12.21.12

We’re Alive!

The world did not end!

Oh Mayans, you were so very smart in so many things but I’m happy you got this one wrong.

Kevin and I are heading to Palm Springs today for the Christmas holiday.

I’m excited to see family and friends and spend some quality time doing nothing.

I am so very good at doing nothing.

Kevin is also very excited because he gets to use his clear membership for the first time.

I, on the other hand, do not.

After signing up, they disqualified me because my passport and drivers license did not match.

You see, I never changed my name on my passport because I didn’t want to pay the money, and I figured i would just wait until it expired at the end of 2013.

Thus, my legal forms of identification do not match.

While Kevin gets to whiz past security, I get to wait in line with the rest of us commoners.

He’ll probably be on his third beer by the time I make it through.

So unfair.

Oh, the things you do for love.

Happy Holidays friends!

Do you have any travel plans for the next few days?

bloglovin
Filed in: Life
comment
Erin @ Empirically ErinDecember 21, 2012 - 12:39 pm

Haha, that’s funny, I didn’t change my passport until this year when I was headed to China. I had an old New York ID that had my maiden name on it that they never took from me, so I would just use that ID when I had to travel internationally. This time though since I needed a visa for China, I actually changed my passport. China’s probably the last place I wanted to get locked up for some weird reason :)

My Husband, the CLEAR Enthusiast | SpillerenaMarch 5, 2013 - 2:48 pm

[...] a few months ago when I wrote about how excited Kevin was to use his clear [...]

12.20.12

How to have a fantastic 30th Birthday

So. I’ve now been 30 for one week and one day.

I have realized that in blog land, that makes me rather old.

Oh well. I still get mistaken for a teenager so there’s that.

(one time someone even asked if Kevin was my dad! But that is a story for another day.)

(he does not particularly like that story.)

Though life at 30 hasn’t really seemed very different than life at 29 (or 28 or 27, for that matter), now that I’ve had time to become accustomed to this new age, I thought I’d share with you my personal guide to turning 30 in style!

How To Have a Fantastic 30th Birthday

Wake up. Have your husband gather bring you coffee and breakfast. Thank him for being the best husband ever.

Sit on the floor and open your presents. Ohh and ahh over fabulous gifts! Declare “I love being 30!”

Go to work. Get little to nothing done for the first few hours because you are too busy responding to birthday wishes.

Have one of your best friends send you the most amazing bouquet of flowers you’ve ever received and feel like royalty!

Let your mom and step-dad take you to a fancy lunch. Order something fattening and delicious.


Have your best friend fly in to spend the day with you. Freak out when you see her and proceed to act like you are 12.

Go back to work. Try to get work done. Fail miserably.

Leave work right at five and head directly to a bar for happy hour. Hope that some of your friends join you.

Order two for one cocktails. Start to drink.

Relive a bit of Costa Rica when your friend Heather arrives and gives you a lovely Avocado birthday cake!

Realize that there are almost 20 people at the bar just for you and do a little jump for joy and have an OMG HOW LUCKY AM I moment.

Have random dudes come up and ask what this party is for. Tell them it’s for your birthday and then smile with pride when they tell you how good looking all of your friends are.


Take lots of pictures and revel in how blessed you are to have so many great people in your life.

Proceed to get intoxicated and close out the bar. Go home with best friends and act like you are back in college by ordering Dominoes Pizza and drinking late into the night.

Wake up massively hungover. Pat yourself on the back for planning ahead by taking the day off. Have your husband go buy some bagels. Make coffee. Pour a massive amount of baileys into it.

Snuggle in bed with your best friend and watch Magic Mike. Rewind the naked scenes multiple times hoping to see some peen.

Do nothing but eat and watch movies for most of the day.

Finally leave the house for some tacos and margaritas.


Put your best friend in a lyft to the airport because of the margaritas.

Fast forward to the weekend. Reserve a private room somewhere so that you can have an official “30th Birthday Party.”


Create your own drink menu featuring your friends drunk nicknames.

Proceed to drink multiple Spillerenas and Mevins.

