All posts by ali

shhh, or, why i’m hoarse

6/30/2010goings on, makes me sadali

*disclaimer: there is a medical photo in this post, so if you’re a queasy one, be forewarned. it’s near the bottom…

So, I’ve been losing my voice progressively worse and worse since February, which is very difficult for me since my job requires a lot (!) of talking. First I thought I was recovering from a cold. Then I thought I might have developed allergies. Finally, I went to an ENT specialist who scoped my throat to take a look at my vocal cords and found…

NODULES. (gasp!)

Also known as nodes, these develop from overuse and over exertion of the voice. This feels devastating because I studied voice/speech in grad school. Every. Day. And we did this in school so as to learn how to use our voices correctly in order to avoid things like nodes. Ugh. But with the amount of teaching and workshop leading I’ve been doing since January, it’s not surprising that my vocal folds are crying uncle. And it’s rather emotional to deal with voice loss. I don’t sound like myself.

A Vocal Cord Nodule is a mass of tissue that grows on the vocal folds. A vocal cord nodule reduces or obstructs the ability of the vocal folds to create the rapid changes in air pressure which generate human speech. Symptoms include hoarseness of speech, painful speech production, frequent vocal breaks and reduced vocal range. Females are most likely to develop nodules.
*thank you wikipedia.

So, I am taking a medication and have been prescribed some speech therapy which will be like physical therapy for my voice. With diligence and by changing some of my bad habits they should go away. I sure hope so, because I really, really, really want to be able to talk without a scratchy voice again. And sing.

If you are a curious mind, here is a photo of a vocal fold nodule (though not mine)…

See the lower case ‘n’s? Those are nodes.

Ew. Me no likey.
*

honeymooners in kauai

6/19/2010love, snapshots, travelin' moonali

The second part of our honeymoon vacation was spent in Kauai! It is such a beautiful, lush island and we enjoyed it so much…

We stayed in two different spots. First, we were in Kapaa, a town on the East side of the island with great access to the rest of the island, so we explored the East, South and West shores of the island from there over the first few days.

One of our favorite gems was on the South-East shore. We parked on the road and walked in to a small, hidden waterfall called Kipu Falls. It pours into a deep pool at the bottom and begs to be jumped. We did. Over the top of it and to the side of it from a rope swing. We loved it! Rory went first…

And I loved flinging myself out over the pool with the rope swing.
My little running feet as I descend make me laugh…

So refreshing and divine…

Another day, we explored the Waimea Canyon area on the West Shore. What a lovely drive up into the mountain, with amazing views. We explored and hiked around as much as we could in flip flops. Next time we come to Kauai, we will be prepared with hiking boots so we can venture further from the roads.
Here we are overlooking the canyon…

Later that same afternoon, we drove all the way to the most Western shore of the island before you reach the Napali Coast. We ventured out onto a long, very bumpy dirt road in our Ford, Mustang (a free upgrade!), which was very slow going since we wanted to be sure we didn’t blow a tire or an axle. But Polihale Beach was so worth it. We also learned that when we return to Kauai, we will rent a 4 wheel drive car so we can explore more off-road adventures. This beach was unbelievable. This was the closest we got to the Napali Coast. I did yoga and we basked in the sun and sand for too short a time before we had to get back in the car to drive back out the slow-going road (it took over an hour because we had to drive so slow). Gorgeous!

This picture doesn’t adequately illustrate the craziness of this road, but we liked the sign. It was very accurate…

One day we took a Kayak trip up the Wailua River, which was fabulous! Our guide was an amazing storyteller (note the word story: we’re not sure what was true and what was just his imagination, but it was fun just the same). During this adventure we hiked to Secret Falls and took a swim underneath, which was chilly and invigorating. Overall, this was a super day!

After kayaking, we headed up to the North Shore of Kauai, where we stayed for our last 2 nights. We were right near Hanalei Bay, which is a lovely area (though rich with mosquitoes). Up there we beach hopped and finally encountered a marine mammal. Rory was very excited to see this sweet little monk seal napping on the beach. It was pretty cute…

On our last night we took some champagne we were gifted by the hotel down to the beach at Hanalei Bay and toasted our wonderful trip!

