Month: December 2011

bloop

Year in Review: 2011

Nina Penalosa6 Comments
Jan. 12, 2011: Lightsaber battle on my 25th birthday.

Greetings and salutations to whoever happens to be reading this. I hope you had a swell holiday season and avoided having to put on “present face” due to lame gifts. Luckily that didn’t happen to me this year! And if you don’t celebrate any holidays, then I hope you had a swell month… or something like that. Yeah. Okay then… *awkward glance to the floor*

And if you happen to be in a part of the world that has already rung in the new year, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Every year I write some sort of year in review on one of my many blog forums with a bullet point list of things that have happened, or things I accomplished throughout the year. So I shall post the happenings of 2011 here:

  • I was able to officially say that I am having a quarter life crisis (turned 25 in January)
  • I went ice skating for the first time since I was a kid
  • Got re-acquainted with my pal Marcos, and met my [America] internet BFF Audrey for the first time!
  • Started volunteering at SPD Books in Berkeley
  • Had a lightsaber battle with Tim in the park (with a lightsaber he bought me for my birthday, see picture above)
  • Got a job (twas temporary)
  • Saw Neil Gaiman at WonderCon for the Doctor Who panel!
  • Read One Day by David Nicholls and cried my eyes out
  • Finally watched a show at the Warfield AND finally saw Broken Social Scene live. Also went to a legit Sara Bareilles show!
  • Started this blog!
  • Let go of someone I cared about for a really long time because I finally acknowledged the fact that they didn’t care that much about me
  • Lost some important friendships over misunderstandings
  • Did the whole graduation ceremony thing at SFSU
  • Finally went to Disneyland and the Walt Disney Family Museum with Tim!
  • Dressed up as a Hogwarts schoolgirl for the last Harry Potter movie
  • Started driving!
  • Vacationed with Jen, Shanice, and Thomas in Monterey
  • Got my very first puppy, Rory. ❤
  • Opened my own Etsy store and sold handmade jewelry
  • Tim and I effed up our friendship by falling for each other (in other words, I GOTS ME A MAN!) ❤
My fluffy baby, Rory.
Graduation day!
The best 2 hours of my life. These dudes (and lady) know how to put on a good show.
Shanice and I in Monterey.
Me and the BF when he was still just my BFF with our homie Eeyore.
Oh, One Day. You killed me and also made me want to start writing again.

2011 has been a whirlwind of emotions (mostly sad ones), but I’m glad that it’s ending on a happy note. 😀

geek style · pup life

Get along lil’ doggy

Nina Penalosa1 Comment

The holiday season has really gotten to me — and by that I mean my waistline. Fuuuuuu… Curse you delicious stupid cookies and cakes that magically appear out of nowhere during this time of year! CURSE YOU. You know I can’t resist you!

I started going back to the gym over the weekend and also started taking Rory out on walks. As a result, I am SO. RIDICULOUSLY. SORE. Oh, and I’m totally drinking some hot chocolate with whipped cream as I write this. Heh…

I remember being really excited of the prospect of having my own puppy to cuddle and take out on walks before I brought Rory home in September. I even contemplated on cancelling my gym membership since I figured walking Rory would be my form of cardio. Um, I was so wrong. When Rory finally came home, I was crushed when I learned that I had to wait until he got his rabies shot to take him anywhere. 4 months — that’s how long I had to wait! In the meantime I tried attaching a leash (one of those retractable ones) on him a couple of times so he could get used to the feel of it, but he ended up chewing it which was all kinds of frustrating. He’s a puppy, so I should’ve seen that coming. *sigh*

Recently, my dad and aunt have been nagging me about taking him out on walks, so I bought regular leash and took him on a short walk to the mail box last week. I expected him to just sit there as I tried to drag him along, but to my pleasant surprise he actually walked with me and by my side (dogs are always supposed to walk by you, not behind or in front of you).

The following day I took Rory out around the neighborhood and he did fairly well. He did bark at a couple of Rottweilers though. x__x

And a few days after that, Tim took us to a trail where him and his sister used to ride their bikes.It was pretty nice, and we found another dog park along the way.

