Tuesday, July 29

Dear Diary,

Today, the Egyptian student worker started working in our office again and he brought us all cake. It was delicious.

Sincerely,
Self

P.S. Get stamps

Groundlingettes

I don't think we've ever gotten a picture together and we still haven't! Our teacher was out of town last Sunday so we had a sub, and the guy was actually pretty good! And Katie is still in New York and Chiara had dashed off to work, so here's me and Chelsea and Libby.

Man we have so many good characters and scenes together!

Last Sunday we round-robined and we were each able to do a scene together. Libby and I started as a Craigslist Missed Connection couple, me, a married See's Candy distributor, and Libby was Samantha, an emotional and strung-out college student.

Chelsea and I got to play coworkers at Yogolicious, she was Sara, and I was Judy, who had just made out with her brother and hung out with some girls that she had introduced me to, and it did not go over well.

Then me and Chiara (not pictured) played India and Eve, two judgmental gothic girls out of their element at a bachelorette party poolside in Vegas.

Sooooo many fun Sundays, sooo many funny memories, and Libby works for FunnyOrDie so be on the lookout!

Ygritte Wannabe

While my mother is legitimately preparing for post-apocalyptic life and survival, I decided to join in her archery training fun, if for no other reason than I want to be Ygritte from Game of Thrones, who is so clearly one of the best characters.

So on Saturday I went with her and Jim to an indoor shooting range in Riverside and started in on a bow and arrow for the first time in my life. (Sixth-grade science camp doesn't count, right??)

This was THE VERY FIRST ARROW I SHOT EVER.

It was on the target and everything!!

The beginners luck didn't really keep too long, but a round or two later I did make a bullseye in the yellow (that's close enough for me) and Jim said I now had to split that one in two. Well I didn't split it, but I did make another bullseye again.

You can ignore all the other arrows around it, just focus on the two in the yellow.

There is a stand to hold your arrows, but where's the fun in that? I wanted to wear the arrow holder like a quiver, and let me tell you, the struggle to pull the arrows back and not instead turn yourself in circles leaning back trying to grab one... that struggle is real.

It was fun. Next time I'll try to run around the corner, roll on the ground and shoot from my back, cause that's the only real way to take it up a notch.

Marisa Has A New Doubles Partner Now

Well that was fast, a lot of the pictures I was expecting to see in the next few weeks are up.

Marisa's wedding was on Saturday, and since I was involved in the bridal shower and bachelorette party as well, it felt like a long time coming. People would ask, whose bridal shower? Whose bachelorette party? Whose wedding? And I never know how to clarify Marisa.

These days I would call her my workout buddy or my cat aunt, but we met in 7th grade, on the first day of middle school and were pretty inseparable thereafter. We had stupid nicknames for each other and would plan ditching classes at the same time to meet up and go on secret missions. When I had to make a sculpture for ceramics, she convinced me to make a button. We used to fax each other letters over the weekends, and we even stole our computer teachers' address from a bill in her desk and mailed her a ransom note over Thanksgiving break. This really happened.

In high school, we wreaked even more havoc around the campus and then raised all hell when we were doubles partners for high school tennis. Our motto used to be "if we hit the girls on the other team, it's our point!" and even won the Ivy League Championship as doubles partners, coming back from 0-5 to win 7-5. We doubled up again for a statistics project senior year, where I don't remember anything about the project, only the pictures we took for the presentation, which included us dressed in camouflage and using binoculars. This also really happened.

Marisa and I never had a falling out or a fight or bad blood between us, but we didn't keep in close touch after I left Riverside. Occasionally I would receive a text message reminiscing on something, and once she mailed me a birthday card of a bodybuilder in a speedo, but I didn't even see her everytime I came home for the holidays or a quick weekend. I think that's part of what makes our friendship so special now, because I didn't really expect to reconnect or be such good friends again, but here we are. And now she's married!

It doesn't look like any pictures from the bachelorette party are ever going to surface, so here is what I do have from our weekend in Palm Springs leading up to her nuptials...

Set up inside our villa suite

The grounds of our villa. Those orange, red and yellow flowers were so pretty!

I was not in charge of pictures, so this is the one thing on my camera from our first night out?? Of course it would be a selfie

On our way to the pool

Marisa had bags for all the attendees that included wraps, hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, our pineapple drink holders and more! I didn't even need to pack, she had everything for me!

Poolside on Saturday

This parrot in the hotel actually talked. Ashlee and I got very distracted by it for awhile

In the pool. I can't remember if that's a raft we bought from the resort or stole from some guys

On our way out

At da club

A compilation Katrina made of (some) of us. Turned out she forgot like 3 or 4 other girls who were there. To be fair, she made it around 2am inside the club.

And then the wedding!

The altar

View from cocktail deck and ballroom

Part of the grounds

Table assignment board... so cute!

The ballroom was technically indoors but had those wide sweeping doors that gave it a breeze and outdoor feel

The wedding party

The rose garden for cake cutting

Sunset was perfect!

