Life in the Midwest

Hello all. Here are a few snapshots of the current situation.

This is Derek, my boyfriend/roommate. We've been officially dating for one year as of yesterday.

We live in the top left 1/4 of this condo with his old college roommate, Tyler, who works for Chiquita.

And these are my students/loves.

Ok these photos are taking forever to load so theres my introductory post for now.

I miss you all!!!

Tbilisi!

So here are some pictures of when I went to Tbilisi a couple weeks ago. Tbilisi is the capital of Georgia and it's only a couple hours away from the northern border of Azerbaijan. It was a nice little getaway before I had to get back into the daily school grind. 

This is me overlooking the old part of the city.

This is Old Guy. It's a long story of how we came to agree on taking him with us to Tbilisi. We found him in my friend Ze's apartment closet. He's an easy conversation starter. This is the view of Tbilisi from the top of the hills overlooking it. 

These are a bunch of other PCVs from Azerbaijan that we bumped into that weekend. We're relaxing in some hot sulfur baths.

Outside of the Turkish baths. From left to right that's Eli, Myriam, Amy, Sean, me, and Ze who I went up with.

Just me and my buddy Charlie.

The food is so BOMB there. That's hagipoori on the left, this fried cheesy bread and a roasted potatoes and pork dish.

Here's me and Ze in front of the Saint George statue in the middle of Freedom Square. This is where the Rose Revolution took place in 2003.

Nightlife in Tbilisi. Lots of homemade wine. Lots of Russian vodka.

Here's Old Guy in our first class train cabin. Lush isn't it? 

Close Encounters with TSA

I flew North this past weekend to visit Jason & Lola, and when I was leaving on Monday I totally went through one of these new crazy ass full body scanners at San Jose Intl . I had trouble looking the TSA dude in the eyes... totally smirked at him. Have any of you gone through one of these things yet?

The only thing that went through my mind when they told me to spread my legs, put my hands above my head, and not to move for a few seconds was the picture I posted above. But I'm okay with being x-rayed as long as everyone else gets violated too (which they do), and no one is singled out.

P.S. Guess who I saw at the airport when I landed in Burbank? It's sooooo lame, but I SAW THE JETBLUE FLIGHT ATTENDANT THAT WENT BANANAS, QUIT, & SLID DOWN THE EMERGENCY EXIT SLIDE hahahahhahahhahahaha that was probably disappointing for you to read, but it made me giggle when I realized who it was.

I also wanted to bring Lola a bone in my suitcase, but I was concerned a narcotics K-9 might confuse the rawhide for drugs :-)

Bear or Dog?

Is say bear, but I might be a little biased.

Some of the stuff I did during summer

This was at a rooftop party.  Don't mind Hello Kitty.  She's not covering the dj's girlfriend or anything.

This was an outing at Drais in Hollywood.

A picture of my friend Sam and I at Hard...the line up is below.

Crystal Castles, Major Lazer, The Twelves, Erol Alkan were some of the highlights!  So sick.

My Dad turned 60 this year, and we went sailing to celebrate!  The other kids are my half siblings.

Standard rooftop in Downtown on a lazy, drunken Sunday.  Too much sun and alcohol is a sure fire way for me to pass out.  "I kept poking your nose to try to wake you up, but you wouldn't move.  I just looked like a creeper." -my friend Raj [not pictured]

With a dj named Classixx at Pacific Festival!

Would it really be that bad to just throw the papers up in the air and walk out the door?

Georgia!

I'm heading out to Georgia tonight on the night train! Going to eat as much pork as I can humanly fit into my little (not so little amymore actually) body and finish it off with as much wine that my liver can handle. Last blow out til school starts. Post pictures when I get back!

In the meanwhile, this is the song that's been stuck in my head since packing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FupAEUAxjSA&feature=related

Camping!

I went Camping this weekend! I had a lot of fun, ended up taking and absurdly long hike on accident (~6 mi) that took us to a part of the lake we couldn't swim in. Oh well :)

This cool little guy was in our campground. Don't worry, I didn't touch it.

Here's a few deer we saw on our hike. The locals say they don't see them very often anymore so I thought it was pretty cool.

This is me the first night jumping off of a rock. No, I don't know why, and yes, those are my flannel pajamas. I think they're cool. :)

Mmmm

MMM...Fentons ice cream 3 tier picks. i absolutely loved every last bite of it.

Mud Shack & Fred

(: I know how much you love Fred, so I thought I would post a picture of him hehe. He's not as nervous and scared as before... he even likes to be carried!!

Emma made the bowl on the bottom right. Andrew made the larger bowl on the top right. I made the heart-shaped mug on the bottom left. And we all made the plate on the top left. It was the last activity we all did before he moved to NY. I'll be bringing these all with me when I leave on 9/17 for NY!! I'll be in NY until 10/4 (: YAY!!

miss&love you!

I'm uber excited for this blog! I miss you all so much, I look forward to being able to keep updated with everbody!

Here are a few pics to reflect on my summer:

My newly one year old nephew Charlie, and myself at Cowboy Day 2010 @ the Autry Western Museum in Griffith Park.

Lola and I working on our tans (that was intended to be ridiculous) at this lovely beach 10 minutes north of Santa Cruz. Norcal > Socal.

In DTLA with my twin, after eating at Daikokuya. We went to get ramen because she brought some crazy NYC flu bug home with her when she came to visit last week.

Sunday afternoon

Hehe... so this is what I do on my exciting Sunday afternoons- wash my car, lol. My aunt (who now lives with us), my brother (aka Mr. Landig to Clarissabear), and myself washed four of our cars. What happened to public trans? ): That's me missing the bay. The outcome: four clean cars + one sick Myoli hahaha

I'll post cutesy pictures after I shower up and get to work. Look forward to pictures from Mud Shack, which is a Color Me Mine type mom and pop store. Andrew, his kid and I painted some kitchen goods for him to bring to New York.

lovelovelove you!!

lack of jobs to too many jobs

Hi, so here is what I have been up to in the bay. I just finished working on an Onstar commercial, have an offer to be an office PA for 2 years with an animation feature starting later this year/next year, an interview with a production company in sacramento and an offer to be a PA in Vancouver for 5 months for a Discovery Channel show. OMG!!! Finally work is coming my way...ugh, the only down side to working on production projects, it gets me fat.  There is unlimited craft services, which means all you can eat and drink, candy, coffee, soda, cookies, crackers, cheese...

Miss everyone, i'm glad we got this together, thanx marisa!

:-)