Here are some pictures from that walk:

Another thing that surprised me was when Rory let me put clothes on him and didn’t fight me about it or try to chew them off! I was so crestfallen the first 5 times I tried putting on his grey jacket and other various articles of clothing I had gotten for him and he would just not have it. I was like, “Dammit, I’m going to have one of those dogs that hate clothes!” But alas. He doesn’t! 😀

—

outfit details:

me:

  • hat: H&M
  • shirt: Gap
  • jacket: Xhiliration
  • pants: Old Navy
  • shoes: Madden Girl
  • purse: Kate Spade

Rory:

  • Martha Stewart for PetSmart

Tim:

  • shirt/sweater/blazer: H&M
  • shoes: Aldo
  • pants: ???
Uncategorized

Jingle Jams

Nina Penalosa7 Comments

Christmas is in 10 days!!! To get into the holiday spirit, I thought I would share some of my all-time  favorite Christmas tunes. And I know I’ve mentioned my love for The Sound of Music in previous posts, but don’t expect to find any rendition of “A Few of My Favorite Things” on this list. IT IS NOT A CHRISTMAS SONG. I’m sorry, I just get peeved whenever I find it on Christmas compilations — probably because when someone other than Julie Andrews sings it, it sounds so wrong.

But anywho, here are my favorite Christmas songs (in no particular order):

“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” – Berlin Symphony Orchestra

I first heard this on Ugly Betty‘s first Christmas episode. I went crazy trying to find it online. It’s a fun take on a classic that gives me visions of urbanite sugar plum fairies shakin’ and breakin’.

—

“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” – Jackson 5

When I was little, my parents and sister would drive to some place where you can actually cut down your own Christmas tree. On the way there we’d always listen to the Jackson 5’s Christmas album and The Carpenters (Christmas and greatest hits album), so this song is associated with happy times. 🙂

—

“On Top of the World” – The Carpenters

Okay, so this isn’t a Christmas song. It’s not even close to being a Christmas song (or is it?). But since my mom always played their albums on our way to get a Christmas tree, I thought that their regular songs were Christmas songs. I will always associate The Carpenters with Christmas.

—

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – Michael Buble

Michael Buble’s take on this modern-day Christmas song is by far my favorite version. I’ve always loved this song, maybe because it has this sense of forlorn. I’m a sucker for forlorn ditties (hence why Death Cab For Cutie is my favorite band of all evers), and it often made me homesick for my phantom boyfriend in my single days. Now that I have one, Christmas is gonna suck even more if I hear this song since I’ll be away from him AND my dog next Saturday. 😦

—

“Last Christmas” – Wham!

Need I explain this? Me thinks not.

—

“All I Want For Christmas Is You” – Mariah Carey

Need I explain this one too? Me thinks not either!

—

“Carol of the Bells” – The Bird and The Bee

I love The Bird and The Bee — Inara George’s voice is so luxe. I found this via iTunes when it was a free download a few years ago.

—

“O Holy Night” – *NSYNC

Oh, *NSYNC. I love their whole Christmas album. I’d put all the songs on here if I could. Actually, I CAN, but I am choosing not to because I want variety on this list. It was really hard to pick just one song of theirs to put on this list, but I love their version of “O Holy Night” since it’s a cappella and really shows off their vocal talent.

—

“Little Saint Nick” – The Beach Boys

Probably one of the happiest sounding Christmas songs ever made, which is why I love it so much.

—

“Funky, Funky Christmas” – New Kids on the Block

Not particularly one of my favorite Christmas songs, but I felt the need to put it on this list! I remember my listening to this album with my sister and cousins at our grandma’s house. Good times. Good times.

I’m willing to be that after I post this, I’m going to think of 10 other songs that I should’ve put on here. Oi! But, I’ll just leave it as is and wish all my readers a Happy Holiday. 😀

Uncategorized

Sara F*CKING Bareilles!

Nina PenalosaLeave a comment

I’ve been wanting to go to a legit Sara Bareilles show for the LONGEST TIME. And I say legit because I’ve only been to an in-store signing/performance (her first ever in-store signing at Virgin Mega Store in SF back in ’07, and I was the first in line… not that that matters) and last year I saw her at the Now & Zen Fest in Golden Gate Park. Those can count as shows, but they weren’t part of any headlining tour or anything. I wanted to go to a show that required her to be on stage for more than 45 minutes. I have missed so many opportunities to see her in concert, and every time those days came up I would think, “Dammit, I’m missing Sara! RUUUUUGH!!!” I was even in the city when she had her show at the Fillmore which was filmed for her DVD Between The Lines. Can you imagine how pissed I was to miss that particular show?

Tim surprised me with tickets a couple weeks ago. He said we’ve been talking about going to one of her concerts for so long, and she’s been to San Francisco how many times, and who knows how long until she comes back… needless to say I was overjoyed. WORLD’S BESTEST BOYFRIEND EVAR.

