doowops and hooligans

before i get started, my cute little 2.5 year old nephew would like to give a shout out to his favorite basketball team:



it's no secret that i LOVE bruno mars (refer to here, here, annnd here ), so when i heard he was coming to seattle on his "hooligans in wondaland" tour i HAD to get tickets!

now, i have to explain, my love for bruno isn't that teeny bopper-wanna hang his posters all over my wall-maybe some day we'll meet, fall in love and get married kind of love. i genuinely admire his talent and his voice and the lyrics he writes. his voice is so crisp and clear, you can understand every word he sings. i'm able to relate to his songs, and they're all so chill(hellllo, one of his songs is called the LAZY song). i dunno how to explain it, but whenever one of his songs comes on my ipod i'm instantly in a good mood!

now, i'm not one to be excited for an event and just go to the event and go home, i love "making a day" of things when i can.

this day of bruno started w/ me getting off work early and meeting my co-bruno lover katie for lunch at what the pho???? at southcenter. i was supposed to try pho for the first time but the beef curry on the menu caught my eye and i just couldn't resist it...maybe next time i'll give in to the pho...



after a super delish lunch we still had a bunch of time left so we drove to seattle and got a drink at a bar w/in walking distance from wamu theater. it was at this bar that we heard a mom tell the bartender that her and her friend had left their 14 year old children in line for the show so they could get shots. classy. not only that, but while most sports bars were probably playing some local baseball or soccer game, our bar was showing...the national spelling bee championship. we had a blast cheering on Sukany Roy, Arvind Mahankali, and Dhivya Senthil Murugan as they took on words such as usufructuary, harridan, crevecoeur, and dactyliotheca. i thought that if they wanted a real spelling challenge, they could just spell each others names. maybe next year.

fiiiinally it was time for the show!!


we were lucky/sly/intimidating enough to sneak to the front of the line and got a pretty rad spot on the floor. unfortunately the show was general admission so we had about .2 centimeters of personal space which made it SUPER hot and being able to breathe anything, let alone fresh air was pretty much impossible. oh, the sacrifices we make for the music we love...

yea, we're still breathing(for now) and haven't died of heat stroke(yet)!



there were two opening acts...one was some dude w/ the initials m.h. i only remember this because that was pretty much the only memorable part about his time on stage...and he made sure we didn't forget...



the second act was some girl named janelle monae. she was entertaining for sure. i was ready for her to leave the stage about 3 songs before she actually did but, in general, she was good! i may try to listen to some more of her songs sometime...

janelle's opening stage set up was pretty rad.



the ONLY shot of janelle we got. oops.



next up was brunnooooooo!! it was an amazing show.you can tell he's genuinely having a good time and is loving what he's doing. he sounds EXACTLY like on his record, which is super rare. plleeeease believe me when i tell you dude can SANG. i was so fortunate to have such a great spot to get some awesome shots of the show!









one of my faav songs, grenade


dude(yes,dude)that says "omigodthisisgreat" from the lazy song:




i haven't been to a TONS of live shows before, but i've been to a lot, and this is the first time ever that i've left an even bigger fan than when i arrived! one thing i couldn't believe is he sang literally EVERY song from his album, plus others he only sings the hooks in (billionaire, nothin' on you), and then some! i hope he comes back soon, i know i'll be first in line to get a ticket...

i leave you with probably my favorite part of his show, the encore. he sings one of my favorite songs, talking to the moon. whoever filmed this was standing about where we were! i hope you enjoy as much as i did :)

somewhere in brooklyn/talking to the moon

here we go again...

holy craaaaap am i outta shape! and rightfully so, i haven't worked out on a regular basis since i hurt my back at the end of august.

i've been fully physically capable of doing most anything for probably about six weeks now, but it's been SO hard to motivate myself. i don't have the biggest loser this time around as a motivator, and it doesn't help i've been making excuses left and right...it's too cold...i don't feel well...i don't have time...plus my dietary habits have left nothing to be desired. yikes, i'm a mess.

as of right now i'm stating that i'm done making excuses! i'm going to las vegas for the first time everrrr mid august and i wanna look super hot for that! also, i've just been feeling gross in everything i wear and i HATE that feeling. no one can make that feeling go away except for me!

i recently purchased a 5 week gym membership (including 5 personal training sessions AND access to all classes!) on groupon for $10 that i'm going to start using tomorrow. that plus hiking, the occasional zumba class, and my usual jogging around the tacoma area will hopefully have me back in tip top shape in no time!

soooo i'm off on another "get fit" adventure...wish me luck!

