This post contains a Christmas tree. Yes, I am aware it is November 9.

The dueling pianos!

Girls of the night :)

Pre-Games. That's me with my back towards the camera and shiny ponytail!

The tower I made! Unfortunately, I did not down-stack well.
Nor did I do it under a minute.

The weekend was mostly taken up by a massive 3-birthday celebration - myself and 19 friends went downtown to one of my favourite places ever: The Shout! House!  It's a dueling piano bar that's so much fun. It's pretty dirty and sexist, but all in fun.  The pianists are absolutely amazing, and you get to request songs and all that jazz.  They even call out audience members who are texting or not paying attention! Which makes me nervous, but so far, so good.  Tons of fun every time I've been there.

After that, we headed back to our friend's house to do some Birthday Minute to Win It games (kind of like my brother's birthday that I showed here) - lots of fun. I love how everything always seems easy, but ends up being so difficult!  Like that stupid cup tower pyramid in the photos that I built - so much more difficult to do than expected. But we were speculating that our cups weren't the best because they were odd shaped and sticky.

All in all, incredibly fun, and I'm reminded that I'm really lucky to have some amazing friends.

I also put up my first tree of the Season!

The Charlie Brown tree! It's been sitting on our dining room table since my brother bought it for me in January as a late Christmas gift, and I put it up since I'd never assembled it before.  I intended to take it down because even I think it's a bit early to decorate for Christmas - but it's so freakin' cute!!  It hasn't been taken down yet, so we'll see how long that stays...

Still hoofing it through my NaNoWriMo novel.  Started incredibly slow, since I didn't even start working on it until the evening of Day 2. Have had a few rough days, but as of right now I sit at 17,554 words!  Which means I'm ahead of schedule!  I found out I'm losing more days in November than I previously thought, so this is good - hopefully I can still finish on time.

How's your week going so far, my dears?  We're halfway to the weekend!

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Parties and Pictures!

Short post today as I'm still absolutely exhausted from the weekend festivities of brother's birthday - which was a resounding success!  A few hiccups of course, but all for the better in the end.  Unfortunately my sleep schedule just did not hold up and in 72 hours I managed roughly 13 of sleep; the rest were running around gathering materials, planning, coordinating, driving and actually going through all the activities.  Note to self: next time, give yourself more than 3 days to get your shit together!

Pictorial evidence of what I've been doing the past few weeks!

Brother's girlfriend's birthday party - Princess/Adventure Time-themed.  If you spot me, I know it looks like I didn't dress up - but I swear I did!  I'm Marceline, from Adventure Time.  Reference:

Disneyland Halloween!  My first time doing the Holiday circuit at Disneyland, which is sad since I'e had an annual pass for quite some time now. But that's ok. It was wonderful and filled with that Disney magic we all know and love.  Lots of pumpkins and WAY too much candy to even think about.  For those that don't know what it is, the Park closes to guests at 7pm and only those who purchased special Halloween passes can enter - all the rides are open, and they set up stations throughout the entire park that hand out candy to you.

And yes, I am the bright blue blob: aka, The Fairy Godmother from Cinderella!  That costume was a biiiiiitch to make. Seriously, never using Costume Satin again.  But it turned out relatively ok, and it was easily recognizable so that was good; I even had a bunch of little kids say "Oh my God look mom, it's the Fairy Godmother!" and a few picture requests! And bonus: I got to carry a wand. Who wouldn't want that?!

Brother's surprise birthday party!  He never makes a big deal about his birthday, so this year me, his girlfriend and two of our friends decided to pull together and throw a surprise day for him. It was originally supposed to be a Scavenger Hunt spanning San Diego, North County San Diego, and Orange County, but somehow it morphed into a day of Minute To Win It based games. Not what I really wanted, but a blast nonetheless!  There were several typical games, a few multi-player games we adjusted ourselves, and a flour-based game (as you can see from the picture) that I feel was good in theory, but perhaps not in execution.  We finished the day with a delicious Lucille's BBQ dinner in Irvine/Tustin and cake/board games back at our house.  Exhausting and frustrating and a headache, but totally, totally worth it.

