Haha, this is so me every morning! (click to make it bigger) 
MIA
Geeze, it sure had been a while! I'm sure you're all sick of seeing my Happy Halloween post. I know I am! I've been trying to get online for quite a while now so I could update, but something always gets in the way. Tonight's dilemma? My internet has been acting up. But, here I am, and I have a lot to say. First of all, I never wrote about San Fran. I absolutely can't believe that a week ago today I was up North, still with about 2 hours to spend in the city before coming home. Time sure does fly! My trip to San Francisco was amazing though, and Todd and I crammed as much touristy stuff into two days as we could. Quick recap - With our sightseeing book in hand, we started off our tour of the city with a bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. The ride was really fun, even though they make it seem way easier than it is. Apparently the many hills are not a selling point at the bike shops! Despite the uphill climb, we made it across and even got to take a lot of really great pictures. It was so exhilarating to be standing in the middle of such a famous bridge, while cars whizzed by and the ocean surrounded us. I was really happy we got to do that! Our first day also encompassed a lot of city discovery. Let's just say we put our bus passes to good use. We went all over the city - North Beach, Haight, Union Square, China Town, Nob Hill, and of course, Fisherman's Wharf. We were also lucky enough to have beautiful weather, which helped since I'm pretty sure we walked for about 8 hours that first day. Day two was just as fun. We started off with a tour of Alcatraz and spent the rest of the day hanging out around the Wharf. Todd's cousin Amy and her fiance Josh even met up with us! It was great to meet some more of Todd's family, and I really enjoyed hanging out with some seasoned Nor Calers. Last week was kind of like a whirlwind. It was stressful and hard, but I got through it somehow. I actually feel like this weekend has been really long. Especially today. I definitely jam packed a lot into it though. Friday started off a true roommate weekend with a free Maroon 5 concert! Steph randomly won tickets off of our new favorite radio station - Sophie - so we headed over to our old stomping ground at SDSU's Cox Arena and had an amazing time singing and dancing for a couple of hours. I had forgotten how much I like Maroon 5's music and I was really excited that they played a bunch of my favorite songs, like Secret. Saturday was a pretty lazy day. My work retreat is this coming weekend, so I had to spend a majority of the day working on my presentation for the two days we're spending at the Loews Coronado :) By the time the night rolled around, Steph and I had some serious cabin fever, but nothing to do. All of our friends were busy or working and couldn't hang out with us. Even Eli and Derrick rejected us! Somehow we invited ourselves to hang out with Rylan, who was going to a black and white themed party. I hadn't been to a party in a while, so this one was a lot of fun. I knew basically no one, but the guests were pretty nice AND I got to dress up. We got home pretty late, but as usual, I woke up way to early this morning. I was really set on going on a bike ride for some reason, but since I don't have a bike, I was presented with a bit of a problem. I found a bike shop online and gave them a call, which resulted in me being able to use a bike for 2 hours with full gear in exchange for a 6-pack of beer (clearly college guys were running the shop). I was really excited, but by the time I got ready and recruited Steph to come along, it had begun to rain. By the way, since when does it rain in San Diego?! After this, we decided our only other option was to go to the movies. So, we saw Gone Baby Gone, which I thought was a great movie. It was a well-developed story that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Plus, it was set in Boston, so it got bonus points right away. Since then, I've been at home, wanting the day to both speed up and slow down - tomorrow is Monday, you know! So, that's it, I think. A week and a half in a nutshell!
Trick-Or-Treat
Well, Halloween is finally here, and I sure am excited! Although this holiday obviously means you can dress up as whatever you want, there are some serious freaks outside today. I even came across a few people who I thought were dressed in costumes, but could have possibly been wearing their normal clothes. One lady was dressed from head to toe in leopard print. Costume? Or just someone who loves cats? Anyway, I am really happy with my costume, and I'm really looking forward to wearing it tonight. Check it out:
Todd and I got some pretty good reactions to our matching costumes this weekend, and I'm hoping that they will help us get some candy tonight. Yep, I'm going Trick-Or-Treating. Being able to do this when you're 22 is just one of the many perks of having young siblings. I usually get kind of awkward because my mom always forces me to go to the door with my empty pumpkin bag asking for treats. This usually doesn't go over well because I'm clearly too old for such things. This year is different though. With costumes like these, I'm pretty sure the moms handing out candy will mistake me for an overly large middle schooler... or just take pity on a grown-up who wants to be a kid for one night.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
I'll have the salad, please.
