I finished the first week of the CSATTFITNESS 30 Day Challenge yesterday, on Valentine's Day. It has been a very challenging and eye-opening week. I had previously thought to myself, why am I not losing any weight, or seeing any improvement when I have been eating less and being more active? It is almost embarrassing to think back on the conversations I had with my parents, my friends, and my husband. I was not putting enough into my "being more active".
I started out the week very excited to start a challenge, because I am so sick of not fitting into my clothes, and being uncomfortable. I have a huge closet full of super cute, fashionable clothes, yet I was always reaching for yoga pants and over-sized tops, or worse, staying in my pajamas all day. I first decided that rather than staying in my pajamas, I would start getting dressed in the morning. I felt this was important, because it was making me get up and put on clothes that are a little less forgiving, and it would make it more obvious how my body was. I mentioned that I was under the impression that I was not as far gone, as I really was.,, part of which I will attribute to the very comfy, lazy work from home wardrobe I was wearing day in and day out.
There were quite a few exercises I have never heard of. Inch worms? K2? Suicide Push ups? This challenge has a link to each of the moves, which is linked to a YouTube video of Cody doing it. He makes it look pretty simple, and I guarantee that I looked nothing like he did, doing the squat presses, or really any of the exercises. I felt my post-baby, out-of-shape tummy jumping up and down with me while I did my jumping jacks. Did you know jumping jacks are weird to do as an adult? I remember them being ridiculous when I was younger. They were so easy and felt like they were a waste of time. Now, I had trouble staying in sync with it, and completing the 25 in between the sets of the other exercises.
This experience has been so humbling. I thought I was in much better shape than I am, I thought I was so much more active than I really was. I wasn't really being true to myself. Cody said, you are the sum of all the actions of your life. Every time I chose to sit around and watch movies, rather than go out to enjoy the outdoors, eat something 'fun', rather than something that would provide my body with nutrients, and each time I chose to hate my body, rather than appreciate all it allows me to do, I am a sum of all those actions. I have to break the habit of constantly weighing myself, and hating the number I see, because it makes me feel like a failure. I trusted this process and have done the exercises, and have chosen to eat better choices. I can say, that I have seen a benefit in both my number in the scale, the strength I feel, I also noticed some NSV (non scale victories) my muscles are showing more tone, my clothes are looser, and I definitely have more energy. I am off to the zoo to enjoy a beautiful day with my family, but when I get back, you better believe day 8 is waiting for me ;)
If anyone is interested in the program, or has any questions about it, I am more than happy to share what I know. I also joined the fitbit family, so you can add me at marygurle@yahoo.com
Monday, February 15, 2016
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
2nd Day of 30 Day Fitness Challenge!
I started eating better, less, and exercising more starting before the holidays. I was starting to get sick of seeing all my cute clothes, and not being able to/wanting to wear them. I was out of shape and overweight before getting pregnant. I decided enough is enough, and started dragging my butt to the gym.
The story of my life is whenever I make an attempt to get back in shape, something catastrophic happens. Once it was that I hurt my ankle "running" (I use the term very loosely), over-iced it and burned the skin around my ankle. That's right, I burned the skin with ice, I totally didn't even know that was possible. Shortly thereafter, my left knee started having a sharp pain under the kneecap. I was told no more, again "running" until I completed 6 long weeks of Physical Therapy. UGHH!
The next time, I entered a Tone It Up challenge for fall. It was a series of work outs and daily running, swimming, etc. I went at it with a gusto, and was all prepped to get my sweat on. I got really sick, and it lasted for about 7 weeks, unable to breathe out my nose. How does one work out when you can not breath out your nose?
Every single attempt for me to get back in shape for the last, ehhhh.. let's say 4 years has been plagued by this darkness. My sister recently had a baby, and she was in the same boat. Felt out of shape, didn't feel great about her body, and wanted to get fit. She was encouraged by a friend to do the Cody Sattler fitness challenge. #CSATTFITNESS Can you look up hashtags?(yes a sign of getting older, I don't know what the newest things are) She offered to get me a month of the program, since she knew I was pretty unhappy with my lack of progress, and was having such a hard time finding time with work and my child, and the rest of the every day life.
