Today I wish I was in the left lane. I really want to go to Austin. Like really, really badly. I don't know why. I searched for concerts yesterday that I could possibly go to in Austin. Didn't have too much luck. But nevermind. I will find a reason. If my brother liked me then I could hang out with him. But alas he doesn't. Waaaaaaaaaahhh.

My hometown knows how to throw a celebration

Today I made my way downtown to the Riverwalk for the Spurs Championship Parade. It was one the most exciting things I've ever been to in my hometown. We were right against the river and I was able to get some really great shots. These are just a few of them but if you want more, you can go here.


Coyote


#9 Tony Parker, #11 Mike Wilks, Trophy #1


#8 Rasho Nesterovic, #14 Beno Udrih, #17 Brent Barry


#2 Nazr Mohammed, #3 Glenn Robinson, #34 Tony Massenburg


#5 Robert Horry, #23 Devin Brown, #43 Linton Johnson III


Gregg Popovich (actually smiling)


#20 Manu Ginobili, #4 Sean Marks, Trophy #2


#21 Tim Duncan, #12 Bruce Bowen, Trophy #3




After the parade I came home to watch the celebration at the Alamodome. Bruce Bowen was the MC and there were some really funny parts. Here are some highlights:

Brent Barry: Now, everyone's been coming up here saying how much they love San Antonio. But I want to do something different. Who wants to hear Tony Parker rap in French?! Can I get some music? Alright, this one goes out to my girl Eva! Tony get up here!

(Then Tony Parker rapped in French)

Brent Barry: One last thing. Will all the girls that are responsible for the hickies on Beno's neck please scream?!

Linton Johnson: For god sakes PLEASE! I am NOT Nazr Mohammed! I am Linton Johnson!

It was so much fun and I am so glad that I waited in the heat for 2 hours to see it. Well maybe not glad. But it was worth it.

The parade is scheduled for Saturday!!!!!!!!!

SAN ANTONIO SPURS
2005 NBA CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!














Finals MVP: Tim Duncan!!!!!!!!!!!!!




I'M ONE HAPPY LITTLE GIRL!!!!!!!! :)

half of all our lives are spent encouraged by embarrassment

"we'd meet up at night
pretty late by the falls
talk too fast without regret
with headlights and stars
it was brighter than the daylight
bodies all backlight
unconscious though we're moving
stereo was screaming" ~ matt pond PA

i fell in love tonight. twice. at the quarry. and by love i mean "love."

first one was at borders. as i was leaving i saw a cute guy with good hair and glasses and i thought, if we were basing things on looks alone, i would go out with you.

second one was at starbucks. he was very attractive. well dressed. sitting alone at a table. looked as though he was doing homework or something. and i was just drawn to him. we locked eyes twice and it made me smile inside.

matt pond pa provided the music for my drive and they always put me in a dreamy mood. i get very pensive when i listen to them. their music makes me want to fall in love. i imagine myself sitting on a couch with my boyfriend drinking tea and just listening to music. so i guess that's why i fell in love twice today. thanks matt pond pa. thanks alot.

but i bought ray lamontagne's trouble. this cd makes me want to take a mini road trip. to the hill country or something. somewhere very texas. anyways i like the cd alot. i think maggie would be happy about that.

I see you're drinking wine. Are you drunk Papi?

Tonight I was in my backyard playing with my dog and digital camera when I heard some strange music. It was coming from the house behind ours. I would describe the music as an organ or maybe an accordion playing old American folk standards such as "Yankee-Doodle" and songs of that nature. I then decided to have fun with the camera and photo-document our amusements.


It began with a shot of mom washing the dishes.


Followed by my self-portrait in my big, dark, scary-at-night backyard.


The moon shining through the trees.


Alien Rex and squeaky ball.


Alien Rex and squeaky ball 2.

The music could still be heard after awhile so being the amused/bored/curious little girl that I am, I ran inside and grabbed my video camera to document the events. Unfortunately, by the time I fast-forward through Juan's graduation and got outside the music had stopped. But I continued to the scariest part of my yard, the back, and tried to see if I could see anything, a party or something. But I suppose they retreated back inside. Plus all the bushes don't help. But it made for an amusing use of my video camera I suppose. And a tour of my backyard.

After an unsuccessful "weird music documentary," I went and sat with my dad on the patio. I turned the camera on him, told him I noticed he was drinking white wine, and then asked him if he was drunk to which he replied "No Annie, I don't get drunk." And then I asked him questions about his wine and where it was from. "Napa Valley." "Ever been to Napa Valley?" "Well yea, I lived in Palo Alto remember?" "What's your favorite wine?" "Merlot." And so on and so forth. We then talked about tequila and my uncle and his family's vineyard in Mexico. I then asked my father why as a child I listened to songs about cockroaches that smoked marijuana. Confused, he asked me what I was talking about and I started singing:

"La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
Ya no puede caminar;
Porque no tiene, porque le falta
Marijuana que fumar."

"Ohhh. Because we wanted you to be a drug-dealer." Riiiiiiiiiight Papi. It made for an amusing interview and if you're interested in viewing it, don't worry. I'll make you watch it when I come back.

Speaking of the song, I actually had a discussion with my mom about it one day. I asked why while other kids were listening to Raffi tapes on road trips, we were listening to songs about high cockroaches. Apparently, there are a lot of nasty little songs like that about things that I won't comment on. But that's what the kid songs were like. And when I have kids, we're listening to those tapes on road trips. Hey, I turned out alright...

When I was younger, I didn't like my name. I thought it was so boring. It only takes 2 letters to form my name. It wasn't cool to me at all. It's not very exotic. I didn't know of anyone famous who had my name. Not fun for me at all.

But now I like it. It's classic. It's international. When combined with my middle & last name, it's beautiful. Took me a little less than 20 years to figure this out. But now I have and it makes me happy.

