Among the Wildflowers

pc: @megankobrien

Adding this to the things I love about San Diego: after a rainy "winter" in Southern California, we tend to get what's called a "Superbloom" around mid-March.

The first time I heard about this phenomenon was around 2016/2017 when I got to experience my first desert Superbloom in the Anza Borrego desert. And this year, our rainy season was rewarded with an entirely different Superbloom experience: the Walker Canyon Ecological Reserve poppy fields in Lake Elsinore.

Hot Chocolate 5K/15K

Fun fact: there are like 200 days until Ryan and I get married. And I am no where near the shape I want to be in. So get ready for an onslaught of #SweatingForTheWedding fitness posts!

Starting with this one: a recap of my very fun, very hilly, very hungover Hot Chocolate 5K last Sunday!

After prepping our guest room and bringing my dad home from the hospital last Friday, then cooking and hosting my annual St. Patrick's Day dinner last Saturday (with the addition of a lentil Shepherd's Pie this year!), I hopped out of bed at 5:45am on Sunday morning and headed to the Gaslamp for my second 5K Sunday in a row with my friend Megan.

Yeah... I was not exactly setting myself up for a PR.

The Hot Chocolate 5K is sponsored by Sweet Valley Organics and it was on behalf of them and their lovely team that Megan and I got to participate. Sweet Valley Organics makes delicious organic dark chocolate-covered fruit and nut snack bites, with mostly fair-trade sourced ingredients. Their Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Toffee Almonds, Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Praline Pecans, and Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Cashews are suuuuuuper yummy. (These are wedding diet approved right?)

Three Cheers, Three Cocktails: A Toast To Her

Strong women... may we know them, may we be them, may we drink with them.

That's how the saying goes right? ;)

This past Sunday I had a chance to do just that and share drinks with a bunch of strong and wonderful women at a Galentine's brunch event hosted at one of my absolute favorite restaurants, CUCINA enoteca.

The event, which was to celebrate women we love with toasts in their honor, featured three delicious cocktails crafted by one of CUCINA enoteca's mixologists, Korie Rogers, featuring Pomp & Whimsy gin liqueur.

And honestly? These drinks were so delicious that it would be criminal not to share them with the world. Which is why I was super pumped today when the generous teams at CUCINA enoteca and Pomp & Whimsy let me know they were cool with me publishing the recipes.

So break out your jiggers, grab your gals and raise a glass filled with one of these amazing cocktails!

Colorfornia

Up until a couple of weeks ago, it had been a year since I last went for a run. 

Well, 364 days to be exact. The last time I ran was this little race on the east coast called the New York City Marathon. It was a perfect day, a perfect run, a perfect race. And a perfect excuse to take a little time off after training for five months. 

Only a little time turned into a month and then a season and before I knew it, it had been a year. 

It almost certainly would have gone longer than that had the running angels over at The Color Run not reached out and offered me a couple of free entries to the San Diego 5k. 

I decided that a little 5k fun run was the perfect way to kickstart my return to running. Better yet, I decided it was also the perfect opportunity to achieve a lifelong dream... to get Ryan to run a race with me. 

Wonderspaces

For me, the buzz around Wonderspaces started with one picture some friends on a date posted on Instagram. In it, they were in a room with a giant floating spiked balloon. And for whatever reason, I just assumed they were in LA. That's where all the cool artsy stuff happens, right?

But within 24 hours of that photo showing up on my feed, the buzz grew steadily. My friends Makena and Liz both texted me separately asking if I'd heard of Wonderspaces. My coworkers were sharing snaps from their own visits in the kitchen at work. And more and more photos began to pop up on my Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.

By the end of the next day, I was almost paralyzed with FOMO.

Wonderspaces, a traveling pop-up art exhibit that's here through July 30th, is the coolest thing to happen to San Diego in a loooong time.  As they share on their website, "you can think of Wonderspaces as a pop-up museum of extraordinary experiences.  Those experiences range from room-sized interactive art installations to virtual reality films and include art enjoyed at the world’s biggest festivals and fairs."

You can also think of Wonderspaces as an Instagram staging area or as a way to justify weeknight drinks, since all of their alcohol sales go to local charities. Because as I finally found out for myself last week, Wonderspaces has got a little something for everybody...

Coachella 2017 Lineup Guide: Friday

Caguamas at 7am, Spicy Pie for every meal, afternoon naps in the Mojave tent, twirling through sandstorms with my best friends...

These are a few of my favorite things.

And in exactly two weeks (two weeks?!), I will be setting up camp to enjoy all of it during my favorite weekend of the year: Coachella.

But Coachella involves a lot of prep work to be enjoyed properly. Campground shade should be designed to be both trendy and able to withstand the wind that somehow only rips through the campgrounds when literally everyone is inside the festival and can't take it down to protect it. Outfits need to be planned for style, extreme temperature changes, and the ability to survive a poop-smeared Porta Potty (hope you romper fans have a SheWee in your purse).

And then there's those 100+ music acts that you have to listen to in order to plan your days.

I know, right? Such a bummer having to listen to so many hours of good music. Let the #coachellaproblems hashtags begin.

Well I have good news! (Depending on how much you trust my musical taste.) As with Coachella years of yore, I'm listening to the whole lineup so you don't have to. But unlike previous attempts I'm not going to write about every single band, just the ones I'm planning to see, broken up day by day.

Which leads us to Friday's lineup...

Stay Nasty, San Diego

I think one thing is clear now: San Diego cares a lot more than we get credit for.

The long-standing stereotype about San Diegans is that we're all a bunch of aloof, apathetic, carefree beach bums. We flake out on commitments or show up "whenever." Our offices are a place for flip flops and dogs, not suits and high heels. Our sports teams are terrible because we aren't good fans, we don't get argumentative unless it's about coffee, craft beer, brunch or tacos, and we aren't very engaged politically.

That's the rumor anyway. The turnout at the San Diego Women's March on Saturday told a different story.

OB Love: 1502 Candle Co.

I have been saying for the better part of two years that I want to do more posts highlighting my sweet little neighborhood of Ocean Beach. However, like most things blog-related I haven't had time during this frantic year-long race to the finish of my MBA. #MBAproblems

Here's the thing: I knew OB was home the minute I first set foot in my friend Keri's apartment complex 7 years ago. Something about it just felt like what I'd meant whenever I said I wanted to move to San Diego. It was the vibe and community I'd been searching for my whole life. And even though it took me five years after moving to San Diego to move to OB, now that I'm here I don't ever want to leave.

San Diego is home, but OB is home.

Ocean Beach Holiday Parade

There are many, many reasons why I love my little neighborhood of Ocean Beach in San Diego: our proximity to the beach, the sense of community, how dog-friendly it is, Taco Tuesdays, the farmer's market... the list goes on and on. 

And the annual Holiday Parade is definitely on that list. 

Last year, Ryan and I and our friends Ian, Desiree and Rob wandered over to the parade for the first time. Hundreds of people were lined up on both sides of the street, all the way down Newport Ave, the main drag in OB. We watched as dozens of random floats and groups paraded down the street, many of them with seemingly no affiliation to any organization: they were just in it to have fun. 

That's when we realized: anybody can be in the Ocean Beach Holiday Parade. 

That night, several drinks later, we decided that we would be "anybody" the following year. 

As far as drunken ideas go? This was one of our best ones. 

Motivation Monday: Shape Magazine Meet & Tweet

Trust me: I am not one to start talking about Christmas the week after Halloween. I firmly believe in taking it one holiday at a time. Christmas, real Christmas celebrations should not start until the day after Thanksgiving.

But Blogger Christmas? Well, that happened last Wednesday.

Last week I was stoked beyond all stoke to attend Shape Magazine's West Coast Blogger Meet & Tweet event in Santa Monica. Fitness Magazine had hosted what was essentially the same event back in 2013 and it was AMAZING. Panels with celebrity speakers and bloggers covered everything from exercise to diet to beauty to branding. And then.... there was the swag.

It was definitely the best blog-related event I've had the honor of attending. So when Shape took it over this year and invited me back, I couldn't RSVP fast enough.

Besides... what kind of celebrity-obsessed psycho fitness blogger turns down an opportunity to meet Karena and Katrina? Not this one, that's for sure.

Cool As Ever

One of the first events that means it's actually, really, finally summer in San Diego is Opening Day at the Del Mar Racetrack. And one of the signs that this summer has flown by too quickly is that I'm just now getting around to sharing this year's Opening Day pics... and it's only a few days before the season ends.

Wanderlust 108 San Diego: A Mindful Triathalon

I'm not going to lie: I've loved telling people that I did a triathalon this weekend. This "joke" is extremely troubling to me because it means that I have inherited my dad's sense of humor and that is just terrible (sorry, Dad).

If you know me, you know this is my idea of funny because I only started learning how to swim last year and the last time I tried to ride a bike I crashed it into a telephone pole. True story. So, no it wasn't a triathalon in the standard sense. This was what they call "a mindful triathalon": a 5K, 90 minutes of yoga and a 15 minute meditation. These are things I can do without injuring myself or dying.

Hillcrest Taste 'N Tinis

For whatever reason, this has been the year that I've finally started discovering all the holiday events that San Diego has to offer. For instance, a couple of weeks ago we went to the OB Holiday Parade for the first time. The parade is over 30 years old and it was super fun... we're even thinking about applying to participate next year!

And just this past week, I was invited to come check out and review Hillcrest's annual Taste 'N Tinis event. The Taste 'N Tinis tour of Hillcrest offered bites and sips at more than 30 stores and restaurants in Hillcrest. It was a great way to check out what's new to the neighborhood and to do some holiday shopping at the participating stores, all of which were running discounts.

Best of all, it was fun way to drink with my bestie!

