1. WURSTFEST!

they should really call this festival “BEER&FRIEDFOODOMGIT’STHEBESTTIMEFEST” but i guess that’s not as catchy.

i know that pitcher tower is distracting, but look! it’s mandy! yay!

2. CRAPPY AND KINDA SCARY CARNIVAL RIDES!

you guys i have never ridden a gravitron before, because i was always worried i would totes hurl. but this is a star ship, not a gravitron, right? RIGHT? um… OMG.

even though i was completely fooled by the signage and completely convincing ship exterior, the gravitron was actually a lot of fun, and i didn’t get sick! WIN.

3. SHOTS ON THE STREET!

apparently, it is perfectly legal to set up a bar on the sidewalk outside of wurstfest. best edition of SHAH-SHAH-SH-SH-SH-SHOTS ever.

4. HENRI’S NOSTALGIC TRIP TO GUMBY’S

on the way home from wursfest, we stopped in san marcos so that henri, aka that old dude, could visit his post-college employer, gumby’s pizza. he actually worked at the one in austin, which is now closed, so this was a bittersweet visit. but i’ll tell you what WASN’T bittersweet. THE POKEY STIX! they were, in fact, extreme tasty business.

5. GRANDPA TIM!

YES YES Y’ALL! tim came to austin to celebrate his 30th birthday!! we got to hang out for four days! TIM I MISS YOU ALREADY.

6. THE JAY-Z & BEYONCE SINGALONG

not only was this singalong dance-tastic, but we also got jay-z glasses that were so cheap, they led to this amazing photo. SHYEAH!

7. BECKY!

becky came to austin for a conference, so we got to hang out after TWO YEARS of not seeing each other. WHAT! i know. she even came to the sing-along, thus the ring. cos she ain’t a single lady!

8. MEXICAN MARTINIS

i suppose i should make ray #8, but MEXICAN MARTINIS ARE SO GOOD YOU GUYS.

9. RAY READING “DINOSAUR VS. THE POTTY”

i asked ray to read my new favorite book, and it will probably go down in history as the Greatest Story Time of All Time.

10. REEVES AND HER INABILITY TO TAKE A NORMAL PHOTO

in place of a caption, i will point you in the direction of logan’s face.

11. KARAOKE IN THE XANADU ROOM

as part of tim’s birthday festivities, we reserved the xanadu room at the highball and karaoked our pants off. not that we need any help being awesomely ridiculous, but i’m not gonna lie, the white fur walls certainly didn’t hurt.

12. BOYS WHO LOVE EACH OTHER

any pairing of tim, ray and henri ALWAYS results in lots of sweet boy love. BROTHERS GOTTA HUG!

oh yeah, there’s more.

13. SUPER SHINY MEREDITH!

GOOD LORD! SHIELD YR FACE! human eyeballs are no match for the glittery power of meredith sporting a sequined tank top, jacket, purse and, most dazzling of all, her personality!

14. WINERY TOUR!

after a three year hiatus, pants world finally journeyed forth on another winery tour to (further) celebrate tim’s birthday! and it was SPLENDID! we chartered a shuttle and visited three wineries near fredericksburg, sampling wine, eating snacks and convo-ing it up. sounds pretty amazing, right jenny?

seriously, y’all, it was A PERFECT DAY OF ABSOLUTELY PERFECT PERFECTION, including items 15-18 on this list:

15. TEXAS AUTUMN

note the lack of coats. and the sunshine. and hey, there’s even a few leaves changing color! TEXAS I LU.

based on that picture, i just decided that pants world really, really needs to send out a photo xmas card this year. MAYBE EVEN WITH A SNOWFLAKE GLITTER BORDER!

16. PHOTO BANDITS

photo banditing is a popular sport in pants world, as illustrated by two of its top athletes, henri (above) and trish (below), also known as The Finger.

17. FAUX SENIOR PORTRAITS

amber, i can’t believe we’re finally graduating. we’ve had so many good times, and I KNOW WE’LL ALWAYS BE FRIENDS! call me this summer!! let’s go to target and do some dorm shopping together!!! SENIORS RULE! LOVE YOU GIRL!

18. KIDS IN LEAVES!

oh little girl, you have no idea how much i want to be besties with you. we could form a pink chucks princess club!!!!

19. MY NEW JOB!

BREAKING NEWS F’REALS: i got a new job! i know it’s weird to tell you that via a long list but this is DEFINITELY something that makes me super, duper pantsy. i’m gonna be the special events manager at the highball!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT I’M SO EXCITED!!! basically i get to do what i already do (planner pants the shizz outta fun) at a place i frequent… and GET PAID FOR IT! it’s gonna be a big change for me, professionally, and i’m kinda scared, but i know it’s the right thing to do. WISH ME LUCK!

20. MY LIFE!

this shouldn’t really be an item, but more of a total, because when you add up all of these reasons, they make me, posh deluxe, THE LUCKIEST PANTS IN THE WORLD!

and guess what you guys! i got to see BOTH of them in the same weekend! and oh it made my heart super duper happy, esp. cos they’re hitting major MAJOR milestones: kendall got married, and i found out that mary’s pregnant… WITH TWINS! oh blah di TO THE MAX!!!

friday afternoon, mary picked me up at the baltimore airport, and i promptly shattered her eardrums with my squee when she shared her exciting news. we drove to DC, where she lives with her hubby, john, in this lovely rowhouse:

they didn’t really know i was taking their picture, thus the blank stares. but here’s some smiles for you:

yay! after mary and i convo-ed it up while sitting in their sweet little backyard, the three of us headed to poste, this lovely patio bar that serves DELICIOUS PUNCH. LOOK HOW REFRESHING THIS IS:

GAH. why did i have to take such a delicious picture that now taunts me with its inaccessibility?!!!

the patio was full of lots of dr. professional looking people, and when i asked about it, mary said, “well, people just come straight from work.” and i was like, “ha ha, if this was austin, people would be in jeans and flip flops, even if they came straight from the office!” and while my anti-pantyhose policy and i do love austin’s laidback style, it was kind of fun to be around so many people that seemed, as bridget jones would say, v. busy and important.

and here’s me and mary, being friends!

and here’s us doing the same thing, but ten years ago! and with costumes!

the reason we look so AWESOME is thanks to the annual rice archi arts party. that year (2000), the theme was “lyric,” and i went dressed up as “the ladybug’s picnic,” and i think (?) mary went as “margaritaville.” this is just one of my many fantastic rice memories featuring mary, which span from will rice o-week (when we first met) to late nights at the thresher to reading the sunday times in our sunny little breakfast nook.

anyhoo, after some quality patio time, the two of us walked over to proof, a totally tasty business establishment. we even scored a table outside, continuing my SUMMER 2010 WORLD PATIO TOUR, but unfortunately that meant there was no light for any food pictures. in fact, they even give you a mini-flashlight to read the menu cos it’s so dark! which i think is adorable, although i’m sure lots of people wonder why they can’t just turn up the lights a little.

dinner was delicious, but the chance to talk with mary, just the two of us, was more precious to me than food. and y’all know that’s, like, my highest compliment.

the next day, we decided to check out the open house at all of the EU embassies, because i am, at heart, a totally cheesy tourist. but i mean, come on, when do regular people like me ever get to step foot inside an embassy?! and i never pass up on an opportunity to feel super cosmo and spy pants.

oh and did i mention that the weather was PERFECT? unlike austin, where summer has quickly taken over, dc is still brimming with spring!

our first embassy stop was slovenia, a country i know v. little about. fortunately, there were all of these posters inside with the heading, “did you know…” and i was like, THANK YOU, solvenia, because i did not, in fact, know that you take great pride in yr bee-keeping and highly agile people (they had this test where you jumped on a mat and they gave you an agility score. john tried it out but was not happy with his result, so apparently slovenia does NOT pride itself on accurate tests).

the next stop was the netherlands, and it was my FAVORITE because the inside looked EXACTLY like what i have come to expect from an embassy, based solely on all of the spy movies i’ve seen. unfortunately, they didn’t let people take pictures inside, but here’s the outside:

everything was so STATELY! seriously, i really wish i was from the netherlands so i could seek diplomatic immunity and lounge around on the posh furniture while gazing at incredible dutch master oil paintings. most opulent asylum EVER!

we didn’t go inside the irish embassy, cos the line was INSANE (john: “they must be serving pints of guinness in there!”), but we did stop for a moment to watch these super cute tiny dancers:

my favorite was the littlest girl on the far right, obvs!

it wasn’t nearly as fancy, but bulgaria came close to rivaling the netherlands for my affections because they served us these delicious cheese egg pastry things and WINE!!! now THAT is how to be a good ambassador, y’all.

we finished up our tour with a visit to estonia, which i still cannot believe is a real country. i mean, isn’t that where anne hathaway lives in “the princess diaries”?

