don't give up on love ♥

i served the cutest elderly man the other night. He came up to me and said "you look just like the love of my life when she was younger - but I let her slip away, stupid me. I was an idiot. All guys are idiots when they're younger. She was the only woman I ever truly loved." a tear came to my eye because this is SO true ♥

ATTENTION ALL MEN OUT THERE: if you've got a woman who loves you, pushes your buttons, pisses you off on a regular basis, and makes you face your shit, keep her around. That's your soul mate ♥

Love really IS all its cracked up to be. It's the only feeling that is SO stinkin' powerful - you have the worlds most natural high at your finger tips and you feel unstoppable and uncontrollably blessed.

Just remember - after a break up, if love felt sooooo amazing with the wrong person, just imagine how kickass it will feel with the right one!! Don't give up on love ♥

"I know how to get to Tenaja Falls"

Saturday. February 19 2011.

10:00AM - all packed up. Looney and I met Shawn, Jeremy & Lincoln at Camp Pendleton to make our way towards Lake Elsinore to find Tenaja Falls. Jeremy has been there before so he "knew how to get there." After a little more than an hour truck ride, we came to the conclusion we were all lost. Looney and I in his 2 wheel drive Tacoma and the other three guys in Shawn's $2,500 rigged 4 wheel drive Tahoe, we plowed all wheels into the mountains to search for the waterfall. We came to an area in the trail where there was a small area to the left to turn-around (if need be). As we drove a few feet further up the trail, a HYUNDAI - WAS - PARKED - IN - THE - MIDDLE - OF - THE - DIRT - ROAD. No passengers in it, all belongings out of the car and this Hyundai blocking the trail from traffic to go through. Needless, to say - we needed to get through to see if the waterfall was up that way.

4 guys, 1 girl and 2 trucks later::: Shawn plowed over the hill incline, through the brush, dodging the Hyundai and landed on the other side of the trail with a few scratches on his vehicle from the brush. I say to Looney, "let's just park your truck and go hop in the truck with them. There's no way your Tacoma is going to make it - your ass end is going to fish tail right into that car." Looney, on the other hand, had FULL FAITH in his 2 wheel drive baby. "Nah, I'll be fine" Here goes nothin'....SMASHHHHHHHHHHHHH - pegs off the hyundai's right side mirror and scrapes up the side of the car!!!
Looney "oh shit, did I hit that?"
Me "oh my god..yep."
The look on his face was priceless. He wanted to laugh but wanted to be pissed at the same time. He writes a note, hangs onto it in case he sees the dumbasses who parked their car in-the-middle-of-the-flippin'-road up ahead and we all carry on our way to explore what's ahead.

Highlight of this moment: First Looney laughed. Then he was a little mad. Then he laughed again. I seriously wish I would have gotten pictures of the damage/incident but I was wayyyy too busy almost peeing my pants from laughing, then trying to be serious, then peeing my pants from laughing again. He handled this situation better than a lot of people. He was ready to make the most of the rest of the day - and not just call the day quits. haha. -----after this incident, we found a dirt biker who told us to walk up to the top of the mountain (which wasn't very far away) and take in the beautiful view. From being so far East, we surprisingly could see the ocean coast at the distance from that high up. The view was so green - it reminded me of the hills, in the Sound of Music. [Funny side note: Yes, it's extremely personal but sooooooooo funny. Jeremy had to do the dirty deed in the wilderness. He had nothing to wipe with and he was - desperate. I mean, when a guys gotta go, he's gotta go. So he used his hat - R.I.P. baseball hat. HA!!!!]

Famous words came out of Looney's mouth when talking about what he's going to do about hitting the car and getting back across to the opposite side of the trail: "I'll leave the note on their car or I'll just hit it again!" We get back over where the Hyundai is parked - and damn, it's a lot steeper of a lift going back the other way. All of us try shifting the car over towards the left side of the road - and the car alarm goes off.
Shawn "Don't worry - it will only go off for 2 minutes"
Shawn and I take the Tacoma's tail end, start pushing it and as Looney gets some speed, the mud underneath us makes us slip...and well, Looney called it, hitting the car again. A note left on the mirror with his name and phone number and we were getting the heck outta there.

Still determined to find Tenaja Falls? YOU BET!!! After asking someone, we came to find out we were rather close. The mile hike to the fall was sketchy - we had to cross over a river that is usually easy to cross (until you get inches and inches of rain like we had just gotten). The river was flooded and we carefully needed to find rocks to hop on. Shawn on the other hand, ended up falling in. HAHAHA. The waterfall was breathtaking. How God created such naturally beautiful scenery is beyond me. We went at a perfect time. Rain had just hit the waterfall, so it was flowing pretty awesome. We climbed up and down the waterfall rocks for an hour or so, took it nature's beauty and called it a day because we didn't want to be stuck in the mountains once dark hit.

