the sweet life of a silly muffin.

Purple.

2011-09-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

The end of July I had the super honor of attending the Yel Out. (What the hair is that?) Well you might not know that I was part of only the best youth program in the existence of the United States of America. From 2003 to mid 2007 I was a high school intern at Crissy Field Center's Insipiring Young Emerging Leaders (IYEL) program.

Every year they have an end-of-the-year presentation summing up their awesome projects the group worked on throughout the year. I remember I used to have so much fun helping put these Yel Out's together and then being super nervous and excited to present.

Anyway this year it was a little more special.. not only was it the tenth anniversary of the Crissy Field Center and a reunion of alumni.. this time we had a special surprise from our friend and mentor Ernesto who proposed to his awesome longtime girlfriend Anna. It was such a happy and magical moment to witness an event like this because it was just.. REAL. Not at all like a movie or witnessing strangers' proposals or those strange proposal youtube videos.

Anyway I am thrilled for the life and adventure to come for this beloved couple. You don't see a love like that everyday. What I mean is that usually relationships don't seem to have a certain spark.. don't last.. are just fun and games.. are plain stupid. But then you see something like this which can inspire and prove that love is true.

Well.. Purple is the official color for Iyel. So in honor of my Iyel Alum spirit I put together a purple outfit and manicure. Don't mind the creepy dorm baño and ripped hot pink shower curtain that obviously was not picked out by anyone else residing at the dorm.

So there wasn't much purple in the actual outfit, you know I didn't want to go overboard and steal the purple spotlight haha! So I wore.. Purple Mossimo long sleeve sweater, Grey checkered J. Crew button up shirt, Grey denim J. Crew skirt, Dark Grey knee high socks that I usually wear underneath my uniform pants.. and since I don't own any purple shoes.. the silver toms had to do.

Now for the nails I had very limited time to create an Iyel themed manicure. For the base I picked a deep purple with a slight pink shimmer, H&M..which will be nameless until I find it again.. and for the letters I used a dot tool and dotted IYEL with Sally Hansen Lightening.. which I don't know why has an 'e'. The manicure was a little messy and the purple stained like crazy but overall I got several compliments including.. something along the lines of "alumni dedication" and "they don't make alumni like they used to" haha

Well time has flied and the group of IYELers I belonged to has gone off to separate chapters and parts of the world in the past several years. So these Yel Outs are a great time to catch up and are sometimes the only time a year we may get to see eachother. So it was nice to see some old familiar faces. I just wish I kept in touch more often and wasn't such a distanced person.. literally!

Next thing to look forward to is AlumNight. Every December or so we have an Alumni get together for good old teambuilders, bowling, dinner, and even scavenger hunt adventures with "the Go Game." Can't wait!

Who Yel?! I-YEL!

Lacquered Nails.

2011-07-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

You might have guessed I'm ~~super~~ a bit in love with nail polish. My collection of polishes has been growing exponentially over the past year or so.

After purchasing OPI's Jade is the New Black one day at a CVS for some reason I decided to look it up online and discovered hundreds of nail bloggers who I totally fell in love with pretty much. Since then I have been stalking many blogs to see the latest collections, duped colors and spectacular designs. So since that magical day I've been completely obsessed with keeping my nails looking superlicious.

So here are some random manicures I've been wearing lately.. manicure is a weird word. Oh and just so you know, I've only ever gotten a manicure once in my life, and it really sucked! I've preferred to paint my own nails for free since I was like 9?

Anyway.. This is China Glaze Jolly Holly. I just took this one off last night after looking at it for about a week. My rule is as soon as a small chip appears it's gotta go!

Remember my super cool holographic color? I finally tried it on. OPI DS Signature. This picture was taken while I was admiring how rainbowy it was in the hot sun. It was so hot that there were actual heat waves photographed! I loved this color so much that I [gasp] did not take it off to do a Fourth of July manicure!! I still want to do a patriotic design. If I finally get around to it you will know.

This is I believe my favorite color, OPI Who the Shrek Are You? Most people say it's a hideous color but I LOVE it. It's such a nice shade of green and in my opinion it makes my hands look great.

It's my most worn polish and I love how funky and bright it is and it makes everything look better. I've worn it with a black 'leather' jacket, a floral print dress, pink zebra pillow-haha, my uniform.. everything.

For Pentecostes I did a subtle-ish design rather than just plain color. I wore a lavender dress and felt I had to match my nails. I used a Color Club labeless lavender color!! It came in a set which didn't have the labels on it. I did the oh so trendy accent nail with OPI Silver Shatter and the rest were silver tipped with those SoReal stripers.

Now this was a few weeks ago, Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe. It's a glass flecked tealish green. Very Christmas magical, even in the summer.

The following is not color accurate at all. Not the neon polish nor the coat. Anyway I was inspired by my lovely J.Crew coat several months ago to do a pink and gold combination. I used China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy and Orly Luxe. I wish the color was captured correctly by my lame camera and that my lame tips weren't too thick.

Well.. that's a little preview of my obsession. Well at least the ones that I uploaded! This would be a much longer post had I photographed every manicure! You like how I didn't post again for a while and couldn't finish a real post, so I made this post to make up for neglected bloggyness? Well a new where'd-she-go style post will hopefully be up soon. If I don't slack or forget! I need to stop this sillyness!

Where'd she go?

2011-06-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

I've done it again. Neglected this sad little blog. So I wasn't sick forever. It finally went away after like two weeks. Then school was all lame and almost over. Work was always work and this is actually my first full time week of the summer. I still had some fun squeezed here and there. Of course food and more delicious food was involved. Anyway here are some clues as to what has kept me away from being an actual blogger rather than just a blog reader.

Mitchell's Ice Cream with Esperanza

Finding a dress I like in the size I used to be, trying it on and being sad it fit too big but glad I'm not size 11 anymore. I'm actually holding it up with my armpits and I tied it extra tight.

Finally seeing my best friend Lorena while dining at the delicious Pauline's Pizza.

Studying for finals while eating my favorite snack: Chobani Greek Yogurt with TJ's 3 Berries granola

Mother's Day at Elephant Bar

Supporting my brother on his Confirmation Day. Yay Saint Michael!

Pigging out after the confirmation. Pupusa, carne asada, camarones, quinoa, macaroni salad and chimole (salsa) that Judit Maria and I made.

but being able to burn off all the food afterwards by playing some dancing game on the Wii. I was about to sweat; I don't sweat for real, only about to mode. haha

Memorial Day Weekend picnic in Menlo Park celebrating Judit Maria's Graduation.

Finding my first true holo OPI DS polish.. while sporting naked nails for like two weeks, gasp!!

Finally having a Krispy Kreme Doughtnut in Union City after years of not having a fresh one. They closed the nearest shops to me.

Visiting my old stomping grounds to see my brother play his trumpet at the Music concert.

Getting a haircut. Just a layered trim. Can't really tell.

Saying farewell to Myles, Molly, Amanda and Justin. Welcoming Nora and Charles and the other million people who have just moved in to the dorm.

And having pupusas in San Rafael after my car pulled a joke on me the day after I picked it up from the dealership; my Emergency Brake light, ABS, and IMA lights were all on.

Well I'm sure there were many more activities which unfortunately I did not photograph and cannot currently remember.. Oh well.

Sick. Sick. Sick.

2011-04-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

Cue in that old Queens of the Stone Age song. haha. Anyway I'm sure that song has another meaning but what I'm going through right now is the typical case of human immune system failing to environmental contracted viruses!

Yes, I am sick. It happens once or twice a year. Otherwise I'm usually bragging about my strange immunity while others that surround me are sick with a cold or whatever quite often.

It started as a tickled throat on Friday night to a full on sore throat and funky voice on Saturday and full on sick after I woke up on Sunday evening after my post-pascual sleep.

Today, Tuesday I am at the srsly full sick mode with the gross cough that repels any living thing, makes those cringe at the store or in class, I've finished a roll of toilet paper to plug up my nose, Robitussin has lost its effect, and I have not the slightest feeling to do anything but be lazy. Oh never mind that last one, I'm always lazy.. ugh!

Anyway I still managed to leave the house to take and pick up the brother from school, sneak in a stop at Sally Beauty for their buy two get one free polishes and their $5.99 Seche Vite top coat sale. I ended up getting Two China Glaze Crackle polishes- the white and grey ones and Orly Dazzle since my only other silver non holo glitter polish (Mac's $$$$$ Yes) has gotten gross despite the little help from Orly's polish saver fluid thing and it's currently no where to be found. Oh well.

I'll try posting more about my polish hobby laters. For I must collapse into bed instead of the floor, couch, kitchen, etc. It freaks my dogs out when that happens.

Pascua. Easter.

2011-04-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

Easter is an exciting time. My family doesn't care about the fluffy stuff associated with Easter such as egg hunts, bunnies and sugar loaded candies. Those are all a thing of the past. Of course those were supre awesome back when I was like under ten years old. Though I must say, I bought a box of Peeps pink marshmallows as soon as they hit stores in like February, but I only managed to eat one before my brother had finished the entire box and his own blue box.

