Picture of the Day Update

So, it's two days until the end of January, and so far I really truly have a picture for everyday. It's harder than I thought it would be, because some days I'm just not doing anything interesting enough to photograph, and other days I am but didn't bring my camera (or the rechargable batteries of the point and shoot died... at three different inopportune times).

But I've decided that no matter what, a picture will be taken. Even if it's something stupid that I have to scrounge around to find. Like the lone present under our still-up Christmas tree on Day 28. Or the picture of Jenna eating the white chocolate covered pretzels that I had thrown in the trash the night before on Day 29. And of course, there's always the fallback bathroom mirror picture.

Disclaimer: There are a few that obviously I didn't take myself, like the one below where Brittany got me trying to photograph the moon. But what rules say I can't use those kind of pictures? 

Inspiration

Inspired by my two new favorite coffee shop cohorts (you know who you are), who spent a lengthy Tuesday evening discussing their goals for the future year, I decided maybe I needed to step it up a bit on my own goals.

Which is why you can currently find me at the Rancho San Diego Starbucks, camped out on the couch, surrounded by books, my laptop, index cards, and two sugar-filled, but not coffee-related, drinks. (The first one came free because Jenna works here; the second one came free because the girl who made it made a completely different one on accident and gave me both. I think I like this place.)

Unfortunately, I didn't plan very well, because although I have all the above mentioned stuff, I forgot to take the SD card that I keep all my current documents on out of my main laptop and transfer it to this little guy. So I don't know how productive I'm being exactly, going off memory, but I'm here, right? We'll call this little trip a brainstorming session.

Anyway, I kind of like it in here. It's quiet, but not deathly silent. Jenna's here, and it's fun watching her interact with customers and her fellow baristas. I knew about half the people present when I first walked in.

I think I'm gonna like it here. :)

Confessions: Volume 3

I'm watching American Idol right now.

I think that says it all.

Currently enjoying: a peaceful, quiet night all by myself at the good ol' apartment. That hasn't happened in awhile. :)

Another Year of Magic

And it was a splendid start. Two groups, three cars, and four hours after the scheduled departure time of 8:30, we finally all met up at the Matterhorn. The list of friends today:

Brittany, Ryan, Jenna, Alicia, Andy, Aaron, Jarrod, Beth, Taya, second Brittany, and Shawn. It was quite a group, but everyone got along super well, so it was way fun.

Disclaimer: There are a lot of pictures here and they are all out of order. I do not have the patience to go through and chronological-ize them.

First picture is actually the last picture. Here's Brittany posing in front of Crush the Turtle in one of the parades.

This is so not a good picture, but it's the only one I have of us in the front row of the Aladdin show. Jarrod sweet talked the guy at the door into letting all 12 of us sit front row center since it was Taya's birthday month. It was crazy.

Andy and I gearing up for the show.

Cool castle pic #1

Cool castle pic #2
Cool castle pic #3
This is the time when Jarrod took a picture of himself while the camera was still around my neck.
Jenna poses cutely, and Andy has that face.
The actual first pictures of the day: Waiting it out for Space Mountain, Round One.

Apparently the Gap photo shoot carried over, because doesn't Ryan totally look like he should be in a Gap catalog here?

Picture of the day, courtesy of the B-Cam!

So here's the story with the teacups: Jenna, Beth, and Jarrod wanted to get a cup going super fast, and I got recruited to photograph the experience, since the teacups have no effect on me as long as I can stay focused on something. Seriously, I went once with Jon Morse and Adam Peterson, and those two can get those teacups going like I have never seen before. They're the reason I know to focus on my camera when I'm on that ride.
Unfortunately for me, there was just one little second when I got thrown off focus. And it caught up to me a few hours later, and I couldn't eat anything until the queasiness finally lifted around 11:30pm. Blast those teacups.

But it's okay, because we got some rad pictures:

Jenna loves the teacups.


So do Beth and Jarrod.

Maybe Jarrod loves them a little too much.

This is always one of my favorite posed pictures! The Matterhorn!
And that's it. Until next month!

Testing...

... to see how these new frames work out....

Meh. Not bad.

Confessions: Vol. 2

I hate In'N' Out.

Their burgers do not taste good to me.

Their fries taste bland.

The only item on their menu I find at all delightful is their milkshakes, but that's because a milkshake at a fast food restaurant is pretty much the same as a milkshake at any other fast food restaurant.

So why go all the way out to their one of two East County locations just for a milkshake?

Some people travel miles just to go to In'N'Out. I don't understand these people. If I'm craving a burger that bad in the middle of the night, McDonald's is right down the street. And their burgers are cheaper. Or Jack in the Box. But really, Subway beats all of them anyway, so why even bother arguing about it?

