Bootie-licious

This past weekend, several friends and I bravely ventured to a monthly mash-up dance party in Echo Park known as "Bootie LA."  

With a name like that and a location in the epicenter of extreme hipster-ville, my sweet non-hipstery friends and I were definitely unsure of what kind of crazy night we were getting ourselves into.  But, oh what fun it was.  


The atmosphere is difficult to describe.  It involved hundreds of people dancing to crazy mash-up mixes while tossing a huge inflatable pirate and/or beach ball around the dance floor, all the while a resident dance crew known as R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dancing) performed extremely irreverent/hilarious dance routines in insane costumes on stage.   Here is one of their less-irreverent dance routines my dear friend Matt Godfrey captured that gives you a slight picture of their craziness. 



Bootie LA - R.A.I.D. from Matt Godfrey on Vimeo.


Overall, Bootie LA was ridiculous and crazy and hilarious and FUN.  Bootie LA happens the first Saturday of every month, and we are definitely planning on returning to shake our booties there in March.  


Five unrelated side notes:

1. I'm a new huge fan of Words With Friends. Play with me...AnnieTerracina. Holla. 
2. I watched The Fighter tonight, which means I only have 2 more of the Best Picture nominees to watch before the Oscars on Feb. 27.  I'm scared to watch 127 Hours, but I'm going to make myself...eek.  The Fighter was great though...highly recommend. 
3. I'm slightly jealous of all those snow days in Oklahoma. I could definitely use a few days to rest and recharge at home, and if it takes a blizzard or two to make me do that...I'll take it. 
4. I hosted a baby shower for the first time today for my extremely pregnant boss.  It was a wonderful success. 
5. Friday, 2/11, is the last day to vote for my darling cousin Erika to win a dream wedding! It only takes a moment... vote HERE. :-)

Currently listening to: iTunes on shuffle

Why: Perhaps thinking about Bootie LA's schizophrenic mash ups was the cause of this, but I wasn't really craving any type of music in particular tonight, hence the shuffle.   A random shuffling of 6,500+ songs is very hit or miss.  Sometimes I really think that iTunes can see deeply into my soul and cuts to the core of me with its shuffle choices.  Other times, it sucks and I'm like "Why the freak is this song on my iPod in the first place??" Tonight the shuffle is doing okay...the last few songs have been:

• "Great Balls of Fire," Jerry Lee Lewis
• "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been," Relient K
• "Green Hearts," Ben Lee
• "Got It All," Melee
• "Wind It Up," Gwen Stefani (whoooo C Gunn!) 

Anyone want to join me for Bootie LA next month?? :-)

xoxo, 

at

Help My Cousin Win A Dream Wedding!

My darling cousin Erika and her betrothed, Daniel, are finalists in a contest to win a FREE dream wedding! They both just returned from serving a year in Iraq and are more than deserving for this exciting reward.

You can watch a cute little video of their love story HERE and you can vote for them HERE (on the right hand side of the overly busy poorly designed website). Voting goes from now until February 11th and you can vote everyday.  If you have a few extra moments as you're browsing the lovely world wide web, it would be absolutely amazing if you could give them a vote (or several). The winner will be announced on Valentines Day... so hopefully I'll have some good news to share then! Thanks so much, darlings! You're the best.

Love you mean it (and so will Erika if you vote for her),

at

California Exploration: Big Bear

One thing I need to do more is explore California.  A little over a week ago, I got to do just that with my beloved community group as we ventured to the quaint little ski town of Big Bear for a little weekend trip.

(Author's note: "community groups" are essentially small group Bible studies that meet all across LA throughout the week.  I've been a part of one for more than 2 years, and recently started leading and hosting one at my apartment when my previous group got too big and had to split).

Big Bear is only a 2 or 3 hour drive from LA, but the vast difference of these two places is amazing.  I love that I could lay out on a sunny beach in LA in the morning and then go skiing in Big Bear that afternoon (hypothetically, of course, since I refuse to ski after an unfortunate incident at ski school when I was six years old involving a horrible case of altitude sickness and losing my lunch, if you will).  Point being, I love the diversity of this state!

While we didn't go skiing (thank goodness), we had such a nice relaxing time together.  I think it's mandatory for my sanity to get out of LA and get a breath of fresh air sometimes.  Here are a few photos of this fun-filled breath of fresh air....

Members of both my old community group and my new one.  I absolutely love these people.  Such an amazing, caring, strong support system in this crazy city. :-) 

Ellen made us a delicious din! I think we fit 14 people at an 8 person table.  Cozy. 

SNOW! 

