So...Matthew and I decided to go to Al Di La in Park Slope for our 7-11 anniversary. OH MY GOD. IT WAS. SO GOOD. We went all out and had a proper Italian meal, and seriously I haven't eaten that well since we went to Florence...

It was so good infact that we took photos to document the goodness (and also because Matthew got his new sexy camera in the mail)

First....look at the pretty!!!



( MOAR NUMMINES )

And now I am quite exhausted, so off to bed with me!

(georgia is sleepy too!)

So ever since I got laid off and started working freelance from home, my diet has taken a bit of a tumble... And by tumble I mean shameless reveling in comfort foods like take out chinese, and spaghetti, and pizza, and OH MY GOD RED VELVET CUPCAKES... There was no more cooking, no point counting, no healthy eating, and OH MY GOD IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. For awhile there I was getting away with it too (lord knows how!), but Monday I got on the scale and was greeted with a pleasant 5lb gain. I think my body decided to pull the plug on "happy go lucky crazy food medicating Lauren". So here we go again, back on the diet!

The problem is, it is SO HARD to be good when I'm working from home, and my kitchen is literally RIGHT THERE, and I have no motivation to leave the house or go anywhere. I'm soooo lazy.... So I thought I'd at least try to keep better track of my food consumption, and today I joined Spark People.

Any one else out there on http://www.sparkpeople.com? Anybody use it? I'm still trying to figure it out, and who knows how long til I get bored with it, but I figured it was a good free alternative to the Weight Watchers site since I am po' and cheap. If your on it come friend me! My username is lberghol We can be miserable and healthy together! ;)

And tomorrow is the first "gentle yoga" class at the center in my nabe. I'm gonna make an effort and go...even though I don't think I own any yoga appropriate clothes and it will probably be filled with old people and will depress me ;) But I'm excited about getting out and moving again! Whee!

I'm having a case of the sighs today....




I'm sure I'll be over it tomorrow.. It's one of those "have I made the right choices/am I doing the right things/what would have been different if..?" things. Mainly centering around the fact that I know SO MANY awesome people who are doing SO MANY awesome things out on the west coast. They are all rocking and deserving, and I don't begrudge them in the slightest, but it just makes me wonder what would have happened if I had gone out there instead of moving to NYC. Not that it would have been better or easier, necessarily, because it would have brought it's own set of challenges, but it just makes me wonder. I guess this is just the result of watching the already small animation industry around NYC shrink smaller and smaller these past few years. Sigh sigh SIGH!

In lighter news, I think I might join a beginners yoga class in my neighborhood, because it's only $10 a class and it might be a good way to get myself out of the house. I'm kinda loving the flexibility that comes with working from home, I have to say! Pretty sweeeet!

First, look who I found sleeping in the laundry today!



Due to the Holiday weekend and a comp day earned by some overtime last week, I now have a 5 DAY WEEKEND OMG!! Weds should always be Fris, man...so AWESOME. I am looking forward to this VERY much, because it's been a rough month and PMS is kicking my ass right now and a break will be very very welcome.

Tomorrow my parents are coming in to give me my long promised Birthday present. I've been DYING for a haircut for AGES and back in OCT my mom said she'd take me to the salon of that guy on "What not to Wear" because she LOVES that show, so I said why the hell not! So tomorrow we'll be heading down to Nick Arrojo's Studio to meet David to get my hair did. I am excited, because my hair is so long that it brushes my elbows and freaks me out. Dinner and sightseeing will hopefully follow.

Friday I am HOPING that Matthew can take off to and we can have fun together. The goal for this weekend is to finish our front hall, put up molding, paint and assemble my new desk so that we can take my poor Imac out of it's box and let it BE FREE!

And also I want to see Star Trek or I will cry.

Heres hoping for a productive/relaxing/ happy fun times weekend! Why is it not 6:30 yet?

LOOK WHATS COMING TO LIVE WITH ME!!!!



Matthew and I placed the order this morning (YAY Federal Tax refund!!)...It should be arrive at my parents house in NJ on Wed or Thurs (ha ha take that outrageous NYC sales tax!) and next weekend we'll drive down to pick it up (and also celebrate my Dad's birthday, of course)

OH MY GOD I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

Next step in apple-fying my life: Iphones in June, and perhaps an ITv (So I can control ALL of my entertainment devices at ONCE OH MY GOD THE SYNERGY!!!!)

Dood I am SUCH an apple-ho now, it's so pathetic. I admit it, I'm a horrible terrible hypocrite (though I did agree to get an imac solely because I can also run Windows on it)

Also...when I went to visit Tekserve to play with the imac in person, they also had a HUGE Cintiq on display to play with. OH MY GOD GUYS LAUREN WANTS. I have decided that my "ideal home office set up" MUST at some point include one of these (in a dual monitor set up with my Imac-y of course), because, seriously, drawing on it would be TEH SEX.

