Finally...a Fess Up!

I know, I know, I'm a horrible blogger and it's been over a week since I actually posted anything of use. But today I'm back with a fess up and some other news!

It's been a heck of a week. I was busier than a bee during honey season...is there a honey season? Anyway, Monday was my last day at the hotel...cue hallelujah chorus here...Wednesday almost killed me. I had to be at work at 6:30 to work on a story and last weekend was intense between UoP's homecoming and the funeral I had to go to. I got off work at 4 today and I've been home for about an hour so I decided to sit down and get this blog post written and posted while I watch Casey Holmes and MeghanRosette on YouTube.

To be honest, quite a few of my fess up things are going to be TV related...I've been loving this Fall's lineup. Thus, my appreciation of the new shows on TV has to be noted. Just a warning. 

Number One: Reign. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't excited about this show at all. While I like period pieces and all that, The CW's tv shows don't usually tickle my fancy. My love/hate relationship with Gossip Girl pretty much started when Jenny took over as queen of the Upper East Side and continued from there. The exception to this is of course, Hart of Dixie because well, I love Rachel Bilson. But back to Reign. Aside from the horrendous accents (no one on the show has an accent appropriate to their supposed country of origin. It upsets me. I guess America just assumes that everyone from Europe sounds British. That seems to be what's going on here), I love the show. I'm a huge fan and I'm not sure why. It isn't like it is mind blowing or anything. I'm fully aware of Mary Queen of Scots and her history, but the show is just great. Only two episodes in but thus far, I'm diggin it for sure. All of the behind the scenes pictures from the show are hilarious, too. It seems like everyone on the show seems to like each other and get along really well which is always nice to see, I feel. Plus, how gorgeous is the chick who plays Mary?! 

Hair jealousy for sure. BUT I'm this color now so I suppose I can try and achieve this. 

Number Two: The Originals. I suppose since the CW is currently rockin' it with their new shows, I suppose I'll keep on in the vein of television shows that I like right now. The Originals kind of trips me out, only because it is currently taking place during the set of episodes in which Klaus and Elijah are in New Orleans and The Vampire Diaries has moved on from that particular place in time...so the Originals are like in a time loop while Mystic Falls moved on in time...like I said...trippy. Don't get it. BUT I am totally enjoying the series. I'm slightly obsessed with New Orleans so the show taking place there is definitely helping my love affair develop. I don't know. Overall, I can't get enough of the show even though the way the guy who plays Klaus talks drives me NUTS because speech impediments inherently bother me. I don't know what it is. People who move their mouths oddly when they talk just trip me out. And I love Phoebe Tonkin's style on the show...and in real life. But whatever, we'll keep it to the show. 

Plus Marcell isn't too hard on the eyes, either.

Number Three: The skull leggings I bought on StyleLately. I got them mostly to wear for Halloween but it isn't like skulls stop being cool on November 1st. I just won't wear them to any Christmas parties, yeah? I linked them but you can't buy them anymore. StyleLately, for those who don't know is a website that features trendy clothing for a limited time at discounted prices. I got the leggings for $11.99 and I guess I got the last pair because they were sold out when I looked at their listing not even 2 minutes later. I'll post a picture of my Halloween outfit for you so you can see how awesome they are. 

Number Four: Dark hair. So despite my plans not even two fess ups ago to go a caramel, bronzey blonde, I ended up going to a level four (hella dark) brown this week on Wednesday. Why, you ask? Well, I felt like it. I spent a few days looking on Pinterest for "Rich Brown Hair" and eventually gave up and let my stylist do what she wanted anyway. I'm waiting for her to post the pictures on Instagram though because the color we went is super trippy. It's a dark dark brown, almost black but in the sun, it reflects blood red. It's so weird. There isn't a drop of red in the actual dye because my hair has a tendency to pull really warm anyway and go red no matter what color we apply but this time, it's here even though it wasn't invited to the party. 

