more from the party

The night started off with dinner at Mars. Yumm-ola.
We then spent the rest of the evening enjoying the weather and the view of down town Austin from the roof top of the Belmont.

The cast of characters from the evening include the following:

Cody


Josh and his imaginary girlfriend (just kidding….she was there in “spirit”)


Dale


Laurie


Colin

Marna


Reyna, Juanita, and Christina


Juan

Oh, and I was there.

I don’t even know how I am going to do this. I have a trillion pictures. Do you want to see all of them? Hmm….We can break it into a few posts, I suppose. I am feeling pretty lazy, so let me just add a few more before calling it quits.

v
I would so make a great zombie.


Your fly is down….


“Tell Juan I am NOT drunk!”


I don’t do shots


“Ok, maybe I am a little drunk”


“So I says to him, I says, HEY BUDDY YOU CAN’T WAGGLE THAT THING INFRONT OF ME AND NOT EXPECT ME TO FLIP YOU OFF!”

More to come….

31, son!

Oh man. I am still recovering from my bday. I had such a great time. Reyna and I shared our bbday celebrations as she turns 28 (I think) on April 1st. I turned 31, yesterday.

Birthday gals

My mom asked me if I felt any different being 31. I told her I do. For the first time in several years, I celebrated my birthday as a non-student. It felt great. I am in a good place in my life. Here is my list of good (it’s edited down to the top 6)

1. I am married to a wonderful man.
2. We have a house.
3. We have a great dog.
4. I have a great job.
5. I have awesome friends.
6. I am no longer in school (YES!).

So you see, turning 31 was truly a celebration of where I have arrived after my 31 years of life. I feel different, yes. I feel content. I feel like I climbed a huge mountain and opened a door. Through the door, I see many opportunities and choices. I am excited and at peace at the same time for what life may bring next. It may sound cheesy, but it’s true. I just wanted to share.

Don’t worry, my next post will be one filled with photos and stories about the birthday celebration. You can see how and why Reyna and I ended up like this:

more SXSW

Let’s pick up where we left off. Ok, so we just vacated Trophy’s in search of some better music.

Relief.

As we walked down congress, we came upon a street band. They looked like drag rats but were playing beautifully. There were maybe 10 of them…unfortunately, Dale only took pictures of a few instead of a group shot. He is getting a pay cut for that.



I tipped them a few bucks and we continued north down SoCo. The continental club was our next stop. These dudes were playing:
The two best things about that band were the slide guitar player and the lead singer's coat. He had one of those awesome rhinestone jobs done on that sucker. I can’t remember the design….no pictures. Booo!

We had fun.

Then, we went home. Our feet never touched 6th street this year. Some what disappointing, I must say. Next year, we MUST rent a hotel in the down town area. It’s just too much trouble to drive all the way down town and back when nobody wants to be the sober one.
But
I
Digress

I did get this shot of Lee:

So sweet.

Oh, and Dale did make snacks…


So that was cool.

The best thing about SXSW is the company you keep. We had some good company. Wait a second…
I am totally lying! The best thing about SXSW is the MUSIC and we missed most of it!!!
DAMN!
Just not in the cards.

The company was a close second.
Very close.

We’ve got a lot of catching up to do

Let’s start with SXSW, shall we?

Wednesday night, Dale and I wanted to see the Black Keys play. WRONG-O, Buddy. My back was hurting something fierce, so we had to cancel. That really sucked. Day one of SXSW: FAIL!

Thursday night we got dressed and ready to hit BD Riley’s to catch a showcase.
Here is what I wore:

Looks like I was sinking into the floor, no?

Too bad we ended up at BB Rover’s instead, where we saw rude waitresses but no live music. SXSW day Two: FAIL!!!


Friday, I can’t really remember what happened. We did not go down town. We did not see any shows. SXSW day Three: FAIL!!!

Saturday, we finally got our asses in gear and ventured to South Congress. We started out at Freddy’s Place for some grub. This baby played air guitar as the band played “Barracuda”


Speaking of the band….it was a Grrrl band. The lead singer sounded like Melissa Etheridge. They were ok….but not really our thing.

Lee, Juan, and Dale at Freddy’s.

They forgot about us at Freddy’s so it took hours to get our food. When we were finished, we decided to walk to Trophy’s to see what they had to offer. We have been there before and have seen amazing band’s there (e.g., The Lions and White Denim). This time….not so much…

Apparently, the showcase that evening was dedicated to……
Grrrl bands. They ALL sounded like Melissa Etheridge (ok, we only heard two bands…they play short sets). I chatted with this Sax player for a bit, and she was very cool:

Still…..not really our thing. Oh, and we stuck out like a sore thumb in that joint. Especially the guys, if you know what I mean. Here is Lee as he comes to the realization that we are smack dab in the middle of the uh….*ehem*…ladies night…


So we downed our beers and took off. Oh, here is one of the ladies:

Rachel, Reyna, and myself. I have no Idea if I am spelling your name right, Reyna. Please let me know if it is incorrect.

Did the rest of our night go as dismally as the beginning? Tune in later to find out the answer.

HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY!

Monday, monday

Dale, Lee, and I posed for this picture at a recent Lions concert:


PJ and Kristi, a.k.a. “photo bandits”, decided to hijack the picture by sneaking in to the background. Do you see them? Pretty slick, if I do say so myself…..and I do.

I thought it was pretty funny.

Want to see one of my favorite pictures of all time?

Here ya go:


Oh my gosh! I love that!

In other news:
It’s spring break, fella. Awwwwwww yeah! Lee is coming down on Thursday for some SXSW action.

It’s raining like a mofo. My dog will not go outside for a bathroom break. I take him outside, but he refuses to do his business. He does not like the wet ground. I am not sure what I am going to do. I think it is going to rain all day. Great. My house will soon smell like a toilet.

It is all I can do, right now, to not sign up for a tanning membership. I know, they are dumb but I really want a little color in my skin. I am resisting, thus far, but do not know how much longer I can hang on.

I think I am going to crawl back into bed. You guys enjoy your day.

10 inches, baby

I cut my hair this past Friday. 10 Inches gone in one cut. No, I did not donate to “locks of love”. I thought you had to have at least 12 inches to give. I guess I was wrong. Maybe next time.

Here I am taking a few picture of myself, for you to see, but I don’t think the picture is taking because the flash is not going off.




I finally figure it out. CAMERA WHORE TIME!



Ah, the photo edit…


And the profile


I tried to get one of the back of my head, but no workie.

I love it. You should see it when it is straight. Don’t worry, I’ll show you later. I like it better curly, but straight is fun as well.

In other news,
Miss Bean is bringing blogging back. Bean, let me know if I can post your blog address…or, just post it in the comments. Stick around for a while, this time. You were born to blog.

I feel like an ass when I use the word “blog” as a verb.

In other, other news..
I want to punch all of the American idol contestants in the face.
Especially the guys.

That is all.