Graduation Season and a Sister Visit

Highlights since we last spoke:

Rob's mom and dad were in town for 2 1/2 glorious days to celebrate graduation with us! We ate well, we drank better (his mom is a very discriminating red wine drinker and his dad is a lager buff). We had crazy big storms on Friday morning and overnight, but it cleared up before Saturday morning graduation. We had to muck our way through a swamp to get to seats on the lawn, but the ceremony was outside and the bright blue sky was gorgeous! Rob and his two best buddies got a "Ta Da!" style horn-quintet chord played for each of them during the Friday Doctoral Hooding Ceremony (epic), and that was topped by getting to high-five Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who was the commencement speaker, as they walked across the graduation stage (epic-er).

The three graduates hosted a BBQ in our friends' backyard for only our families and their main composition professors and it was nothing short of the perfect way to celebrate their hard work and accomplishments. They're all such laid back guys and so family oriented; anything else, like a dinner out, wouldn't have felt like the right conclusion to their four years together. Spending time with the other two guys' families was a real treat. Oh, and the plethora of grilled dinner options was pretty much the best.

My sister got engaged a few months ago and they plan to wed before we depart for China. Since they had lived in China and Hong Kong before their move back to the States, they wanted to find a way to incude their friends from all over on their special day, even if they're halfway around the world. So, in the tradition of Chinese FuXi (wished for luck and prosperity), she wants to send out red hanging tags that friends and far away family can write notes on and they'll all be tied to a cord at the wedding. With my arsenal of cutting mats and exacto blades, I volunteered to work on the project. And then she got really sad that she wasn't able to work on wedding projects alongside sisters. So, a ticket was booked with miles and less than 48 hours later, she was hanging out in my living room. I got sister time! I got to spend time talking, giggling, crying, and getting excited about the next year for each of us with my sister standing in the same room as me! And she got over 250 red mat board hangtags to include in mailings to her friends. And, now, I wouldn't be at all shocked if she showed up in Phoenix to work on invitations with our other sister.

My dainty little cat also got hold of a gecko and ate him. That was thrilling.

This week was not at all what I expected, but the mix of good and bad (uugh, work is getting tricky with end-of-the-school-year-grant-reporting) makes me tired and happy.

Whirlwind Week

Pants: Zara...Blouse: thrifted...Cardigan: Target...Shoes: Naturalizer

It's been a wild week and getting more nuts! We sold our Honda Fit on Tuesday (I cried. It was such a good car), and went to see my friend's dress rehearsal of Chinglish, which was an excellent play. A friend from Arizona was in town visiting his parents, so we went to dinner last night and ate a disgusting amount of sushi. We've been packing and selling things like crazy after we posted a bunch of things in the university's online advertisement forum. Poor Rob has spent two days doing nothing but answer questions like "Yes, it's a pretty standard crock pot. No, that tall shelf can't be shortened. Sure, you can come look at it, but it has to be before Friday at 10."

And that's because Friday afternoon is his Doctoral Hooding Ceremony. And Saturday at the buttcrack of dawn is Graduation. Which, by the way, might get rained out, so each candidate only gets two tickets for the Field House, and our group includes a spouse and two parents. (Oh, yeah, and Rob's parents are arriving tonight!) Bromance's family is here too, and his cousin is joining the group, so if we can't weasel our way into any extra tickets, his mom and I are going to spend our morning watching the televised version and drinking mimosas together. I sure would love to see them graduate since I'm so sick of student-hood, but spending time that way isn't a terrible alternative.

So, I'll see you all next week! Maybe. There's been a lot of friend time each evening, lots of arrangements to make, but at least we're getting it all done earlier than later. Phew, I'm overwhelmed and exhausted already!

Beaches and Ballgames

Okay, so last Friday, I got a little ahead of myself when I chattered about the baseball game. And I never posted a photo of the weekend in Galveston. So, here we go.

It's been a yearly tradition to join the head of the composition department for a celebratory weekend away with all the composer students. This year, we all piled into a house south of Galveston. I've ripped on Galveston before for being too touristy and for not having nice beaches. But, dang, if you get out of the city a little ways, the sand is light and fluffy, wide beaches, and quiet. A little overcast and a bit chilly, but we got some good tennis golf going down on the beach, card games and giggling, and tons of opportunity to watch some cut-throat beer pong. I enjoyed myself immensely!

