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My deepest apologies for the lack of blog action lately. I’m not sure I can even tell you where the last month has gone. Aside from studying and traveling, the rest of my time was spent planning!
Ten years ago, when I went off to college, mi madre turned 50. And I recall that after her birthday had passed there was a little disappointment in the air about not having been thrown a party. Dan and I put a little note in the back of our brains to do something for her 60th. Luckily, we also had a few reminders from her along the way! She also remembered to remind us that she had never been thrown a surprise party before. Note taken.
The planning began in the early summer and we decided to throw her party at the Stone House winery nearby their neighborhood. Invites were sent, food was ordered and my trial run at being a pathological liar/actress/fugitive began. We picked the Saturday before her birthday to throw the party. The kicker in throwing her off was that I had told her I’d be on vacation in Maryland that weekend, but would be home the weekend after her birthday to celebrate. She began asking questions when she knew we were up to something. I just told her to stop talking about it and know that she would be celebrated.
During the week before the party, we finalized decorations and plans. I also sent her and Dan an itinerary for my upcoming trip (changing the dates in my original itinerary). She bought it. After work Friday, I headed down to Austin to stay the night with Amanda. The next morning, after a delicious Kerby Lane breakfast, cousin Amanda and I ran around town picking up the cake and flowers before we headed out to Spicewood. The plan was to hide out at Jenny’s(friend of my Mom’s) house before the party and on the way out there I would call my Mom to say I had made it to Maryland (she knew I was “arriving” around 1:30). But, while we were in Central Market picking up the cake, I received a text from my Mom asking if I had made it to Maryland yet. I responded that I was at the bag claim and would call her from the car. Which I did. It’s just that the car was in Austin (and would be driving within 50 feet of the house) and not Maryland. Before I called, I made sure to check the Maryland weather and get all my facts together so I wouldn’t blow anything. This all sounds so easy, but I was a nervous wreck we were going to spoil it somehow!
Enter Lance. About 2 hours before the party, while we were working on flower arrangements, I got a call from Dan. Lance had left a message singing Happy Birthday to my Mom. Dan, on top of his game, quickly deleted it before she heard or before Lance said anything like, “Have fun at your party tonight”. We had to be careful. We’d gone this far without her knowing, we had to finish strong. I told Lance to call back the next day and repeat his message. Which he did, what a sweet guy!
Everyone arrived right on time, the food was plentiful and delicious, the wine was excellent (I downed 2 glasses out of nervouseness before she arrived), the decorations pretty amazing (if I say so myself) and best of all… we pulled it off!! And I was no longer lying to my Mom about EVERYTHING. Not easy to do when you are such a perfect daughter!
Laurie and Jenny picked her up for a “girls night”. She really wasn’t suspecting anything but that at all. Here’s a visual recap of the party. Pardon the multiple videos… I got really nervous when she was walking in and accidentally hit stop on the recorder. Since my hand-eye coordination is spot on, I recovered just in time.
After dinner, we moved out to the outdoor patio to have cake. One of my Mom’s dearest friends, Kati, offered to sing a song when we were doing toasts. She chose “You’re The Top” by Cole Porter. I googled the lyrics ahead of time and found them fitting since there are so many art history references. Turns out, my Mom loves the song. Bonus! (Side note, Kati also did my hair and make-up for prom. What a good friend!). It was such a magical moment and I get chills/watery eyes each time I watch this video!
You’re the top!
You’re Mahatma Gandhi.
You’re the top!
You’re Napoleon Brandy.
You’re the purple light
Of a summer night in Spain,
You’re the National Gallery
You’re Garbo’s salary,
You’re cellophane.
You’re sublime,
You’re turkey dinner,
You’re the time, the time of a Derby winner
I’m a toy balloon that’s fated soon to pop
But if, baby, I’m the bottom,
You’re the top!
When the festivities were winding down, we took a group shot with the face mask things I made using a picture from when she was in 2nd grade. (Thanks to Chuy’s for making Elvis ones and giving me the idea).
It was a perfect evening for a perfect and well deserving lady! Thanks to Jenny and Laurie for setting up “girls night”. Thanks to me for planning it all. And thanks to Dan for picking up the tab!
Happy Birthday, Mom! LYTM!
P.S. You can see the rest of the pictures (and really cool centerpieces) here.
In the midst of packing, I came across a few water damaged photos and letters. It took me a minute to remember what they were. Back in the 6th grade, three of my friends and I made a time capsule one night. There were photos, letters to ourselves and a video. We were planning to get back together 10 years from then to uncover our buried treasure.
Our original plan was to dig a hole in this grassy median that was across the street from my beloved Bryker house. After a debate between Sarah and Kelley over whether or not it would be safe to plant our time capsule on land that was not technically ours, we decided to just dig a hole in my parents front yard. Into a Tupperware container went all the goods which we then buried about a foot below ground. Not sure the rents were cool with the size and location of the hole, let alone there being a hole in their front yard.
