arts + events + social media musings
I spent the day at the beach with my sister, her BF, Matt, and his boys, Matthew and Jacob.
Matthew spent the day capturing jellyfish.
Jill spent the day getting stung.
Jacob spent the day peeing in a bucket and pouring it on Jill’s stings.
We all spent the day laughing.
tumblers, by slightclutter
It feels as if this post is way overdue. On the other hand, it also feels to be entirely immature.
I’m going to cram a lot into this post, so for you ADD readers, here’s the short version:
Whew. That wasn’t so hard? Now what took me so long to write this post? (Besides painstakingly searching for the exact right image. Which I will always obsess over.) Read more…
Some of you have probably heard recently of the amazing project I’ve been lucky to be a part of: the 1st Annual Mom 2.0 Summit taking place in Houston next February 19th-21st, a conference that will bring together Moms, Bloggers, Marketers, Media, and all things saavy and smart. Houston has become a hot bed for these talented Web 2.0 moms, and I am happy to be able to showcase Houston the the country, when over 300 attendees, speakers, and sponsors descend upon the Bayou City in February. Check out all the deets here, and don’t miss our 2nd Houston Kick-Off Party at the Caroline Collective on Wednesday, Dec 17th.
No, I’m not a mom, but I have a pretty great one, as I’ve pointed out many times on this blog. I think being a parent is the greatest, most important job in the world, and both of mine have managed to do it with flying colors. I would be so lucky to be half the woman that my mom is. Which brings me to another reason why I truly believe my mother is a saint.
A few weeks ago, my parents were awarded custody of my cousin’s two month old baby girl, Kailey. Baby Kailey had been in and out of the hospital since she was born on Sept 8th. Without going into too many details, CPS stepped in and held an emergency hearing for Kailey’s welfare. While a few of Kailey’s caregivers are being investigated, the baby was to come live with my parents.
I’ll never forget the night at Texas Children’s Hospital with my mom and Aunt Barbara. I’ll never forget the look on my mother’s face, a look of concern, sadness and determination to get this baby to a safe place. The next morning an emergency hearing was held. The baby was appointed an attorney, and the case was assigned a case worker from CPS. My parents were identified as potential candidates for custody, pending a house visit from both the baby’s lawyer and the CPS worker.
How pretty is my momma? 
My mom turns 54 today. The same year she was born. The same age her mother was when she passed away. She was 29, the same age as me. I can’t even begin to imagine one second of my life without her in it.
Happy birthday to to most wonderful mother anyone could ever dream of having. A woman who has taught me compassion, manners, leadership, respect, how to care about other people more than yourself, and most importantly, how to not take yourself too seriously. (TOO proud of self!)
I’m so happy to share my mom with all of my friends. And she loves all of you just the same.
I would be so lucky to be half the mother you are.
I love you, Momma. Happy Birthday, dude!
i think this pic is around 1969, her junior year of high school.
This was taken by my dad on my parents’ honeymoon.
Yesterday we celebrated my grandma’s 81st birthday at her place with all her friends and all of our family.
My Maw Maw, Sybil Floyd Danna, gave birth to 10 kids from 1950-1968. That’s nearly 20 years of having kids, folks!
Eight girls, 2 boys. 8 granddaughters (i’m the oldest!), 2 great-grandsons, 1 great-granddaughter and one on the way!
You can see most of us here, at a recent baby shower for my cousin Elizabeth, who is expecting Caley Rose Isaacs in less than a month.
Over the years, she has taught us all how important family is. And I don’t know what i would do without mine. (probably die. )
Happy Birthday, Maw Maw!
Ran across this pic of me and tha moms celebrating Amber’s Bday a few weeks ago. I <3 my Momma Danna.
The night was a blast. We even ran into Cousin A and Matty.
Now Amber’s in China for the Olympics! You can see some of her coverage of the events here. Miss you, Amber!
Happy Friday Everyone!
I’m used to my weeks being crazy, but this one took the cake. I can’t believe all that has transpired in the last 168 or so hours. Here are a few highlights from una semana loca.
Monday
When your week starts out with an up til 3am Monday night, you know you are in trouble. I had a long day at work, and was looking forward to a night at home. That was until Mark told me about The Tontons last minute show at Notsuoh. Having just seen them on Saturday at Lebowski Bash, I was jonesing to see them again.