I started the fitness challenge yesterday. It was a lower body day, which means you spend the time working on legs, you know squats, lunges, etc. I think I was in serious denial about my fitness level. My sister told me it was pretty tough, even at the novice level, and I kinda thought in my head, well I have been walking a ton, jogging here and there, I carry around a 25lb+ kid every day!! It was still tough to get through the 5 exercises with the exercises in between sets. Holding planks for up to 45 seconds? This used to be so easy to me. I could do low planks to chaturanga... YA... I WAS A YOGA BAD ASS! I could bend, twist, turn, pretzel, etc.. now my arms shake and shake and I just about die when it finally hits that 45 second mark.
borrowed this illustration from
I woke up today feeling sore immediately. I walked around funny all day, I had the misfortune of trying to run to catch up with my son, and couldn't believe the level of pain I felt. Not to mention, I am sure it looked so dumb to anyone who saw the way I was moving. I had to laugh to myself, I ran like I had a pole up my butt. Parts of my stomach hurt more than I can remember any crunches made me feel. My shoulders hurt in parts that you wouldn't even think you used, until you try to put your hair in a ponytail, wash your hair, put on deodorant, turn on a light, lift up your 25lb+ son, open doors, etc. You get the point. I can already feel that this could be effective in the long run, if I am able to stay motivated, and finish strong. So far, my knee has not given a ton of trouble. It definitely was sore yesterday, but fortunately other than burpees, today was an arm day.
I went from having no appetite at all for months, to being hungry all day today. I am hoping that my body will find a balance, and I won't have to do the constant snack all day, because we all know that will end up with me seeing no results. I will check in during this challenge, and give updates. And, possibly, if I am brave enough, I may post before and after photos. I took the photos in my swimsuit today, and not joking, I may have reverse body dysmorphia to a certain extent. I had no idea how terrible my body was. I knew it wasn't as great as it could be, but I definitely thought it was better than it is. One day at a time I guess.
Until next time, which will be interesting to see if I can even move my arms, or lift my child tomorrow....
The story of my life is whenever I make an attempt to get back in shape, something catastrophic happens. Once it was that I hurt my ankle "running" (I use the term very loosely), over-iced it and burned the skin around my ankle. That's right, I burned the skin with ice, I totally didn't even know that was possible. Shortly thereafter, my left knee started having a sharp pain under the kneecap. I was told no more, again "running" until I completed 6 long weeks of Physical Therapy. UGHH!
The next time, I entered a Tone It Up challenge for fall. It was a series of work outs and daily running, swimming, etc. I went at it with a gusto, and was all prepped to get my sweat on. I got really sick, and it lasted for about 7 weeks, unable to breathe out my nose. How does one work out when you can not breath out your nose?
Every single attempt for me to get back in shape for the last, ehhhh.. let's say 4 years has been plagued by this darkness. My sister recently had a baby, and she was in the same boat. Felt out of shape, didn't feel great about her body, and wanted to get fit. She was encouraged by a friend to do the Cody Sattler fitness challenge. #CSATTFITNESS Can you look up hashtags?(yes a sign of getting older, I don't know what the newest things are) She offered to get me a month of the program, since she knew I was pretty unhappy with my lack of progress, and was having such a hard time finding time with work and my child, and the rest of the every day life.
I started the fitness challenge yesterday. It was a lower body day, which means you spend the time working on legs, you know squats, lunges, etc. I think I was in serious denial about my fitness level. My sister told me it was pretty tough, even at the novice level, and I kinda thought in my head, well I have been walking a ton, jogging here and there, I carry around a 25lb+ kid every day!! It was still tough to get through the 5 exercises with the exercises in between sets. Holding planks for up to 45 seconds? This used to be so easy to me. I could do low planks to chaturanga... YA... I WAS A YOGA BAD ASS! I could bend, twist, turn, pretzel, etc.. now my arms shake and shake and I just about die when it finally hits that 45 second mark.
borrowed this illustration from
I woke up today feeling sore immediately. I walked around funny all day, I had the misfortune of trying to run to catch up with my son, and couldn't believe the level of pain I felt. Not to mention, I am sure it looked so dumb to anyone who saw the way I was moving. I had to laugh to myself, I ran like I had a pole up my butt. Parts of my stomach hurt more than I can remember any crunches made me feel. My shoulders hurt in parts that you wouldn't even think you used, until you try to put your hair in a ponytail, wash your hair, put on deodorant, turn on a light, lift up your 25lb+ son, open doors, etc. You get the point. I can already feel that this could be effective in the long run, if I am able to stay motivated, and finish strong. So far, my knee has not given a ton of trouble. It definitely was sore yesterday, but fortunately other than burpees, today was an arm day.
