Bleh?

Hmmm ... haven't blogged in a long time. Chris pointed out that his marriage proposal killed my blogging, lol. I guess that's partially true ... I've been keeping myself so preoccupied with all the planning that I haven't really felt like it, lol. And then there's facebook ... I update that so often I some times feel that my blog isn't necessary for updates ... and then I remember I CAN write about other things other than life updates ... hmmmm.

Attempted to make a 3D Wall-E cake over the weekend. The idea was great, the pieces I made were great, but the execution of said cake failed. GAHHH. 20 hours on a cake that was unfinished and now sitting in the dumpster. Oh well. Can't make a perfect cake everytime ... this was my first attempt at a non traditional weird shaped cake so I think I learned a few things.

Looking forward to watching the HOUSE finale tonight.

Work today sucked. A customer POOPED in the lobby. That's right, they full out shat on one of our nice wooden chairs. SO. GROSS. Then I got home and Toasty barfed everywhere. Blegh.

I feel a nap is in order ...

Doodlee Doo

I'm so excited to fly to MO next week to do all the wedding planning- eeeeek! (That was a squeal of excitement, by the way.)

I had such a good weekend. It was productive, fun, and relaxing all at the same time. :) I went to a bridal show at the Hilton in Glendale yesterday which was lots of fun, and afterwards went about a mile down the road for some great outdoor shopping. I have a new favorite store: Anthropologie! It has such cute clothes, house decor items, kitchen stuff, and accessories. It's a tad more expensive than my usual shopping spot, (Target :P) but every once in a blue moon the occasional splurge never hurt anyone. :P

I tried making espresso biscotti the other weekend, and while they taste ok, they don't really taste like espresso. More like ... chocolate with a hint of cinnamon. Some one should come up with a great espresso biscotti recipe and share it with me. :P

And now, back to ... ummm ... other stuff. :P

Poor Neglected Blogger.

Now adays I put little update posts onto my facebook so often that I sort have neglected my poor little blog ... oooops. :(

The wedding planning is coming along nicely and I'm super excited to be going to KC from April 1st - 8th to do all the planning. I'm going to a "cake tasting" and will get to try 14 + different types of cake, yummm. I would love to make my own wedding cake, but considering that I will be doing basically everything else, I will have absolutely NO time to spend 12+ hours making a cake the day before. I would also have a butt load of cake making equipment that I would need to get from here to there. I am considering, however, making the "groom's cake," because it is much smaller and wouldn't take as much time or equipment.

I made the seating cards and table numbers for the reception the other day, and they do look QUITE cute, if I do say so myself.

I'm SO glad that it's the weekend.

I'm currently addicted to the lemon almond biscotti dipped in white chocolate that I made recently and am contemplating on trying to figure out a good way to make espresso flavored biscotti next.

Hmmm ... that is all.

Me Wants

www.modcloth.com has the cutest stuff EVER and I want it all!!!! :P

Full Speed Ahead!

Well, it's been only 8 days since I got engaged and I have already gotten much accomplished in the way of wedding planning. So far this week I have:


- Chris and I chose the approximate date of the wedding
- The budget has been figured out
- Have almost come to a final decision on not only the venue, but the STATE in which the wedding will take place
- I have chosen the wedding colors
- Picked out and bought all the flowers for the reception centerpieces
- Started Chris and I's wedding website
- Designed the invitations and bought all the material to make them
- Looked at, tried on, and bought my wedding dress
- Have come up with lots of ideas
- Have narrowed down the list of photographers, bakers, and other vendors
- Have picked out the dresses for the bridesmaids

:::wipes brown::: whew!

Valentines, Dinner, Dogs, And ...

So, I've never been one to get all sappy over Valentine's Day, after all, it's mainly a commercial holiday anyway. Sure I used to like making homemade valentines to give to my friends and, many many years ago, having tea parties with close friends and our dolls. And on past Valentine's Days where I've had a significant other, I never really expected much, maybe just some time together or perhaps dinner. (Or both.) Chris and I even recently discussed how cheesy and lame it is for couples to get engaged on that particular day.

