Weekend Re-cap

For those of you who follow me on multiple mediums (Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, etc) I'm sorry for the duplication...

For those of you who only read this blog and don't know, I went to San Diego (La Jolla) to visit my friend Shana. She was the ultimate hostess and we had the best time catching up, eating good food, and exploring her new city.

We went to Coronado Island and had lunch which was so cool. And also cool as in Fresno temps were around 108 and San Diego was like 83 and breezy!

We also took HarMar to the beach. He'd never been before and for a nervous little dog, he charged right into the ocean head first. It was SO CUTE!

There's something about water though. It's so soothing. Couldn't you just sit and stare at this forever? Pretty sure I could solve all the worlds problems with just 1 nights time pondering right here..

Anyways, I didn't take pictures of everything, but overall it was a great weekend. We slept in. We ate at quaint little outdoor restaurants. I even got up early and went for an exploration 5 mile run through La Jolla. HarMar even put on his best duds and accompanied us to the mall. In case you had to ask, he was THE MOST popular person/man/thing/dog in the city, that's for sure.

So what did you all do? And where's the pictures?!

Weekend Update - But not really cool - Or Funny - Or... I don't know just read it okay?

Over at The Beehive they do a "Weekend ReCap" blog. It's quick and I like reading what other people did. Some of it makes me jealous and some of it makes me feel better that they didn't do anything special.

Here's what I did this weekend:

(1) Friday I Cleaned... but more of a spring cleaning (or fall cleaning? that didn't sound right) I cleaned my cleaning caddy, the freezer, the silverware drawer, my closet, my bathroom drawers... I turned that place upside down, but AAAHHHHHH it feels SO GOOD!

(2) Then my roommate came home with some friends to watch a movie. They were FASCINATED with my dinner. I told you I like an antipasti plate. MMMM

(3) Saturday I worked from home for a few hours. I saw Har Mar lounging - he is so cute. He likes to stay inside, but lay in the sun. AWWWW.

(4) I planted a new AeroGarden. This time it's International Basil! OH BOY! I'll keep you posted!

(5) Saturday night I picked up my friend Rebecca and took her to Roe. Her birthday was a week ago, but she was in Disneyland then, so she wanted all her friends to get together here this weekend. As a vegetarian for 7 years now, I never developed a love for sushi, but they had a vegetable roll that I tried. PEW PEW PEW. Seaweed tastes just like rotten fish. UGH! Sorry guys. I don't like coffee either. WILDLY POPULAR, yes!! MY THING, no!! I'll gladly stick to the vegetable tempura and edamame! Glad we were in before 10 though. GEEZ that place charges a $10 cover and is wildly packed!

(6) I am still surprised at how short people are in this town. I'm 5'7", but with 4" heel I'm nearing 6' tall. HAHA. There were only 3 guys in the entire place that could look me in the eye. If I was looking for a man, this would be very depressing.

(7) Sunday I realized it's cold like Alaska here!! Time to break out the electric blanket. I went to my parent's house after running my errands. Had dinner with my mom at Qdoba. It was actually good. She gave me a spare "warming blanket" that she had. Everyone should thank her because there was a high chance I would have died sometime during the night while watching TV on the couch BUT NOW I WILL LIVE! I have the warmth of electricity! YES!

(8) My mom also gave me this mini cherry pie. 1- I love cherry pie (save the innuendo guys...) 2- She originally bought it for my spoiled rotten brothers lunch, so I figured it would be at least THREE TIMES as tasty because I got to take it from him! However, my mom wanted to open it to see what it looked like inside. OF COURSE, as soon as I try to unload my car, the pie FLIES OUT the opening and meets it's early demise. :( NOOOOOOOOO!

SO ANYWAYS, that was my weekend in a nutshell - and even with a few pictures.

Let me leave you with an adorable pic of my little man chillin' on the couch!
Say it with me.
Awwwwwwwwwwww!

WOWEEE WOWEEE What a weekend! I'll try to keep this short.

I may not have mentioned this before, but I have the most wonderful roommates in the whole world.

My dearest friend, Melissa, (on the left) is leaving me and it's breaking my heart. I understand her reasons to go and wish her nothing but wonderful things, but I don't know what I'm going to do without her. I could fill an ocean with our laughter and our tears over the last 3 years. I guess I wouldn't be taking it so hard if she was staying in town, but she's be many hours away and makes the loss more palpable.

Friday night we had a surprise goodbye party for Melissa at The Standard. Being as we are all so close, it was pretty damn awkward in our shared hallway as Des and I tried to leave the house without inviting her, but we made it! It was wonderfully bittersweet and I'm admitting I had a hard cry when I wrote in her card.

Saturday I worked all day and was exhausted, but Desiree wanted me to attend a dinner function with her so I pressed on and got ready. GO GO GO.

OH MY GOD, you will not believe it! We showed up at Vini Vidi Vici's and GUESS WHAT!? It was a surprise party FOR ME! GET OUT! In a billion years I never would have guessed that! Possibly this photo will tell you everything you need to know! It's like WHAT?! FOR ME?!


Anyways, it was the sweetest nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me. The balloons were my favorite color, the food was delicious, they incorporated PINEAPPLES (my favorite) and a luau theme, and most of my closest dearest friends were there. There for ME! I was so touched.
Actually, in my entire life, I have never had a surprise party and it was a wonderful night that I will not soon forget. I felt the love and I love my friends. Thanks you guys!

Sunday I got up and went to work again. In the evening I had some friends over to my parents house. We swam, we chatted, and we cooked together. It was an awesome girl night. I made a homemade vegetarian chili and a light avocado, corn, black bean salad. It was delicious!
SO, NOW... I'M EXHAUSTED. There was so much excitement, so many surprises, and SO MUCH work. I cannot wait until next weekend and my much awaited days off. NOW, it's 11:30 pm and I gotta head to bed.

G'night all!

What happens in Vegas...

...STAYS IN VEGAS!

"Except for herpes, that shit is forever!" - NAME THAT MOVIE!

Truth be told, I had 4 action packed days of good clean fun, food, and friends. There were 23 of us and we all stayed at the MGM Grand. There was walking and talking and shopping and drinking and I loved every second. We had our club night in Moon at the Palms. Terrell Owens was there if you're into that kind of thing. So was Chino from the Deftones and also Pauly Shore. Go figure.

Mostly, I'll share this with you: For those of you who haven't been to the Wet Republic pool party at the MGM, GO DO IT!!! - it was like the best thing I've ever done in my life - soo yeah. I hear they charged $50 to get in, but I got in free... You know how I roll.

This pic is BEFORE it got busy... BEFORE the pitchers of Mojitos and the fireworks. BEFORE the dance floor opened and there was a thong contest and BEFORE the waitresses sprayed champagne all over everyone. I guess you could call that a good time.

One tip I'll give you is: There is no such thing as ridiculous in Las Vegas.
• Wear your highest heels, you say? With a bathing suit?
• Put on club worthy make up & jewelry? To a pool party?
YES!
There were a couple moments where things could have taken a turn for the worse, but I managed to drink another mojito and use what I saw as motivation. I had 6 hours in the sun to plan buying those necessarily evil expensive Chanel sunglasses and figure out how to lose those last pesky 40 lbs, and start saving for a boob job...


Speaking of needing to lose 40 lbs. There was the free food at the buffet... Yeah, I ate at it 7 times to the best of my calculations. LOL that's a lot!
I'm also calculating I only had a grand total of 13 hrs sleep over the 4 days. And I don't even gamble. I chose to lose all my money at the mall, thank you very much!

I think I'm done sharing all my secrets though. There's more pressing things I need to talk to you guys about. I was thinking of changing my blog focus again. How do you all feel about feet?

I think I have pretty decent feet & toes.
I haven't really looked at my analytics lately, but I'm sure this is going to lead to some foot fetish crap. Well how about I DEVASTATE all of you then by showing you what my feet look like now.

I know you're still recovering from the horror of that which is me in a bathing suit and now I'll show you what happened on the last night. I wish I could say I was drunk, but no... just twitchy and clumsy... What's it been, a month since the last time I nearly killed myself? Yeah. I wasn't ready for my self-esteem to come back.

Actually, don't look - just close you're browser now!
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AAAHHHHH! So disturbing!! Have I mentioned to you how much I hate myself for being clumsy? Yeah.... Apparently, trying to keep all 18+ people in the group moving in the same direction caused me to turn around and I got tangled up in my pants and when I put my foot out for balance - BAM! Right into the construction pylon cement divider thing.

SOOOO... sorry you had to see that.

Will you still me my friend? PLEASE?

Possibly I'll post some other pictures later so keep your eye out for an UPDATE! Now I'm tired and my feet hurt though, so I'm going to go. To purge that awful toe picture, here is the most hilarious thing ever. HarMar in his lobster costume. It gets even funnier because he is completely incapable of movement. He'll stay in that position all night until you take it off. Somehow it's probably cruel, but it makes me laugh and laugh.

It was the best $10 I've ever spent.

Part 2 - The Excited

So yesterday we covered the hardest part of my day which is getting out of my head and getting out of the house... so let's see, where were we? Oh yeah, Memorial Day Weekend!!

Friday night I met up with friends and we enjoyed bottle service at The Standard. It was nice, but we were on the front patio which left us separated from the music and trapped with the smokers. Plus, I wasn't so into drinking and honestly didn't have that great of a time. My friend Phil and I shared some casual observations, but I was ready to go home.

