In Memorium

If I had made a resolution to "be on time" or "stop being late" for 2011, I would have already failed. The lateness of my "year end" post here is only one example.

I can't say that I'm too sad to say good-bye to 2010. Yes, some very good things did happen this past year. Unfortunately, there have been some not-so-pleasant personal things and a really sad recurring theme. In the last twelve months, family, friends and I all lost dear pets. We were "lucky" in many of the cases in that our precious four-legged friends were old and lived very long, very full lives. While somewhat comforting, that fact does not diminish the losses. So, my year-end wrap up blog post is not meant to be depressing, but is a tribute to some of those we had to bid farewell to in 2010.

Jetta and Rex, both of my parents' German Shepherd Dogs passed away within about a month of each other. I took this photo when I last saw them six years ago. Jetta had just come to live with them at that time. Rex was with my family since he was puppy. They were good dogs and I was really sad not to see them when I visited at Thanksgiving. 

Bryce was a good friend of ours. We've known his dad since college and met Bryce, also known as "The Mooch," shortly after we moved to California 16 years ago. This sweet, adorable little fuzzball peed on our old tv, but I can't blame him. Prior to that, when we took Cosette to his place, she took all of his toys and was so bossy that he hid under the bed. I was embarrassed, but we did laugh about that for years to come.

Audrey the cat was the most recent to leave us. For several years, I looked in on and fed Miss Audrey while her parents went away for the holidays. We sort of had a love-hate relationship. I tried, I did, but I'm not really a cat person and Audrey knew that. I smelled like dogs and accused her of "wagging" her tail. I shot the above video while trying to make nice with her. It fully demonstrates my ignorance of the inner workings of a cat's mind. Overall, she was pretty tolerant of me and my camera (which she did not like). The old, wise feline definitely taught me some life lessons and will be greatly missed.

I know that I have some photos of Bailey, a friend's German Shepherd Dog, but can't find them. He was a beautiful, smart and gentle dog. He was quite a faithful companion.

I never knew Peter, Electra and Sophie as I did the above animals, but I care about these cats' owners and was sad for them having to experience their losses.

A day hasn't gone by in this past year with me thinking of our sweet Cosette, often with tears. I still miss my Puppy Girl so much and know I always will.

Growing Old is Mandatory; Growing Up is Optional...

Last weekend, I turned old. I'm okay with it, for the most part, and honestly don't feel much different than I did in my youth a mere week ago. So, the gray hairs and wrinkles suddenly seem far more prominent, but I think I was just in denial about all of that before.

I had quite a fun, yet somewhat low-key, Birthday Weekend, which was just about perfect. After acting my age and taking a couple of naps on the actual date, I blew out my left ear at a rock 'n roll concert. Older, yes. Wiser? Obviously not. But did I have a blast? Oh yeah and I'd do it again! Few things thrill me as much as seeing favorite bands and musicians live.

Jody Porter (Fountains of Wayne)

The weekend continued with a day of seeing several good friends. I hung out with some at a friend's toddler's birthday party and others who joined me for a nice dinner. It was great to catch up and laugh---even at my own expense when my dinner turned into a roast for a bit.

Piglet at the L.A. County Fair

Everything wrapped up with a trip out to the closing day of the L.A. County Fair, an annual favorite. I had 3 objectives, which were 1) Eat chocolate covered bacon, 2) See baby farm animals, and 3) Enjoy OK Go in concert. All were achieved and I was happy. Old, but happy.

OK Go performing "What To Do?" on handbells. 

Photo shot off back of screen from my vantage point backstage.  

(Here's a video of this from a different show, in case you're curious. It's unique and worth checking out. This was where I first saw them perform this at USC in November 2009)

Eight Nights A Week

No, this isn't an early Hannukah post...

A lot of our friends always say things like, "You guys do SO much." I often downplay it and insist that sometimes we do sit at home and drool in front of the tv, but come to think of it, that is more the exception. This past week leaves me defenseless as we did something every single night.*

Monday: Neil Finn @ Largo, who was joined by his son on the drums and Largo's favorite son, Jon Brion, on all sorts of instruments. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that the show was amazing.

