So, what have we been up to? Well, this past March was my 23rd birthday, and Enid helped me celebrate:

Lately this little guy has been monopolizing my time:

I’m dog-sitting for Mike’s parents until they come back from their Mazatlan vacation.

I had some apprehension over this trip. Prior to this I had never really been in snow before at all. True California girl I guess, haha. I’d never been snowboarding, I’d never seen it snow, never driven in snow, you get the picture. I was envisioning a horrible blizzard that would bury the state of Colorado and we would never be heard from again, haha. But of course that didn’t happen. There was snow but not an excess of it, and I packed plenty of warm clothes for the duration of our trip.

our boots matched, and they worked really well in the snow.

The first night in Colorado we drove to Fort Collins, went grocery shopping and got drunk at Vanessa’s apartment, haha.

The next day, Friday, Vanessa showed us around Fort Collins, including Old Town. One of my favorite things about Old Town Fort Collins is the proliferation of small, independent restaurants and sandwich shops.

This delicious sandwich is from a little place called Spicy Pickle.

The building Vanessa works in at CSU.

We were unsuccessful at getting a tour of the New Belgium brewery, so we went home and changed for a night on Old Town.

Old Town Square in Fort Collins at night.

Beau Jo’s in Old Town had really good pizza and served the local brewery’s beer, New Belgium.

We went to a chill bar called Lucky Joe’s and then we went to another bar across the square called Zydego’s, which is more of a dance joint.


Vanessa convinced me to dance on the bar and her friend Cory got up there with me.

Eventually Vanessa got up there, too haha.

The next day, Saturday we drove down to Broomfield and went to a family Christmas party with Vanessa’s mom’s side of the family. That night we stayed at her mom’s house in Broomfield and the next day Vanessa, Mike, Vanessa’s cousin Chrissy, Chrissy’s boyfriend Julio, and I attempted to go to Rocky Mountain National Park. First we stopped in the precious Estes Park for lunch.

Natuuuure.

The boast of World Famous Burgers drew us in (I was more attracted to the baked potatoes).

It was nice to be inside, outside was really freezing.

After that we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park, until we found out it cost $20 per car to get in. Later we found out the roads inside the park were closed anyway, but the cost was enough to drive us away. Luckily there was a visitor center outside the park, so we stopped there to play in the snow and take pictures.

It was super cold.

Mike got the snowball fight started.

LET’S SEE MIKE DODGE THIS.

That lake is FROZEN.

After out little excursion we met Vanessa’s mom and sister for a movie at the mall. We ended up seeing Juno, which I loved (the soundtrack rocks, too). We drove back to Fort Collins that night.

The next day we went back into Old Town and caught some lunch at another cute restaurant:

It totally reminded me of Maz!

After lunch we went to New Belgium again to try and get in on a tour, this time we were more successful. Before the tour we sampled some beers.

Da beers.

Cute Holiday display.

Fat Tire bikes.

Inside.

Tour Guide serving us some Fat Tire.

Cool lighting using beer bottles.

That night was New Year’s Eve, and we had a little party at Vanessa’s apartment to celebrate. Chrissy, Julio, Sam and Bobby came to hang out.

Happy 2008!

The next day we went to Horsetooth and took a hike.



Watch out for yellow snow!

Horsetooth is behind us.

That night we went to the mall in Fort Collins (yayyy I got new clothes at Hollister!!!!111) and rented a movie.

The next day we went snowboarding, finally! We met Sam, Bobby, Chrissy, Julio, and Vanessa’s mom Kathy at Eldora.

Turns out I didn’t like snowboarding, so after lunch Kathy, Chrissy and I went to Kathy’s house to chill while everyone else finished the day snowboarding. That night we drove back to Fort Collins and packed up for our flight the next day.

The last day in Colorado we meant to go to breakfast, but unfortunately we woke up too late, so we went straight to the airport and made it through security and check in just in time. By the time we got to our gate they were about to begin boarding. Whew!

If you want to view all of the pics from the trip, you can check them out on flickr or on facebook. Overall we had a ton of fun and as long as you dressed properly, it wasn’t too cold.

In other news, I’ve been busy Christmas shopping; but I think I finally got everyone covered. I ordered most of my gifts online, so hopefully I’ll be receiving them all next week. :anime:

Also, I’ve decided to move out of my parents’ house! I’m really excited to get out in the world and live on my own. I looked around on craigslist.com, but I didn’t find too many living situations that I liked. The average amount to rent a room in southern Orange county is about $650-$800/month. That’s just for a room in an apartment or house. A studio apartment here is usually around $1000-$1100/month; a 1 bedroom is usually about $1200-$1300/month and a 2 bedroom apartment is usually $1400-$1500/month. It’s very expensive! :cloud: Luckily, my sister offered me a room in her townhouse, so I don’t need to go live with a stranger. Hopefully I can move in next week.

I’m really excited to buy new furniture and decorations for the new place. What are your favorite stores or online shops to buy home furniture &tc? I need new sheets and a new comforter cover, book shelves and a desk. Any suggestions?? :star:

Does anyone want some old Sailor Moon dolls? XD

So I’m a bit of a dork. I forgot to post the pictures I took of us on that beach in Santa Barbara and also pictures on the way to Davis going over the Golden Gate bridge, but rather than adding it to the post afterwards, I decided to just make another post. So here’s pictures of us on that beach (behind the cut).

Brittani climbed a slippery rock. After that some rocks fell down, it was a little scary!

Oh look, I was there too! You can see some of my serious sunburn, haha.

