Elsewhere in Blogland

Happy Friday!!

Today I can be found over at Hollie's lovely little blog.

Come visit us!!

And have a fabulous weekend!

Food to lust after

I dreamed last night that I did a recipe post.

We all know how freakshow crazy my dreams usually are, so here I am living out the one normal dream I've had in months.

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

Source: ezrapoundcake.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

Now, I haven't actually made this or anything, BUT LOOK AT IT. 

Chocolate. Goo. Marshmallows. Coffee mug.

Delicious party in my mouth.

Ok so this wasn't really a recipe post, but at least I gave you something delicious to look at and epicuriously lust over!

25 is a birthday that should be celebrated well

...so I'll be spending it here:

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!!!!!

The ginger [and his friend] and I will be taking the European continent by storm this winter.

Tentative itinerary:

Dublin [not so tentative since we're flying in here]

Liverpool [Beatles museum. Duh.]

London [spending New Years Eve here]

Paris [for the big 2-5]

Perhaps another destination in France. Suggestions?

Amsterdam

This is where my international, well-traveled bloggy friends come in handy.

Any recommendations on things to see/do and places to stay in Dublin and Amsterdam?

I've been to London and Paris, but do you have any favorite places to stay there [I've stayed with friends/in hostels before].

And where's the best place to celebrate NYE in London?

Most importantly, how does a girl spend her 25th birthday in Paris??

I.AM.EXCITED.

I am a football bad luck charm

I should know better than to attend a football game.

We lost.

But look how pretty this is!



The student section. It holds about 30,000 people. A&M has approximately 50,000 students. What up.



The band. Maybe I cry when I see them perform.



Not pictured:

The entire quarter I spent sitting by the concessions, due to sweltering heat in the stands. 

Then we drowned our sorrows.

Excuse the photo quality. For once, I forgot my camera and had to steal these from Caroline on Facebook. Not sure what happened between Facebook and Blogger.

Alexia and Carrie came out to play.

When in College Station, do as the college kids do...



This was my last football game/tailgating extravaganza for a while.

The next weekends hold events such as weddings and anniversary celebrations!

Falling for fall. I am such a poet with these titles.

Hooray!



Doesn't this photo just scream everything that fall represents?

The crisp outdoors, beautiful leaves, pumpkins, food in general.

Can't say it will look ANYTHING remotely close to this in Texas, so all you East Coasters...I am severely jealous.

But that shall not stop me from enjoying the season of pumpkin spice lattes and Halloween!!

 

And now I am off for another oft mentioned fall tradition of mine...tailgating.
 Apparently I might actually be watching the football game this time.

I'm a bad Southern girl for not being excited.

Have a splendid fall weekend, everyone!! :)



100

My little bloggy has finally reached 100 followers!

I've "met" so many awesome people through this voyeuristic venture of mine, and wish I could meet you all for reals!

So thank you for listening to me ramble [mostly] every day.

It really does mean a lot :)

P.S. I'd like to do some sort of giveaway to celebrate. Ideas??

Musical musings

I can't get this song out of my head.

It breaks my heart and throws it on the ground.

I'm obsessed.

The girls and I saw a band called Boyce Avenue last night, and they put on a fantastic show.

They do covers, but also have their own album.
This is my favorite cover they did last night. One of my all-time favorite songs.

And this is my favorite original song of theirs.

 

Go check them out!!

Cocktails and jackalopes

This past weekend the besties and I roadtripped to Austin to visit our dear friend who is aptly named, Austin.

I don't have to tell you that it was good times.

We all have a very hilarious dynamic. In fact, I think we are all at our funniest when we're together. Everything out of our mouths is comedic genius.

I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time.

Cocktails were had...

Lots of group pictures were taken... 



Notice the color coordination. We've been friends for a very long time.



Jackalopes were ridden... 

And Alexia came out to play. It has been decided that Alexia is my drunk alter ego. She pays for everyone's drinks and after-hours food [much to my money's sadness the next morning] and dances like a wild person.

Like I said, it was a good time.

I <3 Austin, TX

That time I went to California for a work vacation

As promised a few pictures from my one free day in California.

The hotel where the conference was being held/where I stayed was the Fairmont San Jose. When I travel, I almost never stay in hotels. I usually stay with people I know, or in the case of Europe, hostels.

