Weekend Update: Some Busy Days Off

I always have weekends off...but since school started, they’ve for the most part been spent doing school work. I wasn’t completely caught up on school work, but I made an executive decision to have a little fun, and get the school work done at the end of the weekend.

Friday: Did a whole lot of nothing. Except for homework of course, which totally contradicts that first statement above. Oops.

Saturday: I got my hair cut and styled! And then headed Old Town, San Diego for a Day Of The Dead celebration, which was on my fall to-do list. I decided a couple of weeks ago that I needed to participate in this thing because a friend of mine who passed away last year really loved the celebration. If she were still here, she’d most certainly be there. But because she couldn’t, I was there for her. I actually was there as a volunteer and worked at the cemetery all day. I tried not to think about it much because it gives me the heebie jeebies a little.

Day Of The Dead: It’s a Mexican holiday celebrated November 1^st and 2^nd of each year where people celebrate the lives of their passed relatives, friends, and other loved ones. Although it is a Mexican holiday, people from all over the world of different races, colors, ethnicities, etc. are welcome to celebrate it. Some of the more notable things that come with celebrating Day of the Dead are sugar skulls, both the actual candy and face painting, marigolds…which are believed to bring the souls of the deceased back because of their strong aroma, and lastly the altars, which are sort of a shrine in honor of your loved one that includes the previously mentioned sugar skulls, marigolds, and anything else the person might have liked while they were alive, such as their favorite food, favorite music, beverage of choice, etc.

At the cemetery, there was a public altar where people were welcome to bring things for their loved ones. Some people brought photos, vodka, tequila, a big mac, nail polish, a cigar, etc. Below is a shot of the altar. There’s also some popsicle sticks that people could write their person’ name on. A few days after the event, the organizers burn all of the mementos provided as a memorial to everyone remembered.

Due to the abundance of candles in the cemetary at night...
I was given a fire extinguisher.
Marty reporting for fire duty!

After wearing make-up for 12 hours, the best feeling
ever was to be able to put my hands on my face! 

Sunday: Started off with a brunch with some Southern California bloggers! We went to Pacific Coast Grill in Cardiff and all enjoyed some good food and drinks, as well as the company of each other. Jill and Amanda did a great job organizing it all :] They provided us with some cute flowers and vases, as well as some amazingly beautiful necklaces. If any of my readers are Southern California bloggers, keep an eye out for the next event! It most likely will be wine or beer tasting!

The super cute table set up Amanda and Jill put together!

The sweeeet view!

Our pretty gifts from Jill & Amanda!
Stole this picture from Abby!

All of the beautiful girls in attendance!
Thanks Amanda Kathryn for the group photo!

TOP: Jill from Classy with a Kick, Raina from San Diego HR Mom, Abby from The Fabulous Life of a Natural Disaster, Amanda from Amanda Kathryn, Amanda from A Beautiful Mess, Adrienne from Pretty Chouette, Brianne from San Briego BOTTOM: Jessica from Wifesticated, Kailyn from Kailyn Marie, Marty from MartyWithTheParty

I made it home for dinner where my parents were having a small bbq for my grandpa who turns 88 years old today!

Life is so go go go lately, that I don’t even get a break on days off…but even if I did, I’m not sure how I’d handle it. Ha. How was your weekend? Any good stuff in your schedule?

OH! And last but not least…remember that bigs and littles thing I’m doing? Well my “big” Jess is hosting a giveaway and I’m totally part of it. It's my first one! Check it :] 

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Weekend Update: Cornstalks I Tell Ya!

Weeeeeeeeeeekend update :] It was a good one!

Let's start with Thursday. I'm in a theater for wannabe teachers this semester and we spent a majority of the time working on a play that we were supposed to perform for an elementary school. We had to write the play/scripts, master the craft of acting, develop and construct out set, and put on a show for the kiddies. Thursday was performance day. It went really well, I'm pretty sure everyone loved it! It took place at Story Farm, Farmer Jessie was the narrator, Petunia & Penelope pig were BFF's with Sally the sheep and even though Shaggy wanted to play with them super bad, he couldn't get them to notice him. Throw in some costume changes, our interpretation of 1 Dalmatian's performance at the Farmer's Choice Awards, the moral of our story which is "Be Yourself" and viola! you have the best play of our class. At least in my opinion. Keep your eyes peeled for Shaggy the Shy Wolf at a jungle gym near you!

Friday was my friend Caroline's birthday so I went over to her place and had dinner with her and her family. The plan was to go out to downtown SD for a night of dancing and drinking. Unfortunately, my back decided it'd be a fun weekend to hurt. No idea what happened but the muscles are like super tight. This kind of killed my plans to go out because of how much it hurt. I waved goodbye as I headed home and they headed to the club.

Saturday was Caroline's pool party/BBQ so I headed back to her place to hang out. It was a pretty beautiful day but the water was cold :[ butttt that didn't keep me out. Spent most of the time playing with her super adorable 3 year old nephew but I did manage to mingle with the grown-ups. We played some drinking games and corn hole and it eventually turned into a jacuzzi night with all of us haning out. I stayed until 11-ish because it was time to head home and get some sleeeeeep.

[Cool & The Gang with a few missing]

Sunday a group of us headed out to Del Mar for the Brizal Bazaar at the Fairgrounds. One of the CLAMS, Keri, is engaged, so we hit up the madness to do some scouting. Holy moly talk about craziness. There were so many people there, and so many vendors! It was more of picking up fliers and seeing cool stuff rather than actually talking to vendors about details and pricing. After a few hours of that, we all went out to La Jolla for some lunch. Good food, good drinks, and good times had by all :]

Then we all parted ways, but Caroline, Chelsea, and I stayed in the area because we scheduled massages for Lime's birthday at Spa Gregories in Del Mar. Thanks for the hook up Groupon! Oh, btw...my masseusse's name was DRAGON. That was pretty awesome. Hahaha. The massage definitely relieved a majority of the tension that was in my back that carried over from the other day! They've gained a customer in me!

Back to reality. Whomp. 

How was your weekend?  

Weekend Update: Spring Break

Whoooo hooo, weekend update :] This is gonna be a long post so hopefully you have some time on your hands!

I go to two different schools right now, the local 4 year univ. [where I will graduate from in May!!] and the community college where I take 2 classes that fit into my schedule since the ones available at the 4 yr. don’t. As much as it’s a pain in the ass to go to both schools, I gotta get it done to finish! One of the sucky things about this situation is the spring breaks don’t match up. My break for the community college is this week, and the 4 yr. break is next week. That kind of puts a damper on any kind of celebrating because I still have crap to do. Hahaha.

Instead of a tropical drunken vacation to Cancun or Cabo San Lucas, I did a weekend getaway to my friend Holley’s place in Irvine, CA which is about an hour North of me.

I was planning on taking the train up, bought my ticket and everything, but I took the back way of connecting to the 76 to the 5 but didn't realize that connection was past the train station! Not even kidding, the next exit for me to turn around and go back to the train station was like 20 miles down the road in San Onofre/San Clemente! By that time I’d already be halfway to Irvine! Hahaha. I made the executive decision to just continue driving all the way up instead of turning around and catching the train. Big Ol' Fail. Hahaha.

Got up there Friday night, stopped by the Ralphs across the street and grabbed some movies…and wine. Props to the cashier for upselling me and convincing me to buy 2 more bottles to complete our 6 pack and save like $37.00! IDK how that works, but it did…and I’m okay with that :]

Woke up Saturday morning, had some Einstien’s bagels [best in the worldddd.] and made our way to Laguna where Holley’s grandparents live. It’s a super nice community called Emerald Bay. We hung out with her family for a little and then hit the beach…the community has their own private beach! We walked along the shore and did a little house shopping before we ventured to the rocks and checked out the sea life! 

^^ Found my dream home :] ^^

It’s crazy to see star fish and sea urchins and sea anemones for real in their natural habitat! I’ve seen them at the aquarium but hey’re in captivity, and that’s not that cool.

How freaking beautiful is this?!! 

#artsyfartsy

We then cruised over to downtown Laguna, and tried to be as tourist as we could by getting some toe rings and pooka shell bracelets! Hahaha. We went out for a late lunch/dinner but only have like an hour before we headed out to the comedy show which was our entertainment for the night. We called ahead to a place called Nick’s and were told that the wait was 5 minutes. We were about 3 minutes away but by the time we crossed the street and got to their door, the wait had increased to 40 minutes! WTF?!! Ugh. There was a BJ’s down the road but their service is always super slow so we didn’t want to risk it and went to an emptier place called C’est La Vie. The picture of a chocolatey/strawberry crepe pulled us in. We sat at the bar and has quite possibly the worst bar tender ever! Not friendly and got pissed off at the servers right in front of us!

Thankfully our food was delicious. I ordered the brie cheese platter as an appetizer and some burger sliders for my dinner. 

We weren’t allowed to photograph or record the comedy show, so there’s no pictures of that :[ but it was fun! The opening act was also the MC for the night, some dude named Nick, a chick from MadTV, and the headliner named Aires Spears from MadTV. No idea who any of them were, but all super funny! I’ve heard of people walking out of shows because they’re offended but I never thought I’d actually see it in person! Super cool people acting totally dramatic. A white dude got called out for not laughing at the black jokes. The comedian kept saying “nigga” and the guy wasn’t laughing so he got called out about it, especially since he was sitting next to a black guy! The comedian told him to lighten up and that it was cool for him to laugh. The wife of the white guy got pissed and they took off. There were some jokes that crossed the line that I wasn’t comfortable laughing at, but for the most part they were all pretty funny!

We got home and poured some wine and headed to the Jacuzzi! It felt so good on my feet after climbing rocks ALL DAY! Ouchhh.

Sunday morning, I woke up and headed to the grocery store to grab some stuff for brunch…

I made the brie grilled cheese with roasted strawberries and chocolate! SO GOOD! Washed it down with some yummy mimosas!

I'll post the recipe later this week :]

Holley lives in a super nice complex that has it's own theater! We slept through most of our reservation for it, but figured we'd go and chill out for an hour or until people kick us out. One one had it reserved at 3:00 but never showed up so we got to see 2 of our movies!

The sunset from Holley's place!

I wanted to go out for a nice dinner but felt kind of bad because Holley wasn’t feeling too well :[ She summoned all her strength to go out and it was probably totally worth it! There’s this restaurant called Seasons52 in South Coast Plaza and it’s supper cool because they change their menu with every season change, and also change their side panel of the menu once a week! Also, everything under the menu is under like 480 calories! Too cool! And I must say, when you tell cooks in OC you want something medium rare, they know what medium rare means! San Diego isn’t so good at that. We ordered their famous flat bread, some steak and dessert!

WOOP WOOP WINE! 

Dinner collage :]

I love the fact that I don't have to fly out of town to enjoy some beautiful scenery, the ocean, etc. It was such an awesome weekend, so great to get away and hang out with my friend all weekend! I owe Holley big time for for letting me come over and crash :] I had such a great time.