Special Surprise

AJ had a surprise for me for a few weeks and all I knew about it was that it was in LA on Saturday night. I asked a few questions, like, is it near water? Will there be alcohol? Will there be explosive devices? How should I dress? Should I bring a snake-bite kit? But overall I didn't really try to figure it out because I loved the surprise element.

On Friday night I went out with my friend and coworker Macy to a campus bar and it was super fun and I felt like a college student again lolololol

On Saturday morning I got up early because we were driving out to Hermosa Beach to stay with AJ's mom for the weekend. We got brunch and walked along the beach and AJ's mom guessed where we were going before I did. I freaked when I found out that it was to go to see Florence + the Machine at the Hollywood Bowl. She is my girl and I was still wishing I could see her after getting the acoustic set at Coachella.

The night was perfect weather and we had amazing seats at the Bowl. We bought food from Trader Joes and had a picnic in the car once we got there and parked. We bought a bottle of wine inside and watched her entire amazing set.

She is hands down the best ever!!

Bossypants

I devoured Tina Fey's Bossypants last week within a few days. I'm not a huge Tina Fey fan, but the book had a lot of LOL moments. Nothing was incredibly insightful, and the whole book was pretty funny, but there weren't a lot of one-liners, mainly stories, so nothing concise. I'll leave you with this one semi-relevant excerpt:

(On the 2008 election) Instead of talking about issues, everybody was trying to prove how "down-home" they were. 'I'm just like you' was the sub-text of every speech. Politics and prostitution have to be the only jobs where inexperience is considered a virtue. In what other profession would you brag about not knowing stuff? 'I'm not one of those fancy Harvard heart surgeons. I'm just an unlicensed plumber with a dream and I'd like to cut your chest open.' The crowd cheers.

And here comes 2016. Sheesh.

When Bad Things Happen To Good People

I joined in this NFL weekly betting with my boyfriend and his friends. (Mistake #1). It's just a $5 buy-in each week that you want to play, and winner takes all. This was my second week playing, and imagine my surprise when I was in FIRST PLACE.

Long story short... it all came down to the Chargers game last night. The only person challenging my position had put the Steelers for the game last night and I put the Chargers. If the Chargers won, I would have walked away with just shy $100. I was tense.

So imagine how that game was for me... Chargers up, Steelers tying, Steelers pulling ahead, Chargers, pulling ahead... and then Chargers were WINNING. And with 5 SECONDS LEFT IN THE GAME... the Steelers scored and won.

I was actually SO devastated, I almost did start crying. I still tear up a little bit when I think about it. I used to think it was the most immature, absurd thing ever to hear about fans sending death threats to QBs after losses, but honestly, after last night, I kinda understood it. I was thisclose to cutting out magazine letters and mailing my anger in to Philip Rivers.

I am actually still SO UPSET about that loss... I may be in the market for a new NFL team. Let the bidding begin! (For them. To earn me. As a fan. Obviously.)

The Dog Beach

I miss the dog beach! This weekend was unexpectedly spent in Orange County, mainly crashing a Newport mansion some friends were house sitting on the harbor, lots of food and football, and the DOG BEACH.

I guess maybe because it was roasting triple degree heat this weekend, but it was sooooooo funnnnn. It was pretty crowded, but the water felt amazing, and Anana was being so cute. AJ and I tried to go swimming, but Anana gets very nervous for people out in the water, and she kept trying to go save us, but she gets nervous getting too far in, so she kind of panics too. We tried to take turns going in the water and the other up on the sand with the dog, but she wasn't having it, so we basically just ran up and down the shoreline with her. So adorbs!

And there's a good chance I'm going to win a good chunk of change tonight with tonight's game (Chargers vs. Steelers - ouch!) based on me being amazing and psychic and picking the most winners of this weekend's NFL matchups. STAY TUNED.

Long Night of Arts & Innovation

Last night was Riverside's Long Night of Arts & Innovation. It was modeled after Germany's Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften, where you basically have a long night celebrating... (wait for it)... arts and innovation.

I had my usual yoga class (which was AMAZING because my favorite teacher subbed and I love her and her flow and she brings the straight good jams and then lets you savasana to Neil Young's Harvest Moon) went home and ate and then walked to the Main Street mall to check it out.

It was pretty poppin' all things considered. Everything from poetry readings, finger paintings and a free caricaturist (the line was too long otherwise I totally would have been all over that) to nursing students, TV stations, engineering contests, universities, entomology departments (NO I do NOT want to hold your scorpion, go away!) and robots, etc etc!

I have to say though, that I was paroozing the scene around 9, and a lot of vendor tables had already been abandoned. The schedule was from 5p-midnight. Short Night of Arts & Innovation? I should have put Khaleesi on her harness and brought her with me.

Anyways, it was a warm night and nice to see everyone out and about, and kinda cool to see Riverside undertaking these kinds of events and funtivities.

The Wheel of Time: The Great Hunt, Book 2

I finished this book recently. I didn't fold any pages, there weren't really any moving lines of literature, although the series is good, albeit a little slow. I haven't read Lord of the Rings but I do imagine it is comparable, and most of the reviews on the series suggest the same.

Just keeping the world apprised of my book reading this year.

#pabbri15

My cousin got married to her boyfriend of 13 years! It was a really fun event, and it started when I had to get up at 6a to make it to her hotel by 6:45a to start getting ready for the 12 noon ceremony. Not only was I so swamped with getting ready and helping with all the wedding details, but my phone died pretty early on, so I didn't have a chance to take any pictures really, so this was what I was able to round up.

Brianna was super cute and got the bridesmaids personalized clothes hangers for the dresses, and water bottles with our names and "BRIDESMAID" on it (which I am drinking from today). We were in a frenzy getting out of the hotel, the Catholic ceremony was nice aside from the priest not knowing her name. We went to take pictures afterwards (and man was it hot in those long dresses!) and then the reception went well into the night! I got to partake in some Mexican traditions of girls forming a line with hands and running all around the couple like chains you would have at recess... that was the best part! Oh, that and the open bar of course.

Toast to the newlyweds!

Does it look like Monday to you?

Next up in the Year of the Weddings: Pam and Doug!