Days 9 & 10

Sorry about missing yesterday's post! I had a good reason, I swear!

It perfectly ties into what I was thankful for anyways!

Day 9: I'm thankful for my little car and a safe trip down to SoCal.

I love my little Neon.  Sometimes it gets made fun of...mainly by the future hubby, but he needs to shush cause at the moment I'm the only one in this relationship with a car, ha!...but I really like it.

I used to have my fair share of car trouble with my former lemon of a Volvo, but this car hasn't given me any trouble, for which I am veryyyyy thankful for!

It also got me safely to Northridge yesterday to see the best friend and then later to go to Long Beach to see Hannah and all my lovely Long Beach ladies!

Day 10: Today I am thankful for the time I spend down in southern California.

While I was driving here yesterday, and while I was hanging out around the Ridge today, I sort of felt like I was home. Wait, what? That's what I thought too! I used to not enjoy being down here. I like Salinas for the clean air it has and that I can see mountains on either side of me and green hills in the distance.  It's more like a country town than LA is, obviously, and the big city and I did not mix.

But I'm thankful that I did get out of my comfort zone and I made the best of it.

I'm beyond thankful that Hannah and Kacey asked me to be their roomate.

Roomates make all the difference in the world when it comes to your college experience!

We had a lot of good times together.

What are you thankful for today??

Day 7: I wouldn't function without you

There are two things for which I'm super thankful for each day.

The first one is sleep.

via

Looking at that picture makes me want to go back to my bed right now!

Lately sleep has been difficult for me, or at least, falling asleep at a normal time has been.

It's super odd cause I used to be a grandma when it came to going to bed (just ask my roommates)!

However, whether I fall asleep early or not, I'm still thankful for the hours I get and that I can wake up refreshed and ready to go the next day.

The second thing I'm thankful for today is coffee.

When sleep evades me and I wake up foggy, I know I can count on this steamy cup of goodness to help me wake up!

via

We won't talk about my addiction to caffeine or the headaches I get when I don't have some.

Just let me enjoy my coffee ok?

What are you thankful for today??

We have just 16 days until Thanksgiving!

Last two weekends in photos

No one under 21 allowed...

Well...you're aloud to read it, just not drink it!

It's hotter than hell in our apartment tonight and Hannah and I decided to get in the kitchen and make ourselves dinner (twice baked potatoes, zucchini, and chicken...yum!).

Anyways, I was looking in the fridge and decided to make us a grown-up drink to have while we cook...

and I just want to say that with this, I'm a genius.

Recipe:

1 1/2 shots of Malibu Rum

A little bit of Sprite

A little bit of Cranberry Juice

A squeeze of lime

Now you've got yourself a really refreshing grown-up drink!

After a day on the beach this is perfect.

Hope ya'll are enjoying your Sunday!

Midnight Roadtrip

Tonight the roommates and I are leaving around 10 and heading home to Salinas...
which means we'll be pulling into town around 4 AM.
The reason for such a mission?

Mine and Hannah's little sisters Becca and Rachel are both graduating from HS on Saturday!

Our families have known each other forever and these two girls have been best friends for awhile.

I'm so proud of both of them and I can't wait to get home to celebrate!

 Becca and Rachel then...

Becca and Rachel now...

Love you both!

Thank You Letters

I graduated from California State University Long Beach!

 Hurray!



Dear CSULB,
Thank you for all you've taught me over the last two years. I'm sad to see our time together end.

Dear Journalism faculty,
Thank you for preparing me for the long road ahead.
I admire you more than you know and am so grateful that I got to sit underneath you for the last few years.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Dear Mass Media Law,
You are the most repeated/deleted class in our department...take that!

Dear Creative Writing instructors,
Before I started learning from you I couldn't write a poem to save my life...
now I'm a published poet.
I couldn't write a story for anything and now I've written three.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Dear Mom and Dad,
You two are the most amazing people I know.
Thank you for your love and support through the last five years of my life.
Today was just as much your day as it was mine.

