7th

With 6th grade down, next up is the almight 7th grade at Black Mountain! After exploring my yearbook one thing is clear...apparently I started becoming friends with boys. Or at least I let them sign my yearbook. The yearbook class apparently decided that 11 year olds weren't interested in current events because there are none listed. Instead they chose to go with the more tween friendly "favorites" page. From 1990-91, our favorite TV show was "In Living Color", favorite movie was "Ghost", favorite song was "Ice Ice Baby", favorite singer was MC Hammer, favorite actors were Bart Simpson and Alyssa Milano, and favorite clothing brand was Guess. The most amazing part of this yearbook is a page called "The Ultimate Image" which is about the fashion of the day. Apparently "with overall straps up or down, airbrushed or plain, they still look good no matter what." And "whether it's shorts, shirts, or pants, floral prints come in any sort of clothing." Damn straight. I still remember my floral denim jean shorts.

And now some really quality yearbook signatures...

"You are pretty nice except when you make fun of me." from Colin. Don't think badly of me. I'm pretty sure that's sarcasm.

"Well, I guess this long year wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." from Stacey. She seems just as optimistic, even now. :-)

"I had fun copying off of you. Thanks. TRICK!" from Danny M. I don't think he was "tricking".

"Have a great summer. You write good." from John L. I did write good.

"Have a good summer. Give your brain a rest." from Darin. Okay, I'm beginning to see a pattern of dorky nerdiness.

"Have a very nifty summer. Hate Mrs. Suarez." from Sean. There are a lot of messages referring to our not-awesome 7th grade teacher.

"Have a holsum summer." from Steve H. Proving that while Steve was a TOTAL nerd, he wasn't a smart nerd. Sad.

"Have fun this summer and next year. Don't get a geeky teacher." from Chachi. And now he is the geeky teacher. Irony.

"Stay sweet, nice, wonderful, beautiful, weird, and crazy." from sugaryabuse. I guess she was trying to expand on the "great" adjective she overused in the 6th grade.

"It's been great knowing you!" from t. Sounds like she was trying to give me the kiss-off but little did she know I'd stick around another 17 years!!

BFF, Stay Sweet, KIT

Recently my mom finally decided to hand over the boxes and boxes of old stuff she'd been storing for me. The deal was always that she would store her kids' old stuff (books, yearbooks, memorabilia, photos, etc.) until we had a "place" for them. Turns out that buying a house qualifies. So in my vast free time due to unemployment, I started to go through everything and actually put stuff away. My mom is so awesome. She had saved every single school yearbook I ever got. From kindergarten through college. They are amazing. I wish I had time to scan some photos from the earlier ones but I'm too lazy. Besides, the best part is all of the notes and signatures from friends. It's a treasure trove of amazing blog topics. Maybe I'll randomly pull one each day and do a post. First up...

6th GRADE
My Black Mountain yearbook tells me that in 1989-1990 Pete Rose was banned from baseball, the Berlin Wall fell, there was an Alaskan oil spill, and a major earthquake in San Francisco. I don't remember talking about any of that in school. But I do remember most of my friends who signed my yearbook.

You have been sweet for the amount of time I have known you. Don't change." - from Genevieve. Oh Genevieve. If you only knew how much I have changed, despite your warning.

"Stay fresh!" - Ewww...is that good? from some girl I don't know named Leia

"You're a great, great, great, great, great friend. See you next year man." - From the famous sugaryabuse. I thought she liked me in 6th grade but the 5 "greats" seem sort of superficial.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to know you better but, from what I know, you're a really sweet person." - from Beulah - Ha! she didn't know me at all if she thought I was a sweet person.

"Thanks for being my friend this year by not calling me names." - from Lisette. Awww...that one kind of makes me sad. I'm glad I never called anyone names. To their face.

The most mature and best vocabulary award obviously goes to t who wrote - "I love your sense of humor so don't lose it! And your very smart so I'm sure you'll have fun over the summer." I obviously forgave her incorrect use of "your" and continued to be friends with her.

SLO

Spent the weekend in San Luis Obispo with the incomparable t and her lovely family. A few observations...

1. t's neighborhood is just like Pleasantville complete with a community park, perfectly manicured lawns, and brand new houses that all vaguely look familiar and alike.

2. College kids are young. Like a full decade younger than me. Dammit.

3. My favorite person was t's fellow english professor friend who said she thought I was a student. Sweet. I know she was lying but on the brink of 30 years old, that feels good.

4. People wear cowboy hats and boots in parts of California. For real.

5. The best brie i've ever had in my life is not in France or Italy...It's in Paso Robles.

6. "Down low" is a "funny word" apparently. At least to 20 month olds.

