Random Updates

What's been going on the past few weeks:

--I finished my comps (final exams) for grad school on June 12th and passed with flying colors! Woo hoo! Masters degree...check. Consider that topic closed.

--After 9 1/2 months without a car, I am finally mobile again! God blessed us with the exact car I wanted for the exact price I wanted to pay (which was pretty low) just like I knew he would. Now Baby Perry won't have to ride in the jumpseat of Justin's truck - which I'm pretty sure is against the law anyway...more details and photos to come on the new ride.

--I am currently on my 9th consecutive day and approximately 85th hour of work without a break (which I know isn't a big deal for most people, but I live for my downtime). Love the big alumni fun we have, but can't wait until the holiday weekend and day off on Friday! Gotta catch up on laundry and clean my filthy house! (Or lay on the couch and take a nap...we'll have to see how things go.) :)

--We are scheduled for our next sonogram on July 9th. Hopefully Baby Perry won't be shy and we'll finally know who's in there and can start shopping! :)

Ummmm...

So...I really did have more important milestones in my 20's, but I've been so busy enjoying my 30's that I haven't caught up on them. And by "enjoying" I mean taking naps after work, eating dinner, and/or going to bed by 8:30 or 9. I have my oral defense for my master's tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed that it goes well and I can finally put grad school behind me!

Top Moments of my 20's - #5 (The Marathon)

I intended to do a "Top 10" countdown of my favorite memories in my 20's in the days leading up to my 30th b-day. Since I seem to have gotten off to a late start, a top 5 list will have to do.

Here goes...in no particular order...

#5 The Marathon




I started running in 2006, when I was 26/27. All in the same year I did some 5K's, a couple of half-marathons, and then some crazy friend of mine in Las Vegas talked me into doing a full-marathon with her. So, in December of 2006 I went to Vegas and put my body through 26 miles of pure torture. Lesson learned - running a marathon while not training for anything longer than 13 miles = stupidity. I'm proud to say I finished it, though I won't tell you how long it took me. (Let's just say slower than Oprah, but way faster than that guy on the last season of the Biggest Loser.) Someday I may do it again, but in the meantime I'm going to try and channel the memory of enduring massive amounts of pain for approximately 3 hours (and the final 10 miles) and use it to help me during labor in a few months. Seriously, I hear you only push for like 30 minutes, how bad can it be? :)

Countdown to 30!

I kicked off my birthday celebrations last weekend with a fun party in Monterey! I decided I wanted to celebrate the end of my 20's in my favorite place, so we took the party to the coast! I was worried that no one would want to make the drive, but ended up being completely overwhelmed by all the friends and family that jumped at the chance to come and celebrate with me! My parents had never been to Monterey, so we had a great time showing them all the touristy spots, eating at our favorite places, and enjoying a night at a beachfront hotel. We decided to host the actual party on Sunday at El Torito on the water. Kind of random, but the view is beautiful! Justin surprised me with an embarrassing speech that gave me WAY more praise than I deserve, the waiters sang to me in Spanish, we had amazing cakes from Gayle's bakery in Watsonville. It was a fabulous day and a great way to send me into my next decade. I still have 5 days left though, so let's not rush things!


Taking advantage of the photo opportunity


My sad face at the balloon my dad bought for me. Not only does it have a frog on it (I have frog fear), but it says "you are toad-ally old." Major sad face!


Family and friends who blessed my socks off!

LOL - Surprise Wedding Reception

This is one of the latest missions from the group Improv Everywhere, the same folks who brought you the Food Court Musical and Frozen Grand Central Station. This time they decided to throw a surprise wedding reception for a random newly married couple coming out of city hall. The result is really cute and the couple looks super happy the entire time. If you don't feel like watching the video, click on the second link for a recap of the event and some still photos.



http://improveverywhere.com/2009/06/02/surprise-wedding-reception/

Announcement

As a reward to my few and loyal blog followers, I’m giving you the scoop first!

