Happy Turkey, Christmas and New Year!

Now that the holidays have passed, what is there to do now except reflect on how I spent them? I love reflecting.

My dog, Sebastian, fractured his pelvis and had surgery a few days before Thanksgiving. Although my poor little guy is okay now, he was in pretty pitiful condition then. So my parents made the drive up to Austin to spend the holiday with me, my husband and my ailing dog. One funny thing about my dog having surgery was his rad hairdo afterwards...half his backside and one whole leg shaved...he looked like a punk rocker.


And because he was basically not suppose to move for 6 weeks, I sat with him for many-a-days. I felt guilty when I left the house because I would have to put him in his kennel, so much of our time during his recovery was spent napping together (which we both enjoyed) or watching movies (which I enjoyed, he would never pay attention).


I also had to do physical therapy with him, which consisted of me holding him and stretching his skinny, hairless leg as far as I could. He did not enjoy this exercise.


By Christmas time, Sebastian was well enough and we were able to make a trip to Houston to visit family. He was feeling so well in fact, he insisted on dressing accordingly.

My family loves to play games and this year we chose a competition karaoke game...it was fun but a good challenge as well. We could choose from a selection of songs from the 80s or 90s. My mom and I went head-to-head with one our favorite, "Everybody wants to rule the world" by Tears for Fears...classic!

Of course though, like any fun time, there are always a chance of some awkward moments.

Awkward moment #1 was when my Dad and Uncle competed by singing "Baby got back"..no one wants to hear their fathers singing about "juicy doubles".
Awkward moment #2 was during an 80s medley of which my Cousin and Sister-in-law were competing, they had to sing the Divinyls' "I touch myself"....did I mention my cousin is 14? I don't think she had heard that song before. Very funny....but still awkward.

New Year's Eve was fun...and I spent it with my favorite party friend...Dena. However, this NYE was a little different as Dena and her husband are happily expecting their first child in March. So our trip to gather party supplies was a little unusual. I opted for some Honey Brown and champagne, Bryan and Gabe went for the Bud Lite and Dena went for the toilet paper and Doritos.

It was a great way to end a great year!

Roasted Halloweenies.

Sooooo...I have been quite the busy gal with all my PWAT-ing, Dancing, and Bingo-ing (see previous blogs). But of course I took the time to celebrate Halloween properly, and by properly I mean 3 times.

Halloween celebration #1 was with my family at my parent's house. The interesting thing about attending the same party with the same people every year is to see the creative re-use of costumes and accessories. What was last year's hoochie top is this years grandma's scarf...and so forth.

One of my cousins chose to dress up as me...when I was 12 years old. Her costume was complete with a tacky dance costume, clogging shoes, and crimped hair. Although quite flattered, I was quick to point out the inaccuracies of the costume, as I had a mullet/feathered hair when I was 12...the crimping was not until high school.


I wore the same costume as last year. I was amazed that my mail order Minnie Mouse dress survived the 2009 Bachelorette party/Halloween Extravaganza ...it must have magic powers.

Halloween Celebration #2 was at the Austin Swing Syndicate's Annual Halloween Bash. I opted not to wear the magical minnie dress for dancing, and instead wore a 'vintage-y" dress with an actual vintage hat. I found that not dressing as an actual character or not wearing an actual costume is quite boring. And it brings on the question..."who are you suppose to be?"
The night was fun though and I spent the majority of it dancing with Batman.



The third and final Halloween celebration was on 6th street in downtown Austin, which if you live in Austin, you know is a fun but exhausting experience. You can't just get dressed and mosey down there...you need to plan in advance who you are going with, where you are parking, what time you are getting there...and so forth. This helps reduce the amount of mayhem that will more than likely rise anyway.

Three of my best buds from my hometown came to Austin to experience a "6th street Halloween" with me and my husband. We were a pretty good looking group...we consisted of a zombie monk, a close-to-retirement-but-then-got-shot cop, Maverick, Minnie Mouse and Edward Scissorhands.


Besides our rockin' threads, we saw some fabulous costumes. Then there were those that were in our faces every time we turned around. The top three costumes I saw were:

#3 Lady Gaga - though cool and hip...didn't everyone realize everyone was going to wear it???
#2 Where's Waldo??? - though repetitious to see so many in a night...it never got old when my friend Maverick yelled, "I found you, you son-of-a-bitch!"
#1 Banana - There must have been a damn sale on banana costumes...they were everywhere! I cannot think of any other explanation.
























That was it....that was my Halloween. I can't wait until next year!!

PWAT

Something my friends and I like to do every couple of months is attend a class at Painting with a Twist or as I like to refer to it...PWAT.

Basically PWAT is a combination of two of my most favorite activities:
1. painting
2. drinking wine
(more so #2, see photo)


The rundown of how PWAT works is you choose an art work you would like to paint from their calendar, then reserve a seat in the class online by paying. Then, you show up with wine or beer in hand and they give you a canvas, glasses, wineopener, ice, paint brushes, all the ingredients you need for an artistic good time. And the best part is, you and your friends all paint the same design, so you will all own the same artwork! Fun Fun Fun!
http://paintingwithatwist.com/northaustin/

The first time my friends and I did this was for my birthday, so I chose a landscape painting simply titled Red Landscape. I chose this painting based on the fact that if it did come out decent looking it would match the color scheme in my living room.

So off to PWAT we went. It was me, my two best gal pals and one of their mothers. My friend's mom is quite the free spirit as you will see later in her painting. We arrived, opened our wine and the class began. As per usual we were def the rowdiest bunch in the class: accidentally getting paint on each other, almost drinking our paint water instead of our wine, asking the teacher to repeat the last painting step since we couldn't hear it because my friend was too busy posing us for pictures.