The day adventures had called for a chill night. Lincoln made dinner at my place and we all took turns dominating Super Nintendo. Epic day & awesome night. Little did we know we'd have just as many problems the next day on our mud cave adventure....

SUP &Surfing.

Weekend of January 15 2011.

SUP = Stand Up Paddling
Surfing = one of the most peaceful, realization moments.

I recently tried two new water activities and must say, I'm extremely satisfied with both.

Stand Up Paddling (SUP)- In the early 1960s, the Beach Boys of Waikiki would stand on their long boards, and paddle out with outrigger paddles to take pictures of the tourists learning to surf. The sport is an ancient form of surfing, and reemerged as a way for surfing instructors to manage their large groups of students, as standing on the board gave them a higher viewpoint, increasing visibility of what was going on around them. Today, the sport benefits athletes with a strong 'core' workout. SUP'ing is popular at warm coastal climates and resorts, and is gaining in popularity as celebrities are sampling the sport, and cross-over athletes are training with SUP.

My experience: At Liquid Force, two of our boats are docked at the Carlsbad Lagoon Wakesports. Since I work for Liquid Force now, I get all of my rentals for free (SUP, Kayak, Jet ski, etc.) - SOOOOOOO...I decided to try Stand Up Paddling. I had a short board (which is harder to stabalize yourself) & I decided to paddle from the Wakesport cove to Bristol Cove (which is my backyard) and totals to probably about a mile or so, if not a little more? I paddled to my dock, chatted with my roomie for a little while and then paddled my way back to Wakesports. It was very relaxing. Gave my shoulders and core a workout, so I didn't fall in the water, but it was just me. my paddle. the board. and the sunset :)

Surfing: a surface water sport in which a person (the surfer) rides a board on the crest of the wave as it carries the surfer towards the shore.

My experience: I went down to Mission Beach with Peanut, Jake, Mario & some other dude. They taught me how to surf. Wet suits, surf boards and decent waves - it was so relaxing yet tiring at the same time. You realize the world is so much bigger than what we see everyday, when you're out in the water plopped up on your surfboard, feet dangling waiting to catch the next wave. I got up a handful of times. It is a really hard technique to get down and you just have to "feel the wave."


"Everyone has a 'risk muscle.' You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies. Make a point of using it at lesat once a day." - Roger Von Oech

A story all you can do is laugh about.

So - last night I had the night off of work. My "plan" was to head to the gym, rent a movie and absorb the "me time" that was available. All the roommates gone. Beautiful evening with a perfect sunset on the lagoon. The start to a beautiful evening.

-BUT- I got to the gym, could not find a parking spot ANYWHERE (not even a mile down the street). The gym then sounded like a really bad idea. I decided to scratch that and workout harder this morning (which yes, I did - no cheating for me!). So then I was about to head home when I heard from a friend down in PB to come eat our homemade lasagna we made two nights prior and watch the Season Premiere of Tosh.O [an epic show about Tosh - this dude - making fun of hilarious YouTube Videos]. Yep, that seemed tempting and at this point I just wanted to chill with someone - so I head my way down to PB [which mind you, is about 30 minutes from Carlsbad].

I'm so anxious to go eat, I see the Garnet/Balboa exit, blinker over to the right lane... thinking to myself, "almost there!" Just when things couldn't get any better, they got worse. The car in front of me slams on their breaks, which causes me to put the pedal to the metal and hit my breaks. I look in my rearview mirror and think, "uh oh. this car is going to nail me." CRASHHHHH!!!!!!!! Luckily, I gave myself enough room in front of me that I didn't collide into the Camry in front of me (thanks drivers ed teacher DAD!) I crawl over my seat and hop out the passenger side door - mind you, we're on the busy, rush hour highway. I start getting all of the information you usually get from a person who just smashed into you and juuust when I didn't think things could get any worse.

......a lady comes and clips my driver side mirror!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH. I was like "are you joking me?!!??!!?" So - not only do I have to worry about one report from the cop - I now have to have 2 police reports.

the cop gets to the scene, thinks we're crazy for blocking traffic - dude, in wisco we have to stay right where the accident happened otherwise we get yelled at! So - that's what I did.lol But nope, in California, you have to get off the highway and go on some random street to not block the main traffic. Makes sense...
We pull over on some side street off of the highway - all 3 vehicles, plus a motorcycle cop. The officer talks to the guy who hit me, collects his information and lets him leave. Then he comes to me and asks what happened - so I tell him. When I told him that the girl clipped me when I was parked and out of my car, he BUSTED OUT LAUGHING saying, "wait!?!? She clipped you when you were parked and weren't in the car?!?" "Yes, officer." I had a very hard time holding back from laughing - so we kinda chuckled together. He then tells me that I'll be in 2 separate reports. He then asks me to come look at the damage done to my car. I get out of my car, we get in the reflection of my headlights, he looks at my feet and BUSTS OUT LAUGHING AGAIN. Yes guys - I had my five fingers on - the officer thought that was pretty comical.

