4 score and 2 years ago...

approximately two years ago i wrote this post that walked you through a super awesome day out with my gooood friend amanda. we took a TON of video on this day. my goal at the time was to edit it down and make it all into one video, but for whatever reason could never quite get it to post correctly...

 i was feeling a bit nostalgic tonight and was looking through old photos in my photobucket album and low and behold...the video that didn't work two years ago, works!

 so here you go, the long lost 3 min video conclusion of our adventures in seattle....two years in the making...(it may or may not include: us at the opening of hard rock cafe, me adopting a child, lots and lots of fortune cookies, and really really...reallllllly bad car karaoke :)

the one that got away...

in another life

 i would be your girl

 we'd keep all our promises

 be us against the world

 in another life

 i would make you stay

 so i don't have to say you were the one that got away

 the one that got away

summer 2011

hooooly crap...hi guys!! remember me??? after a long, unexcused, unexplained absence i'm baaaaack! (for this post anyway).

sooo...how was your summer?? mine was pretty chill for the most part. hard to believe it's coming to an end soon. i think the highest temp we had here in seattle this "summer" was 45 degrees fahrenheit?? anyone wanna back me up on this?? i think i'm pretty close. either way, coldest. summer. ever.

i did have a few highlights that i wanted to share w/ you. since it would take tooooo long to type everything out and post all the pics i usually do, i'm going to (try to)give you the cliffsnotes version, and break it up into two diff posts. so, here, in short, is my 2011 summer.

JULY 8th, 2011:

i'm not ashamed to admit that i used to be the biiiiggest boy band freak. it started w/ the new kids on the block when i was a youngin', then progressed to backstreet boys and 'nsync in jr high and high school. eventually (ok when i was 22) i expanded my musical horizons to different genres of music, but have, and will probably always hold a special place in my heart for boy bands. don't hate, participate.

so when i heard the two bands that pretty much defined my youth (BSB, NKOTB) were combining for one super tour there was absolutely NO WAY i was going to miss it. i had seen backstreet boys live about 8 times, but had never seen NKOTB. when i was about 8 i had asked to see them live, but i never got the chance, so i had literally waited over 20 years for this! and it was absolutely worth the wait.

on the day of the show i was apparently way too excited to remember that i had an actual camera, so i just brought my ipod camera, which, unfortunately means that i didn't get any good pictures. but i def got memories that will last for a very long time!

the one and only semi decent picture i did get:

the members of both of the bands came into the audience at one point...this is danny wood from NKOTB-5 ft away from me!!


August 19th, 2011:

the second highlight of my summer was that i took my very first trip to VEGAS! i was telling my friend one day about how i spent my birthday and she told me she was going to vegas for hers. upon hearing i had never been before she told me to come w/ her (along w/ 6 of her close friends). me, being super adventurous and knowing a good time when i heard one, immediately accepted.

all of us were so excited for our trip we started counting down the days MONTHS in advance. we held a garage sale to raise spending money for sin city, and by the time it was actually time to leave for vegas we were about as excited as nine year old us the night before christmas.

my vegas roomie and bff amy! sooooo excited to be on the plane!


now i'm about to fill you in on a little secret...when travelling on a plane in a large group BRING CHOCOLATE. no no, the chocolate is not for you to eat after your bag of peanuts, it's for the flight attendants! we gave our flight attendant a box of see's chocolate and low and behold...guess who got free adult beverages on their flight?? cause that's how we roll.

we are classy ladies and go everywhere in style, so while everyone else waited 45 min for a cab to pick them up from the airport we rolled out in our super stretch limo...



complete w/ mirrors on the ceiling!
(that's my reflection...in the mirror...on the ceiling!)



as we rode the short ride from the airport to our hotel, the monte carlo, i couldn't help but fall into a trance while staring out the window...partly in facination with seeing all the buildings i've seen a hundred times on tv and movies RIGHT THERE in front of me, and partly in excitement and anticipation as to what wonderful adventures this city of sin was about to bring...

(to be continued... :)

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!