Over The Weekend: Dodger Dog and Sea Water

What on Earth do a Dodger Dog and sea water have in common? Well, not much other than the fact that I ingested both of those items over the weekend. Let's just say I definitely prefer one over the other, guess which one?

Dodger games are now forever ruined for me. You know what they say, once you go Dugout Club you never go back. Or you do go back but then are kicked out for not having the proper pretty shiny ticket to get in. We got a nice hookup for Saturday's game, there is NO WAY I would ever pay 500 for a seat, seriously are you kidding me Dodgers?

I'm know I'll keep visit the stadium in my not so shiny ticket seats. I think it was the unlimited food that just sealed the deal for me, you know how I feel about food! Even though the food that day was not that impressive it was still free.  So an egg omelet, a Dodger dog, some garlic fries, one frozen lemonade, some candy and a bag of cracker jacks later I was one happy camper...err...fan?

Here are some photos to impress you with my player knowledge...of which I have none...

Seriously, I'm not even zooming in.

Later that night we ate some sushi with some friends (yum sushi) and then headed over to Summer Nights in China Town where we tried to relive our youth...

Unfortunately my hips hurt really bad after this.

Their names are Sput and Nik.

Ari, rolling with her entourage... yeah she's cool like that. 

Gotta love gritty iPhone photos at night. I should really carry my camera around more.

Sunday was just as great of a day. It was perfect beach weather. I just learned how to swim a few years go, I'm a late bloomer like that, so swimming in the ocean is still a fairly new venture for me. But I felt brave that day. So of we went... into the deep. Sort of, the tide was low. Jumping waves and going under them, it was fun. I felt alive I tell ya. My hair sticking to my face, floating in the boyfriend's arms, trying not to flash people with my shifted bikini top after crashing with a wave ahhhh..life.

Now this is also the part where the ocean decided to remind me that I'm not that cool. I would also like to officially blame the boyfriend...(disclaimer: not really his fault.)  Like I said, getting in the deep is new to me. A wave was coming, it looked big. I had a choice. I decided to go under he suggested I jump. I was confused for a second...it was to late to do either properly and the wave knocked me hard. I swirled around in the water and tried to float up to the surface, I managed to do so only to get smacked again and here.... here is where I tasted the sea water of Manhattan Beach, Ca. A heaping chunk of it. Oh, it got me good. But no worries, I didn't drown, and I made sure the ocean got back what it gave me along with something a little extra. Ha! Take that ocean waves! I got out and spent the rest of the day roasting on the sand...good times. I'll be back...

♥always,
Marisol

Visiting Tim Burton

What do you do on a lazy Sunday afternoon after brunch when all you want to do is take a nap? You visit a museum. Well, maybe not every Sunday, napping is important after all. But on a particular Sunday afternoon the boyfriend and I found our selves in this predicament and decided to check out the Tim Burton Exhibit at LACMA that he had been wanting to see. So...

They arrived at LACMA right around four

and walk toward the entrance door.

 paid the fee and noticed:

the stunning Urban Light display was full

of families, couples and of foreign tourists.

All taking photos, pretending to know

how their fancy cameras 

would make their photos glow!

Walking into the mouth of the exhibit 

their excitement was baited.

little did they know the experience that awaited,

from humorous to sinister all the way to the exit.

They saw and they read and they listened,

how one boy's creative mind

grew characters one day would spell-bind!

The drawing of Edward and others, 

just full-on amazing originality.

They especially liked the short of Vincent Malloy

and the poem of a  Robot Boy made of aluminum alloy.

A romantic at hear her favorite yet

was the quirky drawing of Romeo and Juliet.
 Cupid's True Colors is what he suggested.
His romantic gene is clearly twisted.

 This one couples sojourn
was to avoid a lazy concern
Tired but happy, they finished their visit
their new found fascination
on their face showed quite explicit!

To the museum they vowed to return 
and experience new exhibits
to expand and to learn!

Well I'm no poet or Tim Burton but writing that little poem was really fun! Oh and while I poke fun a the boyfriend's "romantic skills" he did buy me the poster of Romeo & Juliet so really he scored points galore that day and that Cupids True Colors drawing is hilarious! And he took some pretty pictures of me...

♥always,

Marisol

Over The Weekend: Mexico, Murder and Magic

This past weekend I was sick and tired. Of what? Nothing, I was literally sick and tired. The days before this weekend I had to travel back to back for work and on top of that I caught some weird flu-like thing. So my weekend started of  Friday night at home dying on the couch and watching Charmed on Netflix. Saturday morning though it was time to hit the road to Tijuana. I am sick and tired of doing that. Not literally, figuratively. But good new... The braces are coming off sometime in the next few months! My biggest fear was that I would be 30 and still wearing the braces my 25 year old self was told would take two years. 

