Taking advice from Crazy Eyes

"sometimes the feeling inside me get messy like dirt, then I like to clean things. Those things are like my thoughts, and clean my mind..."

I couldn't help but to rewind and get this quote down. It feels so close to home, so realistic. There are days my brain gets all muddled, my thoughts sloppy and, my personal state of sweet enthusiasm is lost in self-doubt and frustration. This will not be a clean post, it will not be spotless and refined. This post will be muddled.

Work is clear, well the basics of work is clear. My 9 to 5 checklist is filling out just fine, I'm accomplishing my daily tasks and meeting my goals. I've been recently approached with a consulting opportunity, which makes things all blurry. In one way, I really should take the opportunity. Start to make a name for myself, show off my skills, open future doors. But then I could fail... I could be less good than I think. I could be incapable of helping someone else do what I do well.

Home is clear in the daily tasks, checking things off, dinner, dishes, laundry and floors. The easy stuff is being kept up with. Now it's about planning a back lawn for the dogs, getting my garden planted and a yard sale organized. Everything else is half done. My desk isn't organized, the garage could use some work, the deck should be refinished.So many dirty little corner tasks that would make me much happier to be done, but for now they wait.

Family, friends, coworkers are clear on the surface. I text mom every day, keep up with friends each week, and help coworkers appropriately. I could do more. I could go sit with mom more, really talk to her. Friends deserve face time, not just Instagram comments. Coworkers deserve attention, focused attention, not just enough to satisfy them.

P is clear, she does her homework and her chores. We make dinner together, she earns her Netflix time. Again the basics get done. The day to day is fine. Then there seems to be something missing. We're not painting or drawing or doing cartwheels on the front lawn. We're not getting any deeper than the neat clear waters of a good kid, and a decent mom.

Where's my scuba gear, how do I get beyond the clear, clean top layer. Where do I go to find the dirt, and start to clean it. Today I start to clean, from the inside, today will be a day of affirmations, and taking notes from wonderful columns like The Other B Word, and finding inspiration in people like Tiana. If you need to come find me, please bring a mop.

"and you have to start from the inside out, or you step on the clean"

- Crazy Eyes, Orange is the New Black

Let's air some pet peeves.... | Sunday Social

Hi friends, before we get started, will you do me a favor and go follow any one of my social media sites today; please and thank you... links in the pretty circles to the right ->

I'm joining Ashley and Neely with their link-up today for Sunday Social! Visit one of their pages to find the full listed of linked up blogs that participated this week!

1. What is your biggest driving pet peeve?
People that go less than the posted speed limit... It's California, its beautiful, the roads are fine, just go.

2. What is your biggest blogging pet peeve?
When bloggers obviously "phone it in". I once read a product review that was almost completely copied from their website. There wasn't a personal word on the post.

3. What is your biggest shopping pet peeve?
Uninterested staff. I don't want you to fawn over me, but you could pretend to appreciate your product as much as I do.

4. What is your biggest general pet peeve?
Rudeness and inconsideration. I work in hospitality so I think I'm more perceptive to how far a little kindness goes. 

5. What is your most irrational fear?

Being injured at home and needing my daughter to help me. I've never been injured at home, nor to I take unnecessary risks at home, but the idea of Peyton having to call 911 for me just makes my skin crawl

As always I hope you participate with us, I love reading these.  If you repost please be sure to link up with the girls above. Part of my Sunday morning is now dedicated to couch time while reading all of these! Have a wonderful weekend. 

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High five for Sunday Social! (on Monday... again)

Hi friends, before we get started, will you do me a favor and go follow any one of my social media sites today; please and thank you... links in the pretty circles to the right ->

I'm joining Ashley and Neely with their link-up today for Sunday Social! Visit one of their pages to find the full listed of linked up blogs that participated this week!

1. 5 songs you'll listen to the rest of your life 
Jessica -The Allman Brothers
Faithfully -Journey
Let it Be -Beatles
Crave - Flight Facilities
She Keeps me Warm -Mary Lambert 

2. 5 things on your bucket list
Visit Barcelona
Skydiving
Burning Man
Be part of a flash mob
Be his wife for 50 years

3. 5 celeb you'd love to hang out with for a day
Anna Kendrick!!!!
Justin Timberlake
Kristen Chenoworth
Ellen
J-Law 

4. 5 things you always carry in your purse
Phone
Headphones
ID
Gum
Business cards


5. 5 books on your reading list
Divergent
The Serpent of Venice
The Son of a Certain Woman
The Antelope in the Living Room
Happy to be Alive, Because
 

6. Share the last 5 pictures on your phone

Our Easter Sunday in pictures

Easter Egg Hunter

Our Sweet Little Roses

mommy getting her coffee

This is how we let her go to breakfast

Cutest Easter Cake Ever!

As always I hope you participate with us, I love reading these.  If you repost please be sure to link up with the girls above. Part of my Sunday morning is now dedicated to couch time while reading all of these! Have a wonderful weekend. 

