Brisingr

Due to be released September 20, 2008:

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

I used to think that I would change. I thought that once I got to college and joined a sorority I would all of the sudden like wearing make-up and dressing up and I thought that once I moved to L.A. I would all of the sudden enjoy "going out" to trendy clubs until the early morning hours. I'm not saying I haven't become more open to these things after being exposed to them more in my day-to-day life but I think I can safely say I haven't really changed - I still enjoy function over fashion when it comes to getting ready at the beginning of the day (tattooed eyeliner anyone?) and I would much rather get up at 5am than stay up until 5am (sorry Katie). Realizing this has made it all the more fun to embrace the things I enjoy doing on the more nerdy end of the social spectrum with the money I am not spending on clothes and with the extra hours in my day that don't have to be devoted to sleeping off a hang-over. Wednesday night that meant playing Drag Queen Bingo. Mark May invited me out to a fundraiser for Reading to Kids at a bar in Hollywood (yes, I went out to a bar in Hollywood!) called Hamburger Mary's that has a bingo tournament every Wednesday night in support of a local charity - drunken bingo is fun, but drunken bingo hosted by Drag Queen's with dirty mouths who call themselves the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (which is what I will be naming my Gasparilla crew someday) is awesome.

The Getty Center

Duncan has a friend in town this week (Gareth) but since Duncan is not a nurse, he has to work all week which leaves Gareth stranded in his apartment. I didn't have to work today and I have been looking for an excuse to visit The Getty so I volunteered to take Gareth there this afternoon. I was on my way over to pick him up when I noticed advertising banners attached to the streetlights along Wilshire informing all of L.A. that the Getty is currently featuring sculptures by Bernini.... hmmm... why do I know that name? Where have I heard that before? And then it hit me, Angels and Demons! Bernini sculpted the Altars of Science for the Illuminati! I think this is Hollywood's subtle way of hyping the new Angels and Demons movie but I am not complaining one bit because we had an amazing time. Duncan and Gareth went to architecture school together at UF, so while Gareth was busy drooling over 'lines of sight' and other highly nerdy architect things, I was pretending to be Vittoria Vetra... it doesn't get much better than that.

Smoke on the Water

I signed up for a scuba class in September and the price of the class includes the gear rental (wetsuit, tank, etc.) but there are a couple items of "personal gear" that you need to own, these include: fins, booties, a mask and a snorkel. My favorite part is the fins because the model I chose is called 'Smoke on the Water'... lets be honest, I chose them because they were called that but whatever:
I would also like to point out that yes, I am trying to smile in this photo but the mask suction on my face leaves me looking permanently surprised and the mouth guard on the snorkel makes it look like I am growling, I am not wearing my booties because I didn't want to untie my shoes but you get the idea.

80's Night

Jay and Laura went to an 80's themed party this past weekend and Laura couldn't resist sending me a picture because "it was exactly like a social! Only everyone was married..." Oh how we miss Kappa Delta.

Wicked LA

Yes, its still awesome. Jeff didn't know what hit him...

Lake Chelan Vacation

From Julie:

Our Annual Summer Family Vacation was in Washington State this year. Dan (and Family) and Katie couldn't make it, and while we missed them a ton, not coming probably saved them a lot of money on ibuprofin, massages and chiropractor appointments that we now have to have because of the injuries we all incured following Paige's advice on how to really enjoy the watersports.

Marshall and Belle are cuter than ever! Most days started with Belle yelling "Faster Daddy Faster" on the boat.

And, it was a blast to be on the water everyday and in bed by about 9pm everynight.

From a Well Rested and Still Sore Julie

Dodger Game

This was during my week of being sick so you will have to excuse the fact that I look a bit scraggily but I couldn't pass up a free ticket... come to think of it, maybe it was the 32oz beer and "Dodger Dog" that healed me and not the neti pot, hmmmm...

Les Miserables

I got home last night from vacationing in Washington state (pictures soon to follow) just in time to meet up with Ashley and some other girls from the unit to see Les Miserables in concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I had an amazing time a few weeks ago at the Bowl so even though I had no idea what this play was about I was excited to get another chance to go... well I don't know if it was the vacation mindset, the day of travel or the three glasses of wine I had before the play even started but I could not follow the story line to save my life. I don't think it helped that we were in the nosebleed section again (it turns out that being able to see individual people on stage is far more important in a play than it was during the concert!) or that the only plot hint I was given before the music started was "it is about miserable people in France during the revolution" but I ended up listening to my ipod during the second half of the performance. Surprisingly enough, I found the play slightly less confusing with a John Mayer soundtrack.

New York!

Just back from visiting Katherine and Sheldon in NYC where we managed to cram as much into two days as humanly possible... Started out at Jane Street, where Katherine is doing her summer internship.
Wow.
There are no photos from there because a) I would have looked like the biggest goober and b) all that stuff flying across about 600 computer screens is proprietary information. Uh, okaaay.....
We walked a bajillion miles, ate incredible food, saw Patti LuPone starring in "Gypsy" (omg - what a VOICE!), got lost in The Strand (way cool bookstore), Sheldon channeled Elvis at Masquerade Costumes, lunched at the Starlight Diner (complete with singing wait staff), saw Times Square, went to Little Italy and Chinatown (where we purchased really nice, reasonably priced, Gucci bags from the guy behind the fake door in the sketchy shop storage room.. again, no photos. Guess he was camera shy. Weird.)
I was inordinately proud of myself for successfully negotiating public transportation to and from the airport - yes, I do realize that many, many people do this on a daily basis. Still - I take my victories where I can. I had so much fun and our Katherine is truly a New York kinda girl!