Number Five: Allegiant. If you are a fan of novels about dystopian societies, a la The Hunger Games and have no read the Divergent series by Veronica Roth, you are clearly living under a rock. I think the last fess up I posted I was reading House of Hades. I finished that book just in time for my pre-ordered copy of Allegiant, the third installment of the Divergent series, to load itself onto my Kindle. I'm only about five chapters in, and I don't remember the other books actually switching perspectives between characters, but for now, I'm allowing it. It's super good so far, I just keep having to remember what happened in the first two books because its been a while since I last read them. 

Number Six: Artwork. Now that I've moved back home, I've been slowly, very slowly, been getting my room together, hanging up my pictures, arranging things on my bookshelf, getting it all just so now that I'm back for a bit, and I've been getting into shopping for artwork for my walls. I don't have a ton of wall space or anything, but I do have enough to be able to hang up a few pieces and I think that I finally found the final two pieces to fill the holes I have left. Once everything looks like an explosion didn't occur an hour before I walked into my room, I will absolutely be posting pictures of it and talking about things. I'm really excited, actually. I like having a room that I'm proud of and want to be in now. 

Clearly I needed this the second I saw it!

Number Seven: Monroe and Harlow. I already talked about them last time, yest. But since then, I received my order and they've been releasing more things and I couldn't be more pleased with both my order and how the miniature snafu that occurred was handled by the shop owner. Monroe and Harlow is affiliated with another website called StoreEnvy which is how their orders are processed, I guess. Anyway, when I submitted my order, I got the standard "Thanks for Your Order" email with my receipt and telling me that I would receive a ship confirmation once I they went out. Aaaaaaand like 2 or 3 days later I still hadn't gotten one. So I emailed the shop just to check and see whether or not they'd gone out. The lovely shop owner emailed me back right away and let me know that they had gone out the day before and that they should arrive to me from Florida in about 2-3 days. Which was fine with me. I asked her for the tracking number just to be able to check their progress and she let me know that for some reason, my items were "stuck" in Miami and hadn't moved in two days. I told her it wasn't a big deal and I could hang in until they came in. She told me that if they hadn't moved by 3 that day, she'd be calling USPS to see what the heck was up. Well, that was Friday and the Monroe and Harlow package arrived at my house on Saturday. Apparently they weren't stuck at all and USPS was up to its usual fuckery but I really appreciated her effort to work with me and her concern for the fact that my items were not shipping to me properly and on time. I will definitely be ordering more from them after I get paid next time. 

I hope you guys have been having a good week and now that I'm back on track with posting, I will be sure to post more. I still need to do an outfit styling post with my knit jeggings and also with my skull leggings on Halloween so keep your eyes peeled for those. And I'll probably be getting something up in the next few days here about my room as it progresses into a more permanent state of doneness. 

Not all who wander are lost...

...sometimes they're just at their little sister's first college Homecoming. Apparently, when you actually go away to school, things like homecoming are actually super exciting and not a big joke like they are at my stupid commuter campus.

With any luck, I'll get a good blog post out of it. If not, I hear there's a beer garden of some sort there. If it gets super boring, I'll just get a really big beer and cruise around doing that instead of listening to a spirit band.

I decided not to do a fess up again so soon since it literally took me until yesterday to get last week's up. If I was though, Reign would for sure be a part of my fess up for this week.

The premiere was fantastic. I finally watched it today while I was attempting to work on my room and get some pictures and things hung up. Which I did, quite successfully. Now I just need to get the rest of my crap put away or given away so my room is livable for real and not just livable if you're used to living in mess from 16 or so years of practice doing it.

I've made a resolution for myself to complete things more often. Like my room, this blog (how are we feeling about the new title, by the way? It's a little plain but I made it myself and therefore, I feel like I should be proud of it.), and my Tumblr which I frequently change the theme and music of but always consistently post pictures that I like.

Anyway, just a quick little ramble for this Friday night when I have nothing better to do than sit around in my room and wait for the sun to come up tomorrow. Cheers.

It's the end of the week...let's fess up some things.

I started this blog last Saturday. It is now Wednesday. Epic fail on my part. But at least I got it up, right??

