Bordi

This is my last post...

2009-01-28T22:17:00.000-08:00

On this blog!!! That's right I have a brand new blog. Lose this address, update your readers and bookmarks and be sure to follow me over at:

www.amandaraeblog.com

That address should be much easier for people to remember! What are you waiting for? Click that link and see the little surprise I have waiting for you over there! And don't forget to let me know what you think!

I haven't posted in awhile.

2009-01-20T14:06:00.000-08:00

So weird.

I’m a HUGE fan of a photographer, Jasmine Star. I think I’ve mentioned her once or twice on my blog and when I talk about her with my husband I refer to her as “My American Idol.” He doesn’t like it when I say that, though, cuz he gets confused and thinks she was really on American Idol. She wasn’t. She’s just a really amazing photographer and has gained in popularity in a short period of time. Not that I am eager to gain popularity in this sea of photographers that are out there, I really just want to gain a living doing something that I LOVE not something that I LOATH. I’ve read through J*s old blog entries before but they seem to take on a new meaning the more I learn about photography and the more I learn about the players in the industry.
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I had a hard weekend of feeling like I’m not good enough and who do I think I am that I can go out and buy a camera and be a photographer just because J* did it. So I started browsing through entries on Craigslist for something that would be a more creative job just to get out of what I’m currently doing. Something preferably to do with photography but maybe something with photoshop or some other leg of photography just to get one step closer to my goal of what I want to be when I grow up (I never thought I wouldn’t feel grown up at 26 but I still feel the same as I did at 18, I don’t know if this Peter Pan Syndrome is good or bad or if it will ever go away. I digress…). There are never any good Craigslist postings for Ventura County so I started perusing Los Angeles County. I’m willing to drive in the horrendous traffic if it means doing something that will fill my soul and not keep draining it. I found a couple of listings that sounded interesting but of course they don’t pay anything near what I’m currently making at my job but again another sacrifice I’d be willing to make in order to be happy throughout most of everyday. There was one listing to work for a photographer that I hadn’t heard of but he looked like kind of a big deal. So when I started going back through J*s entries today to map out EXACTLY the route she took to get where she got so quickly I noticed that one of her first entries ever on her first blog was a meeting she had with the same EXACT photographer. In the scheme of life I guess it’s not that crazy considering I didn’t actually send in my resume or otherwise contact this guy to try and work for him. But the message in her entry was “I got something better: The belief that I will succeed. And I won’t succeed by being someone’s apprentice, but, rather, I’ll do it my way.” The message just seems so much stronger since I was thinking about bowing down and just being someone’s apprentice AND I was thinking of being the apprentice of the guy that helped her come to that realization! And now she’s helped me come to the realization: I’ll do it my way!!! It’s perfect for me too because doing things my way has always been my favorite way. ;)
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Okay I’ll stop now. On to other news. My logo is not here yet. Still working on it. I was talking with a friend about it today and I showed her the options and she stopped and said “Whoa that one looks like FedEx. It says: We’ll get you your photos on time!” Made me laugh :)

Meet {Melissa & Scott}

2009-01-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

Melissa and Scott, cutest couple ever, got married at the end of 2008. Jen Harris invited me along to second shoot this amazing wedding! Make sure to hope over to her blog to see her perspective...amazing!!!

I particularly loved this wedding because it reminded me so much of my own! It was in a little old Victorian house, not too big, not too small...even a similar dress as mine!

On Jen's blog you can see the way she shot the following picture, mine is shot through a window!

This is Scott and his soon-to-be brother-in-law. They were so cute fixing each other's boutonniere (and yes, I quickly googled boutonniere to check the spelling...my first try was WAY off, in my defense it's a long word! And apparently French)

Introducing Mr. & Mrs.!!!
The end: :)

Me on My Birthday

2008-12-28T14:19:00.001-08:00

That's me on my birthday in an ice skating rink for the first time ever! Mikey surprised me by taking me to do something I've never done before and we had a fabulous time. And we didn't even fall one time!!! Even with all those clothes on I was still freezing!

This is us trying for a self portrait. It was the last image on our memory card so it was our only try. I'm happy that even though you can see straight up our noses you can't see any boogers! My nose was running all night and Mike REFUSED to let me wipe it on his sweatshirt!

And here is a short 6 second video:

Birthday Skate from Amanda Bordonaro on Vimeo.

These last two are from earlier in the evening. BB had her birthday party on my birthday so we stopped by to give some love and gifts. I'm clearly stoked to be giving:

Proof that it's always a good idea to give others something that you also love; they love it every time!

Merry Christmas to all!

2008-12-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

WARNING: Cutest kid EVER alert!!!

2008-12-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

I've been promising my sister some updated pictures of her son and while in a hotel room the other day I played around with the light coming in from the window and captured a few shots of the cutest kid to ever live!!! I might be a little biased but not much.

Playing and laughing with cousin, Tiara:

Meet {Melissa & Jerrond}

2008-12-19T17:46:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I second shot with Jen Harris once again. We headed down to Pasadena to meet with Melissa and Jerrond who will be getting married next year. We had a fabulous time shooting around city hall, then we ventured on to the Santa Monica pier. It may have been one of the longest days of my life (shooting is HARD work!!!!) but it was such a blast. Jerrond later admitted that he hadn't been looking forward to this but we made it so fun that he really enjoyed it!!! I love that! These two are a lot of fun and are so sweet together! :) I love shooting people...

I Do {Tammy & Jason}

2008-12-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I had the incredible honor of second shooting with the fabulous Jen Harris! This was a very exciting wedding for me because um hello it was my first wedding EVER!!! I'm hooked :) And this wedding was the PERFECT wedding for my first time. It was a small ceremony with immediate family only which is so great because they really only need one photographer so anything I took was just icing on the cake = no pressure for me!

The evening started with getting ready at a cute little inn and then we went on to a beautiful park in Dana Point, CA that overlooked that ocean.

The flower girl's dress was too precious:

We found a cool spotlight at the reception and got a GQ moment with the groom:

Then we went for the serious dramatic look with both bride and groom:

What a fabulous experience! Thank you Jen for allowing me to tag along!

