I AM. f21. & 30-day-challenge

heheh okay so I have to explain the title... this is the e-mail from my mom. I realize it's kind of small.. you can click on it to enlarge (I believe).. but if not.. the important part -- that she bolded herself --

"happy birthday to ya!!!! forever 21"

^ my mom is the cutest, basically. she knows I love forever21, and links that to the fact that I'm turning 21... and possibly has some subconscious knowledge of the song "forever young"... (I don't know hahaha). either way. super cute :)

SOOO the bf had class in the morning but he brought me my favorite french toast from d'angelo bread.. I *know* I've blogged about it before xD and/or twitpic'd it many times. and a mocha from that place also :) and they didn't include sugar so he dropped off the food on the bed, ran to the kitchen and brought back sugar 'cause he "didn't want you to get out of bed".. AWW so cuuteee :)

then he went to class.. etc.. came back and he was pretty tired so he took a nap while I replied to fb/twitter/etc (THANK ALLLLLL OF YOU LADIES BTW!! sooo sweet of youuu! I had a huge smile on my face the whole time, hehe). then I got ready.. he woke up.. and we left to go to the Thousand Oaks mall.

drive down the 101 was soooo pretty.. can't believe neither of us brought cameras -__- but fortunately I had my point and shoot and he had his iPhone4 -- which actually has quite good camera abilities.
I LOVE CLOUDS!! and dappled lighting.. on mountains (not on people).

GORGEOUS HUH? I love fall weather... fall means clouds... and we never get clouds in California, at least not really fluffy ones. Anyway.. the mall was basically deserted.. only a handful of people in the whole place, exactly how I like my malls. I haaate walking around in big crowds of people! Anyway.. if you think TO is too far.. then head to the mall in Santa Monica.. they just (re)opened it up a few months ago, looks really similar to this and it's also pretty awesome :)

Me being "XXI FOREVER"... hahah do you like this pic too Mom? :P

*she e-mailed me for a pic she liked of the bf and I that I had blogged about... and she told me she was using it as her desktop background and that it made her happy.. AWWW!

I told the bf to take a pic of me in front of f21... and this is what he does -___- hahaha. pretty cool view of the mall though, right? btw it was a HUGE f21.. wish we had time to walk around but I had to go to the bathroom (which is inside).. and I got distracted by the Ben Bridge and all of the shiny things inside of it. Found an amaaazing opal ring that I loveddd.. but.. yea. Maybe in a few years :P hahah!

OH!! Then we went into the PUPPY SHOP! Def made me forget about the ring, hahaha.

this was actually the second dog we played with... I guess Mondays are slow and the guy said any chance the pups get to get out and play... so we said okay. This was a mix betweeeeeen.. a Dalmatian and some other large dog (like 300lb dog haha). Going to grow up to be 100lb, not bad at all. had such a funny personality.. since it was teething it would nip and gnaw on you.. then all of the sudden it would sit down and look at you with puppy eyes, saying "why don't you love me?" then you'd pet it and it would nip at you again. but when you held it, it was sooo subdued.. ahh.. loved this dog..

aaaand.. the first ones we played with... CORGIS!! I loveeee corgis.. reminded me of Mona!

fiesty ones.. also nippy but their jaws aren't that strong so it didn't bother me. They started chewing on my shoes.. but it's ok 'cause I got them for like $10 hahaha. PLUS THEY WERE SOO CUTE! Brother and sister.. if we were allowed to have pets, I definitely would've brought these two home. the brother kept jumping on my lap.. and would just sit there.. then they would start playing and chase each other around and the girl would run behind the little space behind my back (I was sitting on the floor).

off to dinner we went.. MELTING POT in thousand oaks. fondueee!
we liked the reflection on the wall :P

my first drink!

what we ordered for dinner..

appetizer.. cheese dip. pretty mild cheese. wouldn't really recommend. if you get separate meals (appetizer, main course, etc) we think we smelled a really good mexican-smelling dip.. would've much rather have gotten that :P

my drink in all of its iphone4-backlit glory. it was oooook.. I'm not a huge fan of alcohol anyway... I wouldn't get this again.

