30 Day Challenge- 27

I just finished "studying" (rereading all the power point lectures my professor has put up since the beginning of the semester) for my midterm this afternoon and I only have thirty minutes till I have to bike to class. It's nice having all my classes one after the other on mondays and wednesdays, but I really wish I had them earlier... I hate going to school at 1:40 and not getting home until 6 or even 7 on some nights >.< oh well. This is the last semester of evening classes, thank goodness! Like I mentioned I have two more midterms this thursday, and another test sometime next week... blegghhhh. I'm burned out! I can't wait for spring break. It would be fabulous to spend a week down in mexico on the beach sipping pina coladas.... but I can settle with hanging out in prescott too i suppose :) besides it's not like I'm really missing out on warm weather down here.

That was quite a digression. What I was going to say is that I'm so busy with school stuff that I'm going to take any available opportunity to blog since I'm a bit backed up on posts! We're almost done with this 30 day challenge (thank goodness) and I've got some fun things planned for after that... so stay tuned!

Day 27 - A problem that you have had.

I think a lot of girls deal with a body image problem. Some cases are more serious than others, but I'm pretty sure almost every girl has looked in the mirror or stepped on the scale at some point and just thought "ugggghhhh."
I certainly know I have, and I think it's really sad that our society has reached this point. Why is it that uber-skinny girls are seen as the idols of beauty? It's completely unfair to the rest of the world that it, yknow, healthy looking. I've seen quite a few girls become obsessed with eliminating body fat, working out religiously, eating on strict and ever-changing diets.... all to reach some unattainable image that honestly probably wouldn't even be attractive without all the airbrushing and editing.
I've definitely been there, and I'm relieved that I saw the light and decided to just do what is healthy for my body. I used to constantly be looking in the mirror, checking how fat my stomach was... I would count calories and weigh my food to make sure I didn't eat more than 1000-1200 calories a day... and if I rose above 120 I'd get upset with myself and vow to work harder and eat less.
It was pretty f*cked up, and it's even more f*cked up that there are hundreds of girls out there with even more unhealthy habits. I eventually realized that I'm a whole lot happier if I just eat whatever I want (although I do try to be healthy- no meat, whole grains, lots of fresh fruits and veggies) in moderate portions. I'm also a lot happier if I stick to a workout regime that is fun and not over-exhausting. AND it's a whole lot better if instead of stepping on the scale (I don't even own one now) I just judge my weight on how I look and feel. I think I look good- a healthy thin, not an unhealthy one- and I know that I feel good. I also know that if I overindulge i definitely wont feel good, and if I don't eat enough in a day I wont feel good either. It's all about being healthy and doing what feels best for me, not catering to some unrealistic ideal that has been set up by the media and crafty editors.

So, that's a problem I've had and luckily one I've conquered. I just hope that all the girls out there who feel so angry and upset with themselves and spend their days looking in the mirror and wishing for something else will realize that they are BEAUTIFUL, no matter what.

Movie Mondays: The Jacket

 Today's movie monday is all thanks to my dear friend Marby, who loves this movie. It's another one of those psychological thriller type movies- am I getting too predictable for you guys? I promise a non-mind-f*ck movie for next week.

The Jacket stars Adrien Brody as Jack Starks, an amnesiac gulf war veteran who is wrongly accused of shooting a police officer and ends up getting sent to a mental institution. The institution practices some controversial and experimental therapy, though, such as strapping its patients into straight jackets in the middle of the night and leaving them in body drawers in the basement morgue. Pretty creepy, right? Especially if you're not actually crazy but everyone around you keeps insisting that you are.

While left in the jacket, Starks begins experiencing some flashbacks to the incident that led to his arrest as well as flashforwards in which he literally seems to be traveling to the future. He comes across Jackie Price (played by Keira Knightley), a lonely, alcoholic young woman who offers him a ride when he finds himself stranded outside the diner she works at on christmas eve.

As Jack wanders around Jackie's house, it soon becomes apparent that he is in the future- and he realizes that Jackie Price has information that could prove his innocence. Unfortunately when Jack tells Jackie who he is and that he has come from the past, she freaks out (understandably so), because she claims that Jack Starks has been dead for years. In fact, he died 4 days after being put into the jacket.

