good to be back.

After a long and unintended break from this blog, I'm back! Even better, today marks the return of Arrested Development! Though I haven't spent the whole day watching Season 4, I have been waiting for this day for over a year (I hopped on the AD bandwagon a little late) and have watched the first episode. I plan on watching the rest in the next few days.

So what has been happening lately? A lot and practically nothing at the same time, it feels. Over the past few months I've gotten more acclimated to work, gone for hikes, listened to some great live music, planned a bunch for the wedding, watched the Caps practice, turned 27, enjoyed March Madness in DC, and played a few rounds of kickball and indoor bocce. See, I've been doing things but nothing really new or groundbreaking. Hahah.

To ease back into this blogging thing, this post is more photos than words.

Oh, and enjoy Memorial Day tomorrow! Be safe.

xx

freefest.

A couple weeks ago, a few of us headed up to Maryland via bus (best idea ever) for Virgin Mobile's FreeFest. We enjoyed the fantastic musical stylings of Nas, Portugal the Man, and M83 among many many others.

some music.

This little space is on my mind almost every day, yet I just haven't had the time to write my little updates of life here on the east coast. Work is going really well... challenging at times... but fun. The long days (and sometimes nights, which really wrecked havoc on my schedule hence the lack of posts here the past two weeks) leave me feeling good yet incredibly lazy once I get home. My days off tend to include cleaning and being a bum on the couch. Thankfully, Dave is awesome at keeping the house clean on days that I work, but he avoids the laundry piling up in my "delicate wash, line dry, mess these clothes up and pay for it" basket and I tend to do the sweeping/vacuuming/mopping/dusting.

A couple weeks ago was a week of amazing music for us. Bushwalla was touring out here and I had the day/night off, so of course we bought tickets and headed out to Vienna, Va. Amazing as always. He was touring with Todd Carey, who too is pretty darn talented and a little cutie patootie too. Later in the week, we got to see Third Eye Blind at a Nationals' post-game concert. Holy moly! Hello junior high. I loved it! Granted, I realized I only knew their one album. Oh well. Sounded like most of the audience was in the same boat. ;)

San Diego in T minus 48 hours!!!

christmas dates.

Christmas season at Qualcomm aka Snapdragon

I've spent the last week in San Diego with Dave for an early Christmas (celebrating Christmas with my folks). We celebrated by visiting the seals at La Jolla Cove, watched UCD basketball lose to UCLA (bummer!), enjoyed entertainment at the Feeding the Soul Foundation's Holiday Variety Show, watched the Chargers beat the Ravens with our friend Brent, watched the Niners game while eating sushi, toured the Leo Carrillo Ranch, went wine tasting at Bernardo Winery, went to the San Diego Concert Band's concert (which Dave's mom, Sandra, performed in), celebrated Hanukah, and went to the La Mesa College Concert Band's concert (which both Dave and Sandra performed in). We may not be able to spend Christmas day together, but I think those dates make up for it!

a wedding, a concert and a photo shoot.

This has definitely been an eventful weekend. From Gigi's wedding to a photo shoot with Lauri Levenfeld with a Kenny Chesney concert in between, I was on my feet the whole weekend.

Saturday morning was Gigi's wedding. I wish I would've taken pictures with my camera but Auntie Conchita wanted me to take the pics for her so I am left with zero pictures of my own. The wedding was fun though! It was short and sweet. I'm so happy for Gi and Don. Held at Christ the King in Pleasant Hill, it was such an intimate ceremony. The food was good too! We went to a Chinese restaurant and had a feast. I filled my plate and ate as much as I could and then they brought out more food. And then even more food. I was still too full from the first plate that I didn't eat anything else - much to the dismay of Mommy Wilma and Auntie Conchita. They kept trying to get me to eat more. The one thing I could've done without - listening to Mommy Wilma and Auntie Conchita talk about who they spanked the most. Cat and Gigi were the winners! Turns out, Janice, Jay and I were the good kids. The recollection of the past wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't kept asking me if I remembered... I said yes, though half the time I didn't. Oh well. Hahah. It was still a lot of fun.