I went from having no appetite at all for months, to being hungry all day today. I am hoping that my body will find a balance, and I won't have to do the constant snack all day, because we all know that will end up with me seeing no results. I will check in during this challenge, and give updates. And, possibly, if I am brave enough, I may post before and after photos. I took the photos in my swimsuit today, and not joking, I may have reverse body dysmorphia to a certain extent. I had no idea how terrible my body was. I knew it wasn't as great as it could be, but I definitely thought it was better than it is. One day at a time I guess.
Until next time, which will be interesting to see if I can even move my arms, or lift my child tomorrow....
Sunday, February 7, 2016
GenBeauty LA 2016 Sunday... OVER IT!!!!!!!!
Michelle and I woke early-ish Sunday, ready to tear off our remaining tickets and get the rest of our beauty products.. One small problem... It was majorly raining. Ugh, we were planning to walk down to the convention to save some money on parking, etc. Oh well, we loaded up our stuff into the Prius, and headed down to the parking garage. Somehow, we still ended up in the farthest garage away from the convention. We fought the wind and rain to get to the long line that was once again surrounding the convention. It was really chilly out, and how nice, they allowed us to wait in this long ass line in the parking garage. The garbage cans were over-flowing with Starbucks cups, people started shoving them into the plants.. Nasty!!
We waited in this long winding line to get into the event over an hour after it started. The even was only running until 3pm,which meant we had very little time to do anything. We started off wanting to get every last freebie there was, we ended up getting two and saying F this! We looked up the Blaze pizza locations, and found that there was one not too far away, near USC. We got in the car, drove to find the place, and saw that there was no parking available. I turned and turned and turned and turned, and finally a spot opened up. The parking was metered, and for a hefty price, but I was just so over driving around in circles, and waiting for everything we took it. The place was vibrating with people chatting up a storm, young boys who were in the super confident college phase of their lives. Young girls trying to look cool to the boys, and there was Michelle and I, who just wanted to eat some pizza and go home.
We came, we saw, we gawked at how disgustingly littered Los Angeles is, and we headed home. We didn't realize it, but we drove through a hurricane on the way home. It was like we were in the eye of the storm through the moment I put the car in park on my driveway. What a way to end the trip!
We waited in this long winding line to get into the event over an hour after it started. The even was only running until 3pm,which meant we had very little time to do anything. We started off wanting to get every last freebie there was, we ended up getting two and saying F this! We looked up the Blaze pizza locations, and found that there was one not too far away, near USC. We got in the car, drove to find the place, and saw that there was no parking available. I turned and turned and turned and turned, and finally a spot opened up. The parking was metered, and for a hefty price, but I was just so over driving around in circles, and waiting for everything we took it. The place was vibrating with people chatting up a storm, young boys who were in the super confident college phase of their lives. Young girls trying to look cool to the boys, and there was Michelle and I, who just wanted to eat some pizza and go home.
We came, we saw, we gawked at how disgustingly littered Los Angeles is, and we headed home. We didn't realize it, but we drove through a hurricane on the way home. It was like we were in the eye of the storm through the moment I put the car in park on my driveway. What a way to end the trip!
GenBeauty LA 2016
As a girl who loves makeup and beauty products, it just made sense for me to go to GenBeauty. I have seen the swag bags of the past events, and I got to admit, I wanted to get my hands of them! I have a friend Michelle who loves make up as much, if not more, than myself. Naturally, she is who I asked to go with me. We were able to take advantage of the early bird sale on tickets, and I believe we purchased them for about $90 ish dollars a piece. This was for both Saturday and Sunday. GenBeauty is thrown by Michelle Phan and Ipsy, and is a convention for beauty creators and the rest of the public, that just loves beauty products.