I’ve been keeping a little secret from you. We’re having a baby! I’ve been keeping the news under wraps for about 6 weeks, but since we had our first ultrasound today and saw Baby Perry kicking and squirming with a strong heartbeat, I’m ready to tell the world! I am almost 11 weeks along and we are due on December 4th.

So far pregnancy hasn’t been too rough on me, so that’s been a huge blessing. A week of light nausea, insane levels of fatigue, and aversions to cooked vegetables and seafood have been my major issues. The really rough part has been trying to finish my last 9 units of grad school while being tired and slightly preoccupied. It’s amazing how much time a person can waste looking at baby stuff online or asking Google about every cramp or dietary concern.

I am pleased to announce that all my projects for grad school are complete (just finished today!) and I just have that pesky week of exams to deal with at the end of May. I am excited to finally give pregnancy my full concentration. It’s a new adventure for us and I’m pretty excited!

(Oh, and just a side note on the lame grainy photos in the video. In the early days of our relationship, and at the time of our wedding in 2002, digital photography was not as prolific as it is today. Fact: that makes me feel really old!)

Celebrating the Seniors

Part of my job is working with students and young alumni to develop programs and events. The other part is marketing and technology - among other things. Yesterday we held our annual Senior Celebration, a huge party the alumni association throws for the students every year. It is my responsibility to plan and execute this event and I am always extremely nervous that no one will come to my party. I was also a bit panicked about the weather (there was a threat of rain and some looming dark clouds most of the day). As it turns out, my fears were completely unfounded and we had the most successful year yet! This year we opened it up to the entire campus, gave away free shirts to the seniors (co-sponsored by ASUOP), had Rubio's there giving out free burritos (Cinco de Mayo), and gave out free sno cones. We had a great dj, some great raffle prizes donated by local businesses and had several campus partners there giving out information. I think we had over well over 500 people in attendance and I am so incredibly relieved that it's over for another year and appears to have been a big success! YAY! Now I just have to finish that 15 page paper and complete another final project so I can relax for a day or two!


Checking in seniors and giving out shirts


Powercat representing Go Girl energy drink


The shirts!


The TigerPAC (minus Lauren), the student group I advise on student/alumni

Our Visit to "The Office"

A few weeks ago, the Perry family (and the Nunan addition) embarked on our annual Perry Adventure. We headed to southern California without much of a plan except Disneyland one day and an attempt to find the place where they shoot the exterior scenes of The Office, our FAVORITE show. My new brother in law, Mike, found the address online and google mapped it, so we knew exactly where we were going. We pulled onto the street and were SO EXCITED just to see the office building and the parking lot. OMG! We also saw covered up set pieces at the end of the street with writing like "Jim & Pam's house." We all got out of the car and were geeking out about taking pictures outside the gated fence. As we walked down the street we passed another big building with a gate and a guard shack. The gate was open, so my mother-in-law (who, lets face it, she can make things happen people) stopped to talk to talk to a person walking across the parking lot while the rest of us continued walking down to "the" building.

Mother in Law asks the guy "can my son take a picture in your parking lot?" (Meanwhile, I was sarcastically saying to Mike, "watch Lynn meet someone and get us a tour of the set." I'm not joking when I say she is eerily capable of making things happen. She maintains that it is God's favor, and I would have to agree with her.) :)

Guy replies, "No. But I have a few minutes and I can give you a private tour of the set." A. PRIVATE. TOUR. OF. THE. SET! OMG!

M-I-L yells after us and we come running back down the street. By this time Mike and I were FREAKING OUT about what was about to happen.

The Guy, who happens to be a producer for the show, reminded us multiple times that they NEVER do this for people and not to tell our friends to come down and expect to get a tour because it NEVER happens.

So, we walk in. The first part we see is mostly a big warehouse and there is a set built inside of it. When you walk into the actual "office" part it looks exactly like an office. Pretty much exactly like what you see on the show. There aren't any high ceilings, no boom mics or cranes or anything.



