what are you doing new year's eve?

this video has been on repeat the last 24 hours

and will no doubtingly continue all day tomorrow...

hope you all have a safe and happy new years eve!

happy 2012!

soon to come:

voting on 2012 themes

revised and new resolutions

and back dated adventure stories

dear santa

all i want for christmas...

warm woolen mittens

it finally reached below 30 this week

time to break out the mitten collection!

www.travelwisconsin.com

airport fashion runway

i've already forgotten what 65/70 degree weather feels like, but i'm trying to do my best as i pack for a last minute trip to california! turns out the payroll department at work has been screwing me over and i just found out that i have 84 hours of PTO that i need to use by the end of december! six days in sanfran here i come! if i had more fashion sense, this is what i would wear to the airport next week, but it'll probably end up being jeans & a T... i promise there will be many pictures and hilariously inappropriate stories of my adventures to come!

#mkewedding

oops! remember when i said i would try to blog once a week... turns out netflix is streaming all 6 seasons of the wonder years soooo... that's where the last 2 weeks have gone.

but back to the important things... #mkewedding! i think it would be rude to say i like some friends better than others, buuuuuuuuuuuut... when you fall in love with their families too, it's hard not to give a couple extra points to these two:

Copyright Anna Page Photography 2011.

on to my shameless love affair with the marks/andreasens... i'm convinced beth and andy have a thousand friends. each. but there is something that makes me feel like i'm their only friend when even their parents know me by name. i think in the estimated 5 years i've known beth i've spent a collective 5 hours in the company of her father, but the minute he saw me he gave me the sweetest hug and said, "it's really good to see you again, emily." beth's mom was no different and insisted i make a pit-stop in omaha on the way to wherever i'm going next to visit and spend the night. she does not have to ask me twice, because turns out 3/5 of her children are still in omaha and i have a huge crush on all of them. her sisters are over the top marvelous and stunning, her brother and sister in law are absolute riots! and i tried really hard to jump in the back of their car on their way home. but no dice. next time.

i am equally infatuated with andy's family. his mom was a good sport while i tried whoring myself out to the rest of her single sons. she indulged my preoccupation with becoming a member of her family like it was a totally normal conversation to have. see, andy is the oldest of 6. he has a younger sister who is a total babe and 4 other charming brothers. of those four, three are of legal age (eh, but don't quote me on that, he's only a senior in high school). point being, i think i have pretty good odds ;) i'll keep you updated. and then there is andy's dad, mr. doug mark... whenever i'm around him i try really hard to keep a straight face and a level head, but inside it's one long sentence that sounds something like this, "omg i think you're so cool.i would totally move to rockford if we can be neighbors.i think everything you say is interesting.please send me a bunch of merchandise when you decide to run for mayor." haha yep, pretty much like that.

if i had sisters, this is what they would look like

and finally i have to tell you all about my new bff, maux (that's a fancy way of saying Mo) she's beth's bombshell cousin on the far left. after i sheepishly introduced myself i word-vomited all over about how awesome i think she is and how i read HER BLOG everyday... we drank, we danced, we judged other people's life choices and we planned my road trip down to austin. bliss.

Copyright Anna Page Photography 2011.

engineering pick up lines

1 month blogging hiatus.... done.

sorry for the long break blogosphere, i took a time out to soak up the end of summer e.g. attending the last of the festivals at the lakefront, fish fry & a flick on the lawn of the art museum, jazz in the park, patio seating, skirt wearing and frozen custard eating!

i've also been busy hanging out with engineers in dive bars in riverwest. no, i'm not becoming a hipster, i've been listening to my brother play the blues with some old buddies from GE. he's pretty amazing, and one of those natural talents that can pick it up after years like he never put it down. maybe it's cause i thought he was the shit, but i never remember him being bad at any musical instrument he dabbled in. i'm sure my parents would disagree while they endured all the reed screeching, horn blowing practices.

also... i'm still trying to process this past weekend's nuptials between two of the greatest people i have even known. serious debriefing is going on over here about: people i haven't seen in 5 years, the trials of pre-adulthood, mind-blowing new friends and running the gamet of emotions in a 48 hour span. the phrase that best describes last weekend:"heart bursting" some things to look forward to in the next post...

i will become part of the andreasen and/or mark family one way or another

rediculously awesome name changes

i danced (it's a big deal)

kidnapping

i'm slowly starting to notice

conversations with friends transition

from blouses

to spouses

to houses

and all too soon we'll be talking about babies

but until then i'll be

stealing children from my coworkers

rrraaaaarrrrrrrr

relax, the dinosaur is just on your face

quick. staring contest. me & you. now.

fish face

he learned some new words that day: antibacterial

shorty was walking way too slow by the end of the day

what i really think about children...

just give me six strings and a half stack

a few things i've gathered from the 2011 VMA's...

i'm beginning too feel too old to be watching the vma's

kevin heart is not funny... not even a little

so nikki minaj is just the hip hop version of gaga, right?

sad my black keys lost, but glad the foo fighters are still kickin' it

adele is spectacularly captivating and i want to be her friend

are we all just sweeping chris brown's past under the rug?

i've never been a huge britney fan... but she's back, bitch

is kanye's taylor swift stunt still funny, cause i think it is

beyonce is knocked up

i've never heard of 'young the giant' before tonight... but i'm in love

i still don't know how to dougie

i think i have a little crush on bruno mars

katie holmes is still adorable, i wish she'd do more movies like 'the romantics'

i have a soft spot for the young money crew (don't tell anyone)

also - i don't care if gaga is in drag, or if she's doing all her theatricality for ratings and album sales, she's pretty amazing and a voice for our younger, unedited, generation who will one day change the world

you just committed up to seven human resources violations in one sentence

hey blogosphere! sorry i've neglected you. i've been wrapped up in work... joining committees, making plans, making a difference, taking notes, taking names. but more importantly enjoying milwaukee happy hours when it's all over. and during those happy hours i've been wrapped up in breaking stereotypes... other peoples, and my own. most recently the following were broken:

1. just because you went to marquette...

does not mean you're a douchbag who drank on her daddy's dime.

2. just because you play world of warcraft...

does not mean you're a loser who lives in his mom's basement)

i've also been wrapped up in amazement at how true the "workplace" category is on someecards. i don't think i fully understood the irony until i became just another lemming lost in the maze of 5ft grey pin cushion walls. with each one i read, i scream, 'that is SO true!" i couldn't pick a favorite or even a top 5 there were just to many great ones so enjoy...

she want a simple life, she need a simple man

things i like lately, in no particular order

babies in bars

puppies in bars

pintrest

visually appealing organization

pontoon rentals

my first set of business cards

milwaukee lakeshore

weekday sleepovers

foreign accents

happy hour specials

daniel tosh stand-up

having mondays off

and this guy...

a little left of center

normally i'm pretty good about keeping up on current affairs. but i have to admit, lately i've been listening to cd's and not npr. so when a friend asked me what i thought about the government defaulting on the federal debt and the looming august 2nd deadline to raise the debt ceiling, i'm pretty sure i sounded something like this...

via

also... a very happy 3-oh birthday to my favorite big brother!

workin' for the weekend

i took work home with me last night. nothing mind-blowing, just 240 letters that needed my autograph. but first there was a pit stop at trader joe's to pick up a bottle... scratch that... case of vino. it's been a tough week already, so it was much needed and well deserved. the wine definitely helped ease the monotony but the progression of my signatures was something to be desired.

let's begin...

note: lovely mug from Beaver Creek Pottery

#1 - no, i did not have a 3rd grader sign my letters,

my regular signature looks horrifically similar to the picture above

half time.

about 4 glasses in.

uuuuugh. why don't i have a signature stamp?!

done & done.

have love, will travel

i don't dance, but when i do...

it's to something like this:

i used to make fun of the beatlemania generation and all the crying, quivering girls in the front rows screaming and fainting because they were in the presence of four men from liverpool (read: in the presence of greatness).

but i finally get it. last wednesday i was in the presence of, what i believe to be, modern day greatness (read: two men from akron, oh). The Black Keys.

july 6th, 2011 i attended the best concert i've ever been too. the combination of the venue (summerfest marcus amphitheater), the opening act (florence + the machine), the crowd, the company and the music made it an experience i will never forget. in the last 2 months their entire discography has been on constant repeat and i could not be happier. they have abruptly crashed their way into my top 5 favorite artists of all time. that's right... top FIVE. declaring to other artists privy enough to be in such high standing (sufjan stevens, ray lamontagne, and the decemberists) "what up, we're here now. deal with it." the jump into my top five escalated quickly. it was bold move, but i wouldn't expect anything less from those men.

i suggest you buy their entire music library

but if you're only going to by one album...

damn it feels good to be a gansta

normally...

i meticulously select the pictures of myself i choose to post.

however, this was just too good to pass up.

it's been a while since i used a hand sander, and it. was. awesome. i'm just getting over a cold (that i attribute to high stress levels from the job) so i figured i needed some extra protection for my lungs. i'm working on a much delayed mother's day project. it's almost done, pictures coming soon!

i also hope everyone had a great weekend. i celebrated mine with homemade pizzas, 'love & other drugs', and drunken bananagrams. it was my first time playing and i think it helps when you've been drinking... the longer you play the less you care. hence me trying to pull off words like 'phog' and 'vaj' here are some of my other favorites:

buddaha

xanax

dugout

wino

zoomba

vintage

whore

narc

hmmm... i feel like this could be an alternative for one of those rorschach ink blot tests.

game on shrink.

parachute

my 17 year-old self is totally crushing...

i may have to fight the crowds at summerfest

to catch these hipster hotties in person

hold my gun & watch the door

#weddinginjune

sorry ross, rachel & co. but i have the coolest friends.

it's been a week since megan and sundeep got hitched... twice... in one day. and i'm still floating from all the love and joy that radiated from everyone. the celebration last saturday has been 10 years in the making and it was worth every minute of the countdown. dubbed, #weddinginjune from tech savvy sundeep, guests and the wedding party were encouraged to tweet/facebook/blog during the ceremonies. the dichotomy between simultaneous ancient indian rituals and iphones was astonishing (but seemed strangely appropriate during mass). i don't have a tweet machine yet, so i took as many pictures as possible. the day was simply unreal. (also, long and required a mid-day rockford bar stop and nap) but mostly unreal and incredibly powerful. i was so proud of all my friends and so honored to be a part it.

ya know, just riding in on a white horse

and a dance party in the parking lot

...the usus.

breathtaking

i never knew 90 minutes of sanskrit could be so beautiful

tweet tweet, twiddley de

walk around the fire aaaand...

...hindu married!

indian luncheon and the laaaadays

oh hey, this guys back!

vows

rings

kisses aaaaand...

catholic married!

i was totally at the cool kids table

we ate good food then there was lots of this..

VIP

she hit the floor

call on meeeeeeeeee

next up:

#weddinginoctober