Imposter

This cat sure loves to antagonize me. She has this need to takeover whatever I want, and her favorite hobby is consistently stealing my spot on the bed. I routinely lay very close to my nightstand, and any chance she gets she'll weasel her way in there. She especially likes to take over any small opening of mattress in the night and eventually weed me out until she has my whole side of the bed. And when I get up in the mornings and go to brush my teeth, I come back to find her trying to be me.

And here is her pissed-off look when I even marginally move close to her and interrupt her laying time.

Sometimes I wish I named her Sansa.

Nothing, Nothing

My only goal this weekend was to do nothing, and somehow I still think that I failed at it...! I still had a crazy week at work and it took a lot to catch up from the Yosemite trip, and next weekend is my cousin's wedding, so this weekend was meant to be nothing but nothing.

On Friday after work I went and visited a little Riverside store called the Weathered Feather that I had been wanting to visit for a long time! I got this sweet Raincross plaque that I probably could have made myself for 25 cents, but I support local business, and I love Riverside, so deal with it.

On Saturday morning I went out to Orange County and boyfriend and I hit the shops. He needed a case for his new iPhone but we kept running into all these sales. I made out with nothing and he got lots of new stuff. What gender stereotypes? We planned to work on our trip to Europe but instead all we did was think about all the places we'd like to go (everywhere) and fell asleep on the couch. LOLOLOL #oldpeople

Here are a few of the little dogs being housed by his aunt (she runs a rescue) it was like a little mini zoo in there.

And of course, Anana doesn't care about me at all if her master is in view. She couldn't take her eyes off of him. So sweet!

On Sunday it was all-day football and by all-day football I mean all-day football. They watched football all day via ESPN's Redzone, and the newly-wifed hostess kept the drinks and food alive, so no one ever really left.

This must have been when the Chargers were playing because this photo is actually candid and I shockingly look mildly interested.

Getting through this week to celebrate my cousin's wedding on Saturday! Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

First Day of Fall

Happy first day of fall! My favorite season!



Maybe after the triple degree heat this week it will actually feel like fall too!

Bass Lake Wedding

2015: The Year of Weddings continues. After hell week at work, aka working from 6a-5p, I hit the road for Bass Lake, in/near Yosemite. I got in around 12:30.

I was really excited for the weekend up there to celebrate AJ's friends' wedding, but I was also sad that due to the hell week and this being The Year of Weddings, I wasn't able to make it to my cousin's bachelorette party in Vegas the weekend previous, and couldn't make it to Pam's bachelorette in Chicago this weekend. I was able, however, to deliver milk and cookies to my cousin that weekend in the Venetian, and have a bottle of champagne delivered to Doug and Pam on their arrival in Chicago.

HIRJI gifts

The Bass Lake trip was fun. The engaged couple graciously rented chalets for the wedding party and close friends and their plus ones, so it was really fun staying in all of the rooms with everyone. By the time I arrived, everyone was feeling pretty good from the rehearsal dinner and karaoke hour at the bar, and I was still minorly delusional from lack of sleep + chugging a Monster, but we didn't stay up too late past that.

It was really, really hot, and dry where we were, and the lake itself was obviously very depleted, but it was still very beautiful. We all got brunch on Saturday morning and then hung out in the rooms for awhile, before the wedding party got ready for pictures and events, and the rest of us hung out (Titanic was on TV!) and got ready and headed down ourselves.

It was pretty hot, but the backdrop was beautiful and the ceremony was great and the reception was super fun.

AJ's groomsman entrance

We tried to Brady Bunch it...

After the reception we went to the one bar at the resort. AJ and I didn't last long... I was crashing since I still never recovered from my work week. On Sunday we all went to brunch together cause there were football games on. I drove the first half home and AJ and I went to his mom's in Hermosa Beach where I was able to take a nap before heading back to Riverside and getting in at midnight. And NOW I can finally plan, prepare and get excited for my cousin's wedding in two weeks!

Hairbangers Ball

On Friday, my neighbors had a ton of tickets to the Hairbanger's Ball down the street and we totally, totally went to it. Here is AJ mesmerized by Noise Pollution lololol.

Saturday was the twins aunt's birthday party, and then Sunday was my twin friends' bday karaoke party. I guess you could say it was a twin weekend.

It was like a high school reunion, it was kinda eerie feeling like it was 11 years ago, when all of us were also there for the twins' 17 birthday party in 2003...

