Friends: how many of us have them...?

I have spent the past two weekends with friends and it got me thinking about friends. In grade school, high school, and college making college was no big deal (at least for me) I gravitated towards people who had things in common with me and I always enjoyed the friends I had. Never any drama, just about hanging out, having fun, and being supported.

As I have gotten older I am happy to say that I have stayed pretty close with a few of my friends from high school and several friends from college, but how do you make friends in the real world? Are your friends your co-workers, friends of spouses or partners, parents of your children's friends, how do you do it? I think all of those ways are true, I have friends that I became close to through RSlo, and I am really happy to say that I have had some great luck with meeting people and connecting with those that I work with. I have made some really close connections since I have moved to SLO and it feels great to have a social circle that makes me feel appreciated and I have fun with. Because of these connections I know that there are people across the country that I can visit and spend time with, which makes me feel incredible. For example, I spent Thanksgiving with some people from work that I have grown very close to and have become really good friends of mine in a short time. The weekend was filled with funny stories, lots of laughter, and really good restaurants. Spending time with them as well as my two great friends that I visited last weekend in LA makes me thankful for the awesome people I have in my life and that I need to work on cultivating and preserving the great friendships I have. I am not always the best at calling and keeping in touch but it is something that definitely plan on working on because it is always so sad when you think about that great friend you had a long time ago that you lost touch with. It's never to late to reconnect!

A very Disney Birthday!

I just got back from the most amazing vacation/birthday! RSlo and I spent my 25th birthday in the happiest place on Earth and I was definitely happy!  We took off for Disney on Monday morning and headed down south, we decided to first drive down to Santa Monica and spend some time at the beach.  RSlo loves the water, so he got into his bathing suit and played in the water, I knew the water was going to be way too cold for me, so I sat on the beach and read my book and then eventually fell asleep (the sound of the water always does that for me).  

We left Santa Monica and made our way back to Anaheim.  One of my good friends Emily was in Anaheim for a conference so I was so excited that we were able to grab dinner with her over at Downtown Disney.  We had a great dinner and then had the opportunity to walk around and catch up.  The weather was amazing for walking around and we went into one of the many Disney Stores and walked around, it definitely got me excited for our day of fun!

My birthday was Tuesday and I woke up so excited. It's the way I used to feel on Christmas morning when I knew that I was about to open my presents.  RSlo and I got to the park at 9:30 got our tickets (and my awesome birthday button) and stood outside of the park waiting for it to open.  The park opened at about 9:45 and we got to walk through the gates.  While the rope drop didn't happen until 10 (this allows you to get to the rides) we used our down time to take pictures with the characters.  I can't believe how excited I got to see Mickey and Minnie and Goofy I felt like a kid again and not the least bit embarrassed or silly, just fun! 

We had made a plan of attack the night before (with a great deal of help from lots of SoCal friends), and so we got some maps and got ready to go!  Thankfully the park was not as crowded as I expected it to be so our plan worked really well and we got to do everything we wanted.  We started at Space Mountain which we thought would have a really long line but didn't.  We proceeded to go on all of the big Disneyland rides: Pirates of the Caribbean, Matterhorn, Haunted House (which was so cool since it was the Nightmare before Christmas), and the Teacups.  

We were able to get through all the big rides at Disney by 12:30 (so surprising!) and we headed over to California Adventure.  I think that's when we had the most fun.  We went on the California Screamin' ride 3 times, and the Tower of Terror 2 times.  We definitely both enjoy roller coasters so we definitely got out fix and Cal Adventure.  We spent most of the afternoon there doing everything we wanted to do as well as partaking in some culinary treats : turkey leg and corn dogs!  

We ended our day at about 6 and headed back to our hotel.  We spent some time laying around before we went Tony Roma's for dinner.  It was such a great day and really nice to talk and have drinks with RSlo at the end of it.  I had an incredible day, this by far was the best birthday I have ever had and it took the sting of turning 25 away and made me feel like a kid again!   I have also included some sweet pics of our day! I think I am still glowing! 

New Traditions

I have never been much for Halloween.  Never really got into the costumes, going out, or doing much of anything.  I would usually stay in doors during the "holiday" and didn't participate in any festivities put on by friends.  This year has been something different.  While I am on duty for the weekend and can't go to the Halloween party one of my friends is putting on, my friend Veronica and I decided that we would do some pumpkin carving. Prior to this, as you can imagine I had never carved pumpkins so I thought it would be fun.  While I did have to respond to a situation while everyone else carved  away when I got back I made my pumpkin.  I had a great time doing it and I think it'll be something that I do every year.  Who knows maybe next year I will wear a costume! The pic above is a picture of all of the pumpkins we carved ! Happy Halloween!!

