2011 Part Three: Another year older.

 In July, I celebrated my 24th birthday by taking a trip to the Wimberly Markets (it was hot) and going to a wine tasting at the Duchman Family Winery (it was a lot of wine). This fabulous winery in located in Driftwood... Spicewood Springs. Somewhere close to Wimberly. 

Cheers! 

After eating two (three??) baskets of free crackers at the tasting, we decided our tummy's needed a little more sustenance and headed to the Mandola's next door for some delicious pizza- cheese-prosciutto-olives-bread-oil-Italian yumminess.  

Ladies sitting on the fountain. Fun fact: Holly, Carmen and I all have birthdays within 2 1/2 weeks of each other.

Footloose came to the Zilker Hillside in July, and so did we, large blanket and picnic basket in hand. Being the picnic n00bs that we are, Carmen, Adam, Tanya & I packed a bottle of wine, some teddy grahams and a box of mike and ikes.... a combination strangely reminiscent of what I took with me when I tried to run away from home at five (minus the wine of course). Oh, and we didn't eat dinner before hand. Very smart when you are sitting outside for three + hours on a typical hundred degree Austin summer evening. Thankfully, Melanie brought a boxed red and white wine (duh, no glass bottles at the park!), some fancy cheese and crackers, an assortment of Godiva chocolates, two bags of gluten free chips, and a container of grapes.  I love the two girls photo bombing in the back in contrast with the father/son duo trying so hard NOT to photo bomb in the front.

After the show, this stunning southern belle let us snap a picture with her! Meg, that wig is strangely reminiscent of the young Evita monstrosity of your high school days...

 
 Moving along: Adam drank wine out a shoe and then installed our ceiling fan. Well, perhaps not in that order (if this was a highlights magazine, you could circle his curly head in the right hand photo).  Please note the demolished Justin Beiber pinata on the broken futon, it speaks of good times gone by.

The end of July also marked our 1 year anniversary in the apartment. We started to get all spring cleany (except in the summer time) and that led to a huge closet purge, which in turn led to selling a good lot of our furniture (remember the broken futon?) on Craigslist... which of course then led to buying a heck of a lot of new stuff for our apartment, including a dryer, some curtains, and a matching couch and love seat. Being an adult is v. exciting.

Well this doesn't quite look right, does it? So, let's just say we had a little couch buying mishap... let's just also say never buy anything from a furniture store that rhymes with Blooms to Grow... and Craigslist is awesome. Anyway, somehow the stars aligned one evening and we found ourselves with three love seats (one not pictured because Tanya is standing on it to take this picture) and two full size couches. Not girls to let an opportunity like this pass us by, we staged a moving photo jumping from couch to couch, and when that wasn't enough, we took a video. Here is that video:

Epic, no?

Oh, and don't forget Nigel's still cute.

2011, Part 2

In February, we hosted a 'Creepy Valentine's Party'. It has been a longstanding (3 year) tradition to watch scary movies on Valentine's Day, so we decided to take it to the next level by making creepy valentine's... yes, that does say "Your liver is beautiful." This party was inspired in particular by the 2011  horror flick, The Roommate, in which a psychopathic Leighton Meester pierces her own ears, puts a kitten in the dryer, and becomes obsessed with, you guessed it, her roommate. Classic tale. Saw it happen time and again as an RA. 

The Christmas caroling kitties made an appearance as a center piece for the event... not sure what to say about the pack of gum leaning up against the middle one.
                           
For Explore UT, our department mixed up about 500 pounds of cornstarch with a enough water to fill an 8 x 4 wooden box with Non-Newtonian fluid, a substance that acts like both a liquid and solid such that you can run across it, but if you stand for more than few seconds, you sink. Translation: hours and hours and hours of fun. I wish I had gotten a better picture of this-- this was the little girl who wound up in the Statesman, and she was so dang cute.


 In April, Deborah and I spent four days traipsing around New York, seeing the sights, spotting the celebrities, and just generally painting the town red.

I met my longtime love (and namesake of the beta fish I had all through college), yes, YES, that is Norbert Leo Butz. Oh, you haven't heard of him? He was Fiyero in Wicked? Jamie in the Last Five Years? The brother in Dan in Real Life???

Anyway, Deborah and I saw him in the new musical 'Catch Me If you Can', which was fantastic, and then he obligingly let me snap a picture with him at the stage door after. And when I say obligingly, I mean he all but rolled his eyes and then made that lovely half smile/grimace. 
Debs and I also waited for three hours in line to get front row tickets to see tiny little Daniel Radcliffe in 'How to Succeed in Business Without Trying'. This is me, about two hours in, sitting next to a banana peel. Worth.it. The show was so much fun, and we were close enough to see Daniel spit into the audience each time he said his t's!  Other highlights of the trip included attending a taping of the Wendy Williams Show (also in the front row!), shopping on 5th Avenue, and lots of yummy food.

