Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving break was mellow. It was nice to have some staycation days. I like that most everyone has those days off too though, and you can do fun things. Like on Friday night, I hosted friends over for a Christmas season kick-off. We had tons of treats, wine, Del Taco, and decorated gingerbread houses over a horrible Netflix Christmas movie.

AJ got the hell out of dodge for that night, but Anana stuck around and tried to eat our houses on numerous occasions and was never far from the action.

We also made trips to the park and the bark park and took walks.

Last night I undid all of the relaxation when we hosted our neighbors for pizza and wine over the Steelers/Packers game, then stayed up super late working on my website and then reading Joan Didion and not getting to bed until past midnight. I feel like Anana looks here.

And that's what makes today suuuuuch a Monday.

Girls Girls Girls

I'm surrounded by a lot of girls in my life!

Here's my girlfriend Bryce hanging out with me and listening to my wedding dress shopping experience from that day...

and here are my sweet girls giving me the side eye waiting to be fed.

Oh and dream of all my dreams came true this weekend when I woke up to AJ delivering us Del Taco breakfast in bed. Of course a beggar came with that...

Just another day in the life!

A Night with David Sedaris

Yay! Tonight, my friend Shirley and I went to see David Sedaris talk at the UC Irvine campus. We had no idea what to expect. The title of the night was simply "A Night with David Sedaris" and the only "description" was simply his biography, so we went in a little blind.

Nevertheless, he delivered, and I have to say his presentation and in-person self is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from his writings, so I'm glad there weren't any disappointments. The night ended up being a bit of a reading, with mostly new material coming out (which was awesome) with a short Q&A, followed by a signing.

Because Jayna went to his badass signing in Raleigh and got a book signed for me, I didn't bother taking a book myself, and Shirley and I weren't going to stay for the signing, but when we were leaving the theatre, the line for the signing was right there so we just decided to jump in line and wait the 10 minutes. Shirley got her booked signed and I just took a post-it to have him sign. I had nothing intelligent or witty or funny to say to him, so I just felt a bit like a fool talking to him there. I wish I had known we would have that interaction and think of something but alas, I was just an idiot.

Anyways, that was a semi-dream come true. He is one of my true literary heroes!

November Weddings

I am exhausted. Even though it was a 3-day weekend, I don't even feel like I got a weekend. It's been nonstop since last Wednesday. AJ and I had only 3 weddings on the calendar this year, and two of them both fell on the same day (November 11). So we decided to divide and conquer that day. Lucky for me, the wedding I wouldn't be attending was an Indian wedding, so I got to partake in many of the other celebrations leading up to it, and only missed the American wedding ceremony, although it still included a grand entrance on an elephant...

On Wednesday there was a mehndi for the ladies

On Thursday there was a baraat (which we missed - it's hard to get to LA at 3pm on a weekday!) sangeet and Indian ceremony.

It featured Bollywood singers, dancers, performers, and even a live sitar player who was playing top 40 hits on the sitar. Let's just say they spared no expense!

On Saturday, AJ and I had to go our separate ways, and I went to celebrate the wedding of my best friend from high school, Alyse.

This ice cream truck was the highlight
of my life

It was so much fun, and on Sunday, AJ and I were both in sad shape for the majority of the day. I was lucky I got enough energy by like 4pm to mobilize, clean, take Anana out for a walk, buy some cat food, and then go pick up for pho for dinner for us.

But I suppose I would be remiss if I didn't also mention the other wedding stuff and that was Friday, November 10, doing my first round of wedding dress shopping!

It wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be lolololol and all I really accomplish was rule out of a few styles/silhouettes and realize that this was going to be a loooong process! Good thing I've still got over a year!

Modest Maestro

I launched a website. I've been working on it since early this year. I told myself I would start it in "fall 2017" and that came quickly and I never felt ready and finally felt like I needed to set a deadline and what better occasion than to coincide with grandma's 100th birthday? Especially since it was a Monday and everything too. So it went live yesterday. I wanted November 6 to be all about grandma though, so that's why I'm sharing this now. Feel free to check it out.

modestmaestro.com

Also, apparently grandma made it on TV? On Jayna's suggestion, I submitted her to the Today show for the happy birthday so I'm not sure if this person got confused, or someone else submitted her to ABC. Either way, this is the only proof we have.

Way to go either way grandma! And happy birthday to my future mother-in-law Debbie today!