7. SLO clearly does not respect movies or the work I dedicate my life to. The local movie theater started our film at least 15 minutes late. What the hell?

8. This is a seriously cute kid. Like one of the cutest in the world. He was a bit wary of the camera though.

Best. Gift. EVER.

I was lucky enough to recently get this awesome gift from the blogger formerly known as speakmemory. I think it's pretty sweet. I'm going to use it as a litmus test for people to see if I should be friends with them.

stevin wedding

As previously promised, here are some pictures from last weekend's festivities in Santa Barbara and Los Olivos. One of the PQ Posse's own got married in a gorgeous ceremony to a guy we sort of have grown to love.

Before their love could be sealed by God though, there had to be a bar night. A dangerous move but it worked out. Maybe even a smart move because after the gallons of alcohol that everyone drank at the bar, by the time the wedding rolled around, I didn't have a single drink. The bar was trouble to begin with because Marah was there and she's quite a bad influence....


Then somewhere along the way this happened...


Good times were had by all...


That is, until the hiccups set in. There's nothing worse than having the hiccups when you are drunk. Of course, everyone had advice...


And when that didn't work, I was told plugging your left ear would...


Sadly, my hazy state that night doesn't allow me to remember which method actually worked. But it did work and I was happy. Happy until the groom punched me out of course...


At the time I didn't suspect that I would have a hangover the next morning (I did) but, looking back, this picture (taken 5 minutes before closing) really says it all...


The day of the wedding I put on my Team Bride bedazzled tank and went at it. And, really, if you've never worn a hot pink bedazzled tank top, you haven't lived...


The setting was gorgeous...


...and the PQ Posse was in full effect...


But the real stars were the gorgeous bride and groom...


Well, if you don't count Simon and his family...


You could sort of say that the "friend crowd" made a scene...


...but with sexiness like this, can you blame us?


The night was such a success that somebody passed out in the hotel while holding a half-eaten ice cream cone that had been shoplifted earlier....


Well done, Stevin. Well done.

Vegas bachelorette weekend

Have you been to Vegas recently? Have you? Because it's out of control. Seriously. That city must RAKE in the cash because every single hotel is packed. Really packed. Plus, when an orange juice costs $7.50 and a margarita is $16 bucks, you know someone is making a lot of money. ("16 dollars." "Oh, 8 dollars each? That's great!" "No, 16 bucks a piece." "Shit.")

Six of us leaving from LA piled into the party van and headed for Vegas. I added a few special touches to my mom's van to update it a bit...



With a flying flag, decals like "DANGER! Girls on the Loose!", caution tape that read "Caution! Wild girls!", and pink bumper streamers that read "Hot to Trot", the van got a bit of attention on the freeway. There were some amazing looks and finger gestures that I won't discuss because I'm a lady.

After our arrival at the Bellagio we hit the pool and then hit the gelato place. (Gelato trip #1) Both were excellent. Then it was time for dinner and I'm sure the town didn't know what to expect when this group hit the streets...



That's one sexy group of girls. Of course, the PQ Posse tried to capture our sexiness on film but I'm not sure we suceeded.



The bride-to-be clearly equates surprise and outrage with sexy which may mean that I have some questions for Fatso.

Our new best friend Jumanji at the Bellagio not only provided Stacey with a magnum condom, but he also ushered us into "Light" - the nightclub at the hotel. Once we were past the red velvet ropes and bouncer with an ear piece, we took a long escalator up to the club because I guess that's how cool people like to roll...at a high altitude. (Someone fact check this for me please).



The club was nice enough to have great music, strobe lights, bubbles, and stripper poles waiting for us. You don't get the pole dance pictures because you weren't there. But there were some amazing dances. I believe I took about 50 photos on the dance floor in what I like to call my "snap pictures while dancing and drinking" style. I'm also into self portraits and some of them actually came out. Don't know how my arms are so long...



The DJ at the club was actually awesome and everyone was immediately dancing. After a few pre-drinks at the bar, I was feeling it. Did I mention there were good songs?



Don't let that picture fool you. Carolyn really loves my singing.

You know who else loves singing? Well, loves everything in general judging by this picture. Stacey. Our very own bachelorette.



A good time was had by all. That's all I'm pretty much trying to say. Sure, the next morning brought a hangover for me but it was totally worth it. In retrospect, it was probably that last drink that I didn't want but that I had to chug to try to get rid of my hiccups. (FYI, I failed). Looking through my pictures in the morning I figured out that maybe I actually was drunk the night before. Otherwise, there would be NO rational explanation for this.



