Is It Fall Yet?

That's the name of a Daria TV movie which I love, so I'm happy to be able to use it now.

It's supposed to be fall, and the weather did take a turn a few weeks ago, but today it's getting up to 106. In Irvine. This is actually insane. And not very fall-like at all. And fall is my favorite season, so this is very rude. Because of this, we will just have to continue to hash out summer. Jayna's wedding pictures came in and I don't want to put up many without her approval, so I'll just give the people what they want: me.

What can be better than an outdoor, backyard southern wedding in the summer? Answer: nothing. This is/was my happy place.

Those were in no order whatsoever because I literally have zero time to be doing this right now.
 And to catch you up on other things, here are other happenings:

My mother and grandmother

Khaleesi's owning the place

Khaleesi was playing then got territorial when Anana came over

This is how I look when I take my makeup off

Me: "AJ look!"

AJ: **Looking and judging**

Wise little Buddha kitty on her perch!

Warming up to AJ (finally)

Our digs

Pre-partying before Knott's Scary Farm for Jon's birthday. They all went to Knott's. I went home. I hate that stuff. Pre-partying was fun though.

By the way, if the Falcon's win tonight, I'm in for some big money. So let's go Atlanta!! I don't have time for these shenanigans, I need you to deliver!!

Housewarming!

My Friday high was so high, today's Monday low is pretty low.

Friday was freedommmmm!! And Saturday was all work and cleaning while AJ and I got ready for our housewarming party that evening. I underestimated how much work it was going to take! I showered and got ready in a frenzy and had just finished putting on jewelry when our first guests arrived.

It was such a nice evening, inside and out in the backyard. AJ BBQ'd ribs and other meats, and I put all my culinary efforts into opening bags of chips and jars of salsa and putting them into nice bowls and bringing them out to the tables.

The highlight was probably when our friends showed up with one of those bottles of vodka with the LED screens on them and we took turns putting messages into it and showing it off. I think this is the only single picture that I got from that night.

Sunday was Week 1 of football which meant an early wake up call to get to the friends' house for RedZone kickoff (which we missed - oops- lolololol).

We were both still so tired from the party beforehand though...

Yes, you are seeing six men and a baby watching Redzone

I was scrolling through Instagram on my phone when I saw that raccoon picture, and when I looked up, AJ looked like he was in the exact same position, so I created this masterpiece collage and texted it to everyone

Took a nappy nap and were harassed by friends and kitties, ha! I think I'm more offended by AJ's suffocating arm than by the kitty!

And it was Jayna's bday on Sunday - HAPPY BIRF SOUL SISTER!!!!

Work and Khaleesi... In That Order

Well hello from my land to yours.

Have I ever mentioned how much I really believe in the notion that bodies in motion, stay in motion? I was getting pretty stagnant in Riverside, but with things having picked up steam in Irvine, I'm more energetic and active now. Work is insane, so I have to work out (even if I did take two weeks off because I got sick) so I'm doing bootcamp classes with Kathleen. I spend evenings walking Anana, or taking her to the dog park, and on Wednesday of this week, AJ and I went to our friends' place to play Jeopardy with them. I hadn't been out on a weeknight like that in a long time!

Here's a small snapshot of my job. On top of marketing, website design and editing, in-office support, swag buying, and thousands of other things, I am in charge of coordinating the logistics for all of our international events. One event alone includes fair registration, payment, materials shipping, scheduling, promotional materials creation, powerpoint presentations, securing a local alumni translator... and more. There are multiple events our travelers go to in each city. As I'm working on making sure everything is squared away for upcoming events, I also need to be supporting the current events and helping the travelers with anything that comes up while they are abroad, confirming their schedules, tracking lost shipments, directing them, etc. And here's what a month looks like...

In case you can't read that, we have travelers in India, England, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Brazil this month. Next month we have events in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand... and they're still signing up for more! Oh joy!

In other news, Khaleesi got a new cat tree, courtesy of our friends Jon & Nykole and their lovely cat Derek Zoolander who outgrew it...

And she has over taken Anana's bed...

And that's all from me. It's finally the weekend....!

Celebration of Life

I never published this, I just realized it's been sitting in my drafts. It was from this summer, when we went to Hermosa Beach for AJ's stepdad's Celebration of Life. And it was a celebration.

I think those pictures of me going to town on those tacos over my beer pretty much summed up the summer.

August This Year

Here was my August, I think:

Finished up moving out of my Riverside apartment, with the help of my mother...

We showered my cousin for her upcoming first baby with an adorable Twinkle Twinkle Little Star theme...

I showered my very good friend since middle school (and yoga bud!) for her upcoming first baby

Continue to move into the apartment, which Khaleesi loves, although I'm having problems with this fiesta decor...

And more weddings! A Saturday night wedding in Costa Mesa with an open bar proved to be quiteeeeee enjoyable. And I've been inducted to the Uni OG Babes group, and here was the celebration of us all, yahoo!

 

And a fun couples shot...

And I guess, aside from the whirlwind of my job, that's been my August!

SUMMER OLYMPICS!!

It's here! It's here! My absolute favorite time of every four years! The best years of my life are always when the summer Olympics are on!

Life has been IN-SANE. I am so exhausted and fatigued sometimes I just want to collapse. This is the first time I've felt like I've gotten to just sit down in over two weeks... even though I am still doing stuff from the chair. But I am so excited and content and entertained to sit here and watch the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics and get excited for the next 2 weeks ahead with the Games.

I love the Opening Ceremonies - you see all the cultures, all the flags, all the athletes, and I love watching the map that shows you where the countries are at, and all the crazy facts and stories that you get from the commentators, even if they are such cheesy people. I always get The Feels and The Chills watching the Olympics. I love it, and I love the worldwide collaboration.

I've started this tradition with myself of watching the Opening Ceremony and tracking all the countries. It started with the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I had just gone to Germany a few weeks prior and got really sick, so I could do nothing but stay in bed, so I ended up watching the Opening Ceremonies and just writing down each country in the order they came in. I have no idea why, I really have no explanation, but I loved it. I can't believe that was 8 years ago now!! Anyways I repeated it with the 2012 Olympics. I was working at Columbia University at the time and always kept a screen open on the side of my computer, and I remember tracking the teams again.

Also of note, I have a vivid memory from the Beijing Opening Ceremony of a performance with a person using their arms and legs to create giant calligraphy. It was beautiful, but somehow the biggest thing that stuck with me. For London, it was JK Rowling reading Peter Pan, which was appropriate since that was my Year of Harry Potter. For this one, I think it was the favela dancing. Who knows, we'll see what sticks.

ANYWAYSSSSSSS just wanted to say that I'm still alive. My new job has me so busy I don't have a free moment to click outside of my email, and then I've been working on all the unpacking and moving and cleaning stuff, but I have to say I'm very happy about it because with the whole political climate and everything else, I am just sooooo overrrrrrr anyone's opinions or commentary, so I've been happier just staying off of it. Ha.

Someone please tell these athletes to put their damn phones down! YOU'RE THERE. YOU'RE ON TV. EVERYONE IS WATCHING. IT'S DOCUMENTED. YOU'LL FIND ALL THE FOOTAGE FOREVER. PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN AND ENJOY THE MOMENT AND LIVE IT!!!