The ghosts of Halloween past

I know that there are people out there, some of them friends of mine, who think that Halloween is kind of dumb and that it's just an excuse for girls to dress up like sluts. (PS: thanks for the reminder, Evie) I totally do that. Sorry dear friends, but we'll likely disagree on some of the things you do for Christmas, so here goes.
2000: Sexy Medusa. Before I figured out that a wig would be easier. It took two hours to get the hair up and an hour to get it down.
2001: Sexy Smurfette.
2002: Sexy Kitty.
2003: Sexy Devil (John was Hank from TurboNegro)
2004: Sexy Skeleton (with my Chrises)
2005: Sexy? I don't know, I must have thrown this together at the last minute (also shown here with Chris)
2006: Superhero party: Thong Girl and Captain Hate!
2007: Sexy space girl. John went as a urinal and had people sign his walls (awesome)
2008: Firecrotch Twins.
2009: ?? I don't know. The plan was to go as Eve, but we'll be outside, so I'll have to adjust for the weather... Sexy flannel?

THRILLER!

a Tease and Tone Tradition:

Wordless Wednesday: Scary Halloween Edition

Halloween '03

One of our best, if I do say so myself....

Unexpected.

Now that life is back to normal, John and I have more than once talked about everything we've gone through this year and how grateful and lucky we are to have survived it. Survived it in general, and as a couple. His surgery was a big deal. The recovery was a big deal. The emotions that went with it were a big deal. The depression that went with it was a big deal. I was told when it all started to make sure that I still took care of myself as we were going through it all and I feel like I did. I took time to go get coffee and jog, I went home at night and ate real food and slept in my own bed and took care of my pets. And it worked. John's better and back to work, our relationship is as strong as ever, and aside from wanting to get a job again, I feel good about where everything has landed.

I knew it was important for me to work out during the long days at the hospital and made a point to jog around Laurelhurst Park on a regular basis. It was heavy jogging, with my head and heart still back at the hospital and even though I was surrounded by beauty, the weight of our situation was dragging behind me. I don't feel bad about it, and don't expect anyone else could have done better. One day as I made my way to the park, my ipod randomly hit three different songs from our wedding, which was interesting and kind of weird. I suppose it softened me up and when I got to the park and this song came on, I literally crumpled into a big heap in the trail and sat there and cried. and cried. for a long time. I know that song isn't about what we were going through, but it was enough of a trigger and now that's what it means for me. That was a hard day during a hard time and I feel it every time I hear the song. It kind of makes me love the song more though, because it reminds me of that time. For as strong as I was, and had to be, that one day in the park I was a puddle of tears, weak and scared and confused. and I usually cry when I hear the song, but I own it and feel proud that we made it.

This morning was the first day of a Boot Camp that I am taking with The Jens and it's held next to Laurelhurst Park. When I got there, I mentioned that I hadn't been there since JJ was in the hospital and didn't give it another thought. After our class inside, we decided to grab a mile jog around the park. As I was going along, all of a sudden everything was familiar to the time at the hospital. Every path and tree was the same as it was then and I guess I didn't realize that I'd left so much of my heart there. I cried all the way through my jog, unable to stop the tears (PS: Sorry Jen). I had no idea that it was still in there and I'm glad that it came out. It was pouring rain, so I'm hoping that helped to wash it away. For Boot Camp, we're supposed to have goals and my first one just became to make it around that park feeling strong and proud, remembering my time there, and not reliving it.

Seriously.....

John and I always joke about the inherent creepiness in Conway Twitty songs.. Today on the country music channel on tv, I was treated to this. Every line is just wrong. which makes it hilarious.

It's a dancey week here in blog town!

I got to sub Evie's class this week (but sorry you're sick, Eves :)) and I always look forward to Burly Q class. It's different than my Tease and Tone class, but full of equally wonderful girls. The routines can be a little more character-y than my Tease and Tone fare. I grew up taking dance from a man who was on Broadway back in the day and taught us many character pieces. I find it ironic that my choreography for Burly Q totally reminds me of him :)

The latest from the world of Tease and Tone...