Anyway, Easter for me is what most people have forgotten about. The ressurection of Jesus Christ. So Holy Week is spent at many church activities all leading to the main event. On Saturday night before Easter Sunday, we have an Easter vigil. Every year we make the vigil all night from around 11pm or midnight until about 7am on Easter Sunday. It is a very exciting celebration.

My favorite part is the very beginning where the vigil starts with the lights out and the blessing of the Paschal Candle. Everyone is given a small candle and the fire is spread throughout the entire church beginning with the main Paschal Candle. It's awesome to see how the light spreads and just the glow of everyones candles is magical.

I also like that during the vigil there are usually an average of 5 baptisms. It's exciting to see the many babies, kids and sometimes adults be baptized, also kids make their first communion and sometimes some adults receive their confirmation. I did all those outside of an Easter Vigil but it would have been more special to have received those sacraments during an Easter vigil.

Anyway it was a long night but for me it sure didn't feel that way. I didn't even come close to falling asleep nor did I feel hungry. I was happy and attentive thoughout the night. My brother is usually the one falling asleep everywhere: in the car, in church, in the shower, on buses, etc. So I had joked earlier Saturday night that he should take one of those 5 hour energy bottles, and funny enough, at the first head nod he gave during the vigil, my mom pulled out of her pocket none other than a bottle of 5 hour energy! My brother only drank some of it and luckily it was enough to keep him from falling asleep.

Once the vigil ended around 7am, everyone was filled with joy and ready to head out for an early morning 'dinner'. Mayra and I took a picture together as we have celebrated Easter Vigils together for the past eight years. This time she was lucky that her boyfriend was able to experience the vigil as well.

After church we went to a nearby restaurant with other church members. I had a plate with grilled shrimp, fries, salad and rice. I don't know if I've mentioned here before, but I have given up rice from my diet and replaced it with the ever so amazing quinoa, but that morning was an exception. Besides I was finally hungry and the restaurant probably hadn't heard of quinoa.

Well finally after a long night of celebration and an early dinner, my family made the road trip back home and could not wait until we hit the beds for our annual post-pascual sleep. My family fell asleep in the car but I was the lucky driver listening to the choir of snores along the way. Once we got home I was able to snap a picture of my happy mama before she went to bed and self timed a picture of my self in my backyard.

That's my tradition of Pascua. How did you spend your Easter?

Dress hunting for Easter

2011-04-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

So as I previously said.. Easter is one of two special occasions in which my family really invests in buying new clothes, the other is Christmas. Of course we still buy stuff the rest of the year but mostly we thrift for outfits or only buy new if it is absolutely necessary.. and cheap! So this year, the Easter dress hunting came around once again. Every Easter is a very special celebration which calls for fancier than already nice churchy clothes.. but more on church later.

So on Thursday I bought my brother his new suit. Then after being almost broke on Friday, I swooped by Buffalo Exchange just to browse their dresses even though I knew I wanted to buy a new dress. Anyway all their church safe outfits were size not me, but they had a nice collection of casual and summer dresses. Maybe some were my size.. but whatever. Anyway I found this dress which screams springtime, that is if you want to go frolic in a prairie with the bunnies.

I left right after trying it on and feeling embarrassed in front of myself. So.. Saturday my whole family went to Vacaville to shop for the pascual clothes. We went to Ross first, even though I didn't want to go since most of their dresses are not my style and the chance that someone else at church will wear the same dress is extremely high. Anyway I had fun trying one some dresses.

My mom really liked how this ruffley one looked and slimmed me but I wasn't too fond of the ruffles, so it stayed awaiting another owner.

I liked this Jones New York coral spring dress especially for its sleeves. Most dresses don't have those nowadays. But this dress was a strange wrap around thingy and the color wasn't what I had in mind for Easter.

This lavender dress is also Jones New York and very similar to the coral one, minus the wrapping around and sleeves. I actually bought this one since I liked the color, it was cheap, and again my mom insisted I get it. Maybe I can add sleeves later and pin the v neck a bit higher.

Now this was a joke. I loved the skirt by itself but it was just too long and super high waisted, like beyond the waist and it came as a 2 piece set with the blazer which I guess would be alright with a pair of jeans to tone it down.. BUT I quit jeans remember?

Oh yeah and I was a total fashion repeater and wore the same outfit I wore for Thursday, on Saturday haha. Anyway we moved on to Marshalls since I always see their weird commercials and all after Wheel of Fortune or whatever and what do you know? As I walked in, my mom was standing next to this dress and smiling at me knowing I would love it. & of course I loved it and the hunt was over. Pretty quick too. I didn't even have to make my way to the outlets or the stupid mall!

This Evan Picone dress was just what I really wanted for an Easter dress! I wanted a boat neck type dress or something at least with no low cut chest area. I wanted a dress that didn't have straps or at least one with straps larger than an inch. I wanted a floral design without it being too woah hey there I'm a crazy overgrown garden or prairie like just like the first dress. I wanted a full skirt. I wanted a slimming waist. So after all of these picky dress ideas I can't believe I actually found a dress. Oh yeah and it was way below $100.

Almost Easter!

2011-04-21T23:53:00.001-07:00

Well my muffins, I've done it again haven't I? Abandoned my imaginary audience ha-ha anyway I'm excited that it's almost Easter which means a lot of church, dresses and food.

Well I don't know if I've mentioned before but the only new years resolution that I've kept to this year is the absence of jeans and the attempts of dressing better. So far I've managed to wear skirts and non jeans pants apart from my work uniform (which aren't jeans anyway.) The only exception I've made is my black pair of Levis skinny which are a last resort for an outfit.

Today I wore a new Calvin Klein dress I just bought at goodwill new with tags. I felt all grown up as I shopped around San Francisco with my brother. He's lucky to have an awesome sister like me to spend money on him ha-ha. I bought him a new suit at Express, check it out.

We also finally ate at Coriander down at the westfield food court which was really good. My brother had the biggest cooked shrimp I have ever seen! I had the sweet lime fish which was of course delicious.

Anyways, every Easter is very special and calls for new dresses. unfortunately I always wait til the last minute to find one and then settle for the best cheapest one. This year is no different. I wanted to buy the Garden Isle dress from Shabby Apple's South Pacific collection but the pay check situation was worrying me especially since I had been threatened with government shut downs ha-ha so until now the hunt will go on for my Easter dress... and shoes! It's funny that my family only buys new clothes for Christmas and Easter. The rest of the year is thrifted.

Well now, more later.. must do some more dress hunting online so I can shop quicker at the stores tomorrow.

I've become about android?!

2011-04-06T22:34:00.001-07:00

Hello invisible audience! I've been gone from the blogging world yet again... anyway.. fun news though, I got a fancy new phone yesterday. It was my brother's birthday and all he wanted was a new teléfono so we all walked out of the store with fancy cellulars. So now that I've got my cool HTC inspire thingy (which I'm using now.. duh) I'll hopefully blog some more. So here's a random picture of some eat time yesterday.

So yesterday was Valentine's Day...

2011-02-15T20:16:00.000-08:00

&&& it was just another muffin day. Why just have one day to share the love? True love is everyday. Sans hallmark cards, pricey flowers and chocolates. Although I wouldn't mind some of that stuff haha. But February the Fourteenth was just that. Just another day I guess. I had school most of the day and it sucked because after like two weeks straight of beautiful rare weather, the rain and gloom came along.

It was so lame, everyone on campus was wearing dark colors, ducking their heads and running from the rain. I figured, since I don't have a Valentine, might as well dress like one. So I went all out and wore ALL PINK. Hot pink. Yup. Not so hard since I have a lot of my favorite color. So I walked around all day wearing a hot pink skirt, hot pink pleather jacket, pink cardigan, hot pink umbrella, hot pink tote bag to hide my hot pink school accessories, books and purse, but I kind of toned it downish with a grey button up, silver shoes and a silver belt. Oh and I also gave myself a pink and glitterful vday manicure posed here with my yummy cherry.

I could feel the eyes pointing my way especially waiting at the crosswalk. I had to fight the urge to ask a stranger to take my picture standing out in the crowd. It would have been an awesome picture of hot pink me, holding my umbrella and all in the rainy day and dark colored clothing people as a background.. but I decided risking the stranger running away with my camera was too much and awkward. So here's a little awkward photoshoot I had my brother do for me at the end of the day.

ha. ha. Caught me coming out of the closet. Sorry, bad joke. Anyway I love my pleather jacket. Always gains compliments even from a chick at a Jamba Juice wearing all black. Oh yeah there was this one random dude who was staring at me as I walked with my bestie friend Mayra who said very happily, "Wow, you're the first one I see wearing red!" I replied with an awkward giggle followed by "yeah, haha thanks.." then turned to Mayra.. and we both asked "red?" haha

This is the rest of the outfit. Plus awkward teeny girl poses. These were the only good-ish pictures that resulted from my brother's obligated-let-me-go-back-to-playing-PS3-photoshoot. Well I felt straight out of Legally Blonde, sans the blonde, law school, guy, Reese Witherspoon, chihuahua and etc.. parts. Oh btw, it's weird that my legs look sa tan in these pic when really they're pale and even paler with my nylons. Stupid flash.

