Music Wednesday- American Idol

In place of my normal Music Wednesday post, I'm giving you my little American Idol recap. And since I am loving American Idol right now, I am linking up with Jaime for What I'm Loving Wednesday.

The guys performed on Idol last night, and five on the thirteen of them will get automatic spots in the top 13, so here are my predictions slash who I would like to see get those automatic spots.

Phillip Phillips- Oh my goodness, I love this boy. I didn't particularly care for his choice of song-Phil Collins- but I LOVE LOVE LOVE his voice (and him in general). He is my pick to win it all. Yes I'm am saying that this early on.

I'm in love.

Reed Grimm- I liked his jazzed out version of Moves Like Jagger, but I'm not sure America will. I also wonder how he will make himself more top 40 relevant if he continues on- cuz let's be real this is American Idol and you've still got to fit the norm in some ways if you want to make it big after the show. That said, his personality gets me every time; I think he is adorable. However, he was in the death spot so that might make it tougher for him to move on.
Colton Dixon- I have a thing for rocker guys. His David Cook-esque voice, his amazing piano skills, even his skunk mohawk thing. I'm a fan. Plus he sang a song from one of the Twilight soundtracks, if that doesn't get him votes from all the tween, teen, and early twenty-somethings I don't know what will.
Creighton Fraker- This is one I'm not sure if America will agree with me on, but thought his song choice-True Colors- was absolutely perfect for him. He may alienate some voters with his flamboyant antics, but I think it's fabulous that he is so comfortable in his own skin.
Joshua Ledet- He doesn't sing the kind of music that I generally like to listen to, but there is no denying that his performance was (vocally) amazing, so I begrudgingly give the fifth spot to him.

As for the wildcard spots... I would like to see Deandre Brackensick get a wildcard spot and maybe Aaron Marcellus, other than him I'm slightly indifferent. As adorable as I think little Eben is, and as hilarious as Heejun is, their performances were relatively disappointing as were most of the other performances, in my opinion.

So... What do you guys think? Are you watching Idol? Who are your favorites?

Just A Little Life Update

I told myself I would link up with Megan for Sometimes/Always this week since I haven't in quite awhile, but last night as I was watching Gossip Girl/Hart of Dixie and flipping the The Bachelor/The Voice during comercials I just didn't have the energy to walk ALL the way down the hall to get my computer and write up a post. Now it's late 10:30pm and I just want to go to sleep... I'm a grandma, I know.

Instead, I'll give you the excuses I have for not being such a good blogger as of late a little life update.

{One}
I am finally (almost) finished with my grad school apps. Two of the four are in, number three will go in tonight, and number four is done but I'm waiting to receive my transcript from UCLA so I can scan and upload it to my app. Needless to say I could not be more excited to be done with them. I hope to be hearing decisions sometime in April! I will certainly let you all know when I make a decision, but in case you're intersted all of the schools I'm applying to are outside of my home state of California so wherever I go we certainly be a BIG change!

The four schools I am applying to.

{Two}
This weekend, instead of blogging (and when I wasn't finishing up the apps), I was ignoring my computer in favor of spending time in the sun. The weather in Fresno this weekend was beautiful. Sunny and seventies. Knowing that rain was predicted for this week I figured I should take advantage while I could.

{Three}
I am throwing myself back in to the gym. At the end of 2011 I had been on a roll with my workouts but GRE studying, grad school applying, and general life has gotten in the way for awhile. This week marks my "new leaf" (ha my UCLA friends might remember my last "new leaf" and how long that actually lasted) and I'm forcing myself to leave the excuses behind. I tried a new eliptical interval workout on Sunday that was awesome, and both Saturday and yesterday I hit up my fave class- Spin. 

{Four}
I'm lazy. 

What's new with you lovely people?!

Remembering UCLA Traditions

I really enjoyed linking up with Miss Shannon Page last week for Fun Photo Fridays, so guess what- I'm doing it again! But seriously, these are some of my favorite posts to write. I like to share fun little snippets of my life with you guys, and what better way to do that then sharing the stories behind some of my favorite photos?! 

This photo was taken just this past June, right after myself and some of my fellow ADPi seniors finished the last finals of our undergraduate career.

