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

(No) Missed Opportunities

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

- Mark Twain

Since graduating the past June, it has been all to easy for me to point out the things I wish I had done. Don't get me wrong, I did A LOT as an undergrad. I worked a few different jobs/internships, was and extremely involved member of my sorority, made some amazing friends, attended lots a great UCLA sporting events, explored LA, laughed, cried, worked hard, and slacked off. But there is still more I wish I had done.

I actually began to realize it senior year, as graduation loomed near, that there were still things I wanted to do. Lucky for me, life doesn't end after undergrad!

I know, shocking! Right?!

All of that in mind, I have made a promise to myself that I will take advantage of every opportunity that I possibly can. Yes, there will be things I have to say no to, but I plan to say "yes" more often than I say "no". 

And many of my friends have embraced a similar philosophy. I am so pleased with the way I've been able to stay in touch with my closest friends even though we no longer see each other daily. And as such, I think we do an even better job of taking advantage of the time we do have together.

I do wonder though... When I am 80, 90, 95+ years old (cuz I'm planning to live a nice looonnnggg time) what years will I look back on and say "Those years- Those years were the BEST years of my life." Right now, I think those year are still yet to come.

P.S. According to Blogger this is my 50th post =)

2011 In Review

I wasn't sure if I was going to have time to do a 2011 review post, but I figure I'll work on one now while Alex and I sit here watching Justin Bieber's Never Say Never (yes we are 22 years old and we loe the biebs). 2011 was an amazing year that saw a lot of lasts and the beginning of some firsts.

In January I passed the torch as president of the Alpha Chi chapter of Alpha Delta Pi at UCLA. Being president during the year of 2010 was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, so I was a bit sad to pass the torch. But the new president, Brittany, did an amazing job and she is now going to be passing the torch as well- to one of my best friends, the wonderful Katie.

In February, I participated in UCLA's Dance Marathon for the 2nd year in a row. You can see a post about it HERE. DM was an amazing experience and I wish I had done it all four years of college.

In March, our chapter won the most outstanding chapter on our campus which was a huge honor and great testament to the work that my exec board and all the girls in our house did during 2010.

I also took a super fun trip to Disneyland during spring break with Alex and her brother. And I started my first real job with the LA Sparks.

In April, I turned 22! I also went to Stage Coach, which was soooooo much fun! I saw Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner, Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker, Rascal Flatts, and more! It was AWESOME and I seriously can't wait for Stage Coach 2012!

In May, there were a number of lasts... Last Diamond Ball, Last Bash, touching the Inverted Fountain, last pre finals dinner, Senior Week, etc. Myself and all my senior lovlies made the best of every moment!

We also went to Vegas for Memorial Day weekend which was an absolute blast! Two connected rooms with 10+ girls... As you can imagine, debauchery ensued.

 In June, I GRADUATED!

June, July, August were filled with lots of work and lots of fun. Jack's Mannequin concert, Harry Potter midnight premiere, KNOTBSB concert, trip to the Bay, OC Fair, Blake Shelton concert (as you can see I really like concerts) and more.

Blake Shelton, Jack's Mannequin, Looking like the three blind mice in our Harry Potter 3-D glasses, and my little goat friend at the OC fair.

In August I moved home to Fresno and started my current job. Even since moving, I have had time for quite a few fun trips- Taylor Swift concert, wine tasting in TMec, Trip to Sacramento, Lake Havasu, UCLA Football games, and the list goes on. There are posts about many of those things...

November and December have been all about family and friends with Thanksgiving and Christmas, and now my little beach getaway and New Years Eve plans in SF.

I'm rockin these to ring in 2012!

2012 is going to be full of completely new experiences and opportunities and I can not wait to see what it has in store for me and my friends and family.

Friends. Football. FUN.

I can not possibly begin to express how much fun I had this weekend, but this will be my brief attempt at doing exactly that. Saturday I made the quick drive up to Mountain View/Palo Alto to watch the Bruins play the Stanford Cardinal. Knowing that Stanford was ranked number six in the nation and the Bruins have not been having the best season (typical...) we decided to make an event of the day to ensure that even a Bruin loss could not wreck the weekend. As an added bonus I decided to not only include my wonderful UCLA/ADPi girls in the weekend, but also Weston, a friend from the midwest (Alumnus of THE Ohio State University) who moved out to California a few months ago.

A total of six of us all met up at Wes' apartment for some good old fashioned college drinking games (graduating definitely does not mean we plan to stop playing beer pong) before cabbing over to the stadium to meet up with some more ADPi's, and other UCLA friends. A mini-barbecue courtesy of the wonderful Kelsey provided us with some delicious hot dogs pre-kick off. Despite an opening drive that looked promising (until the end when we failed to score...) the Bruins were no match for Stanford. Still, clapping and singing along to Sons of Westwood and The Mighty Bruins brought all my Bruin pride flooding back, and reminded me that I could not be more proud to have graduated from such an amazing school.

Best friends and football will always be an ideal weekend for me. The weekend also included a trip to the Google campus, late night jacuzzi-ing, brunch, a google+ hangout with the friends who couldn't make it to norcal, lots of reminiscing, and tons of laughter.

Check out Bethany's post about the weekend as well! Now for a few pictures to showcase some of the highlights of the weekend.

made a quick stop by Bethany's work and could not resist taking a pic with the Google sign!

Weston and I at the tailgate.
2 things:
1. I got the Ohio State alum to wear blue!
2. Don't you love my new jersey?!

baby beer shot glass

being goofy before brunch (awkward parking sign...)

we love lions... duh

i love the drive from Fresno to the Bay. beautiful blue skies and California countryside