Saturday after a harrowing experience for HarMar at the vet, I cleaned the house, and Des and I headed off to eat some Pho at New Stars. Then we went to our friend Johns graduation party. That was fun, but I'm still an old lady and despite great chips & salsa, a vodka red bull, and a free shot of Patron - I got tired and we went home to go to bed.

Sunday morning Des & I stumbled out into the hallway at the same time and she suggested we go for a walk. I needed that walk. I grabbed a sandwich and then I went and did one of the bravest things of my life. I went somewhere ALONE. No safety net. No possible idea of what to expect. AND where everyone else already knows each other. My entire plan involved sitting in the corner and use my iPhone for the next several hours.

To my most pleasant surprise I was taken by the hand and welcomed into the Antidote group! There was awesome house music, lots of drinks, great weather, and a phenomenal group of people! I had so much fun. Shoot, I think my name was even scrawled on a "GUEST LIST" so basically, I was a veritable celebrity! Daytime drinking is an acquired art though. Have enough drinks and this old lady needs to go home and take a nap. I HIT MY COUCH RUNNING AND TOTALLY CRASHED OUT!

I woke up just in time to make a delicious taco dinner head back out to see Little Dragon. It was just about the coolest thing ever. After Antidote and thanks to Twitter I'm pretty sure I knew or knew of 50% of the people in the room. This is where my reporting gets faulty. I really stopped worrying about writing stuff down and memorizing important details and linking to stuff. Instead, I FELT IT.

You know those moments when you are driving alone in the car and your favorite song comes on? Those seconds where your problems accidentally fly out the window? Time comes to a screeching halt and sound isn't just something you hear, but instead something you do. It's the something that tickles your nose and brushes against your skin and tastes like heaven.

I don't want to say anything more about it. Here's one of their songs... Listen... Feel... Take a Journey...



PS: If you want a really good and serious review of the show, Go Here.

My Wonderful Roommates - oh and also, I am a giant.

Just wanted the world to know what beautiful, wonderful, kind, perfect, supportive, loving, and classy people I have in my life. These are "my girls" and I love them.

These are also my best friends. Aren't they pretty?

Last night we went out to The Standard which is right next to our house on Friant & Fort Washington. I've been there a few times and have enjoyed it but last night was FABULOUS. I've never seen the place so packed.

In humorous typical Marisa fashion, I spent the entire night being the tallest person in the room! My cute new platform Guess by Marciano heels are 5" which actually makes me 6 feet tall (I'm 5'7") I actually believe I asked everyone I talked to if it made them uncomfortable that I'm a giant. HA! Guys and girls together being so itty bitty leaves me with legs of steel I tell you. Ever spent two hours doing squats and lunges? That's pretty much what it's like when you are a giant and you want to talk to or dance with or take pictures with all the miniature people in this town!

I have been sick though, so I was happy they close early (I think they close at 1am... it used to be midnight, but now it's 1..? I suppose I should pay more attention to detail here, but whatever... it's not 2am I know that much)

Anyways, it's time for bed. Make sure you look at the next post to view my Kentucky Derby Day pictures too!

Mother earth loving vegetarian goes on shooting rampage.

Alright, here's the deal. It's midnight. I had a pretty decent evening, went to a local TweetUp, had a nice dinner, and was really looking forward to getting into bed and doing some blogging.

Mostly because I've been making my list and I just know you all want to understand how my dinner conversation included the following topics:

A butterfly is to the vagina what a canary is to a coal mine
600 monkeys is TOO many monkeys (1 monkey is too many)
Crochet Underwear and pants
Dynomite and amputee shadow puppets
Possums make great pets
Naked (& public) fire starter
High heels = chicken pox

Yes, yes, riveting! Tell me more you say...

Well, I can't. There is a dog outside my window and he has not stopped barking for 29 minutes. I'm totally wishing California didn't have such a strict gun law because

I
AM
LOSING
MY
MIND
!!!

In fact, THERE ISN'T MUCH that's stopping me from setting fire to my neighbors house right now just to make the insanity STOP. OH MY GOD! SHUT UP!!! I can't think of anything else. On that note, here is a LOVELY animation for your viewing enjoyment. :)

*Yes,those are my awesome flannel sheets with a moose on them!

Eh...

So here's a little about me. I hate being alone. I'm fully capable of being alone and I was raised an only child in the country many miles from civilization and I am MORE than capable of entertaining myself. However, I don't like it. (This doesn't include going to my parents house, I'm sure I could always hang out there)

Anyways, a lot of my friends are pretty free and fancy free. They have an open door policy and you can sorta show up whenever. I refuse to do that. Even if someone says "Yeah, we're going to "blah blah blah" later..." I need them to actually say, "WOULD **YOU** LIKE TO COME?" I will not show up to an open ended invitation. I would so much rather be alone than have someone be ambivalent to whether I showed up or not.

