Happy Halloween!

I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Love,

Frank and Family

I've Never Met a Pumpkin I Couldn't Trust...Apparently Frank Has

I know I said this last year, but one of the most exciting things about living with Jon is making our own traditions. Sometimes they stem from things our parents put into place and other times it is something that is completely our own.

On Tuesday Jon and I modified our October tradition. Last year we decided that before Halloween every year we would watch one of the best movies ever:

But this year we decided to add a little pumpkin carving to our tradition. For one reason or another we didn't carve a pumpkin last year, bahumbug, or should I say boohumbug. heh.

Before the festivities got underway we took a family portrait with the pumpkin before we sliced it up. Frank was not thrilled with the whole pumpkin thing by the way. At first he wondered if it was a giant ball so he batted it with his paw, tried to bite it and then, when all that failed, he just barked at it...continually. Joy.

We told Frank to put a sock in it and then we started to crack that baby open. Oh and I forgot to get the appropriate pumpkin carving knives which made things slightly more difficult.

All the while Frank was still suspicious of the gourd.

I wanted to cook the seeds and well I did...but then I burnt them. Jon and I tried to salvage them and eat them anyway but we stopped when we thought of how un-healthy the carcinogens on the burnt seeds would be.

Viola, The finished product!

And no, he still doesn't trust it.

I Believe I Can Fly

Yesterday Jon turned 25 years old! We had a weekend packed full of birthday celebration for my main squeeze.

On Friday we celebrated his birthday with his work friends by going indoor sky diving! I know cool huh?! I was nervous because I don't know Jon's work friends all that well and I could just see myself puking while it was my turn. Now wouldn't that be a perfect memory for the night.

But we got suited up and my turn went off without a hitch and it was really fun! This is one of those moments when trying something new pays off. While I waited for my turn I couldn't help but thinking that indoor skydiving is totally something that people from say, fifty years ago would have imagined people in the new millennium doing for fun. I felt so futuristic.

Saturday night we went out with a couple of our friends which ended up being a lot of fun. "Going out" usually isn't my cup o' tea per se but it was a really fun time. I even stayed up past midnight you guys, woot woot! And on Sunday we celebrated Jon's birthday with his family (read: yummy food galore!).

On the actual day of his birthday (yesterday) Jon took the day off and we took Frank for a nice walk in a local park and just enjoyed the un-usually warm weather together.

Birthday Boy!!!

Family Photo:

Later that day I made Jon an Indian dish he has been wanting to try along with some of my "famous" red velvet cupcakes. All in all it was a really great weekend. Well that is except for the fact that the batch of cupcakes I made is screaming my name from the kitchen. oof. What did you do this weekend?

So Close To Keeping In The Crazy

This past Saturday I met my the new boyfriend of my dear friend Carrie. Its always an exciting thing to meet the new boyfriends of my friends. I always try my hardest to give a good first impression, you know don't show the crazy right away.

I watched Carrie and her new man chat happily and it was at this moment I pulled out my phone and texted her "He's cuuuuute :)" I wanted to see her response when she pulled out her phone. But she didn't. The night went on and I forgot that I had sent the cheeky text.

That was until Jon and I got home and I received a text from Carrie.

It read:

"Why thank you Sarah. See you soon. (Carrie is driving and asked me to check her phone)

:) haha, (boyfriend's name here)"

OH my I guess I couldn't keep my crazy undercover for as long as I thought.

Have you had some embarrassing situations recently that you are willing to share with me to make me feel less embarrassed?

The White Buffalo

A couple weeks ago I posted this little ditty. Jon came home that day and said "so ...what did your readers think of your post today?" I told him you guys liked it just fine and asked him why he wanted to know. He then told me, "Well it was a little random to write a love letter to Taylor Swift all random like." I then explained to him that I was going to try and do a "Music Monday" post here and there to talk about the music that makes me tick. I suppose I should have explained that instead of randomly going on and on about how much I adore Taylor Swift.

So there you have it Music Monday now resides on my blog!

For today I want to introduce you to a young talent (I think he is young, it is hard to tell with that big ole beard). His name is The White Buffalo and I think he is pretty talented.

