Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary

This weekend I celebrated the Golden Gate Bridge's 75th Anniversary.



I worked the National Park Service information booth this Sunday during the GGB75th Festival. I created a Park Plinko game for visitors to play for prizes and to learn some Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate National Park trivia.


Some of the prizes included the Golden Gate Bridge Official Sticker, endangered species temporary tattoos, a cute story book about exploring the Marin Headlands and face painting.

  
 I made 6 face paint designs for the winners to choose from and the kids and adults were thrilled to sport their Bridges in fog as well as Beach Strawberry plants.

I managed to survive the day without a sunburn and full of energy. Oh, did I mention I freaked everyone out when I got very excited when I saw the sailors sail into the San Francisco Bay through the Golden Gate? Yeah, that was a legitimate face. Oh yes & my best friend whom I had not seen in a very long time dropped by and found me!



The day ended with a bbq behind the Crissy Field Center with IYEL, staff, family and friends. I was so happy to see my old friends again after so long! It's crazy how far we've come. Becoming teachers, cops, park rangers, getting married or engaged and traveling.

The weekend concluded with a seriously spectacular fireworks finale. They actually launched the fireworks from the Golden Gate Bridge. It was so amazing to watch that my heart was pounding so hard and I couldn't wipe away my smile. Best fireworks I've seen since my childhood days in Disneyland. Take a look below at a much better video than what I recorded.
 
Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary Fireworks Celebration from KFOG Radio 104.5/97.7 on Vimeo.
The Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary was a spectacular waterfront festival! Thank you to everyone who joined us on Sunday, May 27, and to all our partners who helped make the day a memorable one!
Event Production by Foghorn Creative - www.foghorncreative.com
Video Produced by Michael Coleman - www.colemanfilm.com
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy - www.parksconservancy.org

Purple.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?