Guys, where is the year going?! I feel like it was just New Year's like yesterday and here we are, midway through October, watching Halloween movies and starting our Christmas shopping. Say whaaaaaaa?! So much has happened this year, too but I feel like it was all a blur. But as good as 2013 has been, I'm sure 2014 will be even better.

This past week has been an interesting one. I'm loving my internship. I have had quite a few stories published thus far and I'm pretty proud of myself. I need to buy a portfolio for them, though. I really should get better at being on top of promoting myself. But I'm just enjoying the experience right now. I really like my boss and the other intern and the people in the office are all super friendly. 

Best of all, I am definitely excited to be cutting down my hours at the hotel. Tomorrow and Wednesday mark my last full week here and after that, I'll only be trapped twice a week. Woohoo! You have no idea how much I need to be outta here. *Most* of the people are horrendous pieces of work. Ok, not most, but a significant enough number that I want to yank my hair out and scream life is too short repeatedly when they talk. 

But enough of my complaining, let's get into what I'm loving this week...and one undecided deal. 

Number One: Alright, let's start with a pumpkin spice tea that I've now added time into my schedule each morning to go downstairs and make for myself to start my day. I got it at Target because it was on price cut for $2.27 and it's the Sweet Harvest Pumpkin tea from Celestial Seasonings. I can't even describe how good it is. It's like a hug in a cup or something. I don't know that I will repurchase when I blow through this box but I'm enjoying every cup I make :)

Number Two: American Eagle's Knit Jeggings. I may have talked about them before, I may not have. I can't remember but these have rapidly become a wardrobe staple for me. So much so that I had to go into American Eagle on Thursday and buy another pair for myself (while wearing the first ones, I might add) because wearing the one I had four times a week wasn't conducive to looking like I actually have a cute butt. They are the most comfortable pants that I have ever owned in my entire life and they're super flattering. Considering I live in yoga and sweatpants when I'm not at work, to say these are as comfortable if not more so than my yoga pants is serious business guys, and they are. I'm thinking I'll be putting up a styling post for them soon considering how often I wear them in my week so at some point, you'll see them in action. 

Number Three: House of Hades. So you may or may not know that I'm a borderline buff when it comes to Greek, Roman, and Egyptian Mythology. Full blown nerd status, to be honest. And I got into the Percy Jackson series of books in 2010 when I was on a family trip to Disneyworld. I bought the first three books in a box set and proceeded to devour them in the seven days that we were in Florida, only to come home and finish the series of 5 books. Wellp, Rick Riordan did it again and came out with a Greco-Roman fusion series in which the kids from the Percy Jackson series team up with their Roman counterparts and thus far, I have read every single book that has come out. I'm currently reading the newest release, House of Hades (or at least trying to every spare second that I have) and I'm not disappointed. Unlike other book series that I have read, all of the pieces in the Heroes of Olympus collection are perfect stand alone books, as well as cohesive stepping stones to build the sum of the series, from The Lightning Thief to now. 

I will not, however be going to see the movie that is coming out. The first one ruined it for me.

Number Four: TrendyTulip Designs on Etsy. I already own one of their quarter zip, monogrammed pullovers but I've got my eyes on another one because, well, when your initials are CEO, why wouldn't you slap your monogram all over everything? I'd initially asked my little sister to get it for me for Christmas but I want it now, so I will pretty much be ordering a carbon copy of the example on the shop site for myself to wear now that it's getting colder. Words cannot express how excited I am. 

Did I mention that it's Lily Pulitzer print?! I may not be in a sorority anymore, but I can get down like a sorority girl for SURE. 

Number Five: Pushing Daisies. Ok, so to be honest, this show came out when I was still in high school. I think I was a freshman when it premiered. But I loved it then and somehow lost track of it in the course of the second season. I won't lie to you and tell you that I frequently put it on to watch when I have nothing else going on television wise. I do have to wait some time between viewings though. When you've seen the episodes as many times as I have, you tend to get bored really quickly. 

Number Six: MonroeandHarlow. I have never been a fan of hippie headbands or wearing a headwrap or anything of that nature. However, in a recent attempt to be more girly, I decided to purchase some from their website last week and I can't wait to get them. Now when my hair is being annoying and misbehaving, I can pull one of these cute little turban-y headbands on and look like I tried for the day. 

Number Seven: Plum Nail Polish. Orly's Plum Noir to be exact. Now that it is supposedly fall, I have gotten more into the darker nail polish thing but on my albino skin, black is a little much. So I've been rocking Plum Noir as a nice alternative. It's dark but it isn't black and plum is a little bit girlier anyway. 

The Eh Experience: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. I wasn't sure how I would feel about this new series from the creators of Once Upon a Time when I first saw the commercials. I mean, I love Alice in Wonderland, but I wasn't sure how I'd feel now that Once Upon a Time, the original has gone a bit downhill in plotline and execution. Frankly, if it makes it past season 4, I would be shocked. Anyway, I watched the first episode of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, and to be frank, its an even bigger mess than its predecessor. I may give the second episode a shot...but the pilot wasn't very good at all. 

Taco Tuesdays and Hocus Pocus: This Week So Far

Happy Hump Day, friends! It's Wednesday and I figured that I already have enough to talk about this week that I don't have to wait for the Fess Up to talk about my life. I'm not sure how often I'll actually feel compelled to do this, but I'm still in my good mood from last week so let's roll with it, shall we?

Monday was an interesting day for me. Apart from it being one of my 12 hour days, I actually decided that after a year, I am leaving the hotel. I'm not a super impulsive person, especially when it comes to money and jobs, but after spending a year feeling unappreciated, taken advantage of and disrespected in my position, I'm ready to go. I didn't officially put in my 2 weeks notice. I just reduced my availability to 2 days a week. I've decided that I'll be putting in my 2 weeks officially when they have new people hired and in training so I don't get guilt tripped too bad for leaving them short staffed. 

Since making the decision though, I feel about 100 lbs lighter. I don't feel like I hate my life, I don't want to yell at everyone for just being in my presence, and I suspect that the further I get from the front desk, the better I will feel. 

I also got Hocus Pocus on DVD for a pre-Halloween movie date with my friend Sara who has NEVER SEEN HOCUS POCUS(!). Yup. that's right guys, she's never seen the best Halloween movie to ever come out...ever. Clearly she had a terrible childhood ;) That movie always brings back fond memories for me though. To be honest, one of my first memories is of watching Hocus Pocus in my grandma's den in Santa Rosa when I was 4 or 5 years old. As you can imagine, despite my avid movie watching at that age, I wasn't quite a pro at sitting still the whole time and I remember getting up and wandering out to see what everyone else was doing at the commercials only to toddle my way off back to watching the movie when I thought the commercials must be over. I would assume that it carries the same fond memories for other people too because when I posted a picture of the freshly-opened DVD on Instagram, I got 17 likes within...probably 30 minutes of posting it. And that's the most likes I've ever gotten on an image. 

This was basically the best cap off to a Monday in a long time, especially because I have to work on Monday nights. I can't wait to watch it tomorrow night. Whether Sara comes over or not, I am definitely gettin down on some vintage Disney Halloween Classic movie time. I may have sushi. I may go visit my friends over at Macaroni Grill considering the fact that I haven't seen any of them since I quit Mac Grill almost a year ago when I got hired on at the hotel. Biiiiiiig mistake. Either way, childhood memories will be relived, regardless of food choice. 

Yesterday, in case you live under a rock, was Taco Tuesday. And now when I say Taco Tuesday, I do so with the implication that like the Plastics or the guys on Big Bang, I differentiate certain days by the activities that I do on those days. It's just Taco Tuesdays, mostly because there is no day of the week that starts with B to make it Beer ______day. 

Two weeks ago, my friend Tamiko and I went to Rubio's for Taco Tuesday after I talked her into ditching her 3:00 class like the horrible influence that I am. Now normally, I love me some Rubio's, but since going dairy free about six months ago, their tacos sans white sauce are not as good as they are with and I can't eat them. 

