introducing: Chelsea Stardust

Mark and I have been getting out of the house some to hang out with friends! Yay for us! Here are a few pictures for proof...

This picture was taken by the lovely Chelsea P., alias Chelsea Stardust, who is one of my new friends! We were at Bergamot Station, a large art gallery complex in Santa Monica, and this is me in an old diner that was inside one of the galleries. Mark pointed out that I look eerily like my mother. :)

These pictures are from a party last Friday night, and Chelsea P is the lady in the photos with us! Chelsea B and Maggie might be interested to know that Chelsea P is a huge horror movie buff, and just got a job (woop!) with the production company that made Paranormal Activity. (She invited Mark and I to a screening of Insidious, a new horror film, but we humbly declined. Er, we're big babies.)

[If any of you brave kids want to look at her website, you can see it here: Chelsea Stardust. On it you will find an amazingly creepy photo shoot of serial killers and the like. Eeeek!]

soclose!

my beautiful littlest sister

Happy birthday to the most fun, littlest sister I could imagine. Chelsea and I loved to play with you, whether we were zooming you around the house in (slightly) unsafe baby strollers or pretending you were a puppy. You were the most fun toy we could have. And wait, you're a PERSON, not a toy for Jessica and Chelsea! And wait, you're seventeen years old today! I'm infinitely proud to have such smart, lovely women as my sisters. So, seester, happy birthday. We shall celebrate in a few weeks when I am home. I miss you lots.

 

 

i like pie.

For thanksgiving I made Mark's favorite pie - a chocolate/pecan/bourbon pie from Melanie's recipe. (Melanie is Mark's mom, my future mother-in-law!)

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving! Love, J

giving thanks

I have a lot to be thankful for this season. I'm engaged to my best friend, and I am excited to see what the future brings. I am freelancing and scraping by, and I'm thankful that my writing is paying the bills. I'm thankful for friends and family that love me and are part of my life even though I'm far away. I'm thankful for the ability to make friends here. I'm thankful that Mark and I have somewhere to go tomorrow to eat and drink and be merry.

Tomorrow we are going to Emily and Charlie's house for a Thanksgiving feast. We spent the 4th of July with them when they lived a mile away. Now they have moved to a different area of LA, so I'm excited to catch up with them, pet Walter (their unbearably cute pug), and enjoy a delicious meal. Pictures to come!

I am thinking of all of you during the holidays. I can't wait to see you all in December!


Love,
J

bling!

So it's happened! Mark and I are engaged. We've been talking about getting engaged for a few weeks, talking about practical things like expectations, etc. (Mark had asked me one night, and I thought I ruined it with my talking.) So we let the talk simmer, and then last night he gave me a ring made out of yarn to put on my finger. Then he asked me if I wanted to pick out a ring soon. And OF COURSE I said I did, and I started "geeking out", if you will.

Mark was looking at rings online and didn't know my ring size, so we just decided to look at rings together today. After my finger was sized we looked around the shop, and I started piecing together a ring. We walked home to "think about it", and once I got in the apartment I knew what I wanted. So we walked back to the shop to order it.

So the ring in the left photo is the correct setting of the ring we ordered. The middle stone is also the same shape/size as the one I will have. The ring on the right has a violet amethyst in the center. My ring will have the same color/type stone in as the one in the picture on the right and the same setting/size as the one on the left. PHEW. (Sorry if that's confusing!)

Thank you everyone for your well-wishes. Not many (any?) plans have been made so far, we are just enjoying each other! We are very excited (and tired)! More details as they come; love to all! :)

J

new friends

So I've finally been bored enough to want to get out there and meet new friends! Yay!

My friend Michelle (who lives in Miami) has a sister named Kat. Kat is an actress living and working in LA. Kat recently invited me to her book club meeting. We met on Sunday at another girl's apartment, which happens to be within walking distance of my place. (You guys know how much I love places within walking distance!) Chelsea then invited me to go art gallery-hopping with her tomorrow. She's an artist and is looking for places to show her work.

I also joined a Ladies Meetup group (from Meetup.com), and I went to a happy hour with them at a nearby bar on Tuesday. I could walk, the place was cute and the ladies are really nice and fun. I will definitely go back to the next meetup!

