reverie

This year Nicole & I were once again blessed to spend Easter with our family of friends in LA. We had a total of 12 people for dinner this year. (Our smallest holiday dinner since our first Thanksgiving of 10. Last Easter & Thanksgiving were around 20.) It was the perfect number of people and was actually one of the more relaxed holiday dinners I've ever cooked. Now don't get me wrong I always love cooking for others particularly on the holidays, but this was the calmest one I think we've had yet. Quite a surprise and a blessing considering this weekend was also Nicole's birthday weekend and prep time for Easter dinner was minimally available. I think that ended up working out for the best. I didn't spend tons of time planning and prepping as I usually do. I just had to let things go and turn out as the willed. I love my lists and meticulous preparations that usually surround such gatherings, but it was nice to just sort of go with the flow this ye...

oh . . . and you know, love too. ;) Are you ready for it? I now bring to you the 2007 edition of Aziner's Bogus Valentine's Statistics, sponsored by humor and presented without bitterness interruption. 99% of girls tell their closest friends everything only 30% of guys ever use this to their advantage (a girl's closest chicas know everything you need to know & are generally willing to help you b/c it's most important to them that you make their friend happy) 78% of girls who date jerks do so because it's much less disappointing to be hurt by them than the "good" guys 64% of guys really do mean well, they just don't understand women 36% are just genuine dillholes 42% of women would marry for wealth over love 81% of single women buy Valentine's chocolates for themselves, 92% of which is purchased the day after Valentine's in order to enjoy the clearance prices - no sense in being single AND poor 54% of single guys never even realize it...

I hope 2007 has started off nicely for all of you. It has been okay for me so far. I left Houston to spend New Year's Eve in LA. It was fun, but it was hard to leave family and now I am roommateless for the week as Nicole is house-sitting, so I went from being surrounded with people to being home alone. It's not that fun. BUT I am optimistic for this year and have every hope that 2007 will make 2006 look like weak sauce. ;) As mentioned, I spent Christmas in Houston where I got to meet my new, adorable nephew. Here, despite Raj's complaints that a photo blog doesn't count as "real" blogging, I will give you a Christmas photo review. Enjoy! The nephew dressed as Santa, with his best gangsta face & calling his reindeer homies with his gang signs. Ravi got Alaina a Boston hat for Christmas. Jadyn hugging her baby brother. A good old fashioned game of pass the baby. And a good old fashioned game of throw balls of tissue paper at your nieces. That...

Christmas Party 2006 Photo Review good food good friends good friends named Rachel funny faces and baby Jesus I'd say it was a pretty successful party. :)

1. go to 30 Seconds to Mars concert check. 2. touch Jared Leto check. haha 3. have an amazing 4 day weekend check. 4. decorate for Christmas well this didn't happen yet, but that just means there's something wonderful to look forward to this week. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving day/weekend. I hope all of you did too! :)

I realize I have been rather delinquent in posting of late. I intended to respond to all of the comments on the previous post, but alas time has gotten away from me. For now I will just say, thank you & I love you guys. This has been a wonderful Thanksgiving week already, far better than I had even imagined. Sunday The afternoon was spent driving back from my church's young adult retreat. We got a bit off course and the trip took much longer than anticipated, but it was a fun ride back with friends. Monday I got my ipod back from Apple after I sent it in for replacement due to a dead battery. This was much quicker than I anticipated. And despite the fact that I can't get the thing to work (it doesn't seem to want to charge), it's still exciting. Monday also brought the release of 30 Seconds to Mars' video for From Yesterday . The video is a martial arts epic mini movie that MTV2 says is "one of the most ambitious music films in history." Tuesday ...

So I was sitting in the little food court area of Target today having a late lunch (yes Target, only due to a great lack of parking at Sharky's and the stupid rain) when I overheard a 6-year-old boy question his grandmother about her knowledge of jujitsu. The grandmother had clearly never even heard the word. The little boy started into his explanation, pleased to have something to talk about & I think a little pleased that he could teach his grandma something. I had gone to Target to buy a few things for Easter - grass, plastic eggs, candy, extra forks as we are going to have about 4 more people here for dinner than for whom we had forks. Nothing too spectacular, nothing too expensive. I also purchased normal Target stuff that I needed. My total came to $83. As I paid the cashier said, "$83 just for Easter?" Just? JUST? It was clear from the way she had been talking to me and to the customers ahead of me that she does celebrate Easter & not in the bunny...

I'm not a particularly superstitious person, so when I woke up yesterday morning and saw that it was Monday the 13th (which should seem more ominous than a good ole Friday) I quickly dismissed the thought that something strange or bad would happen. I'm not blaming it on the day, but such a thing did happen last night. I received a call from a friend and he told me he'd been in a pretty bad accident earlier in the day and he felt fine but his mom really wanted him to go to the hospital and get checked out so he wanted to know if I would take him. Of course in complete disregard to our "no hospital" policy I said yes. Thankfully aside from some soreness and pain he is fine. Still when I got home and thought about posting the Valentine's stats as I had intended to do, I thought how could I post something so ridiculous when something so serious had just happened? But this is the kind of friend that heartily embraces such things as made up statistics and he w...