Five on Friday

1) I got my hair  cut yesterday by the wonderful Jenafer. It was so time; the last time she cut it was back in July when she convinced me to go short (which was sage advice, Jen). It's been so long that I've taken to curling it almost everyday just so no one can tell how uneven and abominably straight it is. I love the new cut, but then, I always love it when Jen does it, because she's just so darn good at it. 

Unfortunately, no one noticed my haircut.  And I ran into more than a fair share of friends yesterday. I'm going to take everyone's indifference as 'my hair must have looked fine all this time' and not as 'nobody pays any attention to me.' 

2) Apparently Superlatives on Facebook are back in style. Here's what friends are saying about me today:

What Friends Think of You

	Jessica Best thinks you are Most Likely To Steal a Traffic Sign
	Jessica Best thinks you are Most Likely To Know the Entire Dialogue to Every FRIENDS Episode
	Jessica Best thinks you are Most Likely To Get Out of Trouble by Smiling
	Justin Gibson thinks you are Most Likely To Giggle for NO Apparent Reason
	Justin Gibson thinks you are Most Likely To Be the Most Creative
	Justin Gibson thinks you are Most Likely To Have a Blonde Moment

Okay, I'll fess up to most of these, but I ask you, when have I ever stolen a traffic sign, or what about me has given the impression that I would?

3) I got a second parking ticket today. Darn, stupid, blasted 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month for street sweeping! We don't even live on a high traffic street!

I tell you, if I was going to steal a sign, it would be that one.

4) The first TV Thursday of the year was good. We'll be doing it again next week at the girls' place, and then (fingers crossed) hopefully the week after at Ryan and Andy's new apartment.

5) I know a lot more about sales tax than the normal person. I have done research, people. I have spoken to representatives from the State Board of Equalization to make sure I know my stuff. Case in point: I just sent back our 2008 sales tax return to our accountant because it is WRONG. All wrong. And costing us like $50 more in district taxes we don't even owe. Come on, Accountant Dude: I practically wrote the book on district taxes.

See what I have to work with here?

Katelyn asked me to take some cute couple pictures of Brian and her. This is the last one. It is blurred because Brian can't stand still, and we're outside in the dark.

But seriously.

Reinstated: TV Thursday

Just in a new locale: the girls' apartment.

It's not quite the same as Ryan's. There was a feel to Ryan's apartment that just screamed, "Bring your laptops and recipes and watch hours worth of television while sipping delectable Coke Zero!"

We've got the laptops. We do not have the hours of television. Just one little half hour, watched in real time. The Office, we've decided, is worthy to carry TV Thursday all on its own.

(We also have caffeine free coke instead of Coke Zero. See? Everything's changing.)

More blog entries to come, because for some reason TV Thursdays always make me post more often than usual. Like, five entries in one night. I think that was my record back in May.

I was at Cosmos, and now I'm at Starbucks

Because that Dead-Last Brian or whatever I re-named him two posts ago, actually picked to go on last tonight, even when his name didn't come up last for once. What is with that?

So I hit the road.

Actually, Ryan and New Friend Chris showed up, because I had promised them ample room to read peacefully, and it turns out an overwhelming crowd of Cosmos open night mic-ers made a liar out of me. (Next week I'm getting there at 5:45 to get that darn corner table! You watch me. Just watch me.) So we walked down the street to calm, peaceful, apparently smelling like a nail salon, Starbucks.

Fifteen tries to get online later, and here we are. You gotta love that Starbucks.

PS- Sorry, Brian, for ditching you. You may not know yet, but I've left. And we'll see about next week.

PPS- Katelyn, wish you were here. I might have suffered through for you. But not for Brian.

So me.

Also titled, What I Did on My Day Off:

1) Slept to 9:30am
2) Went to work. I know, what's a day off if you still have to go to work. Don't worry. I was only there for a 20 minute meeting. Then I had the entire day stretched ahead of me, with no plans. So I improvised.
3) Went to Costco. I'd searched from 10am-10:30am for my box of contacts, as I am currently in desperate need of a new pair. I searched high. I searched low. They were nowhere to be found and I was starting to panic. (Contacts are expensive.) Then I thought to myself, Did I even pick them up from Costco last month? And the truth of the matter was that I had not. Fortunately, Costco keeps them for you, even if you're a goof like me and don't pick them up for thirty-seven days.
4) Went browsing at Barnes and Noble. It was crowded.
5) Went to Cutter's Point with Jenna and Jenn-without-an-A. We're still here. And I remember all the reasons why I love Cutter's Point more than Starbucks, besides the free internet and glorious natural sunlight. And yes, I'm working on my writing... in between checking facebook and reading other people's blogs... I've got like 125 words written.
6) Uploaded a few POTDs from the last week.