So as the evening wore on, our artworks developed beautifully. We all actually did quite a bang up job. Even though it was a simple design and we were given step by step instructions, there were definitely some folks in the class who were not as artistically inclined as my drunk, rowdy friends. As for my friend's mom aka the free spirit...she chose to take her painting in a different direction.



After class was over, our painting teacher took a group picture of the entire class for their website. This delighted my friends and I as the only other business website we were on was the local La Bare's website (a picture from my bachelorette party).

So, a couple of weeks ago my mom and I decided to go paint portraits of our dogs (yes, they have a class on that). We submitted photos of our dogs prior to class so the teachers can sketch your dog on your canvas for you. My dog Sebastian is quite a gentleman, no naturally I asked that in the painting he be wearing a bow tie and monocle. (I decided to leave out the ascot, well, that would just be silly). When my mom and I arrived and began painting things were going smoothly. I took noticed of all my classmate's dogs and was immediately reassured that Sebastian is by far a superior canine.

My mom was painting a portrait of our old family poodle, Sadie. However, as the class was coming to an end, my mom was beginning to be frustrated at the fact that she somehow accidentally given Sadie an Abraham Lincoln like beard and she was having trouble getting rid of it. I quickly picked up a brush with one hand and my wine glass with the other and used my artistic genius skills to rid the unsightly Honest Abe beard. And the poodle came out lovely.


So...if you like wine and like to make art...then def check out Painting with a Twist and get your PWAT on!!!!

Go Baby, Go!

So this past week I took my first charleston dance class.
Those of you unfamiliar with the charleston, feast your eyes on this..



I was hoping it was going to be a solo charleston class, as I am not too fond of dancing with other people. However, it was not. Being a female, as most people know, when dancing with a partner it is our job to simply "follow" what the males do. If they spin you, you spin. If they want to go backwards, you go backwards. I am way too much of a control nut and bossy to be a "follower". But, since it was our first day of class I thought it best not to express this dismay to the teachers. The teachers, btw, are young, cute and married to each other, which is just about the damned cutest thing I have ever seen. When introducing themselves they even hit their wedding bands together in a sort of Captain America way to show their powers combined.

Once the actual dancing got started, we then formed a large circle with our partners next to us. Then, the girls had to rotate around the room, dancing with every guy along the way. Some girls might have felt a bit cheap to be passed from guy to guy, I, on the other hand enjoyed it (not sure what that means). The upside to this girl swapping situation, was that it gave me an opportunity to try out all the dudes, see which guy could be a potential future dance partner.

I was immediately drawn to this one fella, really because we were both there by ourselves. So when the instructors said to find a partner, we sort of floated to each other as if we had a no-one-wanted-to-come-with-me-to-this-class magnetic attraction. As it turned out, I think I nabbed one of the best dancers, so kudos to me and my magnet.

Some of the other guys were alright dancers too. There was one dude who reminded me an awful lot of Rocky from the Rocky Horror Picture Show (minus the gold speedo).

And then there was this guy who I swore I had seen on Parks and Recreation.


Needless to say, there was quite a variety of people present in the class.

Overall, it was a fun night (or it was the bee's knees, if you will). I learned a few new moves and met a couple of nice folks. I will definitely return next week to continue this adventure and dance with more fellas.

B-I-N-G-Oooooh look at all the weirdos..

So this is my first blog entry....ever! For this momentous occasion I decided to share my experience at the BINGO Hall.

This was my first time to go to an actual BINGO Hall. I had an idea of what it would look like and what the patrons or "regulars" would be like. I imagined a smoke filled room with rough looking people playing several BINGO cards at once with multiple markers. I also imagined these "regulars" having many chotchkies setting out bringing them good luck. I pictured those troll dolls and lucky rabbits feet.

My BINGO Hall fantasy was actually quite accurate. There was a ginormous smoke filled room and a much, much smaller non-smoking room. Cigarette smoke does not usually bother me, but when I walked through that smokey jungle to buy a soda from the sad little snack bar, it was as if someone had shoved a cigarette butt up my nose.

Also, I was pretty spot on with the patrons. Many, many rough looking people. People that when you look at them you sorta get sad...and many people attending BINGO by themselves, which made the whole situation even sadder. However, I was a bit disappointed not to see the good luck charms I had imagined being present. I had even brought my own (against my friends advice) nuggets of good luck in the form of two tiny CareBear figures. (BTW, they were Funshine Bear and Cheer Bear). The "regulars" were easy to spot, as many of them had a BINGO bag. Similar to a diaper bag, it has about 10 pockets on the outside to hold all your markers. I saw many-a-BINGO-bag.

There are some rules at the BINGO hall, or as I called them "things that make BINGO less fun".

Rule (ttmblf) #1 You have to whisper. Now this rule did come in handy as my friends and I were talking about the "regular" the majority of the night. However, when you (or someone else) picks up their good luck CareBear chotchkie and starts blowing on its hair for good luck, you must control the volume of your laughter.

Rule (ttmblf) #2 No alcohol allowed. I don't really need to elaborate on this rule to say why it put a damper on the evening. I will say however this rule, more than likely, helped us follow rule #1.

Rule (ttmblf) #3 You have to split your winnings. Even though the night was a bust for me and my friends, I did feel sorry for the four people who had to split the $75 jackpot, after taxes. Just imagine realizing you have a BINGO and all the visions of money come rushing to your mind, only to walk away with $15.


That's it. Those three rules bummed me out, but it was still a fun night, even though I walked away empty handed. I have a feeling I will return sometime soon.