Tag Archives: family

Day One Hundred and Eighteen

Yesterday my Dad was at my Granma’s house and he texted me this picture he’d just taken (and decorated) of her along with this message “Hi Coleen”. Haha. So I took this AMAZING picture of myself at work and sent it back to him with this message, “Hi Grandma!”

He said, “Grandma got a chuckle out of that. :-D”

Me and Kristyn were going to go to Comedy Death Ray at UCBLA last night but juuuust missed the show. So we went to Trader Joe’s to get litter for Chucky and then went home and chilled out. We FINALLY got a chance to sit down and watch Goodnight Burbank (so good!) and then we watched Parks and Recreation until we passed out on the couches. We Tylenol PM’d ourselves so’s we’d get a good night’s sleep and a good night’s sleep I had indeed.

I got a text from my Mom this morning saying that Nana is fading a bit more but very comfortable. Please say a prayer for her, I will be all day. :*)

Momma I’m comin home…

We are coming back home for the weekend because my Nana isn’t feeling well. We want to see our families, engorge ourselves with good Chinese and Pizza and possibly go here:

Our jobs are being so super cool about it and we are so grateful for that. Also it’s another example of all the synchronicity that’s been happening in our lives lately. If I hadn’t gotten this job right when I did, there’s no way we could have come home to see Nana right now. And how lucky that I got a job that values family over business. I worked at a job just a few years ago where my boss gave me a hard time over these following things:

1) She wouldn’t allow me to go to my Aunt’s funeral.
2) She was mad because I took time off to sit with my Dad in the hospital.
3) At another job, I had gotten a call that my Mom had had a heart attack (she didn’t) but was in the Emergency Room. I ran out to take the call and this guy CHASED ME OUT of the building and demanded to know what I was doing WHILE I was on the phone with my panicked family. I told him what was happening and he said he didn’t care, to get in and answer the goddamn phone and not to leave my desk again without asking him first. Yeah I quit that bitch haha.

Anyway, all of my bosses and all of Krissy’s allowed us to take the time no questions asked and I am SO grateful and thankful for that.

So we’re still in the planning stages of this because we just finalized the tickets yesterday. If you are one of our family members, please don’t stress out if you can’t make it to see us or anything. We couldn’t have planned this any differently so this trip is less about seeing everyone that we can and more about spending quality unrushed time with just a few loved ones.

We had toyed with having dinner in NY but when we woke up this morning, we realized it would be a waste of time. NY is (probably) not going anywhere and we couldn’t think of anything to do there that we haven’t done a zillion times before or would really want to do again. I mean there are a lot of NY performers we’d like to see and we looked into it but they all happen to be somewhere else right now, some of them actually in LA haha.

So that’s that. I’m still gonna post pictures every day. If I thought I was tired from the late night at GLAAD Awards, how am I gonna be next week? We are landing at LAX at almost 10pm after a six hour flight and then I have work in the morning! OMG.

And for any robbers out there:

Don’t even try it, we have people watching. Yeah that’s right.

I suck/rule at life

Reason why I suck at life:

I just remembered NOW. 39 minutes into it starting. That I was invited to an informational meeting for a school I applied to. Specifically for a program I applied for that I do not know how it works and really could have USED and informational meeting for. Kristyn has to be at work at 11 so I remembered as she was pulling away. I actually RSVP’d that I was coming to this event. I actually marked it on my calendar and day planner. Then as Kristyn was leaving, a nagging feeling hit me like maybe there is something important I am supposed to do today. A quick check of the ol’ day planner lets me know I am a chucklehead. Coleen, you suck at life.

 

Reason why I rule at life:

This morning I bounded out of bed effortlessly and was in the kitchen making breakfast (bending, reaching, grabbing, doing) for about five minutes before I realized that I EFFORTLESSLY BOUNDED OUT OF BED AND WAS STANDING IN THE KITCHEN MAKING BREAKFAST. I’m healed! Man the past week was full of me slouching around like a 90 year old. There was a gutteral sound I had to make to do anything. Kind of like an “AAAAAAARGH!” Kristyn called it my “lifting weights” sound. Like I already said, my back was hella sore in the morning and today? Just bounded out of bed and made breakfast with ease. I feel like goddamn Cinderella (not the wenchy one, the princesa one). Kristyn gave me a hug and then a high five and said, “Way to heal!” I think that says it. Also, I think, “Coleen you rule at life” also says it.

