Tim Burton Exhibit at LACMA

Tim Burton is one of my favorite people in the whole world.

On October 9, 2011 I was finally able to visit his exhibit I had been dying to see for months!  The exhibit was held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  The drive was such a pain, Will and I got a little turned around thanks to the vague directions we got.  Thanks a lot Google Maps!  My boyfriend is such a trooper for driving us around all over the place!

When we reserved our tickets we had to pick a specific time to be able to enter the exhibit.  We decided on noon and were a little nervous that they wouldn't let us in since we were a few minutes late.  Lucky for us, they weren't as strict with the time as they had made it out to seem.  They were still checking tickets and hadn't let the line in yet.

The exhibit was as amazing as I had pictured it!  They had some of Tim Burton's personal sketches, personal notes and write ups of his movies and models of his characters as well as movie costumes.  I loved every bit of art work!  Will and I had a wonderful time :)

Unfortunately, they told everyone right away that pictures were not allowed to be taken inside the exhibit.  There were some rebels in there who did it anyway, but I was too paranoid since the employees were watching everyone like hawks and yelling at the people they caught breaking the rules.  Luckily though, I was able to hunt down pictures of some of the artwork so I could give you all a little taste of the awesomeness I was able to experience.  Enjoy!

Edward Scissorhands' costume!

The awesome entrance to the exhibit.

Thank you, Tim Burton, for allowing your incredible art and personal collection to be displayed for the public to see!  It was such a great experience!

My Chemical Romance and Blink-182 Honda Civic Tour 2011

I'm a little bit in love with My Chemical Romance.  And by "a little bit" I mean a whole hell of a lot a bit.  It had been 4 years since I had last seen them live, which is way too long.  The moment they announced their Honda Civic tour with Blink-182, I knew I had to go.  But of course, responsibility called and I had too many bills to pay, therefore crushing all hope of getting tickets to the tour.  Damn you responsibility!

Flash forward to July 27th.  My amazing boyfriend surprised me with tickets to the October 6th show in San Diego!  They had just announced the new tour date so he was able to snag some good seats!  I was so stoked!

October 6th came before we knew it.  We got there about a half an hour before MCR went on and hunted down our seats.  The Cricket Ampitheatre is one of my favorite venues and the second venue I saw MCR at for Projekt Revolution in 2007.  That was an amazing day!

The show started and I was instantly ecstatic!  I kept grabbing onto Will and shaking him after every song!  He liked it ;)  MCR was absolutely incredible as always.  They never disappoint, they always put on such a great show.  They sang a lot of their older stuff which made me super happy!  It's been so long since I've heard them sing Helena live.  I was able to get a few pictures and a couple videos before their set sadly ended. :(  Gerard ended the show with Cancer before saying goodnight.  I was so bummed when they left, it felt like they played for less than an hour!  I can't wait for them to go on tour again.

It wasn't long before Blink-182 came out and started their set.  They were really great!  It was my first time seeing them live.  They were really funny and put on a good show!  I mean, not as good as MCR but I'm a little biased when it comes to my Jersey boys.  Blink played for about an hour and a half or so.  The cold wind started to pick up towards the end of their encore, so Will and I were freezing and couldn't wait to get out of there!  

Blink's set ended and while I was sad to leave, I couldn't wait to get back into the warm truck.  Will and I sat in the truck and waited for the long lines of cars to clear out.  Little did we know that we'd be stuck there waiting for an entire hour before anyone was finally able to move.  It was a packed house that night!  

After the hour of waiting, the almost 2 hour drive home and trying to hunt down food for a good 30 minutes, we finally got home at about 3am.  We were so exhausted, but it was all worth it!

BIG thank you to my wonderful boyfriend for giving me such an amazing birthday present!  I love you so much! <3   

I've Got A Fever And The Only Prescription Is More Pumpkin!!

Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts!

Pumpkin Spice Eggo Waffles!

Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses!

Pumpkin Spice Soy Milk!

Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt!

  

And, my personal favorite, Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino!

So much Pumpkin goodness, so little time.  There are so many yummy looking pumpkin products out right now, I can't even express how stoked the Pumpkin enthusiast in me is! 

