Fashion Help!

I told you all that I'm going to be bridesmaid again this summer right? This will be the 8th time and really, it seems as though this career is coming to an end. At least hopefully.
Today I bought this shirt as part of a bridesmaid's outfit that I will be wearing in August. I need a white skirt to go with it. Anyone want to help me find one? Also - suggestions for shoes?? I'm thinking about buying these:
Heidi & Emily - this is where you come in. ....seriously.

Two Word Tuesday

Two Word Tuesday for your enjoyment:

What made me happy last night:

Snow Cone!

Where I'm going this weekend:

D.C.!

What I'm making myself for dinner:

Orzo Salad

Where I'm going for New Years:

Paris, France
(just got a ticket today!)

Cute Birthday Banner

My cousin Brian's wife Audrey made these banners and has them for sale on her Etsy shop. As soon as this compact is over, I just might have to get one for myself! But you - you can buy whatever you want, so get shopping!

Nice job, Audrey!

So You Think You Can ...

I think I can do lots of things.

Making a s'more pie is apparently one of them.

Being able to watch Felicity without getting emotionally involved, is not.

I won't be trying the pie until tomorrow evening, so reviews (and pics) to come. Dreams of Felicity and Ben will be continuing until I finish with Season 4. Considering I'm only at the end of Season 3, it might be a rough couple of weeks.

Dusk Busters

On Wednesday night, a group of us got together to run for a great cause and to celebrate a great friend's birthday. Plus, running a 5k through Golden Gate Park is always a fabulous way to spend a spring evening.

Thanks to my running partner, Andrea, I was able to finish the race. Thanks for encouraging me when I needed it! You ARE the Italian Stallion!!

And of course our Birthday Girl won the race! Happy Birthday Emily!

I seriously can't think of a better way to spend a birthday - raising money to fight MS with a great group of friends. Many thanks to all those who donated money to support me for the race. Hopefully we are one step closer to curing multiple sclerosis.

Where Green Meets Red, and Red Meets Blue.

Yummy. I saw Matt Wertz last night at the Swedish American Hall just a few blocks away from my house. Matt, I can't help the way I feel about you now. Seriously!

I'm An Orphan

My parents left today to spend their summer in Mallorca again. Not that I live close to them or anything right now, but its always weird knowing that they are so far away, just hanging out in the Mediterranean without me. At least this summer my mom's cell phone should be working, so I won't have to yell at my computer use Skype to talk to them. Sometimes, my life seems really weird. Who really has parents who take off every summer to go live on an island? oh yeah.... mine.

What did you all do when your parents left town while you were growing up? Throw crazy parties? Get into all sorts of trouble? This summer while my parents are out of the country, I'm going to go on lots of vacations. Oh. Wait. Well, I didn't have a trip planned in June that required a plane ticket, so I just took care of that. Summer of madness, here I come!

When Church Is Early, You Can Get So Much More Done

On Sunday after church I drove down to Capitola to spend the day with Silvia and Justin. It was so great to visit with them and just spend some quality time together.

My top 10 of the day were:

10. Justin's awesome homemade limeade.
9. All the food Silvia made was yum-o. (hey - if I look like Rachel Ray, I might as well talk like her)
8. Watching a cheesy girl movie while Silvia plucked my eyebrows.
7. Getting an awesome 10 minute back/neck massage from Silvia.
6. Riding the beach cruisers down to Capitola beach.
5. Sitting on a bench at the beach and talking for an hour or so in the sun.


4. Playing Guitar Hero
3. Eating brigadero
2. Berry shortcake dessert. yum!


1. Eating more brigadero.

Thanks for the good times, McLeods! You are both so great!

Welcome to my world...

since moving a few months ago, i haven't really talked a whole lot about my new place in the mission/castro district. here is a list of things that makes it different from my old apartment in the presidio.

