Jim and Pam Forever

New episodes of The Office start on September 25th!

Back to School

A new school year is starting today for the University of the Pacific, both my alma mater and my employer. As the alumni staff member in charge of student programs, my last few days have been consumed with activities for new students.

On Friday I accompanied a group of students to Pixie Woods for a service project. We weeded and landscaped a small area of the park. It was a million degrees outside, but it was fun working with the students and giving them advice/answers to their Stockton/college life questions. We also took a tour of Stockton via city bus (my first time on the RTD) and pointed out local highlights like Tiger's Yogurt, Chipotle, Lincoln Center, and the downtown movie theater.

Saturday was a packed day. It started with our Alumni Association board meeting and ended at Tiger Nights, the first campus "party" of the new school year. I've been working with some students to start a student/alumni group on campus. We gave out free "I Heart Pacific" stickers and did Tiger Trivia.

Here is the "crew" and I rockin' my latest shirt project (and our stickers) at Tiger Nights. (Devon had to wear her Theta shirt or risk being fined, so we let it slide.) :)

On Sunday, we welcomed the freshmen with the Tiger Roar, a relatively new campus tradition where student leaders, greek houses, the pep band, and alumni surprise the freshmen with fight songs, yelling, and confetti as they exit the new student convocation ceremony. We had a great contingent of alumni volunteers and enjoyed a fun afternoon of welcome. I love being a Tiger. Indeed, I heart Pacific!

Trailer Park

I love, Love, LOVE seeing movies in the theater! And within that experience, my favorite thing is watching the previews. On occasion I've been known to get so wrapped up in the previews that I actually forget what movie I'm there to see. One thing I've found over the years is that you get an interesting look into the human psyche if you listen to the people around you make editorial comments during the previews. For instance, during the preview for High School Musical 3 I heard a girl behind me say: "Ugh, I'd rather poke my eye out with a screwdriver." Whoa. Latent frustrations over her days as a high school outcast perhaps?

The Entertainment Weekly Fall Movie Preview issue just hit my mailbox yesterday, so here are a few films I'm looking forward to in the next few months. I haven't seen the trailers for all of them yet, so I reserve the right to update the list upon further review

Burn After Reading - September 12th - the latest Coen brothers film starring Brad Pitt
High School Musical 3 - October 24th - that's right, I said it.
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist* - with Michael Cera (Arrested Development, love him!)
Australia - November 14th - the new Baz Luhrmann film with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. (I'm fuzzy on the premise, but I love me some Baz Lurhmann!)
Twilight - December 12th - see previous blog about the book. SO EXCITED!!!
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Brad Pitt is old, then young! It's a mystery.
Revolutionary Road - December 26th - reunites Titanic co-stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

*Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

What movie are you looking forward to this fall?

Babies on Parade!

So, this year everyone, I repeat, EVERYONE, I know decided to have a baby. Okay, that might be a small exaggeration, but there are now many MANY new babies in my circle of friends. Here's a few snapshots of the babies I am most closely connected to (there are many more babies of friends/acquaintances that I decided to omit).

Jack, December 7, 2007 (mom Kari is a good friend from high school - she lives too far away now in NY!)


Caden Cruz 2/21/08 (I met his mom Ancelle through my work with the Make a Wish Foundation - love her!)


Cole Henry, June 9, 2008 (his mom Leah is my cousin!)


Isabella Grace, June 14, 2008 (parent's Ryan and Freida are good friends of Justin and I)


Lily Josephine, July 4, 2008 (Stacy is a great friend from HS and college - she even survived a year as my roommate!)


Here are three high school friends in August: Kari and Jack, Melissa and Lindsay (born November '07), and Stacy and Lily. I was supposed to be there that day, but I would have had to hold the cat or something for this photo.


Coming Soon...Riley Paige (August 16, 2008 or sooner!) (Her mom Carolyn and I "ran" a marathon together in 2006!)

A Wedding ReCap

As I mentioned earlier, I am way behind in my blogging, but this event was too important not to document. The much anticipated wedding of my sister-in-law Sommer went off without a hitch (with the exception of a small eyelash issue) on Saturday, July 19th at Bennett Valley Golf Course in Santa Rosa. Everything was perfect and Sommer was the most beautiful bride I have ever seen - WAY prettier than Katherine Heigel and that's a fact. :) Here are some highlights:
Mike and Sommer Nunan!

Sommer's good friend Stephanie from high school did all of our hair and Sommer's makeup. Basically she's a superstar.

Justin and Jeff were such dedicated groomsmen and brothers. Look at how well they disguised their boredom while waiting for the wedding to start.

I may have gotten a little territorial in my role as maid (okay matron) of honor, but I think I earned that right. If for no other reason than these cute flip flops that Sommer and I designed and made for the bridesmaids.

