Best of Cabo Spring Break

OK so I haven’t posted in a while, reason being I was busy making the most of a well-deserved vacation in Cabo! I stayed in my friend’s timeshare for the week, where we enjoyed amazing food, drinks, and company. To give you a better look into my time at Cabo, I’ve complied a list of my favorite aspects of the trip!

 

The Food

Where can you get four amazing tacos and a beer for $4.50? Definitely no where in the U.S. Cheap and delicious, nothing quite hits the spot like AUTHENTIC mexican food!

 

YUM.

The Scenery

We stayed at a beautiful resort called Club Regina, with the most GORGEOUS view!! This  is a view from one of the many pools at the resort. I’m obsessed.

Note the perfection that is the color of the ocean water.

The Party

Sorry mom, but I had to include this in here. Bars and clubs were super cheap and filled with tons of other young people from SMU, ASU, TCU, UT, and other big universities! Oh, and almost every night was “Ladies’ Night” at a different place, meaning none of us girls ever had to pay for drinks. Squid Roe, pictured below, was my personal favorite place to turn up.

The People

Easily the best part about my trip. Getting to spend an entire week with four of my sisters/best friends…is there any other way to spend a week in paradise?

Jackie, me, Emily, Mackenzie, and Amelia.

 

A Note on Pranking

If you know me at all, you know I have a special place in my heart for anything prank-related. From pranksters to the actual pranks themselves, I LOVE PRANKING. Seriously, the best laughs I’ve ever had usually come from watching people get pranked or pranking people myself. If you can’t get a good LOL out of someone looking ridiculous, we probably won’t be friends.

http://youtu.be/UDraoEYv8ng

Link to a clip from Impractical Jokers, aka the best thing ever to grace television. Grown men who prank one another, what more could one want in a TV show? I die every time I watch this show.

So naturally, instead of writing an article for my journalism class yesterday, I channeled my inner procrastinator (which was all too easy) and started watching pranks on YouTube. Instead of writing the article which would have taken twenty minutes, I watched prank videos FOR AN HOUR. I have a problem. (Ehhh but is it REALLY a problem?)

http://youtu.be/tqX7POfzqqg

Link to one of the many pranks I couldn’t stop LOLing at last night. A must watch. I will probably reenact this when I go to Cabo next week.

Sidenote for mom: Yes, I managed to get off YouTube eventually and write a bomb article, so no worries.

 

 

Paying for my Foods From Galilee is the key to my heart

My favorite place to eat in Dallas is Foods From Galilee, a small restaurant in Snider Plaza that serves the BEST Middle Eastern food. I’ve always loved Foods From Galilee because of it’s quick service, convenient location, cheap prices, and AMAZING food. But last Monday, my experience there made me love the restaurant so much more…which I didn’t even think was possible. 

Easily the best restaurant in all of Dallas.

Last Monday was a long day. After waking up for a run at 7, going to class from 9-12:50, and heading straight to my seven hour shift at Nekter, I was famished by the time we closed at 8. Since Foods From Galilee is my personal version of comfort food and is just two doors down from Nekter, I headed over to get myself some grub with that days tip money in hand.

After placing my order, I sat myself down at a table in the corner, counting out the dollars and (mostly) coins from that day’s tip money that I would use to pay for my meal. Sitting alone in my juice-splattered Nekter tee, I’m sure I was a sorry sight as I sorted through my change to come up with enough money to pay for the $8.00 bill.

Best thing on the menu: the lamb gyro. (Pronounced ur-OH, not jey-roh!!)

The Good Part: When my food was ready, I presented the waiter my carefully counted cash. But instead of collecting my money, I was informed that my bill had already been taken care of. Apparently, a random couple in the restaurant saw my struggle and told the wait staff to put my meal on their tab before they left. I was so touched by this random act of kindness, I actually started to tear…yeahhhh, like I said, it had been a long day.

After the exhausting day I had, this random act of kindness couldn’t have come at a better time. Whoever argued that money can’t buy happiness clearly never had their meal paid for them at Foods From Galilee. I have no idea who the couple was, but they are my new favorite people in Dallas. Life is good when you’re eating good fo free!!

My “usual”: lamb gyro, fries, and walnut baklava (not pictured).

 

 

My weekend with the big dogs

This past blog post is a day late – but for good reason. This week I’ve been gearing up for the annual Philosophical Society of Texas conference in Fort Worth, which I’ve been attending as a guest/staff member since Thursday.

The Philosophical Society listening to guest speakers while I creepily take a photo from the back.

The Philosophical Society of Texas was created by the same people that drafted the Texas Declaration of Independence. Made up of 500 members, the society is very exclusive. Notable people in the society are university presidents, senators, philanthropists, and other important people (umm George H.W. and Linda Bush anyone..?). Needless to say, I’ve been working for some very impressive people these past few days (i.e. I just helped former senator Kay Bailey Hutchison check in…OMG.)

Anyway, my job duties this weekend are bomb. Yesterday, I oversaw the tour of Fort Worth museums that some conference attendees took, and supervised a cocktail party, dinner, and Valentine’s reception in the evening. While the day was long (I’m going and going from 6 a.m. – 10 p.m.), all of the things I’m learning from the exciting people I’m meeting make the work worth my while. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that I’m getting to stay at the Hilton in a king size bed, huge meals, and endless supply of coffee for three and a half days!

Today, I’m coordinating registration for the members, overseeing a book signing, and attending a dinner in the evening. Tomorrow I will work checkout and clean-up for the event. Praise the Lord for caffeine – am I right??

The amount of coffee I’ve consumed, shown to scale

I’ve met so many interesting people at the conference so far. A woman I sat next to for dinner last night spent over an hour telling me about different pro-bono cases she was working on. A man I met during the tour told me about a non-profit organization his family was a part of which worked with the underprivileged around the world. Being surrounded by so many successful, kind-hearted people is so inspiring and makes me excited to leave a legacy behind!

Proof there is a God…Drake

The Saturday Night Live episode from January 18^th changed my life.

After watching the show, I found my newest celebrity crush: Aubrey Drake Graham, more commonly known as the rapper, Drake. This was Drake’s first time hosting SNL, and after watching his début, I dubbed him my newest celebrity crush for three main reasons.

This is Drake…God’s gift to mankind? I think so.

1. Drake might be the funniest human being I’ve ever encountered. Because Drake’s career generally revolves around music rather than acting, I never experienced Drake’s acting abilities until SNL, and I never realized how funny he is. Featured in almost every sketch, Drake made me literally LOL, and I rarely laugh out loud when watching anything by myself. Don’t believe me? Check out his opening monologue…the best part is at 4:00 until the end of this Youtube vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqTXwvo4MY0

2. His exceptional musical talent. Any man who is musically talented automatically catches my eye. Not only can Drake deliver raps at any speed, but the lyrics that he writes (yes, he himselfcomes up with those lyrics) are so clever! One of my favorite lyrics of Drake’s comes from “Lord Knows” in which Drake raps, “all drinks on the house like snoopy”…possibly a reference to this photo?

Seriously, how does someone come up with this??!

3. Drake is hot. ‘Nuff said.

How can you resist this smile? He’s gorgeous. I can’t look at this photo without smiling with him.

So yeah. To summarize, I’m slightly obsessed.

My Latest Obsession: Cleansing

Yesterday I consumed 15 pounds of fruits and veggies, and today I’m feelin’ so damn good. Now, I didn’t ingest all this produce in any traditional raw or cooked manner, but rather through one of my latest obsessions: an all-organic juice cleanse. This was my first time doing an organic cleanse, and my experience with it was awesome.

Five of my six juice meals! Yumm

My Experience: The cleanse program I did came in one, three, and five day options…but anyone who knows me at all KNOWS I love food way too much to do anything more than a one day cleanse. So naturally, I went with the one day. There were six drinks total and I drank one bottle every two hours. The beginning of my day was pretty easy, but after my fourth drink (approx. 3 p.m.), my body started to crave more than just liquid. But by keeping myself busy (a.k.a. distracting myself from thoughts of a big, juicy burger by shopping at North Park), I was able to complete my cleanse successfully. And let me tell ya, the results are AWESOME.

Beside the whole detoxing-my-entire-body thing, there have been a couple of other changes I’ve noticed from the cleanse. I think my energy today is 500% more than usual, which says a lot because I didn’t even have any coffee this morning. Also, my skin is nearly flawless today. Goodbye blackheads, hello future cleanses – am I right?

When I first saw the ingredients list on some of the bottles, I had a mini heart attack.

“A drink whose main ingredients are spinach, kale and parsley? Ummmm thanks, but no thanks.” – Me, yesterday.

But honestly – and I have no idea how – the drinks were delicious. Like, so tasty that I would choose some of the drinks in my cleanse over a soda any day. And the drink with spinach, kale and parsley ended up being one of the best juices of my day. Don’t ask me how that happened.

Anyway, I would totally recommend that everyone try a juice cleanse at least once. It was such a good experience, and I know this definitely won’t be my last juice cleanse.

DISCLAIMER: Cleansing is not for the faint-hearted. While there are some awesome results from cleansing, the actual cleanse itself isn’t exactly easy. For those who haven’t cleansed before, I would compare the process to eyebrow waxing or studying for finals – somewhat painful at first, but SO worth it afterward.