Happy Halloween!

Good Day

It's chilly in my house this morning and I cup both of my hands around my coffee mug to warm them as I listen to good music and edit photos from my recent trip home. I got to talk to one of my favorite persons in the whole wide world this morning while walking Mia and learned that there might be a ray of hope in a cloud of devastating news. I just found eight dollars in my pocket and I have a cat purring in my lap. I need to start working on lecture and eventually will head to City of Hope to test a persnickety patient today but none of that matters right now. Right now it feels like it's going to be a good day. I hope you feel it, too.

Directorial Debut

Fall!

Because CA is stubbornly not cooperating with my desire to experience cooler weather, I just decided to fly to MO this weekend to get a good fall fix. Oh, and I might throw a baby shower for one of my best friends while I'm here.

This morning I was sitting on a rocking chair on the front porch of a friend's house, taking in the crisp temperatures and beautiful landscape, when I realized how easy it would be for Ben and I to plug back into life here. I mean, just in the last twelve hours, I've had to call on three different friends for favors. So, thanks, Kim, for picking me up at the airport; Bethany, for picking me up at Kim's and taking me to Jake's, and Jake for letting me borrow the Trooper. I love what that represents - that we are still very connected to our friends and family here. As I visit with more people over the next few days during baby showers and pumpkin parties, I know it will be hard to leave all of this and return to California...

...wait...what?!

What on EARTH is going on with me?! I better be careful - clearly, visiting the Ozarks in the fall is making me nostalgic and sentimental.

Captain Obvious

Recently I've been meeting with students who didn't do so hot on my last exam. One of them said to me, "I feel like you purposefully made this test hard because it's an upper division class."

Um...

Yeah.

That's the point.

Congratulations to the Marcus family!

Our good friends, Todd and Jessi, have welcomed their third child and first little girl into the world. We're so glad you're here, Olive!

Wells, Lincoln,and Todd are all pretty stoked about the new little lady in their life.

I already feel bad for the poor guys who will date her. She's got some protective big brothers they'll have to contend with!

And well done, Jess - way to make it out of the car before the birth this time! We love and miss you all!

Go Dodgers!

I'm still not your number one fan, so I'm not terribly upset about the playoffs. But in honor of getting second place (is that how it works?), I'm posting pictures from the last game I attended. Ahem, ahem...the one where I got to sit in box seats.

That's right, folks. I was this close to the action:

But what impressed me most was the free food box seat ticket holders get. And I'm not just talking any old food here. I'm talking couscous, scalloped potatoes, and Caesar salad:

Our friends, Charles and Barry, the man with the connections.

Cheers!
Oh, and there was free ice cream, too. And cappuccino. And macadamia nut cookies. Had I known about all these perks, I would have become a baseball fan much sooner. Dodger Dog, Smodger Dog.
And now we laugh at those nosebleed seats. Ha. Haha.

I was going to upload a sweet video in which you could hear Take Me Out To The Ballgame during the 7th inning stretch. And so you could see Bullet Tooth Tony, who was sitting in the box in front of us, and who was the real reason I was videotaping. It's too bad you can't see it, because if you watch closely, you can see Ben trying to get a sneaky picture of him. Maybe next time?

Now I may or may not have been writing thank you cards and texting my dad throughout the whole game, but don't let that color your view of me as a sports enthusiast or cause you to think these amazing tickets were a waste on me. It's just that baseball is a REALLY LONG sport, both in season and game. It'll be much more entertaining when Scott starts pitching. We thought he was going to be pulled in for relief the night of this game, but instead, the Dodgers used six of their other relief pitchers. Oh well. Next time. If there's free food, I'm so there.

Whirlwind Week, Part 3

The last day of the Geiser's visit happened to be Christy's birthday, so we celebrated in style, first at the Scarlet Tea Room for lunch and then in Santa Monica for a sunset dinner, followed by a delectable birthday dessert from the Cheesecake Factory. Per usual, we took care to document the fabulous feasts we had. Now that I mention it, I think I'm still full from their visit.

What a treat!

Strawberry Champagne!

Yum-o.

Birthday Wish.

Dolphin Rider.
Still in love.
Santa Monica Pier
Christmas Card, Redux
Opening her birthday card from the girls - they're so grown up!

One final "It's my birthday...of course I'll have more chocolate!" moment.

Oh, who am I kidding? Since when did I ever need an excuse to each chocolate? Big hugs to the Geiser's for such a great visit - it was fantastic hanging out with the three of them and getting to show them our little corner of the world. We look forward to the next visit!

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I was listening to the radio yesterday while getting ready for work when I heard an advertisement for this dating website. Seriously? Is this what our culture has come to? Apparently, yes, it is exactly what our culture has come to, as a quick google search gave me dozens of similar sites. I guess the good news is that I've got job security? Because if that doesn't take you to therapy, I don't know what will.

Whirlwind Week, Part 2

I'm starting to realize my life is getting in the way of my life...if you know what I mean. Lots of fun things have been going on, but before I can blog about any of them, I need to finish blogging about what happened weeks ago. So, here goes.



Before Christy and Anthony left for their vacation within a vacation to Yosemite, we had a fun filled (food filled?) Saturday that included a teaching workshop (for me), a visit to Chinatown (for the rest of the crew), sushi, and a night at the L.A. County fair. But before we got moving, little AJ needed a haircut.

Before

But I LIKE my hair!

After surviving the trauma of getting his haircut, AJ hopped on the metro with his parents and Ben for a day in Chinatown. I got to spend the day talking about emergency procedures and online resources. It was right around the 3rd awkward joke in the presentation that I realized professors are a breed of their own.

We all met back up in time for dinner that night at Ben's favorite sushi place.

At Afloat Sushi!

Mastering the chopsticks early. California Roll - it's the only way I roll.
Ben is much braver. I think his food was still moving.

Then we made our way to the fair, using our sweet connections to park and get in for zero dollars. It would easily have cost us over $100 to just get through the gate. FOR A FAIR. But my, oh my, was it something. It had your standard fair shenanigans, only multiplied by about 10. I think there were more people there that night than who live in Joplin.

Here's the sweet connection I was talking about (pun intended, Lauren!), my friend, Tracy. Her grandfather invented and patented some popular sipper drink thing and then her brother bought the business. She's been a carnie, as she calls herself, for years now. Below, one of her brother's concoctions: a Mexican funnel cake. It was glorious. But I paid for it later. My body is not a fan of fried food. So, it's a good thing I opted to forgo the chocolate-dipped bacon.

We didn't ride any of the rides or try to win a stuffed animal bigger than me, but we could hear the nearby concert of Jessica Simpson singing in her new country twang and we got some pretty amazing pictures. I'm still recovering from the overstimulation of that night!

Rookie Mistake

You can tell it's been a long time since you last wore lipstick when you opt to brush your teeth after putting it on.

Malignant

R: Ben, I think I have bone cancer.
B: (rolls his eyes)
R: I'm SERIOUS.
B: Fine. Why do you think you have bone cancer?
R: Because this morning I hit my funny bone and it really, really hurt. Like the pain was so bad I almost passed out. And it was sore for about two hours afterwards. Then when I took a nap later today, I woke up and it was stiff - I could hardly move it! I'm pretty sure it's cancer.
B: Do you think it might have anything to do with the fact that we went bowling last night?
R: (blink)
R: (blink)
R: Oh yeah. I forgot about that.
B: Maybe working at a cancer hospital isn't such a good idea for you...

Pardon me...

...ummm...Southern California? I hate to interrupt, but I just wanted to drop you a quick note to remind you that it's October now. So...KNOCK IT OFF WITH THE HEAT ALREADY. That's all. You can go back to kissing up to celebrities and multimillionaires now.