I've been a bad, bad blogger

I've abandoned a blog for a couple weeks now. I've certainly had no shortage of reminders either; I never realize how devout my readers are until I haven't written for while. You know what else? My devout readers are brutal - man do they know how to lay into me. They use a military style of reasoning (if you can call it that), wherein they break me down with criticism about how horrible I am at maintaining my blog, in hopes that motivation will sprout from their rotten, withered seeds. Nah, I'm just messin' with ya, Luie & Juanothan. If it weren't for your harsh reminders, I may have put off writing an entry for another whole day. So thanks.

But in reality, this entry is a total cop-out; I don't have anything in particular to say. Instead, I will post some videos from last weekend, when I babysat my kin. I promised Jonathan that I'd make a video of my nieces for him, since he is always so interested in them (which I love). So that's the explanation for the first one. The explanation for the second one is that Oliver is freakin' adorable, and also that I can't figure out how to turn the video right-side-up. Enjoy:

Are you interested in what I did this weekend?

Well, it's officially Summer here in Southern California - pay no mind to the fact that it's still April. It's been in the 90's here recently so I'm trading in the jeans for Summer dresses. Summer is definitely my favorite season, being that I hail from a part of a country that celebrates the season so extensively.

I spent the day at the beach yesterday - my first real beach day of the season. I've hung out with my family a few times at the beach already this year, but yesterday was a true beach day: laying out in the sun for hours, playing in the waves, and exploring tide pools. I would do that everyday if I could.

On Saturday was my nieces' fourth birthday party. You guessed correctly: I took a load of pictures, all of which you can view right here. I'm thinking about renaming this blog "Ode to Celeste & Elise" since most of my subject matter focuses on them. Anyway, it was a dinosaur themed birthday party and it was SO MUCH FUN (I mean, for kids, of course...). My sister organized a dinosaur egg hunt, for which she drew huge dinosaur footprints in chalk around the yard and hid eggs with mini dinosaur puzzles inside. My favorite part, however, was watching the children beat the crap out of a T-Rex pinata... but you be the judge:

(I love how when it's Charlie's (in the green shirt) turn, he hands his bag to Elise to hold and she just takes it without asking any questions.)

On Friday night was Mike's birthday (well, at midnight, at least). I had a fabulously fun time and I think he did too. A handful of friends met over at my apartment for a drink before we headed out. The best part about it was that each friend who was there came from a different walk of my life - they each showed up individually but we united to raise hell as one. I had Lyssa, my friend from childhood; Camilla, representing my high school years; Emily, from college in Colorado; Mike, from post-college friend of friends; and John, from LBC and you know what I mean ;). I loved so much to have all these different people convene for a celebratory night. And Mike is probably laughing as he's reading this, because the night was supposed to be about him (and it was!!) but it just happened to be all of MY friends.

So this post wasn't very insightful or anything, but that's what I've been up to! I'm reading Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut, which hasn't been too inspiring, despite how great I've always heard Vonnegut is. I've also been hiking nearly everyday, which IS inspiring, but renders me too exhausted to apply that inspiration to any form of creativity, go figure. Maybe I'll draw or write something soon that I can post.

Until then, tata!

Upright Citizen's Brigade

I went to the Upright Citizens Brigade for the first time on Saturday night and it was fantastic. My cheeks and stomach were both in pain from all the laughter they endured. Of the three different themed shows that night, we attended number 2, the 10pm show, called "Match Game," in which people from the audience are chosen to be contestants. At first I was apprehensive about the possibility of be chosen at random, but once I saw what actually goes on, I wished I had been picked (especially because contestants have the chance to win $100). The host, Jimmy Pardo, was so on point with his retorts and celebrity panelist, Paul F. Tompkins, was hilarious in his spontaneity and exuberance. Those were my two favorite performers, but all the celebrity panelists were great:

Scott Aukerman
Oscar Nunez ("of The Office")
Matt Walsh
Andy Daly
Danielle Kroenig

It was especially fun that the woman panelist is married to the host, Pardo; it made for some explicitly awkward inside jokes.

When it rains, it pours

Man, am I having a horrible day so far. Don't you just love entries that start out like that? As if my morning hadn't been going poorly enough, I just found out that I didn't place in the writing competition I entered. Which is, of course, to say that I've lost all hope in my writing abilities and feel utterly talentless in life. I know, I know - it was the first competition I ever entered, I wrote it in an hour, there are tons of great writers in LA, blah blah blah. Still. The way I feel right now, Stephanie = failure. In more senses than I care to share.

