It's my unbirthday!

Hi bloggy blog!

My head is a little foggy for reasons unknown so the words coming out of my mouth / fingers don't make the best sense. Or maybe they do and I just don't think they do. My eye's twitching which doesn't usually happen unless I haven't slept. Which I barely did this past week, but slept 10 hours last night. It makes no sense! I had my first Yoga class today, well Yogalates.

Hi, I love yoga now. That was wonderful. Although maybe that is why I am foggy. Super relaxed. I'm drinking Jasmine Green Tea (#teadrinkersunite) and I have a tutoring interview in a few hours. I'm not so sure that I want to tutor, but I am sticking to my obligations.

My to do list has barely been touched this week. I don't know what's going on! So before I say anything to embarrass myself. Let's do a little 25 by 25 recap considering today is my UNBIRTHDAY!!!!

Aka my half birthday. I love this day. Joe's Crab Shack is even giving me a $7 off coupon for my half birthday. So sweet!

I will hopefully have a productive day after this!

1. Keep my room clean every day. This has been a goal since childhood -__-
2. Create and keep a Bedtime Routine. 
3. Do a 30-day Challenge.
4. Read 25 books. 4 down!
5. Blog 10-15 x a month. Yes!!! This has become easy!
6. Become confident in my design ability. Almost there!! I am definitely more confident!
7. Make healthier eating habits - don't eat take out for 1 month. 
8. Jog 5 miles without stopping.
9. Take my quad up China Wall. This ties in with wanting to go to Glamis more.
10. Donate Blood. This is a big deal as I am afraid of blood / entering the Red Cross buildings
11. Give Chuck some TLC. Most notably - attempt to have $$ to fix exhaust leak, definitely at least replace the Roll Cage Cushion and put in the regular seat belts, detail the inside. Working on it!! 
12. Find something for Iman and I to do together regularly (i.e. cooking class or a team)
13. Wear an "outfit" to work every day for a month. Including accessories and makeup
14. Sell something for WQ OMG I am SO EXCITED FOR THIS!! 
15. Cook dinner every day for 2 weeks
16. Meet a blog friend in real life. Megalin!
17. Organize my stuff in the garage / storage unit.  Organized and storage unit is gone!!
18. Go Paintballing. We have already purchased 2 packages...we just haven't used any.
19. See a meteor shower with Iman
20. Ride in the Great Orange Balloon.
21. Learn to cook on the Weber
22. Decorate a cake.
23. Make a difficult recipe.
24. Send my OSU friends a letter/card once a month.
25. Start to Vlog again.

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1. Fourplay  by Jane Moore

2. Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner

3. The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory

4. The White Princess  by Philippa Gregory

Have a wonderful weekend!!

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. For every e-book purchased I will receive commission. 

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SoCal Friday

Today, I'm wishing I was not in the office, solely because Beach Fridays were my absolute favorite day of the week back in high school...Park Tuesdays came in second. I thought I'd tell you a little bit about what my favorite California Friday is [for the record, my senior year of high school we got out at 1 p.m., so every day was a fun day but we made it a point to go to the beach on Fridays, even if it rained. You're only a senior in high school once!]

My Perfect California Friday

9:00 a.m. Wake up! I wouldn't want to spend the whole day wasted in bed. That's what Sundays are for!
10:00 a.m. Grab an Acai bowl for breakfast, or a burrito from that one shop in Huntington Beach
11:00 a.m. Meet up with the best friends to hurry to the beach, it's already 80 degrees!
11:45 a.m. Finally found parking at the beach! While this may seem tedious [and can be] we like to make it fun by blaring our music and laughing.

2:00 p.m. I'm tired of laying in the sun, let's go walk the pier in Huntington and eat at Ruby's On The Pier!
3:00 p.m. Hmm, it's not too late to take PCH to Laguna to look at the shops. But we have to leave now or                  we'll get stuck in the canyon!
5:00 p.m. Should we go to Sawdust?
7:00 p.m. I kind of want to go home but it'd be so cool to see the sunset from Top of the World.
8:30 p.m. Okay, that sunset was super totally worth it!  Should we head down to San Clemente for a                            bonfire?
10:00 p.m. Maybe if we're reallly quiet, they won't notice we're still having a bonfire...and drinking alcohol.