UCLA has a tradition in which you are "initiated" as a Bruin by touching the water in this fountain during your Freshman Orientation. Then, you must not touch the water again until you have completed your final classes at UCLA. Those who touch the water prior to completing their degree are said to add more quarters on to their time as a student.

The only other time I've ever touched the water- Freshman Orientation

Obviously, this is just a silly story. But it made this fountain special, and made going in to it as graduating seniors SO MUCH FUN! We went all out too. We got in our swimsuits, busted out the champagne and got all the way in the fountain; all of this happened while other students walked by heading to the finals they still had to take =)

Anyway, that's all from me for today. As for you, I think you should head over to Shannon's page and link up, I would love to see which photo's you all choose to jump back in to!

Have a fabulous weekend loves!

Countdowns, Clean Rooms, and Courtney (ugh!)

Even though this is a short week (thank you President's day!), it has been a bit of a struggle for me as I work through a cold that I am trying to keep from becoming a full fledged sickness. Luckily, I think I am starting to feel better! *Knock on wood*

This Thursday, I've got the link up bug and I am going to be linking up with Neely and Amber for It's Ok.

Here we go!

It's Okay...

that by this time next week all my grad school apps should FINALLY be submitted! Let the torture of waiting for a decision begin...

to count down the days to Stagecoach 2012! Only 63 more days! I can't wait!

Stagecoach 2011

that I am not a particularly devout Catholic, but I plan to give some things up for Lent. Goodbye chips, ice cream, and snooze button!

to miss all my friends who live hours away from me, but even an eat and run dinner from one who is passing through town can make it a little better. Thanks for stopping to eat with me last week Jo!!

Jo and I before Diamondball 2011

that I cleaned my room for the first time in over a month (no joke, stuff from my new years eve trip was still on my floor) and I am determined to keep it clean (at least for a week or so)!

<----Before

After---->








to wish there were more hours in a day!

that I am still watching The Bachelor even though Ben is an idiot and kicked off the two BEST girls in the last two weeks. Seriously... Courtney over Kacie B and Emily?! Whatever, those girls were too good for him anyway!

to get just a little bit too in to some of the TV shows I watch =)

What's okay with you this week?

FUN.

This one is for my good friend Bethany.

Fun. is one of her favorite bands, and if it weren't for her I probably wouldn't have known about them (until Glee covered their amazing song "We Are Young" earlier this season). But as luck would have it, Bethany introduced me to them quite some time ago and I am extremely excited about their new album, "Some Nights" that was just released yesterday.

I listened to the album once through in its entirety and immediately fell in love with at least half of the songs on the album. The songs on this album seem bigger to me than their Aim and Ignite album. The opening song Some Nights- Intro reminded me of Feddy Mercury's Queen (and I was sort of proud of myself when this review said the same thing) and I found myself completely intrigued from that moment on.

My favorites are the title track Some Nights, Carry On, and Why Am I The One (and of course We Are Young- which is an absolutely amazing song that I think just about any 20-something can relate to). This review is far better than anything I could write, so if you don't want to take my word for it- go read that. It will definitely convince you to give Fun. a listen.

Tuesday Thoughts

This photo is currently my background on my laptop.

We are the sum of all the people we ever meet.

 It is a thought that has been on my mind quite a bit lately.

Whether a person is in our lives for a minute, a month, a year, or longer... It is likely that they left some impression on you, changed you greatly or ever so slightly.

This is just a little reminder of that,

and motivation to make sure the impression I leave on others is a positive one.

Fun Photo Fridays!

Hey All!

Today I am linking up with Page Twenty-Two for Fun Photo Fridays! Do you have a picture you wish you could jump back in to right now? Well that's exactly what we're gonna do! Go check out Shannon's blog and join in with this adorable link up!

Today I want to jump back in to these photos. This was two years ago when a couple of my best friends and I went to my first T-Swift concert. This night was so epic.

We splurged with four other girls and took a limo to the concert (we also took that limo to In-And-Out before the concert!). We arrived in style and headed up to the deck to take some pictures with LA Live in the background before heading inside to our seats.

Britt, Jo, and I (pictured above) had TERRIBLE seats. There were literally only two rows behind us, we were just about as far away from the stage as you could get. But, Natalie, Karissa and the two other girls had floor seats. They were nice enough to invite us down to watch "Love Story" and "White Horse" from their seats.