We missed last week between class schedules and laziness so this week, after she got out of her 3:00 class, we hit our local Chando's tacos to try out their offerings for Taco Tuesday. 

Holy Crap! I'm in love. They were seriously delicious and authentically awesome. 

They don't run a special like Rubio's does, but for a 3 taco "plate" plus a pretty large drink, it is only $6. That's a friggin steal. These tacos may be small, but they are mighty and I can almost guarantee that unless you are a very large dude who eats  a couple thousand calories a day, you'll be pretty satisfied with 3 tacos. 

I chose the carnitas, pork and chorizo tacos...I can't lie, the carnitas tasted like a barnyard smells. It was terrible. BUT the pork might be the best thing I've ever eaten...at least from a pig and that means that bacon is being beat out by these tacos. That's saying something. 

We've decided that Chando's is our new Taco Tuesday spot, for sure.

Behold the wreckage that was my plate after I got done eating....10 minutes later. Needless to say, I hated my food. Couldn't possibly eat a bite. 

That's my week thus far. Hope yours is going equally as well. 

It's time to fess up...

...I swear, Friday is actually one of my shortest days but I always seem to be more tired on Fridays than I am every other day and fall asleep at oddly early times. Overall, it was pretty much a good week. I managed to maintain the good mood I had all week even though a couple of times there I was stressed beyond belief. I am however absolutely exhausted. This 12 hour day stuff is going to have to be done, real quick. I can't keep doing it every since week on top of school and trying to have a life. The struggle is real, friends.

On a funny note, I did get stopped at a high school yesterday because they thought I was a student trying to ditch. Yes, I look that young. Basically, I was onsite for work yesterday and as we were leaving, I hear a lady's voice behind me talking to someone but I clearly didn't listen because I've been a high school graduate for almost 5 years and I don't go to that school. I'm almost to the gate behind which my car is parked and I hear, "Helloooooo!" so I turn around and look behind me and the lady goes, "Uh, HI!" and I say back (in my least friendly voice), "hi." She saw my id badge, was very embarrassed and says, "Oh sorry." I just turned around and walked away. I don't go here, you've clearly never seen me before and if I was a student trying to ditch, I woulda been off campus and gone before you stopped me lady, go away. My boss found this story hilarious when I told him. I didn't.

Anyway, on to what you all came here for....my weekly fess up of things I'm loving or hating.

Number One: Hot Chocolate. It's been about 2 or 3 weeks since I've actually had any almond milk in my house which in and of itself is a crisis situation as far as I'm concerned. But now that I do, I can totally use my hot chocolate maker and my delicious semi-sweet hot chocolate from Willams-Sonoma. In my Disneyland Halloween mug, of course. My mom bought my the hot chocolate maker for Christmas...three years ago, maybe two, and every Christmas since, I've asked for a new version of their hot chocolate to go with it. The tin usually lasts about a year so it's pretty cost-effective but it is also so much better than the disgusting Swiss Miss powder junk. I haven't actually made any yet, but I'll be busting it out tomorrow morning before I have to go to work at the hotel at 3. 

Number Two: Reconnecting with old friends. In the last 4 years at college, I've made a lot of friends. Some I've kept, some I've lost but this week, I've managed to see and reconnect with several friends I hadn't seen in a while. Which is nice. Sometimes it is good to dive back into your past by meeting up and spending time with people who knew you way back when. It's also a good benchmark to see how much you've changed. I had dinner with one of my best girlfriends from my Freshman and Sophomore years whom I hadn't seen in almost a year and a half and it was so nice to see her and catch up and just chat about life. We met up at another friend's downtown boutique and were talking about "back in the day" and one of us made the point that, "you know you're old when you look back and say, 'we've all calmed down so much'." Which is true, we have. We're all working steady jobs, finishing up school and moving on with our lives. And if you can do it over ceviche and sangria, why the heck not?!

