Royal Wedding

via

Did you watch?? Did you watch??

The Royal Wedding started at 3 AM west coast time. Staying up was so worth it to see a couple so genuinely in love commit to each other for the rest of forever. I bawled my eyes out, of course.

I cannot begin to describe just how much I admire Kate Middleton. She is not only gorgeous, but she handles herself with such grace and poise. I want to grow up to be a woman like her (and maybe score a prince, too). :) Not to mention the fact that her dress is FLAWLESS.

What did you all think? Anyone cry as much as me?

A night in

Last night I decided I needed to celebrate turning in my 15-page hellacious research paper. So I popped in a Mad Men DVD (this deserves its own post entirely. obSESSED.), got myself some Dove chocolate, and enjoyed a mini bottle of white zin. It made me feel so grown up (because of the wine, of course) and also really relaxed me after all my work lately.

I love Dove chocolate because of the cute little sayings inside the foil wrapping. They always make me feel good.

In other news, I can't believe my last day of classes was today! This semester was certainly one of the hardest times of my life, but the love and support I've received from friends, family, and the blogging community have kept me going (most of the time). I'm grateful and eternally indebted to the people around me.

Time to start studying for finals. I've got exactly two weeks until I'm home free (literally).

be well!

want some cute jewelry for a good cause?

Hello blog friends!

My sorority is doing an online jewelry fundraiser to benefit the Alzheimer's Association of America. Over the course of our history, Sigma Kappa has raised over $1 million for this worthy cause.

If you'd like to help us out, please visit http://www.stelladot.com/sites/shainahaller and choose something fabulous :) Any of their pieces would be the perfect Mother's Day gift or go splendidly with a summery floral dress. Plus, you're helping out people across the nation who are battling such an awful disease.

Here's how the fundraiser works:

• Visit the link above
• In the top right of the home page, you'll see "find your hostess." Click it.
• Type in first name Berkeley and click search
• Select Berkeley SK as your hostess
• Shop til you drop!

100% of the proceeds from our online store go to our foundation. Every little bit helps!

Thanks everyone :)

be a best friend,

tell the truth,

and overuse i love you.

go to work,

and do your best.

don’t outsmart your common sense.

never let your prayin’ knees get lazy

and love like crazy.

---

sometimes all i need is a little country music to make a bad day better. without fail, it always cheers me up. maybe because all country songs talk about real life. things that are great and things that really suck. i like the realism. listen to love like crazy by lee brice. always brings a tear to my eye. i've also been blasting kenny chesney's summertime in anticipation of my amazing summer vacation that is just two short finals/studying/awful/long weeks away!

do you all like country music?

Scenes from Easter Weekend

This weekend was wonderful (aside from the still-going-strong sugar coma). Sometimes all I need is a little family time to get myself back on track. It was the perfect time to get some rest, refocus, and remember what's important. And it gave me a little time to work on my 15 page research paper with peace and quiet. This weekend, I...

...ate my favorite breakfast every day. Oatmeal with bananas and whole almonds and almond milk, and a cup of coffee with almond milk instead of cream. Perfection, and healthy too.

...played around with Cujo, aka my dog Riley. Doesn't she look insane in this picture?! I promise she's not! This picture is currently the background on my phone, and it makes me laugh literally every time I see it.

...went out to dinner with my cute parents. (Seriously, isn't my mom a knock out?) We went to Kristina's, my favorite Mexican restaurant in Hollister. I had a cheese enchilada, which I've been ordering there since I was probably about 7 years old. Old habits die hard, my friends.

Used Sally Hansen's awesome nail stickers. I cannot stop raving about them. They're so great that they deserve their own post. Watch for that later this week :)

I just got back to Berkeley about a half hour ago, so that means it's about time to get back to work on my paper (though I'm almost done!!!!). I'm glad I just had this time at home to keep me happy and optimistic through the next two weeks of finals madness.

Hope you all had wonderful Easter Sundays (if you celebrate) and were able to soak up some sun this weekend. :)

be well!

Forever the Sickest

Friends, I am sick. I felt a little tickle in my throat on Monday but I was able to keep the sickness at bay for the week. I somehow convinced myself that I could sweat it out (because that's sound logic, right?!), so I went hard at the gym this week. Maybe not my best idea in retrospect.

