I'M ENGAGED!!!

Well, depending on who you ask, I'm either: A) Just engaged or B) I'm FINALLY engaged -- but like I said, it all depends on who you ask. After being together for 4 years my now fiancé thought it was time to pop the question. It was so cute when he told me how nervous he'd been the entire time leading up to it. And the way he did it as well, was something that was definitely our style.

While on a weekend getaway to South Lake Tahoe, we decided we were going to go on a hike and revisit Emerald Bay -- which is a 20 minute drive or so from the California/Nevada stateline (which is where we were staying). Since there was no parking near the Vikingsholm (where was our intended destination) we had to park at the Inspiration Point vista point, just a little over a mile walk/hike away. So, before we headed up there, we stopped at the local Subway to get a couple of foot-longs for lunch. After parking and packing up my camelback and all that other fun stuff, we began our trek out to the start of the trail down to the Vikingsholm. Before we headed down there, we thought we'd find a bench or something so we could each lunch.

Boyfriend C was trying to find the "perfect" spot while I was just trying to find somewhere decent enough to sit so we could eat and sit and so I wouldn't burn my butt (it was a really warm day out). He's out on top on this rock hill saying it's perfect, while I'm walking around it saying I refuse to burn my butt; I end up finding a nice ledge, that's half in the shade, and has the perfect view as well. I tell boyfriend, and pull out the sandwiches and start tearing into one while he walks on over to me. Upon reaching me he said, "Can you put the sandwich down?" and I responded with a "WHY!?"

He just replies with a, "Can you just put it down?" and I say "Okay, fine." He then proceeds to recite the chorus of The Beatles' "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" and then gets down on one knee and simply says, "Will you marry me?" I managed to sneak in a "Are you proposing right now?" in there.

After saying no -- he knew I was kidding when I said it -- and officially saying yes, he told me the story about how he went about asking my father's permission and pretty much telling everybody and their mom that he was going to propose that weekend. After telling people the story, they all said that it was very "us" the way it happened; I'm thinking the sandwiches had something to do with it.

Me in all my excitement.

Overall, it was a nice surprise to a fun filled weekend. The day only got better when we hit up the Maroon 5 concert that I won tickets to (more on that later). The engagement is still sinking in for sure, but I'm super excited about it all! Not only that, but I'm surprised at the overwhelming response and joy that we've getting and how much people want to help me plan my future wedding. Which, by the way, is just a little over a year away now.

This one will definitely be framed seeing as this is where he proposed.

At the Dentist

As I sit here waiting for the dentist to come in and tell me if my teeth are bad or not, I'm surprised at how calm I am about it. I mean I haven't been to the dentist in over 3 years (I no longer live on the LBC, I was too poor to afford insurance, all that fun stuff) so I figured it was time to go. That and I had a mini cavity scare one late Saturday night so I balled up and bought the insurance). And, hey, it's always fun sitting in the fancy dentist chair with a bib on.

It's not weird that I like the Xrays they take when you're a new patient, is it? Hey, I like looking at my teeth in pretty, generic black and white negatives. Not to mention, this place is super fancy and everyone is super friendly -- not that the other dentist offices that I've been to in my lifetime weren't fancy without helpful staff, but they offered to get me a magazine or a GLASS OF WATER! Maybe, that's the standard these days, but I've never had that be the type of service I get at the dental office. It was nice. The end.

Here's to a good visit.

Those are some mighty fine looking teeth!

UPDATE: 

• THE GOOD NEWS: No cavities! Hooray! I'm super glad that my one worry in visiting the dentist was kinda all for nothing, but never again shall I let 3+ year gap between dentist visits happen again.
• THE BAD NEWS: My gums are in not so hot shape. I am about two years (without another dentist check up) away from gum disease. So, now I have to visit the hygienist and get that all sorted out which really comes down to whether I want my gums flushed out, cleaned and sterilized 80% of the way or a 100% of the way all at the price difference of $250 -- with the low ball end of it being $500.

UPDATE #2: It seems I may actually have to get braces. Not for cosmetic reasons but for a cross-bite; and what sucks is the price tag for those suckers. To have the ones all the kids had in middle school will cost me a whopping $4,000!!! THAT'S INSANE! I sure as hell didn't hesitate to say "Fuck that!" to the Invisaline as soon as she told me they would cost $6500 and that's without any coverage or anything. But hey, at least I get to keep my wisdom teeth!

Realizing You Really Are Grown Up.

Just a little over a month ago, at the tail end of my week vacation, I went to one of my childhood friends' wedding. I've known this kid since I was probably around 8 and our mom's also happen to be BEST friends,  so when I first heard that he was engaged it took me by surprise. I remember my mom was floored when I told her, after I saw it posted on Facebook, just because of the fact that it probably hit her as well that we're all really adults now.

One year later, it was time for his wedding -- which was very lovely actually. The bride and groom both looked just so happy and in love and ready to start a new life together which made me happy because that's the feeling I was to see radiating from the bride and groom at any wedding I happen to go to.

