What a Weekend

I had a divine weekend this last weekend, and it made for an excellent birthday.  It was the perfect blend of lazy and fun and if I could relive that weekend every weekend for the rest of my life, I would (broken clutch and all).

Saturday was spent doing laundry upon laundry (so that I would actually have clothes to wear) and then my Mom and I went shopping.  I used to hate the shopping, but lately it is not so bad.  Because you get new clothes when you are done (and the Burberry perfume that I absolutely laaaaave).

Sunday, I got the extreme pleasure of waking my little brothers up to force them to eat birthday breakfast of waffles and fruit and so much orange juice.  If there is one thing that is important for my birthday, it is orange juice.

What I am about to describe is largely what I imagine heaven to be like.  After church, I was taking a nap and my Mom woke me up because my sister and her children were calling me to sing happy birthday.  Then I went back to sleep, only to be woken up to realize that it was time for dinner and more presents, and that while I was asleep my dad had started the fire in the fireplace and put a blanket over me.  I'm sorry, but you cannot convince me that 21st birthdays get much better than that.  Not for all the free drinks in the world.

Monday was the Harlem GlobeTrotters.  OH MY GOODNESS! If there is anything cheesy and awesome in the world, I will love that thing.  And if there is anything cheesy and awesome in the world, it is the Harlem Globetrotters.  Because not only are the puns abundant, but the basketball is good.  There were long shots and crazy dunks, and absolutely no defense and a billion travelling, but it was soooo good.  Or maybe you would only like it if you are under the age of 10, or me.

I was busy taking a billion photos for my photo class (just ask my mildly annoyed family), so I didn't take very many digital photos during the weekend, so sadly I have only one pic to share, and the quality is terrrrible.

Clutch

Gilroy.
Aka Garlic Town, USA

I drove home this weekend for the three-day weekend + my birthday is on Sunday.  And I made it as far as Gilroy, CA before I ran into trouble (Gilroy is only like 50 minutes from my house in Palo Alto, and yes, this is another blog post about my drive to and from home).  When you get to Gilroy, you have to get off the 101 and onto this small highway (152), that takes you through a few street lights and past some fruit stands and also there's a section where you have to turn on your headlights even if it's day time.

In Gilroy, the clutch gave out on Lolita. I got off the highway and found that it was very difficult to get Lolita into any gear at all.  It was like trying to do it without having the clutch pushed in.  Freaked out, I pulled over and called my Dad.  I don't know why calling your Dad in a car crisis is so comforting.  He was over 5 hours away, but he was still my hero for the day.  Side note:  I thought I did a pretty good job of sounding not stressed out to him, but apparently he saw right through it.

As I waited for my Dad to figure out where I should get my car fixed, I did the most useful thing I could thing of at the moment:  I did my makeup.  Because, you know, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.  And on road trips, I probably look a little more like vinegar usually.  One call to AAA and a tow ride later, I was standing in a fairly sketchy part of town being told that my car would be ready in 4 hours.  (not to mention $480).

But what else is Gilroy famous for?  Outlet malls.  Literally every brand I can think of has an outlet store in Gilroy.  So after looking it up on my phone, I began the 2.1 mile walk to the outlet malls.  And let's just say that within 5 minutes of walking, I'd been honked at, I'd been whistled at, and I'd walked past a white unmarked van with the word "meth" spray painted on it in gold.  But, after a couple of blocks, it wasn't so bad.  And then..... I made this video:

I should preface the details of my shopping by saying that I had a crappy week.  I was really trying to not be a downer and I made it about as far as Tuesday before I decided I was woefully unhappy and that everything in my life was terrrrible.  Which meant that my only option was to put my nose down, push through, and then be a blob of laziness and birthday bossery this weekend.  But since that was also not going to be easy for me, I decided retail therapy was the only answer.

I started telling everyone in my family about my plight in order to get sympathy and also shopping advice from my oldest sister who seemed to be similarly bored.  Since I hadn't told my Mom what I wanted for my birffday, she had yet to do any shopping, so I texted her to inform her that that would no longer be necessary.  I also was texting my sister basically the entire day.

Text me what you buy
I feel a blog post about today coming on...

To which I responded
Coral pants, striped flowy top, two sunglasses, tan belt, chunky necklace, lacy underwears
What else are you supposed to do with days like today?

To which she responded
Coral pants? Jealous

To which I responded
I am awesome

To which she responded
Yes
Why?

To which I responded

Because of my icee sunglass combo.

To which she responded
Are you on a bus?

So after taking the bus back to Rom's Auto Services,  I once again started a long drive.  Which was filled with traffic that I had planned to avoid and also with pretty scenery that I took bad pictures of while simultaneously driving (I was looking at the road, not the pictures, otherwise, they would be centered photos, and I would be dead)

And that's all I have to say about that.

Lover's Day

As one who is perpetually single, Valentine's day comes with mixed emotions.  And this year, many people I am close to seem to be having especially rough Valentine's day's.


But alas, 'tis a day of love and candy, and if you don't have love, at least you can have candy.  (I think it only fair that if you do have love, you should not be allowed to eat candy, thus ensuring me a lifetime amount of candy - jokes!)

Without further ado, some things I love:

via

and also

this (how meta) 

this

and this

Not to mention

and

Happy Lover's Day to All.  I lover you.

What a Weekend!

Have you met my mom?  She's pretty cool.  This weekend she turned 50 (well, on her it looks more like 25).  And not only was her birthday this weekend, but it was on Friday the 13th.  How lucky is that?  So to celebrate, my family threw an awesome surprise party, that you should totally read about on her blog.  (I also just learned that my Mom has a blog.  That she rarely updates, but it exists!)

Anyways, to celebrate just a little bit more, let me tell you a couple of things about my mom:

• Her favorite color is red, as evidenced by half of her wardrobe, and a good portion of the house she lives in
• She loooooves chocolate milk.  For most of my childhood, I remember all of us kids around the table at breakfast eating cereal, while my mom sat and drank chocolate milk with some vitamins
• She likes listening to rock versions of the song Milkshake.  Like this, for example.  Does it get cooler than that?
• My mom can do a backflip.  Just kidding.  But she does have that magical mom ability where she knows where 85% of items  in the house are at any moment.  "Mom have you seen my flip flops?"  "Yes, they're under the kitchen table."  How did she even see that?
• She has run two half-marathons.  That's a total of one marathon!  But, she did them year apart, and I think she's planning on doing a third this June.  Girl can run!

That's all I'll divulge.  Happy 50th Mom!

The way this relates to my weekend is that I drove home on Friday in order to be there to see her as she walked through the door into a room full of people that she was not expecting to see.  Which turned into a lovely four-day weekend for me (well, I guess Dr. King also had a thing or two to do with it).  

SO what else did I do this weekend?  Well, Saturday I did largely nothing.  I'm actually trying to remember if I even left the house.  I did.  My mom took me to Hobby Lobby (which is probably her favorite store).  And I watched Laker game after Patriots/Broncos game after 49ers/Saints game (my man Harbaugh pulled out the W!).  

And Sunday, I went to church and probably watched more sports. 

And on MONDAY, I had a party.  Literally a party.  My familia got box seats to a Clipper game.  I have never been to an NBA game before, and my dad felt a little bad about that, so it was really cool that I got to go.  

But oh my gosh the Clippers!  Obviously I'm still a Laker girl (always will be), so I was still a little sad that on Saturday the Lakers lost to the Clippers, but the Clippers are suuper fun to watch.  You've got Blake, who's always dunking and being cute in those commercials, and Chris Paul who I have a major crush on.  Because, I mean, look at this:

I can't get over how cute he is in this picture.  Sure he's married and has a kid, but chances of me actually ever meeting CP3 are preeeeeeeetty small.  So there you have it. 

Oh and afterwards!  We went to this great little restaurant in East LA called El Tepeyac which has giant portions of deliciousness.  It was weird eating the leftovers yesterday for lunch knowing they had been made in LA by real Mexicans (and probabl using real animal fat).  But it was delicious all the same.  

And then I drove home.  Which was actually not that bad.  When there's not traffic, and I am not throwing up, I don't even end up crying.  

Also, another Clipper photo:

Oh, and apparently my Mom took a video of me dancing (I reeeeeeeeeaaaaaally wanted to get on the jumbo-tron but no one around me was excited), which you can see here if we are fb friends.  I just learned that I'm that girl who always dances, although I guess I should have known.  

Home for the Holidays

So what did I do in the 3 weeks I was home and apparently too busy to blog, you ask?

Well, largely nothing.  Seriously, I watched a lot of tv, played a surprising amount of video games, and was happy with the day if I ended up leaving home.  (helpful hint if you are me (which is another way of saying note to self): if you don't leave the house in a day, you will end up feeling bad about yourself).

For realzors though, not a lot going on.  Which is how any good vacation should be right?  Then again, normal vacations do not last three weeks.

So without further ado, pictures of some of the schtuffs I saw at home:

I call this sequence, "So did they give you a name along with all those rippling pectorals?"  which is a Hercules quote and a reference to the fact that while shirtless you can be....

An Accountant,

A creeper,

A chef,

A good uncle, 

and a model, but I don't know if I will share that picture (it's a bit embarrassing)

This sequence is called, "Only at Home"

I wake up next to a penguin wearing what appears to be actually functioning headphones.

We actually go through this amount of flour.

Fridge Tetris

And these guys don't have a group:

And there, you have it, folks.  

Auld Lang Syne

I, like Harry Burns, actually have no idea what the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne mean, but I know it is a song about new years.  And with that, let me share one of my top five meg ryan moments:

First things first, saying goodbye to 2011.
What a year!  In 2011, I had a lot of ups and downs. Realistically, I probably had more downs than ups, and I learned a lot a lot a lot about myself.  But highlights included:

• learning the effects and importance of a quick dance party
• travelling to the east coast in a Spring Break extravaganza
• making a good friend or two
• spending a lot of time trying to get myself to do things (that is both accurate and vague, and I apologize that it sounds so weird)
• getting my hair cut exactly once, although I trimmed it myself a bunch, and I am now comfortable doing that

But.....


Oh, I am feeling awfully romantic about 2012, dudes.  Awfully romantic indeed.  Like 1940s movie star romantic about it.
Every year that I am alive seems to bring a lot of new craziness, but at the same time, I feel like I know myself better as I get older and I feel more comfortable with myself.

Ok so RESOLUTIONS.  The million dollar question of the last week.  Here we go:

• Do things.  Like don't just half-do them.  If I'm eating a cookie, I want to be thinking about the way that cookie tastes.  If I'm in a class, I want to be paying attention to the ideas the teacher is presenting.  If I'm saying a prayer, I want to be talking to God.  Actually do things.  
• Move.  When I get depressed, I don't want to do anything besides sit somewhere warm and watch tv.  Which is bad for my waistline, my grades, and my social life.  And one of the things that helps the most? Moving around.  Dancing, walking, running, doing jumping jacks, etc.  

I guess I only have two resolutions, but that's because I really want to do them.  I want this year to be proactive and for me to savor it.  I want to be a go-getter again, because I think I used to be one.  

And yes, I realize it is now the fifth day of the new year.  And double yes, gratuitous photos:

Should old acquaintance be forgot.....

Me? I Want a Hula Hoop.

Thanksgiving is over.  December starts on Thursday.  I officially have a license to start spreading Christmas cheer.  Dudes, do you even know how awesome Christmas is?  (Do you get annoyed when I call you dudes?)

At my parents' house, Christmas is not really that big of a deal - ON OPPOSITE DAY.  Christmas is the absolute best day of the year if you are a Gamboa.  And I am looking so very very forward to it.  I don't think you can quite possibly comprehend this if you haven't been to our house before during the month of December.  Allow me to illustrate what I am describing:

See these boxes?  All of them, every last one of them, is full of Christmas decorations.  Christmas decorations!  They come in all shapes and sizes.  From the giant ornate ornaments that we hang from our railings to the homemade felt trip to Bethlehem that is a Velcro advent calendar to the creepy robot Rudolph that walks around and scares small children and animals.

Before I left my Mom had started the tedious (but very worth-while!) process of decorating the house!  It's crazy!  She puts up garland with lights in it everywhere and inevitably half of the lights are bad so she has to re-string them throughout the garland.
In process:

I literally walked up to my mom and sang, "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's beginning to look a lot like Christmas."  It was a bag of cheese, but I love Christmas.  Hopefully you all don't get sick of me and my holiday spirit.  We're all going to have to wait til I get home after finals to see the finished product.  Unless of course you are any of my readers that live in my house.  In which case, don't have too much fun without me.  Merry Christmas dudes! :)

Wherein A Space Heater and Top Ramen Saved my Life

Happy Belated Thanksgiving Everyone!

I had a great holiday and I hope you all did too.  I will get to that part of the story later.

Yesterday I made the drive back to school.  9 hours, my friends.  It was a record.  Traffic and accidents galore!  I know some people who were stuck in it all until 1 in the morning!  But, as with most things that suck, it was made muuuuch better by the presence of a friend.  And good music.  (I think I'm onto some sort of formula with that one.)

OK, but here's the real part of the story.  My little slice of house (well actually the entire house)  got fumigated during the week that I was home spreading holiday cheer.  And besides that, I was gone for an entire week.  Which means: food.  I couldn't keep anything in my house that would go bad after a week (the milk that we bought three weeks before the break started or fresh fruits and veggies).  AND because of the fumigation, we had to put any food that we did leave in the house inside a plastic bag with a special tying method.  Then that plastic was to be put inside another plastic bag.  Because apparently they've invented fumes that are harmless when inhaled but not when consumed.  And also they kill termites.

Point two about fumigation (I had to start a new paragraph because let's face it, I am easily distracted.): They had to turn the gas and pilot light off in our place for these fumes (apparently they are flammable?)

So back to the drive back to school.  After driving for more than 3 hours, especially where rain and/or traffic is involved, my makeup gets droopy, my emotions get funny, and that spot on my shoulder starts yelling at me to lay down and possibly take a nice warm bath.  But when I got home on Sunday night, my house was an ice box.  Literally an ice box.  And the emergency make-your-house-warm people wouldn't come to my house because this was not an emergency.  Frigidness under exhaustion is apparently not a good enough emergency? I would like to see the people try it.

But I was prepared.  And proud of myself for driving for 9 hours without shedding one tear.  And I was full of optimism.  And my optimism paid off!  Because for some reason our bedroom sink was giving hot water. Like enough hot water for me to wash my hair and face and wish that my body fit in my sink.  Which it certainly wouldn't.  Tender mercies of the Lord, I tell you.  If you're the praying type, I highly recommend saying thanks for hot water next time you get the chance.

It's a little strange how I become so emotionally attached to objects that I feel have saved my life.  I now call him Mr. Kevin.  

As I blow dried my hair, I plugged in the space heater I had borrowed from home because I knew I would be sleeping in the cold if I didn't do something.  And then the combined bedroom light and space heater and blow dryer power blew a fuse!  A fuse!
One call home to Dad and some stumbling around outside my house looking for a fuse box later, I discovered the box behind a bush and was back in business.

Oh but back to the food!  I was starving!  9 hours of driving apparently makes you hungry!  And since I had no fresh foods, it was the top ramen that saved me from certain death.  Because even cereal is no good if you have no milk in which to drown it.

That Top Ramen was oddly comforting.  I think it was the warmth combined with the fact that this is the meal I eat every time I have a stomach flu.  Plus I learned where the fuse box to my house resides.  And it gave me an excise to spend the rest of the night under blankets and without moving more than a foot at a time.

So now I just have to survive three weeks of school.  which includes finals week.   yum.

Taking A Walk on a Grey November Day

Oh November!  November!  More than two weeks have gone by already in November.  And what have I been doing?  not even appreciating November for all that it's worth.  I should be listening to beautiful songs while snuggling up under a blanket, reading a book, and sipping on hot apple cider.  And I have been wasting it with what - studying?  Studying is nine months of the year, but November?  November only comes once.
And for me November is Christmas.  I can hear you now - the outrage!  "November is not Christmas!  November is fall/the onslaught of winter.  November is Thanksgiving!  November is the leaves on trees that you have taken a picture of.  November is special!  Don't lump November with Christmas.  Christmas needs to but out and realize that it is only one day - December 25th."

Oh, but you don't understand November!  You don't understand Christmas!  You don't understand magic!  Christmas isn't just December 25th.  Christmas is the whole months of November and December.  Christmas is an entire season.

Christmas is the celebration of Christ's birth.  Christmas is magic.  Christmas is family and Thanksgiving and gratitude and yummy food and music and cold weather all rolled up into one.  Christmas is the reason people magically become nicer to strangers and more willing to sing songs to old people they are not related to and to give things to people they love.  Christmas is the reason I'm allowed to get teary-eyed when I watch The Incredibles.  Christmas is the reason each member of my family gets approximately 7.2 times funnier when we are all together.  And why we sound better when we sing together.  Christmas is talking in British accents and wearing tights.  Christmas is knowing what's important and loving it the most.

So yeah, I sort of wish Christmas were 12 months a year.  But I'll settle for 2.  And maybe we just define Christmas differently, you know?

Merry Christmas everyone!

A Little Summer Picnic

Tomorrow my little brothers start school and thus today is their last day of summer, so we tried to make lemonade for them and we spent the afternoon on a picnic on the gorgeous property that some friends have about 10 minutes away up the mountain a little bit.

Don't believe me that it's gorgeous?  Take a look (warning: I played with photo filters a lot a lot a lot).

Yeah, there's a stream right outside their house.  So here's my family after we ate the food and started exploring (Trust me, you don't want pictures of us eating, we eat like Gamboa's).

Here's the "little" boys being studly:

I wish Luc were wearing overalls with no shirt in this one.  He'd make a good farm boy.
And George got a few good shots with the bridge:

His beard goes very well with nature.  

Also, isn't that bridge the awesomest?  I wish I could just go over that bridge every time I was in a bad mood and have all the badness be sucked away.  

