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! 

Castro Theater Updates

The Castro Theater provides entertainment, beauty, art and culture. It is hard to believe that I spent 5 years in college, basically up the road, and my first visit to the Theater was so many years later. I have seen mostly drag queens reenact cult-followed films and have recently dabbled in sing-a-longs. I love to get a good group of friends together and check out what the Theater has to offer on one of these special occasion nights.

Since October, I have seen Addams Family Values in drag and Spice Rack (AKA: Spice World) and sang along with Ariel in the Little Mermaid and got to hang with the Pink Ladies in Grease. We stay for the show, and usually after the show we head over to the dance club that is across Market street and dance the night away with all of the pretty boys while pretending they are our boyfriends, because they are beautiful, even if they have their own boyfriends. 

We just have a blast! 

Fleet Week 2015

Where do I even begin with recapping the last almost year of my life? I have toyed with going all of the way back to when I stopped (October) and start there or starting with more recent adventures and working my way back to October. Then I think: if I didn't post about it way back when, does anyone really care to read about it now? Ehh, probably not, but what the heck? I will go all of the way back and move forward to present day

As I went back through my pictures on my phone on where to begin I thought that I wouldn't share this hilarious day/evening with you but then I came across the 2nd picture below and just couldn't help myself.

Annually, San Francisco hosts Fleet Week in October. The US Navy Blue Angels put on an airshow throughout San Francisco, flying through the buildings downtown, under the Golden Gate Bridge and around all of the islands in the bay, over a long weekend which brings a lot of tourism and (best of all) dudes in military uniforms to our streets all while locals sit around the Marina Green having picnics, playing lawn games and drinking. It really is an awesome site to see! 

I am not sure if this happens every year, but we all decided to check out Fort Mason, after our homemade margaritas ran dry, for a good ol' country concert full of more alcohol, more dancing and more men in uniform. Rachel and I made friends, as you can see, with a couple of 19 year olds (19 at the oldest, am I right?!). As I look at the picture with the sailors, I think to myself: what were we thinking? Oh that's right, we were day drinking...

If you have a chance to check out Fleet Week in San Francisco, you absolutely should! It is a ton of fun and you may just find yourself a man (or woman) in uniform!

Crabbing on the bay

Good day to you all! I hope everyone has the best Wednesday ever! 
This past weekend we celebrated a very special lady: my mom. Before I share about our weekend, I would like to take a minute to say a few words about my mom, because she deserves to be put in the spotlight every once in a while. She is fun, outgoing, spontaneous, adventurous, spunky. She is loving, kind, generous, warm, caring. She will always listen and always be available; she will always support.  If you find yourself out with her, somehow you will end up in a limo, wearing a wig, rocking a fake name all while sipping champagne and giggling. She know show to be silly and have a good time and she knows how to give the best hugs all while being the best momma a girl could ask for. I am more than blessed to call her my mom.
To celebrate her, we decided to head out on the bay with some friends and go crabbing. Leading up to her birthday weekend, we were experiencing some crazy storms in the Bay, so we were a bit concerned that the weather was not going to hold up while we were out on the boat. Fortunately, we could not have asked for a more beautiful day. We woke up early and headed to the Oakland Yacht Club, hopped on the boat and got ourselves on track to crab just outside of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The boat ride was spectacular, accompanied by mimosas, lox and bagels and catching up on life. Once we got on the other side of the Golden Gate we dropped our crab pod, fished and played Heads Up (you know, Ellen's game!) It was hilariously, fun and a great way to keep our minds off of our oncoming sea sickness. We let the pod collect crabs for about two hours and then when we pulled up the pod we had somewhere around 15 crabs! We had to let most of them go, but we still ended up with about 7 dungeness crabs, or dungies as we were calling them, and one red crab.
We cruised back over to Pier 39, docked the boat, ran up to the Buena Vista for an Irish Coffee (plus a round to-go), clam chowder, a loaf of boudin sourdough bread and to sit on Santa's Lap (of course!). We got back on the boat and headed back to the Oakland Yacht Club to feast and watch the annual lighted boat parade. After the parade, we headed back to my mom's house for cake, singing and Hot Spiced Butter Rum! 
It was an awesome day and, most importantly, my mom had the best time celebrating! 
(My favorite part of the entire day is that she finally acknowledged that I look like her! She always says that I look just like my dad - which is true - but the older I get, the more and more I look just like my mom! haha)

Isn't she lovely?!

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! 

Wedding Season

Happy October to everyone! I am so glad that the weather is cooling down a bit, and we are diving right into fall, which is my favorite season, by far. I absolutely love the smells, the crisp air and all of the pumpkin and squashes I can eat!

Boy oh boy, did I go to a ton of weddings this summer or what?! 3 to be exact, in the span of five weeks! They were all beautiful and I was able to be apart of the special day for three very special ladies in my life. 

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The first wedding of my season of weddings was for none other than my best friend. She was a stunning bride. The wedding was small and intimate and absolutely perfect for the couple.  It was in San Francisco at Grace Cathedral and the reception was at the Marine's Memorial Club.

The second wedding I attended was for a dear Alpha Gamma Delta sister who happened to be one of my residents when I was an RA in the dorms at SF State! Small world! The bride was glowing and constantly had a twinkle in her eye and her one-of-a-kind big, beautiful smile on her face! We enjoyed the beautiful golf course while we danced the night away under sweet twinkle lights! This wedding was at Callippe Preserve Golf Course i
n Pleasanton.

The third, and final, wedding of my wedding tour this summer was for one of my dearest Alpha Gamma Delta sisters. This was definitely one of the most beautiful weddings my mom and I had been to. From the green Napa golf course setting to the officiant to the music on the dance floor under the stars. This wedding was at the Silverado Resort and Spa and it was magical.

Now....I am all wedding'd out. Going to three weddings when you are in the process of going through a divorce is one of the last things, on the planet, that you want to do; however, I wouldn't have missed a single one of these special days for these very special women.

I love you all and cheers to a million years of nothing but happiness, joy and love!