Fast forward 3 years when they decided to sell our house (still not sure I’m over this) and I had to dig up the treasure and then rebury it in the backyard of our new house. Dumb old me buried it on a slope and after a major rainstorm, I looked into the backyard and the time capsule was definitely uncovered. And wet. I think the video was shot, but I still managed to hold onto the letters and a few photos. Which, with all the colors, could definitely pass as artistic.
Here is my letter to myself, it’s pretty entertaining…
Dear Emily,
You will probably be 21 or 22, possibly at A&M, Kansas (wildcats), Duke (ya right) or maybe Texas (if I have a lot to drink). Hopefully I will still be a basketball or volleyball player when I pick my career. My best friends are Claire, Kelley, and Sarah. I hope I don’t get into any gangs or get into any drugs. My favorite sport is basketball and my favorite actor I guess is Elvis, singer too.
(Then we each proceeded to write what we thought about the other three)
Kelley – wild, nice, smart, cool, party animal, good at basketball, pretty special
Claire – nice, sweet, smart (very smart), great at kickball, pretty special
Sarah – hyper at times, smart, nice, can say stuff at the wrong time, talks fast, starts spitting when she does stocks (a project we had been working on in school).
Bye,
Emily Clark
P.S. Be like me when I grow up.
That’s Kelley with the clunker of a video camera. My favorite quote of hers that I have to share, “changes are happening (under arm hair, hair on your privet)… you are 5 feet tall, with red hair to the middle of your back, and chapped lips”.
Yes, friends, I am still alive. And I’m still kicking. Maybe not as far as exams go, but as far as life in general… totally kicking ash. This little ditty of a blog hasn’t gotten much attention lately, but I promise to have a fun report of NYC with pictures when I return.
In the mean time I have some random comments to share.
1. Mary on step aerobics: “My yoga teacher came and recruited me for stupid step aerobics yesterday afternoon. I thought I didn’t want to go and then being in there totally failing at the moves confirmed that I did not want to go. It was a good workout but I just felt like an idiot. The stick arms totally go into effect in step aerobics.”
Step aerobics frustrate the bejesus out of me. Everyone in those classes always seem to know the moves and every command/name the instructor shouts out. It takes all I have to keep up and not break an ankle. And when I reach the point where I have the move down pat, they always shout something else out and I’m back at ground zero.
For my own curiosity, I just googled step aerobics moves. There are websites with explanations of the moves. I was already familiar with the “Grapevine” and “Around the World”. But, my step aerobic vocab has just expanded. Who knew there were such moves as the “Flamingo”, “Helicopter”, “Horseshoe”, “Revolving Door” and “Rocking Horse”. I mean, really?
I feel like yoga has a lot of names, too, but at least you hold each pose for an hour so it’s fairly easy to learn. Kickboxing is pretty easy, too, as long as you don’t have stick arms. Jab, cross, hook, upper cut and a few kicks. Everyone know’s an 80′s kick. Simple stuff. Spinning is pretty easy as well since there are only three positions. That’s what she said.
2. Kelley on her brother-in-law: ”The brother-in-law is still a dbag. I have never understood why some guys think that a maroon shirt and black pants go well together. That is his go to outfit. What a dbag.”
I have never been a big fan of this combo on a guy and now I know I’m not the only one. Maybe this is what Gamma means when she says, “you’re too picky”.
It’s really nice to have friends with completely different occupations than your own. When you trade emails during the day, it’s always entertaining to hear what they are up to during work hours. Case in point, this is how Nana is spending her day:
“Alright, time to look over some IQ test results (not mine) and meet with a 4 year old who keeps spanking his classmates. Good times.”
Makes me appreciate my 10 key (aka calculator) a little more. Not really. Being able to spell H-E double hockey sticks upside down loses it’s luster after a while. Children spanking children is much more enlightening.
Well, my proud parents (and proud fake parents) witnessed me join PCPC today. Having to get up in front of a large group of people to be recognized never gets less embarrassing. Especially when your fake dad has an extremely large fake grin on his face and you can’t help but look, but then have to turn away so you aren’t caught laughing, especially when you are in front of the church. Thank goodness I managed to say my lines perfectly (“I do” five times) and I didn’t end up tripping in front of everyone. I did have one small wardrobe malfunction, but hopefully only the really close up people saw my upside down, flipped inside out name tag. We can’t all be perfect all the time. But some of us can come awfully close, ahem.
The last 6-8 months have been a growing and learning process. God has been working in my heart and I finally understand what it feels like to be thirsty for Him. With the help of amazing friends and the church, I’ve begun to understand what a relationship with Him is really like. This afternoon I finished reading Tim Keller’s book, “The Prodigal God”, and I after I read this quote, I read it a couple of times because it exactly sums up these last few months for me. It’s a quote by Jonathan Edwards. And I’m guessing we aren’t talking about the ex presidential candidate.
