kudos and boos!

Dear Kate,

So far, I have failed at what might be the easiest of the June goals, blogging. So let's do some catching up on the good old kudos and boos

Kudos to Virgin America. Now as you know, flying is perhaps one of my least favorite activities, but if you gotta do, do it in style like Virgin! When walked onto the plane last weekend en route to the Vegas, I was taken aback when I saw the mood lighting--purple mood lighting to be exact--I felt like I just walked onto a flying club! THEN we sat down and saw the mini tvs and we could watch movies, tv, play games, and best part, they had Bravo. I was a-ok with this way of travel! The flight there was awesome, and the flight home, well those circumstances were definitely out of their control, if you know what I mean ;)
Boos to having to work while we have this beautiful weather. I could totes be content with sitting outside getting my tan on (hopefully not getting burned) and reading the latest and greatest book, buuuut no. Productivity and pay checks rear their ugly heads and get me to go to the office on a regular. Dammit. So close.

Kudos to Aria. This hotel was swaaaanky and definitely a place to hit. The rooms were spacious, the hotel was beautiful, the pool was hoppin' and it really offered us what we needed, a bed to pass out in and a shelf to put our booze on. Oh and a music channel for us to pump while we were getting ready. Not much more is needed in the Vegas so this place really brought it. I would totally recommend this to anyone who hits the strip.
Boos to that cab driver who took us for a ride, literally! On the Friday night that we were in Vegas, Lisa, Meredith and I hopped in a cab, chatty as ever, and the fool cab driver took us on the backroads to the Venetian, which isnt too far away on the strip. Well being the good hearted people that we are, we chatted him up a bit, getting his scoop on the Vegas, asked him about the celebs he's driven and built a rapport. Well $14 later we pulled up to the Venetian, seven minutes behind the other girls (who left after us), and realized we were just taken for a ride. Not cool cabbie, not cool. Did he really think we would not compare notes with the other girls. Why I otta.

Kudos to Cabana living. Really this is the only way to pool. You get an attendant who is ready to fulfill your every poolside desire--mainly have you up the tab--you get two high class rafts (I called dibs and planted it for the day, and get to cool off in the cabana from that hot Vegas sun! I would recommend a Cabana to anyone and believe me it will be hard to go back to a regular pool after this!
Boos to flying home from Vegas. Definitely NOT my favorite thing for two reasons. One it's the morning after a night in the Vegas. Two, hellsa turbulance. But hey the Virgin America pilot knew what he was doing, unlike the last time, so special shout out to you.

Well Kate, it was a catch up from the Vegas trip, but hey I blogged. Next time I'll attempt a photo but let's take it one goal at a time :o)

Housewives go out with a Bang!

Dear Kate,

Well it's officially half way through the month and where have we landed with the June goals, well not good. You should already assume this seeing as one was to blog more, three times a week with pictures, and this is my first (picture-less no less) post since this wonderful summer month began.

But why dwell on that? Let's talk about that fine drink of crazy that was the Real Housewives of Orange County Reunion. Where to begin where to begin. Actually I don't know where since I there was just so much yelling! Ok let's take a look at all the klassy ladies.

Tamra: She looked like she was about to burst at any moment. She just seemed SO gosh darn tense that if you were to look at her funny then she would explode, which she did, because of Gretchen. And Slade. And Jeana. And Alexis. Quote of the night: "Is your ass jealous of the shit that comes out of your mouth?" Who says that?

Alexis: What a bucket of crazy. We had hope for her at the beginning of this season, and everyone seemed to be buddy-buddy with her, man what a difference does 10 episodes make! What's peculiar is that although her husband doesn't even want to be on the show, cause he doesn't like the ladies, he's still causing shit! And boy she was pissing every body off but she looked just as annoyed with these ladies!

Vicki: She handled this very well. While news of her divorce broke before the season started and played out during the show, of course homeboy Andy Cohen wasted no time getting to that topic. But she really handled it well, especially when they showed the video that her ex-husband Donn sent in, which was less than flattering. Also when she said that her daughter has turned on her, she handled it as best she could. Classic Vicki moment of the night: "I could run the country better than what's going on now!" Shut up Vicki!

Gretchen: Meh she was kind of bleh this reunion, most of the shit that flew with her was revolving around what's going on with her boytoy Slade, but the rest of the time she was yelling at Tamra and really that was about it. Not really that impressed.

Peggy: This woman deserves a medal. She was the most composed, didn't yell, and didn't dig herself into a hole. I was cautious about her at the beginning of the season, but she happily surprised me! And she was so smart during this reunion show, she came out smelling like a rose!

