Steamy Friday Nights

This is what a little rootbeer, vanilla ice cream and hot, sexy aprons will do to two single girls on a Friday night in Los Angeles. Oh yeah... it's a wonder we're still single! And you didn't think I was going to blog again today? You were wrong.

Just a few more things...

I promise, this is my last post for the day. Here are some more photos (thanks SC) from the goings-on around town. :)

SUPERBOWL 2008

Chris's Hockey Game: Jimbotron, Cheryl, Jeffrey, me, Chris, Sara, and Justin (aka-Scott)

Chris's going away dinner @ El Torito. I can testify that Sara definitely earned her reward, don't let her fool you.

Sara looking gorgeous in India. Come home!!!

Ha Ha

An email from my dad last month:

Subject: "An Unexpected Peep Show"
Body: "HAPPY EASTER! Love, Dad"

"My name is... and I'm a Blogaholic"

I am suffering from Blogitis. This could be due to an excessive lack of blogging lately, the extraordinary amount of down-time I'm having at work the past two days, or the Adderall finally kicking in. ;) Either way, here's another little update on recent adventures and events in my life.

Phil was one of the first guys I met when I moved to LA in 2002. In fact, I remember meeting him after his Sunday School lesson one Sunday in 2001 while I was visiting the UCLA ward. Jill moved in a little later and the two eventually became inseparable. There was rarely a day that went by where I didn't see her car parked outside of his apartment, just across the street from mine; it secretly made me happy.

After a surprise engagement at Griffith Observatory, an upheaval to SLC during Christmas, and taking the BAR exam soon thereafter, they finally got married last month at the LDS Los Angeles Temple! Their reception was held at the Rancho Palos Verdes Golf Course. It sat on a cliff overlooking the ocean... it couldn't have been more beautiful. Minus the gail-force winds that day, it was perfect.

I was lucky enough to see them for dinner the next night before leaving for their minimoon. They introduced me to the world's best hamburger joint in Santa Monica called "The Stand". I'll forever be grateful! Love you guys and congratulations again!

Here are some photos I stole from Erin and Adam... thanks guys! :)

Phil & Jill at the LA Temple

Adam & Erin and Mark & Kirsten (3 days before Britton was born... poor girl)

Sparklers: the modern version of rice-throwing

Feeling Down?

Get over yourself and join me in a little service adventure at a Special Ed School!

Comcast Cares Day 2008
Saturday, May 3rd
8:00am - 1:00pm

Comcast Entertainment Group (my office) has chosen to volunteer at the C. Morley Sellery Special Education Center. This is a public elementary school for developmentally and physically challenged children in need of special education.

This school really needs help. We can make a huge difference for their students by brightening the halls of the school by painting fun and instructional murals, as well as landscaping and planting gardens.

Comcast Cares Day is a single day of service when Comcast employees, their families and friends volunteer for projects in their community. On this one day, it is anticipated that more than 300,000 volunteer hours will be contributed nationwide. This project will be fun and fulfilling... and you may even get a free t-shirt out of it. I know you can't resist!

So who's in?! Any takers? Let's be honest... when was the last time you actually planned a morning to do a little community service?

Warning: Rated R

Ok, so I came across a video on YouTube that cracked me up. I seriously can't control my laughter. Too bad this wouldn't ever make it on the show "Kids Say the Darnedest Things".

Warning: this may be offensive to some, but it's totally innocent, I promise!
Click here to watch.

An Ode.

EvRo once wrote an ode about me and now I'm passing the torch to a recent birthday girl. I love birthdays (aka-going out to dinner with friends). This particular night started off at Woodranch BBQ and ended with yumminess at my house. Thank goodness Cheryl was born so we could have a reason to celebrate!

