Halloween

We did a group costume for a dance on Friday night.

TETRIS pieces.

Devon, Megan, Abbey, Natalie, and me

I found a balloon and became a pregnant Tetris piece. This is Tim shirking his baby daddy responsibilities.....

Devon, Laura Jayne (a friend from college), and me

After the dance we went to IHOP where we encountered some ASL students and Megan and I had an across the room conversation with them about interpreting.

And then I did a sign song for them.

At 2am.

Saturday night we went to a friend's party

Natalie and me as the Black and White Swan

Devon and Ken as Lily and James Potter

Megan as Murie Curie

We have fun

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Occupy

My good friend, Natalie, is visiting this weekend and our first stop was to check out 'Occupy DC'. I cannot begin to describe how lame they were. This is not a political post, I have my opinions on all these "occupy" protests but I'm not going to write about it here. People were at least true to their word - they were just standing around.

Occupy!!!!

McPherson Square in DC

If you can't see the sign, it's the quote by Margaret Meade ("never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people......). Right, because standing around a public square is definitely bringing about that change.....okie doke.

The lone child protester

I have NO idea

Not a clue

"People often say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves."

- Salma Hayek

a fourth thing

I don't intend to correct the ever so lovely Maya Angelou, but I think she can add a fourth thing to her list.....how a person deals with split pants in public.

Because I can tell you, I'm sending a photo of my behind to just about anyone who would appreciate a good laugh at my expense today. A security guard pointed it out, thankyouverymuch

3 things

pin

1 - drink lots of hot chocolate

2 - laugh, what else is there to do? (I've had lost luggage 3 times - St Thomas, Hong Kong, Istanbul)

3 - I don't handle that part of decorating

This mini survey can't possibly tell you any more about me than you already knew. I'm a lazy, passive girl with a sweet tooth. Nice to meet you.

Homecoming!

This past weekend was Homecoming for Gallaudet University. I had no idea what a big deal it was until I got to experience part of it. One of my good friends, Jamie, came out for it because she is fabulous and fabulous people do things like that.

I was bad about having my camera on me, except for the day we got crepes.....they were ohsogood!

Megan, loving up on her nutella, strawberry and marshmallow crepe

Beautiful Jamie

Girlfriend, get your bum out here ASAP!

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Kayla + Eric

My insanely gorgeous/talented/smart/funny roommate asked me to take her bridals and a couple shots of her and her fiance last weekend. Kayla is an actual photographer - people pay her to take their photos. We used my camera a bit, but mainly used hers because everything about hers is better. So what I'm saying is that these are unedited, off my rinky dink camera, and Kayla is gorgeous. That's what I'm saying.

For more pictures from her camera check out her blog here

(I took the pictures, she provided the camera and mad editing skillz)

"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too."

- Voltaire

But Really....

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My buddy Nate came over last night to chat as he does from time to time. And as single person conversation tends to, we ended up talking about dating. !shocker!

He gave me some interesting insight that should not be taken as the rule of thumb by any means, but was interesting nonetheless. He told me that sometimes boys will immediately put funny girls into the dreaded friend zone. Not all guys, but some will see the girl as someone who entertains them and therefore discounts them as a potential love interest. Huh.

My first thoughts -

1) Well that's dumb

2) Maybe I should tone it down a bit, I sometimes command a bit too much attention

3) How stupid, I'm not toning anything down. I gotta be me!

I have to laugh and I need someone I can laugh with. My life is guaranteed to be full of laughter and maybe some guys will discount me because of that. Oh well, their loss. I guess it's not the worst thing in the world to be "friend zoned" for. What if I had really bad breath or was extremely awkward around guys? (only one of the two of those is true)

Someday I shall blog about how I developed my own brand of humor....

By the way, if you've never met me, I'm much funnier in person. I promise.

Guest Post

I guest posted on my friend Suzie's blog today, check it out here!

Optimism

I love, love, love this picture.

I am noticing a shift in my life lately. A completely unintended but more than welcome shift toward optimism. I think I'm somewhat of a natural pessimist and it has always been a struggle for me. Don't we all want to be happy? I think 9 out of 10 dentists would agree that most people want to have a cheery outlook on life.

