A batch of my friends have been turning 27 this year. Aishah joined the club this weekend. Saturday night, I met her up with her little sister and another high school friend. It’s hard to feel old when you’re eating birthday cotton candy and sipping Prosecco.

Do you see that flute? 5 seconds after this picture I flung it at the poor little sister (whom I see as my little sister too). Which explains the next picture…

I sorry.

What a full weekend! Friday night (pictured above), I had a birthday get together at a Mediterranean restaurant and then a handful of us hopped over next door to smoke hookah and play chess over some beers. (I stuck to my mint green tea). Saturday, I spent the day in my fat pants with Jon and ate at all the places he missed while living in NYC. Then I gave back by offering my designated driver services and went out downtown Saturday night. Even rubbed elbows with Brittany who joined us. The last time I was downtown with Brittany was about 2 years ago. Finally, Sunday was spent doing chores, cooking, and recovering from a fantastically full weekend. I miss Jon already :(.

Now it’s Monday. I started my day off with breakfast burritos courtesy of a sweet boyfriend and then picking up coffee at a drive-thru, which led to me spilling it all over my white ensemble. Oi. Happy Monday.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I had a fantastic weekend and last night slept almost 7 hours which is amazing. Saturday I had lunch with an old friend and spent the rest of the day helping set up a surprise party for my friend Liliana. I’ve known Liliana going on 9 years now and have not once made it to her birthday. This kind of thing happens when you share a birthday with my mom. This year though, mom came up to Austin! Giving me a chance to finally celebrate with Liliana.

Sunday, I spent the day with my parents. We had lunch and Alan finally got a chance to meet them. Then we dillydallied and had dinner. My parents rarely have the time to come up (the last time was 2 years ago!) so it was awesome to have them. Sunday night was spent on the couch w/ zee boy watching True Blood and feeding my crush on Eric.

All in all it was the perfect balance between friends, family, sleep, activity, myself, boyfriend, etc. I’m quite pleased with myself. I close with pictures from the surprise party. Birthday girl claims she was surprised. :) We’ll take that as success.

Hope everyone had a happy Fourth. I spent the early morning downtown with Alan’s friends and we spent the actual day of at the pool in the sun. I think a full day in the sun zapped me because I slept for 12 hours last night. I can’t remember the last time I even had 7 hours of sleep, muchless 12. I’m still feeling groggy and I can’t tell if it’s the sun yesterday, or if I overslept, or if I’m getting sick. Wah! I have the day off which is sweet but I babysit in 2 hours. Must get some chores done! And with that, I leave you with photos from my Fourth.

I mentioned I was taking a half day last week during the work week to go kayaking with Jess & Brandi. We ended up canoeing instead since it seats three people. Brandi’s all gone now. She’s embarking on a new career in a new city with new hair (not pictured below). I miss her. Here are photos. I did not fall in or drown and no critter had a chance to swim up any orifice and lay any eggs in my brain or GI tract. Am happy to be alive :). Also, it was not as scary as I was making it out to be, you know, as someone who can’t tread water and who has an irrational fear about bugs and bug babies in my brain. (What? It happens.)

Hope all is well!

BBBB was the most stressful birthday party I’ve been to. I don’t know how the bingo pros /elderly do it. I had one sheet of 9 cards and that’s pretty relaxing and laid back but when I decided to take one of Brittany’s 9 card sheets to help her out, I felt like I was back in elementary school doing SPEED MATH. Minus the math… At the big bingo hall in Austin, on your birthday you can buy 27 cards and a computer game for one penny. I don’t think Brit’s doing 27 cards again.

How do you make bingo classy?

You bring your own minature bottles of wine!

We managed to get Alan to come even though he swore after his first time, he’d never go back. This time he learned his lesson and stuck with a relaxing 9 cards. I love how in the following picture he looks like he’s going to stab the shit out of his bingo cards.

So you can buy yourself fancy bingo bags on the internet. For instance, this one I found on Amazon.

Or you can make your own!

The bingo bag we made last night

Time to go to work :) I’m taking half a day today off so I can face one of my biggest fears. Kayaking. Wish me luck.

Happy Monday!! Back to the nitty gritty. This week is going to be particularly stressful for me. I realized this past weekend that June 20th, my move out date from my current 2 bedroom apartment to a 1 bedroom apartment is THIS weekend. June 20th sounded like a faraway date. My roomie kept dropping hints that it was closer than I think and I just kind of la de da’ed her. So yes, I must scramble to put all my clutter into boxes, stuff it with balled up newspaper for lack of luxurious bubble wrap, do all those fun transfers of accounts. Stress!

I had a fairly productive weekend. Packed maybe 6 boxes, worked out which brings my working out average this year to once every 2 months (ha!), food explored, and quality time with the roomie (our days are numbered) and zee dude. I hope you all had a lovely weekend and a productive week to come.

A couple of cute photos from my weekend:

Because I’m juggling 3 books at the moment and haven’t started my book club’s book for June yet, opening my copy of Eat, Pray, Love is not top priority right now. I was catching up on my DVRed Oprahs last week and saw Julia Roberts promoting Eat, Pray, Love the movie. The show has made me inch my copy of the book up a little on my list. During the show, Oprah interviewed the cast members asking them what their eat, pray, and love look like to them. It inspired some reflection and I thought I’d share with you my eat, pray, love.

(Link to my food blog about bun rieu).

My pray is gratitude and being present. It’s when things are calm and happy and I’m present enough to know I’m experiencing a beautiful moment, be it a field of bluebonnets, a shared cackle with friends, or a quiet squeeze of a hand. To appreciate and savour is my pray.

(blog post)

It’s hard to choose from my myriad of personal photos a handful of images that illustrates what love looks like to me. Simply put, it’s time well spent with my family and friends. It’s sharing life.

Last year during my trip to San Fran, I ran into this trio on the street and took a picture. I wish I snapped a picture of the man who owned them.

This past weekend, while gallivanting in downtown Austin, Texas, I stumbled upon these three. Poor kitty didn’t seem comfortable at all. They could very well be the same animals I saw last year in California! I would have asked the man holding the tip jar and leash but the crowd was thick and my friends in a rush.

If it’s them, I wonder how their travels are going.. Poor things.