 On our last day in New York, he pried ourselves out of the tiny, dirty, quite possibly unstable bunk beds in the hostel where we stayed and walked up to Central Park to drink our coffee and soak up our final few hours in the city.


Showing our respect at the Met.


I think that every trip has some kind of hiccup-- there are just too many variables when you travel that the universe feels obliged to mess with you. This is where our hiccup began-- the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had allotted three and a half hours after leaving the museum to run back to the hostel, grab our luggage, get to the subway, and be on our way. When we left the Met, it was pouring-- and I do mean pouring. There were people everywhere, and we got turned around   trying to find our way to the subway, which had not happened once in the four days we had been there. Deborah suggested that we hail a cab... which was unfortunately also everyone else's plan. We finally got someone to stop, and low and behold, it was the one cab driver in New York City who didn't know his way around. After getting stuck in traffic for a good fifteen minutes heading in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go, we asked the driver to just let us out. We made a run for it-- all the way to hostel, up four flights of stairs, down four flights of stairs (luggage now in tow), and then on to the subway. Still in a dead sprint, Deborah sailed through the turnstile at the subway station, rolley suitcase in hand, and got stuck. Like, really stuck. I threw all my luggage on the floor (I still have this very clear image in my head of the apples my mom gave us before the trip rolling across the ground towards a large map of the subway system), and we both tried to pry the suitcase out of the metal clutches of the electronic contraption. Some kind New Yorker eventually walked by and easily popped the suitcase out, without a word to Deborah or I.

Approaching full panic mode, we asked a man waiting on the platform the best way to get to the airport, since we weren't sure if the way we had come from the airport would be the fastest for our return. The man explained to us we needed go to Queens. Huh? We headed downstairs, just as a train was departing the station. A woman spotted our baggage (and our distressed faces) and asked us if we needed to know how to get to the airport. We told her yes, we needed to get to JFK. She said, "oh, your train just left". Well, of course it did. We waited in agony another ten or fifteen minutes for the train to come again, and once on, another kind New Yorker asked us if we knew how to get to the airport. In all honesty, I can't remember if these people offered to help or if we just asked loudly, in the direction of anyone of who would listen. She told us that we would need to switch trains, and she would tell us when to get off. And then fell asleep. That is, until I frantically shook her awake three stops before we needed to get off. Not my finest moment. However, at this point, we still had hope that we would make our flight-- it would be a stretch, but we would make it. Forty five minutes later, standing on the platform and waiting for our connecting train to come, we weren't so sure. Twenty five minutes after that, when we finally arrived at JFK, exhausted and starving (we hadn't eaten since breakfast in Central Park, our lunch plans dangling somewhere between that wayward cab ride and the subway station), a cranky clerk at the ticketing counter confirmed our fears: no, we were not going to make our flight. She had one flight, leaving out of La Guardia in a few hours. We paid her the $150 change fee and went to go get (another) taxi to the airport across town. I almost got us sold into prostitution by taking up some man on his shady offer to skip the taxi line and go in his cab company's private car (not kidding)-- thankfully Deborah told him no after I told him yes, and we got a safe ride to the airport. As we were eating our dinner, Deborah nudged me in the ribs and said "Heather, look it's Hanson! Hanson, Heather!" I looked up and saw them.  MMMbop, men of my ten year old dreams, long blonde hair, HANSON, who just happened to be on our flight, sitting one row ahead of us.

Oh, you know, just eavesdropping on Hanson.

Passengers on this flight also included my Creative Writing professor from college and his wife. Universe, you definitely have a sense of humor.

Obligatory Nigel pic.

2011, Part 1

Let's see: 2011.

On January 1st, Jessica and Joe got hitched!

That's them.

We danced the first night of 2011 away, and I captured what I think is the crowning achievement in terms of sexy wedding dance faces (get it, girl). I hope to see a lot of this face at her wedding in 2013!

So, I wasn't great about photographing anything until about April... at which point, I obviously had to whip out the camera to get some pics of the Royal Wedding Tea Party we threw! That tea party was a lifelong dream of mine, and now that I have finally hosted one, well, I just want to host more.

 Yummy treats, lace doilies, blue and white things, people getting married while other people wear funny hats-- does it get any better!? The mamas came to mingle and eat, and my Dad came to play the papparrazzi.

 At some point, truly, I don't remember when, these two accompanied me to see this one (the boy not the lion). Houston didn't know what it was in for....

 It is exactly what it looks like.