Explanation: Britt was going to toss this magazine cutout of John Krasinsky, but graciously asked if I wanted it. I told her if I found an 8.5 x 11 frame I would. I did find said frame, and said John is now displayed very prominently over my desk.
Explanaton: Time was running out for this POTD, so I simply set the camera up to take a picture of the room in general, where Ryan and I had been watching How I Met Your Mother episodes for hours. And Jenna came in right in the middle, and totally made it in the shot. I love it.

Explanation: None needed.

The wonder

of purple summer

RIP Spring Awakening

The New York Broadway company of Spring Awakening closed tonight. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I LOVE the touring cast so much, I don't think I'd even care to see the current NY cast. But it's the principle of the matter; the show is closing. Tony award winning shows should not close after just a year and a half. It's not right. 

Stinking economy.

I've got a secret. A good one.

Ten points to the first person who can tell me who said that quote!

In the words of Jo March (from the musical, not the book), "I've made an important decision today."

Also, something is afoot.

This vague and noninformational message is brought to you by Ryan Prades' Facebook status updates. And the letter Q.

I am normal.

Went to Cosmos tonight with Katelyn and Brian. As is the case on Tuesday nights, Brian was playing for open mic. I've gone a total of three times since July. "Dead Last Brian" as he will henceforth be called, of course was slotted to play the grand finale. The picture of the day comes from the first ten minutes of our three hour wait at the coffee shop, and I just love Katelyn's face so much here that it beat out a picture of Brian actually playing. Such is life.

So while waiting for Dead Last Brian to do his thing, I hunkered down at a corner table with a book just in from the library: The Forest for the Trees (An Editor's Advice to Writers). It's good. Definitely kept me entertained for three hours and about 10 not very good performances. (Seriously. One guy was singing about dinosaurs.)

According to this book, I'm exactly the type to be a lifelong writer:

1) Have a new idea almost every day for a writing project? Check.

2) Begin sentences in your head while walking to work or picking up dry cleaning? Check.

3) Everything strikes you as a story to be told? Check.

4) Always writing, if only in your head? Check

5) Impulse to write at a very young age? Oh, those long, lone ten-year-old nights with the typewriter.

6) Intensely verbal or intensely withdrawn? I am both of those things to an extreme, in case you were wondering.

7) Accused of being too reflective? Do you people not know me at all?!

Congratulations to me! I am normal by the writing standard!

I really liked this quote, by Martin Amis: "You develop an extra sense that partly excludes you from experience. When writers experiene things, they're not really experiencing anything like 100%. They're always holding back and wondering what the significance is, or wondering how they'd do it on the page." Is Martin Amis reading my mind?

I guess that quote translates into my life somewhat like this: I often wonder how differently I'm seeing things from other people. For instance, when my roommate and I are in the car, driving through the neighborhood, and there's a boy and girl walking out of their house and disappearing behind a vine covered wall off the side of their yard, does my roommate automatically come up with the story that the vine covered wall is their secret passage to a secluded and restful garden, one where, in the midst of all the slummishness and graffiti covered signs of our La Mesa neighborhood, they can find a truly peaceful atmosphere to share their deepest secrets and past histories, because they are best friends in the truest sense of the word, having met only a week prior through a series of destiny defining events?

Or does she just see a boy and girl walking across the yard? Or does she even see them?

Cuz that's my thought process all the time.

Maybe it's just me and Martin.

Confessions.

I really like musicals.

I really like soundtracks from musicals.

And when I'm the only one in the office, as has been the case for the past two days, I rock the musical soundtracks all day long. I also sing along. 

I try not to sing too loudly, though, because these walls are pretty thin, and I don't want the people at the family ministry next door to hear my private concerts. It's like singing in your car; you don't want everyone to hear you, and that's why you do it there. 

In the rotation today:

Wicked

Spring Awakening

Hairspray

Lea Michele's rendition of On My Own

P.S. One of my new goals is to meet Lea Michele. That girl seriously rocks On My Own like no other. (Also, does anyone else think in that video she looks more like a girl disguised as a Jedi, rather than a girl disguised as a Revolutionary from Les Mis?)

Project 365.

So here's a sampling of pictures I've taken for 365 so far. I've decided I'm not posting every picture, as about a quarter to half of these will be random, around the house, "oh, no, I forgot to take my 365 pic today and now it's 11:45pm!" photos. And I'm sure there's only so many self portraits taken in the bathroom mirror that you want to see.

So I'm only putting up the fun ones, or the ones that tell a story. Or the ones that are just rock your socks off aesthetically pleasing.

Picture 003 is a reminder of a fun night I had last week when I was still feeling a bit under the weather. I think it was like 6 in the evening, no one else was home, and I was snuggled on the couch with my down blanket, the new energy efficient heater, and the fifth Harry Potter movie, which I'd just picked up from the library. I don't often watch movies in the dark by myslef, but it just seemed so right in this setting.

