Tuesday, June 24, 2014

A is for April & M is for May 2014

Holy goodness! So much has happened since my last post, it's crazy! I'm now 24 years old, a fact I keep "accidentally" forgetting. Boyfriend reminded me I'm no longer 23 anymore & I'll admit, I got kind of sad. As much as I adore every part of my birthday, I do not adore getting older. (Yes, I realize how silly that sounds.) In other news, 24 year old Erin moved. I know, right? FINALLY.  I am 10x happier at my new place. It's cleaner, quieter & I can hang things on the wall! I can also get a kitten, I'm most looking forward to that. So yeah, you know, just some minor life changes happening over here. June has been pretty great too, but let's focus on the past 2 months for now.
APRIL: 1. April greeted me with a violent stomach flu. But my room was just so pretty, so that helped a little. 2. I love my Meggy. 3. I started a short-lived Instagram series called "Things I'll Miss About My Old Apartment." This cute building was one of them. 4. I think it's mandatory to put on a fake mustache whilst celebrating a birthday at a Mexican restaurant. Right?//5. I love having fresh flowers in my home. It makes me so happy. 6. It was National Sibling Day. I love my sister with all my heart. 7. The main (and only) thing I miss about my old apartment is my pool. It's a shame I only swam in it twice. 8. My Mom surprised me with an early Easter present... JELLY SHOES. Oh nostalgia. My feet have never been happier.//9. Boyfriend & I redeemed his Christmas present, which was "The Book of Mormon" tickets. Because I'm poor, we sat at the very last row in the Pantages, making all the people on stage look like blurry dots, but we enjoyed it nonetheless! 10. My Aunt sent me a chocolate bunny in the mail. Could she BE any cuter? Nope. My Aunt is the best. 11. & 12. My friend Tali randomly called me on a Thursday night asking what I was doing. I said "Nothing" & ended up going to a party with her, Solange & my celeb crush Joe Jonas. Oh yeah, that's Joe Jonas. We interacted on Instagram later. It made my night. Yes, I know that's embarrassing, but sometimes I have to let my inner 17 year old self have some fun! I have no regrets about that. 
13. I surprised even myself by saying "yes" to Coachella this year. I'd never been & told myself I wanted to go at least once just to say I'd been. Turns out Coachella is awesome. I had a stupid amount of fun. I even survived camping! Outdoors! In NATURE. Granted, I did get to shower, but still. I camped. That's big for Miss Erin Brady. 14. First selfie of Coachella. We were already sweaty as all heck. 15. The astronaut was the best, they moved him around the field every so often & he was just so ridiculous. 16. My bestie Riley was working at her friend's popsicle stand, which meant nice refreshing popsicles AND friend time with Riley. Win-win! 17. & 18. I take too many pictures & that's quite alright by me. 19. Lorde was AMAZING. I adore her. She wore a giant gold cape & had a huge chandelier on stage. Ugh. I die. 19. The one con of Coachella was that I spent my Easter out there instead of with my family. But oh gosh, it was fun. 20. & 21. & 22. I have never danced so much in my life. I realized I dance like someone on drugs. Having never done drugs, but having been surrounded by lots of people on drugs at the festival, I came to that conclusion by the end of the first day. 23. I have one rule when I go to Palm Springs. It's that we MUST stop to take a picture with the dinosaurs. So Boyfriend & his friend let me do just that. I'm quite easy to please, you see. 
24. This was my "Praise Jesus, I officially have an apartment!" picture. 25. I love street art & I love Audrey Hepburn. Put those together & I'm the happiest! 26. & 27. I adore my cousin Megan. One of my favorite things about her is that I can call her ANYTIME & she is down for an adventure. We explored the Ace Hotel (& took advantage of the old Photobooth. $15 well spent, my friends.) & ate our way through the dessert at Bottega Louie. I have so much fun with that girl.// 28. I postponed my birthday party plans due to the fact that a majority of my friends couldn't make it that night. To make up for it, Sarah & Riley went out for delicious Italian food & ice cream. They are the greatest. 29. & 30. I celebrated my birthday early with my family at Buca di Beppo. More dancing was involved. Obviously. 31. Birthday orchids are the best orchids. 32. My sister bought 2 kittens. I have never been more in love with an animal (besides Bradley Cooper Fish, RIP) in my life. This is Kona. She's feisty, but I love her. I mean, look at her...// MAY: 33. My Aunt made me the most beautiful bouquet for my birthday. Look at that! Gorgeous. I told you, I'm going through a "fresh flower" phase. 34. Boyfriend & I have a new obsession with the tiny movie theatre by both our apartments. One of them only shows one movie for a week. We saw "The Amazing Spiderman 2" & I cried my little eyeballs out. It was so wonderful. 35. I celebrated my belated birthday at my new favorite roller rink with some of my favorite people! I also realized I'm not very good at roller skating. Evidently ice skating is where I'm most gifted. I know, I'm better at skating on ice than actual flooring. It baffles me too.
36. & 37. Boyfriend & I got to meet Sister's kittens. My kitten nephew & niece are so cute I cannot handle it. OH MY CUTENESS. 38. The keys to my new apartment, which I appropriately named "The One Without The Roommate" for 1. I am without a roommate. Thank goodness. 2. I was watching "Friends," trying to think of a fun name for my apartment when I noticed that Monica & Rachel's apartment number is 20. As I'm sure you know, every title of a "Friends" episode begins with "The One..." so I mean, I had no other choice. "The One Without The Roommate" it is! I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of that. But I can't take all the credit, thanks Monica & Rachel. 39. Megan & I went to LA Live in Downtown LA to watch "Clueless" with the cast of the movie. It was kind of the best thing ever! And it was free, which made it 10x better.// 40. Baby Sister turned 21! 41. For Baby Sister's birthday, Boyfriend & I drove down & surprised her for dinner. She's so special to me & although she had a feeling we were coming (or so she says) we still surprised her. 42. Of course we couldn't leave without visiting the kittens again! 43. Megan & I helped our Mom, Aunt & Grandma celebrate Mother's Day early! I love them all so much.// 44. Packing up my old room was a struggle in a half. It took so long. 45. Happy Mother's Day, Mama! I love her so much. She sacrifices so much, I can't thank her enough. A good example of that is that she spent her actual Mother's Day helping me pack up my old apartment & began helping me move into my new one. Ugh, so much love for that woman. 46. & 47. For work we attended a Benefit Cosmetics party. Such hard work, I know! I even brought my own personal makeup artist ;) 
48. More from the Benefit Cosmetics party! LA is so pretty sometimes. Okay, most of the time. Sometimes I still can't believe I live here. 49. I spent my second to last day at my apartment enjoying my pool. Seriously, I miss it so much. 50. At the last minute I joined my Aunt, Uncle, Megan & her Grandparents for delicious french dipped sandwiches at Philippe's. 51. Afterwards, Megan spent the night & helped me move the next morning, so we joined Boyfriend for some frozen yogurt. Seriously, isn't Megan the best ever?!// 52. MY NEW APARTMENT. Isn't she so pretty?! 53. My job in christening my kitchen was to make the 90 second rice in the microwave. Boyfriend actually cooked. This of course had to be documented via Polaroids. 54. Boyfriend gave me "You have a new apartment!" flowers. The best kind, if you ask me. 55. My flower obsession continues...// 56. My motto for life. "What Would Blair Waldorf Do?" 57. I'm against food pictures, unless it's dessert, but my Summer Fridays started at work which means I get out early. So I broke my "no food pictures" rule to celebrate freedom! Or you know, potato skins for lunch. Same thing. 58. I am so thankful for this one. He's my favorite. 59. We spent that weekend watching our very own "Friends" marathon. Of course!
60. Boyfriend & I finished our relaxing "Friends" marathon weekend with a double feature of "Indiana Jones" movies at a local movie theatre. Okay, we only stayed for the first one, but still. I'm a sucker for old movies being played at movie theatres. I own half the movies I go back to watch, but it's so much more fun this way. 61. Peonies are hands down my favorite flower on this planet. The fact that peony season is already over makes me sad. 62. May 28 is my least favorite day ever ever ever. It will be for the rest of my life. I can't believe it's been 14 years since my Daddy passed away. I cried most of the day this year, like I always do, but for some reason this year was even harder. The one thing I'm thankful for is my friends on this day, they always reach out & remind me that they love me & they're here for me. I cannot thank them enough. Typing that out just made my eyes tear up a bit. I have the greatest friends, I don't even deserve them, but I'm so thankful they're mine. 63. Oh just Boyfriend dancing around my apartment in shorts & a superhero blanket. The usual.