Here's To The Crazy Weekends

So I know I'm pretty late on this, but this past weekend was insane and it deserves a post!

Friday was the real adventure.

Alexa and I bought a Groupon together for $18 mani/pedis (I mean come on, who could resist that when most mani pedis are upwards of $30???) but we didn't look at how far away the nail salon was before purchasing... Whoops!

So Friday after I got off work, I picked up Alexa and we drove all the way to Douglasville (which was over an hour long ride with traffic). We show up in a cute, dainty, old-town looking downtown Douglasville. Turns out that our nail salon was actually a one lady show inside a barber shop. And we were supposed to have made appointments because she was actually just heading out. OUCH.

We then decided to just wander around this cute little dainty town and look, but we found nothing to do. Everything closed down at 5 and we had no money anyways.

So we start heading out, super thirsty and overheated because it's a million degrees outside. We stop by at a Racetrac to get some gas and water, and the real adventure starts.

Some background information: Lulu's gas pump is on the opposite side of most cars, so I always have a hard time getting into a pump. This time, I'm lucky enough to have a whole lane to myself so I can get into the one that would have me heading out, it was great!

What wasn't great was that there was a lady trying to come in the opposite way into the same pump, but there was a car driving right in front of me, blocking my view of her. Needless to say, she was upset.

I'm not a mean or rude person, and I definitely don't have road rage (although I do get slightly upset when people don't use their blinkers). So I start apologizing. My windows are rolled down and so are hers, so I figured she heard me. She then pulls up in the pump behind me, gets out her car, and starts cussing me out like crazy.

This lady was absolutely insane. I don't know what was her problem. And it really upset me too, because she had the Jesus fish sticker on the back of her car. Honestly, it is a shame to be representing our Lord and Savior in such a poor way. I can't imagine a worse thing. The devil's best weapon is a Christian who shows of his or her faith, but lives the opposite. Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging her to be a false Christian, but her actions that day were not representing Him well at all.

Anyways, she follows Alexa inside the gas station yelling at her too. Then she comes back outside, yelling some more. She called me all kinds of mean names. Although I won't deny, the one that offended me the most was not the curse words and the degrading terminology she directed towards me. What hurt the most was the fact that she called me 'raggedy' and 'bum'.

Excuse me? Now my pride and ego are hurt. Here I was in gorgeous Franco Fortini heels, a beautiful Oriental looking red and black dress, with Talbot earrings and my red lipstick, and this lady in sweats and a tank top has the audacity to call me raggedy. I care a little too much about my looks and clothes to have people dissing on my appearance. Go ahead and call me anything else, but leave my wardrobe out of it. Thank you. It might seem extremely superficial, but my pride is my weak spot and mine of the deadly sins.

She then wrote down my license plate number and snapped pictures of both of us, talking about how she was going to find us later. She even goes so far to tell us "I have a gun in the car and I know how to use it!" She also told us she's military and she's going to use that to run our tags, and that we could write down her license plate number all we wanted to because hers is a fake.

As soon as there was gas in the car, we hightailed it out of there!

And she followed. She followed us out the gas station all the way to the highway and would even switch lanes when we switched. So of course, I called 911.

We then went to the courthouse to file a police report and tell the officers what had happened. I was literally shaking all the way to the courthouse and didn't stop shaking until I was almost back home. They assured us that military cannot run tags and there would be no way for her to find us. Still nervous tho!

That was the biggest adventure of the weekend really.

After we got back to Alexa's house we got ready to go to a party at Carlin's. It was a going away party for a friend of hers. We didn't stay very long though. I had to work in the morning and I wasn't in the mood to work on an all-nighter.