What ensues is a race against time and an avid search (while Jack is in the jacket and is transported to the future) to find out what was being practiced at the mental institution and what led or is going to lead to his death. It's a pretty crazy movie. Not exactly light hearted, but most definitely captivating.

Knightley and Brody are awesome in this movie. Except Keira always seems to have her mouth open in an apathetic pout. That's kind of annoying. But other than that she's great haha. It's a very intense film but definitely worth watching. I believe it's on netflix instant, or you can get it on amazon for like 50 cents used or 8 bucks new. check it out!

Here's a trailer:

a song for your sunday night

I don't usually get that excited about instrumental songs, nor do I get very excited about Phoenix. However, this came on my ipod when I had it on shuffle while laying on the beach in mexico last month, and I just remembered it. I think it's a pretty sweet song. Sorry the video is a tad boring, there doesn't seem to be any actual official video so I just used one somebody had made with time-lapse photography. enjoy!

30 Day Challenge- 26

Hello lovelies! It's been a busy week and I've been so caught up in renovating the look of this blog (I'm not finished yet ^^) that I haven't been spending much time blogging! March should be a much easier month than february though, so hopefully I will have lots of time to write.

I have three tests this week but after that there's only one more week until spring break! I can't wait to have a nice long week off to go up to prescott and spend time with my parents and some old friends. Stewie and I are thinking about going to the renaissance festival as well- I haven't been since I was a kid and it's only 20 bucks for a full day- sounds good to me!

Anyways, I'm going to trudge forward with the next prompt for the 30 day challenge. perhaps I should just call it the 30 question challenge? haha. If I've learned anything from doing this thing it's that I'm way too busy and all-over-the-place to stick to a strict 30 day regimen!. oh well, it's been fun anyways. I probably would have gotten seriously annoyed with it if I stuck to doing it every day.

Day 26 - What kind of person attracts you.

I would post pictures of all the boys I've dated in the past so you could see how similar they all are (there was even a time when I dated 3 chris's in a row), but I think that would be pretty creepy. I'm sure they'd rather not have their faces plastered on my blog forever. Instead I'll just describe their similarities.

All the guys I've dated have had short dark brown hair. Stewie's hair was a little longer when we first started dating, but he cut it short after just a couple months.

They've all had either blue or hazel/green eyes. never brown. No idea why, and I don't have anything against brown eyes... the guys I like just never have them though.

Nerdy. All the guys I've dated have been nerds, even if i didn't think they were when I first started dating them. A couple of them you would never expect to be nerdy, but then they go and play wow for 17 hours straight or something. Maybe all guys are secretly nerds?

There are a few other similarities as well, but as I think about it a lot of the things about the guys I dated before stewie I would never find attractive now. A lot about what I first liked about stewie was that he was much different from the guys I had dated before. He was (and still is) just so cool, and hipster (before hipster was a bad thing), and suave. He's also kind, creative, and fun. We're really similar in that we both like to keep our living spaces clean, we both jump at the opportunity to dress up in costume, we both prefer quality food and drink that might be a little more expensive over cheap, quick, and easy cuisine, and we both would love to travel the world. There are endless other similarities too, but it would take far too long to list them all :)

So I guess the answer to the question is this is the kind of guy I'm attracted to:

temporarily under construction

Hey guys,
bear with me over the next few days as I revamp the look of this blog! I'm trying to do everything from scratch and not use any pre-made codes or anything, so it could take me a while... but rest assured everything will be way more awesome in the end! so if you stop by here and you notice something looks really strange and awful, i
i'm probably just knees deep in html codes experimenting- so don't worry :)

also, i don't see any reason why i wouldn't be able to keep posting as usual, things will just look a little different :)

talk to you again soon!
<3 Em

30 Day Challenge- 25

I'm skipping day 24 because it's highly unoriginal. It's basically the same as another prompt. I'm trudging ahead to day 25, which is...
"Day 25 – A photo you took."