 Sweet boy. I had this picture on my bulletin board in my old office for a few months when a professor asked "Dat you hubband? He luke like he own you!!"

Oh yeah, Stephanie got knocked up. She debuted her bump around May, and what an adorable little bump it was!

In preparation for the new baby, Nigel began hitting the trails Brad Womack style (you know, shirtless and self-reflective).

Just kidding. Nigel is more shirtless than Brad Womack could ever hope to be... and I think he is lacking in self reflection skills since we have to scold him for eating his own poop. But look at that sweet baby face!! He had no idea what in store for him come November...

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

It was my turn to cook this past Family Night, and even though I had eaten pizza for lunch Friday (Mediterrean), lunch Saturday (lean cuisine Roast Garlic Chicken), late night snack Saturday (don't know, but it was yummy at 1 AM), guess what still sounded like a good idea on Sunday evening?

Holly introduced me to the in house frozen dough at Sprouts a couple months ago, which is amazing stuff, and nothing I am about to say should discredit that point...

The last time I bought this dough was for a pizza night at our apartment. Even though the directions say to let the dough unthaw for 1  1/2 to 2 hours before leaving it somewhere to rise, well, that is just not how things work, world/temperature/America! I still don't know who to blame. After an hour and fifteen minutes out of the freezer you could have used the dang thing as a weapon, so we placed the dough (securely wrapped in the plastic bag I bought it in) in warm water for about thirty minutes... at which point I realized some water had leaked into the bag. All efforts to dry off the dough ball just seemed fruitless and also vaguely unhygenic, so Tanya popped out to get different (ready made) dough from a pizza place down the road. In the meantime, Carmen and I began an impromptu game of catch with the expanding dough blob, because why throw away perfectly good food when you can toss it around your apartment? Moral of the story: if you haven't tried pizza dough catch, you need to.

Anyway, this time I moved the dough to the fridge the night before. Problem solving the second time around is my strongest suit. Actually, I guess that was the moral of the story.

I made two kinds of pizza: Basil Chicken Pesto and Pepperoni with veggies, which does not sound as legit as Basil Chicken Pesto, but I swear it was delicious. I am of the opinion that pizza is not so terribly unhealthy if you use the right ingredients, so I used reduced fat pesto, part skim mozzarella cheese, turkey pepperoni, and lots of fresh veggies. Turkey pepperoni was not the best thing I have ever tasted, but it wasn't the worst either. Mostly it just tasted like rubbery pepperoni.

Oh, and we drank red wine, so it was a healthy evening all around!

It is not unusual for my sisters and I to show up places wearing the same thing-- church, birthday parties of mutual friends, Thanksgiving. Sometimes it's funny, and sometimes there is a small fight that breaks out that results in one or more us not speaking to each other. Fortunately, this matching incident was a little more planned than usual-- Russell answered the door wearing the same shirt as me, and then called Deborah to tell her to wear hers as well. When she arrived,  he sacrificed his shirt so Stephanie wouldn't feel left out. And so we could take this picture:

Sisters! Love all the pictures with the bump, I think it is Stephanie's best accessory. 

"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one." - Dr. Suess

Today, I wish I was wearing this:









 ... unless of course she's naked. She's not naked, right? I don't want that. It's the mask I like.

while doing this:

or this:

 or making this:

... instead of going to work and then to the dentist.

However, I did receive this message from Gmail after finally opening all of the mail that's been sitting in my inbox for well.. a long time:

"Woohoo! You've read all the messages in your inbox."

I'll take it!

ACL, Day 3

The Line Up
Baby Cuddling  AWOL Nation  Broken Social Scene
Elbow      Fleet Foxes     Empire of the Sun     Arcade Fire

No, baby cuddling is not some weird indie band-- we stopped by Grace's before the festival to see the beautiful new mama and sweet, sleepy little JD. He is a good seven pounds now, and wearing tiny pants and everything!

I particularly love these pictures of Carmen and Tanya holding him because they look soooo interested and he looks soooo ... well, not.

We learned our lesson for the final day of the festival: meet your friends outside the gates before the masses descend and the cell reception goes missing. An unsent text is no one's friend!

The AWOL Nation crowd was a persnickety bunch, and I include myself in that number. The unspoken rules of navigating the crowd during a show are thus: 1. Choose the path of least resistance 2. Watch out for the people in chairs, they are pre- mad about all the people who are going to trip over their chair, and they only get madder when you actually do it. 3. Choose the path of least resistance.
Even though I was standing next to a guy in a chair, and there was an obvious path to my left, about fifty people decided that the best way to go was making me move out of the way so they could slip by chair guy. I got annoyed, but chair guy took it to the next level-- he sat in his chair, texting mind you, with his legs straight out in front of him so that people would have climb over to get past us. I kind of wanted to be him.

