The One Where It's Friday, Friday Gotta Get Down on Friday

Okay, people, first things first...

Please say hello to my new car!!!!! 

I am literally the worst at taking pictures so I cut off his nose, but you get the picture.

Awww yisssss front view

I don't know what his name is yet (he is definitely a boy). I want to name him after a character from a book or movie where something bad happened to this character (e.g., he got his car stolen) but in the end it ended up working out for the best (e.g., he now has a Civic that gets almost double the gas mileage and can FINALLY play his iPod in his car while driving... er... I mean that's just an example). Any suggestions will be appreciated and carefully considered. And, if you suggest a name and I end up picking it, you will win a very nice prize. (No, for real, I actually have an idea for a prize.)

So, long story very short, I hemmed and hawed over my options, wrote down a LOT of numbers on a LOT of different pieces of paper, hemmed more, hawed more, chewed my right pinkie fingernail to bits, woke up in the middle of the night agonizing over the decision 3 nights in a row, and finally decided to just go for it and buy the new car. 

I've never had a brand-new car. That new car smell is no joke. 

Fancy touchscreen controls. Weird to not have a volume button for the radio.

AMAZING right-side camera that comes on whenever I put my right blinker on so I can ACTUALLY see what's in that lane, not just assume I am correct in thinking I will not smash into a car when I merge.  Note: picture was taken in driveway, not while driving.

I could even fit into the back seat with the front seat all the way back!!! This bodes well for regular-length limbed folks.

I love him and I just want to hug him every time I look at him. 

Also, THEY FOUND MY OLD CAR. Not stripped, not broken, not anything. 

My actual face when I got the phone call from the police.

The Huntington Beach Police Department called me the day after I bought my new car and told me they found Jackie in some random parking lot out in HB. Given that I had signed the title over to the dealership the day prior, I was no longer legally responsible for the car, but the tags were still in my name at that point so I had to let the Honda dealership know and they took care of it. SO WEIRD. It's literally like the people who stole it took it because they needed a ride out to Huntington Beach and have never heard of "asking your friends for a ride" or "it's called the bus." So, anyhoo, I think the saga is officially over and while I still would have preferred to not have to deal with that enormous headache that is a stolen car, I love my new car so much I almost don't even care. 

So that's that. I just can't wait to see the next adventure life brings my way. Hopefully this one will have less thievery and more of a rich prince who wants to take me sailing on his yacht and buy me diamonds, but whatever. 

In other news, I took this Buzzfeed Quiz about how many summer milestones I've accomplished and I am SERIOUSLY slacking in this department. Well, I did just get a fun Barbie/neon pink mani yesterday, but other than that... 

I guess since I live in SoCal, I have more summer weather to take advantage of than just until Labor Day but considering I will be starting school right around then, I won't have summer leisure time. So, Monique and I are planning a Roommate Adventure, Summer Theme for Sunday. Actual plan TBA. I will tell you what we will not be doing, however, which is reading rumors about Beyonce and Jay-Z breaking up because I swear to god if that actually happens I will need to go into mourning for a solid 7 days. You were warned.

Happy weekend!

The One Where I Can't Believe How Long It's Been Since I've Written

Hot damn.

It's been a while.

Hold on, I need to clear out the cobwebs from this place. 

Okay. Now that we have that out of the way. I don't really have a good excuse for not blogging recently. I mean, I've been busy, but when am I not? First things first, I realize I never told you what I got my sister as her epic birthday gift.

What, you can't tell what that is from this high-quality picture? Okay, just in case you need a hint... I got her her own personal Beyonce The Giant Metal Chicken!!! Click that link in case you are not sure what I am talking about. [Mom, there's a lot of swear words.]

ANYWAY. I've been gallivanting around...

Taking my dad's bomb.com cowboy boots... 

Loudly expressing my displeasure with these sparkle crotch shorts at Victoria's Secret...

Going to baseball games...

Wearing those cowboy boots to Tim McGraw concerts... 

Baking insane tie dye cakes for certain friends' graduation parties...

ConGRADulations, Amanda!!!!!!!! 

Going to beer festivals...

Witnessing grown men engage in beer-chugging contests...

Taking hotel selfies like a boss...

 And making a good, old-fashioned fortune teller to help predict my friends' futures.

Oh yes, and dating dudes. What's up eHarmony. Neil Clark Warren sort of knows what he's doing, I guess. Haven't met anyone super special yet. And dating is time-consuming, y'all! [Side note: can we just talk for a second about how much I wish I was Southern so I could say y'all legitimately?]

So. There ya have it. The super condensed version of my recent life. I promise I won't abandon you like that again. Trust me, I know what it feels like. I'm debating trying a legit boxing class this week. And by debating, I mean I am making myself go, I just haven't decided which night I'm going to. Cuh-LEAR-ly I will report back on that.

I will leave you with one of my new favorite songs. Luke Bryan. Stop. Except don't.

The One Where Carol Hankel Comes to Town

So I am fortunate enough to have a mom who is able to come visit me for random weekends and I'm also fortunate that this mother of mine enjoys doing fun stuff. This past weekend was full of Fun Times With Carol. She arrived on Friday and we went to Glen Ivy Hot Springs Spa... holy pure bliss. It was amazing. In case you are unfamiliar with the concept of a hot springs spa, just think of a place where your life is basically metaphorical fresh laundry and puppies. Except you get to float around in a pool all afternoon and can use as many towels as you want because there's always a fresh supply. I mean... heaven, right? Oh yeah, and this particular spa is located at the base of these mountains. 

Legit picture I took. Didn't have to Google for this one.

Ridiculously crappy pictures of our wine/frozen drinks... but they were good. Trust.

Don't let this picture fool you - the sun was out and it was glorious.