Thursday through Sunday, we were able to score cheap seats to see all four Detroit Tigers' games against the Houston Astros (charmingly known as the Last-ros. They're not very good). Rob has been a Tigers' fan since he was in the womb (no joke, he was born days after the last time they won the World Series) and he and his dad have been long-distance radio and online tracking the seasons together since we moved away from northern Ohio. And the Astros juuuuust switched leagues, so they came to town to play a series for the first time since we've been down south. Needless to say, we were really excited about it!

I spent the beginning of every game hovering around the 3rd base fence, hoping to get my favorite player, Austin Jackson, to sign my ball cap. I'll be honest, I have a big crush on the guy, but it sure doesn't hurt that he's a pretty potent center fielder. Dude can run and can catch some really impressive fly balls.

No luck on a signature, but he did turn and wave once when the kid next to me yelled his name. I would say "Close enough" but I really thought I had a chance at a pitty autograph since I was down there every day. Tough luck. Also, Sunday's game was pitched by Justin Verlander (widely reconized as the best pitcher of any team right now) and we were less than 200 feet from his warm up before the game. Rob did a little fan-boy dance. Can't say I blame him.

This is when he turned to acknowledge the little boy.

Oh, hey, Justin Verlander. No biggie, we're 200 feet away from the MLB MVP of 2012.

Nice sneer.

Other highlights: Bromance came to all four games with us and purchased a refillable popcorn tub for $10 the first game. We refilled that bad boy for free the rest of the series. Brilliant. Little Roo was in town for a visit from L.A. and we got to spend all of Saturday with her. Such a treat! Our buddy also made a strange face in every photo I snapped of him. It's a series of photographs I'm proud to have. Aaaaand, on Sunday's game, Rob was accosted by the Astros' mascot for being a Tigers fan. He was made to tie the mascot's shoe, and then the mascot flipped his Astros jersey over Rob's head to cover the Detroit Tigers "D" shirt. No joke, it was 3 minutes full of pretty absurd interaction with an enormous green muppet. The Little League kids a few rows behind us were cackling, they loved it!

Trenches and Dugouts

Jeans: Gap Always Skinny...Button-down: Target...Trench: Target...Shoes: Cole Haan via DSW...Necklace: Etsy

Second baseball game toniiiight! Crap, I love Tigers Baseball.

Plus, our buddy is coming back for a visit. Little Roo, Rob's adopted baby sister, moved to LA for her graduate program last year and it's been darn lonely without her!

Happy weekend, dear friends.

Adios, Chambray. I mean "Zaijian"

This isn't the most lovely photo, it's not even decent. But, it's kind of funny how accurate it is of life lately. The proof?
1. Dusty, disgusting mirror
2. Rumpled, filthy rug
3. Beagle furiously sniffing out all of the dead bugs unearthed in the moving around of things
4. Boxes, mostly still empty, absolutely everywhere
5. Stepstool, used daily to fish something out of a high stack
6. Empty furnishings, sad stacked dvd storage behind me, piles emptied from my junk drawer in the bedroom
7. We won't talk about the nightmare happening on top of my dresser just behind that door with the belt haphazardly looped over a knob
8. Wet hair, unbrushed, because I don't feel like it
9. Oh, yeah, and a last hurrah for some of my more attractive clothing, because I'm saving all my good stuff until after the move

Also not up for discussion? The multitude of floor-scattered sorting projects. The plethora of hangers now sadly hanging derelict in my closet since everything good from wintertime is in a duffel. Remnants of my grand plan to get gone a bunch of stuff in a garage sale. We're also without a sofa, kind of. Our houndstooth couch found a new home with our neighbors and, after June 1, the sofa we're temporarily housing for our friends, purchased from another neighbor, is going away and we'll be seat-less for a month. Lots of Hulu watching in bed and only passed hors d'ouvres parties. Mashed up with a box obstacle course in our living room.

Transition is funny. Packing our lives up into four large suitcases and carefully planned boxes of winter coats and books to be shipped in the fall is a tricky thing.

Black and White: a Formula

Skirt: Banana Republic...Sweater: F21...Belt: Gap...Shoes: thrifted...Earrings: J Crew outlet

This is from a looong time ago, as in my mid-March board meeting. Yikes, I'm behind. P.S.- this is such an easy winter-time formula. Variations of black and white, pattern-mixing graphic elements. Lazy? Perhaps, but it's so easy to look put together in a pinch. Like here, here, or here.

Rob and I did a bad thing. We started watching Lost again. I already know how it all goes down, but maaaan, I'm sucked in. Whoops.

