he's just not that into you.

Book Review:  In his #1 NY Times Bestseller, Greg Behrendt appears to be some kind of  love guru summing up the answers to all the questions I have had recently about the opposite sex. Showing a general understanding for how girls tend to interpret male behavior, his straight-forward yet encouraging connotation (giving you the advice to move on while simultaneously making you almost feel sorry the pathetic creatures) leaves no gray areas for excusing typical male behavior or allowing hopeless romantics to give guys the benefit of the doubt. Its like h.j.n.t.i.y. should be some type of modern day manual that every guy can reference to and say "i will break your heart like page 42 and this is how you can get over it". I read h.j.n.t.i.y. in one afternoon by the pool and now whenever anyone comes to me looking for advice about guys, I tell them that I wish I knew why your boyf of 2 years woke up one day and decided he didn't love you and never has or why the guy you met on match.com won't return your texts and then politely refer them to this book... I laughed when I recently received this email from a girl I met at a neonatal didactic: 

Hey Jocelyn! How are you? How's work? I just wanted to let you know that I've read that book "He's Just Not That Into You." It definitely made me laugh and sympathize with many of the girls' stories. Thank you so much for the suggestion to read it! I've already passed it on to a friend of mine! =) You remember that guy I was telling you about ... it didn't work out in the end after all! I suppose you were right all along! I guess I just wanted it to work out too much. Thanks for all of your advice!  

Can you imagine me... a real relationship expert... giving applicable advice about love? If she only knew the emotional entanglements I got myself into with the opposite sex!! Maybe I'll abandon my original thoughts of writing an empowering memoir and write a No-Excuse Truth to Understanding Girls instead...

happiness.

He puts the happy in her ness.

gobble til ya wobble!

This Thanksgiving we gave our thanks and spent our giving with twelve of our friends orphaned in LA this holiday! Colleagues of mine, cousins, actors, a friend from college, the three girls Carly lived with before I got out here and even Carly's sister, Taylor, came to our place for a fabulous feast! We ate lots of good food. We played games. We drank boxed wine. We had lovely weather so we took advantage of being one of only places celebrating Thanksgiving that you could eat outside and brought our home-cooked meal to our community courtyard; it was the perfect day! 

turkey day in tinsel town.

colors of the market.

santa monica.

megan, the intern.

On our way down through California, Grams and I stopped in San Francisco to visit Megan, who was finishing her final segment of her Event Management Major - an internship with Rita Bareles Production. She chose to intern in SanFran after vacationing there a couple of summers ago and completely falling in love with the city! She works in a sweet warehouse and was even given this awesome desk to organize her events at. She became quite the local, navigating the Barte with no apprehensions and joining a cheerleading team that introduced her to a network of people, ones I like to call "No on Prop8-ers". She planned several fabulous events including a 3/4 of a million dollar budget wedding in a vineyard in Napa Valley and a 60th birthday party in which all the attendants received a bobble head of the birthday boy! She finished up her last week and is now back in Florida where she graduates in December. Congratulations!! I'm so proud of you, Megan! 

bulletin.

Bulletin: It pays to be a NURSE in Dauphin, Manitoba

 Receive Up to 20,000 (which with the exchange rate is about half that with this economy)

If you are a BN and would like to relocate to a country setting with a city lifestyle (city lifestyle? really?! last time i checked, no movie theatre, no high speed, not a single franchised clothing store and roughly 9,000 people did not constitute a city lifestyle... but they got the country setting bit right!), think of Dauphin, MB.

Dauphins offers affordable living and was named One of Canada's Top 10 Adventure Towns by Explore Magazine (yes! it sure is an adventure trying to drive icy roads in the winter, winter being 10 months out of the year. It is an adventure making it out of the grocery store in less than an hour without stopping in every isle to talk to someone you know. And my, the adrenaline rush I get from going for coffee trying to think of something to talk about other than people...)

I died laughing when I received this clipping in the mail from Grams today! I adore Dauphin and all it has to offer in small increments throughout the years but relocate there? ... your sense of humor is killing me, Grams. =)

countryfest.

The one adventure in Dauphin I am definitely looking forward to is the 20 year anniversary of Country Fest next summer!! Counting down the days to be double fisting paralyzers with my favorite Canadians again .... the line up is looking pretty spectacular!

lily elle place

lily elle place

Born: November 21, 2008 

7 lb. 1 oz.

21 inches

Welcome to this world, little One, it is even now, that much better because you are Here. 

i heart men on skates with sticks.