• i have a window in my bedroom that has no blinds or any type of covering on it. somehow, in this neighborhood, it doesn't bother me. keep in mind that this window faces a bunch of other back bedroom windows that aren't very close and it definitely isn't facing the street.
• i no longer have nice friendly neighbors next door. oh how i miss sherry and emmitt. old crazy man in the adjacent apartment thought k and i were being too loud the other night so he proceeded to bang on the wall and slam his front door shut to scare us. it worked.
  
• i can walk to several places including kristine and jane's house, the grocery store, and a bart and muni stop.
  
• the other night we were playing cards as roommates in the front room and there was a debate over whether or not the noise outside was fireworks or someone going through the trash.
  

awesome. hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend.

Sometimes, I Guess Cool Things Happen to Me

So, early last year, I wrote a post about a book which I absolutely love called "London is the Best City in America." You can read all about how much I loved it if you click on that link. Well, in April of last year, I received an email from the author, Laura Dave, which I also posted about. Moving ahead a year... about two weeks ago, I received an email from Laura saying that she'd be doing a reading of her latest novel "The Divorce Party" on Chestnut street. I knew that the email was generic, but I thought it would be cool to go and meet her and see what her next book is about.

Right after she walked into the bookstore, she walked over to me and when I told her my name, she said "Oh! You're the girl who blogged about my book!" Seriously?? She told me several times tonight how much it meant to her that I blogged about her book since I was one of the first who did. So of course I bought her new book and I can't wait to finish "David Copperfield" and dive in. I'm still in shock that I was rubbing elbows with such a fantastic author last night.

I didn't want to disappoint any of you, so I took a picture with her as my proof. Doesn't this pretty much make me a celebrity?

Fun Day at the Beach

Monday was by far one of the most fun days I've ever had at the beach. I'm just lucky that a few friends took these pictures for me! Out of the multitude of fun things that we did that day, one of them was chicken fighting in the ocean.

If you click on the picture below and enlarge it, you can see all the guys getting pounded by a wave. Awesome. I love it when men are willing to sacrifice their lives to have the girls on their shoulders wrestling each other.

What happens after a series of chicken fights? Beach pyramid building, of course.

Huzzah!

...and they all fell down.

I blew this picture up for you at the risk of my modesty so that you can see what an awesome face I'm making while throwing sand at Scott's face. Kristine is also about to get sand down her britches. Ouch!

Apparently, in the end, its better to say too much, than to never say what you need to say again.

I'm pretty much obsessed with the following songs, so I thought I'd share:

With You by Chris Brown and Say by John Mayer

I think I've listened to both of them on repeat for the past 3 days. Enjoy.

On a different note, have you ever had a friend tell you something about yourself that has completely rocked your world? I can't stop thinking about a conversation I had on Tuesday while I was riding around Corolla, NC on a beach cruiser. I really love having friends who aren't scared to tell you things that you need to hear. The problem is, that once you know that you need to make a change in your life, you are also responsible for acting on it. And that is the scary part.

Here's a few Duck pictures for you while I'm at it:

The above picture was taken while Scott and I were doing the cha cha around the kitchen on Saturday and the one below was taken while Rustin and I were dancing in the living room just moments before I left my beloved Duck Beach.

Check Me Out

I have no particular reason for posting this except that I know that some of you will love it. When I was about 4, some friends from across the pond came to stay with us for a few weeks here in San Francisco. It's always weird for me to see pictures like this, knowing that I used to live here but don't really remember it.

I'm the one down in front with the curly blonde hair. My sister is next to me on the right and then my Mom is behind her. Oh how times have changed!

The First of Many

Here's Zach, me, and Scott standing on the back porch of our house at Duck. Seriously, it doesn't get any better than this. Well maybe it does, but for me, this is as good as it gets. I didn't take very many pictures this weekend because I was busy doing the flamenco, jumping in a pool to find a spoon, playing chicken in the ocean, or chilling in the hammock with Kristine. More details to come when I get more pictures.

Back

I will have more pictures of Duck Beach over the next few days, but this video basically sums up my trip: