Marvelous May

It's that time of the month again... no not THAT time, but time for a little recap of all the things great and small that made me smile in the lovely month of May. In no particular order

• Memorial Weekend in Orange County... God I love chasing the sun and oggling cute boys while I work on my tan and read books on my Kindle, seriously it was the best form of multitasking. Awesome food, better friends, and lots of laughs. Grown up slumber parties are really the best slumber parties. #gummysharksftw
• Celebrating my Aunt Cindy's Birthday... we had a small dinner party at a restaurant we hadn't been to together before and it was great fun, laughs are always guaranteed.
• Mother's Day Weekend... Even though I'm not a mommy, I had a great time celebrating the mommies in my family on this weekend. Family members from all over CA came to visit my mom and grandma. I hadn't hung out with some of them in years and it was great to catch up. Visited my old stomping grounds in Pismo Beach. It blows my mind how much everything has changed and still feels like home. I even had to buy myself a new Pancho's hoodie because it felt weird to not have one anymore after that place being such a big part of my life 10 years ago.
• Super Mom to the Rescue...Last night after a particularly horrific day at work I was loading up my car to go to my parents house for dinner and laundry time. I was emotionally spent and wasn't thinking clearly, this became strikingly clear when I slammed my car door only to realize that I had just locked my keys, phone, tablet, and laptop in my car...this is something that I haven't ever done in this particular car because its really hard to do it. I go to a neighbor's house to see if I can use their phone, luckily they were home and let me, I call home and get the rescue mission underway. 20 minutes later my mom arrives with a tow truck driver not far behind her and he came and unlocked my doors. It could have been much worse of a situation, but I have to tell you the second I heard my mom's voice I almost started crying. Sometimes a girl just needs her mommy.

Awesome April

Oh Bloggy Blog I didn’t forget you, not even a little bit.  April has just been a busy month at work (and at play) that by the time I’ve gotten home at night the last thing I’ve wanted to do is get on the computer and type.  Getting on my iPhone and checking FaceBook is entirely different.

So what has happened in April that has kept me busy, out of (or into) trouble, and has me counting my blessings? All kinds of stuff:

·         Spending Easter with my mom’s family and getting to listen to my 10 year old cousin rock the house on his piano. He’s crazy good.

·         Springtime Concerts with my brother Frank. We saw DIERKS BENTLEY at the Pozo Saloon and a few other acts. Will Hoge has changed my life, okay that’s exaggerating a bit, but I really like him and I would have never heard of him had I not gone to the Stampede. So that’s one thing I can scratch off my New Year’s Resolution list. I wanted to find new music to fall in love with, and I did exactly that.

·         Crashing Bridal Fairs with Meggy, it’s like the pregame to Wedding Crashing.  Baby steps, baby steps.

·         Cousins’ Weekends in Los Angeles (and minimal traffic on the way down).  I got to escape reality for a couple days and go visit Walter and Jake for the weekend, experienced red velvet pancakes, and then my buddy Tess crashed the party in Long Beach for a little girl time after the boys left to other engagements.

·         New Gadgets, I was able to get my hands on a Kindle Fire last week and I don’t think my reading list or library will ever be the same.  I love technology.

·         Shopping days with mom.  Nothing beats Mother/Daughter dates, even at nearly 31 its still one of my favorite ways to spend the day

·         Discovering my own strength.  I finally found it in me to purge some people in my life who were nothing but cancerous tumors on my soul.  I stopped making excuses for them and I stopped allowing myself to torture my heart by trying to keep them in my life.  I have to say my shoulders are lighter, my eyes are drier, and the bruises on my heart are healing nicely.

·         My job. I really like the people I work with (most of the time ;-) ) Plus on Administrative Professionals Day, they bought me flowers, candy, and a Starbucks gift card. They sure know how to make a girl feel loved.

There you have it April in a nutshell. Talk to you next month (or sooner if I get inspired)

Hey March, you were pretty cool!

Okay, so its early April and I never did my grateful blog for March, and it’s not because I don’t have tons of things that were awesome that month, its more because I’ve been in a slump and haven’t felt like writing… I have felt like sleeping, a lot. So it’s a little late, but this is for March.

·         My job:

o   I got a raise and my boss started a quarterly incentive program, so assuming I meet all the demands of each quarter, I’ll get a bonus. So yay me!

o   Also because of work contacts I’ve made I was given two free tickets to PCPA’s musical “Little Women” it was so beautifully done, I cried throughout the whole performance.  I really am lucky to live in a place where we have some really amazing shows.  I can’t wait to see Legally Blonde this summer.

·         Birthday parties:

o   My awesome friend Karla had a kick ass 80s themed party and I danced my face off for at least 4 hours straight, I was sore for a couple of days, but it was totally worth it. I swear dancing is the most fun cardio ever…. Way more fun than Spin Class (which is super fun when you make it Karaoke Spin).

o   My baby sister turned 20 at the end of the month and we took a Sister Shopping Trip in Santa Barbara.  It was an amazing day (even though we had to weather a storm), lots of window shopping, some actual shopping, a visit to Tiffany, so many laughs and just a couple sentimental tears.

·         Star Gazing in the hot tub with Tess and a bottle of wine (and tormenting my brother) was all part of an amazing Girls’ Weekend. It also included manis/pedis, shopping in SLO, Thai food and ice cream, Sunday Brunch...did I leave anything out? Grown up slumber parties are the best way to spend a weekend.

·         Best Friends (and their mommies) coming to my rescue when I had a near panic attack because I didn’t know how I was going to frost 120 cupcakes and a mini birthday cake by myself… Meg and Terry I love you guys!

So this is a short/sweet post, but I do want to say thank you for everyone who has made my life as great as it is. I know that I complain and vent a lot, but seriously? Things could be so much worse, and even my BIG problems will seem small when I look back at this.  I'd rather look back on happy memories with great friends and family than dwell on the things that have upset me.