a long hollywood weekend

This weekend I took a group of 20 adults with developmental disabilities and 3 volunteers to Hollywood. We went to Griffith Observatory, the Wax Museum, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, stayed at the Ramada, and then got up in the morning and went on a Hollywood Stars tour, and then went to Universal Studios all day! It was fun and exhausting, as all A2A trips are. I was sick the whole time, and lost my voice by the end of the 2nd day. I left my house at 7:30am Saturday morning and got home at 10:00pm Sunday night.

I got home to a sparklingly clean house, thanks to my amazing boyfriend. It was so nice not to have to deal with the pile of dishes and dirty stove that I had left!!! Man, it's nice when someone else cleans for you. One day I will splurge and have a housekeeper come every so often and keep only the fun chores for myself (yes, I like some of them. I like cleaning the bathtub, for example. And the mirrors. I always liked cleaning the bathroom because there was a precise list of things to do, and it was a contained space that had a *finish* to the job. Unlike the living room or dining room which never ever seems totally clean).

I am soooo close to being done with my Moose at Sunset crosssitch - but I ran out of the last color I need, so I have to go to Joanne's before I can finish. So close!

Yesterday I walked to the store and bought dumbbells and created a new little fitness routine for myself, and today my legs are actually sore. It's a good feeling. I've been sick for so long I really need to get back into exercising regularly.

I have a bread machine and I've been baking bread pretty steadily. I need to find a weight watchers bread machine recipe though, because I keep baking this amazing french bread and eat loooaaavves of it by myself. Not too conducive with the whole weight loss thing.

Juno is amazing and wonderful and I love my crazy puppy so much. She makes me want to have kids. That maternal yearning which seems to start somewhere deep and seep into every pore has begun again. Watch out small children, Roya wants to take you home...

Also - I watched Twilight and it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be and I am not ashamed to say it. Last night I also watched Speed and it wasn't nearly as horrible as I'd been led to believe either!! I liked it! I stayed awake for the whole damn thing! I cared what happened to those people! I predicted everything and still gasped when exciting things happened!

Tonight I am going to see Avenue Q with Swasthi, Chrispy and Larry. YAYYYYY.

I like my life

Today I registered for the Sparkpeople Convention happening on May 2nd, in San Diego. It's a very full day which starts out with a "fun run" at 7am, and then speakers, panels, prizes, stretching routines, etc. etc. The website Sparkpeople is SO innovative and amazing, that my expectations are already pretty high for their convention. I am really, really, really excited (I am also really excited about the STUFF you get for registering..t-shirt, totebag, fitness dvds...) I can't wait til May. :)

I am incredibly good at my job, and every time I have a mandatory meeting for one of my overnight trips it comes back to me just how satisfying it really is doing something that I enjoy this much and that I am this proficient at. Event planning, especially when you are talking about taking groups of 40+ adults with developmental disabilities, is not for everyone. I am uniquely suited to it, I think, and I LOVE it. LOVE IT LOVE IT. So last night was our meeting for the Hollywood trip in two weeks, and I am finally excited for it. We'll be going to Griffith Observatory, staying at the Ramada in West Hollywood, seeing a movie at Grauman's Chinese Theater, and then spending the 2nd day on a Movie Stars tour and going to Universal Studios. It's going to be totally cheesy and wonderful. :)

I baked my 2nd loaf of bread in the bread machine yesterday - smells wonderful, tastes good, but is a funny looking loaf. They've both been really SHORT. I don't know if that's how they are supposed to be or if I am doing something wrong.

I want to finish my Moose at Sunset cross stitch - I am so freaking close to being done. When I finish, it will be the first humongous cross stitch project that I ever actually saw to completion. I have a smaller geisha girl who is beautiful, and to most people she looks done, but I never technically finished some of the top embroidery and cross hatching. The Moose at Sunset don't need added embellishment. ;)

After Moose, I think I'll start on the Bear Catching the Salmon, to keep going with the Alaskan theme. I did send away for the missing instructions for my Yoruban Women, so I could finish that too..but I'm just not feeling it right now.

