27 weddings

i received a new wedding invitation yesterday, which i am reallly excited about attending in january. it will be added to my pre-existing wedding itinerary, which was the bachelorette in LA in july and the wedding in TX that just happened this past weekend, cathy's bachelorette party in SC in three weeks, my housemate's wedding in december in FL, then this new wedding in january, and then cathy's wedding in LA in april. i have an invite to another in LA in early november that i think i will have to decline because it's so far geographically but so close chronistically to thanksgiving. naturally, i spent this evening watching '27 dresses' because i hear that's relevant. there was a part of the movie when i was mentally screaming to myself, THAT'S ME THAT'S ME, and just at that moment was when the movie music cued VALERIE by amy winehouse.

charleston

just bought my flight to cathy's bachelorette party. why are flights so $$$? i can feel myself just entering the phase of life where i'll be endlessly jetsetting to weddings and wedding-related events for the next 8 years or so

tour guide

cathy and willy were in orlando this past weekend celebrating their fifth anniversary of dating. i met up with them yesterday for a fun-filled day crammed with as much of the entertainment florida has to offer as possible. we started off the morning with a trip to lake eola in downtown, where we ambled through the farmer's market and took pictures with swans by the lake shore. afterwards, we went to gatorland, where we saw probably thousands of alligators and were perched upon by parakeets and saw wild egrets rotate their three blue eggs in their nests. then it was off to disney, where we first stopped at animal kingdom and watched the lion king show and looked at baby gorillas and animatronic dinosaurs. then we went to epcot and rode the agriculture ride and the weird dinosaur ride and walked around the entire world showcase. then the day wasn't over yet because we still had to go to hoop dee doo for a wild western dinner of unlimited ribs, fried chicken, cornbread, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, beans, corn, strawberry shortcake, sangria, and beer. after that i delivered my lovebirds back to their hotel and then took myself home to the swamp. i don't think i've ever done so much in a day.

birthday weeks

birthday with bagel: osteria mamma and harvard and stone
birthday party in la: masa and prince with lmo, lc, kat, rj, katya, john, bagel, candy, khenkel, cathy, max, steph, willis
birthday with family: belmont brewing co. with ma, pa, cliff, rosie, char, bagel
birthday day: st. felix with khenkel, cody
birthday party in ny: mominette, pine box and tandem with cerrito, aijia, rothy, sslover, sam, jay, vanessa, mike, dan, cvc, moe, weaver, colin
birthday tsukerma: is today! sushi, ice skating and more with mrs. tuckersman

what if instead of 26-year-old me at my birthday parties 10-year-old me and 16-year-old me were present instead? 

keepies

Now that the Christmas and New Year's holidays are over, I've been trying to catch up with all of my home friends. I'm happy that I've kept the best people I could find from every experience I've had.

1/4 : Downtown Disney with my best friends from high school, Lc, Lmo, Kat. We had dinner at Rainforest Cafe because I insisted on it, and the food was terrible. We had drinks at Trader Sam's and Lmo had a gigantic spear of rosemary in her Mele kaliki-mocha.

 1/5: Breakfast pancakes with Rhi, the only lifeguard that I still keep in touch with. We went on a road trip to Solvang and Hearst Castle together a few years ago. These are her first chocolate chip pancakes ever and they look very epic. I had buttermilk pancakes and eggs benedict.

 1/5: Khenkel (circa college, freshman year) texted to say that he had a big surprise for me. I assumed he was going to tell me he had gotten engaged, so I brought over a bottle of Moscato. It turned out that the surprise was that he had gotten the guinea pig painting I made professionally framed and had put it up in his living room, and was not engaged. So we drank the bottle of Moscato ourselves and went dancing at Rasputin in WeHo (my first time there - finally).  

1/6: KBBQ with old housemates Miss Tomb, her man, and The Eternal Bachelor in K-town. LOTS of Hite and brisket were had. Miss Thum informs me that donating stem cells would be very painful.

1/8: Delicious Thai food in West LA with my favorite people, Evy and Lili, from my talent agency job. Apparently, working conditions there have not improved.

1/9: Sushi and shabu shabu with steph and cathy, my Expo friends and soon-to-be New Orleans trip friends, at Lotus, a strange sushi/shabu shabu/hookah place, near USC. The first of my birthday celebrations :) I had a Forrest Gump roll. Reason for the name undetermined. 

And lots and lots of time with my mama, of course.

teddy

cathy's mama made me cathy and steph a delicious dinner, including a plate of chicken hearts.

teddy is all white now. cathy says he pulled a michael jackson.

Teddy four months ago

fuzzy feet

last week i told cathy about how it was snowing really hard and she sent me these fuzzy socks in the mail!!

I LOVE THEM! thank you, Cathy!

ktown boiling crab

we waited two hours last night so i could eat shrimp out of a bag

cathy says

Catherine

you're such a grinch

you are

varinch

ourselves we find in the sea

this morning i dreamt that i was walking along the beach with two friends. there were enormous shells washed up along the shoreline, big spiraled things that were well over a foot long and took two hands to pick up and hold. i picked one to keep and later abandoned it for a pink colored one. we walked further and i decided i didn't want to carry it anymore so i dropped it and hit me and hurt my leg. we suddenly had to stop because our path was blockaded by dead tropical fish, including royal blue tangs, lying everywhere, and cathy was paralyzed with fear.

frugal yogis

last night we were supposed to go to a free yoga session and i spent all day sort of worrying about it and how hard it would be, but when we got there it turned out to be a meditation session, which i really enjoyed, and then i ate krispy kreme donuts all the way home in the back of joanne's car.

sassy cathy

from Catherine
to Valerie
date 3. nov. 2010
subject You Left Stuff...

so i was doing a sweep through and you left:

a drawer full of random crap

a habitat shirt

a pair of tights

a bra

what to do with them??