So I met Mark for a drink before the show, and he even let me play photog for the night. Hopefully I got some good shots of the band. These guys are incredible. Seriously, if you have the chance to see them live, do it. They’ve been nominated for best new band in the 2008 Houston Press Music Awards.
So after the show, Amber and I stuck around for awhile and hung out with Asli, Tom, and Adam. The old Clark’s, now Notsuoh, has a pretty wicked room upstairs filled with old costumes, records, an old double turntable and music relics from Clark’s and Dean’s. So we hung out up there for a bit until someone yelled, “who are all these people up here?!” We took that as our cue to leave. That was 3am. It was Monday. Dude.
Tuesday
Tuesday, visibly exhausted at work, I was again, looking forward to a quiet night at home. However, I was actually delighted when Laura Mayes and Carrie Pacini called to set up a dinner meeting to discuss a new project. So we headed to Cova in the Village for some wine, cheese, and chatter. We had a great conversation and some excellently selected champagne by the very Italian Carrie.
When we were paying the bill, the waitress looked at me and said, “did you go to St. Rose elementary school?” She was a classmate of mine, a fellow girl scout, from 4th grade. Small world. Reminding me of the time I was in NYC and a girl, Susan, stopped me and Kasey on the street because she recognized Kasey from college, but as we began talking, realized we were in the same girl scout troop. in 4th grade. Crazy.
After dinner I headed over to meet Mark and The Tontons to discuss some styling for their upcoming show on Friday at Warehouse, and a photo shoot that Mark had set up with Jessica Grieves on Saturday morning. Adam ordered a fruity drink. We laughed.
Wednesday
I left work a little early on Wednesday to meet up with The Tontons to do some thrift store shopping in the Heights. We were trying to find them some outfits for their Friday show, and the Saturday morning photo shoot. We first met at Retropolis, where while we had a lot of fun digging, we didn’t really find outfits to put together; unless you count this rhinestone cowboy get up that Justin discovered.
We headed across the street to the new Buffalo Exchange in the Heights and started searching for “glittery” tops to pay off the 3-D glasses theme they were planning for the show. We nixed that idea as soon as Adam almost bought a sequined v-neck cardigan. Not exactly what we were going for. We decided on a uniform look, much like they wore to Lebowski Bash, and headed to Sand Dollar to look for black vests and cowboy boots.
Michelle met us as Sand Dollar to help out Asli with her outfit. Miggy also ripped up the boys old black ties and made new skinny ones for the show. They turned out fab!
After shopping we headed to Onion Creek for a quick bite before the guys headed to practice. Michelle and I headed over to Beaver’s for another successful Green Drinks. Hung out with Ned, Jeff Kaplan, BIll Erickson, Sarah Jones, and of course the uber talented Bobby Heugel. Check out this great article in the Chron on Bobby and his flair for the perfect cocktail. And check out Bobby’s amazing cocktail website, Drink Dogma. This kid is sickly talented.
Thursday
Thursday I made the very tough decision to cancel my scheduled Boulder trip for that weekend. Being that the last month had been so crazy, and so go go go, I was feeling anxious about being away and already feeling the stresses of another weekend of craziness. Also, I was thinking about attending BlogHer in July in San Fran, and I knew I couldn’t make both trips. So I decided to cancel Boulder, and catch up with Gwen and all the ladies in San Fran in a few weeks.
After work Thursday I headed to Big Woodrow’s to celebrate Keisha’s last day at Aker. She’s been there forever it seems! And we are all excited about her new gig at Chevron! Got to hang with MRock, Shek, and my GA, Brian. It was like back in the Ellayess days!
After Woodrow’s I headed to So Vino to celebrate Emily’s bday. I hadn’t been to So Vino yet and was pleasantly surprised. All these new wine bars opening up, it’s hard to tell them apart. So Wino was small, and intimate, and the food we had was great. The waiters were all well informed about the wine selections. I visited with Becky and Seth, and Annie who i hadn’t seen in months and months, and one of Emily’s friends, Paul, who I’m pretty sure I bonded with over Justin Timberlake. JT brings out the best in everybody.
Friday
A quick after work nap was just what I needed to get the energy for the big show at Warehouse with The Tontons, The Riff Tiffs and Fat Tony. Michelle came by, we shared a glass of wine (ok mom, girlfriend jokes!) and we were off to Warehouse to get the Tontons dressed for the show.