His "sound" (I always silly when I use buzz words like that) is very unique and very "earthy" (buzz buzz). His voice sounds like cowboy boots crunching on gravel and his guitar playing is smooth and hearty, kinda like a good beer (seriously that is what his music makes me think of). I love how his songs are free of over production in a studio and it is just simply, a man and his guitar. Love it!

He also reminds me of Eddie Vedder and the "Into The Wild" soundtrack which is one of my all time favorite cd's of all time (that whole cd deserves its own post). See? compare:

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night...Part Deux

So that last post must have really scared you guys because hardly anyone had a ghostly experience to share. Well that leaves me to sharing my only paranormal moment.

I was a senior in high school and it was a Friday night my friends and I had just made a Starbuck's run in a goody two shoes attempt at something to do. As we sat in the parking lot I looked across the street at the abandoned house that sat past the busy expressway, behind a large divider wall. Since I am into all things other worldly I suggested to my friends that we drive by it and have a little look see. They, having been my friends for years, were used to my interest in the "other side" so they humored me and agreed.

As we approached the house we were glued to the car windows taking in the home that had to be at least a hundred years old. This house was right out of the movies, broken shutters, dilapidated yard, and not a soul to be found. But that was where it ended, just an old house, albeit creepy, but mainly just old. So we turned around expecting that to be the extent of our experience. The cars head lights made the u-turn and just as the car was straightened out on the road, the lights highlighted a figure, an old man in the middle of the street. His hand out stretched in warning, his mouth agape and his white nightgown and pale face glowed in the lights.

As if on cue we all let out blood curdling screams and my friend swerved her car around the man. The car, still filled with screams sped off, but when my friends and I in the back seat turned around to watch the nightgown clad man get smaller in the distance, the street was empty, he was gone.

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night...

One of my favorite things to do when fall starts to get chillier is to really dork out on the scary shows that are on channels like the Travel Channel or the History Channel. I love to pull my pajama clad knees under my chin and watch shows about the world's most haunted travel destinations or ghost sitings from plantation homes in the south etc. as I sip some warm tea.

I am ready to indulge in the same scary behavior this year but the only problem is I cant seem to find any of these types of shows on. Last year they were everywhere and played multiple times but now it is just a whole bunch of shows about food and how to vacation on a dime. All very important things but I want my seasonal fright!

These types of shows put me in the mood for Halloween and they also distract me from the fact that my beloved summer weather is drifting away. What am I to do without these shows? Well that is where you come in! Ok so I would love it if you guys would share your own spooky stories with me. I remember at sleep overs everyone would share their paranormal sightings and that was one of the best parts of the night. So let's pretend we are all gathered for a sleep over, I hand you the flash light (which you hold below your chin for an extra creepy effect) go ahead, don't be scared, share a spooky story with us.

Reno Smackdown

This weekend Jon and I hopped in the car and headed to Reno for my brother's (Richard) first real Mixed Martial Arts fight. The last two fights he had were more of exhibitions with full on head gear and pads. This was a horse of a different color my friends, no pads, real hits, and it was televised! woweeee!

So we all (all 17 of us) converged on Reno to watch Ricky make his debut. However at one point it looked as though the fight might not happen. I received a call from my mom after Richard had weighed in. He had made weight (145 pounds) without worry, however his opponent appeared to not even care about the weight restrictions-he was supposed to be 145 but came in at 153 pounds! In the fighting world those 8 pounds made a huge difference-it meant that the opponent was way too heavy for his weight class and ahem, didn't seem to have even tried to make the weight class. So they gave this schmo two hours to lose eight pounds. yeah I know. If this guy could have lost 8 pounds in two hours he would have been a rich man! However he tried to sweat it out at the sauna and only got down to 149. So the people putting on the fight gave my bro the option of fighting this guy or not. And Richard of course said yes. So we were back on.

As we sat in the arena I saw the lights, the cage, the crowd and I began to get nervous. What if this guy smashed my brother?! ahhhh (also, I need to kick back on the hair ties)

So we all sat waiting for our guy to do his thing.

Nani and Papa:

And 13 of Richard's cousin/friend/uncle's so forth and so on, all there to cheer him on.

Here is Richard's twin, James and Richard's girlfriend, Bianca.