Now, comes the epic part of the story... We were in the elevator on our way back to our seats (we might have stopped by the merch table to get t-shirts before heading back up) and we were ranting and raving about how nice the other girls had been. A man and woman in the elevator with us asked "What was so nice?" We all sort of froze because we thought we might get in trouble, but I realized there was nothing they could do now so I said "Oh our friends have really good seats and they let us come see a couple songs from their seats since ours are so bad" the couple responded that that was in fact very nice of them. The elevator doors opened and we started to walk away when the man said "hey where are you guys going?" we responded that we were headed back to our seats. Then he said "Well I was going to give you guys passes to the pit... but if you don't want them..."

We literally screamed as he put the passes on our wrists! It turned out that he was Taylor's merchandise manager (good thing we bought those shirts right?!). We posed for a pic with him. Then literally ran through Staples center to our new seats in the pit and got to watch the rest of the concert from there. Hence that pic of Taylor in the center... no zoom.

It was an amazing night with amazing friends and of course the always amazing Taylor Swift. Certainly something I will never forget.

Have any of you guys had epically amazing concert experiences? I would love to hear about them!

VEGAS

Do you guys remember that song? You know... "Patron, tequila. I'm drunk on margaritas and Patron, tequila...." Well we brought that song back this weekend in Vegas and although I did not drink any tequila this weekend, that song was certainly heard blasting on multiple occassions from the speakers in our hotel room.

I took a half day from work and began the drive through the middle of nowhere to Barstow, CA (where I was meeting the rest of my group) around 1pm Friday afternoon. Look up the route from Fresno to Vegas, you will literally see long stretches of highway- The 99, the 58, and the 15. Those highways... not very exciting. Farmland, then desert, then more desert.



The center pic was the crazy sunset while driving home. The others were on the way too Barstow. Typical desert.

 Anyway, four hours later I was leaving my car in a semi-sketchy Holiday Inn parking lot in Barstow and jumping in the car with one of my closest friends, Karissa, and her two friends Tanya and Caitlyn (who I had never met before). A couple hours later and we were checking in to our awesome hotel room at The Encore.


Our hotel room (my favorite was the couch area) and the view, during both night and day.

 Lots of texts to sketchy promoters were sent and it was decided that we would go to Tryst and XS since they are both in The Wynn (which is connected to Encore). I love that if you go to the "less cool" clubs you get free drinks. Apparently Tryst qualifies as a "less cool" club because we got to skip the line, grab some free drink tickets and were in super quick.

I'm not a club person but I actually thought Tryst was super fun. They played great music (it was actual music that I knew, not dubstep/house beats) and the dance floor was right in the middle with a huge, very picturesque waterfall behind it. We had a great night out at the clubs, and once we left we made friends with a couple of bartenders in our hotel for some more drinks. These two guys were hilarious, I wish we had gotten a picture with them.

Day Two began at 10am with varying degrees of hangover manifesting themselves in each person, but a delicious breakfast at XXX cured that right up. We headed off to walk the strip, take lots of pictures, and do some shopping. It was a BEAUTIFUL day in Vegas. 70 degrees and sunny with no wind, so perfect for walking the strip. We met up with Tanya's brother and hit up the buffet at the Bellagio for an early dinner. Multiple plates of delicious food later we headed back to our hotel to prepare for night number two.

Treasure Island. Typical ADPi Diamond Pic. Elvis Impersonators. Fat Tuesdays!

 Night two held big plans to hit up a new club then head to Toby Keith's I Love This Bar (three of the four of us are huge country music fans). Unfortunately, we got slightly sidetracked because we decided to meet up with one of Karissa and Tanya's friends from their study abroad program. This guy was staying in an AMAZING tower suite in The Wynn. OH EMMM GEEEE this room was so cool. My favorite part was the mirror ceilings and personal bar in the living room.



Mirror ceiling pic.

 Those guys had a table at Tryst, so we headed back there with them. Then ended up being there super late because Holly Madison was hosting and we had to see her! Sad to say we didn't make it to the Toby Keith bar... There is always next time!

Anyway, I must say this was probably my favorite Vegas trip to date. Although last years memorial day weekend trip is a VERY close second. We are already making plans to go back in April to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Karissa and my 21st birthdays (aka our 23rd bdays).

