A Girl of 28 Summers

So a lot has happened since my last post. For starters,  I celebrated my 28th birthday. This birthday started out a little rocky but it ended strong. Gather 'round and let me tell you a tale...

Tuesday, three days prior to said birthday I received some sad news. My bestie's former roommate (who had been very supportive of my art) passed away on Monday. I couldn't help but feel an extreme amount of guilt upon hearing this news because we all knew this girl had been troubled and was headed in a bad direction. Since I didn't know her very well though, I didn't feel it was my place to suggest to her that she seek help. I never would've thought that in 2 1/2 weeks since I last saw her that she would be gone. I just hope that maybe now she'll be able to find the peace that she was unable to find in this life. 

So yeah...week prior to birthday off to a bad start. 

Then actual birthday arrives. I had requested it off from work ages ago (because who wants to work on their b-day?) but hadn't really made any plans since I'd been putting all of my energy into getting ready for my party that weekend. So Thursday I'm like, "Shit! What am I gonna do tomorrow? I can't just sit around and do nothing!" I then proceeded to contact all of my close friends to see if they'd be able to get together for a last minute dinner thing. When I woke up the next day I sprang out of bed hoping to find a homemade card or maybe some balloons from my family. 

Nope.

My dad had been having some car trouble the day before so Friday afternoon he had to have his car towed and I guess there was drama because when he got home he had FORGOTTEN it was my birthday. This was a major blow and considering the epic meltdown my dad had the week previous about me moving to Seattle, I expected at LEAST a card. Yeah...so I got a little cranky on my b-day. To add to my current crankiness I had to run all over town in the blazin' heat buying food for my party. I really hate shopping at multiple stores. There needs to be one store with everything that you could possibly want to buy in it. That would make me happy. 

Anyway, so I'm crankypants and still have no plans yet for my b-day when my friend, Maddie calls. We had gone to trivia at George and Dragon the night before and had talked a little bit about maybe getting together for my b-day but she didn't get off work until 5pm. So she calls and is up for hanging out. Night starts to get better. Then my other girlfriend, Heather, calls and asks me if I'm doing anything for my b-day. Night continues to get increasingly better. So we all agree to go to Krua Thai (my favorite thai restaurant). Heather meets me at my house and surprised me by bringing our other friend, Jackie, along! All of us are very giggly/excitable girls so imagine all of us being together in a somewhat small/quiet restaurant...I'll just say the other patrons didn't find our conversations as entertaining as we did. But it was my birthday, so fuck 'em! After dinner we took lots of goofy pictures then went back to my house and watched Demetri Martin's special "Person" on Netflix (which I highly recommend).

So birthday Part 1 turned out successful. Next was birthday Part 2. I love me a theme party so naturally this party had a theme. Since I exploit any opportunity to dress up super fancy, I chose to do a "prom" theme.

Fun Fact: Courtney didn't go to her prom and has been haunted by this fact for many years. (even though she probably would've hated it if she had gone)

I got a super cute dress from Forever21 and a bow from Claire's. Here's a photo!

I'd have to say this was my best birthday party to date. All of my favorite humans were there which made me really happy since this was a Birthday/Going Away party. Although I won't miss Arizona, I'm going to miss my Arizona family more than I could possibly say. For the first time in my life I have a rock solid group of friends who I all love dearly. They've been so supportive and wonderful and will always have a special place in my heart. Here's a few more pics from the evening:

Alright, my hand is getting crampy from too much blogging but I'll post more info about my upcoming move (and new art pics) soon!

Laters!

Wild Wild Life

Jeepers creepers...again it's been an age since I updated this blog. But don't blame me. It' s not my fault...really! Since last time I posted someone new as come into my life, someone very special. His name is Netflix and I must say that we are very very happy together. Happy as clams. Peas in a pod. However, he takes up most of my evenings, leaving little time to update this sorry excuse for a blog. 

