Recently

Picked up: the VHS tape Hayley found and gifted me last Christmas, as well as my multi-colored Memorex Cool Disks I came across around the same time. I dropped these both off on December 28, 2023 and Colonial Photo & Hobby just alerted me they were ready last week. I honestly forgot all about them until I listened to their voicemail. I was able to confirm there was something of substance on the VHS prior to drop off. I would hate to digitize a recording of the 1995 Macy's Thanksgiving Parade or a random Power Rangers episode. Instead I received footage of  Christmas 1999 and 2000, spent in Gainesville and Jacksonville, from my grandpa's perspective (well except for the moment where I took the video camera and was immediately yelled at by my mom). 😈

I also dropped off my very cool disks Memorex disks. No really, they were called Cool Disks since they were colorful as was the tech trend in the early 2000s. A modern floppy if you will. The guy who helped me with my order back in December commented on how he didn't even know what these were. I honestly didn't know either. All I remembered is they were some kind of backup. I hadn't been able to view what was on them for 15ish years (or whenever they stopped putting disk drives into PCs) so there really was no telling what realm of nostalgia I'd be dipping my toe into. Each disk had a couple photos each and some had Word documents. One document was titled Letter to dad so I'm glad that the advances in technology made it far too difficult for me to even open that relic. But here are some of my favorite finds. 

  

Val and I at some kind of conference in the fall of 7th or maybe 8th grade. I remember we stayed the weekend at a hotel down on I-Drive. Here's another photo from the same weekend that I've had in the archives for a while. I just hadn't seen the one with our braids in 20 years. 

 

Left: This was  probably taken at a Photo Booth at the Fashion Square mall towards the end of 8th grade. I know it was the end of 8th grade because I had short hair aka the Natalie Imbruglia but still had my braces on. So this was probably April/May 1999.

Right: This is me at the end of summer of the same year (what up 1999!). My short hair has grown out a bit. I'm holding my brother in a hotel room in Kentucky during a family reunion. I'm 99% sure that's my grandpa on the bed behind us. I found this photo in my archives from the same day but clearly after Jodi did my makeup and hair. 😆

 

I remember this bathing suit was from Old Navy and was my very first tankini. I'd put this circa summer 2000. 

Watched:

I refuse to just pay for any streaming service unless I am currently watching something. I keep a little list in my notes app. of all the shit I want to watch and where they can be found. So while we were on our HULU kick to watch Shogun I went through my list and found some other things to check out before the cancellation goes into effect June 3rd. 

The Greatest Hits is one of my favorite modern romance movies. It had everything that makes me feel - love, death, time-travel, sad people, and all the music. One person's review on letterboxd said "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets About Time meets High Fidelity". Yep that's pretty much it.

Such Brave Girls is a British comedy (the Brits really get my humor) about two young adult sisters and their single mother. It is a perfect pairing of batshit and hilarious. The premise is loosely based on Kat Sadler's real life and her real-life sister even plays her sister in the show. The best review I read was "It's down and dirty and very real. The relationship between the two sisters is brilliant. A combination of disdain, toxicity, combined-delusion and affection."

Celebrated: Gaya and Aubrie and Nicole's birthdays!

 

In true Gaya fashion dinner started late. We got to The Ravenous Pig at 7:30pm sharp but later found out the reservation wasn't until 8pm. So we hung out in their patio or as they call it...the Beer Garden. Thankfully it was an unusually nice evening for mid-May; warm of course, but humidity was low which meant my spirits were high. But then we weren't seated until 8:30pm and our food didn't come until 9:30pm so I was not my best self. Katie and I were so hungry we even opted to try Rob's bone marrow appetizer. It actually wasn't bad at all. But then my burger and truffle fries came out and were chef's- kiss-perfection. It was nice to finally have checked this restuarant out but way nicer to celebrate my girl Gaya. 

   

Aubrie made a last minute decision to have her birthday lunch at Henry's Depot. This was another first for both Dustin and I. It's a cute little food hall in the old train station in downtown Sanford. At first I was bummed that the salad I was eyeing wasn't available that day but Plan B turned out to be delish! So shout out to Katie for recommending Salvatore's aka the deli sandwich place. Dustin went with seafood at The Current and loved his too. I'm always excited when the girls ask us to join in any of their birthday festivities especially in their teen years. They know they will get gifts either way, so I know it's about the quality time which I'm always grateful for. We talked Luda, bears vs. men in the forest, and died laughing while we watched Aubrie direct Tommy in a Tik-Tok. It was like mid-July sunny, hot, humid, all around gross so after only a few minutes outside shooting the shit we were all like aaaaand gotta go. 

 

Just Saturday I attended Nicole's fairy-core, all-bears-no-men birthday dinner at Reyes. She had never been so I was excited for her to try it. She had asked me to pick her up early so we could take some birthday girl outfit pics around Lake Ivanhoe but it was too damn hot to even attempt. However, Reyes is decorated so nicely both outside and inside that we still got those shots. I am obsessed with her whole look from the corset to Nick's grandma's coordinating purse. WERK. I love that when the server asked if we were celebrating anything we all screamed "Nicole's birthday!" and then he offered a complimentary tequila shot or churro. He maybe got to say the "chur" out loud when she immediately responded with "SHOT!". HA!! Perfect way to start off a lovely dinner. Fried yuca! Street corn! Steak tacos oh my!