Willo O'Brien

Alex Beauchamp (who founded another.girlatplay) wrote a great post recently about how we all get impressions of ourselves stuck in our heads somewhere along the line, and how we then continue to limit ourselves in our lives because of them.

I love this post, because over the last year I have had a few enlightening encounters with some friends of mine, around this topic. One of the first ones was probably almost exactly a year or so ago now, and I was picking up a friend to go out for the night.

When she opened the door I saw she was wearing a skirt and I commented to her how cute she looked! Saying, “You have such great legs! You should wear skirts more often!” And she replied, “No way – I have such skinny bird legs, that’s why I don’t wear skirts more often!”

I was blown away by this – because all I could think about was, “Wow, if I had legs like yours – I’d wear skirts all the time!”

Then it came up a few months later with a coworker, who while we were walking together she said something about her elbows looking gross. And I was like WHAT?! And she said how when she was young, somebody told her she had ugly elbows – and ever since she’s been super self-concious of them… She was sure that anyone who saw them, thought they were ugly. (And I’m here to tell you, her elbows were perfectly normal!) But once again – so funny (and very sad, of course) that this got stuck in her head to this day!

Chatting about all this with another friend, she mentioned how a friend of hers was so self-concious about her ears that she NEVER put her hair up because of it. Can you imagine? Never ever putting your hair up in a pony tail or anything all because you were self-concious about your ears? I mean, I know it’s possible – and it’s certainly a valid thing to be self-concious about, but I just can’t help but think – at some point you’ve got to STOP worrying about what others think and let yourself LIVE!!!!!

We’ve all got our little things we think about ourselves here and there, but the fact is you are who you are… so just let yourself be and accept it – and so will everyone else. (And if they don’t – well they can buzz off!)

This is soo cool! At first I couldn’t help but think it was fake, but once you click around you learn that this man has really done some major work on himself. It’s so funny how it can seem so impossible when you’re at one end of the spectrum, but really it’s not so hard to believe that with time and determination, anyone can turn their body around!

Way to go, John!

(Be sure to look at all the photos, and peek around through his site, FAQ, etc.) link via kottke.org

As some of you may recall, I was *quite* excited to get an avocado slicer for Christmas. :)

So, today – I thought I’d video my first time trying it out!! This being my first “How To” video, I realize now I should be more careful to say the right things (I called it an avocado peeler, not what it is: An avocado SLICER), but my cue cards gal was at lunch, so blame it on her. :)

Anyway – Here is me demonstrating my *new* avocado slicer… aka learning how to use it for the very first time :)

(FYI – you’ll need the latest quicktime player – it’s free!)

Look! Instantly sliced AVOCADO!

Here it is, today’s lunch – complete with delicious toasted Oat Nut bread, melted cheddar cheese, smoked turkey breast and freshly sliced avocado! YUMMM!

Tonite I’m going to Big Fish w/ Sarah. I’m really excited to see it, as I’ve heard people rave about how great it is.

I also really want to see 21 Grams, The Station Agent, Mystic River and Master and Commander.

Oh & I should probably go see the new LOTR while it’s still in the theatres, too. I don’t have time to watch all these movies!

FYI I added 2 more biz cards to the bunch.

One is pictured here (yoga girl) and other was inspired from my WilloToons Baby line of biz cards.

What is all this monkey business? :)

Remember how I said Kazoo is way into those stuffed mice?

Well, I mentioned how he plays with them like crazy here, and then again here, about how he loses them under the couch & then becomes obsessed with getting under the couch to get em.

SO the other day, to try to ease his pain, and I prop the couch up (it’s very light) so he could get under there. This way he could go get his mice himself and even bat them back under there and go get them again!

So the fuzzy pants enjoyed that new liberty for awhile.. but a little while later I looked over to find he wasn’t digging under the couch anymore…. instead he had realized the couch had all of a sudden been raised a foot higher – and “my, what a better view!” :p

So I snapped these two photos of him perched up on TOP of the couch. He’s so funny.