Once officially toasted, take pictures and sneakily grab your friends boobs.


(side note – when I drink my affinity for my friends’ breasts comes out in full force.You can see evidence of this here and here, among other places I’m sure.)

Be lucky enough to have a friend with a cupcake company so that you are treated to the best cupcakes in San Francisco. Better than Kara’s and Sprinkles, I tell you!

Blow out sparklers.
In the process live up to your Spillerena nickname and drop/break your wine glass.

Dance!


Cheers!

Dance some more!

Close out the bar.

Go home and be thankful for your life and all the wonderful amazing people in it.

There you have it. My guide to a fantastic 30th birthday.

bloglovin
Filed in: Life
comment
Erin @ Empirically ErinDecember 20, 2012 - 7:39 am

What a fabulous 30th birthday!!! This was such a funny post. I think next year when I turn 31, I’ll have to follow this guide. :)

CatherineDecember 20, 2012 - 10:58 am

Happy 30th! Looks like a great day. I especially love the avocado birthday cake.

XO,
Catherine
FEST

nancy @ adore to adornDecember 20, 2012 - 3:06 pm

Aw this is so cute!
Looks like it was a blast!
Here’s to the 30s!
xo,
nancy

MoDecember 21, 2012 - 8:31 am

Looks like a great way to spend your 30th! (PS – I can tell you where the peen is in Magic Mike if you really want to know….)

12.19.12

Doing Something Good

Last night some friends and I volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House in San Francisco.

After the horrific events of Friday, it felt really nice to step away from that and do something for other people.

Ronald McDonald House Charities are located throughout the world, and they provide housing and food for family members who have critically ill children. I first learned about the Ronald McDonald house through one of Kevin’s good family friends whose eight year old daughter had cancer. When she and her family flew to a random hospital far from home to get some sort of experimental treatment, they were able to stay at the Ronald McDonald house in the area for free. This place is a huge blessing for families whose children are going through unimaginable stuff.  In addition to offering a home-like environment, families are able to connect with and find support with others in similar situations.

The house is usually full, which means there can be up to 20 people staying there at any given time. The RMD house would love to provide home cooked meals for everyone staying there and tries to as much as possible, but unless people volunteer to make these meals, the families are on their own for dinner. After spending a long day in the hospital, I’m sure coming home and having to make dinner is the last thing on their minds.

So we went and we cooked dinner. Trying to plan a meal for 20 people was somewhat new to us, so our meal was basic but delicious. Chili. Three cheese mac and cheese. Cornbread. Salad. Homemade cookies. It certainly wasn’t worthy of Top Chef, but I think the families appreciated it.

We ate dinner with a couple of the families and had a really good time. I was a little nervous that having dinner with everyone might be awkward. That the people there wouldn’t want these random strangers trying to make small talk with them when they are going through stuff we can’t even imagine. But it wasn’t like that at all. Most of the families wanted to talk to us. So we talked. We laughed. We ate. It was a really nice time.

One family had a son who had been in and out of the hospital his whole life because of kidney and liver issues. His first kidney and liver transplant happened when he was 22 months old. He is 13 now. The family was only there for a few days because he was just in for a “quick” biopsy, but previously they had stayed there for almost a year. Another young man we talked to had the cutest little baby boy I’d ever seen, and he was there because his wife had just had twins with extreme complications. On December 10th one of them passed away. The other one was still in the NICU.

My friend Caitlin said that one of her resolutions for the New Year is to do one volunteer/community service event a month, and I think that is so wonderful. I’m going to try my best to do the same.

In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, I think so many of us just want to feel like we can do something, anything, to help other people out there. I highly recommend looking into your local Ronald McDonald House if you are interested in volunteering. They offer many opportunities to get involved besides just cooking dinner. They really do a lot of good and help a lot of people. They really do.

And I don’t even like McDonalds.

Plus? An added totally selfish benefit? It’s fun.

