Wordless Wednesday – December 11, 2013

Kaito from Vocaloid Cosplay Photoshoot

On Sunday, my husband and I picked up our good friend Diego for a fun cosplay photoshoot on the beach in Gulf Breeze, Florida.

Diego is a cosplay buddy from California (in fact, the last time I saw this guy, he was cosplaying as Hugh Maes from Fullmetal Alchemist at Ani-Me Con in Fresno, California), but as luck would have it, he moved here to Pensacola, Florida to attend Pensacola’s Christian College around the same month we moved here!

I’ve been itching to do a cosplay shoot with Diego for ages now, and I never fathomed we would eventually get around to it… on the Gulf of Mexico. Haha! Life sure is a twisty, turny, never-know-whats-coming-next thrill ride, isn’t it?

Anyhoo, check out the shots we got of Diego’s Kaito cosplay from Vocaloid. He made it from scratch with his mum. Whatcha think? ^_^

Anna + Cameron – Engagement Photos at Barrancas Beach

When Jonathan was in boot camp, he told me his best friend was a guy named “Mason”, and that I should look him up on Facebook and add his fiance Anna as a friend. So I did!

Mason is also going to Pensacola A School with Jonathan, so it’s been awesome already having a friend in the area before we had even moved here! Mason has been a great friend to our little family – he’s helped us move into our new place, he’s watched our house and babysat out cats, and has been an all around fun hang out buddy. Over the past few months, Jonathan and I have been super impatient to meet Anna.

Anna (who is also in the Navy) just graduated boot camp shortly after Mason and Jonathan did, and now that she’s all settled at her A School in San Antonio and acquired leave to come visit Pensacola, I’ve demanded they let me do their engagement photos.

So they let me! Today was our first day meeting Anna, and it was awesome finally getting to know her after all of the lovesick pining Mason has been doing these past months. “Anna this, Anna that, I miss Anna, waa waa waa!!” < —- (that’s how Cameron sounds)

So here are a couple of the photos we took of Anna and Cameron at Barrancas Beach at NAS Pensacola. Yes, that beach is on the Navy base. I still maintain this base is less a military training facility and more a luxury beach bum resort. But I digress. Check out the lovely awesomeness that is Anna and Cameron:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Cosplay Photoshoot

I took to the beach with some new friends from the Pensacola Costumers Guild for a mini cosplay photoshoot this morning!

The beach we were at was called Chicken Bone Beach in Gulf Breeze, here in Pensacola. It was freezing cold, there were jellyfish EVERYWHERE and I stepped on a bunch of evil devil stickers that I STILL have in my feet. (First I mash my finger with a screwdriver, then this? I’m a rugged man-woman… lady. Or something.)

Anyway, we had a lot of fun taking pictures of their characters from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Aren’t these gals LOVELY?!?!

By the way, I just learned that the name Chicken Bone Beach is derived from the practice of Pensacola’s black peoples inability to pick up their chicken, but instead leave the bones spread around the sand in a most ignominious tomb. However, prior to knowing this interesting and highly racist factoid, I had the song Chicken Bone from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack stuck in my head. Still do, as a matter of fact.

Dreamin’, dreamin’, dreamin’ of the chicken bone…. happy, happy, happy with the chicken bone….

Casino Beach in Gulf Breeze, Pensacola

This is another blog post I’d intended to post looooong ago. My “things I want to blog about” list is very very very backed up. (Speaking of backed up, my toiled is clogged and instead of calling maintenance, I went out and bought a plunger, and unplugged my very first toilet. It was rank and awful and filled with delightful things that only a woman who has experienced the two weeks post pregnancy could fathom. Now I feel powerful and commanding, and the plunger is my mighty scepter. But I digress.)

These photos were taken about a week before I gave birth. My doctor had just released me from the majority of my bed rest restrictions, so we decided to hit Casino Beach at Gulf Breeze, the beach that everyone raves about as the iconic white sand / blue water beach of Pensacola. The plan was that Jonathan and his mum would go swimming and I would sit in one of the overpriced chair / umbrella rentals and play with my phone and camera and people watch and get bitter over all the bikini bodies.