This Is Not A Drive By

For some reason ever since taking my trips these last two weekend I just have not been able to get back in to the swing of blogging everyday (probably because before that I was using the weekends to plan out my posts...).  Anyway, because it is currently 10:30pm Tuesday night, this is going to be a quick and dirty music post. Hopefully tomorrow, I won't feel quite so lazy and I'll write up and awesome Vegas recap!

This week, I'm introducing y'all to one of my favorite new songs of the month... "Drive By" by Train.

 I think we all liked Train back in the late 90s when "Meet Virginia" and "Drops Of Jupiter", then they tried to make themselves relevant again in the early 2000s with whatever CD had "Calling All Angels" on it. But they really popped back in to all of our lives in 2010 when they released Save Me San Francisco and EVERYBODY and their mother was loving "Hey Soul Sister". 

Early last month they released their new single "Drive By". I heard it for the first time late last month on the radio and Shazmed it on my phone as I was driving home from work. I think its a cute song. 

My only beef is with the lyric "just a shy guy looking for a two ply hefty bag to hold my love". Really? A two ply hefty bag.... Does two ply make anyone else automatically think of toilet paper? 

Anyway, if you haven't heard the song, and you liked anything on the Save Me San Francisco album, you will probably enjoy this song too.

Also, since I've been doing (and tweeting) these music updates I've been followed by some random artists. Most are small, little known types... One is not.

That one... Matchbox Twenty.

As in Matchbox Twenty's official twitter... Must say I was super confused as to how they found me and why they are following me, but it's cool. I mean I REALLY liked the song "3am" back in the day.

 If you wanna be cool like Matchbox Twenty and follow me on twitter, you can do that HERE.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day lovelies!

I apologize for my absence yesterday.

I promise I will be back at it tomorrow with my usual music choice of the week, and afterwards with a recap of my fab weekend in Vegas!

Until then, I hope you all enjoy your Valentine's day. Celebrate all the love in your life, whether that be from your man, your parents, your siblings, or your best friends.

In case you are interested THESE were my thoughts last year on Valentine's day.

Sending you all lots of love today and everyday!

XOXO

Friday Friday Gotta Get Down On Friday

I am beyond excited that today is Friday. Today I am only working a half day and then I am jumping in my car and heading off to LAS VEGAS for the weekend! I can not wait!

In the mean time, I must get to packing (obvi it is Thursday night as I'm writing this...) so I will leave you with some of my recent favorites from Pinterest.

I love this quote and it is certainly something I am always telling myself.

This goes out to my girls. No matter what happens and where our lives take us, I know that I can count on them (and vice versa) forever.

This is just so me. So. So. Me.

So true. I can't wait to see The Vow!

I think I could do this.

Happy Friday loves! Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

LA In The Wintertime... 70+ and Sunny!

I completely failed at taking pictures this past weekend in LA (hopefully I will do better this weekend in Vegas!) but I'll update y'all with the pics I do have.

After a long Friday of work, I took off for LA and arrived just in time to start getting ready to go out! Friday night, Karissa, Britt, and I went out to a bar called The Hudson in WeHo (West Hollywood). I had only been out in WeHo one other time- Halloween 2010. That experience was exactly what you would expect of West Hollywood- flamboyance EVERYWHERE.

Halloween 2010

This experience was much more normal. The Hudson was super packed with lots of beautiful people, and we had a great time. We even made some friends and went out to eat at Denny's after last call. Late night Denny's is always a good choice =)

The only photos I did take on my camera this weekend

Saturday, Britt, Karissa, Jamee, and I all met for lunch at Porto's in Burbank. Porto's is an awesome Cuban inspired bakery and cafe. I should have taken a picture of all the delicious treats (seriously it was overwhelming...)! Because I told the guy it was my first time there, he let me try their famous cheese roll. Sadly, I'm not a cheese person, but I tried it anyway (he was really excited about me trying it!) and it wasn't bad, not my style, but pretty good. I ordered the Cubano- a sandwhich with pork, ham, cheese, pickles, mustard and mayo, on Cuban bread. It was delicious!

The cubano- YUM!