I can't even make a heart with my fingers. Or my excuse will be that it was perfect but my brother didn't catch it in time.. yeah.. I love how mirror like my pumps look. Anyway... to make the day even more lame when I finally was in class with Mayra, the only class I have with her, and the only class she goes to school for on Mondays and Wednesdays, my teacher thought it would be nice to let us off two minutes after class started so we could "exercise cardiovascular health by taking a walk, exercising, going up and down the stairs, playing basketball, etc.." aka. Class cancelled.

Mayra was wide eyed and are you serious and all because she rushed to class that ended up cancelled but I told her hey now you're just hanging out with me, in a class room, having Twilight themed valentine sweethearts. So once everyone was gone and we had no intention of heading out to the rain again we just stayed in there looking at the rain out the wall of windows while having lunch, catching up and listening to the ipod.

So the day ended with more class, more rain, more stares "Omg you're so pink" compliments from people and munching on some more weird Twilight quoted Edward Sweethearts with pink pajamas. So, this ordinary day I guess was a little bit unordinary. I wish I could wear this outfit everyday haha! Well til next Valentines day, I will continue my normal weirdness and hey, maybe I'll find a Valentine by then!

Oh just bffs with government people..

2011-02-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

SO back in October I had the honor to welcome the Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Ken Salazar, to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area at Crissy Field. I wore my ranger skirt and smiled with my colleagues and Ken. He was there with his teammates in support of a new youth program that Crissy Field started based on Michelle Obama's Let's Move program. Everyone was kind of starstruck about him being there and the officialness that was going on. Somewhere there's a picture of when he met me and had me under his arm and shaking my hand as we walked in front of the Crissy Field Center and he heard about my lameness haha. So yeah we're so bffs now.

Anyway the park's Public Affairs office sent this picture to me a few weeks ago and it was exciting to remember that sunny warm indian summery day in October where I made governmental friends.

Pancho Villa Taqueria

2011-02-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

I've had Pancho Villa since I was like 6 years old? I used to live just a block away on 16th and Valencia in San Francisco, a very popular area that is always changing nowadays. I've been to so many taquerias in my life but Pancho Villa is pretty much my favorite since I grew up with it I guess.

I love being able to order my food in español and point to the yummy food. Unlike an unfortunate event at Lucinda's in Mill Valley. I am sorry but I felt wrong ordering mexican food from a white lady. No offense but it felt unnatural and it had never happened before. Gosh how can I say this without offending? It just felt weird that the like only 'authentic mexican' in Mill Valley was full of white people.

Anyway, It's nice to actually see what's going into your meal. Anyway the food is always fresh because they're so busy all the time so they're constantly replenishing.

I love their frescos, especially the fresco de melon. Cantaloupe juice. Mmm.

For a while it kind of became a habit for my parents and I to eat at Pancho Villa every Wednesday before going to church or even home. It was like a ritual. Every Wednesday. Then if we skipped a week it felt so weird. This place has become the usual spot where we'll always be satisfied.

I am apparently hypnotised by the superliciousness of my fresco de melon. &&& my orange Revlon Siren lipstick that I've come to love.

I almost always order a baby burrito, green spinach tortilla, carne asada, mild salsa, whole black beans, cheese and rice. I'm not into guacala-mole. (Guacala = Eww.) & I love the basic red salsa, it has a ruch flavor even though it isn't spicy. Now the orange sauce is relatively newish and pretty spicy. I didn't convert to spicy foods until I met Esperanza haha. Us Salvadorians don't do spicy. Except Mayra who wants tabasco on everything.. oh and myself now.

Well.. can't wait until the next Pancho Villa trip. No other burrito can compare.

Naan & Curry & Beach

2011-01-20T19:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my first day of class this semester. I had Geology which should be good.. except for I don't have my book yet and need it asap and my local library only has the 1999 version.. anyway.. I met up with my best friend Mayra and we crashed classes to add. After classes our hungry bellies headed to Naan & Curry on Irving Street for their all you can eat lunch buffet. I pretty much finished the whole tray thingy of the Chicken Tikka.. oops. After an hour and a half of food we headed over to Ocean Beach to walk it off.

I love that I've been able to spend time with Mayra. I never spend time with anyone anymore. It's pretty sad. but the beach was very delightful. It's so weird though.. only my left leg developed soreness from the long walk on the beach.. how lame! Am I that lazy that the one day I do a bit extra physical activity half my body gets delayed? Geez.

This was actually the first time I had been to Ocean Beach and actually enjoyed it in at least eight years. I look forward to more best friend talk time on the beach. Especially sunny days like yesterday.

It's so lame that I work and live next to a beach and never enjoy it. Rodeo Beach is my backyard and I'm never there so today I went out there during work at high tide and loved how calm and relaxing it was.. especially NONboring. haha

Weekend retreat and reunion

2011-01-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

This weekend my parents and I went off to a church retreat. I've been following many fashion blogs and recently focusing on the vintage inspired ones. I love the simple but fancy style that women used to have. I like to think I'm pretty old fashioned by what I believe in and like.

Anyway I was trying to put together my outfits to bring to the retreat & decided to put my hair in rollers for the first time since I took them and experimented with them from my Grandma's room when I was like 5. Here's what happened..

I didn't blow dry it so when I got to the retreat that night I quickly took them out before walking in the hotel but me plus wet hair means a disastrous puff ball and frizz is to come.

It was curly in place for like 2 minutes then it went back to its natural state and dried. Ergh!!

The next morning I decided to quit the hair and just put it in a bun trying to hide the mess. So I went on to brekkie and enjoyed it so dearly.

I was glad to spend the weekend at the retreat with my bestie Mayra. We never see eachother anymore..

She didn't mind my hair messy or in a bun but later the bun decided to hate me too. I really liked my outfit. Skirt was my grandmother's, fave silver pumps thrifted, silver/grey metallic belt from Target, white tank from A&F, turquoise Jackie cardigan from J. Crew. I'm beginning to feel my age now so I've decided to try and look it older of being mistaked for a 15/16 year old. Srsly!?

Anyway.. later in the retreat we had mass so I had to change and I tried to style my hair in five minutes. I also put on some lipstick which I never wear!

I like that it's red but not super deep red. I haven't found a good deep red that looks good yet.

My lips are trying to match my mom's blazer.

Here's my 2nd outfit. J. Crew dress, Target belt, Joey shoes from Ross. See the hair is still volumed up and sort of curled? the back of my head is horrendous.

Anyway that night I gave the rollers another chance. I smoothed my frizzies with my straightener and while the hair was still hot I quickly rolled them. I slept in them and in the AM my hair looked like this.

I quickly began to fall out though because I didn't bring any hairspray and anti-frizz didn't hold up. So as the day progressed these pretty curls died. After the retreat we went back to San Fran to meet up with my older brother whom we hadn't seen since 2006 and was in town on a business trip. So we went out for a quick dinner at Boudin in Fisherman's Wharf.

His name is Javier and he lives in El Salvador. See I have three brothers. One you always see and two who live in El Salvador. I haven't met the oldest yet, William though I hope to see him one day very soon. Javier I hadn't met until I went the one and only time to El Salvador when I was 8. He came back to the US with me and lived with us here for a month. Then in 2005 he came to live with us again for about a year.

Here's my family with our friend Reynaldo who's a Priest.. and we always forget is a Priest haha He's pretty cool. Oh and some hotel guy took our pic and made us laugh when he said "Pizza."

Hopefully with his cool travel filled job we'll have more opportunities like this to see eachother.

Oh and this was my 3rd outfit: lace skirt from Target, pink Lace top from Charlotte Russe & my thrifted silver pumps. Note the uncurled hair! Noo! Oh well at least it wasn't frizzified.

Who falls asleep on New Year's Eve?!

2011-01-17T17:44:00.000-08:00

New Year's was short and sweet as well. We originally had plans to go to LA to spend it with some family down there but plans changed, bills needed to be paid so we stayed home and broke haha.

We made dinner and dressed up a bit.

Self timer captured us once again!

This time we didn't get in place in time haha

We loved the individual mini Martinelli's we found at the 99c only store.

After dinner we tuned into our much loved Andre Rieu on PBS

Dinner and the music of the Johann Strauss Orchestra were very satisfying and relaxing but I fell asleep!! & it was not barely even 11pm! So my brother thought is would be funny to adorn me in party poppers and garlands, take a picture and have me discover it later!

How embarrassing! Anyway They woke me up right at 11:59pm for the countdown and party popper time. As I sat up I was like woahhh where did all these poppers on my lap come from haha

We made a lovely mess and hugged ourselves into 2011.

Christmas Magic?

2011-01-17T17:12:00.000-08:00

My brother loves the Christmas Magic Snowman from that commercial for Best Buy. Anyway we had a bit of Christmas Magic. Lets go a little bit back in time..

One more Christmas tree picture which no lie just came down today.