I first heard of Sara Bareilles when “Love Song” was the free iTunes single of the week in the summer of 2007. I looked up her debut album and listened to snippets and instantly fell in love. That’s also when I was coping with my first big break-up, so Sara Bareilles was basically a godsend to me and my form of therapy. Little Voice and Kaleidoscope Heart are two of my favorite albums ever. I’ve said on numerous occasions (mostly to myself) that if my life had a soundtrack, hella songs off both those albums would probably be on it. I mean, “Gonna Get Over You” was my love life’s theme song for almost an effing year. Thankfully that doesn’t apply to me anymore though. *phew* “Let The Rain” is my quarter life crisis jam.

Oh, and you know what else I love about Sara B? She swears like a sailor and is utterly hilarious. Her and Mindy Kaling need to be my BFFs. This is the part where I could go off on a tangent about all the amazingly girly BFF things we’ll do together, like get our nails did while sipping on Mimosas, but I’ll spare you, dear reader.

The concert on Saturday was the very last show of her tour, and she said it’s the biggest venue she’s ever played. So I was there for another milestone in her career! She also said she got laryngitis a few days before and was injected with a massive amount of steroids to finish off her last two shows (LA and SF). And her performance was f*cking flawless. That lady just knows how to put on a good show.

Here are a couple of songs I recorded at the show:

This one is a new song. I’m not sure if she’ll ever record it due to all the profanity, but it just makes me love her even more. And I didn’t know that it was possible to love her more than I already do. I can think of a couple of people I’d like to dedicate this song to… *manical laughter* BTW, this was an all ages show and there were a couple of 11-year-olds in the front row. Some really awesome babysitter brought them to the show. If you’re easily offended by foul language, you probably shouldn’t watch the video. x___x

“Come Round Soon” is one of my favorite Sara B songs, and this version of it is rad as hell. OMG. I thought it was a new song until I heard her start to sing. She also did an awesome rendition of “Bottle It Up” where she’s banging on the bass drum, and the rest of her band are playing the piano. I didn’t get to upload that video. And my camera cut it off anyway because my SD card didn’t have enough space left. Oh well.

If you haven’t heard any of Sara Bareilles’ music, or heard of her at all, I suggest you go correct that.

PS: This is my 100th post! HOLY SH!T!

geek style

Thoroughly Modern Millie-ish

Nina Penalosa6 Comments

On Saturday Tim and I had a day-long date in San Francisco where we ate Dynamo Donuts, wandered around Yerba Buena Gradens, Westfield Shopping Centre, Union Square, and ended the day watching Sara Bareilles at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. HELLA EPIC! Technically we ended it by eating In-N-Out.

Anyhow, I wanted to wear something fancy, but I had a hard time putting outfits together. Everything was either too casual looking or it required my pink slip dress that wasn’t anywhere to be found. Half of my closet found its way on my bed. RUGH! But I settled with my modern flapper girl outfit: my maroon felt bucket hat, cardigan, and pink frilly dress. I ditched my t-strap heels for obvious reasons. Ever since I saw that 100 years of London style video back in August, I’ve been wanting to put together a 1920s inspired ensemble. I think I came up with this outfit in October, but couldn’t think of an appropriate place to wear it until Saturday.

Before I headed out, I threw on my furry paw scarf. Fashionable women in the 20’s wore fur stoles, so I thought it made sense.

And now I’m going to finish off this post with tons of pictures of our day!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, Maple Bacon Apple, Passion Fruit Milk Chocolate, and Vanilla Bean
We always eat our donuts at Dynamo Park.
Fancy bear masks at the Zeum store. I ended up getting the horse one pictured in the background.
I'm an Ood!
We stumbled upon an anime meet-up. And there was a dude dressed like the 11th Doctor! I didn't take a picture of him though. His bow tie was all wrong anyway. x__x
When I went to SFSU, I liked going to Yerba Buena Gardens a lot as it was my favorite thinking spot. I showed Tim around since he's never been there.
Union Square! Tim took a picture with this crazy ass looking street performer.
We passed by Tiffany's and I had to stop to take a picture of their window display. I LOVE carousels!

I’ll be putting up my next post later today which will be all about the foul mouthed goddess: Sara Bareilles. 😀

—

outfit details:

  • hat: ?
  • cardigan: Mossimo
  • dress: M
  • necklace: Grouse and Badger
  • shoes: Madden Girl
  • scarf: Lake Tahoe Treasures/Wild Spirit Animal Hoodies
bloop

Strange that it’s been a year…

Nina Penalosa2 Comments
This is me on 5 Dec. 2010

Time is such a tricky thing — there are days when it feels like it passes by too quickly, and there are days when it feels as if it’s moving at an extremely glacial pace, and some days are a combination of the two. I actually find it quite frightening how years tend to come and go. Like, where the hell did January go? Every time a new month approached this year, I kept thinking, “Where did January go? Wasn’t it just January?” And alas, it’s now December! And where did my *NSYNC teeny bopper days go? Wasn’t I just watching their Disney Channel concert for the umpteenth time at my cousin’s house an hour ago? No? That was 13 years ago? Holy shit. o__o

I checked my Tumblr archive to see what I was up to around this time a year ago, and apparently I was living by myself in my 3 room, 2 bath house in Daly City because all my housemates had moved out and found other places to live. I was stressed as f*ck trying to pack all my things to move back to Stockton AND prepare things for my last finals week as an undergrad at SFSU. Daly City is incredibly foggy, even during the summer. So seasonal depression hit me really hard at this point as I was not only by myself, but my surroundings didn’t feel personal anymore. Most of my things were already back at my parent’s home in Stockton. Also, the thought of moving back to Stockton wasn’t particularly thrilling. At the time I felt as if I was going backwards; shouldn’t I have tried to stay in the city and find a job like everyone else? Things didn’t work out on that end, and house hunting wasn’t particularly easy either. But even though Stockton isn’t thrilling (at all — besides Podesto’s sandwiches), it’s nice to know that I even had the option of coming back whereas other people don’t have the luxury of having their family help them out past the age of 18.

It’s strange how this all happened nearly 365 days ago and how much has changed since then, and also how much hasn’t. For one thing, the jacket I’m wearing in the picture above, I wore it this morning! Okay, not so significant, but anywho…

I’m still feeling quite lost in the whole what-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-my-life? department, and by that I mean career-wise. And even though I’ve experienced a lot of personal lows earlier this year, some parts have gotten better — I have my puppy, I have my best friend, and I opened up an Etsy store which is something I’ve wanted to do for years. So… yeah. I’ll be okay.

Me on 5 Dec. 2011 <-- a lot more happy than the 2010 version of myself

Sorry, I know I’m straying from what I normally write about for this here blog, but I felt that this was the appropriate venue to write these particular thoughts on.

More happy posts to come in the nearby future! 🙂

PS: This song has been stuck in my head for most of the day:

shoppin'

Fluff n’ Stuff

Nina Penalosa3 Comments

Last weekend Tim and I went to Build-a-Bear Workshop to make a little buddy for Princess Penny (a bear I had made a few years ago at the Build-a-Bear in Downtown Disney). I kind of forgot how overwhelming the experience is because of all the choices of bears/animals and clothes you have to choose from. But we ended up picking a bear that looked similar to Princess Penny. 🙂

If you haven’t gone to Build-a-Bear before, you get to pick a heart to stuff inside your creation. Being the nerds that we are, I said we should give it two hearts so he could be a Time Lord bear (Doctor Who reference, in case you don’t know).

I was a bit disappointed in the stuffing process though, because when I made Princess Penny at Disneyland they made me do some stupid silly things — I had to spin in a circle, hold the heart over my head and shake it, and make a wish. At the store we went to, the woman helping us just said to make a wish and then stick the hearts inside our bear. See? Not as exciting. I wanted to put Tim through all of that, but noooo.

One of the things I like about Build-a-Bear is that you get to pick out an ensemble for your cuddly creation. We both agreed that we wanted our bear to be dapper as hell, and ended up finding this GQ-esque pinstripe vest and tie combo. I was bummed that they didn’t have any bowties, but what can you do? We also decided to go for the Pooh Bear look too — no pants, no shoes, just a top. Adding pants and shoes seemed too silly and over the top.

It took Tim and I awhile to pick a name for our bear. I immediately thought of Wilfred, as in Donna’s grandpa from Doctor Who (I ALWAYS manage to find a way to incorporate Doctor Who). We tried to think of other names from nerdy franchises like Harry Potter, and looked up names on our phones, but we ended up going with Wilfred. And at the very last second, I saw a book on the counter when we were waiting in line to pay with a bear wearing glasses. I looked at Wilfred and said he needed some.

Here’s Wilfred and Princess Penny together. I think she’s quite pleased.

Too bad Tim and I tore them apart though — Wilfred currently resides in my room while Princess Penny stays at Tim’s apartment in Sacramento. :/