Bet I made that officers night. Certainly didn't make his night with all of the paperwork he's going to have, but totally made him laugh. He said he had had a long night.
SOOOOOOOOO, remember that even when something bad happens, you just being there can turn the situation around. Seeing as how I shouldn't have to pay for anything, I was happy leaving that accident, making a police officers long evening - as I drove away with a back bumper shifted up and ready to fall off - and a mirror that needs some fixin'.

new lagoon HOME :)

Backyard

Here are some pictures of my little lagoon home. I have 3 roommates - Sarah, Virginia & Matt. They're all wonderful :)

View of my room from my door!

Living Room/Kitchen View

new year UPDATE.

Wow. Has my life changed a LOT in the past 2 1/2 months.

For one--- as of today, I'm an official condo renter. First time EVER!! Yep, I move into the condo on the Carlsbad lagoon bright and early tomorrow morning! No more house or apartment hopping. I will have my OWN bed and living space with 3 kicka$$ people - Virginia, Sarah & Matt. The only downfall...rent every month? Iiiick. But it will be sooooo worth it. Attached is a picture of our patio, firepit & dock :)

Second of all, seeing as how I've planted a root in a living location, I am finally apart of a new gym! 24 hour fitness has great locations all over southern california and I'm so StoKed to get back to pumping the iron and working my way towards training for a full marathon.

Third of all, I am officially now a FULL TIME EMPLOYEE of LIQUID FORCE WAKEBOARDING. BOOWEM. I first became temporarily hired while one of our Customer Service reps blew out his back and is on disability leave. About a week and a half later, while I was on my way from Vail to Denver to fly home to Geebs, the VP of Sales gave me a ring, offereing me a full time position with Liquid Force saying they wanted me to be apart of their team full time. SCOREEEEE!!!! So today was my first day back on the job from a nice, lengthy Christmas vacation home & I'm learning the computer system where we enter dealer orders in. I'll still be doing social networking and marketing, along with sprayin' a little graphic design into my free time but for the most part, while Zimm is out, I'll be focusing on Customer Service and learning the industry. Everyone has to start somewhere right?!

So---from the looks of things, I'm growing some roots in Cali and am here to stay for a while. I'm still planning on working at D Street for a while, good money and great people! We'll see where life and the new year takes me! So excited for this independent chapter in my life! Life truly does begin at the end of your comfort zone. Go do something that seems out-of-the-ordinary or scary and unheard of...you'll never know how God may surprise you or bless you :)

ski patrol REsCue.

Vail, CO - DAY 1
December 18, 2010

The morning started off with an egg sandwich and Drew, Amy, Wes & I gearin' up for the 11,570 feet slopes of Vail.  A few hours of the Back Bowl and we headed in for lunch. Now, what we thought would be a short, 2 hour post-lunch quick mountain ski, turned into a scary ending. Amy and I sent the boys out to do their own thing, while we did ours - they weren't into terrorizing the double black diamonds that were closed off and being B/A like us. We studied the trail map on the way up 'perfecting a plan' to stay towards the right of the mountain, closest to Vail Cascade...Well, let's just say that when we got up to the mountain and headed down our planned trail, we saw a few black diamonds that weren't closed off and got a little lost.

Black diamond to black diamond led us to either going up hill to the left or up hill to the right - our only downhill choice was two double black diamonds:::that may have been closed off? We can't remember. And umm...closed off for good reason, possibly. Funny enough, the trail was named "BEEN THERE, DONE THAT". ha. Amy led, acting like she knew where she was going and we finally hit a point where there was nowhere to go and all we heard was water. We saw a chair lift to our left, but it was wayyyy too far away. And we saw a run to our right, but that was also far away and we'd have to cross the creek. Not to mention, it was 3:45 PM, the lifts and the mountain closes at 4:30 and that's just about the time it gets dark out too. NOT GOOD.

Thank goodness I had my cell phone. Ski Patrol needed to be notified and come find us. We waited for them for about a half hour - 2 guys and 1 girl followed our tracks from the directions we told them. It was a scary ride out of there. It was getting dark, we were riding along a ledge where there was a creek below us and we got to a point where we had to get some speed and hop the creek. Creek hoppin' & ski boot climbin' led us onto the main trail.

We could've gotten arrested or a huge fine, but the ski patrol was very generous and saved our butts from some tickets and only ended up rackin' up a little bar tab at VENDETTA'S (a local ski patrol hang out). The end of the night turned into history......