Superwoman

Stick a fork in me! I'm done with my final paper for the quarter, which means I'm done with the quarter. Finally.

As I mentioned, last week was hard. (I've heard that the full moon made things crazy for Geminis.) I had to ask my professor for an extension on my final paper, which was due on Wednesday. He granted me an extension until Thursday. Then I had to ask for an incomplete. As he doesn't like to give incompletes, he gave me an extension until this morning.

Good enough. This may ruin my GPA that I've worked so hard to maintain, but good enough. At this point, I am not picky. In fact, I am so not picky that the paper I turned in didn't meet the page requirement at all. I am normally a much better student, but I also don't usually have a human being growing in me. One thing pregnancy has made me realize is that I'm not Superwoman. Not anywhere close.

So I spent the weekend sleeping and writing and reading and spending time with family and friends, trying not to dwell on the challenges ahead. Because even though the paper's done, there's still a mess of things to deal with.

I'd like 2009 to be simpler, please.

We had our gift exchange with Roy's family last night. Paul drew my name and got me this:



It's a toy camera kit that uses medium-format film and takes awesomely imperfect pictures. I'm extremely excited to add this to my arsenal. I've been wanting this for close to a year now.

Paul also got me two of these, except in classy, shiny silver:



They are perfect for the food-phobic.

(Thank you, Paul.)

We also celebrated Paul's birthday last night. We had yummy chocolate cake, and I loved the candles.







Happy birthday, Paul! And happy winter break to me.

Where is Leslie?

It's been awhile since I last blogged. And apparently, judging from the emails I've gotten, I'm actually missed when I'm not blogging! Thanks to those of you who sent emails or asked me where the hell I've been/what the hell I've been doing.

I've actually been doing the same thing I've always been doing. Work, school two nights a week, photo shoots on the weekends, etc. I think I sounded a little negative awhile back, but rest assured that I am not an unhappy camper - I'm just being a slug most of the time.

Anyway. Here are two things of note about today.

1) Today is my brother's birthday. Happy birthday, Wade! I'm pretty sure that he's 33 today. I sent him two cool things in the mail, so hopefully he'll get those soon.

Here's a picture of the birthday boy:



2) Today is also Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. I personally have never experienced this, but several people near and dear to my heart have.



The idea is for everyone to light a candle at 7 PM tonight, creating light for lost babies around the world. Sounds like a wonderful idea to me. I'll be in class tonight, but I will light my candle when I get home.

That's all I have for today. It's mid-October, life is good, and I'm tired.

The Amazing Miss Myra and Her Dirty Thirty Celebration!

We interrupt your previously scheduled macro week to bring you breaking birthday news.

It's Myra's 30th birthday today!

When Myra and I saw each other on Saturday, we squealed like a couple of teenagers. After all, it had been five months since she moved to Maryland, and we hadn't seen each other since. We used to see each other every day, so it has been quite the adjustment not having her around all the time. I totally miss her.

But she's here now! We got together and went out to Citrus Park to take some pictures that day. Then we came back and did some shooting around downtown Riverside. We had lunch together yesterday, and I am still holding out hope that I might see her tonight since she's flying back to Maryland tomorrow.

Anyway, I haven't done a lot of work on the computer this week due to two things: 1) my computer is a piece of crap, and 2) my back has been bothering me. So I don't have a lot of pictures from Myra's Dirty 30 session. But here are a couple.



As you can see, Myra let me tie her up. She's a good sport.



I took this one as a homage to a picture taken when Myra was 16. The picture was of her profile, and she was flipping her collar up. It was Myra's idea.

That's all I have for now.

Happy birthday, fwend!

Celebrating Me

I started this post awhile back and am just now getting around to finishing it. Normally, I'd just let it go, but since it was my birthday weekend (June 6-8), I figured it's worth writing about.

Anyway, my birthday weekend had all the elements I wanted: fun, friends, family, and relaxation. It was also a wonderful way to kick off summer, which hadn't officially started yet, but I was pretending it was.

Friday:

Work as usual. My friend Jessica bought me a present (some candy, sunscreen, a candle, and a beautiful card) in this lovely blue bag:



Crazy Daisy featured me on her blog in a weekly meme she's doing called Pay It Forward Friday. She had some very nice things to say about me, which made a good pre-birthday gift for me. Thank you, Crazy Daisy!

A group of us went out to lunch at the Gourmet Pizza Shoppe. I took a few pictures with my point and shoot, but they are really bad quality due to the fact that I had to use the flash. I'm too lazy to edit them. So, here you are: really bad pictures of some of my unnameable homies from work.



After lunch, I got some bad news. I found out that the graduate committee had not passed my thesis proposal. Naturally, this did not make me very happy and thus warrants a hopefully short tangent.

Begin tangent.