Day 004: My laptop was in major need of a cleaning. But I am not one of those types who will just wipe the screen with anything (ahem, almost everyone I know). I also don't like spending $10 for cleaners. So I found a great "recipe" online to clear the dust off LCD surfaces. One trip to Walmart and around $2 later, and I had me the ingredients for a homemade laptop screen cleaner. I made extra, so if anyone's ever over to the ol' apartment and needs a good laptop cleaning....

Day 009: This is what boys do at our house. I suppose we could have entertained them better... (Actually, this would be a good time to point out that what Ryan is doing in this photo is creating his blog. Hooray! The moment of conception for You Wanna Laugh, It's Too Absurd, the latest and greatest blog title inspired by Spring Awakening lyrics.)

Day 010: So technically this pictures comes from the same gathering, but fortunately we know how to party and this photo was well into the second hour of January 10. (Yeah, we know how to party- we are partyin' fools with that Office trivia game!)

Photo 011: RIP Chargers

Day 012: The first day I truly almost forgot to take a picture! Instead of succumbing to the noncreative self portrait, I luckily had a nice stack of books right next to me that tell the tale of the project I'm currently working on.

Here's where I explain my project, in vague details, because those are the only kinds of details I offer about projects I'm currently working on.

I'm working on a children's book (hence the 2009 CWIM). It's actually going to fall into the young adult category, but pretty much anything geared towards 18 and younger is considered to be in the children's publishing domain. The Book in a Month book is this awesome book I picked up last week with the Borders email coupon. Basically, it's a walk-through of prompts and plans and... homework, if you will, so the task of writing a book is more structured, for those of us who prefer structure in our lives. You can choose to go hardcore and really write a book in a month, or take one of the more mellow routes which leads you to a well-developed outline. I chose the second one.

Normally I don't post about my writing, or what I'm writing, or how often I'm writing, mostly because I assume if I put it out there, then some people will inevitably come back with, "So how's the writing coming?" In which most cases, I'd have to answer either, "Yeah, um, it's okay... I'm a little stuck... the ideas... they're mulling in my head right now," or the more honest, "Yeah, I haven't really added any words to that thing in over a month now."

I've made the mistake of telling Jenna my goals for writing, and Jenna is very good at keeping people accountable. I don't like letting Jenna down when she asks me how my book is coming along. But, you know, maybe that's what I need to finish. People asking me. Bugging me. Getting in my face and asking why I watched discs two and three of The Office instead of sitting at my keyboard and adding words. Any words.

So, my loyal friends... I hereby give you permission to ask me about my writing. (And question my Office watching expenditure.)

NPH on SNL! NPH on SNL!

So it's a peaceful night over here at the ol' apartment. Andy texted us awhile ago to remind us that Neil Patrick Harris is the host on SNL tonight. Which means we invited him and Ryan to come over at 11:30pm to watch, because things like that are best shared with people, don't you think?

So far there have been numerous "Hey, Neil, wanna know how I met your mother?"' lines, and NPH has come out as an awesome aroebics instructor and Mark from Rent, in a spoof on all the Broadway shows that are closing this month. (I was just lamenting to Ryan about the tragedy of that.)

I do love me that NPH.

Word(le).

I discovered this awesome site yesterday. Or the day before. I don't remember. Anyway, I just noticed that it's popping up everywhere else, in my other favorite blogs and other cool websites I like, so I am apparently way behind the curve here. Or else everyone else is catching up at the same time. Whatever. The site's awesome.




If you want to make awesome word images like my beautiful 'don't do sadness' banner at the top of my spiffy blog, this is the place. Just make sure you read the FAQs or you won't understand how to make certain words bigger than others.





The wonderful world of Wordle.





And since typing the above, I found the awesome blog feature. Instead of typing in all your words, you can copy/paste the link to your blog in the second box and it will automatically make you a wordle based on the words commonly used in your blog. How neato is this! I went ahead and did mine, and here it is:

Look at that... it's me in like 100 words. Apparently 'new' is my most used word on the ol' blog.

I also tried out some of your blogs, cuz I'm sneaky like that, but I won't post them here, because what's the fun in that? But they're good. Real good. So go do your own wordle and post it on your blog!

For those who need help turning it into a jpeg, or just getting it off wordle, the best way I found is: 1) Click 'Open in Window' and then maximize the pop-up window, 2) do a screen capture (the prt sc button next to F12), 3) open some kind of picture editing program and paste it into a blank document. I use Photoshop Elements which I know most of you don't have but I think there's some kind of editing software that comes standard with Windows.

If worse comes to worse, just save it to the wordle gallery, and send me a plea for help. If I'm feeling nice I'll screen capture it for you and send you the jpeg via e-mail. And I'll probably be feeling nice.