Another exciting tidbit of info: Mark bought a brand-spanking-new computer, which means that I've inherited his MacBook Pro. It has a 17 inch screen, it has PhotoShop (YEAH!), and it is so sleek and pretty. :)

More to come! Miss you all lots.

j

Michael and Melanie in Santa Monica

Mark's parents came to visit us this past weekend. On Saturday we went to the Getty Museum, which has incredible views and a vast collection of art. Unfortunately I left my camera in the car, but next time I go I will take pictures. The architecture is equally as impressive as the art, and we all had a great time! Here's the Freemans at lunch at The Shack near our apartment.

On Sunday we went to Will Rogers Park, where we had taken Maggie and Emily on their visit. The experience was completely different. As you can see, Sunday was a clear, sunny day and we could see for miles and miles! When we took Maggie, it was foggy and misty, but still quite magical in its own way.

Thanks for visiting Michael and Melanie! We had lots of fun. Can't wait to dance on the pool this New Years Eve. Maybe Mark and I will start practicing our dance moves...

Mag & Em, part 2

Here's Emily and Maggie in front of the Santa Monica Pier. They wanted to ride the roller coaster (called the West Coaster), but it was closed. :(

Down on the sand there was some sort of photo shoot happening. It looked like a bridal shoot at first, but there were actually two brides and many people with cameras, so maybe it was a photography class? Not sure, but it was cool to see ladies in wedding gowns laying in the sand!

Now, for your viewing pleasure: 

Mag whacks the ducks from hey jessica on Vimeo.


Maggie and Emily DDR from hey jessica on Vimeo.

Maggie and Emily in CA, part 1

Maggie and Emily arrived on Friday, and that day we didn't do very much. We picked them up from the airport, went to The Shack to eat burgers, came back to the apartment and hung out. We played cards and ordered Indian food for delivery, and the girls liked it!!

Yesterday, we went to Will Rogers State Park and hiked up into the hills. It was a little cloudy and misty, but it felt wonderful outside and we had a lot of fun.

After the park, we came back to the apartment and ate some lunch. For dinner, we headed to our favorite sushi restaurant, Kaido. Maggie and Emily loved the sushi there!!

After dinner at Kaido, we went to the theatre! We saw a play called The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler. It was pretty good. A great day in California!

Countdown to Maggie/Emily

MAGGIE AND EMILY

are coming to visit next Friday. I couldn't be more excited! I hope to have tons of pictures of their visit. This is the two crazy kids being silly on my computer, literally years ago. :)

Also, it's raining here. We haven't experienced real rain in LA until now, so it's nice to see all the plants getting water and the sky a beautiful gray.

party time!

I've been pretty busy lately. For the past few weeks I've been a temp worker at Mark's company. I'm not sure how much longer it will last, but I really like the work and all the people. On Friday Betty (the CEO) invited all employees (and temp workers, cha-ching!) to a BBQ at her house. Here are some pictures from the party, taken by my favorite Apogee employee Mick.  :)

Here's Mark in the center hanging out where the food is being prepared. Betty's house is beautiful. The party was outside where there's a pool (with a slide!), a hot tub, a bar, and a grassy area up some wooden stairs. It backs up into the Brentwood hills.

This is me and Sophie. She does PR for Apogee, and she's a writer, so we had A LOT to talk about. She's very fun and nice!

The guy on the right is Kevin, the head engineer. He's basically Mark's immediate boss. He did NOT want to take a picture with me. Hahah.

The stone circle is the hot tub, and the stairs on the right lead up to the water slide and to the grassy area.

It's a beautiful day!

There's me on the left and Betty on the right. :)

The next 3 pictures are from the teambuilding games. First there's me and my team for the story-writing contest, which, of course, we won. :) Or, we tied for first place. I'll take it as a win.

And now the real fun begins! Pool time!

Left to right, Lucas, me and Matt in the pool.

Here's Mark after going down the awesome slide.

Yay! Me and Mick! :)

And now, we're having a fun/relaxing weekend. More pics to come soon of the apartment. It's really starting to come together.

Love,
j