The One Where Heather Turns 21

My future sister-in-law Heather turns 21 this month.  I like parties and I like Heather so we threw her a 21st birthday party this weekend.  We played King’s Cup (they call it Circle of Death) a few times and it reminded me of awesome times with Amanda G. during college.  I loved that game and Heather’s party brought me back.  I think it also brought Clif back too because we both acknowledged “old school” rules, which was funny.

Anyway, we had cake:

We had friends:

We had Captain Kirk.  I wish I could explain more right now but I slacked at blogging/putting pics up back in April.  I *WILL* and it will be epic.  Consider this a prequel/having seen “Empire Strikes Back” before “A New Hope.”  Just trust me. When I tell the Kirk stories, they will be worth it.

So at some point last night, Jay & I decided it would be a good idea to balance on the papasan chair and take a pic. BAD IDEA.Especially when one party has gained weight (aka me).

I ended up with this bruise.  It was worth it but it freaking hurts even now as I type this.  It was worth it though for eating the extra pizza bites and having so much fun.  Happy Birthday, Heather!!!

“It was all started by a mouse.”

So the day after Comic Con was over, I went with Jay’s family to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.  I’d only ever been to Disneyland once before in 2008 when Jay & I celebrated our first anniversary.  We were at the park from 8am until after midnight or in layman’s terms, “we opened and we closed it.”  I had the BEST time.  I <3 Disneyland and California Adventure.

We started off at Space Mountain.  Hardly any line since we were there so early.  It was awesome. as evidenced:

Next we hit up Pirates of the Caribbean (which made me want to watch the movie really badly), the Haunted Mansion (made me want to burn the movie), Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain Railroad (it was just as fun as I remembered it but I don’t remember getting banged up so badly last time!) and one of my favorites, Splash Mountain.  Thunder Mountain, California Screamin’ and Pirates of the Caribbean were the only ones that we were lucky enough to go on twice.  Those are 3 of my 4 favorites (the last one being Tower of Terror woot!) so I was thrilled.

Naturally, I had to make sure that we took a picture in front of Cinderella’s Castle.  And by “we” I mean me, Jay & the person responsible for us meeting in the first place :)  P.S. That’s my shirt from the Chuck panel at Comic Con.

Splash Mountain, the first time:

California Screamin’ - the first time:

Group shot.  Yikes, why am I not looking at the camera?!

By the California Adventure letters:

We were lucky to be able to get to every major ride by the early afternoon.  I did learn - or rather reaffirm - one thing: that I was not meant to be a cop.  We all did the two Toy Story rides, where you shoot at things and get points, and I finished in last place both times!  I thought I was doing good because I only made shots when I felt I had it but yeah, that was not the right strategy for a freaking amusement park game!  It was SO embarrassing to do so badly.  [Uncle Lou, if you are reading this, I'm sorry!  I should've gone to the shooting range with you & Matt back in the day!]

So we finished off the night by watching the World of Color show.  Wow, it’s really spectacular.  I definitely recommend it if you’re there.  I envy people like Ralph who live right down the road from it.  Then again, I used to live 15 minutes from and work at Splish Splash which everyone I met in college & beyond was in envy of & I had a lot of “WTF crazy?!”   Anyways, I can’t wait til the next time we go back, though I think it should be the day before Comic Con starts, when there’s no blisters or overflowing toilets to slow you down haha.

Oh - quick question for all 6 of you out there - which Disney park do you like best and what’s your favorite ride?  I’d have to say Disneyland and California Screamin’ for me.

Tags: Disneyland

One Of These Things Just Doesn’t Belong

I owe you all a recap of the Friday, Saturday, Sunday of Comic Con and of our trip to Disneyland BUT I had to interrupt to post this picture from our engagement party last night:

He effing did it again!!!

Fun Jolleen Fact…

3 years ago today, July 4, 2007, Jay and I were texting and he told me he was going to take me on a date when we both were in San Diego, CA for Comic Con We went on July 27, 2007 and ch’viously it all ended up okay so woot. Also on July 4, 2007 the phrase “CAB COP!” (for all my former MetroBuzz listeners :D) was born hahaha.

