03-29-10 Monday... again

Again I had big plans for Monday. And again I did not really accomplish them. on the brightside, I managed to walk Frankie about 3.5 miles so, I got SOEMTHING done. I also spent about 8 hours researching possible wedding venues only to come up with the same places I had already found.

I also bought this magazine along with another wedding magazine. "Cesar's Way". It's all about Cesar Milan and dogs. I love Cesar. I don't really put all of his advice to use as I tend to spoil my pets, but I do find that a lot of what he has to say is very useful and true. And this magazine has so many great photos of dogs! It just made me happy. And it was nice to take a break from wedding magazines and read a heartwarming story of a dog who saved it's owners life, or to gaze at all the adorable faces on the adoptions page.

And that was pretty much my day. Oh, and I still have a cold. I hate this damn cold.

03-28-10 Wedding Marching

Well, March has just been flying by. Since my motto for this month was "Make My Life Better March", I feel the need to talk about how that actually turned out for me. I feel pretty good about March. I hated that I was sick for pretty much the whole month. I hated that I was so lazy due to being sick that I missed most workouts and also slacked on walking Frankie as much as I like to. BUT...other than those small setbacks, I had a rather amazing month. Here are the highlights:

~Curtis and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary.
~We managed to catch most of the Oscar Nominated Movies I wanted to see before the Oscars.
~We spent a lot of nice quality time together.
~WE GOT ENGAGED!
~Curtis and his partner Zeke SOLD THEIR FIRST SHOW TO A BIG NETWORK!
~I'm planning a wedding and therefore I get to talk to my closest friends WAY more than usual and see them more often too. Woo-hoo!

Now, because of the engagement, some other stuff on my "list of important stuff to do" has slipped a little in terms of how important it is right this second because until we have a date, location and all the big decisions for the wedding done, it's petty much all I can think about. Once we have all that stuff out of the way, then, I'm pretty sure I can relax. But finging a location and picking a date are BIG things that need to be taken care of prretty quickly for me. And finding a location takes time and effort, driving all over to see all the possible venues and stuff.

Anyway, that's my little update on March. Onto the events of today!

Today was the last scheduled brunch at a restaurant called "Spadra". Spadra is a great little restaurant that had great brunches and the most relaxed atmosphere of any place I've ever been to. It was the kind of place where ou could eat breakfast or brunch and then just relax and chat at the table for a long time without feeling pressured to leave. Having been a server I always made sure we weren't keeping anyone from making money or keeping anyone from having a table. But Spadra was just kind of "chill" that way. If you lived in the area or had gone to school there, or just knew people there, then there was a good chance you'd see people you kneew there. It will be missed. Oh sure, there's lots of other good brunch places to go to, but they don't have the ambience or feel of Spadra. We started going there with our friend Dean and then other people started to join in as well. Dean was unfortunately sick today so he missed out, sadly. And a few other people also couldn't make it, so, today we said our goodbye in a smaller way than planned with Scott and Liz and baby Aurora. It was very nice. There was a rumor that they might stay open a little longer. I guess we'll see. But today was the advertised last day for brunch. This is me and Curtis at the last brunch.



After that my mom and I went wedding dress shopping. More dresses. I found a couple more that I really loved. But they were pricier than I would have liked. Still, it's nice to know what I like and what I don't. My sis in law, and bridesmaid, Kerri also joined us for a bit.

03-27-10 One of those days...

So, today I had an early morning start for me. It was a busy first half of the day. When I got home I was ready to get some more stuff done, workout and then maybe take a little nap before Curtis got back home. Instead... I came home to find everything somewhat falling apart. I don't want to get into it. Let's just say it involved dog poop, blood, spilled garlic butter, bruising my knee and even more laundry....

But after all that we met up with some friends to hang out for a bit and then went to a birthday party. It was a good night all in all and we got to see and spend time with a lot of friends. That's always nice.

Our first stop of the night was Scott and Liz's house to hang out with them, their baby, Liz's mom, and our other friends Jeff and Ami. My photo of the day is of the girls involved iin that group. :)

03-26-10

This is my pillow in it's brand new pillowcase that is now torn apart. Frankie has never torn a pillow in his life yet this week he seems hell bent on destroying the bed. I am certain that he didn't do this on purpose. If he really wanted to attack the pillow he would have torn it much more than this. I think that he really just was scratching around the bed trying to make a comfortable "nest like" bed as he and most dogs do before laying down and his claws (which are in need of a trim, which is my fault) tore it a bit. It was also a very cheap pillowcase, not exactly the best quality, but still.... it wasn't the best way to end the day.

Today wasn't a bad day, but neither was it a great day. The day kind of got away from me. Though, I did manage to get some cleaning done. I've been very tired this week. And still kinda lazy physically. I think it has to do with the fact that this stupid cold still won't go away completely and the stress of job hunting and wedding planning at the same time. so, in an effort to not be too lazy I cleaned today. I scrubbed the bathroom, did about 6 loads of laundry and cleaned my room a bit. I was feeling pretty good about things when Curtis and I left for dinner. So, I wasn't thrilled when I saw my torn pillow. But it wasn't the worst thing either. Oh well. Such is life. Frankie's a wonderful dog, but, like any dog (or child for that matter) there are situations and behaviors I could live without. But in general, I believe that the good far outweighs the bad in having a pet.

03-25-10 Mama's Got a Brand New Bag... of bedding.

Today I went shopping. I needed new seets because Frankie spends a lot of time in my bed and is a sheet destroyer. He doesn't mean to destroy them but sometimes he gets all excited and digs around on the bed and accidently puts holes in the sheets. :( But in all fairness I've only had to buy new sheets once since I got him and I've had him three years so, it takes a while to inflict his damage. ;-)

Anyway, the photo is of the new light green sheets. I'm on a green kick right now.

