Awesomeness of The Simpsons Premiere

Phew, sorry it's taken me a bit of time to post about this. Last week, on Tuesday, Justin and I (and Thao and some other cool peeps from work) flew out to Burbank, CA.
The reason?
We were going to the premiere of the Simpsons Movie in Los Angeles!!!
(more photos from premiere to come)

Because we all worked on the jetblue.com Simpson's site, or other JetBlue & Simpsons initiatives, and because JetBlue had partnered with The Simpsons, we were lucky enough to be flown out. Also, a rockin' JetBlue sales gal hooked us up with a much, MUCH nicer hotel (Luxe) than we were going to be staying in. Thank you sooo much!

Justin and I drove around a little when we first landed because I'd never been to LA before, so he wanted to show me some sites. We saw Santa Monica Pier and Muscle Beach. hahaha - looked like fun. There are so many fun gymnastic things to swing around on. Unfortunately, my allergies were really irking me, so I wasn't up to doing a whole lot.

We got to the hotel, and I really didn't want to leave. It was gorgeous. I totally could have moved in. I love the brown walls, spacious bedroom, super modern, clean edged furniture but mostly the bathroom, with its jacuzzi tub, spacious counter with dual sink and fabulous shower which really doesn't allow the humidity to seep into the rest of the bathroom. I hate humid bathrooms.

We headed to the pool where a few of the girls were laying out catching some last minute sun before the big night. I got in and started swimming, and Thao joined me straight away, then Justin got in. He and Thao stayed in splashing around for a while after I got out to lay down. I was exhausted. We'd had to get up at 6:00 AM for our flight, and I didn't sleep much on the plane. There really was no time for sleeping, though, because I had to get ready for the festivities!

A couple hours later, we all converged downstairs and drove to a bar near the theaters where the Simpsons Movie was premiering. We all looked STUNNING! We met up with a couple of people from the Ad/Promotions team that had beat us to LA by a day or two, then the GM of the Burbank airport joined us, and we all had drinks and appetizers. It was a really good time.

I was disappointed when we arrived at the theater because we had to wait in line! I was not at all prepared for that, in my beautiful fuschia gown and high heels. I promptly got over it, however, as the star sightings began. There were some people from Heros as well as Lisa Edelstein from House (had to look her up), Dr. Phil, David Hasselhoff, and of course, all the voice actors. One other saving grace: they had popcorn and soda at the ready upon entering the theater!

We laughed the WHOLE time we were in there. I am sure it helped having a lot of the animators in the same theater. The way I know we had some of the animators in the same theater is because of their reaction during the credits. It was awesome. Anyway, definitely go see the movie if you haven't done so yet. You won't be disappointed!!!

We headed to the after party at about 1 AM EST. We were exhausted. One of the girls admitted to dozing off a few times during the movie. What a bummer! At the after party, there was a carnivalesque atmosphere with yellow domes containing bars, an ice cream stand (not any old ice cream stand - DOTS!) and seating areas. There was also an area where you could get the same kind of hot chocolate Ned Flanders made in the movie. Once you see the movie, you will know how awesome this is. Janid (one of our coworkers that is also a singer), Thao, Justin, and I posed for a photograph on the Simpsons couch with the whole Simpsons family (see above)!!! okay, okay, they were not real, but still! That was awesome!
There were copious amounts of food, dessert, squishees, and several strategically located opened bars serving up any drink you could possibly want.
Matt Groening was there signing autographs and posing for pictures. Some of the cast from Reno 911 was there. I had my photo taken with Anna Nicole Smith's Baby's Daddy. I thought it was probably the funniest and most controversial image I could get. ;)
All in all, it was such a fun night.

Justin and I fell asleep practically as soon as we got back to the hotel room. We chose to leave on the later flight the next day, at 3 PM, so we could have a relaxing morning (we didn't get to bed til after 3 AM EST) and see Justin's friend Eric that lives very near BUR. We ate breakfast, drove down Sunset and Hollywood Blvd, caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign, and met Eric at a cafe to chat for a few minutes before heading to the airport. Eric will actually be landing in NYC tomorrow and spending a week or so with us. Cool beans. :)

Birthday Decorations!

Random July - Birthday, etc.

I really had a great birthday. When I got to work, I saw that my desk area was completely covered in sparkling silver confetti type stuff and there were streamers and balloons (Texas colored balloons, mind you) everywhere! Justin had stayed up late the night before baking batch after batch of sugar cookies. They were so delicious. We got to share them with a lot of ppl from work, but I still had probably 8 or 9 for myself over those two days. ;) As the day progressed, I received a delivery of absolutely beautiful flowers from Justin's Mom, Lyndia. That rocked my socks and continued the momentum of the day. That evening I met up with Val!, my Mom, Dao and Rob, and Leanne at one of the neatest dining establishments to ever grace NYC. It's called Ninja New York and you are served by Ninjas in a super cool atmosphere.
Thanks to everyone for all the awesome gifts, sweet cards, and, mostly, love and caring. :)

New York is rubbing off...