Dear POSC 100,
You will be over on the 10th...I will pass you with an A.

Dear CSULB Friends,
Thank you for making long days at school and last minute cramming sessions so fun.

Dear Roommates (and Karen),
Thank you for coming today!
And for making our home so much fun.
I love living with you guys and I'm really going to miss you.

Dear Love of My Life,
Even though you couldn't be here today, thank you so much for your support and love.
There were times where you talked me out of giving up and I can't thank you enough for that.
I missed you more than you'll ever know today.

Dear Candace,
I will try and get that job.

Dear Rebecca,
You're next!

Dear Corinne Elizabeth,
Thank you for being down here these last two years!
Don't know what I would have done without you!

Dear Grandparents,
You are wonderful.
Thank you for coming down here to celebrate with me today.



Dear Friends and Other Family,
There are way too many of you to name and thank, so this blanket thank you will have to do.
I'm incredibly grateful for all your love and support over the years.
My life has been shaped and changed by so many of you and I'll never forget it.
Thank you so much for all that you've done!

Possibly will make homework difficult.

 

Hannah and I got her Super Nintendo working today.

This might pose a problem to the next couple weeks of school.

My homework may suffer.

Lots of Pizza

Hi loves!

Photo provided by lifeissimplydelicious.wordpress.com

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, despite this horrible time change.

Yesterday after work, Hannah and I traipsed over to Old Town Pasadena for some art and fun.  

As an extra credit assignment for her Asian Art History class we went to the Norton Simon Museum for a little bit.  It was super interesting and I think it'd be a place that I'd go back to so I could look at all the other exhibits they have.  

After that we headed down the street and did some window shopping for awhile.  It was a lot of fun and I ended up coming home with a new-to-me pair of black cowgirl boots that cost me $15 dollars.  I love them, even if they're a little worn out. 

We ended the night by getting some super yummy pizza at Bella's Gourmet Pizza.

Today after I worked a very long opening shift at the gym, my sweet friend, Joni, came to Long Beach for the first time since she's moved down here.

Hannah and I took her down to Rainbow Harbor and the Pike and had a really good time walking around and talking.  The weather was absolutely beautiful and walking around the docks and piers really made me miss summer and made me really want a boat.

Photo provided by pbase.com

Once again we ended our night by heading over to a restaurant that Joni suggested in Huntington Beach, Oggi's Pizza and Brewery Company.  It was good food and great, cold beer, which are two of my favorite things!  Plus I love the girls I was with so it made it even better.

 I hope that ya'll had a good weekend too.

Here's to another week! 

Days 25 and 26

Day 25- what I would find in your bag  

  Books: Mass Media Law, 100 Best Loved Poems, and 101 Great American Poems

Notebook

Nutri-Grain bar

Two hershey's kisses

One bobby pin
Cell phone

Water bottle

Sunglasses

Gum

Two pens and three pencils

Wallet

Cosmetics bag with mostly chapstick, lipgloss, and lotion in it.

Clear up barcodes for work

Powder

Little notepad

Random change

(There was also random bits of paper in there too)

I love my big purple bag! (Target)

Day 26- list 10 things that you are thankful for

 1. My apartment in Long Beach...literally saved my last year of college and made it amazing.

2.  Hannah and Kacey, who live in my amazing apartment with me.

3.  My crazy family, who I know is going to always be there for me no matter what.

4.  James, my awesome boyfriend, who accepts me for who I am and who I've grown to love with all my heart.

5.  Corinne Elizabeth, my best friend, who is my other sister, my partner in crime, and another reason why I've survived the last few years.

6.  Jesus Christ.

7.  Coffee....or just caffeine in general.

8.  Country music.

9.  Airplanes.

10.  That even though I struggle with liking my job, I'm super thankful that I have one.

We Didn't Fail Today!

