Some Lovin'

Mo of Me, Mo, and Myself, passed me my very first award! She sent this to me last week, and I keep forgetting to post it! Oops! But thanks Mo! I was so excited a giggly when I got it, I felt a little silly afterwards! And Happy Birthday!

I would like to pass this along to a few of my favourites. If you don't already, I highly reccomend reading these ladies blogs:

Sarah of Oh Kirby!

Reilly of Cici Speaks

Solanah of Vixen Vintage

My dear Charissa of Live a Little

and because she's super cool and encourages my rants

Jill of A Bubble in the Stream of Consciousness

There's no other news on my end. Well other than the horrible new guy who keeps flirting with me and is married and has a kid, but that is a story for another day.

Pose Face

So Bri and Jess have been teasing me lately about my "pose face." They say that whenever I go to take a picture of myself, I use a certain pose with my face. I keep telling them that they are crazy. So today when we were at Chipotle I was looking off into the distance and Bri yelled "That's it! That's your pose face!" I told her she was crazy and that I don't have a pose face.

Meet my Pose Face.

Bri thinks this stems from a desire to look romantic.

The worst part is I do this even when I'm not posing for pictures.

I have two and a half more of these pages filled with these things. and there are more pictures on my mom's computer and Michael's work computer....

Tur-band from Orange Parks*

Today was hot. I mean ridiculously, horribly, hello-welcome-to-hell-I'll-be-your-tour-guide, hot. So Hot! So like a genius I decided this was the day for me to get pictures for my etsy shop done. Outside. Yes I have applied for the Nobel Prize. Anyways I forced Delaney to be my model and we packed up the car with all the stuff I've been hoarding and a couple pairs of shoes, and we went off in search of a good place to take photos. We ended up at the Historic Citrus Park. Despite my hatred of Riverside, I have to say we do have some really wonderful parks. The Citrus Park has been around since I was about six or seven and I have lots of very fond memories of this place. In the summer evenings they do (or did. I'm not sure if this goes on anymore) a concert series, with live music of all different genres. There's an amphitheatre that I once had a rollerblading dual with this boy I knew (I won. You don't mess with me on roller blades), nature trails, a really lovely garden, and of course a couple miles of orange trees. They even play endless music all day that drifts through the park. When we got there it was a lovely selection of 40's and 50's standards sung by the greats. However it soon took a turn for the worse and started some weird electronica stuff. I'm all for electronica, but this stuff was just bad. Then they played a ton of Michael Jackson, and Billy Joel. It was a very odd combo. The buildings are all done in California Craftsman style and are actually quite beautiful. Until I was about 13 I wanted to get married there! So Dee and I parked near the bathrooms and took photos, and did silly things, and laughed at the people who laughed at us, and rolled in the grass, and jumped in the air, and spun in circles. Despite the horrible heat, it was alot of fun. After we were there (for two and a half hours in the dead heat of the day) we went to the Plaza and rewarded ourselves with Frozen Yogurt and a meander through Borders. Our local Borders has been busy rearranging the store and it's got me quite irked. Don't get me started on the now limited music supply.

As you can see on my head I wore a turban. A pink turban. A pink vintage turban. Frankly I don't know why these things ever went out of style. I'm now looking forward to all my bad hair days. Plus this one is super light weight and comfy. I highly recommend getting one. This one cost me $5 at Vintage Sanctuary in Oceanside. I've been talking about bringing turbans back forever and now I finally can. One item checked off my list of life goals. Oh and my etsy update will probably be Friday. I still have a few detail photos to finish.

Have a wonderful Tuesday and keep cool! Unless it's freezing where you are. In that case keep warm.

Dress- Target, Vest- found in my garage,

Turban- Vintage Sanctuary Oceanside, Ca,

Necklace- made by me,

Bag- Vintage Dooney and Bourke,

Shoes-target

*No I did not get banned from this park.

But Bri and I were discussing that it is amazing to us both that I've not been banned from anywhere yet.

Dirt and Polkadots.

