The Week In Instagrams

With the whole Picture/Instagram of the Day goal for 2012, I don't really intend on doing a recap of the week's pictures, but I feel like doing it at least for the past week...

SUNDAY - Me and my old friend from UCSD, Michelle, at the end of our coffee+Flood reunion. We hadn't seen each other in a few years, since the days when I was working the graveyard shift back in 2006-2007. Those days are hazy... we hadn't been in touch since then, except for a Facebook status comment every now and then, until around Thanksgiving or so when she messaged me about church recommendations and I invited her to come out with me. It was so great to catch up and make plans to keep hanging out this time around so that the years don't pass us by again.

MONDAY - Worked until... I think 10pm or so? Gotta love working on databases...

TUESDAY - I'm in a supplement fix lately, taking upwards of 16 pills a day between multivitamins, thermogenic pills, fish oil, fat burners, and one pill that my personal trainer recommended to take pre-workout for energy that is also... well, I later found out that some find it useful as an herbal bedroom enhancer... yeahhhh, I didn't know... but that would explain why the guy at Vitamin Shoppe gave me the whole "yeahhhhh buddy!" look of approval + headnod.

WEDNESDAY - My songbook for the next 8 weeks!

THURSDAY - The view from my desk, where I worked until 11pm... not a fun night.

FRIDAY - After a long week that did not end as planned, I still got to de-stress a bit and go out on Friday night when Ashley invited to come out to a hookah place with her roomie and another friend of theirs. Turns out I know very little about hookah, but I still enjoy it from time to time. Oh, and we got to go Trujillo's after, where I got to have one of my favorite things - which was basically a Cali burrito w/ onions and bacon. The best!

SATURDAY - Rested. As in took a nice long nap after rehearsal and caught up on the sleep I did not really get during the week. But on the weekends, I do like to watch my TV DVD sets, in particular "Boy Meets World" that I got for Christmas (and you can see the Adele and Foo Fighters DVDs on top).

SUNDAY - Today's message at Flood talked about taking a rest (Sabbath day)... I think it was a timely message. Oftentimes we keep going and going, and this week for example between work and rehearsals, I was always in a "working" mode... and the weeks ahead are bound to bring more of the same. So on the days off I get (such as Saturday), there's nothing wrong with just wanting to stay in and relax, to say "screw that" to the pressure of finding more ways to keep busy/active in an attempt to have an "exciting" weekend. It's okay to just be still, to find that space to reflect.

TOW The Margaronas

So during this first week of 2012, I've discovered that... it's kinda hard to keep up an Instagram of the Day when...

• you work a deskjob and you're in the office 40+ hours a week
• you do not have cute teenage kittens
• you do not have one of the cutest little toddlers in the whole wide world or are not currently experiencing the miracle of life growing inside of you

So the Monday thru Friday pictures might be a little challenging at times... but I did get through this week. If you're on Instagram, you'll have seen them.

Luckily today had more interesting things to take pictures of, and today's picture will commemorate tonight's outing with some friends to Trivia Night at On the Border, where I had my very first margarona.

Margarita+Corona = margarona. That's my mango one on the right, Suzy's strawberry one on the left. 

And our dynamic team of 5 - The Margaronas - totally pulled off a comeback to win 2nd place, which we were very stoked about! We were dead last at the half, and I think 5th place before the final question...

Wanna hear it, hear it goes...

List the following events in the order that they occurred -

"South Park" premiered

"Family Feud" returned to TV with Louie Anderson as host

"Cheers" aired it's last episode

Drew Barrymore flashes David Letterman on his late night show

Can you do it? Well, we were the only team that did and ended up finishing with 54 points, and the first place team got 55... if only I'd given my hunch earlier in the game that Martin Luther King Jr. was the one who was assassinated at a hotel in Tennessee... but we were very excited with our 2nd place finish (including $10 off our next trip to OTB)... But we do plan to win the trophy next time... 

Care to challenge? ;) 

Photo of the Day - 1/3/12

Hands down.

Hello. My name is Elder Price...

More on the audition at another time... as the journey still continues... 

And the year's word is...

I wasn't a super big video gamer as a kid, but I played and know enough that when I thought of a theme word for 2012, I was reminded of the following phrase from Mortal Kombat:

"FINISH HIM!"

The 10 year old me cringed at the cartoonish violence (and because I sucked at the game). 

The 27.5 year old me laughs in enjoyment upon finding the various "Finish Him" clips on YouTube.


(And still sucks at the game, btw.)

At any rate, I'm copying another idea and blog theme from the wonderful TGO Jordan, that of a "word for the year". 

And I landed on the word "finish". 

It was an easy one that came to mind. Take reading, for example. I'm really good at starting books... but horrible at completing them. Or even CDs - where a lot of times I'll get a CD and then get asked "so what do you think" and then have to respond "wellllll it's good so far, but I've only listened to the first 4 songs... but those first 4 songs are pretty good!" Or the whole bike riding thing I blogged about before... yeah, I still don't know how to ride one. 

Perhaps the word also easily came to mind because I'd recently read a blog on Jon Acuff's site about the very topic. You can read that here, if you want... http://www.jonacuff.com/blog/the-hardest-part-of-a-project-is-also-the-most-important/#more-923

So that's my word for the year, I've decided. Those ideas and goals that have come to mind in the past and will come to mind in the coming days/weeks/months? This year, the goal is to get them done and see it through to the finish.

Listening to: "The New Year", by Death Cab For Cutie

2011 in Instagrams

I've decided to pull a 2009-Jordan (lovelikeapolaroid.blogspot.com) and attempt taking a Picture of the Day in 2012...  another buddy of mine did this on Facebook too in 2011, so I need to ready to start tomorrow. I have my phone on me all the time anyway, and I like using Instagram, so that's likely where they'll be. 

But I did want to do a quick photo review of the past year in snapshots, so here goes... 

(Note: I really didn't take much pics throughout year, or have pics taken with me in them, haha... So some months I struggled to find a pic in my library, or I had to pic just one in eventful months like August where Chicago easily trumps seeing Adele in concert.)

JANUARY - Completed leg 1 of the Triple Crown series of San Diego half marathons by running in the Carlsbad Half

FEBRUARY - A shot from Sunset Beach in Orange County, during a trip when I came to visit Sarah and we went to see Hair

MARCH - ...uhhhhh I bought a new computer. :P But I do love this thing!

APRIL - Completed the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown in La Jolla... and totally kicked that Torrey Pines hill's ass. (You try running it and let me know how it goes.)

MAY - Was in my first musical production and had the support of friends and coworkers coming to see me

JUNE - My parents enabled me to celebrate my birthday at work by bringing in lunch for me and my awesome coworkers

JULY - My cousin and his longtime girlfriend tie the knot in a beautiful ceremony (that I had the honor of officiating)

AUGUST - Family vacation to Chicago! My favorite snapshot of just a part of the gorgeous skyline. San Diego's got nothing on you, Bean Town. 

SEPTEMBER - Hiked the long trail at Mt. Woodson and got to the Potato Chip cliff! 

OCTOBER - New York City trip! Checking out the amazing views from the Top of the Rock observatory with my friend Suzy

NOVEMBER -  Seeing Jason Mraz in a special acoustic intimate setting was a nice way to end the Thanksgiving weekend

DECEMBER - Christmas Day at the San Diego Zoo with my cousin and the cutest little 10 month old in the history of ever who even though she was tired, whenever I'd give her a goofy grin, she'd give me this huge smile back with both her mouth and eyes, and those smiles were like a gift in itself that day...  

So there's 2011! Cheers to more pictures and memories in 2012...

Audition #2

In a little over one month, I have my next theatre audition. And now that I'm comfortable with being back on stage and the whole song/dance process again after having taken a decade-long sabbatical, I'll definitely take the process more seriously this time. :)

(Not that I wasn't serious on my audition for Joseph, but I totally just went on a whim to that one.)

What this means:
1) I'm thinking I'll be around SD a bit longer, which I'm perfectly okay with for right now.

2) Time to select and practice a good audition song! I don't know if I want to select something from the show in question (Bye Bye Birdie) or go with something that'd be fuuuuuun for me (i.e. something from The Book of Mormon)...

3) I had no idea that song "Put On A Happy Face" came from the show! As much as I enjoy theatre, I'm not as much of a theatre geek as I'd like to be.

4) Even if nothing comes of the audition -- which I'll be honest, the directors told me that they would hunt me down and make me audition, but let's say I can't for whatever reason -- I'll relish the anticipation and the process leading up to it in the meantime.

SBoR: ...things that make me go "awwww"

Getting a text message from my cousin to tell me that the toy I got for my little niece is her favorite right now brings a huuuuuge smile to my face. :D

And also makes me not wanna leave SD, lol.