I was really feeling that song. Thank you Vegas.

baby, baby

Congrats to speakmemory and husband who are now the proud parents of a baby boy. They will make the best mom and dad. I can't wait to see it....

happy birthday soikatron

See that hot piece of man meat in the center? Yeah, that guy is 29 today. In that picture I believe he was about 17. And wearing a wig of course. But I can't talk, pretty much everyone in that picture looks much better now. (with the exception of Rishi of course who sadly has since dropped his knee-high athletic sock look.)

Happy Birthday Soiks!

pregnant ladies

That was apparently the theme of the weekend. speakmemory was in town and, apparently much to some people's disappointment, she wasn't all bloated and fat. In fact, I'd say she was downright cute and looked totally the same but with a little round belly. The baby shower was an afternoon tea at a tea house and it was quite lovely. I don't think I'd ever experienced a real formal tea but I would highly recommend it. Every course was more delicious than the next and I probably drank about 10 cups of tea. The mound of presents was overwhelming but Taryn managed to handle it and, all in all, made out quite well.

Later that night there was a co-ed sushi outing and, let me tell you, I've found my new favorite San Diego sushi restaurant. Absolutely delicious. As usual, I wanted to bring the party (ha!) so I ended up having a few sakes. Some may say that I was drunk. I would not. Regardless, I was having a good time when we made the shift to the wine bar down the street. I was hoping to have many adorable tea party shower pictures but all I ended up with was this ridiculous picture from the wine bar. Actually, there were a few more pictures from the bar but nothing anyone needs to see.



I miss my friend. All of you in Madison should be grateful that you have her in your midst. I believe at one point during the evening I told her that I was disappointed that she was still exactly the same because I was looking forward to having a new friend. Alright, after typing that, I may have to admit that I was, in fact, quite drunk that night.

how to stare at me and make me feel lame.
brought to you by the birthday girl

happy birthday to speakmemory!!!

party like it's 1996

this weekend was my glorious 10 year high school reunion and it was a doozy. i had pictured a more sedate sit-down affair where people chatted and caught up with one another and tried to make it sound like they had awesome lives. boy, was i wrong. there was no time for any of that because it was a loud drunken dancing brawl. lots of drinks, lots of hugs, lots of "HI!!!", and then moving on. good times. i recommend it to everyone. and now, a pictorial.

SOBER...OKAY, WELL...TIPSY.


THREE DRINKS IN.


WISHING MY HUSBAND A HAPPY ANNIVERSARY.


DRUNK.


DELUSIONAL, "DANCING", AND PROBABLY CONSIDERED HAMMERED.

*please note the two-fisting being done by my compatriot.*

the t. dawg collection

don't be jealous, but check out the sweet knitting skills on our own speakmemory. she hammered out these lovely pieces while i was in madison. i think "house" episodes increase the speed of her knitting but i think she'd do okay without them too. make sure to put in your orders soon because she will sell-out at a rapid pace.



*

*toilet not included

Lessons from the Heartland, part 2:
A Pictoral of People, Places, and Things

I am so glad I got to visit Madison just for the fact that I got to meet all of Taryn's friends. I have heard so much about everyone and have read numerous blogs so this was quite an eye-opening experience. So shout outs to gwen and thom, tim and kim, mitch and jessica, andrea and will, brian williams, becca and john, marcel, greg, sydney, etc. It was so great meeting you all! And now, some photographic evidence...

remember those crosswalk flags i was talking about? here they are and here is taryn caught in the act. doesn't it look cool when she does it?


the weather varied while i was there but i could tell spring was on the way...


lots of our time was spent in coffee shops which is really just perfection to me. taryn got a bit camera-shy though...


don't know what HALO night is? check it and be jealous.


of course, there's the little matter of cheese. there's lots of it. great nachos gwen!!


speaking of gwen, i can only assume that she's got those crazy eyes because she's thinking about how excited she is to watch christian bale in "newsies":


note to everyone who doubted taryn's diverse wardrobe...

she wears orange and green!! yay!!

this is a very unfortunate statue next to the stadium. i believe it is a penis made out of footballs. and now that i see that phrase in print, i think i know what to get myself and my husband for valentine's day.


ever wonder what the living room of two literature phD students looks like?


there was a brief "Hey Ya" incident in the love machine van which i will not apologize for...


and of course there was laser boy. the bar we were at had DJ Harsh spinning some sweet club beats and this particular member of the persian mafia thought he was at a rave. this is when we first noticed him:

sadly, i didn't get a shot of his laser lights (not glow sticks) but they were bright.
after many many rum and cokes i thought it would be an AWESOME idea to get his attention and have him come over. he took some lovely pics of the table... please note mitch's absolute embarassment and disgust at my actions :)


the best by far though was when i encouraged laser boy to dance with taryn. i still don't regret the decision.


all in all it was a fabulous trip and i can't wait to go back...if only for the cheese curds. until then, thanks for a great time madison!