Four

Yesterday Josh and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary! We slept in, grabbed some donuts and went to the duck pond to enjoy them. Then we went to the zoo, which we thoroughly explored. We had ice cream cones, and enjoyed the beautiful day. For dinner we went to Texas de Brazil, which we had a gift card for. It's expensive, so this special day seemed like the perfect occasion to use it up. Salad bar, 6 kinds of meat, beer, and chocolate cake put me into a coma, but a delicious one! I go to bed every night and wake up everyday so glad to be married to such an awesome dude!

Welcome to the ConeZone

Here's the thing people, and if you're friends with me in "real life", on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter you already know this- I LOVE Conan O'Brien. And I really mean it. I think the man has more talent in his pompadour than most people have in their entire body. That's how it stays so fluffy and naturally bounces back into place. And, as I think a lot of people have discovered through this whole NBC brouhaha, he is a really genuine guy. I've seen a lot of comments in the recent weeks on many of the blogs I frequent about how inspiring his last Tonight Show speech was, and I couldn't agree more. And the recent turn of events for Mr. O'Brien has made me realize that I just can't go that long without some Conan in my life. So, I've decided that around here on Fridays it will be time to enter the ConeZone. Every Friday I hope to share a video, picture or other Coney-related item to help get us (okay, mostly me) through these dark days until Conan's next project can bring us out of this winter of discontent.

Clearly I had some thinking to do. What clip would best serve as the inaugural post for this new venture? The speech from The Tonight Show might be an obvious choice, but is in fact so obvious, and already so ubiquitous on the blog circuit that it was easy to eliminate it from the running. Then, I of course have some personal favorites. Clips that I can watch over, and over, and over again, then go to sleep, rerun in my dreams, wake up and watch again. But this isn't all about me (just this one time though, from here on out I'll be selfish), it's about sharing a little bit of why I think this guy is the cat's meow, a hilarious inspiration to us all. And so, I made a decision and I truly hope that if you decide to watch these clips they will just reinforce for you what you got a glimpse of last week- he is a man who works hard and is kind. Oh, and is very, very funny. ConeZone #1: Conan's speech to the Harvard Class of 2000, in two parts. Enjoy.

My Woody Allen Experience

First off, I just have to say that I have the best husband in the world. He was willing to take off work and drum lessons for me, despite having missed a lot of both lately with the holidays. He drove the three hours to Austin and back, despite having had to be and perform in Houston on Saturday and Dallas Sunday. All just to make one of my biggest dreams come true. That is the definition of love right there, and I know it.

So, one sentimental ball of mush out of the way and on to another. I spent almost two hours less than 30 feet from Woody Allen. It was one of the greatest things that I have ever experienced. When we sat down in our seats I had a moment to be elated at how good they were before I started to nearly hyperventilate with excitement at what I was about to witness. We were really as close as one could hope to get when they bought last minute tickets, and I had a completely unobstructed direct view to Woody. Clearly, he was what I was there to see, but that whole band is amazing. It was so fascinating to watch a smaller band play together, since my only other experience watching jazz performers has been the much bigger UNT band. Aside from the phenomenal music, I took so much pleasure in being able to watch Woody be Woody. I've watched so many interviews of him over the years that a lot of his little mannerisms are known to me. So when he took his sweater off about two songs in and brushed his hair back with his hand, when he slid his finger between his glasses and face to rub his left eye, when he stretched his arms down his legs and rubbed his knees- it was just him being himself right in front of my eyes. And more than that, I got to see him doing something he truly loves to do, is passionate about doing. Like I said, it was a dream come true.

They played for a little over an hour, and then did two encores which Woody claimed was a record for them, but I find that hard to believe. And they were long encores as well, adding almost 45 minutes on to the show. It's hard for me to know all the songs they played, I am not as familiar with my New Orleans jazz catalog enough to always easily recognize them- especially with a music as variable as jazz can be. I'm still trying to figure more out, but I know they played:

Ice Cream
Tie Me to Your Apron Strings Again
St. Louis Blues
Listen to the Mockingbird
Down by the Riverside
All the Whores Like the Way I Ride
My Old Kentucky Home
Home Sweet Home
Easter Parade
Sweet Georgia Brown

Again, just amazing to me that I've actually done this. It has been a dream for so long that I hardly know what to do with myself now that it's actually come true. Where does one go from here? To be honest, one still wants to go to NYC and see him at the Carlyle, to do it all over again. :)



































Crappy iPhone pics from the evening.

I Heart Fall

And I heart this boy too.

*Please note this photo was about 10 pounds ago. Cheeks not quite that chubby anymore. :)

Celebrating

Tonight after work we'll be heading to the rehearsal for Spencer & Deb's wedding. I am super excited for them. Spencer is one of our bestest, closest, longest friends and Deb is a very sweet woman who he loves very much. I'm so proud of Spencer for getting to this point, after some rougher times in the past. Spencer was best man at our wedding, and Josh will be his groomsman. They're also getting married at the YWCA Building, like us, so I've been looking at our wedding pictures and reminiscing. Yay for Spencer & Deb and for love!

Flowers!

I just got a delightful delivery from Josh! They're even more cheerful in person. Thanks awesome hubby. I heart you!

Manhattan

Thanks to the book on Woody Allen's work that I just finished I am hankering to go back to NYC more than ever. I decided to watch Manhattan Saturday night while the boys worked on music. Manhattan is truly one of my favorite films and always holds up for me under repeated viewing. I couldn't help but laugh out loud, and as always the intro left me breathless. It is probably one of my most favorite things captured on film, just beautiful. I always had "Rhapsody In Blue" running through my head as we explored the streets of Manhattan ourselves.

Ten Years

Ten years ago today Josh asked me, ever so sweetly, to be his girlfriend. I of course said yes and we've been together ever since. Some people think it's silly to celebrate your dating anniversary after you're married, but to them I say Pah! We have an anniversary to celebrate every 6 months this way. I looked through my box of notes and letters from Josh this morning and thought I would like to share one. I'm so happy that I get to spend the next 10 x infinity years with him.

Once, in a beautiful garden, there was a sparse patch of fresh, green grass, far away from all the other plants. In the center of this grass grew the most beautiful rose in the world! This rose's name was Jessica.

Jessica was a lonely rose. Because she was a wild flower, she had been planted from a wild seed dropped by a passing bird. Her home was lonely and isolated from the other flowers, so she never had any friends, besides the grass, but what she really longed for was a flower to love.

One day Jessica saw a bird flying over head when all of a sudden a seed fell from the sky and laid down in the soft lush grasses. Jessica was so happy that she might actually get to have a friend! She told the grasses to gobble it into the soil and give it nutrients. Being silly invalid grasses, they did as they were told.

Soon a handsome male rose grew from the seed. His name was Joshua. Joshua and Jessica fell in love. They married, mixed seeds, and grew a beautiful patch of different color roses! And the bird who dropped both their seeds was God! And he brought Josh and Jessica together because they were meant for each other!

Happy Valentine's Day

I love this boy.
I love that he makes me laugh.
I love that he makes me smile.
I love that he makes me cheese toast for breakfast when I ask.
I love that he does funny dances.
I love that he inserts my nickname into every single song we hear.
I love that he loves me too.

Our First Anniversary

Yesterday was our first anniversary! We've been having lots of fun just spending some quality time together. Tonight we're going to our friends Rob & LeAnn's house to celebrate our joint anniversaries, since theirs is October 1st. I walked down the aisle to this Paul McCartney song, "Calico Skies".