However, people always say, Marisa, if you are feeling low or sad or whatever, CALL US. Lean on your friends. Don't sit at home and be that way. So I call. And I get an "uhhhh, yeah..." REJECTION! I'm reading into it I'm sure. I'm extra sensitive I'm sure. Every reasonable explanation in the book I'm sure.

So... Maybe it's my problem, maybe I'm too sensitive. Or maybe my feelings are hurt because I have NEVER EVER asked for help or told someone "I need you" and I made myself vulnerable to them and I finally did that and .............. nothing.

Rejection is really hard for me to cope with. Sometimes it's perceived rejection. I think a lot of times I prefer to text because then there's a distance there. Then it doesn't "sting" so much when the rejection comes.

Eh. So I put it all back in perspective now. I'm okay being alone. I'm finding a way to turn off all that "NEED" that I have. So there ya go, that's a little bit about me.

So when did this happen?

Ha Ha Ha... You know CNN is pretty good about this. They let me know when we were in a “Slow Down”... They told me their predictions for the presidency... Hell, they even let me know Charles Barkley got a DUI this week... But they failed to mention that the earth fell off its axis and sent us hurtling through space all upside down and shit! Way to miss your big break CNN.com - Not cool!

So when did this happen? I think it’s the new year. I don’t put a lot of importance in the holidays and that stuff, but that last week after Christmas I start spinning. I get all reflective about the past year and start thinking about the future. I don’t do good without a goal or something to focus on. Oddly enough, it’s usually not a very tangible goal like losing weight or buying a new car - It’s mostly some sort of private personal betterment, which I won’t share although I seem to share everything anyways.

I really surprised myself with my last post. All that end of year reflection sent me down a path I wasn’t ready for. I never wanted to be a victim of my childhood and I think a lot of people are. I want to grow and learn and understand why I am who I am - and if I don’t like some of it, then change it and get better, but those memories I never seemed to dwell on. Oh sure, over the years I’ve thrown out a few “Oh yeah, well my dad used to lock me in the car and go bar hopping” conversation stoppers, quickly followed by an awkward laugh and a “But I don’t talk to him anymore, so whatever” finale... But to read it... All pretty and paragraphed and punctuated... all in a neat little time line of disfunction - I thought, what does a person learn from THAT? It was heavy for me - I mean, I’ve always known those experiences were “uncool” but whoa...

So, I found myself at the bitter end of 2008... New Years Eve... crying uncontrollably in the arms of a VERY startled friend who had NO IDEA where all of that emotion came from... and I just kept saying “Where is the ground? I’m spinning and I don’t know which way is up!” And while having drank my fair share, this wasn’t THE world spinning, this was MY world spinning. And as we talked and he talked, he shared with me his own spin, which surprised me. I honestly thought I was the only one - how conceited of me I guess... (PS - thank you my dear friend for not leaving me as I expect most people will and hopefully you will make a full recovery from the onslaught of all my deepest fears and emotions)

Then yesterday I had the most amazing conversation with one of my most beloved friends and I’m now sure we are the same person. And after hearing her own “Out of Nowhere” New Years Eve sobfest, she says to me Marisa, I’m upside down, I’m spinning - and that’s when I knew it was time to write CNN a letter and ask them how they failed to mention that our earths 23 1/2 degree tilt was SOO 2008 and that gravity was a thing of the past and we were all destined to float around flailing and trying to right ourselves. Ha Ha Ha. Actually, I’m an awkward joke maker, sorry.

SO, here’s what’s good. People are good. My friends are good. And everyone has a story, but what matters is finding those few you can share those stories with. I’m ending 2008 with a new understanding of myself and certainly a DEEP appreciation for the people I have in my life. And then, BAM, I got it - instead of bemoaning my past and all of us separate and floating around aimlessly - THIS was the moment... All of my “Why is life like this? How do we change this? How do I stop the spinning?” questions and statements were missing the point.

I have this little corner in my room I sit at:

and in the center is a book of quotes. And I suppose I should change it up, but actually I just re-read the same one every day. That quote is:

You cannot, and will not,
encounter a circumstance,
or a single moment, that
does not serve directly and
immediately the need of your
soul to come to wholeness,
to heal. (Gary Zukav)

And at that moment I knew everything had to be just as it was. That what mattered was not all this THINKING and reflecting, but there, in “that moment” was what I needed. My friends. We were there for each other when it mattered most and I think my troubled little soul did take a step closer to wholeness.