Saturday I went to work, then picked up Alexa and Alise afterwards to go back to Douglasville and get our nails done (We had an appointment this time!). We ended up getting there way early, mostly because this time there wasn't any traffic. She was about to go get a late lunch when we got there, so we joined her at a pretty cool Jamaican restaurant. We didn't eat, but she did share some of her jerk chicken with us, and it was super spicy! (For my weak taste buds at least)

Finally, we went back and she did both Alexa's and my nails. She was super friendly and we chit chatted the whole time about Alise's nail and make up aspirations, as well as my love for clothes, weddings, and cakes. She told me that I should definitely go into fashion, because I was obviously a connoisseur. I loved her the moment she said that! I was wearing the cute Forever 21 pumps I bought for my birthday, along with a peach-ish salmon colored peplum skirt and a light blue, button up, sleeve-less top. It was an adorable outfit and I wish I had taken a picture in it! One guy told me I looked like a flower!

I showed her some of my cakes and now she wants me to make her a fake cake as a display to put in the salon so she can show it off to her customers and get me some business. She was really nice and encouraging to both Alise and I in our non-traditional dream jobs. It would be pretty awesome if I could be a wedding planner/ fashion industry/ bakery owner. She got me dreaming again, which is nice, because other than the bakery thing, no one has ever really encouraged me in any way about the fashion industry or wedding planning, which I think I would enjoy even more than the bakery.

She also did an amazing job on both Alexa and I. It was probably one of the best pedicures I've ever had! I 100% recommend her, so go check her out on her page, especially if you live close to Douglasville! I'll definitely be going back to her whenever I can fit the drive and nails to my budget. She's really affordable too, even without the Groupon!

After our mani/pedis were done, we went back to Alexa's to get ready for Pedro's birthday bash/ end of summer party.

On our way to Pedro's, we got a flat tire (Alise's car, not mine. Thank God. I don't think I could handle two flats less than a month apart). We were pretty scared, because it was night time, we were in party clothes, and definitely not in the best of neighborhoods. Fortunately, a nice man stopped and he had a jack to help us fix the flat. We left him a small tip and went on our way.

Pedro's party was pretty fun. Alexa had to work in the morning, so she and Alise left early, but I ended up staying with Luis, and we had a blast!

Overall, we had a pretty crazy fun weekend. It's a shame that summer's almost over...

Although I can't wait to see what the rest of summer leads to!

19 Years And Counting...

First and foremost, I would like to start off this post by thanking God for blessing me with these 19 healthy years of life.

He has been so good to me, and has filled my life with goodness and blessings and joy, and I can't thank Him enough.

And keeping in line with the blessings, Thursday was really a day filled with joy.

I actually woke up in a really bad mood. Wednesday night I worked and I didn't get out until 11 30. I made it to my dorm just in time to ring in my birthday at home, at 11 57. Then I studied for my history final until around 3 (after doing the midnight birthday phone calls and answering FB messages). I finally woke up at 7, totally grumpy from lack of sleep. I drag myself over to my bathroom sink and BOOM!

BEYOND cute!!! My roommate is the best!! She wrote Happy Birthday in English, Portuguese (my language!) and German! (she lived in Germany for 10 years before coming to Georgia for college)

Look! It's Hello Kitty! Beyond adorable!!! She later drew on balloons, but I didn't snap a picture of that. It totally made my morning to wake up to that sight!

And she got me a present!

Three Victoria's Secret body mists, and a German chocolate called Kinder, that we discovered early on that we both love! She's just the greatest! I felt kind of bad, because the only thing I did for her birthday was buy her a jewelry case... Talk about being outdone!

Then I finished getting ready, and Carlin came over, along with a Starbucks gift card! Woot woot! She knows the way to my heart, that's for sure. I can now thoroughly enjoy Starbucks Happy Hour!!

Oh, and here's the outfit I bought for my birthday

With blazer

Without blazer

The blazer was already a part of my wardrobe, but the belt was purchased maybe 2 weeks before this, and so far had never been used. The dress though, so cute! When I came out of the dressing room on Tuesday, both Jessica and Karima agreed that the dress was a must have for me. I really like it. I can make it a business outfit with the blazer and some nice pumps, or I can wear it as a party dress, or even just a casual night out with friends outfit. So many endless opportunities, so much adorable-ness. And I wore the cute heels with the bow that I bought at Forever 21 on Tuesday as well. It was just a "be fabulous" kind of day!

