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...

Trip to Sactown and My Return To My Blog

I'm back, or at least I'm going to try to be... My goal is one post a week rn, we are starting small =)

This past weekend I traveled up to sacramento to hang out with my former roommate and one of my best friends, Jo Burtner. Jo and I lived together in the president’s room during fall of senior year, then moved in to good old room 6 (my room at the HOP from sophomore year) with Katie Schaller, another one of my best friends (though a newer friend than Jo) for the remaining winter and spring quarters. Anyway, Jo will be attending graduate school at UCLA for public health beginning next week, so we decided to have one last summer get together in NorCal before she moved back down south. The weekend was so much better than I could have expected! I took the train up after work on Friday and Jo picked me up from the station around midnight (way past both of our usual bedtimes these days). Despite being off our normal sleep rythems and the strong desire to sleep, our excitement over our reunion kept us up and talking for a good couple hours before we realized that we should sleep because we had an action packed weekend ahead of us.

Ikea kitchen

Saturday began with donuts and coffee, followed by a shopping trip that included my new favorite store, Ikea. Seriously, I was in heaven. I took a crapload of useless pictures on my phone of all the cool rooms that I will no doubt use to inspire the decoration of my first apartment when I am lucky enough to find a job that requires me to move. I CAN NOT WAIT TO DECORATE!

Jo going from Ikea to Narnia

 We then hit up the mall where I bought some grown up girl cardigans and a cool (completely fake) leather jacket from Forever 21. No joke I’m getting excited for cooler weather to wear my new purchases, unfortunately it is still summer in Fresno. Actually I take that back, I love summer and I’m so sad that it is starting to get dark earlier, and cool down. As much as I wanna rock my new jacket, I’m not ready for summer to go!

Jo's dog basking in the summer sun

Following our shopping adventure we went to a the Vietnamese restaurant, Pho King (yep pretty much pronounced Fu-cking) that Jo’s family goes to every Saturday. I had some bomb ass pork and rice. Seriously I don’t know how they cooked it but it was some damn good meat. At the restaurant I was the only one who was brought a menu because everyone at the place knows Jo’s fam and knows they don’t need a menu to order, awesome.

After lunch, the football marathon began. First Cal vs Colorado, then Fresno State vs Nebraska, and finally off to a local sactown sports bar, Bisla’s, to watch the UCLA/San Jose St game. After a brief argument with the jerk of a bouncer in a Giants jersey regarding turning one tvs that was playing the giants game to the UCLA game, and some confusion requiring the bar to order the channel that the ucla game was on for us… we finally got to the game a few minutes in to the first quarter and began drinking our large beers (1L?) while watching UCLA give a pretty decent performance against the opposing Spartans. A birthday party celebrating at the bar got the place hoppin, but we were too in to our game to worry about the party bus going sacramentonians (uhhh whats a person from sacramento called?). Even a visit from a very strange 30+ year old, former band member, could not kill our excitement over watching the Bruins win it.

Large New Moon please =)

Back at the Burtner residence it was a couple of episodes of ridiculousness (Rob Dyrdek is hilarious) and then off to bed. Sunday began by hitting up the awesome pumpkin bread Jo’s mom made (seriously I need the recipe, it was amazing) and more coffee, before heading off to target for another quick shopping trip. It is honestly impossible for me to go to Target and not buy something, so another cardigan, new shirt, and the movie No Strings attached met me at the checkout counter. Then it was off to watch the Sacramento Rivercats take on the Reno Aces in their final playoff game of the series. The Rivercats won it, taking the series and sending them on in the playoffs. I love me a good minor league baseball game, although this one was a bit of a slaughter, I believe the final score ended up being 12-2. 

9/11 Tribute

Lastly, we stopped in old town sacramento for a chocolate covered frozen banana for me and some kind of crazy pancake-cone ice cream Sunday for Jo. A quick ride to the train station and I had to say goodbye in order to catch my train. During the train ride home I watched the move The Graduate on Netflix on my phone (3G internet worked all the way through the valley). And around 8pm I was back home in fresno and exhausted from one of the best weekends I’ve had in quite awhile.

I'm Ready

I'm a bit late on this post, but a couple weeks ago a friend took me to see Jack's Mannequin as a graduation present. Admittedly, I hadn't listened to Jack's in quite awhile, but in high school/early years of college I had absolutely loved their music. After learning about Andrew McMahon's story, I could not help but love him. I seriously need to see his Dear Jack documentary. The concert at a relatively small venue in Ventura was beyond amazing. I took way too many videos on my phone (one of which is above), and am so glad I did. Watching them back is almost as cool as experiencing it the first time. Honestly one of the best shows I've ever been to. Mind blown.

Wait... College is Over?

I am done with college...

Finished with my undergraduate career at UCLA. okay okay graduation is on Friday... but still 

 I turned in my last final paper this morning and assuming I pass (pretty sure I'm gonna be just fine on that one) I will officially be an alumna of this wonderful university I've called my home for the last four years.

Anyone around me for the last few days has heard me proudly boasting that I would officially be finished with college Monday morning when I turned in my last paper. 

Anyone around me for the last few months has heard me say how ready I am to be finished with college and move on to something new and exciting. 

Today, when I handed that paper in and got back to the HOP (the amazing House Of Pi- my true home for the last three years) I suddenly didn't want that to be my last paper ever. I wanted to go back and do these last four years all over again.

Honestly, name another time if your life when you are going to be able to live on your own, in a brand new city, making up the rules as you go along. All while somehow always knowing that if and when you need them your family will be right there. In college you have the opportunity to make new friends, learn a bunch of stuff that you may or may not actually use later in life (still tbd), make lots and lots of mistakes, and do a lot of growing up (but not too much).

Four years ago, before I had even set foot on the UCLA campus to begin my freshman year, a friend told me "Well my dear, you're about to go on a four year adventure to a place where absurd amounts of drinking are encouraged, girls dress like sluts every thursday, and it's a unanimous belief that a morning of awkwardness is always better than a night of loneliness." Crudeness aside and remembering that college is OH SO MUCH MORE than this, it has always made me laugh and I will miss the place where this lifestyle (not saying this was my lifestyle) is somehow socially acceptable.

As high school students we thought we were moving on to the "real world" but oh how wrong we were. College is far from the real world. Realizing that, and recent conversations I've had with my friends who were forced to leave this beautiful world before me, do not make me particularly excited to move on in to the actual real world.

But... it is what it is and ready or not UCLA is kicking us out. All jokes aside, I couldn't be more proud of the person I've become and the people I've become friends with over these past four years. As nerve wracking as it is to move on to a new chapter, I am excited and ready. I think...