Well, pictures from September are finally uploaded to my flickr account (if you haven't noticed already ;-).
Sara's Baby Shower (9-12-09)http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157622334291593/This was the OC baby shower. Sara's in-laws were throwing another one on October 3rd (which I didn't end up going to). I only have a few photos as I soon was drafted to take notes while presents were being opened, but that was ok. :) Monica (my sis-in-law) was taking tons of photos throughout. (Official photorapher for the party and all that :).
The Match-the-Nursery Rhyme game (don't know if it had an official name or not, since I think my mom made it up - rules were based on the game of Pit :) was a lot of fun. It was definitely a mixer and got people moving about.
I didn't have time to make anything as a present (perhaps later), but two of the presents I gave were from ThinkGeek.com. :) I got my sister (as an early birthday present) this shirt:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/womens/bc2c/ and for the baby (my Niece!), this Onsie:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/kids/59cc/Awesomeness, I know! :)
My 31st Birthday (9-18-09) at Disneylandhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157622334350573/I spent the day with two friends, David and Elizabeth (Betsy) and had a great time. Got soaked on Spalsh Mountain, but it was a hot day, so it felt goo. Crowds weren't too bad, since it was a Friday (yay!) and we pretty much got on any ride without much of a line. Space Mountain & Haunted Mansion were down (both being 'fixed up' for Halloween/Holidays, I guess). Even had a break from the rides (and the heat) by sipping a Mint Julep in New Orleans. All in all, it was a good day. :) I also got sucked into the great deal they have for Annual Passes and went ahead and turned in my "Get In Free on your Birthday in 2009" ticket towards their cheapest annual pass: the So. California Select. Pretty much no weekends and July and major holidays are blacked out, but no biggie. :) Who wants to go in July (heat) or crowded weekends anyways? :)
HCA's 1870s Summer Afternoon Picnic (9-20-09)
(held at the Banning Residence Museum, in Wilmington, CA)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157622465941158/A lot of sewing was done to get ready for this event. I converted my sheer 1860s gown (with help from Maegen) into my 1870s outfit. But I still needed to make a bustle (undergarment) and the underskirt. And of course, besides small setback with sewing and working with a new (to me) pattern, there was the fact that my machine broke right when I was in the middle of the project and the deadline looming (1 week out). Fortunately, between having some PTO time left (able to take 1/2 days and a couple of full days off…one of which was used for my Disneyland trip :) and Maegen & Charlie allowing me to basically camp out at their place working (and using Maegen's sewing machine), I was ablet o get the outfit done in time. Yay! (Maegen threw together the hat I'm wearing in the pics, and made the brown straps for my overskirt the pull it up into an ‘apron’ in front, and also the brown belt).
The picnic itself was fun. I arrived about a ½ hr late (was getting ready with the Hensleys), but there were others still arriving so no big deal. It was a nice day, and we had lovely grass to picnic on in a large shady area – perfect! Downside –after a little while, I asked someone to take a picture of me with my camera, and to get a better shot for the picture I was asked to take a step backwards….which I unthinkingly did. Bad idea, as I quickly fell backwards (stepping on my trailing skirts and slipping on the slick grass with my 1860s boots – slick soles, no tread). Of course, the natural thing to do is throw out your arms to break your fall backwards, which is a BAD idea in my case, as I have repeatedly injured my left arm (around the elbow), so this fall re-injured the arm. (Elbow started to pop out of joint, and fortunately I was able to get it back in place as people assisted me up into a sitting position – the movement upward helped). Someone fetched some painkillers for me from her car, and Gina gave me a bag of ice from her cooler, so I could try to mitigate the pain. (Both helped, so thanks!) Maegen (and a few others?) joked that it isn’t an HCA event with me getting hurt in some way. :) Unfortunately, SO true!
At 2:00pm I joined in the tour of the house, since it intrigued me. A tour (with 4 Brits) had already started, but they and the tour guide kindly let me join in. While the rooms were neat, I was left feeling a bit disappointed as we went through very slowly and there wasn’t as much information given on some of the things I was interested in. (Also – I’d like to double check some information that my guide gave as ‘fact’, as I have never heard of it before in all my research…and I must say that I do like to research things for fun and know a lot of random and generally ‘useless’ knowledge). Between one thing and another (some confusion as to which order the rooms should be toured in with another tour guide flustered our tour guide, and getting off on a few tangents with the other people on the tour), I was starting to look forward to the end of the tour (and wondering if I should duck out early as I had been absent from the picnic for quite some time).
As I rounded the corner of the house, after touring the Garage/Stables/Blacksmith shop area in the back, I discovered everyone was assembled on the steps of the Front Porch to the house for a group picture! Ack! Barely made it back in time to join in! (I did miss a picture that was taken on the lawn just prior to this one, sounds like). No one apparently knew where I was. A couple people remembered I had gone on a tour, but didn’t realize it took SO long and thought it must have finished a while ago. Lana/lily was also arriving just as I rounded the corner, so we both got in the group picture (yay!).
Not too long afterwards, as there was no one for a 3:30pm tour, the docents started closing up the museum, and hence they’d start closing the grounds shortly afterwards…and we had to start packing up and saying goodbye.
