Nicole Tasker Woods

I had what I was quick to label a ‘lucky day’ on Friday, July 18th. That Friday, I received a call on my cell phone I had won a raffle that I entered the day before. The item being raffled off was two tickets to see Alanis Morissette in a very unique, private setting that only a select few would get to attend. The event was held by 104.3 My FM, a local radio station I started listening to daily when they started the $10,000-a-day-give-away. I never won $10,000, but I did sign up as a My Club member, which is where I earned points every day and ended up using those points to enter the raffle.

Ryan was my guest at the 104.3 My Stage on Monday, July 21st when Alanis Morissette was interviewed by Billy Bush on camera in front of 10 guests (us included) who watched from leopard print pillows on the floor. The room was small and the stage was less than 3 feet from us. Audio clips from the interview were aired on Billy Bush’s radio show and video clips were supposed to show up on Access Hollywood. I know I got on camera a few times, but have yet to find the episode that shows me and my smiling face.

After the interview and performance, we got group photos with Ms. Morissette and I even got to shake her hand.

Ryan and I saw her in concert on her last tour at the House of Blues in Hollywood. We had a great view of her on stage and had a wonderful time–we always enjoyed her music. Her lyrics are very unique and poetic, one of the main reasons why I like her so much. This next album she is promoting sounds incredible and we are already trying to get tickets to her next stop in Los Angeles at the Orpheum in November.

Back to my lucky day…

I got a free massage that Friday afternoon after work and felt so lucky, that I bought myself a Mega Millions lottery ticket. I kept it simple and just spent $1 on a quick-pick. I felt that I shouldn’t push my luck by picking meaningful numbers. Needless to say, I did not win the $125 million that was in the pot.

Finally! I am back home in Los Angeles and am loving it. Cali was really excited to see me and was bouncing off the walls when I finally walked through the door at 10:30pm on Sunday night. I was supposed to roll in around 8:30pm, but due to mechanical delays on the airplane, I got stuck in Philadelphia for a few hours longer than the original three hour layover.

Right now, Ryan and Carolyn are off to Italy enjoying their second week of vacation and I am at work all day and roaming around the house at night with Cali at my heels. I have to admit, I am enjoying myself.

Here are a few pictures from my trip…enjoy!

How cute is this picture?

My Aunt Lisa sent it to me after taking it at the Memorial Day parade in Northwood this past Monday.

Upon saying goodbye to Brianna at the party on Saturday, her dad asked if I was going to go to the parade and Brianna smiled up at me and said, “I’m in it!” I giggled and smooched her cheek and said I was sorry to miss it, that I had to fly back to California that day.

The girl in the middle caught my eye. She’s looking at the camera in a sort of shy manner, as if to say, “No, don’t take my picture…yes, please take it, please?” She is begging to be photographed despite her hand over her eye, slightly rubbing it as if to say this day is a bore or maybe she just woke up too early? Either way, she sure does look excited to get her picture taken.

The girl to the left of the photo seems perplexed, questioning “Why?” Nothing too in-depth, though. I wouldn’t want her to hurt herself by thinking too much into it…

Why are you taking our picture?
Why am I holding this banner?
Why is the sky blue?

But my little cousin Brianna to the right, she is no more than happy to be alive as she spreads a small smile across her rosy cheeks. It looks like she has been smiling way too much on this bright sunny parade-day. Or maybe the camera was positioned in front of her face for too long and now she is gritting her teeth saying, “Take the picture already!” But my sweet little Brianna would never say that! Just like me, we always smile the same beautiful smile when a camera is present. We are never caught off guard looking silly…

When Ryan and I were getting pictures taken after our wedding ceremony, I smiled the same way for every shot. The photographer kept directing my husband to turn his head just so and at one point I felt totally neglected, he was not addressing me, not once! I said, “What about me? Am I OK?” The photographer put his camera down to reveal his smiling face and he said, “Nicole, you are so beautiful and your smile is flawless, do not change a thing.” Yeah, that’s me…flawless Nicole.