Carly and I ventured north Saturday night to catch (almost) an entire hockey game when Mitchell and David played each other... we stuck out like sore thumbs in Bakersfield, CA: "Better than Before" ... but it was entertaining none-the-less. I laughed (at the absurdity of the sport), I cried (when a certain someone got into a fight), I got all warm and fuzzy inside (because I can't help it) and I even froze to death (for wearing shorts)... =) Underneath my red coat is this fabulous shirt my ultra cool Auntie Paulette designed all by herself and turned into a little tshirt company ... I stole this picture of Kara and her roommate at a hockey game in Knoxville to show how cute they are!! They are available at menonskateswithsticks.com... AND would make fabulous stocking stuffers so buy one for everyone you know for Christmas this year! That's my suggestion for an economic stimulus plan. =)

love from kate.

Dear Jocelyn,

I love you Jocelyn. I love to play with you. I miss you Jocelyn. I miss you so much. I miss playing with you.

I like to watch Barbie and the Diamond Castle. I play with Julia at Kidworks. I learned about "T"  [the letter 'T'].

Thank you for the sniff and smell book and another things. [the other things]

I love you.

How are doing, Miss Jocelyn?

One more thing: I'm going to meet you around the holidays.

One more thing: I miss you.

[transcribed by mom, exactly as spoken by Kate (as she wrote with pencil on a piece of paper)] 

Bye,

kkate [Kate typed her own name, finding all the letters on the keyboard by herself!]

josh & katherine

Aren't they happiest?! Carly and I went to hotel cafe (our favorite venue in LA) to see Josh Kelly play last night! He is possibly the most talented musician ever. Hotel cafe is a really intimate venue with velvet curtains and cool lighting that keep it dark and personal. It was the perfect show when his wife (Katherine Hiegl) rocked out with all their friends to his songs because they're all about how amazing he thinks she is... so friggin cute!! =) 

breaking.

Do you memorize theatrical lines

that seem to lead them in?

Play the role with the good guy heart

oh the tangled web within

Who was it that lead you on

that made you want to hurt me so

Who are you out to forget

that forgot you long ago?

You make breaking hearts look so easy

seems like you done this before.

You've got breaking hearts all down

and you've done this, you've done this before.

You make stealing hearts look so easy.

Where is the guy I adore?

You've got breaking up all but down

I can't love a thief anymore

Do you collect the souls you lost

in the top of your dresser drawer?

count the number of tears displaced

on lonely bedroom floors...

-Anberlin

cold. dead. sparkly.

This summer I was completely captivated by the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer. Possibly one of the greatest love stories of all time, the hopeless romantic I have accepted I am was dying to be bitten by a vampire and experience that forbidden love that tempted Bella throughout the series. I am currently searching for a man as dreamy as Edward: cold, dead and sparkly. Where do you find a guy willing to give his life to protect the one he loves? Begs to spend the rest of your life with you? Carly and I set out to find him on the red carpet of the Twilight premiere Monday night where we saw all the cast of the movie which comes out this Friday. 

"Edward"

Jacob

Alice

Jocelyn and Carly

Carlisle and his wife, Jenny Garth

If you could live for forever, what would you live for?

little miracle, Kylie Marie

Congratulations, Katie and Dustin! A great friend from high school recently had a scary complication in her pregnancy resulting in them emergently taking the baby at just 26 weeks gestation. Kylie Marie was born in the wee hours of October 30, weighing a tiny 1 lb. 14 oz. Both Mom and baby are doing incredibly well. Kylie is an exceptionally strong preemie and is already breathing entirely on her own with just a little extra support by a nasal cannula to provide her little lungs with extra oxygen. I take care of micropreemies everyday and I could hardly believe she was just 26 weeks and not requiring ventilation; this is such an incredible milestone. Only two weeks old, she's feeding well and already up to 2 pounds. I'm excited to continue to watch her grow! I'm keeping you in my thoughts, Katie and Kylie! =) 

phoenix zoo.

Mitch and I had a fabulous day at the zoo with a teammate and his wife. There were so many cute animals but being an impromptu trip to the valley, I forgot my camera charger and it died right after I took this gorgeous tiger's photog.

botanical.

Phoenix Botanical Gardens.

camelback.

taking in the view at the top of our strenuous climb 1.2 miles straight up...

what goes up...

what goes up... 

...must come down.

living happily ever after.

Yay! Kara, the last of my favorite people who I no longer see on a daily basis, has finally succumbed to the blogger world and started her own blog so I can stalk her on something a little more profound than Facebook. Living a fairy talesque life amongst the autumn leaves in Knoxville, I'm looking forward to reading posts about a certain frog in her life that just might turn into a prince and give her her well-deserved happily ever after...  ribbit.  karamkirk.blogspot.com

butterfly fairy.

Happy Halloween! Hope you had a ghoulish time! I had fun at my school's Halloween party in the morning, spent the afternoon with Nonna, went to Boo at the Zoo with Mom and Dad in the evening, and then went trick-or-treating with the big kids (Gavin and Kelsey and friends) in Miss Paula's neighborhood. I had so much fun. I got a bucketful of candy that Mom thinks should last past Christmas. Love, Kate