all of that diplomacy made us super hungry, so we got some sandwiches from taylor, this INCREDIBLY TASTY deli that gets its bread daily from some famous place in philadelphia. i had grilled chicken, sharp provolone and broccoli rabe and it was AMAZING!!!

after lunch, mary and john v. nicely drove me back to baltimore for kendall’s wedding, held at the engineer’s club, which right next to the washington monument. and i mean the non-DC, less phallic one:

after i checked into the hotel (right across the street), i wandered around the monument, which was playing host to a flower festival/flea market. it was definitely one of those brochure days:

soon it was time for the wedding, and since i was a reader, i got there early, which gave me lots of time for pictures. check out the posh entry way:

seriously, the engineers club is FANCY PANTS. like, i immediately felt rich when i stepped inside, and y’all know how much i love feeling rich. i mean, this room alone should make the netherlands jealous:

and yes, those ARE family photos on the fireplace mantle! check out kendall’s parents:

kendall and her mom look almost exactly alike, meaning they’re both incredibly gorgeous. that was the first thing i noticed about kendall when we met back in college through the one act plays at will rice (during our sophomore year). the second thing i noticed was her love of all things whimsical and sparkly, which are, not coincidentally, the perfect terms to describe her wedding. from the program…

… to the thumb leaf tree, which she set up in lieu of a guestbook. everyone left their thumbprint and name on the tree– HOW CUTE IS THAT? the instructions even said, “leaf your thumbprint on our family tree” because kendall knows how to be awesome and cheesy.

the wedding began with the entrance of the most adorable and totally traumatized flower girl ever:

she was so scared! which only made her cuter!

then came the adorable ring bearer:

and finally, the radiant kendall and her proud papa:

i don’t think i’ve ever seen her look more beautiful, probably because i’ve never seen her so happy. i mean, just LOOK at her, gazing at mo, her charming and v. lucky husband:

i felt honored to be a part of the wedding, but even more, i felt so lucky to witness this amazing display of love and joyful commitment.

but enough about love, let’s talk CAKE!!!!!!!

and just like in the happy category, kendall did NOT disappoint. GET A LOAD OF THIS INCREDIBLE SPLENDOR:

and btw, that flower/bird pattern was also in the invitation, because kendall has a great eye for color and design. when we lived together, her room was, like, straight out of a style magazine, whereas mine was more like “good hoard-keeping.”

and if you thought THAT cake was awesome, wait til you see the groom’s cake which was actually created by THE ACE OF CAKES!! i am not even joking!!!! they even came to the reception and filmed part of it!! kendall contacted them and apparently they found her idea unusual, which isn’t surprising, since i don’t think there’s many people out there who even know what this is:

i mean, *i* don’t even know what it is, specifically, although i do know that it is some kind of surgery robot that mo uses in his work (he and kendall are both doctors). at first i just thought it was a transformer, esp. cos i was too distracted by the cuteness of the edible kendall, mo and their dog lily!

major pants to kendall in the cake arena. and the best part? IT ACTUALLY TASTED GOOD. now *that* is impressive.

while the staff set up for dinner, we mingled in the lobby and the ballroom, which was totes old school and classy:

and bonus: THERE WERE COOKIES AND MILK SHOTS! WHAT WHAT!

i love it when people actively encourage me to spoil my dinner.

but it turns out, there was an even bigger bonus than cookies to tide us over til dinner. THIS LADY WITH CANDLES ON HER HEAD!

yeah, that lady is a PARTY STARTER. upon her entrance (plus the drum guys), the ballroom became a mass of hip shaking, culminating in kendall getting raised up by some guys like the queen that she is:

by the time we got into the dining room, it had transformed into a delightful fairy land!

now, let’s talk people, because no matter how good the cake is, the awesomeness of a wedding really depends on the people. obvs, my main priority was catching a few minutes with kendall, because i hadn’t seen her in about two years!

i can’t express how glad i was to be there, to see her happiness and catch a glimpse of this new chapter in her life. i was actually the only college friend in attendance, and that made me feel even more like an ambassador of the world we shared, both in college and on marshall street. this is the girl who explored ireland with me after we graduated, who loved jazzercise as much i did (i know, right?) and ate bagels with me at einstein’s every friday. this is the girl who watched me freak out and make mistakes and stumble around until i found more stable footing in my life. and i watched her do the same. so it was with joy and yes, pride, that i served as a representative of that piece of her life, a living testament to where she’s been and how far she’s come.

speaking of where she’s been…

if you couldn’t tell from the breathtaking scenery, that’s us in ireland, right after we graduated from college in 2001.

of course, kendall was the obvs the belle of the ball, so i didn’t expect to spend to much time with her. fortunately, i managed to meet some new friends!

first, this little guy, effortlessly rocking a suit that hipsters around the world would DIE for:

and the other inhabitant of adorabletown, angus! aka mini justin timberlake!

HOW PRESH IS HE?!!!!! angus lives in spain, which means his parents are super cool euro people who know how toddlers should be dressed. he later discarded his hat and jacket so he could get crazy on the dance floor:

GAH ANGUS WHY DO YOU LIVE IN SPAIN AND NOT IN MY POCKET?!!!!

on the adult side of the guest list, i totally bonded with amna, kendall’s med school bestie and the only person (besides kendall’s immediate fam) that i’d actually met before the wedding. one of the first things amna said to me was, “I CAN’T WAIT TIL THE DANCING STARTS,” which made me love her immediately.

yeah, we pretty much owned the dance floor, along with kendall’s hilarious cousin, hallie, and her dad, who was basically a party with a tie on.

seriously I LOVE THESE TWO PEOPLE SO MUCH. i mean, LOOK AT THEM:

they are PROFESSIONALS AT FUN. and when they teamed up with amna and me, we were like an unstoppable force of dance party.

kendall wasn’t too shabby, either!

but as the bride, she had to be sorta kinda dignified. amna and i… did not.

i think amna should switch from practicing orthopedics to focusing on whatever organ is responsible for dance parties cos the girl has a GIFT.

after the reception ended, kendall’s mom decided to keep the party going (because she is amazing), so a small group of us headed down to the basement of the engineer’s club, where we talked, laughed and took goofy pictures like this:

when you have an afterparty in a basement, you know you’ve thrown a dang good wedding.

and, as if that wasn’t enough festivity-having, the next morning we all met up for brunch at the top of the hotel!

the view was fantastic, which was good, cos the faces of the afterparty-goers were NOT much to look at (y’all, the brunch started at 9! please! that is just CRUEL!).

in spite of my exhaustion, it was a lovely way to wrap up the wedding celebration, and i even got more convo time with kendall, who is leaving tomorrow for her honeymoon to south africa! i can say from experience that she is an excellent traveling partner, so i know she and mo are going to have the best time ever, being all adventurous and international! just stay away from the malaria, guys!

even now, as i’m writing this, my heart is doing a little happy dance for these two ladies, my former roommates, my current (and forever!) friends. they are both so amazing, and i feel incredibly lucky to not only have shared pieces of their pasts, but to be a part, no matter how small, of their amazing presents and brilliant futures.

congratulations, my dear, beautiful, fabulous marshall st. girls, for not just hitting a milestone, but passing it with flying colors. i love you!

the little women lived together for three years, and during that time, they shared everything– secret crushes, personal milestones and even more personal disappointments, late nights full of books and giggle-inducing delirium. then, one day, it came time for graduation, and the four best friends had to say good-bye as they spread across the earth– one to sacramento (then utah and back), one to texas, one to boston (and then paris, and then london, and then new york), one to atlanta by way of houston then chicago.

together, these girls were known as the powersuite, and ten years ago, they looked like this:

and today, i am pleased to report that even though they are not so little women, they remain, both in character and in friendship, the powersuite girls:

LORDY just looking at those two photos side by side brings a little squee tear to my eye. because yes, we finally had a reunion, and yes, it was just as wonderful and amazing and magical as i imagined. the four of us hadn’t been all together since julie’s wedding in the summer of 2005, and even though a lot of things in our lives had changed, we quickly discovered that the foundation of our friendship remained rock solid. i guess that’s pretty much how kindred spirits roll.

sofia and julie are both married mommas, and amber just got engaged, so as you can imagine, we had a LOT to talk about. but before i launch into GabFest 2010, i need to just get something out of the way before my pants explode.

meet the new LIGHT OF MY LIFE, julie’s little baby girl, CORA NAOMI:

AND YES, SHE IS WEARING CUPCAKE PANTS. BECAUSE SHE IS PERFECT.

even though hanging out with the powersuite girls was obvs my main motivation for making the trek out to sacramento, i have to admit, i was cray cray excited about spending some quality time with little cora. esp. cos i intend to be the best auntie posh i can be, and everyone knows you can’t be a good auntie without copious amounts of cuddling, giggling and spoiling.

not only is cora absolutely beautiful and totally adorbs, she also… get this… HAS A TINY ORANGE NOSE!!! I AM NOT KIDDING! apparently, she ate too many orange things (carrots, squash, etc.), and so now her sweet little nose is like, straight up Hi-C. check it out:

another of cora’s many super precious features is her penchant for doing “the wiggle,” or, as i call it, “the bobblehead”:

cora spends a lot of time playing with her music-making toy table, which makes me secretly hope that she will follow in her auntie posh’s footsteps and dj at her college radio station, then spend her life taking over the music at every party she attends.

i also see it as my duty to expose cora to as much sparkle and glitter as possible (unfortunately, she’s still too young for cupcakes). it only took her a few minutes to become extremely enamored of my sequined purse, which made auntie posh v. v. proud!

oh cora naomi, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! i promise to be a good aunt to you and send you my favorite books and music and if you ever want to come visit me when you’re older we can have a slumber dance party and i’ll let you use all of my glitter make-up and then i’ll tell you funny stories about yr mom!

and thus ends the cora segment of this post! ok! i will force myself to move on! even though it is really hard and you guys i have so many pictures and videos because she is the SQUEE-EST LITTLE PANTSER EVER AND GAH!

