Nyotaimori

yes! yes! YES!

Very well done. Let me be the first to officially congratulate you on successful completion of Libr 289. I’ll send you a follow-up email with more details but it is definitely time for you to celebrate.

for one of my classes this semester i had to write SIXTEEN 5 to 7 page competency statement papers and collect 2-3 pieces of evidence proving my practical application of EACH competency. i turned in the last one yesterday and she already approved it with the above message. the class is in lieu of a masters thesis paper so it’s a goddamn lot of work with nitpicky details and stupid rules. now only one class left which ends on dec 10 and i’ll be officially finished with this degree. YEY!

for Halloween this year i dressed up as a witch and used fish styx as a prop in my costume. handing out candy to little kids makes me so happy. sadly only 8 children came by to get my candy. curse you, terrorism. when Americans don’t get out to beg for candy, the terrorists have already won.

anyway, i made my mom take some pictures of me in the front yard in my get-up and with my decorations. for posterity. and to shake an ineffectual tiny fist at terrorism.

my nephew, evan, turned 1 this weekend (nov. 2). and there was a little party to celebrate his aging. i, admittedly, only went for 30 minutes since then i had to go to the birthday party of kristen, erica, jason, and jacob in oakland. but here is a delightful picture of him and his cake, all the same:

more pictures from his birthday here.

i also got some from our last real world old filming date at my house. trucking right along on that filming i was playing a census taker admin person shepherding around sean’s old man character. but mostly what i did at filming was put evan on gene’s motorcycle. so cute!

more pictures from filming here.

i’ve been reading breakfast at tiffany’s today. and who knew that was even a book. or that truman capote wrote it. that is what astounds me most. capote to me conjures up mobster novels, not holly golightly. which is a completely false assumption and i have no idea where i came upon it. …i think i’m just associating with capone. it’s very similar! i have mild dyslexia! don’t judge, ladybug!

point to share with you today: NO on prop 8, H.G. agrees.

“If I were free to choose from everybody alive, just snap my fingers and say come here you, I wouldn’t pick Jose. Nehru, he’s nearer the mark. Wendell Wilkie. I’d settle for Garbo any day. Why not? A person ought to be able to marry men or women or–listen, if you came to me and said you wanted to hitch up with Man o’War, I’d respect your feeling. No, I’m serious. Love should be allowed. I’m all for it.”

the fact that i ate A LOT of this food still makes me clutch my stomach in pain a little.

not only did we have individual place settings with our initials but we each had our own teapot. extravagance thy name is christine’s grandmother.

even though i know nuala may punch me for uploading this photo, it makes me love her like 5 elephant loads worth more. priceless. kristen yelling out the photo incentives, “sexy!” nuala, “i don’t know how to look sexy!” (ok, i don’t know if she actually said that, but this is a story). kristen, “just suck your cheeks in! suck ’em in good!” ha ha ha! and the result = genius.

probably my actual favorite. so adorable, us finer things club ladies. adorable, and you know, vicious cat fighters on command.

to see all the pictures, click here.

thanksgiving–sort of a humdrum holiday. sure, there’s sweet potatoes, but otherwise? i can’t say i care about it. which is why i am flying the coop this year and going to mexico. mexico! we don’t celebrate killing indians in mexico! no! we have facials and sit on the beach at our all-inclusive fancy-ass resort!

i read a book where they changed the name of thanksgiving to “atonement day”. it was a book about an 11 year old girl and alien invasions. ermmmm….she drove off the mean aliens by cloning her cat because they were allergic to cat fur. yes, this book = totally my cup of tea.

in mexico, i think i will refer to thanksgiving as eat-drink-massage-nap on beach day.

those pictures are TOTALLY MY RESORT!

Dear Mort, Brother Tupperware, Vinny, Piggy, Princess Pony,

I don’t remember all your nicknames and you probably have one for every year of your life at this point. 29th year nickname: Princess Pony. I’m fond of this new one because it conjures images of the sparkly pink ponies on the card I sent you. Which hopefully you got yesterday and I’m not revealing secrets here. So pink, so sparkly! Just like you.

Happy Birthday, Princess Pony (never PP for short)

Love,

Michele