Alas, my nikon d40 is still in phoenix! So I'm going to have to choose from photos I took a while ago. Oh well.

This is one of the first photos I took with my nikon. obviously I've upped the contrast a bit but I really like how surreal it makes the sky look. These are both pairs of stewie's old converses, which he threw up on the wires next to the old 211 apartment. I just think the framing on this pic is really awesome. One of my faves!

today is a day to be productive!

Good morning! I took this photo a few minutes ago while playing with the Vignette app on my android. Do any of you use this app? So far I like it a lot- it provides so many different filters and frames for your pics!

I decided to take a personal day today to knock out some work that has been sitting on the back burner for a while. I'd also like to redesign this blog to give it a more unique and personalized feel, and i've got a couple other projects I'd like to start working on. It's going to be a good day! I've got my messy keep-glue-out-of-my-hair bun, some red i'm-feeling-creative lipstick on, and an artsy DAV too-big flannel shirt. I'm ready to go!

Something new that I'm excited about is that I just signed up with amazon associates. This means that when I do my posts like movie mondays, book reviews, and other stuff I can post a link with a picture of the film/book/product I'm talking about that will take you right to amazon if you want to buy it. and, if you DO decide to buy something I tell you about, they'll throw a few pennies my way so that I can keep this blog up and running :) I'm really excited about this because it's not invasive, like most advertising, in that I can choose what and when to endorse, and I genuinely really like amazon so I'm happy to be supporting them. They even provide a widget that I can put on my blog that shows my top favorite films, books, etc. I'm hoping this relationship will be a good thing.

Hmm, what else is new... Stewie and I watched The Secret the other day which probably wins an award for corniest movie ever, but if nothing else it's great for encouraging positive thinking. I think it's true that if you can make youself feel like everything is going wonderfully, everything really will start to go wonderfully. What do you guys think of this whole law of attraction thing? have you ever tried it? have you had luck with it?

Alright, I'm going to go get started on my busy day! Have a lovely tuesday everyone, I'll try to be back later with my 30 day challenge post.

<3
Em

Movie Mondays: Castle

 I'm cheating just an eensy bit and using one of the 30 day challenge prompts (one of your favorite shows) for a movie monday. I think it's good though because it gives me a reason to feature television, something that I don't often do for movie mondays! Now, I thought about picking a really obscure underground tv show for you guys, but the problems with those is they tend not to last very long. Networks seem to cancel a lot of good shows for no apparent reason other than the majority of americans are too dumb to understand them... sad.

I watch a decent amount of mainstream television anyways though, so today I'm going to feature one particular favorite of mine. When I say favorite, I mean it's the only one I regularly watch on hulu the day it becomes available :)

The show is Castle, starring Nathan Fillion as bestselling author Richard Castle and Stana Katic as detective Kate Beckett. Richard (who goes by "Rick" or "Castle" in the show) is friends with the mayor, so when he gets struck with writer's block after finishing his last murder mystery series he manages to fandangle his way into shadowing Kate Beckett for inspiration. At first he's a nuisance, but as you can probably figure out he ends up being an entertaining asset to the cases that Kate works on.

The show is mainly exciting for people who love Nathan Fillion from Firefly (there are several references made each season; for example, during a halloween episode Fillion dons his old Malcolm Reynolds costume and claims to be a "space cowboy"), as well as for those who just love a good murder mystery show. I've always liked watching shows like law and order, csi, and without a trace, so this show is a natural fit for me.

What sets this show apart from others (like the ones I just mentioned) is that it's got a lot of humor mixed in with the grittiness and mystery. Fillion is a funny guy, and his cocky and yet innocent humor is a thrill to watch. Furthermore, the show follows not only the cases and characters of the NYPD, but also Castle's family life- he has a dramatic and carefree live-in actress mother and a smart, vivacious teenage daughter. The contrast of work-castle and family-castle is another element that sets this show apart from other serial crime shows.