Waa! I feel so unbelievably rude! Justin and I were walking back up a hill toward our hotel room after having breakfast in the hotel restaurant and we passed a woman that was obviously coming from a workout. She seemed happy, but I was avoiding eye-contact with her. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her look at me and smile, which would have been a kind and friendly greeting if I had been aware of myself and returned the gesture. A few moments later, we passed and elderly couple pushing a baby stroller and the woman raised her hand to wave a hello, but neither Justin nor myself looked directly in their faces. After we passed them, I had to express my shock to Justin and describe the events that had just transpired. I am usually one that goes out of my way to greet people/passersby - and I missed two blatant opportunities to do that today. Those sort of things never present themselves in NY. You have to aviod ppl, because the only ones that want to give you any sort of attention are generally up to no good.
Are my nine+ months in New York beginning to change me, and Justin too?

Our hotel: Luxe
More about the Simpsons Premiere evening and after party later. It was a LOT of fun, and I will have photos uploaded by the end of the week.

10 years ago

 

My first day of college - ten years ago!
Man, time flies. Look at the youth and nervous excitement. My old Honda, parked near the volleyball poles, and Dad's old blue truck. The old house and Ackerman's land - the fence is up, so it's not that long ago. Still... strange.

I also think it is worth mentioning that the oldest scanned photos I have are from 1997. I know we scanned some in 95/96, but I don't have a substantial amount so, significantly, the digitalization of my life began in 1997.

happy birthday to nessy!

happy birthday to nessy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

mmmmm sugar cookies :D
Justin's baking!

and I just called Val! to wish her a happy birthday. She is eating dinner with Mom and Leanne (Annie) in San Francisco at a vegan restaurant. Random!

Yay!!!! It's my birthday! :D I'm 27! :)

At Hill Country with Dad and Justin... and Thao!

There is a serrano in my drink!
So, yeah, I knew I wanted to go to Hill Country this weekend and the fact that my Dad was flying up sealed the deal. I invited Thao to come along, but when I talked to her Saturday she'd already been to the city once, come home, and didn't feel like going back out. I was really disappointed, so she changed her mind, but I told her it was ok if she didn't want to go. I tried calling her a little later to tell her we were on our way, but got her voicemail. When I got off the subway in the city, I had a message from her that went something like this "Hey Vanessa, I changed my mind. I'm not going to go. Happy birthday! See you Monday." What a bummer!

Justin, Dad and I entered the vast Hill Country BBQ joint and put our names on the long (hour and a half long!) waiting list, then sauntered over to the bar, where we killed time drinking and chatting amongst ourselves and with the friendly bartendress. Eventually our names were called and we were taken to the food ordering area - there are three stations from which you order: Meats, Sides, Drinks. Pretty nifty. As we were putting our things down at our table, Justin spotted Thao! She was already getting her food and thought we just hadn't shown up yet. We'd all been waiting for well over an hour without even spotting one another! I was so glad Thao actually was there, but I felt so bad that she was waiting by herself the whole time. She even tried to reach me on my cell, but as I had my phone in my little backpack in the loud restaurant, I didn't even hear it! Maybe that'll teach her to play tricks on people!

We met up at the perfect time and got to share/try a ton of different meats and sides. I am definitely going back when I can taste things again. For whatever reason, my allergies have ridded me of my sense of taste. However, I can tell basic things, like sweet or maybe bitter. Spicy is a little lacking and I didn't notice sour at all. Justin's first drink was (accidentally because of confusion in communication) a bourbon on the rocks. I didn't taste the bourbon at all, but could definitely sense the alcohol as I felt it burn the tip of my tongue slightly and evaporate onto the roof of my mouth.

I did enjoy eating though, so no one should think it was a wasted experience! The textures/colors of the food and the vibrancy of the company were all delightful. ;) And the icing on the cake, or cupcakes, I should say, is that Thao and Justin told one or two of the members of the waitstaff that it was my birthday! I ended up with one cupcake as we sat at the table that would not stay lit because the a/c was on just above us. It had reeses pieces on top and super fluffy and sweet peanut butter flavored icing. I guessed it was peanut butter, and Thao, Dad and Justin confirmed. I even enjoyed that, and I truly do not care for peanut butter! Oh yeah, it had jelly in the middle. Too cute. As we were on our way out of the restaurant, another waiter brought a cupcake out for us. This time the candle kept reigniting itself, so I got to make a few wishes! Super cool! And Justin had a whole cupcake to himself. ;)

We walked and chatted our way over to Rodeo Bar, where we rounded out the night drinking some margaritas and chatting (except Justin drank Captain and Coke. He is not a huge fan of the sleep-inducing margarita). I don't even know how long we were there, but we moved from second floor, to bottom floor (succeeded in acquiring a basket of chips), then back up to the second floor since you can't sit on the first unless you order food. :) All in all it was a really great night/time.

