Sifting through boxes of memories...

I've been very nostalgic recently.

Shortly after I left for college, my sister moved back in with my parents. Many of her belongings from her own home were put into storage to be taken out once she needed them again. Because she was going to be staying in my old room, many of my belongings were also boxed up and put into storage. I had with me whatever I could fit in my dorm room (which wasn't much). Everything else was left behind.

Finally, the time has come go through all the junk and clear out the storage unit. With the extra space in our basement, we'll be storing some of the stuff there until Salem moves in with her fiance. Then she can take her junk with her! I will be sorting through my crap now, however, since I have a house to put it all in.

So last weekend, my mom, Matt, and I got to work.

Boxes and things to be transferred to my house. The unit was packed FULL before we started. At this point we'd already taken a couple trips.

Mom. Some things were pretty dusty and nasty.

This is what was left at the end of our day. WAY less than what was there to begin with.

We managed to get all of my belongings moved to my house and I began to dig through them this week.

My stuff.

It's been a pretty bizarre experience sifting through this stuff. All of my belongings - ALL of my belongings - were just thrown into boxes. And the last time I saw any of it was 5 years ago. It's kind of weird to find items that were once so important to me. My old journals have been especially interesting.

My stuff, all over my basement floor.

The hard part is that I don't want to get rid of anything. Even if I've forgotten I owned something over the last few years, the second I see it, it's like I'm 18 again and it's the most important thing in the world.
This process is going to be difficult. But at least I have my Baby-Sitters Club collection back!

Months later, and I'm still "Crazy!"

A very long time ago, my mom and I designed and constructed costumes for a local production of "Crazy For You." You may remember reading about it here. I said that I would post pictures once I received them, and I meant to keep that promise. Sadly, I requested a copy of the production photos, but I didn't get any response. After additional requests and many months of waiting patiently, I finally have pictures to share! So you may not care much after nine months, but here are pictures of the awesome job my mom and I did.

Zangler's Follies. Nine identical poofy dresses, constructed from scratch. The three best looking dresses are the ones I made. (Probably not really...)

The whole cast. I have no idea why they're doing the Les Mis thing. In fact, I hate that shows like to have an omage to Les Mis for no reason. So just look at the costumes.

Cowboys.

The easiest costumes. Thank you thrift stores.

Two Zanglers!!

Zangler's Follies again. We found a few of these costumes in their stock, but we had to make more using the garments as a pattern. I did most of the work on these, so I'm pretty proud. Bet you can't tell which are the originals and which are ours!

Admittedly, there are quite a few issues I wish we'd had time to take care of. Unfortunately, we were thrown into the whole thing kind of late in the process. We only had about a month and a half to put everything together. That is not a lot of time when there are 32 actors (each with multiple costumes) and both designers work full time jobs! But given the circumstances, I am unbelievably proud of what we did.

Maybe I should quit my job and become a costume designer...

Pictures courtesy of Perfomance Now Theatre Company.

Halloween Craziness!

Happy Halloween! We celebrated on Saturday with a party! But first the kiddos had to go trick-or-treating. They came over to my house to get ready before they headed out into the neighborhood.

A ladybug.

We had a fairy, a ladybug, Daphne, and Fred (from Harry Potter).

Sisters!

While the kids were enjoying their candy, I was preparing for the party.

Deliciousness.

We had Human Vertebrae, Mummy's Toes, Devilish Eyeballs, Dried Scabs, and Witches' Fingers (plus pumpkin cookies and chips w/ salsa). I know it's pretty silly, but I was very excited about my "spooky" names. Sadly, I forgot the Moldy Dip in the fridge!

Punch!

The kids were kind enough to man the door while we were getting ready. We had tons of trick-or-treaters. Very different from last year in the apartment!

Excited for the door to ring!

Finally, it was time for the grown-ups to get dressed up and have fun!

We were Mary Anne and Claudia from The Baby-Sitters Club. I love it.

Our costume "theme" was literature and literary characters. But not everyone participated. I guess that's ok...

Hangin' out.

Dancing in character.

In between all the crazy fun we were having, I managed to snap some pictures of myself. Awesome.

With Matt. After I'd abandoned the wig. I was only half of a Claudia.

With Mel.

With Jess.

Someone brought really cool smushy eyeballs. Also awesome.

Eyeball races. Jess won, but I'm pretty sure she cheated.

