Oh Hey There, It's Not You, It's Me - Literally

Well..it's been a long while since I have written. Do I even have any readers anymore? Crickets..Crickets..

I suppose I could blame it on my "new" job that I started 9 months ago or perhaps traveling like a gypsy or even the move to Santa Monica but really it's the lack wanting to write. I wasn't inspired  - not that I didn't enjoy reading other blogs I just felt that I had nothing to interesting to write about. I'm still not even sure what this blog is - lifestyle, personal, a whatever diary thing. It is time for a makeover, a serious one.  I hope to have this baby updated in the next coming months and to start writing again.

These past few months have been a life changing roller coaster that begins with my little sister becoming pregnant and a Mommy in February to a precious little girl named Aerianna and my older brother finally putting a ring on it with his longtime girlfriend and making an honest woman out of her in January.  My little sister will be getting married soon and my old sister is currently waiting for her ring to arrive any minute now. Big big changes for my family that truly make me feel grown up except the fact that my life style really hasn't change since I was 22. Don't worry guys, I've matured. I mean..it comes with age right? I AM 28 now. I'm just going to blame LA.

Over the past couple months I have ran 3 more half marathons - Big Sur 2012, Surf City 2013 and Hollywood Half Marathon 2013 which is a grand total of 5 half's. To say that I have ran that many is a feat for myself and I plan on running many more. I went to a few of my friends weddings in San Marcos, Chicago, Denver and San Diego.   So many beautiful  moments and   I was so happy I was able to share these moments with my girlfriends.  I have a few more this year  that I will have to share! Also, I finally made the move the beach! I now live in Santa Monica with a 20 minute walk to the beach which is so lovely.   I don't have an hour long commute from Hollywood anymore and I never leave my little quiet beach side town.

Wedding Fun!!

Life is full of surprises

Lately I feel as if life has been like a roller coaster these past few months.

Up and Down and Up and Down. Then errrrrrrrrr. STOP.

Why?

Well I had decided that I needed a change in my life. I focused all my energy on this 'change.'

What what I going to change? How was I going to get it done?

I was bored with my mundane life and decided to flip a coin back in June at work. Heads was move to San Francisco and Tails was Sydney, Australia. Either way, it was going to be an adventure and I was going to figure it out all by myself. I was craving a more metropolitan city where I could walk, take a bus or even a train to wherever I wanted. Five years in Los Angeles had finally done its number on me and I was very disenchanted with a city I once loved. So flipping that coin and sticking with it meant everything to me.

Heads. 

San Francisco. 

My New Home!

First step, tell everyone who needed to know. My managers took it really well considering I gave them 2 months notice to find a replacement. My parents were happy I was staying in the U S of A. I, of course was happy I was making it happen. I had picked a hard date - October 5th would be my last day at work and the next day I would fly up to SF. So many emotions were swirling in the weeks following my decision that it made it really hard to focus on work and life in LA. I was trying to network like crazy to find a job beforehand. I had planned to sleep on my girlfriend's couch until I found my own spot which I kept hearing would be really difficult in San Fran.

As life would have it, I would end up staying in LA after being offered a DREAM job.

A few weeks before my departure for SF I was having dinner in some hole in the wall in Hollywood and I ran into an old coworker. I mentioned I was moving to SF and he had just heard of an Account Manager position open at Demand Media/Indie Click and he thought I would be perfect for it. I promised to send him my resume the next day not really thinking I would ever get a response from the company let alone an interview. I did hear from them days later and after the interview was offered the job.

I panicked.

I told them I needed a few days to mull over the offer. My life was already in boxes and I was sleeping on a couch as I was moving in a weeks time! I was mentally prepared to be leaving, everything was set in motion! 

Dream Job or New Adventure?

There were so many aspects of the opportunity that were right in line with everything I had been wanting in a new job. I get to learn digital, musical aspect (I get to manage music websites -indie shuffle is one of their sites!) and work a stones throw from the beach in Santa Monica. They even have an office near my house in Austin which means I have the opportunity to work from there at some point.

So after months of planning a change I am here to stay LOS ANGELES. I'm not done with you yet. While I am so happy and excited for this amazing opportunity I am pretty bummed it won't be in a new city. I will be making a move to Santa Monica so hopefully that is enough change for now.

This Dear Diary entry helps me realize that even though you try to plan your life out a most wonderful and brightly colored wrench maybe thrown at any moments notice. Embrace everything that comes your way. Change is the only constant and it is up to you to figure out how these changes impact your daily life. With Fall around the corner, change is everywhere. The in between stage has always been my favorite. This time last year, I was craving change so much that I started this blog. I promised myself that within a year that my life would be drastically different. And well, it is. Exactly one year later. With each change, I judge how my life currently is & if I am truly living the life I imagined. Which, I believe is another reason change is good. It’s too easy to live our day-to-day lives without pushing ourselves to grow.

My current mantra

About Musical Time!

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't search for a new favorite tune. I whole-heartedly love finding a new band to listen too.  To caveat that, I thought I should start sharing some new songs that I have been jamming too. Perhaps this will be a weekly thing, who knows. As of right now you have to click on the links themselves and download off the site that I have stored them at. I hope to have it where you just right click it but until then..enjoy..