Peaches Christ Superstar

* AHEM: This is another post that has been lounging in my draft folder since mid-December. Go here to check out Kristyn’s review of Check Yo Ponytail and here to check out her review on Peaches Christ Superstar!

Right now I am at the Echoplex in Echo Park at a party called “Check Yo Ponytail”. Kristyn is covering the bands for LA Music Blog. I am chilling on a couch. The bands are good but it’s kid of nice to go see a band I am not invested in for once. I always envy the people who can relax in chairs while I frantically have to be right up against the stage. On one hand I always want the total front and center experience and on the other, who’d ever turn their nose up at taking a load off? So it’s nice to enjoy the music and blog. Two of my favourite things uniting! Oh and sorry if my spelling reflects the Queen’s English, I somehow put my phone on UK English and am too lazy to turn it off. Oh also, we went to see Peaches do a one woman rendition of Jesus Christ Superstar the other day. It was called, you guess it, Peaches Christ Superstar. I am here to say that it was the bomb. The last time I saw Jesus Christ Superstar was in CCD and I barely paid attention. And going into this, I honestly wasn’t sure if Peaches was gonna do it tongue-in-cheek or not. BUT SHE DIDN’T. She was dead serious and it was AWESOME. I love Peaches in all of her incarnations but I had no idea she had such a killer voice. I mean usually what you like about her is her humor, dirtiness and attitude. Not that she isn’t a good singer but she doesn’t like belt anything out. With this she did and she was great. So good. Kristyn is gonna post a review on LA Music Blog so I won’t say any more other than it was awesome and now I want to see the movie. What else? Oh here are some iPhone pictures from Peaches Christ Superstar. If you have an iPhone you know they take crappy lowlight photos but THIS is something else. She was dressed all in white and had bleached blonde hair. The light on her was also white. She got so washed out that she looks like she got cut out of the picture. OR like an apparition. Spooky Peaches, spooky.

On the Road, Day Five, SD & NE, part five

Okay, I’ve slacked on telling you the rest of this day. Here are parts
One
Two
Three
Four

 

Once we left Wall Drug and the Badlands, we had to kind of figure out where we were going to go next.  This many stops in one day was kind of unheard of for us because we liked to keep cruising.  BUT we were kind of ahead of schedule and there was a lot to see over here.  We didn’t have to be anywhere particular until September 8th (tell you why later) and from checking the map, we had more than enough time to get there AND take a look around.

We happened to be in the area of another major destination and we didn’t expect the town surrounding to be so populated and touristy.  It was so cute though.

Here is where we went!  This is our first sight of Mount Rushmore from the highway.  It’s mesmerizing.

I don’t know if it’s our city showing but we were kind of dumbfounded to find this place teeming with people.  I guess it’s because you always see a picture of this quiet mountain with it’s carved Presidents so stern and majestic.  I certainly wasn’t expecting this:

But that’s silly because this is obviously a tourist destination and not a desolate forest area haha.

Anyway, it also turns out you have to pay to get in but you can only pay cash.  (WTF.)  We didn’t have any so the nice man just let us in for some reason.  It’s good to be an American?

Here is sort of a close up shot of Mount Rushmore.  Can you even imagine that someone painstakingly DID that?

I mean look at that detail?!  How can you even tell if you’re doing a good job?

Here is Kristyn doing an obligatory pose in front of Mount Rushmore, natch. Isn’t she the cutest?

And here’s my fathead posing with our Nation’s forefathers.

I’ve included a picture of the soda machine at Mount Rushmore for two reasons:

1) It made me giggle at the time.

2) I figured it’s kind of a curiosity.  I feel like it’s akin to wearing a tshirt with your own picture on it (which I have done before and totally do not judge as a life choice).

After that, we drove into Nebraska.  We wanted to cover as much ground as possible to keep on track, especially since we took so much time sightseeing.  In reality, we probably only took about an hour or so sightseeing total but we DID take a detour to get to Mount Rushmore.