Again, we are TOTALLY FREAKING OUT at this point. Producer Guy tells us we can take pictures, sit in the chairs, etc. The first place we go is Michael Scott's office. My hands were shaking the entire time I was trying to take pictures. I finally had to give up and rely on someone else's camera because my shots were all blurry. We got to see everything on the desks, pick stuff up. It was amazing! It turns out that all the pictures and things on the desks are actually the actor's personal photos and belongings. You see pics of Dwight's family, Jim's family, etc. After the main office we checked out the kitchen, bathrooms (that have a movable wall depending on which room they are shooting, the breakroom. I think we were all completely overwhelmed. We also got to see the "corporate office" which was kind of in disarry because they weren't shooting any scenes there. We saw the dismantled pieces of the Michael Scott Paper Company office (which hadn't happened yet on the show and we were sworn to secrecy).









Then, THEN, we got to walk to the lot next door and take pictures in the parking lot and see the actual warehouse, which really is a warehouse. We also saw Michael Scott's Sebring and PT Cruiser parked along the side. The square of concrete where Michael Scott stuck his face is there, except it was re-set after the face-sticking incident. We saw the bench where the occasional pow wow takes place and the ping pong table in the warehouse.






We were on Cloud 9 for the rest of the day. Michael and I kept saying "WE WERE ON THE SET OF THE OFFICE TODAY!" all day long. For the rest of the week actually. Our only regret for the day was not thinking through more posed photo ops in the actual office. That, and I would have taken a picture with one of Angela's cats.



Best. Day. Ever.

Update

Hello few, but loyal blog followers. I'm sorry for being MIA from the blogosphere lately. I have exactly 8 days, one 15 page research paper, 2 projects, and a take home final separating me from the end of the official school year (which ends next Tuesday). That, plus the huge event I have to plan for work (a huge blowout for the campus - specifically seniors - that is also next Tuesday - ACK!) and the many evenings and weekends I have been putting in for work meetings and events, has left me a teensy bit stressed and not in the mood for blogging.

I promise after next week is over to be back with a blogging vengeance. The first thing you can look forward to is a detailed description of our visit to the Office set during our vacation a couple of weeks ago. Best. Day. Ever.

I take my final comprehensive exams for grad school at the end of May (12 hours worth), so I still have quite a bit of studying to do between now and then. I can't wait for the day when I only have work to stress out about. The countdown is on!

Love, Becky :)

Rawr!

I love this song. Partly because I am a "Tiger" (a Pacific Tiger) and partly because it is one of the greatest pump up songs ever! I've also been known to make UOP promo videos featuring the intro on more than one occasion (for work or school-related projects of course). This version of Eye of the Tiger, performed by the amazing kids of P.S. 22, is pretty inspiring in itself. It makes me smile. :) Go Tigers!

Twi-Party

I'm really blessed to enjoy the company of the people I work with. I even like hanging out with them socially, which says a lot because we are together at least 8 hours a day five days a week. Four of us have really embraced the Twilight phenomenon (and one other has semi-embraced) and it has served as a great unifying factor for us. On Saturday we had to work a big alumni event, which also coincided with the movie's release on DVD. We decided months ago that we would reward ourselves after the event by having a Twilight Party at my house on my indoor movie screen. (Yes, it is as dorky as it sounds.) We sighed, we swooned, we squealed. Most of all, we enjoyed watching it (and the special features) together in the safety of our Twilight-loving family. :) I will try to refrain from future Twilight-related posts until it gets closer to the release of the film adapation of the second book, New Moon (November). I just want the blogosphere to note, as a point of clarification, that my love for Twilight goes far beyond my own dorky obsession and is rooted in a shared experience with a group of people I spend many hours a day with. That means it's okay.

Clouds and Windmills

Yesterday we drove over Highway 12 to a friend's birthday party in Vacaville. It was a beautiful day and the sky was filled with lots of fluffy cumulus clouds. Luckily I had the work camera with me and we had the chance to capture some of the beauty.



I've always been fascinated by windmills. They make me thing of giants. :)



For some weird reason, we also love barns.