NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 5 "Psych! Birthday butting in."

It's far to early in the game to be doing this, buuuuuuuut I'm afraid I can only leave you with some pretty photos this evening. The follow-up to last night's "leadership is for dummies" post will have to be delayed until tomorrow.

I have received 2 birthday packages to date, and the most amazing one evar just came tonight. I spent many giddy minutes exulting over glorious gifts when I should have been blogging and accomplishing the other million items on my to-do list... NO REGRETS.

Thank you Mama B and Meagan - I feel so loved! Here are some birthday photos to tide the blog wave over until tomorrow.

I never get tired of this veiw from our apartment. This was the Friday before my birthday!

Green birthday dress.

Waterfalls for meee!

On top of the world.

The mountain gave me 1,000won for my birthday

I had a brilliantly wonderful and reviving birthday in the woods, with my man. Now to stuff my face with the Little Debbies from my mom and best friend! ;)

Carpe 29 x 365 diem.

BOOKS: Read during bathroom breaks at work!
SQUATS: 70, done
SPLITS: I neglected these yet again today. :'(  But tonight was Zumba class, so I don't feel that guilty. ^^

NaBloPoMo: Day 3 "Thank you!"

Alright, my foot is killing me (apparently day 2 of the wart-be-gone injections is when the pain REALLY kicks in), so to distract myself I'd like to take a minute to feel thankful for some very non-painful things in my life.

Last month was my 28th birthday (only slightly painful), and as a result I have a conga line of friends and family who showered me with love and gifts, that I'd like to thank. I'm a lucky, lucky girl. And I love you all.

Also... GUYZ JUST CHECK OUT ALL THIS SWAGGGGG!!:

Package of love and more love in gift form from my 'rents! 

Mini polaroids from my Instax Mini Polaroid camera! (cake below)

itty-bitty pretty fruit slices

Teeny tiny eensy weensy packages

Tiny letter! Tiny Totoro! Tiny spoons! Tiny lucky cat!

"Anne of Green Gables" puzzle! Another obsession/love

My H & M shopping spree jacket/blazer thingy

...and more! 

I have some legit Thank You cards to write, obviously. Thus I'm rationalizing a shorter, photo-laden post in order to WRITE said thank you's on paper and envelopes. If you were so thoughtful as to send me some gift (especially a tiny one), just be assured that a note from yours truly will be winging its way to you poste haste.

Also, yes. Yes, I do have a "small things" obsession. 

Lastly, I want to thank the adorable and brave Korean college student who tried to pick me up on the bus tonight. "Oh! You're so cute! Do you have time free now? What about sending a Kakao message?" was exactly the right thing to say to a freshly-turned-28-year-old. Thank you, and I really did like your glasses.

Carpe November!

P.s.

Abs: check!

Squats: 60, check!

Minimalism: we don't have anything broken beyond repair, so instead I threw away a gross pair of Adam's shoelaces, and did laundry. (Hey, not every day is groundbreaking.

Thankvember 11/11/11

Well, on the day that features my favorite number in triplicate, now seems a great moment to backtrack a couple of weeks.

Today, I'm thankful for my LIFE. I'm healthy, whole, happy. I have food and money and family and friends. I have travel opportunities and work options and optimism about the future. I have everything I need and more.

I made it to my 26th birthday on October 25th, and I'm so thankful for the beautiful kaleidoscope that is my life.

This might sound morbid, but during those special, crystallized moments when time stops for a couple of seconds and you realize exactly how amazing life really is - in those moments, I realize that I could die happy.

However, I have absolutely no intention of dying anytime soon, even though I did get all of the physical objects that I wanted for my birthday ^_^ :

Printed copy of the comic book Adam wrote for me!

Makes me tear up every time I read it

Little Anna and her magical visit to Narnia

Glorious pages

childhood dream fulfillment :)

Afterword Adam wrote to finish the print job

Dedication that makes me swoon

TOE SHOES!! (They are awesum.)

 A strawberry Napoleon and a Cafe Viennois *swoon* :

These were the objects I wanted (and got!) for my birthday. But I got MORE, too!:

Balloons!

Phone calls!

Fruit flowers!

Candy!

Books!

Letters!

I am the luckiest girl and the world. <3

Thank you to all my fam and friends for the love!

Happy Birthday delights

My husband, the most courageous of men, has just stepped boldly into his 28th year. And to commemorate such an event, I had no doubt as to what I needed to prepare for him: a scavenger hunt.  Adam and I have a long history of plaguing each other with scavenger hunts as gifts. His favorite (before this one, of course) was probably the 1st hunt I ever sent him on, at the end of which I told him yes to entering a relationship with him.


This year's hunt was immeasurably less stressful - both for him and for me - and here's how it went down:


1.

Breakfast in bed for the birthday boy: eggs over easy, biscuits, bacon, juice, coffee, avocado slices, tomatoes, and roses for the presentation. His 1st clue was waiting on the tray as well.

2.

Clue #1 was a gift certificate for a hot shave at Aidan Gill ("FOR MEN"). This is BEFORE. *scruffy*

This is AFTER. *smooth as a baby's behind* The shave was SO close and intense that it shaved the color off his shirt, too.

Aidan Gill is a fun & swank barber shop that has old-fashioned barber chairs and uses brushed-on shaving cream and lots of hot towels - plus each customer gets a free drink of their choice :)

3.

The barber gave Adam clue #2, which was a gift certificate to his local comic book hangout. We lazily perused the shelves until Adam's hands were full o' books, and while checking out, the cashier practically had to hit Adam upside the head with his next clue (it was displayed prominently next to the checkout area, but Adam didn't notice it until the guy slapped his receipt on top of it. :D)

4.