It's a shame because I had such a fun weekend. Highlights included, but were not limited to: art gallery with marissa followed by dancing, lunch and a boat ride with the fam, Katie's birthday celebrations, Shark and Will being in town (any CO friends reading this?), driving range with Emily, Monopoly Marathons with Karen & Emily, finally seeing No Country For Old Men.

You can catch pictures of a small portion of these activities by clicking here.

Here's a sneak peak:

I wish my baby had deep pockets, so we could run around, spending all her money, and painting up the town.

Warning: this post is just a long play-by-play of my vacation weekend. May cause disinterest or confusion.

What a wonderfully fantastic weekend. On Thursday evening Josh and I boarded a plane together for the first time, headed to one of my favorite places: Colorado. I have intensely missed Colorado since I moved back to Los Angeles over a year and a half ago. Luckily, I still have several close friends who have either remained in Boulder or moved to Denver or Frisco. Earlier this past summer, my group of 6 sistas from college had a four day reunion weekend, in honor of Megan & Emily's birthdays. It was then that I vowed to return to Colorado once a year to visit my college town or spend some time in the mountains... "going home" I call it, since I grew far fonder of that environment and way of life during the 4+ years I lived there, than I am now of LA.

Well, this year I got lucky and made it back to Colorful Colorado for a second time within 4 months (I can't believe my girls' reunion was almost four months ago! Oh how time flies). The occasion - as if I need one - was The Great American Beer Festival. Now, I love beer. And I'm not saying that as a drunk. I'm saying it as a person who loves the taste, variety, and process, and as the girlfriend of a man who brews his own beer. So as I was saying, I love beer, and I love Colorado. However, I attended the festival in 2005 when I still lived there, and I don't know that I would have made the trek back to CO (mostly due to cost) solely for the festival and if I didn't have Josh eagerly chomping at the bit to keep a tally of all the new beers he could be trying. So we went for it.

Kelly picked us up from the airport at 11pm, after a long day of nannying that started at 8am. Needless to say, she was a bit too exhausted to hit the town. Instead she offered to drop us off downtown (Pearl Street) so I could show Josh some of my old stomping grounds. I was the one driving home from the airport, in fear that Kelly might fall asleep at the wheel, and it required no thought to decide where I should drop us off: The Mountain Sun. I've blogged about The Mountain Sun before and anyone who knows me from Boulder knows about my obsession with this pub and brewery (like I said, I love beer). In fact, I've talked about this place so much that, aside from the beer festival, this was what Josh was most excited to visit. He commented on how it's interesting that after hearing about it so much, he had a very particular rendering of what it should look like in his mind, though it turned out to be very different from what he had pictured.

So Thursday night was pretty mellow. After the Mountain Sun we met up with Jeff, who now lives with Kelly, and hit my favorite bar, The Pearl Street Pub & Cellar (aka "The Pub"), and then The Sundown Saloon ("The Downer"). Friday was really the best day. It was beautiful out - luckily, because it was rainy and cold Saturday and Sunday. So Josh and I borrowed Kelly's sweet ride, the Red Dragon X675 scooter, and I gave him a tour of Boulder. For lunch I showed him the deliciousness that is The Smelly Deli. Based on its nickname, one can gather that people's opinion of this eatery is not positive across the board. But man do they make a fantastic gyro. We walked all throughout campus and I showed him the Anthropology building (because coincidentally enough, he was an Anth major in college also) and old framed pictures of the campus around the turn of the century (obviously, not the most recent turn). Then we headed to Chautauqua Park, where we went on a walk-hike and found a shady lookout area to lay around in (I know, you're throwing up a little in your mouth right now). But wait! That's not all.... we then went to the Boulder Creek for a peaceful stroll, before it got too cold and we had to head to Happy Hour to meet some friends.

Just a note: I really wanted to have amazing pictures to show form this trip, from my new low-mileage camera, but, well... I'm a dumbass and kept forgetting to bring it with me. I can't tell you how many picturesque settings I wanted to capture of our day in real nature - sometimes I forget what it looks like, living here in LA. But twenty minutes into each walk or hike I realized that I left it in the scooter. And at night, well at night I apparently forgot that I even owned a nice new camera and that it was just an arm's length away, in my purse. Boo. I got about 6 pictures from the beer fest, and they're basically multiples of the same thing. :( Hopefully soon I'll get used to being the proud owner of this mystical device called "digital camera".

Friday night we got Happy Hour at Centro, where Jeff works. Can't beat $2 rum & cokes and delicious fresh discounted tacos. Our dinner destination was Hapa, where Kelly clued me into Momokawa Pearl Sake, which is by far the best sake I have ever tried. We ran into an old friend, Courtney, who works at Hapa and we caught up for a bit. From there, we met up with Jon and Scott at The Pub. I was very pleased that they not only made the trek from Denver to hang out with me in Boulder even though they knew I would see them the next night, not only did they actually take the bus to get there, but I only had to apply a minor amount of pressure to get them to come into town. I was expecting to have to beg, plead, threaten, and then guilt trip them into it, but no. Fancy that - made my night! So Friday night's sequence was actually a lot like Thursday's... after Josh and I kicked Jon and Scott's asses in pool and then cleaned up the blood soaked floor with the rags of their pride, we headed to The Downer, where I really think Jon and Josh bonded; you know you can breathe a sigh of relief when your boyfriend goes to the bathroom and your best guy friends use that time to give the thumbs-up seal of approval to "the BF" (were Jon's exact words). Lastly, we hit up The Attic, for the latest last call in town.

Saturday was basically a day of preparation for the beer festival. Josh and I had a great time, as was to be expected. We probably tried around a hundred beers (yeah, I did the math). Given the number of brewers that presented, I easily could have spent those hundred 1oz shots on beers I've never tried. But ya know what? I just love Colorado's micro brews so much that I had to survey all those old favorites that I can't get around here. But I wouldn't call that a waste by any means. One thing the brewers do at The Great American Beer Festival is try to get attendees to sport namesake fake tattoos. The reps ask the girls if they can apply tatts to their chests or upper butts. Although a brewery tattoo applied to the chest by an overweight middle aged guy named Budd wreaks of class, I decided to forgo that offer. Instead, I warmed up to an upper arm application. I'm still sporting flaky remnants of my Newport Beach Brewing Company tattoo, which I made the exception for since they have a beer called "Balboa Brown" and that's where my dad lives (plus all their beers were really yummy). My second fake tattoo was a sneak attack from one of my all time favorite breweries, Boulder Beer Company. I was just standing there enjoying some Planet Porter when I felt a smack on my shoulder and a stream of cool liquid trickling down my arm. I was completely taken off guard but the tatt had been sealed before I even had a chance to react.

After the festival ended Josh and I met up with Scott and Jon who were watching their two home teams, The Indians and The Red Sox respectively, duke it out. I have absolutely no recollection of who won. After attempting to play pool and failing miserably, the four of us then proceeded to bar hop around Denver. The bars we went to were surprisingly empty - strange for a Saturday night I would think. I must say that I most enjoyed the semi-wet and cold adventures that occurred en route to each bar on the streets of Denver. Thanks for good times, fellas.

Sunday we had high hopes for going to a museum, but when that rainy morning arrived all we could think of was getting some greasy grub in our bellies and vegging out on Kelly's couch back in Boulder, before our evening flight (which we almost missed and ended up sprinting through DIA "Home Alone" style to catch the slowly closing doors). Now Josh is completely in love with Colorado and keeps suggesting a move to either Denver or Boulder. Although I love it there too, if I am moving to another state, I kind of want to move t somewhere I haven't lived before. Discussion of Portland has taken place, but who know what will happen.

Alright, there's my LONG recap of my weekend trip to Colorado. In light of the gloom outside, I hope you're having a warm and cozy day!

Activities Worth Mentioning

Well hello there. It’s been called to my attention that I haven’t written much this month. I’ve started a few different entries but something always comes up and I don’t have time to finish them. So I’m going to see if I have enough time to squeeze one out right now.

The past week has been jam packed with activities. Be it a Dodger game, a night with grandparents, staffing a work related event, moving furniture, attending a show at the Hollywood Bowl, jet-setting to San Francisco for the weekend, or seeing THE BEASTIE BOYS (what what!) at The Greek AND The Wiltern, I just can’t seem to get a quiet night of relaxation at home. Oh woe is me!