I noticed when we were changing that my mom and I had gotten matching manicures earlier in the week... obviously not on purpose. So I made her take a picture in the locker room with me. I'm glad she can roll with it and doesn't question my need to take photos of everything.

I mean... identical!

And then after all those tough spa times (lounging takes work, yo!) we met up with Amanda for dinner at Market Broiler, a seafood place, which was delicious. I'm glad I ignored the idiot on Yelp! who went there even though he was allergic to seafood. ... Are you kidding me? Why even write a review of the place, then!? Anyway, Amanda ordered this RIDICULOUS meal called Fisherman's Stew... it required a bib.

Her pile of seafood extras when she was done with it!

I know... it doesn't look like much, but it was tasty.

And then about halfway through our meal, I hear the girl sitting in the booth behind us tell the waiter (who was also our waiter) that her seafood pasta "Has too much fish in it" and asks if he can "take some of it out" ... Again, are you kidding me? You come to a seafood place, you order PASTA, and it still has too much seafood in it for you? Really? I don't even know you, and I hate you. 

And then OBVIOUSLY we had to order 2 desserts for the 3 of us.

When our waiter set them down, I touched his arm and said, "I'm sorry, I think there's too much fish in here. Can you take some of it out?" totally deadpan. And he was trying to hard not to laugh, which is always amusing to me. 

We went shopping on Saturday, which was fun... minus the iPhone saga. I'm going to confess to the internet how much of a dumbass I am, so hang on for the ride. I know, this is totally going against the image you have of me in your brain as someone who totally has it together 100% of the time (ha), but here's what happened. So my birthday present from my parents this year was a new iPhone - HOORAY! I have had an iPhone 4 for a couple years and the home button was starting not to work on it, plus the 5 is just so sleek, so I was very, very excited for this gift. So we go to the Apple store...

You can literally purchase this set for your kids to play with... HA!

And get the phone. I activate the new one, and put my old phone and the box my new phone came into in a plastic Apple store bag. We proceed to Macy's. I'm trying on clothes, come out of the fitting room, find my mom, and realize I have left the Apple bag somewhere. Heart stops beating briefly. Because even though it's my old phone in there, I'm convinced someone will still be able to get on there and get all my stuff off of there and steal my identity and then I'll be living in a cardboard box because I will no longer have a credit score and that's where my mind goes.

So I race around searching for the bag, but it is GONE. Like NSync circa 2001.

After about 20 minutes of looking, I have to concede that somebody has taken the bag. And nobody turned it into a sales counter, so they just took it because it had my phone in there and they wanted it. At least I didn't leave my M&M cookie in there, too... But seriously, I was also pissed because the box for my new phone had the new charger and headphones in there. As someone very wise once said, I hope they needed it more than I did. [asshole] And now I keep thinking "If only I hadn't taken the bag from the Apple store and just put the stuff into my purse! IF ONLY!" But you can't dwell on what could have happened, right? 

The rest of Saturday was fabulous. I bought my first ever dress from Banana Republic! And then it turns out my mom and I just really like to match each other because on Sunday I pull up to get her from her hotel and lo and behold... more matchy matchy times.

I was sad she had to leave on Sunday morning, but I'm going home this weekend for my sister's birthday/Memorial Day, so I'll get to see everyone again on Friday. I am SO EXCITED to give my sister her birthday gift. But I'm assuming she may read this, so you'll all have to wait to see what I ended up getting her. Let's just say it was difficult to find... 

The One Where It's My Birthday and I'll Karaoke If I Want To

Finally... the full birthday story. I apologize there are so many pictures. But what fun is a blog post without pics?! Also, I just want to say that I was BLOWN AWAY by how people helped me celebrate my birthday this year. I would have to say it's the best one yet. And I'm seriously grateful. I felt, and still feel, so LOVED! So... without further ado...

Went for a morning walk/jog. I love this trail.

It's the little things.

Calla's present box was too good not to re-post. 

My office went to Buca di Beppo for lunch. I LOVE their birthday song!!!

Monique and me!

Very nice. Todd and Rich. And a watermelon in the background.

Ben and I look happy... Monique looks... scary!!! ;)

Again, the cake.

Dinner started with draaanks, obvi.

Mikey: "I'm going to put my arm around you and look like your boyfriend."
Me: "All righty."

Mini Lady Liberty in Farrell's [Terrifying] Ice Cream

Mikey had a masquerade mask in the back of her car. Of course. So I tried to get it on this little pig in the front of Farrell's. That's my "I don't know what I'm doing" face.

He deserved a kiss!

My free birthday sundae. Thank god it was free because the whipped cream was disgusting!

You can see the terror in Mikey's eyes. Our waiter was mean to us, thinking he was being funny, but really he was just mean. 

Then the next day we drove up to Big Bear. With my GIANT pinata in the backseat!!! We named him Percy!

Moe was on the lookout.

I forgot to ring this bell, but it was available for use!

The following includes a nice variety of the decor in our super klassy cabin:

And obviously we had to use the immersion blender to make drinks with fresh strawberries in them.

Shelly, wearing Percy's head. Scary, but funny.

Dancing.

And that was the last picture I basically took on Friday night. No need to document the insanity/karaoke from the times at the bar... Use your imaginations!! Saturday night was spent lying on the couch, eating Jack In the Box, watching Married to Jonas and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. And Sunday was spent doing this:

I have to say, hands down, this was the BEST birthday I've had so far in my life. Percy was the best present ever. My friends are awesome. And I hope this post inspires you to buy your friend a birthday pinata next time you're not sure what to get someone. You're welcome for the gift idea. Also, I am trying to figure out how to get a hilarious video of us busting Percy open with our bat on here, but Blogger keeps telling me it's processing my video, but then it doesn't finish. Hhhhhh why is technology so annoying? Anyway, Happy Monday to you all!!