Movin' On Up

Well today is my last day at UCR. There is a lot out there and I'll never get there if I don't change things, so I'm slowly changing things one at a time. I'm more sad to leave living in downtown Riverside; it is so up-and-coming and such a sweet little spot, but it will always be my home and I will always be endlessly proud of it!

Oh, and here's this little gem from Shannon. Such an uncanny replica! I LOVE it!

Here are pictures from my going away lunch

Afterwards, I schlepped my ass to my gymnastics class in the 104 degree heat. Since I'm moving I'll only have one class after this, at least here, so I filmed my backhandsprings. They're sloppy and weak, but I'm 30 and it's been so much fun with my coach Tim.

So this is how I will be exiting UCR this afternoon...



And here's another one busted out in slow mooooo



And here was the cover still from the first video hahahah

GRE's tomorrow, packing on Sunday, and then hellooooo UCI!

Pokemon GO

Ummm not only am I totally Pokemon Go-ing, but I apparently live in Cool People Central, because downtown Riverside has been having tons of crazy events dedicated to it, and I get to partake in it.

Early on Saturday morning I went to a coffee shop to try to do some GRE studying. I couldn't believe how many people were out and about, and they were all Pokemon Go-ing, wearing Pokemon costumes, including a Pikachu onesies.

AJ came over in the afternoon and by evening, we decided to get pho for dinner. On the way, we saw SO MANY PEOPLE downtown Pokemon Go-ing, it was seriously more crowded than any Arts Walk I've ever seen. It was practically, practically the Festival of Lights. And call me crazy, but I just love it. It's such a harmless stupid thing we can all bond over. I think I'm still recovering from never being a part of the Harry Potter craze when it was happening, so I'm all about being a part of all these social movements now haha. So I tell AJ "on the way home, we HAVE to stop off here and partake!" and he rolled his eyes and said no way. (Of course... who was catching Pokemon at dinner??)

So on the way home, AJ says "do you still wanna stop off for the Pokemon Go?" and I said "OBVI!!!" so we stopped and joined the madness... including AJ!! The funniest part is that he tries to be so cool and act like he's not into it... he holds his phone super low so it doesn't look like he's playing, and tries to discretely catch the Pokemon...! I keep telling him there's no shame and to embrace it!! And he keeps saying that he's only doing it when I do cause he has nothing else to do. Mmmhmmmmm...!

Trying to hide his Pokemon Go

CAUGHT IN THE ACT

On Sunday we went out to Orange County... so much cooler out there!! And we were helping our friends pack up their apartment. And here was Anana just chillin like a queen B.

It's so hot in my office today, I don't know what happened, because it's usually freezing. And my coworker convinced me to go to the lunchtime workout with her which is LEGIT - I was sweating SO MUCH I grossed myself out, and it's so hot outside AND it's so hot in my office! Wahhhhh!

TGIF

TGIF. TGIF. TGIF.

Seriously.

TGIF.

Here is my life lately. Because I am going crazy, and studying for the GRE (next Saturday!!) I have gone off the deep end. I am a Pokemon Go'er AND I am raising a Tamagotchi on my phone. Enjoy these random pictures below.

My Tamagotchi!

My Tamagotchi evolved and was very proud of itself

A tornado???

Shannon Photoshopped in

An Eevee at my desk!

Exploring my neighborhood catching Pokemon and found a street of kitties!

My Pokedex... forever ago. I have sooo many more now #booyah

Aloha! New snapchat filters

Khaleesi being a diva

Happy July Friday

This has been a weird week with Monday off. Here are some pictures from my week to excite you:

This is the color my mom dyed my hair. More accurately it should be labeled Butterface Blonde lolololol

Casey in PJs

Casey with a swishy tail

Nesting dolls from Moscow from Kathleen

Oh and I had my gymnastics yesterday and I didn't get nearly as nauseous and my back handsprings are already feeling better!

Have a happy weekend friends!

The Original #Brexit

Yesterday we celebrated the original #Brexit! (I said that all weekend long and it still hasn't worn on me yet - I think it's hilarious) but the weekend itself had mixed reviews.

Allow me to explain...

First of all, Saturday was the big Germany/Italy match. I left my house to head to AJ's in time for the end. I'm still sporting the water bottle I got when I was a bridesmaid in my cousin's wedding, so I sent her a picture of that

and then I showed up to AJ's to see a glorious surprise... he's trimmed his beard!! Yahoo!