It was also nice to attend one of my friends' wedding because my boyfriend was finally able to see a Hispanic wedding in action. Now, just to clear things up, Hispanic wedding aren't completely different from your average, normal, everyday American wedding but there are some variations. For example, the couple had this big Mariachi band during the ceremony/mass/what-have-you that would play, and luckily, my boyfriend was blown away by it; he's now a little on board for a mariachi band at our potential wedding.

At the reception, later that evening, it was time for the dollar dance -- you know, where everyone goes up with money and pins it on either the bride or groom (one of the aforementioned customs) -- and I didn't have any cash on me, and neither did my mom or sister, but out of left field here comes the groom's mom to hand us money so we could go dance with him. And so I stood in line, waited my turn and I told him, "I guess this means we're all grown-ups now, huh?"  He said, "I know, huh?"

As always, my mother wasn't standing too far away with a camera enabled phone to snap this picture (since she's a bit technically challenged and couldn't figure my camera out).

After the dollar dance, came the tossing of the garter and bouquet. Here was another cultural variation because they men and woman (during their respective turns) run around through the tables/crowd while music plays in a snake -- everybody hold hands and runs to get tired and dizzy and eager to catch the bouquet. I was commanded to be the one to catch it by the groom's sister, which I was all for, but as soon as this girl -- which it was very evident that she wanted it -- I knew it was a lost cause. After that it was all dancing, cupcakes and candy galore.

Later that evening, of course, the "When are you getting married?" and the "I hear you're next." train started going through the wedding but, more on that later....

Pardon the Interruption...

...but a whole month late I'm finally posting about something very monumental and important in my yearly life. Last May, on the 25th, my boyfriend and I celebrated our 4-year anniversary. It wracks my brain to think about how when we first got together he was still 20 and I was 19 and now we're almost 25 and 23, respectively.

On that note, its been an amazing four years that have really flown by. Considering that this is my first serious relationship, I'm still surprised with how long it's lasted, but in a good way. In those 4 years we've gone from being long-distance to living under-the-same-roof which has been quite the ride. Can't wait to see what the future will bring for us.

He really is an amazing man and my best friend and I couldn't be happier to be able to call him my greatest love.

Cruisin' 2012, Part II

To pick up where I left off on the previous post...

On our 3rd day the ship docked in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, and this was intended to be the shopping day since there's pretty much nothing else to do in this stop but go shopping. First things first, however, boyfriend and I had to hit up every picture stop they had on our way out:

The boys all went off to go see the big famous blow hole and the girls all went shopping. I did get some great deals and haggled some of the vendors down a bit on their prices. I was almost quite scared, in a sense, to speak any Spanish because I didn't want to get bombarded with people trying to sell me all kinds of things. I did, on occasion speak in Spanish with those that I was serious about buying things from. 

I think boyfriends' and my favourite part of the day was the drinking. We made a stop at the World Famous Papas and Beers for drinks. The margaritas there were delicious but very sugary, but it was nice to stop in and check out the place. We even got a picture out of it.

After spending $28 on 4 margaritas we found this place about a block or two down that was having 2 for $6 margaritas and $1 tacos. Boyfriend and I just had to stop in after that sort of deal. We were so glad we did! the margaritas in this bar were the BEST that we've had...EVER! They were so delicious mainly for the fact that they were made from scratch. Upon having our first sip of them, we questioned our decision to ever go into Papas & Beers because those were definitely made from a mix while these had fresh lime juice that we even go to see them squeeze fresh:

Not to forget the food, the tacos here were very delicious. I had one of each (chicken, carne asada and fish) and the fish was fried fresh. Seriously it was the best tacos ever. The bartender was even nice enough to give us his recipe for margaritas and even told us what kind of triple sec/syrup to use! 

As you can see in the background, the place is decked out in one dollar bills that people decorated and were taped to the wall. Being the ever adventurous couple that we are (ha!), boyfriend and I decided that we HAD to leave one for the wall as well. The bartender, once again, kindly let us even go behind the bar so we could have a picture with our dollar bill that will forever be taped onto their wall in Ensenada (well, so long as their establishment is open)

For our last day on the cruise was the ever fun filled "day at sea". We spent most of the day just walking around, exploring, and even played a nice game of 'Settlers of Catan' with boyfriends' brother and his wife. All in all it was nice to be back on land an nice to have a whole week off.

Cruisin' 2012, Part I

Just over a month ago, I got to go on my FIRST cruise!

Not only was it exciting because I'd never been on one, but it was kind of nice because I didn't have to worry about the cost of it. I mean, I kind of felt bad in a sense because my boyfriends' dad was COMPLETELY picking up the tab, but I was very grateful because he was being so very generous with everyone.

Anyways, at the time, I'd been balancing two jobs, so I was WAY ready for a WHOLE week off. This cruise has, thus far, been the trip of a lifetime. It was to be a five-day 3 stop trip, so I was super excited.

