In honour of TBT, here are some pictures of me (and my sisters) when I was little. Please be sure to stop and admire the impressive volume my mother was able to produce in some of my side ponytails, that woman is a magician with a rat tail comb.
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| Things really haven’t changed |
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| hot stuff. |
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| I thought I was pretty hot in my belly shirt |
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| Don’t be fooled by her bunny nose, she will cut you |
I came home from supper to find this package from my sister:
A cute new shirt and shorts, VS bikini bottoms, cookie corner cookies, kettle corn, Benefit bronzer, Diorshow mascara, new perfume, a hand drawn picture of me that time I was in a movie, and lots of other goodies. One of the best and most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever gotten.
It is estimated that there have been about 3.8 trillion pictures taken, ever.
In the world we live in today, if you don’t have a picture, it didn’t happen. But sometimes, for whatever reason, you can’t take a picture. Maybe your phone is dead, maybe you don’t have a camera, maybe it’s an inappropriate time to take pictures, or maybe, for whatever reason, taking a picture of a moment might put you in danger in some way.
So I was delighted to come across this site a few weeks ago, unphotographable. The creator of the website, Michael David Murphy, posts short descriptions of scenes that were for one reason or another, unphotographable, but were still important enough that somebody would like to remember them.
Some of the posts are so detailed and descriptive that you can actually watch the scene unfold in your head. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then maybe a thousand words is just as good as a picture.
Here are some examples:
“This is a picture I did not take of a woman with a baby in her arms and a burping towel on her shoulder, walking up to the side of a vacant, foreclosed home in the middle of a neighborhood hit hard by mortgage fraud, looking up and down the street before turning-on the outdoor spigot at the corner of the house to take a drink with a cupped hand, and then, after wetting the towel, she began to carefully wash her newborn’s feet.”
“This is a picture I did not take of a man in Atlanta wearing a yellow Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” t-shirt while selling drugs beneath the freeway, half a mile down the street from the house where Dr. King was born.”
Friday was my birthday, as you probably know by now. I had such a wonderful day. I woke up to presents and kisses from Derek, had supermarket birthday cake for breakfast, and then went to work where I had cards, peanuts m&m’s, chocolate croissant, and macaroons waiting for me.
I went out to lunch with a group of my wonderful coworkers and had the best margarita of my life, followed by cupcakes in the afternoon.
Derek picked me up after work and we went to little Italy, to an Italian restaurant called Firenze, where I had seriously amazing ravioli. After supper we got cappuccino’s and wandered around North Beach, and stopped at an adorable little candy shop.
On the way home, we stopped on Treasure Island to see the new light exhibit that is up on the Bay Bridge. It was pretty neat, but I think you can see it better from the city side, so I’ll have to check it out on Thursday when my parents come to town.
I had such a wonderful day, thanks to everyone who celebrated with me.
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| all things birthday |
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| sometimes you have to wear a sombrero |
Happy Birthday to me.
It’s strange to me that I am 26, I still feel like I am 12 most of the time, and honestly I haven’t changed that much since I was. But time keeps passing even when you don’t notice it, and it’s pretty crazy to me to look back now at my life, especially since I graduated high school.
I’ve met so many incredible people, and had so many wonderful experiences, I am truly grateful for all of it. If you had told me at 12 that I would have had the opportunity to do so many of the things I’ve done, I wouldn’t have believed you, but I would have hoped you were right.
Highlights from this last year, for me were:
– Finally being able to get a job in the U.S., and finding one that I like with wonderful co-workers was definitely a bonus.
– My mom and Ry coming out to visit us and see our new house in June
– Getting married in July, and getting to see all of my favourite people in one place, at the same time
– Running my first solo-half marathon in October
– Our road trip down the coast to Carmel for Derek’s birthday
– Taking Derek back to Canada with me to see my home town in November
– Mexico with my family for Christmas
– Hawaii with my mom and sister in January
– A road trip to L.A. with Derek in February
This year I am looking forward to:
– My parents coming out to visit in a couple of weeks, this will be the first time my Dad has been able to come
– Hawaii in May for Derek’s graduation
– My best friend moving to Oregon, so I can stalk her on long weekends
– Fourth of July weekend in Montana with my older sister and her beautiful babies
– A September long weekend wedding
– The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in September with my momma and sisters, go Team Ta-Tas!
And lots more.
If you were thinking of getting me something for my birthday, but you weren’t able to get in touch with Charlie Hunnam, you could sponsor me for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, here.
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| yes. |
This weekend I took a painting class in Oakland. Basically, each class has a famous painting that the teacher shows you how to recreate. I’ve always wished I was more visually artistic but I’ve never been able to draw, I have it on pretty good authority that my dogs always look like cows.
The class was actually really fun, it was nice to do something different, and I promised myself I would try to take more classes this year. What I didn’t expect what that it was actually really peaceful and relaxing, I thought it would be stressful trying to do a good job, but since the likelihood of me actually recreating a Van Gogh painting perfectly was very small, it was just a fun activity.
I would love to do more painting in the future.
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| My colours |
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| blank canvas |
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| half way finished |
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| done! |
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| the instructor’s recreation. ours are basically the same, right? |
Happy 16th birthday to my little (although bigger than me now) brother, and one of my favourite people in the world. I can’t wait to see you in a few weeks!
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| my little brother and sister at the beach. Sweet mullet, Ry. |
I feel very lucky to have an amazing family, a great job, a comfortable home, and a wonderful husband, who I embarrassed quite thoroughly with my last post about him, so I will just say that he is OK, I guess.
I came across this video on Facebook yesterday. It really hit home for me. I think the older you get, the more you can be concerned with what you “should” be doing, rather than with what you are really passionate about doing.
It can be easy to scare yourself into thinking that the things you want aren’t possible, and that trying to achieve them will only lead to failure and heart ache.
But maybe if we learn to let go a little bit, veer off the path, and accept that we might not get exactly what we want, but that things might be OK anyways, we might get something even better.
Last weekend it was so gorgeous outside that I didn’t want to spend a single second indoors, so I loaded up on plants and spent most of my time playing in the dirt.
I spend so much of my time inside lately, and I love to have a place to hang out outside (read: tan and drink margaritas) so I always like to spruce up our backyard in the spring.
Aside from the constant terror of spiders (I’m not really afraid of spiders, but the ones here in California are SPIDERS. I saw a black widow once) it was very pleasant and relaxing. I even bought myself some gardening gloves.
I am pretty much a floppy hat and some Crocs away from being every grandmother in a movie, ever.
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| When life hands you lemons, just say fuck the lemons and bail |
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| Using all the strawberries from these two plants I can make the world’s smallest strawberry shortcake |
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| I love my orange tree, but I’m afraid to eat the oranges, I don’t know why |
loveliness. 