'50's Polka Dot dress- Vintage Sanctuary in Oceanside, Shoes- Target

I am in love with this dress. I think I cried a little when I tried it on. It's handmade and the neckline is just beautiful (and I just realized I didn't take any pictures of it. It's scalloped by the way). I also realized that every dress I have ever bought from this store has been blue with white polkadots. I also got something else that I have talked about getting forever and will show you tomorrow. Bri found it for me and even had to admit that it was pretty cute. I am very excited to pair it with all the things that have been swimming around my head.

Saturday a couple of bro's rented the house next to us and were up all hours of the night drinking, playing "band" with kitchen items, and feeding their blowup doll beer. I had a really weird case of alleries come over me so I was up half the night because I couldn't breathe and the other half because the boys in the "man cave" were making "man howls" at 4am. I ended up getting about two hours of sleep and we had to be out of the house by ten (our land lady was kinda of insane) and my allergies wanted me dead. I was miserable all day Sunday. We got home around seven and I went to bed intending to take a short nap and hopefully sleep off my sinus problem. I woke up at what I thought was 10:15 pm, but was really 2:45 am. I woke up and was not tired. So I laid in bed until around sevenish going in and out of sleep having a strange dream about The Decemberists and my mom and I and Costco, and backstage passes, and people I used to work with, and local mega churches, and something about me trying to go to Paris with an expired passport. It was really weird.

So um as you can see, there was no Monday Inspiration and this is because I never got around to preparing for one, so um, sorry! But I promise exciting things tomorrow!

Remember me?

(My family and I are on a mini-vacation in Oceanside and are staying in a beach house. It's far too modern for my tastes, but there is a charming roof top terrace. This is three stories up and I am sitting on a ledge that leads to emminent doom aka the sidewalk)

Blouse- New York and Co.

Skirt- Thrifted

Belt- Torrid

Shoes- Payless
Ugly face- being exahusted/being terrified of my possible death

Sarah has had some really lovely blouse/skirt combos this week so this morning I thought I'd try my hand at one. Unfortunatly it was 105 in Riverside today so until I got down to Oceanside (where it was 78), I was dying from the heat of this skirt. The lining is super hot. But I got lots of nice comments on the combo.

So remember me? I'm the weird girl who apparently can't handle her emotions. Remember now? Oh good.

Well I am back. I am back and I've had a good/wonderful/amazing/odd/frustrating/horrid week. Yes it was all that and more. I have to say I missed blogging. I missed writing random things that few people find amusing/enjoyable. I missed being apart of this really neat community of bloggers. But I needed the time off. I needed to think less.

This is the problem: If you haven't figured this out my way of processing things is to write. This is probably why I spent so much of my childhood writing stories. The reason I never finished them was because I didn't need to. I'd written that part and dealt with whatever I needed to deal with and life was merry again. I used to keep a journal (several actually) in which I would write these things that don't really belong on a blog, but haven't kept one since about 2007. It seems that every few years I need to start another. This is usually preceded by several major event in which I grow tremendously, and followed by several major events where I grow tremendously. The writing comes during the dry season between the two. Being that this here blog is my only continuous outlet for writing, it tends to suffer. Writing helps me process because it's a task with finality, in which I only have to think about the words I'm writing and not the actual subject, which actually helps my head clear and for me to see things clearly and then be less of an idiot. It's an annoying process, but it's what I have to do. You should see the lengthy email I once wrote to my voice teacher after a "major event in which I grew tremendously". It was at least four paper pages long, and you could literally see my thought process as you read it. It's what I do. I find that If I need to think about something I should write and not actually think because then I over think and become even more confused. However if I act on things spontaneously and don't think things usually work out better. The problem is sometimes my thought problems are not "act-able."