And the next morning we flew home. Here’s how we felt about that…

For the entire album of photos from Kauai, click right here.

We loved our honeymoon so much and are already anxiously awaiting our return to the islands…

Thank you to everyone who helped make our trip possible!!! We are so grateful.
*

the work i do…

6/16/2010life in LAali

The work I do is so often misunderstood and misrepresented. If you’re interested, I think this is a particularly good interview with my boss, Sheila Kelley, via the Huffington Post. Click right here to read it.
*

honeymooners in maui

6/14/2010love, snapshots, travelin' moonali

We had a fantastic honeymoon vacation to Hawaii! We spent part of the time in Maui and the other part in Kauai. We loved both islands and are hoping to plan another trip so we can go back and explore all the things we missed…

In Maui, we loved our accommodations. We rented a condo just North of Ka’anapali and it was superb. It had the most amazing views of the ocean and was outfitted with everything we needed. Perfect. We will definitely stay there again when we return. Here is the first part of a silly video tour of our condo: we were so excited that it seemed interesting at the time, but upon viewing it at home we realize it might not be. You decide…

One of our favorite things in Maui was our surfing lessons! We loved it and wish we had more time to perfect our technique. And speaking of technique, our teacher said that we must bend our knees a lot when we stood up. Since I am such a good pupil and took his instruction to heart, I look like I’m sticking my rump out. It’s pretty funny. My legs are also very, very pale. Perhaps I need to get out more…

I think Rory looks a lot cooler than I do…

And we took a honeymoon ride!

We did a lot of beach hopping in Maui. Here we are exploring and admiring one of our favorites, Big Beach…

We also enjoyed quite a bit of snorkeling all around Maui…

And of course, tropical cocktails and delicious appetizers at sunset are always in order…

chilled veggie kabobs? don't mind if i do...

In Maui we also enjoyed a night at the theatre, some beach picnics, a blowhole, a snorkeling boat trip, sunset walks and more. For the complete Maui photos, click here.

We were so sad to leave Maui, we actually missed our flight to Kauai!

That debacle made us feel like this…

We did, however, finally make it to Kauai, where we continued to have a fabulous time.
We miss you, Maui, but we’ll be back!
*

finally! a wedding post.

6/6/2010love, snapshots, weddingali

Gosh…I can’t believe it’s been over a month since our wedding day. I still feel like it was yesterday and I am still so happy to have married my guy. Married life is wonderful!

Here are a mixture of photos from friends, family and our amazing photographers (our friends, Kim and Adam of La Vie Photography). Thank you to everyone for helping us capture the wedding weekend.

The weekend began when two of my bridesmaids arrived in LA. We immediately drove to In-n-Out burger, of course, where Lindsey (and maybe, Erica, too?) had her first ever In-n-Out experience. Mmmm…

On Friday, we went to Santa Monica and met our friend Kirsten and her hub, Kent for brunch. What fun to catch up with them. Here are us girls…

You’ll notice my silly pin-curl hair-do, which was a test for the big day. And speaking of hair-dos, Lindsey was my life-saver hair stylist for the big day. She used her mad hair skillz to create curl and lift in my uber-straight locks. Thank you, LB!

That night we went to the rehearsal dinner at Malo. It was delicious and we all ate tacos and corn until our bellies were bursting! Yum yum. Here are some photos from the evening…

With a few of my bridesmaids, Kathleen, Erica and Amanda…

And here is another Amanda, our ceremony reader, and Saba, another bridesmaid…

And finally, Lindsey, bridesmaid and my personal hair stylist…

The father of the groom gave a nice toast…

And we loved having our closest and dearest altogether!
(for more Rehearsal Dinner photos, click here.
And if anyone has any more, please send them to us!)

And of course, the next day was the wedding!

You never know, when you’ve put months of planning into a single day, how it will turn out. Will it be what I imagined?, will people have fun?, will it reflect who we are as a couple and as individuals?, will we remember it? And we are very lucky to be able to answer those questions with a hearty YES!

There are many photos, and more coming, but here are some favorites and then some links to Kim and Adam’s blog post of the highlights and my collection of other people’s photos…