The 5-day countdown to easter!

Are you aware that Easter is only a few days away!? That's crazy to me. Granted my 6 year old is getting more skeptical all the time, starting to ask questions that make me think she might be too smart for her own good. Regardless as long as she plays along I will too, so really, I need to get prepared for Easter.

From Saturday's festivities

I'm not a fully crunchy momma, but certainly picky about food that we have in the house. We occasionally stop for french fries or froze yogurt. Her papa lets her have soda, and grandma takes her out for pancakes. However, we also eat fruits and veggies, every day, and  buy or grow organic as often as possible. I just don't want her to be the sugar fiend that has become such a norm for kids. And was a norm for me.

So when holidays like Easter roll around I cringe, all I see is calories, sugars and artificial ingredients pouring out of baskets and slapped into little plastic eggs. We attended a community hunt on Saturday that provided just that, jelly beans, laffy taffy, and bubble gum filled the really cute eggs she collected. Out of the 25 eggs she collected there was 1 non candy item. A mini yo-yo that broke when she tried to use it. Did I mention Whole Foods was a major sponsor of the event? Anyone else see the contradiction there?

So I have vowed to make P's eggs candy free this year. She received plenty on Saturday and there are so many other great options!
Here is my top 5 list of things (other than candy) to include in your eggs this year:
Stickers - We found coloring pages that come with stickers at target. I cut up the stickers and put them in eggs so she can add the stickers as she finds them.

Puzzle Pieces - this is a great way to pack many eggs. She can collect the pieces and put the puzzle together until she has them all.
Temporary Tattoos - This is a great spin-off from stickers and gives her something to take to school on Monday and show off.
Nail Polish/makeup - she's at that age where cheap sparkly nail polish and flavored chapsticks are a big hit. Finding mini sizes keeps it easy to use, and quick to use-up

source

Coins - nickles, dimes, quarters and pennies... anything to make that piggy bank heavier, because Yay money!

I also love getting creative while filling her basket (which happens to be a tote bag this year) and away from sugar coma options. We're big gardeners, it's one of the things I love about summer, so with this being just around the corner I love to give her things to help out.

This kit from target is fantastic, gloves, shovels a rake and water bottle. Plus an adorable apron and it all packs into a tote to keep it organized.

We're also including some new flower seeds, her very own tomato plant, and a DVD from Strawberry Shortcake: Bloomin' Berry Gardens. Because you can't break theme right?

What is going in your Easter baskets this year? Any tips for getting away from the sugar craze that seems to plague these holidays?

Putting my Best of the Best foward | Sunday Social

Hi friends, before we get started, will you do me a favor and go follow any one of my social media sites today; please and thank you... links in the pretty circles to the right ->

I'm joining Ashley and Neely with their link-up today for Sunday Social! Visit one of their pages to find the full listed of linked up blogs that participated this week!

1. What was your best birthday?
26 was pretty epic. Honey bought me tickets to Armin Van Buren in San Francisco and we stayed the night in the city, ate way too much great food. Really a perfect weekend!

2. What was your best vacation?
At 17 I went on a 2 week trip with my school, to tour Western Europe. I didn't know anyone and there were only a few kids from my school. It was an enlightening experience.

3. What is the best date you've ever been on?
My guy's 30th birthday. We spend the day with family, then got amazing sandwiches at our favorite deli, Guigni's. We had a divine dinner at Bottega courteous of a gift certificate. Then went to dance at Ruby Skye with 15 of our closest friends. It was 18 hours of perfection. 

4. What is the best movie(quality) you've seen?
I think Earth is the most beautiful and stunning movie I've ever seen

5. What is the best TV show ending of all time?

When Rachel got off the Plane! 

As always I hope you participate with us, I love reading these.  If you repost please be sure to link up with the girls above. Part of my Sunday morning is now dedicated to couch time while reading all of these! Have a wonderful weekend. 

And then we all went POP

Last Saturday was one of my favorite parties of the year. Skills presents Pop 2014 The Dream   this massive event brings tens of thousands of music lovers together, for a night of glorious dancing, new connections and stunning lights. I would even call it a little Crazy.

There are many negative stereotypes and unflattering mainstream views of the idea of a rave. But in reality, there is something ethereal about events like this rave, party, edm event,whatever you want to call them. In my experience they are a blessed look at the true beauty in all people.

Everyone I met was offering bracelets, sharing stories, passing around water and checking on their fellow dancers. I have new instafriends, tweeps to follow and fan pages to keep up with. I am only now getting fully rehydrated and remembering each and every detail.

There were many things I want to dive into about this party, the memorizing music, awesome light show, and fantastic people... but there weren't the words. I could give you a play by play, my favorite song from each act, I can try to recall all the people we met, the thrill of having a VIP wristband and the wonder of getting to see some of my favorite people. I kept trying to find the words... and then went to visit the event page and found this:

I think this very well spoken young man hit the nail on the head. He speaks to why we attend these parties. It's about feeling accepted and fitting in, no matter who you are. People come with good intentions, people come to dance and laugh, people just come out. It's a wonderful beautiful sense of camaraderie. I feel blessed to be part of such a gracious crowd.

