A Sick Day

Hello followers,

I know it has been ages since my last post - a lot has been going on. I have been in the midst of planning events, interviewing for jobs, and GETTING JOBS! You heard it here first, I am officially employed. It is also November first meaning there is a lot going on, the first day of a new month of Month-Long-Learning - in which I am learning Italian. It is also the day after Halloween! What did you dress up as this year? I had three costumes this year. The first was a bottle of Charles Shaw wine while my friend was a Trader Joes employee, the second was a kid going to Disneyland, and the third was a fairy. I love Halloween and seeing everyone's creative costume.

After all of this holiday excitement I think it was time for me to get a little sick. And what to do on a sick day then watch some of the best moveis while sipping on green tea. I love to watch musicals with a twist - I love the classic musicals too, such as Singing in the Rain, Hairspray, and West Side Story. However, today I was in a different musical mood so I decided to watch the following:

Across The Universe is one of my favorites, as all three of these movies are, but it holds a special place in my heart. I love love love The Beatles. I think their music is legendary and they really provided the soundtrack for a generation. I think that Across The Universe combines the youth culture of the time with the beautiful songs of the band that made the culture.

Moulin Rouge is amazing even if the mute button was on. It is visually stunning. The costumes, colors, lights, makeup, and sets really show the whimsical world created by Baz Luhrmann. The music is amazing, and the story line is one that can stand the test of time. 

Last, but certainly is Country Strong. I am a huge fan of country music. I think the characters have real life problems that anyone can relate to. When you pair that with a beautiful cast and catchy songs - what more can you ask for?

What do you like to do on a sick day?

Book Club: The Beginning

During my childhood, I loved to read. I would read whatever I could get my hands on! When I was really little I dug into Disney fairytales and Dr. Seuss books. As I got older Hogwarts became my dream school while Harry, Ron, Hermine, and I tried  to defeat the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. In high school I read all the classics, The Great Gatsby, The Color Purple, and Of Mice and Men.

What happens when you get into college, is the magic of reading stops. It doesn't take you to far off places, or excited your imagination - it takes you to scientific studies, dry historical events, and journals written by professors from fifty years ago. Reading became more of a negative rather than a positive. I tried reading for fun in my time in college, but due to long meetings, lots of classes, and a busy social life I started reading books almost monthly knowing I wouldn't be able to finish it.

Now that I have graduated and I have more time on my hands reading once again has become an everyday thing for me to do. I am once agin divulging myself in wonderful books. Myself and two of my friends decided to start a book club in the beginning of the summer. Three books and one less member later - I think we are one a roll!

We first read An Unquiet Mind, the book was slow for me at first and then as I started to understand the characters more I throughly enjoyed it. I think that it was a book that I wouldn't have picked up myself, but one of my fellow book club readers choose it and I am very happy that she did. It has given my the drive to start picking out different types of books to read.

Out next book was my choice, The Time Travelers Wife. I love to read books that have movies attached to them that I can then watch and compare the two. I loved the love story between these two characters. One that was real and passionate that was a little controversial at times.

Right now I am reading, Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me, by Mindy Kaling. She is one of my favorites actors on The Office, I think she is hilarious and I want to be her friend. I think that it will be a funny light read.



Along with book club books, I have been going though my bookshelves and trying to read through some of my old favorites. When we pick our next book I will put it up on the blog so we can read through it together

Girlfriend Getaway: Lake of the Pines, CA

I have a wonderful group of friends. We are all there for each other through thick and thin, good times and bad. I have friends from all walks of life, some I've known forever, some that I got close to during my time in college. However I have one group of friends that just blends and works together perfectly. Of course there are always little hiccups in any group of friends, but it seems as if we have gone through that and now we just work. Simple as that.

We got really close during our senior year of high school. Some of us knew each other individually before, but senior year was when we all came together as a cohesive group. We really started to do everything together, movies, dinners out, parties, trips, parking-lot ragers, shopping, and everything in between.

Here we are before going to Senior Ball in 2008.

Dressing up as the Spice Girls for Spirit Week

Soon we graduated from high school and went our separate ways; UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, Columbia University, Brown University, and University of Arizona. Although we were far apart we kept in touch, visited each other at school, and spent every moment together when we were home on school breaks. Now that we have all graduated and moved back home, we have been exploring the Bay Area and growing our friendships even more.

One thing that we all love to do is travel! We have gone on trips together, and separately we have traveled all over the world; Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Australia, Scotland, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Chicago, New York, Panama, Costa Rica, and so many other places!  While we are under budget constrictions we do smaller low-key trips. But we have big plans to travel the country and the world together.

Our first trip together - Disneyland the summer after we graduated!

This past weekend we went up to my grandmother's cabin in Northern California. It is in a gated community called Lake of the Pines. We spent the weekend doing lovely things, watching movies, playing games, drinking, eating, reading, and spending time at the lake. We made goal lists for what we want to accomplish before we came up to the cabin again, some goals included; vote, learn how to play guitar, go on a trip out of California, and get a job.

The main point of out trips is to spend time together exploring and doing girly things together. Which is why I created a separate part of this blog called "Girlfriend Getaways". I am going to chronicle all of our trips together, as well as other trips that I take with my girlfriends. I hope it will inspire others to take these trips with their friends as well. I am personally really inspired by my Aunt Claudia. She and her friends from high school have been doing a yearly trip together for the past twenty five years. They spend time in different places and then spend time catching up.

Hopefully some of our future trips will include:

A road trip through Oregon and Washington

More trips to the cabin

Disneyland

Louisiana

New York

Brazil

and many more

Please come along!

A Grad Party

Graduation is such a special moment in anyones life. It gives you a moment of reflection on all of your hard work that you have out into your education, and it is that last step before you start your new life. For all of those future event planners out there, including myself you then can look forward to a graduation party! I spent months coming up with a theme and feel for my party. I decided that I really wanted it to be about my time at The University of Arizona. I used out colors, mascot, and food from the region that reminded me of my time there (no not cup-of-noodles and pb&j sammies) but food of the southwest.

Once I came up with the theme it was time to figure out the details. I wanted a dessert table that was all red and blue which is the school colors. I decided on cake pops, cupcakes, cookies, and different candy. I found these great red and blue buckets and bowls at Target and The Dollar Store to add to the theme. I then glued ribbon onto wine bottles to use as vases for white daisies. Lastly I wanted to create a fun backdrop for the table so I used red and blue Arizona balloons to enhance the look!

Here is more of the detailing of the fun dessert bar!

In the rest of the space I really wanted to convey the spirit of my time at UofA. I made these picture hanging ribbons that represented my time in college.

I also had pictures on the mantel with my graduation stoles.

What kind of decorations do you like to use at your parties? 

The Beginning

The time immediately following college graduation is an odd time in any one young girls life. For the past 17 years I am been in school, learning what other people wanted me to learn, figuring out who I am and what I want to do with my life- and all I could ever ask was what is next, and I would always have an answer. Well here I am at 22 years old asking that very same question that I have asked for the past 17 years and now I do not have an answer. Do I want to spend time traveling? Find my dream job?   Learn a new skill? Well I believe after a bit of soul searching for the last 4 months I have found my answer - a lifestyle blog! I am by no means an expert on how other people should live their lives, sometimes I'm not even an expert on my own! I love champagne, but I am on a two-buck-chuck budget. How do I work with this? I want to explore it and this wonderful world around me while being fabulously un-fabulous! Come along!