Willo O'Brien

Recount of my Saturday night:

I first met Aaron (who is a Bamboozled Alumni I’ve kept in touch with – and who designed the new site!) @ the Shooting Gallery for my friend Eric Joyner’s show. He paints robots & donuts – does it get cooler than that? :)

Aaron & I checked out the show & then went for dinner at a yummy Vietnamese place called Mangoteen (which oddly isn’t on Yelp or Citysearch or anything – but it was sooo good!) & then I even met back up with the girls, Jess, Alice & friends @ the Gallery again!

However, shortly after I said goodbye to Aaron & then the girls, and headed over to meet Nick @ the Hemlock, where we had a few drinks before heading over to the Edinburg Castle, where the photo madness REALLY began (and so much more).

Honestly, I was laughing sooooo hard all night…. I haven’t laughed all night like that in a long time. Good times!

what? what!

A few more silly photos here.

• I’ve been really in my head lately it seems. But not in a bad way… kind of in a dreamy, introspective, thoughtful way. Letting life amuse me… allowing the happenstance of the moment or a thought roll through the many passages of my brain… not stopping it, just listening and observing and allowing them to be. I think I’m tired of arguing with myself and pushing myself and feeling like I’m not enough, or doing enough, in some way… and I simply just want to be, and have that be OK just the way it is. It’s easier said than done… but it’s working for the most part. I’m happy.
• My friend Vera quit her full time job awhile back (which is how I know her, as she is also a Flash Goddess) and is now a part-time cab driver, among other things. She just sent out one of her newsletters & announced that she’s started a blog about some of her adventures being a cab driver, especially considering she is one of the few women cab drivers in the city. I read the first one today and then proceeded to read ALL of them. She’s a pretty good writer and I like hearing (reading) about her awareness of her own thoughts, and the basic human interaction and adventures she has daily with complete strangers. It’s kind of like a sneak peak into her unintentionally voyeuristic vantage point as a cab driver, as well as her commitment to herself to be so mindful in every interaction. Sort of a “nothing is a coincidence” POV. I dig it!
• This artist is AMAZING.
• Tips about thinking creatively in everyday life.
• You know when you read something & get such a feeling of completely relating that it gives you some warm feeling inside? Like someone else really understands some part of you and is like you in that same way… and it’s comforting. That’s what I felt when I read Penelope’s post: “Sometimes the only thing that makes sense to me is a clean kitchen. When things feel like they are spinning out of control. So much out of my hands. When my head is full up and I don’t know where to turn… I clean the kitchen. There’s something really comforting about the act of putting away dishes, wiping the counters clean, sweeping the floor and putting out new flowers from the garden. It’s a small thing that I can fix immediately.” ~
• Happy Birthday, Sarah!! xoxoxo Here’s a cute little birthday cartoon for you. :p (done by the same artist who worked on Monster House, if you’re into that!)
• About 2 months ago I was on a big Freaks & Geeks kick (I love that show!!). But all of a sudden I lost Disc 5. I ended up reporting it to Netflix as lost in the mail, but really hoped it would turn up at some point – mostly because I still had yet to watch it! Well on Thursday night, after I got home from a crazy night out (photos coming in the post after this), I decided to rearrange my bedroom a little. haha! Nothing like rearranging furniture at 2:30am, eh?! Considering my bed has probably been in that same spot for a good 2 years, in doing so I found a lot of little surprises. One of them being the lost DVD! yay! haha. The only other funny thing (because huge lint/hair balls are so not funny) was I found literally about 12 hairties (rubberbands) that had been lost in the cracks at one time or another. Oh & Kazoobie’s favorite ball he’s quite excited to be reunited with. Which leads me to my story about yesterday/lastnight. Well, maybe a few.
• For awhile there my house was quite a mess. Working from home, and then going out like a madwoman all the time, occasionally leads to my house getting a little out of control. Dishes stack up, stacks of dirty (or sometimes clean) clothes everywhere, etc. So, Wednesday night I had come home after BAM and cleaned my house like crazy. And then Thursday morning I had gotten up, finished doing dishes & did all my laundry that day – finally! So after rearranging my bedroom Thursday night, Friday morning I was all motivated to do some finishing touches on the new arrangement, which led me to a bit of Spring cleaning. woohoo! After lunch w/ Ali & Ben, I decided I wasn’t being that productive at home, so after picking up my camera (yay!), I headed downtown and returned a few things (to do list: check!), and then went on a shopping spree at Old Navy. I really love Old Navy!! haha. Seriously.
• So lastnight after getting home & making dinner, I watched a little Freaks & Geeks & then descended upon my closet. Mostly because this Sunday my girlfriends & I (and many other girls I don’t know, via my friend Sharon) are having a big Clothing Swap party! Oh yes… many girls running around in their bras & underwear. I’ll stop there because the shrills of “aww what a cute top!” might not be as hot for you. hahaa. SO I dove in to see what clothes I should finally say goodbye to. And actually it was HARD! I have a lot of great clothes! It’s funny how we can get so caught in ruts, or habits with what we wear. It made me realize I need to #1. STOP buying t-shirts and jeans. Hi! I have SO MANY! haha. I wear most of the t-shirts, but I realized I have like 14 pairs of jeans I only wear about 3 of. But I tried them on lastnight & was like OMG these are awesome! haha. So I’ll have to re-evaluate the THREE new pairs I bought yesterday. hahaa. jeeshk! #2. I reorganized my closet so all my jeans are more accessible. And I put all my “I’m too fat for these right now” clothes away. *sigh* let’s hope I can eventually get back into them someday!
• I smell something burning. Wouldn’t that be scary if it was my downstairs neighbors house? I hope it goes away soon.

OK, I’m finally done. byeee.

Lastnight a bunch of us girls met up for dinner at Medjool. I had never done a sit down dinner there in the restaurant, but it was sooo good! I’m craving those scallops today! mmm!

L to R: Katie, Aubs, Amy, Ali, me & Dixie @ Medjool

So dinner was fabulous and it was great to be out with just girls. But it probably goes without saying, after a few glasses of wine we were ready to go! (some of the photos on Aubrey’s camera will be great here :p)

I’d heard Brett was having a birthday party, from Becca earlier in the day, and Brett also dodgeball’d it out – so we figured, what the heck. It was just a block or so away from where we ate, in the Mission – let’s go check it out! So we stopped off & grabbed a bottle of wine (which we now realize, we should have bought like 4! ha! sorry, brett! and thanks! :) and headed over there. I think we surprised Brett, but something tells me he probably wasn’t too bummed when 6 pretty girls showed up unexpectedly.

Birthday boy, Brett & his very appropriate t-shirt :D

Aubrey had already been DayDrinking™ before dinner, so that combined with more wine provided us with endless entertainment for the evening! hehe! We love our Aubs!

Aubrey fell in love with this bear

Ali & I soon met some fellow SonicLiving peeps (aka music freaks), I saw a few other people I knew, and the night was underway! Then a few other friends, who had seen my Dodgeball, showed up & made the party even MORE fun!

woohooo! lulu is here!

gun show

Brett & his ladies

aww yaa, we’re professionals

In summary, we had another ridiculously fun night. Our lives rule!

Happy Birthday, Brett & thanks for hosting a great party! xoxo

View the photo album here.

UPDATE:

OMG, Aubrey just uploaded her photos from Saturday night and a few of them had me laughing so frickin hard!!

There’s this slew of me having some discussion with Kenneth that I obviously had some very strong feelings about! haha! And then with Matt’s face popping up all crazy in the background of every one of them – omg…. HYSTERICAL!!

UPDATE: I uploaded the random videos from this night – some funny stuff.