Ok, so maybe this idea was more fun in my head, or I'm really delirious and this sounds crazy. But I've already written it and it actually is pretty typical of several of my days in the summer during high school and when I'd come home for the summer. Bonfires were always my favorite, Top of the World is somewhere I never seem to go enough, and, for some weird reason, we were always going to multiple beaches in one day. As if being lucky enough to be at the beach wasn't good enough.

We're spoiled. But I bet you've all gone to the beach more than me this summer. I haven't gone once. I'm cursed. If I make it known to the world that I am going to the beach tomorrow, then it will be overcast and cold tomorrow. It will be sunny by my house and as soon as I drive that 5 miles over to the more coastal area, we've got clouds and / or a breeze.

Chuck the Truck

Let me tell you about my baby. No, not a real human baby, or even any of my furbabies - though I love those buggers more than I could imagine.

No, this is my baby.

When I got my pick up truck, I was 16 and didn't even have my permit yet. I didn't need it because all of my friends were older and could drive. Plus, my dad didn't exactly make it desirable to take Driver's Ed .

"Do you want to take Driver's Ed for Xmas break and stay at the twins' or do you want to go to Glamis?" 

I think he knew the answer without asking. Then the weekends were filled with Glamis and journalism competitions and soon enough it was summer. I was 16 and had my first job, with my best friend who was almost 18.

So they got me Chuck. He was supposed to be a surprise but my mom was convinced I would want something new. With regular seatbelts. And a radio. So they told me; showed me this picture and asked if I'd want it because they could afford him.

This isn't my pic! It's the pic they showed us when they sold it!

HELL YES I wanted him. I wanted the ram bar, the roll cage, the 5 point harness racing seatbelts and bucket seats. I wanted his red paint job and almost imediately the stickers went on. Polly Pocket, cause that was my board name. My pink GlamisDunes.Com sticker. Damzl. ET Bulletin.

Chuck was my truck. MINE. All mine. He was only $3500 and he just smells so like him. Even after all these years and my dad driving him more than me, he smells like home.

My very first time driving him and I drove into a bush. TYPICAL.

Once I got my license, Chuck and I went everywhere together. I didn't care that I couldn't honk / occasionally my car honked non-stop for an hour. I didn't care that I couldn't use the alarm because some days it just went off for no reason. But I certainly cared when that kid in my auto class tried to crash him. Literally, to this day I am angry at this kid. Nevermind the fact that he moved across the street from me 2 months later and still lives across the street from my best friend. [Yes, I'm aware that it has been 6 years since high school...]

I was parked on the street, I swear.

Chuck was the perfect place to tan on our lunch break in the school parking lot. The perfect place to dance or have a photoshoot while the boys were at Comedy Sportz practice. Even the perfect place to share gossip or a tear or pour our hearts out.

But then Chuck started doing funny things. A blown headgasket here [$1,000...thanks Daddy!]. Another one. A cracked header. But that's okay I said, because I'm in college now! I am only home sometimes and I can drive him sometimes.

But then one summer he started ticking. So I took him to Iman's dad's shop, and my poor future father-in-law, who always loved me with his whole heart, got to be the sole person to try to comfort me and break the bad news to me. Chuck's engine was dead.

I drove him there, though. He clearly still worked. No. This could not be happening. This is my baby. He is a part of me. Where else am I going to find a stick shift? What other vehicle will cram my best friend, high school boyfriend and I into it on chilly winter mornings?

Taking him away to my aunt and uncle's.

So I made my dad promise that someday he would get a new engine. He was just in a coma - not actually dead. Nine months of a lot of happenings passed and we boxed him up and took him to my aunt's house. Another year went by. My "ghettovertible" just didn't compare and then, the transmission was blown by SoCal's Tornado in 2010.

My dad made good on his promise. We towed him from my aunt's house to our old mechanic and he worked on Chuck for weeks. New bottom end, new water pump, catylic converter, clutch, etc.

Then I picked him up. HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD.

