Caffeinated

... and completely unable to sleep.

Sometimes coffee really just does me in. Or maybe it's from being strung out on wedding planning and blog stalking.

Recap of notable events this past week!
M: Big event at work, completed and successful! *sigh of relief*
Tu: Watched (er, dozed off watching) George finish Pikmin 2 on Gamecube.
W: The 1 year anniversary of our engagement in Maui! I remembered last week, but forgot until George reminded me of it during our usual phone conversation after I got out of the office. Happy Anniversary honey! Letterpress class in the evening- completed a project but it was lonely without Liz. :(
Th: Browsed through the newest- and massive- addition to a local mall. Restrained myself from getting too close to the shoe section in Nordstrom. Got awesome customer service everywhere I went. Sometimes dressing up and pretending that you are someone sort of important gets you places.
F: So far, just unable to sleep...

Life

Life's been hectic these days.

Clearly (and unfortunately), maintaining the blog has been put on the back burner for the sake of other things.

My weeks and months of late have been filled with wedding planning, tinkering away on the computer, the Saturday morning art class I'm taking, helping friends get a new home move-in ready, searching for a home of our own, and of course my job and maintaining my sanity.

I truly love my life, the people around me, and the things I am interested in. I am fortunate. But lately, my existence has seemed like one big juggling act- and not juggling with those small red rubber balls or hackey sacks, either. I'm talking bowling pins juggling. And I might as well dress the part with a crazy wig, a big red nose and painted smile. I feel clumsy and ineffective- this especially drives me mad. Having so much to do- and having so much more that I wish I COULD do- but feeling like there are never enough hours in the day.

A big part of it, it seems, is that I'm preparing for change in lots of ways, which is, in my opinion, what keeps life what it is. Change and reaction and adjustment. I'm taking things a step at a time, rolling with the punches, going with the flow. And things are looking up.

So a sincere thank you to all of those who've dealt with my madness- or absence- the last few months. Let's make the most of life- and toss me another pin! :)

Addendum to Ice Cold

Geo carries two things with him at all times. His cell phone and his camera. I must say....he is becoming quite the photographer. Take for instance, that cool shot of the ice cold beer they had in Oceanside. He sent me this one he took of Hannah, that I thought was too cool not to share.

ice cold!

we started off our long weekend with a great meeting with our wedding photographers in their oceanside studio. they are a husband and wife team and just plain awesome- fun, hip, stylish- and have an amazing eye for those special day moments.

afterwards, we headed down towards old town san diego in search of lunch. we drove in what was generally the right direction... exited too early from the freeway (hungry people are eager)... proceeded to get turned around, ending up in point loma, a peninsula of sorts. to avoid spending big bucks on a map (and also because we've purchased a map every single time we've driven down to sd), i had the brilliant idea to swing by a hotel to grab a map from their brochure smorgasbord. "they have to have maps, right?" george pulled into a holiday inn driveway. i hopped out and proceeded to stroll in, duck behind the display, grab a handful of brochures, and stroll out. once in the car, examining our brochures- we experienced the meaning of "you get what you pay for"- or in our case, "you don't get what you don't pay for". no freeways or communities even identified, much less actual street names. we located a gas station and purchased a map. *sigh* so much for brilliant ideas!

we finally found rockin' baja lobster, 50 minutes after leaving our photographers' studio. when we got seated, the first thing we grabbed for were the bar menus. me:modelo. george:bohemian. because there's nothing like an ice cold one after a long morning.

oh, the games we play

Silly confession: Sometimes, when George and I are hanging out, we play these goofy made-up games with made-up rules that make no sense. We find that these games, um, help enhance our creative thinking skills.

Game 1- modified version of 6 Degrees of Separation (aka. the Kevin Bacon game)
Designed to test one's knowledge of movies and actors who appeared in them. Not one of my personal faves, as George is so much better than I when it comes to movie trivia.

Game 2- name a theme song
When you're out in public, id an individual or group of people, then hum a song to describe them. (i.e. seeing a group of girls dressed out for a night on the town might invoke the "Sex and the City" theme song)

Game 3- would you...?
Name an outrageously large sum of money, then an equally or more outrageous task that would have to be performed to acquire the sum. Designed to test one's human limits or thirst for wealth, but at what cost? (i.e. Would you, for 5 million dollars, allow yourself to be strapped to a huge wind generator propellor?) The general tactic in this game, if you are posing the question, is to be prepared to either lower or raise the sum, or up the risk level of the task. (in the example above, if I answer "yes" to the initial proposal, George might follow up with "Okay, then what if you are not actually strapped to the propellor, rather, you are just hanging off." My reply: "But wouldn't I get whipped around and banged against the propellor?" His reply: "Maybe.") We like playing this one with Liz and Eric.

Game 4- monotonous humming
This one belongs to me and my sister, made up in a fit of boredom during a drive home from Berkeley. Hum a tune in monotone. Keep the rhythm of the song, you can even say the lyrics, just don't give a melody. It's harder than you think, plus even harder when the hummer picks a Phil Collins song from "Tarzan". So random. This is not one of George's faves.

Try these sometime. You might enjoy them.

g+h

g+h

Look at how much fun they are having together....

just wonderful!

Saturday dinner out to celebrate slim's bday. we're sitting across from gino and flo, conversation happens to turn towards movies... disturbing movies... disturbing tv... the x-files. the best show ever and it makes for great dinner discussion besides!

so it came up... anyone remember the one with the peacock family? (no spoilers for those who haven't yet seen it!) in my opinion, one of the more horrifying ones as x-files episodes go. we were racking our brains to remember the song that was featured at the end, when ______ took ______ and was ______. it was some happy-go-lucky 50's song that provided a stark contrast to the "yikes, i might hurl" content of the storyline itself. so i did some searching on the internet (how did we ever live without it? in the cruel state of not-knowing, that's how!!) and found a site that lists songs in x-files episodes. just like that! let's get to the answer already: "wonderful, wonderful" by kenny james. it's so unfitting that it's perfect.

*side note: i also read, in the course of my 3-minutes of internet "research", that due to the subject matter of this episode, it was only shown once on network television. nice!

anyway... if you want to look this one up, it's season 4, episode 3, titled "Home". just think twice about watching during dinner.