Truthfully, I felt a bit cheated ‘cause I barely got to participate in the picnic itself (cause I decided to go on the tour – so my own fault – but that was part of the draw of this place, to see the historic buildings). But it seems like *everyone else* had a really good time, so that’s pretty much all that matters – it was a good event with a good turnout, which means we’ll likely repeat this event in the future. (Maybe same place, maybe somewhere else, we’ll see).
Sound of Music Sing-Along at the Hollywood Bowl. (9-26-09)No pics, unfortunately. (Brought my camera, but never did end up taking a single picture). I met up with a few costumers and friends for the Sound of Music Sing-Along at the Hollywood Bowl. Now *I’ve* never been to the Bowl before (that I can remember, at least), so it was a totally new experience. Since I was in the area, I visited for like 20 minutes with some friends in West LA (that I hadn’t seen in a while) before driving over to the Bowl. One person suggested that I park at Hollywood & Highland (in the parking structure there) as there’s a shuttle that leaves every 15-20 minutes for the Bowl. Sounded like a good idea (instead of trying to navigate the Bowl parking on my first visit) so I took surface streets to get there and got stuck in congestion on Highland trying to get to the intersection of Hollywood & Highland. (doh!) Besides Bowl traffic, something was going on at the shopping center and at one of the nearby places. (They had closed off a portion of Hollywood and I saw some banners saying “Jimmy Kimmel Live” hanging off a building). After getting into the parking lot, I kept asking for directions to the shuttle, but only got vague directions. Got my parking validated (bought chocolate at the Rocky Mtn Chocolate Factory :) and then I went to the 2nd floor where I was told to go for the shuttle…but then couldn’t figure out where to go from there. Wandered for about 20 minutes, and asked more people (who were clueless), and finally ended up going to Guest Services down at street level at the front. She knew what I was talking about, but then told me that since the Show (really was the Pre-Show) already started, she thought the shuttles were done until afterwards. ACK!!! I pestered her until she *finally* called over to the Shuttle area and asked if shuttles were still running…and the WERE, much to my relief. So I finally got good directions and made my way to the Shuttle stop, paid my $4 (ticket) and entered the bus (which was almost full). We were off within a few minutes and shuttled over to the Bowl. Upon arriving, I made my way to the stands in order to seek out my seat and my friends. (Phone calls to one friend were just going to voice mail, but with the noise in the Bowl, it wasn’t *that* surprising she didn’t hear my calls). I eventually found the section in which my seat was and joined the others who had already arrived. (I wasn’t the last to arrive, though – Rizwan & Hollee showed up like 5 minutes later, and their seats were next to mine) Turns out I hadn’t missed much by being late. The “Pre-Show” pretty much as a Costume/Fashion Show in which practically anyone that had dressed up for the performance was allowed to line up and take a walk across the stage, announced by the Host for the evening. Ok in concept, but BORING. Perhaps if it had been whittled down to only a small number (of really good/outstanding entries), it would have been interesting, but for a whole hour – definitely not!
The experience of seeing the movie on screen with a bunch of people was fun. (Though the jerks with the lazer pointers did make a nuisance outta themselves ‘announcing’ the arrival of each new character with fresh bursts of laser pointing at these screen/characters. Grr. Worse, though, was the angry rumbling from the crowd, as I’m sure that only was egging on those attention-seeking miscreants.)
I could have done w/o the crowd ‘boo’-ing or hissing at the Baroness, as the crowd was instructed (paper ‘invitation to the ball’ enclosed in the gift back we received upon entering). The Baroness really didn’t deserve that. Yes, she was looking out for herself, in trying to secure the Captain’s affections and getting rid of a potential rival, but when she realized that she didn’t have a chance, she bowed out gracefully…and that’s the point. She actually had class! Now Rolfe, however…TOTALLY fine with booing/hissing for his character! (Little Hitler Youth/Nazi-in-the-making, after all).
Overall, I really liked seeing it on the big screen, with a lot of people. (But I liked seeing White Christmas in the LA Theater, dressed in 1950s better :).
The Crosbys (and Amy C., since she carpooled with them), gave me a ride to my car so I wouldn't have to figure out which bus/shuttle was mine (in the mass of people crowding near the busses). Thanks guys!
By the time I drove home, it was near 1am (I think I managed to fall in bed around 1:30am), so needless to say I was tired! The night air didn't help my already compromised system and I wasn't feeing 100% on Sunday. (Just was a bit off). I had coffee that afternoon with my friend Becca Metzger (who was driving home to San Diego after attending a meeting up in LA county earlier that day) and then I ended up bringing dinner over to Chuck (Hensley) - stopped at Paul's Place to pick up food for me and him...and Rhiannon since she'd snitch fries from both of us ;-) - and visiting with him and the kids for an hour or two. Ok, so maybe I mostly visited with the kids. But that was fine by both of us - allowed Chuck some time to work on leather stuff and I got to have kids time. (Rowan was bouncing with excitement when he saw/heard me enter...he loves my voice! :) We had a fun time, but I made sure to leave like by 9:00pm so I could get some decent rest before the work-week started.
Unfortunately, I ended up sick. Started coming down with a bad cold on Monday, and ended up going home early from work on Tuesday (9/29) from how sick I was feeling - and not to share my germs with my co-workers (which they appreciated). Stayed home to rest/get better on Wednesday (9/30).
And that's pretty much what's been going on with me since my last blog post in September.
:)