The other problem is that I am a juxtaposition of myself. I'm a paradox, a Gemini (in theory), the anti of what I claim to be, and everything I claim to be. There's this very sweet, slightly sappy, highly emotional, constantly happily melancholy girl full of wonder and romance, and this slightly cynical, witty, head strong, independent, happy-go-lucky girl full of romance and wonder who is happily melancholy. As you can see I have repeats in these two characters and they are the characteristics that tend to lead to making stupid, rash, and highly emotional decisions that are, well, stupid, rash, and highly emotional. Shockingly (ha!) these characteristics also lead me to have small bouts of "woe is me syndrome" or WIMS for short, that usually end in people thinking I'm a drama queen. I'm not Dramatic, I'm Romantic. There's a fine line of difference, but it's there. The Dramatic acts like this for attention and because they want to. The Romantic does it because she doesn't know what else to do and has a brain the size of a pea which is unable to actually deal with the several different things she is going through. It's a tough life but someone has to live it.

I'm not trying to make any excuses for myself, just explaining and hoping you all can see that I'm not an emotional wreck, just an idiot. And that's okay with me, because honestly I like myself. I like my idiosyncrasies, my eccentricities, and my WIMS. It's part of the package deal that comes with me and there isn't much I can do about it.

Long story short, I'm journal-ing again, not so much an idiot as I was previously, probably going to be an idiot again and again, happy with life, and I'm no longer in a "fink", which is apparently not the appropriate use of the word. Fink is supposedly a tattle-tale in Mob terms. All I know is it was a fitting word for how I felt. More like an onomatopoeia for what I felt like.

So this week I spent not thinking. I did alot. I took time for me and I made lists and lists (and lists and lists and lists) of all the really wonderful things in my life. I realized that I am human, thus allowed a few moments of WIMS. I also realized that I am a young, highly emotional, rather stupid idealist. I like that, and hate it all at once. I try so hard to be the wizened old soul, but in truth I am a "new soul." I'm full of wonder and curiosity, I'm naive and stupid. I'm going to mess up, I'm going to fall on my face. I'm going to have moments where I look up to the sky and just scream "Why Me!?" I'm probably going to write some stupid post about how much I am feeling sorry for myself. But y'know what else I realized? That's okay. I don't actually have to be happy all the time because I am human and no one needs me to be happy ALL the time. I have every right to have an occasional pity party. And even in the "depths of despair" there's always something to laugh at. I've always known these things so maybe I didn't learn anything new, but I definitely needed a refresher's course. I can't control the people around me. I can't decide how the react to me, see me, or what they say to me. I can control me though. I can control How I react to them, and can choose how much power over me they all have.

In short (yeah right) I've had to accept the fact that I am still young. I'm not the other girls around me. I'm me and I've always been slow to learn certain things, life lessons being one of those things. I have a long way to go before I stop being an idiot and that's okay.

So for future reference if I seem to be WIMS-ing, just go along with it, or skip that post. Someday I'll do this less- possibly. The thing is it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to. But I promise not to cry for so long...

Will be back at:

I find that I am in a bit of a fink right now. I'm going to take some time off from blogging. Hopefully no more than a few days, but maybe all week. I'll still keep reading and commenting on all your lovely blogs, but I shan't be posting. I posted about it over here, but do not encourage reading as it is quite silly and really rather embarrassing, but read if you must. I'm fine, just

...

"finkish"

Have a lovely week.

How does your garden grow?

I have a theory that what interests you as a child will always interest you. At three months I "sang" along to music. The first job I ever wanted was a Fashion Designer. I read, wrote, and told stories from the moment I could do each. Mysteries grasp my attention. And things having to do with History and The United Kingdom intrigued me always. So I really shouldn't be surprised by how much I loved the thing I am about to tell you. It involves every one of those things.