Happy Wednesday friends. I hope your holiday season is treating you well.

bloglovin
Filed in: Life | San Francisco
comment
Aspiring KennedyDecember 19, 2012 - 6:50 pm

What a wonderful way to give back to families who desperately need it. I couldn’t imagine dealing with the constant stress and fear of having children in the hospital for extended periods of time. I’m sure everyone there was appreciative of a home-cooked meal.

Denise LopatkaDecember 20, 2012 - 6:11 am

Love this post! I volunteered at RMH all during college and it was so rewarding. I loved spending time with the families and getting to know them on a personal level. Love your blog ps :)

12.17.12

Sandy Hook

Print available here.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything that happened on Friday, and my heart is just so heavy. I do want to write about my birthday festivities, but in light of everything that’s recently happened, blogging about something so frivolous just seems to be, I don’t know, insensitive somehow? I know that everyone in the world is so heartbroken over this right now, and we are all just trying to get along as best we can as we make sense of this completely senseless tragedy, but I’m having a hard time just jumping back into posting about wine and wish lists and holiday cheer. It’s hard for me to reconcile all the goodness in my life with all the horror and tragedy those in Sandy Hook are experiencing. I can’t even imagine how the families of the victims are feeling. It’s just beyond my comprehension.

I hope that at the bare minimum, this will be a wake-up call to those in our country that haven’t felt the need for more stringent gun control. I support the right to bear arms, but I will never ever understand why any individual (non-militia) person in the world needs a weapon that can fire hundreds of rounds of ammunition at high speed. I also hope that we can finally start giving our mentally ill people the help they need (and for those interested, this is an excellent article from a mother whose son is mentally ill).

For those that feel similarly, this blogger had an idea that I think is really great. She is sending holiday cards to her legislators and encouraging them to do something about our country’s gun policies,  letting them know that she would vote to restrict the easy access to guns. It might not seem like much, but I’d like to believe that it could help.

And if you don’t know who your legislators are? Well, you can find them here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/

If writing letters isn’t your thing, My Sandy Hook Family Fund was recently started to help the families who have lost children or family members. All donations go directly to helping them meet immediate expenses.

As the print above says, while I breathe, I hope. I hope that we can lessen gun violence in this country. I hope that our mentally ill people get the help they so desperately need. I hope that the victims of Sandy Hook are in a better place. I hope that their families are able to get through this tragedy and find happiness in their life again. I hope that there is more good than bad in this world.

bloglovin
Filed in: Life
comment
nancy @ adore to adornDecember 17, 2012 - 5:05 pm

I have to admit…when I posted my blog this morning, I felt awkward at the fact that I was posting an OOTD and writing about my weekend when the back of my mind was thinking about the headlines and what took place on Friday. It literally makes my hair stand to think about those poor families affected by one man.

Today, I was visiting the car shop doing my regular car maintenance and while I was waiting in the waiting area, I saw interviews with 2 families who lost children in the event on Friday. I could not watch without shedding some tears. Those families are forever linked by the tragedy and it reminds us of all the tragedies that has happened since Columbine. One man who lost his 17-year old sister from Columbine talked about how he wonders what is happening to our generation with their way of thinking and their spirituality. To me, those are valid concerns and makes me wonder the same thing.

12.14.12

Sometimes The World Makes Me So Sad

I’ve been glued to the news all morning following the horrific school shooting in Connecticut. My heart is just broken for the families of the victims. As of now 18 little kids dead and a total of 27. It just is unfathomable.

I do want to share my birthday festivities with you all, but that seems rather trivial with everything else going on. Thank you everyone for all the wonderful birthday wishes. Every single happy birthday I received made my smile a little bigger and my day a little brighter. It was a wonderful day.

But then a day like today happens and the world we live in just makes me so sad.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and that you and yours stay safe and sound. Go and hug your family and friends.

As Prince Charles said on Twitter “Dear America, please sort out your gun laws. This is getting absolutely ridiculous.”

Enough is enough.

bloglovin
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed in: Life
comment
JessicaDecember 14, 2012 - 3:05 pm

It’s just heartbreaking. I don’t understand how this can continue to happen.

nicole marieDecember 16, 2012 - 1:30 pm

agreed. something needs to change. now.