The One Where I Talk About Taco Tuesday, But Only In A Way That Makes Me Wish I Went to Taco Tuesday

Oh hey look at that! It's Tuesday again! Gotta love Tuesdays. So much happens on Tuesdays. Like, almost the same stuff you did on Monday except now you're one day closer to your next weekend. And new CDs get released on Tuesday. WAIT. Who buys CDs anymore? Oh right, me. I also am a fan of Taco Tuesday, although I don't have a go-to Taco Tuesday place around here, so if you have any recommendations, lemme know. 

Other things that are gonna happen on this Tuesday: I'm going to write about my fantastic weekend with my friend Christa (prepare yourself for a lot of pics) and about the book I just finished for my book club that's coming up this Sunday. 

First things first... So Christa got here (without plane issues UNLIKE LAST TIME thankyousweetbabyjesusinthesky) and we proceeded to sit out on my patio for 3 hours because the weather was like this:

Again, thank you Google

And we ate strawberries and did some information exchanging (read: gossiping) and basically it was heaven. So then we proceeded on to dinner, like all normal humans do...

After dinner. Christa is good at taking selfies

And then she had NEVER SEEN BRIDESMAIDS WHAT so we watched that. Please, by all means, either say out loud or text your best friend your favorite Bridesmaids quote right now since I just reminded you how much you love that movie. I'm a fan of "It's civil rights. This is the 90s." I like to say it when it's 100% not appropriate but that's how I know we're going to be friends is if you laugh or not. Don't say you weren't warned. 

So, anyway, Saturday rolled around and we (after going to a Nike Training Club workout class at the gym, which... woof) we drove on down to Stone Brewery

I love any excuse to put a driving dog in my posts

And met up with some of my friends for a delicious and nutritious lunch. Or as my father would say, a repast. 

Gang's all here!

We're normal. And then it was time to head down to San Diego itself. I love that place. We did what ladies do on Saturday nights - stood around drinking $10 drinks when we could have made them at home for free, but whatever.

I'm on the left, Christa's on the right.

What am I looking at?

BRIGHT. SO BRIGHT.

Rooftop bar what's up!

Action shot!

True lovez

The Hard Rock...

The second place we stopped at was The Hard Rock hotel. Which was fun. But there were a bunch of people there and we could not tell (legitimately) if they were with a prom or a shotgun wedding because they all looked LIKE BABIES.

Ok, fine, it was not this extreme but you get the picture

And right before we left, the Creepiest Creeper wearing a white suit jacket tried to attack. We dodged his advances and slipped down to the elevator so we could get pizza before settling in to catch our zzzzs. 

The Next Morning... eating breakfast! WHY must I be so PALE

And, like all good things, our time together came to an end. EXTREME SAD FACE. I hope Christa and I see each other before another 2 years goes by, but you never know.  So I came home and distracted myself from my feelings of sadness not with chocolate (win) but with this hilarious book:

We're reading it for my book club which is meeting on Sunday and I am so glad we did because I kind of peed a little from laughing at some parts. The woman who wrote it, Jenny Lawson, wrote one of my favorite blog entries of all time about a giant tin chicken. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor, put on a diaper, and then read here. If you have read that book, what did you think??

Well, there's no rest for the wicked so I'm off ... to SLEEP. HELLO. Do I look wicked? 

The One Where I Use the Word Blessed.

Oh. Mah. Gah. If I used words like "blessed" non-ironically, I would talk about how blessed I've been in the past couple months getting to see friends I haven't seen in a while and experiencing new things and going places and trying new foods and MAN I FEEL LIKE A WOMAN. (Thank you, Shania...)

In continuing this period of awesome-sauce in my life, this past Tuesday Amanda and I went to live band karaoke at the same place where we saw Little Big Town not too long ago. Once again, it was one of those moments where one of us informed the other this was happening and then it was "You in?" "I'm in." And thus it was decided. Amanda got there before me (I was at D'Vine choir practice!) so I trotted on over after practice finished to find that Amanda had already made friends. Naturally.

Ignore the ignoramus in the background.

Sadly, I don't really remember their names. But they were fun. And then while we were waiting for my name to be called to go up on stage and rock out, we spied a SERIOUS dance floor creep. Like full on balls-to-the-wall dropping to his knees on the dance floor because ...????? I know from the following pic you cannot tell how creepy he is. Just trust me on this one.

Creep on the left. Cougar on the right.