Hearing the news that my thesis proposal needs revision really kind of blew me away. Yes, I did not put a lot of effort into it this past quarter, but a lot of work went into it in the quarter before. I am very disappointed in myself for not working on it continuously throughout the quarter, because by the time I submitted it to my readers, they only had a short time with it before they had to let me know whether or not it could be sent up to the committee.

However, I am trying to be too hard on myself, because I busted my ass each and every day this quarter in my internship and fairy tales class. It's not like I was just being a lazy mofo. I was giving 150% to other things, which caused me to neglect my proposal. And to be honest, my proposal was good. It really was. From what I understand, the committee wants me to approach my subject in a different way. And well, no amount of good writing can make up for the fact that I'm not a mind reader.

The worst part? Because of this, I will not be able to resubmit my proposal until the fall. (The committee doesn't meet during the summer.) That means that I won't graduate in December. This has been very hard for me to accept. A week and a half later, I am finally beginning to come to terms with it. But I won't lie - it's upsetting.

End tangent.

After work, I went to get a massage. My back, neck, and shoulders had been giving me issues all week, so I called up my massage therapist Reuven and had him fit me in. I hadn't been to see Reuven since the day before my wedding (almost a year ago), so it was good to catch up with him. I am supposed to get monthly massages because I have a mild case of scoliosis, but as insurance does not cover it, sometimes I have to skip them.

As usual, the massage was wonderful, and I drove home feeling all wiggly.

A little later on, Roy walked me to Mandy's for a night of Bunco. Bunco is this really fun dice game, and Mandy is a member of a couple of Bunco groups. She was hosting the get-together for the month of June and needed a replacement. That's where I came in.

The theme of the get-together was "The Honeymoon's Over," pretty appropriate considering Mandy's recent wedding. Mandy served "moldy" wedding cake for dessert and put pimple cream on her face. This photo whore took a lot of detail shots:








But once the game started, I put down the camera and joined the party. I had forgotten how loud and screechy a big group of women can be, but it was screechiness I enjoyed. I had a really great time playing. I even won a prize for being the second highest scorer!

Paul and Mandy walked me home after the game was over. Roy had gone out for the evening but returned soon after me with a bag full of birthday goodies. It was about 11:00 PM, so I was able to rationalize opening my gifts before my actual birthday.

I was absolutely thrilled to see that Roy had bought me a new iPod. My old iPod was a third generation dinosaur that hadn't held a charge on its own in a couple of years. Now I have a brand spanking new 80GB iPod classic that I have named Silver Bullet. Silver Bullet and I are already great friends.




Saturday (my birthday!)

We woke up early (as usual) and went to the Farmer's Market with Mandy and Paul later on that morning.



I found a cool box from 1955 at an antique shop nearby.



After we were done, we went to Mandy and Paul's to see the dog they found.



Our original plans for the day were to spend the afternoon at the Huntington Gardens, but as we had plans for that night, we decided to stay local. I had developed a headache, so I spent the afternoon resting and watching our recent Netflix acquisitions.

Later that night, we all (me, Roy, Mandy, Paul, and Jake) piled into my mother-in-law's van and drove out to Orange County for murder mystery dinner theatre. I have been wanting to go to one of these events for quite awhile. It was loads of fun. On the way there, this was our soundtrack. (Just click it. You won't be sorry.)

We hung out in the bar for awhile before they let us into the dining area.



I noticed this man's very interesting hairdo.



I didn't take many good pictures during the dinner production. I was preoccupied with all that was going on, but here are a few shots (including the best one I got of one of the cast members):




All in all, I really enjoyed the performance and would recommend that others go and enjoy themselves. The dinner was good, too, but they piled all of the food together, which made me kind of lose my appetite. (Food phobias will do that to a person.) It was a really great way to celebrate my birthday, though. We even got to take a picture with the cast members.



I already have forgotten what we did on Sunday, but I seem to recall that it involved my being very, very lazy.

So that was my birthday weekend. It was a really great time - and a wonderful way to ring in the last year of my 20s.

i heart youtube, volume seven (birthday edition!)

Hi, everyone! In celebration of my 29th birthday, here are three of my all-time favorite videos.



If you haven't seen these next two before, you have to watch them in the order I've posted them.





In case you're wondering, and I know you're probably not, I am not really blogging on my birthday. I'm scheduling these posts ahead of time. Scheduling posts = probably one of the greatest inventions ever.

29

Twenty-nine years ago today at 9:55 AM, I was born.

I really can't believe it's the last year of my 20s. My life so far seems to have sailed by. Sometimes I feel I have little to show for the time I've been alive, but I know that's not really true. I have a husband, family, friends, education, passions, and a whole lot of books and Post-its. I am already feeling a sense of mourning for my 20s, but I know that life after this decade has a lot of good things in store for me.

I wrote a little something in honor of my birthday and the way in which I've grown as a person. (Actually, I wrote it about a month ago, but I edited it with my birthday in mind.) Although it mentions marriage, the poem is not about Roy, but his influence is there, definitely. I've included a photo I took of his eye, just because it fits (in my muddled brain, anyway).

I'm proud of this poem (or I guess it's actually more of a prose poem). It's rare that I write anything worth sharing.


29

I see you from time to time in my dreams. You stand small, a faded photograph of my self. Sometimes I awake without you, and I feel like you might have never existed. You and I have parted silently, divided only by the frailty of time. But here you are again, my strange familiar.

You are unassuming and slight, weighing only 100 pounds. You exist in dark rooms and speak through sideways glances. You long to fade away, but with each year, your legacy becomes richer and harder to bear.

You are at once the gasp of my heartbeat and its flat thudding, the disillusioned eyes that regard me with wisdom. You are my empty hand, laying palm up. You are the other, full of water.

You are married to me, and I to you. You are the reason I chase authenticity and my justification for rejecting idealism. I am simultaneously afraid and alive because of you.

You are wonderful and quiet as you sit there in the corner, and even now I don’t really know what to do with you. I was never exactly kind to you. You always ate darkness for dinner, inhaled depression as you smoked, and slept fitfully through black nights. I could not understand your obsession with shame.

You, old relic, dig yourself up by night and leave the room smelling of spent cigarettes and blue perfume. Everything about you is blue. When I choose this color, I am choosing you. When I choose this color, I am forsaking you.

****

Happy birthday to me and all the other June 7 babies (like Prince, or whatever he's calling himself these days)!

Triple Whammy

Okay, so today I have a triple whammy celebration going on.

1) It's Mandy's birthday! She is 31 years young today. Happy Birthday, Mandy!

2) It's the two year anniversary of our getting engaged! I haven't told our engagement story on my blog yet, so maybe I'll do that one of these days.

3) It's our tenth monthiversary! I won't lie: this month has been challenging for me. This is the first month where I've thought, "Hey, this marriage stuff isn't so easy sometimes." We are good, but there have been times this month that I've felt some tension and distance between us. Roy and I are complete opposites, and we don't know how to handle each other sometimes. However, I think the fact that we are opposites is a big reason why we are such a successful couple. We really do complement each other, and we respect each other's differences. Every marriage has its ups and downs, and frankly, there's no one else I'd rather experience those with than my cute li'l Roylet.

So, yeah. Today is a happy day.

Here is Roy's birthday picture.

Maybe a little overprocessed, but I'm experimenting in Photoshop. Plus, I like it. Doesn't he look really broody?

Happy Birthday, Roy!

Today is my husband's 29th birthday!

I took a picture of him yesterday and everything just for this post, but I forgot to upload the picture before I left for work. So here's an older picture of us; I believe it was taken in June 2007, shortly before we got married.

Anyway, 29 years ago, Roy was born! What an awesome day that was. I myself was still in the womb and wouldn't be making my appearance for another two months and five days. I wonder if I sensed then that my future husband had just been born...

Happy birthday, Roy! You are truly my hero and the most important person in my life. You've taught me how to love and why it's important to live life. I am so honored to share your life with you. Here's to many more birthdays and much happiness!

The Best 40 Year Old I Know!

Yesterday was Paul's 40th birthday! (Paul is my sister-in-law Mandy's boyfriend.) In honor of the huge milestone (and I mean that in the best way possible), Mandy planned a surprise party for him. Instead of giving him an overly adult party, she made it a party fit for a 4 year old - with game stations, fire truck plates and cups, and lots of balloons. Our friends Amy and Laura got Paul out of the house for the majority of the day so Mandy could set up. Roy and I arrived to help around 2 PM (after buying our new car). Everyone began arriving around 4, including Paul's mom, sister, and brother, who all drove a number of hours from northern California to surprise Paul for his big day.

Here are some pics of the setup:

Food table (before food)

Doorway to kitchen

Necklaces for winners of the games. The necklaces were Mardi Gras beads with a picture of Paul as a child tied to each. Whoever won the most necklaces got a $25 gift card to Target!

The banner Mandy had made especially for the occasion

The mini zero by the 4 on the above banner

Drink station

The main course (lamb). It was the bomb. I even ate some, even though I am not technically eating red meat anymore.

The cake, which I made (Mandy put the frosting and yogurt drops on.) It was a huge hit!

The disclaimer note by the cake

Favor bags

To keep everyone busy before Paul arrived, everyone settled in at different game stations and played like fiends. At our table, we played Memory and Hi-ho, Cherry O!




Finally, Paul arrived at around 5:45. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of him when he arrived, because Roy was using the camera for video purposes. But Paul was really surprised - it was great! (Video hopefully coming later.)

So afterwards we all just sat around and ate and hung out. It was a good time. We got Paul a framed picture of him and Mandy from our wedding:



And of course, we had to get Patty to take a picture of us as well:



Happy birthday, Paul! Here's wishing you a happy and healthy 40th year!