Photo provided by aboutlongbeachcalifornia.com

I wish I had taken this picture, but sadly I didn't.  Lately Hannah and I have been trying to do stuff together and have been slightly failing at life.  However! This was mine and Hannah's view from...the beach today. Yes, we went to the beach today because SoCal decided to be really stinkin' hot in winter.  Not only did we go to the beach, but we also went swimming...in January...just to say that we did.  As we were running back to our towels, a family walking by told us that we were crazy. Awesome!  It was making me laugh that I was at the beach and I could see snow on the mountains behind me.  For a second, I kinda, really liked Long Beach.  

Have a good weekend loves! 

It's Beginning...

To look a lot like Christmas!

LB Thanksgiving

Last night Kacey, Hannah, Karen, and I had our first Thanksgiving together.  We cooked almost all of the traditional fixings and watch every single Thanksgiving episode of Friends.  We had a lot of fun and I'm procrastinating writing a paper so I decided to share some pictures.

If you can't tell, yesterday was "wear stripes" day in our house as well.  I can assure you that this was totally not planned at all, but we certainly had a lot of fun with it!

I get to go home to Salinas tomorrow and I'm pretty much jumping around with excitement, which is another reason why I can't concentrate on my paper.  I've got lots to do between now and then so I better hop to it!

Recap

Last night I wrote that Hannah and I were feeling lame just sitting on our couch on a Saturday night with nothing to do.  We started to feel motivated to go out, so we did a little researching and ended up on 2nd Street in Long Beach at Murphy's Pub for a drink and for the sake of being out.  After we had some fun there we ended up heading over to The Gaslamp, because we knew there was no cover to get in. 

We ended up going on their Metallica tribute band night.  We noticed that every older man in Long Beach with hair past their shoulders was there, we were probably the youngest girls in whole place, and people are super fun to watch.  I've never been in a situation like this where I couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness going on around us!  It was super hilarious and super fun.  I'm glad that we decided to go out and play last night. 

Rock on.

Photos

Over the last month or two Hannah and I have gone on photo adventures.  She's had to do several projects for one of her classes and since we don't have anything to do on Saturdays, I go with her. Today we revisited her childhood and captured this...

We were looking at each other funny because someone saw us.  Hilarious.  I love it though.

Now we're realizing how lame we are because it's Saturday night and there was a bunch of fun stuff going on and we're sitting on our couch doing nothing! 

My Thankful "Article"

Today in our student paper the Union weekly there was two page spread of "Thankpinions" (If you want to read them just click on the link to Issue 67.12: Mashed Potato Moments and scroll in a few pages.  I must warn you though that the staff is pretty lose with their writing and language.).  One of these "Thankpinions" was about my "crush" Anderson Cooper.  Mmm....need a visual? Don't know who I'm talking about? Here you go!

Photo provided by someone on photobucket

 

I thought about just stealing it and making it my own to be silly, but then I started to think about what I really am thankful for this week and chose to write my own, original "Thankpinion".

If any of you are remotely close to me, you will know or have heard by now that my living situation last year was pretty....not ideal.  I've accepted the fact that it was for a reason (even though I don't know what it was for), but I wasn't happy.  I lived in my room, only coming out when necessary and didn't feel one bit at home.  I've made more memories and had more fun in these last three months of this semester than I did while I was living in my other house.  Moving in with Hannah and Kacey was the best thing I could have ever done.  Our home feels like my home, which is an amazing feeling.  Our home is filled with laughter and friends most of the time and that's something that has always been super important to me.  This might sound a bit silly, but in all honestly, I love that I can have a nice cold beer or a glass of wine, that boys can crash on my couch if they need to, and Corinne always feels like she can come here for as long as she wants. I'm so thankful for our beautiful apartment and I'm so thankful for Kacey and Hannah.  I can't wait to decorate for Christmas with them and spend the rest of this school year being roommates and making more amazing memories to add to the ones that I already have. 

That's my "Thankpinion" for right now.  I think I might write a few more this week before Thanksgiving/my birthday rolls around.  I get to go home in six days! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am!