We then studied and went to take our final, which wasn't too bad. We both closed the class with Bs even though we BOMBED the first exam (And by bombed I mean under 50%).

Finally, the final was over and off to Ihop we went! I didn't have breakfast, so Cinnabon french toast was the perfect way to start off my birthday. Oh, and the phone calls. Endless phone calls from my mom, brother, sister, aunts, grandma, et cetera et cetera, Not to mention a gajillion texts and e-mails and Facebook messages. I'm not going to lie, it does feel nice to have one day of being the center of everything.

Finally we came back to my dorm where my baby was waiting for me with surprises! He had a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me, along with a big cupcake balloon (cupcakes are kind of an insider cutesie thing between us) surrounded by smaller balloons, and a gift bag!

Beautiful bouquet from him (:

The cute bag my lamp came inside, and his card 

My new (only) lamp (:

Balloons!

Cupcake balloon!!!

It was all so cute it's a wonder I didn't squeal!

He also brought me cards from my family (long story short, all my mail goes to his house).

I loved the cards! They were so cute and springlike, and I felt as if they all matched. If only it had been warm on birthday to celebrate the spring colors... My mom also sent me bonds... That won't be good for another 30 years. I'm sure that when I'm 49, I'll be so happy to have that saved up money to send my children to college. Or, to go on a really nice vacation!

Then off Luis and I went to the Georgia Aquarium! 

I love places like the aquarium and the zoo. Animals are fascinating to me. I really enjoyed going to the aquarium. We had the opportunity to touch sting rays and anemones and sea orchids and starfish. We saw beluga whales, whale sharks, penguins, and otters. We even sat in this huge room with a giant aquarium for a while and just relaxed, watching the fish swim around. So peaceful and lovely.

I also took a LOT of pictures. Pictures of me, pictures of Luis, pictures of fish and crabs and whales and frogs, pictures of everything.

And we are that couple. The icky, super lovey and affectionate, PDA, too cute couple. We make people jealous and wanna puke and awww and ewww and whatever else people have to say about us. But the point is, it's not a special date for us, if we don't take at least one oober cute picture (which usually involves kissing). So here it is

Cue awwing and/or ewwing

Aren't we so cute? He took me to Starbucks afterwards to pick up my free birthday drink (Yes, I am a rewards member!) and I got my first Starbucks venti ever! I tried the new Caramel Ribbon Crunch frappuccino! So yummy!!!

Our next stop... Buckhead! We went to this super nice, French restaurant, Bistro Niko. It was a beautiful place, and delicious! 

The bottle of water.

Our glasses were never less than half full. The waiter was at our table almost instantly after we took a drink. And the food was beautifully plated as well!

My shrimp meal!

He even had flowers delivered to our table!!

Aren't they beautiful?? They had a card attached to them as well. 

Dinner was wonderful and delicious. (not to mention fancy!) I had the shrimp over pasta, and he had a seafood pasta. It had shrimps, scallops, calamari, and more in there. He was slightly surprised to learn exactly what calamari is...

He tried feeding it to me, but I wouldn't touch that squid thing, much less allow it inside my body. He did end up eating it, after I was done taking pictures of it.

After we ordered our dessert, he got up to go to the restroom. Restroom my foot! He came back with this beauty

SO pretty!!! He brought me a little gift bag and when I pulled this out, I couldn't believe it. This necklace, WOW. Beautiful. AND it's real diamonds and white gold! I haven't taken in off since I put it on.

Our dessert finally came.

Three beautiful and delicious profiteroles! Now, the idea behind taking me to this French restaurant is rooted in the fact that I am a francophile. If it's French, I love it! French nails, french fries, french toast, french kiss... Just kidding! None of those are actually French, but since I was 8 years old, I have dreamed of going to France. I started teaching myself French in middle school, took French all throughout high school, listen to French music, read the French newspaper, am minoring in French, et cetera. I am French obsessed.