While standing in line to cross the border back from Mexico, we had the most obnoxious, loud-mouthed and foul language-d person ever behind us. An we were privy to his lovely conversation about how he doesn't give a "f" about not having any money to his name he is going to get "f-up" tonight and how he got "laid" the night before and well all kinds of other information that I will not repeat. Do you know how awkward it is to just listen to someone rant on about stuff like that and a person that uses explicit language to describe everything and anyone and themselves. So sad...and annoying!

But the worst part about my little Mexican border crossing experience is that I got stuck and was not able to cross the border because I forgot my passport, I was panicked and and didn't know what was going to happen to me... well I could have gotten stuck and I could have panicked and not known what was going to happen to me because I did forget my passport but the border person just looked at my ID and said have a nice day and I was on my way home. Sorry for the dramatics but it sounded boring otherwise.

The plan was to be home by 3pm but thanks to traffic I actually got home like at 4:30 right on time to be late to a Murder Mystery Dinner in Downtown. Marissa and I had purchased a Groupon for this moths ago and it would not be a genuine outing with Marisol if we weren't running late. I threw some clothes on and we were on the freeway headed for Downtown. The closer we got to the address and once off the freeway we realized that we were not exactly in the social area of Downtown. It was in the fashion district area and the streets were abandoned. We didn't even know where to park. When we finally found the place it was just an Italian restaurant on a second floor of a building that was a real puzzle to figure out how to get up there. We finally go seated and were a little thrown at how odd it just all felt. The "actors" were in 20's style clothing and so were some of the people in attendance. Having just read the confirmation email a few hours earlier that day we missed the part where they encourage you to dress up. I love dressing up but I did not feel left out at all in this scenario.

This was our view.

The actors seemed scattered and not well rehearsed. The food was bland which was a disappointment because I thought well at least we will have a good meal if the show is lame. One of the actors had a really bad headset type of microphone and it hurt my ears to hear him speak. It was just not what we expected but we tried to make the most of it. When it came time to solve the murder, our table had it down. However, we thought, no way too easy there has to be a twist so we created a twist and were sure that we were right or at least somewhat right. Until of course the simple version that we had come up with at first was the actual solution. But at least I got to hang out with my super cool friends Marissa and Henry. Who's Henry, why he's the pimple on my forehead that Marissa named Henry. It was over in about two hours and we headed back home. I was able to take this cool photo of Marissa on the abandoned streets of LA right before my phone died.

On Sunday I went to see Harry Potter with Veronica. Why? Because we are geeks like that, not even her kids wanted to see it. We liked it, it made us laugh, cry and feel suspense. But what did we talk about during and afterwards? Not the cinematography or the special effect, nope, we talked about how we were both ready to go ape crazy on the ladies sitting behind us with the loudest popcorn bag ever! I had images of me in a King Kong state of mind ripping the bag into pieces while at the at the same time scaring the heck out of these people. Veronica had more graphic images of telling them to eat it of the floor, I like the way she thinks. I really wished I could whip up a "popcornus dissapearus" spell à la Hermione but whatever... I'm not magical. *Side note, for those that are real hardcore HP fans, I looked it up. The correct spell would have been "Evanesco" but come on you know you like like "popcornus dissapearus" much better.

♥always,
Marisol

Guest Post: Veronica

Oh Veronica, because of you this blog exists really. You are my inspiration to how to raise my future children. Seriously, kids that do their own laundry is pretty awesome. So here she is folks, super mom and super cool friend...Veronica: 

Let me just start off by saying I love my kids, all of them :) ….but they are all soooo different! Oscar, the oldest one, is a serious thinker; he doesn’t take things lightly but is very caring and generous. Georgie, the middle one, resembles me in my free spirit and can-do attitude. Valerie, the youngest, is the typical princess… It took me a while to like her lol. So this post will be dedicated to my children and their unique personalities… I will share stories!

I have a ton of Oscar stories but the one the sticks out the most is the Martin Luther King story. One afternoon he came home from school and sat next to me. He wanted to let me know how lucky Georgie is because of MLK. I immediately stopped what I was doing to ask why. Why would Georgie be lucky thanks to MLK?? He then said that when MLK was a young boy he wanted to play with white kids and couldn’t so he grew up to fight for equal rights. Since Georgie has a darker complexion, Oscar assumed Georgie was African American and that we could keep him thanks to MLK! I couldn’t get him to understand that his brother was Mexican. Oscar is very gullible – that’s the trait he inherited from me.

Like I said I love all my kids EQUALLY but Georgie is perfect, since day one! He excels in everything he does whether it’s sports or academics. I remember asking him if there is anything I can do to improve as a mom and he said, “Mommy, you’re perfect.” So you see, we are alike in that we are both perfect!

Valerie and I got off to a rough start; I really believe that if she was my first child she would have been the last…so she is my last! She would cry for hours for the first two and half years of her life! Now that she is three she is the happiest little girl and is a great addition to our family! She is so talkative and affectionate. She is quick to tell me I stink and need to shower and notices even subtle changes in my wardrobe... She tells me how pretty I look when I dress up! 

I completely embrace motherhood I might not love every second of every day but I wouldn’t change anything. My house is chaotic but always full of love and laughter!

-Veronica