#23 Finish my Bachelor's Degree

I have always been a school nerd. I love to learn new things and talk about interesting things and have never wanted anything more than to go to college. For financial reasons, I was unable to attend a 4 year college right out of high school. I worked and went to community college instead. Then I met the ex whom I married far too young for reasons way too complicated to go into and college became something I would finish eventually. Then I got knocked up with the Princess and the ex bailed and I was stuck working dead end office jobs to make ends meet. Basically I was living my worst nightmare, a repeat of my mother's life as a single mom working multiple jobs to survive. I know my mother didn't want that for me, and I certainly didn't want it for myself. I know how smart I am, and how much it means for me to be a success at life. I put an extreme amount of pressure on myself to be the best mother, daughter, friend, employee etc that I could be.

That kind of pressure can be daunting after awhile, so I told myself that this year I would take some time and prioritize what is right for me and for the Princess and stop trying to turn myself into the best thing for other people, and start being the best me for me. The first priority was to get back into school. I started a program that is designed for working adults, it's an actual classroom structure and seeing the college on my resume won't make anyone think that I stayed up too late watching their commercials. I started last week and it's not going to be easy, there's a lot of papers, reading, and projects to be completed in a 3 month time span, and I am loving every second of it. :-)

I'm not sure how long it will take for me to finish, it's a new school with a different system than I'm used to so a lot of my units didn't transfer over as I thought they would. Even if it takes me four years, I don't care because it will all be worth it. This is the one thing I refuse to give up on or sacrifice no matter what. So snaps for me, because I'm on my way, and I couldn't be more thrilled!

My 30th Birthday Extravaganza

Well it's official, I'm mother flipping 30! My birthday was incredibly epic, much better than I could have anticipated. Thanks to my wonderfully awesome boss, and a few great friends, I was able to have a spectacularly special, fun, and incredibly memorable 30th birthday.

On my actual birthday night, a few of my girlfriends treated me to dinner at local restaurant. For birthdays, they give their signature dessert a Pizookie which is a pizza shaped cookie with a scoop of ice cream. It was so freaking good! I felt guilty for eating it. Here I am, freaking 30 and still incredibly adorable!!!

In reference to my uber fab boss, she gave me as a birthday gift a two days in Vegas! I didn't go on my actual birthday, but I went on Labor Day and the day after so it was super cheap. Two of my best friends Mel and Brit went with me, and we stayed at Paris Las Vegas. I loved pretty much every single second!

It is tradition with the girls and I to go to Fat Tuesday's after we first arrive in Vegas and get one of those blended drinks and walk around The Strip. Since it was my birthday, I decided to step it up and get the half yard Octane...rookie mistake. Octane contains Bacardi 151 and since I was feeling extra festive, I agreed to the extra shot. That's 3 shots of 151, and just an fyi...151 is the proof of the alcohol, NOT how many countries the rum is made in as I initially thought. Yeah, found that out the hard way! Here I am in front of the fountain at Paris. Perfectly happy and content with my half yard of geteffedup juice:

As the afternoon progressed, I decided it might be a good idea to call a few select people in my phone book and let them know I loved them. Did I mention the 151 proof?


Unfortunately, the rest of the night (and my dignity) ended up taking a huge turn and there are no other photos of our first night in Vegas other than this:

(Don't judge me...it was my birthday and I was in Vegas! I think a little drunken foolishness is called for!)

The next day started off much better! We had brunch (one of my favorite things in the world) at the outdoor cafe Paris Las Vegas, Mon Ami Gabi. I had a spinach and Brie crepe and orange juice, and we ordered their fruit plate to share. Look at it!

Soo gorgeous right? It was almost too pretty to eat...almost.

Cheers to three awesome friends on a beautiful day in Vegas! We were sitting there right when the first Bellagio fountain show started!


The rest of the afternoon was spent doing typical touristy stuff like posing with Elvis.


And lounging by the pool. We were toasting the birth of our friend's new baby. We found out she had been born while we were lounging. PS - Nothing is more fabulous than the Paris pool...so relaxing and beautiful scenery. Best part is we met a really cool British couple who were completely enchanted with my hardcore anglophile-ness. I knew more about Britain than they did! I'm sad I didn't get a pic of them, but they did give me a 20p coin!


Also, I loved that even in Vegas I can find my people. I must confess that I took this picture without her knowledge, but had she known me and my fangirl status, she would've consented I'm sure.


That night, we decided to grab some dinner and head out to New York, New York and see what Coyote Ugly was all about.

Sadly, it was just a few hot girls with megaphones yelling at drunken frat boys and inviting soccer moms in feather boas to dance on the bar. Yes, I'm perfectly serious. One of the women even had a fanny pack and since I still have no camera, Mel was the paparazzi and I forgot to ask her to get a pic of that truly hideous faux pas. Trust that it was a sight to behold! After 10 minutes of standing there in complete awe that people actually pay to participate in this madness, one of the "coyotes" points the megaphone at me and since I was the dumb ass wearing a birthday pin she orders me up on the bar. Mel completely bailed out on me, but Brit was all for it and we got up there and danced to "So What" by Pink. Naturally Mel got a pic of that momentous occasion.

After the forced humiliation, we received a shot of some seriously sour swill masquerading as liqueur which was poured directly into our mouths by the loudest Coyote who was wearing an Ed Hardy bikini top over her practically non existent boobs. I think the word Ew pretty much sums up the experience. We hightailed it out of there shortly after that.

We made our way down The Strip to another Vegas tradition of ours Cantina del Diablo. We stopped and had a drink and I chatted up an adorable Scot who had just arrived there that day. Nothing really came of it other than he took a picture of the three of us. Good times.


We ended our night at a lounge in the middle of the Paris casino. We wanted to wind down with a few more drinks before calling it a night. We ended up sitting next to a table of Swiss men who just so happen to be a bachelor party. The groom to be was the only one who spoke really good English and he took it upon himself to come over and sit with us. I think he was about 5 or 6 gin on the rocks in, but we had a blast trying to decipher his drunken English. By the time we all posed for a pic together, he was well past drunk and on the midnight express to Hammered. Hands down one of the funniest interludes we had the entire trip.


And maybe Brit and I were *slightly* tipsy as well.

Au revoir Paris Las Vegas ! La séparation est tant de douleur douce

Or for the non francophiles - Goodbye Paris Las Vegas! Parting is such sweet sorrow.



My birthday was one of the best I've ever had! I never believed that I would end up in Vegas to celebrate turning 30. I feel so incredibly grateful that I got the chance to celebrate exactly the way I wanted to. I think by ringing in 30 in such an awesome way, I've opened the door to nothing but wonderful and fabulous things to happen to me in this next decade.



I'm 30 Bitches!

#99 - Plan an awesome way to ring in my 30th Birthday

Tomorrow is my 30th birthday and guess where I'm headed?

I have oodles of fun things planned for the next 5 days! I've been waiting for this birthday FOR-EV-ER! I'm glad it's finally here, and I'm determined no matter what to have a blast! Fair warning, there will definitely be more heavily detailed birthday funsies to come!!

Book #32 - I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

I Am the Messenger is the story of Ed Kennedy, a 19 year old cab driver who basically fails at life. He is a Spicoli for the millenium going nowhere and perfectly content in that knowledge. After thwarting a horribly executed (and hilarious) bank robbery, Ed becomes somewhat of a local hero. Then out of the blue he receives the Ace of Diamonds in the mail with three addresses and times written on it. His mission, which he begrudgingly accepts, is to do something life changing for the people located at the addresses, and he hasn't a clue how to go about it. Plus, even a crappy card player like Ed knows that there are 3 more Aces in the deck.

Some books were just meant to be read, especially if the storyteller is a writer like Markus Zusak. I Am the Messenger grabbed me in the first chapter, maybe even the first sentence. The characters in the book are written with a such a truthfulness about them. Flawed, funny, pithy, and poignant they all fall in line with the off the wall plot without losing any of their sincerity. For the first time in a long time, I found myself captivated by a book not only for it's plot, but for the unique and poetic prose that bring it to life. Even the break between paragraphs can convey more emotion than an entire page.

I can not remember a time in recent history ever reading something that made me feel so connected to the creator, as though the two of us were the only ones in on the joke. This was my first Zusak book, but I'm absolutely certain it won't be my last! I really enjoyed this amazing story, and I loved being a part of Ed's journey.

Book #31 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I never in a million years would have even thought of reading this book. It's a futuristic young adult novel set in a dystopian society called Panem. (How cool is that I get to use the word dystopian? You almost never see this word used in normal conversation--yes, I'm a word nerd let's move on) Panem is what North America used to be before war, poverty, disease, and apparently El Nino destroyed it. Now the continent is split into 12 districts and a Capitol. As a punishment for an uprising decades before in which the 13th district was destroyed, the Capitol choose one teenage boy and one teenage girl from each district every year, take them to a giant arena that is made into a harsh setting like a blistering hot jungle or a frozen tundra and force them to fight to the death in the Hunger Games. The Capitol shows the Games on all of the televisions in the nation, and as the citizens sit back and watch, riveted to the drama, as the contestants die one by one.

I don't want to give too much away because the fun of this book is reading how the drama unfolds. The story is told in the first person of Katniss, the female representative from District 12 and her narrative, assessments of her competition and the entire process as a whole are what make the story so compelling. It's a fast paced and riveting read and I was on the edge of my seat until the wee hours of the morning. I ended up having to go to sleep since I'm an adult who has to wake up and go to work in the morning, but I set my alarm 2 hours earlier than normal so I'd have a chance to finish it. The lack of sleep was well worth it!

Side note - if you're following me on Twitter, you might have noticed that a few days ago I won a signed copy of this book from Borders thanks to their Twitter promotion and the awesome ladies of my online book club. (4 of us won a book out of the 8 cities they did the promotion in) This promotion was mainly to bring everyone's attention to the second book of the series Catching Fire which was released on September 1st. I'm passing this information along because nothing in the The Hunger Games blurb, book jacket or story itself would lead you to believe it's a series...until the end. I was lucky enough to know beforehand, I feel sorry for those who read it a year ago and had no clue. The ending is a cliffhanger but you'll be fortunate enough that the second book is already available for purchase at your nearest Borders for at least 20% off the regular price! (Just giving Borders some love)