Summertime (and the living's easy)

 So some of you were like, stop with the pep talks, give us details about what you did over the summer. And while it took me an absurdly long time to load all the pictures, here you go, kids. Ask and ye shall receive.

In No Particular Order Because the Summer Flew By So I Can't Remember When Things Happened:

Benni and I attended two concerts, Pixar in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and Roger Waters live at the LA Coliseum. Both were incredible shows, and we've got one more concert coming up: Florence and the Machine at the Hollywood Bowl the first weekend in October.  SO freakin' excited.

Roger Waters - The Wall - at the LA Coliseum

Pixar in Concert - at the Hollywood Bowl, before the show

Pixar Concert - mid-show. A full orchestra played the scores to every Pixar movie they've made so far (including Brave!)

I got to take a few Fridays off work and instead bum around at the beach...

Zuma Beach - Malibu

Laguna Beach, Orange County

 Sunbathing.

 I celebrated getting another year older and not that much wiser ;)

yummmmmmy

I finished shooting not one but TWO web-series this summer - Hell Froze Over, as the lead actress, and a new web-series called Love-Stupid, where I was the production coordinator and had a two episode arc as an actress on Love-Stupid. Hell Froze Over Season 2 will premiere this fall, so stay tuned!!!

Me hard at work with the clapper on the set of Love-Stupid.

Me...covered in a dirt for a shot of HFO Season 2. You curious yet?!

 We went to the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival to help our friends sell strawberry shortcakes...

I never wanted to see a strawberry again after that day.

...and maybe squeeze in a few rides too.

swings!

And we had our lovely friends throw us an engagement party!

I feel short.

Sunlight and love.

Bridesmaids made of PURE AWESOME - Lira and Stacy.

I continued acting, writing and producing - with two of my favorite people, Lira and April - on a show by, about, and for women - called Our Time of the Month. We perform one show a month, and so far, audience turnout has been fantastic.

Yay!

Dorking it up with April, left, and Lira, on the right.

Benni and I went to San Diego Comic Con again this year - this time with me dressed as Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica, and him dressed as Anders. Yes, we're nerds. 

Anders and Starbuck, sittin' in a tree...

The Hulk - made completely out of LEGO's. Awesome!

Now that I got see the Firefly cast in person during a Comic Con panel, I can die happy. From left to right: Alan Tudyk, Nathan Fillion, Joss Whedon, Summer Glau. SHINY!

I booked a modeling job for DevaCurl - a hair product specifically designed for girls who have curly hair. It was a two day print job in Culver City, and I had a blast - everyone was so friendly and just really fun to work with. I'd shoot again with them any day! I think I'll be on the products themselves as before and after shots.

Before. How about that mustache, am I right??

After. With a lot more makeup and hair product. Oooof.

We mailed our invitations and got a bunch of other wedding-y stuff done, including finishing the favors, the centerpieces, buying wine for the event, making signs and table assignments...phew! We still have a little bit of stuff left to do, but we're in really good shape and way ahead of schedule. Our wedding is children's book themed, so we used a lot of used books for our centerpieces, signs, table assignments, and our guest book. It's not all finished yet but I promise you'll get pictures after the wedding!

invitations

 

Used book stores are our friends.

Paper heart cut-outs for the guest book.

I went camping - twice. Once to Joshua Tree National Park for the Perseid Meteor shower that happened in August, and again last week, when my family and I made our annual trek out to Yosemite National Park for a week. My hiking boots are happy again.

Merced River, Yosemite National Park

 

Half Dome

 

 Sunset in Yosemite

Sunset in the rear-view mirror, Joshua Tree National Park

 And that was my summer not-quite-a-vacation. I'm about to get very busy and go into full wedding mode (the wedding is one month from tomorrow) so you'll have forgive me if I fall off the planet again. But there will be pictures when I get back - OH YES - there will be! 

Hugs,

Tracy

catching up on pictures...

So while I keep you guys guessing for one more post about what's fact and fiction when it comes to my life, I thought I'd deliver you guys up some pictures from the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies engagement party I threw a couple weeks ago...that was not MY engagement party.

Just so we're super clear on that one. Heh...heh...hrmmm.

Might as well laugh about it.

Anyways, enjoy! And these were all pictures that I took with my normal camera, then went here and downloaded an application that turns them into Polaroid-looking pictures. Nifty, eh?

The groom-to-be, Eric, munching on a scone. My friend Kelice in the background, looking all dainty.

Blood-splattered Mandy filling out a couples-quiz.