Zocalo Happy Hour >>>>>>

Number Three: Bronde hair. As a devout ombre lover over the last year or two and finally having achieved the perfect level of ombre perfection in August, no one is more shocked than I that my friend Maggie was able to talk me into biting the bullet and going the enlightened road again. For those of you who don't know me, I was blonde for a solid two years during my teens. I'm a natural redhead (well more auburn than red really but same color family) and for the longest time, I would only go dark. Some time during my Freshman year I thought, why the heck not and started the blonde process. And I liked it. I look pretty good as a blonde. BUT it was a pain in the butt because as anyone who knows me can attest, I'm friggin lazy. And while I have neutral enough roots that I can go a bit without getting them touched up, the touch-ups themselves were driving me nuts. So about a year ago I went dark again and I went ombre in February of this year. Wellp, Maggie talked me into going blonde again and I made my appointment for the end of November. I'm currently praying for my hair. All that bleach is bound to freak it out. But I'm doing it. 

Plus I'm in love with Nina Agdal and her hair color. This is where I wanna end up. 

Number Four: Potentially getting a new job. I had an interview this week at a restaurant that one of my friends works at as a bartender. We've been bugging her manager for like 6 months about me coming to work there and I finally had my interview on Thursday. It went well and with any luck I'll be able to quit the hotel after this current schedule is through. All my fingers and toes are crossed. It's about time for me to make a change. I've been miserable at this job for the last....7 months. I'm ready to move on and try something I'll actually enjoy. Life is too short to hate what you're doing. Plus, who doesn't love beer, wings and sports?! The answer is weird people. That's who doesn't love the holy trinity. 

Number Five: Sweaters!!! I bought myself 2 new sweaters from Target online a couple of weeks ago and they finally arrived yesterday. I'm in love, guys. With sweaters. They're so soft and they're the perfect amount of chunky knit and slouchiness without being totally frumpy and bag lady lookin'. They made friends with all my other sweaters this morning. I have a lot more sweaters than I thought I did but that's good. It means I need to buy less now that it's fall and sweaters are where it's at for dressing yourself when you're a girl. 

Number Six: Knit Jeggings! Ok, so this is one of my more ridiculous purchases. I did not need them when they ended up in my cart on American Eagle's Website but I figured, I can wear them to work, they're professionally appropriate, being black and all, plus I can wear them casually too..but mostly for work at the internship.  That was the conversation that I had with myself while trying to decide whether or not I just had to have them. Basically, I'm full of it. I totally could have survived without them. But now that I have one pair, I want all of them! They have them in olive, khaki, and burgundy or something and let me tell you, considering how comfortable they are, it is taking all of my will power not to buy every single pair in every single color because they totally are work wear appropriate and it's kind of like wearing yoga pants to work...but actually having pockets to put your phone in. 

Number Seven: Hunter Hayes. I've already featured him on a fess up before, but considering I spend between 4 to 7 hours a day listening to his Pandora station when I'm at my internship, I feel like I should really feature him on here as an artist and not just the song that has managed to get me through the current awkwardness that was the end of my last relationship in which I have no idea what actually happened and am not sure exactly how to proceed with the guy because of the lack of closure. Anyway every morning when I get to work, I put on my Hunter Hayes Pandora station and listen to him for the entirety of my work day as I'm at my desk. And when he comes on the radio, I get like ten times more excited. And he's made it on my Tumblr music player 3 times over of late. So I'd say we're still musically in love :)

It's just been one of those weeks...

Where all of a sudden, I feel like a weight has been lifted off me and I'm profoundly content with my life and everything in it. Ok, not everything. I still hate my job. But I have plans to fix that as well. 

I'm not sure if it's because I decided that the current status of my life is fine and that the waiting game that I am playing with myself will actually work out in my favor or if it is simply the gorgeous fall weather we've had here. But every time I think about it, I feel an immediate rush of happiness and I smile to myself because deep in my heart, soul, self, I know that it is all going to be ok and work out just fine. 

It's a nice feeling, this utter contentedness. I don't feel like there's anything I absolutely have to do right this second. I'm just seeing where things take me and it is making me happier than I've been in a while.