And Lisa said it best, these ladies should take notes from the Bev Hills Housewives cause they didn't talk about a gosh darn thing!

Oh Orange County, you do always bring it during the reunion episodes!

End of the May Goals

Dear Kate,

I tried something new this past month. I set small attainable goals and did my best to reach by the end of the month. For example, I wanted to buy shoes for the wedding by the end of the month, I wanted to get my hair highlighted and get back into studying Italian. What not flashy enough? Please, I got to ease into this.

So today, being June 1st, it's only appropriate to see where we landed from the May goal list and set June's. Let's see, I bought three pairs of shoes for the wedding (so I suppose I went above and beyond with that goal, some might call me an overachiever). I got my hair done on Friday (just in the nick of time) and as for Italiano, "Parlo cosi cosi, ma Giugno studio italiano piu" (not the most thrilling sentence, if you catch my drift). It looks like I got a solid 2 out of 3 and yes, they were the easy tasks. But you can't always win them all, if you know what I'm saying so job well done I say!

Now on to June's goals:
1. Get all my MOH ducks in a row (eek the toast!)
2. Blog more (that is an outstanding goal) but more like 3 times a week at least and add pictures
3. Make a list and start summer "funtivities"
4. Start listening to books on tape on my commute (well more like the afternoon commute, cause I got Sarah and Vinnie in the am :)

And since today is June 1st, I want to give a shout out to TERESA MARIE NIELSEN!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY and I hope you enjoyed your birthday!! It's crazy to think we're getting so old, but you're a superstar and I hope this year is simply wonderful xoxo

And we're on to June!

Since when am I the adult?

Dear Kate,

Last night, I attended the Glee concert with the neighbor kids. Just kidding, that would have sounded a little better than saying I went to the Glee concert with my mom and aunt. Which I did, but even though I was the “kid” I still felt like I was the adult chaperone to these ladies.They were so excited, they sang along, danced a bit, and took lots of photos that aren’t going to come out, sorry mom.

Just watching how excited they were was purely comical. It really reminded me of my first real concert. Well I suppose my first concert was the Beach Boys, but I had no idea what was going on and we were watching music instead of watching a movie or eating or something. When I was in the sixth grade, maybe 7th or 8th, good ol’ VK took me to the fantastic, the amazing, the talented, NSYNC. That’s right, be jealous. AND it was on a weeknight? How much cooler can you get than that? It was right when they were the talk of the town, they were ruling the airwaves and filling our heads with their catch tunes. I remember singing my heart out (as I often do) and took a complete throw-away camera’s worth of blurry photos with tiny blue blobs flying across (oops forgot about the flash).

Since then I’ve been to a few concerts since then like Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, U2—arguably the most awesome ever—but this was my first in a while. As we were waiting for the dang show to start, and although there was just oodles of excitement radiating from Lady Di and Cathy, the whole HP Pavillion was busting at the seams waiting for their fave stars to pop on stage and serenade them. And once they did finally decide to pop on stage, it was a pretty darn good concert. They had a lot of energy, danced a lot, and sounded awesome! Well at least I think they did, I couldn’t really hear them over the two older ladies singing next to me. ;o) And it was super cool to see my high school compadre, Darren, on stage with all these people cheering for him. Definitely cool.

Another concert on another school night. Yeah ya! And ironically, the concert was the same night as their season finale. So I have no idea what happened with Nationals. Poor planning, poor planning.

Adult-itis

Hello faithful reader Kate,

It’s Thursday. Finally. This has been quite the week and you should know! But, I can just barely see the light at the end of the work week tunnel. Maybe I’ve had a bit of adult-itis this week too. This is one of my favorite times of years, grad parties, it’s just starting to get hot, I’m optimistic about my tanning. Then you hear about the twerps who are done with finals, are the ones graduating, they’ve got nothing to do between now and the fall. I can’t help but be jealous. I wish that the working world still had the three fantastic months of summer vacation so we could soaking up every once of Vitamin D we can, and pair that with the benefits that come with being over 21 and that’s pretty close to perfection.

My summer between school and the harsh working world was, in a word? AWESOME. I was working “part time” at Kids on Campus, so I had some cash flow (we even got a raise for summer working, yes please!), I went to Vegas, San Clemente (for two weeks, thank you very much) and the idea of working was simply an idea, not a threat. This is really the only time when this recession really worked in my favor. I was happy, tan and relaxed.

Why can’t we have that now?! How much happier would we be if we could all work part time and get the rest of the time to vacation, hang out, lay low, and enjoy the beautiful weather? I bet people would be MUCH more productive in the work place if they had the opportunity to gallivant off every weekend on some adventure or harebrained scheme with their family or friends. I know I would be!