“There is a difference between believing that God is holy and gracious, and having a new sense on the heart of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of its sweetness”.
It’s taken me a while to get a sense of His sweetness, but I’m finally getting there.
This is what it looks like to live in Dallas. IFFD!
If you recall last May, the Rubottom’s and I ventured down to Palacios for Courtney and Jeff’s wedding. Well, Palacios must be the gift that keeps on giving, because this weekend Courtney finally sent around pictures from the wedding. It took a while to go through them, but I did find a couple of gems worthy of noting. I’ve decided I really love dance floor pictures. There’s just so much happening and I can be easily entertaining dissecting them for hours.
Is it true that this is what I look like on the dance floor?
And here are the three of us dancing, yet not even looking at each other. Notice the girl in front who is stealing my signature move.
The good news is, at least I don’t look like this guy…
I remember when Courtney and Jeff were leaving, I happened to be caught in the line of fire during the rice throwing. Now I have proof it wasn’t an accident.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
In my three weeks of sobriety, I totally forgot how much fun it is to go out with friends. I also forgot how much fun a random night can be. Case in point, please watch the videos here.
We hit up an art gallery, Cafe Izmir, a cougar themed birthday party and then had a chocolate martini nightcap at the Balcony Club. Talk about a sweet joint. They had a band that was jamming to some sweet jazz similar to what I used to hear waking up on a weekend morning at my Dad’s house. Naturally, I was really into it. So much so, that I think I could get a second job moonlighting as a jazz band interpreter. No, I’m not talking about signing. I’m talking about movin’ and groovin’, trying to convey the emotions of the music through facial expressions and body movements. Crystal and I dabbled that a little a few years ago on a family vacation to San Diego. We practiced our skills to the open credits of ER. It was powerful.
On a related note, I took Rocky for a walk this evening when I got home. It was dark out, but I chose well lit streets so my dentist wouldn’t worry. There were some good jams on the radio and I realized that if I go walking when it’s dark, I can really rock out to the music, much like I would if I were a jazz interpreter. It was definitely considered free style walking and I am glad no one could see it. Cause if they did, they’d think I was a crazy person. Which might not be too far off from the truth anyways.
Hold your breath, I am back. It was a busy December and since I’m low on time these days, I’m gonna quickly recap the last couple weeks.
I already told you about Graceland. And about the Elfing. So after that, there was the White Rock Marathon Relay. I ran with Robyn and some her of Speech Path peeps. I had the last leg, which was 6.2 and slightly downhill most of the way. Which is probably why I was able to set a 10K PR of 47:48. The nervous energy had been bundling up all morning as I waited for my turn and so it’s no wonder I thought I was going to pass out at the 3 mile marker when my time was under 22 minutes. I took about 3 ten second baby walk breaks but kept up my pace. Originally, I was hoping I could keep us under the 4 hour mark, but when it got closer, I decided to shoot for under 3:45. And we did just that… 3:44. 6th place in your division isn’t too shabby.
That same weekend I also took my Audit final and (hopefully) became CPA eligible. I’ve re-evaluated my transcript 15 times to make sure I meet the requirements, so unless there’s something dumb I missed, I should be in. And with that I made the plunge and purchased my CPA review course. Holy Batman balls, that stuff ain’t cheap. It costs about 3 times what it should, in my humble opinion. FYI, come March when I plan to start studying, you might not see or hear from me for a while. And it won’t be because your armpits stink.
Christmas came next and there are really only two things to say about that.
One, here are the tackiest Christmas decorations I’ve ever seen. An inflatable Santa popping out of a NASCAR car with a polar bear waving a checkered flag? Really, Texas? And yes, I maneuvered my way on to these people’s lawn to get a close-up.
Two, what could be a better Christmas gift than matching his and her’s Snuggies? I really don’t think it get’s any better than this.
I know I left out a lot, but there are a few highlights. Stay tuned for an update on the Daniel Fast as well as my new ride…
Just in time for the holidays, I have a new Christmas story to share. My dear friend, Suzanna, told it to me the other day and I couldn’t resist passing it along. It’s a story about two elves who attended a party at their friend Laurie’s house. I hope you enjoy!
Here’s a story about naughty elves…
Here they are up on arrival, they look nice enough…
But then they did a jig in front of the tree to celebrate the start of Christmas, which
made them very tired so they had to take a quick nap, which
made their armpits a little stinky and their hair really greasy so they took a shower and
were caught in the act!
Nature calls at odd times, you can’t help it. Good thing she has two toilets in her bathroom!
Elves love babies so they stopped to say hi to the one on the couch.
Posing with the Christmas activities is what elves do best!
Naughty elves, they took a trench coat, Monica Lewinsky photo. You have to keep an eye on them!
Love,
Emily Elf and Suzanna Elf
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