Highlander Pros

Someone on this large campus finally took the initiative to do what I'd wanted, but been too lazy to do: set up a young professionals group for those of us who work here and organize monthly happy hours and events!

Last night was the first meeting, and it was quite enjoyable, EVEN THOUGH I lost the raffle.

Why am I the ONLY person holding their drink?? #wino

I'm always surprised at the diversity that is here in Riverside, it's hidden somewhere but it's there. For instance, I made a friend with a girl who just moved LAST FRIDAY from Texas to work here. I always assume everyone here is from the Inland Empire because... what? But I underestimate how up-and-coming Riverside is.

Also, after the happy hour I went out to the Galleria to look for a necklace for an upcoming wedding. Kathleen and I love Charming Charlie and I texted her just to say that man, this place is dangerous for my wallet. Ten minutes later someone is stomping and screaming and "BOO"ing in my face. Turns out Kathleen was at the Galleria too a few stores away and was able to come over and effectively scare the s#!* out of me.

Labor Day Weekend

San Diego. SDSU tailgating, skyshow, California burritos, Padres and Dodgers, beer, Hawaiian BBQ, Cards Against Humanity, trains.

Is it the weekend yet?

Bücher Livres Cărți 図書 Books

Back to the grind, and right at the time where things are about to go haywire with fall orientation. In our staff meeting yesterday, we ended it with a little bonding "What's your favorite book?" question. Even though my boss allowed us to share different genres (i.e., my favorite fantasy book is... but my favorite children's book is...) my mind went haywire because I have way too many favorite books, and couldn't even categorize them. So I just want to list all these books (or short stories, flash fiction pieces, etc) that I love and have had a profound influence on me, one way or another.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl by Ray Bradbury
The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Enfance by Nathalie Sarraute
Une si longue lettre by Mariama Bâ
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Du côté de chez Swann by Marcel Proust
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
The Seaside Houses by John Cheever
Wants by Grace Paley
I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Goodbye to All This by Joan Didion
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Chandler

Anyway, that's what I have off the top of my head. I may add to this later, it's just for my own reference.

There are plenty of other good books out there I have read and enjoyed and think are noteworthy (On The Road by Jack Kerouac or The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, or Suite française by Irène Némirovsky) but those just didn't ~move~ me the way those above did, for one reason or another.

And since I have strong feelings, I can also tell you that I do not like dystopian novels (Hunger Games is aiight) or Jane Austen, so keep those far away from me!

Southern Country Bumpkin Roadtrip

A Thursday morning missed flight. A standby gamble through Cincinnati. Late night pulled pork sandwiches and karaoke in Raleigh. Brunch time fried chicken at Bojangles. Major Lazer on the radio. Myrtle Beach promenade and Wild Wild East photo shoots and ice cream cones. Electric lemonade and fried pickles. Roadside country stores and more Major Lazer on the radio.

Family and HBO specials outside of Charleston. Sleeping in and morning coffee and downtown carriage rides. Plantation home restaurants, hush puppies and grits and collard greens and city markets and confederate history, the harbor and southern accents and mansion homes and little kitties and pineapple fountains and be still my heart!

Massive oak trees and wildlife and humidity and greenery and rocking chairs. Major Lazer on the radio. Creepy old pensions and ubers. Drinking on the streets. Pecan chicken po-boys and collard greens and Yuenglings and eccentricity and hardcore gothic crowds and no they're not from Savannah and sharing futons and Georgia humidity and foggy windows, alligator chairs and grits and Spanish moss oak trees. Bull Street parade and fountains and incorrect lines in coffee shops. Chippewa Square and Forrest Gump and rain, rain, rain. Barbershops and rain, rain, rain. Starbucks and rain. Juliette Gordon Low's birthplace and rain. Candy kitchens and pet stores and art markets and friends on the Dot. River ferries and waving girls and peanut stores and fried gator tail, hush puppies and crab chowder. Rain and rain. Drinks and crazy bartenders and forgotten credit cards and Spanish moss oaks. Sights and sounds and rain. Courtyard rain and talk and showers and sleep.

Early morning road trippin and coffee and gas. Major Lazer on the radio, sad little amusement park, last chance for grits, and a Raleigh airport drop off just in time to sail through Minneapolis, arrive in LAX and wait longer at Del Taco than I did for my pick-up.

Home with my kitty and missing Jayna and the south!