plate after dessert.. had a small slice of cheesecake with a candle in it... no birthday singing... overall thoughts of Melting Pot is that it's a nice place to go once. the price is a little high for what it is (the food isn't THAT good) and the main point that they're selling is that it's a "place for special occasions".. when you walk in, they immediately ask you if it's for an occasion.. they have pots on display where you can have them engrave it and they'll serve your food to you in it. the servers aren't really "personable" (what my dad says), they don't take the time to get to know you, they just do what they do and leave. oh the server after said "come back and visit me, will you?" and we were thinking.. hmm.. no.. thanks though... hahahaha.

BY THE WAY before anyone says I'm ungrateful and overly critical... the bf and I talked about this in the car on the way home and we both agreed.. I'm just writing down what it is so you guys can save your money :P

anyway.. after that.. we were trying to decide what to do.. and decided on going to play pool :) since I didn't have socks for bowling.. it ended up being really fun! Went to Dargan's bar in downtown Santa Barbara... we walked past it a lot going to class and never went in.

walked in and asked for the fruitiest drink they had... the bartender made me a martini. it was really good, can't taste the alcohol AT ALL.. my kind of drink!
again, in its iphone4-backlit glory..

played 4 games of pool.. tied 2-2.. but of course I won the last winner-take-all game :P haha! I was making AMAZING shots... I think I'm just better with a drink in me. but really, it was kind of freaky how good my shots were.

went home, slept...

woke up this morning to find cupcakes!! my favorite place in town (for cupcakes).. I blogged about it before, called Whodidily's. mMmmm~ bf promised me cupcakes but we never got the chance to get them on my actual bday so he went before I woke up and bought me some :) how sweet of him~ yes he received tons of hugs and kisses.

bought me 16!!

later on in the day... mm, had to get a close-up. sorry for the bad quality pics, I knoooooow shame on me for being a photographer and taking bad point and shoot pics, hahaha. I'll take better pics in a bit :P I actually need to update my photo blog soon anyways.

30 DAY CHALLENGE!!

Sooo after seeing so many ladies do this :P and reading so many fun facts, AND partially being bored and egotistic enough to think that people would actually want to read this... here goes. I joined the 30 day blog challenge (the first one, we'll see if I want to continue on with the new photo one that's going around).

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself.
Day 02- A picture of something you cannot live without.
Day 03- A habit that you wish you didn’t have.
Day 04- List 15 songs that represent your life’s soundtrack.
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to.
Day 06- A hobby you have.
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you.
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why.
Day 09- Something/someone you’re proud of.
Day 10- A story about a past relationship.
Day 11- A picture of something you dislike.
Day 12- A picture of your room & don’t cheat by cleaning it. Share a secret.
Day 13- Write a letter telling someone something you could never tell them.
Day 14- A picture of something you ate and 10 confessions.
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle & share the first 10 songs that play.
Day 16- Something you could live without.
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why.
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have.
Day 19- Nicknames you have & how or why you have them.
Day 20- If you had 3 wishes, what would they be.
Day 21- Share a picture from your day.
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else.
Day 23- What is something you crave.
Day 24- Share a story about your past that you are ashamed of.
Day 25- What I would find in your bag.
Day 26- Places you want to visit before you die.
Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge?
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned.
Day 30- A picture of you today & 20 goals you want to accomplish.

Soooo there's my recent pic.. I took it while driving down to Thousand Oaks so it's fressshh, hahaha. trying to show off my makeup but I pretty much failed and gave up after that, it wasn't thaaat fantastic anyways. as for my 15 random facts..

1. I find myself sporadically capitalizing... then giving up. (I mean, if you couldn't tell already). I'm not quite sure WHY I'm doing this but apparently I get lazy after the first sentence :P

2. I absolutely LOVE the sound of rain... back in 8th grade, my boyfriend at the time tried recording the sound of rain for me, hahha. And for awhile, the current bf and I had a "sleep sounds" thing on his iPhone and we'd play a rain mix. Sooooo incredibly soothing.