Speaking of, this was my FIRST TIME baring my preggo belly in public. I was slightly extremely uncomfortable doing so. Now before everyone jumps on me for being anti-woman or some drivel like that, let me clarify – I think the pregnant form is beautiful, mysterious and nigh sacred. Everyone else’s but mine, that is. In addition to chunking me up all over, pregnancy caused my belly button to veer off at a crooked angle, and gave me lovely purple stretch marks streaking up my sides like some retarded finger painting tiger mauled me.

So anyway, off we trotted to the beach. It had been storming off and on for the past month, so the water was, shall we say, less than blue. In fact, it was so churned up with seaweed and algae that it looked slightly like we were stepping into the Mississippi River. I am NOT fond of seaweed while swimming in the ocean (that’s kind of why I tend to avoid the ocean… that, and things LIVE in there) so I ventured out to my waist (the water is so warm!), looked around at the sludge trying to worm its way into my swimming trunks, then said, “Yup, done now.”

The sand, however, WAS sparkling white. Tropical, beautiful, and the texture of sugar. It felt like getting a foot massage just walking over it.

After my adventure into the sea, I snuggled down into the beach chairs just as a storm rolled overhead. I mean, one half of the sky was bright blue, the other was dark black / grey. The weather here in Pensacola is kind of bipolar like that. Jonathan and his mom raced out to jump into the water, splashed maybe a couple of steps in, and then the whistle was blown to clear the beach. Which was slightly lame.

So that was our first beachy adventure in Pensacola! Hopefully the next one will look a bit more like the postcard imagery that Pensacola plasters on their tourism websites, with clear blue water and perfect weather. And next time, we’ll have little Tessa to join us!!

Wordless Wednesday – September 25, 2013

Wordless Wednesday – September 18, 2013

Moving Into Our New Apartment

From the moment we crossed the border and drove into the Sunshine State, the sky continued to darken with rolling grey clouds and kept pelting us with random intermittent showers ranging from misty sprinkles to full on flash flood torrents. Which just filled up my rain-loving happy, but made moving furniture out of a trailer and up a flight of stairs kind of precarious. I did my part by getting in the way of the boys, blocking the stairwell while snapping pictures and going on about how nice the rain was as they got soaked.

Our new apartment is gorgeous, with an open floor plan, vaulted ceilings, gas fireplace and enclosed balcony / porch. We love it, the cats love it, and it is slowly starting to feel like home. Oh, and have I mentioned how FREAKING AWESOME it is to have my husband back and by my side again?!

We spent the majority of the weekend driving all around the gulf area picking up cheap furniture off of Craigslist to furnish the apartment – and we were extremely blessed in our Craigslist finds. We ended up getting: A matching leather sofa, love seat and recliner, a matching solid wood coffee table and two end tables, a Kirby vacuum cleaner with all the attachments and extra bags, a bedside table, a table lamp, and a glass top bamboo dining table with four chairs for $250! Jonathan’s friend Mason from Division 938 in boot camp spent the weekend with us, helping load and unload the trailer and get our boxes of belongings unpacked and scattered around the place. (As of right now the apartment still looks like a moving van exploded all over the place, but it’s slowly coming along..)

Before dropping my dad off at the airport, we decided to scout out some local waterfront dining spots and settled on trying Nick’s Boathouse in Pensacola. The food was great, the prices were decent and the view was phenomenal, with beach access right off the outdoor dining porch. And the best part? It’s only 10 minutes from our apartment. Between the rain, the tropical humidity, and the gorgeous views, I could really get to liking this place. Once we get our place fully put together, and internet access in the apartment (still seeking internet shelter at the local Starbucks..) I think we’ll have it made. Well, then there’s that whole “having a baby” thing to look forward to. When it rains, it pours, doesn’t it? 😉