Dreams really do come true, and not the nightmarish kind. Also, sometimes geeking out to the point of stalker-dom helps. Remember when I totally freaked out because an episode of Henry’s Kitchen was being filmed next door?

Well, instead of my neighbor issuing a restraining order against me, the opposite happened. A friend recognized a guy in the video who turned out to live next door, told him about me being obsessed with the series, then told me that she told him and that he told her that I could come on a shoot, and then he left me a note on my door about the shoot, and then I called him (before accidentally texting a complete stranger beforehand, which was totes embarrassing) and then he told me about the shoot and then I went to visit and got to be in the background of the very final episode of Henry’s Kitchen.

And that is how I finally met my neighbor. Yes, it took a mutual friend, a stalkerish blog post, a viral video series, one note, a wrong text message and a phone call. All the while, I could have just knocked on his front door but then I would have nothing to blog about.

OMG so how stupid do I look? B didn’t even notice my giant moon face when he first watched the episode, which is good because I would hate to think I ruined the shot, but I couldn’t stop grinning because the whole set was hilarious. I think everyone was either good friends, improv actors or both so the whole atmosphere was full of jokes and laughing and fake beer.

And I finally got to meet Henry! I’m sad that the web series is over but if there’s anything we learned from The Office or LOST, sometimes it’s good to end a show on a high note (and not drag things out forever and ever).

The end.

PS. The more I look at that screencap, the more embarrassed I get about my whole life.

I think most of you know, but B and I were on an episode of Secrets from a Stylist on HGTV earlier this year where we totally lucked out and had our guest room made over by the one and only Emily Henderson. I was too lazy and busy (lasy? buzy?) to write about it but since the year is wrapping up, I decided to get it all down.

B was hesitant at first to appear on camera but everything fell into place and you’d have to be insane to turn down a free offer to change over what used to be an eyesore room in the house. All we had to do was have shoot for two days and hand over our house key while we went out our daily lives. It was a little nerve-wracking to leave our house behind but the whole crew was awesome and nice that it was like having a bunch of friends hang out there while we…weren’t allowed to come home. Or something like that?

Our guest room, which was styled as “graphic novel antique geek chic” by Emily, turned out absolutely amazing. Seriously. We were a little worried that the whole look was going to go into the comic book/video game feel with bright colors and everything, but Emily had the magical touch of making things look vintage, classy and artistic. The wallpaper totally matches Brandon’s art and I finally had the lawyer bookcase that I’ve been drooling over since, well, forever.

The rest of the house now looks totally crappy, messy and disorganized now. It’s also nice to have a room that I can sleep in the next time I get really mad at B for playing too much Skyrim. (Just kidding. It’s the room he’s going to sleep in when I start snoring too loudly.) Amazing photos of the room are on Emily’s blog.

The room still looks like this now, except for one small change: we moved the drum set out and my antique desk back in the corner so I could have a little “study” to do my schoolwork. I now have a wallpaper audience watching over my shoulder to make sure some writing gets done.

The full episode is now online! I tried to embed it a long time ago but it wouldn’t work–and now it seems to be all swell! Enjoy. Ignore my pancake face.

PS. Now all I have to do is  be a disgruntled hair model in Tabatha’s Salon Takeover and my life will be complete.

Here’s a sign that you’re getting old: you begin to enjoy everything you used to hate when you were younger. For example, I used to think salt and vinegar chips but now I think they’re amazing. I used to hate Pearl Jam and now I kinda dig their songs. And I used to hate Melissa Joan Hart but now I kind of giggled at this video. What is wrong with me!?

Oh yeah, I’m old.

I was really excited this past weekend because we’re big fans of Henry’s Kitchen and I recognized Henry himself outside of our house and almost peed my pants when it turned out he was filming his next episode RIGHT NEXT DOOR. Look! It’s our wall! It’s our bathroom window! It’s our roof! Our house is officially a YouTube celebrity.

Okay, this is all coming across kind of stalkerish but you’d get all excited if you saw some viral video star walking down the street. What if you saw Nyan Cat walking around? What if Chuck Testa crossed the street in front of you? Yeah, exactly. The full video is below.

Jealous? You shouldn’t be.

My awesome friend Jason at Naughty Dog commissioned a painting from JSalvador, the artist responsible for My Super Emo Friends. This time, it was Uncharted’s Nathan Drake to get in touch with his feelings and Jason asked everyone for ideas on why the action character would be sad. Well, easy. He’s tired from all that climbing he has to do! Jason picked my caption and here’s the final piece!!!

How does that song writing process come together? “Hey, you know what line would go great here? If we used the same words that make up the name of our band. Awesome.” Weird. Yes, these are the thoughts that go through my head. Here’s my list of songs where the lyrics feature the name of the band singing them. Feel free to add any that I may be missing.