Navy, Mint, and White

Jeans: Gap...Tee: UO...Blazer: Gap...Scarf: Suzhou (Rob's little token from his interview trip)...Shoes: Nine West Outlet

Um, so blogging took a back seat. Sorry 'bout that.

Stuff I've been up to:
Post-gala wrap up. Always.
The Orange Show "Un-Concert." I still owe you guys a little bit about that.
Garage Sale with our neighbors two weekends ago. Got rid of a handful of small stuff. We'll plan on another one June 1. Hopefully we aren't without furniture for too long!
I also packed up my first 50-lb. duffel bag. We're gathering boxes to do a slow shipment later in the year with books and winter clothes. Three months to go and our house is already a wreck.
This past weekend was the annual composer weekend away. Mmmm, sunshine and beers.
Lots and lots and lots of friend time. We haven't gotten much of anything productive done most evenings.

P.S. I have no idea why I don't wear this navy blazer more. It's lightweight, has nice slim sleeves, and is the perfect cropped length. It's a no-brainer. I also purchased myself glasses after my first vision check in a few years and went for these totally rad green hipster frames. Geek chic with a little flair, no?

Gettin' Fancy, 60's Style

The Pop Art Soiree... the all-consuming gala is over. Not without incident, of course, but for all the work and drama we invested in getting ready, it sure was fun!

High points:
Our honoree (President of the Children's Hospital) told my friend her short haircut styled a little like James Dean was "fancy."
The little girl who came with her family to present the award to the honoree (a cancer survivor who had her treatment at the hospital, where our organization also presents arts education programming) was way way way proud of her dress. The cutest.
Pop Art = the cool version of the 60's = seriously amazing dresses.
A board member got a little faced and fell under her table. At least it was in the corner of the ballroom.
I was the test run for the Smilebooth set up. It was so sad and lonely looking. Even though I made fish lips. I neglected to take any fun photos with anyone, so that hideous solo photostrip is all I got. Nope, not gonna share.
I made buddies with a gaggle of High Schoolers who volunteered with us. I have NO idea how kids today seem so much more cool than when I was in high school.
My coworker wore 1 1/2" long holographic gold false eyelashes. Win.
I last-minute had a dress altered that I thrifted. Not bright or tremendously 60's, but very pretty.

Oh, my gosh, look how 80's awful the neckline was when I thrifted it!

Tucson, I Wonder if My Name is Alice

Backin' Up for a recap of "I Wonder if My Name is Alice" by Artifact Dance Company in Tucson, AZ, with collaborative murals by Joe Pagac, and Act II music by Robert McClure.

Holy Crap, these women are talented. Creative Directors Ashley Bowman and Claire Hancock knocked this spectacle show out of the park. The sets were simple, but graphic and incredibly effective. The collaboration with painter Joe Pagac to literally "paint the scene" for the audience was exciting and such a dynamic way to get the most out of the live interactive performance, I was sucked right into Wonderland as an audience member. The costumes were jaw-on-the-ground beautiful, with the movement and wearability considered to the maximum potential for beauty and believability. And, well, my husand's music kicked off the journey down the Rabbithole and it. was. awesome. This young company is going to make a major dent in the Dance World, watch for them the next few years, they're going to be doing some really cool things. Probably because they like the combination of way outside of the box creativity and don't bother to sleep. Worth it.

He painted this within a minute, and then dropped the center to reveal...

the caterpillar herself.

The Cheshire Cat, making sure Alice doesn't know which way is which.

Poor Alice, completely lost.

The White Rabbit with Ben Nisbet, Artifact's musical director.

Tea Party! They got sloshed.

The Caterpillar, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Queen of Hearts, Alice, the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, March Hare, and the Gryphon.

Oh, Hey Guys!

Just a few looks that I was wearing over two weeks ago while it was chilly here in Houston... and then the Gala week showed up and I have zero memory of what I wore, no idea what I ate, no memory of getting any sleep. No joke there- I spent two nights last week hanging out in my office making friends with the vaccuum crew until 3 am. But, the Gala happend, we put out fires as cheerfully as we could, and our guests had a whole lot of fun! So, whether it was perfect or not, it was memorable and, I think, a success! But, more on that later.

Some upcoming goodies in a few subsequent posts: a few photos from our trip to Tucson for Rob's collaboration show with Artifact Dance. Tales of the Gala that happend on Thursday. Pictures of the Orange Show Un-Concert that happened last night and is going down again tonight. It's been a busy busy busy couple of weeks, and maaaaan am I glad it's all winding down, but lots of good stuff. 

I'm exhausted!