At some point I'd like to get out those granny square bags I was making and SELL some. Now that the weather is improving, I really, really, really want to get a booth at the craft fair in LB and sell all my stuff. I have made a necessary promise to myself that I just can't buy more material or even make many more things without first selling what I have. My art room is full to overflowing. It's time to get the items moving.

I think I might sell some of them at the Spring Fling Festival I am holding for Project Independence. I'll donate a percentage of what I make to PI, that way everyone wins.

Okay. It's nearly 5. I can leave now. To the dry cleaners, then HOME, for hopefully a LOT of sleep tonight. SO TIRED! Also, very into capital letters today, apparently.

this weekend

I am surviving puppy-motherhood...she is asleep under my desk. My favorite times with her are when Adam gets home and we sit outside in white plastic chairs and watch the puppy and Rommel play tug o war with the chew toys, and watch as she bounces as high as she can t0 bite him the the face and then gets nervous and runs back to us and then goes to attack him again. There is also a pattern of her slowing down a little bit around 10pm while I am in the kitchen doing dishes and she comes and lays on my feet and chews on a treat while I make lunches and clean up.

Tomorrow I am working at a transition fair in the morning, and then I am working allll day long and then I have a staff meeting tomorrow night with my staff who are going on the Hollywood Trip with me. Wednesday I have the meeting with the clients who are going on that trip. It's going to be a very busy April for me...

but in any case, It's past 5 and I want to get home and get some bread started in my new bread machine! I also want to get the entertainment center my aunt Julie is giving me - because my house is beautimous right now. I made green and white curtains for the bedroom and bought a bedspread set that has green branches with flower blossoms all over it, and my room is one step closer to being like sleeping in a tree.

I have a bunch of tree branches in my trunk, which I will spray paint and use as curtain rods once I have time for that project. And I also plan on painting two of the walls a light green, and then buying some vinyl decorations from etsy.com - a tree sillouhette over the tv/dressers. ahhhhh yes. I love my bedroom. For a long time it had a "weird unliveable vibe" as Adam put it last night, and now it feels homey!

I am excited about speaking at the Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference in San Diego. I haven't been around a whole group of unschoolers for quite some time. Rosie's birthday party doesn't quite count. ;)

Oh, really quickly - since I last wrote, I made new friends, ate huge calzones, sang loud karaoke, watched the production of Little Shop of Horrors that Roxana asst. directed, saw I Love You Man with said friends, had an A2A event (edison dance), and celebrated Naw Ruz with my family, had long and wonderful discussions with Adam, started watching a new tv show (East Bound and Down...?) made a casserole, scrubbed the bathroom, did 6 loads of laundry - actually, this is not "since I last wrote" but "what I did this weekend."

At some point I'd love to follow up with a friend's post that is titled "I can bake my cake and eat it too" about falling into gender roles, nurturing, doing domestic/household things and being thrilled to death by it, and what our fore-mothers think, etc.
But the time is not now.
Tonight I am going grocery shopping to get bread baking stuff, and going out to eat with Xp and Swasthi and picking up the entertainment center! woohoo!

I got the day off today!

Yay! It's a beautiful friday and I have the day off!

..of course, I also have a sinus headache that wants me to stay super still and quiet with the lights off all day. But I'm ignoring that!

Last night I had a friend over who I taught how to knit (? at least how to knit felted bags) and she finished up a bag she'd been working on, while I started a very fall-esque braided rug. I'm pleased with the rug. I finally figured out how to consistently keep any thread showing. It takes so much work and time and blood (talk about pricked fingers) that I think these rugs will be my high-cost items on etsy. They're ridiculously beautiful, though, and I love making them by recycling tshirts.

I also got some feedback on little granny-square bags I was making. I was unsure whether I wanted to use bamboo handles on all of them, and I think I decided!

So my plan today is to bake bread, listen to my Dar Williams Pandora station, continually clean the house through the day, and work on my braided rug. Tomorrow I want to get my sewing machine out and make lining for every bag I have finished. I'd like to also take some photos of ceramics I have to sell, since I have them and just haven't posted them on etsy yet.

It is also TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY, by the way. So I hope that's exciting for some of you.

Also - I was saving the most important for last. Today is my little sister's 21st birthday. Holy cow. Happy Birthday ROXANA!-