Work and Khaleesi... In That Order

Well hello from my land to yours.

Have I ever mentioned how much I really believe in the notion that bodies in motion, stay in motion? I was getting pretty stagnant in Riverside, but with things having picked up steam in Irvine, I'm more energetic and active now. Work is insane, so I have to work out (even if I did take two weeks off because I got sick) so I'm doing bootcamp classes with Kathleen. I spend evenings walking Anana, or taking her to the dog park, and on Wednesday of this week, AJ and I went to our friends' place to play Jeopardy with them. I hadn't been out on a weeknight like that in a long time!

Here's a small snapshot of my job. On top of marketing, website design and editing, in-office support, swag buying, and thousands of other things, I am in charge of coordinating the logistics for all of our international events. One event alone includes fair registration, payment, materials shipping, scheduling, promotional materials creation, powerpoint presentations, securing a local alumni translator... and more. There are multiple events our travelers go to in each city. As I'm working on making sure everything is squared away for upcoming events, I also need to be supporting the current events and helping the travelers with anything that comes up while they are abroad, confirming their schedules, tracking lost shipments, directing them, etc. And here's what a month looks like...

In case you can't read that, we have travelers in India, England, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Brazil this month. Next month we have events in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand... and they're still signing up for more! Oh joy!

In other news, Khaleesi got a new cat tree, courtesy of our friends Jon & Nykole and their lovely cat Derek Zoolander who outgrew it...

And she has over taken Anana's bed...

And that's all from me. It's finally the weekend....!

Celebration of Life

I never published this, I just realized it's been sitting in my drafts. It was from this summer, when we went to Hermosa Beach for AJ's stepdad's Celebration of Life. And it was a celebration.

I think those pictures of me going to town on those tacos over my beer pretty much summed up the summer.

August This Year

Here was my August, I think:

Finished up moving out of my Riverside apartment, with the help of my mother...

We showered my cousin for her upcoming first baby with an adorable Twinkle Twinkle Little Star theme...

I showered my very good friend since middle school (and yoga bud!) for her upcoming first baby

Continue to move into the apartment, which Khaleesi loves, although I'm having problems with this fiesta decor...

And more weddings! A Saturday night wedding in Costa Mesa with an open bar proved to be quiteeeeee enjoyable. And I've been inducted to the Uni OG Babes group, and here was the celebration of us all, yahoo!

 

And a fun couples shot...

And I guess, aside from the whirlwind of my job, that's been my August!

SUMMER OLYMPICS!!

It's here! It's here! My absolute favorite time of every four years! The best years of my life are always when the summer Olympics are on!

Life has been IN-SANE. I am so exhausted and fatigued sometimes I just want to collapse. This is the first time I've felt like I've gotten to just sit down in over two weeks... even though I am still doing stuff from the chair. But I am so excited and content and entertained to sit here and watch the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics and get excited for the next 2 weeks ahead with the Games.

I love the Opening Ceremonies - you see all the cultures, all the flags, all the athletes, and I love watching the map that shows you where the countries are at, and all the crazy facts and stories that you get from the commentators, even if they are such cheesy people. I always get The Feels and The Chills watching the Olympics. I love it, and I love the worldwide collaboration.

I've started this tradition with myself of watching the Opening Ceremony and tracking all the countries. It started with the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I had just gone to Germany a few weeks prior and got really sick, so I could do nothing but stay in bed, so I ended up watching the Opening Ceremonies and just writing down each country in the order they came in. I have no idea why, I really have no explanation, but I loved it. I can't believe that was 8 years ago now!! Anyways I repeated it with the 2012 Olympics. I was working at Columbia University at the time and always kept a screen open on the side of my computer, and I remember tracking the teams again.

Also of note, I have a vivid memory from the Beijing Opening Ceremony of a performance with a person using their arms and legs to create giant calligraphy. It was beautiful, but somehow the biggest thing that stuck with me. For London, it was JK Rowling reading Peter Pan, which was appropriate since that was my Year of Harry Potter. For this one, I think it was the favela dancing. Who knows, we'll see what sticks.

ANYWAYSSSSSSS just wanted to say that I'm still alive. My new job has me so busy I don't have a free moment to click outside of my email, and then I've been working on all the unpacking and moving and cleaning stuff, but I have to say I'm very happy about it because with the whole political climate and everything else, I am just sooooo overrrrrrr anyone's opinions or commentary, so I've been happier just staying off of it. Ha.

Someone please tell these athletes to put their damn phones down! YOU'RE THERE. YOU'RE ON TV. EVERYONE IS WATCHING. IT'S DOCUMENTED. YOU'LL FIND ALL THE FOOTAGE FOREVER. PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN AND ENJOY THE MOMENT AND LIVE IT!!!

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