Woke up this morning barely alive. Every time I swallow it feels like there are knives sliding down my throat. Not pleasant. My nose is running like a faucet (TMI?) and my body feels weak. I'm a hot mess of a person right now. Not a pretty sight.

I always always always always always always without fail get deathly ill right before or right after finals, so I suppose I should have seen this coming. It's just my semesterly sickness. This knowledge does not make me feel any better though.

But, on the bright side (because there always is one), I'm home for the Easter weekend! Which means unlimited access to tea, toast, and cold meds. And the comfort of my own bed. And a Mommy to take care of me :)

Happy Easter! Hope you're all feeling splendid today.

Words to Live By

I've been wandering around the blogosphere the past couple of days, and I've stumbled upon some amazing people. One of them is Angela from Oh She Glows. She's the woman who invented the Green Monster, and for that I am eternally grateful! As I was poking around her blog, I found a quote that really resonated with me:

“You can do anything, but not everything.”

~David Allen

Something very important for me to keep in mind these next few weeks with research papers and finals on the horizon!

be well.

Restaurant Review: Saturn Cafe

I'm a vegetarian and a foodie, which means I'm always on the hunt for restaurants that serve good vegetarian food. Ladies and gentlemen, I've found my mecca. Saturn Cafe in Berkeley is the first entirely vegetarian restaurant I've been to, and I almost immediately fell in love.

First off, the decor is unlike anything I've ever seen before. It's 50s/space themed, so everything is neon colors and all the columns are covered in glitter. The table tops are DIY collages of photos of 50s stars (I ate my veggie burger on top of Audrey Hepburn) and memorabilia, like false eye lashes and bobby pins. It was so cute and definitely felt like one of those diners that you just have to love.

Second, the food was bomb. I had the California burger, which is exactly what I get at every restaurant I go to, but it was even better knowing the patty hadn't even come into contact with meat at all. Even though it was veggie, it was still greasy and tasty, just the way I like it. :) My friend Jasmine and I shared a Chocolate Madness for dessert (which can be made vegan, but we opted not) which was equally incredible.

The last thing I loved about this restaurant was actually something I learned in the process of compiling this blog post. The restaurant (which also has a branch in Santa Cruz) is entirely green: they shop locally, don't use trans fats, and only opened in Berkeley because the city matched their ideals of sustainability. I'm not always the greenest, but I felt good knowing that I had a green, delicious meal for dinner.

I cannot wait to go back, and cannot recommend Saturn Cafe highly enough!

**I wish I had taken pictures of my meal!

For future restaurant reviews I promise photographic proof.

Reasons Why This Weekend Ruled

If you haven't noticed yet, I like lists. A lot. I'm too ADD/scattered to keep track of anything on my own, so I make lists. Obsessively. And no, they don't actually help with the ADD/scattered-ness. Sue me. But here's a list of reasons this weekend knocked my socks off:

On Thursday morning (almost the weekend), I got my 6th and final midterm of the semester back. Expected a C, got 100%. That makes me 6 for 6: 6 A’s on the 6 midterms I took this semester (okay, two were A-'s, but they still count). I'm still really anxious about the papers I have to write, but I'm 4 out of 6 pages done with one!
Right after my midterm, I ate an apple the size of a small pumpkin. For those of you who don’t know me well, I really like apples. I even did my senior year final English presentation on them.
As I was eating the apple, I passed a little old man on campus who was carrying a boombox playing “Rock Around the Clock.” Pretty good omen for the weekend, I’d say.

Thursday night Jasmine and I dressed as Mickey and Minnie for our sorority's invite. We were adorable (as evidenced below).Friday, Jasmine and I declared our second major (American Studies), went to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner (ahhh so exciting for me! Literally an entire menu of food I could choose from), and spent some time in the library. I checked out books from the library for the first time as a Cal student. Big day!

Saturday was Cal Day, my favorite day of the year. We spent the day basking in the sunshine and celebrating the fact that we go to the best school in the world. It was definitely a quintessential college day, complete with shenanigans and mysterious bruises. Wouldn't trade it for the world.Sunday, my sister Paige and my parents came for lunch, and my other sister Kendall came for dinner and to stay the night with me. Food coma, but so nice to see my family and spend some quality time with them.

About to embark on my second to last week of classes! Before school is over, I'll write two more research papers, attend 24 more hours of class, and probably cry at least 3 times. But after that, only two more weeks until glorious summer!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

be well.