Met up with Erin and Groovehouse who were both shooting the show. We arrived just as Lisa’s Sons went on. Not sure how to describe them without being negative. Hmmm, it was high energy.
The Tontons were up next, and the place was filling up. Mark helped hand out 3-D glasses to the crowd for a wicked 60’s affect. I grabbed the glasses and placed them in front of my iPhone camera. I was surprised the effect worked!
Eric’s shots from the show here.
The highlight of the show was when 4 members of the Houston Symphony joined the Tontons on stage for “Syrup.” I think someone caught this on video, and if so, I can’t wait to see it.
We stuck around for the Riff Tiffs, who were also excellent, and ran into Christian from Studemont Project, and Hodge and Cornbreadd from TFT, who we watched Fat Tony with from backstage. A great night for local music indeed.
Saturday
Reeling from a killer hangover from Friday, I missed The Tontons photo shoot with Jessica on Saturday morning. But judging from the amazing pics she took, they didn’t need me there. Check out “the morning after” shoot here.
image: Jessica Grieves, Ecor Rogue Photography
After finally pulling myself out of bed, I headed over to Chris and I’s Vinyl Creative meeting spot, Rudyard’s, for a quick VC meeting of concepting new ad campaign and discussing new clients. Oh, and of course black bean nachos.
I left Rudz and headed to Volcano to help prep for the big Houstonist Crawfish Boil. JB bought 500lb of the crawdaddies and we were peeling, cutting, washing, and boxing for a few hours before the crowd arrived at 6pm. And boy did they arrive. We had a HUGE crowd, almost 200 that came out to Volcano to get some dirty fingers and faces. Some great pics of the boil here.
Luckily, the last party of the night was close. Just down the street at Armadillo Palace, my cousin Adriane’s husband Matt was throwing her a surprise 30th Bday party. Adriane and I were raised together, practically as sisters. It was so fun getting to see her and old friends and family. Always a delight hanging with Rachel and Nate, and the adorable Carly, Thomas’ GF, who solidifed her status when she snapped a pic of dance teacher’s indiscretion.
Lauren Levicki was also having her bday party there the same night, so the entire Houston young socialite crowd was in attendance.
Sunday
Well, it’s Sunday now. And I’m headed out the door to my old roommate Dave’s house for some brunch and soccer watching. Also, looking forward to a meeting about a new project tonight with Joe Litzinger of Baby Crow Productions. More deets on that later! Very excited about it.
Here’s to hoping this next week is a little more calm, with more sleep involved.
Sunday before memorial day my sister, Jill, organized a group to celebrate at my parents house.
My dad has claimed that next year is the year we’ll finally be building a pool, so in preparation, my mom went out and bought this above the ground pool. (the last one she bought burst into the house!)
Jill’s boyfriend, Matt, and his two boys Matthew and Jacob, as well as Matt’s parents Tim & Mary, his brother Kevin and sister-in-law, Amy, and his sister Beth all joined us.
Also, joining in on the fun were our childhood friends, the Whitton’s. Ashley and her new addition, the adorable Tyce, and her BF Leo (who we learned will be getting married in the same place me and Michelle are headed to in a few weeks.) Her mom Susan, and brother Patrick, who we grew up with down the street. It was so awesome to see all of them there.
My grandma and her boyfriend, Dick made an appearance, as Dick told me a funny story about my “new employer” Halliburton, and the luggage that Earl Halliburton, Jr. created that would float to help you survive in a plane crash into the ocean. Who knew?!
And of course it would be a party at my parents’ house without Doris and Joe Hinton. Doris made homemade ice cream and, as always, Joe kept us in stitches all day.
Last minute additions included Jason, Tiff, and Shannon, who definitely livened up with party with their washing machine rendition in the tiny pool.
Amber and Brian also stopped by for some yummy margarita concoctions courtesy of Michelle: Miggyritas!
The spread of food was incredible. 4 different kinds of ribs burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, homemade ice cream, and a yummy dessert that my sister made with ice cream bars and butterfingers. YUM-O!
It was an awesome day with friends and family. Looking forward to many more when we get the REAL pool!
I ended the day with a 2nd pool party at the home of Stef and Paul, with all my Dynamo peeps. Flip cup, Beer Pong, and i got to play DJ.
Happy Memorial Day!
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