The months between purchasing the tickets, requesting the time off work, Michelle buying plane tickets, my house going into Escrow (FINALLY) passed so slowly. There were times I would dream about how the event would be, other times, I almost forgot about it totally! A whole weekend off from being mom, wife, diligent worker, etc and all so I could concentrate on luxury and Los Angeles! I am one of the lucky women, who's husband is really great with our son, so he allows me the occassional "ME TIME" to recompose myself after a long week, or a little free time to spoil myself with gasp... SHOPPING!! This was on a whole other level. A weekend with one of my best girlfriends in the world... I really needed this after many stressful months and years even.
We woke up early to go to the check in Saturday. We missed the Friday evening early check in because of that wonderful Los Angeles traffic it is famous for. We parked the car in the garage, and walked to find the location. Of course, there was a pit stop at the Starbucks. It was already full of girls all glamorous and ready to get their GenBeauty on. We were hiding behind our big sunglasses because we were not wearing any makeup, hair was yet to be done, and we were not even dressed for the day. We went to check out the situation, and we were met by an already long line of people waiting to get into the event. We decided to get a cab back to the hotel and get ready. I AM SO GLAD I DECIDED TO WEAR MY TOMS! I was going to wear cuter shoes, like wedge booties. My feet would have hated me. With our makeup on, and hair less gnarly, we were ready to go. We waited in line for a very long time. It was ok at first, because it was a cloudy day, then the sun decided to shine through the clouds and smog. Ugh! It started boiling me in my very intentional leather biker jacket, which was the key piece of my outfit! We waited, and waited, and waited some more. The line finally started moving. They had us wrapping around the roof top of this building like a serpent. There were no clear lines, and just people herding us around like cattle to get into this large white tent. When we finally got into the event, we really didn't know what we were doing.
We learned really quickly, that you can tear off little stubs from your convention map, and turn it in for beauty swag! We absolutely line jumped at TooFaced, and we didn't realize until after the fact. We got full sized Chocolate Bon Bon Pallettes AND we got the TooFaced Compartes' chocolate bar!! Michelle was saying over and over that she really wanted one, but wanted to exercise control over her spending. She just got her very first apartment on her own before the trip. We were freaking out, so excited to turn in all the little squares.
We moved along in a very random fashion, waiting in long lines once again to try to get our freebies, try out new products, and just enjoy our freedom with a bunch of other beauty lovers. While waiting in the line for Jouer cosmetics, I saw that Laura Lee was going to be doing a meet and greet, pretty close to the time we were in line. I met the owner Christina, who is a like a living, breathing barbie doll. She was very friendly and introduced me to her daughter, who is definitely beautiful as well. We got matched for matte tinted moisturizer with SPF. Definitely check it out, it smells amazing, and feels so silky smooth, you don't feel it on your skin. I met Laura, and her husband, Tyler, and got to have my picture taken with her. I even ended up in her YouTube vlog of GenBeauty ;)
We made our way through as many booths as we could before it was closing time. We didn't get a chance to meet anyone else :( We both wanted to meet the Ipsy creators, talk about makeup, etc. I was able to make some people laugh through out the day, which helped with the stress of the huge crowds and long lines. There were some times where things started to get heated because someone cut in line, someone didn't have a Twitter account to tweet for a treat, or Instagram account to share a picture. It is really amazing how upset people can get about freebies.
We left feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, and headed back to the hotel. We had a big bag of goodies to look through and freak out over. We decided to go to the movies, and saw Dirty Grandpa, because Zac Efron. That's it, because Zac Efron. hahha! He was as hot as ever, the movie had some good laughs, but was your typical gross humor, drug reference riddled, how many bad words, slang, and other urban terms can we get DeNiro to spit out. We laughed, I mozzarella sticked, and we walked home. Did I mention we walked about the length of a marathon, at the very least? My legs and glutes are still sore! Time to go to sleep, we have an abbreviated GenBeauty Sunday ahead of us!