If you're stuck for ideas for Valentine's day, check this out. I completely love the idea. :) I talked to Ravi yesterday, tickets for the Red Sox vs. Angels coming up in Anaheim in 6 months and 16 days should be on sale soon. Woo! And from what he tells me I should be able to afford some rockin' good seats for us. Ravi-o visiting + baseball + Red Sox = more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Literally. There have been tests done proving such. My parents booked their flight today! They're coming out the first week of March & I'm taking time off to hang out with them. I can't wait! :)

Welcome to my favorite month of the year. :) Well it's really tied with December for #1, which I realize is silly, making 2 months stand at the top of the gold medal platform together, but it's just too close to call. There's all the Christmas goodness December has to offer. And then there are all these wonderful thing in February: ~ Groundhog Day, good times full of complete hooey but amusing just the same ;) ~ Valentine's Day, which isn't really a favorite holiday of mine for various reasons including the one wherein it just seems a day on which to relegate romance & to give chicks an excuse to freak out if their guy forgets or doesn't live up to all the crazy things in their heads that they never even mentioned to the guy, but this year it is a Tuesday which is full of goodness and it will bring the return of my bogus Valentine's Statistics. I know I failed you on this one last year, but I will make up for it this year. ~ it's unique in it...

soon it will be time to undecorate the twinkling will be stored away and somehow the wonder seems to get boxed up with it I'd like to say this year will be different maybe it will be I have a lot of hope for this new year determination that life has so much in store I cannot picture the upcoming days without imagining all kinds of growth and dreams finally fulfilled will it all happen? will any of it? I really can't say but I'm going to do my best not to lose sight I'll try to stretch out the wonder a bit longer if I'm careful and extra passionate I think it can last the whole year

This is my patented "are you kidding me with this?" look. It has served me quite well over the years. Given the combination of what appears to be just woke up from a nap hair, with the obvious fakeness of that Santa, and how terribly my outfit clashes with the jolly red suit I don't really blame my 2-year-old self for employing said look. :) I hope you all have a delightful Christmas! God bless!

This marks post 285. If I am diligent enough I think I can hit 300 by year's end. 16 posts in 18 days (including this one), it can be done! I don't know why but every time the 14th of the month comes around I feel like there's something I'm supposed to remember. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because 4 months out of the year there significance to the 14th- Valentine's Day, Flag Day, the Un-Valentine's Day (which is not a day for spreading hate for those of you who weren't with us when I declared it a holiday in August), and Joe's birthday. Speaking of Valentine's day, Nicole & I decided that we needed to write a dating book since we decided that in addition to our stellar party planning skills we also have great ideas for dates. Sadly when we talked to a couple of guys at church on Sunday night they were completely resistant to some of our brilliant ideas. Regardless I will post them here because I still like them. Now I just gotta find a g...

Last night marked the delightful advent of Nicole and Azina's 2nd Annual Christmas Extravaganza. So many people showed up, it was quite wonderful. I had an enjoyable time and we got such a great response from everyone. :) It's so fun to plan something and then to see it come to fruition. I was thinking about that in church today as we were singing about heavenly host rejoicing at the birth of Christ. At first I asked myself, why were they so excited? They set it in motion. They knew it was coming. And as so many thoughts were floating through my mind about our party still, it really struck me. It's fun to plan things and to arrange everything just how you hope it to be, but to see it all work out is quite exciting. So I began to imagine God and the angels chilling in heaven as he explains the master plan- the greatest, most important & amazing plan to take place ever. Heaven is filled with anticipation and wonder. And then the night comes and a baby is bor...

Thanksgiving 2005 photo highlights :) I heart aprons (for real I do) After Nicole & I spent half the day cooking I still had enough energy to school Shannon in Spoons. Just kidding, I only said that because he doesn't actually read this. ;) I took an early lead, but it came down to the 2 of us and was tied going into the last round. I did win though. :) fun girls in our fun little apartment Nicole & Seth looking all deep in thought

Nicole and I hosted Thanksgiving at our apartment yesterday. There are not enough synonyms for wonderful for me to accurately describe it to you. It was such a blessing to be able to share the day with so many friends. I love my family dearly, but this was probably the best Thanksgiving I've ever had. We had people in our house from 11 in the morning to 10 at night. Everything went quite well and though it was a lot of work on very little sleep, it was all worth it & I wouldn't have changed a thing. The refrigerator is stocked with leftovers, my head is filled with memories, and my heart overflows with joy. I couldn't have asked for a better day. I hope you had a marvelous Thanksgiving too!

I intended to post the first part of this the other day on the 19th, but alas I was busy shopping and going to Harry Potter that day. Anyhow, the 19th of every month is always significant to me, probably because my birthday is on the 19th of February. And a really cool friend's birthday is on March 19th. And the day I officially moved to LA (after my semester out here) was June 19th. In just under 3 months I will be 24. And in under 3 days it will be the 24th and it will be Thanksgiving! I am very excited about that. So I am writing my Thanksgiving post tonight because I am not sure that I will have a lot of time the rest of the week. Last year's Thanksgiving was still in a pretty difficult time of my life and while there are things that are still the same , my life as a whole is so much better this year. And even those things mentioned in the poem I am dealing better with I think. So here are some things I'm thankful for (not in much of an order per se): 1. my family 2. my...

(pretend the turkey is dancing) Woo! It's the two weeks til Thanksgiving dance! :)

You know you want to. It's okay now. Amber decreed it and Nicole & I fully concur, so at this point it's practically law. ;) Here's a little Relient K love to get you in the mood: what's a partridge? and what's a pear tree? well I don't know so please don't ask me but I can bet those are terrible gifts to get AFM is ending soon and once again all shall be right with the world. It was a grand night, I'm so glad I was able to make it to church. And now I must away to get a bit of sleep.