Monday, February 27, 2012

California Gurls

You guys aren't going to believe this, but I think I might be a baby person.

Well, let's not get carried away. I'm a baby person when it comes to babies in my family.

Finding this out was something of a surprise for me; I never thought I had any kind of affinity with or towards babies, in fact I just don't have much experience with them at all. I'm the youngest person in my immediate family and haven't spent a lot of time around my friends' children. I always thought of babies as something that were utterly adorable in the abstract, but a major inconvenience in reality. I also figured I would be like Miranda in Sex and the City: I would love my own children to bits, but other people's kids would just get on my nerves.

Well, after spending a week with my nephew James I can say that sharing DNA with the kid appears to make all the difference because I became a baby-lover for sure. I wanted to hold him, feed him, read to him, play with him, basically everything except change the diaper because that's what parents are for, amiright?

 Aunt Maggie and James!

 And the most surprising part: he seemed to like me right back. He would coo and smile and would let me hold and feed him without a fuss. I was also shocked by how "with it" he seemed for six months. He loved to reach and grasp things and kick and try to move around. He has a huge noggin so he wasn't quite ready to hold up his own head, but it was clear he was a three year old trapped in a three month old body. I could tell that James just wanted to jump up and run and dance and color and read....but he's just not quite there yet.

'Sup world.

But don't think that I went all the way to LA and only played with the baby (thought that was the clear highlight). I'm fortunate to have a bunch of friends that ended up in the LA are so my brother moving out there was very convenient as it guaranteed I would get out there a couple times a year and be able to catch up with peeps from high school, college, and even people I met after I started working downtown.

Saturday night we all gathered at a bar in Universal City (near Universal Studios, of course) and had some drinks, food, and some impromptu dancing when Footloose came on. I mean, it's Footloose. You can't just sit there, right? And then I had the brilliant idea that we needed to get a picture of us all jumping in the air which turned into kind of a disaster.

But we FINALLY got one of us all in the air!

 After chilling at the bar, we went back to my friend Patrick's place for some good old-fashioned Saturday night B-movies. You thought I was going to say something different didn't you? The SyFy channel is always there for you when it need it, and we enjoyed Swamp Volcano and Stonehenge Apocalypse. You should actually look up Stonehenge Apocalypse. It's kind of amazing.

And the fun didn't even end there! My sister-in-law Amanda's brother and his wife flew down from San Francisco for the weekend so we could go to a small club on Friday night and see Felicia Day (from Buffy and The Guild) and her improv group perform. Not to sound like too much of a nerd, but it felt like kind of a quintessential LA thing to do and the show was pretty funny. We even liked the opening act, a group called Lost Moon Radio, that had a truly epic rap about the awesomeness of Jane Austen.

 Hammer Improv

 Felicia Day, sadly out of practice at Improv.
 Me and Katie outside Torrance High School where Buffy the Vampire Slayer was filmed. We're giving out best slayer poses.

 In the end, I was sad to leave but I was reassured by the fact that I would be back in about 7 weeks when Mom and I got back to LA for her birthday in April. More family, friends, and beautiful weather...yay!

Monday, February 06, 2012

Party Bus MOTHERFUCKERS!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Costa Rican vacation coverage (which I swear I am going to get back to soon) to bring you this important news update:

I AM NOW 32 YEARS OLD.

I know, shocking right? How did this happen? I guess 32 years went by when I wasn't looking.

There's only one way to celebrate such a momentous occasion. PARTY BUS, MOTHERFUCKERS!

That's right! This past Saturday night we loaded up a Kegbus (delightfully tacky) with 20 or so peeps and hit the mean streets of DC. The bus came complete with a sound system, cooler and sink, and dance poles--though the company dubbed them "safety poles." HA, yeah right.

Selvi had the brilliant idea of making a scavenger hunt for us, and our first stops were by the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial. We took some fun pictures and enjoyed some beautiful scenery before we made some more stops at a pub and Ben's Chili Bowl. By that point, the scavenger hunt had kind of broken down, so we just spent the rest of the night driving around downtown and dancing on the bus. As God intended.

I can't remember having a funner time; what could be better than rocking out with your best friends to Lady Gaga, having people lick alcoholic whip cream off you all night (seriously), and watching your friends rock the "safety pole." Special shout out to Carly and Mike for their sweet pole moves. Not a euphemism.

But a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

 On the bus and ready for action!

 On the outside it looks like a regular school bus, but don't be fooled....

There might be another job in Mike's future...

 Someone really liked that whip cream...

Dancing and hanging on for dear life! 

The danger made it all worth it.