Cheese: the glue of friendship

It may be many years of friendship (Brooke: 21 years, Lindsey 8 years, Nicole: 4 years) that have bonded me to my best friends. It may be our shared memories, like high school shenanigans and malicious mischief with Brooke and Lindsey, or the past summer we spent backpacking Europe. Nicole and I's college memories of freshman dorm debauchery, road trips, and an 18 hour day at Disneyland probably did a pretty good job of solidifying our bestie status.

However, in all those collective years of amity, my college best friend and my high school best friends never really came together. There was only one thing that could bond my lovely ladies together after all this time: ooey gooey melted cheese. 

Post Grad Crisis

"Remember, you should be incredibly proud of yourself and everything you have accomplished in the last four years." 

-Nancy Marlin, Professor of Psychology at SDSU

I have spent the last five months having intermittent panic attacks about my wayward life, and I know many others who seem to be having this same post-grad life crisis. It is petrifying to have completed what we have worked our entire lives for and be haunted by THE question: 

"What am I doing with my life?" 

The only thing more daunting than that question, is the answer:

"I HAVE NO IDEA!"

(just look at the girl below: is she ready for the real world? *forbidding music plays*)

Being infected by an Airborne Toxic Event

To begin, it is important that you fall madly, deeply, forever in love with the incredible band The Airborne Toxic Event immediately. The quickest way to make that happen is to click below and listen to the best song ever (I don't exaggerate): 

Where to Start?

When you don't blog for over two months and are already eons behind on sharing your adventures, it is really difficult to know where to start. I had a New Year's post plan, but well that didn't really pan out. The New Year didn't feel new enough.

So here, instead, is my I'm-back-in-San-Diego-and-I-Have-No-Idea-What-I'm-Doing-With-My-Life post, which is basically as new as it gets for me. I have officially finished my undergraduate career and have a shiny new degree (it's coming in the mail eventually, or so I'm told). I also have all the new freedom to figure out what I'm going to do next, feel free to give me suggestions. It's not that I don't have any ideas, I just have too many and a lot of different directions. I am feeling a bit like Alice, not knowing which sign to follow. 

October is Over?

I'm never going to be done blogging about my Europe trip, we can just all accept that. I do, however, want at least to document a few of my memories from this semester, which has been a blast, if busy as heck, hence the struggle to complete my blogs. Jewel suggested I throw in some of the here & now and just go back and forth, and you know, why not? Screw OCD and chronological order. 

So here's a goodbye to October, which is already ending, though how that has happened I don't know. It's still 85º in San Diego, since we don't actually have seasons, but when we headed to Julian for the day it finally felt a little bit less like summer. 

December Nights

Now it seems a bit cruel to tell ya'll about an event that's already passed, but it was so Christmasy and grand how could I resist? I promise to pop up some other holiday suggestions at the end, just to ensure no one is deprived of any Christmas cheer. 

The first weekend of December, every year, Balboa Park (one of my favorite spots), hosts December Nights. It is the largest community event in San Diego and host around 350,000 people over two nights. Crazy, I know. You might think that with this extreme amount of people the event might feel overwhelming, but it really doesn't. There's a good dose of Christmas cheer in the air, and everyone is generally pretty happy to be there. I went with a whole gaggle of people, and we trekked our way to the park to join in the festivities. 

Halloween Haunts

HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON! 

Oh my, oh my, once October rolls around I go into holiday-mode straight into the New Year. I pretty much spend each month with an agenda of holiday-related activities that must happen for the season to be complete. October is obviously Halloween month (I'd say it's my favorite holiday, but I'll say that about them all). 

While Halloween may not be the same as back in the day (oh golly do I miss trick-or-treating!), it's can still be quite the bash. For a really great October you need three things: pumpkins, a good scare, and an excessive & unreasonable amount of candy corn. Having a really awesome costume doesn't hurt the festivities either, but we'll get to that. 

The best part of this October was that it was chalk full of great people to share it with. Brooke even made the trek all the way from Nor Cal for some ever-traditional pumpkin carving. 

Just Tonight

-For full post experience please click here for the appropriate reading soundtrack-

Music is great. Amazing really. Turning on a song can completely change a moment. It can help you escape or, alternatively, allow you to immerse yourself entirely into an emotion. Music is whatever you need it to be; and in this age of unlimited choices, no one can ever tell you what is "right" when it comes to the soundtrack of your own life. Choose from any genre, or choose them all (like I do).

I have a pretty extensive musical appreciation; classical, country, rock-n-roll, pop, alternative-you name it, I'm open to it. You can in no way delegate a whole genre into the "dislike" pile. That's just silly and limiting. This in mind, I always give everything a good listen before judgement, and I thank the universe that I was slightly-obsessed enough with Gossip Girl's Taylor Momsen, that I gave her band, The Pretty Reckless, a listen. 

Just Breathe

Sometimes, the best thing you can do after (or during) a long stressful week, is just take a break. Leave whatever is making you stressed behind and go somewhere to just breathe.

For most of us college students, we've been bombarded with mid-terms and projects for the past couple weeks; I know I have. Especially last week, even when more tests were coming, and the stress of deadlines nearing, I just needed a break. I teeny tiny window of time to say "peace out world." Luckily I have the best friends, who were feeling just like I was. And an added bonus: we live in a city chalk full of great escapes. One of my favorites of which is Balboa Park. 

Balboa is this immense park (1200 acres to be exact), that is home to a number of awesome attractions, including, the San Diego Zoo, the Natural History Museum, the San Diego Museum of Art, The Old Globe, and The Museum of Man, just to name a few. What's great, though, is that you don't even have to go to one of these museums or other places in the park, you can just walk around and enjoy all the beauty around you. Which is exactly how Nicole, Rubi, and I escaped our hectic schedules last week.