There are several episodes on hulu, but alas the seasons are not available on netflix instant. Someday I hope :) Castle shows on monday nights, check on the time where you are- and of course that means episodes are available on hulu on tuesday. If you like nathan fillion or like entertaining murder mystery shows, this could be the show for you!

since it's a tv show, there's not really a trailer... but here's the promo for the third season:



aaaand here's the title sequence:

30 Day Challenge- 22

Once again, since I'm saving day 21 for monday, I'm using day 23's prompt :)

Day 23 - Give pictures of 5 guys who are famous who you find attractive.

Oddly enough I don't have any real favorite guy actors... I have two favorite female actors (rachel mcadams and kate winslet), but for some reason no guys really jump out at me. There are a few from my broadway-obsessed days, but you probably won't recognize many if any of them :) 

I'll do my best though, I watch plenty of media so it shouldnt be too hard to find 5 cute guys.

Adam Pascal. Roger in the OBC of Rent and Radames in the OBC of Aida. He is so amazing in every way. I actually was able to see him and one of my other favorite bway actors (anthony rapp) perform rent. It was probably like- the last tour/time they will ever perform it. so awesome. 

When I was 15 I thought Ewan Mcgregor was the cutest man alive. Of course, there was also a time I wanted to marry 12 year old daniel radcliff, and another time that I want to marry elijah wood the hobbit... but that's a whole other story. Anyways, there is something rather dashing about him, isn't there? He starred in my favorite movie at the time, Moulin Rouge, so that helped.

Jude Law. I dont know, it's probably the accent. He's in a lot of movies I like, too. I hear he's an ass in real life though... bummer.

Hayden Christensen. No need to comment on the fact that 2/5ths of the men on this list have been in multiple star wars films. I'm well aware.

This one time I was obsessed with One Tree Hill. ok... so i still think it's an awesome show. anyways... between the scott brothers chad michael murray and james lafferty, james lafferty wins in my book.

Our Cheap and Lovely VDay

I thought I'd post about the Vday stew and I shared because we managed to have an amazing time without spending a huge amount of money- something that I think everyone probably would like to do! We're pretty much over big extravagant gifts and expensive dinners at exclusive restaurants... our valentines day was simple, fun, and easy on both our wallets.

Our big event was going to the zoo... so much fun! 7 bucks a person, and stew paid. I took a bunch of pics on my new phone since I tragically left my camera at a friend's house in phoenix last weekend... but I think they're still pretty cool ^^

The tucson zoo is really awesome- it's divided into an Africa section, an Asia section, and a South America section. We saw tigers, lions, giraffes, elephants, monkeys, bears (polar and otherwise), lots of birds (including flamingos!), the largest known gerbil which looked like a HUGE ginnea pig (pic below but it's kind of hard to see), and plenty of other things. It was great!

this is the huge gerbil!!

monkey chewing on a stick! so cute

After the zoo, we went to a cute little greek place right down the street that we've talked about trying a zillion times but had never actually been to. We got a chicken gyro and a falafel wrap which was delicious- and the total came to about 13 bucks after tip. I paid, which put us at pretty much even.

I had to go to class, but that night I came home and we decided to go out to dinner. I wanted italian so i looked up some places on yelp and found a little hole-in-the-wall brick oven pizza place that sounded really good. It was absolutely delicious! Stew and I shared an antipasto appetizer (I was seriously full after just this!) and then a small personal pizza that had prosciutto, olives, mushrooms, and mozzarella- oh yeah, and they make their own fresh mozzarella. yum!!

We ended up taking leftovers home for lunch the next day. We split the check and it was about 12$ each- which puts us both at about 25 bucks so far :)

We then went to the fry's down the street from our house and bought a marie callenders pie (3 $ each), and we decided to pick out one present for each other, with the agreement that it would be less than 5$. I picked out a jar of nutella for stewie (can you say best present ever?) and he bought me a beautiful white rose. So, that puts us each at an additional 8$- equaling about 32$ each for a whole day jam-packed with delicious food and wonderful fun! I imagine some people spent 32$ each on just dinner- maybe even more!

It was a really wonderful day, and I'm glad we didn't try to over do it or buy really ridiculous things for each other. I had a great time and i can't wait for our next cheap and simple vday!

