So not fun.

Saturday morning I was up at the ungodly hour of 6am. I scrambled to get dressed and out the door and to my Mom's house.  I was picking her up for a hot date. A hot date standing in line in the freezing cold to get the H1N1 vaccine. 

When we pulled up to the San Jose Expo Center where the vaccine was being administered, we almost turned back around.  There were already 1,000 people in line and we were an hour and a half early. 

Instead, we parked the car, bundled up for the 58 degrees, and got in line.  For five hours. We were champs.

I would say it was the worst experience of my life, but it wasn't.  We had some very nice people in line behind us and in front of us... very nice people who also happened to have some very adorable kids.  Mom and I made friends.  I did magic tricks with an acorn and Mom taught one of the kids, a 4 year old dollface named Caitlin, some dance moves.  Caitlin liked my magic, but was not impressed with Mom's dance moves. I couldn't really blame her.

I took a field trip to the bathroom, and then took a seat on the curb.  I watched cars drive by and people walk by and by the time we were almost to the front of the line, the churros showed up.  Just in time for lunch.

If there is one good thing about San Jose, it's the strong Mexican influence on the city's culture.  That churro cart, and moreover the $2 churro I bought, saved me from my hunger and from the boredom that was circling me like I was its prey, ready to take a bite out of my sanity.

Instead, I took a bite out of that churro.  It was warm and it was sweet.  It tasted like relief.  Sometimes eating does more than just fill the belly.

By the time the clock struck 1pm, Mom and I were dragging our heavy legs back to the car. The warm car we had been dreaming about sitting in the entire morning. I was vaccinated and I was happy. I was also exhausted.  We headed straight to Starbucks for some hot drinks, and as I waited for my latte to come up on the bar, I sat at a nearby table and wondered to myself,  "Where am I?  What day is it? What am I doing here?" 

Oh yeah. I got vaccinated.

Standing in line for 5 hours can be very disorienting.

It would require a two-hour nap the minute I got home to recover from the nonsense, and even then I was still tired, but it was worthwhile.  No swine flu for me.

The Baby Fairy strikes again!

Hooray for cloudy days and gingerbread lattes and surprises in the mail from the Baby Fairy!  These shoes are SO cute and SO me! Hopefully they are Tuesday, too!

Yep. I think I can feel good about imposing my love of the skull and crossbone on my baby girl if done so under the girliest of all girl colors--pink.  The Baby Fairy must have been tracking with me on this one since she also included a matching bow which, if I'm not mistaken, the Baby Fairy crafted herself!  A bow is the perfect balance to the skull and crossbone, don't you think? Baby fashion feng shui at it's best.

THANK YOU BABY FAIRY!!  LOVE YOU!

Like Auntie, like neice.

We both like to fake-smoke.

So many birthdays.

All the November birthdays in my life give cause for wonder. Do I have an unhealthy attraction to Scorpios, or is it just written in the stars?

Today my good friend, Jaimee, celebrates 30 years.  Jaimee, you are beautiful inside and out. Your biting wit, delectable charm, and contagious laugther are only some of the many ways you make this world better and make me feel a little less insane for being me. 

Click over to Jaimee's very fun blog, Crabtastic, which is all about her extrememly uncrabby life as a most uncrabby and, in fact, quite inspiring fashion designer and maker extraodinarre!

Love you, Jaimee!  Happy birthday!

Funny face.

I'm so in the mood to watch Funny Face today.  I hope you all have seen this movie.  It is classic and creepy and weird in the best way possible!  And, it is what I'm going as for Halloween next year.  Balloons and all.

Now, onto some real funny faces, brought to you by my lovely father at his birthday dinner last night.  He's not going to be happy I'm posting these, but maybe it'll teach him a lesson in how to smile nice.  

 

 

More from Dad's birthday here.

Such style.

Before anything I need to say Happy Birthday to my Dad. I would say some nice words here, but I just explained to him the concept of blogging at dinner last night. That is to say, he doesn't read this blog.  Despite his lack of technological savvy, he is the best, and I can't imagine calling anyone else my Dad. 

Last night Erik and I were over at his and my Mom's house watching the Saints beat the Falcons. Huzzah! Somewhere amidst the halftime conversation my Mom mentioned that her Dad, my Papa Jack, had fought in World War II.  Mom then saw it fit to dig around in her folder of old photos to find a photo of Papa Jack during the war.  She did.  And she also came across some other old photos, including this one of my Nonna, my Mom's Mom.

I am in love with this photo.

I don't know where my Nonna was going, or who she was going there with, but oh my, she was one hot ticket.  That dress and those shoes.  The hair and the lips that you know were painted apple red.  Sigh. She is a picture of timeless beauty, and she makes me wonder if the styles of our current decade will ever render me quite as lovely in the eyes of my own grandchildren.  Something tells me "no," but I'm holding out hope.

First Annual Aucoin Fright Fest.

Oh, Halloween.  Nothing has ever made me so tired in all my life.

Saturday morning I woke up at 8am. I took Paul to the groomer's, made two trips back and forth to my parent's house to pick up stuff for our Halloween party (that's 20 minutes each way), and picked up Paul at 11:30am.

At 1pm my Mom came over.  We prepped for said party until 5pm. I made cupcakes and muddy buddies and witches brew.  I hung webs and spiders. I made bloody bird feathers. I cleaned the bathroom. I swiffered the floors. Twice. (Okay, Mom did that.) I decorated more.

I cleaned and carved a frickin' pumpkin for the first time.

I skipped lunch but remembered dinner, got showered and dolled-up and in costume, lit every candle in the house, put finishing touches on the tablescape, and lit the logs in the fire pit.  All before 7pm.

Then, I was ready to party.

I greeted guests, passed out candy to trick or treaters, ran out of candy, didn't come close to running out of food, played a game or two of "toss the glow bracelet on the pumpkin stem and/or beer bottle, tossed back a rootbeer, put Paul in his Christmas outfit for fun, greeted more guests, tried to warm myself by the firepit outside, reapplied my tacky pink lipstick, assured my guests I wasn't really smoking or drinking beer, restocked the deviled eggs, passed out on the couch next to the tree (aka Sean) and let the witching hour roll by as Erika tried to justify her striped ears/tail which didn't match her leopard print body suit. (She was the cat from this video.)

Ask yourself what 6-months pregnant girl does all this? Then tell yourself, "no 6-month pregnant girl does this," because that would be the truth. 

I am the exception, of course. And I paid/am paying the price.  Yesterday I was a complete walking zombie and today I'm not much better. Fitting for the full moon tonight I guess?

Here are some of my favorite photos from the night.  Check out the rest on my Flickr page here!