Shoppped: TOPSHOP Fashion Valley

IT'S HERE!

Do you know what happiness is? Happiness is falling in love with a store, a perfect, beautiful store while you're studying abroad in London. And then having that store open its third U.S. location in the city where you now live. And then being invited by said store to come and shop before the doors are opened to the public. And then getting champagne and a personal stylist to assist you while you do so. And THEN going to the launch party where you get to meet Devendra Banhart, drink for free and dance all night with your friends.

That, my friends, is happiness. And I am so, SO happy.

Topshop Fashion Valley is finally, wonderfully, dangerously open, but if you want a little sneak peek before you head to the mall, well, I'd love to share my happiness with you...

Taste of Thrillist San Diego

Is not having cable still a hipstery thing to brag about or is it just commonplace at this point? Whatever the case, I haven't had it in over a decade and so if a TV show isn't on Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, HBO Go, or Showtime Anytime, I don't know what you're talking about. Even if it is, with the exception of a brief, shameful period where I was really into Teen Mom, I haven't seen any reality TV.

But in San Diego, you don't need to have watched Top Chef to know who Brian Malarkey is. The superstar chef is the talent behind hot spots such as Searsucker and Herringbone, and even if I wasn't a foodie, I don't think I could avoid the buzz. Besides, my boyfriend's business provides knife sharpening services for his restaurants and my friend Jon of Lovelife often DJs sunset sessions at both the LA and San Diego Herringbone. Bottom line: I don't need to watch the show to know he's my favorite Top Chef!

Hence my excitement when Thrillist offered Ryan and I a pair of tickets to their Hotel Thrillist: Taste of Thrillist event last Friday at the Hard Rock Hotel downtown. The event was hosted by Brian and featured off-the-menu tastings from some of San Diego's top restaurants including Searsucker, Puesto, Slater's 50/50, and Salt and Cleaver. Obviously, I didn't hesitate to say yes and it's a good thing I didn't.

Vans US Surf Open 2014

Can I just say that surf contests are amazing? I mean, at what other sporting event do you have your pick of free front row seats to watch pro athletes? And soft, sandy beach seats at that?! It's exciting and unpredictable and relaxing and meanwhile you can bring your own food, take a nap during the heats you don't care about, get a tan...

This may just be the sporting event for me.

From A Rented Room On 9th Street

It's far from quiet in our little AirBnB room on 9th Street in Huntington Beach. There's the rain, for one. The cars splash through it every few minutes. There's intermittent fireworks, fragments of drunken conversations. Our middle-aged male host is downstairs on the couch making out with a women with short blonde hair. Our Finnish housemate is laying on her bottom bunk bed in the next room, flicking through her cell phone with the lights on and the doors open. Ryan has a pillow on his face trying to block out the noise and the light. I have my MacBook screen on minimum brightness, my headphones in, lowly playing one of my favorite albums, Gregory Alan Isakov's "That Sea, The Gambler".

We're up here for the Vans US Surf Open, something I'd daydreamed about as a 16, 17-year-old surf-culture-obsessed wannabe who was trapped on the wrong coast. I worked in a mall at the time and went to Hollister on my breaks to sit and watch the Huntington Beach webcams they played on projector screens in the store.

The vibes here and the town itself isn't exactly what I thought it would be like, but then again, not much has been since I moved here. It's been different and better, unsaturated and surprising. Sometimes you need to dig up the things you worshipped in your youth to see what they really are... sometimes they put the things you aspire to now in perspective.

At the end of the day, you create your life. If you don't want to have regrets, your best bet is to leave nothing unexplored.

Orange Is the New Opening Day

God, I love Opening Day! For those of you non-San Diegans, Opening Day is the first day of the race season at the Del Mar racetrack. It's also one of the biggest social events of the summer, complete with fancy dresses, big hats and lots of champy. And I love that you can bump into at least a handful of people you know... further proof that San Diego is the smallest big city there is. 

This year we headed to the track with Ryan's parents and their friends and had an absolute blast, as was to be expected. As they say, there was a winner in every race and for all the races I bet on, that winner was me.

Motivation Monday: Neon Dash 5K

I think I'm finally starting to get this whole "fun run" thing. Yes, for most people those two words don't belong next to each other. But even for runners, for the people who actually like running, I don't feel like those people (listen to me ... "those people") run for fun anymore. They run because they're training for something or because they're trying to lose weight or because they need to de-stress. That's not fun, that's work. 

Saturday night I did my first real "fun run" ever. The closest I've ever come to a fun run before was the Aloha 5K last September which for me was all about getting back in the running saddle post-marathon. For everyone else though, it had the intended purpose: dress up in silly costumes and go get some exercise with your friends before brunch. However, I ran it and wrote my whole race review from a runner's perspective: too many kids, not enough room to get around people, where was the runner's etiquette?, etc. 

Jeez, lady, get over yourself.... 

Well, I did. And that led me to the Neon Dash

Scenes From My Weekend