iPhone Picture Gallery

2008-12-08T11:52:00.000-08:00

I was just scrolling threw my iPhone picture gallery and I wanted to share a few things. I don't always have my massive, huge, honking camera with me and the iPhone does a pretty good job of capturing the moment!
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For starters, this weekend Mikey surprised me with a little trip to Santa Monica. Over the course of our marriage, with his job, it is rare that we get to spend A WHOLE DAY together. We were going to start our Sunday riding our new bikes for the first time. We waited because when they were shipped to us the tires were flat. He went out and got a pump and we were itching to go ride on Sunday only to find that the tire on mine wasn't just flat it was totally busted! I'm not sure why everything with me has to be an ordeal, but it will make the first ride monumental once we are fully functional.
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So we scrapped the bikes (that are now just living room sculptures...for the last month) and headed out to Santa Monica. We went to one of my FAVORITE restaurants Real Food Daily and had a delicious meal. Then we headed down to Third Street Promenade. I hadn't been there in forever and ever, I used to go down all the time. I didn't know that there is now an H&M and that the Forever 21 moved from the mall down to the promenade and is three stories! Mike only let me go into three stores but it was for the best. The fewer stores you visit, the more money remains in your pocket :).
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After that we headed to the pier. On our way over we stopped in a cute little cafe that only sells green tea things. We got green apple tea. It tasted a little bit like feet. But we sat and enjoyed the atmosphere. When we got down to the pier we played some air hockey and skee ball and after that I felt like I needed a shower...if I have kids I'm going to be the mom that has hand sanitizer chained to my belt loop. Then we decided to go on a ride! I have not been on a ride since I was 15! And he and I have not ever been on a ride together. He picked the one ride ($10 for both of us!!) and it was the one that is like a boat pendulum and I'm thinking no big deal, it just sways back and forth. Well I forgot that it leaves your stomach waaaaaaaaaaay over on one side when your body is waaaaaaaaay over on the other side. It was a fun and gentle reminder that I am no longer 15. This is a picture of us sitting on the ride right before the mayhem began:

This is the sunset from the pier a few minutes before the above picture was taken:

After the pier fun and a churro on the way out, we got on the PCH and took it all the way to it's northern ending point in Oxnard and went to my favorite Asian restaurant. It's a little whole in the wall Thai/Chinese place that doesn't look like much in the way of decor, but makes up for it in taste and community. By community, I mean this place is a real life Cheers! The owner knows EVERY customer by name. We haven't been there in like a year and we were welcomed with "Mike! Amanda! It's been like a year!" So cute! How much better would the world be if more places like this existed? Places that value you as a person and not just another sale.
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Last week was my mom's birthday and we had dinner at CPK. We waited FOREVER for a table so by the time we sat down this little guy had been in his carseat for way too long so we let him crawl down the length of the table. I think he thought it was pretty cool to be at eye level with all his favorite people!

And then he helped her open her presents:

And last but not least, this is a cat. She finds her way into my phone pretty regularly:

Meet {Linda}

2008-12-01T10:45:00.001-08:00

This is Linda and she's B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!!! Thank you, Linda, for allowing me to take many many pictures of you. I had a blast and I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do!

I am particularly fond of this paparazzi-style photo of Linda in a CUTE bakery.

I'm kind of obsessed with this "bubble" wall, outside of the same CUTE bakery referenced above. It's possible that I have pictures of myself at this wall that will debut on my website in the near future...I'm just saying...

Dear people with cool red cars: If you leave your car on the street we may drape pretty girls on it.

Meet {Shelby & Mark}

2008-11-26T15:51:00.000-08:00

HOT HOT HOT!!! Shelby and Mark are soooooo hot! And sweet and nice and up for anything! I had such a great time with these two. I hope you love them too!

{Stephanie & Paul} Day After

2008-11-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

Boy do I have a lot to blog about! I was out all last week at the Love Affair workshop so now I have a lot to catch up on! First, I have this amazing day after session with Stephanie and Paul. It wasn't exactly the day after...Steph and Paul got married last month and unfortunately there were 40 mph winds that day so they weren't able to get any outdoor pictures. We returned to the beach this last weekend in full wedding garb to get some images of them and I'm quite pleased with the results and the wind was much more mild so no sand in the eye...just pretty much everywhere else! A HUGE special thanks to my friend Jen Harris for helping me out with this one!

I'm not sure if Steph realizes how gorgeous she is but one look at this pic and WOWEE!! Stunner.

From the moment we met up at their house, Steph was a ball of energy so I love this image below of her waking all the sleeping birds on the beach. Very fun!

Thanks Steph and Paul! We had such a great time and I hope you enjoy the pics!!!

Stay tuned all week for more!

Some Assembly Required

2008-11-13T20:36:00.001-08:00

About a year ago Mike came up with the brilliant plan to buy bikes. Bikes! We could ride bikes!! I was less than thrilled. I said no way Jose. Bikes are lame. Bikes are for dorks. I'm not a dork. He said but it's something we can do together! We can ride bikes!! I responded that bikes are not a bonding activity. The only way to bond on a bike is to intensely watch the other's behind as we cycle along a path.

On the 4th of July Mike and I decided to go to the local high school to watch the fireworks. I said let's walk because it will be way too difficult to find parking, and if the fireworks start when we are walking we can view them easier with no car overhead. And bonus, the movie theater is right there we can see a movie right after. Well, this seemingly short walk turned out to be a 30-40 minute walk. So it was then and there that I realized WE SHOULD GET BIKES! BIKES!! We could ride our bikes to the movie theater all the time...it's too long to walk, too short to drive, but just right for bikes! I began to look for bikes. I figured we could find a bike for $25, maybe $50 tops on Craigslist or at a garage sale. Boy was I wrong. Even on Craigslist used bikes are over $100! I went to a bike shop and the bike of my dreams was $450. Finally, we stopped in a WalMart one night and they had new bikes for about $100 fully assembled, but we had the Toyota Corolla that night so Mike promised to go back with a truck and get them. After more than a week passed, I realized he was never going back to WalMart. I perused WalMart.com to find the bikes and lo and behold shipping was only $1.87! It would cost more in gas to back out of my garage. So now we are the proud owners of two brand new shiny bikes! The instructions indicated that assembly was a piece of cake, we beg to differ...even with help from the kitties.

This cat got in my shot:

Check Me Out!

2008-10-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

The past couple of days of my life have been an exciting little whirlwind! I spent a good portion of Tuesday in Irvine at The B School get together learning and socializing. All of Wednesday I was with the awesome duo that is The Image is Found's Nate and Jaclyn Kaiser. As seen in previous posts, I have been in front of Nate's camera and yesterday I got to see what goes on behind it. I also picked up my pictures from my session and I can't wait to show you how I display them in my dining room...coming soon! Back to the Kaiser's...I didn't have the opportunity to meet Jaclyn the last time I was down there and she is so sweet and nice and so willing to answer any question I had! I don't have any pics from the day cuz I was way too busy learning to try and take any pics, but hopefully I'll find some on other attendee's blogs. I met so many cool people over the last couple of days at each of these events, I can't wait to meet up with them again soon! Oh, and the picture posted at the top of this post is from the B School get together and was posted on The B School Blog today courtesy of Matthew Saville. Thanks Becker and Matt!! Thanks Nate and Jaclyn!!

Meet Tiara

2008-10-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

And welcome to the longest post ever! I only spent two hours with Tiara and my new lens on Saturday and this isn't even half of my absolute favorite shots! Enjoy...

Us: As Models

2008-10-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had a teaser in relation to Nate Kaiser of The Image is Found and now I can reveal! Mikey and I were "models" for a private Shootshop. We took the day off (bonus-we got to spend a day together!) and drove down to Oceanside. We got there super early and Nate had warned me that there wasn't much in Oceanside besides him and he was correct. Then we met up with Nate and his student. It didn't take very long, but when the images came back a couple of weeks later they were AMAZING! It was probably the hardest decision of my life deciding which ones to purchase. Without further ado, I present the four images that we chose. These images will be a prominent display in my living room.

I love how fun this image looks. That's Mikey's "BIG" smile/laugh that I adore.

Not to toot my own horn, but I think we look like models in this one. It must be the lighting or something that makes us look so...dramatic!

And the adventure doesn't end there, kids, as you may recall I will now have the opportunity to learn from the master himself. Next Wednesday I'll be back in Oceanside to learn how to take pictures of you just like these!

*Huge, extra special THANK YOU to Genevieve for letting me post these on my blog*

Jos

2008-10-13T19:46:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I shot my niece. She is such an amazing model! We found so many cool locations in my parents neighborhood in Ventura. Enjoy!

Mikey Weekend

2008-10-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was the hub's one weekend day off this month. I've been wanting to take some pics of him, so I was super excited to go out around our neighborhood but as luck would have it, it rained this weekend! Fortunately it was a soft sprinkle and we were able to go out for a few minutes without getting wet. After about 15 minutes, he lost interest anyway! I wore my rainboots just in case, these can be seen below.

I Registered to Vote!

2008-10-03T13:46:00.001-07:00

Sort of. Yesterday Jessica Claire posted a video of celebrities talking about voting on her blog. I had every intention of voting in this election but the video brought to my attention that I really need to register before I forget and it’s too late! In years past I never had a strong opinion on politics so I never registered in an effort to avoid increasing my chances of jury duty. This year I need to vote, I’m 25, I’m an adult, and I need to voice my opinion (not on this blog though!). So I immediately went online, filled out the form, printed it out, and sent it in. Last night I went to dinner with my family and declared my new found ability to VOTE! And my sister asked if I did it online and I said, “yes, well sort of, you still have to send it in.” And she said, “yeah cuz you have to sign it.” And I said, “sign it?” I don’t think I signed it! I find it entirely ironic that I did not sign it because I have this napkin in front of my monitor that I continually sit and doodle my signature on like a high school girl doodling the name of her crush.

So as I sat and doodled my signature I couldn’t turn and write it on an official important document? Now everyone stop reading this for one second and look at the avatar on the right hand side of your screen…yes, I am blond. So I will be trying attempt #2 today. I’m worried that sending in two registrations on two subsequent days will put up a red flag in Washington and when I show up to vote on November 4 Secret Service agents will escort me away to a barren room with bright lights in my face. It’s possible that I watch too much television.

Here's the video:

Catalina

2008-09-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

I went to Catalina this weekend with BB for Canon Captures Catalina at the advice of Dane Sanders Blog. The above photo is a reflection of a flag on a boat in the water. The shot was set up by the tour guide, Adam, on a 100-400mm lens at 400mm and he let us put our memory cards in his camera and take the shot. The water looks so awesome!

This kind gentlemen below let us take pictures of the outside of his home. You could tell he loved the attention. The pictures below are all taken on his property of old stuff he's collected over the years. There was a lot more stuff than this!

The next series is from the pier. The following picture of the homes on the hillside isn't very sharp but I still like it.

As we were on the pier some guys excitedly brought in this marlin and they set about weighing the big guy. Apparently it was a contest and these guys found out they had the biggest one so far and were very happy about it. Of the many people that gathered around to witness the weighing a woman next to me asked "is it dead?" My brain started bleeding so I had to walk away.

This flower was shot on a 65mm Macro lens that I was trying out on a 40D. It surely gets rather close!

Cheers to 9 Years!

2008-09-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Today the hub and I celebrate 9 whole entire years of being together! Phew, it's been a long ride but I wouldn't choose to spend it with anyone but him! This morning I found this lovely little note waiting for me downstairs...

In case you can't read his chicken scratch (and no, he's not a doctor, he just has doctor writing without the matching doctor salary. How lovely for me) it says "Good morning sweet lover! I hope u have a great day. I will be thinking about u and that *edited for privacy*. I love you forever and always Happy 6th year Anniversay sweetie!!! P.S. Take some land $"

First, go ahead and compare the header of this blog post to the body of his note. If you are savvy you have noticed that I used a "9" to describe our anniversary and he used a "6" to describe it. Now, we must give him the benefit of the doubt...maybe he has some weird form of inverted dyslexia. OR maybe being with me for 9 years feels like 6.

Second, the "P.S. Take some land $". Your guess is as good as mine on that one! He left me some cash (which I'm assuming is NOT my present) but I have no idea what land money is. Maybe it doesn't say "land" but that's certainly what it looks like to me.

Lastly, he does not read my blog, it's not a secret blog, he just doesn't like reading, and my blog involves reading so it's not on his radar. If I had links to poker videos he would probably check out my blog everyday, but I don't want to risk boring the rest of the population.

P.S. Honey Doodle...if you do happen to find your way over to my blog today, I love you more than you could ever comprehend. I love your smile and your laugh and your sloppily written love notes with cute (sometimes questionable) drawings. Peace out.

Manual Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

The above shot is how my "new" desk looked before I got to work on it this weekend. I say "new" because it's new to me but this wood appears to have been on this earth a long time before I got to it! It's actually reclaimed wood that my dad rescued from an old barn. I love that this desk is going to have such a better story than "yeah I went down to Pottery Barn, dropped a couple grand, now I have me a nice workspace." This desk is going to be almost free and my dad and I made it together and it's custom!

This shot is what it looks like now. It's still not quite done. There are a few more steps before it gets to meet its new home in my fuschia office!

WTF?!

2008-09-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

So let's just file this under "things you don't see every day" and move on. And thank God for camera phones!

Seriously?

2008-09-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

Canon announced today that they are releasing their new Canon 5D Mark II. This is horrible news for me. Why you ask? Because I’ve been waiting months to buy a 5D and have waited and waited, saying they must come out with a new one considering the 1st version is THREE YEARS OLD! That’s like 86 in electronic years. Last week I couldn’t take it anymore. I broke down and finally purchased a 5D. I checked the status from UPS and it’s this close to being delivered TODAY on the day Canon laughs at me saying “haha you fool! You couldn’t wait one more week!” I have never been known as a patient person. I think this situation just proves that. Oh well, I’m going to play with my 5D tonight like it’s the apple of my eye and will resist the urge to treat it like the red-headed step child that it is.

Image from: Photography Bay

WOW!!!

2008-09-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted in over a month! I probably lost my entire readership of three due to my absence :(. If I promise to post more will you come back to me? So this must mean that nothing has been going on in my life and I’ve had nothing to write about, right? No way Jose! I’ve been a busy little bee!

It all started at the beginning of August when I attended the Free to Succeed Tour with DJ and Jasmine Star…and it was AMAZING!!! I met my American Idol J* and I love her more now than ever. She is utterly fabulous! And DJs pretty cool too. JK…I LOVE him a lot too! He’s really business minded and I love that coming from a business background myself. He’s all about streamlining your business, outsourcing what needs to be outsourced and doing only what you are great at and love to do! Hallelujah! And he has some fabulous programs for photographers that I can’t wait to get.