I don't care that it took this long, and I'm by no means a full fledged, dues paying member of the optimists club, but I'm happy to feel the change. 

Looking at that picture I don't know who needs to be feeling more positive, but at least they're going for it! In my scenario I'm the elephant (Nate! Fat joke!) because I'm always taking risks, forcing myself out of my comfort zone, and maybe it has been those risks that have got me here. Here meaning DC, working in a field I adore, happy, surrounded by amazing people, and constantly feeling loved.

Just call me pachyderm.

xoxo

Another New Obsession

Have you heard of Joy the Baker?

You need to know this woman.

Go look at her recipe index, wipe off the drool, then come back here so we can talk about this...

For starters, she has amazing looking food. I mean, come on! Try and tell me that doesn't look incredible!

Secondly.....vegetarian!!!! VEGETARIAN! I have been looking for a good vegetarian recipe blog for a while and I am delighted to try a bunch of her recipes.

Lastly, I want to be friends with her in real life. I think we'd get along.

this.....

via

A love story sounds like a jolly good time right about now.

I'd even accept a like story.

i just got the most insane outpouring of love from a couple different friends within just a few minutes. did you all coordinate this? when it rains it pours.....pour away dear friends, you make me feel loved

xoxo

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."

- Epicurus

Why Yes, This Is Another Cat Video

What The Kids Are Listening To

I'm not super tuned in to what the tween crowd is listening to. I just downloaded 5 Hanson songs so can we say living in the past? Yes, yes indeed. I recently came across a song by Selena Gomez that I'm in love with so now I'm officially 3% cooler to the tweenagers of America. Yesssssss! That was all I wanted for Christmas!

And just think, only a few months ago the only credit I gave her was that she is Justin Bieber's girlfriend. Girlfriend, you have a new fan.

a win for popsicles

these babes are the best thing in my life

My Least Favorite

A few months ago Mama LaMay was visiting and asked me what my least favorite movie is. Whoa. Hold the phone. I can tell you all my favorites, all the ones I love to hate, but I have never been asked what is my least favorite.

My roommate, Kristin, will not be happy about my answer......

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I really dislike this one. You can't deny that the visual effects are spectacular, but that's where any greatness ends. The acting was fine, the story was thrice recycled, and three hours? Really? And the hype - oh, the hype!

Therefore, Avatar wins the award for being my least favorite movie.

A veeeeeery close second is Pay It Forward. I don't like movies that try too hard to make you feel something. That movie feels forced and makes me uncomfortable. Also, Helen Hunt's hair color is awful.

What is your least favorite? Which movie do you despise?

Just A Few Hours.....

I'm in NYC for just a few hours today to meet with an accountant.

Seriously.

Sooooo Photogenic

This weekend was our annual retreat for my singles ward (church congregation, not a mental hospital wing devoted to the non-married). We went up to Camp Greentop which is right next to Camp David and joy of all joys - the Obamas were there for the long weekend (thanks so much, Columbus). Roads were closed, helicopters hovered and had there guns at the ready. How relaxing for us.

Here are some pictures of the ones I love -

Megan and Sam. Photos of all of us gazing into each others' eyes are VERY common

Oh look - Devon dancing. That's not common, but catching it on film is!

Daron walking up to us looking like this was not a surprise in the least. Yes, that's a headband under the crown

Obligatory nature picture

Abbey! I love this girl! And me, the brownette

Where Megan goes, so does her tutu (homemade!)

This is probably the best representation of what is always happening with us. Devon looking smashing, Nate dreaming of some one on one time with Reese (she's Reese Witherspoon and I'm Julia Roberts) and Abbey being a background creeper

A caboose by a lake. Why not?

I found a snake on the road and named him Nathan

Yep.

We are a very serious, introspective group

The only one where everyone looks somewhat normal

David, Marj, Sam, Megan, Nate

Rachel, Megan, Abbey, me

They did ward standouts like you do in high school yearbooks. In high school I was "Most Huggable" (check out that post here). At the ward retreat I "won" Most Photogenic.....here was my acceptance speech, almost verbatim -

"I take issue with this award because what you're basically saying is that I'm busted in real life but somehow that comes out nicely in photos. Thanks to all who voted"....

.....I don't know if people caught that I was 90% joking....