When I was a little girl I remember the Disney channel had an afternoon programme (this was back when the Disney channel play things that didn't rot your brain and teeth) where they would play "vintage Disney" shorts. Most of these were some of the silly symphonies, or other shorts that had originally been played before the feature movies. One such one that has always stuck with me was one called "The Truth About Mother Goose." I've always loved nursery rhymes and mother goose stories, but there was something about that short that stuck with me- especially the story of "Mary, Mary, quite Contrary" (which has always been my favourite rhyme). I would dream of been an Elizabethan woman dressed in her beautiful blue gown. That dress took my breath away. I remember telling my parents all about it, replaying the scenes in my head. Every once in a while I will sit back and remember the cartoon with such delight I can barely stand it. I've tried to find releases of it on VHS or DVD, I've tried to find out the real name of the short, with no suck luck. But the beautiful colours and images made a deep and beautiful imprint on my child's memory.

Then last night I struck gold. I found a new really wonderful blog called Strawberry Lemonade. One of her posts was on finding an old Disney Record with a booklet explaining the stories on the record. it was called "Mother Goose Rhymes and Their Stories." I recognized this at once and squealed with delight (ask Bri she was laughing at how excited I was about it). Well armed with a name I hit up Google Images hoping to find some of the beautiful illustrations. And there it was. The Youtube link. They have the whole short on youtube!!! I've posted it for you to watch. Not only is it charming and adorable, There is something so darkly romantic about it all. This only covers three tales, and is a bit long, but I promise you won't regret watching it. I also found that this short opened Alice in Wonderland . And guess what? Mary's blue dress still takes my breath away! (even if they got the history a little wrong) So please to enjoy The Truth About Mother Goose!
(I promise pajama photos soon!)
Part One


Part Two

Koreans need loving too

I was going to post all about my pajamas that I am making today, but I didn't get them finished, so you will have to wait until tomorrow. I blame this on Alfred Hitchcock. Chelsea recorded a bunch of Hitchcock films and we watched them last night. I was up forever moving between the TV and the sewing machine. To get an idea in your head of what they look like (<-- awkward sentence) This is the idea behind them:

Jessica went to the Bankruptcy Court to file something and got asked out by the awesome Korean guy we call Korean Joe. This guy works for the courts and handed her a note saying it was a question for the debtor but really it asked if she was available for lunch sometime. I haven't stopped laughing about it yet. She said she was really thrown off because she kept trying to figure out why he wanted to have lunch with our client, then she figured out he was asking her to have lunch and she told him she had a boyfriend and then he took the note back so "the attorney didn't get mad." We've joked around that Korean Joe likes Michael, but now it seems that he was just using Michael as a conversation starter! Best day ever!

It actually has been a really awesome day. On my way to work this morning I turned on the radio and every song that played was a good song, and no commercial breaks, and I had just enough quarters to park until there was parking in our lot, and I got everything neat and organized right away this morning and even had breakfast and coffee at home. And I slept in. All in all today has been a great success so far.

Summer Magic

Yesterday I decided to make myself some pajamas. I got a pattern out, decided what I wanted to alter on it, then began the search for fabric. Last summer/fall I bought this really beautiful yellow stripped stuff. I'm not sure what kind of fabric it is, but I love it. It's tad sheer and very flowly and yellow, so basically it makes my heart sing. Well I bought what they had left in the store, which was about 2 1/4 yards I think, so I've been debating what to do with it. Well long story short I made it into my pajamas (I have to sew them up tonight and will show you all tomorrow). Since yellow has been the theme of my week I laughed and began to think about all the other yellow things that I love. Yellow shoes, yellow flowers, yellow coats, yellow houses, yellow dresses.... and I stopped and put in the movie Summer Magic . Summer magic has to do with not only a yellow dress, but a yellow house. It also happens to be one of my essential summer movies. I have a list of movies that are just summery that I watch every year and this is one of them. Summer Magic is an old Disney musical starring Hayley Mills, Deborah Walley, Burl Ives, and Dorothy McGuire. The story revolves around the Carey family who's father has recently died leaving them in financial ruin during the time of Rag. Nancy Carey, Hayley Mills, takes it upon herself as the family optimist to find out if her family can rent the Yellow House in Buella Maine that they saw when she was a child. In the course of the movie they meet Burl Ives, who is in charge of everything in town and has a knack for seeing silver linings to match even Nancy's ability, and are visited by their cousin Julia (Deborah Walley of Gidget Goes Hawaiian fame), who thinks of herself and quite the "pink of perfection." The music is a wonderful combination of ragtime rhythms and Disney-style show tunes, with catchy and fun lyrics. I've always identified with Nancy (what this movie and you will know my personality), who refuses to be brought down by the events that unfold around her. And the movie is just stinking fun! It's one of those movies you watch, and smile the whole time. There's a charming little love story (several actually), fun characters, and silly situations that just put you in a good mood. The costumes are a wonderful mix, of 60's and 1910's, bright and colourful and downright gorgeous! And the Yellow Dress! I've always wanted to make the same dress for myself someday. Anyways I watched the whole movie while I cut out my pattern and decided to show you all some stills. I highly recommend renting it/netflixing it before summer's end. It's really enjoyable!

