maui

i was able to get a great deal on my plane ticket to go see my brother for a long weekend. he moves to cali for 2 weeks in july...and then goes to scotland for good the end of july. i wanted to spend some time with him before things were crazy before he gets married. he lives in haiku right now....about 15 min up the road from paia...off the hana hwy. it is very remote and tropical. i love it....so not touristy!!! here are some pics from my trip:

paia bay
wind surfers at hookipah
my most fav flower....plumeria
sunset at 'the point'. todd and i had dinner and then got some gelato and walked out here to relax and hang out before i flew home. it was fun watching the surfers to the left.
makena landing: my friend adam took me snorkeling here. his friends were scuba diving below us and were spear fishing as well. we saw quite a few turtles.
adam durante: worked with me at bj's for about 3 years or so. now he lives in kihei. he is a project manager for a construction company. had a great time partying with him and hanging out.
pic from the car, headed down to paia

naked beach
cool sign
naked beach
me, brother and victoria (from ireland) victoria used to live on the island and is my brother's friend. she now lives in glasgow, which is the same town my brother is moving to. victoria and her bf happened to be in maui the same time as me. last summer she came down and met my brother and i and his fiance in edinburgh for the afternoon. always a small world.
my amazing brother. we were watching the wind surfers at hookipah lookout...waves were huge! we turned around and we could see the beginning and end of the rainbow. it started in the water and then ended in a field nearby. so awesome!! u can see the rainbow behind us:)

i am back from louisiana

despite having to go to louisiana on a sad note...we made the best of it.  we ate so much food and saw lots of family.

beignets and coffee. best breakfast ever

gorgeous houses on st. charles street

my cousin lily and i

everyone that knows me knows i hate seafood.  well, i was brave and i ate crawfish while i was here.  it wasnt so bad....good seasoning.

crawfish!

house in new orleans...still empty.  u can see the water line.  crazy...its been 2 1/2 years since katrina!!!

jackson sqaure

cousin amanda and i eating some crawfish.  she was teaching me how to do it.

my mom with cousin melanie's snake.

me, my great uncle morris and my cousin melissa at the celebration of life for my aunt marilyn.

all my cousins in lafayette

my great uncle's new house.  i love it!!

off to louisiana

i am taking a half day at work tomorrow. my mom and i will fly out of san diego and head on over to new orleans. we are renting a car to drive to lafayette to attend my great aunt's funeral. we are also going to be spending monday and tuesday in new orleans with some other family and friends. despite the sad reason for going, it will be nice to see all my family and eat some great food.

my aunt marilyn....

my amazing aunt marilyn, passed away today. she was like a grandmother to me. i went to louisiana alot as kid to visit family and then tried to get back there as much as i could as an adult. the last time i was there was almost 2 years ago. i will be going back there next weekend for my aunt's memorial service. there are so many mixed emotions going on in my head right now. but, i am grateful that she is finally at peace and that the cancer will no longer hurt her.

the grove in la for the afternoon

this afternoon my mom and i drove up to downtown la and met my cousin mindy and tala at the grove. i always forget how awesome the grove is. the farmer's market is amazing..i really need to go there more often for some tasty foreign food, as well as some great fresh fruit/veggies. mindy and tala are in oxnard for a week visting mindy's mom. they were able to meet us for the afternoon. we started our afternoon off with some tasty ice cream...it was 85 out! then, we did some shopping. tala is one picky 10 year old when it comes to shopping! we had a yummy dinner at maggiano's and then did some more shopping. we said goodbye around 9 pm..when it was still 73 out! it was such a great visit..but way too quick. i love my cousin tala so much.

our big shades

more glasses

tala and i with our sparkly glasses

diva tala, in training.my mom and tala

hollywood sign from the parking structure

my NEW car!

after 5 hrs of being at the toyota delarship...my dad and i drove away with my new car!!!! i was really stressed out having my car die on me and i wanted to get a new car asap..but i really did not want to spend my whole weekend searching for one. i did a lot of research online at work on fri and i found some good deals on toyota corollas. so, here is my new 2007 toyota corolla sport edition. i love it!!!

time to get a new car....

so i was at a friends softball game on wed night and my car wouldnt reverse out of the parking spot! my friend pushed me out of my parking spot. i took my car to my friends mechanic the other day...and myt transmission is done. apparantly saturns are notorious for having a bad valve when they get over 100,000 miles. i am at 117,000 miles now. it is $3000 to fix it..well my car isnt worth $3000. so, my dad and i are off to do the car hunt today....with $$ i dont have.

weekend...

well i have been having quite a routine of posting on my blog on sundays. fri i studied for my cset and then went to air guitar at capo....so funny! sat i took my cset (us history) and then i met up with my ladies i used to work with at bj's. we had a great time. today i went to brunch in huntington beach. it was supposed to be stormy all day...but it turned out to be a nice day. but then around 3 pm the clouds were coming in over the mountains....we had an amazing thunderstorm. my whole house shook a few times! this never happens and i was so stoked. i love thunderstorms!

heather and i in her backyard

sarah, kim, katie and i at landmark

venting...

so i am the resident sub at capo..the kids are usually good for me. well today....some asshole kid sprayed pepper spray in my class right before the bell rang. fucker! i went up to the office and wrote up a report on it. lame kids..i swear!

another fabulous sunday!

i went down to oceanside to hang out with lex and joe. we layed out for most of the day, enjoying the warm sun. i had to study most of the time for my cset i have next sat...boo! i drove home and got some food in san clemente. check out the sunset i was able to catch......so beautiful!

sun setting as i was driving back from oceanisde. this is near the power plant in san onofre.

the hills near the marine base have recovered from the fires in oct. there are wildflowers all over them.