Gaaaahhhhhhooomgggggggggggg I'm just basking in computer-y geek bliss right now..WHY IS IT NOT JUNE! WANT MY IPHONE HOMG!!!

In the news:
Vermont Legalizes Same Sex Marriage and Iowa Supreme Court rejects law banning Gay marriage - WOOT!! YAY America! Slowly but surely people, we're getting there...

On TV:

Green Porno with Isabella Rossilini - Actually I don't know if this is on TV, is it on TV? I've been watching the eps online and they are AWESOME and weird and HIGHLARIOUS and beautiful... Also probably NSFW btw, and there is SEX )of various animals) so perhaps not for the young.

In Life:
I JOINED BLOGSPOT! CHECKIT!

http://laurenbergholm.blogspot.com/

A coworker got me into gmail, and now I am google!accounting my life..Plus all my super awesome professional artist friends seem to have one, so I figured I should get in on that action. This'll be my official blogspot blog now..I know I had a weenie one before that I kinda forgot about, but here is where the action is from now on.. So TELL ME YOUR BLOGS artist peeps so I can stalk you via the nifty "follow" feature! XD

Also;

I drew more! Whee! Just a rough doodle done for a quick break from work. Apparently I'm way into things with wings and butts lately...though I see nothing wrong with that.

Seeing the tax man tonight..fingers are crossed for a substantial refund! XD

Oops! Fell off the daily drawing challenge only a few days in! LOL! Ah well, I am blaming it on the weekend..Sat was spent doing taxes, or rather organizing and itemizing expenses for our tax guy on Tues, and today Matthew and I actually got out of the house and went walking around Union Square in the beautiful weather. Both are things I either had to do, or could not do when I had freelance, so I still declare this weekend a success! Also on Sat. Matthew and I broke our diet and went to brunch at our favorite place, and I had THE MOST AMAZING WAFFLE. I declare our metabolisms "jump started", YAY SPRING!!!

Last night I did do this lil doodle though....Don't ask me where she came from...I kinda like her though:

HA!! I found this article today:

Filmed in Flatbush: Futurama


Apparently Fry used to live in my neighborhood, Ditmas Park! In the season 3 episode "Luck of the Fryfish" Fry and the gang go back his old nabe to check up on his house. Bender even turns into a "B" train and takes Leela and Fry to my subway stop! Heehee! I wish I could ride Bender to work every morning, he looks more amusing then the ACTUAL B train....

Heres a link to the B train clip (Newkirk is pretty accurate, 'cept it's now undergoing renovation to keep it from falling apart like that) I dunno how to embed hulu clips! How annoying!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/49522/futurama-riding-the-b-train

A lot of shows get filmed in my neighborhood, but I have to say this is definitely the coolest!

Oh lordy guys, what a week it's been! I am SO GLAD it's Friday!

A lil observation from my doctor's appointment on Monday:

Sometimes I feel my doctor is a bit out of touch with his "demographic". NOTHING but Sports Illus. in his waiting room...I haaaaate when I forget to bring a book!

This weekend will be spent:

~ painting the corner of my bedroom
~ putting the new bed together
~ switching clothes from crappy Ikea drawers to sexy new dresser
~ Freelance (only 1 more week OMG GUYS)
~ Taxes

also there will be sleeping, cuddling, snuggling and relaxing. I AM SO EXCITED.

On a sad note : OMG GUYS LAST BSG EVER TONIGHT I AM SO SAD! I am crossing my fingers that The Pres and Adama get sucked into the singularity and end up in an afterlife were they live ADORABLEY AND HAPPILY EVER AFTER in their cabin by the lake. SO SAY WE ALL!!!!

DOOD This has been a VERY profitable week on craigslist! Today we got a BED!! OMG!


We've been looking for a bed like that for AGES now, because I REFUSE to give up my box springs. Now I can keep my most AWESOME comfy mattress combo, and get rid of the ugly bare bones frame with WHEELS. (no more rolling across the floor! WHEEEEE!)

So folks, enlighten me... Is it fashionable to wear fur coats again? Is this Kosher now? Because I have seen a TON of them out and about this winter. And not just on hoity-toity Upper East Side ladies either, young folks, old folks, women, men in Manhattan AND on the trains to Brooklyn. I mean...I guess they could be fake, but a lot of them make me doubt it. And I've seem some WACKY cuts too...one gall had this weird coat of what I assume was deer skins and the part over her butt appeared to be the actual fur from a deer's butt...the effect was far from flattering, it looked like a weird hairy ass..

This woman was my favorite tho...I appreciated the coat contrast on her and her dog...



Seems an odd trend since we're all on the Green Train to Enviro-town now!