Tuesday: As part of the Downtown Film Festival-Los Angeles, E and several members of the L.A. 3D Club , put on a special screening of independent 3-D short films at the Downtown Independent, a really cool, fairly new film and event center. We had a great turnout and a reception on the roof. (I had to go back to work from 11:30pm to 1:30am).

View from roof of Downtown Independent

Wednesday: VisionFest is the annual Filmmakers Alliance (FA) event which gives an award to a prominent figure in the world of independent film (this year's recipient was producer Ted Hope), a presentation of short films, followed by a party with food, booze, and mingling. During the festivities, E ran a video theater to show other shorts by various FA members.

Thursday: Of course we attended the 3-D Club's annual officer installation and awards banquet. Not only are we members, but E is the VP and usually the projectionist. One of our members was quite boisterous this year, making it a unique occasion, but that's neither here nor there. The important thing of it all is that I not only got my participation ribbon for entering each , but I also got a 3rd place medal for the newbie group!

Friday: It was Avatar Day and by the time we remembered to request tickets, the only place left in the L.A. area to go was Long Beach. That was fine since some friends who are also into 3-D live there and joined us. We made the trip worth our while and had some Peruvian food with them after the sneak preview. We stopped at Scoops once back in L.A. & I got the last of the Brown Bread for the day! P.S. Avatar looks pretty effin' cool.

Saturday: After a long, exhausting day at work, we went to closing night of the DFFLA. We got a very rare glimpse at a dated, but fascinating, documentary called The Jackson 5 in Africa. The footage from 1974 had only screened once before in New York and it's unknown when or if it will ever be seen again. Unfortunately, the after-party was a bust, but we ended up going to Wurstküche, an exotic sausage restaurant in the Arts District. We'd heard wonderful things about the place and they were all true!

Sunday: After sleeping in a little, we decided to drive down to Laguna Beach to catch the soon-closing Sawdust Art Festival. We strolled around the art galleries along the ocean first and then took in the arts and crafts. There was also a lot of candy, but I don't want to talk about that.

Laguna Beach, my favorite place in the O.C.

Monday: Now we're up to last night. We met up with an old friend from college, who will soon be moving back to L.A., and a couple of his friends. It was a good time and even though some business-type stuff was discussed, the hours flew by as we indulged in good food and conversation.

*You may have heard me complain about being broke and that hasn't changed. We're very fortunate in that a lot of these fun things we do often cost very little to nothing, for a variety of reasons. We did pay full price for the sausage, though, and it was worth it.

I'm in a comic store lookin' for some mistakenly priced comic I could make a fortune on & in walks the Fantastic Four. I say...that last issue is cool

I'm still trying to process what was the last five days of my life. I don't know if it's that I'm getting almost too-old-for-this-shit or that I was coming off of being really, really sick, but during this year's San Diego Comic-Con I was in some sort of daze. I'm not saying it was bad, I'm just so exhausted. I wanted to jot down some highlights before I can't remember any of it!

The Table: For the 4th year, Tired Girl Collective had a table in Small Press. For the 2nd time ever, we had a 4th Tired Girl, who happened to be a boy. For the 1st time ever, we had an honorary 5th Tired Girl who didn't sell any of her own merchandise, but was a great help to us (and fun to hang out with!) Every year, we've been lucky with neighbors on at least one side (and not so lucky....aw, never mind). Last year, both neighbors were excellent. This year we were on an end, so only had one chance and it worked out really well. I loved listening to Canadian accents all weekend!

The Friends: A huge aspect of Comic-Con for most people I know is getting to see friends. It's a little sad to say, but I see some of my L.A.-based friends more during the days of the convention than in the rest of the year before the next one. And then, of course, there are the out of town buddies, who make it a really extra special time.

The Panels: Thanks to some extra help (see The Table, above), I got to sneak away to a few more panels than I usually do. High points included the first-ever studio previews of upcoming in 3-D, including Q&A sessions with Robert Zemekis, Tim Burton, Joe Dante, and others, Caprica/Battlestar Galactica, Big Bang Theory, Chuck (complete with a performance by Jeffster!!!), Family Guy, and a cool TV Guide Sci-Fi hot list panel.

