Hugo Weaving's lines were just the same ones he said during The Counsel of Elrond in The Fellowship of the Ring, except with a German accent and a World War II twist.  Oh, I totally thought that Dr. Arnim Zola looked like Lionel Twain from Murder By Death (is that too obscure of a reference?), then I found out that Toby Jones actually played Truman Capote...

All in all it was a good movie with good company.  Happy Saturday!

A Philadelphia Wedding

Kim & Evan Morris

It's a story that starts with my cousin calling me about a year ago, in which a game of phone tag ensued where we both left long, rambley, mostly insulting messages on each other voice-mail: his asking if I was knocked-up and/or on drugs; mine hoping that he wasn't in jail and wasting his one phone call because eff family obligation, I wasn't going to drive to L.A. to bail him out.  Eventually I found out he had proposed to girlfriend.

I was immediately excited.  I have always liked Kim, my Cousin Evan's girlfriend.  This isn't the best story of me, but the first time I met Kim, we had all gone out to a bar where my cousin (un)fortunately knew the bartender.  36 Sea Breezes later (I might be exaggerating that number), Kim sat with me in the bathroom as I puked purple.  I think Wayne Campbell said it best: "If you blow chunks and she comes back, she's yours. But if you spew and she bolts, then it was never meant to be."  Of course, in this case "yours" means Evan's. 

The wedding was outside of Philly, near where Kim grew up.  We stayed at The Joseph Ambler Inn, where our whole side of the family was in one building so we wouldn't disturb any other guests while we post-reception partied until 3:30am.  It was such a cute place and, oh my god, the bath tub in the room was to die for.  I was expecting it to be in the middle of nowhere, but it was actually in populated place.  And the ceremony and reception were at a nearby country club.  It was all so beautiful.

One thing you should know about my family is that we take our Weddings seriously.  The party started on Thursday night.  While the Wedding Party had their Rehearsal dinner, the Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins hung out in the tavern (the Wedding Party joined us later, of course, for more drinks).  The Wedding was on Friday night and we started the Reception around 6pm at the country club and, as I mentioned, continued back at the Inn.  There was a lot of drinks, dancing, and fist pumping (for some reason). 

I had the change to dance with one of Evan's friends, Raven, who I had met years before while helping Evan move from an apartment in Berkeley.  Raven's wife couldn't make the wedding and Boyfriend wasn't there, so we were each others dance partners for part of the night. I don't know if I've ever had such a good dance partner.

I immediately text Boyfriend:

Me: One of Evan's married friends, whose wife couldn't make it, slow danced with me. He dipped me! We need to take dance lessons.

Boyfriend: Yes. I'm down for that.

Me: Keeper.

Boyfriend: I like how you mentioned he was married. Otherwise I'd have to kill him.

And if that wasn't enough of a celebration Saturday was Sports Day.  We had a Frisbee Golf Tournament (the wedding favors were screen printed frisbees!), a Croquet Tournament, and a game of Ultimate Frisbee.  And Yours Truly won the Croquet Tournament!  I might have won mostly due to lucky shots and gravity, but don't tell anyone... And I may have held my mallet up in the air and yelled "Croquet!" when I won... It's a classy game.

 It was such an amazing weekend.  We rounded out the festivities with a tour of Historical Philly.  And that's a story that ends with my Uncle handing my 12-year-old cousin a paper map of downtown Philly and assuring us that if we follow him, we'll have no problem getting out of the city – and no, we aren't taking the same route we took to get in; this is a new, better one.  Evidently, he did not trust my iPhone's ability to provide accurate directions. 

My mom and my Sister couldn't make it, so I was representing my branch of the family.  It's a shame because it was so good to see family I hadn't seen in years, and I know they would have had a blast.  I always have fun with my family, but these special events seem to seem to radiate fun.  The silver lining was that I got to spend some sister-esque time with my 15-year-old cousin.

Since Evan is my only older cousin, my Aunt, his mom, spent no time in reminding me that I should be next to get married...  Of course, Evan's wedding was so awesome that if I am next, I have a ton of ideas that I might borrow for my own!

Cousins! Conor, Me, Evan.  Perhaps I should photoshop Bear into this..

Coming soon: hopefully a post about the amazing dress I wore to the wedding, but more importantly, a recap of my trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

EndlessEmails : Drunk Driving?

My family is ridiculous. And I love them to death.

Every now and then I get the most amazing piece of correspondence from one or more of them. Usually they are in the form of emails or text messages. Whenever I get one of these, I just feel like I have to share it with the world – not because I want to make fun of the family member who sent it, but because they make me laugh and love them even more.

So, I proudly present my new feature: EndlessEmails!

When: New Year's Eve

Sender: My Mom (aka The Queen)

Note The complete lack of a body except for her default email signature.