Oh AND, remember how I told you that I would tell you something about Buffalo?  We saw one REALLY up close.  We got kind of lost in the woods around Mount Rushmore and ended up on sort of a rural road.  We didn’t see the Buffalo until we were right up upon it.  It was standing on the left side of the road.  A motorcyclist passed within three feet of it and swerved screaming.  We did the same.  The reasons for swerving and screaming around the Buffalo are:

1) They are like six feet tall (at least in my mind they are) and like HUNDREDS OF POUNDS.

2) Therefore they can probably kill you with their MIND if they want to.

3) There are hysterical signs everywhere warning you about your life expectancy should you encounter and piss off a Buffalo.

4) These hysterical signs tell you that in no uncertain terms, you are on Buffalo Property and if you do something to make them kill you, you are on your goddamn own because you have been warned.

That being said, ENTERING NEBRASKA!

See that sign above and the one below?  That’s Nebraska.  Open fields and flat land everywhere.  Nothing around.  Well at least where we were.  We kind of goofed and took what we thought was a highway (and was according to our maps).  It was actually like a SERIOUSLY RURAL AND DESOLATE country road.  Never. Doing. That. Again.  So terrifying.  When I say there was nothing, there was NOTHING.  No houses, no gas stations, no phones…just empty fields.  Now here’s the predicament:

1) The sun is going down.

2) We don’t know where we are.

3) Will we have enough gas to get to wherever it is we’re going? (a side note: we tried to set up hotels in advance but it logistically didn’t work because we could plan to get somewhere in time but what if we didn’t make it and ended up paying for the night in that hotel because we couldn’t cancel until the last minute?)

4) We’re in a rural area so our phones have dropped cellular and internet service.

We were really scared and pretty screwed.  We, for some reason, thought we were getting on a highway that was a more direct route to “somewhere”.  Because in NJ, when you turn off a major artery like the Parkway, there are always a lot of populated alternative routes to drive on.  BIG MISTAKE.  HUGE.

On this road you see below?  We saw a town that you could actually SEE COMING.  A cluster of houses with a sign that told you the population.  The population?  18.  Yes 18.  18 people.  And honestly I doubt that shit.  It was so abandoned looking.  And like Christine pointed out, you KNOW every single one of those bastards probably owns a gun.

But that isn’t even the crazy thing.  The crazy thing is that we came upon another town.  It had a sign that read “Population 1”.  I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to stick around.  I’m not trying to be city-dweller biased against country dwellers because I grew up spending my summers in Upstate NY where it is pretty damn rural.  I have nothing but love for the rural life.  But Population 1 just chills a bitch to the bone.  You KNOW that if a town has one person in it and they advertise it as such, it is because that person WANTS it that way.  Motion is not denied.

We eventually came upon a really cute little town that was not freaky at all. I guess they considered themselves a city because the rates for the hotels were outrageous for such a backwater. I could spend the same and get a cheap room in LA or NYC. But we found a clean place that I cannot for the life of me find pictures of. Shame too because it was one of our better rooms. It had a motel door opening but the room itself was gorg. The animals loved it and it was so comfortable. We were so tired and so hungry and full of adrenaline for being scared for so long that we were just excited to get the funk out of the car. We went across the street and got subs from Subway and housed them. We called our parents and siblings and friends to tell them we were definitely not dead. We gave the cats baths and clipped their nails after days of sweating in the car. We figured they would probably appreciate it once it was overwith and we were right. Everyone was snug as a bug in a rug and we were just happy not to be stuck on the side of the road in the dark.

Day Eleven

I took down the Christmas Tree today. The neighbors must think we’re crazy because we put a bunch of empty boxes in the courtyard last night and now I added a tree to that mess. And our tree came with a disposable stand so it’s just standing there in the middle of everything. I swept up some of the needles but I’m not allowed to use the vacuum so I’ll have to wait for Kristyn to suck them up tomorrow. I’m not allowed to use the vacuum because it ALWAYS stops working when I use it. Electronic stuff always goes bananas around me for some reason. Maybe my brain is too chaotic or something haha. Also I’m going to wait until Kristyn gets home to put the tree in the trash. I need the bottom though because my friend Don Donaldson inspired me to make my own dress form! Coming soon to a bedroom near you.

I’m also cleaning out our bedroom closet. Right now I’m on a break from it. I’m trying to pack some stuff because we want to move within the next few months. I also need to go through all of my clothes and get rid of some crap I’ve been holding onto and use other stuff that got buried.