3. I have this fear of being secondary... maybe it's because I'm the younger child and I feel the need to "beat" my brother all the time (not to mention that I was ALWAYS compared to him when I was younger.. "but your brother does this".. "but your brother does that".. etc). Anyway, periodically I feel inferior (especially to the bf, because he's a better communicator, more outgoing, people come to talk to him about business/video/etc) and I worry that people won't take me seriously (or as seriously) because I'm a woman in this business. Then I talk to the bf and I get over it ;P

4. I've had a best friend since Kindergarten... she's basically my other half. We periodically lose touch but have recently rebonded and it's amazing. I absolutely adore her. I used to be her shadow when I was younger - literally LOL. Then I became her guard dog... and I always had this "second sense" of her boyfriends... if I didn't like them, it didn't work out between them. I totally didn't sabotage them or anything.. it was just how it was. She noticed it and for awhile, she asked me what I thought of the guys she was seeing, hahaha. Anyway.. I'm seeing her this Saturday and it's going to be funnn!

5. The bf and I have a really funny relationship... sometimes we rip on each other for no reason and people who don't know us are like "woooah what the heck" but it's really just out of fun. Either that or we're just awkward people... and it makes other people think "oookay.." haha. I think we just enjoy it :P

6. I've probably said this 20 times before... but I get super OCD about my closet organization. I also hate cleaning unless I have time to clean EVERYTHING... if I can only clean part of something, then I don't want to clean. I've become a little better over the years but, still. I get wrapped up in things and focus on them for hours and hours. That's why I don't draw anymore... I would seriously start drawing after dinner (say, 8PM) and keep working until 3AM (and this was in middle school) because I was such a perfectionist -__-

7. I know Dane Cook did a joke about this... but when I'm sad, I think of more sad stuff. LOL! Then I just keep getting sadder and sadder. I think it's partially because I try to push stuff away so I don't think about it, so when I do think about it, I figure "why not get it ALL out of the way NOW?" hahah! But maybe I'm just making up the explanation... who knows.

8. I don't like my voice! I can't stand hearing myself talk, that's why I hate doing videos even if I want to.. hahaha. I've always thought I had a pretty low voice, esp for a girl... and one time I was talking to someone on the phone, she handed the phone to some other guy and he was like "oh! I thought I was talking to a dude!" and I was sooo embarrassed and pissed off.. hahaha. Yea, it probably stems from that. Whenever I talk on the phone to someone new or for business (or even my voicemail), I automatically raise the pitch of my voice a little. Ugh, it's terrible :X

9. I can whistle while blowing air in AND out, hahah. I once had a "whistling competition" with someone (she was like, 10+ years older than me) for who could keep whistling the longest and she was surprised... or maybe she was just humoring me because I was kid :P who knows.

10. I meowed when I was younger! LOL! That's embarrassing enough as it is. I was sooo shy that I wouldn't talk to strangers, I just meowed. BUT.. apparently the bf barked at people.. well, one person.. randomly.. when he was younger... so I don't feel *quite* so bad :P

11. I go through phases in life where I'll collect something, then be annoyed at myself for collecting it and want to give things away, hahaha (thus the periodic large blogsales). I think I'm in my collecting phase currently.

12. I have a hard time using more expensive products... especially lippies. I have like, 3 unused lippies because I don't want to ruin them (I know, I'm so weird!!).

13. I need to make a goal list... actually, I really like making "to do" lists and crossing things off, I feel really productive :P but, yes. I want to make a goal list.. except.. I know if I write it down somewhere, I'll be annoyed at my handwriting later or it'll get lost or something will happen to where I'll have to rewrite it every few months and that just.. sucks :P

14. I find that I reconnect with a lot of people around my birthday... mostly because of all of the facebook wallposts ("happy birthday!") so I can start up conversations more easily... either that or find out who isn't interested in conversations because they never reply. Then wonder why I have them on my wall, then remember that it's because I should network more, then wonder why I don't network more and reach out to people more often..

15. I periodically dream about people I've never met... and more often than that, the other people in the dream are people I haven't talked to in YEARS or never ever really talked to, but they play really important roles in my dreams. Actually, I really like dream analysis. That sounds better :P