So...since last post I had my senior show, went to Disneyland, and had a birthday. Let's start with the show. Well, it turned out to be a GREAT success and I'm very pleased with how smoothly everything went. My children's bedroom installation came together just as I had imagined. Hanging my pieces was a bit tricky and I must admit that I had nightmares that entire weekend that involved my pieces crashing down but luckily that didn't actually happen. The opening reception was scheduled from 6-8pm and it was surreal how quickly the time zoomed by. I was very touched by how many of my favorite people attended; a support system is key to an artist. An unexpected thing happened at the aforementioned show as well...I attracted the attention of an AGENT who is going to represent my work! I'm very very pleased with this arrangement and am very much looking forward to creating new work. I've even decided to start selling prints and plushies on Etsy so I might score some extra cash this summer :) Here's some pics from the show:

So yeah...lots of exciting things going on these days. Let's move on to the birthday...To be honest, I was DREADING this birthday since I was transitioning into the last leg of my darling twenties. I know I don't look old and I certainly don't feel old but I guess I just don't feel like I've accomplished as much as I thought I would by this age. Don't get me wrong, I've come a LONG way in the past 7 years, in fact 7 years ago I never could have imagined I'd be doing all of the things I'm doing today but...I had dreamed of having a book published by now and had assumed that I would've found that elusive Mr. Right by the ripe old age of 27. But...some wisdom I've gained in my "old age" is that you can't plan your life. It just doesn't work like that. However, I do feel like I'm getting closer to wear I'm supposed to be and then the rest will fall into place. *Hopefully* Now back to the birthday.

Since I was feeling morose about my looming birthday I had an idea. I should have one last party. I hadn't had an actual birthday party since I was 18 so I was long overdue. Also, I wanted the chance to get as many of my friends in the same location as possible since my time in Arizona has become limited. For the theme I chose to do a costume party...an ANIMAL costume party since most of you know I am very found of the critters :) Since I have very limited funds at the present, I had to concoct a cost effective costume so I bought some bunny ears from the dollar bin at Target, fished out my face paint from Halloween and selected an adorable white party dress from my closet that had been anxiously awaiting to make its public debut. My lovely friend, Ashley, offered to host the party at her house since my house wasn't an option. I thought this was a very kind gesture and am very thankful to her for offering to help a sista out. We started the evening out with a little Mario Kart action. I chose my Mii and the Magic Cruiser if you're curious. As to be expected, I won all of the cups...minus one. Hannah somehow managed to beat me by one point at the very end. 

After that we moved onto Pictionary. We did boys vs girls and I'm proud to say that Team Estrogen was victorious. I find it very interesting to observe the variances in how men and women play this game. Men start shouting out nouns before you've even started to draw while the women wait patiently for you to complete your drawing before they start their guessing. Next we moved onto my very favorite party game. This game turned out to be the highlight of the evening and I'm still giggling to myself just thinking about it. We played a game called "Telestrations". It's basically a combination of Pictionary and Telephone. Everyone gets a sheet of paper and a pencil and you gather around in a circle. You then think of a word or a short phrase and write it down. Then you fold your paper and pass it counterclockwise and the next person has to illustrate your word. When they pass it along the next person has to then write what they think your drawing is. After every turn you have to fold over what you wrote or drew so the next person doesn't know what the first word was. Here's an example:

Nonetheless, it's a HILARIOUS game and if you're looking for a good belly laugh, which are hard to come by, I highly recommend this game. Just be sure to sharpen the pencils beforehand :) Here's some photos from the evening:

 

 

As for upcoming events, graduation is May 12th. I simply cannot believe how quickly the past 2 years have gone by. It feels like I just came back to Phoenix and in less than a year I'll be off again onto my next great adventure. But I'm very happy with my decision to come back home and finish my degree. It's been one of the best decisions I've ever made. I've grown so much and met so many incredible people since I came home. I'm going to miss everyone so much. Great...now I'm getting all nostalgic. Well, I must have some lunch and squeeze in some reading before I'm off to work but I'll *try* to post again after graduation. 

Toodle-loo!