I'm still very amused when I remember people telling me how to pronounce it. Growing up, all my friends automatically pronounced it like it was spelled Ana (Aw-nuh). I tolerated it for a long time. It followed me to high school. I used to say "I don't care" when people asked me what I preferred. But then it really pissed me off that people weren't saying it right. I remember my friends getting in an argument one day and Natalie being the only one who was like "NO! It's ANNA!" I told them she was right and for some reason I remember them saying no you're wrong. I'm just glad that no one in New York calls me Ana. And I'm still bitter towards whoever started the Ana thing.

It's aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!!

Birthday presents are very good things. The 1st photo:
***





***My dog isn't the present. My camera is.

I’m a twentysomething and I’ll keep being me

The Birthday Post

Today didn't go as bad as expected. Ever since my 17th birthday, I expect the worst. When I was a kid, the idea of a birthday and the party that comes with it was the greatest thing to have ever been introduced to me. I had the BEST parties as a kid. Slip-n-Slide, pinatas, you name it. But my 17th birthday...I won't go into it but it was a bit upsetting. And ever since I just can't get excited about it.

I woke up this morning and saw I had a voice mail. From Maggie. She called at 9:00 AM...wtf Maggie. Anyways, she sang me Happy Birthday and I laughed hysterically for about 5 minutes. It was probably the best/weirdest rendition I've ever heard.

At around 11:30 I went to my mom's office to continue this massive filing project. Basically I have to re-catalogue a million files and kill my back. But I was given a little break when Joe called. We talked a bit, told me Happy Birthday, real nice. As I'm talking to Joe though, Mike calls. I don't pick up because I don't want to be rude to Joe. But Mike keeps calling...suspicion #1. I hang up with Joe and see that I have 3 missed calls from Mike. I call him back. He too is calling to wish me Happy Birthday (duh). We talked a bit. He was a in a Salvation Army and was very tempted to buy me a tape of Savage Garden's "I Want You" as a present which I have to admit would have been really funny/awesome/weird. I begin to tell him about how I was talking to Joe and it was so random that he called at the exact same time. THEN as I'm talking to Mike, Justin calls...suspicion #2. I hang up with Mike and call Justin back. Justin informs me that he spilled soda on his shirt and had to buy a new one at Salvation Army...suspicion #3. I told him the same thing I told Mike about them calling me and then him. He agreed that it was weird but said that it's lunch time so everyone's on break so it makes sense that I would get so many calls at the same time. He made sure I new it was my birthday and we hung up. I went back inside and continued my work. A few minutes later my phone rings again and I see that it's Mike. I picked it up and the voice on the other line was not Mike. I was so confused that I asked who it was and he said Mike. But I knew it wasn't Mike!!!! It was Joe!!!! And then what do I hear but laughing in the background. Yup. Joe, Mike, & Justin tag teamed attack me via cell phone. And I fell for it. An evil move on your part boys. I appreciate it and I love you guys and I know your intentions were good. But still. Evil.

When I came home I had IM's from Rebecca, Jillian, & Natalie. I had facebook messages from Mark, Erica, Lisa, & Jay. It was really nice. Made me smile. I miss my friends a lot. Jillian left for New York today to see the Backstreet Boys on The View and I'm really jealous (that she's in NY not the Backstreet thing).

Tonight I went to my Spanish class and now I'm home chilling. Mom ordered pizza and I'm probably going to watch a movie. Anyways, not a bad birthday. Thanks for all the love.

Oh I get it, you guys do love each other!

Today started off really crappy.

I got really depressed/got really pissed off/wished that summer was over already.

I wanted to listen to my Marvin Gaye cd but since my laptop sucks, it's stuck in there because the battery died and my charger doesn't work anymore.

But then I went to H.E.B. and bought myself sunflowers.

And I went to my Spanish class and he let us out early for the Spurs game.

And then Mike called me just to say what's up and I felt loved.

And then the Spurs won.

And I watched the MTV Movie Awards and 1) I'm really glad that Leonardo DiCaprio won because I thought he was much better than Jamie Fox and 2) I'm still really jealous that Rachel McAdams got to make out/have fake sex with Ryan Gosling. REALLY REALLY jealous. But I like her anyways. And now I want to go watch The Notebook.

That's where you put the porn and beer.

Today, I helped pack up the wagon and the Maxima and drove up to Austin to help move my bro into his dorm. I rode with Juan in the Maxima being that it was probably going to be the last time I rode in that car. Me and the Maxima have had many good times. Senior year of high school was very special and I will miss that car and all the attention I received because of it. On the trip up there, barely any words were exchanged between my brother and I except when he would ask me to switch the cds in the car stereo. Our soundtrack for the ride up was provided by Cake and CCR. We managed to get there in about one hour which surprised the hell out of me. Last time I drove there it took me 2 hours. But that's because I drive like a grandma and Juan drives like a race car driver. So there you go.

As we pulled up to his dorm, I became really jealous. I was overcome with this desire to transfer to UT and live in a dorm like this and go to school in Austin and be able to walk to the ginormous stadium and go to football games and be all school spirit, yay team, and go to events at the Frank Erwin Center where I saw U2 with my mom, etc., etc.

Anyways, my brother is living with his friend Nick. They're going to annoy the hell out of their neighbors by practicing their music. Nick plays the banjo which is why I have a little girl crush on him. Cute kid. I met his older brother today. Just graduated from UT and is starting at their law school in the fall. And I'll admit it...I developed a crush on him too. Those Garza boys...gotta love 'em.

I've come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains.

I'm going to Austin tomorrow. However, the purpose of the trip is to move my brother into his dorm. But I get to leave San Antonio and go to a much cooler place for the day. Fuck yea.