After The Tour, we went up to the Freedom House, which is his house up in the mountains of Santa Barbara. It’s a seriously SICK house. But my favorite part about his house party was meeting my new friend and neighbor, Jen Harris! We were just chit-chatting in a group and she was like oh yeah I just moved to Camarillo. And my shy self was screaming in my head “OMG I live in Camarillo too!!!” then I proceeded to actually say it out loud and started talking about Cam-town and it turns out we are neighbors! So cool! So we went to lunch a couple weeks later and she’s so nice, and giving, and helpful! It’s so fabulous to have someone in your same town that can be your friend and fellow photographer so you can talk shop too! (I’m just realizing there are way too many “!!!” in this post. I’ll try to pare it down in the future but I’m just too excited in this post!)

Then after that something else REALLY exciting happened but I’ll have to wait to post on that till I have the physical evidence to show you. Hehehe.

Then my new friend, Jen, and I went down to the Truth or Dare Tour with Dane Sanders, Robert Evans, Sara France, and Carlos Baez. It was fabulous! Robert shot Brad and Jen’s wedding and Tom and Katie’s wedding and he showed us some pics of TomKat’s wedding that were published in Europe but not here so that was cool to see! Sara was the cutest thing ever and she’s works a lot with Apple which would be so cool! I’m an Apple geek. I can’t wait to use some of the tricks she showed us when I have clients! Carlos was hilarious! OMG! The big joke was that he has a gay stylist and trust me you can tell! Too cute. I would love to just sit and have a meal with that guy one day. And then Dane finished up the evening and he was great! I had already read his book Fast Track Photographer which is an amazing book for photographers. My only comment to Dane is STOP GIVING IT AWAY FOR FREE!!! Everywhere I go I’m being offered a free PDF of his book. It’s too good to be given away! He deserves some scrilla for the work he did on that baby! And as a presenter he was awesome! Such a good guy with a big heart.

That evening Jen and I went to dinner with Jen’s friend, Scarlett Lillian. Dinner was fabulous and at a very fabulous restaurant at the LAX Sheraton. (More to come on Scarlett, keep reading…this technique is called a “teaser”)

THEN I went to PartnerCon. I guess you are technically supposed to be a member to go but I kind of snuck in. I mean I paid and all. But I didn’t have a “studio ID” so I just went the morning of the conference and had a girl put in a fake studio ID so I could register. Hey they still got the money! And I will probably be a member in the very near future, especially considering that their sales reps keep calling.

I was pretty intimidated to be at PartnerCon. I think there were like 300 photographers and here I am without even a business card or a website or anything! Even though I was pretty shy everyone was so nice and welcoming. Especially Scarlett!!! I tagged along with her as much as I could because she was the only person I sort of knew, but she was so great to me. She introduced to me to many people (including THE Jessica Claire!) and let me eat lunch with her and sit with her at a couple of the meetings. I met many photographers that were so nice and jumped to give advice to a newbie. I think I’m going to really like being in a community like this! I see nothing but good times ahead…

But wait! There’s more! This is getting to be a LONG post, but I’m making up for 1.5 months!

Nate Kaiser of The Image is Found glory announced his next Shootshops and I got in! He sold out in 24 hours, but because I am a loyal stalker I got in just in the nick of time. More on Nate in another post…again a teaser to try and get my readers to come back to me. October 29th I will be in Oceanside, CA to get learned good.

And to finish this post off…another workshop that I will be attending… The Love Affair Workshop. It will be in November at the W Hotel in San Diego. It will be a whole week with Lauren Clark (we have the same color dining room), Millie Holloman, Kelly Moore, and Davina Fear. There will be a lot of estrogen and I was a little worried but in talking to my new friend, Scarlett, I discovered that she has gone to one of their past workshops and said it will be great for me! Stoked!

Ok, I’m done now. Oh and I almost forgot…Scarlett put pics of me on her blog! Coolest thing ever? I think so!!!

Lazy Weekend

2008-08-03T22:38:00.000-07:00

I had a normal weekend. For once. As most of you know, my darling husband works every weekend, I work every weekday. So we rarely see each other for extended periods of time. He had this weekend off, and typically when we have mutual time off we plan something. But this weekend we had no real plans. A couple of ideas. But no real plans or agenda. It was nice to sleep in late, wake up and not shower, hang out around the house. On Saturday we went to Ventura to go to the fair but once we got there and ate lunch at my favorite restaurant, we decided that neither of us really had any desire to deal with crowds of people and spend money. We ran some errands and went and saw Step Brothers instead. It wasn’t awful, it wasn’t great. What could you really expect? Then on Sunday, we really did nothing. We lounged around for hours, then went and played in the pool. I’m not a huge pool person, but no one was there (where was everyone on a Sunday during the summer?!) so I got in and we had lots of fun splashing around. Then in the evening we went and saw The Mummy 3. I knew from the commercials that Rachel Weisz was missing, but I was still very disappointed by her absence the entire movie and I just couldn’t get over it. Rachel, where did you go?

You are probably wondering why I started this post with a picture of sunglasses. Well in my San Fran post I mentioned the glasses that Mike bought that he LOVES and wishes he had gotten more of. We looked on eBay for some more, and found some that looked exactly like them in some very fun colors. These were “Turbo” not “Sport” but they looked great so we hit “Buy Now” and waited patiently for our package of SIX to arrive! They came. Not so stoked. Bummer. But they make for a cool picture! I really wanted this package because I thought the green ones would be my new best friend. Maybe they will make a debut on my face in a future post, but not for everyday wear.

Stuff

2008-07-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

"The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns." Click the link above to see this pretty cool video. I love the graphics, and Annie Leonard captures your attention. It's pretty much "another way" to look at environmental concerns and goes beyond recycling because as this video shows recycling is just not enough! I've been trying to cut down on my own personal consumerism because there is more to life than just accumulating stuff and you can't take stuff with you when you die and stuff won't make you happy and now I know I am being environmentally conscious too!

Movie Weekend

2008-07-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted a pic of my baby nephew in a while. Here he is in his Bumbo. Just before this pic he was positioned to look outside the open sliding glass door that’s behind him and he couldn’t have been happier. He’s such a cool baby. I hope he’s always this relaxed and chill. Mike hasn’t had a chance to see him very often because he works so much but he saw him this weekend and was holding him and playing with him, it was the cutest thing ever! When we got home, I was like you liked him, and he was all, he’s cool!