Other reasons I like Cheryl:
-she gave me a sewing machine
-she taught me how to knit
-she recruited me for my current job
-she gave my sister a bed
-she makes yummy cookies
-she refinishes her own furniture
-we laugh about past ward council meetings together
-she was in a rock band in high school
-she grew up in the town that my brother is serving his mission in right now
-she's my neighbor (and doesn't try to light my house on fire)
-she's done the seemingly impossible... she's beginning to tame the Jimbotron
-she's freakin' hot... what else can I say?!

Tortilla chip posing as Chris & Jessica

Lanara & Christian

Cheryl & Jimbotron

Courtney & Jeff

Dane & Jessica

Maggie, Kristen & Kim

Emily & Julia

Update Time!

Q: "Did you fall of the face of the Earth?"
A: Yes, but hopefully I'm back for a while.

Where to begin... goodness.

Wedding stuff Courtney and I finally finished designing, proofing, printing, cutting, assembling, labeling, and sending over 600 invitations to her upcoming wedding. They turned out perfect for her. I estimated that I made over 6400 slices with the paper cutter just for her registry cards. Add to that the vellum overlay, announcement, temple ceremony invite, luncheon invite, direction cards, and tiny thank you tags for reception favors and you can imagine how long it took us to just cut them out! Next time remind me to hire someone. Well, let's hope there's not a next time!

Kami and Jenny and I threw Courtney's bridal shower this past weekend. A couple days before the anticipated event I received an email from my mom. She was kindly reminding me to keep things on the clean side. She continued, "Don't you dare and say 'Oh my gosh mom!' Did I catch you with those words in your mouth? Have fun and I wish I could be there. Love, Mom." Mothers definitely know their daughters! She caught me. I'm proud to report we kept things as clean as possible... as clean as Kami and I could be after spending well over $100 at a certain fun store. ;) 29 days and counting until the big day! Congrats!


Apartment stuff
Speaking of roommates, last night the 4 of us had a "Going Away Dinner" at PF Chang's in Santa Monica. Courtney will be moving out next week, Kami is officially closing on a condo, Jenny is on the hunt for a new roommates, and I'm moving a couple blocks away to live with Sara and TBD roommates. I never thought this day would come so soon, it's very sad but exciting at the same time. They say change is good, right?

If anyone out there has a heart and a little time, we'd LOVE your help moving furniture on Saturday, May 24th. (Jim, I promise that my Red Couch of Love will be easier to move this time—and that it won't eat your foot!)

Let's pray I have better luck with homeless men and arson at my new residence.


Creative Stuff
Courtney and I celebrated Easter with a class at CAFAM. We learned how to make Pysanky--Ukrainian Easter Eggs. My mother used to make these when I was young and the class caught my attention after walking past the museum on my way to work. It was super fun and a lot easier than I remember it being. If anyone is interested in learning, I'd love to show you how to do it. I bought a book with hundreds of designs and all the supplies to make dozens of eggs.
They're made with a batik method. You place beeswax on the egg with a little tool, called a Derlin, where you'd like to preserve that color, then dye the egg in the next color and repeat the waxing process. After doing this multiple times, you carefully melt all the wax off the egg and it leaves beautiful, brightly colored designs.

Here's an example of a traditional 8-pointed red star.















Work Stuff
Even though I'm averaging 60 hrs/week at work, I'm still loving my new job. A couple weeks ago I finished up a huge campaign for the Style Network-- Season 2 of Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane. I made mall posters, billboards, bus kiosk posters, ads, online banners and wallpapers, and a double-decker bus-wrap. The Photoshop file that was used for all of this artwork was gigantic, to say the least. Let's just say there were over 250 layers in this one document (and I still know every single one by name). ALL HAIL THE PRINCESS!Did anyone see this is People magazine this week?!

We just finished up the entire campaign for The Soup too. If you've ever seen this show, you know how hilariously sarcastic Joel McHale is when it comes to "The Industry" (entertainment industry for those not living in Los Angeles). These ads are ridiculously funny. I couldn't help but laugh when I was preparing them for print. I think the Bimbos billboard is my favorite of the series. There are a bunch of them, but here's a couple so you can see what I'm talking about.