Zombified me, looking like my eyeliner skills suck.

I made red-velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, crumbled Oreo on top, then stuck in doll hands. They came out perfect.

Oh, $1.29 daffodils at Trader Joe's, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

All the tea sandwiches were a hit, but the crowd favorite was cucumber and cream cheese.

For favors, we grabbed red and black tea-light holders, put some Spanish moss and rocks in them, then half-buried bloody doll torsos and glow-in-the-dark zombie finger puppets.

Somebody left their hand at the party. I still haven't tracked down who the owner is yet... ::clears throat:: Will the owner of their missing right hand please come claim it? It's still dripping in my kitchen sink! ;)

Perhaps it belonged to this young zombie...my friend Isaac had the best costume by far!


Yes, I'm aware I'm a dork because there are no pictures of the BRIDE-to-be... but it's not my fault. I took about four pictures then went back to making sandwiches and heating up scones.

I know...excuses, excuses. The groom-to-be did record a video of it, though...maybe I'll see if he can put it online and you guys can see how pretty (and blood-splattered) everyone looked. Yay!

You made my best friend cry!

...and I cried a little too.

You guys really are way too good to me. Thank you so much, everyone, for your kind words and support regarding yesterday's post, and for those of you who donated, Alyssa is making you a mix CD and I'm making you something special as well, so please email me your mailing addresses to cliftontracy(at) gmail(dot)com. (Apparently when you use the actual words "at" and "dot" it throws spammers. Who knew?)

I'll keep this post short (for once) and catch up with you guys tomorrow or Thursday. In the meantime...here's Alyssa's blog post with her take on it. She's a much better writer than I am and she quotes Shakespeare a lot more. :)

Hugs to each of you and thank you, every single one of you, again, for all the ways in which you make me really damn happy to have started this blog in the first place. I'm telling Santa to put you all on the Nice list (unless you WANT to be on the naughty list...sometimes you get better presents that way).

::HUGS::

How to tell if you're an A-Type

So this all starts yesterday morning, I'm not even kidding, at 6 in the morning. This is when I get the first text from my best friend Stacey, who's pregnant with her first child, a little girl. The first text says:

"Had contractions all night, on Oxygen and hands and knees to get baby moving...doc will be here at 8 am. Cervadil dilated me 2cm"

And I pick up the phone, blurry eyed and not sure what month it is, let alone what day, read the text, and think, Are you there, God? It's me, Tracy. Please protect my Stace and let her give birth to the most beautiful girl in the world without too much pain or jerk-wad doctors or crappy jello, make it quick and not like they show it in the movies to scare the crap out of you, and please, if you could find the time to send her an angel message that she DOESN'T HAVE TO TEXT WHILE IN LABOR that would be swell.

Thanks, God!

Alas, sometimes our prayers are answered, sometimes not, because my beloved best friend, whom I have known since seventh grade and I have seen on more than one occasion use ONE black olive as a vehicle for which to deliver an ENTIRE TUPPERWARE CONTAINER of ranch dressing into her mouth, the girl who rolled her eyes at our German teacher even more than I did, my partner in crime for debating existentialism, Catholicism, and Smashing Pumpkins lyrics, my best friend who has lead archaeological digs in 105 degree heat in Southern California while carrying 60 pounds of gear and once got yanked into the government of Ireland's office for daring to write that Dublin's cultural centers were trying to re-write history to make it more politically correct, the self-confident woman who got a PHD from Stanford University and then got hired to teach at a university in Idaho before she even finished her degree, the bad-ass who wrote her thesis while pregnant, this Stacey, girl that I adore above many of the girls that I adore...

Is surely an A-Type. So the texts continue.

And I am getting hourly updates now of how dilated she is, what they're giving her, one text message that actually says "Breaking water now" and all I can think is that if someone gave ME a cell phone while I was in labor there would actually be a new episode of "True Stories of the ER" on Lifetime that could reenact someone getting a cell phone removed from their right eye ball, where I JAMMED IT IN after someone said, "Hey, Tracy, while you're in labor, do you want to send mass text messages to everyone to keep them updated?"

So there you have it. Stacey is, um, one of a kind. And Lana Joyce, at 8 lbs and 11 ounces, is beautiful.

As I was texting Stacey this morning and I mentioned that I'd, uh, never heard of anyone else texting while giving birth, she replied, "Trust me, it was the only thing keeping me sane." And when I asked her if I could blog about this she said sure. So just so you know, we're still best friends.

Until she reads the paragraph about the ranch dressing.