My mother and I next to our Nativity. Oh yeah and we've got another one out on our front lawn.

So after attending the midnight mass at church, we all went to the very quiet Hyatt Regency by the Embarcadero for some magical Christmas decorations. The bro was amused by the light up and moving nutcrackers' height.

There weren't any people around at 2am of course so we had to alternate photographers, never having a complete family picture.

I love my dad's Michael Scott-ish head tilt here! Oh and I wish we had a carousel horse!

Here we are at the base of the gigantic tree..

Last year I took a picture with this same bear, block and tree but this year I'm older and uhh yeah just older. Which one is better? I like this year's.

Let's appreciate the smile on my brother's face.. and the Christmas Magic wannabe snowman behind us.

Of course I sang for the lovely guests of the hotel.

The sight of the thousands of Christmas lights always amazes me.

We originally wanted to visit the Hyatt Regency for it's cute and very large Christmas Village as seen in this photo from 2009. What's shown here is only like 20% of the whole thing. Sadly the person who dedicated their spirit and love to the Hyatt by decorating with the village passed away so there was nothing but a memorial plaque this time.

For a few years now we have made it an unnamed tradition to always eat at Denny's on either Christmas or New Year's. We usually go to the one of many by our home and even have the same waiter but this time we had to go for the much more expensive San Fran Denny's.

After all the magic ended at around 4am.. we crashed at a friend's house rather than risking driving an hour home in the foggy drunk driver prone hwy. T'was a truly lovely short and sweet Christmas. Though I do miss these kinds of Christmases...

In Loving Memory

2011-01-08T23:41:00.000-08:00

Today was a year anniversary from my Grandma's death. I can't believe it flew by so fast. It was difficult to imagine how life would be without her because I knew everything would change. Things always do. I will always love her and hold her in my thoughts and prayers forever.

Miss you Abuelita Rosa Maria
July 4th, 1920 - January 8th, 2010

mini quake..

2011-01-07T16:43:00.000-08:00

Am I alone in loving mini earthquakes? They are a little jolt of fun, they make my heart skip a beat and put a smile on my face. Thank you 4.1 quake at Seven Trees, CA for making your way to the Headlands to say hello.

Happy Christmas Eve!

2010-12-24T13:19:00.000-08:00

I wish everyone a beautiful Christmas! but enough on that.. let's gaze at my beautiful Christmas tree my Dad and I decorated. Disco balls and even pink ribbon bows made it on there this year!

Feliz Navidad!

A Sweet Thanksgiving

2010-11-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

My Thanksgiving started with an evening shopping with the bro. I had promised to buy him a peacoat like two Christmases ago so it was super past due haha. So we went on Wednesday to the Vacaville Outlets and finally found the longly wanted peacoat at Gap and Old Navy and discounted too. He was terribly excited! Not for my picture request though..

I also got him other stuffs. We ended the night being jolly and fat by enjoying delicious ice cream at Fentons and quenching the post ice cream thirst at Five Guys plus the cajun fries. Heres the pretty cardi I got him at Nautica also.

So to get ready for the real Thanksgivingness I had to paint my nails an appropriate color. Always a tough decision. Anyway this is my right hand with my Thanksgiving inspired colors.

By the time I got to my left hand I was out of Thanksgiving mani creativity so I couldn't resist looking at my new China Glaze Party Hearty box any longer. So I went for a Christmas themed left hand. Only that this picture was taken on Friday haha..

I decided to try a new hairstyle inspired by Busy Bee Lauren's hair tutorial. but my layer goofy hair was a bit crazy with the pins.

Anyway don't use these bags.. the one we used exploded mid turkey cooking.. it was a saucy & smokey mess.

Mami and I cooked all day pretty much. & my Dad tried distracting us once he got home from work.

I made my first pie! Apple pie from this very vague recipe in some latin desserts cookbook but I survived.

Oh and we have this random Weight Watchers cookbook and we decided this looked yummy & went for it. It was delicious!

Here's my freshly baked pie!

Dinnahhh is sehhved!

We say Dad semi burnt the top of the turkey.. as he usually burns things often nowadays.. todo lo deja carbonizado.

I couldn't stop staring at my festive nails. Oh & thanks Mami for the pretty thrifted ring.

It has always been a tradition to have a camera on a tripod watching us eat during the holidays. My dad always set up the video camera but not this year. I bet we have tons of tapes with us laughing, crying and of course eating.

but this year the self timer on my camera had the honor. Oh by the way we had real champagne this year! Even the brospice! Gasp! Of course we all had like two glasses of Martinelli's afterward.

Aren't you jealous of my pie? hmm? mmm!

Well I hope your Thanksgiving was just as lovely as ours.

Olive Gahhden.

2010-11-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

So my dad's cumpleaños was last week. Unfortunately we all had work and we all definitely did not go to HP7 as planned either because of the afore mentioned. So during the weekend we had our little celebration.

First we headed out to Alameda to the USS Hornet to tour around and be totally late to the Naval Academy seminar haha.. but we got to tour around freespice anyway.

My brother wants to be a Navy Sailor one day.

If he becomes a pilot I'm sure they'll have fancier planes... sans teeth.

So when there's family.. there's food. Duh. So our old favy family restaurant was Olive Garden. because when you're here, you're family! I'm sick of their commercials..

So like after over a year or so of not attending to our family restaurant of delicious evilish yums we caved in and celebrated Dad's 50th. with baby desserts of course. Gotta watch our figures. ha.

Anyway it was yet another lovely Sunday with the familia I oh so berry much love. Oh by the way did I mention we have puppies?

Team Hillywood

2010-11-17T11:21:00.003-08:00

I love anything Twilight.. but I especially love Hillywood's parodies!

Banana Pancakes

2010-11-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

I Love home made lazy Sunday breakfasts. This Sunday we made whole wheat banana pancakes with eggs, chicken sausages and hash browns.

And apparently I was served on the table as well..

Mom couldn't wait to finally eat it..

The brother was very pleased with brekkie & for fixing his stupid bullet thingy from halloween..

I helped the mama make the yummy pancakes..

They were perfect.

They didn't last long on the plate.. btw my heart belongs to Edward.

Dad loves to pile on the sugar.. tsk tsk.. oh well it said no high fructose corn syrup.. no difference haha.

My stomach is growling now..

I was on the news today.. Woah

2010-11-10T20:19:00.000-08:00

So I dropped my brother at school this morning and was shocked to hear that his teacher had sex with a student. CBS 5 interviewed me & got a pretty cool quote haha. I knew they'd cut me short but I'm in love with my last word. Just watch.

Sickening what kids are getting instead of an education these days.

On a lighter note, like my shiny interview nails? haha It's Orly's Luxe that I picked up at Sally. I took this picture on Saturday when I was in my govt truck. I couldn't stop staring at it.

Voting & Giants Parade

2010-11-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

So last week I did what all good citizens should do. I voted. I was two hours late to work but whatever. What's more important? Putting in your vote or being on time to work to make coffee and open up a visitor center who won't have visitors until you get there two hours later anyway.. yeah. So I wore my fancy sticker all day & it was cool.

Next day.. Since the Giants won the World Series, the brother and I joined the 1.5 million people who showed up to the celebratory parade in SF. Didn't take my brother to school & stole him to SF, our beloved hometown which we rarely have time to enjoy. So we had fun riding the stupid Muni bus towards Civic Center, ate cheap brekkie at Burger King while I painted my nails a bright Giants orange.

I look creepy here.. something was wrong with my makeup and hair that day.. I look strange.

See? totally creepster. By the way.. that iced mocha was very delicious.

Sadly we made the mistake of going to Civic Center behind City Hall to stand squeezed between a million people when we should have gone straight to Market St to actually get a glimpse of the parade. So that is the view I would have had if I was three feet taller.. I raised my camera as high as I could. It was so hot and crowded.. but we were there anyway happy to show our spirit to the world.

Anyway the brother and I had a long Giants filled day.. we have yet to watch the parade from the dvr recording... Oh well. GO GIANTS!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-06T17:25:00.000-07:00

So Halloween was short and sweet.. Just spent it with the familia. We went to church, ate at ihop, shopped at costco then went home to give our eight trick or treaters some candy and then drove up to Woodland to get lost! ... in a Corn Maze! It was pretty fun walking in the darkness trapped in a field of corn while a creepster man with a chainsaw jumped out at you. Awesome.

Of course we got lost.. but my brother the cowboy/indiana jones man led the way.

So my costume? My inner Twilight geek.. okay maybe it's not so inner but anyway.. I thought it would be fun to dress up as Team Edward. So I got a cheerleading outfit in navy and silver.. seemed like appropriate Edward colors.. and got some Team Edward felt letters from Michaels.. sprayed myself in body glitter which stuck everywhere but my body and I even got Twilight contacts.. which kinda sicked because my already brown eyes didn't make a difference. Oh & I fell in love with these Silver holo TOMS shoes.. which of course had to be replaced by the very much hated crocs for the corn maze.. btw I love crocs.