ANYWAY! powersuite reunion! awesome! yes!

i arrived in sacramento on thursday, and julie and i picked up amber and sofia on friday night. just picture the airport scene from “love actually” but with more squealing and jumping up and down. when planning our trip, julie suggested that we spend saturday driving around the napa and sonoma area, aka california wine country, aka me going, “i totally feel like we’re in ‘sideways!’”

our first stop was the beringer winery, which features the super swanky rhine house:

I KNOW, RIGHT? dang, german wine guys were total ballers!

the four of us had our own private tour, which included five tastings and made me feel super rich. here’s our first group shot of the reunion, and it’s probably my fave from the whole trip, just cos look how happy we are! and the sunshine! and the wine!:

we walked through some old tunnels where GET THIS YOU GUYS: KEANU REEVES FILMED A SCENE FROM “A WALK IN THE CLOUDS.” WHAAAAAT?!!!! the benefit of being there with college roommates was immediately clear, cos when angel, our tour guide, shared this little tidbit, all of the girls completely understood why i shrieked like the teenage swimfan i was (am?) and didn’t give me a hard time about it or make reference to keanu’s inability to act like the rest of the world who does not understand his PURE BEAUTY.

the rhine house itself was really classy, and my favorite part was the cray cray amount of stained glass. check out these guards on the front door, which just so happen to feature frederick beringer’s face!!!

dude, when you can put yr own face on historical-looking figures in stained glass, you KNOW you’re rich. i can’t wait to have my own mansion some day and install, like, stained glass scenes from “you’ve got mail” and “step up 2″ but instead of meg ryan, it’ll be MY FACE.

here’s sofia and me, poshing it up:

after beringer, we drove around enjoying the scenery until we spotted a white monastery-looking building on top of a hill. it turned out to be sterling vineyard, so we parked in the lot and ate our picnic lunch amidst this view:

SO PRETTY!

i think the main reason we decided to tour sterling wasn’t cos we’d heard the wine was amazing (it wasn’t), but because you got to RIDE A TRAM TO THE TOP OF THE HILL!!!!! all of us were pretty stoked about this development– well, all of us except for julie. see, julie is a civil engineer, and certain structures (bridges, TRAMS, carnival rides) make her nervous, i guess because she knows way more about structural integrity than we do, and in this instance i have to say, ignorance is bliss, cos i had a GREAT time riding the tram, while julie closed her eyes the entire time. to distract her from thoughts of imminent death, amber decided that we should sing our favorite powersuite song (that we composed), masterfully titled, “boys are stupid”:

oh that video makes me happy! julie, on the other hand, watched it on my flickr and wrote, “We were over water?!?!?”

even though the wine was pretty meh, our visit to sterling was totally worth it, cos check out this gorgeous view:

and then there was THIS beautiful scenery:

given the fact that my name is sarah pants, of COURSE we had to take another group picture. and yeah, it turned out pretty dang great:

no offense to the internet, but i totally wish i was back there soaking up all of the gorgeousness and wine and friendship instead of typing this entry. but c’est la pants!

for our third stop of the day, we decided to switch it up a little bit and have some CHAMPERS!*

*amber would now remind me that champagne can only be from france, so in reality, korbel makes sparkling wine. the awesome thing about this is that not only did she mention this fact while we were there, she ALSO brought it up back in 2001 when we drank some “champers” to celebrate our impending graduation, an event captured on the video we watched later during the reunion. like i said, it’s good to know that the core of our characters hasn’t changed a bit. amber, you will always be my favorite cosmo pants!

the best thing about the korbel tour wasn’t the tastings (gross) but YOU GUYS LOOK!!! it’s the largest champagne glass in the world!! AND the largest bottle of “champagne” (amber, those quotes are for you) in the world!!! holy crap!

i wish i could’ve stepped into the picture to provide you with some perspective (that glass really is huge, like, just a bit shorter than me), but they don’t let people back there. probably for good reason cos if i had the chance, i’d sneak in a barrel of OJ and then HELLO WORLD’S LARGEST MIMOSA!

we tasted four kinds of “champers,” and all of them were gross. but because we are posh and refined, we still took a classy picture:

since we were so close to the ocean, we decided to drive to the beach, even though the weather had turned a little rainy and mean. we didn’t mind, though, cos we had the Official Powersuite Soundtrack (a mix of our collective favorites that i gave to the girls back in 2001) on the stereo! and when “intergalactic” came on, we were suddenly transformed back into 20-year-old girls busting some seriously ridiculous moves:

YOU LADIES ARE SO LUCKY MY MEMORY CARD RAN OUT! GAH! otherwise that video could’ve been a lot more embarrassing awesome.

we finally made it to the beach, which was beautifully haunting in that dark, stormy kind of way. in my mind, i always connect julie with the ocean (and the mountains), because she missed them so dreadfully when she was stuck in houston. as we stood together in the sand, my mind flickered to a day right before graduation, when we drove to galveston (with ray and seth!) and danced in the waves and wrote “rice seniors 2001″ in the sand. of course, the pacific ocean is just a BIT more beautiful than galveston bay, but the weather left something to be desired, as communicated by this picture:

oh powersuite, i’m so glad you haven’t lost yr skills for making awesome photo faces! pants world, if you’re ever around sofia, ask her to make a serious face and then hold it for the camera. i will bet you a million dollars that she can’t do it, an ability that i took serious advantage of back in college. exhibit a:

i don’t know about you guys, but salty air always makes me a hungry pants (HA HA JUST KIDDING. i’m *always* hungry), so when we reached the cozy confines of the restaurant (i forgot the name! girls, remind me!), i was v. v. happy. and when i asked amber to take a food picture with me, she smiled and said, “of course!” i will let you, dear reader, decide if she smiled cos she loves me, or cos she’s known me for over 12 years and finds my food photograph consistency remarkably comforting in the midst of life’s chaos and change. probably a combination of both!

the next day, after a leisurely morning of trying to make cora do cute stuff (jared had to remind me that babies AREN’T like trained monkeys, and i’m like, “yeah, duh, babies smell way better!”), we headed out to old town folsom, which is super charming!

we stopped for lunch and of course i made everyone take portraits with their supremely delicious gelato. since i spent four years training them by constantly pulling out my camera, i was happy to see that they haven’t lost any of their photogenic-ness. YOU’RE WELCOME, POWERSUITE!

as you might suspect from the name, old town folsom is full of antique stores, which are in turn full of some really crazy shizz. unfortunately, i didn’t locate any dance cards, but i DID find a LOT of creepy dolls. such as this golden monstrosity:

GUESS HOW MUCH IT IS! GUESS GUESS! YOU’LL NEVER GUESS!

are you ready? 950 DOLLARS! I AM NOT EVEN JOKING.

and then there was this jolly green giant dude, who had a weird soft body, and i think something was supposed to happen when you pressed his thumb, but i was too scared to find out so i left the store immediately.

we wandered into a christmas store (dad, just be glad mom wasn’t with us cos i think she would’ve gone on a major rampage in this place) where i discovered a shelf of ornaments that were OBVS made for me. i mean, hello?!!

it was then that we decided that we should each get an ornament to have as a memento from our trip! and then when we put it on our tree each year, we can be all, “oooh! this reminds me of the powersuite! yay i love them! and also i really want a donut now.” well, maybe that last part is just gonna be me, cos I GOT A DONUT ORNAMENT! we actually tried to pick them out for each other, which made us laugh so hard that the cashier lady was like, “what are you girls gigglin’ about?!” and i felt like we had been caught looking at dirty magazines or something. anyway! here’s a shot of us with our new powersuite reunion souvenirs:

sofia got a rubber chicken (i won’t even get into this, but trust me, her reaction when i showed it to her was enough to seal the deal), amber got asparagus (cos she likes it!) and julie got a tomato (ditto). yay!