So, I’m sure everyone and their mother saw Batman this weekend. I’m sure because I saw them all when I was there. After we went to my parent’s house for July birthdays (yes plural, three to be exact) my sister and niece along with my husband wanted to go see it. I didn’t want to go try to see it late at night because I’m lying that I’m 25, I’m really 65 and I have a bed time. We went home before meeting them at the movie theater and I looked at Fandango.com just to see if the movie was sold out or not and it was. At this point I’m thinking alright I get to stay home now and go to bed! Not so much. They all wanted to go to a theater on the other side of town that Fandango couldn’t give me info on. So I went along. We were trying to see the 10:15 show, but it was sold out until 11:15. Again, immediately I think yeah we get to go home! Again, not so much. When I’m tired I’m cranky so I was like “I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna!” I still lost. We waited around for an hour for the movie to start. Now, you may be asking me “hey Amanda, what did you think of the movie that you drove around town and went to so much effort to see?” Well, the answer, my friend, is I don’t know. Because I fell asleep. That’s how old I am. It seemed like a really GREAT movie for the first hour and forty-five minutes of the two and half-hour running time. I’m totally bummed that I don’t know what happened. But Heath Ledger did do an awesome job. I’ve already seen the quote “I can make this pencil disappear” on someone’s Twitter. If you didn’t wait in line for an hour to see this movie this weekend then you may not know what I’m talking about. If you did then you can go ahead and quote something from the last half of the movie and I’ll be the one left out with no clue what you’re talking about.

Finally San Fran

2008-07-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

AHHH!!! It’s been almost a month and I haven’t written about my recent trip to SF with the hub. Despite my prediction that we would bicker over silly things and spend most of our short time together trying to make up, I was surprisingly wrong! We got along beautifully the whole time. I’m pretty sure I know the reason why…I think Mikey has discovered that he just needs to do and say what I want and I’m perfectly happy and if I’m happy then he’s happy. Oh how my little bear has grown, I’m such a proud mama.

On to little tid bits of our time in the cold, overcast, city.

***

We get there and drive around our hotel and notice three Indian (my FAV) restaurants right away. So we throw our stuff in our hotel room (after a lengthy check in process see previous post) and run to go eat. As we are leaving the hotel there are several sedan drivers waiting around and Mike asks their opinion of the best one in the area. The guy says we HAVE to go to this one that’s further away than all the ones I can see from where we are standing and gives us directions. Well, gives Mike directions. Never trust Mike with directions. NEVER. So we are going along and suddenly find ourselves in the scariest part of any city I’ve ever been in. We are now surrounded by obvious prostitutes and people that heavily support the underground drug industry and fear that I will feel the sharp pain of a knife in my kidney any second. Mike is trying to look at a map and I scold him “look like you know what you’re doing and walk fast!!!”

***

Walking around the city we pass by some of the happiest and friendliest bums we’ve seen and the man shouts out to me “ooh lady, you got good taste. He’s WOOONDAFUL” we’ve been laughing ever since.

***

Scene: Mike and I in the elevator with a hotel employee. Mike: “Your name is Hakeem?” to the gentleman wearing a nametag engraved with “Hakeem.” Me: (in my head) OH MY GOSH, he did NOT just say that! You may wonder what is wrong with this. Anyone seen the movie “Coming to America”? The second the man exited the elevator I KNEW I was going to get Mike’s LOUD impression of the father in that movie going “HAKEEM!!!” you have to hear Mike do it to really get this story…

***

And some more pics...

Us in the car at the beginning of our road trip.

Our new car knows my name!!

The view from our hotel room.

Nordstrom, Forever 21, Anthropologie are just a few of the stores visible from our room!

We went to the aquarium out on Pier 39. This is me in a tunnel with millions of school fish all around. I love how they look like little lights behind me in the dark!

Mike in the tunnel. More schools. And a Starfish.

Mike getting interactive with the fish.

Me and the famous seals of Pier 39. This is the only thing I remember from my San Fran trip when I was a kid. It wasn't the season for them this time so there weren't very many.

Mike and I on the double decker bus tour. It was one of those things that you can hop on and off as much as you wanted for two days. That is, if the bus actually shows up. We waited around for 45 minutes for the first bus. And then at the end of the day I lost my ticket! Two pieces of advice: if you take a double decker bus in SF DON'T take the older run-down looking bus (we purchased our tickets without seeing the equipment) there are other newer, nicer looking buses if you wait outside Macy's in Union Square. Two: Don't keep your absolutely-necessary- to-ride-the-bus ticket in your back pocket when you are walking around all day. It will shimmy it's way out with every step you take. Fortunately for me, I was able to wave the bus map to the ticket checker as the long pushy line behind me distracted the ticket checker. Also note Mike's new shades. I've been hearing about these amazing $7 shades since we got home and how he should have bought more!

Me on a lion in China Town. To most people this is abnormal behavior. Whenever we are away from home and we see big lion sculptures, it reminds us of our big kitty, Murray.

Me on an anchor. Also possibly classified as abnormal behavior. I have no explanation for this one. I just thought it was cool. I asked Mike to pose with it and he stood next to it like a boring person, so I had to show him how it's done.

Dude, Where's Mike's Car?

2008-06-25T11:16:00.001-07:00

This is Mike's new car! This is a stock photo from Toyota's website, but it's the same thing. I bought it for him last Friday night before we headed off to San Fran for the weekend. We looked everywhere for this exact model, in this color, with the specs that we wanted and we finally got a call Friday night that it was coming in from another dealership for us. I rushed over there while Mike was working and snagged this baby up just in time for 394 miles on Saturday morning! We didn't end up getting home until about 11pm on Friday night because after I bought it I was about a half an hour from my home with two cars so I had to drive to Mike's dealership, wait till he got off, then we had to drive back to where my car was and then home! All before we had to get up super early on Saturday. I wasn't very happy because when Mike was a salesmen he would follow people to help them get their cars home and have someone pick him up and my salesmen was NOT willing to do this even though I asked him several times...and he wants me to put "Excellent" on his evaluation of him...yeah, we'll see about that buddy!

Quick SF story. So, going to SF was a last minute decision. We figured it was close, we've never been, we could do it cheap. I told Mike to find a hotel. So he calls me a few nights before we are set to leave and says "So, the 19th and the 20th right?" Me: "No, the 21st and the 22nd. Saturday and Sunday night." Mike: "Saturday and Sunday are the 19th and the 20th." Me: "No, not really." We eventually figured out that he was looking at JULY!!! End of story, right? Not so much when you're dealing with Mike B. We get to the hotel on SATURDAY, THE 21st and she says (surprise of all surprises): "I have you checking in on July 19th." Yes, he really did still go ahead and make our reservations for July. Oh, Mikey, how I love thee? Let me count the days...

Point A to Point B

2008-06-20T15:26:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Mike and I are embarking on our longest car trip ever for our 6-year wedding anniversary. I know we said no vacations this year, so we are taking a 3-day weekend road trip to San Francisco. That’s not vacation! Vacation is Cancun, Maui, Paris…somewhere that you have to fly and you stay longer than 3 days! My personal bet is that I will be pulling out my hair before we even hit the road…Mike will say something that he thinks is funny but will hurt my feelings and we’ll make up somewhere near San Luis Obispo. Mike can hardly handle the car ride to San Diego or Vegas, so this will be interesting! I haven’t been to the Frisco since I was a kid and Mike has never been and we have absolutely no plans. We barely secured a hotel a couple of days ago, we bought a GPS unit to reduce wasted hours on being lost, and we don’t have a clue what we will actually do there. We’ll probably just ask the concierge at the hotel which direction we should head and explore the city. We will really only be there one full day and two half days so there’s not a lot we can do in such a short amount on time.

Miracle Fruit

2008-06-11T09:24:00.000-07:00

I just read an article about this tiny fruit that tastes like a less flavorful cranberry but the after effects are that it re-wires your taste buds for about an hour making everything you eat taste good! The article says Tabasco tastes like doughnut glaze. And eating a lemon tastes as sweet as candy.

Here's a quote:

"The miracle fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, is native to West Africa and has been known to Westerners since the 18th century. The cause of the reaction is a protein called miraculin, which binds with the taste buds and acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids."

Here's the link:

Miracle Fruit

Sounds like a fun party to me! It would be so weird to try a jalapeno (something I HATE) and have it taste good!

BUG

2008-05-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

The other day my niece sent me a text message with the picture above and this message: “Downside to working in a plant nursery. I don’t know what I’m going to do with this thing!” This was the conversation that ensued:

Me: Ew!!! What is it? It looks like a scorpion. I would call the army.

Her: Haha. I don’t know what it is. It’s got wings and it keeps shakin that little tail on his butt. It LOOKS like something out of a steven king movie.

Me: Agreed. I think this might be the apocalypse.

Her: That would explain the weather. I’m waiting for the locusts.

Me: Maybe that’s what that thing is! Run!

Her: Hahaha. I’m keeping my eye on him. One quick movement and I quit.

Me: Sounds completely reasonable to me.

Her: I just went and got backup. Problem solved.

Her: BTW I had to physically remove a butterfly the other day.

Me: Butterflies are harmless, why not let it be?

Her: In my office? No way. Anyway I think they’re poisonous.

Me: No way butterflies aren’t poisonous.

Her: Have you ever been bitten by one? Then you don’t know!

Me: You’ve been bitten by a butterfly?!

Her: No. I probably wouldn’t be alive right now if I had.

Me: “No butterflies are so poisonous that they kill people or large animals.”

Her: You can’t make stuff like that up, Miss Animal Planet…this isn’t Wikipedia.

Me: Ha! I went to Children’s Butterfly Site!

Her: Yeah yeah. My mom seems to think that bug had rights and that he should’ve been named and gotten a desk and a computer. Psh.

Me: Not sure about all that but I’ve been known to cry while smashing spiders.

Her: Out of fear or pity?

Me: 80% pity. 20% fear. They only thing they really do to justify their dying is scare the shit out of me.

Her: For which they MUST die. You should get a gmail account. Then we could talk all the time!

Me: Your gmail account is too good to talk to my yahoo account?

It went on for about another 20 minutes from there on whose account is better.

Vegas is Calling

2008-05-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

OMG! The universe wants me to go to on vacation! I know we had pledged no vacations this year so that I can quit my job, but we are both starting to get the itch since summer is just around the corner. Earlier this week, just out of curiosity, we started looking at New York New York. We have never stayed there before but it looks cute. So the very next morning I received an email from New York New York offering me a special!

I was like it’s a sign, we must go now! But we didn’t go or make plans to go. THEN! I got an email from Cirque Du Soleil offering a 35% discount on some of their Vegas shows! I’ve never seen CDS offer discounts because they are so bomb and they don’t have to, but they did! And everyone knows the only reason I like Vegas is for the shows. Now, I just keep getting emails like everyday telling me that I should go. It’s either a higher power or very effective marketing. I’m not sure which.

Oprah is Vegan!

2008-05-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

YES! It’s true! Vegans are taking over the world, one world leader at a time! Okay, so the true story is that Oprah has committed to a 21-day “cleanse” that prohibits the consumption of caffeine, sugar, alcohol, gluten and animal products. This is pretty much my daily diet with the exception of an occasional alcoholic beverage (like once a month) and I don’t have a problem with gluten so I eat it but not in truckloads. I have a friend who is gluten intolerant, aka Celiac disease, and she will tell you for days how amazing she feels being off gluten.

Back to the O. She had guest Kathy Freston, author of Quantum Wellness on her show and they discussed conscious eating. And the O decided that she would commit to being a conscious eater. This is what O says about what conscious eating is: “How can you say you're trying to spiritually evolve, without even a thought about what happens to the animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony?” My thought on this is why is it cool to eat a pig or a cow but you wouldn’t dream of eating your cat or dog? Animals are animals, they all have eyes, brains, blood, bones, lungs, etc. And come to think of it humans all have those things too which is why we are ALL in the category of mammal. Animal rights is not the reason I made the switch 5 years ago; I did it because I had a horrible diet that consisted mostly of donuts, candy, and pizza. Restricting my diet considerably allowed my taste buds to start enjoying REAL food like beans, avocados, and all other plant based foods that I used to hate and actually found revolting. Now I LOVE them! So most people ask “what do you eat?” Here are two versions of the vegan food pyramid:

Way to go O! You can follow her blog on her website to hear her progress. I can’t wait to hear how she feels after 21 days!

Vegan Food Pyramid

Yoga

2008-05-22T16:03:00.001-07:00

You may or may not already know that I have subjected myself to the incredibly torturous event of taking a 12-week yoga teacher training program. You may ask yourself “why, why would you do that?” My answer originally would have been “because I love yoga and I want to share it with everyone I meet.” Now my answer looks a little bit more like this “because I hate myself, I hate free time, and I love physical, mental, and emotional anguish.” I’m currently working on one-third of the final. Yes, one-third, because it’s a three part final. For Yoga. The first part is a take home exam. The second part is an in class exam. And the third part is teaching one pose to the entire class. In preparation for part three, we are having practice poses that we are teaching to the entire class, then the TA criticizes, I mean critiques, us. Well, I’m not a very good yoga teacher and after 10 weeks of the program I had pretty much already figured it out but after the practice session I just know it for sure now. Which is awesome, because I know that I am not deluded, but rather, that which I think of myself, others also think! Bonus. It really wasn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be. I just got pissed off because I did a fairly good job, and I was the first to go, and I got my entire script out of the manual that they provided for us. The pose I had to instruct was “Cat/Cow” or “Cat’s Breath” Where you go back and forth between these two actions and you move along with your breath:
.

I started the class on an inhale, that’s how I usually start breathing and that’s also how the manual explained the pose “inhale this, exhale that, inhale do this, exhale to that” so that’s how I taught it. Then I said “curl your chin to your chest.” But obviously that’s wrong even though THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THE MANUAL SAID! And lastly, when they were done Cat/Cowing I had them rest on the floor. She thought I said “lift your forehead from the floor” I didn’t say LIFT I said REST. REST! Finally my friends in the front stood up for me and were like “she said rest, this I know.”

Oh, I'm getting GOOD!

2008-05-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here is my first full layout from my Photoshop class. Yes, I'm awesome. Get on this bandwagon. And my cats are so cute!

Too Cute!