It was a great trip!  Excited to do some more exploring.  Next up: I'm thinking north....  :-)

Currently listening to: Black Kids, "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You"
Why: I'm feelin'  a little sassy...  ;-)

xoxox,

at

Happy Birthday Mary!



Annie and Mary and Mary's birthday party... 2 decades ago. :-)



Mary enjoying Annie's shot at her 21st birthday party.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, fabulous, hilarious, witty, beautiful, amazing best friend. I wish I was in New York to celebrate with you!!

xoxo,

at



One Time I Was In The New York Post...for Hosting Bachelor Watch Parties

I've been hosting watch parties for the Bachelor/Bachelorette since I was 16 years old.  I fully realize how silly and ridiculous this show can be, but it's also gloriously fun and addictive. I haven't missed a season (with the sole exception of the time the Bachelor was a 40-year-old professional fisherman. No thank you). 


During a season of the Bachelor, our Monday night watch parties are a set date in the calendar.  Several of my dear girlfriends come over in comfy clothes and everyone brings a yummy food or drink.  We have way too much fun laughing and adding our own commentary; we miss approximately 30% of the dialogue, but it's just so much more enjoyable to watch with a group.  It's so fun/popular to watch this particular show in a group setting, in fact, that the New York Post decided to write an article on the phenomenon of these watch parties.  And quite hilariously... I was quoted and pictured in that article (which you can read HERE).


You are probably thinking, "Whyyyy are you in a New York Post article??" (as was I), so I'll tell you.  I follow the show's amazing host, Chris Harrison on Twitter.  A couple weeks ago, he tweeted "Does anyone have a Bachelor watch party in the LA area?  Someone is writing an article for the New York Post and wants to talk to you."  Being that I so religiously have these parties and do indeed live in LA, I decided to go ahead and respond.  I said, "I've been hosting watch parties since the 2nd season (when I was in high school)! Now I host a party every Monday in LA. :-)" Chris Harrison has well over 40,000 followers on Twitter, so I thought my tweet would be overlooked and absolutely nothing would come of this.  Much to my surprise, however, five minutes later a writer from the Post messaged me and asked if he could call me to interview me for the story. Ha! We had a short phone interview, and the next day he emailed some follow up questions.  He also asked if I could get some photos with a 300 dpi print quality taken of my next watch party.  One of my lovely watch party attendees recruited her amazing photographer friend to come take photos; I submitted them to the writer, and there ya go.  I honestly didn't know if my quotes/photos would make the cut and actually be in the article.  This past Monday morning, however, I had a wall post from a friend who now lives in New York confirming this.  He had just stumbled upon the article while reading the Post and, needless to say, was very surprised to see his old buddy in there.  Here's the photo and caption from the online article (the print version actually includes two small photos of the other people mentioned in the caption and our photo is much bigger, including a shot of the Bachelor making out with some girl on the TV): 

'THE BACHELOR'PARTIES: ElisabethHasselbeck (top left) hosts viewing parties for her friends, so does host Chris Harrison's (bottom left) mom. Right, Annie Terracina (in yellow) hosts a party in California 

Here are some of the other photos that the wonderful photographer, Sarah Ivy Dickerson, captured of us watching our beloved show.  Other than her staging us so we'd all fit in the shot, these are completely candid. Seriously. I had NO idea we were all so adamantly animated while watching, but apparently we are... hahaha...

As you can see, we have quite a good time. As fun as it is to watch the ridiculous drama, incredible dream dates and pretty girls/boys try to find love, I love having the good quality girls nights with my darling friends more than anything.  I'm already excited for this coming Monday. :-) 

Currently listening to: Iron and Wine

Why: With the new album out this week, I just can't stop listening to these soothing folk tunes. The song playing at this moment is "Sunset Soon Forgotten" which is on my "chill wonderfulness" playlist.  Iron and Wine is just that... chill wonderfulness.  siiigh. So lovely.  

Your favorite watch party hostess,

at

A Sunday Stroll with Phil Dunphy

This was a great weekend.  My community group rented an awesome cabin in Big Bear and had a glorious time together in the snowy mountains.  (Another blog post on this lovely trip coming soon).  The highlight of the weekend, however, occurred after we returned to LA.  

My wonderful friends, Garrett, Katie, Cody, and I decided to walk to one of the enticing lunch hot spots in downtown Culver City near Katie and Cody's apartment.  Katie had told me that months ago that Ty Burrell (who plays the always hilarious Phil Dunphy on my new favorite television comedy, Modern Family) lives near her and that she had seen him out and about several times.  (Sidenote: If you don't watch this show yet, you absolutely need to start.  It is beyond funny.  I die laughing every single episode.)  