My long weekend in New Hampshire was full of relaxing hours spent out of doors, soaking up the sun. I actually got some really good sun on my chest and face on Saturday while at my brother, Curt’s graduation party, which my parents hosted out back on the patio.

This is a picture of me and my two brothers, Curtis (left) and Kyle (right).

Below are pictures of my cousin, Carrie and I in front of one of the crab apple trees in my parents front yard. This is JUST before the white petals snow down off the branches painting the ground. In just a few days, the slightest breeze will knock them all off.



Then on Sunday, I spent some time walking Sophie (my childhood black lab I picked out when I was 16), I also watched Sophie and Daisy swim (my other brother, Kyle’s dog whom I believe to be possessed by some kind of demon), and then I laid on the hammock with my mom eating a dozen sugar-free popsicles, just soaking up the sun. It was a really great weekend.

After the big party on Saturday, we were all tired from the amount of time spent in the sun and cool breeze that constantly picked up every few minutes to cool us down. There was a lot of food-preparing, food-laying-out, and food-cleaning up. Everyone was constantly walking up and down the deck stairs from patio to kitchen (well, all of the women at least) to make sure all the guests were full of food. Then when the last guest left and the last Tupperware container was sealed and stored in the refrigerator, we all congregated to the couches and chairs in the living room to relax for the rest of the night in front of the TV.

Sunday I got up at 5:30am to go fishing with my folks. We got on the water around 6:30am after getting some oatmeal and home-made cinnamon-raisin toast for breakfast from the diner. Despite the cool breeze, the sun was still hot when it hit our faces, warming our bodies as we enjoyed the peaceful lake.

We were the third boat to get in the water so much of the morning we had the entire, peaceful lake to ourselves. My dad and mom and I cruised slowly in the “Miss Nicki” with three poles trailing behind, while waiting to hear the beep from the Fish Finder that tells us when we are passing over fishies. It gives us something to do while we wait for a bite. But during this outing, we only got one bite; Daddy let me reel it in. After pulling it out of the water, we could see that the poor rainbow trout had hooked itself in the head above the eye.

When we dropped him in the bucket, blood and fish-brains were swirling as he frantically waved his fins. Dad kept saying, “He’s still kickin’ we could probably throw him back.” I think he saw how much I was looking at the fish and how hard it was for me to refrain from naming it. The no-name fish seemed to be doing OK despite the hit to the head, he was swimming upside-down for a while, but then righted himself and continued to swim in circles at the bottom of the bucket. I was afraid to touch his shiny scales (as if he had fangs and would bite me), but his under-belly was quite pretty—the purest white on the bottom, a pink stripe on the sides and then slowly the colors darkened to a green at his top to avoid prey. Dad ended up eating him for lunch that day.

I spent a few minutes in my Dad’s shop while he was fixing one of his trucks. I noticed that he installed a pull-up bar underneath the shield I made when I was in college. The shield was part of a project for a Medieval History course I took my Senior year. We could write a paper about some part of the medieval times or make something from the medieval times. The crest in the upper left hand corner is the actual crest for my family name ‘Tasker’ and the picture in the bottom right hand corner is something I created to represent what my family probably would have done in the medieval times (dig wells).

The antlers underneath the shield are from one of the deer my dad murdered on his last hunting trip. He took them from the poor animal’s head and mounted them on a piece of wood with the skull still intact. Lovely.

Mondays are busy for me at work so I thought I would post a picture instead of nothing at all…

I am so glad I actually did this. I love roller coasters and getting the weight-less feeling that comes from riding deep drops and screaming my lungs out. My stomach did summersaults just watching other people landing in the field after paragliding from one of the tall mountains in Switzerland. When I finally got up the nerve to check it out, before I knew it, I was in the van riding up the bumpy road to the jump off point. After getting hooked up to a pilot, he told me to run until the wind picked up the chute. It took half of a step and then we were floating—gliding—slowly falling to the ground. The pilot actually let me take the reins and guide us through the air. We even did a few twists and turns upside down. I can still feel it in my stomach when looking at the pictures.