We had to leave the reception right after cake because I needed to get into the City to meet up with everyone for the concert. Thing is, I left my charger at home and needed it desperately. My phone has been dying on me every so often - the battery is practically defunct. We drove home, got the charger and headed to the Del Norte BART station - with me successfully changing from my dress for the wedding into my dress for the concert along the way. I thought I was going to be late but luckily for me, not so much for them, the girls got stuck in traffic on their way from Davis to SF. Even with the train stopping at a station for 5 minutes because someone was blocking the door and not moving, I still managed to get to the City before them. I headed to the hotel and sat my self down at the bar and enjoyed an Amaretto Sour. Mmmmm. Then my phone died again. Worried I'd miss the girls walking by, I walked to the lobby and found Sol and a few others from the group. Then the girls arrived! We went up to our room at the Marriott on 4th Street and enjoyed a few cold beverages before heading to AT&T Park for the concert.

The concert itself was amazing. The full line-up: Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Sugarland and Kenny Chesney. We arrived too late and missed Lady Antebellum and Sugarland ended up canceling so we only saw Miranda and Kenny. No worries though, it was still a blast! Top memories of the night: waiting in an incredibly long line at the boys bathroom that actually moved slower than the girls bathroom line, meeting the craziest people, dancing in the aisles to Kenny's songs and waiting at Denny's for almost an hour before actually being served. Between waiting in line for 30 minutes to get a table and waiting at our table for 20 minutes to get some water and another 20 minutes to have our order taken and messed up... well... the whole Denny's thing was a disaster but it was still fun.

Miranda Lambert

Kenny Chesney

Sol, Katie, Jamie, Tam and Me

Sunday was a lot of fun too. Sunday morning, after check out, we went to Katie's place (totally cute, btw) and then got breakfast at a place nearby. I only got orange juice because I was meeting up with my parents and didn't want to leave before the food came. I went with my folks to Stonestown and shopped at Ann Taylor. Got an adorable top that I'm actually wearing now. It's a cream faux-wrap top. Love it!

Afterward, we went to the Sutro Baths over by the Cliff House to meet up with Lauri and the girls. Back in March or April, I entered a contest to win a portrait shoot with the amazing Lauri Levenfeld. About a month ago, she told me I had won! I decided to do some pictures with my parents since we haven't had a family picture in over 5 years and then I did some pictures with the girls. It was so much fun.

Tam, Me and Tiff with Lauri taking a picture of Mom and Dad in the back

Sutro Baths

I'm extremely tired from the weekend and thought I'd get a chance to sleep in and recoup. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had to be at work at 8:30 this morning meaning my sleep was cut short. Way shorter than I would've liked. At least work hasn't been bad. :)

recent happenings.

At the beginning of the month, mom, dad and I went to Vegas for the Supercross Finals. Well, dad and I went for the race, mom came and hung out with Ninang Lita and stayed at our timeshare. The race was amazing. Honestly the best set of mains I've seen in a long time. The battle for lites champion in the East/West shootout was incredible. It came down to the final seconds for Dungey and Pourcel with Pourcel winning by about half a bike's length. The supercross class main was pretty sweet too. It wasn't incredibly competitive... Bubba and Reed both kinda coasted to keep from messing up. Bubba was in the lead for a bit but Villapoto pulled ahead getting first and Reed eventually passed Bubba up too. Lots of fun.

During the opening

Fireworks after the main

On the 8th, I went with Nicole, Ariel and Kim to see Jessica Simpson at the Dixon May Fair. Her performance wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst either. She forgot the lyrics to one song, but she sounded amazing for the most part. Every now and then, it sounded like she was straining her voice. I have to admit that I enjoyed myself though.

Jessica Simpson singing

The next day, a bunch of us went paintballing in Vacaville. It was honestly a lot of fun. I can't wait to go again. My legs are so sore from crouching and running low and I have a huge bruise on the back of my right thigh, but it was amazing.

Me being stealthy

Sarah, Tam, Nicole, Ariel, Me, Jo-Anna and Kim

This is the last week of school, which I'm really excited about. Finals are next Wednesday and then I'm done until nursing school in January (hopefully). Starting to get nervous about the whole application process but I feel really good about being able to get in. I also bought my backpack yesterday for when I go to Panamá. Should arrive on Wednesday!