But this summer should be pretty solid, basically for one event that we’re anxiously awaiting the arrival of! I know Nothing will ever meet the summer after Santa Clara, but I’m willing to try. But I can’t do that until the damn season decides to get here.

Attempt Numero Dos

Dear Kate,

So, I bet you can guess, but I was at work a little longer than anticipated and by the time I got home, I didn’t have time to change and go to Spin. And then the whole, “I’m not really into going tonight” weighed heavily on my decision. Epic fail. I know. And I call myself MOH.
So today to make up for it, I’m attempting Urban Rebounding again for the second time. Last week we went and I had NO idea what to expect. Usually, before I go into a new gym class, I try and watch from the other side of the glass (either on the treadmill or elliptical) and judge if I would be able to stand 60 minutes of that ridiculousness. Usually, my answer is no and I had seen a few instances walking past a class with this he-man teaching and yelling and thinking that looks insanely hard but Lisa practically fell into this class and her legs are double the length of mine. She decided to try it once, thinking the instructor was our home girl Diana who we’ve taken kickboxing from but with Lisa’s luck it was some other chick. Lisa stayed for the kickboxing class right after, with said instructor, where I met up with her and the new instructor seemed super nice and she talked about how it was great for the core so I thought why the hell not?

Well, last week was quite comical. Lisa’s trampoline, excuse me, urban rebounder, was broken initially, yet she still picked it and continued to break it further towards the beginning of the class. Smooth moves right there. Then we had a DIFFERENT instructor than I originally thought and this fool had so much energy that no one else was allowed to have any. He just sucked it right out of the room. So while he’s running around, jumping up and down, having a blast, I’m still trying to figure out how to “run” on this ridiculously small trampoline. It was definitely a LOT harder than it looks from the safety of the other side of the glass wall. After Lisa and I exchanged quite a few “Screw you” looks, a couple “Holy crap I almost fell on my face” eyebrow raises and one “this wedding better be worth it” glare, we moved away from the cardio and into abs.

In my opinion, that’s the best part because while spend about 40-45 minutes looking like a fool at a kid’s birthday party, the last 20-15 minutes are mostly abs and stretching. Really, my biggest qualm with other classes is that there’s not a lot of time to stretch or do abs at the end of the class, or they tell you to stretch on your own. Yeah right, once I walk out of the gym the likelihood of that drops dramatically like an F-bomb out of a New Jersey Housewife’s mouth.
When I finally caught my breath at the end of the class and saw the golden gates of the front door beaming and I thought, ok, a few of those looks were uncalled for and a majority of those moves were made for the Arnold Swarzeneggers of the world (post coming about that bomb drop), but man I earned my dinner!

The true test comes with the second class, which we get to have tonight at 5:30. I’m also attempting to stay for Kickboxing directly after since I missed last night, but we’ll see how Hell Hour One goes. If I don’t post tomorrow, it’s possible that I died.

May Goals

We were in LA for approximately 39.5 hours but boy did we make it count! Not only did we help Claire celebrate her big weekend and see Bridesmaids, but we were there to help with the big wedding! We graciously voiced our opinions, whether it was wanted or not ;-) and provided moral support since we’re currently sitting at 47 days! And boy is that time going to fly. Our schedules are pretty jam packed between now and then, and this is only the tip of the iceburg for the Finers and Tom! In two weeks, Sarah comes north to visit while Tom is in Vegas for his bachelor party, two weeks after that, the ladies head to Vegas for the Bachelorette Party and then 2.5 weeks after that Lady Di and I pack up Lexi and head South for the wedding! Luckily, I have nothing to do between now and then! JK there’s PLENTY to be done on my part. Actually almost too much to be done!

I've got me some “May Goals” to take care of. Hairstyle, check. Work on some Vegas items, check. Get wardrobe in order for the weekend, semi check. Shoes, well I thought I had some shoes already in the bag, but when wearing them for a brief time this weekend, I'm convinced that my feet will hate me by the end of mass. So looks like to DSW I go. Lose 5 lbs? Meh, but we're only half way through the month so it can happen.

Actually, as we bid adieu to everyone, the harsh reality hit us that the wedding is less than 7 weeks away and Vegas less than 4 so we’re kicking this workout into high gear! Yes, I know I’ve said it many a-times throughout this engagement but this is getting really close. Holy Hell. Target Zones: Arms and Tummy. Looks like I’m headed to Spin tonight followed by some weights. Bring. It. On.