move.

Wednesday night; 7:30. I anxiously shuffle my feet back and forth, shake my arms out a bit. Check my watch, look around once more... and here we go. The music starts to pound and it's like a switch is thrown. Everything that's been swirling around in my head is suddenly silenced, and all I can hear is the beat. Boom, boom, boom. I smile and start to move.

I'm on fire. Salsa, merengue, reggaeton, and hip-hop. My hips swirl around in a perfect figure 8. I give in to the music, letting my body find its rhythm. I'm hella sexy. And tough, to boot.

Looking around the room, seeing us all moving together; sweat dripping, but smiles still on faces. Mine, too.

I accidentally catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and notice I'm not quite as graceful as I see myself in my head. A bit more awkward and angular, actually... elbows and knees thrust at all kinds of crazy white-girl angles. But it's all good; I'm totally having fun.

Power & peace, all at once. For one glorious hour, my worries, my fears, my frustrations are gone.

And I've never felt so good.

Welcome to zumba.

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Everyone has a story to tell... What's yours? I'd love to capture it for you. Contact me to get started.

To My Brother, on His FIRST Father's Day

You've been a father for about 6 months now, and it still amazes me. I remember when YOU were still in diapers, and here you are now, changing diapers on a son of your own. Sometimes that's incredibly scary to me, and other times, it's the most beautiful thing in the world. There's this sense of wonder that has come alive in you, and it brings (happy) tears to my eyes.

And I can't wait to see all the adventures that will follow.

There's this tiny little person looking to YOU now... for guidance, for protection, for love... (and for clean socks)

And I know you're up for every challenge (and reward) that comes your way.

I can't wait for the day you get to hear him call you by your new name... Daddy.

love always, your big sis, Chel.

ps: make sure to tell Kelan... I will always have gum.

As Seen on: Fashionably Geek

I never truly realized I was a geek until I got older. Long after the girls around me began to focus on makeup and boys, I'd still loved my cartoons and superhero movies. So when I met my husband, it was a match made in heaven. I mean, come on... during our first date we were even singing some of their theme songs together. Ha! Tony helped me delve even further into the land of geekdom, and I have since fallen in love with many of his passions, as well. I can tell you which character is of what universe (talking Marvel vs DC here), why the new Star Wars trilogy never should have happened the way that they did, and can fully defend my position on why Batman and Iron Man are possibly the best "superheroes" ever, even though they're not actually superheroes at all (hooray for the self-made man!). Tony also introduced me into the world of Cosplay, where people dress in costume to pay homage to their favorite characters, shows and the like. With his amazing design skills and my mother-in-law's mad sewing skills, they created this beautiful Steampunk-Lady-Iron-Man costume for me to wear at WonderCon. It was soooooo incredibly fun, and I felt amazing in it. Almost like a superhero, myself.

So, especially on the day that Iron Man 3 hits the movie theaters, imagine my delight to see that my costume and I had been featured today on the website Fashionably Geek.

Click here to see the full article.

I'll be wearing this again at ComicCon in July, so if you see me, PLEASE come say hi.  Hope to see you there!!!

to remember.

Today is a day of remembrance for me, and I wanted to (re) share some of the most important words I've ever written.... and also a BIG reason why I do what I do. The blog post below was written 2 years ago, but too important not to share again:

That’s ME in the middle of the picture below. The one with bright maroon haircut in the shape of a bowl.  The one who hadn’t yet discovered the art of eyebrow waxing. The one who still suffered heavily from acne. I cringe when I look at myself in this image. But I wanted to share it, along with a few others, for a very important reason. Please read on…

These images were taken in March of 1999, during my trip with the Fullerton College Choir to China. It was a very interesting trip, complicated by the fact that I had gotten sick with bronchitis on the plane trip over there. And for 10 days, I lived off of NyQuil and DayQuil. But I DID it. I visited places I never thought I would see in my lifetime. I got a chance to perform a song, sung in a Chinese language (Mandarin), to actual Chinese people (no pressure there...). I even climbed the Great Wall of China, bronchitis and all. Because I could either embrace this opportunity for all it was worth, or give in, give up, and go back home. So I stayed, and gave it all I got.