2008-05-16T14:02:00.001-07:00

I'm Learning

2008-05-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a lifelong dream of mine to learn Photoshop. Okay, so maybe a two-year dream, but a dream nonetheless. So I finally decided to do something about it and signed up for an online learning class for the month of May. This course is geared towards digital scrapbooking which is one of the reasons why I wanted to learn Photoshop. Digital scrapbooking is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: scrapbooking digitally. It’s a step-by-step program that gets you familiar with Photoshop and the little tips and tricks for getting it to do what you want it to! The layout above is one of the projects I just completed. I love the picture of Dathan’s rubber ducky at bath time, so cute! I can’t wait for all the learning that’s about to come. BTW, I’m getting this fancy knowledge from the very knowledgeable Jessica Sprague.

My Sigg!

2008-05-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

I'm constantly getting complements on my super cool purple water bottle. Last night I was watching How I Met Your Mother (if you aren't watching this show, START!) and sitting right there in the middle of this scene was my water bottle! Here is a better pic:

It's a Sigg water bottle. Mike and I were going through hundreds and hundreds of bottles of water and hated the impact we were making on the environment as a result. We recycled them like maniacs but still we were just using way too many. We considering getting a water cooler and refilling water bottles, but any reusable water bottle I've ever tried had made the water taste like plastic. EW! So I finally found this little gem. It's made from aluminum, not plastic! And rumor has it that plastic may leach harmful chemicals. So now I have great tasting, good for me water! I also love Sigg because they donate to ThirstyForChange.com and StopGlobalWarming.org.

Now I want this one:

Mike has a solid black one...couldn't get him to go for a pretty design.
.
Visit: My Sigg

The Official Announcement

2008-05-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

I'm back!

2008-04-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

I was out all last week in Culver City with my sister and my new nephew. I didn’t post yesterday when I returned because I worked ALL day…ok, ok, I worked half the day and blog stalked the other half. I had to catch up on my favorite blogs; my computer would not work at my sister’s house!!! So I’ve been building this incredibly long list of blogs that I just can't get enough of, and I decided to give some love. Now my favorites can become your favorites too!

Melissa Jill - Kabloom - The Blog is Found - Heather Bailey - Millie Holloman - Lauren Clark - Eat Healthy Be Happy - Davina

And of course the person that none of this (my own blog) would have been possible without: Brittany Ruth

Back to the baby…I can’t tell you how many pictures we took of this little guy trying to get the perfect shots for his baby announcements. When I tried to take pictures of him while he was sleeping he would scrunch up his little face from the flash so he no longer looked peaceful and serene. And trying to get shots of his hands was out of the question! Every time we pulled them out of his swaddled up comfort zone, those things would just flail about. It was like trying to take a picture of a fly. Here are the winners:

I have a lady from Etsy working on the announcement and I’ll post it when it’s complete, I can’t wait!

Highway to the...

2008-04-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

DANGER ZONE!

My Mind is Elsewhere

2008-04-16T09:43:00.001-07:00

In order to have a life of no “real” job, Mike and I have agreed: NO VACATIONS THIS YEAR! This will be difficult because I love to go on vacation! We love to go to Vegas, the East Coast, Mexican and Hawaiian beach getaways, local destinations, and I recently went to Europe with my girlfriend. So I’ve decided that I will vacation in my mind and re-live all of the wonderful vacations we have been so fortunate to have already experienced. I see it fitting to start this series with our Maui vacation. We went last June to celebrate our five year wedding anniversary and it was the best trip of our lives! I have hundreds of photos from this trip; it’s so hard trying to pick my favorites.

Helicopter ride

Coconut Drinking

Lu'au

Rooster Feeding

Zipline Fun!

Gorgeous 7 Pools...I would go back just for this:

Welcome Dathan!

2008-04-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

Say hi to my newest nephew, Dathan Joseph Beeson, born April 13, 2008. 7lbs, 6oz. He's perfect! This pic is black and white because otherwise he's pretty red and splotchy!!! I'll post some live and in color pics once he adjusts to his new world a little bit.

Open Your Eyes

2008-04-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

Apparently with all the things I’ve been doing, I no longer have time to keep track of my personal belongings. Some of you may remember an earlier post describing the time I lost my purse at Ikea, and worse than losing it, I had no idea I had lost it until it was brought to my attention over the loudspeaker. Well this morning I went fishing in my reclaimed purse to not find my sunglasses. I don’t have a pair of Gucci or Prada glasses but I do have prescription sunglasses. For those not in the know, prescription sunglasses cost about as much as Gucci or Prada but you don’t have the name just the pricetag. It should also be noted that finding a pair of sunglasses that have prescription capabilities and look good and fit my face was about a month ordeal and took about three pairs of glasses made in order to settle on just the right pair (thank you Lenscrafters for your generous exchange program! And a special thank you to my husband who spent hours with me picking them out!). When I arrived at work this morning, I began backtracking all the places I went yesterday and trying to remember approximately the point where I remember having them and the point where I remember not having them. Good news: I found them after the second phone call to places visited. Bad news: they are 45 minutes away and I will not be back in that area until next Monday. Good news: I had plans on returning to that area in the near future!!! Adding to my goals: stop losing things!

Ode to Clif

2008-04-07T14:50:00.000-07:00

Bar that is. This post is being written purely out of delirium. I eat a Cool Mint Chocolate Clif Bar aka “The Natural Energy Bar” every single day. I have not had one today, and to make matters worse I did not have one Thursday or Friday of last week either. It’s an addiction. I do not eat sweets and my daily Clif Bar is the only sweet I allow myself and I do not have it. I hereby vow to never again be without my Clif Bar and I will never again forget my stash at home. I think I will need to write a letter to the makers of Clif Bar to ensure that they NEVER discontinue this flavor. Now that I see what life is like without it, I know that life isn't worth living without dear Clif. I also burnt my tongue yesterday.

Plank Wars

2008-04-04T10:32:00.001-07:00

I recently started exercising again after taking a few months off due to a slightly tweaked knee. I have discovered that my arms are not very strong. Not very strong at all. It is possible that I could have continued to work my upper body but we won’t get into that. So one evening instead of sitting and watching TV with Mike ALL night long, I decided to institute a new ritual I call Plank Wars. Plank is a pose in yoga that looks a little something like this:

So the premise of the “war” is that we both assume the pose and the first one to break is the loser. Sort of like an arm wrestling match but different. The first night that I instituted our new pastime, we both assumed our positions and after only a few seconds Mike was shaking and looked over at me and said “why aren’t you shaking?” He said it like shaking was the correct way to do the pose so I was clearly doing it wrong. I found this hilarious and had to come out of the pose to sufficiently laugh. So the moral of the story is that even though he lifts weights holding a position like this is a different use of the muscles (isometric versus concentric or eccentric) and lends itself to allowing me to either match his strength or surpass it (ok, we’ll need a few more war practices to reach the “surpass” category).

Email to Text

2008-04-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

I knew there was a way to email to a cell phone and I just found out how! I type on a keyboard MUCH faster than on a stupid keypad so now I can text Mike repeatedly throughout the day at a much faster rate! I’m sure he’ll love that…here’s the formula if you are interested. Keep in mind that you will need to know the network of the person you are trying to contact.

T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net

Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com

Cingular: phonenumber@cingularme.com

Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com

Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com

AT&T: phonenumber@txt.att.net

YELLOW!

2008-04-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

Spring is finally here and I can prove it! Yellow is the big color this Spring, you can see it in every fashion line. Yellow is the color of sunlight and fashion designers want us to feel like little rays of sunshine when we put on cute outfits like these:

Spring could not have come at a more perfect time. I am particularly joyous this Spring considering that I have a pretty severe case of self-diagnosed Seasonal Affective Disorder. It’s a real affliction. And I have it. I hate the Winter. I hate being cold. I hate that it gets dark early. I want to do nothing but go home and sit on the couch and watch TV. Well anyone who is alive right now will know that this Winter was extra long due to the fact that there was a writer’s strike in Hollywood; therefore, there was no TV. Fortunately, that is all behind us now and we can move on but it did make for a much, longer, colder, sadder Winter than was necessary.

Clothes and images: Club Monaco

April Fool's Day

2008-04-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

You are probably expecting a lively post on this day of fool’s but I am sorry to report that nothing exciting has happened today. Not a single joke was forwarded, not a single prank was pulled, and no gag was experienced. Perhaps this means that I am boring and not only that but all the people that I live with, work with, and regularly communicate with are boring as well. Maybe it’s because it’s expected. I can’t tell my husband on April 1st that I am pregnant because he would know it was a “fool.” Maybe I should plan a sneak attack on April 15th. Yes, I will make Tax Day the new day for fooling. Good thing I can’t get my husband to pay attention to my blog!

Sneezing

2008-03-31T10:23:00.000-07:00

Sneezing is your body's way of removing an irritation from your nose. I’m allergic to working. It’s true. EVERY time I come to the office I sneeze all day long. Living in a home with two indoor cats I never sneeze, but here all day long I sneeze. It’s to the point where my neighbors no longer care or take the time to wish “Bless you.” I’m here drowning in my own constant violent expulsion of saliva. Don’t fret, I have an ample supply of Purrell at my desk.

15 in 9

2008-03-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

15 in 9? What on earth could that possibly mean? Well, I’ll tell you. I have had 15 jobs in 9 years. I think this is proof positive that I am not cut out to work for someone else. I have had a wide array of jobs from skating rinks to movie theaters to smoothie shops (those were all high school) and then moved on to waitressing, rubber stamp manufacturing, insurance company, auto body shop, etc. I’m all over the board. This is not the all-inclusive list, just the highlights. I have never been at one job for more than 2 years but three have come close coming in at about 1 year 8 months each. Apparently at the 1 year 8 month mark I start feeling like a caged animal that needs to be free. That’s where I am right now. Only my cage is invisible (take a look at the “A New Life” post, my cube is completely OPEN). After I graduated college with a business degree I thought the world of employment would be opened up to me on a grand scale. I would work my way up through the ranks and become the youngest female CEO of XYZ Company by the time I was 35. I’m only 25 so I have some time but I can safely assume that I won’t be working my way up from Assistant to CEO in 10 years, not as this job anyhow. So, I’m going to work for myself! I will be the CEO of myself (and my husband and two cats)! I wish I had a picture of myself in my glasses to insert here so that I looked smart and sophisticated and ready to take on the world!

Buy This Dress

2008-03-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

I know I’m supposed to be organizing and not shopping. But is it still considered shopping if you don’t buy? I don’t think so. I think we call this “browsing.” I’m currently browsing the Wonderful World Wide Web and have come across this dress that I’m sure many of you will not understand why I can’t stop thinking about it, but I can’t, I love it.

I want it. Mike said no. We are saving money. Picture my hands as a scale, you know the kind they always have in logos for attorneys: buy this dress and keep my job to finance this and all future unnecessary purchases or don’t buy this dress and other extraneous goods for awhile in order to be able to have a life of freedom. No new dress for me.

If you would like to buy this dress: ErikaHendrix - http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9057132

The Great Desk Dilemma of 2008

2008-03-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

The first part of my organization plan was to find a desk. Two full days of searching have passed and no desk has been made or purchased. The first day was spent with my dad searching thrift stores and door outlets for an old door or old table or old wood to make into a tabletop. We found one possible possibility that would have required a lot of work so we decided not to pursue it further. The look I was going for was kind of like the coffee table in this Anthropologie ad:

The second day was spent with my husband, Mike, perusing Ikea. Going to Ikea where I live is an all day affair. The nearest one is about an hour away but we first had to drive 20 minutes in the opposite direction to borrow my dad’s pickup truck in case we found anything. We didn’t find anything. I was looking for this table:

It wasn’t there. But we did have a laugh when I heard “Amanda Bordonaro, please call the operator. Amanda Bordonaro, please call the operator” For a second, I thought it was my friend calling to be funny because she recently pulled a similar stunt when our friend went away to a Bed & Breakfast with her boyfriend. I called the operator and she said “Are you missing anything?” Turns out the bag that I was holding on my arm was NOT my purse! Ikea is a very large store, BTW, so finding the lost and found wasn’t the easiest task, but I found it and apparently a very nice Good Samaritan found my bag and didn’t steal anything. So an extra special thanks to the person who found a brown purse in the Burbank Ikea on March 26! I guess the person who turned it in was like “I don’t know how someone could have left this bag behind, it weighs a ton, you would think they would notice right away that it was gone!” I clearly had my mind on other things…

A New Life

2008-03-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

I’m finally putting my plan in to action to break free from the cube life. I may be a poor beggar for awhile but weighing the pros and cons I’m ready to take the plunge. I have a few things I need to do in order to launch my plan effectively and I also need just a few more paychecks before I can begin a life of leisure. Well, maybe not leisure per say but definitely a life of waking up when I want, doing what I want throughout the day, eating when I want and using restroom facilities that don’t resemble that of a cattle farm (this is my personal view of public restrooms lined up one next to the other with feet showing like little cow legs). That’s just Phase One of my plan. Phase Two is to have a masseuse come to my home every morning. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable goal; it’s important to have goals!

Maybe we should back track to Phase One. Phase One begins with organization which is a huge thing for me. I’ve always been known as somewhat of a tornado…it all began when I started to crawl, it was very obvious where I had been as I made sure to leave traces. Then it progressed to my sister’s doll collection. Apparently she would be very upset on a daily basis when she came home from school to discover I had once again invaded her cherished doll collection. And it’s never stopped. So next week is a week dedicated to getting my space ready for my new line of career paths.

My current office:

My future office:

I have a blog!!!

2008-02-11T15:06:00.000-08:00

It's true. I finally did it. I have a blog. An online journal. It was bound to happen eventually considering that I don't subscribe to the MySpace/Facebook lifestyle. It is only fitting that I find my own little piece of cyberspace to forever leave my mark. Stay tuned to the adventures that are about to unravel...