Ok, getting back out into the world proved to be very fun :) but then again – w/ Rick & Willo in the mix, we know how to have a party wherever we’re at. :) Lastnight was at his company Holiday party. Good people, a bad cover band, free drinks + hilarious karaoke. Plus I hadn’t seen Rick all week since I was in Hermitville™, so it was awesome to reconnect. I of course indulged in free Bailey’s on ice all night. Mmmm!!!

Today was busy – getting up later than planned and finally getting out of the house, I rushed up to my friends little bday party, then came home to show my car to a guy (Yes, I’m still selling my car – haven’t been working that hard at it obviously). I didn’t end up seein my friend Michelle after all cuz her & Aaron were rushing around & had to just get to the airport. But we did chat on the phone for awhile – and she & Aaron want me to do an illustration for their invite. Yay! I’m excited. That’ll be my 3rd wedding invite type of illustration thing in the last 6 months! (My 1st one is here, and my second one is still in progress)

Now I’ve been glued to the computer for the last hour, but must finish up cleaning my house, make myself some dinner & then get some work done!!

> 10 PM Update: I’m uploading photos from lastnight – and I love this one of Rick & I. I even used the Dooce effect on it :)

> 1:30AM Update: I like this one, too.

hey – just in case you want to find cool duvet covers, too. There’s a few nice ones here (and for kids, too!). I’m leaning towards Dream, but I think I want something darker like Liam.

I found that site via Avenue of Style, which is on my links page.

Update: Ok, I actually purchased a set. Nothing I’ve linked here actually – it’s something off of Needless Markup (not telling which one, it’s a surprise! for who? me!!). It’s way too much money – but I was waiting for something to just jump out at me and grab ahold and not let go – and this set did. I can’t wait to get it in the mail!!! I’ll take photos :)

alright…. my hermiting is officially over, as today I’ve got to leave the house (gasp!) and run some errands… and then tonite we’re going to Rick’s company holiday partay, where they’ve rented out swanky Bimbo’s, hired bands and are serving some seriously yumm food. Gotta love company parties, eh? Maybe I can try to get really drunk and embarrass him. Well, I wont even have to get drunk – cuz I’ll be his gimpy date limping around. Guess that means no dancing on tables with his boss, huh? darn!

Tomorrow I’ve got a double whammy bday party for Elana & David’s little kidlets. I can’t believe Marissa is 3!! And Zach is turning 1!! Jeez kids grow up so fast!!! Thanks to Jason’s tip-off, I’ll be trying to go find one of these funny little fellows today.

[update: I just called around to about 6 of the major local toy stores, and nobody has it!! darnit!]

And some other super fun news is my friend Michelle & her fiance Aaron are in town! yay!! I probably won’t see them until tomorrow, though – after the bday party. Oh & I gotta fit in going to see my good friend (and ex-roomate! :) Bee, too. She’s in her 70’s and just came down w/ pneumonia over Christmas :( but she’s getting better now, thank goodness.

Anyway – my weeklong hiatus of trying to not leave the house or socialize with anyone has come to a screeching halt. woopdedoo. (if it were up to me, I’d have another week of hermiting… I like it!!)

So now that I am not having to shell out a gazillion dollars, I wonder if I should spring for Lasik? When faced w/ having to shell out $2500+ dollars out of the blue… that’s all I could think about: Boy oh boy, that’s the money I coulda used to fix my eyes!!

I’ve been thinking a lot about it over the last couple months… and even went & saw a doctor to make sure I was qualified – and I am!

I was actually surprised, because I have horrible vision. But apparently I’m quite the average for people going in and getting the procedure done. In contact speak I’m -6/-6 (yes, both the same! weird huh?) and in glasses speak that’s FourEyes or Bottlecaps :) I’ve had glasses since I was in 4th grade and contacts since I was in 7th!! Without my contacts, I can’t see more than maybe a foot in front of me and the rest is blurry. So as you can imagine – I DREAM of having perfect vision again!!!

I also want a new duvet cover… I like my current one, but I just need to change it up every once and awhile. And those puppies aren’t cheap these days! Good ones atleast :) So I’m looking at either Dwellshop or something from Aussino – or if I really wanted to spend hundreds, I’d get this DKNY Urban Gypsy bedding that I’ve wanted forever.

Anyway. That’s what I been thinkin about. New eyes & a new duvet cover. HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!