Pics/video from today’s fiestas will be posted tomorrow.

Poolside Blogging

So I’m blogging from my apartment complex’s pool right now. Jay and I decided yesterday to invite a few friends over to bbq for the 4th of July since this was the first year I’ve ever not had plans. Usually I’d go to my great aunt and great uncle’s house for the best family 4th of July party ever and go spend some quality time at the Bing family party but since I’m spending my first 4th in Raleigh (last year we drove up to NY), I didn’t really have any plans. So now I’m staking out a table, grill & lounge chairs two hours early while Jay prepares his world famous “Jaygers”. I’m literally the only one here so I feel kinda silly and pretty bored lol. I was supposed to go swimming at the gym at 9am but those plans got messed up when we had the brilliant idea to save a spot amidst the fierce crowds of the pool. Yeah, good plan Jay and Colleen. Meh.

At least I’m still so slow with the iPad touch screen that it took me 15 damn minutes to poke out that last paragraph lol.

So while I wait for Clif, Sara, TJ and Kristin to arrive, I’ll run down what’s been going on. Jay & I finished the 2nd season of True Blood and started the 3rd. We are also trying to download season 4 of Dexter so we can watch that before Comic Con too. TB 2 was pretty awesome and by “awesome” I mean “Alexander Sarsgaard or however you spell his last name is hot and good choice Alan Ball giving him more screen time.” I would like to see a season where Tara isn’t acting crazy though bc I liked her a lot in season 1 and I’m super excited for the Sam storyline they’re setting up with his family (keep in mind that we’ve only seen the first ep of 3 so far so no spoilers).

I went to the beach with Sara and Kristin yesterday. We left at 7:30am to try to avoid the crowd at Wrightsville Beach but by 9:45am when we finally got there, parking was already nonexistent and douche bags were already out in full force. We drove around for 45 minutes and still no parking which sucked. We did get a spot at long last only to have some giant asshole come up to Sara and start screaming at her to “get out of that spot” and “leave” so he could have it. It was a public parking spot but in front of someone’s house that he must’ve known & been told he could park there. I was all for saying “fuck you, we got here first” but with crazy people, who knows so we left. We were so angry after that exchange that we decided to drive down to Carolina Beach and test our luck there. That luckily worked out way better for us and we had a fabulous time. Although I was wearing a strapless bikini top with string ties on the bottom and unfortunately I got slammed by a wave and had several, shall we say, wardrobe malfunctions. I pulled the top up quick enough for only Sara to get a good view and was relieved until I realized a split second later that all was definitely NOT right. Somehow the bow had come untied. Oh but not only untied but completely come undone. It fed thru a little tube of fabric - like the strings in a hoodie - and the knot that stopped it also came undone so i couldn’t even do a quick fix. I held myself together/up and did a small walk of shame out of the ocean. I’m glad that again, Sara was the only one who saw anything and it wasn’t the front lol. Kristin was a rockstar and able to fix it after about 15 minutes of trying. So that’s my embarrassing oops moment of the day!

Ok, my wrist hurts from my ghetto way of typing & Jay should be here soon to relieve me so I can get myself together for a half hour before they arrive. I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July or if you’re not American, a wonderful Sunday!

Tags: 4th of July, Carolina Beach, Dexter, True Blood, Wrightsville Beach

Memorial Day Mimosas

Last weekend, Jay and I were thoughtfully given a bottle of champagne to celebrate our engagement.  Luckily, it made it back to Raleigh in one piece and tonight, we decided to pop it open before dinner for a toast (Zoe was actually quite intrigued by the “POP” & not at all scared).  We toasted to a weekend of not doing anything at all.

After we ate, we decided to make mimosas.  Well, a real mimosa for Jay (champagne & orange juice) and a poinsettia for me (champagne & cranberry juice).

I’m still sipping mine as I write this post while beginning to watch this season’s Supernatural that have been saved up on the DVR since September, but it’s delicious.  I heaped praise on the cake from last Saturday (I’ll have to post pictures ASAP) but I love and am so grateful for the champagne!

P.S. I really don’t want to go back to work tomorrow!  Now that I’ve had time to relax, I have a ton of stuff to do around the apt.  I could use another 3 days off lol or a job where I can work from home so I can do things like redecorate in between doing work haha.

P.P.S. Last night, Jay had his first attempt at biscuits & gravy for dinner (we had a breakfast-for-dinner night).  He wanted a picture of it documented so he could show his Grandma Ruth it, since she’s a biscuits & gravy master.

Picnics are fun

It’s finally gotten warmer in Raleigh, so to celebrate the 70-degrees and sunny weather, Jay and I went on a picnic in Pullen Park.  Jay made sammiches and I ate them.  Good deal, right?

P.S. Stay tuned in the next few days for (hopefully) some wedding news

All set for a picnic!

The chef gives a preview of his delicious meal creations.

Jay loves a mouthful of roast beef…

Don’t smile with your mouth full.

Tags: Pullen Park

Let’s Talk London.

So far, London has been everything I expected it to be: gorgeous architecture, awesome sites to see, fantastic food, and cold & rainy.  All in all, it’s been so far so good.

February 12-13, 2010:

We arrived on Saturday after an overnight flight out of JFK, where Diana Ross touched me.  Yes, she did.  Well actually, she technically brushed aside me as she cut through our security line to go ahead to the front of the line.  Even though seeing celebrities at JFK is about as expected (yawn) as seeing them at LAX, it was still kinda random.  Oh and she definitely looks fabulous. Like, really fabulous.

After we arrived on Saturday morning, we went through customs, met up with Christie, got our Tube passes and were on our way back to our hotel, The Regency in South Kensington.  At this point, we were utterly exhausted so my parents and Christie graciously allowed Katelyn & I an entire hour of rest/nap time.  Woot.  While we were napping, flowers came to our door.  They were Valentines’ Day gifts from Jay & Jeremiah.  My flowers are yellow & red (as seen below) and Kate’s were red.  Yay, flowers, pretty.  Post-nap, we headed out to Picadilly Circus (reminded me of Times Square), Trafalgar Square (they had a huge screen set-up that the Olympics were broadcasting from), and the National Museum.  At the National Museum, we saw original artwork from Vincent Van Gough, Monet, Manet, Leonardo DaVinci, Rafael, Michelangelo, Claude, Rembrandt, and a whole bunch of others.  Despite being incredibly tired, it was still really, really cool and something that I’d recommend to try some day.

Side bar: This entire time I’ve been in London, I’ve been having terrible problems with my rental World Edition Blackberry.  Word of advice: Get the Tour if you’re a traveler and avoid all of this annoyance/phone time with Verizon.  Katelyn has a Tour & has had no problems getting service.  I constantly have to reset the phone (taking the battery out) to find a signal & then hope that it actually connects with the network once it recognizes it.  It’s such a pain in the ass.  #VerizonFAIL.

Following the National Museum, Kate & I went back to the hotel to nap for an hour and a half because Christie wanted us to go out with her and her friends for one of the girl’s 21st birthday.  My old ass must have looked like a chaperon hanging out with all those 20 & 21 year old girls lol.  I ended up having a great time.

Sunday, February 14, 2010:

My parents graciously let us sleep in while they went to mass.  We did a crapload of walking on Sunday.  We walked around Notting Hill (didn’t see the infamous house with the blue door from the movie), visited Portabello Market (totally did sing Bedknobs and Broomsticks in my head the entire afternoon), then walked a little bit through the Baker Street area.  If you’re not into shopping as much as you are sight-seeing, then I’d say that perhaps this isn’t for you BUT it’s neat area & they have fun places to do a little shopping/browsing, so it is worth the walk thru.  Before heading back to South Kensington, we went to Tottenham Ct & Oxford St. see where my dad lived when he studied here back in the fall of 1977.  It was still there, only a hotel had bought out where he stayed.  It was a quaint & quiet area and his face was so joyous when he showed us the ‘hood.

Rounding out Sunday, I sprinted in the rain to the Apple Store on Regent Street to get there like 3 minutes before closing time so I could buy an international adapter kit for my Macbook’s power cord.  WORD OF ADVICE TO FELLOW TRAVELERS: Make sure you purchase the proper power adapters for your cell phones, computers, etc. BEFORE you leave for vacation.  If you put it off til the last minute, you’ll end up sweaty and soaking wet in the middle of a London Apple store and that’s not fun or fabulous.  We had dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant in our neighborhood on Sunday night.  I still dream of that Italian sausage (that’s what she said) and broccoli in my pasta.  I’ll have to ask my father for the name of it.

Speaking of dreaming, I should probably go to sleep now because it’s 12:35am and I did not get a good night’s sleep at all last night.  I kept thinking about falling down the winding stairs at St. Paul’s Cathedral and then my heart would start pounding and I couldn’t breathe - if you haven’t heard me mention it on Twitter, I’ll tell that story next time.  Then I also started having the first of my wedding planning anxiety attacks because well, I’ve never been married before and I have no idea where to even start.  My mom said we should start with the guest list first because it’ll be the most difficult of decisions and already that’s causing me panic because we’ve had people contact us assuming they’re invited or joking about it and that makes me super stressed out because aaahhhh I have no idea; I don’t have a date or wedding party or anything other than a state and a possible color scheme picked out.  So I was thinking about that crap all night too.  AND NOW I’M GOING TO STOP WRITING ABOUT IT AND THINKING ABOUT IT SO I CAN GO TO BED TONIGHT…aka right now.

Tags: London, National Museum, Notting Hill, Picadilly Circus, Portabello Market, Portabello Road, South Kensington

Hawaii Part 2: Fangirl Geek-Outs

Friday, Friday, Friday.  I woke up on Friday, January 29 (our 2.5 yr anniversary!) at 6am.  Why?  Well other than my body thinking it was 11am, Clif’s phone kept making blooping noises because it was 1) Charged up and 2) getting text messages.  Then at around 6:30am, his phone rang.  He answered it and it was his father and he had a full out conversation with him at 6:30am.  Honestly, I know that Jay got annoyed by it and talked about it on the Jay & Jack Show but it wasn’t that bad for me.  I didn’t want to waste any of the day sleeping in.

I made Jay get up around 7:15am and we ended up going for a walk on the beach.  We walked down one way on the beach and then back along the street.  On the way back, I saw the hotel that my family had stayed in the first time we went to Hawaii, back when I was 15 or 16, the Moana Surfrider.  Oh yeah and we also came across some pretty awesome leis in an ABC store…

Walking on the beach

The hotel that my family stayed at 10 years ago

My kind of lei…

So upon returning to the hotel, it was around 8:15am and we decided to go in the totally super awesome pool at the hotel.  Around 8:30am, we saw Clif on the balcony of our hotel room and waved to him.  I guess he was shouting down to us a little too loudly because that’s when Jack woke up and went onto the balcony to investigate.  Here’s the picture Clif took while he was yelling down to us in the pool.  You can barely see us, but we’re in there lol.

So we went back upstairs around 9:15am.  In the interest of people want to actually continue reading this, I’ll speed it up a little bit.  We gathered Clif and went into Jack & Cyndi’s room, where I did my whole “omg-I’m-so-excited-yaayyyy!” speale and everyone who doesn’t like to have fun in life looked like they wanted to kill me.  Soon after, we all showered and got ready.  Jack, Jay, Clif & I had not eaten breakfast yet.  Jay, Clif & I decided to walk down to a local Jack in the Box and get something light to hold us over.

We had plans with Beth to give us an unofficial “Lost Tour”.  We had to meet her on the set at noon.  The set was on the North Shore, which was literally the furthest point from where our hotel was.  It would take an hour to get there, so we left around 11am.  I only had one of those Breakfast Jack thingys in my stomach.  We figured that we’d get lunch on the North Shore with Beth after she finished showing us some famous filming locations.  So we met up with Michael Purcell of Global Cash Card and hopped into a little rental car.

Well [pause].  Since Jay didn’t know where he was going and was relying on the GPS on Clif’s iPhone to get us to the meeting point, it took us well over an hour to get there.  We saw the Grass Skirt Productions signs and turned into the lot.  The guys doing security asked us if we were here for Lost and we told them yes and got in with no problem.  We see dudes walking around in Others garb.  Beth walks over to the car and Cyndi & Jack ask her if they can use the restroom.  Michael’s face lights up and he follows them.  This entire time, Clif is lecturing Jay & myself about the proper etiquette for being on the set of a TV show.  You know, I may be loud and annoying in my every day life but I know how to be on best behavior when I want to be.  I start nagging the hell out of Jay for us to catch up to them because I did have to pee pretty badly and I didn’t want to be stuck with professor-dad Clif over there.  Jay doesn’t want to “get in trouble” so he resists until Beth waves us over.

We walk around what I think was the costume trailer and come across another set of trailers.  My eyesight makes a total beeline to none other than Josh Holloway!  Internal monologue: “Uh whaaatttt?!”  In an attempt to try not to stare, I turn to face Jack.  He mutters to me, “He’s talking to Matthew Fox!”  Internal monologue: “flkajdflaudfahfOMFGokdafhia. Be cool. Go pee.”  Then I remember my full bladder and natural instinct kicks in and I ask where the bathroom was.  I think at this point, it was either Jack or Cyndi who quietly exclaim, “I just walked past Evangeline Lilly!”  I nod and walk towards where Beth is motioning the bathroom is.

As I walk by Beth, I see she’s talking to Evangeline Lilly in her trailer but this time, I’m on a mission.  I did my business (#1, don’t get any ideas) in Jorge’s trailer and return to the group.  At this point, Evangeline Lilly is now outside talking to Josh Holloway and Matthew Fox.  I must say that she really is quite a beautiful woman.  Oh hell, everyone on that show is attractive.

End of fangirl geek-out paragraph.  Start of just plan geek-out section.

So we set off with Beth (and since we all keep talking about Beth but never actually saying who she is, I should probably just clear up that Beth is Jorge Garcia’s lovely girlfriend).  Since it took so long to get to the North Shore and we had to leave by a certain time to get back for the ABC press mixer, we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked for the tour.  But we made the best of it!

We hit up the camp that serves as the set for New Otherton:

And saw Benjamin Linus’s house:

And the beach where the filmed the pilot, Aljira 316 crash, etc:

Moving along from there, we went to the site where they keep the wreckage from Oceanic 815 and the little plane that Yemi’s body was on:

Oh and did I mention that Jay & I found pieces of the plane that had blown outside the fence?  HA! 5 years ago when I stood in the middle of the DVD section of Wal-Mart trying to decide whether or not to buy Season 1 of Lost, I definitely never would have imaged that I’d be actually holding a broken piece of that set in my hand someday…

Next up, we made a quick stop at the set where young Mr. Eko’s flashback took place - the one where the kids were playing soccer.

On the way back to dropping Beth off on set, we stopped at the tree where Kate buried the NKOTB lunchbox.  I wished we could’ve gotten closer to it because I wanted to climb it lol.

We dropped Beth back off - and no, there weren’t any more sightings because the actors were all off filming - and then began the long drive back to Waikiki.  Clif got us a little bit lost and of course then his phone died BUT we managed to get back based on pure awesomeness and a good sense of direction.

Well, I think I’ve lived up to this blog’s name and rambled on long enough.  Next up: Friday evening (well, what I can remember from it…).

P.S. Beth has a children’s book coming out in the spring.  You can find it on Amazon.com by clicking here.

Tags: Hawaii, Lost, Sunset on the Beach

Just a Little Hawaiian Appetizer

I have a gazillion pictures and some really great stories from this past weekend in Hawaii but it’s taking me a little time to get them all up/written.  So to hold you over in the meantime (and you’ve probably seen this already but whatever, Clif kept us up til 1am working on it and both Jay & I happen to think that this is pretty bad ass), here’s the trailer for all the coverage that was done by Team nuDia from the weekend.

Also, you can check out exclusive pictures taken by Cesar the Awesome from the Red Carpet by going here: http://yublog.org/2010/02/02/exclusive-red-carpet-photos-from-sunset-on-the-beach-cesar-altamirano/

Tags: Jay and Jack, Lost, Sunset on the Beach