Dare to chase the dream?

As cliche as it may sound, I have never imagined myself having a career where my name isn't in lights...

Every time I have a photoshoot I think of it:

I imagine walking the famous red carpet, going on popular talk shows, and of course, being on the cover of  magazines.

I've always dreamt big and now my dreams are just getting bigger. I am coming to the second half of my junior year of college and I wonder if all of my dreams will come true...

If I decided not to continue working towards my degree, I would load up my Mazda3 hatchback and hightail it down to Los Angeles.

I fantasize about going to casting calls, auditioning for hundreds of commercials, and seeing my first television debut.

Then I would dance in a few music videos to show my performance skills. I imagine dancing back-up in my first few, then being the feature in a few more. After seeing my face around enough, a big-time director would ask me if I would like the leading role in his next feature film.

E! News would ask me for an interview about my new movie and they would see how passionate I am about journalism and ask me if I would like to host for them when I have free time.

I would become the face of some lovely smelling perfumes and appear on billboards promoting various makeup brands, you know, just a few minor things.

Sadly, I know that I could never leave school at this point. I have always been a full-fledged nerd and I am proud of it! School has always been my number one priority. I strived for excellence...I remember getting a "B" one semester in high school and I was so devastated I ripped up the report card, ashamed.

What I have come to realize is that people hold brains higher than they hold beauty. I have also realized that certain careers paths are more respected than others...

Don't get me wrong, I love to write and hope to become an established journalist, but that is not my "big dream". If I do not achieve fame, I know that I will not be happy.

I truly admire the dance and theatre majors out there, they have way more confidence in themselves than I do in myself. I am the type of person that needs that backup plan. I need that degree because I cannot pursue fame without my degree to help me.

An education is what gives me the confidence I need to just go for it. My brains will not go to waste and I will use them to devise a fool-proof plan to stardom!

A time when a vacation in Mexico wasn't synonymous with a death wish...

As I think back to all the vacations I have been fortunate enough to have taken in my lifetime I remember one place that was a big part of my childhood..it was just south of the border...

Mexico was our hotspot. We vacationed there usually twice a year, once in the summer and once in winter. My parents would rent a house in Las Gaviotas, which was comparable to a housing development on the beaches of southern California, but probably half the price.

It was beautiful. I remember waking my dad up in early in the morning and walking down to the beach collecting all the sea critters we could find, which were usually little crabs and some sea anemones ( I had to recall Nemo struggling how to say that to remember how to spell it just now).

We even spent Christmas down in Mexico one year and it was so much fun..besides the fact that on the first night my dad couldn't get the fireplace going and forgot to turn off the gas so we had a close encounter of the deathly kind...

I have so many memories from our time in Mexico. We're actually secret heroes down there in our go-to shopping center  Puerto Nuevo...

As my parents enjoyed their lobsters and Margaritas, my sister and I noticed a man across the street from the restaurant selling puppies. My dad saw the excitement in our eyes and immediately said  "no way!" I watched as each of the Rottweiler/Pitbull/other viscous dog breed puppies get sold one by one...

I was beyond depressed and made it very known! We finished our meal and walked down the streets of the marketplace. Suddenly a man walks up to us with a little black sock in his hand and it's wiggling around...a puppy was inside!

"PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY PLEASEE DADDDDYYYYYY??????"

Put a little (or a lot) of liquor in my dad and he can be swayed to buy us things!

Mexico was all about haggling and after my dad got tired of hearing us beg he gave in. It went a little something like this:

"How much for the dog?"
"$60"
"Is it a boy or girl?"
"girl"
"How big is it going to get?"
"uhmm...err...it will stay this small!!"
"well, I only have $40.."

my little sister jumps in..
"No daddy! You have $60! I saw you put that other $20 in your pocket!"
She wasn't keen on the idea of haggling yet.

This is Nnenna...at this point I believe she was barely a week or two old. Her eyes were not even completely open and she was definitely not ready to be separated from her mamma.

As we headed back to San Diego in my mom's then-brand-new Magnum I discovered something horrifying...she was covered in bugs! I began trembling, but knew I couldn't say anything because my mom would freak out as well...I wrapped her in a towel and we set our major puppy heist plan into action!