The Photos: Looking through the photos I took, I'm finding they are mostly of the panels and actually quite boring unless you are into those particular shows. It will be a while before they get uploaded anyway, as I'm still working on those from Maker Faire (which was in May!) and others between then and now. I'll make sure I link to friends' sets of the cool costumes, etc.

The Scavenger Hunt: One of the most fun things E and I did was a nighttime event to promote the upcoming Tron sequel, which had us running around the Gaslamp District with black lights and ending up in a replica of Flynn's arcade. Here's a great recap of the event.

The Celebrities: Comic-Con and celebrities go hand-in-hand. I'm generally not too star-struck, but was more amused by some of the folks who strolled, or were whisked by security, by our table. It seemed like more than in the past, which probably has to do with being located right by the back door. Adam West, Ron Jeremy, Richard Dreyfus, and Ray Bradbury passed through. In another part of the hall, I saw John Landis taking Matt Groening's photo. We saw Tania Raymonde (Alex on Lost) in an ice cream shop. Oh, and we saw Chuck Lorre and a few of the Big Bang Theory cast members in our hotel lobby (see below).

The Stalker: Okay, I just said I don't get star-struck. It's somewhat true, but I do tend to get really nervous, and sometimes just plain ridiculous, if I decide to approach someone and talk to them. Let's just say I *may* or *may not* have sort of stalked one of the people in the photo below:

A few of the folks above might have been in one of the bars in my hotel and I just possibly (with some prodding) may have approached and babbled. Oh, and then there's the part where a mutual friend called _____ and was told, "I'm hanging out at the bar with Jodi," on my prompting. I.am.a.dork.

I'll post something once I have photos up, hopefully no longer than two weeks from now. For now, I will sleep and dream of superheroes, standing in really long lines, Adam Baldwin, Hello Kitty Stormtroppers, giant hamsters, half-naked Pikachu, vintage 80's video games, and onions.

San Diego! Here We Come!

Believe it or not, it is that time of year again...San Diego Comic-Con. I'm still busy getting stuff ready, between hacking up my lungs (a different story), and hope to have lots of goodies by Wednesday when I head down for set-up and Preview Night. All the cool kids will be at Blogger Prom that night, but hey, I was never accused of being cool. I'll be hangin' with the dorks, nerds, geeks, and dweebs. And loving it.

You can check out the Tired Girl Collective site for specifics on our location, etc. We'll be joined by our buddy Nathan Hamill, who will be selling his newly released vinyl toy, Boris. Of course there will be lots of other cool people I can vouch for that you should also check out including JustJenn and Paul Horn, as well as many others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

From the vault. Frank the Pug and Jodi
San Diego Comic-Con 2002

All I've got is a photograph, but it's not enough...

I've been organizing in our office and finding a lot of "treasures" that have made me laugh, cry, and smile. Magazine articles, programs from funerals, autographs from favorite bands are among the few things I've come across. A lot of the items, especially those from college, make me feel my age, but it's not a bad thing. I was amused by this photo from August of 1995:

The 12 of us in the photo, along with the person who took it, were gathered for a joint wedding shower for two of the women. This snapshot captured a group of amazing women and I feel so fortunate to have known all of them. At this moment, a little over 13 years ago, we were all co-workers.

Some random facts about those of us seen, and not seen, in the photo:

• 5 of us still work together. Yes, at the same company.
  
• 4 of us do not have any children (yet we all still work with kids).
  
• 3 of us (+ the photographer) attended the out-of-state wedding of another in the picture ~11-12 years ago (and had a blast!)
  
• 2 of the women are mothers of twins.
• 1 person died 5 and a half years ago.

Lots of memories, along with some harsh reminders about the unfairness and brevity of life. I met up with the dear friend of mine who took this old picture for coffee this afternoon. It was awesome to catch up with her and her sister, who I'm also close to. We won't wait so long next time.

I suppose this post is a reminder to myself to keep in touch and nurture friendships. People's lives changes, they move on and away, so it's often not easy. Sometimes all you have left is a photo and it's just not enough.

Lifelong Learning('You Don't Have To Be A Man-Ho')

I am a student of life. I love to learn new things. With that in mind and in an attempt to catch up on this very neglected blog, I will share some new knowledge I have obtained over the past few weeks months.

(I originally intended to finish & post this over a month ago).