So of course, with my French obsession, I am always trying out new French bakeries, restaurants, diners, shops, boutiques, whatever. I love it. But, there's a curse that accompanies this immersion of all things French in my life. In French, the way to say Happy Birthday is Joyeux Anniversaire. They don't use bon. Bon is good. Like good food, good friends, good. Not happy. Happy is joyeux. It made me slightly sad, but more amused, that this French restaurant with such a lovely French ambiance and French food, would mess that up. Oh well, we can't have it all I suppose.

Then after dessert, the drama started. No day can be perfect I suppose, we always need a little bit of drama. I go to reach for my purse (I was actually using the Coach one Luis had gotten me for my birthday last year) so I can reapply my lipstick, now that dinner was over, and boom, no purse. Where is my purse? I go check the bathroom I went to at the restaurant to see if I hadn't left it there. Not there. I double check the table and floor again. Not there. We pay the tab, ask the hostess if anyone has turned a purse in. Nope. We go check the car, just in case I hadn't brought it with me. No purse. I call CNN Center to see if I left it at the Starbucks (the last time I definitely remember seeing my purse, when I loaded the gift card Carlin gave me onto my rewards card). Not there either. We go back inside the restaurant and check all the bathrooms, just in case. No purse.

Needless to say, I was freaking out. I lost my Coach purse with my Coach wallet inside. My ID, debit card, school debit card, school ID, dorm key card, cash, brand new Mac lipstick, and more, all gone. Of course I called Bank of America right away to cancel the card, which took FOREVER. And by forever I mean I had to call three different numbers, was transferred at least twice, and had to listen to that stupid automated voice way too much! It took almost 30 minutes to cancel the card, and then the people kept asking me stupid questions like my account number and the 16 digit number on the front of the card. Seriously? My card is LOST, just cancel the stupid thing!

I was so stressed out that I was a bit rude on the phone. I hate rude people, and I felt so bad afterwards because of it. It's not those poor people's fault I'm an idiot and lost my purse. At least the card got cancelled before anyone could use it. I left my contact information with the hostess and the manager in hopes of it being turned in.

I finally calmed down, and we went to Luis's house to say happy birthday to his sisters. Yes, their birthday is on the same day as mine! Isn't that cool? They're 10 year old twins, and totally adorable. I gave them their presents. Each one of them got a nail spa kit and a Hello Kitty eraser. Luis's mom gave me two undershirts (which will be normal shirts over the summer... promise!) and a pair of shorts. This was really interesting because Luis got mad at her for giving me shorts, saying they were too immodest. The conversation that went down after that was downright hilarious. (Just as a PS, they're not... I wouldn't have been able to wear them to high school, but they're long enough that my mom would approve, so we're good)

Finally, we left to head back to my dorm in Kennesaw. I took a quick nap in the car and woke up definitely not in Kennesaw. A few of our friends were there: Jessica (not the same one I went to the mall with), her boyfriend Rodrigo, and another friend, Pedro. We were at Rumba!

Unfortunately, we got there a little bit too early. Whatever though, we got free entrance because it was Thursday night, and the party picked up later on.

I did have a little rebel child moment though. I have never ever done anything slightly naughty before. Never smoked anything, drank, partied hard, skipped, cursed, ran away, sneaked out or anything like that. I figure that doing hookah once in 19 years is pretty good compared to most other college kids. I will probably never do it again either, I almost choked to death doing it on my birthday! So I got to do hookah for my first time, and they let me pick the flavor, strawberry! I didn't do it much though, I was much more amused by their smokes and puffs and whatnot.

This was my moment for the night. After we got this shotgun picture, I was done smoking. I'm pretty sure I could feel my lungs blackening and the lung cancer settling in. Plus, my family has a history of asthma, and I'm not into risky behaviors. It was fun to get to do it once though, I'm not gonna lie. We ended up partying until almost 3am, and then it was time to go home, because we were all exhausted.

Overall, it was a great day, and my best birthday yet. Hopefully I'll have many more, better ones to come.





P.S. Bistro Niko called me Saturday morning. My purse was turned in and EVERYTHING was still inside! God is good!

Just Another Crazy Busy Bee Weekend

What a week!

This past week... I don't even know where to start!

