Flying Solo

I went to high school with a girl named Blaire. For as long as I've known her, Blaire has been filming her life. She's a fascinating person; outspoken, confident, creative, and one of my good friends.

A few months ago, Blaire submitted a short video summary of herself and her life for a Procter and Gamble contest to star in your own first-person realitytv show. This absolutely screamed Blaire's name. Sure enough, she won the thing, and after a summer of submitting footage of her daily life and thoughts, the final edited result(s) were picked up by Lifetime television. (!!)

You can find out more about it by clicking here, and if you watch Episode 2 Part 2, you may see a familiar face (aka ME!)

Make it new

Today:

1) My first Bat Mitzvah

2) Home photoshoot to produce variation on Thursday's post



Which means:
Tomorrow (or, more likely Monday or Tuesday), I will have a couple interesting things to post about. !!

I want to do this again...

but a variation on the same sort of thing....any ideas?

I love my Moleskines

Little shout out to my gal pal Sonya who surprised me with a set of three Moleskine notebooks for my birthday.
If you're not familiar with Moleskines, you're missing out; these notebooks are beautiful. With bound oilcloth covers, thread bound bindings, and Italian acid-free pages, there's not much to be left wanting.

Here's a few people of note who also appreciate Moleskines:
Ernest Hemingway
Vincent Van Gogh
Andre Breton
Henri Matisse
Pablo Picasso

and some fictional characters,
like the guy Will Ferrell plays in Stranger Than Fiction, and
Amelie, in my favorite movie, Amelie.


Thanks again Sonya!!

No one

should have to feel guilty for pursuing the career/relationship/fill-in-the-blank that would make them happiest.

Sometimes I feel completely alone in not focusing on a potential income when thinking of my ideal career. Even more alone in not thinking about a potential mate's potential income when pursuing a relationship.

Money.
Expectations.
Pressure.

I need [another] vacation.

Who came up with the spelling for 'Wednesday,' anyway?

I've been working a lot of mornings at Peet's lately, and I've also recently been hooked on making chocolate protein shakes in the morning. Well, I'm usually in too much of a rush to sit and drink it at home, so I pour it in a to go cup and hit the road. This was all fine and dandy until our plain white plastic cups ran out and were replenished by red Dixie cups, the universal kegger party cup. So now, driving to work at 6 or 7 or 8 am (depending when my shift begins), I am super self conscious about drinking from a red cup.

A few days ago at work a regular came in and I started making his usual large nonfat vanilla latte. Then he asks me, "You'll put extra love in it?" And I say, "Always."
I have no idea what he's talking about. So I add an extra pump of vanilla.
Well he comes in today and I'm making his drink and he asks me the same thing again. This time I say, "Of course- do you even need to ask?" (We have a sort of playful, joking customer-barista relationship). Then he says, "Well last time, there wasn't a lot of love." Come to find out he means foam. FOAM. He wants it foamy. So order it foamy! Crikey.

This morning I pulled out of my garage and saw one of my neighbors, a middle aged guy, in a tank top and [presumably] pj shorts, not sitting, but squatting outside his garage. There he was, with the garage door open behind him, just squatting and sipping [presumably] coffee from a mug. Looking at the ground- thinking, I suppose.
Well I came home from an 8 hour day this afternoon circa 3 pm, and there he was! Not in his tank and pj shorts, but a t-shirt and denim shorts, squatting. Always squatting.

I made dinner with my boyfriend's mom last night, and now have quite an affinity with chicken/brocoli/cheddar casseroles.

Shannon gave me a pack of polaroid film for my birthday. Since it's become so expensive as of late, I'm thinking I'll save it for my trip to Seattle next month.

my birthday in pictures

So I pretty much had a whole BIRTHDAY WEEKEND. My actual birthday was on Saturday, but it started Friday night when I went to dinner at CPK with a group of good girlfriends I went to high school with.

We are definitely a fun and diverse group of friends
Monica, me, Dayna, Samira, and Lindsey

And then there was a whole series of pictures involving me, trying to take a "I'm blowing out my birthday candle" picture. Except the flash wasn't on, but Lindsey kept shooting pictures anyway...




and finally,

me and Dayna, the one who will be a person to know in the fashion world in only a matter of time...

...also it was Dayna who gave me a FEATHER QUILL and INK, probably my favorite present this year.

Funny attempt at a picture from the fourth floor of the parking structure looking down at Dayna, Samira, and Lindsey.

SATURDAY (the 'real' birthday)
Breakfast at Mimi's cafe with my pops:

I was hoping my good friend Alyssa, who I've known since high school, and who is a server at mimi's, would be working-- and she was! What a treat!