we headed home, where amber and i again tried to make cora do stuff, specifically this really hilarious snorting thing that makes her sound like a baby pug:

we also watched the video from our senior year (converted to DVD), which features highlights such as our annual christmas party, lip synching to the “josie & the pussycats” soundtrack and playing “do, dump or marry” on the night after graduation (and we thought we were being so scandalous! awww!). there were definitely a lot of “wow, we were SO young!” but mostly i just marveled over the excitement and straight up CONFIDENCE gleaming in our eyes. the video reminded me of how it felt to be on top of the world, to have the post-college horizon stretched wide open before me, empty and inviting. honestly, watching these glimpses of our collective past was bittersweet, esp. seeing how easily we fit together, how much we took our friendship and our shared existence for granted. but by the end, i was simply filled with gratitude for the gift of these girls, because those faces on the screen are still with me, and i strongly suspect they will *always* be with me (but it’s especially nice see them all in the same living room!).

for our last dinner together, we headed out to the tower cafe, which sits right next to the old tower theatre and across the street from the original location of the first tower record store.

tower records always reminds me of “empire records,” but unfortunately our dinner did not end with the successful hiring of a shoplifter and a rock show on the roof. instead, our last night together was EVEN MORE AWESOME THAN THAT. because we just talked and laughed and OMGed, and then we talked and laughed and OMGed some more, like we were back in the powersuite, giggling over boys and trying to pretend like we didn’t have studying to do.

when we arrived back at the house, amber gave each of us a new simple diary, which is different than a regular diary cos each page is full of whimsical little questions that you get to answer about yr day!

this way, even when we’re far apart, we can still be on the SAME PAGE (GET IT?!!). the diaries really are the greatest things ever (thanks amber!!), and we had a blast reading over the funny questions and laughing ourselves silly:

i feel the need to point out that julie had consumed NO alcohol that day… she’s just naturally, awesomely giggly!

the next morning, before we began departing (sniff!), we used the timer on my camera to take a few group shots (which you’ve already seen in this post!). of course, i couldn’t resist the opportunity to secretly video the girls, esp. when they started singing “twinkle, twinkle, little star,” to calm poor little cora, who was v. upset about being left out of all of the photos:

as you can see, cora didn’t enjoy her little serenade as much as i did!

and then it was time to say good-bye and return to lives that suddenly seemed v. far away from our little oasis of a weekend. it was so easy to fall back into step with each other and forget that we’re actually 30-year-old women with lives of our own, lives that don’t contain daily doses of julie’s smile and sofia’s laugh and amber’s grace. but even though i was sad to leave my little women, my heart was content with the knowledge that those girls i knew and treasured and leaned on are still there, just with a little less babyfat in their cheeks and a few more responsibilities.

really, i think it all boils down to the fact that our differences were there from the beginning, and they’re what made our friendship stronger. the fact that time has only deepened those differences makes the traits we value in each other all the more precious.

and that, dear pants world, is the story of how the powersuite reunited, celebrated and bid farewell with the hope of another meeting in the not so distant future.

in other words, they continue to live happily ever after.

with that said, as i drove up I-35, i couldn’t help but marvel over the fact that college was, surprise, kind of a long time ago! i mean, for all intents and purposes, i’m an adult! which i seriously cannot believe, except for the fact that i was driving to see my college roommate who NOW HAS A BABY.

in fact, TWO of them do. so even though, when i close my eyes, i picture sofia and julie like this:

(i want to give a special shout-out to the College Posters everywhere– never change!!!)

in reality, they now look like THIS:

and THIS!!

HOLY PANTS!

who are these women?!! and, more importantly, how did they get those extremely adorable babies?!!!

these new faces, both the baby ones and the mama ones, make me really happy, even though i still have trouble wrapping me head around it all.

seriously, it’s like, one minute, we’re jumping on the burger king couch and singing along to the “josie & the pussycats” soundtrack at two in the morning, and the next minute… we’re strewn across the country, with husbands and babies and seriously adult lives (ok, well, some of us. others continue with their peter pantsing for as long as they possibly can). i mean, we talked about this in college, whispers across bunk beds and giggles over late night pizza, but now these grown-up dreams are ACTUALLY HAPPENING.

you guys it’s weird. it’s a happy weird, but it’s weird nonetheless.

as i pulled into the drive, i thought about the last time i had visited sofia’s parents during sophomore year. they were pursuing their dream of opening up a winery, and the field surrounding their little house was lined with vines. just as sofia has transformed from a clueless (hey, we all were) college student to a mother and wife, so has this land transformed into a fully functional, totally fabulous winery (i *highly* recommend checking it out, if you’re ever near waco, cos it’ll make you feel better about, uh, being near waco). in fact, the house where sofia used to live? it’s now the tasting room!

ha ha, and also, apparently, the flirting room!

those girls are students at baylor, which of course made me feel even older. like THANKS FOR THE REMINDER, FATHER TIME. my days of ktru shows and coffee-fueled study sessions lie firmly in my past (not that i’m sad about the latter), kind of like the opposite of a sideview mirror: “objects in memory are further than they appear.”

but, like the westblom’s winery, the passing of time bears sweet fruit along with the bitter. and the sweetest is most definitely little nathan:

(well, he’s tied with julie’s cora, but i haven’t been able to meet her yet)

not only does nathan possess the same capacity as sofia for making weird faces (seriously, it’s a gift), he also appears to be just as stubborn as his mother (her words! not mine!). he even rides around in the same wagon that sofia had as a child.

in spite of all of my nostalgia (and, ok, fear of getting older), the few hours i spent with sofia and nathan left me feeling warmly reconciled with the idea of time (although i’m sure we will continue to have a contentious relationship). i miss the college sofia, just like i miss my college self, and yet i feel blessed to know the sofia of right now. and, when i look into her eyes (the same clear blue as nathan’s) i can still see glimmers of the sofia of the past… and the sofia of the future. and it’s those three sofias, encased in one beautiful self, that remind me that getting old? it’s not so bad.

in fact, it’s pretty great, actually.

but, even though i’m ok with the idea of growing up, it’s only because i know that the sofias and sarahs of the past, including the ones captured in this picture (along with joshes! and seths!), are all still a precious, vital part of our current selves. they’re just… a little more dignified now.

ha ha, just kidding. JOKE’S ON YOU, TIME! sucka.

LINKS

if you’re a fan of zach galifianakis, read this. and if you aren’t, read it anyway, cos you should be! i cannot WAIT to see “the hangover”!!!

johnny depp has his own private island. I WANT TO GO TO THERE.

selina sent me some videos of diversity, the dancing troupe that caused susan boyle to suffer a mental breakdown (seriously). and i have to say, i feel bad for susan, but these guys are pretty awesome! i mean, they’re no step up 2, but still.

i didn’t watch the mtv movie awards, but this opening clip is pretty awesome, mostly cos aziz is in it. and the twlight part? GENIUS.

ladies and gentlemen, i’m here today to tell you that i did good. i did REAL good.

in fact, not to get egotistical here or anything (is that ironic to write on yr own blog?), but i’m pretty darn sure i gave myself (and hopefully my friends) one of the best days OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!! HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!

in fact, i can barely write this entry cos i just GET SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! so prepare yrself for a photo-heavy post, cos words cannot do justice to the amount of pantsing that we did for my birthday.

HOW TO HAVE THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER

by sarah e. pants

step one: rent a party bus for the day. make sure it includes feather boa-lined windows.

step two: invite the most amazing, funnest, coolest, laughiest, BESTEST pantsers in the universe to join you! and give them party hats!

this included chris and henri (who totally matched the bus, btw):

sally, trish and erica!

msw and brian!

jordan, who was actually one of my freshmen in ye olde rice days…

tommy and selina!

talena, cos pigbutts gotta represent!

erica and josh, who rocks his own unique party hat style:

and, last but not least, the cool kids in the back of the bus (l-r): matt, meredith, amber, juliet, ray and mandy!