Hope yours was a blast as well :)

Love,
Em

30 Day Challenge- 21

I'm saving the actual 21st prompt (one of your favorite shows) for this monday, so instead I'm jumping ahead to the 22nd prompt. which is....

Day 22 – Something you want to do before you die.

 One thing I'd really love to do before I die is write a book. I've always loved writing, and I've been told I'm pretty good at it- of course, don't judge that solely on this blog since I hardly ever proof read before posting haha.

I love literature though, and I truly enjoy writing fiction. I'd probably enjoy writing non-fiction too though, and maybe a cook book or two... If I could imagine the perfect life it would be staying at home with my family and writing books for a living. Lovely.

That might not necessarily happen, and there are plenty of other career paths that appeal to me and things that I'd like to do... but I'd like to at least write one book before I die :)

30 Day Challenge- 20

Day 20 - How important you think education is.

Hmm... considering I'm spending all this time and money (and by money I mean 4-5 hundred dollars on books a semester... my parents graciously pay my tuition and lots of other expenses^^) on getting a bachelors, i'd say I think education is very important. I might not always want to go to class (i played hookie my fair share in highschool), and I might not always see the point of  some things that we're learning or doing, but I think being an educated member of society is very important and can really help you out in life. For example, just taking AP classes in highschool earned me 6 extra credits in college 2 years later (thats about half a semesters worth of classes). That means less money and less time that I'll have to spend here! Education is a good thing :)

Movie Monday: Valentine Edition

umm... please forgive me for not posting this on monday. i know it's totally not fair for me to post my movie post on a wednesday and try to pass it off as a movie monday... but hey, that's what I'm gonna do. :)

Seriously though, I was GOING to post this on monday. I really was! But sometimes it seems like between going to class, doing homework, cooking, cleaning, and watching multiple episodes at a time of Psych with stewie I just don't have any free time. It's quite frustrating. hopefully the load will start to get a little lighter as time goes on and i get used to it all!

Anyways, here is your belated valentines movie monday. I know love day has come and gone, but you can watch sweet romantic chick-flicky movies any day of the year in my opinion. Also note, this is probably the only movie monday I will post that features a straight up "chick-flick", so get 'em while you can ;)

For this very special Valentine's Edition of Movie Mondays, I'm going to post my top 7 (because 10 was too many and 5 wasn't enough) favorite romantic movies (in no particular order). You've probably heard of a few or all of them, but they're still great!

1. P.S. I Love You
Beautiful story about a husband trying to help his wife move on after he has died via letters and other such things. Very touching and amazing acting :)


2. The Time Traveler's Wife
You knew I was going to sneak this one in, didn't you? I may be a teensy bit obsessed with this movie and the novel that inspired it. I have valid reasons though: I love time-travel stories, I love love stories, and I love Rachel McAdams. To keep it brief, this is a love story about a man who involuntarily travels through time and the love of his life, who has known him all her life but is stuck in the present.


3. Moulin Rouge
There was a time in highschool- somewhere in freshman or sophomore year- when I watched this movie every single night. And man, did I weep. I really love musicals, and back then I was OBSESSED with them. Also I thought Ewan McGreggor was pretty darn cute and French Bohemia? break me off a piece of that time period! haha. Anyways, this movie is definitely comical at times, but it's also really sweet and sad and exciting, what with all the modern music compilations and can-can dancers and giant elephant bedrooms.


4. Center Stage
I first saw this movie when I was 11, and it was the cool thing to like. Yknow, when we all thought we might actually be professional ballerinas someday. Anyways, this movie has an AWESOME soundtrack, some spectacular dance scenes, and a really fun romance-triangle story. It's definitely light fare, but I like it all the same. Very cute and sweet.