Wordless Wednesday

Egg-celent

In appreciation of life being back to normal, we are maximizing our good times on the weekends. Also, we've been on a stupid diet. stupid, because it doesn't have near enough ice cream in it. JJ has to drop some weight to keep his doctors happy and well, I seem to always want to lose 5 pounds, even though I never do. What that means is that during the week, our house is full of baked chicken and veggies. and water. boo. By the time the weekend hits, we are ready for some sinful food! We woke up on Saturday and went to the gym and did the elliptical for a half hour and then caught the bus downtown for our regular Saturday stop, Pazzo's, for our regular beer and pizza lunch. Then, a short jaunt across the street for our regular Saturday post-pizza wine at Wines on Broadway.
Through the course of an hour or two of wines and jokes and good people having fun, Jen (that gal who's always working there, she's the best) mentioned that Mr. Wizard (some thing from her childhood apparently, I've never heard of him) said that you can't break an egg by squeezing it if you hold it a certain way. Big, strong John says "I bet I can" and the challenge begins......
John stood over the sink just in case he was right and the whole bar crowded around to watch. I had the best seat in the house. ...or so I thought. Mr. Wizard, whoever you are, you are wrong.

Jen-gaged!

After a weekend filled of fun and adventure (stories and photos to come later, they have to be pushed back for this very important post) we were on our way home and got a text from the Jens to meet up for beers. As we laughed and giggled and made jokes about Jen's crush on John, the topic steered towards how they met (Jen and Jen, not Jen and John). After we'd heard all about it, it was late and time to go home. We found out today that on their way home, they got engaged. These two rule and are perfect together. Congratulations, girls :)

...and don't even think about taking my trophy.

Trophy Wife

So, once upon a time, last Halloween, Nic gave Kim a basketball trophy and told her she was the best girlfriend ever. I told John that story a month or so ago in passing and never thought anything of it. Tonight while we were at the bar, he presented me with this:

a) awesome.
b) everyone who tells their mate about this now silently goes "ah crap..."

We're in the money!

You know the jar that you keep that you throw spare change in and then rummage through for quarters when you don't have bus tickets or need to go wash your car? Well, John has one and I have one and they were both full. I always hate to take them in because it irks me to pay the 10% fee from the machine to count it. It's not the 10% that makes me mad, it's the principle of the whole thing... Back in my day, when I worked at the bank, we did it for free. Anyway, when we were opening our accounts at our new bank (we were Chased away... other old WaMu customers may be able to commiserate..) we noticed a change machine and they didn't charge you to do it!! Like the old days! Hooray! Whatever was in there was going directly into the "fun money" pile to be spent frivolously on booze, snacks, and good times. John guessed there would be less than $100. I guessed more. drum roll please........ we will be having $122.95 worth of free fun!

The best part, I mean besides me being right and John being wrong, was how many pesos it kicked into the rejected coin tray....

oh, then we made this video:

Wordless Wednesday

Life update

John's cancer is kind of known for its tendency to come back. John's doc was pretty certain he'd gotten it all in surgery, but there was always some fear that there would be a little bit left or that it would grow back anew. The drug he's on is supposed to keep that from happening. He hadn't been scanned since shortly after the surgery and we have been kind of wanting another scan to know what was going on in there and to make sure everything was still good. We trusted that the doc got it all but at his last appointment with the oncologist and with his regular doc they both said that his tumor was such an anomaly because of its size that a) he was really lucky to be alive and b) he would be studied for a long time. It made us just a little nervous as he was scanned a couple weeks ago and we just found out that:

which means we would like you to all do this...

Fall...

It's so beautiful right now. I love fall. There's still some sun hanging around, but the air is crisp and the colors are everywhere. I try every year to drink a pumpkin latte, even though I know I don't like them, simply because it seems so right. My house is full of spicy candles and I just put the electric blanket on the bed. We haven't turned the heater on yet, but we know the time is coming soon. Last week, I wore a stocking cap.
Every fall, and hopefully every fall for he rest of my life, I am reminded of a trip we took in Oct '04 to Ohio. The reason was grim, John's grandpa had just died and we were going to the funeral and to help his family sort through everything left at the home. The home was in arguably the most beautiful little valley ever, in a tiny town in Amish country. The valley had two ponds and was snuggled in by hills all around and tall trees of every color.
We spent a week there and it was amazing. Breathtakingly gorgeous. and hard with the actual labor and surrounded by the emotions of everyone there helping. There were lots of things to sort and pack and also the emotional heartache that must accompany the absolute end, when both of a couple is gone and there aren't any close family who will take over their home. I was really glad that John and his dad wanted me there and it turned out to be a trip I will never forget. In the breaks from packing, we took advantage of the amazing surroundings and took literally hundreds of pictures. These are all from John's camera, because I was still shooting film and mine are all tucked away in my photo album.
I would love to make this post 17 pages long and put up a bigger collection from that trip, but instead will go spend some time in my life of Fall '09 and trim back the rose bush and maybe grab a little jog up on Mt. Tabor to see the fall beauty right outside.

Product Placement...achoo!

