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.

Weekend Update

Since I haven't gotten to go to any holiday parties this season (and I had to miss a couple of GREAT ones in LA) I am going to count the party I went to this weekend as a holiday party by default. It was actually a graduation party for my good friend Luke. I've known Luke since middle school so it was so much fun to get to celebrate his graduation from college with his family and friends. The party hosted at his parents house was lovely and we had a great time playing with all the little kids that were there (there were five little babies there ranging in age from two years old to only three months old!). I could not get over how adorable two year old Maddie was- although I could not understand a word that came out of her mouth. Seriously, understanding toddlers must be a skill that comes with being a parent... Cuz it is certainly not a skill I've acquired yet.

After the party at his parents a group of us went back to Luke and (his wife) Leena's place and continued the party there. We had a great time playing games, catching up with old friends, and getting to know some new ones! It was honestly one of the most fun evening/nights I've had since moving back home to Fresno. Of course I completely failed to take a single picture so I am waiting for Leena to put up the few that she took, but for right now I've only got this one.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend! I am so excited to have only four more workdays until my Christmas break!!



October Picture Rewind

Aside from Saturday's AMAZING Bruin win over Arizona State, this weekend was a tad on the boring side. That being the case I decided to do a picture re-cap of October (before we get too far in to November). Basically I am going to take a look back in my iPhone and pick out some of the best/most random picutres from last month and throw them all up on this one lil post. I apologize if there are a few repeats from prior post.Without further ado... Enjoy!

Pics from both the Stanford game and the Cal game!

Random pictures from the Fresno Fair

Random Shots. 1. Pet store mice loving their wheel. 2. Awesome barn off highway 41. 3. Another pic from my random drive through the country (I'm actually pretty proud of this one, I think it looks really cool). 4. My dream car (okay maybe not dream... but I really like it!)- Hot pink toyota 4runner (older model). 

That's all for this week. This weekend I am off to EL LAY once again, to take advantage of the three day weekend and celebrate my former roomie's 21st birthday! This week seriously can not go fast enough!! Leave me comments and let me know if you guys liked this post =) Have a wonderful week!

LA Reminds Me That I DO (did?) Have A Social Life!

This weekend I was reunited with (almost) all of my favorite people from UCLA. My weekend- from start to finish- will be detailed in complete grammatical-incorrectness below:

10pm airport pickups/sneakily driving through the airport to avoid the crowded parts. Sailor Jerry shots to MALAGA...and BORJA! Fake fighting over bartenders. Real punching fake boxers. Late night stumbling. Early morning car moving (oh westwood two-hour parking). BJ's lunching. Traffic-sitting. Lateness. Rosebowl tailgating/fall weather grass sitting. UCLA WINNING! House of Pi visiting. Corner bakery eating. Presidential discussions. Future-questioning... Amazingness.

The weekend was honestly too much to put in to words, but I had a wonderful time. In catching up with all my friends I only realized how much I miss them when we are not together, which made me appreciate our time together that much more. I didn't take too many pictures but I've posted a few, plus some I stole from facebook.

Anchored Out and Gettin Loud All Summer Long

This past weekend I made the drive (once again) down to Southern California to visit Lake Havasu City, AZ for the weekend. After taking off a bit early from work, I hopped in my car and proceeded down the all too familiar 99. Three-ish hours later I was back at the good old HOP (house of pi for those non-adpis). The short visit included catching up with my former roommate, the wonderful Katie Schaller. We took a long overdue trip to Yogurtland to tell stories of our summers, and talk about current sorority drama. Sadly the house was relatively empty so other than Katie, Leanne and a few others I didn’t get to see too many girls.

Around 6 I set off towards Rancho Cucamonga to meet up with Karissa, Conrad, and the rest of our Havasu crew for the weekend. A drive that was supposed to take one hour of course took two due to the fabulous LA rush hour traffic. About four hours and one Sonic-drive thru stop later we arrived in Lake Havasu City, AZ and proceeded off to bed to rest up before our big Saturday.

gotta love that LA traffic

Saturday, saw us getting to the lake around 10am, cruising through the already semi-full channel, under the original London Bridge, and of course documenting the whole thing with multiple photos. We opened up our respective drinks (we were extremely excited about the random purchase of the drink I named “mojito in a bag”… creative, I know…) and proceeded further out on to the lake to do some water skiing. 

all the girls

Karissa and I in front of the London Bridge

Unfortunately that was cut short as an unfortunate run in between the boat engine and the rope occurred, causing Conrad and Karissa to spend at least an hour cutting the rope out of the engine. =( 

torn up rope

Once that was all fixed though, we were on our way once again, and this time we headed over the Naked Turtle to get some lunch and some more drinks. Luckily, we were able to catch a bit of the UCLA/Texas football game while at the bar waiting for our drinks. Those around us probably thought we were a bit obnoxious as we cheered loudly for our Bruins despite Texas’ comfortable lead.

mojito in a bag.. duh

After some lunch and the purchase of two bucket sized drinks to share amongst the crew we headed back out on the water to do some tubing. Conrad had fun driving the boat (and trying to throw us off) while we each took our turn hanging on for dear life. When I went by myself on the tube I got some serious air flying over those wakes (or at least that’s how it felt), and I am proud of the bruise on my hip from my epic crash as I finally let go of the tube and flipped off the raft.

bucket-o-drink

                Once we exhausted ourselves tubing, we headed back in to where KFROG was hosting a free country concert on the lake. We anchored the boat, busted out the pool noodles and floated in the water, enjoying a beer and the music of Craig Morgan (red neck yacht club anyone?) As the sun went down and the music came to an end, we blasted my iPod and dance partied our way back to the dock.

Sadly, due to the long drive back to Rancho and my even longer drive back to Fresno we didn’t have time to go out on the water again on Sunday, but we did have a delicious lunch at a Mexican restaurant near the lake before we took off. About 8 hours later I was back in Fresno and sufficiently exhausted from an awesome weekend. Definitely can’t wait for the next trip (even though it probably won’t be until next summer)!

crappy iphone video of Craig Morgan's Redneck Yacht Club. best part... the random girls yelling "TRAILER PARK" not quite at the same time as Mr. Morgan...

Valentine's Day in Fourth Grade

Remember when you were in elementary school and everyone had to give valentines to the entire class? I would sit there the night before (I was a procrastinator even in fourth grade) with my little class roster and store-bought pack of-whatever TV show I loved at the time- Valentine's Day cards picking out which were the best-giving those to my friends- and which ones were lame-giving those to the kids I didn't like. I always wondered what all the little boys in my class thought of having to do that... Even for me it felt like a silly task (although I always liked decorating the paper bag that my valentines went in).

Meh... For today I will simply make an effort to celebrate those around me whom I adore and not worry about everything else. Happy Valentine's Day!