Category Archives: friends

July 24, 2011 · 10:18 pm

Pau Hana, Mi Pilialoha

I was having a birthday. So I planned a party.

The party itself wasn’t a huge undertaking, but my plan to finally, after seven years of talking about it, finally make my basement into a tiki bar/lounge in time for said party… that was a huge undertaking. A good number of people helped, in ways large and small. A greater number of people showed up to help me celebrate both the anniversary of my birth and the completion of Phase I of the Pau Hana Lounge.

Thanks to the general wonderfulness of my friends, I feel all warm and fuzzy.

Or maybe that’s the steam from the dishwasher. ;)

Hula Girl Cake

2 Comments

Filed under collections, friends, life-threatening clutter, Thank you, vintage

April 28, 2011 · 10:09 pm

Viva Las Vegas 14 in pictures

I have gotten so bad at remembering to step out of the moment to take a picture! Click the image below for 130-ish photos taken over the course of the 4-day weekend, and a few very short video clips as well.

Thick and Tired

Over the summer, my life unexpectedly upheaved. (I know the syntax is incorrect. Poetic license.) The pain of events has diminished, but still lurks and pesters and sneaks up behind me and taunts and is generally very mean. I have progressed, however, from not being able to eat much at all, to apparently attempting to bury alive my sorrow with dairy products. I mean, really. Butter? Awesome stuff. I’ve been allowing myself to eat as much as I want of whatever makes me feel good.

But I don’t feel good. I’m bloated. My pants don’t fit. My lower back is starting to hurt. And I feel, generally, like poo.

I know that the “holiday” season isn’t yet over. I know that resolutions typically start on January 1st. But I’m sick and tired of feeling thick and tired. So I started today. I won’t be doing anything crazy, no cabbage-juice-and-bird-nest diets, but I am very much looking forward to being more conscious of what I eat, what I drink, and to feeling better. And to once again fitting into that spectacular dress that I bought just in case I go to Viva14.

Here’s to good health.

_____________________

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some very dear friends in Chicago sent me a gorgeous and meaningful teapot (see above) for Christmas. It will make the whole drinking-plenty-of-fluids thing that much more graceful, and will continue to remind me how lucky I am to know such cool people.

4 Comments

Filed under food, friends, holidays, Viva Las Vegas

September 28, 2010 · 1:36 pm

15 years: a recap

black bars to protect the roomies of long ago

Hitting the road, 1995

A Twitter-friend wrote a post today about his 10 years in Boulder, and it occurred to me that this month marks my 15th year in Colorado.

In September of 1995, I packed up my belongings into a Ryder truck shared with two other wanderers (whom I “met” online, call me an early adopter) and headed west for what I thought would be a 2â€“3 year adventure before I either returned to NYC or continued on to San Francisco. But I never left. I called Boulder home until 2003, when I tired of renting and bought my own place in a suburb nestled just north of Denver.

In Ef’s post, he outlines some highlights and lowlights of his decade in the self-contained universe that is Boulder. My own memories are difficult to package so neatly. I’ve had five different mailing addresses. Every member of my immediate family has moved at least twice. I’ve flown in jet planes, turbo-props, and most memorably a Cessna. I’ve lost family and friends to age, disease, and tragedy. I’ve gained family and friends by birth, marriage, and sheer luck. I’ve had delicious meals, and regrettable ones. I’ve survived with only a scar what, by witness accounts, should have been a devastating car accident. I’ve been in love, and I’ve been heartbroken. I’ve visited other countries and other states. I nearly continued my original emigration to NorCal, albeit a decade late, but it wasn’t meant to be. Colorado will continue to be my home for the foreseeable future.

And I still can’t find my way around.

1 Comment

Filed under family, friends, nostalgia, romance, relationships

August 17, 2010 · 10:21 am

Blah Blah Blah

I still can’t seem to get myself back into the hang of Tweeting (should that be initial capped or not?) so I thought perhaps I’d, you know, write another blog post. Raise your hand if you remember when I used to do it five days a week!

So let’s see…

Okay, since I was working on The Catalog at 10:30 last night and again by 7:30 this morning, I’m taking a deserved, if guilty, break to write this. Which I mention only because the guilt, I feel it. But thbppppt. Also, I paused to make coffee. Cawwwwffeeeee. Slurp slurp slurp.

MAKE COFFEE* should be the permanent first item on the whiteboard I finally hung above my desk yesterday. Hey, how’s that for an accomplishment? I finally hung the whiteboard! And was able to erase HANG WHITEBOARD from it. Ta-da!

Aaaaaand I completed another project yesterday that had been in limbo for an even longer time: my very own vintage-plastic-storage-container pendant lamp! And let me tell you, it was a bigger pain than you would imagine. This tip is coming from someone with mad craft skillz, yo. If you love the concept, and you should because it’s nifty, buy one pre-made from the originators of the Tupperlight, Boots N Gus. That’s their spiffy work shown at the top of this here post. They have a better assortment of Tupperware and Tupperware-like products than I could find at my local thrift, and they have done the work for you. For a very reasonable price.

I would love to see if Gogobigred is available to hang today, but I’m stuck at home until FedEx arrives with my new stereo receiver. My trusty Aiwa bookshelf system died after 15 years of faithful service, and I had three requirements for a replacement: I have to be able to afford it, I need to plug in my AirPort and my turntable, and I require enough room to set my turntable on top. HOWEVAH, it seems that the fancy, newfangled bookshelf stereo systems these days are mostly vertically oriented. And they have unnecessary bells and whistles like iPod docks and, well, that’s actually the only new feature that my old system didn’t have. But I still don’t need it. With the AirPort plugged in (thankyouverymuchoverandover @Chartier and @PensAndPaws), I can access my entire iTunes library wirelessly. And a CD player? Ha! Again, no need. After discussing with my dad the current quality of various manufacturers, I came to the conclusion that anyone still manufacturing components is most likely going to take it seriously. They’ll have lower-end models, but a cheapo consumer-oriented company like the now-defunct Soundesign isn’t going to bother with components. And so I ordered one I could (in a normal world) afford and have had a very quiet house for a few days while I wait. Today is the day that music will once again sound throughout my home, and I perk up at the rumble of every truck that drives by. The power company is working outside today, however, so I’m frequently disappointed. But that just means the anticipation lasts longer!