5. The Holiday
I think I talked about this one during my christmas movie monday edition, but it's still a great love story any time of the year. In fact, it's got two love stories at once :) Iris and Amanda trade houses for the holidays (a cottage in Surrey, England, and a mansion in Beverly Hills) in an effort to get over their lost loves, but end up finding a lot more than the peace and solitude they were hoping for. Great script and really great stars in this film :)


6. Chocolat
A perfect vday movie :) It takes place in a teensy little French town, where a woman and her child settle down to open up a chocolate shop. The conservative religious people of the town don't initially take kindly to this free-spirited woman and her shop full of temptations, but as they begin to warm up to her the whole town seems to transform. Johnny Depp also shows up as a "river rat" (as imdb puts it) and of course a little love story begins to develop. Great romance story, but seriously the various scenes of chocolate making and delicious treats are enough to make me watch this movie!


7. Music and Lyrics
I saw this movie with my best friend in sophomore year, and we loved it! We came home and downloaded all the songs haha. It's such a cute movie. I think Hugh Grant is awesome in all his films, and this one doesn't disappoint. Same goes for Drew Barrymore. Basically Hugh Grant is a fallen pop star who is trying to reinvigorate his career by recording a duet with the current charts-topping pop star. He's got writer's block though, and can't figure out how to write something that will be a hit. His plant-waterer (bad english...) overhears his struggles and gives him some input.... and everything kind of falls into place from there as the two work together to write the perfect song :) Cute, funny, and sweet.



Happy belated valentines day guys! Hope you had a great one!!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

V-day used to seem like a big deal to me back in highschool. I would make really sweet, personalized gifts for whoever I was dating at the time, we would go out to a perfect dinner, he would get me flowers and candy and all sorts of other cliche gifts- at least that's how I thought it should be. Now though, valentines seems a little silly. Why only celebrate your love one day out of the year? Stewie and I are always doing nice things for each other on a daily basis, so valentines doesn't seem like it should be that different.

Anyways, I still love any chance to celebrate a holiday so I'm decked out in a pink dress and grey and pink thigh high socks^^

I made stew breakfast this morning (egg-in-a-hole. have you had it? it's delicious. It's also called bird's nests I think), and in about 15 minutes we're going to go to the zoo. And that's our big valentines date! Cute, isn't it? Neither of us have a ton of money, especially since xmas was just 2 months ago- but the zoo is only 7$ a person, and seriously- so much fun.

Tonight we might go to dinner but we'll probably just split the cost :) simple, easy, fun, sweet valentines day. I'm excited! What are your guys' plans for today?

Anyways, I'll be back with a movie monday later today- probably a list of a few of my favorite lovey-dovey movies- but for now I just wanted to wish you a wonderful February 14th. Hope it's lovely!

Love,
Em

30 Day Challenge- 19

 Day 19 - Disrespecting your parents.

My parents are awesome. They are both so wonderful, talented, kind, compassionate, intelligent... I could go on and on. I think my sister and I are the two luckiest kiddos around to have been blessed with such amazing parents. I love them so, so much.

But yeah, I was a teenager once. I guess technically I still am one, for the next 3 months or so. Seriously, though, I'm scared to death to have a teenage girl someday. My sister and I certainly weren't the worst out there, but we definitely weren't the best either. Freaking teenage hormones, man! and self-consciousness, and the need to impress all the other little 15-year-old's and of course the need to find the perfect boyfriend so that you can have the most perfect year and go to the most perfect prom ever. All while starring in the school musical, obviously.

There were definitely times when I was a huge B to my parents. At the time I felt like I was totally justified in my actions, but in retrospect I feel terrible about it. I don't know if it would have been avoidable though... I mean, I think all teenagers go through this period of being moody and rude in an effort to be the coolest they can be. Seriously, I think people should stop worrying about the terrible twos and start freaking out about the terrible teens. I would take a screaming, toddling, destructive baby over a bitchy, hormonal teenager any day. At least a toddler can be reasoned with :)

Anyways, I feel so remorseful about the way I sometimes treated my parents back in highschool- but I think I've told them this and now we're the best of friends so thank goodness all that crap is over :)

Love you mom and dad!

Sometimes... and an ode to the end of 211.