The yellow dress!!!!

It's hard to tell in this photo (and I have no idea why they are aligned all funky), but the fabric under the lace is a burnt orange. I love it!

If you do happen to watch the movie let me know what you thought. I really think you'll enjoy it!

I need a haircut.

Dress- Thrifted, Belt- Torrid from years ago, Bag-vintage, Shoes- either target or payless (the label has rubbed off.)

This is an ice cream seller staring at me taking pictures of myself using self-timer. Apparently he thought I was nuts because he followed me around for like fifteen minutes trying to figure out what I was doing. These were taken at Fairmont Park, a park that while lovely and somewhat picturesque, will always be remembered as that place where a few John Doe's bodies have been found in the water. This amuses me alot, though it probably shouldn't. The lighting was really neat thought and I was having fun messing with camera settings. I decided that I'm going to ask for a really nice Digital Camera for my birthday (which is one month and 10 days away) instead of the trip to Portland or the purse. I also am thinking of taking a photography class. We'll see.

When I went to get lunch from my favourite deli downtown, the girl who was behind the counter squealed when she saw me and said "Oh my goodness! you look like a bee and you're wearing bee jewelry!" It made me laugh. I guess not alot of people dress like insects. I'm going to start a trend. She drew a bee on my take-out carton with a marker. I thought it was cute.


Today I am home alone, which is really swell as I will be able to get stuff done. I'm thinking I may end up going to the new grocery store up here. I have a strange love of going to grocery stores. Speaking of food I reinstated my diet today and am trying to keep walking at least half as much as I did in San Francisco. We ended up doing the math and figured out we walked just under 60 miles the whole week. I lost 17 lbs. Go me. I've cut sugar out of my life except for the Stevia I use in my coffee, and one apple a day. So far I've lost two more lbs since I got home! Yay!

Not that this has anything to do with anything, but I have come up with a strategy to avoid heat for the rest of my life. It's like a reverse Endless Summer idea. I am going to have one home in Portland that I will live in during the Northern Hemisphere's autumn and winter. Then I will buy a house in either New Zealand or Australia for the Southern Hemisphere's Autumn and Winter. Now all I need is the funds to do this. It's been in the 100s here and I'm dying. Literally dying. My hair is dry and limp, my skin is dry, my face broke out, I can't go outdoors without getting burned. DYING! A long time ago my I was complaining about the heat and Bri told me that she expected it was hard for me since it's hard for a "wanna be Eskimo, to live in Southern California." I'm not a wannabe. I am an Eskimo. (I'm actually not joking about that. My family came from Lapland in Norway and inbred with some Eskimos. That's why I have no eyes.)

Monday Inspiration # 16: Buzzzzzzzz

This is what was sitting on my desk waiting for me this morning. Lovely... I did manage to move that stack of files so far, but most of the rest of it requires a word processor that isn't crap (how do people live with Word? Word Perfect is far superior and easy to use), and can actually print labels when I tell it to. Urrg. Oh and I also washed dishes, and had people ask me about my trip with false interest. The problem was I didn't know it was false interest until I'd finished telling them a detailed day-by-day play-by-play of my entire trip. While we were gone there was apparently an office strike, which one lady blames on her husband having not blood pressure and going home to find Ambuli and Fire Trucks in her driveway. The problem with her story is that she can't blame leaving on her husband since she didn't know about this until she got home.... But who am I to argue with her logic.

