Memorial Day Weekend, St. Helena mini trip, Disneyland & Blue Hair!

Happy Friday my fellow readers!

Before I dive into writing about the fun times I had these past few weeks, I wanted to quickly give a big thank you to the people that took the time to read my last article "Life Updates + My Cancer Journey ".

I did mention on my social media announcements that it was a difficult piece to write for everyone to see, so the positive and general outcome of it was something I am grateful for. The overall support I received is much appreciated and I will continue to give updates on that as the days/weeks go by.

Thankfully, things have been going well so far and keeping busy with work, creating content and spending time with family/friends has been nothing but the "best medicine" as they say. With that being said, I'm really excited to be able to share about the fun I've had these past two weeks.

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

To start off the weekend, Kristian decided to take me to Barnes & Noble that Friday afternoon once I logged off from work. For those that don't know, I consider this place to be my second home. I can stay there for hours walking around to look for the next book to read or to grab a cup of coffee and sit down to write. Or both!

As soon as we walked in, I saw this table that had so many organized, colorful books and it made me very happy on the inside. I had to take a picture of it since that extra flower pot made it look Instagram worthy! Kristian and I were there for about an hour and ended up buying a Frappuccino to share, and a couple of new books to read. We decided to go visit my mom afterwards which is always nice, and then just drove back to our apartment to start reading our new books plus watch Disney movies before going to sleep.

Saturday comes along, and the fun began around noon when one of our best friends Roy came over to spend the day and also sleepover. Once he got here, we took him to a really pretty lake we like going to that's near where we live. It was his first time going so we walked around the whole thing which is around 2 miles. It was great exercise. One of the reasons I love going there is because we always tend to see a lot of turtles, and I am obsessed with them! Besides the three of us going on a nice walk together, Kristian and Roy had to prepare to search for turtles and hear me freak out (in a good way) as soon as we saw one. We saw about 4 in total so that made my day :)

Once we were done with our walk, we drove to Golf-land and had a blast playing mini golf!

I was determined to win.

Kristian always beats me so I never expect to win against him but with Roy is a different story. We ALWAYS become competitive against one another with any game, and I didn't feel like hearing him tease me for the rest of the day if I lost.

Sadly, I didn't win... and let's be real, even if I did, he would find other things to give me a hard time with. So needless to say, it didn't matter in the end. However, to my surprise, Roy beat everyone! I was very upset but eventually got over it.

Once we finished playing mini golf, we drove straight to BJ's restaurant and had a late lunch. I'm upset I didn't take pictures of our food because it was SO delicious, especially our dessert which are the famous pizookies they offer. There are a couple of different flavors but we got the huge and warm chocolate chip cookie with a ton of vanilla ice cream on top. Even though the three of us shared one, I'm pretty sure we gained around 5 pounds each.

No regrets.

We ended up being there for a while watching the games that were going on, bonding, eating like no tomorrow, etc.

Afterwards, we ended up going back to our apartment and the fact that we got home around maybe 5pm to just sit in the living room, play video games, eat some more and talk until around 2am is crazy to me.

Crazy, but not surprising.

Our other close friend was supposed to come sleep over as well, but he couldn't make it so we decided to go on Xbox chat to play and talk with him for about an hour or so. A bit after is when Kristian decided to go bed earlier than Roy and I, so we stayed in the living room to talk about random things which is always nice to do. We're extremely close but it's quite rare to actually sit down, talk and bond over stuff without arguing with him so it was a success being able to do that without the arguing part. (I think we deserve some kind of award for that) :D

Sunday morning quickly comes along and the three of us end up going to Bill's Café restaurant.

Again, I wish I would've taken pictures of our breakfast because it was super delicious.

We went back to our apartment afterwards to play a mini golf game on the Xbox and a little after is when Roy went back home, Kristian went to his parent's house to help his dad with a project they have been working on and I went to go hang out with my cousin, Licette.

I didn't take ANY pictures with her (I need to get better at that) but here is a one of the both of us from a couple of years ago so all of you can see her pretty face.

We are actually not blood related, but our families have been extremely close for years and we even have the same godmother! We have always been family and never saw it another way. I'm about 2-3 years older than her so I've known her since she was born and we have been inseparable since.

When I got to her house to pick her up, we drove to another city to get Philz Coffee and we just did what we do best: sit somewhere for hours and talk. We haven't seen each other in 2 months before that, so believe it or not, we had a lot to catch up on. It is never a dull conversation with her, and we always find a way to get laugh attacks together. We love to reminisce on our childhood, everything we've experienced growing up and kind of compare it to how life is going now.

It's always great to share stories and experiences with people who are close to you and it can even be therapeutic most of the time.

After our little coffee date, we drove back to her house and just hung out in her room to continue talking. I was there for another 2 hours (no surprise at this point) and ended up going to my mom's house to visit again since she lives close by. I went back to my apartment not too long after and just got ready for bed.

Memorial Day itself was very chill - Kristian and I spent the morning just relaxing but around noon, he went to go visit his parents and I went to go spend time with my mom, grandma and brother. I wanted to take them out to eat, and after more than an hour of trying to decide where to go, we finally decided on Red Lobster since we haven't gone there in a very long time.

No surprise but I didn't take pictures of our food ...

I promise that I got better a few days after and you will see pictures of really good food later in this post!

After Red Lobster, I spent some time at the mall with my brother but encountered an unfortunate situation. We went to Pink berry and I always get banana toppings with my plain tart. Long story short, the girl that assisted us told us they ran out which is fine, but then my brother ordered a chocolate/banana smoothie and she was more than happy to make it for him.