Well yesterday morning I woke up around 11ish and was just sitting on my computer "browsing the net" when Chris came in the room and was like, "Oh, I WAS going to go to Miss Donut-Bagel to get you some doughnuts for breakfast, but decided not to because I wasn't sure if you'd want them." To which I thought, what?! When would I ever NOT want doughnuts, and why are you telling me this anyway? To make me disappointed? I have to admit, I was a little annoyed. Afterwards Chris spent the next 8 hours in the living room playing video games in silence. I was thinking, wow for a boyfriend not only did he NOT wish me Happy Valentine's Day, he's not even talking! Around 7:15pm I went to the kitchen to make dinner. As my Valentine's Day present to Chris, I told him I'd try and make him a special dinner. So I made steak, mashed potatoes, corn, garlic bread, and chocolate mousse for dessert. As I was starting to cook the meal, Chris approached me and asked, "I'm going to Target. Did you want some chocolates or something?" What? Laaaaame. Now, at 7:15pm, he's ASKING me if I want him to go and get me some chocolates. Aren't you just supposed to GIVE them to some one as a ... you know ... surprise? "Sure ... uhh ... I guess. I mean if you want some." So Chris went to Target and I cooked. After he returned, dinner was ready and we ate (and it was actually good.) After I finished cleaning up Chris handed me a card in a red envelope and said excitedly, "Here's your card. I KNOW you didn't get me the same card this year, it's AWESOME." Hmmm ... maybe he'll redeem himself with this "awesome" card?" I opened it. It was ... cute. It was actually a card from the kids section with a picture of a stick figure dalmation on it. I was a bit confused because I didn't understand why he thought it was as awesome as he had been pumping it up to be. Then ...

"Oh yeah, there's something hidden in the closet for you too." Hmmm. I went to the closet and behind a stack of boxes found a really cute owl gift bag. I picked it up, and inside was the dvd '27 Dresses,' a cool picture frame, heart shaped post-it notes with owls on them, and a heart shaped box of See's Candies chocolates, handpicked. Mmmmm. Ok, he redeemed himself. As I was examining my loot, he added, "Oh and there's one last thing in the bookcase. Top shelf ... you have to look through your books." "Ummm ... okay?" I walked over to the book case, and began pulling out my books, one by one, and flipping through the pages. Finally, I took out a beautiful book I had gotten at my wedding planning conference, a pink suede covered book called "Colin Cowie's Extraordinary Weddings." I opened it and inside was a red envelope with a shiny plastic cover over it. Hmmm ... another card? I opened it. At first glance ... it looked like a gift card. But then I read it ... After much squeeling and looking back and forth from the card to Chris, repeating in disbelief "what!?" like five times and asking "really?!" like three times, I finally said yes. :)

(Oh and yes Chris did actually try and make Valentine's Day start out as lame as possible on purpose so that I wouldn't suspect a thing, and it worked! :P)

I am ...

HAHA.


Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Oh. My. Ouch.

Today at work I was cutting open a bag of frappucino mix with a pair of scissors, and just as I was about to cut I got distracted by some one that was talking to me and ended up cutting my finger pretty deeply instead of the bag. So, I'm standing there wincing and screeching in pain as my co-worker put some "liquid band-aid" on it, and to my horror an old (50's?) customer was standing there staring at me and was like, "Ohhh ... all that screaming is turning me on." WHAT the?!

Ups and Downs

You know what I don't like? Waking up at 4am so completely drenched in sweat that it feels as though you just stepped out of a pool, and the sheets are so sopping that you have to lay a TOWEL over it. Yuck. Just as I was starting to feel some what better this morning before work, by the time I got OFF of work my head was completely clogged and ready to explode, and my throat hurts like a b*tch, Oh well. Tis to be expected, I suppose.

(Oh I guess I forgot to mention that I spoke to soon in my last post, because I DID end up catching the flu from Chris on Tuesday.)

On the upside, it's raining today. :)

I'm confused ...

I was balancing my check book online just now, (you know, just checking off the deposits and withdrawls to my checking account,) and noticed that there is a deposit for almost $4,000 currently pending. What the??? I have no idea what that is or where it came from but I'm definitely calling my bank tomorrow. A bit weird if you ask me ...

Chris has been sick with what kinda seems like the flu since Saturday and I'm really lucky that I haven't caught it. Phew. :::wipes brow:::

Right now I'm currently debating on whether or not to sign up for another 6 week session of my acting class. (Next Thursday is the last class for this session.) The reasons why I would even be debating on possibly NOT signing up for another session right now is because of a couple different reasons. Firstly, money at the moment is a bit tight right now considering I quit the Elephant Bar, just returned from an almost 3 week vacation, and currently have ANOTHER week off of work because of Sundance ... and registration for 6 weeks is $275. But perhaps my biggest reason is that ... I'm having a hard time doing it "on the side." For me, I like to do things all the way or not at all. And right now I'm really focusing on getting my wedding planning business off of the ground, and I know I want that as a career. Acting for me has become more of a hobby, something to do just for fun. I'd love to do it as a career if I could just wake up every morning and work on shooting a movie, but I know it's not like that for most people. I hate auditions, looking for auditions, schmoozing, and everything else having an acting career involves besides the actual acting part. So I've resolved to just do it for fun. But I'm having a hard time focusing on starting my business when I'm constantly worrying about my monologues or scenes for class, which are very emotionally demanding. I get stressed some times just thinking about going to class knowing that I'm going to have to cry multiple times right on the spot. I just don't know if I am emotionally strong enough to focus on starting my business AND class at the same time ... if that makes any sense. I suppose many people wouldn't get stressed about doing monologues and scenes but I do. I have to prepare myself mentally and emotionally throughout the entire week in order to practice and go to class. Errr ... I don't know. Bagh!!!