IN OTHER NEWS:
OMG I GOT A DESK!!! It's gonna go in my new office/front hall and I AM SO EXCITED because it will look SO SEXY with our steel door and the new steel lights we bought last week!!! Also HOW HOT will it look with a sexy new Imac on it (ya know down the road when I can actually afford that pipe dream)>


(btw this is not my house, just the photo the seller sent me)

WHEEE HOME DECOR OMG!

ok I'll stop posting now I promise ;)

So after living in our apartment for a YEAR, we have finally decided to get around to...ya know making it look like a house. Usually we try to paint a space before we move in, but when we bought our apartment it was all such a crazy move-in schedule, that we never got around to it. And THUS, it never got done. But since we recently decided to make our front hall my work/computer area, we've decided to get on the ball.... But OMG IT IS SO SOUL SUCKING! We cannot find a color we like. I think the problem is, I know the MOOD I want but I can't find a color to fit. I want my "office" to be cozy warm, but also bright because our apartment is on the 1st floor/back corner of our blg and is dark, dark, dark!

To give you an idea of my conundrum, let me show you a FRACTION of our paint chip collection:

Kiki and Georgia are confused and not amused. Keep in mind that these are only some of the chips we pulled for the hallway, and does not iclude to HUGE STACK of ones we also pulled for the bedroom and trim.

We've put the past two weekends into this operation, and let me show your our progress so far....

( ONWARD!!! )

I know I asked this before, but has anyone else stopped getting email notifications of comments and replies? It's driving me nuts trying to remember to go back and check all the threads I posted in to see if I missed anyone's comment. So frustrating! I'm wondering if this is an LJ wide thing or I'm just lucky like that.... ARGH!

In happier news, goin to NJ to doggy sit for the weekend while my parents are out of town...Matthew and I have grand plans of antique shopping, it's been SO LONG since we last got to do that...and while NJ prices aren't New England prices, they're a hell of alot better then NYC prices!

Also also, diet seems to be going well! I'm starting to fit back into shirts and pants that haven't been comfortable for MONTHS (I thought I was going to have to get rid of some of them and buy bigger sizes!) It's not HUGE progress, but it still feels good! Also, since we started eating better, it seems my tummy hasn't been bothering me as much. I used to have horrible problems with sour tummies due to the meds I've been on for the past 25 years :P..Obviously all the overeating carbs and fat weren't doing it any favors either! It's so good to see some results in both a fashion-y aspect AND healthwise, since health really is my main drive this time :)

Sort of belated, but HAPPY VALENTINES YA'LL!!


It's been far too long since I've doodled these two..I've missed them so! XD

I've had this on my comp for awhile, but things have once again gone crazy here. :P ;) V-day was FABULOUS though, we just took it easy and had YUMMY AMAZING DINNER at our favorite neighborhood restaurant. We also started seriously looking into redoing our kitchen, because our kitchen is HORRENDOUS. Of course we never do things small so it's become a whole ordeal of new cabinets and a stove and a dishwasher and TEARING DOWN A WALL. Matthew has grand ideas about doing all of this himself, but I'm still reserving judgment on that. At the moment we're just getting quotes and price shopping (O HAI IKEA!). I am slowly becoming SERIOUSLY EXCITED about the whole mess (and also dreading the whole ordeal) heehee!

In other exciting news, I got an email informing me that two of my pieces have been nominated in the 2009 R/HR AWARDS! "Lost in Translation" for Outstanding Missing Moment Nominees and Outstanding Tearjerker Nominees and "Happy Birthday Ron!" for Outstanding Humor Nominees I am SO FLATTERED GUYS!! Thank you SO MUCH for thinking of me (and sharing in my..ahem..obsession)!!! *BLUSH*

Voting is open til Feb. 28th!! So go check out all the FABULOUS fic and art!!! Fluff is GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YOU!!! XD

Good gravy it was windy today!!

I seriously did not know wind in NYC could do that....

All my posts seem to be about the weather lately...I'm not entirely sure what that says about my life right now....

OMG GUYS IT IS SO NICE OUT TODAY!!! I cannot get over it!


Small dogs are the warm weather indicators of NYC (they disappear indoors in the winter), and I saw a lil pompom on my way into work this morning. Double joy!

Of course I'm sure it will be in the 20s again next week, but I will take this 50 degree weather where I can get it. (O HAI Global Warming!)

I'm also kind of super excited about Valentine's day, because I'm a dork..and also because Matthew and I have made a dinner date at our favorite neighborhood restaurant. They usually have a special V-Day dinner, and last year's was FABULOUS. YUM YUM YUM!

I'm still on teh diet though, and I've sucked Matthew in as well, so now things are super hardcore.

