[We interrupt this sabbatical...]

You know that only something very special could bring me out of my blogging sabbatical. I present to you THIS:

AMIRIGHT?

[A May weekend in 10 photos.]

1. & 4. Spent part of Saturday afternoon at a fun festival at the National Cathedral. Was dying to ride the carousel, but didn't have a child to accompany me. Failed to realize until later that my height would have allowed me to pose as someone else's child.
2. & 3. Two of about 53248 photos of us trying on ridiculous hats (shoutout to bff Lauren, who visited DC for the weekend!). Hats may or may not have inspired the idea to throw a tea party, coming soon to a living room near you.

5. Candles in the National Cathedral. Light one for me, won't you please?

6. Spotted: neighborhood church sign promoting #churchtweets. Well, okay, if I must...

7. Belated birthday prezzies from Lauren! Basically, if you could assemble a still life of Milan, this would be it. Magnolia cupcakes, Laduree macarons, New York photography, and a Star Wars moleskin...it's like she knows me or something. 

8. Go out. Meet pretty boys. Receive roses. Become twitterpated. Next day brunch. Still twitterpated. Weekend ends. Boys -> Iceland. Girls -> normal life. check check check
9. My Seis de Mayo dinner party. Because celebrating Cinco de Mayo on the 5th is so 1862.
10. Making Mexican wedding cookies. Celebrating Mexican-ness and subtly promoting marriage? Done and done, thank you very much.

[Priorities, mayne.]

I acknowledge that I have been failing at updating this thing lately. Basketball reasons. Also, busy being ridiculous.

See? Been busy.

[Two Tunes Tuesday: These fading beats.]

The coworker in the office next to mine is probably so sick of hearing these songs....

The first is "Love Love Love" by Of Monsters and Men. I love the uncomfortable, pregnant pause in the middle -- fill it with all the things you know I meant to say, okay blue eyed guy?

 And then there's "Youth" by Foxes. Not for everyone, but definitely for me.

[Life of a 24 year old, rapped.]

Guys.
I was wrong. (weird)

Turns out there IS a song about being 24.
And it. is. PERFECT.

Switch the pronouns and you basically have my life.

Ok, not a perfect fit, for some obvious reasons, like I'm not into yoga, and it would be a bloody Christmas miracle if I got into work 10 minutes early. And a few other reasons. But generally, yes. YES!! Watch now, please.

Mel, maybe watch this before Buddy does.

Found by Davey. Thanks guy. :)

So? Amiright, fellow and former 24 year olds?!

Also, still accepting original songs. K thanks.

[Video of Roomies in NYC!]

From that one time we went to NYC together. It's long, but I recommend a full viewing for some serious roomies gone wild action in the second half (of which I am blessedly not a part). Thanks to roomie #3 Jess for putting this together!

[Glitterbomb!]

Guys. GLITTERBOMB. It happened. 

Don't know what "glitterbomb" means? Here. And here. Except instead of meh GOP candidates, our house was glitterbombed. On purpose. By me and Domineau. For our GLITTERBOMB birthday party!!! 

So...it turns out that glitter (unsurprisingly) brings out the crazy in me. Picture a combination of Tinkerbell + Tazmanian Devil + cackling Wicked Witch of the West, and you get me, twirling around the main floor chucking handfuls of glitter and confetti on every possible surface (and myself) less than an hour before the party. I think this was our best party yet, with the glitter errrywhere, combined with the glitter mason jar candle holders I made and the a-MAYYY-zing canopy Dom constructed. We celebrate our birthdays in sparkly style, people. 

We were so lucky to have these beautiful and delicious cakes made for us by Miss Lauren. My cake (front) was cinnamon with a spicy "Mexican hot chocolate" frosting (chosen by Lauren because I'm "Mexican and spicy" thankyouverymuch), definitely one of the best cakes I've ever had. Dom's was chocolate with a salted caramel frosting and chocolate ganache drip. Thank you L!!

A few of my favorite photos and people from our little homemade photobooth:

These roomies came in matching purple outfits. Love.

And my most favorite of all, Papa Rod in the flesh! My dad showed up close to midnight, after flying in from Los Angeles, just in time to catch me blowing out my candles. 

Dom and I both had a blast celebrating our 25th and 24th birthdays, respectively, and we were so happy to do it in the company of so many of our great friends. And I loved sharing my birthday festivities with her for the second year in a row. Already planning next year... :)

P.S. Thanks so much to all of the friendlies that helped us with Glitterbomb! Shannon, Morgan, Lucy, Allie, David...definitely could not have managed without you loves. And Tyler for the first four photos!

[Two Tunes Tuesday: Good morning.]

Good evening. Here's "Good Morning (Pink Ganter Remix)" by William Fitzsimmons and "Girls Like You" by The Naked and Famous. My brain is a little frazzled from the last week of birthday celebrating (first Michelle, then Domineau, then me me meee), but these songs have been filling my ears nonstop. Semi-related: Celebrating my last days of being 23, I also very cheesily listened to Jimmy Eat World's "23" about a million times this weekend. (I salute the poor soul who was forced to blare it on repeat in his car on our date night.) It's a good song on its own, but it also kind of fit my year a little too perfectly. Que dramatic, no? Anyway, have searched in vain for a similarly fitting song about being 24, but such a tune seems not to exist. Can someone write me one? K thanks. In the meantime, have declared "Good Morning" to be my anthem for this year. Sweet, simple, and happy...just what any little girl's 24th* year should be. :) Love to you all from this 24 2/365 year old.

*technically, 25th. i can do math.


hd! [happy birthday.] ll

[Roomies in Central Park.]

Somehow in the middle of our crazy roomie NYC weekend...between the Guggenheim and Columbia and Magnolia and the Village and Co. and WTC and penthouse suite table dancing and the Brooklyn Bridge and Jane and the Manhattan 8th Ward and Levain and Cafe Ronda...we managed to take a breath and enjoy the cherry blossoms on a lovely stroll through Central Park. 

Melissa, Lynn, Domineau, Cha Cha, Rachel, Jess, Ginette

As the resident New Yorker of the bunch, I got to be the mother duckling for the weekend, leading my little line of roommates up and down the city to visit my favorite places, and some new ones too. It was wonderful to spend last weekend with these girlies. There are a million of us...or seven, to be exact...and sometimes I feel like I live in a bizarre mix of a sorority, convent, and Bieber fan clubhouse, but I mostly just feel very lucky to live with such amazing souls. We've never all managed to be in the same place at the same time, so this weekend girls' trip was the perfect opportunity for a little roommate bonding.

Love you, roomies! 0!

[Mormon Hey Girl.]

Haven't blogged about RyGos in a while. 

For all my Mormons:

via Mormon Hey Girl

You're welcome.

[Two Tunes Tuesday: Give me sleep.]

Does anyone really care about my commentary? I think not. 

So, here:

[Poem.]

Spor a dic: n[o]. Love poem

                                                                     after A. Van Jordan

Rinse v. 1. To cleanse by flushing with liquid (as water): Shrubs, low houses, seventeen year olds; the kitchen window is just taller than my head if I stand in June evenings crossed through with shadows, rinsing dishes, ham grease crusted on. 2. n. murky: You, your bike, passing in the  rinsed light: pass twice, turn, pass again and then with one finger you’re raising goosebumps on my neck under my hair, 3. to remove (dirt or impurities) by washing lightly: rinsing me with kisses: kissing: it’s like standing in a direct spot of sun, or me a white shirt after bleach, back to clean-so-clean and flapping on the wash line over the hedge(s) n. 1. a fence or boundary formed by a dense row of shrubs or low trees; barrier, limit: all the neighbors use to keep their dogs fenced in; you kiss me like a mower, you flatten shrubs and open gates then 2. encircle: you reach forward and you’re hedging me; I turn and I’m hedging you 3. a means of protection or defense: we’re a small neighborhood in revolt, we’re sharp with thorns, 4. A calculatedly noncommittal or evasive statement: and we’re in your car with the ripped seats and I’m asking where to? And you start hedging, did I like the book about, you say, when you know I mean which state, let’s drive, I say baby let’s drive I say I feel shut in, I’m thinking how I’ve never seen a desert but then we’re necking and it takes me weeks to learn 5. to protect oneself from losing by a counter-balancing transaction: I’m here in case your girl-friend leaves; she doesn’t, and I’m laundry left in the rain long before I’ve learned to  hedge, yes it’s long nights on the telephone talking like a see-saw again adv. 1. in return: back: and I woke up this morning and wanted you to turn again to me, because my dreams smelled like your soap 2. another time: once more: anew: though there is, (and I know), no way to begin again even if you turned. 3. on the other hand: And then again I know better than to have what I’ve already captured, and 4. in addition: besides: again I know your lower half, your heart-tooth’s rotten root, so yes knowing better, I think of you spo rad i cal ly adv. occurring occasionally, singly, or in scattered instances; fitful: (yes, I think of you) and I’m fury without generation, watering my houseplants over the sill leaving splashes, pools as when, after infrequent arguments, my body found its way across asphalt to the park’s near entrance where rain met still water in starts and fits, and hands handled touch-me-nots, made to open—sometimes—when touched roughly or softly, springs and seeds bursting in all directions, parts to all of the plant exploding under my grasp into green fireworks of shock, scattering bugs in rinsed light, leaving you never knowing just which parts of me were freed, or how, or to where.

- C. Wilding

[A weekend in Miami.]

Before there was NYC #roomieweekend (pictures to come), there was Miami #springbreak:

Basically last weekend consisted of toasting in the sun all day and partying in beach bars all night. A lovely person very generously took me to Miami for a little weekend getaway with friends, and we had a wonderful little time together. As the only non-drinker of the bunch, I'm pretty sure my designated driver blood became 90% caffeine for the weekend, and I have since developed a really attractive eyelid twitch (look closely). I also returned a little, um, burnt, and can now be tracked by the trail of peeled skin I leave behind me. It's sexy.

Though the years I lived in Miami now feel like just a brief, blisful moment, the few times I've been back since then have always felt like going home to me. To my twelve year old self, Miami felt like a different world, a world where it was normal to see a peacock strutting across the street and parrots flying overhead, where salsa and meringue music played in the grocery store, and where footballs kicked through high school field goal posts had to be collected from the ocean after the game. This time around, I went back to see my old house (the middle row of pics above) in Coral Gables, and even creeped around the back of the property to take a sneaky pic through the hedges. Happy memories in that casa. Happy memories in that city.

[Two Tunes Tuesday: Techno & Country.]

Calvin Harris' "Feel So Close" and Jake Owen's "Alone With You" aren't exactly complementary, thematically or aurally...yet here they are in all their glory, two songs that have been filling my ears lately. Everyone can relate to at least one of them, right? The first is the closest I get to techno (i.e. not very), the second is pretty standard country fare. I know I'm from L.A., but country is probably the genre I love and listen to the most. I blame my myriad of nannies from bizarre places like Utah or Idaho or Colorado. I was brainwashed, I tell you! Brainwashed!