And so, I have an album filled with grainy images from my trip to China. Bad haircut, bad skin and all. But these images are even more precious to me than you might think…

Please take just a second to notice the other person featured in all of these pictures I have posted here. This was my good friend, David Lam. Unfortunately, I have to say “was,” because about one month after returning back home from our trip, David was killed in a car accident. This happened 12 years ago, today… April 26, 1999. And as I get older, and my memories fade with each passing year, I look to these photos to help me remember him. Seeing these images triggers my memory to dig a little deeper, to draw to the surface what might have otherwise been lost. And suddenly I can see us both in the moments when the photos were actually taken… I can hear the sound of his voice, see the way he moved and facial expressions he wore… things that made up who he was. And I can remember.

My bad haircut is forgotten. It’s not important here; I don’t even notice it anymore. Instead, I will forever be grateful that I stopped for just one moment to have these photos taken. So, the next time you find yourself thinking, “I don’t want to have my picture taken because I don’t look good today,” or “I want to lose 10 pounds first,” or “I simply HATE having my picture taken,” please stop and think of this. It doesn’t matter if you don’t look perfect. This is your life, and you, or somebody you love, might want to look back on this very moment and remember it.

So, whether you get professional pictures taken by me, or you simply pick up your point-and-shoot or even your iPhone to capture your days, please do it. I can promise you that your bad hair day won’t even be an issue.

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One last thing to show you just how much pictures really matter… here is an image of Dave while we were in China. He had actually brought a framed picture of Catherine Zeta-Jones along with him so he would have something pretty to look at. I’m totally serious.  : )  And it still makes me smile.

Superhero for a Day // WonderCon 2013

I was 8 years old. Wearing my Strawberry Shortcake plastic apron and hot-as-heck mask with the elastic bands and barely-there mouth hole (children of the 70s/80s... you KNOW what I'm talking about), but I wasn't simply wearing a costume. I WAS Strawberry Shortcake. For a few short hours on Halloween night, my pretend world became real, and I was her. It was the ultimate expression of what I loved and who I really wanted to be. As I grew older, and it became less acceptable to play in the pretend world, my toys and dolls were regulated to their shelves. Stuffed animals stayed on my bed a bit longer, but even they eventually got put away. I still decorated my notebooks with Hello Kitty stickers (because that form of expression was still "okay"), but most of the land of make-believe got left behind.

But I still looked forward to Halloween each year, because only then could I dress up and PLAY like I used to when I was a kid.

Till now...

Last weekend I took a trip to the Anaheim Convention Center, although for all intents and purposes I might as well have been on another planet.

Surrounded my space aliens, superheroes and cartoon characters alike, it was definitely a geek's paradise. And I loved every moment of it.

These are my people...

Welcome to WonderCon. For those of you who haven't ever heard of WonderCon before, don't worry. You're not alone.

WonderCon is like the kid sister of Comic-Con (which is the mother-ship of all geekdom). Here's the scoop: Comic-Con is a 4-day spectacle of everything comic, cartoon and pop-culture, including panels of actor interviews, sneak peeks at upcoming movies and tv shows, and a humongous tradeshow. But tickets are known to sell out within 15 minutes (no joke), so not everyone gets to play. So the people who operate Comic-Con did something pretty brilliant... offer smaller versions of the event at various locations throughout different times of the year.

Enter WonderCon. Now in it's second year at the Anaheim Convention Center, there are talks of making this a permanent annual event. (woohoo!) Yes, the tradeshow is nice, and some of the panels are pretty spectacular (Joss Whedon was there this year), but my favorite part of it all are the costumes!

It's like Halloween. On crack.

No, you don't have to dress up, but it's definitely encouraged. And applauded. The world of cosplay is pretty amazing like that.

So, this is me. As a steampunk version of Iron Man. (Costume designed by my husband and created by my mother-in-law. Yeah... they kinda rock like that.)

My husband (Tony) also got into the fun, dressed as Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. (Most of this costume was also created from scratch by his mother.)

And then... we PLAYED. Tony and I met up with friends of ours (also in Marvel-universe steampunk costumes) and simply wandered the lobby area, enjoying the spectacle. (And many, many thanks to Tony, for tag-teaming the camera with me... to ensure that I actually ended up IN some photos for a change...ha!)

(Deadpool, Iron Man, Lady Deathstrike, another Deadpool and Wolverine)

(And Jack Sparrow, of course...)

There were plenty of pirates to go around.

And I found other members of my Avengers team... and nemesis Loki, as well.

There were also lots of other people there in Iron Man costumes, as well.

But none as cute as THIS kid, dressed as Tony Stark!