( Diet/Exercise rambles )

Also I saw Coraline with muh grrls, jigglykat, macbeemer and basalt on Mon! OMG GUYS IT WAS SO AWESOME!! Seriously, a masterpiece. Puppet animation was never my thing in college, it made me want to bite things, so I have always been in utter awe of the folks who can do it and make it look so natural and beautiful. It just BLOWS MY MIND. I cannot wait til the DVD comes out with all the extras...I just want to watch all the behind the scenes footage I can find..PURE MAGIC

OH! And also, LJ seems to have given up notifying me by email whenever I get a comment on a post or a thread, just in case anyone think I might be ignoring them. It's so frustrating!! Has anyone else been having this problem, or should I be writing an angry email?

OMG GUYS NYC IS FREEZING OVER!! It is so damn cold today, that on the walk in to work I got an icecream headache from the AIR! WTF! The studio hasn't been much better either...GAH!

Also, I need a hair cut.

I just want to take a break from this VERY INSANELY busy week to announce that...

I JUST PAID OFF MY MOTHER F#CKIN CREDIT CARD HELLS F#CKIN YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That makes us debt free for 09, yo! (well with the exception of mortgage and Matthew's student loans, but those don't count..LOL). I've been paying that thing down forEVER and now it's finally gone!! YAY! Of course, the fact that I will soon need a new computer and might redo our kitchen probably means that we won't be entirely debt free for long, but let's enjoy this while it lasts shall we? ;)

2009 has been off to a pretty good start all around I'd say...I hope it keeps it up!


In other news, I am still trying to make wise food choices and loose weight...but as I suspected, being back in the office has made it VERY difficult. My coworkers eat such DELICIOUS FOOD! I swear I spend most of the day feeling like this:



0pt veggie soup is just not the same....

It been a rather exciting week, I must say! Tues brought a slew of good things with it indeed. I'm now enjoying my last day of working at home for awhile. I have to admit I'm a little nostalgic about it. It was a great way to recharge my batteries, to spend time with the hubby and doing some work on myself and our house that has been sitting in the back of my mind bugging me for ages. I just hope I can keep this momentum going! I'd like to keep this zen start to the year.

Also, Matthew mentioned last night as I was getting dressed for bed that I looked like I lost weight. I think I've managed to loose about 5 pounds so far, and that thrills me!! This will get harder to keep up once I'm going into the office everyday again and having to eat out in the city for lunch, and get breakfast on the run... I hope that I can keep making the right choices food-wise and keep my weight going in the right direction..at least it means I'll be walking and moving a bit more each day, and I'm sure that will help too!

And obviously I'm still rolling on my Obama high..just look at the awesomeness that he's already accomplished!!

Obama's Executive Order Checklist

It's actually happening people!! I hope they keep up dating the site as he does more stuff, there is just SO MUCH shit that needs to be put back to rights.....

YAY! Keep the good vibes rollin' people!!! XD

Work has been INSANE lately, I don't remember the last time I had a moment to myself...between my freelance and my new show at work I have spent literally every waking moment working. I spent 27 hours last weekend in my desk chair...I haven't gotten to bed before 1am for the past two weeks. And to top it off the museum has exploded in shows this month and Matthew has been just as busy, we hardly see each other anymore. For awhile there I seriously thought either the world was going to break or I was. Luckily, it was not me, a shift in schedules yesterday gave me a lil breathing room on my deadlines this week, and while I will still be working every night, at least I don't feel like I'm going to fly to pieces anymore.

I have Friday off, and a weekend that I am REALLY looking forward to. But alas, Matthew still isn't free, and will have to work :( Hopefully he'll at least have ONE day off, so we can spend some time together, I NEED my husband damnit.

But in order to get me through I have been focusing on things I'd really like to do:

Friday:
Doc appt in the morning with a potential knee draining, so what I do will probably depend on how I'm feeling... Since I'll be uptown anyway, I MIGHT go stop by the Met and take a peak at some new shows Matthew just finished, maybe bring my sketchbook, do some holiday shopping in the gift store (employee discount heehee!)..if I feel crappy I'll probably just go home and take it easy.

In general:
- do some old lady yoga..I've only gotten to use my DVD once but it felt SO GOOD..I'd really like to get another session or two in this weekend...
- I'd like to catch up on some Movies on Demand that I missed in the thearter, I think Persepolis and Kung Fu Panda might be available and I'd REALLY lie to see them...
- go through the mail that has been piling up and organize it
- clean and tidy up abit
- maybe even get some FUN drawings in
- relaaaaaaaaaax

In the meantime I've been taking joy where I can get it:

Dudes it's been a long time since the news made me smile...

Obama's team planning to reverse Bush policies on stem cells, drilling, abortion - this one nearly made me cry! I feel like I may be able to let out that breath I've been holding in for the past eight years

Gay Marriage Legal in Conneticut CA, AK and FL may be letting us down, but CT is there to pick up some slack! WHOOHOO! You go you crazy awesome Yanks!