Long time, no write - again. Since it's been a while, I guess I should write about the newest addition to my life. No, it's not a puppy (I wish!) It's a healthy diet! You can stop laughing at my how excited I just sounded, cause it's true. I've been thinking about this, and it's not even that I eat that poorly. You'll rarely find me at a fast food joint and I do actually like fruits and vegetables. It's just that I really like to eat. That, coupled with the fact that I: 1. have no real time to cook, 2. love desserts and am addicted to bread and 2. sit on my butt for a total of anywhere between 8 and 10 hours a day has started making me feel blah. If you haven't noticed, eating out all the time costs a lot of money. Plus, half of the food you get from restaurants and the like are loaded with calories (even the things that seem healthy). It's actually quite depressing to me that I just wrote that, but I'm getting older and that must mean that I need to pay more attention to things like health. So, I've decided to change the way I eat, mainly by leaning on things that are better for me. I'm taking the healthy route - at least for a while - and I'm going to see how I feel after it's all said and done. Good thing I like salads. I have a feeling I'll be eating a lot of them.
ps: Just in case you were wondering - Halloween doesn't count. Neither does San Fran. Ha, we'll see how this goes.
Costume Dilemma
My eyes are officially burning. I think I've been staring at my computer screen for too long - not sure why I'm blogging, since it obviously requires more computer interactions, but whatever, I need to do something else for a bit. This has been the longest week ever. I think a lot of it has to do with the fires and all the stress that it has caused. I'm tired. I need a break...
It's Thursday, so I've decided that I can talk about the weekend. I am really looking forward to this one! It marks the beginning of the Halloween festivites, and I LOVE Halloween (have I mentioned that yet, haha). I still need to get a costume, but here are the options:
1. Storm, from X-Men. This works well with my half-blackness and my ability to create hurricanes by glancing at the sky (okay, this doesn't happen, but it would be cool if it did)
2. A bee. I think this would be fun. Maybe I'll carry around a pot of honey all night. And sting people.
3. A salsa dancer. This was my mom's idea, along with a bunch of grapes, an electrical outlet and a pair of dice (with Todd). She must be thinking of that one time I was the solar system :)
Anyway, I'm sure there are more, but those are the three I am leaning toward. Any ideas? Let me know before this weekend. I have an important pumpkin party to attend!!
Flames and tears
San Diego is on fire. I'm sure that most of you know this, but considering how crazy things are here, I decided to blog about it anyway. Wildfires are scary, especially when you live in Southern California and the Santa Ana's decide to come your way. Just a couple of days ago Todd was mentioning to me that the hot, gusty winds would be back, but I took it as more of a bit of casual information than a prelude to a catastrophe. But, here we are. My home (not my house) is burning, and I'm at work staring out of my 19th story window overlooking a city covered in smoke. This isn't a new experience for me. In fact, it happened once before during my time here in San Diego. Last time, I was a freshman in college - still new to school and adjusting to being on my own. The morning of the fires, my college roommate Brooke, my best friend Hannah and I all woke up to a red sky and a dorm room full of ash. This time, the clouds rolled in more slowly. This time, we didn't wake up to Hell on Earth... we watched it unfold. 