Okay I'll leave you with one song so you can understand just how awesome it all was. Here was the first tracks (one of my favorites) played by the headliner Dash Berlin:

Twitter-pated for Sunday Social

Hi friends, before we get started, will you do me a favor and go follow any one of my social media sites today; please and thank you... links in the pretty circles to the right ->

I'm joining Ashley and Neely with their link-up today for Sunday Social! Visit one of their pages to find the full listed of linked up blogs that participated this week!

Next Weeks Questions:

1. When did you join twitter?
April 2009 (yes I had to go look) while serving on a Jury.

2. Who is your favorite non-celeb to follow?
My very dear friend Matty! He cracks me up

3. Who is your favorite celeb to follow?
Ricky Gervais because he's also hilarious.

4. Have you ever had a celeb respond to a tweet?
 Nope

5. What is your favorite store/brand to follow?
Chandon USA: bubbles, so many bubbles:

6. Give us three tweeps we should be following.
 Post Secret a beautiful look at the secrets we keep

Amanda Palmer: A beautiful artistic soul

The Daily Tay - a great blogger and funny tweeter twitterer tweet poster

What's your favorite twitter account?

As always I hope you participate with us, I love reading these.  If you repost please be sure to link up with the girls above. Part of my Sunday morning is now dedicated to couch time while reading all of these! Have a wonderful weekend.

Earn the Burn: This is Yogabitch

Hi friends, before we get started, will you do me a favor and go follow any one of my social media sites today; please and thank you... links in the pretty circles to the right ->

I want to introduce you to someone I make snarky comments to several times a week. She's calm and encouraging, and gives great constructive criticism. Yet is a perfect example of why I don't go to the gym.

could she be anymore obnixoulsy supportive?

This is who I affectionately call Yogabitch. I'm slowly getting back into shape and the Wii U Fit has been a big part of my progress. Being a single mom hinders my ability to go out for a run, take a class, and my single mom budget hinders my ability to afford the gym membership plus daycare (is $10 per dropoff really necessary?)

So my most common workout happens at home, on the WiiU balance board, with Yogabitch. She instructs and encourages, and makes it so easy for me to take out my personal frustrations on. There's something so annoying about Yoga being hard for me... is that just me?  Stretching shouldn't be difficult, yet I find myself sore, sweaty, and being judgingly encouraged by Yogabitch.

It's funny to me how one calm voice, of a computer animated woman, can get under my skin. But I feel it has much to do with me facing my own inadequacies more than her being incorrect. However, my inadequacies taken out on a computer generated, non feeling personality, makes things just a little bit easier. She gives me a chance to be angry and get my frustration of daily duldrums out. Besides Yoga should get easier at some point right?

What helps you work out?

 Does calmness help you when you're frustrated?

My first and Best work family

What is it about certain work places that just make everyone seem like family. In 2005 I took a weekend job at a hotel, while I went to school in San Francisco during the week week. Just a weekend job to earn a little cash to pay for my Starbucks addiction.

The hotel's goal was to provide a "home away from home" which it did well, however some people got a little too comfortable. Like the group that brought a case of beer to the lobby, put their bare feet up and proceeded to camp out there until midnight. We often had people with far to little clothes on. And guests who experiences a few too many wineries that day. We saw highschool proms and were the headquarters for 1500 runners of a local marathon.

We had couples fight and want separate rooms, we had traveling colleagues who wanted connecting rooms and we had a professional sports team who moved in for over a month and created pure chaos. I helped parents give their kids with Easter baskets and letters from Santa. I helped husbands surprise their wives from 3 states away, and boyfriends get down on one knee for the ever epic "yes".

Among all the celebrations, the madness, the events, there was something so much more memorable for me. Among the smiling faces that made your reservations and called a cab for dinner, ensured your wake up calls were set, solved every travel dilemma, met every preference. Those smiling faces who were yelled at, blamed for lost luggage, and expected to do the impossible. Those smiling faces, are now these smiling faces.

and they're some of the most epic souls I have ever known. The 5 people in this picture haven't been together in over 7 years. It was wonderful to hear about new positions, new kids, and new spouses. This team came together this weekend to bid a proper farewell to one of our own. One of our sisters from work, one of the girls who worked with us to manage these crazy nights, long days, and all of the travelers. 

This group pulled together to check in dozens of people in no time, we solved problems and kept our sanity. We learned, together, to meet all brand standards and then take a verbal beating. We listened to people who were upset with their room, their delayed flight, their lost bags, or their drunk girlfriend. We listened, made it better, and sent them on their way. There's something about having a work family that makes it a little easier to go in every day. This family made it easier to leave my daughter at home and go back to work. In the end these people made it all better, fixed me and then sent me on my way.

Do you have a work family?

Do your coworkers make your job easier?