basically i should have just waited and posted this one

so you know all that stuff i've been so busy doing? want to see pictures of all of it? of course you do!

first we had the bridesmaid dress party. as usual, it was awesome:

you always need a few good prom pictures whenever you're wearing dresses like these:

..and then a few classy poses like this to really bring the sophistication level up a bit:

this year, we upped the ante by forcing people to complete tasks/dares while we were out at the bar. val here had to get a boy to put on lipstick, and also had to get a condom from a guy. (she ended up with a magnum, because YES.)

after a power (half) hour, do you really think i WOULDN'T pole dance on the metro...?

we went to rumors, as usual, because there really is no better amalgam of "dive bar dive-y enough that it's OK to show up in bridesmaid dresses" and "..yet still plays really fantastic music" that we've found in the city.

ahhh. so shiny. love it.

next up was my trip to california. first on the agenda: visiting my delightful friend carrie and her insanely cute daughter, Miss Leyba:

miss leyba's favorite book right now is The Hungry Caterpillar, which i am reading to her here in french. elle a encore faim!

i pretty much wanted to keep her and take her home with me. as my friend alexis put it, she's a really wonderful little person. and just look at those CURLS.

after that lovely visit, i returned to my sister's house in san francisco to prepare for Bay to Breakers, which we attended as the volcanic ash cloud:

you remember my sister, right?

the ash cloud idea was her roommate's, but elizabeth really did a great job rallying the troops and figuring out how to make us LOOK like an ash cloud (that's cotton batting spray painted grey and silver, plus balloon "parasols" to hover over us). we actually started the day with a lot more cloud on us, but it was kind of windy, and our clouds kept blowing off. see? this is my starting ash cloud level:

oh well. we were pretty drunk by the time we joined the parade anyway, so we didn't mind too much. plus, about 40 bazillion people were also there by that time:

..and virtually ALL of them are in costume. some people go pretty hardcore:

..and some people... well. this IS san francisco:

i totally recommend a B2B excursion if you get the chance.

things i do NOT recommend? bedbugs. OH MY HOLY HELL. anyone who clicked on the link last time will have seen this picture of my bitten up left shoulder:

which, you know. pretty bad. lots of bites. however, those of you on twitter may have seen the MUCH WORSE picture of what it looks like when you.. uh.. "react poorly" to things like bugbites:

those are just as itchy and painful as you might imagine.

the good news (?) is that they have calmed down somewhat and are back to looking just like.. well.. like regular bug bites. just, you know, COVERING MY HANDS AND ARMS. and back. stupid san francisco hotel. le sigh.

i don't really have a good way to end this post, so please to enjoy some weirdo seagulls from alcatraz who spent a good few minutes with the bottom seagull trying to dislodge the second seagull standing on his back. i don't know.

[lots more photos of miss leyba, b2b costumes, and alcatraz here.]