Anyway, I am caught up on grading, and I bought a car, so I feel like I can blog without feeling like I am shirking responsibility. One would disagree if he or she saw the condition of my bedroom currently, however.
Anyway, (Ooh, now italics? WTF!?) Here is a picture from my last shoot, which was actually last Sunday, with David Birdsong, who takes amazing pictures (of me and others) and came from Michigan to do a workshop.
I really like this picture. I look angelic in it, which is pretty natural for me (save your comments, jerks!). David says he thinks it is his favorite picture of me so far that he's taken, but I think that's just because he's reflected in my eyeballs! =P
In the midst of being a model, I also did makeup on two other models (which was probably the real reason I was called to the shoot, but whatever!), Kati and Andrea. Kati is the blonde in the next few pictures, who came with David from Michigan.
(P.S. Yay for normal font! I was hoping that'd happen!).
The other model that was there was Andrea, who is from Milwaukee.
As you can see from the pictures, both girls are gorgeous, but what you can't see from the pictures is that they were both super friendly and a treat to work with. I love when the models aren't vapid and vain! Makes my job much easier!
The next shot is my favorite from a shoot with Gib that was taken in SERIOUSLY freezing weather. Gib even made me do a snow angel! Those pictures are goofy... This is the first edit, and I will post more here once I have them.
I love this picture. The setting looks surreal and beautiful, and I look like I am having some sort of special, spiritual moment, rather than what I was actually doing, which was likely closing my eyes from the bitter cold and trying to be a trooper and not complain too much about the hypothermia that was attacking me!
I also like it, because that is pretty much how I look every day, which is nice to have pictures of sometimes.
It is also nice, however, that sometimes modeling takes me into a complete world of make-believe, and I get to play the role of something foreign...
For example, I recently worked with Rod McGee of Chicago Imaging Solutions on a project he calls "Glamour Puss, where I was actually supposed to be an incredibly rich, stuck up chick... The hair and makeup took forever (it was done by Celestine McGee), and included TWO wigs and two HUGE sets of false eyelashes... Here are the first four edits.
Allllriiiiiiight. Back to the other part of my life!
I don't know when exactly this was, but I would venture to guess that it was a random Saturday night out... During which I ran into Vitucci and took a couple pictures! Always love running into Vitucci, but it often turns into TROUBLE, like when I left my entire purse at Jo Cat's!
Apparently, Vitucci wasn't really ready for the first one!
Much better!
Classic...
Anyway, more random....
Here's a picture of Jack Roman with some chick that he and Maj thought should go on Mockwaukee.
I am too lazy to send it, though!
Ok, for the next picture, there is a bit of back story necessary.
On Halloween at Decibel, Danielle and I were doing the standard - taking it all in, enjoying each other's company, and laughing while I made fun of people.
We were in the corner by Spree, when she suddenly asked me if the guy behind me looked familiar.
I turned around, and sure enough, he did! It was Tommy Brice from the Marquette Basketball team! (That site was the first I could find, although it seems out of date, because it doesn't have all the right stats!) Anyway, in true Mandelicious fashion, I walked up to him (was a little tipsy, but not bad at all!), and said "You're Tommy Brice!" (very profound. I should've asked him to sit down before I dropped a bomb on him like that!).
Anyway, we talked for just a few minutes about nothing, then I left him alone. I didn't know him, obviously, just knew of him, and he was with some chick, and I didn't want her to be uncomfortable, so I went back by Danielle and went on with my night.
I had threatened to tell him about the time when we were sitting in front of his family at one of the Marquette games (we always sat in front of his fam), and someone threw a shirt out into the crowd and Danielle and Tommy's sister (who had her baby strapped to her!) caught it at the same time and Danielle felt super guilty about it, but I was just teasing her.
Anyway, Tommy and I didn't talk any more that night, but a few days later, he sent me a friend request on facebook with a message. We wrote back and forth a little bit, but for some reason, my last message to him didn't go through... I had tried to give him my number, but it didn't go through!
A month later, we were randomly both on facebook chat, and ended up exchanging numbers... Which led to lots of texting (and flirting!) and an eventual first date at Starbuck's, which was fun.
During some of this, he told me that there was a picture from the night that we met, and that I was in it! I told him that he should tag me in it on facebook, and here's the result!