Knowing about Katie/Cody's exciting neighbor,  I mentioned as we began our walk that I wished we would see him.  As Katie and I discussed how awesome that would be, I was certain that it wouldn't happen.  I learned at a young age that if I verbalized something I was daydreaming about , then that automatically prevented it from actually happening.  One of life's annoying laws of cause and effect or something like that.  

To every law, though, there are occasional exceptions.  And very lucky for us, today was one of those occasions.  We stopped at a street corner and Garrett and I were looking into a new cafe/market.  As we turned around, MUCH to our surprise, we saw Katie shaking Ty Burrell's hand!  Apparently she just saw that it was him and said 'Hi Ty... I just want to say I love your show and think you're hilarious.'  Thank goodness she did!  This led to him meeting all of us and walking/talking with us for a good 10 minutes.  He made some funny jokes, he discussed the latest episode of Modern Family with us, he suggested some good restaurants for lunch, he asked us what we did, he made fun of the fact that he was going to a "meeting" about a new project at Rush Street ("It's so loud and drunk-y in there," he said....hahah).  Basically, he was the nicest, coolest guy ever. I hope Katie and Cody see him again soon and continue to develop the budding friendship we started today on that nice little stroll... a few more run-ins like that, and it's only a matter of time until Phil Dunphy's coming over for a dinner party. ;-)  

Currently listening to: my "sleepy time" playlist

I am a sleepy girl after that fun weekend trip.  I listen to this playlist almost every single night before bed.  Here are my last few lullabies that have played....

• "Annie" by Dave Barnes
• "Falling Slowly" by Kris Allen
• "Celtic Beauty" from the Boondock Saints soundtrack
• "Come Away With Me" by Norah Jones
• "Claire De Lune" by The APM Orchestra

Sweet dreams... 

at

Three Years

One of LA's least appealing qualities is the ridiculous amount of time I spend in my car everyday.  I sometimes listen to audio books while driving in an attempt to ease the pain of traffic.  I recently listened to a witty and hialrious book called "Remember Me?" by Sophie Kinsella (author of the Shopaholic series, which I have yet to read/listen to...but now I really want to do so).  I give this book 2 thumbs up...highly recommend. :-)

In the book, the protagonist, Lexi, has a car accident which causes her to have retrograde amnesia.  She cannot remember one single thing from the past three years.  She wakes up in a hospital fully believing that she is 25 and it's 2004, but in reality she's 28 and it's 2007.  In the course of these three forgotten years, her entire life has changed. Big time. She is married to a millionaire super hottie named Eric whom she doesn't even recognize.  She got a huge promotion at work and is now known as 'the bitch boss', although she has no idea how this happened or what she's doing.  She has an entirely new set of friends, an entirely new penthouse apartment, and an entirely new face... that's right... due to a bit of work she had done sometime during those 3 years, she doesn't even recognize herself when she first looks in the mirror.  As she tackles the daunting task of navigating through her new and foreign life, hilarity ensues. 


My life definitely has not changed THAT dramatically, but this book really made me think how much can change in the course of 3 years.  Three years ago, I had just begun the final semester of my senior year at OU.  I was paying less than $400 in rent for a gorgeous 4-bedroom/2-bath house.  I was working part-time at Starbucks and beginning to interview for positions in Oklahoma City and Dallas, while reluctantly toying with the idea of coming to LA. My parents still lived in Duncan, where I had lived my entire life. I was counting down the days to my Caribbean cruise spring break trip and considering going on a 5-week mission trip to Costa Rica that summer.  If someone had asked me, "What do you think your life will be like at age 25?", I never in a million years would have guessed it would be like it is now.  


This makes me wonder: what crazy unforeseen changes will the next three years bring?  Will I be like Lexi and meet/marry my husband, advance exponentially in work (and real estate), significantly alter my appearance, etc., between the ages of 25 and 28?  Or will I be a single cat lady who's still an assistant and 15 pounds heavier?  Only time will tell... :-)


Currently listening to: Matt Wertz
Why: For some reason, I just now downloaded his new EP which came out 9/28/10 entitled "While We're Becoming".  As he is one of my favorite musicians, I'm not quite sure what my 4 month delay was all about, but I'm glad I finally got with the program.  I love this guy.  He is a very talented singer/songwriter with endearing/relatable lyrics...just my style. He played shows at OU almost every single semester, so I felt like I legitimately knew him (that's what I like to tell myself anyway...). He is funny and sweet and cute. He's also a huge supporter of the Mocha Club which raises money for relief and development projects in Africa.  Overall, he's amazing and so is his music.  His new album comes out March 15... I can't wait! 

Wertzy and I at one of his many shows at OU, March 2007. 

Cheers to the next three years, 

at