The months between purchasing the tickets, requesting the time off work, Michelle buying plane tickets, my house going into Escrow (FINALLY) passed so slowly. There were times I would dream about how the event would be, other times, I almost forgot about it totally! A whole weekend off from being mom, wife, diligent worker, etc and all so I could concentrate on luxury and Los Angeles! I am one of the lucky women, who's husband is really great with our son, so he allows me the occassional "ME TIME" to recompose myself after a long week, or a little free time to spoil myself with gasp... SHOPPING!! This was on a whole other level. A weekend with one of my best girlfriends in the world... I really needed this after many stressful months and years even.
We woke up early to go to the check in Saturday. We missed the Friday evening early check in because of that wonderful Los Angeles traffic it is famous for. We parked the car in the garage, and walked to find the location. Of course, there was a pit stop at the Starbucks. It was already full of girls all glamorous and ready to get their GenBeauty on. We were hiding behind our big sunglasses because we were not wearing any makeup, hair was yet to be done, and we were not even dressed for the day. We went to check out the situation, and we were met by an already long line of people waiting to get into the event. We decided to get a cab back to the hotel and get ready. I AM SO GLAD I DECIDED TO WEAR MY TOMS! I was going to wear cuter shoes, like wedge booties. My feet would have hated me. With our makeup on, and hair less gnarly, we were ready to go. We waited in line for a very long time. It was ok at first, because it was a cloudy day, then the sun decided to shine through the clouds and smog. Ugh! It started boiling me in my very intentional leather biker jacket, which was the key piece of my outfit! We waited, and waited, and waited some more. The line finally started moving. They had us wrapping around the roof top of this building like a serpent. There were no clear lines, and just people herding us around like cattle to get into this large white tent. When we finally got into the event, we really didn't know what we were doing.
We learned really quickly, that you can tear off little stubs from your convention map, and turn it in for beauty swag! We absolutely line jumped at TooFaced, and we didn't realize until after the fact. We got full sized Chocolate Bon Bon Pallettes AND we got the TooFaced Compartes' chocolate bar!! Michelle was saying over and over that she really wanted one, but wanted to exercise control over her spending. She just got her very first apartment on her own before the trip. We were freaking out, so excited to turn in all the little squares.
We moved along in a very random fashion, waiting in long lines once again to try to get our freebies, try out new products, and just enjoy our freedom with a bunch of other beauty lovers. While waiting in the line for Jouer cosmetics, I saw that Laura Lee was going to be doing a meet and greet, pretty close to the time we were in line. I met the owner Christina, who is a like a living, breathing barbie doll. She was very friendly and introduced me to her daughter, who is definitely beautiful as well. We got matched for matte tinted moisturizer with SPF. Definitely check it out, it smells amazing, and feels so silky smooth, you don't feel it on your skin. I met Laura, and her husband, Tyler, and got to have my picture taken with her. I even ended up in her YouTube vlog of GenBeauty ;)
We made our way through as many booths as we could before it was closing time. We didn't get a chance to meet anyone else :( We both wanted to meet the Ipsy creators, talk about makeup, etc. I was able to make some people laugh through out the day, which helped with the stress of the huge crowds and long lines. There were some times where things started to get heated because someone cut in line, someone didn't have a Twitter account to tweet for a treat, or Instagram account to share a picture. It is really amazing how upset people can get about freebies.
We left feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, and headed back to the hotel. We had a big bag of goodies to look through and freak out over. We decided to go to the movies, and saw Dirty Grandpa, because Zac Efron. That's it, because Zac Efron. hahha! He was as hot as ever, the movie had some good laughs, but was your typical gross humor, drug reference riddled, how many bad words, slang, and other urban terms can we get DeNiro to spit out. We laughed, I mozzarella sticked, and we walked home. Did I mention we walked about the length of a marathon, at the very least? My legs and glutes are still sore! Time to go to sleep, we have an abbreviated GenBeauty Sunday ahead of us!
Phoenix to the City of Angels, GenBeauty LA 2016
My friend Michelle got into town a few days before the weekend of the convention. She has other friends in Phoenix, so while I worked through my last few days of work, she was enjoying the BIG WAC, which is a Vegan BigMac. Oh did I mention, Michelle is straight up Vegan! I would later hear for days about the Big Wac, and how she couldn't stand how yummy it is, or that there isn't a restaurant by her back home that makes anything like it.