Notice my surprisingly tan legs show no sign of glitter!?

Oh and we ate at Sonic Drive in which we have always loved but ever since we started our healthful diet.. some priorly loved foods are no longer accepted in the tummy.. so sadly we all got tummyaches.. Oh notice my mama has my pink wig from last year? She was inspired to wear it with a pink jelly fish stuffed animal thingy I have.

So here's my eyes with UNnoticable contacts.. Oh well. I really want to wear this costume again but get it right.. only thing is.. where?!

Hope you Halloween was as fun as mine!

EDIT: Here's my halloween spirit from my dorm door.

San Francisco Giants head to the World Series!

2010-10-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

Being a San Francisco native, obviously I am a GIANTS fan. I must admit I was a bad fan and disconnected for the past forever and a half - but of course I have been disconnected from basically everyone.. I have like one friend and have no life anymore haha! Anyway I put my love for nail polish and love for the Giants to root for tonight's game, so check it out!

I was up until pretty late trying to keep my hand steady while uncramping the other haha Notice this is my left hand.. I'm left handed.. so this design is from my close to dead/almost useless right hand! Yay me! and

Yay Giants! Can't wait for the World Series GIANTS TORTURE!

It's October of 2010

2010-10-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

So since blogging failed for me.. I want to give it another chance. What am I'm obsessed with now? Well let me tell you I'm still sipping Pumpkin Spice Mocha frappuccinos & still fangirling over Twilight - that has not changed!

Current big obsession is nail polish. Always have loved it but I have never had so many colors and painted my nails so often. I've been following many many polish blogs which are incredible.

I've also been inspired to improve my home and stuff with fun blogs like Better After and Centsational Girl.

I'm back in real school rather than the stupidific University of Phoenix which wants the money I don't have.. so I'm back at City College taking a full load of environmental/green classes while working a full load as well.

I've been honored to participate in amazing opportunities such as travelling to New York for the country's first and largest outdoor youth summit and meeting the Secretary of the Department of the Interior this past Thursday.

I've survived the summer without my bestie Esperanza who moved on to New Mexico but I'll hopefully see real soon.

I bought my own car! A Honda Civic Hybrid which has just been very superlicious.

I've gone on a doctor prescribed diet after finding out my health was on the verge of badness.. so I've been able to cut down on the sugary greasy stuff and discovered a love for quinoa, hummus, several veggies which I hated and I now stuff flax meal in everything!

Well that doesn't totally count as catching up after all this non bloggy time but it'll do for now. Maybe I'll edit to add pics later.. if I get time.. or am not lazy. <3

Pumpkin Spice Mocha Frappuccino

2009-11-19T17:10:00.000-08:00

So lately I've been driving the local Starbucks baristas insane with my not so odd but off the menu request: a grande Mocha frappuccino with Pumpkin Spice and NO whipped cream. Per favore? Anyway it has only been done perfectly twice.. but it's still so delicious. The other day the totally annoyed drive thru dude was like 'uhhhh NO. You said LATTE.." but I'm lactarded and don't even have the word latte in my dictionary. Oh well.. I was at Starbucks on Tuesday morning and everything has been christmasified out! So that means... Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino again! yay!

So what has been keeping me so busy I can't post to my invisible audience anymore? hmm? Trying to get smart that is. I bet you've seen the commercials and are totally gonna hate me but I am a Phoenix. I attend University of Phoenix and I'm getting all of my education online! How perfect! So although I'm glued to my laptop all the time, I am using my digital time for education and less on Twilight stalking, photo editing and blogging. So be patient! I'm actually doing very well in my classes, like 98.57% well. I'm so proud of myself. Who knew I'd finally be a good student once my classes were online as I sit on my couch wrapped in a blanket?, in my work office or.. in the kitchen sitting on top of the counter? haha

So on Monday.. I spent two hours of my life stalking my obsession of course. I was streaming the New Moon Premiere live and watching the screaming fans freaking out as Rob, Kristen, Taylor and company passed. I guess that will make up for the sad fact that I will not be able to watch New Moon on tomorrow or I guess tonight?.. Whatever.. as soon as it comes out because I will be well behaved doing homework in my isolated headlands. So my screaming insides will have to wait until Sunday to unleash... and my family will embarrassingly have to witness it. haha!

So.. I don't watch much telly but when I do it's usually for the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, Ugly Betty, and whatever I decide to record on my dvr at home home. But recently Esperanza and I have not been able to sit down at the real tv to watch but rather taken over our auxiliary kitchen/internet cafe/theater to search recipes, do homework and watch Ugly Betty on hulu. Although, last night Ron called me over to the telly yelling "Hey Maria! Twilight guy is on Letterman!" So I don't actually like Letterman because.. I don't know, he's not Conan? But duhhh I went over to see Rob and giggle about him biting some guy at the premiere.

Today was a very dull to the max day.. I was at the visitor center front desk reading New Moon again while eating cereal because nobody comes to visit us anymore! So sad.. You can tell it's still dull to the max because I am still at work, by myself.. blogging. duh. Maybe it's just that everyone in the world, like the people in one of my classes, aren't in touch with their naturalistic intelligence. They don't like or care for nature and therefore stay in their heated lazy homes.. whatever.

Oh! Happy Late Birthday to my Dad!- Nov 18th.. & Happy Birthday to Andrea, Victor and Sammy! Anyway before the darkness crawls upon me once again, I shall walk through the icy air and trails home.. Goodnight world and enjoy New Moon! gaaaahhhhh!!.. btw the moon was a gorgeous crescent last night sitting over the beach after the sun set.

<3 Mj

Delayed Delish..

2009-11-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

I cannot express how ridiculous I feel for not posting in forever and a half.. I have no excuse for not posting and the overrated "Sorry I was busy" is definitely not acceptable. There are long past due posts just collecting digital dust in my drafts folder.. for example, the road trip to Washington, what on earth I have been doing all this time, all the silly things I am into now, and worst of all my current obsessions and Twilight related rants! So those will be posted soon enough but for now I must torture myself with these delicious pictures from the December issue of Harper's Bazaar..

Love, Mj

Twilight Sweetness is Over..

2009-07-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

Okay.. So finally after forever and a half.. I finished Breaking Dawn. I think my life is over now.. hahaha What will I do now?!! Eeeek.

Wow.. Interesting day.. Finished the Twilight Saga.. Watched the Michael Jackson memorial while I cooked, did laundry, did my make up and ate.. Went to work.. worked at the Point Bonita Lighthouse for an evening program and saw a beautiful sunset and super fast moon rise and went up to the Lens.. met a cool guy named Aaron whos an intern at the Presidio and works with Maura.. and yeah.. Great day.

Now what?..

mj

Bye Bye King of [lolly]Pop

2009-06-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

So.. my dearest brother whom I refer to as Bub.. called me today right before closing the Visitor Center.. and broke the news to me.

Michael Jackson Died.....

"Oh and that Farrah Fawcett chick too.. the one they always put in That 70s Show lip syncing to something.."

What?! This is just... wow. Bye bye MJ..

P.S. MJ your hair was so beautiful it makes my mj-ness jealous.

Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie

2009-06-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

So.. yes I have been long long long time back from our superlicious roadtrip/pilgrimage to Forks.. haha which was totally not completely Twi-related.. hahaha but let me just say... WOW. Lots and lots of fun adventures! I wish I could even get started on talking about it but I might not be able to post that right now because its just too much so me just bore you with my current and totally amazing life at the Marin Headlands......lameosaurus!!

sooooo... I've been a full time power ranger for about three.. two weeks now.. and its actually not as bad as I feared it to be! Everything has been quite swell so far and minimal drama.. We even have two new interns for the lighthouse and the nike site. There's Joe from NY who's the new Georgia/Nike Missile Site intern.. who'm I shall now refer to as the super cool guitar guy who was just playing my guitar and embarrasing my lamespice 'skills' hahaha and then there's Keith the Point Bonita Lighthouse guy who's from Florida but has apparently been living all over the country the past few years which is pretty cool.. I don't actually have a nickname for him yet but I'm sure I will soon.. Uhmmm... yeahhhh I think this summer might just be a tad superlicious as well...

Esperanza and I will be leading some awesome Campfire programs this summer! She just had one this Saturday and I think it was pretty awesome but it sucked for me because I had to go help out this totally unfortunate camper who was unfortunately arrested and sent to the San Rafael city JAIL for the day all because of a stupid confusion triggered by his son running a stop sign while on a bicycle... yeah very stupidly complicated! So I tried to help the guy and his son out and went to the Law Enforcement office and waited an hour or so for one of their Rangers to give the guy his bike and gear back.. which made me miss Esp's program and be working until like 8pm when I was off at 5:30!! so yeahhh but ehhh I'm excited for the Campfires to come!!

