Indie Grits and Family Hip Hop Day

Finally went to an Indie Grits film here in Columbia last night!

Went to see "Female Pervert", which follows a female who is somewhat a sociopath and her attempts at dating and interacting with other people.  The film was shot in Atlanta and was intrigued by the Asian-American lead and director--though it had no bearing in the storyline: 

It was offbeat and humorous and it was great to see an indie film in a film fest.  It even had a Q&A with the director, which I loved:

This afternoon, checked out the Hip Hop Family day in downtown Columbia:

Glad I got to meet up with Veronica--

This was one of those events that was a lot more fun nodding my head with someone rather than standing by myself. I used to not care about that when I was young and was fine going to events, shows, and bands by myself. Now, if I don't meet up with someone, I'm like, eh, skip it. Yeesh, is this a thing about getting older?

SC Mud Run 2015!

I joined my friends' mud run team a few weeks ago.  Though I wish I had trained a few more weeks, I couldn't have asked for a more supportive and gracious team to join:

Hopefully lucky bib 49!  Our main goal was to complete without injuries:

And we did it and in pretty good time: 1 hour 38 minutes!  Not bad for a 10K with 36 obstacles.  Where's the mud?  Why, completely in my running tights!

Unfortunately I didn't make my standing goal of getting across the rope transfers but these margaritas soothed any shortcomings:

So did these chips and tacos!

Overall, glad I did it and setting my sights on another goal to train for...maybe a 5K?

Awesome Hotel amenities

Well, after the ground stop in Philly was lifted, my connecting flight took off without me.  So I was stuck in Philadelphia.  All the airport hotels were full, but I found a decent priced Crowne Plaza hotel (about $100/night) that was a $15 shuttle ride into the city.  The location wasn't handy to the cool parts of Phily, but I was beat after getting there after midnight.  And wow, I loved the included amenities!  Like 2 bottles of water, apples, and a Keurig!

And how about a mug full of Hershey Kisses while I watch 6 different HBOs?!

And look at this chic collection of shampoo, etc.  Oh yes, those came home with me.

And CD alarm clock with AUX input!

Man I wished I missed my flight earlier so I could have spent more time here!

Care package to my girl

Besides being buried under tons of Massachusetts snow, my girl is getting ready for exams. Put together a little care package:

All stuff I would love to eat all in one night, though Paul thinks I overdid it on the Kind bars. Hope she digs it!

Thank you Kentucky and UConn

Though I was really rooting for the Spartans to go all the way, I will gratefully take winning my March Madness pool this way. I had needed Florida and Wisconsin to lose to keep my lead and I was very pleasantly impressed to see UConn and Kentucky pull out their wins, respectively.

Because none of us were astute enough to see the Huskies or the Wildcats heading into the Championship game it was great to know I won this pool after the Final Four played out.

My sincere congratulations to Kentucky and UConn!

Back in Brooklyn

After landing at JFK, I met up with my sister and her family at baggage claim and we headed to Brooklyn.  Josie let me put this crazy cute Cookie Monster hat on her and she helped with the unpacking:

She also let me take some cute Funny Face selfies:

Her brother was a little less psyched but humored me:

A nice respite before heading down to NJ to work on Mom's house.

Best flight in a long time

Holy crap.  I obviously haven't ridden a non-stop cross-country flight in a long time (getting from my neck of the woods in the South entails one, and on occasion, two stops to the Left Coast) but this flight was AWESOME.  Flying from SFO to JFK on United, I had my own mini-screen and FREE new release movies (and TV).  I squeezed in The Wolverine, The Internship, and started a Girls epi.  I'm pretty sure it was the first time I was lamenting that the flight wasn't longer.

Bonus--I guess because we were in the last row, the flight attendant treated us to ice cream!

Sigh, I've reached that age where I rave about a pleasant traveling experience. But, this flight was hands-down one of the best in recent memory. Especially in this day of long security lines, travel restrictions on sizes and liquids, jammed overhead space, and cramped seating (they ARE getting smaller, right?) -- it was great to have a nice ride.

Happy Halloween!

The other plus about the timing of this SoCal visit is doing Halloween in the office.  Goodness knows I love dressing up!  This year I roped my friend in to do the characters from Dodgeball:

My good friends also got in the spirit with Despicable Me's Gru and Toy Story's Jessie:

And we had to dig this shower costume a la The Karate Kid (in case you forgot--it's the costume that Daniel wears to his first party in the movie):

In fact everyone dug the Shower costume, including Holly Golightly:

Though appropriately, Despicable Me's Agnes was a bit concerned:

Minions take aim:  If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball!

Absolutely dug hanging with Captain America and this Minion:

This Minnie Mouse, Masquerade Ball Queen, and Egyptian Queen put a smile on my face:

Even the girl got into it with her 50s costume:

I love Halloween!

Reno 911! for Halloween party

This year we went to a Halloween party at our gym and I made our costumes for Reno 911! Lt. Dangle and Deputy Kimball.  I got both our khaki pants and shirts from the Goodwill for a grand total of $13, I printed our Sheriff Department patches on to iron-on transfer sheets, and we picked up our Sheriff badges at the Dollar Store where it was 6 in a package.  The big expenditures was the $7 "human hair" mustache for Paul and $6 aviators.  But not bad for less than $30 for the both of us right?

This little guy had the best costume--as the most adorable Chippendale's dancer EVER. You can bet he had dollar bills in his waistband by the end of the night!

And mad props to my favorite adult costume: Kenny Powers!

The other highlight of the party was the awesome food--I had at LEAST one of each of these cupcakes.  So tasty and so crafty!

I'm kind of at a loss for another costume idea for actual Halloween. Any ideas?

"Before I die..." Art installation

Stumbled across the interactive art installation, Before I Die, on Main Street a couple of weeks ago after the Race for Life:

Really appreciated the variation of people's specific declarations from the very heavy (...find a reason to live, ...have my son Alex back in my life) to wise goals (...stop obsessing over men) to interesting goals (...fart the loudest fart!)

I briefly thought about what I'd write on this wall if I was there during the installation and I kind of felt I wouldn't be able to come up with something to write. Does that sound weird? I'd feel this tremendous pressure that I had to come up with some life-defining goal, when I'd like to think I have many or that my goals are evolving and growing. I guess I kind of put a lot of weight in declaring something.

Or maybe I'd just come up with the fart goal.

We Might Be Superheroes

Catching up on episodes of We Might Be Superheroes!

My friends shot a fun low-budget web series with strong female characters (good and evil!) that keeps getting better with each episode. Presented in short, digestible episodes that are great diversions from what's on TV. There is a pilot episode broken over 3 webisodes that introduces our witty heroines. A quirky episode about superheroes and taxes is probably my fave so far. Looking forward to the next one--check it out!

Catch up: My first 5K--for a good cause

An awesome friend was an honoree at this year's Walk/Race for Life for winning her battle against breast cancer and our whole family joined her team.  Paul and the girl signed up for the Walk and I made the bold decision to do the 5K Run last month to help me motivate to start exercising again (and lose some of the weight I gained over the summer with a lot of travel and stress in NJ).

Unfortunately, my training was severely lacking, with my longest distance run less than a week before the event (and not much better, or often, before that):

But I managed to run a 33:29 (roughly a 10 minute pace?) and come in 331st place (out of 640 people--also 186th place out of 426 women), which I can't complain about considering how little I trained. Unlike my running friends who have just fallen in love with running more after initial races and are now prepping for marathons, I have no desire to run longer distances at all.  I will confess that it was a neat experience running through the city and traffic lights with no cars.  And honestly, the groups of people on the corner cheering?  I loved it.  I was pretty moved by it.  My favorite was the middle school marching band playing in the middle of it.  So maybe I'd a 5K again...but I'd like to be a lot better shape than this round.

SoCal memories: I mustache you

How cute do my friends' kids rock my $3 mustache keychain:

And me, right?

I stand corrected: This was the highlight of my yesterday

My friend Tom has helped me on a number of fix-its around my mom's house these past couple of weeks--things that seemed so daunting when my mind has been on so many things--as well as being a great sounding board as I rambled on stuff going through my mind. Bonus: I now know how to use Plumbing tape!  I offered to treat him to wings and beer at Hooter's as my thanks for all his help.

I had never been to Hooter's and the controversy of its waitresses in shorts and tank tops when it first opened a few decades ago had cemented in my brain that Hooter's was a place of salaciousness where gross horny dudes went to eat fried food.

Tom said I'd probably be let down by this level of expectation.

And he was right.  There were folks with their kids there and here was a guy celebrating his 21st birthday.  The song was no sexier (and just as cheesy) as a birthday song at Chili's or Bennigan's.  Also, after being in a number of sports bars where the waitresses don short skirts and low-cut referee blouses, I was fairly indifferent (or numb) to the waitresses' outfits at Hooter's.  I will say that our waitress was adorable and sweet:

And my friend Tom treated me to a souvenir shirt! If anyone is familiar with Princeton at all, you can understand how much it tickles me that Hooter's claims a Princeton address:

Needless to say, it was really nice to have a night of distraction and a new adventure!