After that I tried to get some more stuff done but then I accidentally took some Benedryl instead of Tylenol and I knocked myself out for most of the evening. Oops! I really need to focus more at times like when taking medication! Yikes!

03-24-10 Wednesday Wedding Dress Day!

Today I was just sitting at home perusing jobs and trying to get some wedding stuff sorted out when my friend and Matron of Honor Karen texted me to say that she was going to Staples that day and there is a David's Bridal right near there and would I like to come along and do a preliminary dress search? At first I said no because I was still in my pjs and had a lot to do and it was 3 pm already. But she pressed forth and before I knew it I was not only perusing dresses but trying them on. I really only wanted to try on one at that point because Karen had her baby Henry with us and I didn't want to make an almost 1 year old hang out in a bridal store for too long. But he did surprisingly well! He found the dresses interesting and kept tryng to go under the girl in the dressing room next to me's dresses! He's a cheeky little monkey! ;-)

Well we found two dresses that we both liked. The other two I tried on were a bit too poufy for 5'3" me. The dress pictured is not one of the dresses we really liked. I would say this one came in third place out of the 4 I tried on and, as you can see, it's not particularly figure flattering. I am leaning towards one done in lace and one that is beaded and has a better shilouette but still has enough swish and swagger in it to be considered "princessy" and "wedding dress like". The lace one is gorgeous but not in the traditional style of a wedding dress that most people think of.

In any case, we are just beginning this search. We still have several other shops to check out and sales to shop! But we at least know what kinds of dresses I am leaning towards and what to look for.

03-23-10 Tuesday- back to basics

Today I had a rather busy day. I had an interview for a job placement place, then I was heading over to my brother and sis in law's house to let in the house appraiser for them, and then it was off to the gym and to run some errands and grocery shop.

Well, all went according to plan for the most part but instead of going to the gym I ended up working out at their house since they have an ellipitcal machine there. I also played with their dog Roxy a bit. :) That is my picture of the day.

Then I did go grocery shopping and errand running but because I ended up hanging out at their house longer than planned I was in rush hour traffic by the time I was heading home. ARGH. I can not stand traffic. And whether or not I am driving I become very, very tired when I am in traffic. By the time I got home I was exhausted.

Frankie needed a walk though so I walked him 3 miles and then finally was able to take a shower and relax a bit watching "Lost" with Curtis.

So not too much of anything exciting, but it was nice to have a good workout, walk Frankie and feel pretty productive all day long.

03-22-10 The Good and The Bad of Monday

This is the only photo I took today. I bought this issue of Shape magazine because I think Chelsea Handler is hilarious and I love that she is very fit and trim without being "skinny". It was so great to see a strong womanly body in a bikini on a fitness magazine instead of some sinewy, skinny starlet or model who doesn't look that fit or who looks like they never indulge in anything ever. This cover made me happy and inspired to be fitter!

But that's not even close to the best news we got today! Today we got some GREAT news! The SyFy Channel picked up Curtis and his partner Zeke's show! Hooray! It was definitely some much needed and eagerly awaited good news! We're very excited! But no, I can't really tell you anything about the show yet. I will when I can. :)

The rest of the day kinda went downhill from there for me though. It certainly wasn't the worst day, but it also wasn't the best. I had been planning for quite some time to audition for a show. I got as prepared as I could for it. It involved an accent and while I felt like my accent in Jake's Women was well received, I still don't trust my ability with accents. Especially auditioning with an accent. I just get so nervous with accents. On days like this I REALLY wish I had gone to one of those fancy acting schools where you're in class 5 days a week and they spend days and days on very specific accents. I don't know if that would have helped or not and there's really no reason I couldn't have taught myself some accents and mastered them on my own. But I digress. I started to have a bad feeling about the audition. I should have listened to that but I brushed it off as just being nervous.

The next thing I know I am sitting in an uncomfortable audition process (where everyone auditioning for the part is in the audition room at once instead of one at a time like I am most used to,or in small groups of people) slowly losing confidence watching person after person audition ahead of me (I was 2nd to last to audition) and then giving a pretty poor audition in front of an acquaintance of mine who has never really seen me perform that I know of. Sigh. I can kind of handle bad auditions in front of a director and producer especially if I don't know them. But when it's in front of everyone you're auditioning against and someone you know but don't really know well? Yikes. I wanted to cry. But I didn't. I am proud to say I didn't cry. The worst part was I could have listened to my intuition, stayed home and gotten some stuff done and avoided the humiliation. But did I listen to my gut? Noooooo. I had something to try and prove to myself. Argh. I hate when that happens.

These sorts of things though really remind me about how awesome it is when someone takes a chance on you. When I auditioned for Jake's Women I felt better about my audition than I did tonight, but I still didn't think it was great. But I felt like I did a much better audition at my call back for Jake's Women so, I am ever grateful for any directors who give me the chance to come to the call backs.

In the end, though, I think it is all for the best. I'm starting to get busy with wedding planning stuff (they say the beginning of the planning and then right before the wedding are the busiest times) and I am still quite busy looking for a job and well, it's a 3 act play with a rather demanding part so, I think it might have been a lot for me to tackle right now. And with the way things are going for Curtis I might be busy doing some bigger stuff sooner than we thought. I'd have preferred if it hadn't been such a public humiliation but hey, that's showbiz kid. ;-)

I'm just gonna tell myself that there is something better I am meant to be doing from April through May and let it go at that.