I then took off for Westwood in order to meet up with my two former roommates at our sorority house (which we all affectionately refer to as the HOP or House of Pi). One of my former roomies- Katie- is the current president, the other-Jo- is getting her master's in Public Health from UCLA. The three of us headed west down Wilshire to Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, my personal favorite place to shop in LA. It was a GORGEOUS day, warm enough for shorts and a zip up sweatshirt so we walked the street and stopped in on our favorite stores.

This is the HOP- where I lived for three years!

Saturday night we went to 800 Degrees, Westwood's new (SUPER popular) pizza restaurant. We waited about 45 minutes in line, but it was so worth it. This place is a create your own gourmet pizza place. You order, they make it in front of you and its done cooking by the time you pay. The pizza's are so delicious. I love that they decided to build this place in Westwood.

Delicious PIZZA

After a failed attempt at Diddy Reese (100+ USC people were in line, no joke it was like an entire dorm floor bused over), flirting with the cashier at Malibu yogurt to get discounts, and a stop by Redbox, we were back at the HOP and ready for a movie night. Unfortunately, we all passed out less than 20 minutes in to The Ides of March.

Sunday I went out to brunch with another former roommate (and fellow former ADPi pres). I had not seen Meredith in over a year! It was so nice to catch up and reminisce. It's funny how hanging out with an old friend can make you remember things you had completely forgotten about!

After brunch and coffee it was back to the HOP for the Super Bowl. Then sadly, it was back to Fresno.

Beautiful LA Weather- Windows down, music up!

I had an AMAZING time with all my friends this weekend! I am already trying to figure out when I will be able to make my next trip back.

Nothing Ever Happens If You Leave The Party Too Soon

This week I was perusing Spotify and I came across multiple things that were worthy of sharing... And I couldn't choose just one.

First up, Rachel Platten. If you listen to top 40 radio you have probably heard her song "1000 Ships". It's a cute song, very peppy, girlish, and lovey; so I thought I would check out the rest of her album.

Rachel is a pop singer/songwriter with an occasional bit of folk influence. Like Sunday Lane, a couple weeks ago, Rachel's primary instrument is the piano, which I always find lovely. My favorite track is "Nothing Ever Happens".

This clip is kind of long, but it's got a live version of Nothing Ever Happens followed by a cover of Snoop Dogg's Gin and Juice. Believe me, it's worth the six minutes.

Second, First Aid Kit's "Emmylou". I haven't had enough time to really check out First Aid Kit's albums, nor do I know much about them at all... But I know I love this song. Although I must say I'm not a huge fan on the name First Aid Kit....

And last but not least, The Fray came out with a new album yesterday. I've loved The Fray since high school, way back in the "Over My Head" days. We even titled our Senior Class blood drive after one of their songs (How To Save A Life) haha. Only got to listen through the album once, and it was at work so I couldn't focus on it to really listen... But if it's anything like their other albums I'm sure I'll love it.

As always, I would love to hear what you are listening to lately =) Happy Wednesday!

Half The Reason To Watch The Big Game

I had a fabulous time watching the Super Bowl at my sorority house with some of my favorite girls (and I was so glad that the Giants won)! Our afternoon was filled with lots of food, football, and fun.

Honestly, only in a sorority house could you be having a conversation about the latest issue of Cosmo, while watching football, pigging out on chips and homemade guacamole, and drinking a diet coke. That is exactly how our afternoon went down.

But we all know that we watch the game for more than just those boys in uniform... We also love the commercials! A lot of people are complaining that this was an off year for commercials... But I think there was still some good stuff out there.

This year, I enjoyed analyzing them with my future marketing guru/friend Katie, who looked at each commercial with a critical eye. It was really fun to hear her opinions, follow the tweets to see the publics responses, and of course get the reactions from everybody in the room.

Here are a couple of my favorites!

As far as funny commercials go, I think "Wego" the dog was my favorite. I died laughing when he rolled the entire keg in.

On the serious commercial side, I was a HUGE fan of the Chrysler "Imported From Detroit" ad with Eminem last year (it actually gave me the topic for my final paper in an Urban Planning class I took last year) and I think Chrysler had another great ad with this years "Its Halftime in America". Plus who doesn't love Clint Eastwood?!

Which commercials did you like best??

