Maybe Daredevil does exist...

Luke sent me the link to the above video which you should watch but if you didn't it is about a blind kid that has learned how to use echolocation to some extraordinary results. This kid is crazy, he can play video games, rollerblade, have pillow fights, and kick your ass in foosball but his eyes were surgically removed when he was 2 years old. This is a great story about triumph over adversity and a true testament to his mother's ability to raise a disabled child to be better functioning than I am.

But what did I take from this video? Aquanetta, his mother's name is Aquanetta, and I can't get over that. It got me thinking, why would a person name their child Aquanetta? Did her mother own a hair salon? Is it an old family name passed down from generation to generation? These are the questions that plague me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm pretty sure that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. It has all the same great food as Christmas (mmmm Turkey), and all the family togetherness but it seems to be missing a lot of the stress that goes along with Christmas. Plus, it is an American holiday, I like the idea that everyone in this country is sitting down to a meal and thinking about what they are thankful for all at the same time, Americans need to do more of that.

The one thing that annoys me about this time of year is that Christmas now begins in August. Thanksgiving is becoming the red-headed stepchild of the year, forgotten and ignored until you have to put something in the oven then its like, "Where's Thanksgiving?"

This year I'm thankful for a lot of things, here are some of them:
1. I'm thankful for my family who is supportive of me finishing college and accepts the fact that I didn't go about it the "normal way."
2. I'm thankful for my friends who are always encouraging and helpful.
3. I'm thankful for my down comforter now that it has decided to be 40 degrees in Texas.
4. I'm thankful for my country and its free elections every 4 years.
5. I'm thankful for my puppy who has brought so much joy into my life.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Nickel Creek Concert

So it has been a really fun week with both So You Think You Can Dance and Nickel Creek happening. The concert was tons of fun, we were way up in the back of a standing only outdoor venue but since it was on a hill we could still see pretty well. The one major problem, Sean Watkins is so short that we thought he was sitting down through most of it...he wasn't. And he is my favorite so I'm a little bummed about that.

It was Kailey, Scott, Larry (my boss), Kelly (Kailey's boss), and me! First things first, we all looked so totally cute, if one of us had been having an off night (none of us were) the others would have completely made up for it on the cute scale so we were all set. Especially after a pre-concert trip to Shoe Pavilion so that Kailey and I could buy new boots.

Both the music and the company were awesome. They even played my personal favorite.....the cover of Toxic and closed with a really beautiful version of Lighthouse. In the middle there was the trio of "break-up songs" one from the each of them. The chorus to Chris's went "If you're gonna leave me, set me up with one of your friends" and was hilarious!

After the concert it was a midnight dinner at Magnolia Cafe. Sometimes a night just goes really really well.

PS: Sean Watkins, you still owe me for not calling and singing happy birthday to me when I turned 20. Call me and we can work out some sort of way for you to make that up to me.

Part 2: The Destination

After an event filled trip to San Antonio it kind of felt like we had already had a full evening but we were still really excited about the show. It was kind of like going to a rock concert, I’m a little hoarse from yelling. We had great seats about 50 feet from the stage with no one sitting in from of us and an aisle straight ahead so a perfect view.

They opened with the only Disco Routine I have ever enjoyed on the show starring Neil & Sara…

And continued through many of our favorites…

Sabra & Dominic Hip Hop

Lacey & Danny Samba

Neil & Lauren Jazz

Pasha's Solo

The crowd was an awesome mixture of couples in their 40’s who were all dressed up for a night out and screaming/giggling 10 year old girls. Normally that would have been annoying but since Kailey and I were screaming/giggling 25 year old girls it didn’t really bother us. Kailey is in love with Neil, I’m in love with Danny and we’re both in love with Pasha.

There was no host, although there were some video clips of show host Cat Deely and exec. producer Nigel Lithgow, mostly other members of the cast introduced the different dances and had “witty” overly-scripted banter that was still awesome because it was them and they are all adorable.

Kailey and I realized we were huge dorks when (no, not when we bought tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance Live Tour) watching we could say, "oh Lauren is dancing Lacey's part in this one, interesting." or "Hey, they took out that one move."

They ended with what Kailey and I have decided is our favorite dance from the season.

Neil & Sabra Jazz (the plange was awesome :) )

I didn’t bring my camera because I was stupid, definitely next year though.

"The Journey is Half the Destination" - Kailey

(Kailey’s Note: Whatever, you know what I meant)

Yesterday, Kailey and I drove to the AT&T Center in San Antonio to see the live tour of So You Think You Can Dance. And you should TOTALLY be jealous!

Part 1: The Journey

We decided to leave mid-afternoon to avoid the insane rush hour traffic around here. We made plans to stop in this little town called New Braunfels and grab a bite to eat and kill some time, the show didn’t start until 8pm and San Antonio is about an hour from Austin (without traffic). Those of you in the Santa Barbara area are familiar with Solvang and that was kind of what I was expecting – though maybe not to that extreme. In my mind New Braunfels was this adorable little German town, I mean they just finished up the 2 week long WurstFest for an example. In actuality New Braunfels is trying really REALLY hard to be quaint but it isn’t really succeeding, the town center could have been charming but was, instead, old and covered in realty offices. We did end up with some yummy fudge and then decided to try and find Schlitterbahn which is consistently voted the #1 water park in America. We found was a water park which looked cool but not like the #1 water park in America, turns out it was just mini-Schlitt (our name not theirs) and then got the hell out of town.

We got to San Antonio at about 5:30 and drove by the AT&T Center, we were really early so wanted to find something to do for a couple hours and proceeded to drive around the neighborhood, which turned out to be the ghetto. We saw no less than: 3 houses with couches on the porch, 12 cars parked on lawns, and 2 crack ho’s. So we called a friend Kailey went to college with, Jonathan, and invited ourselves to hang out with him for a while. Thanks to Jonathan’s directions it took us about 1.5 hours to get to their house, but thanks to Jonathan’s wife, Mandy, we finally made it. We hung out for 20 minutes and jumped back in the car for the 20 minute ride back to the AT&T Center.

to be continued.....

I'm the Big Winner and You're Not

unless you are one of the other four winners but I doubt those people are reading my blog so I think I can safely say that I'm the big winner and you're not.

It took cunning and ingenuity and luck, okay mostly luck.

Actually, it is Victoria

Lady: Okay great, now how do you spell Vanessa?
Me: huh?
Lady: How do you spell your name?
Me: v-i-c-t-o-r-i-a
Lady: Wow, I've never seen Vanessa spelled that way before.
Me: That is probably because it is Victoria.
Lady: Oh, right. (Laughter)

WTF people??? WTF???

I actually get Veronica a lot, this was my first Vanessa and to have it go that terribly wrong is pretty amazing. I get that we all make mistakes from time to time but pull it together people I have a REALLY easy name. Top to bottom my first, middle and last names are all very normal names with very normal spellings. It isn't Victorya or Viktoria, it is just normal Victoria, like Victoria's Secret or Queen Victoria or any other famous Victoria you can think of (don't get smart and start googling all the other spellings to find a "famous" Viktoria that isn't the same as thinking of them). On the upside it allows me to be passive aggressive about it. If your name is Michelle but I keep calling you Melissa, now you know why.

I Sooooo Live in Texas

Top three ways to tell that I live in Texas:

1. I have seen a privately owned herd of wildebeasts.
2. Mormons carry guns.
3. Simon, my dog, had to have a bath because he was humped by an unfixed pig.