One month away...

from being a senior in college. Where the hell did the last three years go?

I signed up for first semester senior year classes today. I'm almost 21. I'm almost a real person. It seriously feels like yesterday that I was calling my best friend Morgan to meet me before the first day of freshman year of high school. That's all done with, and the next phase is almost done too!

Am I having a quarter-life crisis?

In 5 years, I'll be 25, almost 26, probably have my Master's (maybe multiple...I really like school), hopefully be working in a career I love. Will I be married by then? My parents already knew each other when they were my age. The past 5 years of my life have gone by in literally the blink of an eye. I feel like I was 15 five seconds ago.

This all goes strictly against my last post about living in the moment. Maybe it's because I'm procrastinating, maybe it's because I signed up for classes today. I need to stop thinking so much.

Lenten Fail

Remember my Lenten challenge? To do one selfish thing everyday for Lent, to honor myself and God? Ugh, fail. I wish I had the patience to finish any task I set up for myself. Oh well, such is life.

For the rest of Lent, I am going to make a conscious effort to treat myself better. I need to love myself like everyone else loves me. I don't lack confidence; I'm self-deprecating to a fault and am in a long-term relationship with modesty. I need to embrace my flaws but also embrace the things that are cool about me. I am going to remember why I'm a good person.

I know this is going to be tough, but I'm all about growth and self-improvement, so I'm willing to put in the work to appreciate myself more. I am going to start by completing my 50th work out of the semester tomorrow (I hope to reach 75 before I go home for summer) and reward myself with some new running shorts. This week is supposed to be sunny everyday, so I'm looking forward to getting some Vitamin D while I write some papers.

Not only am I going to love myself this week, but I'm also going to live in the present moment. This semester (and school year, really) went by so fast, and I want to love every moment I have left with my senior friends. So, with that said, I'm going to get off the computer and spend some QT with my roomie.

be well!

Problem Solving

In my last post I mentioned how I pulled a muscle, which I was super super bummed about! This is the first time in my life that I've actually stayed dedicated to working out, and I've definitely seen results. The fact that I wasn't going to be able to run was really making me sad. I even had a dream that I had gained 10 pounds. I know I sound like a crazy, weight-obsessed person, but truthfully I'm just really committed to workin' on my fitness.

So I gave myself two days off and got antsy for the gym. I went for a run on Wednesday and the pain in my muscle was even worse. Bummer. So I asked around about what I could do. Everyone said to ice and heat the muscle, which I had been doing. Then I realized, hey, why don't I find a workout that won't tug on that specific muscle? Aha! The stairmaster! So I tried it out yesterday to much success! I can get a productive workout in without running.

Sometimes all it takes is a little problem-solving.

Wonderful Weekend

The weekend began (on Thursday, because I'm in college, duh) with a beautiful night spent on the roof of my house drinking wine with my best friends. I took the pictures aboveon my iphone (I really really really need a new camera) and it was such a clear and warm night! It's beginning to feel a lot like summer :)

Friday was SO GORGEOUS. I spent the morning laying in the sun, and spent the evening at the A's opening night game with Kendall, Paige, and my dad. The A's played as if they had never played baseball before (bummer) but games are always fun, so I still enjoyed myself!

Saturday was my friend Genelle's birthday. Her one request was that we go to the gym, so Kate, Jasmine, and I went with her. I ran hard (probably too hard) and wound up pulling a muscle! I haven't been able to work out since. But in happier news, after the gym Jasmine and I discovered this great little place on Telegraph in Berkeley. It's called Pasta Bene, and it's super cheap, quick, and amazingly delicious. I had the salad above (for $4!!!) and was perfectly satisfied. I also scoped out some fantastic looking pasta dishes and cheesecake! I'll definitely be going back there soon.

Saturday night I went to my first foam party (so college, right?!) and I'm still waiting for the pictures. Will post soon, as I'm sure there are some funny ones!

What did you all do over this gorgeous weekend?

Paris Blog!

Exciting news! I have officially established my travel blog, Jordan Goes to Paris. I am so so so excited to embark on my abroad journey!

I will, of course, still be here bloggin' away on the happy list!

Hope you've all been well over the past week, and I cannot wait to share photos of my incredible weekend with you all!

be well.