I am allergic to bees. I'm allergic to alot of other things, but those will be saved for another time. I'm not severely allergic to them, but I will puff up and swell like the dickens, and I get a bit wheezy in my breathing. I've only been stung twice, once while I was outside reading a Nancy Drew book, the other while I was performing in an Opera. I was stung on the boob that time. It was fun.

But that being said I really like bees. I think they are very pretty and dainty(but don't get me started on those pictures of people who are covered in bees). There is some strange sophistication I associate with them. And frankly any insect who is essential in keeping flowers around, is a good insect in my book. Yellow also happens to be one of my absolute favourite colours, and I think yellow and black is a very versatile colour combo. So this morning I inadvertently dressed like a bumble bee (pictures tomorrow). I recently made me a bee jewelery set (pictures tomorrow) out of buttons, so I wore it with my outfit. I was really sure that everyone was going to joke about my being dressed like a bee, but as of yet no one has seemed to notice. So then I realized that I had been inadvertently inspired by bees and all their loveliness. I wouldn't mind turning into Chuck Charles.

I'm going to post this even if it kills me...

I've started six posts in the last three days. Part of the problem with my posting is that I a. have too much to tell, b. have really nothing to tell, c. would really rather lounge around the house in knit shorts and camisoles, and d. need to clean my room/unpack/do laundry/take a shower. But I do have much to tell so I am going to begin at the beginning and hopefully end at the end, however there is a strong chance that I may end back at the beginning. Also if you would like to see more pictures from my trip (I took about 2000) I will be slowly uploading them to my Flikr now that I figured out how to use it. I've had the dern thing for two years and am just now figuring out it's uses. Apparently there is a monthly upload limit for free accounts and thus It will probably take me at least two-three months to get them all up. But I should have some up later to night.

Dress-thrifted, Belt-thrifted, Tights- target, shoes- pinupgirlclothing.com, Red Bow- the abbyss of my mother's ribbon collection probably.

This is what I wore to visit Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf. I did not intentionally dress like a Gothic Lolita Sailor Girl to visit these places, but it happened. I actually really love this dress, but by Thursday I was so sick of those shoes. I own over 40 pairs of shoes. There is a very good reason for that. I get bored. I probably won't wear those shoes for months now. Alcatraz was really cool. Very spooky/creepy/intense/psychologically interesting. I highly recommend going someday and taking the audio tour. But I will warn you against the "slash-pop" noise they so delicately cover when you're in the dinning hall. We took the ferry over at nine am and left around 1:30. There was so much to see, and it was really a marvelous tour. I also decided that I could very happily live my life as a fisherman's wife, on an island, surrounded by the sea and making homemade clam chowder. I blame the revelation on Alcatraz, though there is much irony in my trip there leading me to this idyllic fantasy. Alcatraz is not somewhere I would label as idyllic, though the view is beautiful. When I told my mother this she started laughing and told me that she could totally see me living some strange Eye of the Amaryllis meets The Secret of Roan Inish life. I think this would be quite lovely and look forward to being the eccentric fisherwoman who mostly keeps to herself and her devastatingly and ruggedly handsome husband and their five children, save to go into town to hear the local gossip. I think people would think I was a witch, because I'd wear granny boots, long skirts and a shawl. Fisherman's Wharf was as fun as it always is. I love the fish market the most. If you can't tell I am a huge fan of sea food, and by sea food, I mean anything that is not sushi. Sushi is gross and disgusting. And no, Bri and Jess, I do not want to go get sushi anytime soon. Or ever for that matter. We ate lunch at Boudine and had clam chowder bread bowls, then we walked over to Ghiradeli Square to have afternoon tea at The Crown and Crumpet. Cutest place ever. I am not a huge tea fan, but I could have sat there for hours drinking that stuff and eating our little cakes. I did get tired of hearing my sister squeal about how pink everything was (her tea was even pink despite being called "Blue eyes"), but I am also not a pink person. I am however a sparkly things person and there was plenty to be had. we were supposed to go to a club that night but Jess got sick so we ended up walking down to an old fifties diner called Mel's Drive In and had burgers and shakes. Then we went back to our hotel and fell asleep very quickly.