Yes, the past eight days have consisted of all those activities, and more. Where do I start? How about I work backwards in time. So, yeah, I saw The Beastie Boys last night in concert at The Greek Theatre, ya know, no big deal. So like, they were amazing and it was probably one of the best few concerts I’ve ever been to, if not THE best, (shrug) but whatevs… in all seriousness though: WOW. I’ve been ardently listening to these B Boys since I was about eleven years old (“be true to yourself and you will never fall” was my eighth grade yearbook graduation quote), and yet I had never seen them live. Last night was exactly what I was hoping for, but so much more than I expected. They played more or less the entire Ill Communication album, which is definitely my favorite album, the one that first got me interested in their music, in fact – the one I was hoping they would play plenty of songs from. The stage was absolutely magnificent: a dozen or two rounded tyriangular, asymmetrical, different sized screens loosely hung in a wave shape over the stage, shining different lights and patterns throughout the show; the raised instrument section of the stage (including two full drum sets, other forms of percussion, and keyboards) had bright, color changing lining underneath it, which illuminated the whole stage – during funky jams they set the color to a mellow orangey-red and during high energy rhymes it alternated bright whites, yellows, blues, reds, greenss etc.; Mix Master Mike’s turntable setup had strobe lights posted on both outside table corners; they were all dressed in suh-weet getups, reminiscent of 1940s speakeasy-goers. The whole act was very classy, even when singing “No Sleep ‘til Brooklyn”. Overall, the show had a very funky, lounge-like feel, due to the new instrumental album the are promoting, called The Mix Up.

Oh, and did I mention that I’m going to see them again tonight at The Wiltern, for their all-instrumental “Gala Event” show, for which audience members are expected to dress to the nines? Oh, I did? Well anyway, I’m doing that too.

Whew, I’m already out of figurative breath, and I haven’t even started talking about the weekend. On Friday night Karen, Emily and I set out for San Francisco, for a weekend of fun in honor of Sam’s birthday. A weekend of fun indeed. I really don’t know that I could have had a better time. Naturally, after going out to dinner that night, we set out on the town. I don’t know the name of the first bar we went to, but it was nice until it got over crowded. At that point we headed to one of Sam’s favorite bars called “The Red Room”. The name says it all: everything, everywhere you look, is red. They even have wall partitions made of bottles that reflect red everywhere (perhaps the bottles themselves are red, I don’t know). I definitely liked the layout there. Of course, when you’re on vacation, no night simply ends when you hear the shouts of “last call!” and realize the lights are fading back on, making your red room appear not so red after all. So we went to an apartment that had pretty cool graffiti covering the inside walls, which made for some unique photographs.

Saturday might have been my favorite day of all. For his birthday, Sam wanted to play softball. I was pumped about it as soon as I heard. I love softball but stopped playing after eighth grade because I was never very good; despite having a decent arm, I was always pretty much a benchwarmer. Regardless, I’ve always loved to play catch and I guess I just really like games in general. Anyway, we spent the whole afternoon outside, in the sun, being merry. It was grand and I’d really like to make a habit of it… outdoor game-playing, that is. After getting cleaned up we started the evening by convening for “Happy Hour” (read: 10pm) at Sam’s. The first bar we headed out to was so interesting. It was actually an art gallery that throws themed parties every week. This weekend the theme was croquet, or garden party, or something of that nature. The entire floor was covered in plush grass – I couldn’t resist walking around barefoot. Plus, there was an upstairs loft area that we had to our group of about 15 people for a good hour, so it made for our own little private party. The second place we went to was also interesting in its own rite (I hope I remember the story correctly): back in the day, Miles Davis opened this cool little jazz bar and I guess it was quite the musical destination for awhile. It closed and remained closed for about twenty years, and only recently reopened with the new name “222”. The DJ in the back had us all getting groovy, dancing our little hearts out until, yet again, it was time for them to kick us out for closing.

Sunday consisted of lying around in Washington Park all day, from which my face incurred a nasty red sunburn unlike one I’ve had in years. But it was relaxing and totally enjoyable to just lounge around on a grassy knoll all afternoon with a handful of good friends. All in all, it was fantastic to hang out with old friends all weekend, in addition to meeting and making new ones. Great people, awesome city, what more could I ask for?

That’s all the energy I have to write about things in the past. So, there you go.