Lawd! How ridiculous! He is wearing a Jabbawockee mask, and I am on TV. Absurd... But I wouldn't have it any other way.
Anyway, date one at Starbuck's was fun (but he thought it was difficult, because all of his good stories were so "college," like finding a free couch or getting extra toppings on his pizza, while mine were... well.... You read my blogs... They involve getting drunk and waking up in Denver and other such things, and he felt like he couldn't compete, and he was apparently worried that everyone in Starbuck's could hear me start off a large percentage of my sentences with "I was sooo drunk and..." haha). Also, on this date, he asked me not to call him "Tommy," as only his basketball team, family, and people he doesn't know call him that. He says he is trying to be an adult, and go by Tom. Clearly, I am having none of it.
He also told a story about working with kids for a clinical, in which a kid kept calling him "Dominic." I made a decision right there that I was going to use that as my tool to avoid calling him "Tom."
The way I did this was by introducing him to my friends as "Dominic." After introducing him to about thirty or forty people this way (with him having various reactions, such as telling them I am a liar, just shakng hands and accepting being called Dominic, and just not acknowledging it at all), we came to a compromise. I can call him "Tommy," but I will introduce him to everyone as "Tom."
A lot of people still think his name is "Dominic" or "Dom," though, and I consider that a personal victory for me! =D
Date two was at Fratello's (where he charmed me with magic tricks and drawings of ninja turtles) , then Jackalope Lounj (Jackalounj?), then the Bomb Shelter for the Alcoholmanac release party (Dustin from Bomb Shelter was the featured bartender, so we had to go say hi!), to Decibel. We saw each other in between, and he was wearing a RIDICULOUS outfit, as he had just come from an ugly sweater party complete with a Christmas turtleneck, absurd V-neck sweater over it and TINY santa hat)! There was a picture taken that night, but I haven't seen it yet!
Here are a couple pictures of us at the Bomb Shelter, where there was a Johnny Cash cover band!
The very next night, one of my favorite DJs, Rick Rude, was at 720. I spent some time in the DJ booth, and I seriously thought I was going to die, because it was so amazing! Here we are after bar close.
Next up is the Decibel Christmas Party. Here's a picture of Josh, doing a really weird pose... Not that weird for Josh, though, I suppose!
The next day, good ol' Mo (who looks like Elvis Crespo) was going to be going back to Dubai, so we took a bunch of pictures! He was WASTED!
The following Saturday was TJ's birthday, which we celebrated at Moe's and Decibel. This is some of the group, after the service industry people left.
(L to R: Hayley, TJ's friend that I don't remember his name, but he was very nice and bought ALL of us dinner!, TJ, Elliot, me, Suzi, and Shawn).
In between Moe's and Decibel, I stopped at Suite and Buckhead, and basically stole my cousin from a bachelorette party! Here we are!
Isn't she gorgeous?
She was somehow given a giant camera, so I took a picture with it. She said she felt like a tourist, so I suggested that she put up a peace sign!
The next morning, I drove down to meet Tommy, Cari, and Matt at the Museum of Science and Industry for the Christmas Around the World exhibit and to see the smart house. Well, this did not go so well, as I got into a car accident and killed WBAM aka the LoveShaq!
Yikes! I wasn't hurt much - just a airbag burn on my hand, a cut in the middle of my forehead (I don't know from what!), and a bruise from my seatbelt. My neck and shoulders/back were a little sore for a while, but apparently there are benefits to dating a physical therapist! (AMAZING massages! Be jealous!).
Needless to say, the museum never happened, and Cari and Matt picked me up from the side of the road and took me to the emergency room, and then home, to do fun things like eat pizza and watch movies (I finally saw "The Hangover" - I was probably the last person in the United States to do that, haha, oops!) and play Super Mario 2! After that night, the next day, Tommy came to Cari and Matt's and picked me up.
This led to meeting his ENTIRE FAMILY right away! His sisters were in town, and they have husbands and babies, so I met all of them (They were so cute and nice - all of them!) and met his mom and Dad!
While we were all hanging out at his sister's house, he asked his sister (who has an iPhone, too) if she has the "Bump" application, because he wanted to see it in action, as I have it as well. When I got it, Spencer helped set up my profile, including picking out my profile picture.
For those of you unfamiliar with the bump application, it enables two users to exchange information by basically pounding fists. Well, you can choose what aspects of your profile are exchanged. So, I decided to just exchange all of my information except my picture.
APPARENTLY, this does not mean that the picture is not seen, just that the other user doesn't get to keep it on his/her phone. I discovered this when Tommy said "THAT is your picture on there?!" and I felt instant embarssment. THIS is the picture that his sister saw! LAWD! She tried to be cordial about it... "Oh, I like it!" but I felt pretty embarrassed nonetheless.
Since I was stranded with no car, I ended up spending the night at Tommy's parents' house. This is where it starts to get amusing.
After finals and Tommy went home, he was telling me that he never sleeps in his room when he's at home, because it creeps him out.
Why, you ask?
Apparently, his mom set up a shrine to him after he became a part of the Marquette basketball team.
It was not long after I met his fam that I got to see it for myself - the Tommy Brice museum!
He was not exaggerating! Let's take a look....
The poster on the left is literally four feet tall. On the right, you can see a bookcase with pictures and an enlarged copy of his basketball card. Here's a closer look.
He CLAIMS that he's never read the Twilight books, but I am not so sure!
Here's another wall with more posters... I have the bottom two!
On the same wall....
I feel that it is important to note the "Everybody Loves Me" pillow with pictures ONLY of Tommy, and the "Grins & Giggles" lotion next to it (which he claims is from his sisters' babies - riiiiight - haha). The pillow can record a message, and if it has not been changed, it says "Hi, Mandie!" Haha.
Here's the bed in which I slept, with another poster and one of his jerseys!
In the middle of the night, I got cold and put on my Badger sweatshirt... I was a little nervous putting it on in such heavily-MU territory. I was worried that all of the Tommy Brice eyes in the posters were going to light up (they are a really cool hazel - kinda gold and green, which would lend itself well to a creepy lighting up, kinda like MJ in thriller!).
Apparently, there had previously been a sign hanging on the door (courtesy of his awesome sisters) as well as some headphones, that said "Tommy Brice Museum" and had the hours of operations and "Audio Tours Available" written on it, but Mrs. Brice took it down. The theory behind this is that she didn't want Tommy to get embarassed by the sign, as though that was the embarassing part! hahaha. Too funny!
After that, we came back up to Milwaukee, because Tommy was moving out of his apartment here, and had been making many failed attempts to pack his belongings and move out (I may or may not have been a distracting factor here)!
During this time, we spent a TON of time together, and it was awesome. I was recovering from my accident, off school, and lacking a car (he helped me out a ton with this), and he was on break from school as well, so we didn't have many other obligations. We got to do nice, chill, relaxing things (like him experiencing "Coming to America" for the first time, while eating pizza from Pizza Man (sad!) (P.S. I don't know why the first news article that came up on that was L.A. Times!) to all out crazy party times... Like New Year's Eve!
Of course, New Year's Eve this year was celebrated at Decibel, and I was very excited to have a date and someone to kiss at midnight this time! I felt a little ridiculous to have it with a bandage on my forehead, but I think we still looked fly.
Right away when we got there, we ran into Dave, who took these pictures with us... In the first, he looks kinda hammered, so we re-did it.
That first one became Tommy's profile picture, once we cropped it. =D
I would love this SO MUCH if I didn't have that damn bandage!
Because I wanted to make sure we got the picture (and didn't know if I would be able to get the other from Dave), I had Dave take a picture of just the two of us with my camera.
Next, we went out into Deep Bar so we could take a picture in front of the press wall.
We saw Mia in deepbar, with one of her friends....
For some reason (i.e. Tommy's idea), we tried to take a picture making tough faces. I was having quite the difficult time not smiling!
Love that my bruise on my chest from the seatbelt is so evident! Eww! It looks so gross!
Next, we took a cute picture of our feet! Love it!
(Although, I would love it more if the floor wasn't dirty, and if I wasn't sliding down in my shoes!).
Of course, I saw my favorite gay, Christian, and was happy for that!
Shortly after seeing Christian, we ran into a couple of Tommy's former teammates....
From L to R: Me, Tommy, Maurice Acker and David Cubillan.
