We are Certified Open Water Divers

Since, well - my whole life, I have been terrified of the ocean. I think that as a kid, I was taken under a wave and thrown around and just never got over it. Also, in college I took a Marine Biology course that opened up my world to all kinds of crazy (read: terrifying) underwater animals and the fact that there are whales out there that are as big as 747 airplanes (and there is more than just one - what?!) makes me want to barf, just a little. In reaction to my fear, for as long as I can remember, I have wanted to get SCUBA certified. There has just always been something else going on, it is too expensive, no one I know wants to do it with me, the list goes on. I decided on my 28th birthday that I would give myself the year to get certified. I convinced Rachel, who has also always wanted to do this, to do it with me, so we set off to find a dive shop where we could take the courses and then headed to Monterey for the certification dives.  An Alpha Gam friend of mine suggested checking out Bamboo Reef in San Francisco - where she and her husband got their certifications. The instructor for the classroom and the pool was awesome. He was patient and listening to our concerns all while curbing our fears of breathing under water. Without a doubt, if you are looking for a dive shop in SF, I would recommend this place.

Now back to my goal, I was certified on the 11th, my birthday was on the 9th. Even though I didn't make it before my 29th birthday, I will still count it as a win!  We drove from SF to Monterey on Friday afternoon, we stopped along the way in Pescadero for some World Famous Artichoke Bread at Arcangeli Grocery Co - it was the best thing, I think, that I have ever put in my mouth - omg. In Monterey we stayed at a Diver Friendly hotel - Lone Oak Lodge because on Saturday and Sunday our dives started before 9am. The check out dives require you to go on two dives on both Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, we finished both of our dives with still an entire tank of air left, so we decided to go on our first dive as certified divers. It was awesome! We ended up tagging along with another group and the instructor was super helpful and pointed out different sea life. We were wearing so much equipment that we didn't even have time to be cold!  It was such a cool experience and I can't wait to take a trip to a warm water location to practice our skills! We have a boat dive scheduled for Monterey in December and I know we are all super excited! 

Alpha Gamma Delta Convention: Orlando 2016

As I have posted, many times before, I was in a sorority in college and since I graduated have volunteered for the organization in a few different roles, most recent is my role as Province Director for a collegiate chapter.  Regardless of my involvement, Alpha Gamma Delta hosts an International Convention every 2 years. It is a time where we get to learn about what is up and coming with the organization as well as network with other sisters around the world. I just love Convention. I get to meet sister for the first time who I send email and have conference calls with multiple times a month and it is also a place for me to visit with sisters who I don't get to see as often as I'd like. This biennium, Convention was hosted in Orlando. A few local sisters and I decided that we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to Harry Potter World and Epcot Center. The weather was disgusting hot/humid, the butterbeer was flowing and the real beer was also consumed. Can you believe that the butterbeer is nonalcoholic?? Boooo, Harry Potter World, booooo!!!! 

we were caught at dinner in an incredibly beautiful thunder storm

We got to Orlando on Sunday night, went to the parks on Monday and Tuesday and Krissy joined us on Tuesday night. Convention started on Wednesday evening and went through Saturday night.

Wednesday during the day, Krissy and I went to the hotel spa. I had a massage and got my hair blown out. It was very luxurious! 

I was presented an award for the support that I have given to the sorority since I have been an alumna. It was pretty cool!

We had shirts made for all of the sisters who were at convention from California. We tried to coordinate a picture with everyone, but we only got the San Francisco Alumnae. 

These are the lovely ladies that I work with on the regular! 

We dress up quite nicely, if I do say so myself! 

tldr? We had a blast in Orlando. The end.

Sam turns 18

So, I am officially old. The kid that gave me the 'Big Sister' title turned 18 this summer and graduated from high school. This kid had a big weekend. He graduated from high school on a Friday and turned 18 on Saturday. This kid is bright, kind, loving, generous and all around awesome. I am so happy that I get to be his big sister and help him watch him grow up into the cool dude he is today. 

We were supposed to go on a little weekend trip away, just the two of us, but some unexpected scheduling conflicts got in the way, so we decided to go to an A's game instead. I got us some awesome seats behind home plate, and put in a good word to get some fireworks - okay, fine, the fireworks were already planned, but it sure was an added bonus. We ate hot dogs wrapped in bacon, cheered on our boys and had a great night out, just the two of us! 

Can't wait to see what the world has in store for you little brother (who is taller than me). Love you to the moon and always! 

