Four Inch Heels and My Little Black Dress

Im a little late... I know. But during finals week, I pretty much lived in the library and potentially had more coffee in my system than water.  On the bright side, I successfully wrote a 20 page paper on the economic recession and illegal immigration and completed a semester long public relations project with a non-profit in San Diego, both of which Im very proud of.  So this is what I've been up to....

Wearing a tight black dress and four inch heels isn’t my usual every Friday night attire, but when I got the “Evite” to go to a black and white Christmas party, I couldn’t deny the opportunity.  The dress was easy.  It was cute, it was on sale, and I justified it by remembering that when I am 40 I wont be able to wear things like this without getting ridiculed by the PTA moms.  I am 20, in college, so carpe diem, I thought… $17 dollars later and the dress was mine. 

            The heels were a last minute decision.  The black dress wasn’t a good partner with my always-bruised legs. Yes I have been checked for Anemia in my days, and no I don’t have it.  Unfortunately for me and my dress, I am just an easy bruiser.  I added black tights to the mix, which looked way to bizarre with my every-occasion-pair of simple black flats. 

            That’s when I took the plunge. I am single. I am 6 foot tall. And I don’t give a care in the world to be another 4 inches.  After rummaging through Dana’s collection of heels, I found the perfect pair of caged black heels and thought to myself, “Oh yea Beck, tonight’s the night.” After getting ready with my girlies, while listening to Destiny’s Child hits like “Bootylicious” or my personal favorite, “Im a Survivor”, we were ready to make our entrance. 

            I thought wearing heels would potentially make me insecure, but it did the exact opposite.  I was a giant and I knew that, so I decided to be confident in knowing that.  And after several conversations of boys looking up at me, I realized, they really aren’t that intimidated.

            The party was so much fun!  I danced with my best friends, and my partner and I successfully won three games of pool, in a row!  I don’t think 4 inches heels are going to be part of my everyday wardrobe, but from now on, if the heels look better with the dress, I am goin for it!  

If you havent noticed. Im not on facebook. Yep im one in a million people who chose to deactivate and hope their social life still continues on.   Im just taking a little break from it, so my blog posts will be posted on friends' walls! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS :)

A love for Hockey and a colorful sunrise

I am thankful for the changes and growing that I have done throughout college and within the past five months.  I am also thankful for my friendship with Dana Czapski.  I have known her since elementary school, and although we are two completely different people, we compliment one another well and find connection in our sense of humor.   We played lacrosse together, did ASB together, she drove me to school everyday, we did Saturday school together for too many tardies, and have been able to share in the happiest and saddest moments in one another’s lives.  She is a blessing to me, and is the most level headed Alpha Phi I know.

            Dana also likes hockey games, and knows a whole clan of boys who like hockey games too.  Or should I say they like Ducks games.  Dana has wanted to check something off the list with me ever since I created the bucket list.  A hockey game was the perfect thing to do.  It was a 1 o clock game at the Honda Center, or the Pond for all you old timers. Once the guys were decked out in Ducks jerseys, we hopped in the suburban with not a seat to spare and made the journey to Anaheim. 

            I was instantly in love. I love hockey. I love the jerseys. I love the simplicity of the game. I love the arena. I love the yelling.  I love the smell of hotdogs and beer. And I love when two hockey players smash into the plexi glass windows. 

            I snapped lots of pictures throughout the game, barely making it in with my camera, because the lady busted out the ruler to measure the lense.  She meant serious business. 

            The ducks lost, but I still had fun, and hope that another hockey game is in my near future.  We ended the day with a surprise birthday party for Dana.  She had no idea, and was such a pain to get back to her house, but in the end it was totally worth it! 

             

          Though this wasn’t on my list, it is worth mentioning.  Early Friday morning, I headed up Trabuco Canyon with my two amazing friends, Austin and Paul.  We did a quick 15 minute hike and found ourselves watching the sunrise.  The story goes that there used to be a house, but it burned down, and now there is just a gutted out pool.  People graffiti all over it and it makes for really awesome photos! Check em' out!

            In preparation for thanksgiving break, I fasted for two days, only eating after sundown.  To fast was on the original bucket list, however after doing it, I realize what a spiritual and meaningful experience it was for me.  To blog about it, would not do it justice, so I guess if you are curious how it went for me, ask me about it! Id love to share my reasons for doing it, and what it was like.