Overall, the party was a good time. It was a little smaller than I anticipated, but the company was good!

Salem and George.

Winding down with cards at the end of the night.

After people left, I realized that I hadn't gotten a picture of the bottom half of my costume. Doesn't it scream 1986? I also had some awesome shoes, but they were off somewhere at this point.

So, I hope your Halloween was creepy, fun, and safe. I'll leave you with this piece of cuteness:

Happy Halloween!

San Francisco: Day Three

As our crazy San Francisco vacation came to an end, we were simultaneously ready to be home and wishing we could stay for a few more days. But whether we wanted to or not, we had to check out of our lovely hotel. It was a pretty nice place to stay. I snapped a few pictures on our way out.

Our cozy room.

Small, but pretty.

The lobby was pretty cool and modern.

This fireplace makes me think of cartoon ghosts.

Pretty lobby.

Weird chandelier.

Anyway, we headed out from our hotel for the last time to see a few more sights before we had to leave. Unfortunately, Matt strained his foot on Saturday. Due to his pain, we tried to only visit locations with transportation routes close by. First stop was the ocean.

It was ridiculously cold by the water. The day was pretty cloudy and cool to begin with. And silly us, we left our jackets with our bags in the luggage closet of our hotel.

So cold.

We didn't waste a lot of time freezing on the beach. We quickly made our way back to the street, where there happened to be a giant marathon taking place.

Yay! Go runners!

A short bus/train ride led us to our next destination, the "Painted Ladies." I was very excited to see the Full House houses.

"Whatever happened to predictability?"

Of course, the Tanners didn't actually live in one of these houses. After extensive research (a two-minute trip to Wikipedia), I learned that their house was located elsewhere in San Francisco. But the opening credits showed the family having a picnic in front of the "Painted Ladies," so it was still cool.

Our next stop was perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the trip. We hunted down M5 Industries!

Boring industrial area, where Mythbusters is located!

Because it was a Sunday, there was absolutely nothing going on. In fact, it would have been a little boring, had we not been such huge fans of the show for years.

The only evidence that Mythbusters is shot at this location was the sign to fans on the front door. Basically, they want tourists like me and Matt to leave them alone. But they weren't there, so it's ok.

Cool.

Finally, after a fantastic trip, it was time to head home. We grabbed our bags from our hotel and hopped a train to the airport.

Going home.

We could have been very happy to stay in San Francisco for a few more days. We had such a great time, and there's just so much to see and do. But we'd had a very busy and tiring weekend, so getting back to our own bed and our cool kitties felt pretty good, too.

San Francisco: Day Two

After waking refreshed on Saturday morning, we set out to see the Golden Gate Bridge. We took a short bus ride from our hotel, and finally had our first (up close) view of the famous San Francisco landmark.

It was very exciting.

There's a big boat. Matt likes big boats.

After a few pictures, we began the trek across the bridge.

It was a little scary for me to look over the edge of the bridge. But it was also way cool.

At the midway point of the bridge. Matt saw another big boat.

As we made it to the other end, the fog began to roll in. It was a pretty cool effect, and one we're not quite used to here in Denver.

The bridge is gone!!!

We continued walking on the little highway that took us into the town of Sausalito.

Walking on the side of the road.

In Sausalito, I found the house I will someday live in. Or at least vacation in.

Soo pretty. Oh, to be rich.

Sausalito is a very quaint seaside town. And I love quaint things. But we quickly realized that it was a very expensive, touristy, quaint town. So maybe I don't want to live there afterall. But it was still pretty.

Lots of pretty (and probably very expensive) houses.

After a walk around town and a quick lunch, we hopped on the ferry to head back to "The City."

We had done a lot of walking, and we were spent.

Tired.

Also tired.

Walking about 12 miles in two days earned us a nice afternoon rest in our hotel. Saturday evening we were in the mood to take it easy. We enjoyed the complimentary wine our in our hotel lobby:

The closest thing to a wine-tasting that I got on this trip. Yummy Californian wine!

Then we headed out for a long, leisurely dinner at the San Francisco Brewing Company. It was in this cool, historic building with a large old-fashioned bar and a very cool ceiling fan. Of course, I didn't want to snap a lot of pictures inside the restaurant, so I just sneaked one as I was coming out of the bathroom.

Cool.

We were pretty exhausted at this point, so we made it an early evening. We had to fly home the next day, but not until late afternoon. So we had time for a few more sights.