29 and holding

ok, i have a confession to make. pretty much every year, as my birthday approaches, i tell people i'm not excited for it. (refer to my last post). truth of the matter is, the closer it gets, the more excited i become and the more i am wanting to celebrate the miraculous event that is my birth. this year was no exception.

the whole celebration process began approximately one week before the big day. i wanted a birthday dinner, and i wanted my good friends to be there. unfortunately, because of my terrible timing, a good amount of my good friends weren't able to come, but i'm so thankful for the ones who did :)

my sister(who is currently the best sister in the UNIVERSE) sent me a variety of her precious cake balls as a birthday gift. i gladly shared my sister's balls at my bday dinner. those lucky few who got to try them are now OBSESSED. what can i say, they're tiny pieces of heaven on earth.

my dinner took place at the cheesecake factory....

my dinner dates


i have NO idea whose idea it was to tell the waiter we were celebrating my birthday (ok,it was mine) but i really was surprised when a group of waiters showed up w/ a sundae and started singing "happy birthday" to me after dinner.

my "please stop singing to me, i had no idea you guys actually still did that" face:


after dinner me and a couple of my friends headed to the muckleshoot casino to party some more on the dance floor. let me tell you, that was an experience in itself.

when we arrived, our intent was to head to the dance club and have a couple of drinks. nothing tooooooo crazy.

there was this live band called Vanity "singing" cover songs that night(by singing i mean lip syncing to the track w/ a fake band behind them). the lead singer girl would have won first place in a miley cyrus look-a-like contest, and the dude lead singer was prob 39 years old, had been tanning entirely wayyyy too much for the past 15 years, had bleach blonde hair and there was a chain hanging from his pants. really.

unfortunately, about halfway through their set the lead singer spotted me sitting at my table w/ my friends, minding my own business. next thing i know he's literally standing in front of my table singing directly to me two feet from my face. yikes. after he left my "friend"(i will now use this term loosely) told the security guard standing next to her that it was my birthday. HE then tells the lead singer who of COURSE thinks it's ok to then come up to my table, bringing his microphone and spotlight with him to strike up a conversation in front of the WHOLE CLUB.

i MAY have been slightly embarrassed.

after the "band's" "set" the leathery lead singer dude came up to me and said "i'm sorry if i embarrassed you. i just saw you making fun of me and had to put you on the spot"

dang. called out, just like that. on my birthday! i didn't mind. it was still a super fun time.

the night concluded with me putting down $20 on a game of black jack and very quickly losing $20 to a game of black jack.

the next day, saturday, was my ACTUAL birthday and i was extra stoked for this because it was my very FIRST seattle sounders game EVER! i've been wanting to go to one of these games for a while now, so when my bff katie gave me tix for my bday i was STOKED!

me and the biggest ball EVER:


me n val, my friend who was SO awesome to attend the game w/ me on last minutes notice!


$9.50 birthday beer. worth every penny!


random fact: i make some bomb ass tacos. SO bomb ass in fact that i considered(for about a minute) opening my own little taco shop in tacoma called "taco ma". get it??? tacoma. taco ma??? i'm so clever. little did i know, a taco place called taco ma already exists! not only does it exist...but it's got a sweet spot in qwest field! booooo!



after the game val and i took the bus back to belltown looking for some grub. we walked passed a few establishments. all of sudden...THIS one caught my eye:

dope burger


now, if you know me AT ALL, you know i am a fan of all things dope. this was no exception. all the drinks and food were exceptional. it was like a place you would see on the food network. i couldn't believe it when they told me they'd only been open four months! it was some good grub, for sure.

the conclusion of my birthday week celebration was my traditional birthday dinner at any place of my choosing with my mom and dad. this year i picked BJ's restaurant and brewery. i went there about two years ago for my bday and i remember really liking it. however, this time my mom ordered the jumbalyah and ended up getting food poisoning! not only that, she gave some of her leftovers to the dog, so poor kobe got food poisoning too :(

all in all it was a pretty spectacular birthday. i'm actually looking FORWARD to being thirty because i know older is wiser. i have a few more lessons to learn and i'm definitely looking forward to them!

another gumbo post?!?!?! yes, yes it is.

ok! random crap blog post in 4,3,2....

*in case i haven't told you yet, my super fertile sister is pregnant yet AGAIN!!!! we're all so super excited...she's due in nov/decemberish...since i have both a niece and a nephew already i don't care what the gorgeous bebe will be, as long as it's healthy :)

*facetime is the best invention EVER!!!

*so i've mentioned before how much i LOVE bruno mars,right?? well i've officially gotten my tix to see him on june 2nd! this is epic since i haven't even gotten my nkotbsb tix and those are pretty much the two bands that defined my LIFE soooo...yea, bruno??

*i'm def not a fashionista of any sort but dang. i'm totally bummed that my fav purse of ALL TIME is no longer available like, anywhere! a little background...i've had this purse(or a simile), made by lux de ville for about 5 years total now. i NEED a new one and, upon seeing one is not available, my heart is broken into 53 different pieces. i dunno what to do now! i'm SO picky when it comes to purses that i'm not sure i can go on w/ life...

exaggerating. obviously.

*my BIRTHDAY is coming up pretty soon! i'm...excited? i guess. i'm mostly just stoked for the super nice traditional dinner w/ parents combined with the promise of my sister's cake balls instead of my usual typical funfetti cake. have you tried my sister's balls, yet?? if you haven't then you're sorely missing out because they are nothing short of UH-mazing! don't believe me??? here's a non-biased, second opinion- (super UBER thanks for holli and mike for posting this everywhere on the whole entire web :)holli's review on my sister's balls

*on a last note...i love and miss you all. thanks so much for reading this :) see you all soooOOOOoooo soon!

duck.wine.rock.well.

i had such a great weekend. it was busy, but great. what made it sooooo great, you may ask???

because my GRANDMA came to seattle to visit! picture my heart bursting into a million pieces because of happiness-THAT'S how excited i was when i learned about this trip.

she was staying in seattle with my mom and i got to spend saturday and sunday with her...of course, as usual, good times ensued...

i drove up to seattle from tacoma on saturday morning where the three of us (moi,gma, and mom) went to westlake center to catch the seattle duck boat tour. if you've EVER been to seattle, chances are you've seen this bus driving around town.



now, having lived in seattle for 15ish years, i've been to seattle approximately 629 times, and have probably seen that amount of duck boat bus car things but never knew what the big deal was. holy crap i've been missing out! it was sooo much fun!

we left westlake center where we proceeded to drive to lake union where the bus literally drove off the dock straight into the water! along the way the driver (who was hilarious) made jokes and played fun songs all the while telling us fun facts and tidbits about the areas we were driving through.

hey, look, it's the famous needle!



while on lake union we saw:

a gorgeous view of what i THINK is i-5??


the boathouse(or houseboat?? apparently there is a difference) from the movie sleepless in seattle (see the two white flags? it's directly below them. right there. there it is. do you see it???)



and gasworks park. julia stiles and heath ledger played paintball here in the movie 10 things i hate about you:



on our way back to westlake center we drove through the little town of fremont. apparently if you picture the weirdest person you've ever seen in seattle-THAT person's weird cousin is someone who would (allegedly) reside in fremont. there's even a crazy parade that this town throws every year called the fremont solstice parade. people ride bikes naked, dress up in funny costumes and just basically go all out. of course i, someone who is wanting to experience most everything in this world, will be attending the parade this year just to see what all the hoopla is about. if you are a close, personal friend of mine, chances are you will be attending this parade as well.

