the Christmas Sweater

Ok, I know -- my last blog post was about my cat, and this blog post is about my cat. This trend is exponentially decreasing my normalcy rating. Whatever. For anyone who thinks that cats don't have personalities, I think you will be proved wrong in this picture where Venice is giving me her scowling look of disapproval after I tried to put a size small Christmas sweater on her. Turns out, they dont really sell cat sweaters, so I had to get a dog sweater. And they listed the breeds of dogs under each size. Why I thought that she'd be the same size as a chihuahua, i don't know, it just goes to show I've never had a dog. My apologies for giving you a muffin top venice, next time when a sweater is supposed to fit from neck to base of tail, I will measure before purchasing.

My Cat may be an Alcoholic

Around 1:30am last night, I found myself meeting two drunk men on the dark streets of huntington beach to pick up my cat who had found them at a bar and followed them home....

A little after 1 am, a number I didn't recognize tried calling me a couple of times, and then left this voicemail:

Yes, that's right " your cat venice was found at a bar". That bar is not that close to my house, it's about 6 blocks away, and when I called the guy back, he said "Yeah your cat was hanging around the bar, and then she just followed us home", they lived another 5 blocks away from the bar. My little hoodrat...i mean cat.... hangs around bars all hours of the night, follows men home, and then comes back smelling like cigarettes and booze!!! The guys were nice enough to walk her in my direction, I met up with them, pulled venice out of the inebriated young man's jacket which reeked of cigarettes, as did venice, and took her home as she GROWLED at me, like I had an angry teenager that was pissed at me for embarrassing her after being out past curfew....

Maybe she's frustrated with home life because of the possums that hang around our house and try to eat her food :

But my dad and I spent about 16 hours building her a possum-proof, weather-proof, state of the art multi-level cat house with custom carpet, slanted roof for rain control, windows, and high rise feet to keep the bottom dry...

So, I think she has it okay here. I wish I could say it was the first time she got out of hand, but last week a boy named Gavin returned her, and a few months before, someone texted me to tell me she had entered a house party on 12th st. So, if you see this girl hanging around the local bars, please, send her home...

The Juliana Theory

My favorite band of all time. They broke up about 4 years ago, and they came back one last time for a farewell concert. My very first concert ever was seeing The Juliana Theory at the Troubador in LA with Kari, and now, we got to see them for one last time at the El Rey theater in LA. Here's a little video clip I made with some of the best moments of the show.

Juliana Theory, Final Farewell to Los Angeles from Melanie B on Vimeo.

Kari and I got to meet the band afterward (while Lisa played valet and went and got our car), and they were sooo nice and such an amazing group of people, they stayed after to sign autographs for every single fan and take pictures with them:

Brett, Josh F, Chip, Josh K & Chad.

Some of my favorite memories of playing the drums in my room was with my headphones on and Juliana Theory blaring- especially "If I told you this was killing me" or "Congratulations" or "DTM" or "Top of the World. I think their lyrics are brilliant and the thing I've always loved most about them is that they are even better live than they are on their cd, that's the mark of a truly amazing band.

Thanks for the memories Juliana Theory,

Forever yours,

Melanie.

Let's Get This Summer Started

So the day after my last final, which was all the way back at the end of May, I started summer with a bang. We went to the Long Beach Aquarium, followed by Disneyland, followed by a Movie (Letters to Juliet, loved it), and then home to hang with Venice who was neglected during finals.

Then, I do that thing, where I stay up late, dont wake up til noon, take a nap at one, do nothing most of the day.

Then, the Walters came and we had LA day which was awesome-- we did Brea Tar Pits & the Lamp posts outside the LACMA, Phillippe's, the Farmer's Market, and Santee Alley. Good times!

And I got to take some pictures of Melissa's baby the adorable little Leena

And then, it was that stay up late thing again.

So now, I am going to publicly post my summer to do list and hopefully some people can help me make this happen before my internship starts on July 6 when ill be working 8am to 7pm.

- WATER PARK (i LOVE waterparks, raging waters/wild rivers/whatever, lets go!!)

- Surf More- Old man's, newport, mondos, and more BEACH TIME

- Roller Boogie Photoshoot (A $cott)

- Dodgers Game - (All you can eat night anyone??)

- LA Day part II - (Morales?)

- Ventura Day (Sarah?)

- San Diego Day

- ZOO- san diego/la?

- Finish all the seasons of Grey's Anatomy (Marty we got this one)

Ok, I'll stop there before I get carried away. Now, it's time to execute this list. I will start by taking a nap and sleep on it.

Oh, but this weekend....trip to the other slightly less awesome half of the state, but with many wonderful people in it. Audj, Tiff, Michelle, Ashlin- I hope to see you all!

Exercise Your Face

Guys, your face needs a workout too. Don't just spot train those beach muscles this summer...

'no double chin for us!'

Telephone

Spring break. Spare time finally. Sort of. Now its over, but here is proof that I spent some time not pretending to study/really napping in my room: