Crazy girl...

Weekend before last, my baby cousin got married.  She also turned 22.  It was quite a celebration.

She did things a bit backwards (had a baby, got engaged, got married), but that's how she rolls and I couldn't be happier for her.  She and her husband - ohmygod - are finishing school and are living with my aunt and uncle to save money.  Sad thing - they live in Virginia, so I don't get to see them near as often as I'd like.  They were in town the whole week before the wedding, so lots of wine was consumed (a few glasses broken), and we hung out a lot.  Oh, and I was in the wedding, so there's that.

Her wedding was held at a private residence, and there were probably about 100 people there.  They were married in the front yard, overlooking a pond.

Here comes the bride

All we are are bridesmaids dresses and veils in the wind...



You may kiss the bride



Keep it PG for the kiddos...



Cute kiss from the brother



Sweet family photo op



Baby girl, directing traffic after mommy and daddy tied the knot


The wedding was really pretty and really intimate, with just good friends and family there.  We all had a great time, and even though it rained (poured, really) half-way through the reception, dances were still danced, toasts were made, and drinks were consumed.

A few too many drinks for one individual in particular, if you ask me...  I'm all for boozing it up - hell, that's half the reason I go to weddings!  FREE DRINKS!  (just kidding...kinda)  But one of my cousins bridesmaids was so tanked BEFORE the ceremony, that the 2 girls on either side of her literally held her wasted ass up during the vows.  She stumbled back down the aisle after the bride and groom exited, and proceeded to fall flat on her face before pictures were taken.  Needless to say, homegirl wasn't in any of the bridal party shots after the wedding.  She was so drunk, it wasn't even funny to watch.  I was pretty embarrassed to be in the same color dress as her.  Tacky, tacky.

Moral of the story, folks - a glass of champagne (or 2...lets be honest) before the ceremony is no big thing, but a BOTTLE is a completely different story.  Basically - if you're in someone else's wedding, KEEP YOUR SHIT TOGETHER.  At least until the bride starts doing keg stands, right?  I mean, really...keep it classy.

Happy Tuesday!

So deep in my daydreams, but it's just a sweet, sweet fantasy baby

I'm not what you would consider a "girly-girl."  I don't like pink (much), I have little to no interest in trying to keep my nail polish chip-free, and while I have branched out and I wear more dresses than I used to, it's mostly because it's hot as fucking HADES in Houston and shit needs to breathe, ifyaknowwhatimean...

TMI?  

Go read something else, then!

I've always been into sports and I love me some football and occasionally, I get really into it and even yell at the TV.  However, never have I ever been interested in playing Fantasy Football.

Until this year.

FML.

I didn't understand Fantasy Football - so, what?  You make a FAKE (fantasy...dur) team out of players from all the different teams and then track them to get points?  I just didn't see the point.  I'll just watch teams I like, thanks.  I don't give a shit about what that random running back, playing in the game I'm not watching, is doing right now.

Except now I totally do.  I got suckered into joining a league with some of our friends and, not gonna lie, I'm pretty into it.  I downloaded an app so I can track my player's stats and keep up with my team all weekend.  I get really excited when my guys (they are totally myyyy guys now) score points.  I can actually speak intelligently about players on other teams besides the ones I normally watch.  The flip side of that, though, is that I have become a heartless monster who gets pissed before feeling any compassion towards players on my team that get hurt.  Arian Foster has a hamstring issue?  GET YOUR ASS OF MY BENCH AND SCORE ME SOME POINTS!

Yikes.

So far I'm 2-3 in the league...not terrible, but not awesome considering my brother-in-law drafted his whole team based on players who had double E's in their names, and he is 1-4.  That win was not against me, though, thank God.

I'm curious - any other ladies out there gettin' down with the FF?  If you are, got any super awesome sleeper picks that can up my win quotient?!

See?  I CAN'T TURN IT OFF.

When you scan the radio I hope this song will guide you home...

So this past weekend was full of all kinds of fun events, which I of course have no photos of because even with a sweet new camera I am picture-challanged.  Saul is just beyond thrilled to have spent that money on me and my fickle habit, I'm sure...

Friday night was spent with the madre, going out for early drinks and appetizers downtown, followed by "Giselle," at the Wortham theater.  I love the ballet.  I danced when I was younger and while I was never close to prima-ballerina status, it will always hold a special place in my heart.  I really enjoy watching stuff (sports, dance, competitions) that we all know is just crazy hard, but the performers/contestants make it look stupid simple.  Ballet is so physically demanding, but they all just make it look as easy as breathing.  We had killer seats and had a really good time.  We have tickets to 3 more ballets over the next 8 months, and I am pretty stoked.  So is Saul, because one of the 3 ballets is the Nutcracker, and since I am going with my mom, he knows he won't get roped into going this year.

Saturday was kicked off with an early morning 5K.  Bestie Chandra and I ran for boobies!  Each year I run in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, supporting Breast Cancer.  It's a great run - pretty course, good cause, and TONS of people.  My grandmother and aunt are both breast cancer survivors, so I run in celebration of them, and with the hope that someday, some brilliant person will find a cure for this shitty disease.  There were some really funny t-shirts displaying team names (May the Cure be with you, Bad Mammary Jammas, Save a Titty - Run the City!), but my favorite shirt just said "FUCK CANCER."  It was super inappropriate, as the run is totally advertised as family-friendly, but i really just wanted to go high-five the dude.

The race was followed by breakfast at Onion Creek.  I seriously love that place so much.  I had the breakfast flatbread pizza, which was flatbread covered with pesto, mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, bacon and an over-easy egg.  YUM.  Everything is amazing, but the frozen mimosas are really what seal the deal.  I could drink those bad boys all day long.

Sadly, I could not, as I had to book it back up to the north side to get ready for baby cousin's bridal shower!  She's getting married on Saturday (her 22nd bday, incidentally) and I am a bridesmaid.  I am the oldest bridesmaid by like, almost 7 years, since pretty much all her friends are still in college.  Womp womp.  It's kind of refreshing, though, to see her wedding through the eyes of a bunch of girls who have never been in one before, seeing as how I have been in like, 10, not counting MY OWN.  They're all so excited (not to say, I'm not...I just approach these things as a veteran, y'know?), and I try not to laugh at the questions they ask me - "Does she need a corsage at her shower?  The websites all say she needs a corsage at her shower!!" - and I am doing what I can to guide her Maid of Honor through planning the pre-events without steam-rolling her because I could basically do all this shit with my hands tied behind my back at this point.  The wedding will be beautiful and I can't wait to see my little cousin in a wedding dress.  I changed the chick's diapers, I've held her hair back, and now I'll stand with her at her wedding.  How very circle-of-life-ish ;)

Family starts getting into town on Wednesday, and we'll have a full house this weekend, so yesterday was spent cleaning.  Also, I made banana bread with the suuuuper ripe (read - almost black) bananas in the fruit bowl and I am going to brag for a minute and tell you all that that shit was FUCKING PHENOMENAL.  I don't bake.  I don't have the patience for it - all the measuring and following the recipe...I much prefer to wing it in the kitchen and adjust based on personal preference.  But follow a recipe I did, and for my first ever loaf of bread, it was a winner.

What was an epic FAIL, however, was leaving the loaf of bread on the counter within reach of my asshole, banana bread-loving dog.

Bella ate the shit out of that bread, y'all.

Glad someone enjoyed it.

Happy Monday!  

It's October already?  WTF.

He does dress better than I do...what would I bring to the relationship?

So it's officially Fall blah blah blah...  Kiss my ass, people with seasons - it's still 100 degrees here.  The thought of a hot pumpkin ANYTHING causes me to break out in a sweat.  It won't be cold enough to drink that shizz until at least January.

The big fires are out in our area - FEMA just showed up in the Waller area (good job guys...), and little ones are still popping up all over the place because the whole state is just crispy as shit.

I don't know why I still live in Texas.

In other news, I have become obsessed with Pinterest (actually, I've been into it for a while now, but I haven't blogged, so you wouldn't know that unless you've found me on there) and finding cute outfits for the cooler weather.  Here are some of my favorites:

Are we noticing a trend, here?  Basically, stock my closet up with white shirts, flat shoes, and cardigans of various colors and I am good to go!  The accessories make the outfits different, dangit!