[June 25th 2009.. thurs] OKAYS... So I never finished the post I was writing as I was 'practicing' my guitar.. so yeah I'm back over a week later to finish up! hahaha great now I gotta try and remember everything else thats happened.. well.. i really dont know.. uhmmm.. happy summer solstice.. uh yeah its summertimelime and i love how I woke up to drizzly FOG this morning.. and two days ago I was about to sweat at Muir Woods.. muir freakin redwood forest woods! yes.. crazyness.
So.. knowing how I can never go to bed early.. I stayed up watching some movie about Chateau Montelena in Napa Valley.. with Chris Pine.. and Snape.. hahaha Bottle Shock and it was pretty good... makes me want to hurry up and be 21 finally.. goshhh 20 is taking tooooo long! 45 days is a LONG time!!!!!!!!!! Anyway.. today the lovely foggy day it was went by kinda fast... and yet i'm still here at work on the compy typing this.. I should go homey home now.. and totally plan for tomorrows Campfire Program!!! eeek!! This time I promise I wont talk to arrested campers.. that is all.

P.S. I love you Esp! I horrifically terribly you can feed me to the coyotes or owls and then disect the pellets bad sorry!

Love, MJ

Torta di Cioccolato

2009-05-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Eeeek!! Okays so lots has gone on and I don't even know what to write about hence the lateness of this post.. uhmmm... today I will be packing up my bags for my Road Trip Adventure #2 with Esp which will begin tomorrow.. ?!!!$%#(*^%#@^*^*(@#!!#+$$%?? ? no that was not a bad word. Just that I didn't know how to spell my inner girl squeal hahaha

So I'm done with school. I loved my Italian class finale haha I hope I did okays on the exam but afterwards we had a little partito dopo l'esame... potluck. So peoples brought delicious treats like chocolate cake [torta di cioccolato] cookies [biscotti] bravo's pizza.. bread and cheese [pane e formaggio] melon wrapped in prosciutto.. which was actually really good. && I made some pasta which I was a little upset about because after the hour drive to school I had the pot wrapped in foil and towels to keep it warm supposedly but it was of course cool by then and the sauce had kinda dried out but ehh I think it was okay and slightly enjoyable haha I've made better.

I'm not sick anymore!! After like almost forever and a half of random pains, horrid headaches, eye infections.. supposed deadly flu.. and lots of NyQuil DayQuil Hurry-Up-&-HealQuil.. I can hopefully say I am cured. for now. I hope. but anyway now I'm like super paranoid about everything. I cant touch my eyes, I was my hands a lot, I hold my breath to not breathe in germs of peoples around me hahaha, uhhh I carry all my medicines I might possibly need like the Quils, Pepto, Excedrin, Midol, Lactaid, etc. So if you're in need of a little aid I might have the help haha.

Oh I've been playing around with my makeup lately.. sometimes it turns out okay and other times its super hello!! extreme and then there's the ewww I look gross kind and finally the I actually love this look. I got ByLaurenLuke 's My Luscious Greens kit and I love it. My family and peoples have claimed it to be a bit too much but I love wearing it with my uniform haha!

Its just so bright and vibrant it makes me look happy rather than- omg there's nothing to do I'm so bored and why the hell is it hella foggy- the way I really feel haha. Oh and I have like a buhjillion nail polishes too! Here's a sample of some of my collection with very similar colors haha!

On Wednesday I had a little flashback day. I hung out with my high school friend Jasmine which I hadn't seen since like October 2007ish.. I spent a few hours with her just catching up and talking about randomness and I even saw a few more peoples who went to my high school..

like I always say.. Fairfield is the land where peoples get stuck there doing the same thing over and over. Nothing and no one ever really changes. Well thats my view. Because after high school some people are still doing the same thing its like they're frozen in Toys R Us state where they dont wanna grow up. Well enough on that.. Afterwards I went to my high school for the Music Concert. I saw my old choir muffin, Amanda which I hadn't seen since Graduation!!

Well gahh! I gotta go and finish getting my stuffs ready! Be back later laters!!

I actually forgot to post this before leaving but here it is! Working on the Trip post right now!

Berry Berry Kix!

2009-05-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

Monday. Sighhh... I woke up yesterday morning with a full on cold.. or flu. whatever you call it! but yeahhh I had a sore throat on Saturday and Sunday but I just thought it was because of my horrible singing in my car.. but yeahhh now, Tuesday and I'm still all ugly voiced.. cougholofugus.. ??.. and ew yeah. No more gross deets. haha At least I have reunited with my long lost fave cereal Berry Berry Kix which I found at Grocery Outlet.. gee i love that store!! What a lovely breakfast huh?.. hahaha

Hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day! Mine was pretty good. The fam and I went shopping at the Outlets then we hopped over to BJ's to eat but hell no it was over and hour wait so we went across the parking lot to TGI Fridays.. I had never been there but it was really good! Even though my mom was saying that she heard someone had a snake head in their meal at Fridays somewhere in NY but whatever. The Jack Daniels whatever sauce with the shrimp and meat yum yum. Thennn our full fatty selves scurried over to Coldstone for like a 25 minute wait for yummy ice cream that miraculously for the first time didn't affect my lactose intolerance.. hmm. But overall Mother's Day + Mother's Cookies was a great-tastic day.

So anyway I haven't been reading my Breaking Dawn all weekend.. gasp! hahaha i dont know why but somehow I forgot it. && During my boring dull moments in life I felt strange not having it with me to catch up! Well I did pick it up again today. I'm at the part where Charlie goes to the Cullen House. Thats all I'm sayin.. hahahaha But yeahhh this is me trying to pretend to read.. hence the crooked eyes.. or maybe just pink eye side effects!!

Anyway. [I say that a lot!!] Today has been a pleasantly warm day. I've been coughin up a storm everywhere but at least its not cold and windy like san francisco was last night when I got out of class.. So today I went to the Doctor with my Grandma and Aunt for my Grandma's Check ups and like at the front desk they said that if I had flu symptoms to please wear a mask. So of course I'm sick.. I had to wear a mask! Hideous and embarrassing. Here's me still wearing the mask later when I went to pick up my brother at school. It was funny to see the reactions of high school passer by peoples.. haha!

Well off to another cold and windy adventure in sf. Well not really just Government class.. errrgggg!! Just one more week and its all over!! Summertime!! Hopefully I have another exciting story to tell..

Love, MJ

Watermelon, Grapes, Apples & Bananas

2009-05-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

Okay so Esp and I were up late talking about our trip after watching Vertigo and Ranger Ron gave us some maps of Oregon and Washington and some advice of which roads are nice.. where to eat oysters.. and where to get a ferry into Victoria so we might sneak our way up to Canada but not Vancouver.. boo hoo that's a bit too far.. but anyway.. yeah I just made a draft itineraryish map thingy on google and it will take forever and a half but it'll be awesome! So yeah check it out! The trip winds the long way up to Forks but eh we get to visit a bunch of Lighthouses which we totally love and have our USLSS Passports ready to be stamped! Eeek! I can't wait!

View Larger Map

Fruits. So I was at the front desk here at the Marin Headlands Visitor Center and a big group of kids came in wanting to become Junior Rangers. So after they completed their booklets I swore em all in and I had a little flashback moment if my days at Grand Canyon. sighhh.. but anyway afterwards they went outside and had their lunch and like one of the chaperones came back and gave me a bunch of left over fruit they didnt want to throw away so that was nice. I've got enough fruit to put up a mini Jamba Juice stand hahaha.. so smoothies for later!!

Well I've gotta go on with my Rangerin'.. I wanna go outside its a beautiful day finally!

Love, MJ

Pink and White Cookies with Sprinkles <3

2009-04-26T16:59:00.000-07:00

What mood swing weather we have here in the lovely Bay Area!! Either you're on like Katy Perry status with Hot&Cold or like the global warming and end of existence is approaching hahaha! Srsly whats going on in the world? Weather. Influenza. Everyone's broke. I don't have medical insurance. haha yeahhh

Oh my gosh! Last post I forgot to mention some terrible news. Pink Eye. So that Tuesday that I went to my Poli Sci class I was feeling a bit weird.. I discovered I had a weird rash on my arms, legs and feet.. as if I went frolicking in some werid itchy bushes here in the headlands. Which I never have.. I've only jumped into piles of ice plant.. like five years ago but anyway... then like during class my eye kept burning and crying and I was like what the fringle's going on with my eye?! So that night I had to drive home partially blind with a blurred eye. So when I got home i examined my situation and looked up my symptoms & stuff on medlineplus and it said I had Pinkeye. Oh.. lovely! So then my mom was like oh here let me give you some eye drops they'll really help! Goodness Gracious I think my eyes flew down to hell and came back! Those drop were definitely killing some major bacteria and whatever as it burned my eyes like crazy! Unfortunately pink eye doesn't just like disappear so of course I had to take it on down to LA. oh and here's me disguising my pink eye with my dad's vintage Ray Bans that gimme a unibrow hahahaha!

More on LA in a bit but anyway its been three weeks now... and guess what I woke up with this morning? Pink eye. Not just a reprise but for the Sixth Time!!! I dont think its normal to have the stupid infection, have it heal, you clean everything to make sure its all sanitary and germ free and then it decides to come back over and over and over again! I'm sick of it! And as I mentioned before, I dont have health insurance!! So if I go blind or crazy no one will help me. So enough of my disgusting infected and highly contagious story...