The cruise departed from Long Beach, CA, my home town so I was HOME. The first stop after it departed from Long Beach was Catalina Island on which I made it a goal to go para-sailing while there. I'd never been, and once I saw that the cruise offered it as an "excursion" I wanted to go. My boyfriend, being the person that he is, wasn't completely on board because he doesn't like not having control of things, took a little longer to convince. As soon as I told him that we could save $30 a pop AND get pictures,by purchasing the excursion on the island instead of through the ship, he was almost completely on board. Boy, am I glad that he finally agreed to go with me. Not only, was it tandem para-sailing that this company offered (so we could go together), but the pictures that they took were of some high quality. Here's one of my favorite pictures of the experience:

Boyfriends' face says it all

After boyfriend and I got back from para-sailing, the whole clan decided to go on a golf cart tour of the island, which was lots of fun. I'd never seen most of the island, so it was cool to go through places and see a lot of its natural beauty. I got some great pictures of the view as well.

Our cruise ship on the left.

That night was also Captain's Dinner night which basically means everyone has to get all fancied up for dinner which is what we all did. The dinner was delectable that night and it was nice to get dressed up for  a change, since I very rarely break out the dress and heels combo. We even did formal portraits with one of the many photographers they had stationed throughout the ship that night. 

This pose was our idea; Originally intended to be funny but everyone thinks its "cute."

 We ended the night with watching a comedy show and heading back to our room where we literally passed out for the night.

Vacation 2012

Here are some life epiphanies I had while on vacation last week:

• Why hadn't I tried daiquiris before?
• I must go on another cruise. SOON!
• Stopping on the long drive up/down the 5 for more than 30 minutes is not ideal.
• Para-sailing should be done every 2 years or so.
• Old Fashioned's are not my drink of choice.
• Risotto is amazing (and I will have it at every Italian restaurant I go to)
• Coors Light will always taste like beer pong.
• Never spend that much money on a quarters machine AGAIN.
• Sea sickness is not an issue.
• Star Wars references are ALWAYS acceptable. 

$10 Wasted.

Last night, my boyfriend and I went out for dinner and a movie just because we thought it'd be nice to do since I had a rare day off from both of my jobs. After hitting up this amazing Mexican place Casa Ramos we headed off to the theatre that's located across the street.

We were set on watching Men in Black 3 but once the girl at the register rang us up and we saw that it was $27 dollars we realized that the showing was for 3D. So, we quickly said "eff that" and asked to The Dictator instead. What a dumb piece of crap that movie was. It had a few moments of hilarity. And when I say few I really mean a 2-3. I love Sacha Baron Cohen, when he's funny. I thought Bruno was even funnier than this movie. Point of the story is, if I'm falling asleep at the movies you know the film isn't any good, and I love going to the movie theater. Oh well, there's $10 and an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back.

 Here's the trailer for those of you who don't know what movie I'm talking about.

New Year. New Start.

Alright, so working two jobs is not very easy. The only downtime that I do get is to sleep and eat. Any internet access that I do get is through my phone for quick catch-ups during work breaks. A smartphone is no place to blog. Because I've been working like a beast and barely get on my computer, I neglected my blogs. There's so much I wanted to catch up on, but seeing as so much time has gone by, I'm just going to start a new with a new blank slate (but I'm keeping this blog because I don't like to start too many things just to abandon them - starting fresh on the old is always fun).

The Year: 2012. The Goal: Try to blog as often as possible about relevant life happening and what not. Overall goal: Make more time for things that I want to do.

Hopefully I won't forget this new goal and actually keep an up-to-date blog to make it attractive to whoever happens to stumble upon my blog and maybe make them come back for more.

Leaving Home. AGAIN.

So, at the end of summer I was kind of excited about moving back home again. Hey, free rent, food, and laundry!?!? What's not to like. Then, came the most dreaded and kind of exciting part of it all: finding a job.

Now, when I first moved back home, I was really optimistic about the job market back home since I lived in a big town and would have full access to a car and reliable public transportation system again. Soon, the weeks started to go by and I was having no luck finding a job, I should be more specific - I was having no luck getting called back. I wasn't looking for a job in my field (psychology) specifically I was just looking for A JOB. The main thing on the back of my mind being the fact that my school loan was going to go into collection in March of next year, and I wanted to have some money put away so any saved funds could offset that new monthly payment I would have for about a year or so. Again, no luck. I even interviewed with Disneyland and they didn't want me. HOW IN THE WORLD ARE YOU OVERQUALIFIED TO WORK AT DISNEYLAND?!?!


Anyways, fast forward a couple of weeks and my boyfriend and I concoct a plan: if nothing has happened by the end of October, I'd come up, spend a month in Sacramento (where he lives) and look for a job; if nothing happened by the end of November, I'd come back home again and well, we'd be back at square one. So, after he came for visits in October for my half-marathon (DID I MENTION THAT I RAN A HALF-MARTHON!?!? more on that later) things got sped up for the 2nd week of October since that when places were hiring in Sac for the holidays and what not.

So, after asking/telling my parents about my plan, which they were surprisingly very supportive of, I packed my bags (all two of them) and came to Sac. Low and behold, not 5 days later, I had a job. Kinda miss home, but I'm happy with the way things are going. REALLY miss cooking and BAKING a lot though).