Sweater- target, Shirt- Decemberist's concert, Skirt- target, -Tights- ???, Unicorn socks(!)- Pac Sun, Shoes- Keds.

Boring outfit, not even all that cute, but by Friday I wanted to be as comfortable as possible plus I had a plane to ride that night and knew I wouldn't have time to change. Our last day was my personal favourite. If you have never been to the Sutro Bath Ruins on Ocean Beach, you must go. You must wear a skirt, and you must climb all the rocks and ruins and go into all the caves . Then you must take your shoes off and run through the ocean. When you have finished these you must play with the settings on your camera and take over five hundred pictures. Trust me this is the recipe for the best day of your life. We had so much fun! We also saw The Camera Obscura, which is super neato in a geeky kinda way, and had clam chowder at the Cliff House as we watched the ocean chop at it's self and this random kayaker. Let's see how many times I can go on and on about clam chowder in this post. Anyways we walked up and down Ocean Beach and found a beached dead seal, which we reported to Beach Patrol like good little beach goers, plus it was gross and disgusting and I wanted to pass out. I met a poodle named Rex who loved me, we found a super cool cave, we scaled rocks and pretended we were German Tourists (No offense to any German Tourist at all!!! But they are the worst at ignoring the safety chins/ropes/signs and plummeting to their deaths off cliffs. I went camping alot when I was a kid, to lots of national parks, so you can trust my knowledge of this.), and then we took a bus back to our hotel and got our luggage and exchanged pictures for the last time, and waited for our shuttle that doubles as a human trafficking service. Then we got to the airport and went to our gate, waited for 45 mins, then figured out that they had switched our gates and we were at the wrong one. Then we boarded the plane, flew home and were greeted by thick Los Angeles air and really hot nights. And that's my story. We had such a good time, full of crazy and hilarious memories (ask me about how Bri fell off the bed), and while I'm glad to be back in my own bed, and with my family, I hate southern California even more now. I haven't been outside for two days since it's been in the 90s. I miss the wind, and the cold, and complaining about it being hot when it got up to 69. Oh cool weather how you taunt me...

In other news I was going to announce a giveaway today, but I think I'll hold off on that until the end of the month. We were supposed to be going on a family vacation next week, but plans may be changing so until I know what my month looks like, I will hold off on it. But I am very excited for it! I'll show you the prizes soon. There will be two winners, one international, and one within the US. I'm itching to tell you all about it, but it will have to wait! I go back to work tomorrow and am almost looking forward to it since I hear there is a strike going on in one of the offices. Should be interesting.

Day Three

Vest- ??, Blouse- Thrifted, Skirt- Target, Shoes-Pinupgirlclothing.com

I took almost 300 photos today. That's why I didn't post that many. The above were taken in Golden Gate Park in Shakespeare's Garden. I started to take some pictures of a very pretty wilderness area and then we started taking these pictures. The lighting was so pretty! We went to Haight-Ashbury also, which was alot of fun. I think we ended up figuring out that we walked over fifteen miles today. We had a blast, and had several strange hobo encounters, and ate Ben and Jerry's. I was really excited to go thrifting there, but all the stores were wayyyyy overpriced. even the Buffalo Exchange was over priced. I'm looking forward to the time when thrifting goes out of fashion and the prices go back to being normal. I ended up just getting a dress from AAARDVARKS. Strangely enough I had a dream about wearing this dress. This exact dress. It was so weird to see it. This is the second time this has happened now. Weird..... Mom tell Chelsea I bought the dress for the "Across the Border" party. She'll know what I'm talking about. Here's what Haight-Ashbury looked like today.