More dog torment

My dog is such a good sport.  And he looks darn good in glasses, I've got to say.  I think the sunglasses make him look much cooler.  And of course it wouldn't be an Arthur picture without the tongue out or the snaggle tooth...or on a perfect day, BOTH! :)

My cute boyfriend and my cute animal posing in the newly painted green living room. :)

Florida trip, spontaneity, humidity, and clarity

About a month ago I was feeling a little ho-hum.

Ho-hum: (n) defined as a state of complacency, lack of excitement.

So I thought to myself, hmmm, what shall I do about this ho-hum-ingness? (Yes, that's totally a word).  Well, why not go to Ft Lauderdale and visit two of my favorite girls in all the world?  That is sure to cure my issues.  Booked a flight, and off I went a couple weeks later.  

In college, I had kind of a rough freshman year.  I didn't have the connections in friendship that I had in high school and I was in a long-distance (um, Upland to Muncie...;)) relationship with my boyfriend from high school who I didn't get to see all that often.  I toughed it out and ventured into my sophomore year relationship-free and ready to tackle the world.  My new wing had a fun freshman named Katy and we connected right away based on our mutual quoting of the movie Clueless and having the same tank top. (deep deep connections!) :)  Katy was from Ft Lauderdale and pretty early on in the year she decided to start planning a Spring Break trip to her house and invited her favorite girls she'd met so far.  Who knew that her little plan would create life-long friendships?  

We all knew of each other but didn't know each other that well.  If we were going to spend 8 days together we figured that should be remedied and started having planned dinner dates in the DC, all 6 of us.  The rest is history....

Katy still lives in Ft Lauderdale and now has two adorable children, one of which I hadn't met yet.  Here he is...the adorable JAMEN. (posing with his Aunt Kat)

Kat moved down to Florida just this year after spending 2 years in Honduras and another few in Chicago.  She's getting married in June and her fiancee is in FL, so all the pieces just kind of came together.  Because we were both single (and now both are not..interesting) we became very close after college.  I still talk to her at least twice a week and sometimes more.  So great to be able to see both Katy and Kat in one place!  Here is a pic of the 3 of us at dinner during my visit.  We all got the same meal too...ha.  

Kaia is Katy and Aaron's spunky almost 4 year old.  She had some of the greatest quotes during my visit.  I took the red-eye out of LA so I was not looking my best my first day there...serious Sporty Spice outfit and ponytailed hair. :)  I played with Kaia all day and then hopped in the shower and changed for dinner.  When I was all ready, a couple of Kaia's friends were over and she wanted to introduce me.  She said "this is molly.....but she....got different." :)  Guess me being clean equalled a big change for her. :)  Here she is after we picked her up from school.  
Another funny Kaia-ism...just after this picture above was taken, one of her little friends came up to Katy and asked if the two of them could have a playdate.  Katy said "sure, but not today.  Have your mom call me."  She said "ok" and ran down the hallway towards her dad and siblings.  We were almost out the door when Kaia turned back and shouted "WHAT'S YOUR PHONE NUMBER???!!!!"  It sounded hilarious.  Like she was going to put the whole playdate together on her own. :)

Jamen was a constant source of entertainment.  He had just discovered how to clap this month so it was his favorite activity.  Every time he cracked himself up and in turn, we'd all end up laughing at his cuteness.  Kaia is a great big sister and considers Jamen to be her baby.  Katy's friend Heather had her new baby girl Eliyah over to visit and when she was crying I asked Kaia if she wanted to go comfort her.  Kaia said "no, that's baby Eliyah...she's not mine."  So funny.  
All in all it was a great trip, a good refresher.  I still don't like Florida.  It is SO humid and I've gotten really spoiled in LA.  We get the nice hot weather without so much sweating. :)  But my time with Katy and Kat, Aaron and David, Kaia and Jamen (and my boss' mom Ruth!) was wonderful.  This week has been a good one being back home.  Life is good.  

Big G

This year I came up with kind of an interesting (at least in my opinion) resolution.  This happened in February so really it wasn't a resolution so much as a decision to do something.  I decided that it would be a really cool thing to write my Grandma Jean letters at least twice a month.  It's been so fun looking forward to hearing back from her.  Today I composed my 6th letter and am including some pictures for her from our trip there in January.  Although I love living in LA, the distance can be difficult when it comes to family and friends.  Keeping in touch is difficult.  There are time changes that hinder phone calls during hours I'm not working and weekends seem jam-packed with no time for long phone chats.  And getting something in the mail that isn't a bill is exciting! :)  So in my opinion this is a successful endeavor that we've begun.  Having a cool Grammy as a pen pal isn't half bad.  

New Metric and life in music

Good shows are coming up.  This makes Molly happy.  In a year when they've taken away all of my good radio stations (indie 103.1 specifically) I need these shows to get me through!  I'm an assistant...I spend a lot of time in my car and I need music to help deal with traffic in LA.  Indie helped me.  It exposed me to new artists, played old favorites that no one else played, and helped those guys I love who aren't so mainstream to get some airplay.  Sigh.  Pour a little out for a radio station that has now been made into a Spanish station....

This morning we got tickets to see Metric at the Wiltern.  This will be my 3rd Metric show and I'm fired up.  The new album is AMAZING.  So dancy and fun.  I happen to be listening to it currently in my office and boogieing a bit in my chair.  It's ok, I'm not in a room with anyone else...and it's the kind of album that makes you move.  You just can't help it!  

"I wanna leave but the wooooorld won't let me go"

So go grab this album.  It's called Fantasies.  And while you're at it, get their other albums too.  Live It Out is an incredible album.  I typically don't like female vocalists.  I'm not sexist...they just don't usually get to me the same way.  But Metric is one of the few that I am in love with.  

Check it out...and thank me later!~

G is for Gertrude and A is for Arthur

Today is February 26th which is a special day to me for a couple reasons. It is the day that my Grandma Gerty was born in 1908. She would have been 101 this year. Crazy. She is the epitome of the kind of lady I aspire to be. I miss her all the time, but she is in my dreams a lot. I like to think that is a chance for us to catch up a little. :) Love you, Gerty!

And today is my doggie's birthday too. He is 5! Time flies. I remember when I was researching boxers. I honestly don't remember why I decided on that breed. We had Louis the pug and I wanted a bigger dog and got focused on boxers. After looking at ads every day, I finally succumbed and called a guy who posted about his new puppies. I was calling him throughout the day and getting updates... soon he only had one puppy left! I had to wait for KT to get home from work and we drove to the middle of nowhere outside of Atlanta. I was just going to "look." As soon as I saw the adorable brindle boxer puppy I knew he was mine. I couldn't leave without him and I wrote the check then and there (of course, why would I have had my checkbook if I really was...."just looking"? :)). I named him on the way home and the rest is history! I love you, my little furry child!

My animal...

My dog is cute.  This is him pausing on a walk to play.  Doesn't he look like he wants to say something?  

For some reason we were laughing so hard I was crying when we put Cooper's glasses on Arthur.  He just looks so serious and funny!

I mean....really?  Adorable.  Makes him look intelligent.  But then his tongue comes out and the intelligence factor goes right out the window.  Haha.

The big 2-9

If you've never had Katie C's cupcakes then you just don't know how amazing they are. :) As my sister said "these cupcakes could end wars." I'm not big on cake and icing, but these are GOOOOOD!

I feel lucky to have such great people in my life. Took some pics of the table at Genghis Cohen as we celebrated the fact that I'm getting ooooold. Me, my babe, and Katie C post chow-down.

Anne, Rada, and Katie...we've celebrated a lot of birthdays together at this point. Katie obviously has seen me since my very first one and we've mostly had joint parties (not the drugs kind) since we were little seeing as our bdays are only 6 days apart.

Tami and RJ experience Genghis for the first time and really enjoyed our lazy susan centerpiece..as did the rest of us. Very useful for sharing!

This actually happened the weekend before my birthday...KT and I went to Urth Cafe and this is the random number they gave me while I waited for my food...almost like they knew! Creepy coincidence! Just kidding.

I had a very fun birthday weekend. Saw SCB on Friday at Molly Malone's and was able to get a lot of people out that night to celebrate that I hadn't seen in awhile. Plus the boys had a great show. Saturday was v-day and I'm not really into that whole idea. My idea is that you should probably tell the person you love something along those lines more often than once a year. Just seems like kind of a pressured exploited celebration of love to me...so we spent the day watching all of the Lord of the Rings extended edition movies back-to-back with a couple of short breaks to walk the doggie and get snacks at the store. We rallied quite well until 3 am. Made it through all 3 films! That's 13 hours, people. :) Dorky, yes...but a fun and unique day spent with my love.

Sunday we went to brunch and I relaxed during the day (been fighting a sore throat). That night was the dinner and cupcakes extravaganza. Thanks to everyone for all the facebook messages, texts, phone calls...it is fun to feel loved! Although my mom did all the work. Here's to looking forward to 30! It's amazing how life turns out. I feel very very blessed and lucky to be where I am with the people who are apart of my life. 29 years down....we shall see what the future holds!