So staying at a nice hotel is quite a little treat for me.



This is my room service breakfast: oatmeal with fresh berries and a glass of grapefruit juice. Cost with tip: $30. These are the things I do when I do not have to use my own money.



Before the conference hooplah started on Sunday, I visited the Winchester Mystery House.

Upon presenting my ticket to the tour guide, she looked at me and said, "Aww are you by yourself??"

I am an independent woman, thank you very much.

Aside from the tour guide who probably thought I was a lonely, desperate woman, the house was incredible.

Apparently throughout the tour, we walked over a mile!

You betcha I counted that as my exercise for the day.



Notice the "door to nowhere" on the right.




If I were to become a crazy [insanely rich] spinster cat woman, I'd build myself a house like this. Just for funsies.




The one picture that proves I was on this trip.



 Upon finding out that Stanford was a mere 20 minutes away, I decided I had to see it.

So a $60 cab ride later...



I was drooling over how gorgeous the campus was.




Seriously? My alma mater wishes it could look like this.



I followed up my Stanford wandering with a nice lunch at the Stanford shopping center, in which I ordered not only an entree, but a glass of sangria and a giant dessert as well. Like I said, the things I do when I don't have to spend my own money.

The idea of dining at a restaurant alone used to scare the crap out of me. What if people thought I was a loser with no friends?

Now I realize how obsurd that is.

Actually, I rather enjoyed the solo eting experience.

My conference schedule looked something like this:

Sunday night: network, eat, drink

Monday: Full day of sessions [several of which I rather enjoyed], make a friend, network with someone awesome at lunch, eat Italian food and drink wine at dinner while talking about the movie industry [reference to the awesome person I also networked with at lunch]

Tuesday: Full day of sessions [less of which I enjoyed, but still got to hang out with intelligent and interesting people], get called out in a session, win a big prize, win another prize for being a top winner at casino night [craps is a lucky game], stay out until 1 am with new friends, eat a late night taco

Wednesday: Only attend two sessions because it is time to leave, spend too much time at airports, come home to kitties

As I said before, it was a great experience, and simultaneously made me feel very confident and unaccomplished at the same time.

Confident because I could hold my own around all these impressive people, and unaccomplished because I realize how far I have to go.

But it opened by eyes to all the possibilities, so I hope to start working toward some dreams of mine soon.

And needless to say, I'll miss looking out my window to this:



Sooo when can I go to my next out of state conference??

Back in the TX

I am back.

Back in the heat. And fire. And humidity.

While I will always be a Southern California fan, the Silicon Valley area is now vying for my affections.

In a word, it is perfect.

The conference was not too shabby either. Having intelligent converstation with exciting people was just what I needed.

Also, going to conferences is definitely not just all about work.

Case in point: I won noise-canceling earphones at a casino night!

Impressive, I know.

Also, I may have stayed out past 1 a.m. with a few new friends one night. San Jose nightlife isn't exactly bumpin', but we made do.

Once I recover from this busy day at work, I'll post the few pictures I took of my free day!

Northern California

I love California.

I think that might be pretty clear.

From the ages of 8-16, I visited Southern California every summer to see family.

Northern California, however, was like a foreign land that I had never seen [except San Francisco once at the age of five...I don't exactly have a ton of memories from that trip].

Until...one spring break in college when I ventured a bit further north than usual.

P.S. Y'all are getting to see me back in my youngin' days.

Yosemite

Hearst Castle

The view from Hearst Castle.

Seal Beach? Or something of that general name.

Verdict: Northern California is gorgeous, too.

I'm convinced I was born to be a Californian.

California throwback

In honor of me being in California [land of which I like to pretend I'm from] this week, I thought I'd do some Cali themed posts.

First up, some pictures from the summer in college when I interned in L.A.

It was good times, y'all.

The Grove in Beverly Hills. This was the one and only time I went there, as being a poor intern kept me from high end shopping.

This barely appetizing looking meal is on here as a humble confession that this was the very first meal I ever cooked for myself. Yep, you heard it here first. Living in L.A. alone meant I had to finally fend for myself!

I almost cried upon seeing the Kodak Theatre, i.e. the place where the Oscars are held. Nerd.

It wouldn't be my blog if there wasn't some sort of picture of me eating food. So here you go. Pink's Hotdogs.

My friend, Aisha, came to visit me, so we did lots of California-like things. Case in point: playing in Malibu.

See, I've always been weird.

This is only here to show how tan I was. This is what happens when you only work three days a week and spend the rest of your days at the beach.

I feel like every little girl has dreamed of living here at some point. Some little girls more than others. Like me.

Fitting in with the crowd at Venice Beach. Present day me is seething over how tan and toned I look.

Trojan Fight! I almost went there for school, so I had to pay homage somehow.

Warning: if you meet a Z-list actor at a giant industry party thrown by your boss and he invites you and your friend to an after party for a concert, you may end up at this room in the Standard Hotel. And there might be drugs there. And you might leave promptly. Nothing good happens at 3 am.

Ah, well that was a fun trip down memory lane.

I remember

9/11/01

Ten years ago...

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I was a freshman in high school, changing out for my first period gym class.

I'll never forget that day, or what it meant.

Today, I remember and honor all those who were lost in such a devastating tragedy.

You know fall is approaching when...

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Get in my belly!!!

Since this message is brought to you from the land of scheduled posts, I hope that as you read this I am downing one or five of these at the airport.



These next few days, I have to pretend like I know what I'm talking about

Tomorrow I leave for my work conference in San Jose!

This will be my first business trip, and it's a solo one. I'm a fan of solitary travel, so no problems there.



BUT this conference is kind of intense.

And I'm taking my boss's spot.

Meaning...I'm signed up at the level that she is on.

Alex < boss

What this means is that there is one session where I am being regarded as a "thought leader."

AKA someone with expertise.

Um. No.

I think you've made a mistake, mon freres!

I'm fairly confident in my abilities, and I know I am decent when it comes to BSing.

So let's hope I can just charm everyone.

Or catch a break and actually have something of value to add to my session.

Le stress.

But le excitement as well.

Oh and apparently I might get offers to go to dinner in San Francisco since people will think I'm some big decision maker or something. For a free meal in San Fran, I'll pretend to be just about anything.

But don't let your mind wander too far.

I think during my one free day, I'm going here:

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That's the Winchester Mystery House.

You may have seen it on the Travel Channel before.

Basically it's a big ol' cray cray house built by a cray cray woman.

There are staircases and doors that lead to nowhere, plus lots of other crazy shiz.

I'm excited.

OR if I can find some sort of shuttle or bus or other mode of transportation that does so, I'd like to go out to Santa Cruz or any other neighboring beachy place.

I miss me some Cali beaches, guys.

All in all, I'm looking forward to my first big girl work experience.

And getting my company to pay for everything.

Cha-ching.

Get funky with your rain dance

I'm not one to blog about weather.

I mean, that's boring.

But, I have a request:

Please do a rain dance for Texas.

Right now we look like this:

Everywhere.

Houston is covered in a blanket of smoke today.

When I walked out of my apartment, it smelled like someone was having a giant BBQ.

No bueno.

I'm not asking for a hurricane, which would be the norm this time of year, but a torrential thunderstorm might do the trick.

East Coast, send some of your rain this way. We can help each other out!

Looking for a sexy fisherwoman or slutty dresses? You've found the right blog

According to my blogger stats.

I'm a little disturbed by the slutty keywords that are associated with my little bloggy.

But mostly I'm laughing at whoever goes around googling "sexy fisherwoman."

College flashback weekend

I could care less about the fact that football season has started.

As you all know, it's the tailgating that interests me.

I think I've done a very good job in recent months of being rather adult-like, and tossing aside [for the most part] my college-like behaviors.

But every once and a while, you just have to embrace the ways of the past.

So I did.

Oh College Station, I missed you.

These are called shakers. They can be found at our very favorite College Station restaurant [and probably in the world], La Bodega. PURE.MAGIC.

I hadn't seen him in almost a month. Ginger withdrawls!

We dominated college.

Former roomie. She has a pretty awesome blog. Read it HERE.

Basking in our pretend college times.

Our dear friend, Austin. We'll be having big times with him in Austin [yes, Austin lives in Austin] in a couple of weekends.

I didn't exactly take a lot of pictures during the actual game day. So here you go.

I came home to one cat locked in the bathroom while the other ran around with a catnip toy in his mouth.

Nothing like a dose of reality after a college weekend!