This is what I did tonight.

I went out with Jen for dinner (CPK! Seriously, if you like meat, and onions, please try their new amazing Milan Neapolitan pizza. It. is. worth. it.) and then back to CHOC to meet her daughter Sophia!!!

So cute and So little and So sweet. Fun fun fun. Baby skin is the best.


She's so teeny!


This preemie diaper is like, the size of a NAPKIN. A beverage napkin. Not a banquet napkin.




Haha, she has the longest toes of any baby that I've ever seen.

Congrats, Jen and Mark!

And also, just for fun, because I am a mondo fan of this little person - meet Alex! Sophia's older brother, he'll be 2 in December. He has got the BEST laugh.

I adore this little love chunk. Too bad he like never smiles until AFTER the camera flash goes off in his face.


Also, no worries, he has TOTALLY gotten a haircut since these pictures were taken. ;)

And now all the pics of all the other peeps!

Hillary and! Rick! Messina! Hahaha. Such a nice guy, still. He has mellowed out a lot. Can't wait to see what he's like when he's 40. :)


Brett and Catharine! I think Brett did mention that he'd worked for Annie Leibovitz in New York or something. Darned if I had a frickin' clue who the heck that was. Apparently someone famous. And, as of last week (?), someone who's taken pictures of the fabled Suri Cruise. I admit it, the baby is cute. The family strikes me as being a little weird, though.

I do also have to say that when the subject of dancing came up (Catharine was all into the ballet and everything in high school, and I think she was still dancing), Brett just HAD to make a comment about how the thing he loves about dancers ...

*pause*

is this one muscle ...

*pause*

right here ...

*reaches behind her*
*I see her jump a bit*

yes, there it is.

Yes, because apparently, he used to date a dancer. Probably not his sister, I would bet, though. Cuz she be a dannsur as well. :) (Tale as old as time ...)

HORK. Make of it what you will, she didn't seem to mind that much :P.

Hillary and Ted Lau! We saw Ted with John Robin Middlebrook a whoooooole bunch that night. They were football buddies from way back when. Sadly, no pics of John Robin that night, though he has a myspace that he updates pretty often. They were nice enough to walk us to our car when we started feeling the accumulation of the week, and when people stopped being coherent and seminally interesting because the alcohol, it was a-flowin' in the hotel rooms that was bookeded upstairses.

Have things really changed that much? :P



Cute lil Miriam and the Abby Chiu! You can see our nice lil nametags that they gave us with our SENIOR YEAR PICTURES on them. Hah. Dunno how Abby felt about everyone asking her what happened to Matt Tyo, but they did it. :)

(A little over ...) ONE YEAR LATER!!

OK, now that the Los Al gang has been trickling in, and since I am such a monstrously compulsive procrastinator, I figured it was about time to post these pics.

That's right, people, last year's REUNION! I only got a few pictures. I had my dad's gigarntic super-zoom-lens-lookit-me-nerdly camera. And it's obnoxious to have people running around taking pictures of you, especially when they are shorter than you are and in prime location for the dreaded nostril shot. Like I am.

Sorry I didn't email these earlier. Like last year, even.

And I didn't get a lot of pics of a looooooooot of people!

Y'all should come next time! I was just thinking about this and remembering how actually nice and non-hung-up-though-certainly-hung-over people were.

No pics of Nicole Uritz or Jim Tuscher, sorry. Though I think Jim said he was in Long Beach now? He had a massive bush of a giant blond dreads-style, btw.

And yes, the Jeff Javanbahkt. (It looks all wrong and I know I used to be able to spell it.) No pics either. But he was doing some kinda businessy thing living in Westminster or something. Hillary didn't recognize him. :) And some of the first people we met (when we all ended up at the wrong hotel with the wonky directions) were Tori Moreno, Chris Knell, and Tami Clark (?)! Tori and Chris were married, and Tori was preggers.

I didn't happen to get the $40 yearbook they wanted to pawn off on us so I don't have the pics that they took there, but I'd love to see one sometime! Did you get one, Hill?

And here are pics that I was in:

Pre-getting-lost-in-Irvine-by-the-airport-and-festivities! As usual, Hillary is a total doll.

But now!!!

A brief exercise in criticizing my own personal appearance:

1. Ugh, my upper arms look doughy.

2. Hello, farmer's tan.

3. Welcome to the no-neck monster - ROAR!

This is what happens when I spend the entire summer packing up and moving classrooms/schools instead of backpacking Europe. See, I always get compliments about how good and relaxed I look after I backpack, even after torturous adventures like I had this past summer! More on that later. :)

And don'tch'all feel so very privileged that I can be so very VULNERABLE before you and post nastish pics of me'self. Yeah, I'm betting right this very second you are feeling PRIVILEGED.

But this is better!!

Me and Hillary and (I forget her name but she got married to) Andrew Poe! I think he goes by Andy. Are they not PERfect for each other? She is totally sweet and adorable and very pastor's wife. And guess what, Andy IS a youth pastor up in Northern California. Now that I think about it, I think her name was Laura. They left earlyish, before the binge drinking ensued in earnest. We were all just saying it was so nice and perfect that he got married to a person who is actually smaller than he is. :)

Brett Egan, and Catharine Larsen, and the No-Neck-Monster strikes again!!

I think Brett looks a little older.

I think Catharine looks exactly the same.

I think I look like a squat bullfrog next to the two of them.

I forget what they were both doing but I'm sure it was something nice and exciting.

Here I am with Miriam Korn! Isn't she sooooooooooooooooo cute (still)?? She came by herself and Hill and I met up with her in the parking lot and walked in together. I think she was feeling shy about going in by herselfs. I also remember trying to exchange phone numbers with her via the cell phone and I thought it worked but when I checked my phone later it totally didn't. She said she was living up in Santa Monica. Not too long after the reunion, the pilot of the (former) WB show Supernatural aired, and she had a speaking part in it! She was a goth girl. And yes, she looka lika ugly witha nasty ooga makeup. I don't think I've ever seen her on Veronica Mars.

And she said something very kindly to me - that she could see how I WOULD be a kindergarten teacher and if she had kids she'd want me to be their teacher.

When I have kids I want to be their teacher also becuzes I gonna homeschool. HA!

Poor kindergarten teachers at my school this year. These kids is ROUGH and (to quote) "sooooooo bad." Oy vey.

Good thing I'm in second grade this year dealing only with (overall) mildly annoying (but yet pervasive and intrusive) behavior. :)

Hello, October!

Whee, I made it through September! Now to pay off credit card bills from multiple fiascoes this past summer. I can't believe it's October already. Then comes Halloween (on a school night, of all things, this year!) with greaaaaaaat seasonal sales (it ushers it my faaaaaaavoritest time of the year!! for shoppping!!) but I should definitely tighten the belt QUITE a bit more this year.

And now for scenes from the photo shoot: (Man, I'm still working on pics from JUST June!! Little by little ...)


Close-up, and you guessed it - it was kinda hot in England this summer. I love how he's such a white chubster. :)


Smile!! Haha, those lips and that hairdo that day just crack me up.


I never noticed him smiling too terribly much - except when his mom was around, and then later, when his big sister Cora would play with him! Dunno why he looks so worried here. Maybe he's afraid I'm gonna drop him what with my other hand holding the camera here.


"Have you any Grey Poupon for my afternoon tea, madam?"

:)

AAAAUUGH, MY EYES!!

It COULD be cute.
It COULD be cuddly.
But it is definitely not little.
It just might be ... a wookie!!!

Hello, Lex. Please, meet Lex. Lex is another internet dude that I have known for yeaaaaars. I think I met him in late 2000. Either that or early 2001. I am so such a chat n00bstern00bie. He is the person with whom I have interacted onlinedly second-longest (yay for garbled syntax, but I like it).

He is also like, a giant. The shortest in his family (aside from his mother) and he is freaking 6'5". Egads! *earthquake*

I also must say he is one of my favoritest people in the whole entire worlded and exceptionally considerate and just downright wonderful to me!! Lucky gf he has. :)

And I've been told that I'm terribly hard to impress! I think it might be true.

We arranged to meet up in London at MCDONALD'S!! WHERE THEY SERVE EGG MCMUFFINS AND HASH BROWNS! HASH BROWNS!! at Euston Station. But when I got there neither of us was particularly hungry so we didn't breakfast there. Nor did we ever, btw. Shame.

So we wanted to make the most of our daypass travelcard and decided just to wander around. I think we went to Portobello Road, first. And then Camden Lock - though by then the shops had closed. It's weird, they ACTUALLY close up tight EARLY on WEEKDAYS - like, 5pm!! When do working people ever get to do their shopping or anything??? Weirdness weirdosity.

So I bought him a little late lunch/very early dinner/probably should call it supper at a little Chinese takeout in Camden. I think it was curry. With some yellowy rice. I liked mine OK, it had a lot of red onions on it, which was nice. I think his was soooooooooo super hot and he couldn't finish it. Unheard of!! Lex! Not finishing foods!!

:)

Portobello Road is super cute and I think I wanted to go there because I have an antique fetish (maybe it's to offset my "young soul") and heard it was good shopping there. Lots of veggie vendors in the street.

And there WERE cute little shops, but I didn't get much until I hit the the holy grail of all that is cute and plastic and monstrously overpriced, especially for an American!!!

I don't generally use this phrase, and I do try to refrain from it, but I just have to use it now because the gush, it must ensue - OMG.