BottleRock & OutsideLands 2016

Can you believe that I have lived in the Bay Area all of my life (save 3 years) and I have never been to a music festival? Well, maybe you can...can you believe that I am now 29 and have never been to a music festival? That sounds more reasonable...right?
My friend Greg sent me a chat back in January about this fun festival in Napa called BottleRock. BottleRock is basically downtown Napa and is a three-day music festival. The music is more "my style" and it in the sunshine. The headliners were Stevie Wonder, Florence and the Machine and The Red Hot Chili Peppers - sold. We bought tickets, found an Air BnB that was walking distance to the festival and had the.best.time.

The weather was perfect. The food was delicious. The beer was cold. The music was awesome and the company was the best. To say that we are excited for BottleRock 2017 is an understatement. 
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In preparation for BottleRock, we got a little excited and also bought tickets for the San Francisco Music Festival OutsideLands. OutsideLands was a little bit less "my style" music, which was fine. I actually didn't know most of the bands that were performing. To be honest, I wanted to sell my ticket, but in the end, I am so glad that I didn't. I will speak for everyone when I say that we had an epic time. We danced the cloudy days away in the cold nights, drank too much and just had and overall super time. 

getting fresh with Range Dave - we liked it more than he did....

we were totally sober, mom, don't even worry about it...

 I can't actually compare BR and OSL to each other because they were two very different shows, feels, vibes. They were both awesome and I can't wait for my music festival circuit to commence in 2017!

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Music festival suggestions: (1) Splurge for VIP if you can afford it. You will be so glad you did. You won't have to wait in the crazy lines for the nasty bathrooms, and the crowds will just be overall less (2) Carry as little as possible (3) Remember what you learned in kindergarten, share! Be friendly, people may share with you, and you can share with others (4) Don't try on the wristbands before the day you are ready to wear them - Greg....(!) (5) Bring a reusable water bottle. Stay hydrated!  (6) Omg, dance you heart out and have the best time of your life! 

Divorce Party and New Pretties

Alright, so....I had a divorce party. If that bothers you, come back another day for another post. If it doesn't, the party was pretty awesome and hilarious and you should keep reading.

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So...how to write this post?

On the one year anniversary of being final, I threw a little party at my house. If you know me but at all you would know that I wasn't celebrating divorce and I wasn't celebrating my divorce, I was celebrating that I have come a long way since I was separated, since I was married even, and I wanted to celebrate the awesome woman I have become with the awesome people who have been by my side through it all, tears included.  And you know what? I have come a long way and I am better because of all of this and I wanted to celebrate it. Is that so wrong? No, I didn't think so.

Now, since this was my party, I could do whatever I wanted. So, I ordered the same cake that was my wedding cake and had the bakery inscribe "Weir Done" on it, because it was only fitting - I had so much fun with that name, I couldn't let my last chance go to waste, you get it. The cake was a huge hit.

I may have made some off handed comments - hey! it was my party - but all in all, the party was a success full of laughter, lots of love and a stripper. I will say that I felt tremendous love and support and thought I could make it through a toast, which was a joke. If I remember correctly, I pour champagne for everyone, told everyone I was making a speech, got up there and said, 'I love you all' and couldn't make it through anything else. I don't like that kind of attention on me.

Oh yeah, back to the stripper. A friend of mine rented a stripper (wait, 'rented a stripper'? that sounds weird, what's the right way to say this?). He was disgusting and I think everyone at the party was excited for him to GTFO. He showed up in military fatigues (first no) and then he was smelly and gross (all of the rest of the nos)

my friends know me too well!

Now for the second part of this post.  I have been sitting on the diamonds from my engagement and wedding rings for all of this time. I, initially, wanted to sell it but the jeweler I took it all to offered me a silly-low price and my mom was very adamant about me repurposing the jewelry into something that I would wear which gave me a little anxiety. When I thought about it, I thought that it would be too sentimental and I didn't want to spend the money on something that I would never actually wear.  Skip ahead to January 2016, 16 months after we separated. I was chatting about this dilemma with a friend and she showed me this gorgeous tiffany necklace that I could model my jewelry after. I told my mom and she reminded me that I also had the diamond from her engagement ring from my bio dad and that I should try to incorporate them all together. 
So that is what I did. I took the two diamonds, from my engagement ring and my moms, and made them into one necklace that is both white and yellow gold (because you never know your mood) and I had the jeweler make a sideways cross that curved out of the diamonds on my wedding band. I wanted the chains to be on the shorter side because I wanted to be able to layer them with other necklaces since they are so dainty. 
I could not be happier with the outcome. I wear them all of the time and I always get compliments on them. And the best part is that the necklaces were ready for me to wear at my party! It was awesome! 

Tiffany necklace inspiration