I guess I'll pick up where I left off.

So last Wednesday I wake early and go to class. I sit through a boring anthropology lecture. Then I get a text from my boss boss (like the Operator/Owner boss). He asked me to come in for a photo shoot release.

What? Photo shoot? All he had to say was that there were cameras involved and I would have been there in a jiffy. That's just the type of girl I am. I love pictures!

And I'm feeling pretty special too, because we both have iPhones, so I would have been able to see if he had sent the same text to multiple people in a group message, and it was a private. I felt so special! Although I'm sure he texted more than just me (I later found out 5 of us had the interview), but still, give me my two seconds of glory and ego-raising glee.

But unfortunately, I had class. As much as I love pictures, finals start this week and I could't afford to miss any classes from now on. So I told him the soonest I could get there would be at 12 45 (He texted me at 10 30), and he said okay! Excited again!

So I leave class (please don't ask me what we talked about in class, because all my notebook has written in it is a bunch of pictures of cameras!), and walk straight to my car (Lulu is looking pretty good, pictures eventually!) and drive straight to Chick-Fil-A.

All I have to say is that I'm pretty glad that I dressed up cute in the morning. I pulled this sexy professional look with black leggings, a long white shirt, a black blazer, and these adorable black heels. And of course, the bright red lips. I think my bright red lips can turn any outfit into classy and sexy.

Black leggings and adorable black heels

Long white shirt and black blazer, not mention the cute necklace ;D

Bright red lips :*

I walk in, looking for the cameras, and my Operator calls me over to a table and there's a lady sitting down with a pile of papers and her laptop. He introduces us, jokes around that I speak 7 languages (Um, it's 4, let's not give people high hopes of me. I hate to disappoint), and leaves the two of us together. We make small talk for a little bit. The kind of stuff everyone over 25 asks us under 20 kids. "Where do you go to school? What do you want to do? Blah blah blah" I am a professional at answering those questions, no joke. I have my answer down pat. And of course, the following, "Oh my goodness you're so smart, you're going to go far, etc etc" came, as always. I have a slightly inflated ego when it comes to these kinds of things.

Then, we get to the juicy bit. She finally asks me if I know what I'm doing there, and of course, I have no clue. He said photo shoot, but I don't see any cameras, so at this point I just feel like he knows how to get me to drive 20 minutes from Kennesaw.

Then she tell me the good news. She is a talent scout! Eek! She recruits people to do modeling, take pictures, and do videos! The excitement is overwhelming!

Of course, I'll be in my Chick-fil-A uniform and the pictures are for CFA marketing and instructional videos for all the newbies coming in to teach how to do stuff in the stores. But still! I'll be on camera and people will be taking pictures of me and I'll be on video and hundreds and thousands of little newbie CFA team members will get to see me on their videos! That's publicity right there my dears!

This is only the first step! Next, someone will realize how amazing I am at doing CFA informational videos, and they'll start hiring me for commercials and movies and runways and red carpets and so much more! My future life is flashing before my eyes and I am super excited! And it all started in junior high when I posed for Samoa's 40th anniversary for Girl Scouts. I can feel the tears coming. Michael Kors, here I come!

Not to mention that the pay is really nice too. Almost double of what I'm making now. But I'd do it for less. Just the experience of being a model, regardless for whom, is amazing. I am a beautiful budding talent, waiting to be discovered! Here I come Hollywood!

Then the rest of Wednesday was just a normal day. School and work. Yay.

Then Thursday was an adventure all on it's own.

I woke up super early to head downtown. As a political science major (Yay international relations!) I have to do an observation report almost every semester. That means waking up super early, going to court for several hours, writing down everything that goes down, then writing a ten page essay on it. Whoop-dee-do.

So Thursday morning I drove to downtown to go to immigration court. When I go to look for a parking spot, I realize that I left my credit card with Luis so he could fix Lulu. That is slightly problematic when I am stuck in downtown Atlanta with an almost empty tank and no money. So I look all over my purse and car and pull together $4 and a few cents to pay for parking.