I love this store so much it can't even be explained. And I dropped a BRICK there, too. Ask Lex, he can explain. I must have spent 2 hours there. AND NOTHING WAS ON SALE! (Well, they were selling it, of course, so it was on sale, but nothing was less than full retail price. *shock* *horror* *to all my peepholes in the know about the Targeting*)

Salesgirl said it was designed and produced in France. I love love love nearly all of it. But freaking ridicularous, $30 for a place setting. (Which, unwittingly, after several watershed events later in the summer, I tried to take on the plane with me - yes. Sets of of cutlery. With, yep, you guessed it, KNIVES AND FORKS. MADE OUT OF METAL. Oh my frickin' whoops. But they let me take it and recheck it at the airline counter and thank goodness for thick sturdy shoping bags!!)

See?

And the Lex, yes, he can serve a purpose.

So they had really adorable purses, of which I got several (as gifts also :)) and just the neatest cutest little trinkets and kitschy stuff - pens, plastic dustpan and sweepers painted to look like a prince and princess, loads of bags - I think they said no photos but I'm sure I can find pictures of the kind of stuff somewhere!!

Golly, if you ever go to London, please stop by! I think I liked the one on Portobello Road the best. I later hit one at Covent Garden and it was severely underwhelming for all involved.

Man, I totally spent way too much money. But it's so fun. :)

I'll post separately about OCTOPUSMANIA some other time.

Speaking of other cute, little, cuddly creatures -

HERE IS FREAKING COUSIN WILLIAM!! And I like goofy pictures of goofy people, so sue me. :)

He like, didnt have a name for the first two months of his life or something. The fam kept asking when they were going to officially name him. Buuuuuuut they finally settled on something.

A quiet moment in his stroller. Yes, the paci is utterly indispensable.


Now panning out to see the fulllllllllllllll old-man-with-striped-pants-pulled-up-to-the-armpits effect that he tends to sport.

I like to call him Big Willie. Mr. Victor (Willie's brother) prefers Little Willie. I'm not sure that at this point it makes much of a difference.

He was a big reason why I wanted to go to Europe this past summer - I wanted to meet him!! He so totally will not even remember me, though, unless I happen to go every summer or unless he sees pictures or something. Then again, I never even met Victor until he was 15!

My cousin's cat!

Named Missy. Nice cat. Petted her once. Otherwise, didn't see her much.

The Royal Observatory at Greenwich

I probably would never have thought of going here on my own, but it was pretty interesting! Lots of astronomical history in this place, at least. They had rooms where the astronomers worked, old telescopes, stuff that I've never really thought about. Also, it's where Greenwich Mean Time is kept. Here's the entrance, you can see the gates into the complex - it's a beautiful building. And free! But they had random construction going on all through the back.

Here I am at the prime meridian of the world!! I was seriously looking like a midget that day.

Good ole LA.

They have loads of cities from all over the world listed.

So after Andrew and I'd spent some time browsing book shops, and souvenir stores, and I found a hat that I looooooooooooooooooved, I was feeling all cheapskatey cuz the dollar was so dang poh against the pound. Ah dinna feel like payin' 10 buckaroos for it. So I tried one on and they didn't have a mirror and Andrew was kindly enough to take a pic of it on his camera phone so I could see what it looked like. I suppose I could have taken one with my camera too, but why didn't we think of that?

Anyway, two months later, after we'd both gotten back, he happened to still have it on his camera and he sent it to me!!


I never did get one. Blasted £4.99!

Stuff Around the River

Greenwich is pretty cool, it's a quaint little seaside place. It was gloomy and dreary on the day we went but I happen to like that kind of weather.

They have the big clipper ship Cutty Sark docked here.

You can also walk UNDER the river in this tunnel that they built. Here's the entrance/exit, and the other side pretty much looks exactly the same.

You go down this spiral set of staircases and then enter this thing like straight out of the movies. Don't know why, but it reminds me of Russian submarines. And yes, you can hear the sound of water dripping and it's all damp and clammy!


By the way, it is supremely uncomfortable what with the raucous reverb when you get school groups of children racing up and down the entire tunnel, screaming, and then scurrying all around the precarious spiral staircase. Brats.

We came out on the other side and here's the view:

You can see the Cutty Sark and the entrance on the other side to the right of that. It was a nice little park from where this picture was taken, with a handful of ... Billies! No, I mean Bobbies! You know, policemen ... standing around hanging out with a cruiser and its door open. I guess the crime isn't too bad there, docks or no docks.

Here's a link in case anybody is interested:

Greenwich Foot Tunnel .

I came to Greenwich to see THIS!!!!

Hahaha.

This was taken in Greenwich as well. It was on the way to the Royal Observatory, just outside the park. Hee. And I admit it, I'm totally juvenile. But I blame it on the Brits, because they just make it sooooo easy. They started it. (But we won the war, didn't we. Neener neener.)