Big Country – In The Big Country

The Who – Who Are You

Minor Threat – Minor Threat

Bad Religion – Bad Religion

Queen – Killer Queen

Living in a Box – Living in a Box

Monkees – Hey Hey We’re The Monkees

Wham – Wham Rap

Motorhead – Motorhead

Boston – Rock and Roll Band (“We were just another band out of Boston.”)

Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden

So…is it just me or does this model have an insanely large head? I’ve been staring at this dress online for quite a while, but only because I’ve been trying to figure out how this girl’s head to body ratio is physically possible. At first I thought it was just a really bad Photoshop job but then I realized that every single picture of her is like this.

But then I checked the other dresses…

HER HEAD IS INSANELY HUGE. And this makes me think of that awesome scene from So I Married An Axe Murderer.

That’s all. You can go about your business now.

Oh my god, you guys. I spent half of the long weekend baking random things but also spent a quarter of it watching TLC’s sneak preview of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding which made me miss the trashiness of UK television programming (or “programmes” if I want to be all British and whatnot) and also helped me finish up another trashy Penny Vincenzi novel where I learned all about the horrors (at the time) of the national healthcare system and all the characters “rang off” instead of hanging up or ending a telephone call. I mean, how cute is that? “Rang off” sounds so much better and elegant. Anyway, so I spent two hours absorbing all I could about My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, because I was so excited to finally watch the series since it was first aired across the pond.

And that’s when I realized my new goal in life: become a gypsy wedding dress designer. The series follows a specific dress designer (which the series honestly depicts as if she’s the Monique Lhuillier of the Travellers–that’s the other word for gypsy which sounds so much better and more elegant, just like “rang off” for telephones. The traveler’s wedding dress designer called her latest client and then rang off. NICE!!) but while she never questions the taste of what these girls want, you can kind of tell that she’s literally just adding as much tulle and as many rhinestones as possible to all of her dresses. I can do that. I CAN SO DO THAT.

I mean, it would be the perfect career because not only would I make tons of money designing these elaborate and pricey dresses, but I would totally be reliving all the horrible dreams and fantasies from my childhood of being a fancy princess with lots of pink, poof and petticoats. Whoa, I think I just came up with my label name. Pink, Poof & Petticoats. The designer in the show made one dress that lit up with LED lights and battery powered butterfly wings, but I could go even one step further: a tulle ballgown made completely out of fiber-optic lights so the whole thing literally lit up. Or maybe a dress with a real running waterfall? Or a dress with a skirt that would show the latest tweets or Facebook updates from all the wedding guests. See, I’d be like the Haus of Gaga for gypsy weddings. Oh my god, you guys, this would be like the best thing ever. Now how do I make this happen?

So don’t tell anyone but Keri Hilson’s “Pretty Girl Rock” is my secret anthem to life right now. It’s what I sing to myself every morning when I look in the mirror, except that it’s kind of awkward because I’m basically telling myself to not hate me for all my awesome self confidence, but if I’m talking to myself, am I implying that I’m my worst enemy because I dislike this aspect of my personality? Does that mean I’m full of self-hate?

I think I am. That girl looking back at me is my high school self who thought I was the shit because I was into punk music, indie films and pre-Daily Show Jon Stewart. I hated the crap that MTV’s Total Request Live would play and instead I would stay up late to watch all the great music they aired on 120 Hours. This old me would go to so many concerts and shows, read indie music publications and staple the hem of my school uniform skirt because I was too edgy to sew it up. I’d go see The Smashing Pumpkins perform live but skip the following KISS show because old guys dressing up in spandex and make-up was so lame. (For what it’s worth now, I regret leaving that show early very much. IF ONLY I HAD STAYED!!!) I’d scrawl lyrics on the soles of my Jack Purcells, wear ballchain necklaces, make plans to one day go sky-diving over the Bahamas and promised myself to never ever ever drive a station wagon.

Nowadays, I prefer to stay in rather than go out. I like to sew all the buttons back on my clothes if they fall off. My ears hurt when B plays his metal bands. I justify my 9-to-5 office job with Stevo’s realization at the end of SLC Punk that there’s no future in anarchy and that you could do a hell of a lot more damage in the system than outside of it. I am living in the system and I’m okay with it. Also, that movie was awesome. Occasionally, I see the value and convenience in driving a station wagon. So here I sit, dancing to bubblegum pop music, taking comfort knowing that I’ve got a 401K and slowly understanding that the dreams I used to entertain over 10 years ago were never going to last forever.

But I don’t like to think about it. I like to think about what I do enjoy, and though the music video is cheesy (though I do appreciate the homage to TLC), I love this song. Just don’t tell anyone, okay? Lisa already said I was getting uncool when I admitted to her that I liked Bruno Mars, but if everyone knew about this song, I’d be the most unpopular person ever.