03-21-10 Surprise Brunch and I cooked dinner!

Today at the very last minute we decided to head over to Spadra for brunch. It was around noon when we got there and we had to leave around 12:45 so that Curtis could get to work, but, in the end it all worked out perfectly! I'm really gonna miss Spadra when it's gone. While we were there we saw our friend Bert and he was there with some people including a girl named Melisa. He said he was surprised that we didn't know her and she DID look familiar to me but I couldn't place her right away. Then it hit me I did "West Side Story" with her 18 years ago! Crazy! It was good to see her again. :)

After brunch I went home and Curtis went to work. While he was working I took out my wedding band and took some photos so I could look at it whenever I wanted since I'm not allowed to wear it until after we're married. ;-)

When Curtis came home we walked Frankie and then headed to the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner. I wanted to make a Quinoa salad that my friend Karen had made for me before. It turned out delicious! I was pretty excited about it!

And well, that was my day.

03-20-10 Date Night With my Fiancee! HeeHee!

Tonight we had a date night and boy did I ever need to get out of the house and relax! You see, Curtis had to work today so, I stayed home and worked on wedding stuff until I was blue in the face with frustration. Man weddings are expensive! And so many places and services charge SO much more for weddings than they do for other events and parties. It's really ridiculous and it had thoughts of eloping running through my head. ....

We're planning on buying our flowers wholesale and arranging them ourselves, I'm hoping to get my dress at a sample sale or buying one that's been worn once and cleaned for a significant discount, and we've got other cost savers here and there as well. But still... I couldn't find a place that I liked that was within our budget and it was just very frustrating. My top pick for a location is at a winery. But every one of them seemed out of our budget unless we cut our guest list from 120 down to under 75, which was not really an option. We do have a couple of friends with winery connections so, we could possibly swing a deal, but, I am starting to doubt it's going to be enough of a deal for us unless a film funding or tv show funding suddenly falls into place for Curtis.

I'm trying to focus on the important parts of a wedding like having our friends and family around and, you know us getting married but it just seems like such an uphill battle. And society kinda puts pressure on you to have a "magical, one of a kind" wedding, and that's hard to do on a budget. Hence the visions of eloping running through my head. We could save up over the next year for a wedding but A: I would ideally like to be married in Oct or Nov of this year (which means saving for only 7-8 months). And B: If I save for a YEAR for something I am probably going to say "Screw the wedding,I need a new car!" Which is true, as my 11 year old civic could die any day.

And really, when it comes down to it, there is so much that has become "standard" fare for weddings that aren't really needed and I KNOW this. But still there is a pressure to put on a good "show" for people. It shouldn't be. But there is. It should just be about two people joining together in front of their friends but in reality it's usually much more involved and ends up being more for other people than for the couple. We're trying to not fall into this trap. But man, it's hard. I'll admit, it's hard to remember not to buy into the hype all the time. Especially when the hype is so enticing.

But then Curtis came home and calmed me down a bit. Sure, planning a wedding on a budget is not fun when your taste (while somewhat simple) still leans toward the finer things and pretty things that sparkle and gleam. Or when you live in California. California is just expensive at every point. But Curtis seemed to think it was a doable task. He's done this once before, so, I am choosing to believe him.

Anyway, after that we went out to dinner because I was craving a veggie filled cobb salad and they have one at one of my favorite places Rutabagorz! Yup, the place where Curtis and I had our first "real" date 12 years ago and where I went with my friend Karen the night that Curtis and I got engaged. I hadn't really thought about it until we were there but, it kind of made sense that our first "date night" as an engaged couple would be at Rutas. :)

Then we headed over to The Olde Ship which is an English style pub that has lovely beers, ales and ciders as well as the only good sticky toffee pudding I've had in the States. So, I got a cider, Curtis got a beer and we enjoyed a sticky toffee pudding.
All in all a lovely and wonderful night. Hooray!

03-19-10 Friday Shopping Excursion!

Curtis's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and for his birthday Curtis's mom had offered to take him clothes shopping to replenish his wardrobe a bit. I was also invited to tag along and today was the day that we were finally able to go. So we headed down to South Coast Plaza and did some shopping! Curtis got some new clothes that he needed and we had a nice lunch at Z Teja restaurant. It was nice spending time with Curtis's mom and we all had a really nice time. Today's picture is of Curtis trying on clothes.

Later that night we stopped by Improv Shmimprov to see our friends' opening numbers and then we headed over to The Hearth Lounge for a nightcap.

03-18-10 Chillin with the Millers.

Today I went to a big ol paper store called Paper Source with my friend Karen Halker Miller and her adorable son Henry. She's an artist. She made this painting of Frankie.


And she also makes the most amazing invitations for weddings and any other occasion you can think of. So, lucky me, she'll be making my invitations.

So we looked at the colors they had and I narrowed down two sets of colors. One for spring, and one for summer or fall. Since we don't have a date or a location yet, I couldn't pick out anything definite.

After that we went back to her house and hung out for a bit. Eventually she made some dinner and it was a quinoa salad. It was SO GOOD! Now I have a recipe for quinoa. (if you don't know what it is it's a grain that has a lot of protein and amino acids... it's a super food. You should look it up)Then we watched The Office, Community and 30 Rock while thumbing through Wedding Magazines and sipping wine. Good times!

My pic is of me and Henry hanging out at the house. :)

Oh and on my way home I stopped at the store and I bought this:


It's my new favorite wedding planning thing. And it came with a 1 year subscription to Real Simple Magazine! I like things that are simple! Hooray!

03-17-10 Was It St. Paddy's Day?