Sometimes people act in foolish ways.
Sometimes you can know someone and really not know them at all.
Sometimes people stop listening to their hearts and hear only the sadness and pain inside of them.
Sometimes people get lost.
Sometimes you have to accept that there is nothing you can do.
Sometimes people get stuck on their high horse and can't figure out how to get down.
Sometimes you have to just leave.
Sometimes all you can do is hope that someday they will heal.
Sometimes you have to start from scratch.
Sometimes something that was once so wonderful can turn rotten and curdled in old age.
Sometimes you just have to let go.


I'm sure we've all been in a situation where we are grasping at the bits and pieces that are left of a friendship, a relationship, a project, a place, a dream. We'd love to save it, to make it right, to get out a needle and thread and sew the pieces back up into what they were before.

Unfortunately this isn't always possible- everything changes, and few truly wonderful things can last forever. there comes a point when we have to stop reminiscing, hoping, trying... and just let go, move on, and start anew.

This is how I feel about the situation I once had in Prescott. I had many best friends, we were all extremely close, we had a wonderful place that we spent all our time at, and there was no drama, no backstabbing, no two-faced-ness. With time, though, we've all drifted away, people have done atrocious things that none of us would have expected, and honestly... we're barely even friends anymore.

 This past friday was 2.11, which we celebrate because the apartment number of the apartment that we all stayed at was 211. I had high hopes of spending time with dear old friends and reminiscing about the wonderful times that had passed, but honestly I was pretty disappointed.  Sure, I still had some fun... but none of the people that actually deserved to be there were there. We didn't talk about the good ol' days. We didn't really talk about the real 211, the 211 that mattered, at all, because the pieces were missing. I felt like what we were celebrating was fake, an image concocted by other people who really have no idea what made 211 worthwhile and important in the first place.

Is it really worth celebrating something when the whole meaning for celebration has gotten lost? Is it worth devoting a day to remembrance when no one who can actually remember the best parts wants to celebrate? Somehow I don't think so.

Anyways, I decided it's time to let go of that part of my past that I was still carrying along with me. I met wonderful people, had wonderful times, created wonderful memories, and that is enough. Instead of being irritated that all this was tainted by unfamiliar faces and the passing of time, I'm just going to set down these annoyances and wishes and keep going. the friends that I made there that matter will always stick around. The best memories will stand out long after the others have faded. But that's all I need- a fond memory.

So here's to you, 211. Thank you for the times.

A Mexico Winter

Yes, I am FINALLY getting around to telling you about my mexico trip. a month later. it's been busy, ok? and editing all those photos is no quick and easy feat!!

This is going to be more of a picture post that an explain-y post... I'll basically just give you a quick rundown of the best moments :)

My family was in mexico for a spiritual sufi retreat. We flew into peurto vallarta and spent one day there. We had dinner on the beach and walked around a bit and slept at a really cute and low-key hotel. The next day we had breakfast at a nice open-air place and then walked around some more- and then that afternoon we went back to the airport to meet up with our group. There were, oh, about 30 of us... and we all piled onto a tour bus and drove about 1.5 hours to Chacala, a really wonderful and really small rural jungle town nestled right on the beach. The retreat center was about a five minute walk from the actual town, and was so BEAUTIFUL!!!! open air dining area, wonderful rooms, a garden, a beautiful spa... rural but at the same time luxurious. it was probably one of the most amazing places I have ever been.

Anyways, we spent a full week there- the food was fantastic, the sufi stuff was enlightening, the ocean was beautiful and a great temperature, and the people were all so wonderful! My sister, myself, and the only other young girl there made friends with a bunch of the people that worked there. One night we hung out up at the spa with some baby pacificos, another night we made a campfire on the beach... it was such a wonderful, fun time, and the people were so awesome :)

speaking of baby pacificos, it was really nice being able to go to a restaurant or the bar at the retreat center and order something to drink :) I had a really delicious pina colada when my fam went out to dinner one night, and i swear the coronas taste better in mexico. haha^^

I spent a lot of time laying out by the beach reading, listening to music, writing, etc... we took a hike up the mountain one day which felt sooo good and was really beautiful.

I seriously can't wait to go back. I had such an amazing time and I really want to see everyone there again! hopefully i'll be able to go back for many years to come.

Here are (a ton) of pics: