Pieces of crap can win things too!!!

Last Friday on my way home from work I was listing to ZHT, which is weird because I normally don't really like that station's music (except their morning show with the Zoo I like them lots). Anyway, I have a fascination with media (probably because I graduated in Mass Media from the U) and radio and I love listening to morning shows and in my head I compare which DJ's are better than others. Normally I can't STAND listening to AJ on ZHT on my drive home from work, but for some reason I was and all of a sudden I heard "Be the 97th caller and win backstage passes to the Nickelback concert on the 20th!". I don't know what posessed me, but I was like I AM WINNING THOSE TICKETS and so I kept dialing the number over and over and over and over and over (you get the picture) again like 50 times and finally it started to ring! I had to pull over in the nearest parking lot because I was driving and that obvioulsy wasn't safe. Then AJ came on the phone and was like "hello you are our winner!". I started freaking out and screaming like I was 16 again! I'm sure an outside observer would have thought it was hilarious (that girl you see freaking out on her phone in her car haha). Anyway, he was like "so I guess your excited" and I was like "No you don't understand dude! My phone is like circa 1995 and I serioulsy dialed the number over and over again till it rang. I literally punched in the number each time and somehow I won!". He was like "wow I guess that proves even pieces of crap can win things!". I was like "um....yeah!!!!!". Anyway, I got the backstage passes and tickets and I am SOOOO excited! I don't know a ton of people that like Nickelback enough to want to see them in concert, but I seriously love them. I have never met a Rock Star and so I am sure I will get star struck (I always have when I have met famous people...which is silly I know) and probably ask for like 10 pictures! haha. I will definitely post them on here.

On a side note, I know I am HORRIBLE at posting pictures on this blog. I have no problem just blogging away, but the picture part I suck at. Not very good considering all people want to do on a blog is look at the pictures (who reads anymore haha jk). I promise I will get better at posting the pictures in the future! :)

San Jose Trip

Last week we left on Thursday night to go to San Jose to see one of Chad's best friend's Kevin and his wife Cheryl. I don't know what it was exactly (so many great things) but it was one of the most fun trips I have ever taken! I was heart broken to leave! When they dropped us off at the airport I seriously was getting teary eyed if you can believe it. Kevin and Cheryl are some of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. One of those married couples you just love to be around and look up to as a wonderful relationship. First off, I have never been to San Jose but I have been to San Fran more times then I can count. The trip started out great with us landing in SFO (San Fran airport). We flew Jet Blue, which let me tell you is the best airline I have ever flown with! You get your own TV with cable and headphones in the seat in front of you! Plus, they give you tasty snacks (cookies or nuts) that actually were appealing and not disgusting. haha. When we landed we accidentally ended up in the International baggage claim and we had to find our way around (I don't know that airport really well and I ususally take BART into the city when I land there) to where the pick up was for domestic flights. I had only met Kevin like a handful of times for not that long, and I had never been in a car with him while he was driving, but let me tell you folks, BOY WAS THAT A TRIP!! Kevin is the fastest craziest driver EVER! I was silently praying the whole time we were in the car with him, which was a lot because we drove to Santa Cruz to the beach one day, down to Monterrey and then Carmel another day....so tons of driving. It finally got to the point that I just started laughing because he was yelling at everyone on the road and freaking out! I guess you had to be there...but Chad and I were DYING! Basically that whole trip we laughed our guts out....I hadn't seen Chad laugh that hard in a long time and it made me So happy to see him so happy. As promised I met little Davey the infamous cat, and I got lots of pictures of him! Normally I can't stand cats, but Davey is different...he is soft and sweet and is a spaz if you dangle his toys above his head! haha. On Saturday night I followed him around the whole house calling him "davey baby" (because that is the nickname Cheryl gave him) and picking him up and carting him around....I couldn't get enough of this little fur ball! Tomorrow I will post most of the pictures we took (not all of them because it was about 400....yeah I know...) but I will put up a few of the very best ones! I think my favorite time was when we were on the Pier in Santa Cruz and had been hot all day (perfect weather, 80 degrees without a cloud in the sky) and we had just eaten a lunch of oysters on the half shell and we stopped to listen to a bum sing ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and play his guitar in honor of John Lennon's birthday. The pipes this guy had on him, and the music coming from his guitar was amazing. That is a talent I am more then happy to give a few dollars for! Each day was magical and easy going and so incredibly relaxing. The hospitatlity couldn't be beat, and each meal we were fed something delicious and way fancier than anything I ever expected! Needless to say, I felt I became really really close to Cheryl and Kevin and I am really excited to see them again and at the wedding!

It actually got colder the further up we went so I needed my hoodie!

Our prized posession...

such a hottie :)

The colors of the trees were gorgeous!

I love this picture....it is really cool :)

Oh he is such a dare devil!

I love this shot of Chad...he is so photogenic it's a crime!

Right by the river up a little ways from Log Haven

It was actually hot...hot enough to wear shorts up the canyon in October!

I love Fall

Last Saturday Chad and I took a motorcycle ride (possibly our last for the year) up Millcreek Canyon. I LOVE Chad's bike SO much! In fax, he was going to sell it to pay for my engagment ring, and I objected telling him if he needed longer to save up the money that was fine by me, because I couldn't bear to part with that bike. That bike reminds me so much of when we first started dating and how I felt like a teenager in love when he used to pick me up on it and we would rides as our "dates". I posted some picks of our little drive, that turned into a quasi photoshoot (thanks to me haha) because I thought it was just such a beautiful day!

To diet or not to diet?

So I am not like most people....I actually enjoy the act of eating...far more than a person probably should. Besides the fact that I enjoy cooking food, I also enjoy gobbling it up as soon as it is ready! At the first of our relationship Chad and I had a terrible fight about how I ate with my mouth open. Yes. Apparently I was like a horse eating hay. How I had lived my whole life and never been told by a previous beau or my parents that I ate like pig, was beyond Chad. haha. Worse, was how bruised my ego was at hearing this terrible news! No girl ever wants to be told she makes someone lose their appetite when she eats...especially the man she is in love with! Well, months later I have gotten much better and we can thankfully say I no longer chomp my food down and I actually chew and swallow between mouthfuls.

But, this now brings me to a topic I am very fascinated with, and that is pre-wedding dieting. Does every bride need to diet before her wedding? I am beginning to think this is true since every one of my friends that is married practically starved themselves before their big day and in return looked insanely great on their wedding day. BUT.....what happens if you HATE to diet and you just plain suck at it? Do you just eat whatever you want and risk not fitting into your dress, or do you suck it up and deprive yourself so you look good? Another thing that is really interesting to me is the phrase "You will be so nervous and stressed out you will lose weight and hardly eat". Well, to that I say what if when you are stressed you DO eat? In fact what if frozen yogurt pints from Haagan Daaz makes everything better? What then? I had an acquintance tell me the other day that all the talk of being too stressed and not wanting to eat and what not was all a big heaping pile of BS. She said "I had so many family and friends in town that all we did was go out to dinner and to drinks and therefore I gained weight right before my wedding". FINALLY an honest soul. Now this is a scenario that seems vaguely familiar to me............................. A few weeks ago (say a month and a half ago) Chad and my whole family traveled to San Francisco for my brother Tallis and his fiance Kaen's (pronounced Gen) wedding. I had the privilage of being a bridesmaid in the wedding and got to wear a darling dress from J CREW. Mind you I picked out the dress and the size and was well aware of what I was purchasing. When the dress came it fit like a glove and I was thrilled! Well....I am not sure what happened in the next 3-4 months, but something did, and it made putting the dress on the day before the wedding the worst 20 mins of my life. Yeah.....um the dress not only didn't fit (mostly around the chest area...which is normal for me if you know me) but it wasn't budging a centimeter! I had Kaen and my mother trying as hard as they could to get this dress zipped up. Bless their hearts they put every ounce of strength into it, and I was sucking in so hard I was about to faint! The only thing that stopped me from crying my eyes out and screaming at the mirror was the fact that this had to be a freaking joke! Any minute I was going to wake up because this had to be a horrible dream! This dress wasn't just a little bit tight, it was like it was rebelling agianst me and all the chocolate I had consumed from across the street at Ghiridellie Square. Oy.................... After like I said, about 20 mins, the zipper magically zipped up and I was SO relieved (and so was Kaen I think because she probably was freaking out inside about what her bridesmaid and the dress that couldn't be worn LOL). The fun didn't end there though folks....the next day at the actual event, it took not two, but THREE people to zip that sucker up. After being stretched out to the hills the day before, it actually zipped up a ton easier, but we still needed the extra help, my ego was still severely bruised (about ten girls were in that room getting ready and I was the only one with a dress that was clearly too small for her).

Which brings me to the question I posed at the beginning.....do we diet before our wedding or do we defy the gods and just see what happens? I obviously at first that I would go for the latter choice, but for the sake of winding up in the same position I was with that fateful bridesmaid dress, I think I will go on a diet. Mind you I am not much of a dieter, so when I say that word, I mean it in the loosest of contexts. To me a diet is not eating more than one slice of bread a day (which is probably worse than going without water for me) and eating frozen yogurt rather than ice cream. Does it mean giving up all that is bad for me? HECK NO who do you think I am? Plus, luckily fo rme I am having my dress made and so I can always just ask Penny to let it out a little :). Let's hear it for having something made to fit YOUR ever changing female body! :) haha

Going to San Jose!

Well happy Tuesday Smuesday peeps! :). This week is a short week for me...thanks goodness, because we are going to San Jose on Thursday night. What is in San Jose you say? Well friends of Chads's live there...Sheryl and Kevin. Sheryl just finished Vetrinary school in Seattle and now she is doing her residency there. A few people are like "well there isn't a whole lot to do there why are you going there?" and to them I would like to say that a vacation isn't where you are going, it's who you are going to see! Monterrey is close by and so is Carmel I think, so I am thinking of taking a little drive down to see the aquarium and Pebble Beach. If you have never been to Carmel you MUST go! It is like Orange County, but more "country"...RICH country. It is insanely chic and pricey. It is like this little diamond of a town, with shops and restaurants you would kill to shop and eat at. Can you tell I like this place? I have only been there once but ever since I have been DYING to go back! Regardless of if we get to go there or not, I am just excited to see Sheryl and Kevin. One of the unexpected "treats" of getting married is getting new friends! haha. I mean it! I am really lucky because my fiances friends are just delightful to be around and most of them have become my friends too now. I love being able to connect with the girlfriends and wives and share hilarious stories of Chad and listening to their funny stories of old Chad. Some of the funniest stories I have ever heard have come from Kevin. I love knowing Chad has a best friend that would do literally anything for him and has in his life. Kevin a good friend and Sheryl is such a sweetheart. They in fact actually took Chad's cat Davey (named after his late father) when Chad had to move to Dana Point, CA. Chad loves cats and that cat was his favorite ever. He used to sleep right next to Davey and everywhere Chad went Davey followed. Sheryl and Kevin STILL have Davey and so I will actually get to meet the infamous cat this weekend on our trip. I actually think Chad is looking forward to seeing his old pal again! haha. Last Christmas we got a Christmas card from Sheryl and Kevin with a picture of little Davey on the front and I swear I saw Chad get teary eyed :).