Good Coffee and Creepy Cars

           Well this wasn’t on the original list, but I will have you know the list is growing day by day.  It’s been a while because… well school sucks.  A 20 page paper about illegal immigration, a semester long Public Relations assignment, and some how Christian Tradition is kicking my butt.  Hence why this post is all about studying, because that’s what I have been doing.

            My mind always seems to wander when I am doing my work.  I start thinking about all the other things I have to do, and how I hope I will have enough time to make a decent dinner and go for a run.  These thoughts NEED to stop.  Sometimes I think I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD as a child, then other times I just have to say to myself, “Beck pull it together.”

            Some places are good for busy work, some places have better coffee than others, and some are cleaner than others. It never ends… just like my homework.

            So. I began to switch it up. Library, the Living Room Cafe, Panera, Starbucks, Peets, The PBC (Point Loma’s coffee shop, and my good ole apartment. 

            

Well here it is:

1.     Library- pretty good, easy to drift, but I get to see my friends

2.     The Living Room Cafe- dirty and tables for people who are 5’2

3.     PBC- I saw 2 friends and ended up chatting for an hour

4.     Peets- Great coffee, nice people, comfy chairs

5.     My apartment- all I want to do is talk to my roomies or go to sleep

Then I got creative and sorta weird. I decided that my car, with the seats folded down parked by the ocean, would and could be the perfect place for me to clear my thoughts. I headed to sunset cliffs with blankets and pillows and my laptop.  I sat in the back of my car, listened to music, and let myself write.  It was going pretty well, until I realized the car to my left, was to youngsters escaping mom and dad’s house… if you catch my drift.  And the car to my right, was a creepy white van, that had a mysterious red laser shining from the window.  ( picture: me in my car... HA!)

           

Thus, leading me to award the most conducive studying environment to … PEETS (my dad should be proud J ) not to mention REALLY GOOD coffee... vanilla latte or chai tea in the ceramic cups... just sayin...

            

Message in a Bottle

            Portlan. Yep, like the city, minus the “D” on the end. He is one of my best friends with a killer Irish accent imitation.  We both studied abroad at the same time, and we both fell in love with writing at the same time.  He likes to write short stories and poems, and I like to write optimistic journalism articles.  Needless to say, we can sit, clear our minds, and just write. 

 There is something powerful about writing a message to a complete stranger with the possibility that your words can change their day or even their life.   We headed to La Jolla Cove and stopped by the gas station to get bottles.  I went for the Iced tea, he went for the Voss water.  It was the perfect day to be at the beach.  It was a nice hot, and the sun was glistening on the water.  We climbed up a huge rock, and gave each other distance to write.  Neither one of us had a premeditated notion of what we would write about.  So we sat, sat, sat some more, and then our pens started to move.  He asked how I would start mine and I responded clueless.  He said, “ Beck you have to start it off with: My name is Becky and this is my message in a bottle.” So that’s what I did despite its unoriginality. 

  

    I wrote what came to my mind first.  I sought to be an encouragement. An encouragement to do what he/or she needs to do, to know and understand the beauty of life and of this world.  I don’t know what Portlan wrote about. But I have no doubt that it was great.  I put my email on mine in hopes of a response and Portlan, well he went for the email, phone number, and Facebook… so stranger if you are out there reading this and you find Port’s bottle: respond, or else he will be very upset. 

            We tried to find the perfect place to drop them off in La Jolla, but there wasn’t any spot that we were particularly fond of.  We decided to drive to Ocean Beach and drop it off the pier.  We didn’t want to get in trouble for littering so we had to wait for the perfect moment.  When we noticed the bystanders weren’t looking at us, we knocked them over.  Talk about invigorating.  We just watched our message float in the big blue ocean and finally walked away. We did a fist pound and talked about how cool it would be if someone would actually respond… I guess all we can do now, is wait.  

Dear Julian: thank you for opening up the "Miner Diner"

I love San Diego, its where my heart is, but sometimes you just have to get away from home to realize how much you love it.  I have wanted to go visit the small town of Julian since freshman year of college.  It’s a small town.  It’s the kind of town where you don’t realize people actually live there.  You spend the day asking yourself, “Is there even a school here?” “where do they buy clothes?” and “doesn’t everyone know everything about everyone?”  I don’t understand the Gilmore Girls style of life, but I appreciate it.  I appreciate the small coffee shops and the gathering of families for “Oktoberfest,” but most of all, I appreciate this town for their apples. 

The real reason people go to Julian: Apple pie.  It was clear when we saw a line down the street for “Mom’s Pies.” The smell of cinnamon and sugar, and that secret recipe for the homemade crust keep visitors coming.  I couldn’t believe how many pies there were. Just one after the next.  It took me almost 6 hours to make one pie, they put my pie to shame, I’m okay with that though, ill let them be the experts on that one. 

Courtney and I had a great time on our day trip to Julian, until we got hungry.  Our goal of the day was simple, we wanted a good sandwich with sweet potato fries and we wanted an apple pie to take back to our roomies.  Our goal turned out to be harder than we thought.  After trinket store after trinket store, a stop at the tattoo parlor, and watching old men in lederhousens play the trumpet for "Oktoberfest," we decided it was time for that perfect sandwich.  We decided to ask a local… so clearly we found ourselves in the hardware store.   The man told us where we could find the best meat sandwich (also known as a hamburger) in the east county: Jeremy’s.  We went to Jeremy’s which turned out to be a Piano Bar type of place so we left and found ourselves at “The Miner Diner” aka the place where no one would ever want to work, except our friend Josh Martin, who had the privilege to grow up in Julian. 

After lunch we grabbed our apple pie with a cinnamon crust topping and headed home.  I couldn’t help but pick at the whole way home, despite Courtney slapping me on the hand telling me I needed to wait.

Small town of Julian: you were an interesting and strange place, but don’t be surprised if you see me again.  

Nudie Cuties

Lets see, how do I go about writing about this one. Let me start off by saying I have the best friends and roommates I could have ever wanted and needed. These

girls are all so different and all so amazing. We are a family. Laughter has brought us together, along with seasons of tears. We teach Shea Spanish, she helps us cook, EJ magically cleans the house and wears fancy business outfits, Courtney ligh

ts candles and shows us funny youtube videos, Dana makes us laugh and only has sufficient groceries if her mom comes to visit. They are a blessing and God has shown his love for me, by giving me them.

NOSING… its what crazy Point Loma kids do. NOSING of course stands for NAKED OCEAN SWIMMING… I’ve never done it, and what better bonding expe

rience could there be? So that was the plan, Thursday…at night, we would find a beach strip down our bathing suits and swim free in the ocean, to laugh harder than I have in a long time, and of course feel liberated.

We hopped in the Jetta, listen to inspirational rap music, and head down to South Mission Beach. You think the ocean is scary during the day

… try it at night! It was so creepy and the tide was unusually low. We couldn’t turn back now though… so there we stood.

No one was allowed to chicken out, even though EJ tried.

We bit the bullet, tore of our bathing suits and ran toward the big blue ocean. The water wasn’t as cold as you would think or maybe that was the adrenaline. We went head under, and just laughed… and laughed.. and laughed… what on earth are we

doing?? Earlier in the day Courtney was talking to her mom who refers to her as “ College Courtney,” and said “ Mom, im 20 years old, I do what I want.” We did what we wanted that night…sorry moms and dads.

It is a little strange talking about how I skinny-dipped in the ocean, but I did it and it was on my list, so there it is. Secrets don’t make friends right?

If you are reading my blog, become a follower because I love feedback and more bucket list ideas J See ya next week!

In other news... My blog has been an inspiration! Check out my friend Jill and her husband Mike's blog...

This wasnt on the list...

I’m not procrastinating; I have just run into some minor problems. Well I went to one of the greatest Italian restaurants I’ve been to since being back from Italy with my family. We ate and ate and ate. Poopsiedoodle went crazy with calamari appetizer, caprese, a main dish for everyone and even homemade tiramisu and chocolate cake. I fell in love with this restaurant. Unfortunately when I was there I realized my camera broke… I love writing, but words never do experience justice. The combination a great picture and a wordy description somehow suffices for me… I was going to borrow my roommate’s camera until I either fix it or invest in a new one, but that’s when my week went crazy.

I joined intramural volleyball, that’s right everyone… back in action. It was a great and fun game until I got hit in the face. I shook it off and kept playing, because that’s what athletes do… haha. I left with a headache, that didn’t go away after 2 days. I decided to go to urgent care and found myself in the emergency room 5 hours later getting x rays of my jaw and a CT scan. Good news, I fine! Bad news, I have a concussion. So I have a killer headache and am unusually tired. This week is a new week and I should be able to find a camera to suffice and enough IB profen to keep me sane…

Sorry Dad, but Spontaneity is the name of the game

This weekend has been full of surprises. My plan was to buy an old pair of rollerblades and ride down mission beach, but my friends had other plans for me. Austin and Amanda are two of my very best friends from high school and I give myself credit for matching them up. They came to San Diego so that we could spend some time together before they head off to their new schools: UCR and UCLA. We had planned to go to the Padres game that night, but they were insistent on helping me conquer something on my bucket list. Amanda suggested’ “why not go to UCSD and check it out!” Though, to be honest, I wasn’t in the mood to tour a college after being in school for a week, I decided to seize the day. We walked around the gorgeous campus and I felt like I was really in college, not that I’m not, but the campus is so big and looks like it should be in a movie. We took lots of pictures and compared the bookstore to Point Loma’s. Lets just say UCSD wins that competition. We spent the evening at the Padres game with Courtney and Shea, Padres lost, but since we were in the cheapy section, we got to see two people get arrested.

I had always planned to see both UCSD, and USD at the same time. I wasn’t expecting to see USD the way that I did though… David and I became friends when I realized it was going to be a long semester in Human Biology if I didn’t get some help. David and Andrew were the engineering majors in the class, and we became friends instantly. I made them laugh, and they helped me with strange biological concepts, like Mitosis. David and I decided we needed to catch up, so, he came to my apartment… in a MOTORCYCLE. I was so excited and he was so excited that I was enthusiastic about it. Though going on a motorcycle ride isn’t on my posted list, not getting on a Vespa in Italy is one of my biggest regrets, so this was my chance. He offered to take me on my first ride, hesitant because I know how my Dad feels about motorcycles and not wanting to disappoint him, I was torn, but after a short deliberation in my head, I agreed… I’m in college right? Carpe diem!

Riding on the motorcycle was one of the most liberating things I have ever done, and I found myself giggling through most of it, even though my leg would sometimes start to shake a little because I was scared. Pot holes, speed bumps, stop signs, turns on the freeway: these all become much more apparent when you aren’t in a car. We drove around and came up to USD, I told him that was on my bucket list too, so he turned right heading toward the campus. Instantly I was borderline obsessed with the campus. It looks like something out of Europe, and has an unbelievable view of San Diego City. We headed back home and I never realized how many neck and back muscles are involved in motorcycle riding, I was so sore! Even though I didn’t have a skull bandana or a leather jacket, I still felt pretty hard core and had a successful weekend checking 3 things off my bucket list…

What a great day to be at the AIRPORT!

I can’t tell you how long I have wanted to do this, but I am pretty sure its been since high school. I remember not having a job and typing into Google, “ cool things to do for free,” there were things listed like: build a sand castle, find a new lookout spot, fly a kite, but then I landed on “people watch at the airport.” It was genius and wondered why I had never done it before. I love the airport because every memory I associate with the airport reminds me of an adventure. People, myself included, do some crazy things at the airport.

On Wednesday afternoon, I headed to the San Diego Airport and of course brought a friend, Carlie. Carlie thought this was the strangest thing, but I assured her it would be eventful. We staked out in baggage claim and watched the tourists and the ones returning home. Carlie’s favorite person was a little kid with a penguin backpack; mine was the guy with pink flowers. Have you every just looked at what people wear to the airport? I think it should be nationally declared that all women wear yoga pants or a sweatshirt when going on a flight. We laughed a ton while watching families trying to get all their belongings and smiled when we saw people being reunited. We decided to migrate from baggage claim, because we started feeling like creepers.

We walked around for a while, but it was pretty bare on a Wednesday, compared to LAX. As we walked, we came across a movie being filmed. It was so cool! It was a short film called Eyes to Eyes, so when it comes out check for me in the background shot! We watched as they did take after take, and decided that Carlie should take over the main characters role, because she wasn’t doing such a hot job.

As we were leaving the security guard asked us where we were from since we were taking pictures… I told him we were waiting for a friend and her plane got delayed… a white lie to keep him from thinking we were totally insane.

I ended the day by visiting my mom and her friend Kelli in La Jolla sea glass hunting. A new adventure and something I love doing consistently, all in one day. Another check from my bucket list…