View from my seat at dusk

Girls with Marisa's dad!

On da dance floor

I found a phone on the table and took the liberty of instagramming this picture for them

The famed bouquet toss... I had been in the middle of the crowd and everyone backed away! Whatever

Warming up

The ONLY one making a dash.

Hell yeah I earned that bouquet!!

By the end of the night...

I was dancing with my BFF Mel, Marisa's sister in law!

The capstone send-off

Man, even I feel letdown like, "back to reality" after all the fun leading up to the wedding and the wedding itself, so I can only imagine what Marisa's feeling! Well then again, she gets a week in Hawaii. So yeah, I guess I do have it worse. Ha!

Weltmeisters 2014

What an exciting weekend! On Saturday I got to watch Marisa get married at a beautiful venue in Temecula wine country for a wonderful ceremony and reception (and I even caught the bouquet!!) and then (since I was halfway there anyway) I went to San Diego afterwards for a night of frivolity and then a day of festivities watching the World Cup.

I got in late Saturday night and met everyone at Kunal's. There was an open bar at the wedding, which was great, but since I was driving I had to be very careful, and when I showed up in Gaslamp at 11 pm on a Saturday night, I was pretty far behind them, so I caught up. Our plan was to get to the North Park neighborhood around 11 to meet up with Rob and Pearo and Jenny to make it to the large viewing party off University and 30th before the game started at noon... but when Priya waltzed into her own room in the morning (where I had passed out) and unleashed her Australian shepherd on me, I awoke to find it was already 10:45 and looked like I was the only one awake. So we were a little late getting out.

A stop at Starbucks and we got to Rob's just as they were walking out, which was perfect. Priya ended up at the block party, but we never made it past Poor House. We were going to meet up with her here at half time, but she said it was too hot, and we were content in our small little bar, having grabbed an entire section to ourselves.

I have to say that I was surprised that there didn't seem to be much balance between team supports... and everyone around me (minus Pam and kind of Doug) and everyone everywhere seemed to be rooting for Argentina. I thought there would have been a little more balance...? But what do I know. I was all-out rooting for Germany. As I posed for this picture, a passer-by said "oh look, there's a German flag holding a German flag!"

Here is our group (minus Priya and Alex), and Rob trying to hide my German pride!

I normally would just delete this selfie, but the reflection in the glasses is almost cool.

After the German win (woop woop! what a great goal, caught on the chest and kicked in as it came down!) we walked back to Rob's place around the corner. These pictures are kind of a long story, but I think what's important to know is that 1. We had been day-drinking. 2. Rob is an amazing and fantastic uncle to his nephews and nieces and 3. Apparently we will just do anything when we are in a group. So here are pictures of us standing in different ordered lines

Priya was stealing my flag!!

Priya is cute in the back

If only Kunal had leaned over like the rest of us!

It was a long drive back to Riverside after that, hot and I was tired. I did, however, listen to Sportfreunde Stiller's '54 '74 '90 2010 in celebration, and they can now officially update it to '54 '74 '90 2014! (Did they already do that?)

I pretty much came home, showered, and went straight to a few chapters of Game of Thrones (what I could work in between Khaleesi's crying for me to throw her rubber band) and fell asleep.

I can't wait for wedding pictures to surface, I want to see me swooping in and catching that bouquet!

Crazy Cat Lady

Hello, world. I am your resident crazy cat lady, and I am here to talk to you about my cat.

Khaleesi is adorable. She doesn't like to do anything that's not on her own terms (she doesn't like being approached or picked up.) As a matter of fact, no matter how far away from her I am, if I stretch out my arms towards her, she bolts off in the other direction.

That's probably what makes it so sweet when she is affectionate. She loves to play fetch and when she brings me the rubber band, she will crawl on me and sit on my lap until I throw it. In the mornings and evenings when I am laying in bed, she likes to lay on my stomach or on my legs to remind me she's there, waiting for me to be conscience enough to throw her rubber band for her.

That's why it really was terrifying to have a nightmare of her being hurt last night. I woke up in fear that she had died, and was relieved to find her laying on my bed next to me. And she was so adorable that I almost took a picture... she was laying right next to me, on her back with her legs flayed open, like she always does, and her head on a pillow!! It was like she was trying to be a human. I really did almost take a picture, but I figured I'd have to get the flash in order and everything and it was like 3 in the morning and I wasn't thinking clearly anyway. Next time!

GO SCHLAND!

My last vestige of hope in the World Cup is playing today... and if Germany doesn't win, then I'm back to rooting for whoever has the prettiest color jersey or hotter players. I wore a black dress, maroon cardigan and gold glitter in support of Deutschland today, but it wasn't enough. So this was made and put on my office window:

Countdown's on!

Oh, and 4th of July was this weekend and I spent it in San Diego with Priya and Daniel and we had loads o' fun! Gaslamp is always a hoot.

Priya also got supplies for dosas and mimosas! It's a long story, but it was sweet, and she even let me be Commander in Chief all weekend long!

Now, go Germany!