I headed back outside just in time to capture this fantastic photo-op... sooooo many costumed characters from the DC Universe posing all together. The rows of photographers lined up to get these shots were 10 people deep, so rather than wait behind them all for a glance at the scene, I wedged into the sidelines and shot from where I was.

But I got lucky. The person running the show spotted me in costume with my camera, and waved me over to the FRONT  of the group of photographers, and gave me a dead-center position!!! Which is how I got this shot below, as well as the first one in this blog post.

Words cannot express how much FUN this day was. So I'll let my photos do the talking for a bit...

Captain Hammer, Dr. Horrible and a person from the Bad Horse Chorus (Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog)

Plenty of players from the Star Wars universe

Cosplayers from the Batman world

Misc. others

And, of course, lots of Disney characters. How CUTE is this father/daughter dressed as Wreck-It-Ralph and Penelope Von Schweetz???

And a few personal favorites of mine... My Little Pony characters.

Wolverine and Wolverine. Too, too adorable!!!

Note to parents: this is a kid-friendly place, and makes for fantastic entertainment at a low-low cost. Meaning, it's FREE. While tickets to actually get into the tradeshow and panel area do cost a little bit (and are known to sell out ahead of time, as I learned the hard way), the front and lobby area of the Anaheim Convention Center are open to the public for free. And this is where the people in costume spend most of their time.

I highly recommend putting this on your radar for next year. I know I'll be there... dressed and ready to PLAY.

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Click here to see even MORE pictures from the day.

Disneyland memories

It was a fun-filled day at Disneyland, where Tony and I treated our nephew to a day of play just for the 3 of us. We rode the rides, ate our fill of sweets, and posed for all the standard photos along the way.

But those aren't the images that stand out in my mind.

THESE are:

The moment where he excitedly skipped along Main Street, simply reached up and took hold of Tony's hand like it was the most natural thing in the world. Because it still is for him.

And the moment where he wanted to be picked up so he could see more, and then stayed to hug Tony and play with his ears.

But it's bittersweet sometimes. He's getting to the age where it won't be this way for too much longer, so we enjoy every moment of little-kid-goodness we can soak up. Before he's too big for kisses and cuddles, especially in public. And before he's too "cool" to hang out with us like this.

But for now, we enjoy. Moments like these are my favorite kind. The ones that you know are special, and wish could last forever somehow. And for this reason, I was incredibly happy to have my camera with me (as always), to capture these moments as they fly by.

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ps: it doesn't matter WHAT camera you use, as long as you put it to good use. The above pictures were taken with my point-and-shoot camera.

girls just wanna have fun

I spent this past Saturday in the company of my 2 best friends, celebrating the (belated) birthday of one of them. We've known each other since we were 6. (For anyone who's counting, that's about 28 years of friendship.) Wowsers. Life had been a bit stressful all around lately, so we decided to make it a fun day of relaxation. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh. We started by surprising the birthday girl (Michelle) with a 90-minute combo Thai/Swedish massage. While Michelle was being turned into a pile of relaxed goo, Jen and I entertained ourselves with some coffee.

Then it was off to Crystal Cove. It turned into one of those new moments for all of us, when we discovered this treasure in our own "backyard," and wondered why we'd never been here before when we've lived here all our lives. We decided to skip the shuttle service and walk the scenic route, which led us through this really cool tunnel with all sorts of "Earth Day" paintings.

Unfortunately, the Beachcomber Cafe had a 2.5 hour wait (gasp), and our tummies wouldn't cooperate for that long. So we headed up the staircase (which totally counts as exercise, by the way), and then grabbed some blts on cheesy-parmesan toast, chili cheese and sweet potato fries, and malts all around (which totally negates our earlier exercise... dangit). We warmed ourselves in the sun, enjoyed our lunch and fabulous conversation, and even had a whale sighting.

Back down to the sand and took the time to explore a bit.

Jen remembered hearing that the cottage used in the movie "Beaches" was in this area, and we didn't have to go too far to find it. Bonus FUN moment... someone asked us if we were actors. Ha!

Then we were off to explore the tidepools.

We left just before sunset, but the day wasn't over yet. Next it was off to treat our toesies to some polish and shine.

Then a stop-off at a great local bakery to pick up some treats for that night. (And no... all of these weren't just for the THREE of us!)

And finally we were off to join up with a few more friends for a "girls night IN" dinner.

Good food, good friends, and great conversation. One of those days that made me look back and appreciate just how lucky I am to have these wonderful ladies in my life.