I spent most of the day helping Melissa move into her new apartment
John, Melissa, Jono, Simone, me, and Megan...sorry megan, shoulda put my arm around you or something; I'm now noticing how cozy everyone else was

For dinner, a group of us went to the Irvine Spectrum PF Chang's (I love that place) for dinner.
apparently my friends need some assistance when it comes to photo feng shui....notice the awkward huddle in our first attempt:

and take two:
Frankie, Melissa, me, Simone, Jono, and Chris

Frankie and Danielle and their cute matchy matchiness

me and Jessica, one of my high school friends who I've been hanging out with a lot as of late

me and Melissa, my dear friend, in her new apartment, wearing the JESUS RESERVED MYSPACE IN HEAVEN shirt her coworker gave her...!




I also had birthday lunch with my best bud Shannon today at the Gypsy Den in Costa Mesa, but we didn't take any pictures! how is this possible? :-/

Also...
Jordan, I wish you were here
Carrie, I'm sorry you were/are sick
Tita, you're missed!

22 things (more or less) while i was 22

Today was my birthday (I'll post later with pictures from the day), and I thought it would be fun to make a list of interesting things that happened during the past year.

So, in no particular or chronological order:

europe trip in august!
beirut show in may at the wiltern
radiohead show in august at the hollywood bowl
bon iver at the troubadour in august
emily, my best friend got married in march
two seattle visits (here's one)
two blythe destinations (blythe, CA & blythe hill park in london)
two sets of seattle visitors (here's one)
graduated
started the comic blog
learned to 'use' a sewing machine
took the GRE
got a polaroid camera
photo adventures galore (here's one)
bike crash
hawaii
wall.e
jordan's transition from friend to boyfriend <3
slight pay increase at peet's
got a sea world pass
got a disneyland pass for the first time in a few years

I think it goes without saying that
it has been a very good year for me.

postcards from italy

..and england. But I wanted to give a subtle reference to my favorite band Beirut, who have a song with the name that I have titled this post.

Anyway, here are the pictures I took on a cheap disposable camera I bought in Rome. The thing didn't even have a flash on it, and the pictures turned out pretty great! Except I'm 99% sure there were supposed to be 36 pictures on the roll, and I only got 25 prints (even checked the negatives).
Oh, and major shout out to Target for pretty amazing one hour development- and did you know you get $2 off when you're paying for it?? So the $2 photo CD was free, which happens to be my favorite price.

This one's another 'Where's Blythe' picture...pretty tricky




















Also, props to Target for magically inducing me to spend an average of $40 on what I call 'pretty, unnecessary things' every single time I go there. Which is why I try not to go there...I should have known better than to wander for AN HOUR while waiting for my pictures--I left with two pairs of knee highs, one pair of thigh highs (didn't even know those existed till now, and at $5, I had to have themmmmm), and a lovely floral dress.

Eureka!

Whilst cleaning my room last night (an ongoing process), I found an Urban Outfitters gift card in an old purse I haven't used in awhile. Not being one to keep empty gift cards, I immediately got excited that I might have $5-10 on the card. Heck, I'd be happy about $2 even. So I called the number on the back of the card, punch in the 16-digit number below the barcode (by the way, 16 is a lot of digits...I was lucky to get it right the first try), and imagine my delight upon hearing that the card has its full original value of $25!
I'm not sure how this happened; I must have gotten it for Christmas and simply forgotten about it, but now it's like an early-Christmas/birthday present from the Urban Outfitter gods!
I suppose the moral of the story is to be more organized, since I was lucky to find the card before tossing it or the purse with it in it, but for me in my constantly-a-little-cluttered state, the moral is that sometimes when I clean I find presents I didn't know I left myself.

Also,

I miss my best friend



come homeeeee

I like lists

I found this list in the pocket of my apron at work today.
I vaguely remember writing it when it was slow one day; I thought it would be fun to write a "Life to-do list"
Here's what I cam up with:

of course, there are other things I'd like to do in life, like get a good job I love and have a husband and a family, but apparently this list was to list out little goals/thrills for the next few years.

oh, and since I wrote the list I accomplished one of those goals: I broke 300 in Scrabble at least one time....we played a lot of Scrabble in York.