I also wanted to check out Reshma's party, but my Dad was falling asleep and no one was really up for it at that point. I guess hindsight being 20/20, it is probably a good thing, as I woke up with a bad enough hangover as it is. Possibly due to the shoddy quality of tequila Rodeo Bar uses in their drinks. Hrmph!

After a cocktail this morning, of the medical variety, I am finally starting to feel better. Which is a good thing. My Dad is leaving tonight, which is a sad thing. And Justin and I will be celebrating my 27th birthday (waa!) tomorrow with Mom, Val!, David and possibly Annie and Rob. Vee shall see. We will be dining at Ninja New York. Possibly the coolest concept every materialized for a restaurant.

Then the next morning it's off to Los Angeles to see the world premiere of the Simpsons Movie... Sweet!!!

So Kirkwood Called...

And I got to make a puppy e-mail to send out! Yay! So if you are in the San Antonio/Austin area, scurry on over to the studio and get a pet portrait made.

I so miss working for Mary and William. Mary is so supportive and appreciative, and she also gives me free reign and unbounded creativity. I know the corporate world cannot be like that. I just think it's unfortunate. I am also aware my designs (puppy one included) are not up to snuff with people that have studied graphic design.

One Night of Fire

Coincidentally enough, and it is incredibly coincidental as this is the first and only time we've walked across the Brooklyn Bridge in the 8+ months we have been here, we ran into a strange parade of sorts called "One Night of Fire." A man described it to me as a roving free-form celebration. It's more like a bunch of performance artists gathering together to do strange stunts, drink, and debauch. I want to say "freaks" or "degenerates" but that seems really judgmental and potentially unfair, as I don't know any of them. Why don't you decide for yourself?
We have some videos we took with the camera phone, and Justin did some research to find an official website. Here is the flickr gallery from last year.

They have a pretty slick website, (TheDanger.com) as it will send both e-mail and text updates, and they guarantee that the event moves quickly, so if you want to be a part of it, subscribing to text updates is paramount.

I want to revisit my earlier statement about it being unfair to pass judgment without knowing people. It seems best to qualify why I think these people are somewhat undesirable. You see, for a long time I was involved with the Goth scene in San Antonio. Needless to say, the majority of those people were undesirable. The worst among them were often the performers. I guess I found it lame, not only the kind and quality of shows, but the attitude and fakeness they frequently exhibited even off-stage.

Also, a lot of these people seemed like LARPers/Ren Fair enthusiasts. Nuf said.:)

Who knows, though. If I were fifteen and saw this, I'd probably think it was damn cool. Maybe I'm just old and jaded.

Justin:
To sum it up she is trying to say, it's lame but she might go next year.
Video:

We like high places!

Wandering over the brooklyn bridge and what do we come upon.

The Difference a Year can Make.

I was going through MySpace tonight to see if I'd missed anything recently. Surprisingly, posts have been slim, but I had some emails and a page of friend request. Unsurprisingly, I didn't know any of the people making the requests.

I decided to go back and see when the last time I posted on my MySpace blog was, and it was July 27, 2006. About a year ago.

oh yeah
Happy Friday the 13th!!!

At any rate, I was reading the post, and one thing that really stuck out was my "To-Do list:"
"Go to Chicago in Oct. (oh yeah, and Albuquerque)."

For some reason, despite working for an airline now, the ability, care-free requirement, and opportunity to flit off to Albuquerque seems so much less possible now. It strikes me as very odd, but then again, I also feel a lot more isolated being in NYC than I ever did in Texas, even though Justin and I kept very much to ourselves even then... strange.

Oh, yeah, I guess I am still never satisfied. ;) And I miss the convenience of living in the semi-country, and being able to wander downstairs to the Keurig and get a cup of coffee. I miss the nice moments of living with people, but separate from them, so I could make the observation, as I had in my survey from a year ago, that I got a bowl of cereal because Dad had left the Honey Bunches of Oats on the counter.

And, at 9 PM last night I was probably just getting home from eating Queens's version of Mexican food, and laying down to go to bed. I went to bed super early yesterday. I guess I have been exhausted this week, and the one margarita I drank got to me.