Today was St.Patrick's day but you wouldn't have known it had you seen me most of the day. I was in my pink and lavender pjs all day reading a play, looking for jobs and occasionally thumbing through bridal magazines. I'm still not REALLY healthy so, I still feel kinda run down.

After a long day of not doing much I finally felt the need to do something so I took Frankie for a 3 mile walk in my skechers shape ups. I still really love them. It was good to get out and get some exercise. I really want to go back to working out more but I feel like I should ease into this a bit since I am still not 100% well. Oh, and I did wear a green shirt to walk Frankie.

Then I gave Frankie a bath. It's nice to have a clean dog again. :)

After that I showered and got changed into a clean green shirt and Curtis came over so we could go get some frozen yogurt. In honor of St. Paddy I got an Irish Cream flavor. It was good.

That was my day. Not your typical "What I did on St. Paddy's Day" blog about green beer and Irish Car Bombs (the drink, not actual bombs) but it's an honest representation of my day. I've never been a big participant in the celebrating on St. Patrick's Day. But I don't mind wearing green. :)

Oh! And I decided not to accept the role that was offered to me for the play I just auditioned for because of some scheduling conflicts. It didn't work out schedule wise, but hey... there will be other plays! :)

03-16-10 LOST!

Today is Tuesday. On Tuesdays Curtis and I head over to our friend Dean's house for dinner and a viewing of "Lost". We start with a home cooked meal courtesy of our friends Vanessa and Veronica. And we are also joined by Dean and his roommates Kevin and Angel. We start with dinner and some nice conversation and fun. Then Angel goes to bed (she has to wake up very early) and the rest of us watch "Lost" and then discuss it a bit. It's a fun night. We all look forward to it every week!

Today my house finally got air conditioning as well! That was kind of exciting! And just in time as we're having a bit of a March heatwave here. We also got a new water heater and heater as well. All good things! But I really hate construction. That was kind of annoying and loud for two days. Glad that's over and now we can just enjoy climate control! :)

I also had an audition tonight before "Lost". It went very well and I was cast but unfortunately, when I was on my way home I remembered that I might have a conflict with this show's rehearsals and run! Uh-oh. Gonna have to figure out how to fix that. Might have to decline the role I was offered which is a bit of a bummer. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

03-15-10 Wedding Planning!

Today was a Monday. All I can say is this: I don't care about an extra hour of daylight when the days are already getting longer on their own, therefore, I HATE daylight savings time. I think it's stupid and pointless. I don't even have a job right now (thank goodness, I have to say I was kind of glad to be unemployed when daylight savings rolled around. Glad I dodged that bullet one more year.) and it has thrown me all off schedule wise. Messing with time for our own selfish reasons seems an affront to Mother Nature to me. But, that is just my opinion. Luckily I am planning to spend my life with someone else who hates DST. We're a good match! :)

In any case, when I finally got up today, even later than usual thanks to DST, Curtis and I went out to run some errands. First we went to Barnes & Noble to get me a book Curtis found useful when planning his first wedding and then also his sister's wedding called "Bridal Bargains". And also to get me one of those big ol wedding planning binders with all the lists, timelines and organizational envelopes and stuff. And of course I picked up another bridal magazine. :)

Sometimes I don't feel like "real girl" because I don't like shopping and I haven't been planning my wedding since I was 5. So, I have absolutely no idea what I want to do. The most I can say is that I had thought that October was a nice month for Curtis and I to get married, but now that he's proposed and it's March that means we either have a really speedy wedding that gets planned in 7 months, or we wait 19 months for next October. Neither idea really appeals to me and since we need to save quite a bit of money for this affair, I think we need at least a year. But I'd like to keep it closer to a year than a year and a half. Hmmm. We'll see.

So today's photo is of my new wedding planning helpers! People keep telling me this is the "fun part" but really, I have no idea how we're going to pull this off! Yikes! So much to do! And it's all so very expensive!

Well, here we go!

03-14-10 Sunday Funday

Today we went to brunch at Spadra, our favorite brunch place, with a large, revolving group of friends. We used to go to Spadra a lot. Almost every week. But we haven't been in quite some time now and sadly,it's closing at the end of this month. So, we're trying to go as much as possible before it closes forever. :(

Also, I wanted to let my friend Julie hear the engagement story and see the ring and all that and so I figured going to brunch would be nice. And it was. Good food, good people all in a relaxing atmosphere.



Also in attendance were Scott and Liz who had video taped the whole "proposal show" on Friday at Improv Shmimprov, and who are also good friends of ours.

Also there but not pictured were Dean, Alex, Bert, Mark and Karen and baby Henry. :) It was a really nice time!

Then I went home to rest since I was still coughing quite a bit. I still didn't feel great. It was such a weird weekend of being so excited and happy and also being totally sick and miserable at times. Clearly the excited and happy won out, but the sickness put up a good fight.

Curtis had to go to work after brunch and so, I had time to just relax and rest. Then we had an engagement dinner to go to at his parents house. His parents and sister and brother in law had made a lovely dinner and had decorated the house with little love and engagement things like hearts and wedding bells! They also gave us "Congrats on your engagement" cards which were also lovely.



We talked of guest lists and possible venues and things like that.

Then it was home to snuggle with Frankie and enjoy some wine I had brought back from Australia for Curtis. It was a really good wine and I had loved it when I tasted it at the winery, but I didn't buy it just then because it was the first winery we had gone to. Well, in the end I wished I had bought it so I went back another day but got off the bus a town too early and ended up walking about 6 miles through the south Australian wine region of McClaren Vale and then serendipidously meeting a teacher from the area who offered to drive me the rest of the way to the winery while trying to find the bumber for a taxi at a grocery store. It was quite the adventurous day and I made great friends with the guy who does the tastings at the Woodstock Winery and I bought not one but two bottles of wine to take back for Curtis. A 1999 and a 2006. Last night we opened the 1999. It was delicious. I felt like our engagement was as good a time as any to finally open our "very special" bottle. :) And that is what today's picture is of!
The picture below is of me tasting that magical wine for the first time at the winery.