When we moved to the other side, I saw a whole bunch of bananas just sitting there and I got so offended. All I wanted were some banana toppings. My brother begged me not to say anything since he very well knows I'm one to say something, but I decided to let it go. All I told him was that apparently they hire anyone now a days.

ANYWAY, now that my little rant is over, that is essentially what my Memorial Day weekend looked like. It went by way too fast if you ask me. I love seeing my friends and family so it's definitely a weekend to remember. The one lesson I'll be taking with me from that weekend is to take as many pictures of the food as possible.

ST. HELENA OUTING WITH KIARA

This day was extremely fun - it was originally supposed to just be me going to a doctor/genetic counseling appointment in Napa Valley which is almost 2 hours away from where I live, but thankfully I had the opportunity to FaceTime with my really good friend Kiara the night before. She asked if I wanted company and I immediately said yes, of course! We couldn't remember the last time we've seen each other.

Quick note: Kiara and I met when I started college back in 2013 in our Spanish class, and we quickly became close. I am proud to call her a great friend as well as the editor for my book, Collision. She worked with me on the book during the pandemic just by using FaceTime, calls and a shared Google document. She's incredibly talented and she will be my editor for future books to come, so remember her name! :)

Since my appointment was pretty early, I had to take the whole day off work, so Kiara and I made a mini trip to St. Helena and made a memorable day of it. It was nice picking her up, grabbing some Starbucks and heading up North listening to music and chatting before getting to the hospital.

I was afraid they wouldn't let her come in with me to the actual appointment, but fortunately they did. It was nice having her company while meeting with a genetic counselor for a little more than an hour. It was a lot of information, and yes, it's related to my cancer but this is a topic I can dive into in a future article once I receive more updates.

After the meeting, all they had to do was take a blood sample and we could head out afterwards. Since we were already in St. Helena, we decided to reminisce and go visit our old college which is 5 minutes away from the hospital. We walked around, took some pictures and sat near the building where we had Spanish together and talked for about 2 hours.

Once the hunger hit us, we drove down to downtown St. Helena and went to one of the favorite restaurants that all the college kids love where I used to go to school.

Pizzeria Tra Vigne!

This is the proud moment where I'll share the 3 beautiful pictures I took of our appetizer, main dish and dessert.

Yeah, it was definitely heaven on Earth.

We headed back home after this delicious dinner and did not regret a single moment thinking of the possibility of gaining 10 pounds each.

It was so nice to hang out with her after such a long time, and it was great having company at the hospital since all the appointments I've had so far these past couple of months have been just me. It's no problem at all, but any kind of good company is priceless.

DISNEYLAND

Ahhhh, Disneyland!

I can't tell you how excited Kristian and I were to finally go after not going for more than a year due to the pandemic. My family, Kristian and I used to be annual passholders but a lot of things changed in their system so we have to wait a little longer to have those again.

Regardless, at this point, we were just glad to have the opportunity to go at least once this year with my mom and brother.

The 4 of us left around 3:30pm on a Friday and got to our hotel in Anaheim around 10:00pm which isn't too bad considering there was pretty bad traffic in the beginning. We all got ready for bed, and probably had a difficult time sleeping since we were so excited to go to "The Happiest Place on Earth" the following day.

We get up a little before 6:00am on Saturday morning, change, grab a quick breakfast and head to Disneyland before they even opened their doors. It wasn't that long of a wait, and we actually had in mind that they wouldn't open until 9:00am but they miraculously let us in at 8:00am!

We all hung out together most of the day, but there were moments where my brother and Kristian would go ride some things that I didn't necessarily want to, so instead I would go to Main Street with my mom and shop in the little stores or get a drink at Starbucks and sit down to talk.

Here are a couple of pictures I took throughout the day:

We had SO much fun, and honestly one day isn't enough.

I was a little worried at first because my legs have had days where they feel very sensitive after I got my surgery back in April, but thankfully it all went well. We rode all the rides we wanted, got to explore Tomorrowland, Star Wars land, New Orleans Square, Critter Country, Fantasyland, Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, etc. The only thing is that we didn't have the opportunity to go to California Adventures and see Avengers Campus, but that is on the to-do list for next time!

To end the day around 9:00pm, we went to Downtown Disney to buy a couple of souvenirs and I got myself a cute Star Wars Ewok and named him after the rapper Waka Flocka.

If it's not noticeable enough, my family and I are completely obsessed with Disneyland. Even though it was just for a day, we had a spectacular time and we are already counting down the days until we can come back for longer.

The one thing we really wanted and never had the opportunity to get it was sushi, so when we came back home, we went to a new sushi place and it was the best thing ever.

Hooray, I remembered to take more pictures!

BLUE HAIR

Okay, for the big finale, most of you that follow me on social media know that I decided to try something new and dye my hair blue!

I've actually been wanting to do this for more than a year, but I never had the guts to do so until now. I'm not too certain as to what led me to finally feel comfortable with the idea, but I think it has to do with my diagnosis to some extent.

Like I mentioned in my previous article, I made a decision to not take life so seriously. Enjoy the little moments, if you want to do something, go do it! So I guess dying my hair blue was one of the things my heart desired deep down.

I'm still getting used to it, but I am liking it a bit more as the days go by.

Happy Weekend!

As soon as I finished writing the last bit of this article, I realized how long it is so thank you for reading all the way up to here. I truly enjoy writing about what is going on in my life, topics that get requested and just being able to connect with you all this way. Thank you to all my readers for giving me this opportunity to write for you all and for also giving me something to look forward to!

I hope all of you have a great weekend!