Whatever...give me a pair of jeans and call it a day.

Happy Tuesday!

Deep in the Heart of Texas...

If you pray, please say a prayer for all those effected by the wildfires burning through Texas.

The fire burning in Bastrop hasn't yet been contained, and the fires burning outside of Houston just keep eating more and more acres of land.  We still haven't had any rain, nor is there any in the forecast.  It smells  like a bbq pit outside.

Thankfully, our house isn't threatened.  Saul's sister's house is further west, and is right in the path of the plume of smoke, but she says the fire is still about 15 miles away, which is too fucking close for comfort for me.

We have some friends who have had to evacuate.  There are people all over the area that had minutes notice to pack what they could and leave.  Because the fire is effecting a heavily-wooded area, with lots of pastures and fields, people are desperate to move their animals out harm's way.

THIS is why we couldn't light fireworks on the 4th
of July.

all photos via chron.com

Seriously - don't flash.

While in California, I took lots of pictures with my new camera.  As in, over 600.  That's more than I took in all of 2010.  HOLY FUCK.

**Yeeeeeee!!!!  I got a new camera!!  It's a Nikon D3100 and I am currently just using the lens that came with it, but I have big plans for many more in the future ;)  Also, a camera bag...I want one!

As with all of our vacation photos, I am only in like, 3 of the California pictures, but I don't mind...I don't need to see a picture of myself to remember that I was there.  I would like more pictures with me and Saul at cool places we've visited, but until I can actually remember to ask someone to take one of us, not gonna happen.  I strive to be better in 2012.

Here are a few of our time in the Marina del Rey area - like I mentioned before, we just roamed aimlessly up and down the coast, stopping into restaurants when we got hungry, and stopping random places to get out and walk around.  It was awesome and relaxing and I got to see little pockets of my home state that I had never visited.  I was such a nerdy tourist, and I loved it.

Pretty sure this was somewhere near Redondo Beach...?

I hate solo pictures, but there was no one around to take one of both of us...boo.

Pretty boardwalk

 Where we ended up each night...right next door to our hotel.  

Yummy martinis!

 This one isn't on the menu anymore, but the bartender made it special for me - Chocolate Truffle Raspberry Martini.

Delish.

 Saul likes 'em straight up and dirty

 Our bartender friend, Jason.  He was a transplant from Missouri.

Our other bartender friend, Holly.  She wasn't from California, either.  In fact, most of the people we met  there weren't originally from the state...

 26 Beach.  The only place where I thought to take a picture of the awesome food we ate.

Saul was so embarrassed that I was taking pictures in the restaurant.

The post title comes from him asking me, in a hushed tone, to please not make my flash go off!

Chef Katsu's Original California Roll Burger - Angus beef, snow crab salad, avocado, pickled ginger, baby mix lettuce, tomato, nori & shoyu-wasabi-aioli

Seriously...the most amazing burger EVER.

Also, I had to use the flash.  Sorry, Saul, but the blogging world needs to know about this burger.

 It was 1/2 off wine night when we went in.  Basically, buy one bottle, get the other free!

Yes, please.

 Venice Beach

*I am still working on figuring out my camera, so the settings were all f'ed up this day.  These are crazy over-exposed, but I still like 'em.

 Beer Wine Food

 VENICE

 Even graffiti in CA is better than TX...

pout

 This way to the Polar Bear Park

 They see me rollin'...

 We stopped at the skatepark and watched for a while

 Gnarly, bro.

 Oh Venice Beach - you are so full of weirdos.

Ain't no shame in their game.

Homeboy with the beer at 10am, I like your style.

Have a good weekend!!

Californian?

Our trip to California has come and gone and all I want to do is go back IMMEDIATELY.  I was so sad to leave.  Usually after a vacation I am ok with heading home - looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, seeing Bella, cooking, and all that jazz.  Leaving California, though, brings out such different emotions in me.  For some reason, I always panic a little at the thought that this might be my last trip to the state (why?  no clue), and I get super bummed about heading home.  Seriously, had we been able to get Bella out to us last week, I might not have ever come back to Texas.