And these photos are of the long, beautiful yet desolate road I walked on to get the bottle of wine and then me with the wine tasting room manager, when I finally got there! Ahhh... good times! :)

03-13-10

Today's photo is of the wonderful doggy portrait my ridiculously talented friend Karen painted for me of Frankie. She gave it to me at dinner before the proposal and I just love it! I knew she was making me one but I wasn't sure when I would get it. I was so excited to see his little face staring at me as I tore open the wrapping paper!

So,today was a Saturday. A rather rough starting Saturday actually. You see, after the show and proposal last night, we came home around 1:30 am or so. By 2 am Curtis was asleep (apparently he had hardly slept in the week leading up to the proposal and as Curtis said later "keeping a secret from you is absolutely exhausting!") but I was wide awake. I was still somewhat in shock about the proposal and also wired a bit from excitement but also, my cold was pissed off that I had gone out and stayed out late and so, my cough came back with a vengeance. I couldn't stop coughing. It was terrible.

So, I stayed up later posting the proposal photos on facebook and commenting back and forth about it on facebook. By 4 am I knew I HAD to try to sleep. My eyelids were finally heavy and I was supposed to go to an audition the next day at 10 am. So I went to bed. But no dice. Due to my cold and cough, sleep eluded me until the sun came up around 6 am.

When the alarm went off at 8:30 I was hoarse with almost no voice left and felt just awful. Curtis said I should go back to sleep and just miss the audition. "Sorry sweetie," he mumbled as he went back to sleep "I know how much you wanted to go". And yeah, I did. But he was right, I was in no condition to give a good reading at the audition. I was coughing too much and my voice was shot.

I got up around 10 am and was immediately on the phone and computer talking, posting and texting about the proposal. It was exciting but I still felt icky. So, eventually I tore myself away to go get some more cough medicine and some coffee.

When Curtis got home that afternoon we got a congratulatory call from my brother and sis in law and we decided to go have dinner with them and my nieces to celebrate the engagement with them since they couldn't be at the after midnight proposal.

We had a nice dinner and conversation with them. It was lovely despite my cough.

After that we went to Target to pick up some stuff and head home. Wow. We're already domesticated. ;-)

03-12-10 Uh...Stunned, Tagged and Released!

So, have you ever seen those wildlife videos where they shoot a sedation into an animal they want to observe and the animal is totally stunned at first and then falls into an artificial sleep and then wakes up with a tag on it's ear? That kind of happened to me on Friday night. Only I was lured someplace, trapped, stunned into shock and then tagged with a ring. But, I'm getting ahead of myself... let me go back.....

So, if you've been following this, you know that I have been fighting a really bad cold for a while now. Well, this week I developed the worst symptoms and felt like absolute crap. This was not fun for me. I had plans to go out with my friend Karen for a girls night on Friday. So, really, when I started to feel like crap on Monday night I still had a week to get better. Only, I didn't get better. I just kept getting worse. By Thursday I was coughing up green mucus and felt so sick that I texted Karen to say I might have to cancel our plans and reschedule, possibly for Saturday. She said flat out that wouldn't work and I just had to rest and get better. Curtis was also very concerned about me and brought me stuff to help make me healthy and made me promise to just stay in bed and rest no matter what. So, I did. It was incredibly boring but I did. On Friday my mom was making me berry smoothies and checking on me every few hours. Curtis also kept checking on me. I started to think that they wanted me healthy so bad because I must be annoying having been sick for 3 weeks straight.

Karen said she REALLY needed to have a night out so, I didn't want to let her down. But Curtis was also working really hard on a skit for the Improv Shmimprov show he was doing the same night I was going out with Karen and at that point I suddenly felt like I should see the musical number he had been working so hard on. See, originally Karen had asked me to go out on Friday March 12th and then when I told Curtis he said "Oh good! Because Improv Shmimprov asked me to fill in that night so, that will work out perfectly because you'll have plans" so, I wasn't supposed to be at the show. Or so I thought. :)

So, as it creeped closer to the time to go out, I was at least doing a bit better health wise and told Karen we could go out as long as it was mellow. And I told Curtis that I'd see if Karen minded stopping by Improv Shmimprov that night after she and I had dinner at Rutabagorz which is very near the theater. Huh. What a GREAT coincidence!

Over Dinner Karen asked what Curtis was up to and I told her about the show and asked if she'd like to see it. She said she'd like to go and so I texted Curtis to save us some seats.

We got to the theater and Curtis was there making sure we got front row seats as we had requested. We went to the bar and our friend Alex was there! Our other friend Jeff was there to play guitar for the opening number that Curtis and his improv team mate Amber had cooked up. This was Improv Shmimprov's March Madness competition and Curtis and Amber weren't supposed to be involved with it but since they were a team short they agreed to help out "Just this one night". But since it was March Madness they had to have an opening number. They were going to sing and Jeff would accompany them on guitar. Because Jeff was there, his wife Ami was there. And our friend Dean showed up as well which was not out of the ordinary as he often comes to Improv Shmimprov shows when Curtis is performing.

So, the show started and they announced the two competing teams. Curtis and Amber's team name was "Two People In Love... With Other People." Since Curtis and I are a couple and Amber just got engaged to her boyfriend Gabe, I found that fitting and cute! Then Jeff came on stage with them and they did their musical opening number which consisted of songs that they had changed the lyrics to a bit to include how they loved Me and Gabe and and then a dance number to Beyonce's "Put a Ring on It" this might have been a clue or give away to some people but considering how over used that song is by Curtis and I, it really made sense. :)


I still had no clue what was going on. So after the other team was announced which consisted of Drew And Patrick, the host, Jamie, said they were also going to have team captains for the teams, something they apparently used to do but haven't done in a long time. And he picked me as team captain for Curtis's team. So I went on stage to be introduced and then sat back down to watch the show.

The show went on pretty much as normal until the end when they asked the team captains to go up. I was on stage for their final improv game which ended up being a few scenes out of a marriage.


It was funy but still.... I had no clue. Then it was time for the audience to vote. Now, I knew that Curtis and Amber were supposed to lose, but I still wanted to help get the audience pumped up so I danced around stage with them and cheered them on the best I could. As they were supposed to, they lost.


So I sat back down in the audience. Then Curtis brought me back on stage. I was very confused. Now, there was a small little part of my brain were intuition lives that was screaming "He's gonna propose!" but there was another, bigger and louder voice in my brain screaming "No! He can't propose because he doesn't have enough money right now for the ring and he won't propose without the ring. So that CAN'T be what's going on." And then Curtis said "Some of you know that Rene and I have been dating for quite some time now, and tonight... I'd like to make it official." Well, I think that's what he said, the two voices in my head were yelling at each other so loudly about what may or may not be happening that I really don't know what was said or what happened. Curtis got down on one knee. He started to speak again. I don't know what he said because my head was having this conversation: Small Voice "He's proposing!" bigger voice "But that's impossible so it's not happening. This isn't happening. HOW could this possibly be happening?!" Curtis kept speaking as he pulled out a small box. Apparently, I have heard that I looked alternately confused and terrified at this point and this was the conversation that was going on in my head "But... What is happening? How? What? How... not possible..." and then he opened the box and this is what I thought "What? But how? I don't understand? I need to understand. It appears that he IS proposing bt how did he do this? I should probably be crying right now. I should cry. Cry. Damn it I can't cry. What?" And at that point I really LOOKED at the ring and I made a gaspy noise and my hands flew up to my mouth in that ever cliched way (I'm really pissed at myself for that move now in retrospect. So overdone!;-) ) and I started to finally focus on what Curtis was saying which I think was something along the lines of "Will you Marry Me?" Which he claims to have asked me 3 times before I responded but I honestly couldn't be sure to tell you the truth because I was still in a complete state of shock.


I don't think I could say anything. I just nodded. I was told this morning by a witness that the look on my face as I nodded seemed to say "Duh? Of course!" And so he stood up we hugged and kissed and he put the ring on my finger and it fit perfectly! It's a vintage ring from the mid to late 40s and it's perfect and fits like it was meant for me! Once it was on I relaxed a bit and laughed but really, I was still in shock.


The crowd cheered! They cheered very loudly! And often at the Improv Shmimprov shows when the crowds get to a certain level of cheering they start chanting "USA! USA!" I don't really know why but I think one night one of the improv teams started it as a joke to get more people to cheer and therefore vote for them and it worked and so, now they do it a lot after shows when they are at the audience voting part. Anyway they started to cheer so loud for us after he put the ring on my finger that they started to do that chant. Here's how out of it I was: I had no recollection of that until a friend showed me video of it this morning on his phone.

So we went off the stage and that was when I saw my parents! Curtis had told them about it and they had been instructed to come in right before the show started and to hide and be quiet. I had no idea they were there! They had also invited a family friend that has known me since I was 2, Kimberly, to be there as well so that was a nice surprise too! So we took some pictures, we had some champagne and I was still in total shock and still saying to people "I feel like I should be crying." But I didn't cry. I think I am one of those people that cries at the drop of a hat for a lot of things but when it comes to big events like this for myself, I just don't know how to react and I tend not to react as people think I will or as people think I should. But I think mostly it was because I was in shock.

So, Curtis pulled me aside to go into the dressing room where it was quiet to call his parents and tell them. They hadn't wanted to come for fear of tipping me off that something was going on. They were happy for us. After the phone call I asked him how he had managed this. He said that he had found the ring at an antique jewelry store a few weeks ago while he was running errands with a friend who had bought a ring in that shop and had them put it on hold. Then, out of the blue he got a residual check for a movie he had worked on years ago. It was a large check. And that was how he was able to pay for the ring. Then, once he had the ring he got my friend Karen's approval on it (she approved) and then they planned out the proposal. Doing it after Improv Shmimprov was her idea. And so they planned that he would do the show on the 12th and Karen would call me to ask me to go out on the 12th. From there they had back up plans in case I hadn't wanted to go to the show (Karen was supposed to tell me that there was a surprise belated birthday party for me there and so I had to go) but really, I walked right into their trap and made it super easy for them by suggesting we go to the show before Karen could even suggest it.

I think my subconcious knew something was up because I had been having engagement thoughts for the couple of days leading up to it and I made an effort to look cute even though I felt like crap from being sick, and I really didn't fight any of it. But while my subconcious knew... (this might sound corny but I think Curtis and I just have that "connection" between our brains as we often kinda know what the other is thinking or feeling which is neat and I think I picked up on those thought from him a bit) the rest of my brain was just floored! Beyond surprised! Seriously shocked. It just didn't make sense and until he could explain to me HOW it had happened I just couldn't wrap my head around what was going on.

This was a BIG secret for everyone to keep so, I am really impressed at how well the plan was executed.

Then it was back to our friends. We stayed there talking for a while and then we headed home. I was in shock throughout the whole night. Also, being up and out so late was bad for my health as my cough came back that night with a vengeance. I was up until 6 am partially from being totally wired and in shock about what had happened and partially because I couldn't stop coughing.

Thinking about it later, I described the night like this "I was like a little deer walking through the forest and having a great time with my other deer friends, when all of a sudden there was a bright light and I was thrown off balance and tranquilized. I was confused and frightened and then when I came to I had a ring on my finger and people were congratulating me." See? Stunned, shocked, tagged and released. :) But, in a VERY, VERY happy way of course!

I don't mean to take the romance out of this because honestly for us, this was one of the most perfect ways that Curtis could have proposed. And the effort that was put into this not only by him, but by Karen and the good people of Improv Shmimprov and the Maverick Theater and our other friends, was really, really amazingly remarkable. I am so honored that they went through the trouble and took the time to make this wonderful proposal happen! We also have many photos and multiple videos of it. I feel so special and loved and I am so happy to be engaged to Curtis! I wasn't prepared for the proposal at this point, but I was expecting to be engaged at some point in the future. So, I am happy, he is happy, our family and friends are happy- It's all happiness all the time! Thanks for reading. I know it was long. :)

03-11-10 Still sick....

Still sick. I am now coughing up green mucus. Gross? Yes. Very much so. Too much information? Possibly. But this is my blog and well, you can't really understand my frustration with this cold virus from hell if I spare you those details.

I long to work out, to take Frankie for walks again, and to be able to tackle my to do lists.... but alas, under Curtis's orders and my friend Karen's orders I was to stay in bed all day today. So I did.

You see Curtis hates seeing me ill and Karen is a mom of an almost 1 year old who is supposed to have a much needed night out with me tomorrow. And if I am still sick, I can't go out. Which means a cancellation of her plans. Which would be bad. I was looking forward to our night out as well, so, I'm not exactly thrilled about that possibility either.

So, to appease them I just rested today. Curtis brought me a shot of wheat grass and a Jamba Juice Coldbuster smoothie as well as some Mucinex and Reese's Easter Eggs. All were much appreciated. Back when I used to work right next to a Jamba Juice if I felt a cold coming on a started on a regime of wheat grass shots and Coldbuster smoothies. For some reason, it does seem to work for me. I had forgotten my love of wheat grass shots.

Anyway, that was my day. Fun times, right? My pic is of Frankie when I woke up this morning. He's a funny dog. I love him very much!

03-10-10 Day With the Girls!

Today I babysat my nieces. I love those kids! We had a good, mellow day. I still feel kinda crappy, but we had fun despite that. We hung out at the house and watched cartoons, played Super Mario Bros and other Wii games and then went to lunch at McDonalds and then to Yogurtland for some delicious fro-yo! There were also computer games, some dog cuddling, and legos involved in the day. Normally we'd have spent some more time outside too but it was cold and windy today.

My nieces are two people that make my world a better place. So, when my sis in law asked if I could watch them today how could I say no? :) They're beautiful, fun, spunky, smart, sweet and talented. I kinda can't wait to see what their lives have in store!

Afterwards I ran some errands and then came home with every intention of walking Frankie but I collapsed on my bed and slept instead. I hate this cold. It's been at least 3 weeks of morphing symptoms. And just when I start to feel like I am better it comes back as something else! ARGH! It's kinda hard to work on making my life better when my body keeps feeling worse. But I am trying!

Meanwhile, my pic for today is of my Nyquil bottle. Which I will be drinking from shortly!

03-09-10 Mutating Cold Viruses Suck

I think the title says it all. Still on Dayquil. Gonna use some Nyquil tonight. I didn't do much today but rest, eat soup, and look for jobs. Oh I also caught up on some shows on Hulu.com. That was about it. I did start to feel better in the afternoon and took Frankie for a walk. He is friends with a lady who lives on a street behind us. She's very nice. And she's never judged Frankie just for being a pitbull. Frankie adores her and she just loves Frankie! He's such a lovebug! He wants to be friends with everyone we pass on our walks! He's just the best dog! He brightens all my days. Even the days when colds from hell invade my head and throat.

So much for my super productive week! Ah well.... there's always next week.

But the big news is that today Curtis had a meeting with the people at the SyFy network! It was something we have been looking forward to for weeks! He said that the meeting went great! Congrats to him and Zeke (his partner in this and other business endeavors) on a great meeting! May nothing but wonderful good things come out of it! YAY! I'm do proud of them! Especially of Curtis because as he is my boyfriend, I was witness to just how hard he worked on getting the things needed for this meeting! Congrats guys!

The photo is of us at Dean's house after watching Lost. Aren't we cute? Even when I am exhausted and sickie?

03-08-10 A Case of the Mondays....

I had planned out my whole week yesterday with a week long to do list while Curtis was at work and boy was it a great plan! I was going to be SOOOO productive this week! I had BIG plans I tell ya, BIG! But you know what they say about plans right? The best laid plans.... well, yeah, so I was a little off today because I had to wake up REALLY early to go to the Unemployment offices for an interview. I've not had the best luck when dealing with the people at EDD. So, I was very nervous about it because I didn't know why they wanted to interview me, but as it turns out they were very nice and the lady couldn't have been sweeter or more helpful. Still, though, it did require a very early wake up call. I am not a morning person. Never have been, never will be. and I am still battling this damned cold that won't end and feel kinda icky and tired.

