Bear Down, beeyotch

Oh yeah. OH YEAH. This feels good.

Trojans LOST.

Bruins LOST.

Wildcats? Muthafuckinbeardownbeeyotch. WIN!

This is living the dream. Dear Jesus, please show us salvation on Saturday. Bear Down.

The picture above is Arizona Stadium, my home for two years. My dorm was built into the front, and the Hubble Telescope was built underneath the stadium!

Bear Down Arizona.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

I finally finished my Valentine's Day Present by my favorite author.

This was a challenge because there was a lot going on and I still have so many questions. I wasn't convinced I actually liked the book until the last 50 or 100 pages when we discover just how far Okada will go for his wife. And as with his other books I really enjoyed the war tales. I still have so many questions.

It's the kind of book that needs revisiting immediately. Even going back to the first sentence made a connection I would have missed. But as I said, the book was a challenge and I'm going to need a Murakami break. I'll just have to pick up the reading guide before all the details are forgotten.

In other news tonight, other than the fires things are pretty good. Had a GREAT night at Cam's. Knitting. Worshiping Keanu. And finally popping in a dvd of Speed. It still holds up 13 years later. Happy to know there are others who know the film as well as I do. It's STILL changing our lives. No really, if I hadn't seen it maybe I wouldn't be a Wildcat.

Also got caught up on The Office thanks to Netflix. There's something about that show that occupies a small, warm and fuzzy cubicle of my heart. I was sad to get to the end of the dvds. Didn't want the journey to end.

So now I have to decide my next adventure, that is, the next book and tv series.

Recommendations always welcome.

My official statement: I've had it!

This me, giving you the bird.

Not YOU silly. I love you.

But enough frustration has come my way that has certainly thrown me for a loop. I am certainly not myself and hope to return in a hot minute.

Didn't help that I had to beat a cold-hearted intruder out of my home. That's when I knew I needed an F'ing break.

Tomorrow we knit and I'll feel less insane.

That Concludes Fashion Week

I was very fortunate to attend a total of 4 (!) LA Fashion Week events through my part-time employer Going.com.



Friday was Gen Art at the Petersen Automotive Museum. It was so so so much fun and it was filled with really fun people.



I would have stayed all night but it rained and I had to haul it several blocks to my car.

Saturday was Eco Nouveau, which was an all day all night event, but I didn't stay very long because mushy peas were waiting for me at the Oleykoski house.





It was getting kind of lonely enjoying all that fashion and fun without any friends, so Monday Marie and I went to the Jordi Scott show at the Vanguard. It was a fun show and there were definitely a few things that we craved. When it was all over they cleared the runway to make room for a dance floor, and as usual, we had the entire dance floor to ourselves! It was a blast and we tried to deny our destiny but once the DJ played Journey we were sold.



I wrapped it up on Thursday at Karl Kani's show at Republic.



More pictures are on Going or here

I love Fashion. And that Concludes Fashion Week.

Alice + Corbin's Going Away Party

Alice left for NYC. Corbin left for Texas. At least New York is cool ;)



It was a full house and a perfect fall night for a party. We danced to Britney and drank drank drank.





They will be missed, but I know they'll be back.

More pictures here

The Road to Vegas

Sorry I'm so behind. Here goes.



I believe it was a Wednesday night. 'Round 11 pm. I wasn't home but I got a message. Something about shooting a pilot tomorrow... going to Vegas. I thought about it for a second. Eh? What the hell. ok.

I had very vague details but I didn't have to bring anything or do anything special and call time was just hours away. When you're excited about something and your thoughts keep you up it really sucks, but I think we all had the same kind of night.

There were four of us in the operation. Me as producer/driver, Nick as camera, Matt and Chris - the brains of the operation as well as stand in talent. The show is about two guys traveling via motorcycle and the adventures they have on the way to their destination. It's really about the journey and to inspire others to get out there.

We started at the Santa Monica pier and 30 seconds into our journey we lost Chris. It was a good start :)



We had a scenic drive down Sunset, made a stop at Hollywood and Highland, and began the journey up Angeles National Forest. I had never driven it before and I was proud of myself for not killing us :)



We lunched at the place at the top of the mountain, kept going and discovered the road was closed. That was a TV moment of brilliance, but not good for the clock. Fortunately we just had to backtrack 8 miles and found our way. But on the way down the mountain we had to worry about Chris running out of fuel since his tank only gets him 90 miles. But he made it out of there ok.

Once on the open stretch, I somehow beat the boys to Baker where we stopped at the Worlds Largest Thermometer. There Chris said the funniest things I ever heard which are maybe not appropriate for a blog but I shall tell you another day. It had to do with how sore they were on their bikes.

I don't even know... It was a long day and 14 hours later we finally got to Vegas.



We stayed on Fremont, dined on the sidewalk since it was late, drank a little and passed out. The next day we slept in, Nick and I wandered around for a little bit and bought silly souvenirs, and we had breakfast at the Peppermill.



It was work, it was an adventure, it was the road to Vegas!

Massimo Portraits

A little while back I took baby portraits for a high school friend's son. Maria and I were heavily involved in theatre in high school, and my last adventure with her was in Cancun for our senior trip. I can't say much more than that, but those of you around in those days saw the pictures.

Here's a few of my faves of the adorable Mr. Massimo. A couple hours of running around and shooting this little guy made my legs sore the next day!

Last Wedding of the Series

There were three highly anticipated weddings this summer, and Robin and Tom's was the last one of the series.

Since this was less than a week after Gill's wedding, we really wanted to throw back and make the most of it. Marie was up early with the girls getting hair and make up done, and I picked up Eamonn (Marie's hubby) around lunch time. We ventured to the far corner of the Valley and dined where my BFF works. We ate at the bar counter, and since Sarah is the bartender, we were privy to the drink rolodex. We ate and drank, Charles met up with us, and we drank some more.

Right about when we were feeling really good, it was time to head to the church. But not before stocking up on additional beverages at CVS. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined galavanting around the booze aisles with Charles and Eamonn. It was a riot.

The church service was short and lovely, and then it was time to head to the reception.


The ceremony took place on the campus where I grew up and went to school kindergarten through eighth grade.





The reception was held in a beautiful gardeny spot. It's a shame the super-rain came in that day, but the inclement weather set up made everything very cozy.

And a couple more of my favorites:

Did I mention with the Jager and Heineken, we also picked up some UCLA cups??



The playlist was pretty fantastic and there was a lot of dancing, drinking, lunges, drinking games, wiggles, and more drinking. And that was only the beginning of our adventure.

Gill + Brayton's Weeding

No Typos. Just Humor.



Friday night a few weeks ago me n the AZ crew arrived at the Queen Mary for Gillian and Brayton's wedding. It did not occur to me until we arrived at the great ship just how exciting a weekend on the Queen Mary could be.

We got there late and found Gillian's family and crew immediately. We checked in to our room, down a long, loooong hallway on the most haunted deck of the ship, and joined the ladies for a drink. Since everyone had to be up very early we didn't stay out late, but my team did plenty of wandering and investigative research. No ghost encounters though.


Saturday went by so fast. It was wonderful being a table with my friend from high school, my friends from college, and my friend from Silver Lake. It's so rare that I get that high of a percentage of my favorite people at one place at one time.

By the time everything was over, it was still early enough in the day so we napped. I really really really needed that nap. But when I woke I didn't feel so good. I guess that happens when you down wine and champagne like it's going out of style. But this was really not good.

After dinner Meredith started feeling very bad as well. As the evening progressed I felt worse. I wanted to die. Jeremy was awake at 3 am not feeling so good either. The three of us got food poisoning on the ship! It's strange that we haven't heard of anyone else getting sick since we were eating the same thing everyone else was, but I'm glad no one that we know of had to suffer as we did. We were a hot mess.

That pretty much shot Saturday night fun and Sunday, but we didn't have anything lined up anyway.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.








I'm freaked out how amazing my former roommate is!





Ok, there's a lot more so if you're looking to kill time at work - flickr

Visitors Welcome

I like visitors. I like visitors because that means someone has traveled to see me. And usually I like this visitor. I miss the visitor. And I really like being a tour guide.

Meredith and Jeremy came for an extended weekend visit. The trip revolved around Gill's wedding, and they came out to L.A. a couple days early to hang with me in my hood.

After picking them up from LAX, our first destination for these poor landlocked folks was the beach! This was their first trip to Venice.




And while on the westside, we went down to the Santa Monica Pier, the Promenade, and dined on the way home Swingers-style.

The next day we brunched at my most favorite brunchity spot, and then spent the bulk of the day at the Observatory.



We made a quick stop in front of Henson Studios and proceeded to dinner at an old Mexican restaurant in K-town. Then we made another Swingers stop at the Dresden, where a friend happened to be having a birthday party. We had a few "celebrity" sightings and "actual interaction."

The next day we cruised downtown and met Jay at Union Station. We lunched at a little place in Little Tokyo, made a stop at H&M, ran to catch the sunset at my sisters, and proceeded to our next wedding adventure.