The moment of truth came when we reached the border...I felt like they would know I had a puppy under my blanket if I didn't pretend to be asleep so that's exactly what I did...when the coast was clear I smiled at the little bundle of joy that was our new addition to the family.

After a few baths and some food, Nnenna became very active. She loved to jump:

Oh, and if you were wondering, that guy totally didn't lie! Look how she stayed the same size and is truly a teacup Chihuahua  -__-

And this is from her slender years! She's quite the chubster now...I'm guessing she is in between a teacup and a normal sized Chihuahua.

When I look at her I think of all of the fun times I had there and how I will probably never get to enjoy it like I did before..

My relatives in southern California tried to go down there soon after news broke of the violence and beheadings and were shocked...Puerto Nuevo was a ghost town...Las Gaviotas is no longer renting out houses...

It's crazy to think that in 2003 my parents renewed their vows down there, thinking that we would all be vacationing there every year.

I'm glad I got to enjoy it while I could and the roughly five years we vacationed down there were some of the best moments of my life. :)

Yummy yummy in my tummy!

That was the perfect balance of honey and chipotle!

Chili's used to be my favorite restaurant. I would meet my mom there when I had breaks between classes and we would eat there at least once every two weeks.

Our favorite meal to devour was their "honey-chipotle chicken crispers". These chicken strips were amazing! They were smothered in sauce and were the perfect balance of spicy and sweet.

We enjoyed our lunch time vacations from our everyday lives and couldn't imagine it any other way.
Our roughly hour-long visits included wonderful conversations with a friendly staff and quick refills of our strawberry lemonades.

Each time we placed our orders the excitement was greater and each time we received our food it tasted even better.


Suddenly, everything changed...

We went to our Chili's and ordered our delectable bites of chicken heaven. The anticipation, as always, was building as the waitress set down our plates...

WHAT?!

They were... dry! Someone decided to get stingy with the sauce and the taste of this meal was ruined. We stared at our plates waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out and yelled that we were getting punk'd... but he didn't show...

We went to that Chili's in Tracy a few more times, hoping everything would be restored, but the beautiful feeling of paradise had already been tainted. What was once our dream escape became about as desirable as someone suggesting that your vacation to the Bahamas be changed to a "staycation" in your boring hometown...

Last week, my mom came to visit me and we were contemplating where to eat and I suggested Chili's. We were both skeptical, remembering our heartbreak from the Chili's that had betrayed us before, but decided to look for one nearby anyways.

There happened to be one on Arden Way, only 10minutes from my apartment.

It took some mental preparation and strong will, but we made it out the door...

We arrived at Chili's and were promptly seated.

Dare we order our fantasy dish? Yes.

Deja vu hit me and my stomach churned in nervous anticipation as we waited for our meals to arrive.

When they finally did it was as though the Chipotle gods themselves showered their amazing sauce all over our plates...there was even enough to dip the fries in!

The fissures of my once-wounded heart sealed back together as I took a bite of my meal.

The service was fantastic. It was as if they knew how the other Chili's had wronged us...

Chili's on Arden Way ( 2100 Arden Way, Sacramento, CA 95825) is the BEST Chili's location to go to for the Honey-Chipotle Chicken Crispers!

For just $9.99 you can enjoy a piece of chipotle heaven as well!

Monsters+werewolves+vampires+cops?

In the last few years we have seen almost any imaginable combination of vampires, zombies, werewolves and other supernaturals, but there has been one combination that hasn't been seen very often:

COP + SUPERNATURAL !



Friday night, NBC aired the pilot of their new series "Grimm". This show gathers inspiration from the stories of "The Brothers Grimm"and the pilot revealed that each episode will focus on one of the stories.

This episode was based on the story of "Red Riding Hood". The main character is a homicide detective named Nick who begins to notice strange things in the people around him. When he is walking out of the courthouse a woman walking by him turns in to a zombie-looking monster, but only he can see it.

It is not explained why he can see these things so for the first half of the show it is easy to believe that this man is losing his mind.

We find out that he has just bought an engagement ring for his girlfriend and plans to propose when he gets home. When he arrives a relative of his is sitting at the kitchen table saying that she has something important to tell him.