Minutes after I got him back I pulled over to take this ;)

Together we embarked on my journeys. I moved 100 miles away and he'd make the trek home and back several times a month. He'd drive through the hills like a champ, running out of gas on me at the most inconveniently convenient times. [Always had to love the broken gas gage!]

Finally, reunited in the sand, after having him for a week

Then some crazy stuff started happening again, right after I spent a bunch of money getting him smog checked / fixed. It was super cool that my truck would just turn off while I was driving and I'd have to pop the clutch. I like learning to drive with no power steering.

He likes to work hard and play hard

Broke, taking 21 units, working a 20 hr internship and a 20 hr job I needed something reliable and Chuck was protesting.

So I got him a brand new baby sister and they live in happiness together. He's now our project car. Fixed and running and loving his Glamis lifestyle.

My two babies!

The Never List

Sometime in high school during a peak in my list-making past, I created a list of the things that I had never done and wanted to do. It included silly things [like going toiletpapering] and serious things [like falling in love]. Throughout the years, I have updated it and posted it on my Xanga.

I've forgotten about it for the last few years [curse becoming a grown up!] but this past week I've redone it!

Never List 

• Had a surprise birthday party
• Broken a bone
• Been to an exotic country
• Written a full book
• Spent a day without worrying
• Kept my room and closet clean for a year
• Been to the Grand Canyon
• Made amends with family members lost
• Accepted that I can't control everything
• Gone to prom
• Surfed
• Been on the radio
• Had breakfast served to me in bed
• Gone toiletpapering
• Swam with dolphins
• Bought and worn dominatrix boots
• Learned to play guitar
• Raced a car
• Done strip-tease aerobics
• Driven up PCH from start to finish
• Played spin the bottle
• Rode a skateboard in heels
• Known more than two languages fluently
• Been seduced in a foreign language
• Gone paintballing
• Been serenaded in public
• Had a cake fight
• Gotten married
• Been to a Michigan Game
• Been a mommy
• Laid down in the middle of the street
• Watched Aurora Bourealis
• Seen a meteor shower with someone else
• Seen a Shooting Star
• Been to Mardi Gras
• Owned my own house
• Been in a hot air balloon
• Made my own fashion line
• Gone to an NFL or NBA game

What is on your list of things you've never done? What should I add to mine?

WANTED: A Workout Accountability Partner

Wasn't it just Friday?

I mean, I'm not complaining. It happens to be a Friday during a short week and the last day of May. Which means that we are 6 days shy of my 24th birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited. Why? I'm not sure. I'm quickly becoming an old lady. I feel like such an adult lately, too. So many adult things in the plans - careers and wedding plans, bills and even dressing like an adult. [weird, right?] I mean, I still want to wear my Reptar shirt everyday but instead I put on pretty big girl clothes [stolen from my mom/bought at Macy's] and makeup. I put on makeup.

Who is this person?

Well, with these natural changes and my progress on making good habits lately, leave me to start some new positive habits after my birthday that will hopefully stick. 

Like working out. I bought a totally cute pair of yoga pants and yoga bra from Vicky's that will hopefully motivate me. I've been opting for the healthier options when I eat, and I am definitely unhappy with my 15 lb weight gain since my last birthday.

 

I don't like to complain about it because then people think I have an eating disorder. No, in my Bdubs work uniform you cannot tell that I weigh 20 lbs more than the last time I worked for them. In fact, I don't want to get anywhere near to that low again. That was my freak of nature days, and now I'm in my normal adult human girl days.

But I want to be healthier. I don't want to get out of breath because I walked up a hill and talked on the phone [I don't see any guarantees from anyone that this won't happen still, but I believe it could be possible!] I have become excited about and begun craving fruits and vegetables. See, I'm growing up! So I have to keep up the process. I just need to find a way to work out that doesn't make me want to punch babies  I actually enjoy.

I need an accountability partner. So, I'm looking for a blog or blog friends with a challenge that I can stick with and not feel overwhelmed by. That's the hard part. Insanity scares me. 30 miles in 30 days, scares me.

Also, I don't have normal people hours. I work from 8a-12a most days and can only sneak in 6ish hours of sleep.

Does anyone know of something??

Raewyn