Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Paint Nite

Four colors.

Five paintbrushes.

Two beers and two slices of pizza big enough for Malibu Barbie.

Paint Nite (or Sit and Sip) has been sweeping through cities like crazy- all over social media (including Groupon, Living Social and Yelp!) we've seen pictures of cheesy girl friends, clinking wine glasses in front of half-finished canvases.

It was time we joined the trend.
 Also, I have a hard time saying no to 50% off.

The website is super easy to use- you scroll through and can choose your painting based on proximity of the location, the type of painting or how hard the painting is rated. Seeing as this was our first time (and after work), we needed close by, something we wouldn't get tired of looking at, and EASY.

Turns out, easy is in the eye of the previously-painted-before.
Although there were some venues just down the street from us, we really liked the look of a particular painting, so we headed off to a little Italian restaurant (+ bar) in Glendale. We're totally coming back because those raviolis looked GOOD. The bar was big by drinking/eating standards but as soon as you throw in a 2x3 canvas at each place setting, cups, brushes, paint plates and beer, you're looking at pretty tight quarters.
Mr. E and I set ourselves up in a booth, and quickly realized that this was a class of friends. There were easily 30 people there, but it was less of a "date" thing and more of a "group date" experience.

Our instructor was sweet, had a little trouble with the feedback of her headset, but she played some good tunes in between the instructions (Don't mix your water and your drink!) and was generous with the compliments.

What I really liked about painting this way was all of the examples you had surrounding you. There was a finished canvas at the front, the instructor painted a second one with you, there were tiny examples sitting at your station and everyone else was painting the exact. same. thing. So comparison wasn't an issue- even if yours sucked (which you're not allowed to say out loud), you can bet you'll find someone worse than you.
What I didn't like? My perfectionist streak was not as thankful for the alcohol as my social butterfly self would have liked. The one beer may have loosened my inhibitions to strike up small talk, but when focusing on a certain method of brushing I could have used a little more focus.

Mr. E, suprisingly, was completely in his element. He loved the cathartic motions, mixing the colors and working to make sure that his background trees looked different from his foreground- he played with dimensions and perspective and showed a little competitive streak I didn't know his fine motor skills were capable of.
I think by far the best ending to a date has got to be: When can we do this again?

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Hie Thee to Zion

Zion is apparently an international hotspot.
Is it the stunning views? The trails for hikers of all levels? Perhaps it's the absolute silence and the stunning cascade of heavenly bodies that surround you once the sun sets behind the cliffs. I haven't quite figured out how to take pictures of stars with my iPhone, but if it looked like this during the day...imagine what that looked like by the light of a waxing moon.
For four days there's actually quite a lot to do in Zion. That is, if you are surrounded by nieces and nephews, catching up with sisters-in-law, tending to injuries, cooking any and all meals and/or trying to find a free bathroom for a quick second. Just me?
We biked from the park entrance to the Lodge almost 5 miles away (uphill, both directions, in the snow...).
We hiked a mile along the Virgin River until we dead-ended at the river itself....then we took up walking sticks, double-bagged our valuables and trudged in. Much like the California surf, the water was cold but soon numbed your feet.
We also hiked to see the canyon view- through a tunnel and out the other side, there's a (perilous) staircase, some natural, some not, that deposits you at a cliff edge with a stunning vista of the park. Granted, it was no Angel's Landing (same idea, but a four hour trek and one of the highest points in the park- not suggested for kids. Me. People with a fear of heights.)
We swam for most of the day- hiking was strictly a morning sport as the heat of the day quickly baked everything in the canyon.
My favorite part of the trip? Catching a wide-eyed Mr. E as he spouted geological tidbits, trying to cram every rock and crevice into his memory bank like a kid at a museum. We vowed to hike more often- and actually get out and camp once in a while!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Heads Up!

We've kind of got a lot of balls in the air right now in our household.
Forgive my giant face- this is as close as I can come to showing you where I work!
I was hired (as a contractor) at Baxter Bioscience with a whole new schedule (5am-1:30pm!) so my days have become pretty limited. Then Mr. E found a position on an HBO show that has him working 12+ hour days- so we kind of pass like ships in the night.
Cast and Crew private screening for Wish I Was Here- Mr. E's first job on a Hollywood movie!
And then a car accident.
And then Mr. E's thesis film Ganas was accepted into a prestigious short film festival called Holly Shorts.
And then Mr. E decided to submit a short film to Project Greenlight- sort of a documentary series that follows aspiring filmmakers spearheaded by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

And of course this is all in the same week, because when it rains it pours.
But with my extra time at home I've been house-keeping: donating, organizing, de-cluttering. I've pulled out craft projects that had been gathering dust: quilts and cross-stitches that have seen better days. It's been nice to head into the changing of the seasons with some productivity under my belt.

In the meantime we've kept busy around the city- vacationing, day-tripping and experiencing all  most of what LA has to offer.