Clue #3 was a bag of oatmeal raisin cookies from La Madeleine, one of my (and Adam's) favorite restaurants. We munched down dessert & drinks and Adam puzzled out his next clue. This was the only one that actually demanded some deciphering, though this was more due to my lack of artistic skills than cleverness. (image of clue below)

Adam: "Um... Pizza..Mouse? Car-Ribs-Peas? Westbank!"

5.  He figured out that it was supposed to look like "Pie-Rats, Car-Rib-Bean, WestBank" and we thusly set off in the direction of AMC Westbank Palace Cinema to see the new pirate flick. It's nothing brilliant, but it was fun nonetheless.

6. On the way to the theatre, we had some time to kill, so I pointed Adam down a quick detour to show him a tree I'd discovered at Audubon Park.  Apparently it's called the Tree of Life, and a popular destination for an outdoor wedding.  IT IS MASSIVE.

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7. After enjoying our cinematic experience, I handed Adam the last clue and congratulated him on making it thus far.  The clue was a menu for a swank little restaurant on Magazine St. that we'd been eyeballing for a while, and we made it just in time for our 7pm reservations.  I'd forgotten to pack a change of clothes for Adam (d'oh!), but these people were not as picky as Commander's Palace (which specifies on the website and on phone reservations that suits and jackets are recommended, jeans are not allowed.), and all was well.


They invited us to the bar to wait for our table to be ready, and when we were led to the table, Adam's BIG FINAL  gift was pre-set at his seat on the table, waiting for him.


This was it:

In its case

Out of case! Voila - typewriter!

The typewriter above was just a stand-in - I wanted him to actually choose his own typewriter, but didn't want to just hand him a piece of paper with a photo of a typewriter on it. (lame) So I rented this one from a retro-antique shop for a week. :)  He still hasn't made his final choice, but he's leaning towards a small, sleek Hermes Rocket, like the one pictured here: http://www.bluemooncamera.com/photo_essay.php?id=14


When his machine arrives, you can rest assured there will be pictures of the happy, noisy writer to follow.

We topped his birthday off with some spirited research as to what our next jobs will entail - we're both eager for the next chapter of our lives and it was fun talking through the options. Asia, France and Ecuador are among the discussion topics...Stay tuned!

Birthday surprise #3

New best friend?

OK, wow.  Another totally unexpected BD gift. This one was from my fabulous boss, Reese. That's not a suitcase - The woman in the photo has a fold out massage bed in front of her, and she gave me an HOUR LONG MASSAGE.  Ohhhhhhhhh, yes. It was marvelous. I really really really love massages. Except when they tickle. But Melissa  (above) is ticklish herself, so she knew how to not tickle.

I wobbled my way thru the rest of the day, all loosey-goosey and doofy with bliss.

Getting older has never been so fun. :)

Birthday surprise #2

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!

Who is the coolest most awesome husband in the world? Yep, mine. 

Lousy but loved.

At this point, it's definitely official: Mrs. S has correctly labeled me as a lousy blogger. I have been about as lousy a blogger as one can be without actually having a single louse on my head. (Ew.)

This makes me feel very happy and very guilty. Kinda like how I felt after reading the melodramatic email I got from the ever-encouraging Sarah a while back :

"21 days of looking for an update on your blog.

21 days of sorrow.

21 days of pouting.

21 days of thinking of you."

HA!
She checks my blog every day!
She wants more!
She loves me!
I'm practically famous!

This is a lovely feeling for a bloggess. Even being called lousy is a semi-compliment, because it means someone is paying enough attention to your blog to notice how lousy you're being.

Hand-in-hand with this smug happiness though, is the guilt and sense of neglected responsibility. I mean, these people are counting on me - I can't just keep letting them down, day after day. I feel guilt. Remorse. Anxiety. Sadness.  Also, Sarah demands photos.

Obviously, I gotta get posting.

So! Here's what's been happening in Nawlins recently:
...
...
...
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No. There is too much - lemme sum up:

JULY-PRESENT = busy.



Here are some photos of the hostel:

Front door at night

The messy office

Kitchen

Outdoor patio with pool table

Bourbon House!

Our little loft

We've been super happy to have lots of friends and family come and visit us in the 3.5 months since we arrived (only 3?), but it also took us at least the first 2 months before we felt comfortable in our job. Things are running smoothly now, and a happy little rhythm has settled in, it seems.

Recently, I've been spending my time volunteering for the New Orleans Film Festival and also wracking my brain to try to imagine what surprise Adam has planned for my birthday.  He's been super tight-lipped about it, while being careful to mention it frequently and tease me to insanity over it.

Anna loves surprises. But Anna is also very very curious/nosy.  These two characteristics don't always mix well. So far, I have succeeded in resisting the temptation to hack into his gmail account and read through his messages looking for clues (I won't do it, baby, promise).

In the past, Adam has usually let more clues and hints drop than he has this time, which makes me REALLY CURIOUS. He even paid for "it" by CHECK, with our OLD bank account which we aren't currently using, so there would be no way for me to accidentally stumble across revelatory information. This is really sneaky of him, although he still had to ask me where those checks were.

A check, though? What on earth could this surprise be?
Lessons of some sort?
A (short) trip?
Scavenger hunt? - we haven't indulged in one of those in a while, but it doesn't exactly explain the check...
A pony?


I'll report back after the 25th. After which I will be 25, by the way - my "magical" BD, as my 2 red-headed cousins once explained to me.

Life is very exciting these days.

Almost as exciting as three alligators going for the same chunk of chicken.

Get dat meat!

P.s. Frankly, most of the fun of any of his surprises is the anticipation for me, so I'm already in love with my BD gift. Shoot, he could take me salsa dancing at the club down the road, and I'd have already gotten the main part of my gift. :)