I'm also annoyed and confused with blogger because for the past several weeks I haven't been able to post pictures because they come out HUGE, even if they're way tiny and I put the setting on "small." For instance, I was going to attach a lovely little confused smiley face to this very post, and even resized it in photoshop to MAKE SURE that it's very small, and it STILL came out huge ...

And now, I'm off to go find yet something ELSE to be confused about ...

:::Starts Singing::: I Quit, I quit!

Let's see ...

I QUIT the Elephant Bar on Friday. Actually, I handed in my "2 weeks notice" letter on Friday, but since they hadn't even put my name back on the schedule since I had returned home from MO, they just decided to leave me off all together. So no more E-Bar. Good riddance! It feels really weird only having one job ...

Mmm I'm working on getting my wedding planning business site up so if you want to see it, it's at www.allisonseverafter.com (It's still a work in progress.)

Leaving Thursday for Utah and the Sundance Film Festival, woo woo!

Am currently playing the PS2 game 'Petz, Cats 2.' Meow!

I bought the BEST strawberries the other day. SO GOOD. (And it's not even strawberry season!)

2009 Off With a Bang!

Happy New Years. Woo hoo!

I've had a good visit home so far. I've had lots of quality time to simply relax and visit with friends, which is always wonderful.

I decided to spend New Years Eve with Erika and Barf, since they weren't able to come to Columbia for Christmas. Erika made soba noodles for dinner around 5:30pm (a japanese tradition,) which were actually quite good. Erika had to leave just before 7pm to get ready for a fashion show that she was modeling in at The Foundation Room, so Barf, Stara, Marley and I played some good 'ol American Idol Karaoke Revolution for a few hours. We headed out to the venue at about 10:30pm where we hung out until the fashion show started, which was fun to watch. (Erika got to wear the best outfit, and I'm not just saying that because I'm partial to my sister.) We stayed afterwards and attempted to dance to this weird techo music until about 2am, then headed home. This is where the real fun began ...

We planned on watching the sunrise, (another Japanese New Years tradition,) on top of the roof of the theatre where Erika works. Our problem was ... well ... the sun wasn't due to rise until 7:38am. We had several hours to kill and sat around trying to decided what would be more miserable: Going to sleep only to have to be rudely awakened 3 hours later, or stay up all night and go to bed after the sunrise. While we were contemplating, Sam showed up around 3:15am with blanket in tow (ready to watch the sunrise!) so ... everyone ended up going to bed except Sam, Erika, and myself. We decided it would be easier to just stay up rather than going to bed. We passed the hours with Harry Potter Uno, several cups of coffee, and several cups of hot chocolate. I decided it would be an awesome idea to add a little kick to the game. Now, on every number 7 uno card, there's a picture of Bertie Botts Jelly Beans. I thought it would be a great idea if, everytime some one laid down a Bertie Botts card they had to drink/eat a spoon full of cold coffee with jelly beans soaking in it. (It was ... repulsive.) Needless to say, that little twist added much queesyness but also tons of hard core laughter. BTW, it's much easier to stay awake when each orphus of your body is occupied ... umm ... hahaha ... yes that's the kind of theory you come up with when you're dead tire. :P

Finally, we made it to 6:50am and headed out to watch the sunrise. (Even after Barf tripped and twisted her ankle on the way out to the car.) Again, the only people mental enough to climb the ladder all the way to the top part of the roof were Erika, Sam and I. We sat miserably huddled under blankets in the freezing cold waiting for the sun to peak its orby face over the horizon. We were so delirious, that the smell of what we were told was sewage, smelled to us like a delicious breakfast of omelette and hashbrowns, hahaha. Finally, at exactly 7:38am, the sun rose over the horizon in the east, and we experience great victory.

We then headed home, had some Sake, (another Japanese tradition for good health,)ate some leftover pizza/cheese sticks, and dumped into bed for our sleep of triumph just before 9am. We clocked in almost 6 hours of sleep ... and ... it was beautiful. :P