this is a cool statue we drove by in fremont. the driver didn't really say anything about it, i would love to know the story behind it, though:



after our adventure on the duck boat we were staaaaarving so we had a delish lunch at p.f. changs. after lunch it was time to say bye to grandma but i wasn't terribly sad because i'd be seeing her the next day!

so i left seattle and drove to renton for my next adventure of the day...

in case you haven't noticed, me and my (girl)friends, we're classy gals. so when my friend wants to throw a boxed wine party, i will support her with all the classiness i have in me! there isn't too much to say about the party in general, there was, of course, boxed wine(pics were taken at the beginning of the party, there ended up being about twice the amount of food and wine shown):



and food:


it was a blast. of course. because wine+food=instant blast. i met a lot of people, made some new friends, and little did i know there was a magician at the party! i've always been fascinated by slight of hand and illusions so i begged him to show me a trick:



at about 1230 i ended up falling asleep at the hostesses house (never drink and drive, kids!). and dreampt(sp???) of living on a island with jimmy fallon, ryan reynolds, and an endless supply of calorie-free girl scout thin mint cookies....

the next morning i woke up, drove home and promptly got ready to spend another day with grandma<3!! this time her and my mom were driving to tacoma so we could see the norman rockwell exhibit at the tacoma art museum.

i've heard of norman rockwell, i've seen his art, but i had NO idea, not even a clue of what an AMAZING talent he was. i'm not a huge art fan, i'm pretty sure i've been to an art gallery never, but i was literally in awe over his pieces. he had such a way of telling a story with each painting. he dealt with multiple subjects from civil rights, to current events and even the presidents of the united states. he used models for his paintings and a lot of times he painted in his own family members, or even himself! he was also a funny guy,which shows through the characters actions or facial expressions in his work. there was an audio tour that i took of his paintings that told background stories behind them. i learned SO much i'm really glad i went to see this exhibit-it definitely made a new fan out of me!

after the exhibit we went to the old spaghetti factory and had a nice lunch. and then... it was time to say our good byes. i'm totally sad, i only see grandma about once a year, but i'm SO glad she was able to fly up and see a little bit of where i live. thanks again grandma for visiting, i hope you had as much fun as i did :) LOVE YOU!!<3

my dear

my grandma loves carrie underwood. like loooooooves. since carrie came onto the scene after winning american idol my grandma has always talked freely about how much she adores her because she's this nice, wholesome southern girl. oh, and she's pretty too. in fact, i've often joked about my grandma wanting to adopt her as a grandchild and how i will always be second best compared to carrie (all the while knowing this would never actually be true ;).

tonight, i had the following phone conversation with my dear grandma:

gma: "oh carrie's on tv! she's performing at the cma's...can you hear her singing??"

me: "no, grandma, i can't hear her."

gma: "ok just a sec lemme turn up the volume on my television..."

grandma turns up the television volume so now instead of absolutely nothing i hear the slight whisper of a television

me: "still can't hear it grandma...oh well."

gma: "she's performing with some guy who has long black hair. and she's wearing a black dress. i don't like it. i don't know what it is about the dress, i just don't like it."

me: "it's a short black dress??"

gma: "yes, it's short. but i don't know, that's what everyone's wearing in today's fashion i guess. i don't know who that long haired guy is she's singing with."

me: "is he a country guy?"

gma: "i don't think so, he sure doesn't sound country!"

me: (wracking my brain trying to think of a long haired dude who doesn't sound country but does a lot of duets)"is it kid rock??"

gma: "does kid rock have black hair??"

me: "no...."

gma: "and the song they're singing...i don't like it very much. can you hear it??"

me: "no grandma, i still can't hear it."

at this point i was dying to try and figure out who carrie was singing a duet with but couldn't find any information when i googled it. it wasn't until a couple of hours later that i finally found out...

carrie's long black haired duet partner?? steven tyler

the song they were singing?? walk this way

oh grandma. i love her.

reason number 34987...

why i absolutely ADORE jimmy fallon. no one funnier. seriously.: