Elephants in my Life

Recently, Billy the Elephant at the L.A. Zoo got to move in to a completed section of his new exhibit. The beautiful elephant enclosure is due to open on December 16th and Billy will be joined by two female elephants (rescued from a private owner) on loan from San Diego.

Check out this video and tell me if that isn't the happiest elephant you've ever seen!

I have a very special place in my heart for elephants. Besides being beautiful, fascinating creatures, they always remind me of my Grandma G who has been collecting elephant objects for years. I once tried to count them all (excluding jewelry and clothing items) when I was a little girl. The number, I believe, was over 75 items.

My collection pales in comparison. Only four items! The bag was given to me by my friend Brittany. She bought it for me while she was in Thailand on her honeymoon as a thank you for being a bridesmaid in her wedding. 

The big gorgeous elephant statement necklace was a gift from LP. He was filming a designer, Leslie Homan, for her Kitsch 'n' Kouture line. He happened to mention me and after talking a bit, she let him pick something out! Small perks. :-) It's now one of my favorite pieces of jewelry.

The other two items, the pin and the bracelet (many tiny elephants in a row) belonged to my grandma. She gave them to me several years ago. She's still alive and kicking (fiercely, I might add) and I'm sure these aren't the last elephant items I'll receive from her!

LP and I have a very special connection to Billy the Elephant, in particular. We're members of the L.A. Zoo and go there as often as we can. When we were both unemployed and exceedingly broke, we were there about once a week. For over a year, the zoo has been working on a state-of-the-art enclosure for Billy and the friends that will join him. But there's been controversy. There were a lot of attempts to halt construction by animal activists and celebrities. There was even a City Council meeting on the matter, and the zoo invited members to come and speak. I wasn't able to make it, but LP went, spoke, and got to meet Betty White who said that he was a "very nice, well-spoken young man." (HE'S MINE, BETTY! BACK OFF!)  ;-)

But the L.A. Zoo won and Billy's new home will be unveiled to the public on December 16th. Eventually, as many as 11 elephants could live there and it will be the largest elephant habitat in North America! We're very excited for Billy, and we're pretty sure he's happy, too!

Who doesn't like a cute baby video?

That's what I thought. OF COURSE you love cute baby videos. On Friday, I said good-bye to my niece when mom and dad came home from their anniversary mini-vacation. I had a great time bonding with her and can't wait to baby-sit again. Don't panic though, I'm not hankering for any babies of my own any time soon. That can wait. For a long time.

I can only imagine how paranoid I'll be. Last night I scared the dickens out of LP when I bolted upright in bed shook him awake, calling his name, and telling him to be careful because I thought he rolled onto Baby Z! LP told me that I was babbling nonsense and was pushing at him and grabbing frantically at the bed. He thought I'd gone crazy. Then I fell right back to bed. I definitely remember doing that, but I thought maybe it was a dream. What a crazy person I am.

 OK, enough build up.... here's a last tribute to my adorable niece. A little video from my cell phone!

And by the way, I'll count editing this video as doing something for my career today. A little FCP practice never hurt anybody! I wanted to rotate the video, add music, cut it down, and color correct/brighten before posting it.