Minimal Monday

And so another week begins...

As you know if you read my blog last week, I spent this weekend in LA with some of my best friends. I will show you more on that sometime this week. But since I knew it was going to be a very fast, very busy weekend I did not bring my computer... Meaning I don't have any posts lined up for this week (except for this one... which I'm actually writing Friday 2/3 at 9am... yes, I am at work right now...). Anyway, I'll get back at the blogging today after work.

Since I don't have a ton to tell y'all right now, I wanted to share some of my favorite posts from last week from some of my favorite bloggers!

Katie shared some lessons for leaders.

Kristin checked in and told us how she did with her January goals as well as what she is working on for Feb. This inspired me to make some goals of my own for February.

Ashley reminded us not to forget the golf balls.

Beth had a hilarious post about the pros of being single.

Ashley created a short story challenge that I am considering participating in, even thought I have never really written fiction!

And in case you missed it, I shared the story of my worst date ever!

Go check those out if you haven't seen them already! I'll be back tomorrow, potentially with a weekend recap/photo dump...

I Would Be Lost Without My Friends!

Happy Friday lovelies! 


Before I jump in to things I just want to thank everyone who has taken the time to stop by my blog, and especially to those who comment/follow etc. It means so much to me that anyone takes the time to read my silly little thoughts =)


And to those who wondered- the GRE went sooooo well! I was so pleased with my results. I actually did better than I expected to do! I am now one step closer to getting my grad apps in. This time next month, everything will be out of my hands and in the hands of the admissions folks!

I had so much fun linking up with Neely, Amber, and Casey's Valentine's Day Challenge on Tuesday and today's topic fit in perfectly with my planned post anyway that I decided to do it again! Today's topic is Love My Girlfriends.

Before you read this post put on the Britney, Spice Girls, Katy Perry, Ashlee Simpson... cheesy girly music that you can rock with your girls while acting like total dorks. That should set the tone. Got it? K. Moving forward.

Here is my disclaimer: I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading about wonderful boyfriends, dedicated husbands, and (especially) rambunctious babies and toddlers, however... 

My google reader is bombarded daily with posts from awesome girls out there gushing about the equally awesome men in their lives, and it can get a little depressing for those of us who are unattached.

But when that depression sets in I remember that I have the most AMAZING friends a girl could ask for! My girlfriends are my constant source of support, encouragement, laughter, real-ness, inspiration, CRAZY, and love.

I wanted to show you guys some older pics of us being ridiculous. All of these pics (except the two big ones) are from our freshman year. 

In college I joined a sorority and I found a huge group of sisters who have always got my back. I made some of my best friends, and found girls who I know will be in my wedding one day. My life would not be the same without these girls.

Nor would it be complete without my best friend. I've known this girl since third grade! We have been through so much together, and even though we went to college in different states, we are closer now than we've ever been!

Long story short I am incredibly blessed, and I love my friends more than anything (even though we don't get to see each other as much as we would like to now that most of us have graduated.

I also had WAY too much fun looking through all my old photos to find these gems.

Welp, I am off to LA for the weekend to visit some of these wonderful friends of mine! Happy weekend everyone!

Oh and if you're interested in my friends who also blog...

Bethany

Jo

Katie

Its Okay Thursday

I planned to FINALLY hop on this band wagon and link up with Neely and Amber for "It's Ok" Thursdays. Here we go!


It's Okay...
...that I read lots of "It's Ok" posts first to get inspiration for mine.
... to be sooooo ready for this GRE to be over with! *I'm taking it TODAY*
... to pretend its spring/summer when its 65 and sunny out.

This past weekend- tanning in the 65 degree weather

... to just "like" things on Pinterest when they are not quite "repin" worthy.
... to be well aware that I am going to be spending too much money in the upcoming weekends.
... to be both nervous and excited about my plans to dye my hair! I've NEVER dyed/highlighted my hair before. 

My ombre hair inspiration

... to be really sad that football season is officially coming to an end this weekend.

... to want baseball season to start up asap because I really don't care about the NBA.
... to be SUPER PUMPED about the next two weekends! This weekend LA, next weekend Vegas!!!

Fun fact- I used to work in that TCW building on the far left (in the back) in the LA photo

So how'd I do?? What's OK with you this week?