Persona Grata: Ella G

Ella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh ... Ella's three favorite words of the day? mama. do-nut. hi. she's such a darling! you don't see a kid in a year and wham bam double the size. aren't her little harem pants the cutest! it was a gift from india. next time someone goes to india i'm asking for some harem pants. like REAL harem pants. not the ones mc hammer wore. it took a little bit but ella eventually warmed up to me. wut?!? u don't remember me ella?!? kids move around a lot. so hard to get pics. at least i got to sit and enjoy some talk time with croatia. i miss my old work crew. so many changes and transitions. i got us coffee and ella some donut holes. that's the reason why she kept chanting hi and donut over and over again. i bought her a dozen donut holes and she only ate four because i ate eight (homonym!) of them on the way to meet them. haha. so bad i am! croatia asked me what coffee drink i was drinking. iced cafe latte with two pumps of hazelnut. i wonder if she smiled a little cos she had gotten me yankee hazelnut scented candle jar. she also bought me cupcakes! it melted in the heat and was all sad and saggy but still tasted just fine! i took some of these images of ella and had it printed as an enlargement collage for her. which i haven't even given to her yet. but i will this saturday when we have our pinkberry meet-up! they don't know it yet cos i haven't even sent out the e-mail but i'm doing that right after i click publish.

Musik Mundi: Royal Teeth

Royal Teeth
Album: Act Naturally (2012)
Song: Wild

Houston really doesn't have many things to do besides eating. I know that when my mom has friends visiting, all that she does is take them out to eat. Ugh. So boring! So when buda and wonder woman asked us if we wanted to go the turkish festival, i was like YES YES YES! Of course, we mostly just ate there too. Haha. And i had me some turkish coffee. I've had better. You know how festivals go. Over-priced. But it was something different to do. And i love listening to that up-beat mediterranean music. They had this DJ towards the end of the night where it was like dancey mediterranean pop. I like it. Haha. Food was okay. I had a falafel sandwich. Big poppa decided that night that he does not like mediterranean food. This was fun. But it was about to get better! I got this e-mail earlier in the day about some market square park party. So we left the Turkish festival and walked the six blocks to market square park. Walking around in downtown houston! Once we get to the park. It's completely awesome. There are a bunch of people sitting on the lawn listening to live music from a band that i didn't recognize but turned out to be really good! There was wine and beer and a free photobooth. Fun! Big poppa got a beer and i got a tiny glass of nasty red wine. We found a spot on the grass and enjoyed the music. The band's claim to fame is the song wild. This song is on a state farm commercial i believe. Isn't that just super cool of them to perform for free?!? To play for the love of music. Very rare these days. There were a bunch of little girls dancing up a storm on the stage. Oh yeah, it's cute and funny now. Haha.

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*

Birthday: Gilles

Part deux of gilles drunken celebration. Let's see. I know gilles emptied the contents of her stomach. I want to say big poppa did too but i can't remember. He was pretty wasted for sure. I was just a little drunk. Super buzzed? There was a time when i had to finally accept the fact that what i thought was being buzzed was actually me being drunk. Omgoodness everyone was ordering way too many drinks. This is what happens when you go out with super generous and successful people. There are so many full drinks on the table that no one can keep up. Thank the lord i've rid myself of the selfish type who only buys drinks for themselves. I can't stand that! There's something about this group of people who bring out the best in me. I'm more fun and outgoing. And sometimes i'm so chatty and so obnoxiously loud that even i'm telling myself to STFU! You just can't help but be happy and positive. Fresh from my trip to paris, i made everyone give me bisous as we parted ways. You know, kisses on both cheeks. In spanish it's besos. I love it! Why can't that be a part of our everyday culture? It's so chic and mature. Some of us ended up at tantan for a post-party fuel-up. Of course it was the skinniest person in the group who held her liquor the best and was the only one that could drive. I needed to eat and sober up a little before i could drive home. Big poppa and i never really discussed who was gonna be the designated driver and so we were both drinking it up. By the time that thought occurred to me big poppa was already way ahead so i got pinned with the DD role. The next morning, big poppa was in hangover mode and asking if we had gone to tantan. I sarcastically asked him whose birthday was it again? It was gilles birthday and i was supposed to be the one who got sloshed. He stole my drunk from me! Anyway, gilles has become such a great friend. I've already told her this but i think she is a really great conversationist. The way she really listens to what you're saying and the ability to always give meaningful input. One of the things she does best is to always include others around her. I've been around some people who talk as if you're not right next to them. It's quite annoying and even rude at times. So if she's talking with one person, she'll take the time to explain to whoever might also be listening what they're talking about. It's a very considerate and thoughful gesture and it's also something that i always try to do. I hope gilles had a really good 30th bday. I think she did!