Safe & Sound - Civil Twighlight & Taylor Swift

Youth - Foxes

Jungle - Emma Louise

Closer Than This - St. Lucia

Disparate Youth - Santigold

We Got it Wrong - St. Lucia

Ridiculous = Outside Lands 2012

To say the past month or so has been crazy is really an understatement! First things first, Outside Lands! I just got back from a wonderful 5 (cold and foggy) days in San Francisco!  My friend and I went to the fifth annual Outside Lands which is a music festival held in Golden Gate Park. Headliners included Stevie Wonder, Sigur Ross, Metallica and Foo Fighters! I am absolutely head over heels in love with this festival. Imagine music stages throughout a vast forest (literally) littered with abstract murals, domes with techno music, and art installations that look like geometric mirrors  in the shape of smaller domes but when you enter them its hollow and you can sit in them! There were so many wonderful things about this year's festival that I don't even know where to start! It felt like wonderland/candy land for adults. There were the wine lands, choco lands, beer lands, comedy tents, and gourmet food trucks. I know I didn't see everything the festival had to offer but I definitely had the time of my life. This was my 4th time going and by far the best time I have ever had.

The Iconic Wind Mills. They haven't changed since 2008!

Wine Lands

The wine lands to the right featured the best wine companies from local spots in nor cal. So if you were a wino, you were sure to visit that tent. The Choco Lands had little pastel colored houses that had sugary delights from places in San Fran. This festival was all about featuring the best of the best of Nor Cal. Everything was really trippy and magical. I felt as if I was just frolicking through the forest show to show and sensory overload was happening but in such an ornate creative manner that it wasn't overwhelming.

The entrance at night

                                                                 

It is a three day music festival that starts around one p.m. The vibe is really chill as reflecting the people of SF. While the weather was less than ideal and the hazy fog that would roll in at night created such a majestic atmosphere that made it so special and unlike any other festival I had ever attended. I plan on going to this festival for many years to come.

Musical Highlights: 

Sigur Ross

Passion Pit

Stevie Wonder

Regina Spektor

Franz Ferdinand 

Jack White 
The Kills

Beck

Foo Fighters

Day 1 via Limo

Tim Burton inspired in the lands of Choco Land

Hidden in the forest was this stage of creepy folk music

One of the many amazing food trucks

Day 3 at OSL w Y and D.

The fog rollin' on in

Hello, again!

Well, where did the month go? It is now mid June and my last post was the 1st of May? Oops! Well I have been traveling and having visitors these past few weeks which have kept me really busy. I went to SF for Bay to Breakers, KC for a wedding and ran a Half Marathon.

Bay to Breakers is a race in SF that they do every year. It was the 101st race which tells you how much of a tradition it is. On top of the race it has become more of a costume drinking spectacle throughout the route which is really neat since I love races and a drink or two. Every group has a theme and ours was Pamplona.  I had been wanting to attend this for years and finally got the chance too. My friends D,C and Y all dressed up and went to Alamo Square (which is also where the Full House is) and met up with our friends. It was a perfect sunny day with lots of weirdness and ridiculousness which is right up my alley. Hey, it's SF what else would you expect from the city.We day drinked and went to different bars throughout the city. I plan on attending B2B every year from now on, it is that much fun.

I went to Kansas City for my dear friend Danielle's wedding. It had been since 2009 since I had been back to KC and it was a trip down memory lane. I really missed life there and how simple things are. I even thought to myself I could live there but that thought was short lived when I realized the closest lululemon was 45 mins away. Just Kidding. I ventured around the Plaza and went to the old bars we used to go to in college. The Plaza is made to look like Sevilla, Spain  (KC is the sister city to Sevilla - where I also studied abroad) so there are fountains everywhere and the architecture is Spanish. It does feel like a little slice of heaven. It is full of bars, restaurants and shopping. I wouldn't mind living there for a year or two.

Danielle and Bjorn's wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was held at Danielle's house which was a perfect setting for it! Everything worked out perfectly and the bride was BEAUTIFUL. They had been dating since college so it was a really wonderful thing to see how they had grown together since Sr. year. Where did the time go and why are all my friends getting married? This was the big contrast I experienced going back to the Midwest because everyone was either engaged, married and or with kids (yes multiple). It almost made me want one of those shiny things you put on your left hand but then I realized my life is fun and that I get to do what I want when I want and I'm going to keep doing that a little while longer.

Time: 2:17:50.1

Half Marathon! Well this was a decision made 3 days before the race. Am I crazy? Perhaps but since I had already ran one earlier this year I knew what to expect. I ran it with my friend Joe who DOMINATED the race with a time of 1:40:00 and I PR'd at 2:17:00 which is 4 minutes faster than my last half. I hadn't even trained for this nor had I run more than 3 miles since my half.