My Mom was busy, busy, busy picking blackberries, which were EVERYWHERE:

But we enjoyed the fruits of her labor (pun intended) later:

My Dad was being a good husband in between trying to splash his children:

I was taking photos of everyone and then being weird:

Photo heavy and a little lame, I know.  But I noticed that on other blogs I read, people post pictures of themselves doing cool things with people that always make me jealous, so this is me attempting to do that.  The difference is I am not a photographer.  What, wah.  

The 4th of Jooh Lie

Happy Independence Day everyone!  It is over, but America is still independent, so there is still reason to celebrate.  

I spent the weekend celebrating as follows:

Saturday I helped my sister sell her cute accessories and clothes.  schtuff like this: 

Then her family and I went to the fireworks show in Provo and one of my nephews FREAKED out. "We should probably go home now guys" through tears is both adorable and sad.  

Sunday I drove 8 hours from UT to home in a car with 2 babies.  Make that 9 hours.  Babies tend to slow things down.  

And Monday I went to a BBQ with the fam and a bunch of friends that I have had since before I was born.  It was fun. 

Afterwards I hung out with my friends from high school and had a blast.  You know when you know people really well and you are just weird around them if you want to be weird and they know you, so it's okay?  Well On Monday night I knew about half of the people at the party I went to and I decided to just be weird anyways.  It was weird that it worked out.  I feel like people are more comfortable around people that they think are not trying to impress everyone around them.  

Fun schtuff guys.  Fun schtuff.  Also, I apologize for the lack of pictures because I haven't been able to find the charger for my camera since I moved home.  What wah.  

Anyhoo.  I'm trying to get back into bloggermode, which means I look for funny things in the day.  Which is pretty much too much to ask for on days where I have to watch my little munchkin nephews.  But I'll try.  (I know that all my loyal, billions of readers are screaming right now).  

OK time to stop while I'm ahead?

My half of the State

I went home for Memorial Day Weekend.  Fun was had.  I always want to say that California is two different states but that's just because where I'm from and where I go to school are two very different, very far away places.  Anyways, I had a billion fun.  Good things.  Good good things.

THE BEACH.  I've been looking forward to going to the beach for what seems like a billion years.  To me, the beach is summer and carefree and sunburn and almost everything that I love about Southern California.  And I have kind of been converted to Zuma beach (yes, Camille, you can do a little victory dance right now). It's so clean and not very crowded and there's always the fun chance that you will see celebrities while there.  Anyways, as desired, I got lobsterfied.  Proof:

I don't mean to be inappropriate, I just mean to show off my tan lines and the general pink color of my skin.  It was way worse on Saturday, I promise.  We also ran into a little ... erm ... trouble getting home, but that's not really a story I wan to tell because it is neither entertaining nor something I want to brag about.  Unless you like laughing in the face of the entire Gamboa family.
Also, this picture is meant to show off my cool shirt, which is actually Luc's shirt that got packed with my clothes because we both have the super organizational skills of throwing our clothes on the floor after wearing them and I was exiled to Luc's room while I was home.  But the point is, I love wearing men's clothes.  I hope my future husband is ok with that because I definitely plan on wearing his clothes.  They are sooooo comfortable.

Anyways, I also spent the weekend GETTING FOOD.  We're talking Indian food, Mediterranean food, arroz con leche, zucchini bread, chocolate chip cookies, basically an average weekend at my house.
But then my Mom and I went to an aerobics class to try and undo a little of the damage, and let me tell you, I am still feeling it.  I never knew I had so many muscles in my lower back that could be sore. It's really cramping my style (so much pun intended that it's actually only funny to make fun of me for telling that joke).

Also featured were the traditional Disney movie Sunday.  And when it's traditional, it means that I fall asleep 20-25 minutes into the movie.  In my defense, Shia LaBeouf was not exciting before Transformers.  Although holes was pretty good. Or at least the first 20 minutes were.  Haha

Come a looong way, haven't we Shia?

Then, because it was a patriotic holiday, my family celebrated as we always do: with a Mexican BBQ.  Which usually means tripas, but this time only meant carne asada.  And grilled papas (potatoes), and guacamole.  I love guacamole.  It should be a condiment like ketchup: served EVERYWHERE.
I love my family's little tradition.  Mostly because I love Mexican food.

In other glorious news, I no longer live alone.  Hopefully, my livin solo days are done forever. If this were a video game, I would get points added to my mood.  That analogy sucks, but seriously, living with people is awesome.
Celebrate:

This is exactly how I celebrate.  It is even more awesome than this picture.  I know, hard to believe.