I'm Not Dead!

Hey Y'all!

I'm posting this super quick update from my phone just to let you all know that I did not get abducted by aliens... Rather I have spent the last few days in Pismo with the fam at a gorgeous house on the water.

And I am now in LA getting ready to leave on my roadtrip to OH which begins tomorrow!

Unfortunately that hasn't left me any time to blog! I'll check in when I can but I'll be back some time next week to give y'all a full run down of the road trip.

P.S. for pics along the way follow me on twitter/instagram. AshleyCan04.

MusicWednesday: The Lumineers

I often find myself sitting in front of the TV with nothing I really care to watch. When that happens I will turn the channel to one of the two channels on my TV that constantly play country music videos.

Recently, after doing exactly that I was introduced to "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers. I was intrigued enough by this song to head over to spotify and check out the rest of their album. I enjoyed the album. They are a bit Americana/folksy sounding, a la Mumford And Sons or The Avett Brothers (yes I know that Mumford and Sons are not American and I am therefore relating them to The Lumineers folk sound). This is super random, but if you liked Paul McDonald from American Idol a couple seasons back... You will probably like The Lumineers.

Sidenote- I met Paul (and some other guys from that season of Idol) and he sang for me and my two friends... That guy had one of the most unique voices I have ever heard. It was amazing.

"Classy Girls" is probably my favorite song on the album. I also enjoy "Stubborn Love" and "Big Parade" but the whole album is definitely worth a listen!

P.S. If you don't remember Paul McDonald here is a reminder. He and his wife, Nikki Reed, did a song together "Now That I've Found You". It's not my favorite thing I've ever heard him do (and I still think it's really weird that he married Nikki Reed so quickly!) but you can definitely still hear his unique voice in it.

A Last 24 Hours In The City By The Bay

Last week I took a spur of the moment trip up to San Francisco to spend a little bit of time with three of my best girlfriends. 

Bethany has been up in the bay for over a year now, Jo was just there for a summer internship, and Jamee is there for a few weeks of training for her new job.

Jo's coworkers were going to Nightlife at the CA Academy of Sciences to celebrate Jo's last week on the job before she takes off to Europe for three weeks and we decided to tag along.

We started the night off at The Mucky Duck which is probably the cutest name for a bar ever, and while Jo and I waited for the rest of our crew to get there we chatted with one of the bar's regulars. 

A few drinks later we made the short walk to the museum where we immediately beeline-ed to the aquarium. Lots of fishies, seahorses, and an albino alligator later we moved on to the living roof. I wish we had gotten to see more of the exhibits, but there was a lot of catching up to do and we spent more of our evening standing around and chatting than really looking around the museum.

 fishies!

Still, it was a fabulous night- that ended with beer battered tempura fries... SO DELICIOUS.

I love San Francisco and the entire bay area and I am sure that if I come back to California after graduate school I will find a way to live and work up there in NorCal.

Friday Letters

dear besties- first i kind of hate that word, but for the sake of this letter it is an appropriate way to categorize you two. second, i love you both. it is amazing how friendships can form so quickly and last for years. i am beyond excited to be moving near one of you and beyond sad to be moving away from the other in the process. luckily we have friendships that can thrive at any distance. dear fresno- this is officially my last weekend living in you. you were a great place to grow up but just an okay place to come back to after undergrad. i'll see ya around, as a visitor. dear baby car (layla)- i'm glad you got all checked out and fixed up this week. i need you to be in tip top shape for the upcoming road trip. speaking of... dear road trip- a week and a half... ahhh! dear fellow bloggers- anyone interested in guest posting while i'm road tripping? i'm planning to contact a few of you but if you see this and you are interested feel free to email/tweet/comment/whatevs just get in touch with me =)

Happy Friday! Happy Weekend!

Three Things Thursday

I haven't done one of these random-ish posts in a long time, and today this type of post is exactly what I need.

1. Thank You Renee @ This Won't Hurt A Bit

I won Renee's giveaway a little while back and this weekend I received all the awesome stuff! I can't believe how sweet this girl is to give all this stuff away to a reader. I was definitely most excited about the Naked 2 palette (the original Naked palette is my absolute favorite so I was dying to get the Naked 2)! She also included nail polish, bracelets, Victoria's Secret body lotion, some awesome face wash, Urban Decay powder, lots of Bert's Bees, and an EOS! So so cool!