We finally got on the road on Thursday, and set on the journey to Los Angeles. We talked, and laughed, and acted silly the whole way. There wasn't a lot of anything between Phoenix and Palm Springs. Desert, cars driving slowly, dust devils, people driving ATVs around like cars... that is pretty much the excitement on the drive. As soon as we got into California, there it was to the right... an outlet mall!!! We were not going to stop, but we say Versace, Gucci, Tory, etc... all these huge designer names, suddenly we both needed a chance to get up and stretch out our legs!! We of course stopped into yet another Forever 21, because 'they could always have different stuff from the last 2 we checked out'. The clearance was calling to us, BOGO?? OK!!! We loaded up on even more cute clothes, because we both thought we were going to dress cute for the convention. Michelle even got some silver Chuck high-tops. Mostly we drank a bunch of coffee. Oh and we found a pizza joint called Blaze Pizza, that makes Vegan and Gluten free Pizza. You should have heard Michelle shriek!
Back on the road, the GPS was saying we still had at least 2 hours left of the journey, and at that point I almost felt inclined to just wait it out at the mall. But ALAS, we got back to the car, and the time decreased quite a bit! We pulled into the parking lot for Hotel Solaire. It is in downtown LA, DTLA as the locals call it. We didn't know the convention was next to the Staples Center, but we decided to walk. over to it to check out the location and figure out what we would be doing that weekend. We stopped into the Yard House next door to the Staples Center, and found out that the Lakers were playing the Chicago Bulls, and the Bulls won!!! There was a plethora of wasted people out and about, we had to fight to get drinks with about a thousand people. We decided to try to find somewhere else to go. We asked a valet at the hotel across the street, and he sent us to the rooftop bar at the Ace Hotel. What a bunch of young, bougie hipsters were hanging out there. They were swarming around the pool, dancing around the DJ, and sitting around looking bored with life. We fought again to beg a bartender to take our money and make some drinks. The ridiculous guy told us we were waiting in the wrong area for drinks, but would get us one round, WOW thank you!! WHAT A GREAT HUMANITARIAN!! We decided to give up, and head back to the hotel. The streets were littered with the homeless, sleeping in tents on the sidewalks, shopping carts, in the doorway to the ATMs at the bank. We suddenly felt very out of place, and lost. Thankfully, after only being lost for a half an hour, we found the HUGE shoe store, which told us the hotel was just around the corner.
We decided to get Michelle out to the beach, since she had never seen the ocean in her life!! We stopped first in Brentwood, hoping to brush shoulders with a few celebs. Isn't that part of what being in LA is all about? We went into a kitschy little coffee shop, which was boasting being macrobiotic. I just wanted a dang coffee with a kick. My fatigue was catching up with me. The did have some chia seed, something or other, that Michelle was excited to eat. I got a chocolate croissant. haha! right, carb addict girl here. With my milk alternative coffee, croissant and comfy shoes, we took off down the road to look for something to be excited about. We found a chocolate shop called Comparte. You could actually watch the chocolate being made in the shop window. We stopped in to check it out, duh!!! They had a wall full of different chocolate bars, and the glass counters with beautiful truffles and candies. I picked out donuts and coffee and hazelnut toast bars. We found out soon, they are almost $10 a piece, woops! We saw they had TooFaced bars, which is one of my favorite makeup brands, but it was dark chocolate with pink sugar salt, meh.
It was off to the beach! We went to Santa Monica. We walked through the sand, dipped our toes in the ocean, and took one of Michelle's most popular Facebook pictures, by ahem yours truly... We walked along the boardwalk, dodged seagulls, watched people spend money on ridiculous touristy things, and play arcade games. There was an overwhelming smell of funnel cake, which was starting to become too much. We decided to walk to the Santa Monica Promenade mall. We looked around, and walked around looking for new sunglasses, which we both wanted badly. We stopped in shops we could only visit in LA. We stopped for dinner at Cheesecake Factory, which used to be a favorite of both of us. Not anymore! We both felt sick after, and went to bed really early.