Anyways, the Germany/Italy ending was INTENSE. I LITERALLY jumped out of the chair whooping and hollering when Germany made their winning PK. AJ and I celebrated with sushi, then we went to our friend's place, where we were housesitting.

The garage door code wasn't working, we tried hopping the fence and all the shenanigans led us to was having to drive all the way back to where we came from to get a garage door opener from the parents. It was a low-key night and we went to bed.

Sunday was the big France/Iceland match. Originally we wanted to go somewhere to watch it, but we were moving slow, we had Anana, and our friends had to do wedding planning, so we ended up staying in. It was DEVASTATING by the way. I couldn't continue to watch but for some reason we watched the whole thing, and watched Iceland essentially get crushed to France, and were in a bad mood.

We decided to go to the beach and thought it was be okay since it was still only Sunday the 3rd, and packed up and drove to Newport and Huntington, only to literally drive around for literally an hour and a half and not only never find parking - but never even see anyone else ever find parking. It was the worst situation I had ever seen. We went back to AJ's house and went in the pool with Anana. We thought we would go to the batting cages with friends, but I was in such a bad mood from wasting an entire day that I had to take a nap to erase the day, and woke up late. AJ cooked dinner for us and it was too late to do anything else.

At least Monday was the 4th of July holiday, and that was pretty redeeming! AJ and I had lots of patriotic gear, and went to a friends place with a pool. We had ping pong and beers and music and the pool and created games using ping pong balls in the water, and then went to another friend's house to BBQ and light off fireworks. It was pretty low-key, but fun, and very 4th-y. The crazy thing was being in Huntington Beach, where fireworks were legal, and seeing them go off ALL AROUND US. It was quite beautiful, actually. Driving back we were seeing the fireworks go off everywhere in a 360 view, and a lot of people were even pulled over the shoulder of the freeway to watch.

Now it's Tuesday - already a day down this week!

Four Year Circle

This week has felt like a throwback. I'm back on my Bruce Springsteen kick, which takes me back to 2012 when I went through that huge revitalization phase. I know it's like, THE Boss song, but Dancing in the Dark will probably always be one of my all time favorite songs. It's just so inspiring!

But, there's more... 2012 was also the year that I read Harry Potter, and AJ has been re-reading them and I've been watching the movies with him (following our trip to Hogwarts) AND I was also taking springboard diving lessons, and doing a lot of acrobatics dry land classes for it.

Well, my yoga BFF Marisa was happy to report that she was expecting (due in October) and hasn't been able to go to yoga. I fell out of it, because it's kinda far, wasn't incredibly convenient with my schedule, and it wasn't the same without Marisa! I still go occasionally, but not nearly as regularly as before. So, because I'm not getting any younger, I went all out: I signed up for private gymnastics lessons at the gym right around the corner from me. Yes, you read that right. Gymnastics. That was always my dream but I can't talk about it because it hurts too much.

ANYWAYSSSSS... yesterday was the first one! I have half hour private lessons once a week. I might actually sign up for the group lessons (more frequent and less expensive - even if it is with 10 year olds) but I wanted some privates to kick things off and get back into it, and see how it goes.

Well, it was fascinating. I have (shockingly) not lost much of my strength or flexibility. We started small on the mats with front and side cartwheels, and round offs. When that went really well, he tested my backbends to see what kind of back arch I still had. He deemed it good enough to start spotting me on back handsprings.

So, we're working with back handsprings, and I'm finding myself so dizzy that I need to stop and move onto something else. Not even so dizzy as much as ughhhhhhhhhhh, do not feel good from the upsidedownness.

So we spend the rest of the half hour working on handstand presses and conditioning, which was fine by me, it was essentially a personal trainer, my own free Kayla Itsines! It was great, and I was happy.

When I am driving out of the parking lot, the dizziness and nausea is mounting, despite being done being upside down. It comes up fast, and I have to slam on my brakes, open my car door, and spend a solid five minutes puking. Like full on heaves of my leftover Mexican food I had for lunch. The worst part was that I coughed somewhere in there and got a diced onion stuck in my nasal cavity and had to do a sinus wash when I got home.

All from a couple of back handsprings.

So, on the one hand I feel fresh and young, working tumbling and all... and on the other hand I officially feel very, very old.

Looking forward to next Thursday though!