2. Surprise! I'm Headed To SF Today!
I am taking a spur of the moment trip to San Francisco! I may end up only staying one night, may stay two... We'll see. But I wanted one last adventure in one of my favorite cities before I leave, and meeting up with a few of my best friends for Nightlife at the California Academy of Sciences sounded like a pretty perfect adventure to me.


3. SYTYCD Is Back!
Okay well SYTYCD has been back for a few weeks now, but last week was the first performances from the top 20 and this week they all performed again and 4 were cut. I just love this show; I always have. One of my favorite routines so far this season was done by Audrey and Matthew last week (although there was at least one this week that I liked better but those videos aren't up online yet...). Doesn't Matthew look like Ryan Gosling?! Ughhh I love it!

Music Wednesday: YouTube Edition

It's been a little while since I've talked about my love of YouTube so today for my MusicWednesday post I thought I would introduce y'all to a few of my favorite YouTube musicians.

First up:

 Alex Goot

About a year ago, I found Alex through another YouTuber I watch and I fell in love with his cover of "Lighters" then proceeded to watch a bunch of his other videos. This summer he released (what I believe is) his first full length non-cover album. The song above, "We Could Love", is a part of this album as is my all time favorite song by Alex, "Pretty Eyes". 

Next:

Luke Conard

I've been watching Luke quite some time now, he is one of the first YouTube musicians I got in to. This guy has been on YouTube for awhile as a member of multiple bands (including a Harry Potter Band, Ministry of Magic), but it is his solo music that I like best. His style is electronic pop, and always a lot of fun. If you want to see a really funny song if his check out, "Talk Nerdy". He also has the most adorable girlfriend, Ingrid aka Miss Glamorazzi on YouTube.

And finally:

Landon Austin

Landon is adorable (as anyone named Landon should be!) and his music is just my style; singer/songwriter with just a little bit of a country edge in his voice. His cover of "Sparks Fly" is one of my all time favorites, but "Sparks Fly" is also one of my all time favorite T-Swift songs. He posts covers often though his original music is- sadly- much more sparse. I love love love some of the songs he has chosen to cover over that past few months Matt Nathanson's "Wedding Dress", Ed Sheeran's "A Team", and Maroon 5's "Payphone" just to name a few.

All three of these guys work together and are friends which I find totally awesome (although I realize that means I'm not giving you a terribly diverse group of artists here...). 

So... do you guys watch YouTube as much as I do? Do you have any favorites??

Road Trip!

Realization: I am moving my self to Ohio in two weeks!

Wow. Oh. Wow.

These next two weeks are going to be a blur of preparing, packing, and some 

visiting/goodbye-ing with friends and family.

And when that is all over I will be on my way.

I decided a long time ago that I could not survive without a car out there, and that means I have to get my car there. 

The most fun way to do that is to drive it myself. 

Luckily, I have a great friend who is willing to drive all the way across the country with me.

Karissa and I will be leaving from Burbank, CA on August 1st, stopping in a few places along the way and I will finally be arriving in Columbus, OH on August 7th.

Here's our route:

You might notice this does not look very direct... Well that's because we are actually going to Milwaukee, WI first to visit another friend of ours.

Day by day the trip looks like this:

Burbank, CA-->St. George, UT

St. George, UT-->Denver, CO

Denver, CO-->Omaha, NE

Omaha, NE--> Milwaukee, WI (stay the weekend)

Milwaukee, WI--Chicago, IL (where I will leave Karissa at the airport)

then finally

Chicago, IL-->Columbus, OH (with a possible stop in West Lafayette, IN to see my friends at Purdue)

In sharing this will you I would love to get some feedback from y'all... 

What should we see along the way?! 

We don't want to go too far off route or do anything that takes too long but we're open to ideas so if you know anything about St George, Denver, or Omaha (or anything in between) please please share your knowledge with me!!

Also, if you've done a cross country road trip what do we need to know/be prepared for?

Vegas: Third Times A Charm

As I mentioned in my LA update last week, I also went to Las Vegas- for the third time this year. It is safe to say that I am completely Vegas'd out and I would have no complaints if I didn't see that city again for another year (at least).

But this trip was special because I was going with my long time best friend- Alex, her fiance, and Karissa- who has truly become another best friend over this past year. Alex had never been to Vegas before, while the rest of us are Vegas veterans so we all wanted to show her a great time.

Karissa and I had a bumpy drive to Vegas (we almost didn't radio the whole way... don't ask. we fixed it early on in the drive) but we eventually got there around 10pm Friday night.