The reception was super fun - especially after I was done with my speech and could relax(there was laughter, there were tears - mostly mine, basically it couldn't have gone better!) Well, aside from my awesome speech, the highlight of the reception was definitely the photo booth!

We got to see our good friends Ryan and Freida! They have an adorable new baby, Isabella Grace.

Jeff Perry, being the extraordinary musician that he is, had the honor of playing the first dance song, "I Want to Grow Old With You" from the Wedding Singer.

Funny group wedding photos are my favorite and I love this picture of the bridal party.

Yay for Mike and Sommer joining the married club!

Twilight

A few weeks ago, around the same time Entertainment Weekly featured the phenomenon on their cover, our two student workers clued me into a new book series that was rocking their world. Twilight, written by 29-year-old mormon housewife Stephenie Meyer, is being billed as the hottest thing since Harry Potter. I immediately borrowed the first book (Twilight) to use as a diversion on our 5+ hour airplane ride to Kauai. The second book in the series (New Moon) followed on our plane ride back to the mainland a few days later. (I knew I was engrossed because it was the greatest plane ride ever and I absolutely hate to fly!) As an aside, I love coming to things a little late because I didn't have to wait very before the final book to hit store shelves at midnight on August 2nd. The girls from the office and I happened to be in Salt Lake City for a conference and we immediately hit up Barnes and Noble where I bought the third book (Eclipse) and they picked up the last one (Breaking Dawn). We managed to make it through the conference's Saturday evening banquet and dance party and held off on starting our books until we got back to our rooms around midnight. We read until 3am until we HAD to go to sleep. The next day we sat through various airports and plane rides diligently reading. It was torture for me to only be on the THIRD book and listen to their cryptic comments about what was going on in the finale!!! When we got back to CA on Sunday evening, they were more than happy to let me make a detour at Borders so I could pick up my own copy of Breaking Dawn. I finished it on Tuesday night. It was perfect. Now we just have to wait until the Twilight movie comes out on 12/12/08!

For more on the series, check out the Twilight wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_(novel)

P.S. for my homie in RohPoh - this Literacy Queen of Stockton now has friends to enjoy literacy with!

Behind and Distracted

(Evidence of my trip to Missouri AND Kansas in early July)

I've been busy with traveling, conferences, and finishing a pesky little book series about vampires. I realize I have a lot of blogging to catch up on! Here's what to expect in the next few days:

Sommer's Wedding Recap

Why I Heart Kauai

Revelations From a Weekend With College Students (working title)

Saying Goodbye...

To the greatest cat in the world...ZIPPY! We have to send her to my parents for a couple of weeks. :( I'm going to miss my little buddy, but hopefully she'll have a good time exploring a different setting.

What I'm Missing

Related to my previous post about our cable-free lives is the summer reality TV that I AM NOT missing.



Last night we were visiting friends and got sucked into the final episode of NBC's Celebrity Circus. It follows another outstanding reality TV gem, The Baby Borrowers. We spent the first 2 minutes making fun of such an inane premise and before we knew it we were mesmerized (READ: near comatose) by it's complete and utter awfulness.

Thoughts: If a summer with no TV means I miss the opportunity to see former super model Rachel Hunter doing acrobatics on a giant, suspended ring; I'm okay with that.

Kill Your TV

I used to think people who said things like "I don't watch TV," or "we don't have cable" sounded really snobbish. I mean, come on, who doesn't watch TV? Then, I started grad school and my TV time sort of faded into the background. So, in an effort to save money AND gain back some lost productivity over the summer, Justin and I decided in May that it was time to cancel our cable. We are now THOSE people. I've had this conversation a lot lately:

TV WATCHER: "Hey, do you watch Wipeout?"
ME: "No, we don't have cable."
TVW: "Oh." (crickets chirp and judgement hangs thick in the air.)

TVM: "Oh my goodness, can you believe The Bachelorette? I heart Jesse, he's my favorite!"
ME: (total silence while other people weigh in with their opinions and I show how completely out of the loop I am!)

While I don't miss TV, I do HATE being out of the in-the-know TV watchers club! However, over the years I have read enough TV Watch updates on Entertainment Weekly'swebsite and Watch with Kristen spoilers at EOnline that I've discovered I really don't have to watch TV to know exactly what's going on.

And, for the record, I did watch the "After the Final Rose" episode of the Bachelorette when I was in Kansas City for a conference. And yes, I heart Jesse too.

6 Days From Now...

...I'll be here. Relaxing. Loving life. Trying not to think about school, work, or any other responsibilities. The only bad thing is that I'll miss Zippy. I love my cat!

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?