I thought at first that I didn't know who AWOL Nation was... and then they started playing that Sail song. That's about all I have to say about them.

Next was Broken Social Scene, who I know I think were really good-- it was just so beepin hot, we looked like this for most of the show:

Next was Elbow. Yep, you heard that correctly. Elbow. Tanya had been raving about them for weeks, but I was a bit skeptical-- surely this band cannot possibly be named after a body part, right? According to Wikipedia, their name was once "Mr Soft", so I guess Elbow is an improvement? Hard call to make.

Elbow (ok, now that I have typed that word three times in a row, it has lost all possible meaning and does in fact sound like a great band name) turned out to be one of my favorite acts of the festival-- and they brought a glorious light rain shower to cool everything down!

If we are talking possible renames, I would say that either 'Supplication' or 'Handout' would fit; the singer always looked like he was asking us to give him something:

See?
We flitted from Elbow to Fleet Foxes, who sounded just like they always sound (amazing) and dressed just like they always dress (in flannel). I would like to say that I am fantastic at taking group pictures with my left hand, but trying to fit four people in was kind of stretching it...

... so some kind lady offered to help me out. There are a few things I love about this picture: 1. That guy in the red hat's face behind me. 2. That guy in the grey shirt's face sitting next to him 3. The fact that I didn't think now the was time to assume a more ladylike position.

After Fleet Foxes, we watched Empire of the Sun as the sun set over the final day of the festival, grabbed a quick bite from the fancy food stands (P.Terry's) and then took our places in the field for Arcade Fire.

I know that indie music as a genre is not broadly appealing or well known (for further clarification, see the meaning of the term 'indie') and that the ACL headliners are generally both of these things. But, whatever. I loved it. And you know what, this is Austin Music Festival! Austin! Home to Leslie and those cows and the Longhorn Network. We do what we want and sometimes it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

So: ACL 2011, in Conclusion:

1. Ray LaMontagne is amazing in any setting, may he be shoeless, mic-less or in a crushed red velvet suit.
2. Christian Bale will eventually show up if you look for him everywhere, every day for your whole life.

3. Make plans like you don't have a cell phone more often. As in, use concrete details and include contingencies for if something falls through or someone gets lost. Kind of like 'dance like no one's watching', except with more practical applications.

4. Don't judge a band by their name. Judge a band by their crappy songs that play on the radio all the time.

5. Try naming more things (children, bands, activities) after abstract things (fruit, body parts, activities). If celebrities can do it, I can too. I wanted to name my daughter Chevrolet until I was ten years old... maybe it is time to resurrect that dream.

6. I need to listen to more music-- there is so much good stuff out there to be heard!
Until next year...

ACL, Day 2

The Line Up
Fitz and the Tantrums  Cee Lo   Tv On the Radio  Stevie Wonder

Celebrating the first rain fall in months... we were a little wet and frizzy, but definitely not complaining!

Fitz and the Tantrums, baby! 

Really glad I have a picture of 'Blow up cactus wearing shorts' flag as well as 'Googly eyed friend with lei', because they were hidden gems of the festival flags, to say the least. 

Oh you know, just minding my own business, enjoying the show and then guess who shows up? Christian Bale, love of my whole life, looking so serious and aloof just the way I like him. I pretty much lost my luggage when I spotted him and tried the 'frantic waving in a crowd of thousands of people tactic', but he was too focused on some distant horizon to notice me. Perhaps it was the cameras in his face, we'll never know. Anyway, he was there and I was there, and that random guy in a bandana was there, and that's all that matters.

TV On the Radio

I spent most of Cee Lo in line for the port- a- potties, texting back and forth with my sister and Tanya and Carmen in hopes of finding my way back to them in the crowd. Thankfully, the TV on the Radio fans were pretty obliging...

Success!

 

Unfortunately, Stevie Wonder was really quiet (due to a blown speaker or something)... and also just generally kind of weird. At one point he wanted us to do this audience participation thing, which you can't blame him for as there were about 50,000 people there, way too tempting...but he kept saying something along the lines of 'errrrrrbody layout except Steeevie, errrbody layout... errrbody layout 'cept Errol, errrbody layout.' 

Vagaries are not your friend when instructing the masses, Stevie. 

On the upside, we finally met up with Hillary and Erin after two days of texting back and forth! Thumbs up indeed. I cannot even begin to imagine what people did before cell phones at things like this... 

So, in the end we made the most of standing in a field listening to what sounded like a recording of a person who sounded like Stevie Wonder by starting a full-fledged booty shaking dance party- it was the perfect way to spend way a Saturday night in Austin!  Perhaps Zilker Park should look into expanding into the club scene.