The rest of the day was very productive but towards the end of the day I noticed I was developing a cough. A cough now? Really? What is this weird virus with morphing symptoms? It got worse. I took cough medicine before bed and ended up waking up with congestion and post nasal drip and feeling just miserable in general. I had to wait to take more medicine and in the meantime when I DID sleep I had awful nightmares. I blame my cough medicine. From now on it's Nyquil all the way! At one point I dreamt I was stuck in a room with a poisonous snake. It looked Cobra like. I woke up in sheer terror just as the snake was striking at my hand shaking in fear because I felt it strike me with it's fangs as I was waking up. Turns out Frankie was dreaming too and had swatted out with his paw in his sleep and his claws hit my hand! How crazy is that?!

Anyway, it was a rough night. Monday kinda sucked in general. But I am glad that I got a lot done! I'm really trying to stay productive despite this ridiculous cold.

03-07-10 Oscars and Curtis's Birthday Contd.

Today was a Sunday. Oscar Sunday! As an actress the Oscars are to me what the Superbowl is to football fans! I always try to see as many Oscar nominated films as possible leading up to the big night! This year we did pretty well! We saw 9 out of the 10 Best Picture Nominated films and most of the films that had nominations for the other major categories as well. This year the Oscar's were later than normal due to the Olympics and so they coincided with the end of Curtis's birthday week so we also had Curtis's family birthday dinner that night. Two reasons to celebrate!

I loved Sandra Bullock's acceptance speech! So is sweet and down to earth! I think that she is under rated as an actress and I am so glad that she was given the opportunity to show people what a humble and gracious winner she is as well! I of course thought that all the leading ladies nominated were deserving of the award, and I bow down to the acting altar that Meryl Streep stands upon, but it was just lovely to see Sandra get a chance shine!

Of course I was also thrilled when Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director! WOW! What an amazing night! History has been made and she totally deserved it!

Jeff Bridges was also adorable in his acceptance speech! Also down to earth and grateful!

I was also glad that Christoph Waltz won for supporting actor for "Inglourious Basterds". Very nice speech!

And Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr. were my favorite presenters! SO Funny!

What I didn't like was that they played stupid music choices for the women like "I Am Woman" when Kathryn Bigelow won (really? Come on now...) or "Thank Heaven For Little Girls" when some other female presenters were coming out.... what the hell? Was it condescend the women year?

I have a lot more to say about stuff but those are my favorite moments and not so favorite moments of the night from what I saw in between family conversations. In the course of the night I also ate a giant baked potato (seriously the biggest potato I ever saw... I don't know what I was thinking!) and felt like my stomach might explode but somehow also found room for a red velvet cupcake! :)

My photo for today is of Abbie, Curtis's parents' bulldog. :)

03-06-10 Dinner and a Play

Today wasn't all that exciting. It was rainy and grey and somewhat boring. However, when Curtis got off work we headed up to Long Beach to see our friend Leslie in the Long Beach Playhouse's production of "Our Town" and there is where the adventure starts! ;-)

Since we would be in Long Beach we decided to have dinner at La Rizza's Pizza House. We've only been there once before but we really, really loved it and were excited to go back! It's a restaurant that has been around for 50 years this June set in a house that has been added on to a bit. It still has different rooms just like a house. It's cozy yet spacious and the food is good! The salads have olives and garbanzo beans in them and they have a great house dressing and a good ranch.


The pizzas are very tasty and have a delightful crust that is crispy on the bottom yet still a little more breadlike in the middle without being too heavy or thick and they are not at all skimpy on the toppings! They also have great garlic bread that you can order by the basket or by the slice!


We've not yet tried the pastas but I imagine that they must be good! We'd love to go back and try them sometime! Also, the atmosphere is delightfully kitchsy and relaxed. There are statues and knick knacks around. A lot of the booths have little cards telling you which famous people have sat in them. Included in the list are Elvis, Bill Cosby and David Hasslehoff. Last night we sat in the Elvis Booth. :)


After our fun, delicious (and affordable!) dinner, we headed over to the playhouse to see the show!


While picking up the tickets at will call (we ordered them in advance at a discounted rate through Goldstar.com which I highly recommend!) while Curtis was parking (a bit of a challenge in Long Beach)I ran into our friends Julie, Hannah, Danesh and Barbara, also there to support Leslie! Then Leslie's boyfriend Ryan showed up! Good times! Curtis finally found parking and we made it inside! Ryan has seen the show 4 times since his girlfriend is in it and Hannah had seen it 3 times since her hometown apparently required it. ;-) But the rest of us had never seen it. Several of us old enough to have watched "Growing Pains" remembered when Mike Seaver did the play in high school. That was about the extent of it for us.

The play itself won't go down in history as one of my favorites, but I did find it charming and I liked how it focused on the timeless aspects of human life. I'm also glad to say that I have seen this classic play and now know what it is really about. Leslie was great, as usual, and some of the other cast also did very well. The play has three acts so there are two intermissions. During each one it was fun to mingle with our friends. I'm sure we were the loud annoying group during intermission being that there were 7 of us and we are all performers and loud ones at that. ;-) But we had fun and were very well behaved during the performance.

Afterward we stayed to say hello to and congratulate Leslie. A joke was made that everyone decided to twitter or post on facebook in true testament to the social networking culture that is prevalent in 2010. ;-)



After that we headed home with a pitstop at Yogurtland because Ryan told us that they have Red Velvet Cake Batter flavored frozen yogurt and I HAD to have some. We got some and yes, it was all I could have hoped for and more! And that was the end to a very nice night out for us. I'm starting to feel a bit better finally and it is always nice to have a date night with my honey and a night out with friends- especially in the same night! :)