Usually at Decibel, I do not dance, nor do I kiss people, but I made some serious exceptions for Tommy. Turns out, the boy can dance! I LOVED dancing with him. I have never danced with a guy and felt like he was showing me up before! I am seriously going to have to step my game up in this category. It was so much fun, and I look forward to more!
Of course, I had to take a picture of Carlington spining! This was sometime around three or four in the morning!
Later on, we thought we would take another picture together, even though we (and by that, I mean "me") definitely show signs of having been drinking for a very long time!
Gotta love the guy over my shoulder with the "stupid" shirt on and absolutely ridiculous expression on his face! Priceless!
Also, I love how my hair managed to stay curly all night long! Oh, wait.... Bru-tal!
It is also important to note that what is going on on my forehead is NOT a lip print! It is my little steri-strip bandages from my head wound! They were white, but since I still tried to put makeup on around them for the five days between the accident (no, not the night of! I am not that hardcore about wearing makeup!) and NYE, makeup got on them, which I think helped to make the bandage blend in a bit, which was bittersweet... It is less noticeable, but also more questionable as to what in hell is going on on my forehead!
Next up is a picture of my Sunday BFF Favio and I!
Here's an awesome picture of Rich! Haha.
This should TOTALLY be on this website!
The next day, of course, Tommy and I slept all day... We had partied until somewhere around nine or ten am. It was a really great moment when we left Ma Fischer's and walked past my gym, where people were working out and laughing at us walking past - Tommy complete in his vest and tie, me in my dress and heels, and some random coat whose origin is a complete mystery. We've been calling it Steve's coat, but truly have no idea where I got it.
The following day, Tommy and I went to hang out with some of his friends in Rockford. This was awesome, because previously, we had been mostly hanging out with my friends, so I was really excited to meet more of his friends and spend time with them.
It was such a great night!. First, we played beer pong, and since I am not a beer drinker, Tommy drank my beer. This would end up with Tommy being super drunk, which was funny because in all of our previous situations, I was the drunker of the two of us. Not this time!
One thing, however, that I was self-conscious of that night was that I was WAY more entertained by Tommy than his friends were... For example, he made a comment about a song "Wouldn't it be weird if everyone really did evacuate the dance floor?" and I thought it was really funny (partially because of my love for SnacksAndShit), but no one else laughed! I was concerned that his friends were going to think that I was one of those dumb girls that just laugh at everything that the boy I like says, but that seriously wasn't the case! I am just genuinely amused by dorky commentary like that!
Anyway, after beer pong, we took a cab to a ridiculous Rockford bar called "Cousin's," which I am pretty sure it wished it was Brother's. The cab driver was someone I definitely wished I had taken a picture of on the sly - he reminded me of Kenny Powers! He was talking about all the fights he got in in high school, and all kinds of random stuff.
While out at Cousin's, we played darts. Those who have seen me play darts know that I have a bit of a kick every time I shoot. Well, I was worried about kicking an older (like 50ish) man who was standing near me, so I tapped him on the shoulder and warned him that if he didn't move, he would get kicked.
He responded "You can kick me anytime."
Whaaaaat?!
What a weird thing to say! Tommy heard him, and he and his friend started cracking up! Tommy just looked at him and said "Really?!" Haha.
Too funny.
After bar time, we went back to Tommy's friend's house, made pizzas, and asked each other "Would You Rather" questions, which is amazing, because I send out a WYR question every Wednesday, and one of Tommy's friends told me that night, "Mandie, you are dating the King of Would You Rathers!" So much fun!
Things wound down shortly after that, and we all kinda passed out watching "The Hangover," and went off to bed.
One of my favorite parts of the night was a drunken conversation between Tommy and I...
Tommy: You are very very very very very very very very very, and I don't say "very" very often...
Me: Was there going to be something at the end of that?
Tommy: Oh.... pretty.
Hahaha. I love drunk people.
The next day, we were all back in MKE, and we went to the Marquette game together. It was nice to sit in the good seats again!
That night, we went out again with his friends, and met up with a few of my friends. One thing that I thought was awesome, that I thought said a lot about Tommy and his friends, is that they knew that I am a fan of Decibel and going out to clubs more, so they thought that they would kinda compromise with me and that we would go to Buckhead, which is kind of a club and bar at the same time! Granted, they were very misguided, as I really don't enjoy Buckhead, but it's the thought that counts, and it was very sweet!
I talked them out of that, because it just so happened that both the Prince and Curti were at Trinity, which is a place they normally went anyway, so that's where we went!
Here's a picture of Tommy and I there...
I also was able to meet Curti's girlfriend, Danielle, who was AWESOME. I should have expected this, knowing it was Curti (who is awesome)'s girlfriend, but I was still very pleased with the whole thing!
Here's the lovely Danielle!
Here are Curti and I! It had been SEVERELY way too long since I had seen this man, and even though it has only been a few weeks, we are broaching on way too long again! Curti, we need to rectify!
It's kinda weird that I look like I'm nekkid, but whatever!
Curti and Danielle asked me to take a picture of them, so I did, and they kissed! Sneaky!
Here, I took another, sans smooch!
Awww.
When I came back from hanging with Curti and Danielle, Eric (below on the left) had bought some kind of shot combo, which is a shot of vodka, a shot of tequila, a shot of rum, and a shot of something else... whiskey? I don't know. Anyway, here they are...
As I said, Eric is on the front left, and Cody is behind him/on the right.
And here are the boys... Eric, Cody's arm, Jay, and Tommy!
One thing that I had previously not mentioned in here was that Tommy is finishing his Doctorate in Physical Therapy at Marquette. Part of this is a series of clinicals, and he was to be leaving for his clinical in Phoenix, working with the Milwaukee Brewers, on January 6th, which was pretty awkward time for us, as it was very shortly after we had started dating.
Obviously, no one really wants to be in a long distance relationship, especially in a relationship that was so new. We were really avoiding talking about him leaving for a while, and had ultimately decided that we were going to play it by ear and just go with the flow.
Well, after the second night of hanging out with his friends, we walked out of his friend Cody's apartment, and the first thing he said to me when we got into the hallway was "I wanna be your boyfriend. Can I?" And I told him that he should ask me again the next day, when he was sober.
When we got home, we talked about it some more when we were laying in bed. He told me that he loved watching me interact and have fun with his friends, and that he felt like we had gotten to the point where it would be stupid to potentially let each other go.
Once again, I told him to ask me in the morning, when he was completely sober.
The next morning, we woke up, and the first thing he said was "Can I please be your boyfriend now?" and I seriously couldn't resist. I knew I was going to say yes anyway, but that was so cute! (Actually, I pretty much knew we would be together before he left quite a while before this happened! I had a feeling that it would get to the point where no other alternative seemed reasonable.) So that's how it happened! January third, 2010...
Later on that day, after a lot of laziness, we went down to Racine, and he met my grandparents, and my dad, stepmom, sister and brothers. I am sure this was overwhelming, especially since my stepmom is pretty well-known for all of her questions! My sister was SO HILARIOUS and kept apologizing for Jennifer's questions! I got my dad's car to borrow for the week, which was super helpful. And my dad & stepmom couldn't resist the whole "Let's show embarassing home videos of Mandie as a child" temptation, which was odd because they hadn't done that so quickly before with any of the guys I'd brought home! Perhaps they were in withdrawal or something because it had been such a long time!
Shortly after that was Tone's birthday.
As predicted, this was out of control (although not quite as bad as the celebration of my birthday with him!)! Here I am with the birthday boy!
And here I am with my BFF, who was BEYOND awesome with helping me in my car search. He's the best! I am kinda shocked we didn't call his mom, Irene, and talk to her at bar time on this night- haha.
Here I am with my "big brother" Scott Sloan, and my BFF Demetri!
Hmm, I wonder why Demetri gets scared whenever facebook sends him the email that I have tagged him in pictures! hahaha. I even named an album after this phobia of his!
And, here's one last picture of Tommy and I at the end of the night! Note: Tommy is wearing "Steve's coat!"
The rest of the night ended up being pretty ridiculous - including, but not limited to Scott Sloan eating a ridiculous assemblage of food (pretty normal for him!), Tommy eating someone else's stir fry and giving the fork to the door guy, and a very detailed "how-to" on how to put water into the fridge so that it is nice and cold in the morning when you wake up thirsty!
Well, like I said, I was going to go through a facebook album at a time, and this was the end of that one...
Next up on the blogging agenda? Halloween! Oh man, this order is all a mess!
And as for this story... To be continued, as always!