This elderly woman talks him outside and they are attacked by what looks like the grim reaper. Nick shoots him and the monster turns into a normal man and his relative goes into a coma after telling him that what he has been seeing is real and that he must continue the fight.

This moment was meant to be suspenseful, but it was painfully easy to see coming.

All Nick knows is that he is now a "Grimm" and starts searching his relative's trailer for more information. The next day he meets a werewolf, or rather a "blutbaden", who turns out to be a "good guy" and tries to help explain that Grimms hunt for creatures like him.

The two team up to find a kidnapped girl and when she is rescued Nick realizes that he must embrace this new found power and continue the fight.

This trailer pretty much sums up the entire pilot and it's way more intense than the actual episode. Take a look:

Overall, this was not a complete waste of an hour. I am not itching to see the next episode, but I will probably watch it.

This has been a rough year for new series, as Drew Barrymore's reboot of "Charlie's Angels" was cancelled after its pilot and NBC's "Playboy Club" lasted only three episodes.

I haven't seen any rave reviews for this series so we'll see if it lasts longer than than the others.

www.buzzsugar.com reviewed this show as well and found it more favorable than I did. This review, however, was similar to mine by the way of noticing some of the bland parts.

"The premise has a lot of potential, but there's so much supernatural setup to get through that we don't get much character development. Nick seems vanilla at best, and you can't build a must-see series around a forgettable leading man"


Their full review can be read at: http://www.buzzsugar.com/Grimm-Pilot-Review-17861034


If you have nothing to do on a Friday night, or your DVR has a free hour of space, check out this show. It is not the worst thing to hit the small screen this year so it deserves a chance. You can watch "Grimm" Friday nights at 9pm on NBC.

Hope is a woman, and she's gorgeous!

Why is life full of so many ups and downs?

I have written about my hopes and dreams in a few of my previous blogs and different emotions have been attached to each one.

There are always the high points, such as when I see a makeup ad I fall in love with, or a fashion spread in a magazine that is unique and refreshing. When I see these amazing images my modeling engine is kicked into high gear and I feel more confident then ever.

Then there are the low points when I realize that I am not yet where I want to be in my modeling career...

Just as I grab a spoon and begin to dig into that pint of "Chubby Hubby" that has been sitting in my freezer I see an article on Barbie. Yes, the doll we all grew up.

This article is featured in the November issue of O Magazine. I can explain what the article is about, but this image is stronger than any words I can type: 

The dotted lines resemble what a surgeon would have to do to this woman's body to make her look like a real-life Barbie doll.

I knew the measurements of Barbie were unrealistic, but I did not know it was this drastic. 

I continued to read the article and it began to talk about the model in the picture, Katie Halchishick. This young woman has been through the same struggles I have. She had struggled to find modeling work because she was not the standard sample size (00 to 2) and not plus-size (12+). 

Katie has started her own modeling agency called Natural Model Management and, of course, I submitted some of my pictures and crossed my fingers in hopes that I was what they were looking for.

The very next day I got one of the nicest emails I have ever received in my entire life...

I embody their message!

I could not be happier! 

Earlier today, I spoke with Katie on the phone about getting me started. We talked all about the agency and its project "Healthy is the New Skinny" (http://healthyisthenewskinny.com/) where models will travel around to different schools spreading a positive message about body image.

Their goal, well now OUR goal, is to show young girls that being healthy is important. Beauty does not have a weight requirement!

I know that I have struggled with my body image for many years and I am more honored than I can express that I can be a part of something this special. 

This is something that will truly change the world..

Life is full of so many ups and downs because we need the low points in our lives to truly appreciate the high points...    :)

Look here MISSY!

David's Bridal informed me that I am not a woman.   (extreme frown)

Looking for a wedding dress is one of the most exciting moments in a woman's..well in my case "missy's" life. This ordeal can be quite confusing with there being so many different designers with spring lines, fall lines, winter lines and fantasy lines.

There are even more different types of gowns, ranging from the traditional ballroom gown with the huge skirt, the mermaid gown that clings to every part of your body, the Grecian gown that loosely drapes over you, and numerous variations of each of those styles.