Here are James and I waiting for Richard to kick some butt!

And then the lights dimmed, the announcer stepped to center ring and announced my baby brother as the next fighter. Deeeep Breath! I am so proud to report that Richard was a lean mean fighting machine and had that guy submitting in one round. Yup, my brother took this guy down, a guy that was bigger than him dooooown to the mat.

The pride, oh my, it was overwhelming! Our section of the crowd erupted! It was a great moment!

And just when the pride was swelling at an all time high Richard came out to the crowd after he cleaned up etc. and I saw this scene.

My brother, signing an autograph. It was almost too much you guys. My little brother that used to call his hands his "hangas", who loved to wear sweats over all else, who will always have a spot in the back of my mind as the little guy with the blonde curly hair and the freckles across his face coming into his own.

Fall Cleaning

So last night I had this weird state of consciousness. I was awake but not enough to be angered by the fact that I was awake. But during this odd state I wrote this hilarious blog post in my head. Seriously, it was witty, had something to do with Farmville on Facebook (which I don't even play) but oh man it was a good one. This isn't the first time this has happened either so I apologize if I have written about this before.

Speaking of sleep-yes, this next part does have something to do with sleep. So as of right now Jon and I have decided to renew our current lease for 6 more months. It just makes more sense to do that right now since I don't have a consistent income yet (oh my, let's all hope pray, cross our fingers that my income is steady in six months!), so it would be pretty stressful to have to come up with deposits, first and lasts etc. Plus I don't really like moving in the winter. So for now we stay put. oh yeah, I can't forget this, the weird neighbors are moving!!!

But we had to give ourselves some insensitive. Of course. So we zipped up to Ikea and bought a new couch and rug and then we totally revamped our living room. You can see what the living room looked like before here.

It still has some final touches, like paintings etc that we need to decide on. But overall we're pretty happy with it. We were so happy with it in fact that we went through the whole apartment, emptied every drawer, closet bookshelf and decided what we use/love and what we were hanging on to for no good reason. We were in the zone. At the end of the day we had a squeaky clean apartment and sooo many donations for my coat drive. Woot woot!

And guess what? I slept so well that night, better than I have slept since we moved here! Maybe clutter was taking up a lot of mental space. hmm interesting. To me anyway.

Home Is Where The Diversity Is.

One of my favorite parts about traveling is meeting people that live in said vacation spot. I think it is really easy (for me anyway) to assume that everyone has an "everyday" that is the same. But when I travel I am pleasantly reminded that where we spend our everyday shapes us and how we live from day to day. Let me explain.

When I was Rome I felt energy, pure energy. From the waiter encouraging me to finish my dinner with a slap on the back and a boisterous "Manga! Manga!" or the amorous lovers smooching on benches-this city had passion, it was palpable. These Romans lived their "everyday" with a vigor that made my observation fun.

In Memphis I was able to slow down a bit, which is hard for me to conceptualize-I'm a go go go kinda girl. But there was something bewitching about the sweet southern drawl and the friendly conversations that I found everywhere I looked. And when I say conversations I'm not exaggerating, from the waiters to the shuttle drivers people were willing to take some time out of their day to share some insight, a joke, or just plain listen. It was refreshing.

It is when I think back to these instances I am reminded that my own everyday is unique too. Growing up in California, Silicon Valley to be specific, the one attribute that is most salient about living here is the diversity that is available in so many ways. The food is the most diverse I have ever seen. Within a ten mile radius I can choose from Ethiopian, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Cambodian, Greek, Vietnamese, German, British, Russian, Persian, French, and your standard of smoothies, vegan cafes, and salad bars on any given night. Yes, that is all within a ten mile radius, maybe less.

The diversity doesn't end there though, hardly. One of my favorite things about living in California is that regardless of the scenery you desire you can probably reach it by car within a few hours. The beach, wine country, mountains, lakes and desert are all feasible outings if you fill up your gas tank and make a really good play list.

And one of the most obvious ways California is so diverse is the people that live here. In college I sat next to a woman from India in an arranged marriage, I also met another woman from Sweden and really, that is just the tip of the iceberg. I love that any given day I can meet someone from all around the country or the world.

So that's what makes my hometown special to me. What makes yours special?