There’s the rickety bridge down to the water! The waves are lapping up all around it. Also you can see down the shoreline, pretty.

Countdown until this house falls into the ocean! Seriously! And people live in it!

The seaweed and fly infested beach.

Now time for some pictures on the way to Davis. We went over the Golden Gate Bridge to get there.

It was foggy when we first got on the bridge. Isn’t that creepy how the cables just disappear into the fog?

A couple of minutes later the fog cleared completely.

Massive!

The driver, yours truly.

Teresa, the map!

The photographer in the backseat!

See the rest of the pics from the trip on my Flickr.

Well, my Tuesday started out like any other (this semester, anyway). I woke up at 7:00AM and hopped into the shower:

7:20AM = Wow, it’s early. I’m still tired.

Then I got ready for class:

7:30AM = Schmexy!

7:40AM = Of course I need to check DMB before I go!

7:52AM = Aghhh late! And I need gas!! CRAP!

So I make it to the gas station, I should have taken a pic but I felt weird, lol. Our gas station looks really futuristic though. But I FINALLY got in the freeway, and of course there were butt-loads of traffic:

8:15AM = Sigh. Cars as far as the eye can see.

By 8:50 I was finally at school and parking! Hooray! I put on my makeup in the car, texted my friend and met her in front of the parking structure. While walking down I saw a guy dressed up as what looked like a monk. I’ve never seen anyone dressed up on campus before, so that surprised me! I finally find my friend and she gave me a bag FULL of candy!!

9:15AM = Awww Christina! You’re so sweet!

We sat there and gabbed for a while, our classes don’t start until 10:00AM. I need to get there an hour early to get through traffic + get a parking spot. AHH the joys of being a commuter student at Cal State Fullerton. After a while, we see a few people gathering in ninja costumes. What? Then they start fighting!:

9:25AM = Weirdo Ninjas, lol.

Then this other guy they obviously didn’t know comes up and starts fighting them!:

9:35AM = Go weirdo Ninja!

So we watch the ninjas fight, and take some pictures:

9:45AM = HOTTNESS!

And then we need to head to class. I have a Personal Financial Management class and she has a Creative Writing class. In my next class a bunch of people marvel at how much candy I have (PLEASE TAKE SOME!) and I read my book while my professor lectures. By 11:10AM he’s done talking, so I head to my next class, all about John Milton.

And since I’m there a little early, we decide to take pictures!:

That’s Charles, a fellow student in his tie-dyed business shirt! I always tell him he looks like a hippie like that, haha.

Stevie and Katie are eating my candy!!!

Some guy in my class came dressed up as The Prince of Persia, which I appreciated as a cosplayer.

Katie, me, and Denisse, some of my friends at CSUF!

I’m being a dork and touching my tongue to my huge schnoz (nose).

So finally 11:30AM rolls around and our professor, Dr. Blaine, shows up to class WITHOUT the graded papers he promised us! I was quite put out, but I still managed to give him some of my candy on the way out of class, since I’m so mangnamimous like that.

My best friend Vanessa and I decided to meet at the The Irvine Spectrum for lunch around 1:30PM. While there, we see a big group of random people dressed up. I decided we should take a picture with Sherlock Holmes:

Elementary, my dear readers!

I took her over to lunch at the Tea Station. I love the (what I’m told is) authentic Chinese food and tea here, but the service is notoriously horrible. I’m used to it by now, though, lol. I don’t think she enjoyed the food as much (it’s an acquired taste for Americans, I think), but I was really in the mood for it, so it hit the spot, hehe. At about 2:30PM we finish up and go our separate ways.

2:45PM = I’m heading over to my boyfriend, Mike’s house in Laguna Niguel. Crap! I am running really late! But what else is new, right? LOL!

I get there, wake Mike up from his nap and we run over to the post office to mail a birthday present to Mike’s brother in Japan. Then we hop on the freeway and head over to Katie’s house. Around 4:10PM we hit some really bad traffic (again, the story of my life!) but we still manage to make it to her house on time at 4:30 PM. We get inside, meet her Mom, and Katie puts the finishing touches on my outfit: Devil ears and fake eyelashes!

4:35PM = Matt, Katie’s boyfriend, Katie, me, Mike.

I can’t believe how hot we are! ;D

We pile in the car and head over to Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA for their annual Halloween event: Knott’s SCARY Farm’s Halloween Haunt! Matt, Katie, and I had all been before, but Mike hadn’t, so I was excited for him. We hit some bad traffic (welcome to southern California!) but we still managed to get parked by 5:30PM. We walked over to Claim Jumper across the street for some food (YAY SALAD BAR!). The park wouldn’t open until 7:00PM, so we had plenty of time to relax and enjoy.

Finally, around 6:45PM we head back over and go inside. Everyone I talked to said it was going to be SO CROWDED there on Halloween night, but I didn’t think it would be, and I was right. It was pretty dead (LOL GET IT I MADE A PUN) inside, we didn’t have to wait more than 5-10 minutes for any attraction. Here are some pictures:

10:30PM or so = Mike and I waiting in line for the Log Ride.

Katie and Matt waiting, too!

Haha I look so goofy! I was trying to look sexy, but I just ended up with duck lips, lol.

Mike’s a scary monster attacking me!

Mike really looks scary, lol

We ended up staying until about 11:45PM, but I was beat by then. We got back to Katie’s pretty quickly, and then Mike and I started for home. But he was hungry, so we stopped by Del Taco on the way. We were in bed by 1:30AM… good thing, because I had to go to work by 10:00AM the next day!

Hope you enjoyed reading about my Halloween! And hope you had a fun one, too!