With there being so many different options out there, I decided to look around online to get an idea of what type of dress I was looking for instead of entering a bridal shop and quickly becoming overwhelmed with all of the choices in front of me.

To some, being engaged at 19 is young.

"why now?"

"wait a few years.."

"travel the world"

or flat out "you're too young"

I am not actually getting married until I am 21, which is apparently a more acceptable age. I don't think marriage at a young age is as much of a hot topic as having children at a young age is these days.

Don't worry, this isn't the part where I say my two kids are going to be a part of my ceremony. (They are non-existent if you didn't catch that)

Back to the real issue here. I go to the David's Bridal website and begin my search for the perfect dress. They just added this interactive application called "Dress My Wedding" where you have a figure for each person in your bridal party and you, you guessed it, dress them!

It is probably very helpful if you have a lot of the details already figured out, but I just tried it out to see if it gave me a better look at the dresses.

First you create a profile, picking various features such as skin tone and hairstyle. None of the choices matched me to my liking, but that wasn't a surprise. Just before I clicked "Save and Continue" I saw this box next to my name with two choices: Missy or Woman.

What could this possibly mean? At first I thought of department stores like Macy's or Nordstrom's where they have a "juniors" section which is basically for teenagers or younger women. These items have a young feel to them. The clothes are typically tighter than the women's section and the jeans are usually cut lower.

I pondered over which box I would check. I was a woman right? Getting married was definitely an adult thing. After all, I didn't want my dress to look too young, that'd just be tacky. So I checked "woman" and this is what happened:

WHAT?!

Now let's see "missy":

This is some kind of cruel joke, right?

This is something I have had an issue with for a long time. I understand that our nation is heavily overweight and that the average female is a size 14 or above, but this is getting out of hand.

I understand that no one wants to wear "extended" sizes. And when they made the change to "plus" that wasn't all that appealing either, but to say that "real" sizes are 14 or above is wrong.

Now I have to be overweight to be a woman? Come on.

There are a lot of creative brains out there, I'm sure someone can come up with a better name than that.

Why do I have to be a "Missy"? That seems young and childish and I might just throw a temper-tantrum!

Is there a vacancy?

OWS!

More poster-board! More markers! More stencils!

You! Yes, you! Haven't you always wanted to be a part of a protest? Of course you have!

Take one of these signs right here and stand outside a city office, okay?

Repeat whatever you hear the people around you shouting and you'll do just fine!


This is what I imagine is going on at many of the protest locations.

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement/ protest/ rebellion/ camp-out/ ____ (any other synonym for what this is) is somewhat of a mystery. Sure, we know that they stand for finally slaying the beast that is corporate greed, but what does that even mean? And how in the world do you do that?

I have heard people talking about this movement over the last few weeks and decided I would rather find information online then ask people about it because the internet would surely have some solid and clarifying information on the subject, right?

Wrong.

Every website was vastly different, but that is because no one is sure what to go off of. One article that I found interesting was on Forbes.com. This article attempted to define the movement and brought up the point of it being utterly mysterious.

The columnist, Peter Cohan, did a great at expressing the questions many people have about this movement. He broke down quotes that have been released and tried to explain the movement to the best of his ability. Take a look at the article if you still have questions about the movement...wait, of course you do. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2011/10/10/what-is-occupy-wall-street/)

"Rebellion will not stop until the corporate state is extinguished."


This quote is taken from the Occupy Wall Street Journal, the source for all things OWS. This publication shocking released a second issue, which can be read online (Issue #2). Many people thought the movement would have fizzled out before a second issue would be released, but oh were they wrong! 


The paper has a visually appealing layout and the bright red coloring definitely catches your eye, but does it answer any questions?


A big question I have seen often in regards to this movement is "what are the demands?" and I have the answer!  


Drum roll please....

Um, huh?


This movement is growing in numbers by the minute and it is increasing the chance that somebody will actually know what it is that they are trying to accomplish. With the growing support, this can possibly be something powerful.


I find myself still at a loss as to what OWS hopes to eventually accomplish but maybe that will change soon. Who knows? Maybe even by Issue #3.