I watched the beginning of season six of Buffy today and now I’m watching the first Rocky while I clean. Oh! The episode of Desperate Housewives I was (supposed to be) on aired tonight. I didn’t see it but I got cut. Ah well, next time!

One last thing, I’m sorry for how mundane these daily posts are but I realized that if I blog what I did each day with my post, I’ll know exactly what I did for every day of the year for at least one year of my life. Watch this be the most boring year of my life haha.

Anyway, here’s Kristyn, Day Seven!!!

Day Ten

I am not really feeling well today. I wrote up a list of to-do’s and then sat at my computer all day watching the Jersey Shore. I did feed the animals, straighten up, shower, cleaned out my makeup bag (loooooong overdue, especially since I accidentally dumped an entire container of powder into it by accident last week) and organized my purse. I also printed out an important document and started filling it out. *sigh* I just didn’t do the things I really wanted to do and so now I feel like a slacker. I always feel like if I had ONE place to organize all of my thoughts, I’d be better off. In case you haven’t noticed, I like to write stuff down and keep track of things. I carry two notebooks with me wherever I go. One is for notes and general info. I use it whenever I need to write down a phone number or write down a confirmation number or just anything really. It’s REALLY insanely helpful. The other one is a book of to do lists. This one is really helpful too. The PROBLEM with this one is that there isn’t a calendar in there to write stuff down for future dates. I really need a planner. I was going a thousand miles a minute before Christmas when all the jobs dried up. No one is in the office in this industry between Christmas and New Year’s. And I know from my experience both in entertainment and publishing that the first week back is basically for catching up. So no interviews and nowhere to go which makes me feel like I’m still on vacation (though I am applying to what jobs are posted). This would be find if I had nothing to do but I HAVE things to do and deadlines for things that I’m not on top of because for all intents and purposes, I have no sense of time since I have nowhere to be ever. It sounds like fun but it’s mostly a guilt spiral because I can never relax because there is always something I SHOULD be doing but just can’t seem to get myself to do. I need some kind of structure. On top of the notes book and the to do list book, I keep a goals book. I don’t write in this every day. I write in it like every other month or so, sometimes more or less frequently. Well actually I read my goals, date the ones I’ve achieved, cancel the ones I don’t care about anymore or add notes about progress where necessary. THEN I write my goals down. It’s just a way of keeping track of what I want in my life, both short and long-term. I just had ANOTHER idea for notebook a little while ago though. I need to start an inspiration journal that’s just filled with creative ideas. I have a LOT of creative projects always going on. Some get abandoned because I come up with something else I want to pursue. It’s hard to keep track. I think this one would be good because it would be just fun. Either write lists of inspirations or sketch ideas. I had been kicking the idea of keeping an art journal around but I know it’s something I won’t keep up with. I think making an inspiration journal kind of rounds that idea out a bit. Anyway, I gotta go do some stuff and I’m babbling anyway.

P.S. It’s a few hours later and Kristyn got home, let me talk her ear off, helped me straighten up some and then fell asleep on the couch. I’m watching the last episode of Buffy where things come to a head with Glory. Without any further ado, here is Kristyn’s sleepyhead.

Day Eight

There is so much “NO” in this picture that it had to be a “YES”. Ya pickin up what I’m putting down?

I can’t seem to get going to do anything productive today although I’ve had a lethal amount of caffeine (and intend on having two more cups of coffee). (All said I will have had about six cups of coffee when this bender is through today.)

I didn’t get my picture of Kristyn’s grill yet but I don’t want to forget about mine so I am ever-so-kindly blinding you with this one. No need to thank me. No please don’t stand up. Sit down, sit down.

So far today I have woken up, made breakfast, ate breakfast, made Kristyn lunch, picked her up and kicked her out the door, re-completed book one on Harry Potter Lego because we hit a bug a bit further in and can’t get out of a garden where Ron is burping up slugs and made the rest of the gingerbread cookie dough but I can’t with any more cookies.

I think the plan for what’s left of today (“today” being something of a relative term since it’s 8:25pm and I think the day OUGHT to be just about winding down) is going to be this:

1) Write this post. *DONE* <–This is me supposed to be me stamping this as done.
2) Watch my cats french kiss. *DONE*
3) Apply for jobs.
4) Write for LA Music Blog. I've been on a naughty cookie-fueled holiday hiatus/bender.
5) Scoop the cat litter.
6) Try to watch the season premiere of the Jersey Shore online. Yeah and?
7) Yeah I think that's all I can handle.