My brother and I truly had a wonderful four days in LA visiting the familia for my cousin Alley's Quince. Everything was just great great great. Except the uglymuffin pic of me and my bro up there with our gorgeous cuzzo. but the rest was Awesomeness complete. The flight on Virgin America to and from was great. Getting reunited with my cousins and aunt after like three years no see = great. Running around getting things like hair, makeup, decorations, flowers etc set up for Alley's Quince = great. Party time at the Reef down in Long Beach by the Queen Mary = great. Being super tired from dancing and running around in heels = great. Spending the rest of our days hanging out & being randomly hilarious = great. Going to Downtown Disney and spending a long time at Build A Bear making Hello Kittys = great. Going to the movies together and then somehow I ended up watching the Hannah Montana Movie.. [woah?!] = still great haha. So overall you get the point we had an amazing time and we're on definite promise mode to go back more often to visit! Oh and here's the Hello Kitty I made at Build-a-Bear.

So.. back to my obsession.. I finally got to the part in Breaking Dawn I had been waiting for like forever and a half!! It was like 3am the other night and finally Bella became a Vampire. Whoo hoo!! haha So yeah the book has got me crazyyy I've taken my time reading it. I dont wanna read it all at once because then what will I do? [Self Destruct] Yeah..

Anyway my best friend Esp and I are taking another road trip at the end of the month so that we can have our fun and then be work slaves for the rest of the summertime! Oh and of course to celebrate her graduation from CAL haha So... where do you think we're going?! drumroll... Washington!! We're going to visit Cape Dissappointment!!!! hahaha well yes we intend on stopping by that lighthouse but our real destination is Forks! tee hee! Ranger Ron our dorm manager who's from WA says its a pretty neat small town.. well he probably hasn't been there recently with all the Twilight stuffles.. So yeahhh I just saw on the Forks Chamber of Commerce site that theres a Bed & Breakfast called the Cullen House which I intend to stay at.. [I hope!] and many other funky Twi-fan places. Oh yeah and of course LaPush and its LaPushyness and wolves.. sweet. So anywayyyy I'll stop my blabbers about that before theres a change of plan and something goes terribly wrong and we cant go anymore. [eeek!] Oh and also we def. have a trip in mind for Sequoia National Park to visit our highly missed Georgia.

OMG So I was at Safeway yesterday and like I passed by this display thingy right and I saw some purple and pink stripes... woah hold! turn around and what do i see?!! Mother's Cookies! They're back in business... well sorta. Kellogg bought over the trademarks and recipes and is carrying on the tradition. yay! I was all excited and stuffs but then I was like wait... I went out hunting for these cookies and bought a buhjillion of them to stock up for the rest of my life because they were to be no more and then now theyre like an annoying ex who comes back into your life?!! Well the cookies arent annoying or anything so thats good but still! Esp and I were on like Cookie Craze! so yeahh Well... at least I cant rely on Kellogg to not disappear.. and I'll just eat my cookies now.. instead of preserving them for eternity! haha

Oh and before I go out and do what I'm really supposed to be doing right now.. [work..] I just have to confess that I've now become addictingly attatched to fringlin' Twitter! so yeahhh tweet me... @mjmuffinlover ... yeahh some one already claimed 'mjmuffin' and they're like a dead profile so yeahhh and oh! I'm following this superlicious blog that just makes all of my days hilariously amazing. Lauren's Bite. She's srsly the best in the existence of awesomespice!

love, mj

Cool Mint Chocolate Clif Bar

2009-04-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

I finally finished Eclipse! It was great great.. but not as great as Breaking Dawn is going! I realized that hella people around me are getting into the Twilight Saga.. mwahaha! Like even yesterday I was walking to my Poli Sci class and these two professors walked past me and the girl one had New Moon in her hands and she was discussing it with the guy prof. It was kinda funny.. and I just half smiled and walked by with my Breaking Dawn lol. Anyway enough about my obsession now..

So tomorrow my brother and I are going down to LA to see my cousin for her Quince. She was at mine five years ago so now its our turn to pay her a visit. I'm pretty excited about it! I got a little black dress today to wear for the party. Oh and it'll be my first time flying Virgin America.. we'll see if its really as cool as they advertise haha.

At work.. my friend Michael Super- yes thats his super cool real last name haha- is the new Point Bonita Intern so I get to chill with him at work two days week. But the crazy boy doesn't want to stay at the dorms and he's like barely spending his first night there today but I'm not there so oh well see you next week michael!!

Omg the weather has been hella crazy these days. Total heat wave! Friday was beautiful and then all weekend that heat was WOW and even on Monday my car steering wheel would burn my hands! Only until today was San Francisco going back to normal and silly me didn't take a jacket.. but I was relieved once I stepped out of the carpool person's car to the warm summer Fairfield air. On the news the people were saying we're going through La Nina.. which is unevitably followed by El Nino.. great. Stupid Kids..

On Sunday I went to City College's performance of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and even though I was heatfully late and totally didn't have to pay entrance it was still amazing. I feel bad that I ever had low expectations. Now I have to write a paper on it.. boo!

What else what else... oh about the snack of the day.. Cool Mint Chocolate Clif Bar! I was at the little food truck thingy at school during my break of Musical Awareness class and I had to make a relatively healthy snack.. so after like five minutes of staring at all the choices I got the clif bar and a banana which was $2.25 the exact amount of quarters I had in my pocket haha! so yeah it was really good. I guess.

Oh! I got my new camera battery in the mail today! My previous one had lived out its totalness of rechargeable lives. So now my digital camera and I will be joyfully reunited for more thousands and thousands of picture taking that I missed so much.

Anyway I'd better get some dinner and start packing for LA.. I'll post pics of the party if I can!

Chocolate Cappuccino Cheesecake?..

2009-04-13T00:48:00.000-07:00

Well I sure hope everyone in the entire world had a lovely Easter.

I sure did. Simple and Sweet. ish.. Anyway the full seven hours I spent at Church all night long went by so fast and I didn't even nod my head or blink a sleepy eye. I was wide awake and actually listening and stuff.. interestingly I haven't even been to church in a long while.. most people were like woah you're back where've you been all this time?! anyway.. afterward around like 8am we went to Cafe Cozzolino for dinner- no not brekkie.. dinner- and I had the meat platter.. it was alright I mostly had bread and butter but I really liked the dessert which was a Chocolate Cappuccino Cheesecake slice thingy. So finally I got home around 11am and slept thru all of Easter Sunday and woke up at like 6pm haha what a day..

There is no possible way to excuse my huge gap of blog time... It really is SAD that I log on to Blogger like everyday only to check up on stuff and the blogs i follow and NOT post anythingthe entireness of 2009 and half of December!!! So really I am sorry- to of course whoever actually reads this literary crap haha!- for not keeping you up to date with me in this stalkerish blog.

So on that note I belatedly wish you..

Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
Happy Chinese New Year.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day.
Happy Valentines Day.
Happy Presidents Day.
Happy Vernal Equinox.
Happy St. Patricks Day.
Happy Cesar Chavez Day.
Happy April Fools Day. and finally.....
Happy Easter. Phew!

Well then.. I promise from now on to be faithful to thee blog. haha! Okay so I cant catch you up with like everything thats happened but here's a small glimpse of how I go about life these crazy days...

First off.. I've gained like at least twenty pounds. and no it's not that I eat loads of sugary sweets and stuff.. as inspired for this blog.. which I actually don't! I love all of that but no I don't base my whole life diet on that. All I ever eat is like special k, bagels, pasta, soy milk, soy ice cream, pupusas.. i dont know!? Anyway.. back to catching up.. I was a college drop out for a few months but now I'm lazily back in school but this time at City College of SF. Classes are going alrightish I guess but my schedule is insane so I've got to readjust my school mode in the fall and set things straight.

Um.. I'm still working in the Marin Headlands as a Ranger but right now its just part time for two days until the summer comes along then I'll be full time again. I'm still driving Esperanza crazy with my weirdness but this time our friendship has become a trio as we've merged with our beloved Georgia and we make the self proclaimed Ranger Sistas haha sadly though.. Georgia will be leaving us in two weeks to go back to Sequoia NP to ranger on there. But its a perfect excuse for a small trip and to visit her there.

Oh! Remember back in November when I bought those two scandalous things at Costco?.. my oh my.. Twilight the book and HSM3 the dvd. Well the movie I had already seen in theaters but the book.. in March I finally picked it up and began to read it. I don't know why I didn't begin to read it immediately.. it was like in a corner of my room like I was scared to open it haha but anyway the Twilight Dvd came out March twenty something and I was like wow I'd better read the real thing than jump to the famous movie and all ruining the book so yeah I managed to finish the book like five days before buying the dvd the day it came out.

Let me just say.. Twilight has taken over my life.