This Friday night I'm making breakfast for dinner for me and Will. Well, I should call it more of a "Breakfast Dinner Feast" since after seeing the Pumpkin Spice Eggos and the Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts, I decided to add them to the menu for that night.  I'm hoping that I can find them, from what I've read you can find them at Target.

Scrambled Egg Whites
Turkey Bacon
Hash browns
Pumpkin Spice Waffles
Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts for dessert

Good thing I'm going to the gym before dinner!  We are going to be so stuffed with deliciousness.  I can't wait!



It's Friday, I'm in Love

Happy Puppers says "Happy Friday, boys and girls!"

He's just as stoked as I am that it's the weekend!

This picture just made my day, so I wanted to share the happiness with all of you. :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Pumpkin Protein Shake Deliciousness

Fall is finally upon us my little ghouls and goblins!  Which means I have Pumpkin Fever!  I love everything pumpkin from pumpkin pie to those heavenly Pumpkin Spice Creme Frappuccinos from Starbucks! (Seriously, if you haven't tried one yet you NEED to. They are beyond delicious. I usually get the Creme version but all of their Pumpkin Spice drinks are yummy. Try one! You'll thank me later.)

Since I've been working out like crazy, I thought it would be a good idea to add some protein shakes to my diet. Now don't cringe, not all protein shakes taste like pure nastiness.  I have found that the tasty factor heavily relies on what type of protein powder you use.  I've had such bad luck in finding a good protein powder, every kind that I tried always seemed to leave this disgusting after taste in my throat.  So gross.  So I asked my Dad what kind of protein powder he and my Mom use, and he directed me to Biochem Whey Protein Powder.  I made a trip to my local Sprouts (formally Henry's) and picked up the Vanilla flavor and the Chocolate Fudge flavor.  I tried the Chocolate Fudge protein powder in my Pumpkin Protein Shake a couple days ago and it is absolutely delicious!!  I highly recommend trying Biochem Protein Powder if you haven't already.

Because I am so in love with this protein shake, I figured I'd spread the wealth and share it with the world.

Pumpkin Protein Shake

6-10 Ice Cubes

(depending on how thick you like your shakes. I use 10)

1/3 cup Pure Canned Pumpkin

(make sure to get 100% Pure Pumpkin and not Pumpkin Pie filling. I use Libby's Canned Pumpkin. You can find it at Ralphs.)

1 1/3 cup Soy Milk

(I use Silk Light Original Soy Milk but you can use the regular or Vanilla as well)

1-2 scoops Chocolate or Vanilla Protein Powder

(I use Chocolate since I'm a chocoholic, but Vanilla is good too! I personally like to use 2 scoops of protein powder)

2 packets of Splenda

Cinnamon to taste

Blend it all up and you'll have yourself a yummy, healthy and festive protein shake!  Make sure you have a BIG glass handy, this recipe makes a huge shake.  It's guaranteed to keep you full for a good while!

Nutrition Facts

Total if you follow my exact recipe:

Calories: 227

Fat: 2.3g.

Fiber: 4.6

Protein: 29.3g.

Breakdown

2 Scoops Chocolate or Vanilla Biochem Protein Powder

Chocolate: Calories: 120
Vanilla: Calories: 110

Fat: 0g.

Sugars: 7g.

Fiber: 0g.

Protein: 20g.

1 1/3 cup Silk Light Original Soy Milk

Calories: 80

Fat: 2g.

Fiber: 1.3g.

Protein: 8g.

1/3 cup Libby's Canned Pumpkin

Calories: 27

Fat: 0.3g.

Fiber: 3.3g.

Protein: 1.3g.

Enjoy!! :)

Massage Therapy...and not the dirty kind!

For the last month or so I have grown more and more unhappy with my job.  Not because what I do is difficult and not because the company I work for treats me poorly.  My current job is actually great, they offer full benefits, good pay and the environment is pretty laid back.  I just sit at my desk all day, not having to really interact with anyone, creating charts and updating information in different systems.  And THAT, my friends, is where the problem lies.  I'm bored out of my MIND, I'm not being challenged and I'm doing the exact opposite of what I wanted to do with my life.  I want to make a difference, I want to help people and I want to help animals.

Unfortunately, due to my queasiness, I would never be able to help animals in a veterinary hospital.  I will leave that to Will. ;) I plan on volunteering with I.C.A.R.E. Dog Rescue in October when I will have more free time.  So, the helping animals part is covered.

My mom recently had hip replacement surgery on her left hip and she had her right one done back in April.  Both surgeries were a success!  I realized though that every time I'm in a hospital setting now, I wish I had the ability to be a nurse or a doctor.  I would have loved to be a Pediatrician.  But, I think I would terrify the already nervous kiddos even more if I passed out in front of them (thank you very much queasiness) so that wouldn't have worked out very well.  When I see incompetent nurses, I want to strangle them because I know I could do their job so much better and make their patients feel a hundred times better.  But, again, thanks to my inability to be around blood or even fathom sticking a needle into anything, I wouldn't be much help. 

So, I've been really reflecting on what I want to do with my life.  I'm 23 years old, I wanted to be married with a kid by now.  Since neither of those glorious events have occurred yet, I need to finally focus on my career.  So, I began narrowing it down.  I want to help people.  I want to be able to set my own hours or work from home.  When I do have kids, I want the flexibility of being able to stay at home with them and have my career at the same time.

I began my search last week for virtual employment.  Virtual assistant, virtual customer service representative and so on and so forth.  I found nothing.  I started thinking about being an Esthetician again, but the schooling is SO expensive and it would take me about 4 years to finally get there.  I don't have 4 years for a few reasons.  1.) Will is possibly going to transfer to a UC next year, 2) I can't stand the thought of being bored and unhappy with my job for another 4 years and 3) I might finally be a mom by then.

Then it hit me.  I remembered coming across this website for a local Massage Therapy school called Healing Hands School of Holistic Health.  I remembered they had good prices and they offered night classes which is perfect since I work full time.  So, I began looking into that.

They offer four different programs: Massage Technician Training (100 hours and $990), Massage Practitioner (250 hours and $2,475), Massage Therapist (500 hours and $4,950) and Holistic Health Practitioner (1,000 hours and $9,900).  I, of course, want to be a Holistic Health Practitioner.  Looking over all of the different techniques you can learn in that program really interested me and got me even more excited about the idea of becoming a Holistic Health Practitioner. I would love being so diverse!

Being a Massage Therapist or a Holistic Health Practitioner would be perfect for me.  It meets all of the requirements of my dream job, plus depending on where you work, you can get full benefits.  I've decided that I'm going to go for it.  I'm going to see what kind of financial aid I can get and go from there.

I'm excited! :)

P.S. I have lost 2 pounds already using the Lose It! app. I love it! :) 

Sammy and Sushi Deliciousness

Before I begin, let me just clarify that when I say "sushi" all I mean is "California Rolls".  I don't eat the raw stuff, it freaks me out.

Last night I had a very fun, long overdue date night with one of my closest friends Sam.  We went to Minato Sushi in Lake Forest, which by the way is freaking delicious and very well priced!  If you're a sushi lover, you definitely need to try Minato.  Check out their website, they have a huge variety of sushi and appetizers and also offer a great All You Can Eat option. 

Usually, when it comes to sushi, I can really only eat four maybe five rolls at the most before I'm full.  Last night I really surprised myself.  I ate eight California Rolls, four small veggie egg rolls and a scoop of Green Tea ice cream before I was finally satisfied.  I was semi impressed with myself and semi grossed out until I realized that I had basically starved myself all day by not eating nearly as much as I should have earlier, plus my crazy workouts cause me to be hungry every couple hours.  So I guess my sushi binge eating was justified after all. :P

This is completely off topic but I'm super excited about it and want to share.  Thanks to my amazing boyfriend, I have discovered the Lose It! app.  I downloaded it last night on my phone to check it out and so far it's awesome!  It allows you to set a goal weight, how much you want to lose a week (up to 2 pounds), tells you when you will acheive your goal weight (apparently I will reach mine by November 1st), tells you the amount of calories you are allowed each day, you can log everything you eat (it has a HUGE database of almost every food you can think of) and you can log your exercise routine (which of course causes your calories allowed for the day to automatically rise).  I'm really entertained and having a lot of fun with this app so far! (Only child = very easily entertained)

It's not just a phone application, you can use Lose It! on the computer for free too! I plan on sticking with it and seeing just how well it works, so I will keep everyone posted on my progress.  Let the weight loss begin!