 Veronica and Jay the lovely couple we carved pumpkins with 

Me and RSlo 

Hair

So I have never been too attached to my hair, in fact I am usually really annoyed with it. I always kid around about chopping it all off. Last Friday I stopped joking and actually decided to hack it off. It wasn't sentimental, I didn't cry as I watched my hair stylist take the scissors to my hair, I wasn't interested in keeping the cut strands of hair (although my hair was way too short to donate), and I definitely didn't regret my decision. Quite the opposite, I love my new hair do. It's different yet I still have styling options and most of all it won't take me hours to do my hair. It's always fun to change it up and try a new hairstyle, and I have gotten good reviews from everyone I know. I like taking risks with my hair and not getting bored, who knows what I will do next!
Not the best picture, but once I take better one's I will post!

Turning 25....

And I am going to Disneyland!!! It's my bday gift from RSlo and boy am I excited! I have never been to Disneyland California, and they have this great deal that you can go for free on your birthday. We're taking off two days of work and driving down to Anaheim, I originally wasn't excited for this year's bday because I didn't have any plans, but now I get to celebrate a quarter century in the happiest place on Earth!

I need an apron!

Now that things have settled down I am doing a lot more cooking which is exciting for me! I enjoy cooking for two and it cuts down on the amount leftovers I have. 

Friday Night:  I have done the usual stuff (pasta, baked chicken, etc) and I thought it was time to take on a bigger assignment: scallops.  I had the most amazing scallops on my vacation to Hawaii and something about seared scallops sounds like one of the most delicious things to eat.  I talked to RSlo about trying out a recipe and he was all for it.  We took our lunch break and headed to Pismo beach where we knew we could get the best scallops and we did, they were huge and expensive. For 17.99 a pound, I knew I needed to make sure that I did a good job on these suckers.  

The Verdict: The scallops were ok, I sauteed them pretty well however I wasn't in love with the butter taragon sauce I made to accompany them.  I still haven't found a fish recipe that has been really great so I am still on a search.  

Sunday afternoon: After the scallops and the lovely fishy stench that has lingered in my apartment, my next assignment was going to be a soup, butternut squash to be exact.  I had bought all of the ingredients last week but never got the time to make.  Sunday was a lounging day for me, and when RSlo threw out the idea of eating Hamburger Helper for dinner, I knew it was time to make my soup.  As I roasted the butternut squash, I had a feeling that this soup was going to make my Sunday night the best.  The smell of onions and garlic sauteing in the pot and created a  beautiful flavor and smell emanating from my kitchen made me feel like a genuine cook! 

The Verdict: I loved the soup! So much I kept burning my tongue trying to eat it.  There was a great creaminess to it that I think adding both butternut squash and sweet potatoes to the soup.  I loved it and I am excited to eat the rest of it throughout the week! 

I'm not getting any younger...

More and more I am hearing about so many of my female friends who are getting engaged.  I never paid any mind to hearing about engagement stories, learning about people I know who have gotten engaged, who wants to be engaged, how big (or small) was the ring, and on, and on, and on.  My freshman year roommate got engaged my junior year of college and for the life of me I couldn't fathom the idea of paying for a wedding, much less spending the rest of my life with one dude.  I would always kid around with my friends who were in serious relationships about whether or not their partner was "the one" and if they saw themselves getting married to that person (unfortunately for my GLBT friends the answer to that question has yet to be yes).  Because I myself wasn't in a relationship I never really thought about the meaning behind the questions I was asking.  

Fast forward about 4 years when I now am in my own serious relationship. I find myself feeling very unusual when asked whether I see myself marrying RSlo.  My go to answer (I have been asked so much, that I needed to formulate one) has been that RSlo and I have talked about it and we both aren't ready for it.  Don't get me wrong I am in no way prepared to be anyone's wife, partially because I am not all the way sure what it means.  But the more I am asked about marriage, the more I have to think about what whether marriage is something that I want, and in taking on a husband, does that I mean I also want children,  how will we figure out where we are going to settle down.  I am not getting any younger so some would say the time is now and if these are things I want I need to make them happen for myself.   I don't have any answers to any of these questions right not, all I pretty much know is that I am happy in what I have right now and the more I hear about others the more I will think about what my next steps are...