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Time to celebrate

Happy Birthday, Brother Bear!
you always did rock. (yeah i said it!)

 Today is my brother's 26th birthday.  I cannot believe he's 26...where's the time gone?!  I understand I'm the younger one, but it's still terrifying to know he's getting older.  Seems like yesterday we were having water gun fights with our neighbours in Belgium when I was 5 and he was 8, or we were playing Scattergories in the TLA while we waited for our permanent housing in Italy when I was 9 and he was 11, or we were facing off in bowling league when I was 11 and he was 13...

So far the plans are unknown, but we know it involves cake--which really, what else could one need?!

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I am not ready for this week.

Notes for the day:
- saw someone at the mall purchasing a poledancing pole.  I'm not sure what concerns me more: the fact that it was a teenage boy, or that they sell that at the mall.
- accidentally pocket (purse) dialed 911.  oops?  The girl was really nice when I told her it was unintentional.
- writing inspiration struck for the first time in months.  Unfortunately not for my NaNo Novel, but for articles at least.  So, hurrah!
-jeans shopping is the bane of my life (alongside traffic).  Especially when you're short and chubby.

Obviously, I was at the mall today.  It was a half-hearted attempt at shopping for clothes for myself (which is, on the whole, unsuccessful 98% of the time) as well as an equally as half-hearted attempt at finding my brother a birthday present.  He's just a hard person to buy for.  He has very specific interests and likes -- which you would think would make it easier, but for some reason it's incredibly difficult to find something within those parameters.  He plays the guitar, he works at Panera and likes basketball.  Made worse by the fact that he's one of those people who buys things for himself when he wants them, and the choices are getting even slimmer.

Anyway.  I am not ready for this week.  I have to work an extra day (normally I only work 3 days) since a coworker has to be somewhere, and the prospect of working 4 full days seems so much more ginormous than working 3.  Even though last week I went in on my day off, too.  (I know, woe is me for having to work FOUR WHOLE DAYS.  I get it.)  I was planning to use my two days off to search for brother's bday gift, but I'll just have to shove everything I can into that last day.

The only thing seemingly redeeming about this week is the weather.  It's supposed to be rainy and cold all week, and I am so excited.  I love colder weather and am so glad that it means autumn is officially here.  Holiday season is on the brink! (Or is already here, if you go by department starts and Target and whatnot.)  Plus, this is a bit morbid, but usually this time of the year my city is freaking out about Santa Ana winds and dry weather.  The end of October is a particularly dangerous and harrowing time in terms of wildfires (Firestorm 2003 and the Witch Creek Fire of 2007 that burned my suburb were all this same time those years), and the fact that it's raining and wet is very good for us.  Therefore, yay for jacket + scarf weather and yay for no fires!

Hope everyone else's week goes well!  Any exciting plans for anyone?

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Filling in some birthday blanks!

Alongside the busy life, I've managed to once again aggravate my wrist problems (this time from tennis--must remember to wear the wrist brace!) which has put a major dent in the blog overhaul plans. This is getting annoying, but...what can ya do? I'm content to just read blogs and adore everyone's writing and inspiration.

Fill-in-the-Blank Friday is all about birthdays since Lauren (the lovely hostess) recently celebrated hers! Make sure you go over and wish her a fabulous belated birthday, even if you don't play along.  And even though we know I'm not too keen on my own birthday, I adore celebrating others'!  Happy Birthday, Lauren!

1.  Birthdays are fun. But only when they're not mine. I'm a bit of a downer and find my own birthday stressful and disappointing. But when it's friends' birthdays, party on!

2.  My favorite birthday memory was Downtown Disney my first year of college. It was kind of a weird time in life, and the dinner itself was pretty disastrous (waiters clearing the tables early, overpriced for underyummy food, a lot of drama, people coming late, etc), but the fact that I had 40 people come out for me was really special. I felt loved.

3.  A birthday tradition I (or my family) has/have is dinner at the restaurant picked by the birthday girl/guy. It's kind of typical and not that exciting, but as we grow older it's nice to have all 4 of us together for dinner since it's becoming fewer and farther between.

4.  If I had to choose one birthday meal to eat for the rest of my birthdays hence forward, I would choose pizza. Plain cheese or bacon & onion (unusual but delicious!) or margherita.  Homemade, store bought, ordered (not from Round Table though), doesn't really matter. It's simple and tasty and satisfactory for everyone!

5.  My birthday is on March 19. I am every bit a Pisces--which I view as a good thing, but others have alluded to otherwise. Someone once told me I'm a Pisces with an Aries temper (since I'm a day away from the split)...I didn't know how to take that.

6.  If I could take a birthday trip I would go to St. Tropez. It's getting old that I keep choosing there, but I love it so much. It's beautiful and peaceful and I have such good memories of it.

7.  The best gift I've ever received for my birthday was a trip to San Francisco with my best friends to go visit another best friend. It was our first big trip together by ourselves, and it was a fabulous time.

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I have to say I'm 23 now.

Back at our apartment in Ickenham (I think...somewhere London!)

Me and my brother, back when we were wee young kiddies.  I was trying so hard to hold up that cake...so proud.  Weren't we freakin' adorable?  My brother especially.  I don't know what happened to both of us...such potential.

As noted, it was my birthday this past Friday (much thanks to those who wished me a happy birthday!), but things have been kind of strange with the responsibilities stacking up that happens when a military kid turns 23.  I did get to go to a lovely dinner with my family on Saturday night, and I was able to go out with a small, select group of friends Friday night for a yummy dinner as well.  There was drama, and I did get a bit upset so it wasn't the best of nights, but overall it was a rather decent run.  It definitely beats the birthday I was dumped (6th grade! So naturally, I was heartbroken beyond belief) and the birthday my first year in college when I had a final and later found out I indeed failed the class--which was not only the first university class I ever failed, but the first class I'd ever received lower than a C on in my entire life.

Oh 19th birthday, you slay me.

Anyhow.  Don't say "aww" to me or feel bad, because I've never really cared too much about my birthday.  The fact that I did something for it pretty much makes it much more memorable than most of the rest.  Next weekend will be the full celebration with my friends, so hopefully I'll have some fun stories and pictures to share with you then!

No pictures of these last two dinner celebrations (I was entirely too focused on the pizookie from BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse and the delish barbecue sauce and apple butter from Lucille's.  So bad for me, and so good for my taste buds), but I do have pictures of the two gifts my family gave me!  They're footing the bill for next weekend's birthday celebrations, so I was quite surprised to have received these things in the first place!  Apologies for the small, crappy pictures; I was too lazy to use my real camera so I resorted to my crummy webcam.

excuse my chipped nailpolish! and the reflection of my computer screen

We all know I love penguins, so it was natural for my mom to choose this for me.  My walls in my bedroom are disgracefully bare, so I'm excited to hang it.  And, it is pretty freakin' adorable!  Her co-worker makes these, so it's even more personal for us.  I took a picture of the detail (again, sorry for such shite quality!) so you can see that the penguins are actually scrolled paper.

And from my brother...as I told David, I have a soft spot for Wall-E.  I love him, I love the film, I pretty much love it all.  And most especially, I love the Microbe Obliterator, aka MO!  I mean, he's small, he's cute, he's the cleaner of the ship and maintains the proper order--what wouldn't I love about him?!  One of my favorite parts is when Wall-E puts his foot/tire tread onto MO's face and he has a freak out..ugh.  So cute!  Which made this little gift perfect.

I want to take him out of the package, but I don't want to ruin him!

My family knows me so well.

Before I close out this post, two things to take care of:
1) Thanks to [another] David for the One Lovely Blog award!  I never thought the order of me following someone would pay off :)  And I am very glad, because you have quickly become a favorite!

2) ABC Family had a Harry Potter marathon this entire weekend.  I'm not sure if this ruined or made my days.  But they did show sneak clips of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1), which I am going to consider a personal birthday gift from ABC Family, Disney Co., and all companies therewithin.  Thanks!

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