I like to clean my teeth before I go to the dentist

...not to make their job easier, but because I get embarrassed when I have bits of lunch stuck in my teeth.
Also, I don't floss regularly, but I floss every night for a week before my appointment so that my gums don't bleed when they floss my teeth and I can fool them into thinking I do floss regularly.
My least favorite part of going to the dentist is, everything. From scraping to x-rays to polishing to flossing, even leaving, because my mouth always hurts like no other when I leave.
Also, at my appointment today, I had an itch on my face by my eye, and there was nothing I could do about it for like five minutes because there were approximately 3 pieces of dental machinery, two dental workers, and one 'splash guard' (which is really just another name for a pair of cheap flimsy sunglasses that high schoolers might actually wear nowadays because that sort of style is so hot right now) in the way of my finger being able to itch my face.
I usually close my eyes at the dentist, because the view isn't all that great or interesting, and I try to relax a little, if possible. My dentist usually asks 'is everything ok?' and I nod, but today she asked 'How are you doing?' and I couldn't really answer due to everything going on in and around my mouth, so I kind of nodded and made a gargling sound that I immediately regretted but she somehow took to mean 'fine.'
My dentist used to have a funny little plaque on the ceiling that said
I HATE THIS
but she took it down. I'm pretty sure it's partially due to my father advising her that patients shouldn't have to stare at negative phrases during an experience they already don't enjoy. My dentist tried telling him it was meant to be funny, but the next time I had an appointment it was gone.
You know what's awkward? Dentist's chairs. You go and sit down and then it lifts and lowers all at the same time, and you have to kind of scoot upward in order to get your head on the head rest. At least I do. And then you're stretched out like a goose on a platter, and that just feels awkward. Dentist's chairs make me feel vulnerable. And there's no where to put your hands. I put them on my stomach until I realized I was kind of clenching them together. But laying them at my side feels even more vulnerable.

In other news, I also had a blood test today. I'm having all these check ups and tests and things since my dad just told me I'm no longer covered by his insurance starting on my birthday. Thanks for the great gift Blue Shield!
Anyway, blood tests are even lower on my list of things I enjoy doing, and I happen to get really anxious before them. My doctor only ordered one when he found out I might be uninsured for awhile, and I immediately got anxious. I tried to think of anyone who would go with me, because I've only had one done before and I had a friend come hold my hand the whole time. Well, everyone was busy or gone or in school or at work....so I went alone this morning. It actually went ok. But what a terrible job, to be one of those people who draws blood in the room at the back of Long's. Leeches. Vampires. Except I did have a very nice woman who asked me if I've ever been to Blythe, CA. I said
Yes-I-have-but-I'm-not-named-after-that-nothing-town-thank-you-very-much.

Before I go find some dinner, I will add that
I have a cavity, to top it all off.
I blame it on bad genes.
Dang English people and their bad teeth.

where's blythe?

I had this fun little idea on our Europe trip to rip off 'Where's Waldo' (which, by the way, is 'Where's Wally' in England...what the heck)...See if you can find me in the following three pictures. It might be tricky!
By the way: You will definitely need to click on these pictures & enlarge them in orde to see anything!

COLOGNE, GERMANY
hint: lone sitter

LONDON: TRAFALGAR SQUARE
hint: Blythe sandwich

LONDON: STANSTED AIRPORT



I think there's another one from Rome, but it's on the disposable camera...so when I ever manage to develop that..

More pictures from the trip!

This took wayyy longer than I anticipated...so I got a little tired of writing captions. I'll fill it in later. :)

John Wayne airport
RANDY:

ME & JORDAN:

approx 16 hours later...
on the Thames, London!


chillin with Ben

Jordan was feeling the jet lag :-/



Trafalgar Square

Turns out there's a park and street in Southeast London (Lewisham) named after me...

...it's been one of my life goals to go there, ever since I googled my name (don't act like you've never done that) and found out about it.

It was beautiful and spacious, so we frolicked.

We also asked a couple different passerbyers what the name of the park was, just because I wanted to hear my full name spoken in a British accent. And then I wanted to hear it again.
I felt famous.

Apparently Randy felt pretty empowered as well..




Buckingham Palace

Amsterdam!


















Possibly my favorite day in Amsterdam

...the day of teh pedal boat ride

This is when they accidentally matched...and then changed immediately after I took this picture 9and the polaroid, if you recall)

This is my friend Rachael who is studying in Amsterdam and let us stay with her. She also went with us to Belgium and took tons of sweet pictures on her camera since mine was dying.


Little known fact: Dutch people like statues. This square in Amsterdam had a whole army of them.
He stole my gun

Not sure what's happening here


So sweeeeet

In short, we liked Amsterdam

Us, staring in awe at Ghent, Belgium, upon arrival

The alley where graffiti is legal



Staring at the spiders

You can't see them in this picture, but there are TONS of GINORMOUS spiders on that lamp (click it to enlarge and maybe you can)



Me, loving Ghent

One of the only ones of all of us

Then we went on a boat ride

Then we saw this little wonder

I feel like it belongs in a Thomas Kincade painting

and then it bega to rain. No, pour.

but the boat was stocked with colorful umbrellas



and then it got reeeally windy...and that was the end of that umbrella...

then we had a real belgian waffle! With Hazelnut ice cream! It was delicious, and I don't even like waffles! (Notice Jordan's lack of interest in picture-taking at this point)

awww...


the freakishly long looking leg

Just a castle next to our hostel.




to Germany...
"Supreme Hazelnut Hot Chocolate"

Sweet view of the train station from our hostel in Cologne (remarkably quiet at night)

Ohhhh Randy


The only two digital pictures I was able to take in Rome...


...and then my camera battery died. once i get the pictures from the cheap diposable I bought in Rome, I'll scan 'em and upload 'em.