Night 1 included walking the strip, gambling (or losing money if you were me), and late night pizza delivered to the hotel room. Also, Alex and Bryce officially asked me to be the maid of honor at their upcoming wedding- the even got down on one knee and presented me with a ring (pop) =)

Here's a few pics from night one.

Walking through The Venetian, Alex and I gambling, a stop by Toby Keith Bar

Alex and Bryce- I just had to share this pic, they are way too adorable.

Saturday was our big day. We had grand plans to go from wake up to early morning Sunday, and that is exactly what we did. We got started with a little breakfast downstairs and then it was off to Marquee Day Club in The Cosmopolitan. This was seriously the perfect place for us to spend our day. Drinking, dancing, meeting people, hanging in the pool, and gambling; we had so much fun. By far the highlight was dancing on the platforms in the pools, which Bryce of course got a bunch of photos of for us.

Later we hit up our favorite frozen drinks at Fat Tuesdays and got ourselves both Secret Pizza and Earl of Sandwhich. Then we made our way back to the hotel for naps and prepping for the night. We spent the night out at Tryst where I chatted with some very charming Australian boys and danced the night away with my wonderful friends.

Overall it was a fabulous trip, even if Karissa and I were so tired on the way home that we almost stopped in Barstow to nap in a cheap motel (we didn't... but boy did we want to!).

Pictures!

Living out my dreams of being a bartender/dancer at Coyote Ugly =)

 Those girls had no job other than to sit there dressed like that. How do I get that job?

 Karissa and I pretending we won... These were actually Bryce's chips. But look how they match my nails =)

 Alex and I being sneaky and taking a pic in SugarFactory

 Future bride, maid of honor, and groom!

 The whole group before night two

The current background on my phone. Two of my best friends and I being our very silly selves. I love them.

So that was Vegas 2012 trip #3. I have to say I am not sad to be done with that city for awhile, but I always have a good time when I'm there so I'm sure I'll be back.

Friday Letters

dear vegas- thanks for giving me the opportunity to live out my life long dream of dancing on some sort of raised platform in a bar/club (think coyote ugly status). yes, those three girls that green sunglasses guy is pointing at are me and my friends =) dear body- i guess you decided to let me know that i might have gone a little too hard this past week by making me sicker than sick when i got home. message received. i won't do that to you again.
dear friday the 13th- you're creepy! i'm staying far far away from black cats and mirrors today. dear roadtrip- you are getting so close i can't stand it! dear best friend- you made me so happy when you asked me to be your maid of honor. i can not wait to be your right hand girl through all the planning of the next year and a half! dear readers- i missed you yesterday. thanks for continuing to come back. i <3 you! also HI to those of you who have recently followed!

MusicWednesday: A New Month, A New Playlist

I totally should have done this last week, since last week was the first week 

in July and all... but I didn't. 

Whatevs. 

There are no rules on this blog.

Here are some of my recently played favorites.

Zac Brown Band- Uncaged
These guys new album just came out yesterday and I am definitely enjoying it! My favorite so far is "Goodbye In Her Eyes" but I'm sure my favorite song will change at least ten times in the next week.


Ed Sheeran- +
I mentioned Ed last week a couple times but I just can't get enough of his album! "Drunk" and "You Need Me I Don't Need You" are my favorites with this one.

Chris Young- Neon
I haven't had a chance to really get in to this entire CD, but I love the song "Neon". It is super catchy, especially for a not-so-upbeat country song.


Interpol- The Heinrich Maneuver
I would be lying if I said I had ever heard another song by Interpol, but I love this song because it reminds me of the AT&T commercial with the couple on the road trip, which in turn reminds me of my upcoming road trip! I can't wait!
In case you're unfamiliar- this is the commercial:

Other than that I've been in a musical funk lately, listening to a lot of the same stuff over and over. Help a girl out and tell me what you've been loving lately! 

My Farewell Tour Begins: 4th(-6th) of July in LA

July marks my last month in California so I have every intention of spending as much time as I can with my friends up and down the state. 

Some friends and I had big plans for a crazy 4th of July party (bounce house and slip-n-slide included)... Unfortunately those plans fell through last minute.

But we never let a change of plans get us down.

Instead, I spent my Independence day with Karissa, her boyfriend Conrad, and a couple of new friends- Dana and Ben as well as Dana's family.