(caitlin and jordan’s husband, juancho, also joined us but they weren’t there when i took those pictures).

as i looked around the bus, i realized that this party was basically my blog… COME TO LIFE! in other words, it was heaven.

step three: go to the park and play kickball!!!!

now, you may be surprised by the fact that i picked a sport to play on my birthday, given my anti-athleticism. but COME ON. kickball basically means standing around and talking smack about people. i EXCEL in this sport.

plus, it allowed me to take a group photo, which is one of my most favorite things to do!!!!!!

hello, certifiable fridge material.

we divided up into two teams, the unicorns and… i think we called ourselves el ocho? i’m not sure. our lack of concern for having a name should pretty much clue you in to who won but WHATEVS. the other team had tommy, who always wins EVERYTHING. AND they had sally, who came dressed to kick some kickball pants.

on the other hand, my team had erica, who looks really cute when she’s trying to catch a ball:

and me, who can’t really catch worth a darn BUT knows how to pose for sassy sports portraits (available in wallet size, mom!):

unfortunately, i don’t know how to pose for team portraits.

but i mean, LOOK AT US. we’re practically the mighty ducks. so even though the unicorns totally creamed us, i know everyone was secretly hoping we would win and then make a semi-watchable sequel.

plus, mandy was the official judge, and she told me that the official score was sarah: 44, everyone else: 0. YES!

we climbed back on the bus…

… and i told everyone that there was a SUPER SECRET SURPRISE!!!!!! EEEE! i swear i almost peed my pants on the way there, cos i wanted to spill my guts so bad!!!! cos it was gonna be awesome!!!! and i knew everyone would love it!! and they did! cos:

step four: surprise yr friends with a HIP HOP DANCE LESSON!!! featuring the best and most hardcore teacher ever, crystal!

you may remember crystal as erica’s and my totally fierce dance teacher who taught us how to crank dat lion king.

see, when i thought about my birthday, i made a list of all of my favorite things (which you will see all over this entry, obvs). and one of them was “hip hop dance movies.” so, i figured what better way to celebrate this passion than to actually LIVE IT?!!!!! with all of my friends!!!!

fortunately, i have v. v. adventurous friends who love to dance (uh, did you SEE yesterday’s entry?), so everyone was totally game.

this was probably my favorite part of the whole day, just cos… well, see for yrself:

how cute are we?!!!!

and oh, it gets better. we totally cranked dat soulja boy!!!!!!!!

and, merging my passions for JT and “step up 2,” we learned a dance to “my love” with a partner! which gave me even MORE respect for andie and chase, cos, you guys, dancing with a partner is HARD. as you are about to see:

and, finally, we couldn’t do a hip hop dance class without learning CRANK DAT LION KING!!!!!!!

i know you’re not supposed to say this when you’re the one who *planned* the surprise and therefore knew about it in advance but BEST SURPRISE EVER!!!!!!!!

esp. cos, of course, WE TOOK A GROUP PHOTO!!!

seriously, we could be the cast of a dance movie. i mean, esp. cos it’s a picture and not a video of us dancing.

i am seriously considering blowing that photo up in poster form and getting everyone to sign it. cos I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!*

(*matt can verify this for sure, but i believe i said this less than two hours into the day. next year, you guys should really place bets)

i knew it would be hard to top the dance class, so i went with Old Reliable for the next portion of the day…

step five: stuff yr face with cupcakes from sugar mama’s and play in the park!!

i think i enjoyed watching people meet sugar mama’s cupcakes for the first time ALMOST as much as i enjoyed eating mine. although the austin folks were well-acquainted with these delicacies (i mean, exposure to cupcakes comes with the posh deluxe territory), the houston gang had never encountered this level of cupcake deliciousness.

happy birthday to yr TUMMY, juliet!!!

but, like all good pantsers, these guys knew how to handle their cupcakes. by way of DEMOLISH!!!!!!

hanging out in the park gave everyone the chance to enjoy the GORGEOUS weather as well as recup from kickball and hip hop dancing.

and, as always happens when meredith and henri are together for longer than an hour, tomfoolery ensued.

it turns out that i’m actually a bit of a personal trainer when it comes to birthdays, cos i after only a few minutes of rest, i got everyone back on their feet for a rousing game of stomp the balloon!

i love caitlin cooling her head with a beer, like, “NOW what, sarah?. NOW WHAT!”

you may recall stomp the balloon from last year’s field day, but just to explain: the purpose of the game is to stomp everyone’s balloon (tied with a string to their ankle) while protecting yr own. as you can imagine, this leads to a lot of kicking, elbows to the head and a *surprising* amount of soreness the next day. it’s also SUPER SUPER FUN!!!!

here’s a video (thanks erica g!) of the insane balloon carnage that occurred:

oh what, you want MORE? good. cos we played again!

after that everyone basically died. ok, not really, cos that would negate the Best Day Ever thing but we were tired!!! so we laid around the park and talked and played bocce and threw around this giant frisbee:

see, being 30 means everything is bigger and better! EVEN FRISBEES!!!!

after the park break, we rode on to the final destination, which was also a surprise!!

step six: GO TO A CARNIVAL!!!!!!!

oh YES WE DID!!!!! seriously, it has always been a dream of mine to go with a big group of friends to a carnival, a) cos it’s kinda like the reverse of “big.”  b) cos my dad was a safety pants when i was growing up and wasn’t a fan of letting me on rides where death was an actual possibility.

but now i’m 30! and i can take my life into my own hands on rides like pharaoh’s fear!!!!!

mid-way through pharaoh’s fear, i realized that my dad is a v. v. smart guy. cos this ride was sooo not safe. but whatevs! it was fun! look!

pharaoh’s fear was an instant hit with pants world, leading sally and amber to ride it, like, four more times and resulting in one of my favorite (ok, i had a lot, but still) pictures of the day:

(major photojournalism props to caitlin for snapping this amazing moment)

that picture captures PRECISELY what i hoped would happen on my 30th birthday. as in, PANTS MELTING!!!!

we even got into a sort of “ride off” with the people on the other end of the boat. which was fun except by this point, i had ridden a lot of other rides and was starting to feel sick. and i didn’t even have any funnel cake!

we totally hit the jackpot with this carnival, cos look, a handgliding ride!!!!!

i have never actually laid down on a ride, and i have to say, it’s a weird feeling. plus you spend half the time staring at the bootys of people in front of you.

while i was busy riding rides, mandy and erica were busy winning me things!! yay!! i will SO go steady with you guys!

erica also won me a fabulous tiara, which i rocked on the tilt-a-whirl!

looking back, i can see why several of us almost made ourselves sick. i mean, even hitting the ripe old age of 30 fails to lessen the awe-inspiring power of sporting an “unlimited rides” wristband. esp. esp. when you can ride things like this! WITH NO LINES!

and this!!!!! (dad, don’t look!)

ahhhhh yes, the infamous zipper. where the carnie locks you in behind bars as you realize, with chilling certainty, that this ride has definitely, definitely brought on the untimely demise of many people.

which is why trish and sally rode it twice.

meanwhile, i found these guys on a kind of spider/spinny ride. jordan’s review: “this ride was good… for a four-year-old.”

as you can imagine, a group of v. v. tired pantsers emerged from the carnival and boarded the bus…

BUT IT’S NOT OVER YET!! i still had more awesomeness to pack in, like:

step steven: eat at whole foods downtown, so everyone can pick out their own tasty food! and recharge for…

step eight: the justin timberlake sing-along at the alamo ritz!!!!!

henri v. nicely offered to add a show (and host it) to coincide with my birthday celebration. not only that, but the alamo staff surprised me with a cake and a card!!! isn’t that nice?!!!!!!

why yes, i AM still wearing my tiara. thank you.

i tried to recreate my “blowing out candles with my eyes” photo from when i was two, but i think it turned out less cute, more creepy.

ah well. i guess it’s harder to pull off the “cute” factor when you’re an old lady of 30.

so we danced and sang along with justin, and it made me so happy, once again, to see all of these amazing members of pants world gathered in the same room. plus, we TOTALLY showed off our newly learned “my love” dance to… varying degrees of success. but we had HEART! you guys, we had heart.

plus, henri gave me the best present ever… his brain! in a box!

by the end of the sing-along, people were dropping like flies, so only five of us actually made it to mugshots. but i considered that a sign of a good day– i mean, if you can’t even handle mugshots, you KNOW you’ve had Too Much Fun.

THE END!

and now you know that i wasn’t exaggerating. it really was the Best Day Ever. not to mention the Best Birthday Ever.

oh man i’m so full of squee, i want to do it again!! let’s do it again, you guys!!!!

p.s. gah i am such a lucky girl.

p.p.s. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

IT WAS AWESOME!! IT WAS THE PANTSIEST OF THE PANTS!!!!!!

sorry i haven’t been able to blog about it before today… and i’ll tell you all about my excuse later.

but for now LET’S TALK ABOUT MY BIRTHDAY! YAY!

friday night, i invited some pantsers over to henri’s place to get all pat benatared up for a major dance-o-rama!!! part of the fun of dressing up is getting ready with other girls, esp. cos you can share glitter and hot pink lipstick and electric blue eye shadow. in fact, i think i was about eleven or twelve before i realized that there were OTHER shades of eyeshadow besides blue. hello, it was the barbie standard!

now, this may be obvious given the pirate parties/new wave sing-alongs/casino parties previously covered on le blog, but y’all, when pants world dresses up, WE BRING IT. in fact, i think we could shimmy pat benatar herself straight out the door!

