Austin: Day One

above: Ashwin, Laura, Shiri

I arrived in Austin to find that two of my friends are completely changed people.

LauraMartin, formerly a do-gooder, vegetarian, friend to all the dirty dirty illegal immigrants, and possibly the most anti-celebrity person you could ever imagine, has found herself addicted to celebrity pop-culture!

Having spent the past two years in Nicaragua among trees, fleas, Spanish-speakers, intestinal parasites, and limited email access...





...Laura found that her only connection to the United States was the monthly delivery of US Weekly to her non-profit headquarters! She is the last person I ever thought would be throwing out references to Brangelina, the TomKitten, Sean Preston, Jessica/Assica Simpson. So much fun I still can't get over it.

I have a feeling she will be a loyal blog reader.



.......

Then there's AC.

Since moving to Austin to attend law school, AC has made the unfortunate decision to begin going by the name "Ace".

The situation is irreversible. All his new law school friends call him "Ace" and I cringe every time I hear it.

Also, AC has a girlfriend. His first ever.

They could be the cutest couple in the history of the universe.

I have never seen him so happy, and cute, and doting, and it is a really beautiful thing.

Forget that Shiri used to kind of date Farshid.

These two belong together.




..............

We had a pretty chill day.

Went grocery shopping.



Made some guacamole and burgers.



Played with Davis the human-sized dog.




And then got some sleepies.



Tomorrow might be slightly more crazy.

I'm off to Austin!!!

I leave you with the Office Season 3 Promo.

BEWARE: it might make the people cry.

Dave

At 5:35 pm yesterday, Morgan, who is not my new boyfriend (although I am aware of how it looks), called bearing Dave Matthews tickets!!!



Happily, Kreugene was already going so we all headed over to the Hollywood Bowl together.



With us we brought a gallon of OJ/Vodka.



And once there, we were able to cut the massive line thanks to the Jessica (below, far left), the sexy chica who may or may not have broken young William's heart.



............................

Dave was everything I would have imagined him to be.




The only other concerts I've been to are teeny-bopper concerts...

They are (in order):

Backstreet Boys
Janet Jackson
N'Sync
Destiny's Child
Britney Spears
Keith Urban
Kanye West
Alanis Morrisette
Black Eyed Peas
Gwen Stefani

So it was I think the first time that the audience wasn't comprised of a million shrieking girls.

Unfortunately, I stopped listening to Dave's stuff after Before These Crowded Streets, so I didn't know a lot of his newer stuff.



But Dave speaks to Kristy's soul.



And he ended with Ants Marching, which I of course know word-for-word (probably because it was once on TRL).



Awesome night in LA!

No lines. No cover. Phew.

The big day had finally arrived!

(We were careful this year not to over-hype the party, which is why there had been no mention of Naia's 24th Birthday FunFest until now.)

I went over a little early and watched the girlies get prettified.

Hair...



Makeup...



And of course, BOOBS!



The girls cleaned up nice.



.....................................

We rolled over to Memphis for the pre-party dinner.



At dinner, there was a clear divide between Naia's Brown friends and her CAA friends.



Dan! had the unfortunate privilege of sitting next to a creepy man who stared just a little too intently at her throughout the two-hour dinner.



The food was delicious.



Guests showed up around 11...



Chris ruined some pictures...




And some new Brown faces were on hand.



As were some of the usual kiddos.





Drinks were spilled. Way too much money was spent. And Bobby attempted to jump over a bench, tripped, and totally ate shit.



It was a hella good time.



One particularly hilarious moment:

I introduced Nina, who was kind of wasted (I think) and slurring, to Ryan.

(Tapping Nina on the shoulder) "Nina, have you met my friend Ryan?"

(Nina turns around kind of confused and dazed-looking, focuses her eyes, and looks Ryan up and down.)

Nina: "HHHHHOTTT..."

It was all she said. She didn't say anything else. Just kind of stood there.

Ryan and I looked at each other. Stunned.

It was funny.

Maybe you had to be there.






.....................

Following the party, we headed over to Bobby's for some afterparty insanity/hilarity.




There was some camera fun...



A little romance...



Beirut...



Confuzzedness...



And more silliness...





.............and then we all blacked out.



Somehow Morgan ended up naked in the hot tub.



Chris was quick to join.



And then somehow ended up passing out sitting upright in a chair all night.



ALL HAIL PRINCESS NAIA!