It was a wonderfully relaxing 4th filled with friends, BBQ, and to top it off we went to the most delicious frozen yogurt place EVER (21 Choices in Pasadena). Seriously, if you ever find yourself in Pasadena, CA you must get dessert from 21 Choices.

Boys and girls doing what they do best (grilling & posing for pictures respectively) and a delicious dessert courtesy of Dana's mom

Sadly we didn't find fireworks but we did pop off some Target poppers instead =)

In the couple days after the 4th I got to hang out with a few of my best friends doing cool things like eating free lunch at the DreamWorks campus, seeing the new Spiderman movie (which was soooo good!), eating at the delicious Father's Office, and spending a night out in LA at the very cool Wellsbourne, and to top it off a SURPRISE visit from a friend who has been in SPAIN for the last year just in time for a super yummy breakfast at a diner just down the street from my friends apartment.

Two of my bestest friends =)

We started our evening off at the infamous Fu's Palace (if you were Greek at UCLA you've spent many a night at Fu's). We literally went in just for 10 minutes and a Scorpian bowl. 

So silly. And so fun.

As you can clearly see, we were in a very silly mood Thursday night =)

This pic is from our reunion breakfast with Nicole! 

She surprised us by showing up for the day. 

It was the best surprise we could have hoped for!

I am going to leave you all with that for now. As you may remember I also went to Vegas this past weekend, but I will save that recap for another day.

Sleeping To Dream

I am just returning from nearly a week spent in LA and Vegas, meaning I will have some picture heavy posts coming soon, but right now I am just getting around to some much needed sleep.

In the mean time I'll be dreaming about this... You're welcome.

Source: quickmeme.com via Brenda on Pinterest

Friday Letters

dear vegas- i can't believe it myself, but i am coming back one final time before i move thousands of miles away. see you tonight. dear LA- thank you for a fabulous and relaxing 4th of july. things might not have worked out perfectly but we made the best of things. i just might miss you a bit more than expected when i leave. dear road trip- you are less than one month away! dear closet- you should probably start packing yourself so i am ready for the move. thanks. dear ed sheeran- another artist i'm late to the party on but i'm loving your stuff right now. dear Renee of This Won't Hurt A Bit- i am so pumped to be the winner of your giveaway! thanks again!

Happy Friday lovers!

Forever20Something

This, to me, is the epitome of being a TwentySomething. Silly faces. Tiny dresses. Painted nails. Nights out. Phone and drink in hand. It is somehow perfectly acceptable to be a total dork (as I clearly am in this picture) and yet exist in the "real" world as a "real" person with a "real" job. I am 23. I am so young. And I am having so much fun. I like it this way.

I recently stumbled upon a blog called Forever Twenty Somethings and I must say I totally love it (and would love to write for it if I ever had the opportunity)!

If you are a recent college grad working your first real job or preparing to go off to grad school (like me) you will be certain to relate. From their Flashback Fridays to their Post Grad Burn book these girls definitely know how to be entertaining and real.

If you haven't seen the site click that link and go check it out!

Happy 4th of July!

AMERICA!

Ok this picture is actually from Stagecoach... but it's the most America-themed pic I could find.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope you are celebrating with friends, family, or random strangers.

Eat BBQ, drink, swim, play, watch fireworks, soak up the sun, and enjoy yourself today!
I certainly will be doing some combination of most of those things!

MusicWednesday On Tuesday

There were some fun new releases last week- Maroon 5's album Overexposed, Owl City & Carly Rae Jepson's single "Good Time", and Matt & Kim's single "Let's Go".

But I have been on an old school kick for the last week or so. Bob Dylan and (the less old school) Jeff Buckley are both at the top of my recently played playlists at the moment.

I saw a cover of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's Alright" by Ed Sheeran which was fabulous. In the video he talks about being a fan of Bob Dylan, and his reasons for being a fan are quite similar to mine. Dylan is just an amazing storyteller, which is why I love his music so much.

I recently downloaded Jeff Buckley's famed album Grace. Of course, everyone has heard Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" but if you've never listened to Grace all the way through... do it. "Lover You Should've Come Over" is most definitely my favorite.

Lake Life

My weekend started off awesome with a spur of the moment trip to Bass Lake.

A friend and I decided to make the hour drive up to meet his brother and friends for a night at the cabin on the lake. Watching the boys wake board at sunset was the perfect way to balance out an otherwise boring weekend.
Every time I go to the lake (any lake) it just confirms my LOVE of lake life.

P.S. I snapped this picture with my iphone. I got skillzzzz right? =)