Name it and Claim it!

So, this evening I may have walked 5 miles in the rain just so I could "claim" Kansas as a state. (And so I could have the chance to say, if only to myself, "guess I'm not in Kansas anymore" - I know, lame). It's just that Kansas was so close that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get TWO new states on this trip! Sort of reminds me of the time I went to Mississippi and designed a plan to get myself to Louisiana because it was only 20 miles away...but that's another story for another time.

More later on the authentication process of "claiming" a state and actual proof that I walked to Kansas.

States I've been to: California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Indiana, Illinois, Florida, Hawaii, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, and KANSAS! Not a great showing, but I'm slowly checking all 50 off the list.

What's YOUR favorite state? Anyone out there made it to all 50 yet?

We're Not in Kansas Anymore...

Well actually "we" never really were in Kansas. Tonight I am blogging from Kansas City, Missouri(which is only a handful of miles from Kansas, so it's almost the same thing). I'm here for a conference sponsored by the company that manages our website. As the "web manager" for the University of the Pacific alumni site, I'm hoping it will help me become a more creative and savvy e-marketer.

A few thoughts about Kansas City:

1.It is MUCH greener here than in California. As we made our descent into KC, I was struck by the lush, tree-laden landscape dotted sporadically with picturesque white farm houses. (I realize that was a lot of descriptive adjectives, but it really made an impact on me.)

2. On the shuttle ride from the airport to the hotel I saw the following:
a tornado shelter sign, the headquarters of Lifetouch (yes, the company that has delivered many an embarrasing school photo - most of them to my doorstep); a Waffle House, a Hardee's (exactly like a Carl's Jr, but with a different name!), a fancy brick McDonalds, a Sears "Grand" complete with pharmacy and garden center - much like a Wal-mart; the Missouri River, and a "Snow Route" sign.

3. I can't get the line from the Beach Boys "California Girls" out of my head - the one about "the midwest farmers daughters."

4. As much as I love California and can't imagine living anywhere else, I think the landscape and pace of the midwest suits me. And I think I could pull off the midwestern "girl next door" look much better than I do the quintessential California glamazon/surf chick. Basically the latter requires a tan and we all know that's never gonna happen.

The Happiest Bachelorette Party on Earth!

Last weekend we set out for So Cal to celebrate my sister-in-law Sommer's bachelorette weekend. Sommer, her friend Brittany, and I started out from Stockton a bit later than anticipated because Enterprise wasn't ready with our rental car at the time we requested. Kind of a bummer, but as a huge bonus they ended up bringing us a brand new PT Cruiser straight from the dealership only 12 miles on the odometer! We christened him "Petey" and used some of our endless supply of colored polka dot ribbon to accentuate the antenna and we were off!



We made great time and took a small detour in BUTTONWILLOW for a Starbucks break. (And yes, Buttonwillow does hold a great many memories for me and I DO think the name is funny!)



We made it to Burbank just in time to pick up Sommer's friend Jen who flew down from Reno and head to the Tropicana Hotel in Anaheim (right across the street from D*land). After settling in we decided to check out the "night life" in Downtown Disney. The Voodoo Lounge at the House of Blues had a DJ (DJ Cheetah Pete to be exact), but there wasn't a lot of excitement to be had, except for one brave (?) guy skipping around the dance floor by himself. We stayed until closing (midnight - apparently Disney doesn't like a lot of drunk people hanging around late into the night) and then made our way across the street to the 24-hour Denny's.



Day 2 started out early as we headed out for some coffee and pastries and then into the happiest place on earth! I made us all shirts for the occasion and we bought Sommer bridal minnie mouse ears so she was appropriately outfitted for a bachelorette experience in Disneyland.



We drew a decent amount of attention and Sommer even won herself some "bridal discounts" throughout the day. We stopped at a Wild West show in Frontierland and the actors actually inserted us into the dialogue. A cross-dressing bride was searching for a husband and warned Sommer not to steal "her" thunder or she'd take us all on. I'm not certain, but I don't think my maid of honor duties extend to taking on another "woman" in a cat fight, but maybe they should...



Sommer's soon-to-be sister-in-law Jenell joined us at the park and we had a super fun day at D*Land. The crowds were pretty low for a summer Saturday and the lines weren't incredibly long. We enjoyed the requisite favorites like Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, the teacups, and the Matterhorn.



After a short nap break in the afternoon we headed back to enjoy dinner at the Blue Bayou (you may know it as the Pirates of the Caribbean restaurant). None of us had been there, so it was a great new experience. Jenell treated us to dinner - WAY AWESOME OF HER - and then we left to enjoy more rides and the fireworks show.



After we'd done enough damage at Disneyland we headed back to the hotel so Sommer could open up her gifts (what's a bachelorette party without fun presents!) and enjoyed some delicious wine that Jenell picked up on her trip to San Luis Obispo a few days earlier. (No pictures to share of this event - we'll keep those for the happy couple to enjoy!)

On Sunday we got up early and headed for the last stop of Bachelorette weekend - Hollywood! Again, we had to make a Starbucks detour, many of us learned the awesomeness of Google text in the process, and then had a nice police officer remind us (without actually pulling us over) that the speed limit on the 101N is 55 MPH, not 65 as we presumed. Oops!

Once in Hollywood we boarded a double-decker tour bus for a tour. We whizzed by the Hollywood sign a few times, several movie studios, the church from Sister Act, a cemetery with a bunch of dead famous people, and some ritzy celebrity neighborhoods. Sommer decided we need to go back and check out some of the hotspots a little more carefully. Sadly, we passed by a Pinkberry store, but didn't have time to add that to our itinerary.




Back on land we took some celebrity star and handprint photos in front of the Kodak Theater and Graumann's Chinese Theater. We also braved a photo opportunity with some of Hollywood Blvd's famous costumed characters. Here's Sommer being attacked by the slimy tentacles of Davy Jones (not the Monkee).



After returning Jen to the Burbank Airport and securing Jenell with her friend at a nearby shopping center; Sommer, Britt, and I headed for Stockton. We had an un-eventful ride home, and put over 750 miles on our new PT Cruiser friend. Note to self: PT Cruisers are cute and fun, but comfort is not one of their selling points.

La la la la la la la la la la laaaaaa

First the Fraggles, now the Smurfs! It's like my 80's childhood dream come true!

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b141940_smurfs_prepare_comeback_tour.html

What was your favorite kid's show?

It's My Birthday!!!

Today is my birthday!

Other fabulous folks who share a June 8th birthday:

Comedian Jerry Stiller
Joan Rivers
Former First Lady Barbara Bush
Bonnie Tyler (singer of 80's hit, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" - see below)
Kanye West
Dilbert Creator Scott Adams
Jamie Petersen Stavenger, all around fabulous person
Mark Duckworth, a pretty swell guy

"I don't want Garbage, I want Sprinkles."

Nancy bought me this shirt for my birthday, along with many other super fun gifts - including a fun new pink and black Adidas bag and a renewed subscription to EW. Love it! But this shirt, this shirt is the ultimate! If you don't watch The Office you won't get it. And if you do, then you will appreciate the greatness of the shirt. Nance, thanks for being my friend for 15 years, even when I brushed hair on your desk in geometry. Love you! :)

45 More Days...

Better get serious with the gym. 45 days until THIS!

Showering Sommer

I just finished putting together the second of two bridal showers for my sister-in-law Sommer. It was a lot of work, but it was a ton of fun coming up with ideas AND it allowed me to rediscover my crafty side!

I was particularly proud of the favors. Sommer is one of the cutest girls you will ever meet and some of her favorite things are pink and sparkly (or maybe those are my favorite things and I just projected those "likes" onto her!) One of my pet peeves about favors is that they usually cost a lot of money and aren't very useful. How many of you have taken home a favor and forgotten about it, or worse yet, taken it home and thrown it away. I figured if I was going to spend money on something it should either be fun and useful or, at the very least, edible. I opted for fun - bordering on useful. Since this shower was for a lot of teenage and twenty-something young women, I had license to be creative and fun in a *young* way. I hit up the dollar section at Target and picked up 35 tubes of lip gloss in both a sparkly clear color and pink. I decorated each bottle with polka dot ribbon and created mailing labels that read "Som Gloss" to personalize each tube. The result, a fun, personalized shower favor that everyone (I think) was excited to put in their purse and take home with them.



Regardless of their usefulness, I thought they were fun and I was pretty proud of them! And, I must add, when planning a pink and brown baby/wedding shower, one can never use too much skinny or wide brown polka dot ribbon. Altogether I have probably burned through about 20 rolls of the stuff. I even had one bridesmaid dreaming about it! I'm a total maid-zilla!



All of Sommer's bridesmaids were extremely helpful in the execution of the shower! We couldn't have pulled it together without their help! And thank goodness they are all so photogenic!

Dreaming ...

July can't come fast enough! This is what I am looking forward to in about 55 days!


The Waipouli Resort in Kapaa, Kauai

Getting By On Grace

I tend to write a lot of spiritual, introspective blogs in my head and that's about as far as they go. But I've been feeling compelled to get some of these feelings out in the open, so here we go...In the last few months I have become paralyzed by a fear of failure. I chalk it up to a combination of feeling inadequate in my statistics class last semester and the presence of new people in my life who are actually more Type A than I am when it comes to certain things. (I say "certain things," because if you know me, then you'll understand that I can be completely neurotic when it comes to something like getting the best grades, but then be a total free spirit when it comes to how often I do the laundry or clean the windows - so maybe I'm more of a Type A-.) Justin used to tell me my weird competitive drive stemmed from the fact that I never played organized sports as a child. (I contend that bowling is in fact an organized sport.) I noticed that when I started running a couple of years ago that some of that competitive drive was unleashed in a more appropriate direction, so maybe Justin's on to something with that theory of his. But, unfortunately that pursuit has gone by the wayside since I started juggling the work/school/home life trifecta, and my weirdly misdirected competitive drive has returned. This time coupled with high anxiety and a fear of coming up short in the eyes of my professors, my colleagues, my friends, my family, etc.

I gained a new perspective on this whole thing yesterday at church. (As an aside, "the church" and I have had a weird relationship for several months, so this was an unexpected surprise for me.) The guest speaker talked about a really simple concept - simple at least to a person who has grown up in church and feels like they have "heard it all before" - the concept of Grace. The whole point of grace is that the person on the receiving end has done nothing to deserve it. It isn't something you can earn by being the best at something, getting the highest grade, or being the perfect employee. Grace is a gift that is given freely because of God's love for us. The beauty of it is that while there is nothing we can do to earn grace, there is also nothing we can do to lose it. So, while there is something to be said for the earthly rewards that come with getting good grades and being a successful employee, I shouldn't fear failure because God's grace is sufficient enough to get me through anything and, for the lack of a better, more spiritual explanation - grace means that God's got my back. And with Him, failure isn't even a possibility, let alone an option.

Down at Fraggle Rock!

I just read the following at perezhilton.com.

"The Weinstein Co. is going to turn Fraggle Rock into a live-action musical movie!

A new generation will get to dance their cares away and worry another day.
According to Variety, just like the series, the film will be populated by a mix of human characters and Fraggle Rock puppets. The pic will take the core characters Gogo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red outside of their home in Fraggle Rock, where they interact with humans, which they think are aliens. "

So exciting! As long as they don't dumb it down or ruin it with fart jokes or drug references like so many other live action remakes. Make Jim Henson proud!

Happy Friday!

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