Then I go to court, hold my tears in as I watch the judge be a jerk to a poor immigrant, and issue him to leave the country. Ouch. As a Latina, watching people get deported hurts. I switched court rooms at one point to see another judge too. The second judge was sort of nicer, at least to me. He realized that I wasn't there for a court date and started asking me questions, and he answered a lot of my questions too. I got a ton of notes from talking to him, even though he was obviously one of those self-righteous judge's who thinks America is for Americans, so screw the immigrants. I sure had a hard time not expressing my own feelings on the issue. To me, personally, he was pleasant enough though.

Finding my car was the next big issue. I walked up and down downtown for a good 15 minutes before I remembered where I parked. Then I had to sprint in the opposite direction because my parking meter was about to expire. I managed to get there 2 minutes after my time expired, but the cop was on the other side checking those cars, so I escaped without a ticket. I was fully prepared to cry my way out of a parking ticket though. My tears were on the ready!

Then I went to work, and that was that. At this point I forgot my laptop at work and only got it back Saturday night.

I did, however, go to a bar with Carlin after work Thursday night. That was super fun!

Blurryyy

We have a pair of friends, Haley and Alexis, who are in a band and often perform over at a bar close to my Chick-fil-A. Usually I'm too busy to go to any of their shows, but since that's so close to me, I always try to make those. I got there a little too late to watch them perform, but we had fun rocking to a rock band!

We're too cute!

We then hung out with a crowd who came out to see Haley and Alexis too. Afterwards we went to the only place open in the wee hours of the morning, the true Southern staple, Waffle House!

I ended up at home at 4am (which wasn't a very smart idea considering all the work I had to do on the following days). It was a crash and burn kinda night. I'm surprised I even took the time to remove my makeup!

The rest of the weekend was all work.

Chick-fil-A Ready!!

I worked 2 to close on Thursday, 11:30 am to close on Friday, and here's the real beauty of the weekend: open to close on Saturday! And that was on two nights straight of four hours of sleep. By 8pm Saturday night, I was ready to bite someone's head off. I opened drive thru and closed kitchen, which was actually a lot of fun for me. I have never worked screens before, so it was nice to do something different, and a great change of pace on such a long day.

Then Sunday I slept into 2 30 pm, which was amazing! Luis and I wore matching outfits

Yes, I know we're lame

And we went out for breakfast/dinner at Golden Corral! Then we went to Mass, which was really nice. And since we got out of Mass last night at 9 30, it's been non-stop homework, studying, and essay-writing.

Finals week is officially here, so life is about to get busyyyyyy!

Wedding Planner

So I have this secret desire to be a wedding planner, just like J-Lo!

I think I'm pretty qualified, I mean I do have six Pinterest boards dedicated completely to everything from my Bachelorette party, to my dress, to all the things I need to do to prepare, to the pictures I'm going to take with my hubby, to the big day and more.

I would have so much fun doing this. All the dresses and cakes and songs and tuxes and venues and flowers and veils and party favors and guests and dancing and true love and and and and and wedding party FUN! It would be a dream come true (:

Not to mention that I'm absolutely obsessed with MY wedding (have I mentioned that I have SIX Pinterest Boards dedicated to my future wedding? See here and here and here and here and here and here). I'm a Pinterest-aholic, it's true.

It's not even like I'm completely experience-less. I have run Brunna's Bakery for the past 4 years (although it is in a short intermission until I move somewhere with a kitchen). I already know about listening to the customer to see their vision and recreating it. I've even done all the desserts for parties before and helped decorate for a wedding. I have TWO wedding cakes to my repertoire. I've already got a foot in the door.

So now my goal is to find a wedding planner who will take me on as an intern so I can get some experience. I've searched and searched and googled as much as I could. There are no courses to take to be a wedding planner, it's just something that you gotta be good at and that's that. So I have to find a good wedding planning, or even just an event planning in general, company, convince them to take me on as an intern (hopefully a paid one), eventually branch off into my own company, and become J-Lo. It's a flawless plan, truly.

Now to find a wedding planner willing to take me on. Anybody know a good one?