I've mentioned before that I had been lusting after a digital photo frame and a couple weeks ago, I found one for $70 and ordered it. It's this brand and size. In the interest of keeping it on all the time and just playing years worth of pictures, I've been spending almost every night going through our archives and saving anything that I think is frame-worthy. There's a variety of people and scenery and trips and weddings and dance and friends and everything else in our life back to 2003. When I need a break from sorting, I go through the pics I've saved and edit them or weed through any that I've changed my mind about. I have hours and hours into this little project... I'm not done yet, but I'm making progress and have been itching to test it out to make sure the frame auto-rotates and take a peek at what I've got so far. I'm also sick right now. I almost never get sick, but I have a cold and in the interest of it not sticking around, I'm taking it easy. That means that this morning, I put every picture so far onto a 4gb card and set up the frame and watched it out of the corner of my eye while sitting on the coffee table drinking 4 glasses of Detox tea and watching last night's So You Think You Can Dance and Glee. Dude. It's going to be so cool. If you don't already have one of these frames and you like pictures, you should get one. If not, you're going to be super jealous when you see mine.

Now, I'm restless, but still sick so I can't go jog. I think I'll take a queue from Glee and pop some cold medicine and do the laundry :)

Happy day, all!

I can't stop laughing.....

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Wordless Wednesday

I never would have guessed...

On Saturday, John and I decided to do one of our favorite Saturday outings. We got up and each got in a good workout, met back at home and caught the bus downtown. We walked through the park blocks and landed at the South Park wine bar for a glass of wine to start the day. Then we walked down to Pazzo's to reward ourselves for a whole week of eating healthy chicken and broccoli and we split a pizza and had a beer. Dessert was across the street to Wines on Broadway, where we love to go and visit with the delightful gal who is seeemingly always working. Then, we were ready to tackle the tasks of the day: JJ wanted a new shirt or two, and maybe a pair of jeans to round out his work wardrobe. I needed a pair of leggings from Forever 21. Now, if you know my little circle of friends at all, you know that we bop in and out of XXI on a regular basis. If you need an outfit for one night, there you go. If you need a new piece of clothes to make you feel better, there you go. If you need a fun new piece of jewelery.... or in my case, if you need leggings for $4.50... Now usually whenever I go into a "girl store" JJ goes somewhere else and I tell him how long I'll be or we'll meet up afterwards. (I don't believe in making boys watch girls shop and seriously, the only time a boy should ever step foot into a Victoria's Secret is to buy a gift certificate.. but I digress...) This time, I knew what I wanted, knew I didn't have to try anything on and we could be in and out, so he just came with. He asked why we like this store so much and so I walked over to the jewelry counter, picked something cute and asked him to guess how much it was. When I showed him the price tag, he was all "DUDE!" There was a cute pair of shoes nearby and we played the same guessing game with those. After I showed him the price, he said "This place is AWESOME!" Then he looked around and commented on how it was also full of hot chicks and maybe he should start coming here more often. He also bought me the shoes, under the condition that I had to model them without the leggings :)
Then, one more drink and it was time to head home to get ready for a date with some friends that night. But before we caught the bus, we stopped by so I could see his new office.....
ahhh, hi normal life. We've missed you.

The end of an era.......

For as long as I have known him, Nic has been in a band. Ever since the first time I saw him perform, I have tried my darnedest to find my way on stage with him. A couple years ago he gave me my wish when he asked if I wanted to get some friends together and dance with his band. !!!!!!
Since that first wildly successful performance, it has been a regular occurrence that DFive9 has had an entourage of dancing girls.
We called ourselves Spankasaurus Rex.
The rules were that you had to commit to coming to my class to learn the routine and practice with the band once at Mike's house and you had to meet at my house the night of the show to all get ready in my dressing room and drink champagne. Once we got to the theatre, we hung out in the green room and took fun pictures and drank some more champagne and perfected our makeup.
Then when it was finally time, we got to join the band on stage and be rockstars for the most awesome couple minutes...

The friendships and memories that were created on those nights are priceless. My tiny dressing room, crowded with all of us smiley girls, excited about our outfits, fixing each others' hair and makeup, becoming friends, and becoming better friends.... and then getting to the theatre and into the green room, where we shared the anticipation of the stage and finally got to march out there and be those girls. the ones up there dancing.
On Friday night, DFive9 gave its last performance. Nic leaves tomorrow to join his new lovely wife, and my co-Spankasaurus Rex, Miss Kim, in Hawaii. Because she was over there and we were over here, there was no dancing this time. I am truly going to miss this tiny little taste of being a rock star but am so glad that we ever got the chance to do it.

The Princess (Kitty) and the Pea....