The Ventura Beach Front Half Marathon was about 700 people total including the 5K which is a stark difference between the Surf City where there were thousands. This route wasn't roped off for the runners per say and at times I felt almost unsafe since the majority of it was along the PCH. There were only two porta potties throughout the entire race which was really shocking since the last one had them everywhere. Since the route started at the Ventura County Pier they had a great little set up before the race with a few booths. The race started at 7AM and at 8AM pending your designated time to finish. I was a lot more resilient this time around and my body wasn't as sore either. I had a runners high the ENTIRE day and didn't want to sit down as I was amped to run again. Again, CRAZY.

I am signed up for the Big Sur Half Marathon in November and want to run one sooner than that and actually train. Both of my past half experiences deal with me almost dying (see why here) and no training so I bet with training and a healthy body I know I can run it under 2:15 easily. Eventually my goal is to be under 2 hours and maybe even a Hail Mary?

All in all, it has been a great start to the summer and I can't wait for June gloom to die off and my parents to come this weekend. Also, my mid summer resolution is to take Ballet classes at least once a week starting today. I just can't decide to do a beginners with point shoes (read it has been since 2007 that my feet have been in those monsters) or advanced. I've been inspired as of late thanks to the new shows "Breaking Pointe" and "Bunheads." They are pretty cheesy but if you were once a dancer you would appreciate them.

Joshua.

This past weekend a few of my friends and I decided to have an impromptu camping trip to Joshua Tree. It is located in the Mojave desert and about 2 and a half hours outside of LA. Right past the Coachella Valley..and yes the same spot as the music festival. It is a perfect little get away and something we all needed. We left early Saturday morning with tents, food, stories and eagerness to go gallivanting through the desert. You usually have to reserve a camping spot but since it was national park week most of the sites were already booked. We  drove and hoped and prayed that there was a spot for us to lay our heads down. Due to a wrong turn, we stumbled upon Joshua Tree via the unconventional southern entrance and found Cottonwood Spring with plenty of first come first serve camping spots.

SUCCESS.

We quickly set up shop and decided to go venture in the desert while we waited for the half of the group to arrive. It is $15 a night which was kinda had to pay on good will. There was also no phone reception where we were camping which was absolutely amazing. I know some people hate that but I found it so be so refreshing. I'm a firm believer that we all need to disconnect from the phone, internet, TV and civilization. I have been known to leave my phone at home during work, on purpose. 

While venturing, we found some really interesting rock formations such as a whale/parrot and started climbing all over the these boulders.  There was a rock that was in the form of the Aggro Crag from Nickelodeon Guts and Matt, Mikie and Andrew starting climbing as we filmed it in its entirety with some pretty hilarious commentary. If you don't remember what the Aggro is you probably aren't a child of the 90's or completely unamerican. We saw jack rabbits, lizards and much to my friend Mikies' dismay no rattlesnakes.We roamed and climbed and saw how pretty the desert can be with absolutely no one in site but ourselves.  It was then that it dawned upon me how alone we were and how absolutely beautiful it was. LA is over populated and over stimulating that makes you start craving a getaway. The change in scenery was so nice and the simpleness of it all was lovely. There were stars outside which this Texas girl has desperately missed seeing (LA has bad smog). After a few funny games in the desert we headed back and hung out by the camp fire and cooked some hot dogs, hamburgers and bratwurst. There were plenty of "Are You Afraid of the Dark" stories and smores to go around for everyone. I came back to LA feeling refreshed, covered in suntan lotion, dirt and dying of water but it was worth it.

Chatting about Life.

we made it!

three of the best gf's in the world.

The Color Run

SoCal Color Run 4.22.12

So they call it the happiest 5K on the planet.

 And if you like color then yes it is your running mecca. 

To recap, we left our friend's house on Sunday morning at 7:30AM and it should only take us an hour or so to get there especially on a Sunday. We didn't get there until around 9:45AM. The parking situation was hell in the self proclaimed happiest run ever. Yeah. Really? Not after you spend an hour in your car. It was at the OC County Fair grounds and looked desolate. We were freaking out because we thought we would miss the race that started at 9AM but when we realized that everyone in traffic was running as well I got excited because at least we weren't the only ones. Yup, I like to share misery. So after parking and hating life, we  realized the races were going on every hour from 9-12PM. Yes, I know - we can't read instructions. So YAY, happiest 5K on the planet! So Meg and I got into the 10AM heat and started running, it was hard to run since most people were walking. When we hit the first color (Yellow) it was clear to me that I should stop breathing during that time because breathing in the color was slightly painful. Smarty Meg had a bandana. After each color hit I kept feeling more and more like a running rainbow. It was awesome. At the very end of the race you throw a specific color that you are given at the packet pick up to have some sort of a "color bomb" it looks pretty cool from above but from below you are trying to breathe and not gag at the same time. Try it, it's fun.

Afterwards, we decided to grab some food in Marina Del Rey.  So walking around all colorful like you are bound to get stares which we naturally accepted once we stepped out of the car. What made it even better was when people asked "you know you are covered in color, right?" or "what's wrong, you should probably go see a doctor?" From those comments, it made it really hard to not question why people think American's are idiots. Just kidding, well kinda. Anyways, the race is going from city to city all throughout America and is getting sold out after a day or two. Really insane for a brand new race. Will I do it next year? Yes, Sir. 

Close up of all our colorful glory.