Murder Ball, Beer & Babies

I went to San Diego this past weekend for my college roommate's baby shower. Since I was down there I got to tack on some time with my cousins and a friend. It was a nice weekend, not relaxing at all and the weather was too warm for the beginning of November, but it was a great opportunity to catch up and visit with some of my favorite people.

Let me start out by asking: since when do we not have to take our toiletries/liquids out of our bags when going through security at the airport??? I clearly missed this memo; however, I am so glad that I have no figured it out (better late than never, right?) because to have my toiletries easily accessible is quite inconvenient while packing. I do also have to admit that when I went through security to come home on Sunday night....wait for it (you won't even believe this!) I didn't even have to take off my shoes!! It was the easiest thing ever; I felt like I was in the 90s again! How many people get to do that now-a-days??

I actually have another story to share about my flights and that is that I used my phone as my boarding pass for the very first time! Hello, La Tache, and welcome to 2014, what rock have you been hiding under?!

Anyway...on to my weekend.

I happened to be traveling to San Diego the same weekend as a friend of mine from my childhood. He is in a wheelchair rugby league and was playing in a tournament in Balboa Park the entire weekend. Since I was going to be in the area, my cousin and I headed over to the gymnasium and watched on of his games. I know absolutely nothing about rugby, neither did my cousin, and so as we watched we were able to deduce some of the rules and pick up the basics of the game. Part of the way through the match, someone offered us a rule book, so we got a little more in depth information and even a little history. If you are interested to learn more, check out Murder Ball on Netflix!

After the Wheelchair Rugby game, we headed to Hillcrest for brunch at Snooze where we met up with my other cousin. We decided to park at one of my cousin's house and take the trolley into downtown San Diego. We stopped in Little Italy at the Ballast Point Brewery for a flight of beers. We were in luck because it is the SD Beer Week, so Ballast Point, along with other breweries were offering special deals. We got a flight of 3 beers for $5. There were four of us, so we decided to each get a flight and share which allowed us all to try 12 beers! 

After all of our beers, we headed to the Gaslamp district and went to La Puerta for some frozen mojitos, carnita fries and guacamole. OMG. So freaking good! Seriously, the mojitos were deliciously dangerous! I do have to say, though, that the security/bouncer was not very nice to us. I was kind of disappointed by that. We decided to then head to Old Town San Diego to meet up with my friend Chad (the Wheelchair Rugby player) at Harney Sushi. The sushi was really fresh and tasty! 

Sunday morning, we went the house my cousin grew up in for breakfast/brunch before my friend's shower. It was so fun to see my cousin's mom, even though they were both up in the bay only 2 weeks prior! We had a delicious homemade breakfast - I am pretty sure that I am still full - and then my cousin drove me over to Target to get some diapers for my friend's shower. Let me just mention that we had a really difficult time finding the diapers. I thought it was be nice to get cloth diapers, and while looking for them I felt like we were on a wild goose chase! On top of that, no one who worked at Target was helpful - I actually asked a woman (a shopper) for help because she had a young child in her cart, so I figured she would know..ha! And on top of that, once we found the diapers, there were no safety pins. What's up with that?!

Anyway, I went to the shower and was able to put my hands all over that momma's belly. The little slugger even moved around for me! It was so surreal and it is soo crazy that one of my dearest college friends is pregnant and expecting at the end of January. I simply cannot wait to meet the little cutie patootie! 

After the shower, my cousin picked me up (thanks, cousin, for being my weekend chauffeur) and before we headed to the airport we had to make a stop at Blue Water for some fish tacos - according to my cousin, this is a must stop when going to the airport and I have to admit that it was all that it was cracked up to be, and then some! Oh man was that fish fresh! We had to wait in line for about 40 minutes before we even were able to order and I am pretty sure that once we got the tacos we gobbled them up in less than 30 seconds - they were that good!

All in all, I would count this sunny San Diego weekend a success. I may be full for a week from all of the food and beers consumed, but it was definitely all worth it! Now to get my nose to the grindstone and back to the reality of being an adult with a job (it's all just just so overrated!) 

And if you are wondering, no I don't have today off :-( I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and I hope you all have Veteran's Day off! Celebrate for me....pleaseeeee

World Series Parade 2014

Back in 2010, when I lived in the bay area still, I was able to attend the World Series Parade and it was a blast! I went with a bunch of people from work, yelped and hollered, stood on a window sill to get a good view and cheered on our bay area team! 

Well, unless you live under a rock, the World Series just concluded and our SF Giants have done it yet again! Let me tell you, this series was a nail biter and that last inning of game 7 was even more of a nail biter. If you watched any of the games or saw any of the final scores, wasn't it crazy that there was always such a huge spread between the two teams? 

Anyway, I went to the parade this year. In the rain. And it was a lot of fun! My office is located near the parade route so a group of us went down all bundled up with our rain jackets and watched the entire parade. It is so amazing to see how alive this city gets, especially when there is something to celebrate; I just love all of the energy and seeing all of the hard work that is put into the floats!

Every even year, baby! Let's keep this going! Go Giants! 

Halloween weekend 2014

I have always loved getting to know the families of my friends. I enjoy hearing stories, watching them interact and experiencing the inner workings of the unit itself. I think that I enjoy this so much because I was the kid who invited friends over and then we would hang out in the kitchen with my mom. This is why it is so special for me when my friends invite me to spend time with their families and their loved ones.

My great friend Melissa is getting married next May. I actually have two weddings to attend within two weeks of each other, and I am in both of them! Yikes! I am going to be one tired gal come June from all of the bridal showers and bachelorette parties. All will be great fun and I am over the moon excited and honored to be part of these lovelys special days! 

So back to Melissa, she was in California with her fiance so they could check out a wedding venue - the one they actually decided on - and of course I jumped on the opportunity to make the drive out to her parents house to see them and I am sure glad that I did. I pick up Melissa and her fiance from the airport on Saturday morning and then we headed to Melissa’s hometown for lunch, some catching up and a trip out to the new Folsom Dam in hopes to see Mormon Island - an island that used to be submerged under water but because of this crazy drought California is experiencing it was exposed earlier this year. Fortunately for the Dam and unfortunately for us, there has been some mountain run off and the island is now submerged again. We then headed over to a lake that Melissa went to as a kid and, sadly, the lake is completely dry, so we walked down into it to view a now exposed bridge. 

After our excursion, we headed back to the house, played games, told jokes, ate dinner and laughed - a lot - and Melissa asked me to be a bridesmaid! I am soo honored! After dinner, Melissa, her fiance and I decided to head to old town Folsom to celebrate Halloween. We went to this fun bar that had a cover band playing awesome, singable tunes. We danced the night away. Oh, and we may have had one or two too many...ooops!

It was a super fun 24 hours spent with amazing people, laughing and loving each other! It was wonderful! And no trip to Melissa’s parents house can end without her moms famous Aebleskivers. Talk about a food coma! 

Thank you, Melissa and family, for sharing your weekend with me! I had a blast, as always! Love you all!