I learned:

• Waiting until the last minute to prepare things for Comic-Con not only costs me more money, but causes my stress to multiply to almost inexplicable levels. I really hope this is a lesson that sticks so I don't get myself into a frenzied mess again.
• Darlene, Paul, and Bully The Little Stuffed Bull are all just as nice in person as I thought they would be. It's so much fun to meet internet friends in person! A fun side note is that both Darlene and Bully went home with hamster friends I'd made.
  
• If the new Flight of the Conchords songs I've heard them perform in the recent live shows I've attended are any indication, we are in for some funny episodes of the new season of their tv show. I'll just say one thing-Jemaine=prostitute.
• Baby showers these days are fancy. Like wedding reception fancy. I survived going to two in one weekend recently and was really impressed by the posh table settings, fancy stemware, catered food, 5,000 homemade deserts, really cool favors (though I still love pink and white Jordan almonds). A-MAZING.
• Apparently, you can get real live Pikachus in Japan. Um yeah. I don't think these really exist, but I would still love to have one!
  
• I care far more about politics than the Olympic games. It doesn't mean I'm anti-American. But you can call me old and boring. I can handle it. I can also come up with a way to make fun of you too.
• Some people are as crazy in love with their pet pythons as I am with my hamster. So crazy in fact that I'd mistake them for buying an extra cute, extra expensive hammy as a pet. But no, when I naively pointed out how cute the rodent was, the guy purchasing it coldly informed me that he'd be feeding it to his massive reptile.
• In attempt to stay cool while hanging out in the yard this summer, Little Guy took to lying around in a hole under an outdoor table. I had no idea he was doing this until recently. For my "slow" dog, he's being pretty smart.
  

Little Guy, lying in a hole.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto. Domo...Domo...

The Cupcake Fairy paid me a visit! It wasn't a complete surprise since earlier in the day, there were text messages and even a phone call with somewhat of a promise of sweet treats being delivered. It seemed the timing would work out so that when we got home from seeing John Williams conduct the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl there would be some delicious cupcakes on my porch. I mentioned this out loud several times.

We returned home after enjoying the show, which was complete with plenty of light sabers in the audience during all Star Wars themes. I was putting the seat cushions and the cooler away and getting ready to feed the dogs. E came into the kitchen and said, "I didn't see any cupcakes outside."

Suddenly, I remembered. CUPCAKES! I'd briefly forgotten and said, "Oh! Maybe we missed them." I left the cooler on the floor and headed to the front door, hoping I'd overlooked a yummy package. As I opened the door--poof!--there she was! The Cupcake Fairy herself had just pulled into my driveway! I squealed and yelled back to E, "She's here!" This made me laugh because the timing was perfect. (It was also strange that she was up--and practically in THE VALLEY--at 11:30 pm).

I consumed with glee one chocolate/peppermint cupcake that was decorated with fondant to look like Domo-kun, who I just adore. I never realized Styx liked him so much too. ;-)

Thank you very much, Cupcake Fairy!!! (Much better photo here).

Jack Sparrow: Close your eyes and pretend it's all just a bad dream. That's how I get by.

The weekend started out just fine. I joined E and a friend for lunch. It was fun to catch up after the holidays while laughing and reminiscing about the 80s music playing in the restaurant. After going our separate ways for some shopping, E and I met up at home to get dressed up and head over to the Magic Castle to see our friend Lincoln, a very talented magician.

I got to partake in the yummy food and laughter that is guaranteed at party hosted by Jenn. Fellow blogger buddy Nanette and I have both answered the question, "So, how to you know Jenn?" asked by various friends and family members of hers several times now. It's starting to feel a little less weird to say, "Our blogs." I think everyone realizes we aren't crazy and that you can actually make some good friends through the internet.

Later that afternoon, things started going downhill and I started feeling quite ill. I took a long nap and then ventured out for a couple of art shows. We wrapped up the night by meeting up with some very drunk friends celebrating a birthday at a bowling alley. We watched them finish their game and had a very late dinner. It nearly did me in.

I felt even worse today and spent the majority of the day in bed and sleeping. It seems to have helped some. I don't feel great, but I feel a little bit better. I'd already taken a vacation day for tomorrow, so at least I can sleep in some on Monday too if I need to.