My family and I are extremely lucky to be out of harms way. Last time, they were forced to evacuate, with the fire quickly approaching from about a mile away. And, even though I no longer live in Poway and some other family had to flee my old house, the place I grew up is covered in flames. It's sad and scary and surreal all at once. Yesterday, so much was happening and so many people were being evacuated that work was closed. When you work in PR, "closed" means you still need to get your stuff done, so after about 4 hours in the office, I headed home. Todd was also off from work because he works in Rancho Bernardo - a part of North County that was the most intensely affected. After watching the news and hearing a call for volunteers, we headed over to Qualcomm Stadium, which was being used as an evacuation center for some 10,000 "homeless" San Diegans. It was so heartbreaking to see so many people there, waiting to find out if there homes would be okay. But more than that, it was incredibly touching to see all of the people who had given up their time to help. Todd and I found ourselves among these people, first moving food supplies and then setting up tents around the stadium for the long night ahead. The most moving part of the night though, was when we found our way to the medical section of the Q. Todd and I spent most of our night there, helping the elderly folks who had been evacuated from their nursing homes. Nursing homes have always given me such mixed emotions, as visiting the people who live there is overwhelmingly rewarding and depressing at the same time. Despite that, we spent our time there, getting to know the people and their stories and just making them feel a little bit at home. And, while I may have only helped a few, I feel proud to have done my part. The people here are as much fighters as they are givers, and because of this I know San Diego will be okay. It's almost 5:30, and that means I'm off work. My plans for the night? I'm going to go do a rain dance. We sure do need it.
Something to think about
My mom gave something to think about this morning. It came in the form of lyrics that she took from the new Kenny Chesney song. I'm sharing it with you because it's so true.
Here goes:
don't blink -
just like that you're six years old
and you take a nap
and you wake up
and you're twenty-five...
Check out the rest of the song if you feel like being inspired to live your life, now.
Happy hump day :)
Monday night
Well, it's seven something and I'm posting from my work computer. No, I'm not still at work, but close enough, I'm doing some work from home. Actually, I'm currently watching the Red Sox game, but I intend to do some work very soon. The fact that I'm even considering working after 7 p.m. is kind of strange. It reminds me of homework in a way. I guess I'm being forced to fully embrace my adulthood, and it sure does show in moments like these. I even passed up going to a comedy show with a bunch of friends in downtown tonight, which, before this so called "adulthood," I would have never said no to. But, it's okay, I guess. I did have a very relaxing weekend. I even got my house BOOed! For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a pretty awesome Halloween thing (by the way, I get extremely excited about Halloween... actually, I get excited about all things holiday). Basically, you get a secret gift on your doorstep, full of Halloween candy and decorations and a sign that says "BOO!" 
You hang the BOO sign on your front door and then leave the same surprise for two other houses. By the time Halloween rolls around, the whole neighborhood has been BOOed! It's quite fun. Another fun thing I did this weekend was go to the Miramar Air Show. I didn't think it would be as cool as it was, but it was pretty amazing to see airplanes doing 360s through the sky. Oh, and I made my chicken pot pie. Okay, I made three. And two batches of banana bread. And pea soup. I figure if I have to work all of the time, I might as well be well fed! Welp, here's to another week.
The countdown to freedom begins
Well, here we go again... we're so close to another weekend, and I'm just itching to get mine started. Once again I have had no time to update, but I guess that's okay since my life has mostly consisited of work, work, work this week. 
It's been crazy for me in my second home (aka my cubicle), and I'm ready to not think about anything for a while. This is why I am excited to have no plans for the next two days. Actually, I do have plans.
Here they are:
1 - I plan on sleeping. A lot. And sleeping in. Until at least 11 or 12 both days.
2- Catching up on Grey's Anatomy. I'm simultaneously on season 2 and season 4. It makes things complicated.
3- Eating. I have plans to make a Chicken Pot Pie this weekend. I've actually been thinking about this all week. I'll let you know how it turns out.
4- Reading. I've been reading The Lovely Bones for at least 5 weeks. It's time I find out what happens.
AND...
5- Nothing. For every other moment of Saturday and Sunday, I plan on doing nothing at all.
This to do list makes me happy. And trust me, it's nothing like to other to do list that I've been I've been staring at all day. So, woohoo, in just over an hour, the fun begins! Happy Friday everyone!!
Pumpkin pie for a year!
Check out this pumpkin... 
It's the winner of an annual pumpkin contest (that I wish I had gone to), and weights in at a mere 1,524 pounds. Think of the carving possibilities! And of all the pumpkin pies :)