A housewarming

On Labor Day weekend we hosted a Housewarming Party for ourselves. The point wasn’t to get gifts but to get krunk with a random assortment of people who we love and/or think are nifty. Clayton knows half of Oklahoma City and I know the other half. With that in mind, we were really stingy with the guest list and figured that we might have to have a few more parties to eventually circulate all of our friends through this new house of ours. I think the guest list happened like this…

“You get 30 and I get 30. That’s it. This house can only hold 60 drunk people.”

According to the clock, around 10:15 my drunk self had a sudden recollection that I was supposed to be shooting party pics.

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Did you know that if you tilt the camera to the side then it means the shot is arty? I love this pic because Audrey is looking at her husband with lots of affection. I also love that Clayton is looking at me like, “Why are you taking my picture?” The answer, my love? Because you are smoking hot. Now I have additional photographic evidence of that fact.

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Hey James! Leaning to the side didn’t get you out of the pic. Hee hee. See the two women talking to each other? Yeah…later on this new friendship would fill my camera drive with photos that’ll never make it to this blog.

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That’s Mike looking at Christine like RAWR. I love those two together!

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More love birds. Twenty-five years as of this year!

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Clayton makes a really, really boozy sangria. Two pitchers were created for the party.

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After we killed pitcher #1, I dumped the boozy berries into a bowl for snacking. Those strawberry slices actually burned. They burned GOOD.

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Meanwhile in the living room, Alex and nice-stranger-whose-name-maybe-starts-with-a-J-or-B, found some of our many musical instruments and began jamming a bit. I even grabbed my banjo and held it whilst wishing I could play a single chord.

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This is what happens when you think you’ve shot enough photos and you set your camera down and leave the room.

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Jenny has one of the brightest smiles (and souls) I’ve ever seen. Kristy is similar. It’s no wonder they buddied up so quickly. This photo is severely edited to protect reputations and corneas. Most of those photos are so….um….candid…that I can’t in good conscience post them here. But they involve drums, butts, fruits and nuts. 🙂

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I found the fruit like this the next morning and giggled like crazy. Later in the morning I scrolled through the camera contents and things made more sense. Also, I had to burn that camera.

I’m a little irritated with myself that I didn’t get pics earlier because there was a whole different slate of people who were here then. And a big, beautiful table full of beautiful food. More people came later and we all tested the strength of the back porch. Until 1:30am.

We had a party from 6pm to 1:30am. We rule.

One of my beautiful friends, K.C., brought us this:

Best gift.

And we were gifted three orchids, who are ALL still alive for the time being.

OH! Let’s have a moment that K.C. gifted us her song lyrics (view the song in iTunes here) and three friends brought orchids. When I first got to know K.C. she had just released her album, Orchid. I’m sure there’s a message from the Universe in there somewhere.

Hair probs solved (for now)

I gaaaht mah hurrr did.

I received tons of suggestions when I posted about my Hair Probs. It was overwhelming! I had 2 or three suggestions for the Velvet Monkey alone, so settled on that salon. Also because it was close to work and home. Yesterday was my appointment and chose Parker in particular because I’ve known him for years and years and want to support his talents. He’s a singer/songwriter and volunteer, and when he’s not doing those things he does a damn find job doing hair and make-up at Velvet Monkey in the Plaza District.

I had sent him the blog post a couple of weeks ago and when I sat down we took 10 minutes with hair swatches, my Pinterest account and my blog and formulated a plan of attack.

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Bangs! Red! Layers! The bangs dried a little shorter than I wanted, but I’ll rock a little Betty Page for a week or two. The red wasn’t as artificial red as I wanted. The length is maybe a little longer than I wanted to keep. The whole thing is so different for me that it looks like I’m wearing a wig when I look in the mirror. But, I really like it.

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Can you see my new, auburn birthmarks? I hope those fade quickly. Any tips on that? The color starts on my temple, goes above my ears and follows my hairline to the nape of my neck. Then there’s lots of layers and the red just pokes out wherever it feels like poking out.

Overall, I’m really pleased and am gonna have fun with my new hair. No more probs.

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What’s your go-to movie?

I hit a rough patch in my Monday and when I was finally home for the evening I wanted to tune out. Not the drink-to-oblivion kind, but the super-distracted kind. I don’t watch TV and movies often and I needed a suggestion.

I pushed this to Facebook, too, and was fascinated by the suggestions. In no order:

Cabin Boy
Breakfast Club
Back to the Future
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Dazed and Confused
Roadhouse or Point Break (Swayze FTW)
Waterboy or Fletch
Almost Famous or Across the Universe
Rushmore
Steel Magnolias or Cocktails
Spaceballs
Center Stage, Clueless, Bull Durham
SATC
Center Stage, The Holiday, Sweet Home Alabama, Pretty Woman
Big Liebowski and Forrest Gump
ID4
Dumb and Dumber
Any one of the Trois Couleurs trilogy, but most especially Red. Or Cinema Paradiso.
The Last Starfighter
Memento
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Godfather one or two
Doris Day movies or the original Parent Trap
Real Genius
You’ve Got Mail
Step Brothers
Anything Nora Ephron
Big Lebowski, Princess Bride, Elizabethtown, and lately, Bridesmaids
Hot Tub Time Machine
Star Trek: TNG reruns
Pulp Fiction or Full Metal Jacket
Spaceballs
Raising Arizona or Stealing Beauty
Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Bring It On

I had a lot of joy reading through the suggestions, remembering the ones I’d enjoyed, curious about the ones I had but I’d never gotten to. Impressed by the variety of friends I have if boob-tube selections are a good indicator of the diversity of my friendships. They are. I have now (:::poof:::) deemed them to be!

What I ended up choosing for my tune-out was exactly what I needed. It was a trite, hokey, nostalgic choice (much like a few of those mentioned in the list) but it was something to make me feel connected to my human experience. The flawed, insecure experience of being in your 30s when one moment you FUCKING HAVE THIS FIGURED OUT and in the other moment you’re all WHAT IN THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?! As I near 40 its more the former than the latter, but the former still happens. And since you’re in your late 30s you can’t always get your real girlfriends out on a moment’s notice…

…sometimes you have to beckon Charlotte, Miranda, Carrie and Samantha from Amazon.

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