I KNOW RIGHT? obvs erica won first prize, cos she made her dress, pretty in pink style. i love how, in the 80s, you didn’t have to know how to sew in order to make clothes. you just had to TEAR THINGS.

erin (with a little e) was a v. v. close runner up. even when i closed my eyes, i could still see her purple eyeshadow cos it was THAT bright.

up next we have mandy, who rocked the most hardcore look of the bunch. attention sleazy club owner: you do NOT want to mess with this runaway.

meredith, as usual, was super sparkly and fantastic-looking. the best part is that she already owned every single item she wore that night. PROPS!!!

i have to give you a close-up of erin and meredith’s make-up, cos it was so fabulous!

next up is talena, who committed herself so fully to the role that she cut off the bottom of her shirt and tied a piece of it around her wrist. 80s runaways have to be resourceful, you know.

sally is the newest pantser to join our crew, so i was ready to cut her some slack in the costume department. but girlfriend was not afraid to show her true colors!! and by that i mean, red and animal print!!!!!

and finally, the birthday girl!

can i just tell you that i found that belt at savers for TWO DOLLARS?!!! it was almost as good of a find as that time i discovered a vera wang dress for five dollars. anyway.

the boys, while not as impressive fashion-wise as the ladies, still managed to be pretty cute.

everyone who’s shocked by the fact that henri wore his gold jacket, raise yr hand. to the one person who raised his/her hand: thanks for visiting my blog for the first time! yay!

i must also give matt props for wearing a jacket… with removable sleeves!!!!!

i can’t decided what i was more excited about– the dancing, or the friend-making. cos one of my favorite things IN THE WORLD is connecting people i love, so that they can share their awesomeness and it will go forth and multiply. it’s sort of like being a bio-engineer, except my friends have way more personality than cells.

for example, sally, my newest friend, got to meet talena, my oldest (since the 6th grade!) friend.

an hour into the festivities, i was already exploding with squee.

after everyone was suitably benatared up, we headed over to qua, where i had reserved a private booth to make us feel like VIPants! i’ve mentioned it before, but qua is a “posh” (read: cheesy) club with sharks swimming underneath the dance floor. the sharks are tiny, but still!! plus, if you reserve a table, you get to talk to the Executive Mood Director. no really, that’s his title. QUAAASOME!

i think this is as close as i can get to having a studio 54 pic to show my grandkids as proof that i was cool.

ok, well, maybe not cool but… sparkly?

basically, i had all of the necessary ingredients for the perfect dance party: costumes, a decent deejay, a bar and, of course, pantsers who know how to shake what their mamas gave ‘em!!

now, usually when i go to qua, i end up watching the people there and, well, ok, making fun of them. friday night, i’m pretty sure it was the other way around. except instead of people mocking us, you know they SO wanted to join our little 80s runaway crew!

we actually did have some late additions, in the form of  the ever-fabulous caitlin…

and the party machine known as amber!

as you can imagine, it got pretty ridiculous. but totally in an end of “footloose” kind of way.

in fact, these pictures are so amazing, i can’t even contain them with captions.

BUT you are most welcome to offer yr own caption suggestions in the comments.

in fact, i’m realizing that one night at qua gave me enough pictures to launch my own “I Can Has Dance Party?” site. no seriously.

HALP! i iz under shimmy attack!

80s wail, ur doin it right!

im in ur face, givin u FIERCE!

trust me, there are PLENTY more photos where those came from, but i don’t want to overwhelm anyone with our AMAZINGNESS. or sweatiness. so i’ll stop there.

anyway, i can’t imagine a more fabulous way to begin my 30th birthday weekend!

it was pretty much the Best Night Ever!!!! dance was our battlefield, and we TOTALLY WON THE WAR!

p.s. tomorrow, i’ll tell you all about the Best DAY Ever!!!!

LINKS

april fools on thinkgeek makes me ANGRY cos WHY ISN’T THE UNICORN CHASER REAL?!! WHY WHYWHY?

i’ve gotten this link from not one but TWO ladies: CAKE BALLS!!! i love being the go-to person for baked good trends. i’m like, the anna wintour of cake.

90s movie madness! now THESE are the kinds of brackets i can understand. home alone FTW!!!!

like, my friends keep getting older, while i stay the saaaame aaaage.

and while i’m not ready to give up any of my peter pantsing (what WHAT!!! straight from my own brain, folks. my own genius brain), i actually don’t mind that most of my friends are outpacing me in this whole “growing up” thing. cos it usually means i get to do more fun stuff, like eat free food at weddings and PLAY WITH BABIES!!!!

oh man, friends having babies is awesome! first, cos it’s weird (in a good way) to see features from yr friends’ faces in a baby. like, seeing brad pitt as an old man but less creepy. second, cos it’s awesome being a crazy aunt sarah and squishing and spoiling the baby, all while storing up embarrassing stories about mom/dad to share after the kid hits puberty so i can then be “cool” aunt sarah.

unfortunately, most of my friends with babies don’t live in austin. so you can imagine my EXTREME EXCITEMENT when, last friday, i finally met the first powersuite baby, nathan!!!!!!!

look at him!!!!!! that baby came from a powersuite girl!! can you believe it?!!! sofia, to be exact. which is why she’s in the picture.

i’ve been DYING to meet nathan since he was born, and i was also looking forward to seeing sofia be a mom as opposed to the quirky girl i knew in college who made weird faces and did funny dances with me in our room.

in a surprise twist, it turns out that mom sofia is actually the SAME GIRL as powersuite sofia!!! who knew?! although i think nathan is not as easily entertained by sofia’s crazy dance moves as i was back in college, which i guess says something about his taste (discerning) and, in contrast, mine. anyway.

sofia is, of course, an amazing mom, and it was so sweet to see her with nathan. i mean, she’s, like, responsible for this little guy! holy crap!

nathan, trust me– you are in v. good hands. however, i don’t think i can say the same for yr little frog friend. yikes.

it’s too early to tell if nathan’s inherited any of his mom’s traits, like her winning smile or her, uh, lack of observation skills (oooh the stories i could tell you), but i CAN tell you that he is definitely taking after his crazy aunt sarah in the “tasty business” arena.

don’t worry, nathan. i often drool on my menu too.

to encourage his pantsing development, i gave nathan one of my favorite books, “counting with wayne thiebaud,” which not only teaches children how to count but also instills in them an appreciation for fine art AND baked goods (i say that like they’re not the same thing, ha). i could tell that nathan liked it, cos he immediately began trying to eat it (funny, i had the same reaction the first time i saw the book).

i should mention that dan, nathan’s dad, was there as well, although i didn’t talk to him as much as i would have liked cos HELLO LOOK AT NATHAN’S CHEEKS. THEY NEED TO BE KISSED.

one of the (many) reasons sofia is an awesome mom is cos she’s decided to speak to nathan in her native tongue, swedish! he’s gonna grow up bilingual, meaning he will then pick up other languages easily and all of the kids in his spanish class will envy him (and his kickass swedish chef impression).

here’s sofia, singing nathan’s favorite “swedish mouse” song. warning: this video may reduce you to a puddle of squee.

NATHAN I LOVE YOU!

and don’t worry, yr crazy aunt sarah will see you soon– hopefully at christmas, when she can teach you all about the joys of holiday food.

so, babies are obvs the best thing about friends getting older. but the second best is pretty much just as awesome.

i’m talking, of course, about PUPPIES!!!!!!!!

pants world, allow me to introduce you to the new and improved katz family*!!!! (*not that they weren’t great before, just less pettable)

yes, after recently marrying, erica and josh took the next step of adulthood and adopted a super cute beagle named duncan!

duncan is a girl, btw. and yes, there’s a story to that, and yes, you can ask josh and/or erica about it cos i’m mainly concerned with the fact that DUNCAN IS A TODDLER MAGNET.

it’s like, once you get a dog, all of the other grown-up stuff sort of landslides into yr life. you can’t escape THE BABIES!!!

which, as a friend of the Grown Ups, is v. v. beneficial to me. cos hanging out with josh and erica now means hanging out with duncan, which ALSO means hanging out with lots of chubby toddlers. i am officially the champion of this situation.

that’s jade, who has the biggest cheeks in the world and the coolest legwarmers, ever (in case you can’t tell, the white line runs down to a spider near her feet). and here’s my other fave duncan groupie (she loved the tail):

duncan handled her celebrity with grace and aplomb, although she quickly learned what mom sofia (and now, mom julie! second powersuite baby in the hi-zouse!) already knows: kids are frickin’ exhausting.

while duncan fell into a coma, crazy aunt sarah had a smoothie, hung out with josh and erica, then still had the energy to watch the oscars, eat lots of fancy appetizers and drink champers.

further proof that even though i love babies and puppies, i’m not quite ready to give up the peter pants.

LINKS

ghostbusters 3!!! for real this time!!!!!

squee of the day: BUNNY IN MA HAND!!!!!

vulture’s suggestions for future cinematic explanations of mickey rourke’s face made me, literally, laugh out loud (NO i will NOT abbreviate it).

the trailer for “funny people” is up– what do you guys think? i mean, i want to see it but the tone of the movie is a little different than i anticipated. maybe it’s just the weird pacing of the trailer…

on repeat all day: the new single from phoenix (FYI you can download the mp3 from that page, after the intro).

with that said… i am REALLY good at showing this city off. seriously. i’m like, the stage mom of austin. “AQUANET. WE NEED MORE AQUANET.”

therefore, i was utterly delighted when george and jenny, henri’s and my dear friends from boston, decided to fly down to texas and pay their first visit to the lone star state! esp. cos they’ve always been such fabulous hosts to henri and me, and it was high time we paid them back with tasty business and a HIGHLY overdue introduction to queso.

no really, they had never tasted queso before. I’M NOT KIDDING. i know it’s crazy but that’s what they said!!!!

i try to imagine a life without queso and i just taste ashes in my mouth.

so of course henri took them immediately to trudy’s so they could experience queso and enjoy some tasty margaritas. obvs george and jenny had tried THOSE before, but still, it’s different in texas. y’all know what i mean.

jenny immediately understood this difference during her first taste of a margarita at vivo (the second restaurant stop of the day):

oh vivo margarita, you have no equal.

george was still reeling over the magic that is melted cheese, so we ordered some more.

after queso and ritas, we obvs had to visit the Third Wonder of austin, the alamo! duh! henri hosted an anchorman quote-along AND a sing-along, so george and jenny were treated to quite a spectacle.

ok, i honestly didn’t recognize henri when he came out in that wig and ‘stache. he walked up behind my seat and i said, “i’m really sorry, but these seats are taken,” before i realized i was talking to my boyfriend! the beastie boys were totally right– a wig and a mustache can really transform you into a different person.

i mean, jenny and i are like totally unrecognizable.

we’re gonna tie you to a railroad track, meeheeHAHAHAHA!!

things, of course, got silly, as they always do at the alamo, and soon the mustaches had transformed our two bostonians into muppets. or bad mike myers movie characters.

spoiler: we basically spent the rest of the weekend consuming things, because, well, that’s kind of what i do every weekend.

and just when george and jenny thought nothing could be better than queso, we took them to our nation’s most cherished dietary treasure, uchi.

that face that jenny’s making? yeah, that’s called the Uchi Face.

after stuffing ourselves silly with sushi, we pretty much did a cultural 180 and decided to visit our most texas-y hangout, the circle country club! it’s the one place where all of those stereotypes east coasters believe about texas COME TO LIFE!

jenny totally fell in love with this sweet ride outside of the bar. i told her, “if you like this car, you’re gonna LOVE the clientele here.”

ok, so i hope you’re reading this sitting down (standing at a computer is kinda weird?), but GET THIS:

before this weekend, george and jenny had never done karaoke.

I AM SERIOUS.

a life without queso AND karaoke?!! that’s like living in a steinbeck novel, for the love of sweet fancy moses!!!!!!!

thank goodness g & j have friends like henri and me to bring them out of the dark ages and into the light of Public Embarrassment.

so, being the professionals, the austin crew had to show them how them the ropes, and we took on this responsibility v. v. seriously. in fact, maybe too seriously.

caitlin can totally WAIL! she and i majorly put crucial taught to shame. suck it, cassandra!

and yes, i’m available for birthday parties, school events, etc.

and then there was THIS guy:

can you tell the CCC regulars love us? cos they do. ooooh man, they do.

i had to remind george and jenny that they should NOT base their future expectations on the circle cc, cos, well, you don’t find many karaoke places with a floor for two stepping and guys like this:

nor do you typically see a cat coming in to check out the screeching noises. “i can has quiet, plz?”

halfway through the evening, george and jenny mustered up the courage to perform their v. first karaoke number, “jackson.” even though they encountered a common karaoke issue (not knowing the song as well as you think you do), they did a terrific job and received many accolades from the crowd, including this guy in the back that kept shouting, “SIGN ‘EM UP! FIFTY MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT!”

my only critique is that they need to work on their Karaoke Face. i mean, this just will not do:

where’s the unflattering snarl? the burning emotion? the “i’m in labor” expression?

here, let the pros show you how it’s done:

FACE HARD! (literally)

we spent the next day (saturday) enjoying the beautiful weather, i.e. rubbing the boston snow storm in jenny and george’s faces. just like real tourists, we drove up to mt. bonnell to take lots of posed pictures in front of the view:

we also formed a band:

after the photo op, we headed to the dog park near redbud (i don’t know how to describe these things), where there are lots of dogs (j & g looooove dogs) and pretty scenery.

once again, our band/fashion label resurfaced.

i think we can all guess what came next: MARGARITA BREAK! after all of that hardcore nature stuff, we totally needed a little bit of downtown with some tequila. and, continuing the tourist trend, we decided to hang out at hula hut!

the tropical vibe didn’t help the whole, “did you know there’s six inches of snow in boston right now?” thing.

the consumption continued on south congress, where george and jenny discovered orange soda lurve at big top…

and then progressed to parkside (of COURSE we went to parkside), where george and jenny found the #2 item on their texas food list: mac ‘n’ cheese!

ok, i know they have mac ‘n’ cheese in boston, but it’s just not the same. i promise. i’ve tried it! they put curry in it! yuck!

as if living in austin couldn’t get any better (queso, weather, uchi), henri and i introduced george and jenny to the cheap drinks of mugshots, followed by the tastiness of whiskey and ginger at side bar. i’m pointing to my eye in this picture cos the bartender accidentally shot a beer cap right into my face and then gave us a free drink. i almost lost my eyesight, but got free liquor! score!

sunday was spent absorbing more of the FABULOUS weather (seriously, it was amazing). we ate a whole foods lunch on the pedestrian bridge…

(are g & j like the most coordinated couple or what?!)

… and then walked around the park near the long center, which features a super fun dancing fountain (watching the kids is the BEST) and a big ole hill.

ok, seriously, can i go back to that day? please? it was so perfect!

we sat on top of the hill and watched the bikes and dogs and people go by. the highlight was totally these two boys who rolled at breakneck speeds down the hill about 100 times. and i thought *i* was having fun!

also? i really want that sweater. in my size.

we ended the afternoon with… SURPRISE! MARGARITAS!!!

i love how jenny is pretending to be a total pro with that blasé look on her face, like, “oh yeah, i do this all of the time.”

well, jenny, if you moved here, you could!!!!!! with me!!! yay!!

thanks for visiting, you guys!! i had the best time!! ya’ll come back soon!!!

in the meantime, henri and i are accepting applications for people wanting to visit austin via our Touring Service (fees include margaritas, queso and the hot rock at uchi).

oh, and austin, here’s some vaseline. put it on yr teeth so you can smile real big!

LINKS

ok, i know that eventually i will talk about other things besides our new president but OMG did you guys see the first dance?!!! did anyone else tear up? gah, if things keep going at this rate, the state of the union is going to slay me.

and also the gorgeous dresses!!!!! ok i love pomp and circumstance!!!

also? i love that the media frenzy means we get to read all about what the obamas are eating. see, THIS is the kind of info i want to read about. also, note for my future white house visit: i want to sit at the kid’s table.

and now a totally UNobama link: is anyone watching tool academy? cos, um, it looks AMAZING, brah!

so thanks, calendar dudes!

last year, henri and i spent NYE in marfa with matt, robin and her friend, ellen. obviously, it was awesome. and v. artsy. however, i think this year’s celebration offered some improvements:

1. we stayed in a place with heat

2. there were no ghosts (ok, that’s probably more of a con than a pro)

3. we actually knew the person throwing the party (henri)

4. i hung out with even MORE people that i love

5. i still got to see matt, but it was the 08 version of matt, who is .02% better (or more) than 07 matt.

6. there was crazy dancing

7. there was even crazier confetti!

our evening began with a DELICIOUS dinner at parkside. unfortunately, the lighting wasn’t that great for food pictures, so you’ll have to trust me when i say that my last meal of 2008 was one of my best. i mean, you can’t end a year with bad food. that’s like, guaranteeing a future of mcribs or something.

everyone was dressed to the nines!!

here’s 08 (almost 09) matt with heather, his lovely date:

i haven’t seen robin since marfa, and i realized that from now on, she HAS to be there for NYE. otherwise it won’t feel as chic and fabulous.

and guess who was sitting to my right?! YOU’LL NEVER GUESS!! ok, no, it wasn’t keri russell. but it was someone just as cool.

OLIVIA!!

yes, olivia! who lives in london! just like matt! which led me to pretend that i had some sort of teleportation device at my disposal. i can’t wait to use it again!!

i hadn’t seen olivia in four years, and yet it felt perfectly natural that she would be sitting next to me at parkside, looking beautiful and giggling.

the OTHER bonus is that we requested skyler, our favorite server, who you may remember as the nerd on halloween. WE LOVE SKYLER! and she’s so pretty without those coke bottle glasses, just like rachel leigh cook in “she’s all that”!

after our tasty business, we crossed the street for the main event of the night: henri’s rockin new year’s eve!!

no really, that was the actual title of the show. because henri can.

more of my favorite people were waiting for me inside the ritz, like john and his lady, jen!

doesn’t john look positively REGAL?

we were also joined by MSW and brian!

and, how could i enjoy a sing-along without trish, chris and their fabulous entourage?!

if there had been any more of pants world in the theater, i probably would have exploded. which would be a tragic waste of a good dinner.

olivia and her bf, david, had obviously never been to a sing-along, so they had NO idea what to expect. in fact, i think they were a little nervous.

never fear, olivia and david! soon we’ll all be singing like divas with beyonce and rapping with coolio and dancing in a v. awkward, crazed fashion on a ten foot stage! that’s nothing to be afraid of, right? eh…

thankfully, there were pros available to show the newbies HOW IT’S DONE.

i cannot express how happy i was to have matt back at a sing-along. no one belts it out like matt. no really. look at this picture.

if someone asks me, “sarah, how was yr new year’s?” i’ll just show them this picture. that’s all i need.

well, that’s all i *need* but i LOVE pictures so here are some more!!

note that the air is smokey from, like, a bazillion confetti cannons. and also from the flashpots that henri filled with “sonic boom” powder that shattered my eardrums and caused the entire audience to believe that we were under attack. nothing like the fear of death to make you appreciate a new year!

like i said, smoky, but look at all of that glitz in the crowd! it totally felt like Singalong Goes To Prom, cos everyone cleaned up so well!

y’all, we got up to some SHENANI-DANCING.

matt and robin have definitely got the groove gene going on in their family.

ditto for olivia and her sister, marisa!

i like olivia’s “invisible microphone” technique, obvs perfected after years of slumber party lip synching.

it was SUCH a fabulous feeling to dance and sing the night away surrounded by so many good friends. like, people say that it’s a good idea to reflect on the year past and think about what you’ve learned, and i didn’t even have to close my eyes and imagine it– my blessings were all around me!

and by blessings i mean CHAMPERS!

after the show, we all headed back to henri’s condo for a classy high rise party. it was obviously THE place to be–  just look at these gorgeous ladies!

it was such a fun, jubilant night, and i’m pretty sure i said “I LOVE YOU GUYS” about a hundred times (conservative estimate).

ok, so as covered above, obviously you need to start a new year with:

friends

dancing

confetti

champers

but there’s something v. important missing from that list… ok, well, a baby or puppy would be good, but what’s even MORE vital?

YOU KNOW THE ANSWER IS CUPCAKES!!

therefore, it was of UTMOST importance that olivia and i, on the second day of the new year, visit sugar mama’s, a cupcake place on south first that will henceforth be known as THE BEST CUPCAKE PLACE IN AUSTIN (cue trumpets and naysaying yelpers).

i mean LOOK at these beauties:

the one on the left is the “southern belle”: red velvet with cream cheese frosting. and the one on the right is the “odd couple,” chocolate with salted caramel cream cheese frosting OMGGGGG.

i couldn’t ask for a better First Cupcake of 2009, not only because of the deliciousness but most especially because of the company.

it felt positively *luxurious* to sit across from this darling lady and just talk talk TALK about important things, silly things, girlie things, whatever we wanted!!! cos we were together! in the same room! being friends!

yeah, it was pretty great.

oh 2009, we just met and you’re already sweeping me off my feet!

LINKS

AUUUGHHHHH

check out this new *eco-friendly* typeface!! <– way easier than recycling (although of course you should still do it)

those different animals just won’t quite making new friends! today, check out an elephant who helped a dog start walking again! GAH the squee!

but, lucky for this blog, i LOVE talking about christmas and all of the events and special feelings (!!!) surrounding it, so we’ll see who gets tired first– me, from writing, or you, from reading too much squee.

speaking of S to the Q-U-E-E

last weekend, i enjoyed one of my favorite houston holiday traditions– lights in the heights! it’s an event that takes place in the heights (a houston neighborhood near downtown) where people turn on all of their christmas lights and there’s some crappy cover bands and children in wagons and people walking around with coolers on wheels. it’s basically the winter equivalent of tubing.

there are several reasons why i LOVE lights in the heights. allow me to enumerate.

1. it’s a place where we can all be friends!

i don’t know about you, but christmas makes me want to hug people even *more* than usual. fortunately, i’ve got a lot of favorite people in h-town, so none of my hugs went to waste!

not only do i relish seeing folks in houston, but i always have to stop and marvel at the different facets of life they represent. hanging out with all of them, together, sort of feels like heaven (but without the dying part).

kc and meredith were there, the original survivors of UT craytopia!

note the champ can, a vital accessory for lights in the heights. meredith is obvs a professional.

and whoah, rice flashback, it’s jesse g! and, of course, ray ray, a friend who has traveled through *several* of life’s chapters by my side.

ok, ok, that’s enough hokeyness for now. but I LOVE YOU GUYS!

2. the houses are so charming

i know a lot of neighborhoods get all cray cray and buy those huge inflatable lawn decorations, the kind that look like snowglobes with moving parts inside and then in the morning they’re all deflated and dead looking and it’s like, hello, santa can still *see* yr lawn in the daytime!

anyway, lights in the heights isn’t like that. it’s CLASSY.

ladies and gentlemen, my future home:

i mean, doesn’t that place look so *inviting*? like you could go inside, put on some slippers, gather around the fire place with yr friends and swap heart-warming stories. it’s like an LL bean catalog!

i liked the v. simple blue theme on this one:

and look, it’s a bunch of little trees!!

i like how they look like they’re marching, or maybe even having a dance party.

this house won for “Most Electricity” (that’s not a joke, it’s just what the sign said):

but kc pointed out that those are LED lights, so maybe the heights awards committee needs to wear some GLASSES next time. regardless, it’s pretty dang awesome.

and who doesn’t love it when lights spell out words?!!

thanks, house! merry christmas to you, too!

3. THERE ARE PUPPIES.

there are SO many dogs at lights in the heights, and people are so friendly (and/or drunk) that you can play with them as much as you want! and even give them hugs!!!

side note: the two guys that own this dog thought they were hitting on me, but really, i was hitting on their dog. OBVS.

meredith made a special gremlin friend!

seriously, if you don’t like yr dogs to be handled by strangers, you should watch out for meredith and me. we take no prisoners with our cuddling!!!

4. the night is full of serendipity!

most of the people who actually *live* in the heights hang out on their porches or throw parties in their backyards. unfortunately, most of them have this sign on their lawn:

wah wah waaaahhhhh.

however, some people are generous enough to open up the festivities to the public or have backyards without gates. the noise and music and laughter cascades onto the street and fills the air with a sense of serendipity– you never know where you’ll end up dancing, or who you’ll end up meeting.

for example, i had no idea that we would discover a vested group of gospel singers caroling and dancing! with special back-up provided by random girls from the street!

seriously, these guys were AWESOME. i kind of wish they were at the end of a christmas movie, because then that movie would be amazing!!!

i also had no idea that the (extremely inebriated) guy standing next to me would attempt to, uh, “make friends.” here is our exchange:

drunk guy: MERRY CHRISHHTMASHHH!!!

sarah: uh, thanks? merry christmas!

dg: hey… are you BRITISH?

sarah: um, no.

dg: cos you know… i live RIGHT across the shtreet.

sarah: (walks away)

like i said, lights in the heights is full of surprises!

ray even climbed a tree!

with special thanks to his lovely assistants, erin and meredith.

and you know it’s a good night when ray ends up wearing juliet’s, aka the Sultan of No Shame.

oh houston, it was good to see you, albeit for one night. it’s like, an early christmas present!! and easy to transport back home… IN MY HEART!

p.s. for the next entry, i’m covering the austin semi-equivalent: 37th street!

LINKS

you guys have GOT to check out the telegraph’s animal pictures of the year… a pig on a skateboard! the world’s most evil cat! guinea pigs in costume!!!!

speaking of cute animals, this is totally my new favorite website.