I was re-reading some of my old blog posts on myspace recently. (And can someone please tell me WHY you are not allowed to export blog posts off of myspace? Stupid corporate chokehold on my 2004ish through 2008 musings!) Anyway, in reading those blogs I realized the following:

1) I used to be funny and now I'm not. If you read my blog then, please do not say, "Oh no, that's not true!" It IS. I think my sense of humor was a little darker then because I was more brutally honest about everything. (Yes you can get more honest than this haha.)
2) I think that taking my blog public made me have to kind of gloss over some details so as not to give away anyone else's privacy and that made me feel like I had to write more up-up-up positively. This is good and this is bad. This is good because I can share more with my family and extended friends and this is bad because I will only remember a glossed over version of the events as they unfold. This is also good because I will only remember a glossed over version of events as they unfold. This means that when I'm old and gray (apart from a few mental breakdowns) I will be all, "What a lovely problem-free life I've lead!"
3) IN writing more positively I think I have been possessed by the spirit of an over-happy teenage girl. I am trying to self-edit all "haha's" out but I am legitimately laughing at my own joke there so it's hard to make my fingers not do it. I am actually typing out my mentally diseased laugh track in my own head not realizing that when I read it back, it will sound like a studio audience laugh track. "Insert chuckle here for I have made a funny."

Whatever, do you see what I do? I am blogging this bullshit so that I can be held up doing my to-do list. BUT I guess I can't really expect myself to respect a to-do list that I have intentionally placed "Watch the Jersey Shore" on.

P.S. I am still going through my Buffytimes. I am at the end of Season Four and dealing with Glory.
P.S. #2 I chopped onions today and rubbed it HARD into my eyes.
P.S. #3 A weird tattooed girl showed up today and knocked on the front door. I screamed, "HELLO!" out the kitchen window at her and she told me she was here bothering me to work on her people skills, find out what I do for a living and be inspired by me. I screamed, "I'M UNEMPLOYED!!!" She actually said, "Ooh! Is it fun?!" I screamed, "NO!" Then she looked at the Rampant Lions window cling I have on my front window and said, "Oh are you Scotland?" (Not ScottISH but ScotLAND.) I screamed, "YES!" She said, "Me too! I'm Scottish, Irish, German and a bunch of other shit!" I screamed, "OKAY!" Then she kind of took a hint and asked me who lives in the other apartments. I basically screamed something to the effect of, "I DON'T KNOW!" And then Kristyn demanded I scream, "THEYRE ALL DUDES!" Then she knocked on my neighbor's door and told him she's here to speak to him because she stutters and wants to win a contest for it go to England, Ireland or Romania, that she needs to know what he does for a living and then tried to sell him a magazine subscription.
P.S. #4 I'm putting my conclusion to P.S. #3 down here because well just because it deserves it. My conclusion is that she either works for a very convoluted magazine company OR she was casing us for robbery. IF I am attacked within the next month, know that a gangly tattooed brown haired girl's boyfriend named "STAB" took all of our things. I am taking a wild guess about the boyfriend but I wasn't born yesterday so it seems as good a guess as any.

Day Seven

We went to the People’s Choice Awards!!! More on that later. For now here is my Day Seven and Kristyn’s Day Three of the 365 Face Project. (Although Kristyn is already shaking things up with not wanting to just show her face.) Here I am in the parking lot outside the Nokia Theater (glamorous as usual):

Here’s Kristyn inside the Theater. She opted for the smart move and documented her face’s location more notably. I just liked this particular picture of my face and pulled a vanity maneuver. Oh well. You’ll see a similar picture of me later and go, “Yeah I can see why you’d choose to immortalize this picture over that one.”

Okay gonna go get changed, drink some Two Buck Chuck and play some Harry Potter LEGO!

P.S. WordPress App = Worst App in the App store and is about
to make me have a temper tantrum on this holiest of evenings.

P.S. #2 NO I am not trying to post my face twice BUT I will tell you this much, if the app posts my face twice instead of mine and Kristyn’s this time, it stays haha.