I mean, you can kind of tell by his hunchback. Clearly he is trying to get his body close to that innocent lady's and make her understand why he is the best dancer in all of the union. Anyway, so eventually (like 15 minutes before closing) my name is CALLED and I rush on stage to yell Alanis Morrisette's "You Oughta Know" which is such an angry song. So, so angry. I pointed a lot while singing. And tried to get the crowd to sing along but they were having none of it. Come on, people. Next time you're out karaokeing, and the girl on stage tells you to sing along, you sing along. It's not like I was singing some obscure tune like Kiss the Rain by Billie Myers. (Anyone???)

Taken by the paparazzi.

All in all, great fun. And I got a burger for free out of the deal because it took 45 minutes for me to get a cheeseburger when no one else was ordering food. 

Free cheeseburgers should come with a thumbs up.

And now, we move on to Part II of this post, the part where I tell you I get to see yet another friend of mine this weekend. She goes by the name of Christa (because that's her name) and I haven't seen her face in almost 2 years. TWO YEARS, PEOPLE. That's criminally long. She's coming to California for a work conference (snore) but that doesn't start until Monday (yeah!) so we have the whole weekend to hang out. In case you are wondering, she looks like this:

This is my favorite picture of us ever taken. In case you think Christa is just pointing her fingers all creepy at the camera, you are wrong. She had just gotten engaged to one of the best men on the planet (his name is Tom) and she was showing off her ring. I, in case you are unsure, had made the unfortunate decision to pin my bangs completely off my head and am trying not to cry. Well, cry AGAIN since I had already cried tears of happiness for her when we did her candlelight. If you don't know what a candlelight is, you were obviously not in a sorority. Or have a friend who is obnoxious about how she used to be in a sorority. ANYWAY.

Here she is again, speaking at college graduation. BECAUSE SHE IS AWESOME.

We have a fun-filled weekend planned including wine, a brewery, San Diego, sunshine, and hopefully lots of gossip. I mean information-exchanging. And if we wound up somewhere where karaoke is a possibility, I wouldn't be mad.

Happy Friday one and all!

The One Where I Didn't Get Carded

You know how there are some people in your life who you can go for literally years without seeing and it truly doesn't matter because you can just pick up where you left off? Tonight, I had dinner with one of those people - my friend (and for part of our time at college, roommate) Lauren. Her boyfriend Patrick also tagged along. I give him a thumbs up - and not just because his hair does this cool swoopy thing. 

This is me and Lauren in college. Totally sober. (Not joking.) And yes, I used to be blonde.

So they spent the day at Disneyland and since I work about 45 minutes from The Happiest Place On Earth (As Long As You're Not Crying, And It's Not Too Hot, And The Lines Aren't Too Long), I decided to meet them for dinner at Downtown Disney. So, I head down there...

Who comes up with this stuff?!?

After I park my car, I'm walking to the restaurant and there are a few people walking behind me, clearly teenagers.

Google "teenagers" and this pops up on your image search. I have so many snarky things to say about this.

As we're walking, I hear what sounds like a bus honking. And one of these teens behind me says, "Oh! I didn't know there was a boat here!" Like... whaaaaat? How do you not know the difference between a bus horn and a boat horn? Unless you're used to buses that turn into boats, like such:

Anyway. Confusing. So I get to the restaurant and am there slightly early, so I head to the bar to get a glass of wine whilst waiting. And I don't even get carded. Which... fine (read: not fine). But as I relay this information to Calla via text (also known as the other half of Nalla, also known as my just plain other half; you'll learn more about her later) I become slightly indignant and then I text Calla "I mean, I could be a cop, okay buddy? If you don't ID, I'm taking you to jail!" To which she suggested I carry around a fake badge for just such an occasion, and this prompted me to think about looking for the badge from my cop Halloween costume from a couple years ago. Hello!

Me arresting my now-roommate, Monique (a.k.a. Mother Nature)

So then Lauren and Patrick arrive and, it was so nice to catch up with my old friend and make a new one. We also ate delicious food - hello tortilla frites! I also basically job interviewed Patrick, as ANY GOOD FRIEND WOULD DO, just to make sure he passed. He did. Even though he admitted to eating and liking sardines and pickled herring, to which I asked "Are you from Old Germany?" And he said, "No, Iceland." Excellent. I'm sure you've had the experience where the evening is clearly ending and you just don't want it to because you're having such a nice time. So to delay the inevitable, we took pics. Obvi. 

Patrick's swoopy hair and the bella Lauren - they knew each other in high school, but just reconnected a couple years ago. I LOVE when that happens for people. 

Us laughing at Patrick taking 14 pictures.

Ahhh, glorious. Just what I needed today. 

On to more adventures tomorrow!