I'm sure I can come up with a couple more things to blog about today... check back soon for another update on my crazy life!

Encounters of the Urinal Kind

I was at Target and needed to use the bathroom. A huge red sign entitled RESTROOM was hung just above a little corridor opening. I made a bee-line inside, narrowly missing a guy on his way out. It was too late. I walked in to find a man standing at a urinal, just as the guy I passed came back and said, "Uhh, this is the men's room." Woops!

But don't worry, not 5 hours later my sister and I were at dinner with our family as we walked to the back of the restaurant in search of restrooms. (Gigantic doses of diet Pepsi makes your bladder work over-time, just FYI.) I was determined not to make the same mistake twice... I checked the sign on the door this time, but Courtney didn't! I grabbed her just as she started walking in to the men's restroom in front of me. I'm such a nice sister! Maybe I should have let her learn on her own.

What is it with me and restrooms? I don't get it.

BTW- The women's restroom sign was not working at Target... it's totally not my fault! Although I'm sure the look on my face was priceless as I entered the wrong room, the look on Urinal-Man's face was even better--shock and horror. It was like a deer in headlights! It made me giggle. :)

Booby-Traps in St. George

I went to St. George this past weekend with Courtney and Christian (her fiancé). We met my parents and grandma there. My mom was speaking at an art convention thing, so I went along for the ride; Courtney went to her friend's wedding reception; and my parents FINALLY got to meet Christian! But what I really want to express here is the silliness my parents posses.

I got a phone call from my dad on our drive up there. This is basically how it went...

Dad: You're not on speaker phone, right?
Me: No.
Dad: Good. Does Christian have a sense of humor?

At this point I thought, "Oh dear, what are they going to do to this poor guy?!" All I could imagine was my dad waiting in our hotel room for us to arrive while cleaning his shotgun. Stupid and cliché, I know, but that's really what raced through my mind! What could they be up to?

Me: Yes... why?
Dad: Just making sure. We didn't want to scare him off completely before he meets us!

But it wasn't as bad as I thought. We opened the door to our hotel room in St. George about an hour later and the three of us halted. Did the front desk give us the wrong key? The tv was blaring and three bodies were in the two beds. Then I looked closer.

It had been booby-trapped. I realized this once I saw three strategically placed name-tags hanging on the headboards above the three "bodies" that read "Christian", "Courtney", and "Jessica." My parents and grandma are ridiculous!

They blew up a bunch of balloons and put them under the covers of the bed to make it look like people where sleeping when we opened the door to our room at 2:00am! They also made a crazy scavenger hunt for Christian around the room that led to the mini-fridge where they left 3 bottles of Martinelli's and a bunch of Reese's Buttercups (his favorite). Not only that... but there were so many streamers hanging up around the room that we couldn't even walk to the bed from the door! Oh... and the best part... [my mom thinks she's so funny] they bought plastic bugs and put them all over the hotel room. They purposely left a message on our phone so we'd pick up the receiver and find a big black spider. Very Funny. I didn't want to wake the Big Bad Wolf, so I sent my dad a text message that read, "Ha Ha."

Thankfully Christian does have a sense of humor and appreciated the ugly heart-shaped zebra-print and pink fringed pillow my mom left for him as a "welcome to the family". It was the tackiest thing she could find at the Dollar Store across the street (so she says). Pink is the devil to Christian, so it made it even better. :) Don't worry, my parents weren't exactly playing favorites. For me, I was left this ugly yellow Easter Egg looking toy that you press and a different face appears each time. On the note attached, this is what my loving family wrote...

"Dear Jessica,

It's your lucky day! Pick your favorite Prince [ugly faced Eater Egg thing] and get married before your grandmother dies.

Love,

Grandma"

I should have been offended, but I burst out laughing. My parents thought they were so funny. Yeah, very funny.

The only embarrassing encounter between my parents and Christian came about because of me. I didn't mean to make him stutter and blush, but it was just so funny, I couldn't help it. Courtney was in the middle of a story to my parents about how nice and cute Christian was to her... and I injected, "Yeah, tell mom and dad what Christian got you for Valentine's Day!" To which Christian swallowed all the air in the room as Courtney exclaimed, "He got me a Victoria's Secret gift card!" My mom thought it was adorable (as did Courtney and I), but my dad just sat there and rolled his eyes. Poor Christian. He didn't really know what to do. It was classic.

Welcome to the family.

Christian & Courtney

Classic ring shot

Koo Koo

Across the street from my office lies a small Mecca of food establishments. Today I ventured for a little chicken at Koo Koo Roo to satisfy my lack of breakfast and fast approaching dinner. Just before leaving, I made my way to the restroom. Before I go on, no... I didn't break any toilets... and it's not a sickening story (or sorts) either.

I walked in to find a pretty average two-stall fast-food chain restroom. One door was closed, the other open. I walked into the open stall, turned to close the door and before I could lock it I heard a very direct voice state, "UNAVAILABLE!" I stopped and thought, "Hmm, ok..." I continued to lock the door to the stall that I was in. Again I heard, "UNAVAILABLE! This bathroom is TAKEN!" Ok... so I responded hesitantly, "There are two stalls in here and I have to use the bathroom." To which this obviously upset woman said, "Why would you say that to me? Of course I know there are two stalls in here!" I was utterly confused. So I went about my business as she continued to have a one-way conversation with me that went something like this... "I'm the Koo Koo Roo grandmother. Yesterday and walked in on a woman by accident in this stall and I saw her, but I quickly closed the door. It's not like we all don't have the same parts. The mechanics are all the same. Some are just made in different shapes and sizes. Why would you say there's another stall in here? It's such a nice day out today. I brought my quilted jacket to work today, but I should have left it at home. But I'm glad I brought it because I have a meeting tonight until 9:00pm and you know it gets chilly by 9:00pm in Los Angeles. So I'm glad I brought my quilted jacket."

To all of this, I responded, "Uh huh."

I sat in my stall thinking, "Is she really talking to me? Maybe she's on the phone and I've just responded like an idiot." But no. Who talks to strangers through stall walls? I wanted to get out ASAP, but I didn't want to be accosted by this woman while washing my hands. How was I going to get out of this? She beat me to "the flush". So I waited... and waited... for a good minute-plus for her to finish washing and drying her hands... strike up a new conversation with another girl waiting for the restroom, and finally LEAVE!

I made it out alive. Koo Koo!

Charlie!!!

This was just sent to me and I had to share with everyone.

Reasons to Celebrate

1. The Psych marathon on the USA Network two weeks ago. Our DVR (tivo) was filled to the brim with episodes of my favorite tv show! I was nice to my roommates this past weekend and watched them all, thereby freeing up the very coveted DVR space.

2. The Knitting/Crocheting group re-united on Cheryl's Couch (literally) this past Wednesday. The night was a huge success... chocolate cookies with a Rolo surprise, juicy gossiping (ok, not really), fantastic company, and lots of pretty yarn! I finished a baby pirate hat for Autumn's new niece/nephew. I rock at crocheting skull and cross bones.

3. The new Conair blow-dryer I bought last night at Target. I dropped Courtney off at LAX and headed straight to Target. I had one thing on my mind: find a bathroom ASAP. Once there I didn't think it would hurt to window shop. I grabbed a couple of items I've been putting off and stood in the longest line of Target shoppers I've EVER seen. 25 minutes and a new friend I met in line later, I exited with purchases in-hand. My new friend assured me that the blow-dryer I bought was absolutely fantastic. She was right. This morning I was in love.

4. Sara's birthday email invite. If you weren't invited—count yourself lucky. Everyone on that list about had a heart attack after reading we'd been invited to a Cuddle Party. About 24 hours later she sent another email reading, "Just kidding!" The real celebration is tonight: happy hour sushi and ice cream. Yum.

5. Las Brisas for brunch last Saturday morning. A small group of us got together at my favorite little restaurant in Laguna Beach. We spent the rest of the day walking around Balboa Island, trying to eat our frozen Balboa Bars while laughing, and chatting it up at a sports bar (Plewe and Ham had to see the end of the BYU-Utah game). We ended the day with a movie, but not before we witnessed the greatest advertising hoax ever.

6. Bagel Thursdays at work. Oh, did I mention I got a new job?!!!** It's true. I was 'on-trial' for two weeks at Comcast Entertainment Group (E! Entertainment, Style Network, and G4). Thankfully they liked me enough to keep me! I'm a graphic designer in their domestic and international print design department. Photoshop and InDesign are my best friends. I'm a real working woman again! My first official day of work was Monday (MLK day)--- a paid holiday! Is that a good omen or what?! **I'd like to thank Cheryl for recruiting me. How fun is it that I work with one of my favorite girls EVER?! Life is good. (No, I haven't seen Ryan Seacrest yet, but I did get a really cool tour of the whole building--including the studios.)

7. Del Taco with the fam. Just as I was about to head to FHE, I got a phone call from my brother. He was stranded at LAX for a few hours due to a late connecting flight back to SLC and wanted Courtney and I to come get him. We trekked our way through the pouring rain and ended up at Del Taco. Three frijoles eating frijoles. It doesn't get much better than that.

8. Cupcake Babies from Vanilla Bake Shop. Amberly's bridal shower was Tuesday night. I learned about the fine delicacy of baby cupcakes and incredible chicken tacos from Wahoo's Fish tacos!

I just realized I'm hungry. Of the 8 listed items above, 6 mention food. My subconscious is telling me to eat.

See you after lunch!

The Vegas Bowl

I drove with Vic to SLC today. We made it just in time to watch the BYU-UCLA game! My dad, mom, and two brothers joined my grandmother and uncle's family in screaming for a good 2 hours or so. I was torn in my loyalties. I've grown up a BYU football fan my entire life. Both of my parents graduated from there, I was born a BYU baby--for heaven's sake. But let's face it, UCLA writes my paycheck. Do I really want to jinx that while I'm waiting for 2 checks to come through from them? Hmm. I realized I was still a Cougar at heart the minute the game began. We were elated most of the game... until the last couple minutes... and with 3 seconds left, BYU tipped a field goal attempt by UCLA and won the game by one point!

The reactions were priceless. My dad jumped off the couch faster than I did when I realized my house was burning, screamed, and jumped up and down; my grandmother had a slightly delayed reaction—but when she figured out what was going on, she threw her popcorn-brimmed bowl up into the air and onto everyone in the room... which then proceeded into an all-out popcorn fight amongst all the ADULTS in the room; and let's just say I lost my voice after screaming so loud! Yes, it was a Kodak and MasterCard Moment in one... unforgettable and priceless. What a combo.

UCLA wide receiver Dominique Johnson gets hit by BYU defensive back Ben Criddle during the first half of the Las Vegas Bowl football game Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007, in Las Vegas. Johnson dropped the ball after the hit, and the pass was incomplete. (AP Photo/Sam Morris)

Almost Finished!!!

In 16 minutes, my last final will begin. I'm sitting in the classroom, waiting. I don't feel excited, relieved, or anxious. The only thing I can think of is how hungry and tired I am. This entire weekend (sans church and the gingerbread house-making party last night) was spent in agony at my kitchen table, feverishly trying to finish a final project, due at 3:00pm today. I didn't quite make it... I ran into class at 4:00pm. I blame it on my cultural upbringings of Mormon Standard Time. Luckily I was able to present my final project to the class, albeit extremely late! Oh well. I don't even care at this point. Six finals down and one to go!!! YAY!!! After 9:00pm you may call me Bachelor.