Is it weird/pathetic that I still kind of consider myself a Californian?  I lived there for 15 years.  I've been in Texas for 13, so I've been here almost as long as I was there.  Considering I had only planned to be here to finish high school, the fact that it's been 13 freaking years is kind of unsettling.  I wonder if I will never get back there.  Saul is down to relocate, but there is the ever-present issue of work and housing and since I am not too keen on the idea of living in a box under the highway, we'll probably stay in Texas for a while longer.  SIGH of all sighs...

Anyway, our trip to Los Angeles was awesome.  The weather was gorgeous the whole time we were there, we got to see a bunch of family, and we spent a lot of time just the two of us.  Going to California, while always amazing, tends to be more about seeing family and doing planned activities and less about taking an actual vacation and just relaxing.  This trip we made sure to carve out a few days for just us and do whatever we wanted and oh my god, was it awesome.

First, we rented a convertible.
!!!!!!!!
It was completely unnecessary and I really was kind of resistant when Saul initially suggested it, but HOLY SMOKES am I glad we did it.  It was a blast!!  Cruising up and down the coast, top down, sun shining, with the wing blowing through my hair...bliss, I tell you.  PURE FUCKING BLISS.

We stayed in Marina del Rey for the first 2 days of the trip and ate and drank our way up and down Washington Street.  We ventured over to Venice Beach one morning and did some of the best/most insane people-watching of our lives.  Mostly, though, we spent our days just driving around aimlessly, dreaming of what our lives would be like if we moved to the beach.

Granted, that dream looked a lot like homelessness, but really - if you're going to be homeless, be homeless in Manhattan Beach!

Now for some photos...

 Objects in mirror might seem colder than they appear.
The 70 degree temps totally eff'd me up.

 Hello, convertible driver - take me for a ride?

 Headed up the coast to Malibu.
No plans, no timelines...not a care in the world.

 I miss cliffy coastline...

 Paradise Cove, in Malibu.  Found this place completely by accident.

 First beers of the trip - at 11:30am!  Why not?
Lobster approves.

Avoid the calamari tacos at all costs...


Depending how motivated I feel later on, you might get to see more pictures.  Maybe.  We all know I am awful at recapping.  It's just how I roll, yo.

Happy Thursday ;)

Home is wherever I'm with you...

Clearly it's been a while.  So let's catch up, shall we?

The weekend of the 4th was kind of anti-climactic.  Texas issued a burn-ban for the weekend, so there were no fireworks here, save for a few professional shows downtown, but driving for an hour, standing in a crowd of thousands of people for a few hours, and then driving home (in traffic) sounded like my idea of torture, so we stayed home.  Also?  It was a no-refusal weekend here, so we definitely stayed wherever we drank.

We mostly spent the weekend in a pool - sometimes ours, sometimes not - and drank a lot of beer and lots of yummy frozen SeaBreezes (vodka, cranberry, grapefruit).  We ate a lot of BBQ and saw a lot of friends, so all in all, it was a successful 3-day weekend.

The week following was for recovery and hydrating, since the weekend of the 9th we had a bunch of friends in town and went to a wedding shower Friday night and helped host the bachelorette party on Saturday.  Saul went downtown with the guys and I went with my girlfriends to the Woodlands to celebrate.  The wedding is this weekend/next week in Mexico and one of my very best friends from TLU is the groom, but sadly we can't go.  Boo.

The Mexico trip runs into a trip we have planned to go to California to celebrate Saul's g-ma's 90th bday.  We're using it as an excuse to have a family reunion, which I am so stoked about.  I love Saul's cousins and aunts and uncles, and also - WE GET TO GO TO DISNEYLAND!!!!  Seriously, y'all...I am dying over here.

We are going to Dallas this weekend to see some friends and their (5 month old) baby we haven't met yet, which is just dick on our part as friends, but we're fixing it this weekend!  A weekend of hanging out and drinking some beer/wine to celebrate their new(ish) baby.  Yay us.

We leave for CA on Tuesday, for A WEEK, which I am so so so pumped about.  I can't wait to turn off my email alerts and just relax for a week.  Bliss...

Happy Tuesday!!