Onto more exciting news: Justin and I (and Thao and some other work peeps) will be flying to California, Los Angeles to be exact, to attend the premiere of The Simpsons Movie!!! We get to go because we worked so hard on everything for JetBlue.com. I am very excited about this, but I still don't know what to wear. I am a little sad it's the same day as my JavaScript final is supposed to be. I really need to practice and study. :<

Anyway, I was planning on going to Chicago with Mom, Val!, Dad, and Justin the weekend before that to celebrate our birthday. I just feel like it would be too much traveling all at once, and a little too stressful, so I wanted to cancel or postpone the trip. Val!'s very bummed and angry about it, which sucks. I am not exactly sure what to do now, but I just don't feel comfortable with trying to rush to Chicago.

I thought it would be cool to go to Hill Country BBQ. I guess we'll see.

I hope to update soon with photos. ;)

SuperStaaaaah

Ness with her new car

At JetBlue FSC subway stop

Woohoo

Dublin

Alberts lil' one

Overdue Upate

As usual, I have much to write about and have waited until it is practically bedtime to do so.

Budget, you question?

First things first - to answer the anonymous poster's question about budget: We had guests in town a couple of weeks ago, so we managed to go over budget a few times. The last couple of weeks we've done very well, staying within our budget when food is in question. Today, for instance, we may have spent $25. However, as Justin's birthday is coming up, as is Val!'s, I have purchased some small gifts that fall outside the budget. Even still, I don't expect birthday purchases to TOTAL over $150 - $200. Very much on the cheap this year. I guess my summary is that the budget is being minded and is going well. We did go over budget the night we ate at Carrabbas, however!

Hiking in The Gunks

Justin and I went hiking in Minnewaska State Park/Mohonk Preserve the weekend before last. It was lovely. Tons of rock climbers there too, very hardcore. It makes me want to be more into that sort of thing. I love hiking and climbing. I wish I lived upstate so I could more readily pursue such things. The expedition was nice, though, and the views were delightful.

"Fun Day" at work

Last Friday we had "Fun Day" at work, which was sort of a team building thing for the marketing/revenue departments. It was basically a "Revenge of the Nerds" style decathlon. 7 people were chosen to be captains and I was lucky enough to be one of them. My team consisted of 12 other people (two of which could not attend). Every other team (7 captains = 7 teams) had between 11 - 12 other people.

Leading up to the Fun Day, I was madly preparing for the Simpsons Launch and still trying to get my team organized, motivated, and stylish. Luckily, I had an awesome group of people on my team. We were the "red team." Every team was based on a color (no one was blue - but I bet you can guess why). After a brain storming session, we decided we'd call ourselves the "Chili Peppers" and all have names that would include the word Pepper. I was ONI, for instance, like Pepperoni. We had a Pepper Jack, Peppermint Patty, Fresh Ground Pepper, Pepper Spray, Hot Pepper, Sergeant Pepper, Pickled Pepper, Dr. Pepper, and Salt & Pepper. We had an awesome logo (a fabulous graphics designer was on our team), kick ass bandanas with chili peppers on them (a very motivated gal in Revenue Management was on our team) along with cool socks, and we were all wearing fantastic matching red shirts (tanks for the girls, tees for the boys) with our logo on them. Thank heavens for Old Navy.

Throughout the day we supported one another, strategized, cheered each other on, and competed our little hearts out. It was definitely worth it, because our team WON #1 OVERALL, and, perhaps more importantly, we won for Team Spirit!!! Now we all have positive space tickets as a result of winning 1st and one of our members won a getaway (it was a random drawing out of a hat - but the winner definitely deserves it)! I got a couple of freezing cold bowls of ice poured on my head by my teammates. I have to say, leading a group to public, undisputed victory where everyone enjoyed themselves the whole time and was really proud to be a part of the entire process was incredible. Even more so than successfully launching a promotion. Not that there is anything wrong with quiet victories, but they are not as satisfying.

House

We are looking at buying a house. We looked around Queens, but everything is so unreasonable. I wish we could live upstate, as mentioned before, but I think the commute would kill us. I am open to any and all suggestions, however. I'd like to stay within 1 hour of Forest Hills, and prefer north NY to south (not the Bronx, from what I've seen of it, however).

I will try to get some images of hiking and Fun Day up soon!

Check out our JetBlue Simpsons Page!!!!

That's right! JetBlue is the OFFICIAL Airline of Springfield! Tara is responsible for organizing the whole promotion - TJ for the graphics, and Janid for the awesome copy.

Thao and I are responsible for Rockin' the webpage. Hellz yeah! I did the destination and character matching concept as well as the javascript to make the dropdown list box function to swap the images. The images also change every 30 seconds. Listening to my mom use it - I think that may really bug some people. "Is that my computer or your page? It must be my computer." Woops! I guess we'll see about that. hehe

Thao did a beautiful job integrating the animation into the site... but DON'T click the donut after the little movie plays, no matter how much the pulsating, shiny orb tempts you...

Woohoo!