GENBEAUTY SATURDAY!! Finally!!
We finally got on the road on Thursday, and set on the journey to Los Angeles. We talked, and laughed, and acted silly the whole way. There wasn't a lot of anything between Phoenix and Palm Springs. Desert, cars driving slowly, dust devils, people driving ATVs around like cars... that is pretty much the excitement on the drive. As soon as we got into California, there it was to the right... an outlet mall!!! We were not going to stop, but we say Versace, Gucci, Tory, etc... all these huge designer names, suddenly we both needed a chance to get up and stretch out our legs!! We of course stopped into yet another Forever 21, because 'they could always have different stuff from the last 2 we checked out'. The clearance was calling to us, BOGO?? OK!!! We loaded up on even more cute clothes, because we both thought we were going to dress cute for the convention. Michelle even got some silver Chuck high-tops. Mostly we drank a bunch of coffee. Oh and we found a pizza joint called Blaze Pizza, that makes Vegan and Gluten free Pizza. You should have heard Michelle shriek!
Back on the road, the GPS was saying we still had at least 2 hours left of the journey, and at that point I almost felt inclined to just wait it out at the mall. But ALAS, we got back to the car, and the time decreased quite a bit! We pulled into the parking lot for Hotel Solaire. It is in downtown LA, DTLA as the locals call it. We didn't know the convention was next to the Staples Center, but we decided to walk. over to it to check out the location and figure out what we would be doing that weekend. We stopped into the Yard House next door to the Staples Center, and found out that the Lakers were playing the Chicago Bulls, and the Bulls won!!! There was a plethora of wasted people out and about, we had to fight to get drinks with about a thousand people. We decided to try to find somewhere else to go. We asked a valet at the hotel across the street, and he sent us to the rooftop bar at the Ace Hotel. What a bunch of young, bougie hipsters were hanging out there. They were swarming around the pool, dancing around the DJ, and sitting around looking bored with life. We fought again to beg a bartender to take our money and make some drinks. The ridiculous guy told us we were waiting in the wrong area for drinks, but would get us one round, WOW thank you!! WHAT A GREAT HUMANITARIAN!! We decided to give up, and head back to the hotel. The streets were littered with the homeless, sleeping in tents on the sidewalks, shopping carts, in the doorway to the ATMs at the bank. We suddenly felt very out of place, and lost. Thankfully, after only being lost for a half an hour, we found the HUGE shoe store, which told us the hotel was just around the corner.
We decided to get Michelle out to the beach, since she had never seen the ocean in her life!! We stopped first in Brentwood, hoping to brush shoulders with a few celebs. Isn't that part of what being in LA is all about? We went into a kitschy little coffee shop, which was boasting being macrobiotic. I just wanted a dang coffee with a kick. My fatigue was catching up with me. The did have some chia seed, something or other, that Michelle was excited to eat. I got a chocolate croissant. haha! right, carb addict girl here. With my milk alternative coffee, croissant and comfy shoes, we took off down the road to look for something to be excited about. We found a chocolate shop called Comparte. You could actually watch the chocolate being made in the shop window. We stopped in to check it out, duh!!! They had a wall full of different chocolate bars, and the glass counters with beautiful truffles and candies. I picked out donuts and coffee and hazelnut toast bars. We found out soon, they are almost $10 a piece, woops! We saw they had TooFaced bars, which is one of my favorite makeup brands, but it was dark chocolate with pink sugar salt, meh.
It was off to the beach! We went to Santa Monica. We walked through the sand, dipped our toes in the ocean, and took one of Michelle's most popular Facebook pictures, by ahem yours truly... We walked along the boardwalk, dodged seagulls, watched people spend money on ridiculous touristy things, and play arcade games. There was an overwhelming smell of funnel cake, which was starting to become too much. We decided to walk to the Santa Monica Promenade mall. We looked around, and walked around looking for new sunglasses, which we both wanted badly. We stopped in shops we could only visit in LA. We stopped for dinner at Cheesecake Factory, which used to be a favorite of both of us. Not anymore! We both felt sick after, and went to bed really early.
GENBEAUTY SATURDAY!! Finally!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)