Just like millions of people all over the world have fallen in love with Edward and Bella and everything else involved, so have I. Oh and its another excuse for people to hate me. They think they're so cool they don't follow trends or whatever but if millions of people love Twilight it has to be good right? Of course Twilight is amazing. While I was reading it, I was totally captured by everything.. its weird like I would go to sleep at like 2 or 3 am reading it. I've tried that with Harry Potter the 6th and like I can never get past the 5th chapter.. but anyway.. as soon as i finished Twilight I was like omg! I have to see the movie and buy the next book.. now!! haha anyway love love love the movie. yeah it was not the same as the book.. they never are.. but still. oh and Robert Pattinson.. i've loved since Harry Potter so whatever. I seriously hella cried when Cedric died in book and film lol.

Now as another crazy fanatic I have to wait until November to see New Moon which I read in four days and I'm a slow reader!!!! Right now I'm almost done with the third book of the saga, Eclipse which is crazy... I'm scared for Breaking Dawn now because there's so many damn spoilers online and everywhere its driving me insane. OMG I told you it's taken over my life!! and this post too!!

Well then.. I'm out of stuff to say.. so.. I'll continue reading Eclipse and find something to do today!!... besides wait for my Italian class tonight 6:00-9:00pm.. sigh.. so Ciao Ciao!

Bubble Gum Dum Dums

2008-12-14T23:13:00.001-08:00

So I've fallen into the world of Polyvore. Since I've been following FFM's beautiful creations i figured I can have a little fun too. :) Here's my most recent set I've put together. Esperanza and I visited the J. Crew at Westfield SF Centre on Friday and she loved the foil cardigan. She didn't buy it.. yet, I think haha but we both came upon the question, what would she wear with it?.. so here is one of my ideas.

Haley Foil Cardigan by mjMuffin

Not so bad I think and I can actually see her wearing this haha. Anyway if she does get it now she has one idea. I ended up buying the metallic tidepool foil belt for like 5 bucks after all my discounts and also a white sherpa lined puffer vest in white that I totally love. So much actually that it's my second, I bought it in Bright Rhubarb last week. haha Oh and I got my pair of matchstick cords in bright rhubarb too on thursday which I wore immediately. I felt so bright and highlighted haha! People were hella staring at me with a whahhh? face. Whatever.

This past week at work has been really different... No Laura :( and we have two new interns Georgia and Emily so theres more faces and more changes happening all the time. Oh and the dorms have been fun too. Some of us had a funny night on wednesday messing around with esperanza's piano and sitting next to our totally adorable christmas tree. I cant believe that there's only like eleven days til christmas.. yay!

So I've been well behaved with my Circus Animal Cookies. I've had only one bag so far. I cant go eating them uncontrollably! But they're still great. Esp and I bought circus animal cookie cutters at williams-sonoma and we found a recipe online so we're planning on making another disaster in the kitchen haha. Oh I went to Costco today and bought The Dark Knight I never saw it. So today I officially did and it was pretty strange. I didnt get most of it. Not to mention I dont recall the last batman movie.. somehow I always fall asleep thru it.. even when I saw it in theatres!! Oh well me and batman aren't meant for eachother. I've always loved Spiderman.

As for this post's sweet treat, I chose Dum Dums Bubble Gum flavor. I've put a little basket full of Dum Dum Lollipops at the front desk in the Visitor Center and somehow I always eat Bubble Gum or Cotton Candy Flavors only.. oh well. Anyways.. time for bed!

<3 mj

Circus Animal Cookies ♥

2008-12-03T21:41:00.000-08:00

So after 55 long days since Mother's Cookies shut down, I had almost lost hope of finding my beloved pink and white Circus Animal Cookies. I went to my local Grocery Outlet and with pure excitement I finally found them! I bought fourteen bags and as I checked my phone to immediately text Esperanza of my incredible find, I read that she had just bought 22 bags of them at the Oakland Grocery Outlet! What a big day! I am so happy. I will definitely go back later for some more, if they still have some.

<3 mj

Godiva Dark Chocolate Mocha.

2008-11-28T10:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Black Friday. As many people go shop crazy on this fine day, I am at work watching the fog roll in. Last year I was running around like crazy trying to fold clothes at Abercrombie & Fitch. They called and asked if I wanted to go back and work for them. I didn't call back. haha

Oh yeah! Happy Thanksgiving! Hope it was a great one for everyone. It was just any day for me. My dad had to work so my family couldn't have a complete thanksgiving. We had salmon. One less turkey for the world. haha. But I did spend like an hour working out with my oh so powerful and effective Bender Ball. It actually has me sore. My obliques and whatevers worked out. So I'll be getting some nice clothes to show off for the upcoming holidays.

So last Friday.. Esperanza and I didnt make it to the Lighting Event thingy at Embarcadero but we headed downtown for some shopping instead. I finally got my lovely and cuddly cashmere sweater in a light aquamarine-ish color. Oh yeah and funky argyle socks haha! So then after shoptime we headed for Oakland's Paramount theatre and saw the totally amazing Singin in the Rain. I absolutely loved it. The whole thing was great. The historic theatre, the dec-o-win game, the funny organ playing, the classic movie and the energetic audience. How fun. Now the song has been in our heads ever since! After the movie we got some delicious pizza. yum.

On Monday I enjoyed watching the weekly dose of Chuck and the usual wheel of fortune with Laura. Then I had to drive to the city to pick up my dad at work late night so before I got there Mike had called me so I dropped by for a quick chill. We went to Chico's for a little while but I really wasn't in the mood for pizza again. Plus with more to come.. haha Anyway he wants the necklace that he gave me back in March which he proposed with BACK. Gasp! I was like No! It's mine. I really love it. Why would he want it back?.. I've waited all year so I can wear it for Christmastime so that he can ask for it back because it holds a special meaning to him?.. What about me?! Hmm. I guess I'll give it back. He says I will have to earn it back. But maybe I will just buy myself that Arwen one I've wanted for so long.

On Tuesday I was planning on going to see HelloGoodbye with Lorena. Even though I had blanked out and totally forgotten who they were. I was still excited. But then I had to be at my dorm for a meeting we had. They even gave us pizza (again!?) so we could discuss drama and cleanliness in the dorms haha. Weird.. So I guess we're not having room inspections after all. Oh well I've got nothing to hide!! Laura and I watched Mulan after the meeting and also watched as the upstairs chicks carried some couches up the stairs.

So on Wednesday I went to Costco and got myself two scandalous things. haha Twilight and the High School Musical 3 Soundtrack. Haven't started the book yet but the soundtrack has been in my head since then. My brother wont stop saying 'shut up and stop singing!" haha too bad.

Oh yeah.. So I was at Grocery Outlet a while back and I found a case of Godiva Belgian Blends Dark Chocolate Mocha coffee drink. I love Starcucks Mocha Frappuccinos and "Go-Diva" is pretty expensively delicious. So I bought them and they're very delicious. Although I do have to take a Lactaid pill before enjoying. Oh and since I dont have my beloved Mother's Circus Animals I'll have to live with Trader Joe's Star Shaped Dark Chocolate Cookies with sprinkles.

Anyway.. I hope that Saturday night I can get together with my Stardom trio Lorena and Maura and hopefully go ice skating. Yay! Well.. gotta see what's going on out in the visitor center. Little George is here.

<3 mj

Cherry Vanilla Creme

2008-11-21T14:45:00.000-08:00

Just another day at work in the Marin Headlands..

It's pretty slow actually for a friday afternoon. Anyway I'm exited for tonight. Esperanza and I are going to see the Embarcadero lighting ceremony in San Francisco.. its the “Official Kick Off to the Holiday Season” haha so yay! Oh the ice rink will be opend too and like the high school musicalice tour is going to give a little preview. hah! yeah yeah hate me.

The weather is getting a bit chillier each day. Even though i'm drinking an ice cold hansen's cherry vanilla creme soda right now.. its still chilly outside. Therefore I shall be getting myself a nice cashmere sweater today. yay me! Oh yeah and I cant believe that thanksgiving is in a week! times flies.. No plans as of now but it should be good. Oh yeahh and I'm definitely hoping for a Disneyland peek for the christmas time. Its been year since i've actually been there.

So recently there's been this ongoing long message on facebook between us crazy iyel alums. I miss everyone and those totally random conversations about absolutely nothing and stabbing harsh words at eachother with love of course. haha. I wonder about the annual alumnight?.. hmm. Anyway..

Oh! In december, the park service peoples in fort mason are having two holiday parties! They'll include baking constests and such.. yay! Esperanza and I have our minds racing with amazing ideas that will most likely fail at the end.. haha wow not such a positive attitude is it?.. Well I hope to get into the Holiday spirits during thanksgiving.

Well gotta get back to doing something productive. Volunteer training binders! whoo hoo.. til nest time!

<3 mj

So I decided to make a blog.

2008-11-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

Interesting time in someone's life.. its like opening up your diary to the world. How embarrassing! haha anyway.. remember xanga? Ohh my that was fun. When the whole blogging craze began I was on Xanga contemplating on why he broke up with me?.. My discovery of Cherry Limeade.. and Complaining about sad rainy weather. haha anyway I hope this all new blogging experience makes many memories.

<3 mj